PLAYBOY RECORDS: With Legendary Country Star MICKEY GILLEY

From Playboy Records to Urban Cowboy: Mickey Gilley's Legendary Journey

Get ready to dive into the captivating story of Mickey Gilley—country legend, Playboy Records star, and part of an era that defined American music. In this episode, Mickey shares the real story behind his rise, the wild ride of Playboy's music venture, and how a small Texas club turned into a cultural phenomenon. If you love stories of grit, legendary tunes, and legendary figures, this is your front-row seat.

Explore the fascinating history of Playboy Records, its impact on music and culture, and hear firsthand stories from Mickey Gilley about his career and connection to the label. Discover how Hugh Hefner's vision extended into music and the legacy it left behind.

Sound bites:
"Playboy had a music division in the early 70s."
"Meeting Hefner at the mansion was a memorable moment."
"Gilley had 17 number one records, mostly with Playboy.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Playboy Records
02:35 The Vision Behind Playboy Records
05:32 Challenges Faced by Playboy Records
08:13 Mickey Gilley's Journey with Playboy Records
13:33 Mickey Gilley's Success and Legacy
22:51 Reflections on Hugh Hefner and Playboy's Cultural Impact
 
Gilleys Store: https://gilleys.com/

Hugh Hefner Official Website - https://www.hughhefner.com/
Mickey Gilley Official Website - https://mickeygilley.com/
Urban Cowboy Movie - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075179/
Playboy Records on Discogs - https://www.discogs.com/label/12345-Playboy-Records
Barbie Benton on Twitter - https://twitter.com/BarbieBenton
Official Website - https://mickeygilley.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/mickeygilley

Transcript

Speaker: 0:22

ECHO JOHNSON (00:38) you Hey y'all, Echo here. Welcome back to the show. Today, we're going to get into some fun history about Playboy Records. I you all didn't even know that Playboy did indeed have a record label. We had no idea that Playboy even had a record label. And just through all of our research and talking to colleagues, friends, historians, we found out about Playboy Records. So with that, We had the absolute honor and privilege of interviewing the great Mickey Gilley, who was assigned to Playway Records. So we did the interview. It was fantastic. We went into the podcast, not knowing a thing about how to create a podcast, right? So we did it. We pulled it off, but we made a mistake with the... with the studio that we opted to use for our first go round of filming interviews. Short and sweet of it is the studio ended up erasing four of our shows, four, four of our shows. And they erased half of one of our shows. That show was Mickey Gilley. So I and Karina have been pondering how can we release the 20 minute interview we have with Mickey at the very least. and I came up with the idea, let's talk about Playboy Records, do some fun factoids, and then we'll roll into the Mickey Gilley interview. So that's what we're gonna do today. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment down below. Let's get into it. Okay, so today we're talking about Playboy Records. By the late 1960s, Hugh Hefner wasn't thinking like a magazine publisher anymore. He was now thinking like a media mogul. Playboy already had magazines, the clubs, the TV show, Penthouse after dark, a lifestyle identity, music was the missing piece. And it made sense. Jazz, soul and live music were already core to the Playboy Club experience. So Playboy Records was officially launched in the early 1970s as a division of Playboy. enterprises. Its mission was to create a label that blended sophisticated adult taste. This wasn't supposed to be a gimmick. It was meant to compete. Additionally, a fun little factoid is that Barbie Benton has long time girlfriend in the seventies, the woman who found Playboy Mansion West in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Barbie loved country, all things country, and she wanted to record an album. And so at the behest of Barbie Benton, as well as Hef's keen eye on the big empire, he said, let's go for it. And they created Playboy Records. It wasn't supposed to be a gimmick, it was actually meant to compete. So Hef used the TV pipeline strategy. This is where Hefner was way ahead of his time again. Playboy already had built in promotions through the shows like Playboy After Dark, or artists who performed on Playboy TV platforms. One of the biggest things about that show in particular, a Penthouse After Dark, was that Have had, because this was still an era of segregation, Have would have black artists come and perform and there was co-mingling of black people and white