New York country-influenced songwriter who inadvertently helped launch Jimi Hendrix’s career.
He may have been the brother of Jon Voight, and the uncle of Angelina Jolie, but Chip Taylor was a songwriter’s songwriter, who maintained his creativity until he finally succumbed to the cancer that was diagnosed in 2023 in hospital in New York on 23rd March, 2026. Artists who have recorded his songs over the years include Jimi Hendrix, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Janice Joplin, The Hollies, Marshall Crenshaw, Jackie DeShannon, and Linda Ronstadt, all artists who were master songwriters themselves or interpreters of the highest order who had their choice of what to record. He started his career in the age of rock & roll with the legendary King Records, and continued recording right up to 2025 with The Truth and Other Things, and critics recognised his recordings continued to improve. He was also able to maintain a band of legendary musicians that included the likes of Van Morrison guitarist John Platania, Tony Leone from Ollabella and Chris Robinson’s Brotherhood.
James Wesley Voight was born on 21st March, 1940, in Yonkers, New York. He released his first single in 1958 on the King Records subsidiary Deluxe, and continued to release singles throughout the ‘60s on various labels while maintaining his day job as a successful songwriter. The wider listening public became aware of him when the Troggs had a massive hit with their cover of Wild Thing in 1966, and his reputation was enhanced when Jimi Hendrix performed his cover version at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and set his guitar on fire during the song. Chip Taylor’s songs also had legs, his Angel of the Morning was a hit in 1968 for Merrilee Rush and was an even bigger hit for Juice Newton in 1981. Despite being born in New York, Chip Taylor always had a country tinge to his songwriting, something that brought him some Nashville success with his own recordings in the ‘70s. He had refocused on his own recording career after Janice Joplin had a solo hit with his and Jerry Ragovoy’s Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) in 1969.
The ‘80s brought a new challenge as he left his music career to focus on dealing with a profitable gambling career. While he was fortunate to be a financially successful gambler, he returned to his music career in 1995. Since the ‘90s, he continued to win plaudits for his own recordings and songwriting, something that he was able to control as an independent artist with his own TrainWreck Records and his Church of the Train Wreck Podcast. He also supported the careers of artists like Evie Sands and Kendel Carson through the label.
While Chip Taylor’s career may have followed its own unique path, the two constants have been the quality of his songwriting and the importance of his family to him. He was only 16 when he wrote his first song, Little Joan, for the girl who was to become his wife. He was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2016, and he played a version of Wild Thing with his grandkids. While he will be sadly missed by his family, his spirit will live on in his vast catalogue of songs. The songs remain, indeed,
