Country music chronicler Joe Edwards dies at 75

NASHVILLE, TENN. • Journalist Joe Edwards, who chronicled country music and helped “Rocky Top” become a Tennessee state song during his four-decade Associated Press career, has died. He was 75. He died Friday after a lengthy illness in Nashville.

Edwards documented the ascent of country music through interviews with stars ranging from Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift. He wrote the AP’s Nashville Sound country music column from 1975 to 1992 and did commentary for The Nashville Network cable TV station in the 1980s.

When Edwards retired in 2012, Reba McEntire said in a video tribute: “I’ll never forget the first time you interviewed me at the very beginning of my career, and I’ll never forget how sweet you were always to me.”