Jerry Kennedy Jerry (b. 8/10/1940) is a record producer, songwriter and guitar player. Kennedy signed a recording contract with RCA Records at age eleven and recorded several singles. Though he never became a star as a vocalist, he sang background vocals for several Mercury Records artists as a teenager.
After working recording sessions around Shreveport for several years, he moved to Nashville. Kennedy arrived in Nashville just as the country music boom of the 1960s was getting underway. Soon after his arrival, he began working on recording sessions for Mercury, both as a guitar player and as a producer. A recipient of four Grammy's, Jerry played dobro on Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley PTA.
In 1968 Shelby Singleton left Mercury and Jerry took the reins. He ran Mercury Records (Nashville) for 16 years, working with an array of country music artists such as Roger Miller, Reba McEntire, Johnny Rodriguez and Tom T Hall. Kennedy played and or produced nearly all of the country music records of Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry left Mercury in 1984 to start JK Productions, through which he produced albums for The Statler Brothers and other artists
