THE ORIGINAL URBAN COWBOY
After 25 years, it’s bye-bye Branson
After 25 years performing in his own theatre in Branson, Mo., country music legend Mickey Gilley is back on the road.
Now 79, the original urban cowboy put a for-sale sign on the theatre, rounded up his bandmates and is revisiting the road. It seems the appeal of Branson as a tourist destination peaked a few years ago.
“We had the crash in 2008 and the people are not coming to Branson like they were in the past,” explained Gilley on the phone from Texas. “So I said, ‘I’m taking it back to the people.’ ”
Gilley’s other business venture, the famous chain of nightclubs that bears his name, is still going strong with locations in five U.S. cities. The original Gilley’s in Pasadena, Texas burned down in 1989 but plans are in the works to rebuild.
The Pasadena location inspired the 1980 film Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta. Gilley plays himself in the film, while the club and its mechanical bull figure prominently.
Gilley credits the film for introducing country music to a younger generation, and giving his career a boost. He’d had plenty of country hits throughout the 1970s, including Roomful of Roses, Chains of Love and Bring it on Home, but scored his first crossover success with a version of Stand By Me, featured in the movie.
“I look at the urban cowboy craze in ’79 and ’80, when Gilley’s was the big thing in country music, and I look at some of the acts that are on the road now,” he says, pointing to the likes of Garth Brooks, George Strait and John Rich from Big and Rich.
“I’m thinking it was John Travolta, not Mickey Gilley, who brought country music front and centre, and broke the ice with young people. He just came off Saturday Night Fever and it was a big thing. Every night now when I go to bed I say, ‘Thanks, John, for keeping my career alive.’ ”
But Gilley isn’t impressed with the quality of most new country songs these days, and no longer listens to commercial radio.
“I applaud them for filling stadiums but that’s not my cup of tea,” he says. “I’m not so happy with the country sound because the writers are not writing songs that count anymore.”
Part of the reason he’s back on the road is to share tunes from what he believes was the golden era of songwriting.
“I try to do the music as close as I can to the records. That’s one of the things I’ve built my career around. A lot of performers go out and try to change what brought them to the dance, so to speak,” he says.
“I think people want to hear the songs as close as you can make it to (how it sounds) on the radio. The hits are very important to the people who come to the shows. They like to hear the songs that were No. 1 for me, and I try to do all of them.”
Born and raised in Mississippi, Gilley grew up singing and playing in church with his soon-to-befamous cousins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart. Lewis started playing piano when he was about seven years old; Gilley was 13 when he took it up.
Unfortunately, an accident in 2009 left Gilley paralyzed for twoand-a-half months, and robbed him of his ability to play the ivories.
“It took three of the things I love to do away,” he says. “One is playing golf, one is playing piano and one is flying my airplane. They pulled my certificate so I can’t fly. I sold my plane. I do intend to play golf again, and I do intend to play piano again.
“But I don’t want the people to worry about the music because I’ve got a seven-piece band and the music sounds as close to the records as you could possibly want to hear it. And I still get a big kick out of walking out on stage and doing the songs that brought me to the dance.”
The people are not coming to Branson like they were in the past. So I said, ‘I’m taking it back to the people.’ Mickey Gilley