KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Don and Phil Everly had such a profound effect on Graham Nash, when he was finding his way as a young man in music decades ago, that he was only too happy to do what he could to honor them.
When asked several years ago if he could help round up noted musicians to contribute quotes about the Everlys that could be used in the Bearden park created in their honor, he got right on it.
People like Bob Dylan, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and Ann and Nancy Wilson were only too happy to oblige. You can see their quotes today in granite plaques in the park off Kingston Pike.
"They changed my life," the English-born Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said Monday afternoon at the park. "Their vocal harmonies changed my life, unbelievably so. And I wanted to honor that feeling. And I still am honoring that feeling."
Nash, currently on a tour that saw him stop Sunday in Asheville, N.C., was set to perform Monday night at the Bijou.
But he wanted to make absolutely sure before the show that he stopped at Everly Brothers Park.
"It's the first time that I've been to the park itself. Did it really used to be a garage?" he said.
Yes, it's true. Before all the landscaping and stone work and love and sweat and toil were put into the pocket park, it was an old gas station. It looks nothing like that now.
The efforts of the Bearden Council, among other groups and people, made it into what it is today. As Nash proclaimed, "I think that this will be an international jewel for Knoxville. This park is very, very special."
Among those on hand Monday afternoon to welcome Nash to the park, which opened formally a few years ago, was former Mayor Madeline Rogero, architect and former Councilman Duane Grieve, who worked with Nash quietly to get the quotes in stone, Carol Evans of the Legacy Parks Foundation and Knoxville Vice Mayor Andrew Roberto.
"Look what this is today," Grieve marveled as he delivered opening remarks.
Knoxville City Councilman Charlie Thomas said the park represented the perfect intersection of nature, history and art.
The Everlys lived in Knoxville in the mid 1950s as teens -- attending West High School -- before older brother Don set out for Nashville to pursue a career in music. Younger brother Phil soon followed.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, they charted with such hits as "Cathy's Clown", "Wake Up, Little Susie", "Walk Right Back" and "Let It Be Me".
Phil Everly died in 2014; Don Everly died in 2021.
Their harmonies transfixed a generation of young people who wanted to be singers and songwriters. People like Simon and Garfunkel and Lennon and McCartney used them as models for how to blend voices to make impeccable music.
The brothers were among the first artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it was created in the mid 1980s. That's how important they were to popular music.
Nash said the brothers were able to create incomparable harmonies because they shared DNA. They came from the same mother, he noted.
Their sound was like nothing before, Nash said. And there'll be nothing like it in the future.
"Anyone can sing those notes. Anyone can sing the same notes as Crosby, Stills and Nash. You just can't sound like us, and you definitely could not sound like the Everly Brothers," Nash said.
"When you see these quotes from all these incredible musicians," he continued, "these people don't do that unless they want to honor what it is they're trying to do. When you see Carole King, when you see Bob Dylan, when you see Brian Wilson, Paul Simon and all these people who made these quotes, you must know that the Everly Brothers and the sound that they created changed every life in these quotes. Absolutely."
Nash has his own quote in granite in the park about the brothers.
Here's what McCartney had to say:
"Phil Everly was one of my great heroes, and with his brother, Don, they were one of the major influences on the Beatles. When John and I first started to write songs, I was Phil and he was Don. "
