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Joe Ely Dies, Country-Rock Musician Toured and Recorded With The Clash

by Best Classic Bands Staff

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Joe Ely, in an undated photo taken by Barbara FG; used with permission.

Joe Ely, a Texas-born songwriter, singer and raconteur died today (Dec. 15, 2025), at 78, from complications of Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s and pneumonia. His wife Sharon and daughter Marie were at his side at their home in Taos, New Mexico.

The guitarist had gone public with his health issues three months earlier. In a Sept. 9 post on his Facebook page, he and Sharon shared the news “to bring understanding, awareness and hope through the healing power of music.

“Our story is about how music continues to lift us up,” Sharon wrote at the time. “Revisiting Joe’s recordings and hearing them brought to life again has given him so much joy, and we want others to feel that same joy too.”

Ely was born Feb. 9, 1947, in Amarillo, Texas. He was considered a leader of the extraordinary parade of artists raised in Lubbock who later settled in the live music capital of Austin. In 1971, Ely and fellow Lubbock musicians Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock formed the country band the Flatliners, though they disbanded shortly after recording their first album.

Ely signed with MCA Records later that decade and released his self-titled solo debut in 1977. His first disc to chart was 1980’s Live Shots, recorded live in England while on tour with the Clash. The promotional copy of the album contained a 7-inch promotional single that included a cover of “Not Fade Away,” recorded live for Long Island, N.Y., alternative rock station WLIR-FM.

Ely’s relationship with the Clash continued when he recorded backing vocals on the classic rock staple, “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” included on their fifth studio album, 1982’s Combat Rock. He ultimately spent more than five decades recording and performing around the world. The output included many albums with Gilmore and Hancock as the re-formed Flatliners, and as a guest artist on sessions by Syd Straw, Robert Earl Keen, the Chieftains and James McMurtry, among many others.

Describing Ely’s 2015 album, Panhandle Rambler, Lonestar Music Magazine wrote, “The title fits the record just right, neatly framing a dozen songs that fit together thematically like a map of both the West Texas landscape and of Ely’s epic decades-spanning musical ramble.”