Word: gilley
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gilley's turn from small-time musician to big-time entertainer sprang from someone else's idea. In 1971 businessman Sherwood Cryer saw Gilley play and invited him to be a partner in a new club. In an offer that would change Gilley's life, Cryer said he would pay Gilley half the profits for playing six nights a week--and convinced the dubious musician that the club should be named Gilley...
...Mickey Gilley stood with hands on hips in front of the smoldering wreckage of his Branson, Mo., music theater. It was May 11, 1993, a date that would be forever fixed in Gilley's brain. Twenty-four hours earlier, the country-music legend had received a call at his home in Pasadena, Texas, summoning him to the site. Upon seeing the charred ruins, Gilley, a showman to the core, with a diamond-encrusted "MG" necklace and absurdly thick hair, turned to a bandmate and asked, "How am I gonna keep you guys working...
That line has the faint ring of a lyric in a sentimental country-music ballad--fitting for Gilley, 67, who has sung more than his fair share. Country-music fans remember him for his 17 No. 1 country hits and for inspiring the urban-cowboy trend in the 1980s--you may recall Debra Winger riding a mechanical bull at "Gilley's" in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy. These days Gilley is still pumping out music (Invitation Only was released in May), playing gigs (about 225 concerts a year) and opening clubs (he licensed his name to a Gilley's that...
Raised in Ferriday, La., Mickey Leroy Gilley boasts two famous cousins: Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart. After moving to Houston at age 17, Gilley worked in construction until a meeting with Jerry Lee made Gilley think, "If he can do it, why can't I?" ("The Killer," as Jerry Lee was known, famously pulled a roll of cash from his pocket to stir young Gilley.) But it wasn't easy. For more than a decade, he played at a string of honky-tonks, earning a reputation as a solid journeyman pianist, albeit a clone of the cousin...
Something about the club and Gilley's evolving showmanship clicked. People flocked to hear his boogie-woogie ballads and honky-tonk anthems like Don't All the Girls Get Prettier at Closing Time? In 1974, after almost two decades of banging the keys, Gilley had his first No. 1 single: a sweet version of Room Full of Roses...