Jerry Reed, R.I.P.

Jerry Reed, the so-called “Alabama Wild Man” who found success as a recording artist, session guitarist and actor, died of emphysema on Sunday night, reports The Tennesseean in Nashville.

He’s best-known for “Amos Moses” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” both of which were in the early 1970s and went to the Top 10 of the pop charts. He also won a Grammy during that very fertile period.

During the 1960s, Elvis Presley also recorded two of Reed’s songs, “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male,” both on which Reed played. Reed used an unorthodox picking style and tunings. When Presley’s studio musicians couldn’t replicate Reed’s guitar licks, the producer brought in the man himself.

Reed also recorded an excellent truck-driving song, “Eastbound and Down,” for the “Smokey and the Bandit” movie in 1977. “Eastbound and Down” went to No. 2 on the country charts.

I’m not sure when this television segment was recorded, but it was not long after the song came out.

UPDATE: If you find an LP somewhere of Reed’s live-in-concert “Hot Stuff” album (it’s out of print), get it just for his version of “Guitar Man.” He tears the roof off the place during that song.