Greasy, backbeat swampy, funky stuff: The brilliance that was Jerry Reed
Going on the record for the first time, bassist John Harris removes the rose-colored glasses in recollecting his 1988–1989 onstage tenure with certified fretboard wizard Jerry Reed exclusively below. When not tearing up the charts with crossover hits “Amos Moses” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” the posthumous Country Music Hall of Famer comically pulled his own weight alongside movie stars Burt Reynolds [Smokey and the Bandit], Gene Hackman [Bat*21], Robin Williams [The Survivors], and as the “What’s a matter with you boy!” Coach Red Beaulieu to Adam Sandler’s The Waterboy. Another Reed milestone — his Smokey theme song “East Bound and Down” can be heard in a Super Bowl commercial pushing F-150 trucks.
The John Harris Interview
What was one of the first instances where you distinctly remember hearing Jerry Reed?
In 1973 or 1974 I was driving around Albuquerque a few years before I moved to Nashville and “Amos Moses” [No. 8 POP, No. 16 C&W, October 1970] came on the radio. I thought, ‘I’d love to play with that guy.’
I wasn’t a country music fan at that time, but the format for the station I tuned into was country. Reed’s stuff was greasy, backbeat swampy, funky stuff, and it turned my head around. I don’t remember what I ate…