Country music songwriter Larry Bastian died on Sunday at the age of 90.
The artist is best know for writing some of the top songs for country music icon Garth Brooks.
The musicians worked together on the very successful tunes Unanswered Prayers, The Dance and Friends In Low Places.
They also co-created the knockout hit single Rodeo which was known for it’s catchy phrases and hooks.
‘If one looks down the list of music’s greatest writers of all time, I couldn’t imagine the list being complete without the name of Larry Bastian,’ Brooks said in 1995.
Country music songwriter Larry Bastian has died at the age of 90
The artist is best know for writing some of the top songs for country music icon Garth Brooks. Pictured in March
Bastian also worked with Conway Twitty on Saturday Night Specialm with Sammy Kershaw on Yard Sale and with Craig Morgan on Look at Us.
Other singers he coached are Janie Fricke, David Frizzell (with Merle Haggard), Reba McEntire, George Jones, Neal McCoy and Rhett Akins.
The friendship between Bastian and Brooks began decades ago.
Brooks at the time was working with songwriter Pat Alger but they just could not nail the approach. The song was about addressing gratitude for God’s wisdom.
Bastian had an idea.
‘He looked at me and said, “Oh, that’s simple. This song should be called Unanswered Prayers because some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers,”‘ he wrote in the liner notes for his 1994 greatest hits compilation, The Hits.
Bastian was a biologist before he became a songwriter.
Trisha Yearwood, Garth at the ceremony honoring Trisha Yearwood with a Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame in Hollywood
Buck Owens, Dewayne Blackwell and Brooks all encouraged him to do it.
‘There was no doubt in my mind that I could write a song,’ he said in an interview with The Paul Leslie Hour in 2020.
‘I think you have to be that driven to succeed, and then there’s a lot of luck. They have a saying, “You can’t get out of the way of a hit song,” and that’s so right.’