Tillis's biggest hits include "I Ain't Never", "Good Woman Blues", and "Coca-Cola Cowboy". On February 13, 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Tillis the National Medal of Arts for his contributions to country music.[1] He also has won the CMA Awards' most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year. He is also known for his speech impediment, which does not affect his singing voice. His daughter is country music singer Pam Tillis.
He died on November 19, 2017, at the age of 85.
Mel Tillis was born on August 8, 1932, in Tampa, Florida, but later raised in Pahokee, Florida, (near West Palm Beach). His stutter developed during his childhood, a result of a bout with malaria. As a child, Tillis learned the drums as well as guitar and at age 16, won a local talent show. He attended the University of Florida but dropped out and joined the United States Air Force. While stationed as a baker in Okinawa, he formed a band called The Westerners, which played at local nightclubs.
After leaving the Air Force in 1955, Tillis returned to Florida where he worked a number of odd jobs, eventually finding employment with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Tampa, Florida. He used his railroad pass to visit Nashville and eventually met and auditioned for Wesley Rose of famed Nashville publishing house Acuff-Rose Music. Rose encouraged Tillis to return to Florida and continue honing his songwriting skills. Tillis eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and began writing songs full-time. Tillis wrote "I'm Tired," a No. 3 country hit for Webb Pierce in 1957. Other Tillis hits include "Honky Tonk Song" and "Tupelo County Jail." Ray Price and Brenda Lee also charted hits with Tillis's material around this time. In the late 1950s, after becoming a hit-making songwriter, he signed his own contract with Columbia Records. In 1958, he had his first Top 40 hit, "The Violet and a Rose," followed by the Top 25 hit "Sawmill."
Although Tillis charted on his own Billboard's Hot Country Songs list, he had more success as a songwriter. He continued to be Webb Pierce's songwriter. He wrote the hits "I Ain't Never" (Tillis's own future hit) and "Crazy, Wild Desire." Bobby Bare, Tom Jones ("Detroit City"), Wanda Jackson, and Stonewall Jackson also covered his songs. Tillis continued to record on his own. Some well-known songs from his Columbia years include "The Brooklyn Bridge," "Loco Weed," and "Walk on, Boy." However, he did not achieve major success on the country charts on his own.
In the mid-1960s, Tillis switched over to Kapp Records, and in 1965, he had his first Top 15 hit with "Wine." Other hits continued to follow, such as "Stateside" and "Life Turned Her That Way" (which was later covered by Ricky Van Shelton in 1988, going to No. 1). He wrote for Charley Pride ("The Snakes Crawl At Night") and wrote a big hit for Kenny Rogers and The First Edition called "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town." He also wrote the hit "Mental Revenge" for Outlaw superstar Waylon Jennings. (It has also been covered by the Hacienda Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, Barbara Mandrell, and Jamey Johnson.) In 1968, Tillis achieved his first Top 10 hit with "Who's Julie." He also was a regular featured singer on The Porter Wagoner Show.
Things turned around in 1969 for Tillis. He finally achieved the success he always wanted with two Top 10 country hits, "These Lonely Hands of Mine" and "She'll Be Hanging Around Somewhere." In 1970, he reached the Top 5 with "Heart Over Mind," which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs list. After this, Tillis's career as a country singer went into full swing. Hits soon came quite easily, such as "Heaven Everyday" (1970), "Commercial Affection" (1970), "Arms of a Fool" (1970), "Take My Hand" (a duet with Sherry Bryce in 1971), and "Brand New Mister Me" (1971). In 1972, Tillis achieved his first chart-topper with his version of his song "I Ain't Never." Even though the song was previously a hit by Webb Pierce, Tillis's version is the better-known version of the two. Most of the above-mentioned song hits were recorded on MGM Records, Tillis's record company in the early part of the decade.
