Reed landed the first Top 10 pop hit of his own in 1970 with “Amos Moses,” a country funk tune about a Cajun alligator hunter built around Reed’s chicken-cluck electric guitar leads and cackling laugh. Presley followed “Guitar Man” with another Reed song, “U.S. Presley’s version became a Top 50 hit and helped usher in Presley’s late-'60s career revitalization that followed his round of fluffy Hollywood movies. 53 on the country singles chart.īecause he was a label mate of Presley, Reed suggested that Presley record the tune. The first tangible result of that deal was “Guitar Man,” which reached No. Once in the country capital, his songs and guitar playing caught the ear of Chet Atkins, the esteemed guitarist who worked for RCA as a producer and talent scout. Then Brenda Lee charted a Top 10 hit in 1960 with Reed’s song “That’s All You Gotta Do.”Īfter a two-year stint in the Army, he moved to Nashville and switched to Columbia Records to further his music career. His own records didn’t click, but one of his songs, “Crazy Legs,” was recorded by Capitol’s big rockabilly star, Gene Vincent. He got his first record contract in 1955 - he was 18 - with Capitol Records.
He started playing guitar at a young age, and by the time he was a teenager he was performing with the likes of Ernest Tubb and Faron Young. Jerry Reed Hubbard was born March 20, 1937, in Atlanta, into a family of cotton farmers. “The pictures gave me an that kept me out there long after the music industry wasn’t interested any more.” They see the reruns on Saturday afternoons,” he said in 1999. “To this day, kids follow me down the street talking about those movies. “The general population might recognize him most as Snowman in the ‘Smokey’ films, but they should be aware of so many important contributions he made in music,” Michael Gray, museum editor for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, said Tuesday.
He became a regular presence on the pop and country charts in the ‘70s and ‘80s with humorous hits including “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “Amos Moses,” “East Bound and Down” and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft).” In his last major film role, he played a harsh football coach in the 1998 Adam Sandler comedy “The Waterboy.”īut before he made the jump to Hollywood he had established himself as one of the most sought-after guitarists in Nashville, a songwriter who wrote hits for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee and many others. and the Dixie Dancekings” in 1975, followed the next year by “Gator” and then, in 1977, the first of three “Smokey and the Bandit” movies in which he played Cledus “Snowman” Snow. Reed gained widespread fame as Reynolds’ wisecracking foil starting with “W.W. “He was still recording right up until he couldn’t any more,” his booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed, who is not related, said Tuesday. Jerry Reed, whose roles in three “Smokey and the Bandit” Southern comedy films opposite Burt Reynolds often overshadowed his gifts as a prolific country singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist, died Monday at his home outside Nashville of complications from emphysema.