Signed to Evergreen Records by the time he was merely 21 years old, Sammy Sadler had already hit the top of country charts six times when he and friend Kevin Hughes, chart director for music industry magazine, Cashbox, were approached one evening in 1989 on Nashville’s famed Music Row by a masked man in dark clothing. The man opened fire, fatally wounding Hughes, and leaving Sadler for dead.
It would take more than a decade before the details were learned of an elaborate chart- fixing scheme at the now defunct magazine, and before the masked gunman - Richard D’Antonio - was identified, tried, convicted and sentenced for the crime, which has famously become known as the “Murder on Music Row.” Hughes had been the target, and Sadler hap- pened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ever the optimist, Sadler has picked up the pieces and continues where he left off. His new album, Heart Shaped Like Texas, is his first nationally released album since the shooting. E1 Music (formerly Koch) has the album slated for release on September 29.