Australian country music singer Chad Morgan has died at the age of 91.
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Morgan’s children, Chad Jr. and Janelle, confirmed their father’s death to ABC News. The “Sheik of Scrubby Creek” died in a hospital in Gin Gin, Queensland, on the evening of Jan. 1.
Born in Wondai in 1933, Morgan released his first album in 1952, after getting discovered through Australia’s Amateur Hour radio program.
“I went into the Air Force in ’52 and mates heard me singing. They dared me to go on Amateur Hour and it snowballed from there,” he recalled in a 2016 ABC interview.
Morgan was a pioneer in the comedy country genre, with songs such as “I’m My Own Grandpa,” “Oh So Nice in the Nuthouse,” and “A Pub With No Beer.”
He was inducted into the Tamworth Hands of Fame in 1979 and the Roll of Renown in 1987. Morgan also received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004 and a lifetime achievement award at the 2010 Country Music Association of Australia Awards.
His friend and fellow country singer Evelyn Bury described him as a “beautiful larrikin.”
“There’ll never be another Chad,” she added.
Country music star Troy Cassar-Daley shared a tribute to Morgan on social media. He wrote that the late singer was one of the funniest comedic minds he ever saw on stage.
“He was always such an individual, that’s what endeared him to so many in our industry,” Cassar-Daley wrote.