PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above is from Aug. 25.
The longtime tour production manager for country star Keith Urban has died after falling from a stage while preparing for an Ohio concert.
The Port Clinton News-Herald reports 72-year-old Randy “Baja” Fletcher died Aug. 27 at a hospital after falling the previous day before Urban's appearance at Bash on the Bay on the Lake Erie island Put-in-Bay.
Fletcher became Urban's tour manager in 2011 after decades working for top country music stars. Urban told Billboard magazine that Fletcher had an “orbit of light” and was much beloved.
Fletcher received the Country Music Association’s first Touring Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
Born in Virginia, he started his career in Virginia Beach with Bill Deal and the Rhondels. He then worked with ZZ Top during the 1970s and went on to work for a decade with Waylon Jennings. He also toured with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Randy Travis and Brooks & Dunn.
Fletcher was a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army. He lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, and had two daughters who were his pride and joy.