by Jason Ankeny
Known throughout country music as The Guitar Man, singer/songwriter Jerry Reed gained recognition not only for a successful solo career but also as an actor and ace session player. Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 20, 1937; after picking up the guitar as a child, he was signed by publisher and producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, If the Good Lords Willing and the Creeks Dont Rise, at the age of 18. He continued releasing both country and rockabilly singles to little notice until rocker Gene Vincent covered his Crazy Legs in 1958.
After a two-year tenure in the military, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam even as he was in the armed forces thanks to Brenda Lees 1960 cover of his Thats All You Got to Do. He also became a popular session and tour guitarist. In 1962, he scored some success with the singles Goodnight Irene and Hully Gully Guitar, which found their way to Chet Atkins, who produced Reeds 1965 If I Dont Live Up to It. In 1967, he notched his first chart hit with Guitar Man, which Elvis Presley soon covered. After Presley recorded another of Reeds songs, U.S. Male, the songwriter recorded an Elvis tribute, Tupelo Mississippi Flash, which proved to be his first Top Twenty hit.
After releasing the 1970 crossover hit Amos Moses, a hybrid of rock, country and cajun styles, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me and Jerry. During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper When Youre Hot, Youre Hot, which was also the title track of his first solo album. A second collaboration with Atkins, Me and Chet, followed in 1972, as did a series of Top Forty singles, which alternated between frenetic, straightforward country offerings and more pop-flavored, countrypolitan material. A year later, he scored his second Number One, Lord, Mr. Ford, from the album The Uptown Poker Club.
In the mid-1970s, Reeds recording career began to take a backseat to his acting aspirations, and in 1974, he co-starred with his close friend Burt Reynolds in the film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds; after 1976s Gator, Reed appeared in 1978s High Ballin and 1979s Hot Stuff. He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films; the first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a number two hit with the soundtracks East Bound and Down.
In 1979, he released a record comprised of both vocal and instrumental selections titled, appropriately enough, Half & Half. It was followed two years later by Jerry Reed Sings Jim Croce, a tribute to the late singer/songwriter. In 1982, Reeds career as a singles artist was revitalized by the chart-topping novelty hit She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft), followed by The Bird, which peaked at number two. His last chart hit, Im a Slave, appeared in 1983. After an unsuccessful 1986 LP, Lookin at You, Reed focused on touring until 1992, when he and Atkins reunited for the album Sneakin Around before he again returned to the road.