Rock 'n' roll pioneer Don Everly, half of the harmonizing Everly Brothers, dies at 84

Don Everly, whose divine harmony with sibling Phil Everly in the Everly Brothers helped shape the course of rock 'n' roll, died Saturday at home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 84.

Family spokesperson Linda Edell Howard, the singer's attorney, confirmed his death on Sunday to The Associated Press. 

“Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” a statement from the family said. “Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams ... living in love with his soul mate and wife Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother. Don always expressed how grateful he was for his fans.”

The brothers' official Instagram account shared the news of his death early Sunday. 

"It is with great sadness that we regret to announce the passing of Isaac Donald Everly today," a post reads. "He leaves behind his wife Adela, mother Margaret, children Venetia, Stacy, Erin & Edan, grandchildren Arabella, Easan, Stirling, Eres, Lily & Esper."

Tom T. Hall dies at 85:The Country Music Hall of Fame artist is remembered as 'The Storyteller'

Classics such as “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up, Little Susie” and “All I Have To Do Is Dream” epitomize the vocal blend of Everly and his younger brother, Phil, who died in 2014 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As his brother’s tenor soared, Everly was the anchor, singing the main melody on the bulk of their songs.

Their sound soon found a rapt audience with the release of “Bye Bye Love” in 1957 – and it ignited the imaginations of teenagers who would later become The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. 

Born Feb. 1, 1937, in Brownie, Kentucky, Isaac Donald Everly and his brother grew up immersed in country music. They first hit the airwaves before they were out of elementary school, singing with their country-performing parents on their father’s radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa, in 1945.

After a two-year stint in Knoxville, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where the brothers soon found attention as a duo. Among their earliest boosters was Chet Atkins, who led them to a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and a recording contract with Cadence Records in 1957.

A lone release with Columbia Records, “Keep a-Lovin' Me,” had flopped a year earlier, but that wasn’t the case with “Bye Bye Love.”

Success came swiftly: “Love” topped the country charts and reached No. 2 overall, and just three months after its release, the Everly Brothers were made members of the Grand Ole Opry.

“I felt at home at the Opry," Everly told The Tennessean in 1998. "Because when we walked down the streets of New York City with a guitar case, people would yell at you back in those days and look to see if you had shoes on."

Country and bluegrass acts such as the Delmore Brothers, Osborne Brothers and Louvin Brothers formed a template for the Everlys' close-harmony sound, and the brothers took it in a smoother, pop-rock direction with material written by themselves and Nashville tunesmiths, most notably “Bye Bye Love” songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The influence of Texan Buddy Holly, with whom they toured in the late 1950s, also can be heard.

As the artists they’d inspired began to arrive on the scene, the duo’s commercial fortunes declined. Their last top 10 U.S. hit came in 1962 with “That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be).”

Behind the scenes, their partnership was sometimes problematic – they battled drugs, managers and each other. At a California concert in 1973, their feuding erupted onstage and they split, barely speaking for a decade, during which time they pursued solo careers with minor success.

A reunion that began in 1983 resulted in a well-received live album and two excellent studio albums, "EB '84" (which featured the Paul McCartney-written hit "On the Wings of a Nightingale") and "Born Yesterday."

Neil Young inducted the brothers into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, where they were among the inaugural class of 10 performers, and they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. The duo released their final studio album, "Some Hearts," in 1988.

Along with their Hall of Fame inductions, the Everlys' last major turn in the spotlight came when they toured with Simon & Garfunkel in 2003 and 2004, and their final headlining jaunt in Europe in 2005. 

The Everly harmonies "are so immaculate," Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong told USA TODAY in 2013, when he and singer Norah Jones released the Everlys tribute album "Foreverly." He singled out the duo's second album, "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us," for being "pretty daring at the time."

"A lot of other rock guys were trying to go pop. Chuck Berry had a string of big hits, and the same with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis. And here the Everlys were playing these torch songs and murder ballads. For them to do something so dark and angelic was appealing to me."

With Everly's death, Lewis becomes the last living performer from the Rock Hall's inaugural class.

"The Everly Brothers are integral to the fabric of American music. Very few of us can say we were around at the beginning, and even fewer can say we’re still here," Lewis said in a statement. "There’s a lot I can say about Don, what he and Phil meant to me both as people and as musicians, but I am going to reflect today. God bless Don Everly and long live rock and roll music."

Contributing: Kim Willis, Maria Puente, Jerry Shriver and Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY