Mickey GILLEY on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

he broke into the scene in the early 70s with his first hit room full of roses but it wasn't until his honky-tonk installed a mechanical bull and Hollywood came calling that he became a household name with 17 number-one hits restaurants nightclubs and a theater in Branson Missouri he has certainly proven his staying power hello i'm ernie manouse coming up next on interviews our conversation with the founder of the urban cowboy craze Mickey Gilley first thing I've always wanted to know about you did you ever ride the mechanical bull rode it real slow to take pictures on strictly for publicity yeah I never tried to ride it like those other guys wrote it how in the world did all of that come to be Gillies well the mechanical bull came about because my business partner when I had a hit record back in 1974 he decided he needed something for Gilley's and I was leaving going on a road with Conway in Loretto so he decided he would put the mechanical bull in the club when I came into play the club again I thought it was a mistake but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise because it caught on and everybody want to come to Gilley's and ride the mechanical bull all the all the people working at the plants around the Pasadena area they want to be a cowboy on the weekend so you know when they got off work they've come out to Gilley's and get on that mechanical bull and actually it was never meant to be in a entertainment establishment it was meant to be a rodeo training advice and that's exactly what it was it was a rodeo training device but I know whether you noticed or not but a bull you know he's like he's hinged you that's really why it's so hard to ride but the mechanical bull was more like a Bronco anything else but they called it a total mechanical bull but everybody enjoyed coming out and trying to ride it and depending on the operator is what made it feasible stay on it what made what happened was that the club major career happened career made the club happen I think that me having the hit record room full of roses back in 1974 started turning things around slowly everybody up until that point in time accused me of copying my cousin Julie Lewis and all of a sudden I had this had this number one song called roomful of roses and I had learnt the song from from my cousin Shirley and Reverend Swaggart we were all grew up together there in Ferriday Louisiana don't reason why I hadn't record it before then it's because I mean I've been recording but nothing was happening with my career at all but the club gave me a chance to relax a little bit we opened a club in 1971 and things began to make a slow turn yeah take me back to your childhood now you had a cousin that you're saying Jerry Lee who was quite successful at what point did you realize hey this is something I can do too well I decided that after Julie hit with a whole lot of shakin goin on which was back in the 50s and middle 50s Elvis had already hit Julie came along he went to Memphis and it met with Sam Phillips and went to Sun Records and next thing I knew he had song called crazy arms and then he had a song called a whole lot of shakin goin on and when I seen that Julie was doing quite well in the music industry I was very excited about it so I felt like at that time I said he can do that I can too I didn't realize he was gonna take me that many years to make things happen for me because I started playing clubs and and everything was going on pretty good for a while then all of a sudden you know moon full of roses came along after gillies is what made things happen for him one day yes because I began to relax I got a local television show started doing the TV show the next thing I knew it was it was a pleasant surprise to have a hit record on the charts now if I remember correctly you were touring around doing your own music at the time and a partner came to you and said hey listen we have this club we want to make you the house band where you come in and that's how gillies came to be yeah basically that's what happened now I've been playing down the road from where gillies is located at and I've been working there for oh I guess about nine years I guess in one spot and when I left there he came looking for me he thought that I had a part of that club that I owned part of it but I didn't know just a playing and singing and so he came after me and he said I got this club down the street from where he was working at and that's where you need to be because that's where your crowd said and he talked me into coming over to look at it and when I first took a look at it I first thing I told him was I said need to tear it down it was really in deplorable shape but he saw I can fix it I can fix it I can make it look you know how you want it done you know so I started giving him all these demands he said if I do all that you don't come to you but you come to work you know and I said what's the deal and he started to tell me what he's gonna do for me you know I said well if you're gonna give me a salary I said cuz I can't I can't come over here and play for nothing I gotta have a salary and so he agreed to give me a salary so I didn't think he was gonna do it so I mean I just have my price you know I double my my price at that time I was making 200 a week I said I need 400 a week I never made that kind of money I was 17 1 you know he said if I do that you you come to work and I said you got a deal next thing I knew I saw him changing the changing everything around he said what do you want to call it and I said I don't care what you call anything you want to call it stand in if you aren't they he's let's call it gillies I said that's a great idea I've never seen my name in lights that's had kind of that yeah did you ever regret that decision in the early time in the first few years when you had the club did you ever think I shouldn't be here I don't want to be well the only thing that I regret it was the fact that I had a mmm I had a hit song and I had a club and I didn't want to let you know I didn't want to be a one-hit wonder and who knows you know I'm in a hit you gonna have I I had that movin full of roses it was number one song and mm-hmm I didn't know whether it was a I never have another one or not so I was trying to hold on I was trying to hold on to the club and do the music and so I made an agreement with the guy that built the club I said you down I'll give you