An off-key singer with $10K to burn helped solve a Nashville murder

That is the seventh in an , a rustic music chart director who knew an excessive amount of.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sammy Sadler’s proper arm wasn’t working effectively sufficient to play a guitar.

It was the center of 1989 when he moved again to Texas. He stated he was completed with Nashville. His pal was lifeless. He had been shot. Nobody was selling his data. And his recording profession had been minimize brief.

“My profession was mainly over,” Sadler stated. “I consider what the police executed to me put a cloud over my profession. To me it’s simply not honest. It’s not honest to Kevin Hughes. Kevin Hughes died for nation music. I took a bullet for it.”

He was underneath suspicion for collaborating in Hughes’ demise.

He stated he was nonetheless afraid the one who killed Hughes and shot him would attempt to come again and end the job.

And but …

On June 10, 1989, his track “You Made It Simple” appeared in Money Field journal’s Indie Highlight.

Every week later, the track debuted on the chart at No. 87. Over 10 weeks in June, July and August 1989, “You Made It Simple” was on the charts 16 occasions, rising to No. 2 on the Nation Indie Singles chart.

Sadler’s image appeared in an commercial with the notation that he was promoted by Chuck Dixon.

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In August, Sadler was named as Money Field journal’s No. 5 male vocalist.

In October, November and December, Sadler’s track “As soon as in a Lifetime Factor” was on the chart eight occasions.

He was nominated for Track of the Yr for a canopy of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” which he had not recorded.

Sadler’s photograph appeared in Money Field in December 1989 with the next phrases: “Thanks Nation Radio for a Nice Yr 1989.”

In 1990, Sadler’s track “Mississippi’s Burning Tonight” was on the Nation Singles chart (that is the famous person chart with Garth Brooks, Religion Hill and Reba McEntire) for 9 weeks.

That track was co-written by Chuck Dixon.

Sadler stated he had no thought how any of these songs bought on the chart, or why a track he didn’t sing was nominated. He stated neither he nor his household paid for the chart positions or the commercials.

In all, Sadler had 26 chart positions within the 28 months earlier than Kevin Hughes died, and he had 33 chart positions within the 19 months after.

The singer who couldn’t sing

Beth Watts sang like — what’s one of the best ways to explain it? —  like somebody who had by no means sung earlier than.

Whispery, gravely, off-key. Not like a future nation star.

Watts first appeared in Nashville in 2000. Earlier than the top of the 12 months, she heard somebody needed her lifeless.

Her story was acquainted. She stated she had come from Carthage, Tennessee, with a few poorly written songs.

And $10,000 to spend attempting to get well-known.

“My husband and I made this terrible demo tape,” she stated.

It was only a pattern track to entice somebody within the music business. It was referred to as “Love Sufficient for Two,” and there’s no manner anybody, as much as and together with music business professionals, may have thought it was good.

She snail mailed it to well-known promoter Robert Metzgar, who had an inventory of nation music accomplishments so long as Willie Nelson’s hair.

“Mr. Metzgar referred to as me and stated that he simply beloved my demo tape,” she stated. “He had just a little workplace down off of Music Row … I went down there. He had an workplace with data on the wall similar to you’ve seen on TV.

“He was actual blissful to see me, actual pleasant, and he simply gushed over how fantastic my demo tape was. He thought he may actually make me a star.”

Watts signed a recording contract with Metzgar, and agreed to pay him all the $10,000 she had include.

Not a singer, a stinger

Beth Watts wasn’t actual.

She was a creation of the Nashville District Legal professional’s Workplace after a number of complaints from wannabe nation singers in 2000. They have been coming to Nashville and being taken for all their cash.

So the DA arrange a sting operation.

Beth Watts was truly DA  investigator Myra Langlois. She was chosen to play the position of a wide-eyed singer as a result of her husband labored within the music business. She knew the lingo, and act.

Her most vital attribute: She couldn’t sing. The more severe she was, the extra preposterous it might be if somebody like Metzgar instructed her he may make her a star.

When it was over, Langlois stated her life was at risk.

‘Tone deaf as a rock’

Pretending to be Beth Watts, Langlois wore a wire.

Metzgar, she stated, was “huggy.”

“So he desires to hug me,” she stated. “Fortunately, the battery pack and stuff is within the small of the again. So I’m type of maneuvered so he wouldn’t be touching me again there.”

The fellows within the truck listening may hear Metzgar being very complimentary.

“He buttered me up about what a beautiful singer I used to be,” she stated. “Imagine me, I’m tone deaf as a rock. It was terrible.”

Metzgar instructed her to sing like she was drunk.

She stated the one motive her voice was even listenable was due to auto-tune software program. She sang a track referred to as, “Hell Froze Over,” and one other referred to as “Each Time I Look For Love, I Go Blind.”

“Then it bought time to depart, and so he walked me out,” she stated. “He walked me right down to my automobile and hugged me once more and kissed me on the mouth. Which was not nice.”

