Jay Lee Webb

He was the third son and fourth child born to Clara Marie "Clary" (née Ramey; May 5, 1912 – November 24, 1981) and Melvin Theodore "Ted" Webb (June 6, 1906 – February 22, 1959), a coal miner and subsistence farmer.

The family was poor, living hand-to-mouth, and relying on Ted Webb's meager income.

The Webb family had seven other children in addition to Jay Lee:

His mother called him "Jay Lee" from an early age, which he would later use in his career.

He learned to play his father's guitar when he left school at 15.

He often played and sang along with his father, Ted.

Ted Webb died early of black lung disease as a result of years working in the coal mines of Van Lear, Kentucky.

Willie "Jay" Lee Webb (February 12, 1937 – July 31, 1996) was an American country music singer.

Willie "Jay" Lee Webb was born in a cabin on February 12, 1937, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky.

A year before his father's death in 1959, Webb left Kentucky and moved to Custer, Washington.

He lived with his sister Loretta and her family.

He sang in local honky-tonks with his guitar and played in a local performing circuit.

Webb, like his sister, wrote his own songs, and he co-wrote some of her later hits.

Webb was a keen guitar player and decided to write some short gospel songs with sister, Loretta.

Having a tenor voice, Webb discovered gospel songs were well suited to him.

In February 1959, sister Loretta formed her own band.

Lynn called her band "The Trailblazers", and Webb played guitar.

They performed all over Washington, and Lynn was beginning to build a small fan following.

After Lynn won a contest in Tacoma, Washington, the prize was an invitation to Los Angeles.

Webb, however, was not having as much luck.

He continued to perform locally in the Pacific Northwest.

On June 16, 1960, Webb was noticed by Sun Records producer and engineer Jack Clement, who was on a business trip.

Clement invited him to a recording session to record two songs that Webb had penned himself; "Will You Come Home (Any Time Soon)?"

and "I'm Waitin' For You".

They were recorded on July 20, 1960, in Memphis, Tennessee, and released shortly after on August 5.

The songs failed to garner any attention.

Nevertheless, Jay Lee took the contract offer with Sun Records for $120 per week on August 10, 1960.

"I'm Waitin' For You" charted at No. 92 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts and stalled there.

Jay Lee continued to record for the Sun label but was not having much success.

He moved to South Memphis in October 1960.

In mid November 1960, Decca offered Webb a recording contract and a chance to record "Just A Little".

He declined both the song and the contract.

Subsequently, Brenda Lee recorded the song, and the single was released a month later.

In the meantime, Webb learned to play the fiddle in two months and began playing and singing with another band in order to make ends meet.

Webb's contract with Sun Records expired on January 15, 1961.

He continued to play his guitar, and co-wrote a few of Lynn's songs but was never credited for it.

He also secured a contract with Wilburn Brothers Publishing Company and played on their TV show for $30 per week.

He performed other country music singers' songs like Patsy Montana's smash hit song "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Kitty Wells' smash hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".

His sister urged him to move to Nashville, and she secured him a contract with Vocalion Records in Memphis which he signed on April 19, 1961, for $50 per week.

He is known for his 1967 song, "I Come Home A-Drinkin' (To a Worn-Out Wife Like You)", which was written as an "answer song" to his older sister Loretta Lynn's No. 1 1967 hit "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'".