Mickey Gilley, country singer who helped inspire ‘Urban Cowboy,’ dies at 86

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Country big name Mickey Gilley, whose namesake Texas Honky-Tonk stimulated the 1980 movie “Urban Cowboy” and a national wave of Western-themed nightspots, has died. He turned into 86. Gilley died Saturday in Branson, Missouri, in which he helped run the Mickey Gilley Grand Shanghai Theatre.

He was appearing as currently as ultimate month, however turned into in failing fitness over the last week. “He surpassed peacefully together along with his own circle of relatives and near pals via way of means of his side,” in accordance a assertion from Mickey Gilley Associates. Gilley — cousin of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis — opened Gilley’s, “the world’s biggest honky tonk,” in Pasadena, Texas, within side the early 1970s.

By mid-decade, he turned into a success membership proprietor and had loved his first industrial achievement with “Room Full of Roses.” He started turning out U.S.A . hits regularly, consisting of “Window Up Above,” “She’s Pulling Me Back Again” and the honky-tonk anthem “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time.” Overall, he had 39 Top 10 U.S.A . hits and 17 No. 1 songs.

He obtained six Academy of Country Music Awards, and additionally labored sometimes as an actor, with appearances on “Murder She Wrote,” “The Fall Guy,” “Fantasy Island” and “The Dukes of Hazzard. ” “If I had one want in life, I would need for extra time,” Gilley advised The Associated Press in March 2001 as he celebrated his sixty fifth birthday.

Not that he’d do something differently, the singer said. “I am doing precisely what I need to do. I play golf, fly my aircraft and carry out at my theater in Branson, Missouri,” he said. “I love doing my display for the people.” Meanwhile, the large nightspot’s attractions, consisting of its famed mechanical bull, caused the 1980 movie “Urban Cowboy,” starring John Travolta and Debra Winger and seemed via way of means of many as a countrified model of Travolta’s 1977 disco smash, “Saturday Night Fever. ”

The movie stimulated via way of means of Gilley’s membership turned into primarily based totally on an Esquire article via way of means of Aaron Latham approximately the connection among regulars on the membership. “I thank John Travolta each night time earlier than mattress for maintaining my profession alive,” Gilley advised the AP in 2002. “It’s not possible to inform you ways thankful I am for my involvement with ‘Urban Cowboy.’

That movie had a big effect on my profession, and nevertheless does.” The soundtrack blanketed such hits as Johnny Lee’s “Lookin’ for Love,” Boz Scaggs’ “Look What You’ve Done for Me” and Gilley’s “Stand via way of means of Me. ” The film became the Pasadena membership into an in a single day traveler draw and popularized pearl snap shirts, longneck beers, the metallic guitar and mechanical bulls throughout the U.S.A.

But the membership close down in 1989 after Gilley and his enterprise companion Sherwood Cryer feuded over a way to run the place. A hearth place destroyed it quickly after. An upscale model of the antique Gilley’s nightclub opened in Dallas in 2003. 

In latest years, Gilley moved to Branson. He turned into married 3 times, maximum currently to Cindy Loeb Gilley. He had 4 children, 3 together along with his first wife, Geraldine Garrett, and one together along with his second, Vivian McDonald. A Natchez, Mississippi, native, Gilley grew up poor, mastering boogie-woogie piano in Ferriday, Louisiana, along Lewis and fellow cousin Jimmy Swaggart, the destiny evangelist. Like Lewis, he could sneak into the home windows of Louisiana golf equipment to pay attention to rhythm and blues. 

He moved to Houston to paintings creation however performed the neighborhood membership scene at night time and recorded and toured for years earlier than catching on withinside the ‘70s. Gilley had suffered fitness issues in latest years. 

He underwent mind surgical operation in August 2008 after professionals identified hydrocephalus, a situation characterised via way of means of an growth in fluid withinside the cranium. Gilley were tormented by short-time period reminiscence loss, and credited the surgical operation with halting the onset of dementia. He underwent extra surgical operation in 2009 after he fell off a step, forcing him to cancel scheduled performances in Branson. In 2018, he sustained a fractured ankle and fractured proper shoulder in an vehicle accident.