Joe Ely

Illness and death In September 2025, Ely announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia. He died from Parkinson's, dementia and pneumonia at his Taos, New Mexico home, on December 15, 2025, at the age of 78.

Lawsuit against Universal Music Group On February 5, 2019, Ely and John Waite filed a class-action lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) claiming that the company was violating their right to terminate grants of copyright after 35 years, in accordance with copyright law of the United States, by ignoring notices of termination. On May 3, 2019, UMG filed a motion to dismiss the case, stating that the notices of termination were not valid because the songs were not grants of copyright, but works for hire.

Discography

Joe Ely (1977) Honky Tonk Masquerade (1978) Down on the Drag (1979) Musta Notta Gotta Lotta (1981) Hi-Res (1984) Lord of the Highway (1987) Dig All Night (1988) Live at Liberty Lunch (1990) Love and Danger (1992) Chippy (1994) Letter to Laredo (1995) Twistin' in the Wind (1998) Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival (1998) Streets of Sin (2003) Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch (2007) Silver City (2007) Satisfied At Last (2011) B4 84 (2014) Panhandle Rambler (2015) Full Circle: The Lubbock Tapes (2018) Love in the Midst of Mayhem (2020) Love and Freedom (2025)

Awards and nominations