Who is the most wasted talent in country music?

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Kelly Willis.

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Hard for her to get out of Bruce's shadow, both musically and physically. But she is indeed very talented in her own right.

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Kelly Willis.

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I'm not sure it's her wasting her talent as much as it is the masses having no appreciation for her talent. She's made some great music.

I don't know anything about him for at least 5 years but Pat Green was really good before going the commercial route.

Glen Campbell

Whiskey Myers should be MUCH more popular.

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Johnny Horton, Patsy Cline, Keith Whitley and Hank Williams Sr. These didn't waste talent but if they were alive, country music would have been bigger a round the globe

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Patsy Cline had already gone pretty Countrypolitan. Hell "Crazy" and "I Fall To Pieces" are pretty close to standard pop tunes as it is, even more so the arrangements.

Johnny Horton may have been an ex honky tonker, but his hits were novelty records.

Country was just entering it's greatest period when Hank died, so I don't know if he would have had any significant impact.

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Campbell was one of the most sought after session musicians in Los Angeles back in the 60s. He toured with the beach boys and almost became a full member.

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Technically he was a member, for a few months

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He was a jack of trades and a master of many. I wouldn't consider that a waste of talent but a lack of concentration on one ability.

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What records took advantage of his being an extraordinary guitarist and singer with wide range?

There is a quote from Merle Haggard (can't find it online) where he calls Campbell "one of the best voices around" or something like that, but adds that he wastes it on "lousy song material".

Keith Whitley sadly missed / cost himself the opportunity to be the hands down best country artist ever. I still put him top 5 but hard to beat bigger catalogues. But I wouldn’t call him wasted talent.

At the same time, you almost have to think too that his untimely death makes his music that much better. Maybe that’s just how it was meant to be.

The genre almost died out in the 50s when RNR came a long and local radio stations stopped playing it in favor of the new wave of music. Elvis was kicked out from the opry because his music was too radical. It seriously almost became extinct but evolved and survived.

Country music was making a steady climb throughout the 60s. It became popular enough that 65% of Vietnam soldiers favored the music over rock music. Then it peaked in the 70s and for the first time, country music was brought to a world audience.

It declined in the 80s but it resurged much bigger in the 90s than anytime in history. Then years later bro country is here.

We can guess what they could have done if they were alive but they are humongous loses at such young ages that it devastated country music.

It is not what they have done but what could have been if they were alive and that is the question that will be never answered.