Biography
Jimmy Nalls, born James Albert Nalls III in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 1951, was an American guitarist best remembered as a founding member of the rock group Sea Level.
Nalls built an active session career in the early 1970s and joined the band of singer-songwriter Alex Taylor, who was then signed to Capricorn Records alongside the Allman Brothers Band. During this time he first played with Chuck Leavell, who would go on to become the Allmans' keyboardist. That connection paid off for both men after the Allman Brothers Band broke up in 1976. Leavell, together with fellow Allmans alumni Lamar Williams and Jaimoe, formed a new band and brought Nalls in as guitarist. Leavell named the group Sea Level, a pun on his own name, "C. Leavell." Although Sea Level never matched the Allmans' commercial success, the band toured and recorded consistently for five years, releasing five albums before disbanding in 1981.
After Sea Level ended, Nalls worked with a variety of acts, including a stint as a Nashville session guitarist in the 1980s, where he played for artists such as Bodyworks and B.J. Thomas. In the early 1990s he joined T. Graham Brown's touring band and stayed until shortly after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1994.
Although the illness made performing increasingly difficult, Nalls continued to make music. He released his first solo album, Ain't No Stranger, in 1999. His second, The Jimmy Nalls Project, came out just two days before he died and featured guest appearances from Chuck Leavell, Warren Haynes, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, and Brad Whitford.
Nalls died of complications from Parkinson's disease on June 22, 2017, at age 66.