people. Actually, the show was not allowed to air in the South, believe it or not, because of this finite point. So I thought that was interesting. Playboy After Dark artists who performed on Playboy TV platforms, they could promote their music. They could build brand alignment, feed into the record label ecosystem. And this is early vertical integration. If you think about it decades before influencers and media brands did it. I always like to say that HEF was the OG of interactive media, social media, if you want to call it that, because he was doing this decades before social media even became a thing. If you look at every single magazine, they're tactile, they're fun. the sponsors and the advertisers, they would have hubs in there that were like, you would fold stuff out, it would turn into a picture, it would have different feel and like sensation to it. Like HEF was just way ahead of his time. Notable artists and breakthrough moments. Number one, label's biggest success was Teresa Brewer, a veteran pop singer who reinvented herself. Her disco era hit music, music, music. This became Playboy Records biggest commercial success hands down. Now, Playboy succeeded most when it leaned into existing stars, not by building new ones. Number two, there was a big country music push and Mickey Gilley was at the forefront of it. After 17 years in the country music industry, Mickey signed to Playboy Records and it was through Playboy's distribution deals that he became a major country star. Mickey would go on to have eight number one hits between 1974 and 1977 all through his affiliation with Playboy Records. Playboy tried to also diversify beyond jazz, not always successfully, but they tried. Number three, soul and RB talent, artists like Brenda Lee Eager, Candy Stanton, these signings all lined with the Playboy Club sound and urban nightlife culture. Playboy leaned heavily into jazz artists. Think instrumental lounge acts, sophisticated cocktail culture sound, this was HEF's favorite. It matched the brand perfectly, but it limited its mass appeal. And then this is when the problems arrived. So let's talk about why Playboy Records struggled. First and foremost, there was an identity crisis. Was Playboy Records a jazz label, a pop label, a novelty brand, and never really fully committed? Industry competition was... brutal. They were competing against powerhouse labels such as Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, Motown. These labels had deep rosters and established credibility. Number three, brand perception problem. The Playboy name worked against the label in some cases. Radio stations hesitated to play them and some artists didn't even want the association. It was seen as a lifestyle brand, not a music authority. Number four, distribution challenges. Playboy lacked strong national distribution pipelines early on. And then there was the retail leverage. Compared to major labels, even Playboy's great standout artists, their records struggled to reach audiences. A misalignment with the times. By the late 70s, disco had exploded, punk and rock evolved, and hip hop emerged. Playboy's sophisticated lounge identity started to feel outdated. Then there was the quiet decline and exit in the 80s. By the early 1980s, sales underperformed, strategic focus shifted elsewhere, and Playboy Enterprises began scaling back music operations. The label faded quietly, there was no dramatic shutdown, it just simply became irrelevant at that point in time. The label wasn't about hits, it was about reinforcing the Playboy identity. It was an early example of brand expansion failure. Not every lifestyle brand, AKA as ever, translates into every medium and music proves that. TV and music integration was ahead of its time. Playboy After Dark functioned like an early cross-platform promotional engine. The label reflected Hefner's personal taste until the day he died. This was his favorite style of music. It mirrored Hef's own personal preference and ultimately that would come at the cost of Playboy Records. It never produced a true superstar. No major artist ever became synonymous with Playboy Records. The Bunny brand didn't carry over to music. What worked in print and clubs didn't automatically translate to record sales. It was competing during a golden age of music labels. The 70s were dominated by powerhouse labels. It was a very tough environment to break into and to be successful. It showed the limits of vertical integration. Even with built-in promotion, execution still matters. It was part of a larger Playboy Everywhere strategy. Magazines, clubs, TV, records, merchandise, have won a total cultural saturation. It's now a forgotten piece of the Playboy empire. Most people, even