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BATH | The man who last ruled the Billboard charts with “Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On,” will be in town August 21 as the star finale of the Steuben County Fair.
Country hits are a way of life for Neal McCoy, who grew up in Jacksonville, Texas listening to '70s-era Top-40, from Elton John to the Carpenters. Since he began recording more than 20 years ago, McCoy has put out 11 albums, with more than 25 singles hitting the charts.
And he’s not about to slow down any time soon.
“I'm still on the road 220 days a year,” McCoy said on his Web site. “It's crazy, but I really do love it …We do work hard, and I'm going to work until I have entertained you. You may be the guy in coveralls sitting in the third row who's there because his wife wanted to come and who doesn't give a damn, but by the time my show is over we think you will be clapping, if nothing else, at least for the effort I put forth.”
McCoy’s first professional gig, was as lead singer in an (almost) all-black Kool & the Gang-style dance band, playing small clubs. Before long, he was singing in supper club-style standards, developing his skills and songwriting chops.
After a Dallas talent competition, McCoy was introduced to country superstar Charley Pride, and worked for the next several years as Pride's full-time opening act and protégé. The friendship eventually leading McCoy to Nashville and his first record deal.
But his career took off when he teamed up with Atlantic Records’ Muscle Shoals producer Barry Beckett.
The album they made, No Doubt About It, yielded three Top-10 singles – including two No. 1's, “No Doubt About It” and “Wink” – and ignited McCoy's career as a recording artist.
Two more best-selling collections followed, and the hits – “They're Playing Our Song,” “For a Change,” “If I Was a Drinkin' Man,” “You Gotta Love That” – kept on coming. But McCoy's eclectic style proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
“We hit them with three different things and they were like, 'What's your identity?' and Barry and I were telling them, 'This is our identity, a little bit of everything,” McCoy recalled on his Web site.
His career took another turn in 2001, he got a call from a man from Las Vegas.
Wayne Newton offered McCoy a spot on the USO Tour he was conducting, and the singer was on his way to Bosnia and Italy in 2001. That tour was followed by one in Iraq and Afghanistan to entertain the troops.
BATH | The man who last ruled the Billboard charts with “Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On,” will be in town August 21 as the star finale of the Steuben County Fair.
Country hits are a way of life for Neal McCoy, who grew up in Jacksonville, Texas listening to '70s-era Top-40, from Elton John to the Carpenters. Since he began recording more than 20 years ago, McCoy has put out 11 albums, with more than 25 singles hitting the charts.
And he’s not about to slow down any time soon.
“I'm still on the road 220 days a year,” McCoy said on his Web site. “It's crazy, but I really do love it …We do work hard, and I'm going to work until I have entertained you. You may be the guy in coveralls sitting in the third row who's there because his wife wanted to come and who doesn't give a damn, but by the time my show is over we think you will be clapping, if nothing else, at least for the effort I put forth.”
McCoy’s first professional gig, was as lead singer in an (almost) all-black Kool & the Gang-style dance band, playing small clubs. Before long, he was singing in supper club-style standards, developing his skills and songwriting chops.
After a Dallas talent competition, McCoy was introduced to country superstar Charley Pride, and worked for the next several years as Pride's full-time opening act and protégé. The friendship eventually leading McCoy to Nashville and his first record deal.
But his career took off when he teamed up with Atlantic Records’ Muscle Shoals producer Barry Beckett.
The album they made, No Doubt About It, yielded three Top-10 singles – including two No. 1's, “No Doubt About It” and “Wink” – and ignited McCoy's career as a recording artist.
Two more best-selling collections followed, and the hits – “They're Playing Our Song,” “For a Change,” “If I Was a Drinkin' Man,” “You Gotta Love That” – kept on coming. But McCoy's eclectic style proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
“We hit them with three different things and they were like, 'What's your identity?' and Barry and I were telling them, 'This is our identity, a little bit of everything,” McCoy recalled on his Web site.
His career took another turn in 2001, he got a call from a man from Las Vegas.
Wayne Newton offered McCoy a spot on the USO Tour he was conducting, and the singer was on his way to Bosnia and Italy in 2001. That tour was followed by one in Iraq and Afghanistan to entertain the troops.
• See NEAL, Pg. 9
To date, McCoy has done 13 USO tours, both domestic and overseas.
A lesser known aspect of McCoy’s life is the work he does to benefit worthy causes.
In 1995, McCoy and his wife, Melinda, established the East Texas Angel Network which has raised over five million dollars for medical treatments and related costs for children of East Texas with terminal or life-threatening diseases.
“When your child is sick and you're struggling to make a mortgage payment, or you can't put enough gas in your car to take your child 200 miles to Houston, that's a very big thing,” McCoy said. “We raise money for the stuff that can fall through the cracks, and we've helped over 400 families.”
McCoy formed his own record company, 903, which eventually folded. But the man known as the “Energizer Bunny” isn’t about to close his guitar case and ride off into the sunset.
“We continue to work even when we don't have the hits, because we think we put on a great show wherever we go and treat people nice,” McCoy says. “There's an art to that, and it's what I've tried to do my whole life.”
** Top 20 singles
“No Doubt About It”
“Wink”
“The City Put the Country Back in Me”
“For a Change”
“They're Playin' Our Song”
“If I Was a Drinkin' Man”
“You Gotta Love That
“Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye”
“The Shake”
“Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On”
**Albums
1990 At This Moment
1992 Where Forever Begins
1994 No Doubt About It
1995 You Gotta Love That
1996 Neal McCoy
1997 Be Good at It
1997 Greatest Hits
1999 The Life of the Party
2000 24-7-365
2005 That's Life
2008 The Very Best of Neal McCoy
** Humanitarian Awards
Academy of Country Music’s Home Depot Humanitarian (2005)
Country Radio Broadcasters’ Artist Humanitarian of the Year Award. (2006)
W. B. and Brandon Carrell Humanitarian Award (2007)
Source: www.nealmccoy.com
