Jerry Reed: Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Dead at 71

Earlier today, I saw Jerry Reed's name on the list of trending terms on Google. And I knew before I clicked it what I would find.

I was a big fan of Jerry Reed's, from his unique style of country music to his acting. I loved to watch him do an interview. The man always was laughing, smiling, cracking a joke. He was a walking show. He was the epitome of good ole boy good humor.

Reed was born Jerry Reed Hubbard in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1937. By the time he was 17, he had been the opening act for Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours and was signed to a recording contract with Capitol Records (1954). He would do a stint in the military and sign with Columbia Records (1961) in the next few years, all the while producing no hits. But his songwriting and studio musicianship made him money. He would write Porter Waggoner's 1962 No. 1 hit "Misery Loves Company."

Jerry Reed had developed a style of playing the guitar that would later be called the "claw style," which involved the use of the entire hand. It is a combination of Earl Scruggs banjo picking style with Merle Travis' and Chet Atkins' finger-picking guitar styles.

And it would be Chet Atkins who would develop an interest in Reed and sign him to an RCA contract that became the turning point of his career. He told the Associated Press in 1999: "I owe almost every bit of success that has come to me to Chet Atkins. He's a nonconformist, and he suggested that I just play my guitar and sing my songs and he'd release singles."

He wanted Jerry Reed to be Jerry Reed. So that's what Chet Atkins recorded. And it worked.

Reed's first hit was "Tupelo Mississippi Flash." It reached the Top 20. The song was a mocking number about a record executive who did not understand the power of Elvis Presley. He would later get a call to work with Elvis on a few records because Presley liked his guitar sound. He got his nickname from a Top 50 hit, "Alabama Wild Man," in 1968, even though he was from Georgia. In 1970, he would become famous.

"Amos Moses" was the song that I remember hearing first by the irreverent guitar slinger. It would launch Reed into country stardom. I would walk around singing that song with my brother when I was six years old. We especially liked to sing the line, "Tie a rope around his neck; throw in the swamp." I still love hearing that tune. That song would be a crossover hit, reaching the Top 10 on the Pop Charts. In 1972, he won a Grammy for the No. 1 "When You're Hot, You're Hot."

But many people recognize Jerry Reed for his acting. Although he had made his debut in "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings" in 1974, he was and perhaps will be forever known as the Cledus Snow, "The Snowman," Burt Reynolds truck-driving sidekick in 1977's "Smokey and the Bandit." It was the second movie I had ever seen in the theatre and I thought Jerry Reed and Burt Reynolds were the two coolest guys rolling. (If you have never seen "Smokey and the Bandit," do yourself a favor. TBS shows it about 300 times a year. Sit down and watch it. Jackie Gleason is priceless in it.) I sing the theme song, "East Bound and Down," a song that made it up to No. 2 on the Billboard Country Chart, all the time. I love those banjos in the background.

Jerry Reed would go on to make more hit music and act in several movies, including Adam Sandler's "Waterboy." But I remember seeing him in an interview where he said that the critics had panned him and trashed his acting in the movie "Smokey and the Bandit 3" to the point that it hurt. So he built his own studio, where he produced videos and movies of his own.

His last chart single was in 1983.

I saw him in concert in 1990. He did a show with Lee Greenwood in Virginia. While waiting to get his autograph, he asked me to get him a beer while he signed pictures and flyers after the show. I brought him back two. Told him I loved his music. Told him I'd been listening to him for 20 years and he told me to stop - I was making him sound old. He was a pistol, as they say, cracking jokes with everybody, calling everybody, "Son." I got him to sign the back of my shirt. He said he didn't want to mess up my shirt; it looked brand new. I allowed as to how it was and told him to go ahead, I wasn't ever going to wash it or wear it again. He just laughed and signed.

I still have that shirt. It's never been washed.

Jerry Reed was one of the great guitar legends of our time. His complicated playing style is replicated by the very few, most of them studio musicians. And many today would not recognize his music or his songs, unfortunately, except perhaps "East Bound and Down."

But they would recognize "The Snowman."

Jerry Reed passed away in a hospice this past week from complications arising from emphysema. He was 71.