NASHVILLE (AP) — Rockabilly Hall of Famer Billy Adams, who wrote and recorded the rockabilly staple "Rock, Pretty Mama," has died. He was 79.

According to a press release from his publicist and manager, Adams died Saturday in Westmoreland, Tennessee.

Born in Redbush, Kentucky, Adams was one of 14 children and the son of a coal miner who worked in the Van Lear coal mine, the same place Loretta Lynn sings about in "Coal Miner's Daughter."

Adams told Public Radio International for a series on rockabilly music that he strummed a bucket like a guitar and listened to Bill Monroe on the Grand Ole Opry radio program.

Among other songs he recorded in the late '50s include "You Heard Me Knocking," ''True Love Will Come Your Way," ''You Gotta Have a Duck Tail."