Crossover singer also wrote hits for Elvis
‘I try to tell the truth and hope it rhymes’
Mac Davis, a singer- songwriter who parlayed a string of hits for Elvis Presley into a varied career as an actor and recording artist, died at 78 on Sept. 29 in Nashville, following heart surgery.
With a Texas drawl and country charm, Davis became a crossover country- pop success in the early 1970s, writing a No. 1 song and hosting his own variety show for on NBC. At the time, he said he was “too country for pop and too pop for country.
“But,” he told the New Jersey Courier-post, “I can write songs. Damn good songs.” His writing process was simple, he said: “I try to tell the truth and hope it rhymes.”
Davis collaborated with Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and later worked with Swedish DJ Avicii, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo and Bruno Mars.
As a composer, Davis was perhaps best known for his work for Presley, but had hits on his own.
In the Ghetto was about a child who grows up hungry, steals a car and is shot dead.
Davis, who was white, said it was inspired by memories of a childhood friend who lived in a Black section of Lubbock, Tex.
“They had dirt streets and broken glass,” he told American Songwriter magazine. “I was wondering why they had to live that way and I another.”
Davis began performing his own music on TV variety shows. His wry sense of humour helped him jump from music to film and TV.
His Hollywood career cratered after The Sting II, a disastrous followup to the caper film. Davis then battled alcoholism before taking the title role in 1992 in the Will Rogers Follies on Broadway — “the biggest turnaround in my life.”
Morris Mac Davis was born in Lubbock, Tex. on Jan. 21, 1942.
Buddy Holly, a fellow Lubbock native, performed at the local roller rink.
“Back then, we didn’t think anyone from Lubbock could be famous,” Davis said in 2008. “Buddy was on the radio, but we thought they just played him on the Lubbock stations. Then I saw him drive a new convertible. New glasses. New teeth. And girls in the car. And I said if Buddy can do it, so can I.”
Davis had a son from his first marriage and two from his third. They survive him as does his mother, a sister and a granddaughter.