Country music singer Darryl Worley scored three No. 1 hits between 2002 and 2005 and was hailed as a traditionalist who put a contemporary gloss on classic country, with songs addressing everyday themes and rooted in long held values. Born in Memphis on Oct. 31, 1964, as Darryl Wade Worley, he grew up south of Savannah, Tennessee, in Pyburn near Pickwick Lake; his father was a Methodist minister and paper mill worker, and his grandfather ran a nightclub and played guitar and banjo. Worley graduated from the University of North Alabama with a degree in biology and chemistry, taught school in Hardin County, and worked in the chemical industry while playing music on the side. Starting in 1994, he wrote songs published by FAME Music in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and continued playing nightclubs in and around Savannah. In 1999, George Jones recorded Worley’s co-written song “Sinners and Saints” for the Cold Hard Truth album, and that same year Worley secured a recording contract with DreamWorks Records in Nashville after producer James Stroud saw him perform at the Moose Lodge in Savannah. His debut album, Hard Rain Don’t Last, was released in July 2000; Worley wrote 10 of its 12 songs, and three singles, “When You Need My Love,” “A Good Day to Run,” and “Second Wind,” reached Billboard’s country Top 20. The music video for “A Good Day to Run” was shot in the Burnt Church community eight miles east of downtown Savannah. Released in 2002, the title song of his second album, I Miss My Friend, became his first No. 1 country hit, and the album reached the top of the Country Albums chart. The title song and first single from his third album, Have You Forgotten?, also reached No. 1 and No. 22 on the pop Hot 100 singles chart, while the album topped the Country Albums chart, though the song attracted controversy when it was interpreted as advocating for the forthcoming invasion of Iraq; after touring U.S. bases during the 2002 Christmas season, Worley maintained that it asked whether people had forgotten what happened to the country on 9/11. His fourth album, Darryl Worley, contained his fourth No. 1 single, “Awful Beautiful Life,” but DreamWorks had been acquired by the Universal Music Group in 2003 and closed in 2006. He later released two more albums and took time to focus on fatherhood and family. In 2019, he returned to Muscle Shoals, where he had pitched songs 25 years earlier, to record Second Wind: Latest and Greatest, a collection of re-recorded hits and new songs. After losing both grandfathers to cancer, he organized the nonprofit Darryl Worley Foundation in 2002 to host year-round fundraising events, and on March 3, 2016, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Darryl Worley Cancer Treatment Center on Wayne Road/Highway 64 in Savannah.