fans, don't know it existed, much like Karina and I, and to our surprise, which makes it perfect content for you. But here's something most people don't know. Playboy didn't just try to control magazines and nightlife and television. It also tried to control music. In the early 1970s, Hugh Hefner was no longer thinking like a publisher. He was thinking like a cultural architect. Because by that point, Playboy wasn't just a magazine. It was a lifestyle. The clubs had a sound, the mansion had a vibe, the brand had rhythm, and Hefner wanted to own that rhythm. So Playboy launched its own label, Playboy Records. The idea was simple but ambitious, to say the least. create a soundtrack for the Playboy lifestyle. Sophisticated, smooth, late night, something you'd hear in a velvet booth under dim lights with a drink in hand. And on paper, it made perfect sense. Playboy already had built-in promotion. Through shows like Playboy After Dark, artists could perform in front of a national audience. The clubs featured live music. The magazine had cultural influence. This was vertical integration before anyone was calling it that. Again, HEF way ahead of his time. But here's where things get interesting. The label never quite figured out what it wanted to be. Was it going to be jazz? How about pop? Was it soul? Let's go in a country. It tried to be all of the above. And in the music industry, that's a dangerous place to live. Because while Playboy leaned into lounge and sophistication, America was shifting. The 1970s music scene was exploding. Rock was evolving. Disco was taking over dance floors. Country music was finding new audiences. And right in the middle of that shift, you have an artist whose story intersects with Playboy in a way most people don't even realize. Mickey. Now, Mickey Gilley is best known today for helping define the urban cowboy era of country music. But what about before that? He was grinding it out in Texas clubs, building a following the hard way. Night after night, song after song. And for a moment, Playboy Records saw something in that. Because Gilley represented something the brand didn't fully have yet, authenticity. not the curated fantasy of the mansion, but the real lived in energy of American nightlife. Playboy Records made moves into country music, trying to expand beyond its jazz and soul roots. An artist like Mickey Gilley became part of that broader experiment. Now this is important, Playboy didn't create Mickey Gilley, it didn't manufacture his success. What it tried to do was plug into it, and that was a pattern for the label. It struggled to build stars from scratch, but it occasionally aligned itself with artists who were already on the rise. That speaks to a bigger truth about Playboy Records. It had vision, yes, but it didn't always have focus. It had access, absolutely, but not always credibility in the music world. And it had branding power, of course, but branding alone doesn't sell records. Because while Playboy was trying to carve out its place in music, it was competing with giants. Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, Motown, labels that didn't just understand music, they defined it. And against that kind of competition, Playboy Records slowly started to fade. No major superstar, no defining sound, no breakout moment that stuck. By the early 80s, quietly disappeared, no big announcement, no dramatic ending, just gone. But here's the thing, even though Playboy Records didn't become a music powerhouse, it still tells you something important about Hugh Hefner. He wasn't satisfied being part of culture. He wanted to own every piece of it. The look, the lifestyle, the conversation, and yes, even the soundtrack. And that brings us back to Mickey Gilley because while Playboy's music ambitions may have faded, Gilley's story did not. In fact, it was just getting started. All right, so that was the business side of it. But now we get to hear from someone who actually lived it. Before he passed, we had the incredible opportunity to sit down with a true legend, Mickey Gilley. And fun fact, this was his very first Zoom interview. So yeah, we had to break him in a little bit. He loved every bit of it though. What you're about to hear is real, it's unfiltered, and it's straight from the era when all of this was happening in real time. Here's our conversation with Mickey Gilley. That's only boy ever had a record label. Absolutely. When we got the whole story and figured out that Barbie Benton did it for Barbie because she wanted to sing and then so he delegated so and so to be in charge of it. and then found out that you were part of it and that was the beginning of your career. Well, Leon, who was your PR guy back during the