NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering Everly Brothers whose harmonizing country rock hits impacted a generation of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll \u2026<\/b>
\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering Everly Brothers whose harmonizing country rock hits impacted a generation of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music, has died. He was 84. Everly died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, according to his attorney and family spokesperson Linda Edell Howard. His brother, Phil Everly, died in January 2014 at age 74. \u201cDon lived by what he felt in his heart,\u201d a statement from the family said. \u201cDon expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams\u2026 living in love with his soul mate and wife Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother. Don always expressed how grateful he was for his fans.\u201d In the late 1950s and 1960s, the duo of Don and Phil drew upon their rural roots with their strummed guitars and high, yearning harmonies, while their poignant songs \u2014 many by the team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant \u2014 embodied teenage restlessness and energy. Their 19 top 40 hits included \u201cBye Bye Love,\u201d \u201cLet It Be Me,\u201d \u201cAll I Have to Do Is Dream\u201d and \u201cWake Up Little Susie,\u201d and performers from the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel cited them as key influences. \u201cThe Everly Brothers are integral to the fabric of American music,\u201d said Jerry Lee Lewis in a statement. \u201cWith my friend Don\u2019s passing, I am reflective \u2026 reflective on a life full of wonderful friends, spectacular music and fond memories. There\u2019s a lot I can say about Don, what he and Phil meant to me both as people and as musicians, but I am going to reflect today.\u201d Songs like \u201cBye Bye Love\u201d and \u201cWake Up Little Susie\u201d appealed to the postwar generation of baby boomers, and their deceptively simple harmonies hid greater meaning among the lighter pop fare of the era. The two broke up amid quarreling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983, \u201csealing it with a hug,\u201d Phil Everly said. Although their number of hit records declined in the late 1980s, they had successful concert tours in the U.S. and Europe. They were inducted into the Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year they had a hit pop-country record, \u201cBorn Yesterday.\u201d Two years earlier, they had success with the up-tempo ballad \u201cOn the Wings of a Nightingale,\u201d written by Paul McCartney. \u201cAs a singer, a songwriter and a guitar innovator, Don Everly was one of the most talented and impactful artists in popular music history,\u201d said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement. The brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky, to Ike and Margaret Everly, who were folk and country music singers. Phil Everly was born to the couple in Chicago, where the Everlys moved from Brownie when Ike grew tired of working in the coal mines. The brothers began singing country music in 1945 on their family\u2019s radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa. Their career breakthrough came when they moved to Nashville in the mid-1950s and signed a recording contract with New York-based Cadence Records. Their breakup came dramatically during a concert at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw his guitar down and walked off, prompting Don Everly to tell the crowd, \u201cThe Everly Brothers died 10 years ago.\u201d The disputes between the brothers even went to court, when Don Everly sued the heirs of Phil Everly in 2017 over the copyright to three of their songs, including \u201cCathy\u2019s Clown.\u201d The case went all the way to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. But after Phil\u2019s death in 2014, Don said that he felt a spiritual message from his brother before he died. \u201cOur love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had,\u201d Don Everly said in a statement in 2014. While apart, they pursued solo singing careers with little success. Phil also appeared in the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie \u201cEvery Which Way but Loose.\u201d Don made a couple of records with friends in Nashville, performed in local nightclubs and played guitar and sang background vocals on recording sessions. Don Everly said in a 1986 Associated Press interview that he and his brother were successful because \u201cwe never followed trends. We did what we liked and followed our instincts. Rock \u2018n\u2019 roll did survive, and we were right about that. Country did survive, and we were right about that. You can mix the two, but people said we couldn\u2019t.\u201d Decades later, their impact on popular music is still evident. In 2013, Green Day\u2019s Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones released a loving tribute to the Everlys on their collaborative album \u201cForeverly.\u201d<\/p>\n