Slim Dillinger, who was nominated for a Pickin’ Award by the Academy of Country Artists, and who wrote the long running off-Broadway play "Too Close for Cousins", has died at the age of 75. He passed away quietly in his Stone Holler, Tennessee home. His current girlfriends, Lorianne Buston and Maybelle Purvis, found him at his desk, where he had penned the last few pages of his newest book, "I Knew ‘Em All".
Born Marvin Leland Dillinger, in Corncob, Georgia, during the Great Depression, his father kept food on the table and gas in the tank of their Model A Ford by running moonshine and operating a backwoods distillery. "Dillinger’s Demon", their private label rum, was the favorite of New York mobsters and judges, and when tax revenue agents raided the family still in 1936, the subsequent rebellion by county residents resulted in the governor calling in National Guard troops to keep order in Llewellyn County.
Dillinger was educated in a one-room school that did double-duty as a home for the mentally insane. Years later, when asked about this unusual arrangement, Slim would reply, "To this day, I still hear deranged screams while calculating the square root of pi".
In 1952, at the age of 17, Slim hitchhiked to Memphis, where he met and became friends with Sonnyboy Jones, a studio musician at the Grand ‘Ol Opry. Jones toured the country with various bands, and persuaded his boss, Colonel Fauntleroy Norton, to hire Slim as an equipment manager. His job was to transport the instruments, sound and lighting systems, and make sure that the bus they were using had wheels that went round and round.
Dillinger learned fast, and in 1957 went to work for Horton Feeney, the General manager of the Grand ‘Ol Opry, where he became part of the inner circle that ran the country music business. Feeney promoted him to Road Manager where his job was to book and promote tours for such fabled groups as The Skunk Ridge Boys, Alonzo Gearhart’s Bluegrass Fiddlers, The Tennessee Two-Timers, and Beverly Moonby, whose song, "I Ain’t Nothin’ But Trouble" became a classic country anthem.
Dillinger remained single his entire life, saying that he "would probably die, if, when an opportunity for a quick tryst presented itself, I had to say no." He was nearly bankrupted in 1986 when sued by a female employee of the Opryland theme park, who claimed that he promised to marry her, then backed out at the last minute, leaving her penniless and stranded in a Las Vegas hotel. A year later, the case was settled out of court.
In 1998 several persons came forward in a tell-all book, "Slim Dillinger Was My Daddy". Questions still go unanswered in several of the claims, and Dillinger has remained silent on details.
Dillinger’s contacts and experiences with major country music figures and recording labels were grist for his biographical publications. "His Brother Was His Sister", written in 1986, remained on the New York Times best seller list for over twelve months. In 1990 the blockbuster movie "Gone To Pieces Again", based on Dillinger’s book "House of Delusions", starring Rosalind Crewe and DelRoy Lindo, was nominated for an Academy Award in three categories, best screenplay, best music, and best actress.
Interviewed by Larry King in 1999, he decried the "new music", as he referred to anything other than pure country. He hated hip hop and wrote the best seller "Hip Hop Kills" in 2000, resulting in a rash of hip hop cd burnings throughout the Bible Belt.
Sometimes flashy to excess, Slim Dillinger was rumored to be the model and inspiration for the look that Elvis Presley adopted in the early 70’s. It was widely known that Dillinger always wore outlandish suits and aviator sunglasses, even to bed. His private collection of sunglasses were kept in a bulletproof glass case at Heartville, his mansion in Stone Holler, and included glasses worn by Ben Franklin and Hermann Goering. His bright yellow ‘63 Ford Thunderbird, Lulu, was well known on the streets of Memphis and Stone Holler. Beloved by many, but claimed by no one, he will be interred at the Forgotten Musician’s Cemetery in Roseview on Tuesday.
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