Axton spent a significant amount of time struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction and several of his songs, including "The Pusher," "Snowblind Friend," and "No-No Song," chronicled his drug problems.
Best known country hits included "When the Morning Comes" and "Boney Fingers" (1974) and "Della and the Dealer" (1979).
Country and folk singer.
Father of Mark Axton.
Formed his own record label, Jerimiah Records, in 1978.
He served in the US Navy aboard the USS Princeton (LPH-5), before pursuing a music career. After his discharge, he began singing folk songs in San Francisco nightclubs.
In November of 2007, the Oklahoma born-and-raised singer/songwriter was inducted posthumously, along with his mother, to the Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
In the early 1960s he released his first folk album titled "The Balladeer," which was recorded at the legendary Troubadour. The album included his song "Greenback Dollar", a 1963 hit for The Kingston Trio.
Mother is Mae Boren Axton, who wrote Elvis Presley's hit song "Heartbreak Hotel".
Never quite recovered from a stroke suffered in 1995.
Went to Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, FL and graduated in 1956.
Wrote "Joy To The World" and "Never Been To Spain" for Three Dog Night.