Nashville Scene Editor Jim Ridley has died

Nashville Scene Editor Jim Ridley died today following a cardiac event in the Scene’s offices last week. Ridley was 50 years old. The Scene is a sister paper of Creative Loafing — both alts are owned by publishing company SouthComm. An award-winning writer and editor, Ridley began contributing to the Scene in 1989 as the weekly’s film critic. In 2009 he became the Scene’s top editor. A heartfelt tribute published today by former Scene Managing Editor and current contributor Jack Silverman includes story after story of Ridley’s talent and kindheartedness. 
But his journalism career actually began years earlier. At 13, he started contributing reviews to The Tennessean’s book page. In an April 1, 1979, review of James Conaway’s novel World’s End, Ridley wrote, “The prose clumps along like a centipede with broken legs, and the story is presented episodically, something like a cross between The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight and Fools Die, with none of Breslin’s wit or Puzo’s spellbinding storytelling.” Six months later — three months after his 14th birthday — he offered this assessment of Mary Stewart’s Arthurian saga The Last Enchantment: “Stewart’s Merlin is made out to be an obnoxious, persnickety fool, and he speaks like a combination of the worst elements of John Cheever, a used-car salesman and Abigail Van Buren. The legend was treated with more respect by Monty Python. Throw this one to the dragon.” This at an age when his peers were likely spending afternoons watching Gilligan’s Island reruns and falling off skateboards.”It’s hard to think of another person more beloved, revered or admired around here. His death leaves a cavernous hole in the lives of those closest to him, not to mention greater Nashville. It’s hard to imagine this city without him,” Silverman writes.

Ridley’s friends and co-workers have started a GoFundMe to help his family.