Lonnie Melvin "Mel" Tillis
(born August 8, 1932) is an American country music singer. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the '70s, with a long list of Top 10 hits.
Tillis' biggest hits include, "I Ain't Never," "Good Woman Blues," and "Coca-Cola Cowboy." He also has won the CMA Awards' most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year. He is also known for his speech impediment, which does not affect his singing voice. His daughter is country music singer Pam Tillis.
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MEL TILLIS TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
Tillis was born in
Dover,
Florida in 1932. His
stutter developed during his childhood, a result of a bout of
malaria. As a child, Tillis learned the drums, as well as guitar. At age 16, he won a local talent show, and soon joined the United States
Air Force, and worked for the
railroad. When young Tillis was stationed in
Okinawa, he formed a band called The Westerners, which played at local
nightclubs. Tillis attended the
University of Florida.
After leaving the military in 1955, Tillis worked a number of odd jobs and moved to
Nashville, Tennessee the following year. Tillis wrote "I'm Tired", a #3 country hit for
Webb Pierce in 1957. Other Tillis hits include "Honky Tonk Song" and "Tupelo County Jail".
Ray Price and
Brenda Lee also charted hits with Tillis' material around this time. In the late-50s, after becoming a hit-making songwriter, he signed his own contract with
Columbia Records in the late-50s. In 1958, he had his first Top 40 hit, "The Violet and a Rose", followed by the Top 25 hit, "Sawmill".
Rise to fame
Although Tillis charted on his own
Billboard
s
Hot Country Songs list, he had more success as a
songwriter. He continued to be Webb Pierce's songwriter. He wrote the hits, "I Ain't Never" (Tillis' own future hit) and "Crazy, Wild Desire".
Bobby Bare,
Wanda Jackson, and
Stonewall Jackson also covered his songs. Tillis continued to record on his own. Some well-known songs from his Columbia years include "The Brooklyn Bridge", "Loco Weed", and "Walk on, Boy". However, he didn't achieve major success on the country charts on his own.
In the mid-60s, Tillis switched over to
Kapp Records. In 1965, he had his first Top 15 hit with "Wine". Other hits continued to follow, like "Stateside" and "Life Turned Her That Way" (which was later covered by
Ricky Van Shelton in 1988, and went to #1). He wrote for
Charley Pride ("The Snakes Crawl At Night") and wrote a big hit for
Kenny Rogers & the First Edition called "
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". He also wrote the hit "Mental Revenge" for Outlaw superstar
Waylon Jennings (and it has also been covered by the
Hacienda Brothers,
Linda Ronstadt,
Gram Parsons, and
Barbara Mandrell). In 1968, Tillis achieved his first Top 10 hit with "Who's Julie". He also was a regular featured singer on
The Porter Wagoner Show
. Although success didn't come quickly or easily as a singer in the '60s, things would turn around for Tillis a great deal in the
'70s.
The height of his career
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" and "She'll Be Hanging Around Somewhere". In 1970, he reached the Top 5 with "Heart Over Mind", which peaked at #3 on the Hot Country Songs list. After this, Tillis's career as a country singer went into full-swing. Hits soon came quite easily, like "Heaven Everyday" (1970), "Commercial Affection" (1970), "Arms of a Fool" (1970), "Take My Hand" (a duet with
Sherry Bryce in 1971), and "Brand New Mister Me" (1971). In 1972, Tillis achieved his first chart-topper with his version of his song "I Ain't Never". Even though the song was previously a hit by Webb Pierce, Tillis' version is the better-known version out of the two. Most of these songs that were hits above were recorded on
MGM 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 #1 (reached #3) entitled "Neon Rose", followed by "Sawmill", which also came close at #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). In 1976, Tillis signed on with
MCA Records. Tillis achieved his biggest success on MCA Records. It started with a pair of two #1 hits in 1976, "Good Woman Blues" and "Heart Healer". (In an interview, he mentioned having written five hits in one week.) Thanks to this success, Tillis won the
CMA Awards's most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year, and was also inducted into the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame that year. He achieved another #1 in 1978 with "I Believe In You", and then again in 1979 with "Coca-Cola Cowboy", which was put in the
Clint Eastwood movie
Every Which Way But Loose
. Also in 1978, Mel co-hosted a short-lived variety series on
ABC television,
Mel and Susan Together
with model
Susan 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 over to another record company once again, this time with
Elektra Records.
After signing with Elektra in mid-1979, he continued to make hit songs, like "Blind In Love" and "Lying Time Again", both hits for Tillis in 1979. Up until 1981, Tillis remained on top his game as one of country music's most successful vocalists of the era. "Your Body Is an Outlaw", went to #3 in 1980, followed by another Top 10 hit, "Steppin' Out". "Southern Rains" was his last No. 1 hit, when it became a hit in 1981. That same year, he sang a duet with
Nancy Sinatra on the Top 30 hit "Texas Cowboy Night". He remained with Elektra until 1982, before switching back over 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, like Sawgrass and
Cedarwood. He also appeared in
movies, like
The Villain
(1979 film),
Love Revival
,
W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings
,
The Cannonball Run
and
Uphill All the Way
, a comedy western in which he starred with fellow country singer
Roy Clark, among others. In 1979 he acquired radio station KIXZ (AM) in Amarillo, TX from Sammons-Ruff Associates, which converted from
Top 40 to country music and became a force in the
Panhandle region. A short time later Tillis acquired Rock FM station KYTX, which changed calls to KMML (a play on Mr. Tillis' stutter). Still later he operated WMML in Mobile, Alabama. All of his stations were sold after a time for a healthy return. He briefly signed with
RCA Records, as well as
Mercury Records, and later
Curb Records in 1991. By this time, his chart success faded from view.
Later career and life
Since his heyday in the 1970s, Tillis remained a songwriter in the 1980s, writing hits for
Ricky Skaggs and
Randy Travis respectively. He also wrote his
autobiography called
Stutterin' Boy
, (the title comes from Tillis' speech impediment). Tillis appeared as the television commercial spokesman for the fast-food restaurant chain
Whataburger during the 1980s.
[1] He also built a theater in
Branson,
Missouri, where he performed on a regular basis until 2002. In 1998, he teamed up with
Bobby Bare,
Waylon Jennings and
Jerry Reed to form The
Old Dogs. The group recorded a double album of songs penned entirely by
Shel Silverstein. In July, 1998
Old Dogs Volumes 1 and 2
were released on the
Atlantic Records label. A companion video, as well as a
Greatest Hits
album (composed of previously released material by each individual artist), were also available. In the 1990s, Tillis's daughter,
Pam Tillis, became a successful country music singer in her own right, having hits like "
Maybe It Was Memphis" and "
Shake the Sugar Tree". In June 1999 ABC news ran a story about Tillis being frustrated by his speech impediment, and stated that he went on to grow in confidence using techniques from and, although Tillis has never spoken about this, many did note a small improvement in his problematic articulation about that time. His speech problem is not evident in singing, only in talking.
The
Grand Ole Opry inducted Mel Tillis on
June 9,
2007. He was inducted into the Opry by his daughter Pam. Along with being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, it was announced on
August 7 that year that Tillis along with
Ralph Emery and
Vince Gill are the newest to be inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame.
Family
Tillis has six children: Mel Tillis Jr. (a songwriter),
Pam Tillis, Carrie April Tillis, Connie Tillis, Cindy Tillis, and Hannah Tillis. Mel has one brother, Richard, and two sisters, Linda and Imogene.
Discography
References
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGLcNR1sWIc