Tommy Durden

Who is Tommy Durden?

Thomas Russell "Tommy" Durden was an American steel guitarist and songwriter, who is most notable for co-writing Elvis Presley's breakthrough hit, "Heartbreak Hotel".

He was born in Morgan County, Georgia, the son of a sharecropper and the youngest of seven children. The family later moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he learned slide guitar and later steel guitar. He performed with the Westernaires as steel guitarist, and in the early 1950s, after moving to Gainesville, joined country band Smilin' Jack Herring and his Swingbillys. The band's other members were Herring, Pee Wee Jenkins, and Bob Chisolm.

While playing with the Swingbillys, Durden began writing the lyrics for "Heartbreak Hotel", inspired by a Miami Herald story about a man who committed suicide, leaving a note that read "I walk a lonely street". He took the half-written lyrics to his friends and occasional songwriting partners Mae Boren Axton - who worked as a part-time disc jockey and publicist for Colonel Tom Parker's client Hank Snow - and Glen Reeves.