More than three decades after the death of legendary country singer Keith Whitley, his son Jesse Keith Whitley is preparing to honor his legacy in a deeply personal way.
Jesse Keith Whitley, the only child of Keith Whitley and fellow country star Lorrie Morgan, recently revealed that he’s working on a tribute EP dedicated to his late father that may include something fans never expected.
Speaking on the Drifting Cowboy Podcast with Dillon Weldon, Jesse shared that he plans to record a six-song project celebrating his dad’s music, but with a twist. Rather than revisiting the biggest radio hits that made Whitley famous, he wants to shine a light on some of the deeper cuts in his catalog.
“Got something up my sleeve,” Jesse said. “I made a comment the other day on Facebook that I was going to go in and do like a six-song EP Keith Whitley tribute that I hadn’t done, I’ve never done.”
He added, “I’m not going to go in and do the big popular songs. I’m going to go in and pick six that are … I say not as popular, but they’re all popular, not big radio hits.”
The project is still in its early stages, but Jesse said he has already spoken with a producer and is preparing to start the recording process once he settles on the songs. The singer also revealed he’s getting back into songwriting after stepping away for a while.
“I’ve taken a lot of time off from writing, and so I’m going to start writing pretty regularly again,” he explained.
But the tribute EP isn’t the only excitement Keith Whitley fans should know about. During the conversation, Jesse hinted that there is a significant archive of unreleased recordings from his late father that the family has recently rediscovered.
Those songs may finally see the light of day.
“I can’t dig too deep into that, but we’ve got some plans with that,” he said. “It’s been discussed and … Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. And there are quite a few of them. There’s a lot…more than I thought. And that kind of fell in our lap about three weeks ago.”
Jesse even teased the possibility of a unique collaboration with his dad. “There might even be a co-write with my dad and me.”
For Jesse, carrying on his father’s legacy comes with both opportunities and pressure. Growing up as the son of one of country music’s most revered vocalists has opened doors — but it has also brought constant comparisons.
“Well, oddly enough, we were kind of having this conversation today a little bit,” he said. “And I’ve made a lot of friends just because of that. The introduction, the door opening, if you will. But also, man, it also makes for that door really hard to be opened. People hold you to a really high standard. And unfortunately, there’ll never be another Keith Whitley.”
Jesse is the first to admit he doesn’t try to replicate his father’s voice.
“I damn sure don’t sing like him. Nobody does. And I think we’d all be better off if people would just realize that,” he said. “But inevitably, somebody’s going to compare you to somebody. But it’s got its pluses, and it’s got its minuses too, you know what I mean? But more pluses than negatives.”
Because he was just under two years old when his father died in 1989, much of Jesse’s understanding of Keith Whitley has come from watching old performance footage and listening to stories from family and friends.
“I’ve learned so much about my dad from seeing things on YouTube and footage and show footage and things like that,” he said. “Especially for me, watching things and watching his face and watching how he talks.”
Sometimes, he says, he even catches glimpses of his father in himself. “And then if I say something to my wife, I can feel the Whitley on my face,” he added. “I’m like, ‘I just made a dad face there.’ So thank God for that.”
Keith Whitley, the Kentucky-born country music icon known for classics like “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “When You Say Nothing At All,” died on May 9, 1989, from acute alcohol poisoning at his home in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Though his career was brief, his influence on country music remains profound.
