Musician Leon Russell dies at 74

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell died Sunday at his Nashville home, his family reports. He was 74 years old.

A skilled songwriter whose work defied the limitations of genre, Russell collaborated with a wide range of musicians over his long career, from B.B. King to Willie Nelson to Elton John. "He was my biggest influence as a piano player, a singer and a songwriter," John said. The Oklahoma native got his big break right out of high school when Jerry Lee Lewis invited his band on tour.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.