Country Music

Country Music Hits

Uncategorized

ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2008, A 71-YEAR-OLD MAN DIED IN A HOUSE IN BRENTWOOD, TENNESSEE — THE SAME HOUSE HE HAD SHARED WITH THE SAME WOMAN FOR FORTY-NINE YEARS. Priscilla was there. So were Seidina and Lottie, his two daughters. His parents separated four months after he was born. Jerry Reed Hubbard came into the world in Atlanta in 1937, the son of two cotton mill workers. He and his sister spent the next seven years in other people’s houses — foster homes, orphanages, a rotation of strangers. His mother took them back in 1944. He was seven years old. He taught himself guitar. At eighteen he had a record deal. In 1967 Elvis Presley cut his song “Guitar Man” and sent for Reed himself, because the session men in Nashville couldn’t get the part right. Ten years later he sat in a truck cab beside Burt Reynolds and sang “East Bound and Down” — three minutes about a man who cannot afford to stop moving. He stopped. One wife. Two daughters. One address. Forty-nine years. The Country Music Hall of Fame called in 2017. He had been dead for nine.

Jerry Reed Hubbard: The Man Who Could Not Stop Moving, and the Life He Built When He Did

On September 1, 2008, Jerry Reed Hubbard died at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee, at the age of 71. He died in the same house he had shared with Priscilla Mitchell for nearly half a century. Priscilla was there, along with their two daughters, Seidina and Charlotte, known to many as Lottie. For a family that had spent so many years in the public eye, the final scene was quiet, private, and deeply human.

Jerry Reed’s story began far from that peaceful Tennessee home. Born in Atlanta in 1937, he entered a hard world shaped by separation, poverty, and instability. His parents split when he was only a baby, and he and his sister spent years in foster care and other temporary homes before their mother brought them back in 1944. Those early years left a mark, but they did not define the whole man. They became part of the drive that later pushed him forward.

He taught himself guitar, and that decision changed everything. By his late teens, he had a record deal. Reed did not just play the instrument; he treated it like a voice of its own, full of rhythm, humor, and nerve. In Nashville, his talent made people stop and listen. Chet Atkins admired his playing, and Reed soon became known not only as a performer, but as a songwriter whose work could travel far beyond the country charts.

A Song That Reached Elvis Presley

One of the most famous moments in Jerry Reed’s career came in 1967, when Elvis Presley recorded Reed’s “Guitar Man.” The session players in Nashville had trouble with the part, so Presley brought in Reed himself. It was the kind of recognition that only comes when a musician’s style is so distinctive that nobody else can quite imitate it.

Reed later became part of another lasting piece of American popular culture when he sang “East Bound and Down” in Smokey and the Bandit. The song fit him perfectly: restless, witty, and full of motion. It captured the energy Reed had carried since childhood, even as his own life became steadier and more rooted.

From Restlessness to Home

That contrast is what makes Jerry Reed’s life so compelling. He was a man who built a career on movement, speed, and performance, yet he also created a long, lasting home with one woman and one family. He and Priscilla Mitchell were married for 49 years. He had one wife, two daughters, and one address that mattered most in the end.

When Reed died, the loss was felt not just by his family but by country music itself. The Country Music Hall of Fame later inducted him in 2017, honoring a musician who had already been gone for nine years. That recognition felt fitting, because Jerry Reed’s influence had never really left the room. His playing, his songs, and his presence remained part of the genre’s memory.

In the end, Jerry Reed Hubbard was more than the legend of a guitar picker or the comic spark beside a movie star. He was a boy who came through foster homes, a young man who taught himself a voice, and a husband who stayed. His story was built on movement, but its deepest truth was loyalty. That is what remains after the music fades.

 

Related Post

Uncategorized

BILLY JOE SHAVER BURIED HIS WIFE, HIS MOTHER, AND HIS SON IN 18 MONTHS — THEN HE PLAYED THE NEXT SHOW. Brenda died in 1999. His mother went the same year. On New Year’s Eve 2000, his son Eddy — his guitar player, his road partner — was gone at 38. Billy Joe kept touring. He’d already left two fingers in a sawmill. He had a heart attack onstage in 2001 and came back anyway. Then in 2014, at 75, “Long in the Tooth” became the first album of his life to reach the country charts. On October 28, 2020, Billy Joe Shaver died in Waco, Texas. He was 81. He’d spent fifty years singing that an old chunk of coal could still turn into a diamond. What did you feel the day country music lost him?