After the success of "I Ain't Never," Tillis had another hit, which came close to No. 1 (reaching No. 3), entitled "Neon Rose," followed by "Sawmill," which reached No. 2. "Midnight, Me and the Blues" was another near chart-topper in 1974. Other hits Tillis had on MGM include "Stomp Them Grapes" (1974), "Memory Maker" (1974), "Woman in the Back of My Mind" (1975), and his version of "Mental Revenge" (1976). Tillis achieved his biggest success with MCA Records, with which he signed in 1976. It started with a pair of two No. 1 hits in 1976, "Good Woman Blues" and "Heart Healer". (In an interview, he mentioned having written five hits in one week.) Thanks to this success, in 1976 Tillis won the CMA Awards's most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year, and was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame that year. He achieved another No. 1 in 1978 with "I Believe In You" and then again in 1979 with "Coca-Cola Cowboy," which was put in the Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way but Loose, in which he also made a cameo appearance. Also in 1978, Mel co-hosted a short-lived variety series on ABC television, Mel and Susan Together with model Susan Anton. Other hits around this time included "Send Me Down to Tucson," "Ain't No California," and "I Got the Hoss." In mid-1979, Tillis switched to another record company, Elektra Records.
After signing with Elektra, he continued to make hit songs such as "Blind In Love" and "Lying Time Again," both hits in 1979. Until 1981, Tillis remained on top of his game as one of country music's most successful vocalists of the era. "Your Body Is an Outlaw" went to No. 3 in 1980, followed by another Top 10 hit, "Steppin' Out." "Southern Rains" in 1981 was his last No. 1 hit. That same year, he released an album of duets with Nancy Sinatra which spawned two hit singles, the Top 30 hit "Texas Cowboy Night" and the double A-side, "Play Me or Trade Me/Where Would I Be." He remained with Elektra until 1982 before switching back to MCA for a brief period in 1983. That summer, he scored a Top 10 hit with "In The Middle Of The Night" and had his last Top 10 hit with "New Patches" in 1984. By this time, however, Tillis had built up a financial empire thanks to investing in music publishing companies such as Sawgrass and Cedarwood. He also appeared in movies, including Love Revival, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), The Villain (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980),The Cannonball Run (1981), and Uphill All the Way (1986), a comedy western in which he starred with fellow country singer Roy Clark, among others. In 1979, he acquired radio station KIXZ (AM) in Amarillo, Texas, from Sammons-Ruff Associates, which converted from Top 40 to country music and became a force in the Panhandle region. A short time later, Tillis acquired Amarillo, Texas, Rock FM station KYTX, which changed calls to KMML (a play on Tillis's stutter). Still later he operated WMML in Mobile, Alabama. All of his stations were sold after a time for a healthy return. He briefly signed with RCA Records, as well as Mercury Records, and later Curb Records in 1991. By this time, his chart success had faded.
Since his heyday in the 1970s, Tillis remained a songwriter in the 1980s, writing hits for Ricky Skaggs and Randy Travis. He also wrote his autobiography called Stutterin' Boy. (The title comes from Tillis's speech impediment.) Tillis appeared as the television commercial spokesman for the fast-food restaurant chain Whataburger during the 1980s. Tillis continued to record and have occasional hits through the decade, with his last top-10 hit coming in 1984 and his last top-40 country hit in 1988; like most country artists of the classic era, his recording career was dented by changes in the country music industry in the early 1990s. He also built a theater in Branson, Missouri, where he performed on a regular basis until 2002. In 1998, he teamed up with Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, and Jerry Reed to form The Old Dogs. The group recorded a double album of songs penned entirely by Shel Silverstein. In July 1998, Old Dogs Volumes 1 and 2 were released on the Atlantic Records label. A companion video, as well as a Greatest Hits album (composed of previously released material by each individual artist), were also available. In the 1990s, Tillis's daughter, Pam Tillis, became a successful country music singer in her own right, having hits like "Maybe It Was Memphis" and "Shake the Sugar Tree."
