Younger Everly Brother Phil dead at 74 of smoking-induced COPD; career began at 6 on parents' Shenandoah, IA radio show

     Phil, the son of folk singers Ike and Margaret Everly, was born Jan. 19th 1939, two years after his brother Don. Between 1957 and 1962 the Everly Brothers scored 19 top 40 hits and are in both the rock and roll and country music halls of fame.

     The squabbling siblings broke up for 16 years at a 1973 Knott's Berry Farm concert in California at which Phil threw his guitar on the stage and walked off.

     Everly's son Jason said the COPD that killed his father never seemed to affect his voice. 

From Nashville...

     ...while Elvis Presley was the king of rock 'n' roll, Phil and Don Everly were its troubled princes. They sang dark songs hidden behind deceptively pleasing harmonies and were perfect interpreters of the twitchy hearts of millions of baby boomer teens coming of age in the 1950s and '60s looking to express themselves beyond the simple platitudes of the pop music of the day.

      The Everlys dealt in the entire emotional spectrum with an authenticity that appealed to proto rockers like the Beatles and Bob Dylan, who gladly pass the credit for the sea changes they made in rock to the ruggedly handsome brothers. The Beatles, the quartet whose pitch-perfect harmonies set the pop music world aflame, once referred to themselves as "the English Everly Brothers." And Dylan, pop culture's poet laureate, once said, "We owe these guys everything. They started it all."

      Two generations later, artists are still finding inspiration in the music. Most recently, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones lovingly recorded a tribute to the Everlys and their unique album "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us."