How Phil Everly Proved 'The People Writing the Articles Who Hated The Music' Wrong: A Remembrance

The setting was the rooftop of the Henry Fonda Theater, the event a tribute to Buddy Holly. Phil Everly was among the guests.

Gracious and approachable, I was surprised how oddly appreciative he was that journalists would want his perspective on music from the '50s. Both his own and that of his friend Buddy Holly. He thanked people for asking him questions that September night in 2011, though the grilling was far different than when he and his brother Don were dominating the Billboard charts.
"When we were interviewed in the '50s, the first, second or third question would be 'what are you going to do when it's over?' The people writing the articles hated the music," Phil Everly said. "Whether it was Buddy or Eddie Cochran or Don and myself, none of us thought it would last because that was what we kept getting told. Inside the perimeter, what we were thinking was -- and this is what we loved -- the cool thing was to do something original. That was important to all of us.”
Being original, for Phil Everly, meant harmonies, connecting pre-WWII country music traditions with rock 'n' roll and tackling an uncommon range of subjects from staying out too late to being in jail to heartbreak. Their songs were dark and tragic, Phil's voice angelic and Don's earthly, a combination that would influence generations of rock n' roll singers attempting to pair voices.
Phil Everly died Jan. 3 in Burbank, Calif., of complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 74.