Gilleys days, he and I are friends on Facebook and he sent me a picture of a playmate on a bull in your club and he said, do you know her? And I said, I don't, she's gorgeous. I said, we are doing this vodcast, the Bunny Chronicles. And that's pretty interesting history when he was telling me about Gilleys and that you cut your first records with Playboy. That was your first label. We were blown away. wasn't my first recording, but it was my first number one song in the nation. Right, right, right. Yeah. And you had... I had struggled for 17 years trying to have hit songs. And I walked in recording studio one day. Uh, actually, uh, the lady heard me sing a song on the little TV show I had locally in Houston. Uh huh. And, I walked in the club one night and she said, today on your TV show, you did my favorite song. And I said, what was it? And she said, she called me baby all night long. I said, yes, ma'am, that's a Haunton-Haverton. And she says, I want you to record that for me. got 300 jukeboxes and I have the jukebox here in the club and I'm going to put it on 300 jukeboxes for you to be good for you around this part of the country. And, the people that hear your music, you know, on the jukebox. And I hadn't been making records at that particular point in time. And I told her, so I said, you can get Harlan Howell's version of it. That's where I left the record. And she said that records out of print. Bottom line was she taught me to go into the recording studio to record. She called me baby all night long. And for the B side, I picked a song called room full of roses that I grew up singing with Judy Lewis and Reverend Swaggart. Oh my goodness. Your cousin. We were just boys growing up in Faraday, Louisiana. Yeah. And whether Some of you people don't know this. I mean, I'm 85 now and in my eighties. And of course, my cousin, Jerry Lewis, is six months older than I am. Reverend Swigert is a year older than I am. So we're all in our eighties, but we all grew up in Faraday, Louisiana. Right. And we all three learned to play piano and perform. And we all three had success in music, which is really ironic to think. Bottom line is I had 17 number one country music songs thanks to the the Playboy Record division, by the way, because they broke the ice for me. Everybody else turned me down. There you got it. This is with Barbie, the one you recorded with Barbie. Well, we need to mention the fact that that's so cool. The way the thing happened was I was in Nashville, Tennessee, trying to get a record company to pick up Runeful of Roses because it was my first number one song in the Houston market. And everybody turned it down. And I was getting ready to leave when a friend of mine by the name of Eddie Kilroy, who later become part of the record division and open an office there in Nashville, representing the Playboy record division. And he says, he asked me what I was doing in Nashville. And I told him I was up there trying to get the recording released to a major label so they could take it nationally for me. And he said, I got a company to take it. And I said, who? And he said, Playboy records. And he was sort of a jokester and I thought he was kidding with me. And he said, come to my office. I went to the office and he had this little 45 with the money head on it through the record at me. He said, there it is right there. You know, it sends some records. And I said, I couldn't believe it. He says, they will take this record. And I said, really? So we jumped on the airplane and flew out to Los Angeles. And of all things, I still remember the guy's name. His name was Tom Takeyoshi. That was running the record division from Mr. Hefner. I have to look at the record division there in Los Angeles. Yeah. They took the record and it came on the national scene at 75 with a star and went all the way to number one in the country music charts. That is so is just an amazing, again, golden nugget of history that we just retrieved. And I love that song. I love that song. And by the way, I was in Playboi Magazine too. Oh, you were? Fancy. What was your year in months? I did an interview, you know, not as good as you. What issue? Shame on me for not looking for that. issue? Yeah. What issue was that, Do what? What year was that? I think it was 74, 75. We'll have to look into that. It was it was an article. They did an interview with me. They did the best. Yeah, yeah, they did the most incredible interview. So, yeah, we'll have to look that up. And how many hit songs did you have with? the Playboy label. had a total of 17 number one records, but eight or nine of them was on Playboy records. In the beginning, I had my first one was Room Full of Roses. I overlooked an orchid, Wind Up