John Fry, an iconic member of the Memphis’ music scene and mentor to the band Big Star, died on Thursday afternoon after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 69.
Fry was fascinated in electronics as a youth and began working with two friends, John King and Fred Smith (eventual founder of FedEx), who were fellow high school sophomores, renting time in a local studio producing music for a local band. The rather primitive equipment in the studio, that used to be used for radio, led the three to put together a much more technically advanced studio in his grandmother’s garage.
The trio eventually started an early version of Ardent Records and found a bit of success in local Memphis radio with a couple of the company’s singles but the enterprise soon fell by the wayside as Fry got involved in a small radio station in Pine Bluff, AK.
In 1964, Fry was talked into reviving Ardent Records by James Luther Dickson, who continued to work with John through the years. Two years later, he opened a new Ardent Studio on Memphis’ National Street.
The fact that Fry kept the studio up-to-date technically led to a number of artists seeking out the location including many of Stax artists like Isaac Hayes and Sam and Dave, along with non-Memphis artists like Led Zeppelin, James Taylor and Leon Russell. By the early-70’s, Ardent Records was in a distribution deal with Stax (see photo above of Fry and Al Bell) which ended when the label got into financial problems with an agreement with Columbia Records.
It was that situation that led to one of Fry’s greatest achievements working with the band Big Star to ultimately fail. The group’s albums, now recognized as some of the best and most influential out of the 70’s, fell between the cracks during the Stax/Columbia problems and never found the audience that they deserved.
Meanwhile, Fry moved Ardent Studio’s to it’s current location on Memphis’ Madison Avenue where it continued to attract some of music’s biggest stars from ZZ Top to Joe Cocker. During the 80’s, Fry and Ardent started releasing Christian music on Ardent Records which brought a whole new group of artists to the studios including Skillet, Big Tent Revival and others.
In more recent years, Fry has worked with blues artists like the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and B.B. King while Steve Earle brought in a number of country singers such as Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker and Mark Chestnut. He also used Ardent Studios as a training facility for up-and-coming producers and engineers.
John Fry is survived by his wife.
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