The Chilling Tale of a Kidnapped Musician Forced to Write a Hit Song

Coming up, the terrifying story of a songwriter named John D. Loudermilk who was kidnapped by three men while sleeping in the backseat of his car during a late-night blizzard. Allegedly, his captors abused him for three days, until they found out that he was a professional songwriter in the Nashville music scene…and then.. they made him a deal…. agree to write a song about the injustices put upon the Cherokee people… or die. Loudermilk who had written songs for Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers, and Roy Orbison agreed to their demands to save himself and honored the deal by writing a song that eventually became a massive global smash, the 70s hit Indian Reservation (the lament of the Cherokee). It would later be picked for Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders and became the biggest-selling song until Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. The incredible story the writer told about writing the song was hard to believe… That’s because… he made the whole thing up. The truth surrounding one of the biggest pop smashes of the Rock Era is revealed. NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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