Songwriter Jerry Salley | Net Worth, Wife, and Bio

Jerry Salley is the veteran country singer-songwriter turned producer best known for contributing to the country, gospel, and bluegrass genres.

Salley also recently received the Dove award alongside Dolly Parton for In The Sweet By and By, where he was the producer.

Salley has recorded around five hundred songs since the 80s and has many hits. More than nine of his creations have become number one in country hits, while eight has become the number one in gospel hits.

Besides creating his works, Salley has produced many award-winning songs for other artists and bands like The SteelDrivers, Del McCoury, etc.

Wiki (Age, Birthday, Birthplace, & Bio)

Popular NameJerry Salley
Real NameJerry Salley
Date of birthMay 3, 1960
Age63 years old
Place of birthChillicothe, Ohio, USA
HometownChillicothe, Ohio, USA
Current ResidenceNashville, Tennessee, USA
FatherNot disclosed
MotherNot disclosed
SiblingsTanya Holmquist Salley (Sister)
OrientationStraight
StatusMarried
WifeErin Searcy
ChildrenFour
DaughtersLindsay Finley, Whitney Salley Gross, 
Magnolia Williams
OccupationSinger, Songwriter, and Producer
Net worth950 Thousand USD
EthnicityWhite Caucasian
NationalityAmerican
ReligionChristianity
ZodiacTaurus
HeightUnknown
WeightUnknown
MeasurementUnknown
Hair ColorGrey
Eye ColorBrown
ComplexionFair
Instagram idjerrysalley
FacebookJerry Salley
YouTubeJerry Salley
Websitejerrysalley.com

Jerry Salley’s Net Worth

Salley has earned more than enough from his musical career and has built a net worth of 950 thousand USD for himself.

Salley has built a solid career in the music sector, where he is cherished and has earned great success.

The veteran singer-songwriter has been active in the industry since the 80s and is still releasing new songs and performing in concerts.

Early Life, Struggles, and Family

The veteran musician was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, to a family with religious and musical background.

Despite not revealing the identity of his parents, he has shared that he grew up with Tanya Holmquist Salley listening to his grandfather preaching gospels and his father playing the banjo.

Because of his family, he was always inclined towards music and started singing when he was just ten.

His family played a vital role in his success, both his parents and his children. They were always supportive and cherished all of his achievements.

His family has been with him through all of his thick and thin, including when he underwent a retinal reattachment surgery, which went wrong and made him blind in his left eye.

Though Salley is a big name now, he had his share of struggles.

However, the singer-songwriter never allowed his struggles to overshadow his happiness.

Salley never gave up his hobbies because of hard times. He grew up in a house with beautiful gardens, which made him have a garden in his home when he grew up.

He still grows his vegetables in his garden and prefers them over store-bought ones.

Besides gardening, he is also a shark tooth collector and often goes fishing with his children and grandchildren.

He is close to all of his children and grandchildren. He often spends time with them and even has his choreographed Sparkle Dance that he performs for his grandchildren every 4th of July.

Jerry Salley’s Wife and Children

Salley is married to his beautiful wife, Erin Searcy.

He tied the knot with Erin Searcy on June 20, 2015, at The Grand Inheritance venue in Gallatin, TN.

Erin quickly adapted into the music world after meeting Jerry. She grew up in Thomasville, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in landscape architecture. She celebrates her birthday on April 8.

Jerry-Salley-Wife-Erin-Searcy
(Picture from theknot.com)

Salley shared that he first met Erin at a songwriter festival, Blast on the Bay, in Port St Joe, FL. That same festival in 2014, Salley returned and proposed to Erin with a song he had written for her, leaving her no chance to decline the proposal.

Jerry and his wife Salley now lives in Nashville. Erin works as a landscape architect in Nashville.

Erin Works for Her Husband Jerry

Erin manages different aspects of Jerry Salley’s music career such as booking, scheduling radio appearances, and ensuring that his music is available on streaming platforms.

Additionally, she takes care of merchandising and sales during his shows, details such as Jerry’s stage needs and makes sure everything runs smoothly.

She also handles public relations tasks like gathering information for bios and headshots. She enjoys the different aspects of her role and says that the skills she learned from being a landscape architect translate well to her responsibilities.

They Don’t Miss on Funs Though

The couple often goes for hikes together. They even spent a night at Mt. LeConte, one of the most beautiful places in the Great Smoky Mountains.

They even visited the Great Barrier Reef together.

The couple is proud parents to four children, three daughters, and a son.

All of their daughters are married, and some even have kids.

 Salley and his wife adore their grandchildren and go on many holidays with them.