Uncategorized

JERRY REED WROTE COUNTRY’S GREATEST “KEEP GOING” SONG — NASHVILLE HONORED HIM 9 YEARS TOO LATE. He was the Guitar Man. Elvis called him in to play. Chet Atkins called him one of the best alive. In 1977 he wrote “East Bound and Down,” and every trucker in America had an anthem. By the 2000s, emphysema was taking his breath. The man who never sat still was slowing down. On September 1, 2008, Jerry Reed died in Nashville at 71. Nine years later, in 2017, the Country Music Hall of Fame finally opened its doors to him. His daughters accepted the medallion. He never got to hear his own name called. What did you feel when you heard Jerry Reed was gone?

Uncategorized

FORGET THE PLATINUM. FORGET THE HALL OF FAME. WAYLON JENNINGS SANG HIS BIGGEST HIT FOR TWENTY YEARS AND NEVER LIKED IT ONCE. In 1976, Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album ever certified platinum. Waylon’s face was on the wanted poster, top of the card, above Willie. A year later, Chips Moman brought him “Luckenbach, Texas.” He was pitched it because his name was in the chorus — and that was exactly the problem. He’d never set foot in the town. He wrote later: “I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.” Six weeks at No. 1. Rolling Stone called it a myth-making moment for outlaw country. At his tribute concert, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson and Kacey Musgraves closed the whole night with it. Waylon Jennings never learned to love that song. Nobody else ever stopped. Play it today — and go back to whatever porch, whatever truck, whatever summer you first heard it on.

You Missed

Uncategorized

BILLY JOE SHAVER BURIED HIS WIFE, HIS MOTHER, AND HIS SON IN 18 MONTHS — THEN HE PLAYED THE NEXT SHOW. Brenda died in 1999. His mother went the same year. On New Year’s Eve 2000, his son Eddy — his guitar player, his road partner — was gone at 38. Billy Joe kept touring. He’d already left two fingers in a sawmill. He had a heart attack onstage in 2001 and came back anyway. Then in 2014, at 75, “Long in the Tooth” became the first album of his life to reach the country charts. On October 28, 2020, Billy Joe Shaver died in Waco, Texas. He was 81. He’d spent fifty years singing that an old chunk of coal could still turn into a diamond. What did you feel the day country music lost him?

Uncategorized

JERRY REED WROTE COUNTRY’S GREATEST “KEEP GOING” SONG — NASHVILLE HONORED HIM 9 YEARS TOO LATE. He was the Guitar Man. Elvis called him in to play. Chet Atkins called him one of the best alive. In 1977 he wrote “East Bound and Down,” and every trucker in America had an anthem. By the 2000s, emphysema was taking his breath. The man who never sat still was slowing down. On September 1, 2008, Jerry Reed died in Nashville at 71. Nine years later, in 2017, the Country Music Hall of Fame finally opened its doors to him. His daughters accepted the medallion. He never got to hear his own name called. What did you feel when you heard Jerry Reed was gone?

Uncategorized

FORGET THE PLATINUM. FORGET THE HALL OF FAME. WAYLON JENNINGS SANG HIS BIGGEST HIT FOR TWENTY YEARS AND NEVER LIKED IT ONCE. In 1976, Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album ever certified platinum. Waylon’s face was on the wanted poster, top of the card, above Willie. A year later, Chips Moman brought him “Luckenbach, Texas.” He was pitched it because his name was in the chorus — and that was exactly the problem. He’d never set foot in the town. He wrote later: “I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.” Six weeks at No. 1. Rolling Stone called it a myth-making moment for outlaw country. At his tribute concert, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson and Kacey Musgraves closed the whole night with it. Waylon Jennings never learned to love that song. Nobody else ever stopped. Play it today — and go back to whatever porch, whatever truck, whatever summer you first heard it on.

Uncategorized

ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2008, A 71-YEAR-OLD MAN DIED IN A HOUSE IN BRENTWOOD, TENNESSEE — THE SAME HOUSE HE HAD SHARED WITH THE SAME WOMAN FOR FORTY-NINE YEARS. Priscilla was there. So were Seidina and Lottie, his two daughters. His parents separated four months after he was born. Jerry Reed Hubbard came into the world in Atlanta in 1937, the son of two cotton mill workers. He and his sister spent the next seven years in other people’s houses — foster homes, orphanages, a rotation of strangers. His mother took them back in 1944. He was seven years old. He taught himself guitar. At eighteen he had a record deal. In 1967 Elvis Presley cut his song “Guitar Man” and sent for Reed himself, because the session men in Nashville couldn’t get the part right. Ten years later he sat in a truck cab beside Burt Reynolds and sang “East Bound and Down” — three minutes about a man who cannot afford to stop moving. He stopped. One wife. Two daughters. One address. Forty-nine years. The Country Music Hall of Fame called in 2017. He had been dead for nine.