Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American singer, guitarist, composer, songwriter and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films.

Reed was reunited with his mother and stepfather in 1944.

Reed graduated from O'Keefe High School, an Atlanta city school.

The O'Keefe building still exists today; it was sold to Georgia Tech and is now part of the university's campus.

By high school, Reed was already writing and singing music, having learned to play the guitar as a child.

At age 18, he was signed by publisher and record producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, "If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creek Don't Rise".

At Capitol Records Reed was promoted as a new "teen-age sensation" after recording his own rockabilly composition "When I Found You" in 1956.

He recorded both country and rockabilly singles and found success as a songwriter when label mate Gene Vincent covered his song "Crazy Legs" in 1958.

By 1958, Bill Lowery signed Reed to his company, National Recording Corporation.

He recorded for NRC as both an artist and as a member of the staff band which included Joe South and Ray Stevens, other NRC artists.

Reed married Priscilla "Prissy" Mitchell in 1959.

In 1959, Reed hit the Billboard "Bubbling Under the Top 100", also known as the Roar and Cashbox Country chart with the single "Soldier's Joy".

They had two daughters, Seidina Ann Hubbard, born April 2, 1960, and Charlotte Elaine (Lottie) Zavala, born October 19, 1970.

After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam while he was in the Army, thanks to Brenda Lee's 1960 cover of his song "That's All You Got to Do".

He also became a popular session and tour guitarist.

In 1962, he scored some success with two singles "Goodnight Irene" (as by Jerry Reed & the Hully Girlies, featuring a female vocal group) and "Hully Gully Guitar", which found their way to Chet Atkins at RCA Victor, who produced Reed's 1965 "If I Don't Live Up to It".

Mitchell was a member of folk group The Appalachians ("Bony Moronie", 1963), and with Roy Drusky was co-credited on the 1965 country No. 1 "Yes, Mr. Peters".

In July 1967, Reed had his best showing on the country chart (No. 53) with his self-penned "Guitar Man", which Elvis Presley soon covered.

Reed's next single was "Tupelo Mississippi Flash", a comic tribute to Presley.

Recorded on September 1, the song became his first Top 20 hit, going to No. 15 on the chart.

Coincidentally Presley came to Nashville to record nine days later on September 10, 1967, and one of the songs he became especially excited about was "Guitar Man".

Reed recalled how he was tracked down to play on the Presley session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer at RCA Victor) He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut "Guitar Man" all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys [you're using in the studio] are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"

Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session.

"I hit that intro, and [Elvis's] face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut [my] "U.S. Male" at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son."

Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man" (1967), recorded in the same session.

On January 15 and 16, 1968, Reed worked on a second Presley session, during which he played guitar on a cover of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", "Stay Away", and "Goin' Home" (two songs revolving around Presley's film Stay Away, Joe), as well as another Reed composition, "U.S. Male" (Reed's quoted recollection of "U.S. Male" being recorded at the same session as "Guitar Man" being incorrect).

After releasing the 1970 crossover hit "Amos Moses", a hybrid of rock, country, funk, and Cajun styles which reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop chart, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me & Jerry, which earned the pair the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 he released his biggest hit, the chart-topper "When You're Hot, You're Hot", which is a story song with most of the lyrics being spoken rather than sung.

The song concerns the singer's near success at shooting dice, a police raid, and a judge who is supposedly a fishing buddy of the singer, who nevertheless sends him up the river for gambling.

Presley also recorded two other Reed compositions: "A Thing Called Love" in May 1971 for his He Touched Me album, and "Talk About The Good Times" in December 1973, for a total of four.

Johnny Cash also released "A Thing Called Love" as a single in 1971.

It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for North America and was also successful in Europe.

It became the title track for a studio album that he released the following spring.

His signature songs included "Guitar Man", "U.S. Male", "A Thing Called Love", "Alabama Wild Man", "Amos Moses", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male), "Ko-Ko Joe", "Lord, Mr. Ford", "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), "The Bird", and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)".

Reed was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

Reed was announced as an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame in April 2017; he was officially inducted by Bobby Bare on October 24.

Reed was born in Atlanta and was the second child of Robert and Cynthia Hubbard.

Reed's grandparents lived in Rockmart and he would visit them from time to time.

As a small child running around strumming his guitar he is quoted as saying "I am gonna be a star. I'm gonna go to Nashville and be a star."

Reed's parents separated four months after his birth; he and his sister spent seven years in foster homes or orphanages growing up.