Education

Salley holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree earned from Ohio University.

He initially joined the university to get a degree in music, but since the university did not have an exact music degree, he changed his major to Business Administration.

Despite having a degree in this field was not his initial plan, he is still grateful as it helped him to make good decisions in life.

Career

The seven-time Dove Ward nominee grew up in a Christain household, hearing all the gospels and his father playing the banjo.

It led to him having a knack for music since his childhood. 

As a ten-year-old elementary school student, Salley competed in a talent contest and won 10 dollars as prize money, which boosted his confidence.

Since then, he started being more active in music and recorded his songs at sixteen. By the time he was eighteen, he had already released a few projects in his state.

Because of his inclination towards music, he decided to major in music in college and took his first piano lesson. He even performed regularly on the WMNICountry Cavalcade, a radio show, while still in college.

Though he later changed his major due to some problems, he was determined to uplift the music he grew up listening to when his piano instructor did not know about the country legend Ronnie Milsap.

His determination was solid, but there were hurdles in his way.

He initially moved to Nashville, where he worked at Country Music USA, a show at the Opryland theme park.

In the show, he portrayed the late comedian Rod Brasfield. He was so good at what he was doing that even Sarah Cannon, the original Minnie Pearl, helped him by sharing all the Rod jokes. She even showed him her videos performing with Brasfield for reference.

Salley was great at portraying Brasfield. Even another late comedian Archie Campbell used to suggest he leave his passion for music and start a career in comedy as he was a great comedian.

However, he did not give up on music. He kept working towards his passion. He used to perform on the show to make a living and spend most of his time making his writing strong.

He worked on the show for five years before Porter Waggoner invited him to perform at Grand Ole Opry just a week after his eldest daughter was born.

It was just the beginning, as he performed at the Opry several other times. He even attended the show as a guest along with the king of country music, Roy Acuff.

He also performed alongside Linda Ronstadt on different talk shows like The David Letterman Show, The Today Show, etc., while she was promoting her album Blue True.

Salley got his breakthrough in the music industry only after Breaking New Ground of Wild Rose became a success which he had co-written with Carl Jackson.

After its success, Salley worked with several other start artists, some of whom even won a Grammy.

While still producing and writing for other artists, the veteran songwriter also started his solo projects to which many start country artists lend their voices.

He then released several other new solo projects, which he even performed on his recent tours.

Salley does around eighty shows a year and even released a new album, Bridges and Old backroads, two years back on his 60th birthday.

Besides working on solo projects and for other artists, he also has been working actively with the Brentwood Bension Musci Producing since 2009.

Salley had a glorious music career in the 80s and 90s, and even he is still loved and appreciated equally.

While many artists have already retired, he still produces music and songs.

If you are interested in other such bluegrass artists. Here are a few of them.

Awards and Nominations

Awards and Nominations
2019 & 2018 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Songwriter of the Year
2003 SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) Country Music Songwriter of the Year
2003 Grammy Award for Country Album of the Year for the Louvin Brothers Tribute on Universal South Records
Nominated in 2019 for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame & for a GRAMMY for producing the multi-artist project Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout
Seven-time Dove Award nominee
Winner of the 1990 Inspirational Song of the Year for “His Strength Is Perfect,” which he recorded with Steven Curtis Chapman
Salley has written eight #1 Gospel hits, multiple #2 Gospel hits and over a dozen other top ten/top twenty gospel songs
Five-time IBMA Award winner, which includes receiving the 2006 IBMA Album of the Year award for his contribution (as an artist) to the Celebration Of Life album
The SteelDrivers’ Grammy award-winning album The Muscle Shoals Recordings includes three songs co-written by Jerry, (“A Long Way Down”, “The River Runs Red”, “6 Feet Away”)
No less than nine #1 Country hits in Australia

Where to Find Jerry in 2023?

  • Backbone Bluegrass Festival, Strawberry Point, IA (July 26-28, 2023)
  • Podunk Bluegrass Festival, Goshen, CT (August 11, 2023)
  • Gatlinburg Songwriters Festival, Gatlinburg, TN (August 18 & 19, 2023)
  • Bluegrass Bash – Hendersonville, NC (August 20, 2023)
  • Jim Parker Songwriter Series, Huntsville, AL (September 8, 2023)
  • Blast On The Bay Songwriters Festival, Port St. Joe, FL (October 20-22, 2023)
  • Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival, Pensacola, FL to Orange Beach, AL (November 9-12, 2023)
  • Carl Jackson’s Home For Christmas, Louisville, MS (December 9, 2023)