He recalls their frustration with the young girls who screamed incessantly, preventing his friend and him from hearing Scotty Moore, Presley's guitar player, clearly during the performance.
The albums, entitled Tom & Jerry, covering all genres of music, also involved Hank Garland, Boots Randolph, Bob Moore, and Harold Bradley.
A recipient of four Grammy Awards,[2] Kennedy’s Dobro and guitar playing have been featured on the albums of artists as varied as Elvis Presley, Kris Kristofferson and Ringo Starr.
Kennedy took the reins, and ran Smash Records until 1970, when Mercury shut down that label and appointed him as the head of its country music division.
[1][3] His time at Mercury produced memorable hits from country music artists such as Roger Miller, Reba McEntire, The Statler Brothers, Johnny Rodriguez, and Tom T.
[7] Kennedy himself left Mercury in 1984 to start JK Productions, through which he produced recordings by The Statler Brothers, Connie Smith, Mel McDaniel, Reba McEntire and other artists.
[1][3] In 1987, Kennedy and David Briggs released a cut for Mercury Records credited to Joe Kenyon, which was a cover of Vangelis' "Hymne".