Jerry Reed, 71, Country Guitarist and Genial Actor

Jerry Reed, who died Monday at 71, became a country music guitar hero as a session man, songwriter, and honky-tonk singer whose hits included “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” and “Guitar Man,” and a late-blooming novelty number, “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft).”He parlayed decades of country music success into a lightweight film acting career, with roles that included Burt Reynolds’s truck-driving sidekick, the Snowman, in the “Smokey and the Bandit” trilogy (1977-83), and also as Coach Red Beaulieu, Adam Sandler’s chief antagonist in “The Waterboy” (1998).Born March 20, 1937, to poor cotton-mill workers in Atlanta, Reed spent his early years in orphanages before being reclaimed at age 7 by his mother, who had remarried. She bought a used guitar for the boy, who more or less taught himself an unorthodox finger-picking method that would one day make him the toast of Nashville.After auditioning for a local disk jockey with a song he wrote titled “Aunt Meg’s Wooden Leg,” Reed dropped out of high school at 14 and began opening for bands led by Ernest Tubb and Faron Young. At 18, Reed was signed by Capitol Records and recorded his first single, “If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creeks Don’t Rise” — the title based on a famous Hank Williams radio sign-off. His early records didn’t sell, but Johnny Cash recorded “If the Good Lord’s Willing,” and Gene Vincent recorded another Reed tune, “Crazy Legs.”In the early 1960s, after being discharged from the Army, Reed wrote minor hits for Brenda Lee and Porter Wagoner, and in 1968 Reed’s “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male” were recorded by Elvis Presley during the King’s comeback. In 1965, Chet Atkins signed Reed to RCA, where he recorded tracks showcasing his instrumental virtuosity, a five-finger picking technique he called “The Claw.” He played sessions with Roger Miller, Ringo Starr, and a host of others.Atkins produced his first Top 20 hit, “Tupelo Mississippi Flash” (1967). A string of country hits followed, culminating in “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” a bouncy novelty number that hit no. 1 in 1971. He also scored an offbeat hit with “Lord, Mr. Ford” (1973), protesting the high price of gasoline.Reed was a regular on Glen Campbell’s “Goodtime Hour,” and Scooby Doo recovered Reed’s guitar in an animated episode from 1972, “The Phantom of the Country Music Hall.” He briefly hosted an hour-long variety show on NBC. In 1974, he appeared in his first film, “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings,” the first of several appearances with his buddy Mr. Reynolds. For the first “Smokey and the Bandit,” Reed wrote the film’s theme, “East Bound and Down,” which became a country no. 2 hit in 1977. He admitted that his acting chops were limited.Reed’s chart success was limited after “She Got the Goldmine” (1983) — an ironic hit since his marriage lasted 49 years. He won a third Grammy in 1992, shared with Atkins for their album “Sneakin’ Around.”A dedicated fisherman in his spare time, Reed had been fishing on the Cumberland River in 1967 when Presley called him in to a Nashville session to play on “Guitar Man.” Many years later, during a 1990s appearance on the TV fishing series “Bill Dance Outdoors,” Reed caught a nine-pound largemouth bass and ended up tossing the host’s equipment overboard when Mr. Dance released the fish instead of keeping it for the taxidermist.Even with a reduced touring schedule in recent years, Reed continued to enjoy the music that brought him fame.“If you can get up there onstage and go one-on-one with a crowd of people and just whoop and holler and have them throwing babies up in the air, God has blessed your life,” he said in a 2004 interview.He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Jerry Reed, 71, Country Guitarist and Genial Actor

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