Above, City Lights. She's pulling it back again. Bring It On Home. Don't the Girls Get Pretty Close in Time. So that was seven, I think. I think I had seven, but I had some top tens in there too. I have to ask you, just because I was looking at the Playboy logo, not the bunny head, but how it's the red cursive and it's so similar to Gilleys. I wonder if your designer had something to do with that, because that's pretty catchy. I'm drinking this vintage. It tastes really, you need, the Bournon date is not, it's way past due, darling. It's still delicious. You need to bring back the Gilleys beer. Hey, hey, look, at Shiner, Texas. We go through Shiner all the love Shiner Bock too. I love Shiner, yeah. I'm from Austin, so I'm a Texas girl, Believe it or not, my office manager has brought the Gilley Foodland back into view again. Oh, and he also has quite a few different things as far as the Gilly line is concerned. It belongs to him. He's my nephew and he runs my office for me. So he does the Gilly beer. He does marinades. does the Gilly chili and it's really, really some good products. love some marinate. I keep trying to get him to, you know, to expand on his, because it is really good stuff. In fact, I go to a lot of places and people say, you know, where can I get this? Where can I get that? I said, call my office, call the office. Okay. We will cause I love Gilly.com. Okay, Gilleys.com Hey Mickey, let me ask you a question. So how many years, when did you open Gilleys in Pasadena? We opened the club up in March of 1971. Okay. And in 1973, Room Full of Roses became a top record for me in the Houston market. that's what I was gonna ask you, if you performed at your club and how long were you doing your music career? of coinciding with Gilleys, but you just explain what happened with my musical career was that you'll get that you like this little story because when room full of roses went number one on the Playboy record division and the nation, we had booked Conway Twitty at Gilleys in Pasadena, Now, now Conway's coming down and he's listening to the country music stations on his bus and he's hearing room full of roses. But he had put two and two together and figured out that Mickey and Gilleys wanted to say right. Right. Right. And I get to open the show for him. love it. Because I'm playing the club. Right. so when he hears me on the piano, when I made the arpeggio on the piano and I started in room full of roses, he said in the dressing room, he's hearing me sing this song and it dawns on him. This is the guy that's got the record and is number one in the country. I'm talking about it. And I went back to say hello to Conway and the first thing he said to me was, he asked me if I had an agent. And I said, I don't think so. And he says, I'll have somebody down here in a couple of days to talk to you. Well, you know what I thought about it at a particular point in time, here's a guy that has more number one songs than any man on the planet. And he's asking me if I had an agent. I didn't know at the time that when he sent this guy down to talk to me that him and Loretta Lynn on the agency called United Tellers. my goodness, him and Loretta That's how my career got started. love it. You just got hooked up with the proper people. That's beautiful. the get go. I love Loretta Lynn. love her too. Two weeks after I signed the contract, I went to Nashville and I was opening shows with Conway Twitty on the road. So that's how it happened. star. How awesome. I mean, your talent, of course, but my gosh. Two of my favorite people in the music industry was course Conway Twitty and Loretta yeah, can't go wrong with her. my God. And Emmylou Harris, her voice is like an angel. absolutely. I mean, we can go on and on and on. I just love old country. That's where my heart lies. Well, they were really country. talk about that all the time. It's not it's it's Southern Rock. Some of it. not real. It's like it's yeah. And they're not the country. Yes. Like bizarre. mean, this is we're talking to the real deal here. Yeah. He's the real deal. It's true. So a little bird told me that it's the 50th anniversary of Urban Cowboy this year. Is that true? that amazing? That is amazing. Beautiful. Yeah. is really amazing. I don't mind telling you. It's not a day that goes by that I don't think John Travolta will keep my career alive. Yeah. Yeah. Speak to that. I mean, that had to have been a huge deal for Gilleys the club, right? And I heard, and he said, I've heard him say it was one of his, I don't know when he was saying it, but that it was his greatest role. Really? I mean, it really was one of his, ones that just stuck with him and loved playing that role. What made it so awesome for me was