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Faith Hill ran to the murder scene

Nicole Fallert   Paste BN

While Keith Sharon was investigating a 1989 Nashville murder case last summer, he received a text from an unknown number. The sender asked him to meet at a bar 40 miles from his house. His immediate thought was "yes."

From a burner phone, the anonymous messenger sent him very specific instructions: Write down who he thought the identity of the person was on a sheet of paper. Put it in an envelope. Come to the Tennessee bar. See if he's right.

So Sharon got in his car, an envelope with his best guess of who the person could be in his front jacket pocket, knowing they were likely related to the story he was writing for The Tennessean, part of the Paste BN network.

He slid into a spot at the bar.

A person approached him. Then asked for the envelope. Sharon handed it over.

The person read his guess and shook their head. Sharon was wrong. Was his shot at an interview over?

The person was sympathetic, applauding him for following directions. What happened next, Sharon never could have anticipated: The secret messenger revealed a treasure-trove of knowledge about who shot Kevin Hughes on Nashville's famed Music Row nearly 35 years ago.

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we talk with Keith Sharon, about his eight-episode podcast "Murder on Music Row" diving into the case of Hughes' murder (read the story version here).

But first, don't miss these stories made possible by your Paste BN subscription:

When music meets murder

When Keith Sharon moved from California to Tennessee in 2021, he looked at his new home with fresh eyes. Nashville, the famed city of music, was a bevy of exciting stories waiting to be told. His editor assigned him to look into the murder of Kevin Hughes, a 23-year-old with a mullet who had come to Nashville to break into the business side of the music industry. Hughes worked in the charts, determining who got the coveted top spots each week.

1989 was an influential year in Nashville: Garth Brooks' first single was released. Alan Jackson, Clint Black and Mary Chapin Carpenter were just getting started. Taylor Swift was born. Faith Hill was selling T-shirts for Reba McEntire.

And 20-year-old Hill – now a famed country music star known for songs like "This Kiss" – would be one of the first people to find Hughes' body after he was murdered in cold blood.

Hughes had a dream. But he ended up dead. Why?

Sharon started digging. He spread his name among Nashville from songwriters to court watchers, looking for anyone who could speak to what happened.

"My fresh eyes for Nashville translated," he said. "I didn't know anything about my new city. I didn't know a lot about country music. I found out how music is made. How songs are made. How people are destroyed in the industry."

As he explored the ins and outs of America's music town, he started thinking about power: Who wants it and who holds it. This felt like the key to Hughes' fate. The young man was apparently prepared to tell the media about exploitative practices in Nashville when he was shot twice in the head.

"I took it upon myself to tell the story Kevin Hughes never got to tell," Sharon said. "People know full justice was not served."

Sharon worked his way through a spreadsheet of 170 sources. He spoke with 65 people and garnered 50 hours of audio tapes of interviews with those willing to speak about Hughes' life and death. He was told several times to watch his back and more than a few times "no" when people declined to be interviewed out of fear for their safety.

"I was really hitting it hard on nights and weekends," Sharon said. "You get obsessed with a story."

Perhaps that element of intrigue was what led Sharon to that bar miles from his house to meet a stranger. His gumption was rewarded: that individual ended up offering more insight than had ever been provided on Hughes' killing.

The spy-like venture was as thrilling as the information he got. Sharon started realizing he was reporting more than a retelling of Hughes' murder – he was resolving it.

"I started realizing the whole story had never been told," he said. "Nashville is full of stars and people who want to be stars. This story shifts the focus from the stars to the underbelly. (At that time), there was a gauntlet of predatory promoters who were people ready to take you for everything you were worth."

The final product is "equal parts true crime and nostalgia," Sharon said. His advice is to focus on small details in the series: "There are hidden gems all through the story where you might read over it if you didn't know it was coming. There's a lot of twists and turns ... and several red herrings … but it's all the way true."

Listen to the 'Murder on Music Row' podcast. (Seriously, it's so good. I listened to the entire series in one day!)

Thank you

Keith Sharon's reporting for "Murder on Music Row" is truly remarkable. The time and dedication our reporters gave to this story would not have been possible without the support of readers like you. Thank you.

Best wishes, 

Nicole Fallert

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