half of everything I do on the road if you spend the club minutes together and that's the reason why I was in there so long did it ever make it hard in the music industry to be taken seriously as opposed to them saying he's a novelty act he's a guy with a club that's trying to promote the club through his music how did you make sure they you were serious about what you were doing that was the problem the problem was Jerry Lee Lewis everybody compared me to copying my cousin Jerry and I every time that I'd go in somewhere the first thing out of somebody's mouth was oh you just you know what you turned to copy you cousin Julie right after I had some hits Ike I started having fun with it I said I'm not trying to copy and I'm trying to be exactly like him we're having fun with it I think a what they said then but that was the biggest obstacle I had was because Julie was very successful and and of course then I've started having a lot of fun with it because I go in sometimes I tell him I said you know I think Jerry Lewis is probably one of the greatest talents and I found it not the greatest in if you don't believe me you can ask him and he'll tell you people that know Jerry Lee they knew what where I was coming from you know and then I'll turn right around I say something about Reverend swag and I said I'm proud of him he made more money than me and Jerry Lee Lewis put together and the best part of all of it was tax free of course the gym he heard me say a couple things sometimes like that and he's not paying taxes I said yeah you pay taxes on what you what's your salary today you don't pay taxes on everything that's coming in what was life like on the road was that tough in the beginning it was very exciting I had a great time because I mean yeah I'd never had done it before and it was just a very exciting time in my life I got to tour with Conway and my first tour was with Conway Twitty and for the first oh I guess it's about the first week Big Joe Lewis it used to play the bass for him and talk all the time when Conn wouldn't say anything I walked up to him one day and I said I don't think I'm kind of we likes me Joe and he says hey that's - he called me Gilliam Gilligan or something like that and I said he never says anything to me he said I don't he doesn't speak you know and then her husband he says well I sister Conway's attitude and he's cut next time it you see him sitting up here pens guitar go up setting his talk to him okay I'll give it a try and I'm very outgoing you know so I had this little thing I was gonna try to do and I went to him and one night when he was playing his guitar and I won't repent to that in front of us and Conwell you might have asked you a couple of questions he put to get tar down and we talked for about hours so after that you know I felt comfortable in being around him yeah he he went out one night and got for a while there they had they had me on tour with Conway and Loretta and Cal Smith there's four of us and Cal Smith went out and and opened the show and Conway went out second because Conway the road was a little closed because they didn't do it and calmly went out and got three or four standing ovations and now I'm up next you know but of course they don't take an intermission comp it works off that state he said walks by me and he says I wouldn't give it spot to a drycleaners that was kind of guy after I got to know him you know we had we had a great time together as the hits started coming and your career started taking off did that make touring easier or harder for you well I tell you when I first went out on the road a little story that happened to me if I'm not mistaken I think we was in Denver and nobody needed in the world Mickey Gilley was you know that only thing they knew was it that I had a song called room full of roses on the charts and it was number one and it was getting a lot of airplay so when I went out on a stage and I was opening his show up I think it I think I'm not mistaken I think I've opened the show this night for Conway Twitty and it caught my time is gone they go I give me a big buildup you know and of course you know you imagine 5,000 people out there in about eight of them go and I walked out I mean you know I'm saying gee you know wow man this is something else you know and I started into my routine and I did the songs that I was going to do I only had about 20 minutes and then I hit her an arpeggio another piano if I sent a rose to you a crowd and all of a sudden it dawned on me you know I didn't have the name that I needed in the music industry to be successful I needed a name people would recognize you know not not book me about Somme but book me because of who I am and so that was one of the things that I really had to work on but after a room full of roses I had four number-one songs in a row I mean three number one after roomful roses so had four number-one songs in a row so then people who begin to recognize me when I when I walked in place or when I went somewhere yeah then all of this just goes insane with urban cowboy well the urban cowboy went nuts on us I mean I never dreamed it was going to be as big as it was it was just unbelievable take a little story we went to the Six Flags was in Dallas first time I ever seen a bus get a standing ovation I mean I could not believe it I'm sitting on the bus and we drive in of course they got this big stanza for you know the bus drives in and everybody understands they rise unison whoa but it was me and Johnny Lee you know we had these two songs that were uh that were number one songs he had lookin for love and I had stand by me so it was it was quite an ordeal and it was a lot of fun we had a good time that was a very very exciting moment in my life as I understand Esquire magazine had written an article about your club and the whole movement that was happening around you they had an article about the mechanical bull ah yeah the mechanical bull is what caused all that really was the reason all this man this is nineteen thing was 1977 or 78 78 I think Aaron Latham came down from New York City to talk to the people around the club because the mechanical bull was causing so much stir it was something different you know they'd never had been done before and like I said before earlier it was a rodeo training device it was never meant to be in an entertainment establishment and as first thing that I told mr. Kerr I said you know I said people who get hurt on that bull we don't get all