A few weeks before Harold Reid died in April 2020, Jimmy Fortune was still sharing laughs with the man who had changed his life nearly four decades earlier.
The Statler Brothers had played their final concert in 2002. The tour buses were gone, the farewell had been said, and the four familiar voices were no longer traveling the country together.
But for Jimmy Fortune and Harold Reid, retirement had never meant the end of their friendship.
Nearly 18 years after their final performance, the two men were still talking on the telephone, remembering old times and enjoying the same humor that had filled their years on the road.
When Harold Reid passed away on April 24, 2020, Jimmy Fortune lost much more than a former bandmate.
The Man Who Gave Jimmy Fortune His Chance
Jimmy Fortune joined The Statler Brothers in 1982, when health problems forced original tenor Lew DeWitt to step away from the group’s demanding touring schedule.
At the time, Jimmy Fortune was a young Virginia singer who had worked at a car dealership while performing with a local band. Joining one of country music’s most successful vocal groups was an extraordinary opportunity.
Harold Reid helped make that opportunity possible.
For the next twenty years, Jimmy Fortune shared stages, recording sessions, television appearances, and countless miles of highway with Harold Reid, Don Reid, and Phil Balsley.
The Statler Brothers were known for beautiful four-part harmonies, memorable songs, and a wonderful sense of humor. Harold Reid, with that unmistakable bass voice, could make an audience laugh before the next song even began.
But Harold Reid’s influence on Jimmy Fortune went far beyond the stage.
In a 2022 interview with Country Music Cruise, Jimmy Fortune explained that Harold Reid had taught Jimmy Fortune about the music business and had been like an older brother.
It was a relationship that would last for the rest of Harold Reid’s life.
Nearly Eighteen Years After the Final Curtain
On October 26, 2002, The Statler Brothers performed their farewell concert in Salem, Virginia.
Harold Reid, Don Reid, and Phil Balsley retired from touring, while Jimmy Fortune continued performing as a solo artist.
The four men began different chapters of their lives, but the years together had created friendships that did not depend on concert dates or recording contracts.
Jimmy Fortune and Harold Reid continued speaking by telephone.
In the 2022 interview, Jimmy Fortune recalled the calls continuing until just a couple of weeks before Harold Reid died. The conversations could be about almost anything, including what Jimmy Fortune jokingly described as solving the world’s problems.
There was no longer an audience waiting, no stage manager calling them into position, and no performance to prepare.
They were simply two old friends who still enjoyed talking.
One of Their Last Conversations
On April 25, 2020, the day after Harold Reid’s death, Jimmy Fortune spoke with television station WHSV about the loss.
Jimmy Fortune remembered talking with Harold Reid just a few weeks earlier.
The conversation had included memories of things they missed, stories from the past, and plenty of laughter.
That detail mattered to Jimmy Fortune because humor had always been such a large part of Harold Reid’s personality.
Jimmy Fortune remembered watching Harold Reid entertain audiences with familiar jokes that could still bring laughter even after everyone had heard them many times before.
During their final weeks of contact, that familiar humor was still part of their friendship.
Harold Reid died at home in Staunton, Virginia, at the age of 80, surrounded by the love and support of family.
Jimmy Fortune was grateful that Harold Reid had been able to spend the years after retirement close to loved ones.
The Hug Jimmy Fortune Couldn’t Give
Jimmy Fortune attended Harold Reid’s funeral in 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the circumstances made an already painful farewell even harder.
Social distancing precautions meant Jimmy Fortune could not approach Don Reid, Harold Reid’s younger brother and fellow Statler Brother, for the embrace Jimmy Fortune wanted to give.
In the 2022 interview, Jimmy Fortune remembered:
“I couldn’t hug him or get close.”
Jimmy Fortune could only wave to Don Reid from a distance.
After decades of friendship, shared music, and memories, something as simple as offering comfort to a grieving friend was suddenly impossible.
Jimmy Fortune later described the experience as bittersweet. Jimmy Fortune was able to see some members of the Reid family, but the restrictions prevented the kind of personal goodbye that would ordinarily have meant so much.
More Than Four Voices on a Stage
The connection between Jimmy Fortune and the Reid family did not end with Harold Reid’s passing.
In that same 2022 interview, Jimmy Fortune mentioned a musical project called Brothers of the Heart, recorded with Ben Isaacs, Mike Rogers, and Bradley Walker.
Don Reid had suggested the project’s name and continued supporting Jimmy Fortune’s work.
It was another reminder that the relationships formed during The Statler Brothers’ years together had survived retirement, distance, and loss.
For fans, The Statler Brothers will always be remembered for songs such as “Elizabeth,” “The Class of ’57,” “Flowers on the Wall,” and “More Than a Name on a Wall.”
But behind those harmonies were men who had spent much of their lives growing older together.
Jimmy Fortune and Harold Reid had shared twenty years onstage and nearly eighteen more years of friendship afterward.
And when Jimmy Fortune remembered one of their last conversations, what remained was not a grand farewell speech or a dramatic final moment.
It was the memory of two old friends talking about the past and laughing together, just as they had done for so many years.