''I NEVER MET ANYBODY IN MY WHOLE CARREER 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'' Merle Kilgore
Born June 8, 1938 in Town Creek, Ala., Mack faced loss from an early age. His mother died when he was 4, and he moved from the South to Adrian, MI with his family.
As Mack puts it: "I sang at a couple of assemblies in High School. The experiences were so positive that I started lying about my age so I could sing in the honky-tonks in Toledo, Ohio and Monroe, Michigan. I have to admit, the honky-tonks were rugged and I had many narrow escapes, but this period of my life put the 'stamp of survival' on me."
He goes on to say, "In 1957, after graduating from High School, I went to Memphis and cut a tape for the great Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Sam wanted me to stay around, but I was quite homesick and really didn't think Sam was that serious about me, so back home to Michigan I went."
"Seven years of honky-tonks later (1964), while working in Pontiac, Michigan, I decided to do "Whatever it takes" to make it in the music business and moved to Nashville.
The first person to ever really help Mack was Merle Kilgore, who signed Mack to a contract with Al Gallico Music. Mack and Merle co-wrote, "She Went A Little Bit Further" for the late-great Faron Young, but his fondest memories of that era center around an old broken down bar on the corner of 16th Avenue South (Music Row), known as The Country Corner.
Mack goes on to say, "Me and Billy Swan lived over at The Country Corner. Then there was Kris Kristofferson, Dallas Frazier, and Wayne Walker. We all hung around there and sang each others songs."
In 1970, he released the album, "Mack Vickery at The Alabama Women's Prison".Melre Kilgore is quoted as saying, "He went down there and got 'buddy-buddy' with the warden. It was a female warden and they had a few drinks together, and he talked her into letting him come down there to play. He came out on stage like the King himself, Elvis Presley...and man, did the women go wild!!"
By 1980 Mack had placed songs with a veritable "Who's Who" of artists including Waylon Jennings, Lefty Frizzel, Faron Young, Tanya Tucker, and Johnny Paycheck and many, many more.
He continued penning hits in the 80's and 90's, providing smashes for John Anderson, Waylon Jennings, Vern Gosdin, Lousie Mandrell, and George Strait. He earned his 3rd BMI Award for Strait's Top-5 blockbuster, "The Fireman". Mack's writing success continued with George Strait's "Merry Christmas Wherever You Are", the title cut for his 2000 holiday release.
Strait's seasonal success in the New Millennium enabled Vickery to join Hank Williams, Harlan Howard, and Hank Cochran as the only country songwriters to WRITE HITS FOR FIVE DECADES!!
Mack Vickery was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2003.
VICKERY: JAWS LIKE A BEAR TRAP
AN APPRECIATION OF THE GREAT SONGWRITER
It was to be his songwriting that gave him his greatest achievements, and he started getting regular country hits, starting with Faron Young who took "She Went A Little Bit Further", that he co-wrote with Merle Kilgore into the top 20 in 1968. The song has been covered by Hank Williams Jr., Ernest Tubb and Sammi Smith. Later he collaborated with Kilgore again for "Let Someone Else Drive", which went into the top 10 for John Anderson. Following the Faron Young success he returned to the charts via Tanya Tucker who hit number five with "Jamestown Ferry". Other classics that he's written include "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised" which Johnny Paycheck took to number eight and "You Gotta Be Puttin' Me On" by Lefty Frizzell.
Waylon Jennings cut a few of his songs and with both of there left-field personalities, it was a match made in heaven. If Waylon wasn't such a prolific writer himself, I'm sure he would have sought more of Mack's work. The most recent Vickery song he covered was 1991's, the "The Eagle", which has been taken by the public as a patriotic number with the Eagle symbolizing America. Cedartown, Georgia is a great tale of a revenge seeking husband whose woman has been caught cheating on him and Waylon took it to 12 on the country charts in 1971. He also penned the stunningly beautiful, "I Can't Keep My Hands Off Of You", which Waylon cut in 1974 for his "Ramblin' Man" album.
But it's as a writer for his friend and kindred spirit, Jerry Lee Lewis, that Mack Vickery will forever hold a place in so many fan's hearts. The Killer has cut many of his songs from ballads like "Honky Tonk Wine", "Ivory Tears", "I Sure Miss Those Good Old Times" and "That Old Bourbon Street Church" to storming rockers "Meat Man" and "Rockin' My Life Away", both of which have remained constants in Jerry Lee's live shows. Mack was present at the legendary 1973 Southern Roots session that Jerry Lee cut using just southern musicians, southern songs and plenty of southern whiskey. Jerry Lee has an absolute ball with "Meat Man" and no one on earth was better placed or prepared to shout out the bragging innuendoes of his sexual prowess. Make no mistake, neither Vickery or Jerry were talking about animals and butchers. It was at this session that Jerry Lee also cut "That Old Bourbon Street Church" which was something of an unusual song for Mack, but again the chemistry between writer and interpreter is spot on, with Jerry Lee delivering a soul-drenched take.Equally as good was his biographical rocker, "Rockin' My Life Away" which Jerry Lee cut in Hollywood for his new deal at Elektra. Jimmy Guterman sums it up succinctly in his book listening to Jerry Lee Lewis; "Mack Vickery's 'Rockin' My Life Away' was a wonderful rocker that immediately became Jerry Lee's statement of purpose and an all-purpose theme song.
George Strait is one of the rare breed of modern country singers who doesn't write his own stuff, choosing instead to use the mass of songwriters at his disposal. His albums have always shown that he has his favorite writers like Dean Dillon and Bob McDill that he turns to whenever he enters the studio. Mack Vickery is another who has supplied him with a number of tracks throughout his career, from "My Old Flame Is Burnin' Another Honky Tonk Down" and "She Knows When You're On My Mind" to the award winning top-five, "The Fireman".
It has been said, that in n 1989 he won the MCN (Music City News - later the TNN) award for Song Of The Year for "I'll Leave This World Loving You" which had been a major hit for Ricky Van Shelton. But after extensive research, it has come to be known that, yes, Mack did write a song with the same title, but it was not the song Van Shelton sang. Wayne Kemp penned it, he and Mack did partner in other hits, ie: "Who'll Turn Out The Lights" a number that had been done by Ronnie McDowell, who had also cut "Hot Burning Flames" that Vickery had penned with Hank Cochran and Wayne Kemp.
It was Johnny Cash who cut Vickery's "God Bless Robert E. Lee" for his "Johnny 99" album. And performed it at the White House.
In 2003, Mack was inducted, on the same day as Emmy Lou Harris, to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and marveled that his walk-of-fame star was placed next to Lionel Richie's, and 2 stars away from Sam Phillips.
..