 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mel Tillis" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Mel Tillis | |
|---|---|
 Tillis at the Grand Ole Opry, 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Lonnie Melvin Tillis (1932-08-08)August 8, 1932 Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | November 19, 2017(2017-11-19) (aged 85) Ocala, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Country |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1958–2017 |
| Labels | Columbia,Decca,Kapp,MGM,MCA,Elektra, Radio Records |
| Formerly of | Old Dogs |
| Website | www |
Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932[1] – November 19, 2017)[2] was an Americancountry music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of theoutlaw country movement, with a long list ofTop 10hits. Tillis' biggest hits include "I Ain't Never", "Good Woman Blues", and "Coca-Cola Cowboy".
On February 13, 2012, PresidentBarack Obama awarded Tillis theNational Medal of Arts for his contributions to country music.[3] He also won theCountry Music Association Awards' most coveted award,Entertainer of the Year. Tillis was a member of theGrand Ole Opry,Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, andCountry Music Hall of Fame. Additionally, he was known for hisstutter, which did not affect his singing voice. His daughter is 1990s country hitmakerPam Tillis.
Mel Tillis was born inTampa, Florida, US. His parents were Burma (née Rogers; 1907–1990) and Lonnie Lee Tillis (1907–1981).[4] After a few months living in Tampa’s Lowry Park area, they moved toPlant City, Florida where he attended Wilson Elementary School.[5] The family eventually moved toPahokee, Florida (nearWest Palm Beach). After a bout ofmalaria during his childhood, he developed a stutter.[6] As a child, Tillis learned the drums as well as guitar. At age 16, he won a local talent show.
He attended theUniversity of Florida, but he dropped out and joined theUnited States Air Force.[7] While stationed as a baker onOkinawa, he formed a band called The Westerners, which played at local nightclubs.[6]
After leaving the Air Force in 1955,[1] Tillis returned to Florida where he worked a number of odd jobs, eventually finding employment with theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad in Tampa. He used his railroad pass to visit Nashville and eventually met and auditioned forWesley Rose of the publishing houseAcuff-Rose Music. Rose encouraged Tillis to return to Florida and continue honing his songwriting skills.[8] Tillis eventually moved to Tennessee, and began writing songs full-time. He wrote "I'm Tired",[1] a No. 3 country hit forWebb Pierce in 1957.[6] Other Tillis hits include "Honky Tonk Song" and "Tupelo County Jail".[1]Ray Price,Kitty Wells andBrenda Lee also charted hits with Tillis' material around this time. In the late 1950s, after becoming a hit-making songwriter, he signed his own contract withColumbia Records.[1] In 1958, he had his first Top 40 hit, "The Violet and a Rose",[1] followed by the Top 25 hit "Sawmill".
Although Tillis charted his own hits onBillboard'sHot Country Songs list, he had more success as a songwriter, particularly for Webb Pierce. He wrote the hits "I Ain't Never" (Tillis' own future hit) and "Crazy, Wild Desire".Bobby Bare,Tom Jones ("Detroit City"),Wanda Jackson, andStonewall Jackson also covered his songs. (Some well-known songs from his Columbia years include "The Brooklyn Bridge", "Loco Weed", and "Walk on, Boy".) In 1967Jack Greene had a No. 1 hit with a song Tillis co-wrote, "All the Time". Tillis continued to record on his own, but did not achieve major success on the country charts at first.
In the mid-1960s, Tillis switched toKapp Records, and in 1965, he had his first Top 15 hit with "Wine". Other hits continued to follow, such as "Stateside" and "Life Turned Her That Way", which was later covered byRicky Van Shelton in 1988, going to No. 1.[1] He wrote forCharley Pride ("The Snakes Crawl At Night")[1] and wrote "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", which was a hit forKenny Rogers and The First Edition.[1] He also wrote the hit "Mental Revenge" foroutlaw country starWaylon Jennings. It has also been covered by theHacienda Brothers,Linda Ronstadt,Gram Parsons,Barbara Mandrell, andJamey Johnson. In 1968, Tillis achieved his first Top 10 hit with "Who's Julie". He also was a regular featured singer onThePorter Wagoner Show.
Things turned around in 1969 for Tillis. He finally achieved the success he always wanted with two Top 10 country hits, "These Lonely Hands of Mine"[1] and "She'll Be Hanging Around Somewhere". In 1970, he reached the Top 5 with "Heart Over Mind", which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs list. After this, Tillis' career as a country singer went into full swing. Hits soon came quite easily, such as "Heaven Everyday" (1970), "Commercial Affection" (1970), "Arms of a Fool" (1970), "Take My Hand" (a duet withSherry Bryce in 1971),[1] and "Brand New Mister Me" (1971). In 1972, Tillis achieved his first chart-topper with his version of his song "I Ain't Never".[1] Even though the song was previously a hit by Webb Pierce, Tillis' version is the better-known version of the two. Most of the above-mentioned song hits were recorded onMGM Records, Tillis' record company in the early part of the decade.