The Grand Ole Opry inducted Mel Tillis on June 9, 2007. He was inducted into the Opry by his daughter Pam. Along with being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, it was announced on August 7 that year that Tillis, along with Ralph Emery and Vince Gill, is the latest to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Tillis has six children: songwriter Mel "Sonny" Tillis, Jr., singer-songwriter Pam Tillis, Carrie April Tillis, Connie Tillis, Cindy Tillis, and Hannah Tillis. Mel has one brother, Richard, and two sisters, Linda and Imogene.
Old Faithful
Mel Tillis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I never thought the day would come she'd leave me
But for me those kind of thinking days are gone
Cause old faithful ain't faithful anymore she's stepping out to even up the score
She's out there where the lights are bright wining dining every night
And old faithful ain't faithful anymore
Night after night she sits waitin' just to touch the fool that she loves so
For absence makes the warmest heart grow cold
Cause old faithful ain't faithful
And old faithful ain't faithful anymore
The lyrics to Mel Tillis's song "Old Faithful" tell the story of a man's relationship with his faithful car. He calls her "old faithful" because she was always there for him whenever he returned home. However, the man never imagined that the day would come when she would leave him. In the past, he had never thought about losing her because she had always been so reliable. However, the man's way of thinking has changed, and he no longer takes her for granted.
The song takes a surprise turn when we find out that the "old faithful" being referred to is not a person or a pet, but a car. The car has started to venture out to bright and flashy places every night, leaving the man behind. Instead of being a reliable, steadfastly loyal car, she has become unfaithful, and the man is bitterly disappointed. The lyrics suggest that this unfaithfulness is a metaphor for the car's issues or breakdowns. The car is no longer dependable, which has caused the man's heart to grow cold.
In conclusion, "Old Faithful" is a song about the disappointment and betrayal felt when something or someone we have always counted on is no longer reliable. Whether it's a relationship, an animal, or even a car, the pain of losing something we once trusted is a universal feeling.
Line by Line Meaning
I always called her old faithful she was always there when I came home
The singer referred to his significant other as 'old faithful' because she was always reliable and present when he returned home.
And I never thought the day would come she'd leave me
The singer didn’t anticipate that his significant other would ever leave him.
But for me those kind of thinking days are gone
The singer evolved to the point where he is no longer the kind of person that assumes things will always stay the same.
Cause old faithful ain't faithful anymore she's stepping out to even up the score
The artist's significant other isn't faithful anymore and is looking to get revenge for something that has been done to them.
She's out there where the lights are bright wining dining every night
The artist's significant other is socializing with other people, going to fancy restaurants and experiencing night life.
Night after night she sits waitin' just to touch the fool that she loves so
The singer's significant other used to wait for him every night, just to be with him.
But now for her those waiting days are over
The singer's significant other isn't waiting for him anymore.
For absence makes the warmest heart grow cold
The artist believes that he grew apart from his significant other because they were separated for too long.
Cause old faithful ain't faithful
The artist's significant other isn't loyal anymore.
And old faithful ain't faithful anymore
The artist's once dependable significant other isn't dependable anymore.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: MEL TILLIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@juliecloninger8804
This is a wonderful song ❤. My favorite by Mel ❤ Brings back memories of my childhood ❤
@OliverHviid
By the way, in case you haven't heard it, this song has also been recorded by Jim Purdy. If you're interested, here's a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE9fF8p_8_g
Personally, I think both versions are great!
@spanisheyes8822
how can you put a thumbs down on this music....really.....this is what you call the real country music and from one of the great singers himself....mel tillis....thanks guy,loving everyone...bless.
@eddiebatmv
I love this style of traditional country music. Many of the new "country singers" are nothing but noise makers.
@kennydobbins1345
There are still a few traditional style artists.
@cynthiagoodine1107
great country music Wish we had more like this today.
@salmonfire
i love this song, Mel had an intonation that remains, even today, unparalled!
@larryjoyce5996
one of my favorite Mel Tillis songs
@ericlawlor9478
What a great song from a great singer. Always enjoyed Mels' singing.
@charlesvaughn5738
This is what country music should sound like . I love it