Rocky Burnette

Rocky Burnette, offspring of rock & roll trailblazer Johnny Burnette, carried forward his father's path by delivering boisterous, high-octane rockabilly that aligned with the style's resurgence in the early 1980s. Memphis-born in 1953, he entered the scene in 1979 via the EMI America release Son of Rock'n'Roll, coinciding with cousin Billy's shift to straight country recordings on Columbia. By the next summer his track "Tired of Toein' the Line" reached the Top Ten, arriving ahead of comparable breakthroughs from acts such as the Stray Cats; the single also gained strong traction abroad, cementing a lasting international audience for Burnette. EMI America's fiscal troubles nevertheless curtailed support for subsequent singles, many of which charted in foreign markets, while his follow-up album Heart Stopper faded without notice. In 1981 Burnette joined the last incarnation of his father's Rock & Roll Trio for European dates and featured the group on his Enigma-issued Get Hot or Go Home!, yet scant sales prompted the label to part ways rather than issue their country-tinged successor. He reemerged in the mid-1990s through collaborations with Rosie Flores and Dwight Twilley, then supplied vocals plus the original composition "Trouble Is I'm in Love With You" for former Trio guitarist Paul Burlison's 1997 solo effort Train Kept A-Rollin'. Burnette returned with the 1996 album Tear It Up on Core, only for the imprint to collapse shortly afterward; he persisted with global touring and wrote the European hit "You Got Away With Love" for soul singer Percy Sledge in 1997.