After the success of "I Ain't Never", Tillis had another hit, which came close to No. 1 (reaching No. 3), titled "Neon Rose", followed by "Sawmill", which reached No. 2. "Midnight, Me and the Blues" was another near chart-topper in 1974. Other hits Tillis had on MGM include "Stomp Them Grapes" (1974), "Memory Maker" (1974), "Woman in the Back of My Mind" (1975), and his version of "Mental Revenge" (1976). Tillis achieved his biggest success withMCA Records, with which he signed in 1976. It started with a pair of two No. 1 hits in 1976, "Good Woman Blues" and "Heart Healer".[1] In an interview, he mentioned having written five hits in one week. Thanks to this success, in 1976 Tillis won theCountry Music Association Awards' most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year, and was also inducted into theNashville Songwriters Hall of Fame that year. In 1977 he appeared on the game showMatch Game. He achieved another No. 1 in 1978 with "I Believe In You" and then again in 1979 with "Coca-Cola Cowboy",[1] which was put in theClint Eastwood movieEvery Which Way but Loose,[1] in which he also made a cameo appearance. Also in 1978, Tillis co-hosted a short-lived variety series onABC television,Mel and Susan Together, with modelSusan Anton. Other hits around this time included "Send Me Down to Tucson", "Ain't No California", and "I Got the Hoss". In mid-1979, Tillis switched to another record company,Elektra Records.
After signing with Elektra, he continued to make hit songs such as "Blind In Love" and "Lying Time Again", both hits in 1979. Until 1981, Tillis remained on top of his game as one of country music's most successful vocalists of the era. "Your Body Is an Outlaw" went to No. 3 in 1980, followed by another Top 10 hit, "Steppin' Out". "Southern Rains" in 1981 was his last No. 1 hit.[1] That same year, he releasedMel and Nancy, an album of duets withNancy Sinatra, which spawned two hit singles, the Top 30 hit "Texas Cowboy Night" and the double A-side, "Play Me or Trade Me/Where Would I Be". He remained with Elektra until 1982 before switching back to MCA for a brief period in 1983. That summer, he scored a Top 10 hit with "In The Middle Of The Night" and had his last Top 10 hit with "New Patches" in 1984. By this time, however, Tillis had built up a financial empire, thanks to investing in music publishing companies such as Sawgrass and Cedarwood.
Tillis appeared in movies, includingCottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967),W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975),Every Which Way but Loose (1978),Smokey and the Bandit II (1980),The Cannonball Run (1981),The Cannonball Run II (1984),Beer for My Horses (2008), and comedy westernsThe Villain (1979) andUphill All the Way (1986), in which he starred with fellow country singerRoy Clark.
In 1979, Tillis acquired radio stationKIXZ (AM) inAmarillo, Texas, from Sammons-Ruff Associates, which converted fromTop 40 to country music and became a force in theTexas Panhandle region (the station is now known today as a News/Talk radio station). A short time later, Tillis acquired Amarillo, Texas, Rock FM station KYTX, which changed calls to KMML (a play on Tillis' stutter) (that station is now known today asKXSS-FM, a Top 40 radio station and is currently still a sister station to KIXZ). Still later, he operated WMML in Mobile, Alabama. All of his stations were sold after a time for a healthy return.
Following his heyday in the 1970s, Tillis remained a songwriter in the 1980s, writing hits forRicky Skaggs andRandy Travis. He also wrote his autobiography calledStutterin' Boy. Tillis appeared as the television commercial spokesman for the fast-food restaurant chainWhataburger during the 1980s. He briefly signed withRCA Records, as well asMercury Records, and laterCurb Records in 1991. His last top-10 hit was in 1984 and his last top-40 country hit in 1988; like most country artists of the classic era, his recording career was dented by changes in the country music industry in the early 1990s. He also built a theater inBranson, Missouri, where he performed on a regular basis until 2002. In 1998, he teamed withBobby Bare,Waylon Jennings, andJerry Reed to form TheOld Dogs. The group recorded a double album of songs penned entirely byShel Silverstein. In July 1998,Old Dogs Volumes 1 and 2 were released on theAtlantic Records label. A companion video, as well as aGreatest Hits album (composed of previously released material by each individual artist), were also available.
TheGrand Ole Opry inducted Tillis on June 9, 2007. He was inducted into the Opry by his daughterPam, and is the only person in the show's history to be welcomed into membership by their child. (In the 1990s, Pam became a very successful country music singer in her own right,[1] with Top Ten hits like "Maybe It Was Memphis", "Shake the Sugar Tree" and the Number One "Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)".) Along with being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, it was announced on August 7 that year that Tillis, along withRalph Emery andVince Gill, were to be inducted into theCountry Music Hall of Fame.
Tillis had six children, including singer-songwriterPam Tillis.[1] Pam recorded forArista Nashville in the 1990s where she had multiple country hit singles such as "Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)" and "Maybe It Was Memphis".[9] His son Mel "Sonny" Tillis Jr. is also a songwriter. Sonny co-wroteJamie O'Neal's 2001 hit single "When I Think About Angels".[10]
Tillis suffered from several illnesses beginning in January 2016. On November 19, 2017, he died of respiratory failure inOcala, Florida, at age 85.[11][12] After this, Sonny Tillis began touring as a tribute act to his father.[13]
The Statesiders were Mel's longtime backing band. They were named after his 1966 hit single "Stateside". Between 1969 and 1980 14 studio albums and 4 live albums were released credited to Mel Tillis and the Statesiders, and the Statesiders released one studio album on their own in 1975. Several notable musicians have served as Statesiders, such asBuddy Cannon,Paul Franklin,Hoot Hester, and Jimmy Belken ofthe Strangers. While many other members have played with them during their run from 1967 to 2017, below is a timeline of just the members during their recorded output.
Added link to interview with Mick Hanly in "Songwriter Magazine"
