Jerry Reed

Musician, Songwriter, Actor. Born Jerry Reed Hubbard, he caught the eye of Chet Atkins and was signed by RCA records after a failed attempt with Capitol Records, a stint in the United States Army and another failed attempt with Columbia Records. His time with RCA under Chet Atkins nurtured his session playing skills, for he sat in on sessions with Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare and countless others. His songwriting flourished as well with his first success with the 1962 Porter Wagoner number one hit “Misery Loves Company”. He would go onto write songs for other artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee and countless others. Atkins suggested to Reed to write and sing his songs in his style and that he would record them, and did, for Atkins was true to his word. Jerry would go onto record the instrumental, “The Claw”. Soon afterwards would follow “Guitar Man” and “Tupelo Mississippi Flash” which became his first hit. Producer Felton Jarvis contacted Reed about how he did his sound, for Elvis Presley was in the process of recording two of his songs “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male” and Elvis was not impressed at how others were trying to recreate Reed’s signature sound. Reed told Jarvis the only way to get the Jerry Reed sound is to get Jerry Reed. So he did the guitar work for both songs. In 1968 a song that he wrote and recorded would be his nicname for the rest of his life. “Alabama Wild Man” wasnt a huge commercial success, but in 1970 he would finally have the success he struggled so hard for as a singer. Already a success as a studio musician and songwriter, “Amos Moses” was a hit and a year later Grammy would come calling when he and Atkins recorded an instrumental together. In 1972 success would be sweet again for his number one Grammy winning smash “When You’re Hot,You’re Hot”. Various other hits would follow in the ’70s such as “Lord, Mr Ford”, and “East Bound and Down” which came from the movie he was best known for his role of Cledus Snow aka “The Snowman” in “Smokey and the Bandit”. His last hits were from 1983, “She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)” and “The Bird”. During this time he would return to his roots as a session musician, most notably doing work for producer Felton Jarvis on the remix of the self-penned “Guitar Man”. Since Elvis had died a number of years earlier, his vocals were from the original session of the late 1960’s and new instrumentals were added. The fresh new updated version was a hit going to number one and solidified Reed as one of the best session musicians in the business. His movie credits would be varied from his true personality. He appeared in the “Smokey and the Bandit” sequels, “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings” and “The Waterboy”.