kind of lawsuits but look what it did for us you know but he came down and tell you a little story about that to Bob Claypool was a dear friend of mine he's not with us anymore but he's the right for the Houston post when they were in business here in the Houston market Pasadena and he was uh he was in the club that night and he had written a book called the gili rats and people you know would bind the book and they they like Claypool because he wrote good and he was he was in the club and this guy Aaron Latham came in and of course struck up a conversation with Bob Claypool now Aaron lithium is lesley stahl husband okay give you a little background and so he came down at it to write an article for Esquire for about the mechanical bull so he met Bob Claypool of course introduced us to have a meeting with Houston post so they got to talking and he said Bob said would you like to meet the guy that owns a club and of course he was talking about mr. Cryer so he's not only introduce you today so all of a sudden here comes Sherwood walking up you know because he used to stand all the time he'd look that everything he looked everything over to club and he was carrying some garbage out and he always dressed in some overhaul type things you know I mean he never never dressed the part that he was a you know very wealthy man with his club and all the popularity was getting on Gillies he said Sherwood come over here and say hello to Aaron Latham so Sherwood shut the thing down he walks over and he said huh this is the club owner mr. mr. Cryer and they shook hands and he said I'll be back to talk to y'all in a minute he went back on pitch devotion and when I and the guy turned about people and he says I didn't want to meet the janitor I wanted me to honor the club you don't know it's but you just met him that is the owner of the club and at that point you guys were already the world's largest nightclub well we were listed in the Guinness Book of Records being the world's largest honky-tonk that's amazing yeah yeah the only mistake they made they put it they said Houston instead of Pasadena but it was it was in the Guinness Book of Records yeah so then they decide they're gonna make a movie out of the article that that gentleman wrote about in the can of the urban cab balance ballad of the urban cowboy and I'll take a little story about that too because I was very set aside when I think about I mean I was a little upset with it because every other word was boy meets girl playing Twain boy falls in love with girl Twain Twain you know boys things a song for the girl playing playing you know and I said they're making fun of country music I'm country music was my I didn't like me anybody to make fun of what I was doing you know for a living and and I wasn't too happy with it but we're on our way out to California to do as either Merv Griffin Mike Douglas or Dinah Shore one of those shows that there was talk show and I think was Merv Griffin but I might be mistaken don't hold it hold me to that but it was going out to do one the talk shows could have been Mike Douglas I don't know but anyway I'm sitting there with Cryer and he says look I know you don't like that article I said well I think he's making fun of country music you know I said I didn't like it I just I just don't like the way you portrayed country you know he said well let me tell you something he says we might get a film out of that article and I said have you lost your ever-loving mind he would ever do a film on this thing here this is ridiculous and he said he's not I said there they're talking to John Travolta and I did a movie on this this article and I've thought about the men and I said now wait a minute you know they might do that he was just coming off a Saturday Night Fever and if you see what he did with the urban cowboy all it was was a country Night Fever it made sense and I said okay I said I won't mention it did you have to strong-arm anyone into actually doing it at your club I mean could they have done it in a soundstage could they have taken it done in Hollywood but they ended up coming and we're gonna do it in Hollywood and my PR firm I said my PR firm our PR firm is with the ghillies and they still work for me but I don't think they work for mr. Cryer anymore but anyway that they they were going to do the film and Hollywood and the broke haul company went to him and said look we don't want you to do that film in Hollywood we want you to come down to Texas and do it for it actually happen that he said you want to make it as authentic as you possibly can that's where you need to go you know use the people that were there and put John Travolta with them and so they agreed with him so they came down and they paid us a fee to use the club during the day and we open the club at night so it was a win-win all the way around yeah when did you know that it was going to be as big as it was at what point did it hit here it hit me when they released the film and the next night I I was driving down down Spencer and I got close to the club and I could see these lines of people all the way out to the street trying to get in and I went oh man this is unbelievable but Jim bridges he's no longer with us either you know he was the director redirected China Syndrome and he directed that and he told Pryor at the time he said this club will never be the same as we do this film what was he ever write yeah country music was never the same after that well you know the thing that I really appreciate about the film too if you think about it all these guys that are wearing cowboy hats now where do you come from the urban cowboy I wasn't wearing a cowboy hat in the film because I mean I never wore a cowboy I had before but when that film hit it's like it did I wouldn't got me a cowboy hat did you see now we're in cowboy hats and I wasn't too happy even though I was I was a big Garth Brooks fan I mean I loved what he was doing but he didn't like the urban cowboy he what I understand he was one happy with the way it was portrayed but it was a big thing in my life and yeah I think John Travolta every night when I go to bed thanks keeping my career alive John and that's just alive I mean it's just you became known as country music well it was I was in the elevator one night in Nashville I was at the Rodeway Inn of all places and I'm going I'm running that down in the elevator and we're gonna have to lounge get a something to drink I will tell you I'm drinking back we'll