because when I found out that he was going to do the film, I thought about the fact is he came off a Saturday night fever and all of a sudden he's going to do this urban cowboy thing, which would turn into be a country night fever. And they could have named it either one, know. But I'm glad they called it the urban cowboy because it really gave us some credibility as far as bringing a lot of different music together in one. particular film that wasn't necessarily country, but it introduced what we were doing to the rest of the world. The whole Gilleys brand, your whole thing that still today, I was telling you, you had asked me, Mickey, if I had been to Treasure Island. Well, my husband works for the show there. so I mean he fixes that bull. They always call him because he can fix anything. And so that bull breaks all the time. There's earrings, there's jewelry below it. mean, but I told you I rode that bull. I think you said something about you being full of bull, but you'd never get on the back of one. really? He said something So you never rode the bull at Gilleys? Come on. Yeah, yeah, she said she wrote the bullet. You there's still Gilleys You never did. But you did you ever you never rode the bullet Gilleys, Mickey? well, I mean, let me put it like this. Yes, I wrote it, but it's very slow. OK, fair enough. And it was sort of a picture thing, you know, they want to take pictures of me on the bull. But no, I never tried to write it like a cowboy stride. Right. And aboard that. That's too much. That's too much pain. Too much pain. Love it. So is there going to be something special done for the Urban Cowboy? I mean, they should re-emulate Gilleys and bring it back for a big, I don't know, party. I tell you what, the Urban Cowboy thing had happened when we had the 40th anniversary. Me and John Lee were on the road and of course I couldn't bring enough other people together, you know, to make it happen. But we called it the Urban Cowboy reunion tour and you'd be surprised at the kind of crowds that we drew out there on the audience. to hear John Lee sing, Looking for Love. And of course I had Stand By Me in the film. And of course with the band, you know, we added the other songs that, that, you know, was performed at like Hello Texas and Anne Murray's, know, Could I Have This Dance and Boss Gags, you know, Love Look What You Did to Me. We put all the songs together and put it in a medley. And the people really got a big kick out of it. bet a medley of all those together. know. got goosebumps. So cool. It was a lot of fun. had a good time doing it too. And by the way, we're still doing the music and the sound, trying to film the Urban Cowboy. John Lee's still singing, Lookin' for Love, and I'm still singing Stand By Me. At 85, I'm still out there performing. your rendition is my favorite. I it. Love it. You'll to play it when we get in the car. I haven't heard his rendition Oh, you have, in Urban Cowboy you have. Oh, and I didn't even realize you've heard it over and over on the radio. Of course. You're gonna... It was a little bit different than Benny King's version because it was slowed down a little bit and had a little more of a touch of smoothness to it. think that the way that the producer produced it for me in Nashville. We have a request. We want you to sing a Can you sing a song for us? Sing Stand By Me for us. is the only light we'll see. No, I won't be afraid. I won't be afraid. Just as long, just as long as you stand by me. from the chorus everybody sings. That was awesome! That was beautiful! Oh my God. I'm in love with you. I wish we could go back and it one more time. Echo's in love with I'm in love with you. Do you date younger women? Well, I'll you what. One of the most played recordings that I made back in the 70s was the girls all get pretty close in time. was number one for me on Playboy Records and it's still getting played today and that's awesome. Very cool. I The girls definitely get better looking at close in time. Yeah, the more you drink, the more of these you have. And I don't mind telling you, when the song come out, the ladies started to request that tune, the don't don't, but the guys started looking better than me closing time too. Isn't that the truth? I love it. So you're on tour right now, aren't you? I'm what now? You're on tour right now? Well, he has a theater. I'm going out to do three dates in Texas and then I'm going back to Branson. OK. And then I got to look at my schedule and see where I'm going from there. What are the dates in Texas? I'm still working in Branson in the spring and the fall. Okay. Just two days a week. I've been there for 25 plus years and we put the urban cowboy thing back together on account of the fact is I joined it with my friend Johnny Lee after being apart from him for quite a few years. Sure. When we put the thing together in Branson and we've been on the road. doing the urban cowboy music and it's been a lot of fun. Well, you need to come to Vegas. What? Where are you? Where are you going in Texas? What are the dates in Texas? We're going to New Brunsville, Kerrville, Kerrville, and then we got a private showing down close to Corsican. You can't call the exact town, but anyway, for three days right in a row. Yeah. