Jerry Reed Biography

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Jerry Reed
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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Jerry Reed is your basic swamp rocker, the guy with the straw hat and jeans, maybe a guitar, and a line of patter that put him in the public eye as not only a musician but an actor in goodtime films. Born in 1937 in Atlanta, Jerry Reed Hubbard grew up on country music and rockabilly, the two sounds probably interchangeable in his mind. He has had three careers in entertainment: guitarist, composer/singer and television/film actor, the latter the part of his life he is no doubt best known for. However, Reed began making music professionally at the age of eighteen after working in a cotton mill and learning to play the guitar. His first single, uneventful in sales, was "If the Good Lord's Willin’" and "The Creeks Don’t Rise." He continued making records with not much success until 1958, when Gene Vincent took his song "Crazy Legs" to hit status. Then, while serving in the Army, Brenda Lee, the pre-teen pop singer of the late ‘50s and early '60s, made his "That's All You Got To Do" in 1960. Leaving the Army after his two-year tour of duty, those successes helped Reed fashion a career as session player and songwriter. He had single success with "Goodnight Irene" and "Hully Gully Guitar," and those tunes pushed his career forward when they were heard and liked by Chet Atkins, himself a popular guitarist and record company executive. He produced Reed’s 1965 "If I Don’t Live Up To It" and in 1967 Jerry had his first charted hit with "Guitar Man," a tune Elvis Presley covered. Elvis subsequently covered another Reed song, "U.S. Male," and Reed responded by recording an Elvis tribute, "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," his first effort in the Top 20 charts. Jerry Reed also wrote songs recorded by Porter Wagoner and Johnny Cash and in the ‘70s continued his relationship with Atkins (who died in 2001) by recording a pair of duet albums with the ace guitarist. By this time, he was a regular on television, specifically the Glen Campbell Show. In 1971, he released his biggest hit, "When You’re Hot, You're Hot," which hit No. 1 and resulted in his initial solo same-titled album. By the mid '70s, Jerry’s career was moving onto the film set. Having made friends with Burt Reynolds, he was signed to act in "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings," and while he never stopped recording, he became most visible acting in a humorous, caricature-like southerner image, most always with pal Reynolds. He was in "Gator" in 1976, "High Ballin" in 1978 and "Hot Stuff" in 1979 and was also a co-star in the three Reynolds "Smokey and the Bandit" films. Continuing his musical career, Reed had a No. 2 hit with "Eastbound and Down," from one of the "Smokey" films. He continued recording into the ‘80s, including a 1981 tribute to Jim Croce, and in 1982 again hit the top with the novelty "She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft)." He began touring after those successes but his recordings began to fizzle out and he stayed on the road into 1992, when he reunited with Atkins for an album, "Sneakin’ Around." One of his best recording ventures is his 1995 reissue of many hits, "The Essential Jerry Reed."

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