Wayne Mills (singer)

Jerald Wayne Mills (August 17, 1969 – November 23, 2013) was an American country musician, known for touring with the Wayne Mills Band for over fifteen years and playing alongside Blake Shelton, Jamey Johnson and 2006 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks. During his career, Mills released five studio albums (with a sixth unreleased) and two live albums. He had seven Top 20 singles in Europe from 2008 to 2010, including a chart-topper in Belgium in 2009.

Mills played baseball for Wallace State Junior College and football for the University of Alabama, earning a bachelor of science degree in education.

In the early hours of November 23, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee, Mills was shot in the head by bar owner Chris Ferrell, allegedly over an argument involving Mills lighting up a cigarette in a nonsmoking area. He was rushed to a hospital but later died. The incident occurred towards the end of an afterparty at the bar following a recent makeover it received for the television show Bar Rescue, with its episode scheduled to air the following day. The episode featuring it was later pulled, and the bar closed shortly after. The building was demolished in 2016. On March 6, 2015, Ferrell was found guilty of second-degree murder in Mills' death and received a twenty-year sentence with no possibility of parole. The verdict and sentence were appealed but were upheld by the appeals court in 2019. Mills left behind wife Carol, whom he had married in 2000, seven-year-old son Jack, and six-year-old niece Cali.

In popular culture
Mills is the subject of the song "King of Alabama" by Brent Cobb.