Mack Vickery

Mack Vickery
The cover of Mack Vickery's album Live at the Alabama's Women Prison, 1970.
Background information
Born	(1938-06-08)June 8, 1938 Town Creek, Alabama United States
Died	December 21, 2004(2004-12-21) (aged 66) Nashville, Tennessee United States
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, musician

Mack Vickery (June 8, 1938 – December 21, 2004) was a musician, songwriter, and inductee in the Hillbilly Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame, whose songs have been recorded by artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, George Thorogood, Johnny Cash, George Strait, Hank Williams Jr., George Jones and many other notable artists.

Born in Town Creek, Alabama, Vickery moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1957 and, considered leading man material, recorded for Sun Records, although nothing was initially released. Vickery continued to record for a number of minor labels and under various aliases, including “Vick Vickers” and “Atlanta James”.

Vickery first scored a songwriting hit when Faron Young recorded Vickery’s song “She Went A Little Bit Further”, which reached number 14 on the Country Music charts in 1968. Vickery followed this with songs for artists like Johnny Cash, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, Lefty Frizzell, James Carr, John Anderson, and Tanya Tucker.

Vickery’s biggest hit as a writer was “The Fireman”, recorded by George Strait, which reached number 5 in 1985, while his work with Jerry Lee Lewis brought him the most attention. Lewis recorded a number of Vickery’s songs, including “Rockin’ My Life Away”, “Meat Man” (described as “two minutes and forty seconds of sexual boasts, delivered furiously and convincingly”) and “Ivory Tears”. Vickery became known as Lewis’s speechwriter, and “In Vickery, a fan as well as a professional, Jerry Lee had found someone who could articulate his troubles better than he himself ever could.”