get a drink and some guy was in the elevator and he said I just want to thank you for what you've done for the western wear and I said beg your pardon he said I just want to say thanks to you for what you've done for western wear and I said well you don't need to thank me you need to thank jobs voter I didn't bring that on I said he's the one who walls jeans and everything else with cowboy boots you know he's the one that made it happen it took somebody like him to make it come together anybody else played the part I don't think it had been nearly as successful was amazing and then the club eventually we lost the club well the only reason why the club closed was because it started there was never any upkeep done to it it was just it just completely started deteriorating and I begged him I kept begging him to make some changes he he didn't like changes he wanted everything stay the same but nothing stays the same never ever was it harder for you when the club closed or on the club burned down I was already out of it when the club went right it hurt me that it burned because there was no reason for it to ever close you know it was it was such a big thing people wanted to go there and I all it had all it took was just a little of a management to make it work a little bit better than what it was working but and you know we had many many changes to to expand it different parts of the country guilty's didn't want to do that either I think the bottom line when you stop growing you start to die yeah now you've got on in Branson Missouri now is kind of the place well I went to Branson and I think in 1988 or 89 when you haven't so much fun you can't keep up with it but anyway it's been it's been God sent to me because I still enjoy playing music and I got a nice theater I'm in Branson and I have the the restaurant right next door to the theater there and Branson so we do our shows and have a comedian we do skits on a stage and this year we will start doing DVD so that people can you know if they want souvenir the show they can have it yeah how has country music change from your point of view over the last 10 years or so well you know the thing that I noticed the most was that the people that have come gotten so big in country music have made the songs more country than what it was back when we were doing the urban cowboy that's one thing I noticed I noticed too that the people that write their own songs seem to do better I write down material that was one of my faults and in the music industry I wasn't a good writer I wasn't I couldn't create I had no no no creativity is forest music was concerned as far as of the songs they'd bring me a song and I consent to piano and and put it in my liking and you know put a style to it of some sort and even though I block people accuse me like I said of copy and Julie he didn't bother me after I got in had some hits it's country music on an upswing now do you think it's leveled out do you think it's changing seems to be bigger than ever the way the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo out here is going we've got some acts of coming in there that are just packing the you know the stadium unbelievable to me that things are going as well as they are in country music I often wonder you know how long certain things can last but they keep turning it now you got this you know the computer systems now that you can do just about anything you want to you can make a recording studio a lot of little bitty hole in the wall it's just unbelievable when you look around and you see so many of your contemporaries aren't with us anymore how does it make you feel scared what I tell you while ago I feel like I'm on death row but I tell you what you know my father passed away at 84 and if I can make it to 84 I feel like I'm very fortunate you know I can tell the difference now than when I used to will not finish a show I want to go you know sitting the clowns I've been have a few drinks don't won't do that anymore yeah I gave up smoking give it drinking give up women is real still there when you walk out on the stage though does that stay the same I have a great time I walk out to perform for the people I feel like they come to hear me sing the songs that were hits so I try to do it as many hits as I possibly can and I have two young ladies that sing with me and we try to do I had a hit with Charlie mcclain called Paradise tonight I do that one of the girls Kacey bays and and I do a Candy Man with with the other lady just trying to think of a Katie Lynn I did some songs on her too I'm not really sure but this year we got we're gonna try to change the show up around show turn it around a little bit and do some different things yeah do you vote still get the same thrills you got when you were 30 and walked out on the stage or 40 and you walked out there is it does that remain the same well it's better for me now because I feel like that I have learned so much about performing I walk out now with more confidence back back when I played the theater that your family owned I'm scared to death probably I walked out there now not only you're walking on the stage you own the stage you're how about retiring ever I don't know about retiring I keep thinking about it they keep asking me when I'm gonna retire and I said as long as I can walk as long as my health holds up I hope I can keep performing because I enjoy if we're doing what I did it's only thing and I know you know ice entropy and saying you know don't think girls get pretty close in time but that's all it matters to me you don't know me or one of those songs that was a hit for me and the people you know they keep saying when you're home alone do you play the piano and I think if I'd practice I'd be a lot better well Mickey Gilley thank you very much for taking the time to sit down with us today thank you truly pleasure Mickey Gilley to order a transcript call eight six six six five two three three seven eight or sudden $6.95 to the address on your screen please include the name of the guests

Channel: HoustonPBS

Views: 54,475

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Keywords: mickey, gilly, on, innerviews, with, ernie, manouse, interview, channel, room, full, of, roses, don't, all, the, girls, get, prettier, at, closing, time, it, takes, believers, country, singer, jerry, lee, lewis, carl, mcvoy, jimmy, swaggart

Id: DiOIjbkBQuA

Length: 26min 58sec (1618 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 19 2011