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Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard
20 March 1937, Atlanta, Georgia
1 September 2008, Nashville, Tennessee
Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, and lovingly as the Snowman, was an American country music singer, country guitarist, session musician, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. As a singer, he was known for "(Who Was the Man Who Put) The Line in Gasoline"; "Lord, Mr. Ford (What Have You Done)"; "Amos Moses"; "When You're Hot, You're Hot," for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1972; and "East Bound and Down," the theme song for the film Smokey and the Bandit, in which he also co-starred.
Reed was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Robert and Cynthia Hubbard. Reed's grandparents lived in Rockmart, GA and he would visit them from time to time. He was quoted as saying as a small child, while running around strumming his guitar, "I am gonna be a star. I'm gonna go to Nashville and be a star." Reed's parents separated four months after his birth, and he and his sister spent seven years in foster homes or orphanages. Reed was reunited with his mother and stepfather in 1944. Music and impromptu performances helped ease the stressful times the new family was under.
By high school, Reed was already writing and singing music, having picked up the guitar as a child. At age 18, he was signed by publisher and record producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, "If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creek Don't Rise." At Capitol Records, he recorded both country and rockabilly singles to little notice, until label mate Gene Vincent covered his "Crazy Legs" in 1958. By 1958, Lowery signed Reed to his National Recording Corporation, and he recorded for NRC as both artist and as a member of the staff band, which included other NRC artists Joe South and Ray Stevens.
Reed married Priscilla "Prissy" Mitchell in 1959. They had two daughters, Charlotte Elaine "Lottie" Reed Stewart, and Seidina Ann Reed Hinesley, born April 2, 1960. Priscilla Mitchell was a member of folk group the Appalachians ("Bony Moronie," 1963), and was co-credited with Roy Drusky on the 1965 Country #1 "Yes Mr. Peters."
In 1959, Reed hit the Billboard "Bubbling Under The Top 100" and Cashbox Country chart with the single "Soldier's Joy." After serving two years in the military, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam while he was in the armed forces, thanks to Brenda Lee's 1960 cover of his "That's All You Got to Do." He also became a popular session and tour guitarist. In 1962, he scored some success with the singles "Goodnight Irene" (as by Jerry Reed & the Hully Girlies, featuring a female vocal group) and "Hully Gully Guitar," which found their way to Chet Atkins, who produced Reed's 1965 "If I Don't Live Up to It."
In 1967, Reed notched his first official country chart hit with "Guitar Man," which Elvis Presley soon covered. Presley had come to Nashville to record in 1967, and one of the songs he was working on was "Guitar Man" (which Reed had written and recorded earlier). "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer). He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut 'Guitar Man' all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys (you're using in the studio) are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"
Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session. "I hit that intro, and Elvis' face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut my "U.S. Male" at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son." Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man" (1967), recorded in the same session. In January 1968 Reed worked on a second Presley session, during which he played guitar on a cover of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", as well as another Reed composition, "U.S. Male" (Reed's quoted recollection of "U.S. Male" being recorded at the same session as "Guitar Man" being incorrect). After Presley recorded "U.S. Male," the songwriter recorded an Elvis tribute, "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," which proved to be his first Top 20 hit.
Elvis also recorded two other Reed compositions: "A Thing Called Love" in 1970 and "Talk About The Good Times" in 1973 for a total of four.
Johnny Cash would also release "A Thing Called Love" as a single in 1971, which would reach #2 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for North America. It would become the title track for a studio album that he released the following spring.
After releasing the 1970 crossover hit "Amos Moses", a hybrid of rock, country, funk, and Cajun styles, which reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop charts, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me & Jerry. During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 he issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper "When You're Hot, You're Hot", which was also the title track of his first solo album, reaching #9 Pop and #6 on Billboard's Easy Listening charts. Both "Amos Moses" and "When You're Hot, You're Hot" sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs by the R.I.A.A.
