Don Nix

Biography and cause of death of Don Nix

William Donald Nix (September 27, 1941 – December 31, 2024) Don Nix was an American musician, songwriter, and producer. Nix, who was best known for his song “Going Down,” was described by AllMusic as “one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock.”

Don Nix Biography

William Donald Nix was born into a musical family in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 27, 1941. His brother Larry became a mastering engineer for Stax Records and for the Ardent Studios in Memphis. Nix began his career playing saxophone for the Memphis-based Mar-Keys, alongside Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn. The group scored a hit single with “Last Night” in 1961. After leaving the Mar-Keys, Nix worked as a session musician for Stax.

After relocating to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, Nix worked as a producer and songwriter with such acts as Leon Russell, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and Freddie King, among others.

Nix’s best known composition, “Going Down,” was originally released by the band Moloch on their eponymous album in 1969, has become a blues-rock standard, having been covered by Freddie King, the Jeff Beck Group, the Who, and the Rolling Stones. In 1971, Nix made the acquaintance of George Harrison, leading to Nix organizing the backup vocalists for the Concert for Bangladesh.

As a solo artist, Nix released nine albums between 1971 and 2008, and published three books.

Nix died at his home in Germantown, Tennessee, on December 31, 2024, at the age of 83.

Don Nix Discography

In God We Trust (Shelter, 1971)
Living by the Days (Elektra, 1971)
Hobos, Heroes and Street Corner Clowns (Enterprise, 1973)
Gone Too Long (Cream, 1976)
Skyrider (Cream, 1979)
Back to the Well (Appaloosa, 1993)
Goin’ Down: The Songs of Don Nix (Evidence, 2002)
I Don’t Want No Trouble! (Section Eight, 2006)
Passing Through (Section Eight, 2008)

Source: Wikipedia