Yesterday, he was mourned as one of New Zealand’s best-known country singers.
Grenell died aged 78 in Christchurch on Wednesday.
His close friend and former colleague Suzanne Prentice, of Invercargill, called him the best male voice in the country
"He had a voice made of velvet like nobody else ever had.
"One of my favourites he used to sing was Bull Rider, but he never used to sing it very often," Prentice said.
He also was a humble man, who had no ego or pretensions, she said.
Grenell earned mainstream recognition with a hit rendition of Jim Reeves’ Welcome to Our World in 1990, which was featured in a well-known Toyota television commercial.
The New Zealand Music Commission said the country star’s second album, Encore John Hore, released in May 1965, became the best-selling album by a New Zealand artist at that time.
Grenell was born in Ranfurly in 1944 and was raised as John Hore on a farm at Kyeburn.
He attended Otago Boys’ High School when his family moved to Port Chalmers in 1960.
Grenell came to the attention of local promoter Joe Brown when he started attending and taking the top places in Dunedin’s talent shows.
Among his early successes, he won the right to tour with the 1963 Miss New Zealand Show and then he signed a record deal with Joe Brown Records.
Grenell released 11 albums from 1964 to 1973, before making a comeback in music in 1988, the commission said.
Silverpeaks Country Music Club musical director Graeme Partridge, of Dunedin, said in his youth he went along to the shows Mr Brown put on.
"People were looking for something. They didn’t know what it was, but when he came along, that was it.
"He was just the ordinary down-home country boy, cowboy, farm boy — but he had a beautiful voice."
His former wife and lifelong friend Deirdre Lusby said "John died peacefully ... of a heart attack, aged 78.
"The family request privacy and plan a private farewell for John. A public send-off with a musical celebration of his life will be held at a future date." — Additional reporting RNZ
By Hamish McLean and Cas Saunders
