death_date death_place years_active birth_place name background birth_date genre article_title birth_name occupation
28 july 2003 fairview , tennessee 1975 - 2003 st. louis , missouri greg guidry solo_singer 23 january 1950 soul , jazz greg guidry
 gregory mark guidry musician
greg guidry

`` for the louisiana state judge , see greg g. guidry '' gregory m. guidry -lrb- january 23 , 1950 -- july 28 , 2003 -rrb- , better known as greg guidry was an american singer-songwriter .
born in st. louis , missouri , he played piano and sang gospel as a child , and sang in a band with future doobie brother michael mcdonald as a teenager .
with quite a bit of help from rich lang , friend and fellow multi-talented musician , they wrote and recorded several demos , drove to new york from st.louis and signed a publishing contract with cbs records in 1977 and wrote songs for climax blues band , robbie dupree , exile , johnny taylor , sawyer brown , and reba mcentire .
in 1981 he sang as a backing vocalist for the allman brothers band on their 1981 album `` brothers of the road '' .
he signed with columbia in 1982 and released an album , `` over the line '' , which produced two hit singles , `` goin ' down '' -lrb- us # 17 , us ac # 11 -rrb- and a duet with his sister sandy , `` into my love '' -lrb- us # 92 -rrb- .
while he continued to do songwriting work later in the 1980s , he did not issue a follow-up album until 2000 , when `` soul 'd out '' and `` private session '' were released , and his debut album was re-released .
on july 28 , 2003 , guidry died in a fire at age 53 .
his charred body was found in a car parked in his garage in fairview , tennessee .
his death was ruled a suicide .
