Nashville singer David Olney dies on stage after apologising to crowd

Nashville singer-songwriter David Olney has died while performing on stage after he apologised to the crowd and closed his eyes.

The 71-year-old Nashville artist suffered an apparent heart attack during a performance last night (January 18) at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. A doctor in the audience assisted in an effort to revive him, but Olney did not respond.

Amy Rigby, an artist who was performing alongside Olney, shared the news on Facebook, according to NME.

“David Olney, a beautiful man, a legend, a songwriting poet died last night,” her post began. “Olney was in the middle of his third song when he stopped, apologized and shut his eyes.

“He was very still, sitting upright with his guitar on, wearing the coolest hat and a beautiful rust suede jacket we laughed about because it was raining like hell outside the boathouse where we were playing – I just want the picture to be as graceful and dignified as it was, because it at first looked like he was just taking a moment.”

Earlier in the day, Olney was recorded singing at a 30-minute Acoustic Interlude session with local radio station WUWF 88.1.