Langlois recorded 4 songs with Robert Metzgar.

In 2000, Metzgar confirmed her an web music chart (she forgot which one) during which “Hell Froze Over” was No. 3 with a bullet.

Metzgar stated her subsequent conquest can be appearances on extra file charts. He was going to introduce her to a producer named Chuck Dixon. In the event that they put Dixon on her file as a producer, Dixon may get her track acknowledged.

Beth Watts was on her method to stardom.

“Metzgar was a bombastic blowhard,” Langlois stated. “He was extraordinarily pleasant, gregarious. He was about six foot tall and he had white hair. He was just a little bit chubby, type of reminded you of Santa Claus. I imply he had that Santa Claus character that he may persuade you to purchase snow cones in a blizzard.”

Extra secrets and techniques revealed

Beth Watts by no means grew to become a rustic star.

Her producer, Metzgar, was arrested and charged with fraud.

“After all, he was shocked that I used to be not Beth Watts,” Langlois stated. “He was really flabbergasted. I imply, he didn’t have any clue.”

As a bonus, the DA’s sting operation had a brand new focus of its fraud investigation: Chuck Dixon.

Langlois had no thought there was an 11-year-old homicide investigation that concerned Chuck Dixon.

Are you able to guess who else was shocked by her revelation?

Det. Invoice Pridemore, investigating the homicide on Music Row from 1989, had no thought his suspect was now the goal of a DA sting operation.

Beth Watts was gone, however Myra Langlois participated in searches throughout Nashville. She stated they discovered data of Metzgar and Dixon scamming singers.

Additionally they discovered Dixon was making funds to a lady named Audre Medlock, who was the mom of his baby, Blayne.

Simply as an apart for context, Dixon’s household didn’t know concerning the Medlock connection till the analysis for this seris started. When Dixon’s household discovered concerning the secret son, the household was in denial at first. Then shock. Then unhappiness.

They declined to be interviewed on the file.

The Dixons have since struck up a phone relationship with Blayne, who lives in one other state.

Blayne Medlock was 8 years outdated when the DA’s investigators raided his home.

“He (Dixon) had one other household that they didn’t learn about,” stated Medlock, who’s now 31. “Principally, the police got here and raided our home after I was little. They took all of our computer systems. They took my mother’s paperwork.”

Audre Medlock had as soon as been the editor of a music chart referred to as “Indie Bullet.” Then she grew to become the editor of {a magazine} referred to as “Indie Tracker,” which was owned by Chuck Dixon.

Turning state’s proof

Metzgar didn’t need to go to jail.

So he gave investigators data that Pridemore had been ready on for greater than 10 years.

Courtroom data present Metzgar stated in 1988 and ‘89, he provided to pay $15,000 to Dixon to position two songs within the Money Field chart.

Richard “Tony” D’Antonio was additionally within the room when Dixon agreed to take the cash in return for the chart place.

However Metzgar talked about there was an issue. He had heard Kevin Hughes was going to go to the media to reveal the chart-fixing scheme.

In line with Metzgar, Dixon declared, “I’ll deal with Kevin Hughes, and if I can’t deal with him, he’ll be gone.”

Langlois remembers her dialog with Metzgar.

“He (Metzgar) stated that he knew one thing a couple of homicide,” Langlois stated. “After all, I knew nothing about it. He stated, Kevin Hughes, and I didn’t know something about Kevin Hughes or the historical past of that.

“So at that time I turned it over to the Nashville folks (police) … And so they took it from there.”

Right here’s the factor about Metzgar, he didn’t cease speaking.

Even after investigators had raided his properties and companies and the properties of his associates, Metzgar bought in contact with Langlois.

“He nonetheless needed to be my pal,” Langlois stated. “He was a really unusual character. He would name me, and he got here by the workplace to see me.”

In a kind of conversations, Metzgar instructed her to be careful.

“He simply needed to let me know that Chuck Dixon needed me lifeless,” Langlois stated. “He (Dixon) put out a success on me or a inexperienced gentle. Principally lifeless.”

Consideration turns to Chuck Dixon

The main parts of the homicide on Music Row, although the investigation had taken greater than a decade, appeared to be falling into place simply as Pridemore had envisioned them.

It appeared Dixon had needed Hughes lifeless.

It appeared Tony D had carried out the execution.

Metzgar agreed to testify in a trial and was given immunity.

However earlier than Pridemore and the Homicide Squad may swoop in for a splashy arrest, one thing occurred that threatened to cease the case in its tracks.

Chuck Dixon died.

Dec. 23, 2001. Cirrhosis of the liver. He weighed 115 kilos on the time of his demise.

“Dixon died a month earlier than we’d have arrested him,” Langlois stated.

However as an alternative of hindering the case, Dixon’s demise offered a spark.

Individuals who had been scared to cooperate out of the blue started to come back ahead.

This text initially appeared on Nashville Tennessean: