Don Nix

William Donald Nix{{cite book |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series |date=1971 |publisher=Library of Congress Copyright Office |pages=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzohAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22william+donald+nix%22&pg=PA2011 |access-date=2 January 2025}} was born into a musical family in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 27, 1941. His brother Larry became a mastering engineer for Stax Records and for the Ardent Studios in Memphis."Memphis Man" Living High, Laying Low (1997, 2015) Sartoris Literary Group, Jackson, Mississippi. {{ISBN|978-1-941644-39-3}} p. 100 Nix began his career playing saxophone for the Memphis-based Mar-Keys, alongside Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn. The group scored a hit single with "Last Night" in 1961. After leaving the Mar-Keys, Nix worked as a session musician for Stax.

After relocating to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, Nix worked as a producer and songwriter with such acts as Leon Russell, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and Freddie King, among others. Nix's best known composition, "Going Down," was originally released by the band Moloch on their eponymous album in 1969, and has become a blues-rock standard, having been covered by Freddie King, J.J.Cale the Jeff Beck Group, the Who, and the Rolling Stones.{{cite web|url=http://www.rollingstones.com/2012/12/16/newark-15th-december-prudential-center|title=Newark 15th December, Prudential Center|website=Rollingstones.com| access-date=2014-07-17}} In 1971, Nix made the acquaintance of George Harrison, leading to Nix organizing the backup vocalists for the Concert for Bangladesh.{{cite book |last1=O'Dell |first1=Chris |last2=Ketcham |first2=Katherine |author-link= |date=2009 |title=Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved |location=New York |publisher=Touchstone |page=197 |isbn=978-1-4165-9093-4}}

As a solo artist, Nix released nine albums between 1971 and 2008, and published three books.

Nix died at his home in Germantown, Tennessee, on December 31, 2024, at the age of 83.{{cite news |last1=Mehr |first1=Bob |title=Don Nix, Stax artist, producer and 'Going Down' songwriter, has died at 83 |url=https://eu.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/01/01/don-nix-obituary-stax-artist-songwriter-producer/77388086007/ |access-date=2 January 2025 |newspaper=The Commercial Appeal |date=1 January 2025}}

• In God We Trust (Shelter, 1971)
• Living by the Days (Elektra, 1971)
• Hobos, Heroes and Street Corner Clowns (Enterprise, 1973)
• Gone Too Long (Cream, 1976)
• Skyrider (Cream, 1979)
• Back to the Well (Appaloosa, 1993)
• Goin' Down: The Songs of Don Nix (Evidence, 2002)
• I Don't Want No Trouble! (Section Eight, 2006)
• Passing Through (Section Eight, 2008)

• Road Stories and Recipes (1997), Schirmer Books/Simon & Schuster, New York. {{ISBN|0-02-864621-5}}
• Who's That with Don Nix? – A photojournal of Don Nix's personal experiences.
• Memphis Man: Living High, Laying Low (1997, 2015) Sartoris Literary Group, Jackson, Mississippi. {{ISBN|978-1-941644-39-3}}

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• {{imdb name|5169041}}
• {{discogs artist|Don Nix}}

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Category:1941 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:American male saxophonists

Category:American session musicians

Category:Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee

Category:21st-century American saxophonists

Category:21st-century American male musicians

Category:Shelter Records artists