The Call Me Kat and Will & Grace star died Monday at age 67.
The C&I crew wants to offer condolences to the family, friends and fans of TV star, social media phenom, and country gospel recording artist Leslie Jordan, who died Monday morning in Los Angeles at age 67. According to early reports, the Tennessee native was involved in a car crash after possibly suffering a medical emergency while behind the wheel.
For nearly four decades, Jordan was a familiar face in prime time, most notably as a scene-stealing co-star on such series Hearts Afire, Will & Grace (for which he earned an Emmy Award), American Horror Story, The Cool Kids and, most recently. Call Me Kat. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he expanded his fan base with a series of amusing and spirit-lifting Instagram commentaries that he recorded in his folksy Southern drawl inside his Chattanooga apartment.
As The Los Angeles Times reported: “Posting twice a day for 80 days, Jordan would quip about day-to-day life in quarantine, give colorful reactions to the latest music, such as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s single, ‘WAP,’ create dance montages to pop music from his backyard to his living room and, while on walks, and give humorous recollections from his acting career.
“A friend of mine called from California and said, ‘You have gone viral.’ And I said, ‘No, honey, I’m fine. I don’t have COVID,’” Jordan joked in one of the videos. “I don’t know how I did it because now I scramble for content ... Every day, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God! I need to post. What should I come up with?’”
In 2021, Jordan released Company’s Coming, a well-received album of country gospel songs featuring his duets with such luminaries with Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Tanya Tucker, Chris and Morgane Stapleton, and T. J. Osborne.
“I wanted it to have a sound of everybody just sitting in the living room and saying, 'Oh, you remember this old hymn,’ the way my family did,” Jordan told Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper. “My dad would pull out an old baritone ukulele, and my uncle would pull out his banjo, and as kids we’d sit there and sing along. It was wonderful to be able to revisit all those songs that I loved growing up.”
Jordan rose to the challenge, The Tennessean added, “as he found himself sharing tracks with some of country music’s most powerful voices. Jordan laughs as he recalls that a major press outlet recently called his voice ‘capable.’ Still, he belts proudly alongside Carlile on ‘Angel Band,’ and leads a call and response with Osborne on ‘Sweet By and By.’ You also hear him become fast friends with fellow East Tennessee native Parton as they harmonize on ‘Where The Soul Never Dies.’”
In the wake of the album’s release, Jordan made his Grand Ole Opry debut in May 2021, and was invited to be a presenter at the 56th annual ACM Awards.
Here are some other highlights from Company’s Coming.
