Sorry there is no Biography!


Brother of actor/director, David Nelson Father of Tracy Nelson, Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson and Sam Nelson. Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, on the right as you walk in, on the steep slope under the third tree, two rows above Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard. Ex-brother-in-law of Mark Harmon and Kelly Harmon. Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall Fame in 1987. Ever since his death in a private plane crash on New Year's Eve, 1985, it had been speculated that the fire that caused the crash was the result of drug use - supposedly freebasing cocaine - either by Nelson himself or by one of his crew. This theory has since been discredited by, among other sources, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in their official report on the crash. Their evidence shows that the cause originally given for the crash (an on-board heater short-circuiting and catching fire) is the correct one. He was voted the 91st Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone. His hit single "Garden Party," which in the fall of 1972 reached #6 and went gold, was about his experience during a Madison Square Garden concert. In fact, when in that song he sang "But if memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck," he meant it. Friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 596-599. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. Ricky's children Tracy Nelson, Matthew Nelson, and Gunnar Nelson always maintained that their father's 1985 plane crash death was the result of a malfunctioning heater and not of alleged drug use on board the plane.