Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed Biography

Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 20 March, 1937. He was the second child born to Robert Spencer Hubbard and Cynthia Hubbard, two Atlanta cotton mill workers who barely earned enough money to keep the family together. Jerry's birth strained an already troubled marriage, and four months later the couple separated. For the next seven years Jerry and his sister Patricia where shuttled between Georgia orphanages and foster homes. They finally returned home in 1944 when their mother married Hubert Howard, another mill worker.

Music provided a welcome diversion for the Jerry Reed family. He was exposed to gospel music via his religious background, and a natural aptitude for singing gave him a yearning to become a musician at a very early age.

" When I was a kid of six or seven, I used to get up on the stove woodpile for a stage and I'd put on the wildest show," Jerry Reed told Bob Anderson in a 1979 'Pickin'' interview. "I'd sit beside the radio and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. I just beat out rhythms on hairbrushes or anything I could get a hold of."

Encouraged by her son's continuing passion for music, Cyntia Howard saved seven dollars to buy a no-name second-hand guitar from a neighbor. Using a nickel as a flat pick, she taught the nine-year-old his first chords.

She taught me C and G, a clawhammer G, and I proceeded to drive her crazy, he told Anderson. - I'd sit on the trunk in the kitchen - I'd get up there 'cause I wanted to be on stage, you know. I always wanted to be an entertainer. And I don't have any other memories of ever wanting to be anything else.

From the start he was determined to play music his own way. - I took one or two lessons,Jerry Reed told a reporter in 1969. - But the guy tried to make me throw my thumbpick away, so I quit that. I learned how to play by hanging out at clubs, watching other players, stealing their licks and practicing 16 hours a day.

One of his earliest influences was western Kentucky singer-songwriter Merle Travis, whose fluid fingerstyle guitar inspired a generation of musicians.

There was a song called 'I am a pilgrim', Jerry Reed told Anderson. - I though when I heard it, 'Boy, there it is! That man is walking with the big dog. He knows where the bodies are buried and I want some of that'.

By the time Jerry Reed entered Atlanta's O'Keefe High School, Reed was already writing and singing novelty songs. He also dabbled in acting, taking roles in school plays throughout his freshman and sophomore years. After completing his second year, Reed left school to work in an Atlanta cotton mill. He spent his free time honing his performing skills in local honky tonks. His early style was closely patterned after his principal musical heroes: Hank Williams and Tommy Collins, and he listened to hit records by comic Phil Harris, renowned for his bombastic talking blues. Jerry Reed also developed skills as an entertainer, often stopping a show with his imitations of popular country artists.

Written by Dave Samuelson for the CD "Here I am". Order the CD at www.bear-family.de

Courtesy of: http://www.alabamawildman.com

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