Bill Mack, R.I.P.

Bill Mack, a songwriter who helped launch LeAnn Rimes’ career and a radio deejay whose overnight show proved popular with long-haul truckers, died July 31 of COVID-19 complications. He was 88.

Mack, whose real surname was Smith, remains the most famous native of the Route 66 town of Shamrock, Texas.

The town even has an informational sign about him:

We’ll let The Trucker tell the tale of Mack and his Shamrock ties:

Bill Mack’s connection with truck drivers came naturally. Not only was Mack’s father a truck driver, but Mack was born in Shamrock, Texas, in 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression. Shamrock was one of many towns that flourished during the heyday of Route 66. Thousands of “Arkies,” “Okies” and other Americans flocked to California via the famed highway during the Depression, and early versions of semitrucks traveled westward through downtown Shamrock. […]
Growing up in Shamrock, he learned to play guitar and harmonica. He formed a band that had a stranglehold on playing at dances in town, particularly at Shamrock High School. 

During his early adult years, Mack kept both feet in radio and music, including as news director at KLYN down the road in Amarillo. He hosted “The Big Six Jamboree” on KWFT-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas, and parlayed that into a music deal with Imperial Records during the 1950s.

He continued to work in the music business and with several labels for years but never logged a hit single.

However, his career in that field was hardly a bust. He wrote “Drinking Champagne,” which became a hit for George Strait years later.

But Mack’s best-known song was inspired by Patsy Cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963 before she had a chance to record it. Here’s Mack’s version:

Nearly 30 years later, a 13-year-old LeAnn Rimes recorded it. It became a major hit on the country and pop charts, and it helped launch her career.

Mack’s big career break wasn’t in music, but in radio. He was hired at WBAP-AM in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1969. The clear-channel, 50,000-watt station could beam into nearly all of the continental United States.

Soon, Bill Mack became known as “The Midnight Cowboy,” continuing in WBAP’s overnight slot. He received on-air calls from truck drivers around the country. Mack also listened to the CB radio, and on occasion, drivers would stop in at the station and Mack would interview them live on the air. The only time Mack ever thought that having drivers show up at the station would land him in trouble was when a driver with a tall load took out the WBAP sign outside the station.
While WBAP made Mack a nationwide star and essentially served as a satellite station, he also hosted the syndicated radio show “Country Crossroads,” heard on more than 200 stations. He later made the switch to real satellite radio, remaining on Sirius XM until his retirement in 2012.

Here’s Mack talking about Fort Worth’s oversized influence on country music:

The beginning of Mack’s last show in 2012:

And his final sign-off:

(Image of Bill Mack via Facebook; an image of the Bill Mack informational sign in Shamrock, Texas, by Jimmy Emerson, DVM, via Flickr)