Jimmy Fortune
By Jimmy Reno
Jimmy Fortune is enjoying a new season in his singing career, something he knew he was
destined to do when he was six years old singing with his family in church. It was an inherited
talent that he took pleasure in and that others enjoyed hearing. He would go to school and the
other children would even offer him a nickel to sing songs for them.
Fortune’s dad played the mandolin and would go play for various events around his hometown
of
Staunton, Virginia, nestled in the Shenandoah Valley. On Sundays, his mom would insist they go
to church to atone for the secular music the night before. She was a woman Fortune describes as
a prayer warrior and she nurtured his talent by singing hymns to him. It’s also where he would
learn about hope, love and forgiveness.
He was influenced by the likes of Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, George Beverly Shea, the Statler
Brothers and Linda Ronstadt. He worked on his craft, but success took many years.
In 1967, at the age of 12, he bought a guitar with some money he saved up and began playing
music for school functions, like Parent Teacher Association meetings, and eventually graduated
to doing events at larger places such as the local Elks lodge. When he was 26, Jimmy Fortune
was hired by the Statler Brothers, after ailing tenor Lew DeWitt heard him sing.
The transition wasn’t easy in some aspects at first. “Fans would want autographs and sometime
would pass by me to the next guy. But I understood; they didn’t really know who I was yet,”
Fortune explains.
Fortune decided that to win the fans over, he needed to write some original songs. There was a
tune he had been hearing in his head and he began to put the words to it. The song, “Elizabeth,”
was the result and it became the Statler Brothers’ second number one hit on their 1983 album,
“Today.” He wrote two additional number one hit songs, with “My Only Love,” and “Too Much
On My Heart.” He quickly became not just a talented vocalist to the fans, but a prolific
songwriter as well.
The road can be hard and touring took its toll the Fortune family. “I look back now and see
pictures of me with someone, and my kids in the background standing there. I didn’t realize it at
the time, but I wish I had done some things different there. Touring is a sacrifice on the family,
but if we are doing it for the right reasons and we know God has called us to do this, then I
believe it all works out in the end,” he shares.
After the Statler Brothers retired in 2002, Fortune launched his solo career, and has been
working diligently to share the values he was raised with and the hope that he has received from
God.
Reflecting back on the songs he’s written over the years, Elizabeth stands out as one that’s
impacted his career the most. But the song he describes as “the point of his arrow” for the past 15
years is one he penned titled, “I Believe.” It is very personal to the vocalist.
“I was there when my Mom passed away, holding her hand,” Fortune shares, “as well as my
Dad. I include him in the song as well, so the song is written about them.”
In 2015, the tenor released “Hits and Hymns,” which charted No. 10 in Billboard Country, No. 1
in Southern Gospel, and No. 6 in Billboard Contemporary Christian.
The success of the project on the charts of multiple music genres surprised Fortune.
“I was just floored. After (Bill) Gaither called and took a chance on me, I was able to connect
with Ben Issacs to produce my albums. He has some of the best instincts of anyone in music. He
has a feel for producing and arranging,” he says.
Fortune notes, “Being part of what Bill Gaither is doing has allowed me to see what a genuine
Christian Bill is. He allows the Lord to guide him on everything he’s doing.”
With the 2019 release of “God and Country,” Fortune shares his patriotic side with his fans. One
song, “Meet Me At Arlington,” is a powerful ballad about the loss of a child who sacrificed
himself for our freedom. He talks about how the song originated.
Fortune was with his friend and fellow songwriter Dave Clark, when Clark played him a news
soundbyte off his phone.
“There was a boy going to college in California and he was wearing a military shirt and this
professor starts tearing him down for wearing the shirt. The boy wanted to be a soldier one day
and this professor was just cutting him down,” he states.
Fortune continues, “The news program found a Gold Star mother who had lost a son in
Afghanistan and they asked her how she felt about that clip. She said she wished that professor
could meet her at Arlington [National Cemetery] so she could introduce him to her son and
maybe then he would understand.”
This story made a significant impact on Fortune, and he and Clark then penned the song, “Meet
Me At Arlington.” “We always ask the Gold Star moms to stand and be recognized when we
perform this song,” he adds.
This singer believes God has given him a message for this season in his solo career. It’s a
message of hope and love.
“There’s so much hate going on around us. I don’t get real political, but after the Virginia Tech
shooting in 2007, I wrote a song called ‘Love The Hate Away.’ That’s the only thing that’s going
to change things in our world: Love,” he says.
Fortune continues, “I look at what all is going on around us and we need unity in our country; we
need to come together and love will do that.”
In reflecting back on his career and looking ahead to what the future holds, Jimmy Fortune has
come full circle and wants to be remembered one way: “As someone who lived a life full of
mistakes but found his purpose in spreading hope, love and forgiveness.”
In the end, that’s what matters the most.
