Confessions of an RVer: MICKEY GILLEY

Having grown up in H-town, I was always aware of who Mickey Gilley was and what a famous place Gilley's Club was. I listened to Mickey during the 70's and 80's and Gilley's was one of the places that country music listeners liked to hang out at or at least visit. Big name country western performers would perform at Gilley's regularly. It started out being able to seat 3,000 people but was enlarged to seat 7,000. Gilley's was registered in the Guiness Book as the largest honky-tonk (that's Texas talk for bar) in the world. Well, of course it would be the largest, it is in Texas for crying out loud! :)

Mickey now has a theater in Branson. He is 78 years old but still does a show here 5 days a week and I had heard from a couple of people that the show was really good. I decided that I wanted to go to the show. After all, how many more years will Mickey be around or be able to do the show? Boy, was I glad I went.

Mickey Leroy Gilley (born March 9, 1936) is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well.

In 1970 Gilley opened up his first club in Pasadena, Texas, called Gilley's Club, replacing the club that was there called Shelley's Club. The club later became known as the "world's biggest honky tonk." He owned "Gilley's Club" with former owner of Shelley's Club, Sherwood Cryer, who asked Gilley to re-open the bar with him. The club portion of Gilley's burned in 1990, and later the rodeo arena portion was razed in 2005 to make way for a school.

Gilley's was the main set for the shooting of the movie Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger. It also housed the original mechanical bull.

In 1974, Gilley recorded a song that originally was only supposed to be recorded for fun entitled "Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer of the Sons of the Pioneers. The song was released by Astro Records that year, and then Playboy Records got a hold of the single, and got national distribution for "Room Full of Roses". From then on, Gilley was signed to Playboy Records working with his long-time friend Eddie Kilroy. "Room Full of Roses" became the song that put Gilley on national radar, hitting the very top of the Country charts that year, as well as making it to No. 50 on the pop music charts.

By 1980, Gilley decided to come up with a new sound, in order to bring him country crossover success so many other Country singers were having at the time. His career was given a second go-around when one of his recordings was featured on the box-office-selling movie Urban Cowboy. The song was "Stand by Me". As the movie was becoming successful, so was "Stand by Me". The song rose to the top of the Country charts in 1980, as well as hitting the Top 5 of the Adult Contemporary charts, as well as making the Pop Top 40. The song turned Gilley into a pop-country crossover success, yet, despite it being his only Adult Contemporary hit, it did become one of his signature songs. Overall in his career, that spanned 15 years of chart success, Gilley has had 17 No. 1 hits on the Country charts. Some of his more popular songs are: True Love Ways; You Don't Know Me; Bring It On Home To Me; That's All That Matters; Window Up Above; Headache Tomorrow (Or A Heartache Tonight); The Girls All Get Prettier; and Fool For Your Love.

In July 2009, Gilley was helping a neighbor move some furniture when he fell with the love seat falling on top of him, crushing four vertebrae. The incident left him temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, but with some intense physical therapy he was able to walk again and return to the stage a year later. However, he still lacks the hand coordination necessary to play the piano. He did tell the audience that he is hoping to be back on the piano next year. He has been practicing and feels like he is making great progress. He can't stand for a long time. He has a stool that he sits on when he talks and occasionally when he sings. But, for someone that wasn't suppose to walk again, he did an awesome job. He sang ALL of his hit songs. It was great.

If you were ever a fan of Mickey's or a fan of Urban Cowboy, you will love the show. Go see it if you are ever in Branson.