CMT News

Funeral services will be held Wednesday (Aug. 19) in Dallas, Ga., for Warren "Gates" Nichols, a longtime member of Confederate Railroad. The 65-year-old musician was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July. Although Nichols was a bassist whose session work included Henry Gross' 1976 pop hit, "Shannon," he spent 17 years as Confederate Railroad's steel guitarist. The band, named the Academy of Country Music's best new vocal group/duet in 1993, scored a series of Top 10 country hits on Atlantic Records in the early '90s, including "Queen of Memphis," Jesus and Mama," Trashy Women" and "Daddy Never Was the Cadillac Kind." Nichols retired from the band in late 2008.