Phil Seymour

Phil Seymour first entered the world in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and remains most closely associated with his years alongside the Dwight Twilley Band, whose output included some of the strongest pop compositions of the period, among them the enduring track “I’m on Fire.” Following the release of the group’s two studio albums—Sincerely in 1976 and Twilley Don’t Mind in 1978—he departed to launch a solo career. During the interval before securing a contract, he tracked his own material and supplied session contributions to Tom Petty, 20/20, and Moon Martin. Boardwalk Records signed him in 1980 once he presented the label with a set of demos cut alongside fellow Tulsa natives 20/20. The resulting self-titled debut earned strong notices upon arrival, propelled in part by the single “Precious to Me,” which climbed to number 22 on the pop charts, and later gained lasting esteem within power-pop circles as a defining release of its time. A follow-up, simply titled 2, appeared in 1982 and proved less successful both artistically and in the marketplace. Boardwalk president Neil Bogart’s death soon after the album’s release left Seymour without a label. In 1984 he became a member of Carla Olson’s Textones, providing drums and vocals for their A&M release Midnight Mission. While promoting that album he received a lymphoma diagnosis. He relocated back to Oklahoma, where he continued working at a reduced level and recorded only sporadically until the illness claimed him in Tulsa on August 17, 1993, at a moment when he was readying another project.