Beloved Mississippi bluesman Sam Mosley has passed away at the age of 78.
Mosley died Friday, Sept. 20, in his hometown of New Albany, according to an obituary posted online by NEMiss.news. No cause of death has been revealed at this time.
Born in the Beaver Dam community of Union County in 1946, Mosley began playing music as a young child and went on to become one of the state’s most famous blues artists. In 1967, after returning from the Vietnam War, Mosley and fellow musician Bob Johnson teamed up to begin performing and recording under the name Sam and Bob & The Soulmen. The duo released their first album together, Mississippi Mud, in 1971.
Mosley and Johnson went on to release other albums, including Mosley & Johnson (1989) and Premium (1989). The dynamic duo performed all across the globe, from London to Switzerland to their home state of Mississippi. They also wrote songs for some of the genre’s top artists, including Johnnie Taylor, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton, and Dorothy Moore.
After Johnson died on stage in August 1998, Mosley continued writing and performing under the group’s name. Mosley also paid Johnson’s families a share of all royalties, even though he admitted in an interview prior to his passing that they “never had a written contract.” According to Mosley, “Paying the royalties to his family is just the right thing to do.”
Hits included songs like “Never Let You Go,” “Keep the Funk Flowin’,” “Rock Me,” “Wazuri,” and “Is It Over.” The two were honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in December 2008.
While Mosley spent a lot of his time securing his legacy in music, he also worked for 34 years in materials management at Super Sagless in Tupelo. He was a graduate of both Northeast Mississippi Community College and the University of Mississippi.
At this time, funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by Serenity Funeral Home in Holly Springs.
