Mack Vickery, Country songwriter
deb...@comcast.net
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By PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
Mack Vickery, the Alabama-born wild man who penned such hits as George
Strait's The Fireman, Ricky Van Shelton's I'll Leave This World Loving
You and Jerry Lee Lewis' Rockin' My Life Away, died Tuesday at his
Nashville home of an apparent heart attack. He was 66.
''Rockin' My Life Away is his whole life in one song,'' said friend
Merle Kilgore, who signed Mr. Vickery to his first publishing contract
and who co-wrote the John Anderson hit Let Somebody Else Drive with Mr.
Vickery. ''I never met anybody in my whole career that wanted to be
around the music 24 hours a day, but all Mack wanted to do was sing, be
in clubs and be around music people. He just didn't want to go to
bed.''
Born in Town Creek, Ala., Mr. Vickery faced hardship from an early age.
His mother died when he was 3, and he moved throughout the South and
Midwest with his family. As a teenager, he played in Ohio and Michigan
honky-tonks, and after his 1957 graduation, he headed to Memphis and
recorded three songs for legendary producer Sam Phillips. The
recordings were not released, and Mr. Vickery went back to performing
in Michigan.
Around 1964, he moved to Nashville and began working to write hit
country songs, though he never gave up performing or recording (he
sometimes made records as ''Atlanta James'' or ''Vick Vickers.''). In
1970, he released a none-too-austere album called Mack Vickery At The
Alabama Women's Prison. The album cover featured some eye-catching
prisoners peeking lovingly at Vickery.
''He went down and got buddy-buddy with the warden,'' Kilgore said.
''It was a female warden. They had a few drinks together, and he talked
her into letting him come down there. He came out onstage like Elvis
- shaking - and them women went wild.''
A master of lascivious songs, Mr. Vickery penned Meat Man for Jerry Lee
Lewis (it was a raunchier predecessor to The Fireman). He and Lewis
were close friends, and Lewis recorded more than 20 of Mr. Vickery's
songs. Other Vickery-penned songs - I'm The Only Hell (Mama Ever
Raised) and Sweet Honky Tonk Wine among them - offered a window into
Mr. Vickery's rollicking mindset.
In 2003, Mr. Vickery was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame,
and Burns marveled that his friend's walk-of-fame star was placed next
to Lionel Richie's.
''Ol' Mack was something else,'' said Billy Don Burns, another longtime
friend and collaborator. ''He did party and get down, but he was a kind
person who was good to everybody. He made everybody feel like they were
somebody.''
Memorial details were incomplete at press time.
Peter Cooper writes about music for The Tennessean. He
Bill Schenley
Among others, Vickery also wrote, "Jamestown Ferry" (recorded by Tanya
Tucker), "George Jones On The Jukebox" (recorded by Becky Hobbs), "The
Eagle" (recorded by Waylon Jennings) and "I'll Give You Something To
Drink About" (recorded by George Jones).
<snipped>
> ... and after his 1957 graduation, he headed to
> Memphis and recorded three songs for legendary
> producer Sam Phillips. The recordings were not
> released, and Mr. Vickery went back to performing in
> Michigan.
Vickery's Sun recordings have all been released by Charly Records:
"Fool Proof," "Drive-In" and "Have You Ever Been Lonely."
> In 1970, he released a none-too-austere album called
> Mack Vickery At The Alabama Women's Prison. The
> album cover featured some eye-catching prisoners
> peeking lovingly at Vickery.
Somewhat of a legendary album cover:
http://www.showandtellmusic.com/pages/galleries/gallery_w/mack.html