Ray Stevens was briefly hospitalized in the Nashville area after a fall on Sunday left him with a broken neck. Doctors told the 87-year-old singer and comedian to wear a neck brace for about four weeks as he recovers.
Stevens remains fully mobile and in good spirits, even with his new release, Favorites Old & New, set to come out on Friday. The timing gives the setback extra weight: the album is arriving just as one of Nashville’s longest-running entertainers is being forced to slow down again.
The fall is the latest in a run of health problems for Stevens, who suffered a heart attack in Nashville last summer. After complaining of chest pain and being admitted to a Nashville hospital, he underwent minimally invasive heart surgery, and a heart catheterization later showed he had suffered a mild heart attack. His scheduled performances for the rest of that month were canceled.
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Stevens has spent decades in the music business and has long been a fixture in Nashville. He first signed to Capitol Records’ Prep Records at 18 years old in 1957, won his first Grammy in 1971, and built a career that included collaborations with Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton.
His recent health setbacks come after a period when Stevens was already signaling a change in pace. In January 2024, he said he was “slowing down” in his music career and would “stop performing regularly” at his Ray Stevens CabaRay Showroom in Nashville by the end of 2024. Even so, he returned there in December 2024 to promote his album Say Whut?
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For fans, the news lands with added force because Stevens had already been adjusting to life after a long personal loss. He was married to Penny Jackson Ragsdale for more than 60 years until her death in 2021, and they had two daughters, Suzi and Timi.
Stevens’ recovery now appears to be heading in the right direction, with doctors expecting the brace to be temporary and no indication that the fall has taken away his mobility or his ability to keep working around it. But the broader picture is clear: after a career that stretched from his first record deal in 1957 to recent appearances in Nashville, he is no longer moving through life at the speed that once defined him.