A second collaboration with Atkins, Me & Chet, followed in 1972, as did a series of Top 40 singles, which alternated between frenetic, straightforward country offerings and more pop-flavored, countrypolitan material. A year later, he scored his second number one single with "Lord, Mr. Ford" (written by Dick Feller), from the album of the same name.
Atkins, who frequently produced Reed's music, remarked that he had to encourage Reed to put instrumental numbers on his own albums, as Reed always considered himself more of a songwriter than a player. Atkins, however, thought Reed was a better fingerstyle player than he himself was; Reed, according to Atkins, helped him work out the fingerpicking for one of Atkins' biggest hits, "Yakety Axe." Reed, one of only four people to have the title of "Certified Guitar Player" (an award only bestowed to those who have completely mastered guitar), was given this title by Chet Atkins.
Reed was featured in animated form in a December 9, 1972 episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Phantom of the Country Music Hall" (prod. #61-10). He sang and played the song "Pretty Mary Sunlight." The song is played throughout the episode as Scooby and the gang search for Reed's missing guitar.
In the mid-1970s, Reed's recording career began to take a back seat to his acting aspirations. In 1974, he co-starred with his close friend Burt Reynolds in the film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds; after 1976's Gator, Reed appeared in 1978's High Ballin and 1979's Hot Stuff. He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films; the first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a Number 2 hit with the soundtrack's "East Bound and Down."
Reed also took a stab at hosting a TV variety show, filming two episodes of The Jerry Reed Show in 1976. The show featured music performances and interview segments, but did not contain the comedy skits that usually were a part of variety shows of the '70s. Guests included Tammy Wynette, Ray Stevens, and Burt Reynolds.
Scottish rockers the Sensational Alex Harvey Band band released a version of "Amos Moses" in 1976.
In 1978, he appeared as himself in the television show Alice.
In 1979, he released a record comprising both vocal and instrumental selections titled, appropriately enough, Half & Half. It was followed one year later by Jerry Reed Sings Jim Croce, a tribute to the late singer/songwriter. He starred in a TV movie in that year entitled The Concrete Cowboys.
In 1982, Reed's career as a singles artist was revitalized by the chart-topping hit "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)," followed by "The Bird," which peaked at Number 2. His last chart hit, "I'm a Slave," appeared in 1983. That same year, he co-starred with Robin Williams and Walter Matthau in the Michael Ritchie comedy The Survivors. Reed guest-starred in the October 13, 1983 episode of Mama's Family, "The Return of Leonard Oates" (Episode 13, Season 2), as Naomi Harper's ex-husband Leonard Oates.
After an unsuccessful 1986 LP, Lookin' at You, Reed focused on touring until 1992, when he and Atkins reunited for the album Sneakin' Around before he again returned to the road.
Reed had a role as a Commander/Huey Pilot for Danny Glover's character in the 1988 movie Bat*21 starring Gene Hackman. He also acted as executive producer and screenwriter on this film.
Reed starred in the 1998 Adam Sandler film, The Waterboy, as Red Beaulieu, the movie's chief antagonist and the head coach for the University of Louisiana Cougars football team.
He teamed up with country superstars Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, and Bobby Bare in the group Old Dogs. They recorded one album, in 1998, entitled Old Dogs, with songs written by Shel Silverstein. (Reed sang lead on "Young Man's Job" and "Elvis Has Left The Building," the latter possibly in deference to Elvis' helping launch his career.)
In 1998, the American rock band Primus covered the Reed song "Amos Moses" on the EP entitled Rhinoplasty.
In October 2004, "Amos Moses" was featured on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, playing on fictional radio station K-ROSE. His latest recording was released in 2006, named Let's Git It On. In 2007, UK band Alabama 3 (Known as A3 in the USA) covered his hit "Amos Moses" on their album M.O.R.
In June 2005, American guitarist Eric Johnson released his album Bloom, which contained a track entitled "Tribute To Jerry Reed" in commemoration of his works.
