Gary Stewart (singer)
| Gary Stewart | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Gary Ronnie Stewart |
| Born |
May 28, 1944 Jenkins, Kentucky, US |
| Died | December 16, 2003 (aged 59) Fort Pierce, Florida, US |
| Genres | Country, Outlaw country, Honky-Tonk, Southern rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Piano, guitar, bass |
| Years active | 1968–2003 |
| Labels | Cory, Kapp, Decca, RCA, MCA, HighTone, Smith Music Group |
| Associated acts | Dean Dillon, Dickey Betts, Gregg Allman |
Gary Ronnie Stewart (May 28, 1944 – December 16, 2003) was a country musician and songwriter known for his distinctive vibrato voice and his southern rock influenced, outlaw country sound. During the peak of his popularity in the mid-1970s, Time magazine described him as the "king of honkytonk." He is remembered for a series of country chart hits from the mid- to late- 1970s, his biggest hit being "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)," which topped the U.S. country singles chart in 1975.
Named after actor Gary Cooper, Stewart was born in the Letcher County, Kentucky, town of Jenkins, the son of George and Georgia Stewart. In 1959 his father, a coal miner, sustained an injury while working in the mines, and shortly afterwards the family moved to Fort Pierce, a city on Florida's Atlantic coast.
Learning guitar and piano, Stewart began touring with local bands and writing songs in his teens. He married Mary Lou Taylor, more than three years his senior, at age seventeen and began working days in an airplane factory. He still played in rock and country bands at night. While playing in an Okeechobee, Florida, honky-tonk known as the Wagon Wheel, Stewart met country singer Mel Tillis, who advised Stewart to travel to Nashville to pitch his songs. He recorded a few songs for the small Cory label in 1964 and began co-writing songs with local policeman Bill Eldridge. Stewart and Eldridge wrote Stonewall Jackson's 1965 country hit, "Poor Red Georgia Dirt". Signed to the Kapp label in 1968, Stewart made several unsuccessful recordings but several songwriting successes followed, for artists like Billy Walker ("She Goes Walking Through My Mind", "Traces of a Woman", "It's Time to Love Her"), Cal Smith ("You Can't Housebreak a Tomcat", "It Takes Me All Night Long"), and Nat Stuckey ("Sweet Thang And Cisco"). He even played piano for a time in Charley Pride's band the Pridesmen, and can be heard on Pride's live In Person double-album. Disappointed with Music Row, however, he soon returned to Florida and resumed playing countrified rock 'n' roll in local clubs and bars.
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