Danny Patton

Danny Patton (b. November 15, 1965 – d. May 21, 2006) – Guitarist and banjo player. Raised in the Black Oak neighborhood of Gary, Danny Patton joined The Hazard County Band (a popular regional country group) at age seventeen and played with them for approximately twelve years. Following stints with other country bands, he and his brother Jamie put together a region-based bluegrass band called Flintlock in 1997. For two years in the late 1990s, he also played with Born to Boogie, Chicago’s most popular country rock show band. Around 2000, Patton moved to Nashville and joined a Grand Ole Opry house band fronted by Billy Walker, a legendary country star and a member of the Opry since 1960. On the way back from a concert in Foley, Alabama, on May 21, 2006, Patton was killed in an automobile accident, which also took the life of Billy Walker, Walker’s wife, and another band member. Patton died at the height of his career when his expert guitar picking could be heard live during weekly Opry performances broadcast on WSM-AM radio.