Country star George Strait is alive and well, but he is mourning two people close to him who died on the same day.
A singer needs a team in order to become a star, and two members of Strait’s team died just hours apart. In two separate Instagram posts, Strait shared the sad news that his long-time manager has died, and one of his band members has also died.
On March 20, 2024, Strait posted a picture of himself with his late manager, Erv Woolsey, and announced Woolsey’s death in the captain of his post. He shared, “My manager for around 45 years and most importantly my friend for even longer, Erv Woolsey, passed away this morning. He had complications from a surgery and just couldn’t overcome it. He was a very tough man, and fought hard, but sadly it was just too much.”
Strait did not mention what type of surgery Woolsey had or why he needed to have surgery. He also didn’t give any details about what types of “complications” he suffered as a result of the surgery.
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What makes this news even sadder for Strait is that one of his band members also died March 20th. On March 21st, Strait posted on Instagram again, this time sharing the sad news of the death of band member Gene Elders. Strait wrote, “Hard to believe we lost two of our music family members on the same day. Our Ace In the Hole treasured band member Gene Elders passed away yesterday afternoon shortly after we lost Erv.”
Strait continued the post by writing, “All of our prayers go out to both families. Me and the band won’t ever be the same without our brother Gene.”
Strait also mentioned another band member, Mike Kennedy. Yahoo! reports that Kennedy passed away back in 2018 after a car accident. He wrote, “Go play with Mike again Geno. We’ll come join you guys later.”
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Strait did not provide any details about Elders’ cause of death.