Reed has appeared as a guest on the fishing television series Bill Dance Outdoors. In one memorable appearance, Reed caught a particularly big largemouth bass and planned to have it preserved and mounted by a taxidermist. Host Bill Dance objected to this plan, and freed the fish when Jerry wasn't looking. Reed became enraged when he discovered what had happened, and chased Dance off the boat and to shore. This incident was also mentioned in one of Jeff Foxworthy's standup comedy routines. He did guest appearances on the Bill Dance Fishing show. The song "Eastbound and Down" made a rather impressive setting in the movie Delta Farce, starring Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and DJ Qualls.
Reed died in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 1, 2008, of complications from emphysema. The Associated Press wire service and CNN, however, reported the date of his death as August 31. In a tribute in Vintage Guitar Magazine, Rich Kienzle wrote that "Reed set a standard that inspires fingerstyle players the way Merle and Chet inspired him."
"Some of my happiest moments have been spent learning a new Jerry Reed tune. His compositions are so well thought out technically and are so musically appealing. These are little gems of musical perfection and I believe (in spite of his awesome talent in other areas) Jerry will best be remembered for his composing efforts."
-- Chet Atkins
Make your guitar really shine. Rub some toothpaste on, let dry then buff it. It will shine!
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Born at 4:56am-CST
Graduated from high school in Atlanta, Georgia in 1955
Country singer and guitarist.
Best known for his comedy hits, including the Billboard magazine country No. 1 hits "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (1971), "Lord, Mr. Ford" (1973) and "She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft)" (1982); and the No. 2 hit "The Bird." Also had a No. 2 country hit with "East Bound and Down" (1977).
In the fade-out of both "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and "She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft)," Reed can be heard complaining, "Contempt of court?"
His hit, "The Bird," includes impressions of Willie Nelson's "Whiskey River" and "On the Road Again"; and George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today."
In the mid-to-late 1970s, he was set to play the starring role as the legendary guitar player Hank Garland in a film titled Sugarfoot Rag (1970). The film was about the amazing life and career of the top Nashville guitar player, Hank Garland, and was to deal with the mysterious circumstances behind his career ending automobile accident. Unfortunately, the film project fell apart for unknown reasons.
Covered the song "Sugarfoot Rag" by Hank Garland, for his album " Texas Bound and Flyin'" (1980)
Had quadruple heart bypass surgery in June, 1999.
Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
Has two daughters: Sedina and Lottie.
His final project, "The Gallant Few," was an album made to raise funds for wounded veterans.
Released more than 40 albums over a long career that started with his first record at the age of 18.
A popular session and tour guitarist who played with the likes of Chet Atkins, Joan Baez and Ringo Starr.
Elvis Presley recorded two of Reed's early songs -- "U.S. Male" and "Guitar Man" with Jerry playing his distinctive "claw-style" licks on the studio recordings. Jerry later was dubbed "The Guitar Man".
Won two Grammys in the early 1970s. One was for his hit single "When You're Hot You're Hot" (1971) and the other he shared with Chet Atkins for their collaboration "Me and Jerry" (1970). A third Grammy came in 1992 for his album "Sneakin' Around" with Atkins. His song "Amos Moses" earned him a 1971 Grammy nomination for "best male country vocal performance".
Friend Burt Reynolds gave Jerry a shiny black 1980 Trans Am like the one they used in the "Smokey and the Bandit" series.
Usually the good 'ol boy type, he played heavies twice in films. He was a sleazy, ornery moonshiner in actor/director 'Burt Reynolds'' film Gator (1976) and a hateful coach in Adam Sandler's The Waterboy (1998).
The son of cotton mill workers, he began playing the guitar in elementary school, later graduating to nightclubs and bars in and around the Atlanta area while in his teens. He dropped out of high school to tour with country legends Ernest Tubb and Faron Young, and at age 17 signed his first recording contract with Capitol Records.
The Country Music Association named Reed musician of the year in 1970 & 1971.
Talking about Gene Hackman in Bat*21 (1988): "He don't act. He just shows up and he 'be's."
I used to watch people like Richard Burton and Mel Gibson and think, 'I could never do that.' When people ask me what my motivation is, I have a simple answer: money. -- JR, regarding his acting ability.
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