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So New Braunfels, New Braunfels, are you going to play at the What's the name of that place there by the river? I'd have checked it. But what's. Yeah. Anyway, well, I get on a bus. You just go where they tell you exactly. I. Yeah, you're you're you're going just particular time and I say, OK, let me get dressed. I'm I'm there. Well, I just asked because I'm from Austin and I'm going back there to buy a home in the next month or two. So if. you were actually gonna be in New Braunfels, I would come down and see you, but I don't know that I Absolutely. Yeah. I can't wait to get back to Texas, by the way. I know, well, I am tired of California. I was just there. I got eaten up by mosquitoes. That's the only thing. was fishing You gotta like Vegas, though. Vegas is a fun town. Oh, it is. I love it there. Yeah, she loves It's hot. It's only 115. Oh, that's enough. It's a little warm, but we don't have the humidity. So that's nice. So Mickey. I'm still working girls. I'm so glad. You know what? I did have a question for you because we have to ask everyone this because it's mostly we've been paying this homage to Hef and all of the people who have circulated through over the years. And you obviously, I can't say get your start, but your first, you know, actual signing that got you kind of on the way. Yeah. With Playboy Records. I did want to ask you, do you remember when you met Hef and what that was like when you met Hugh Hefner? And I know you were hanging out with Barbie Benton because you and her recorded together. Well, thanks to Barbie, she took me to the mansion there in Los Angeles. that's where some of the movie stars usually hung out there. was all new to me what was going on. I met Mr. Hefner, I think he wearing his robe. But I got to say hello to him. And thanks to Barbie, I'd never been able to do that, but it been for her. She took us out there. So that's the thing that I remember the most. Because of the fact that she took me out there and it was awesome to be able to say that I wanted to imagine. It'd be fun to get you two together to sing. I know. We're trying to track down Barbie. Yes. She's a sweetheart. She really was. Everybody just says lovely things about her always. And that was really, true love. Absolutely. I got to work with her in recording session, so it was fun. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. Yeah. I heard that duet. I loved it of you two. It was awesome. This is it. It was very awesome. This is it right here. the one right here. Well, I found it. My husband ordered I was so excited. Look at that picture. Barbie is so know. So cute. So beautiful. It was so awesome being part of the Playboy family, I don't mind telling you, because I was very fortunate to meet Mr. Hefner and be a part of the label and to have the success I had with Playboy. And then of course he sold out to Columbia and I went over to Epic. But I enjoyed being on the Playboy label. was a lot of We were just fascinated by that because we really had no idea. And then we had learned later, you know, they had to eliminate certain things. There was just too much going on. And that was one of the things they cut. I just thought that was so funny. thought, this, this is trivia I did not know. I mean, we're learning so much. Thank you so much for saying that in reference to Playboy and to Mr. Hefner, because, you know, that's what it is all about is just what an incredible human being he was and a gracious man. You know, he created the record label for Barbie Benton because he loved her that much and she wanted to sing. And so that's what he did. And then lo and behold, all this other stuff. then big, you know, it's here's we're talking to a legend. Thanks to her, I had my first number one song on Playboy Records. It hadn't been for the Playboy Record division. I probably never would have made it as a performer and a country music charge because of the fact that I got turned down everywhere. Well, God bless. That's Yes, I love that. So it all worked out. Yeah, it did just fine. I never thought I'd be... I never thought I would have been a centerfold. I look back, I'm like, well, my gosh, you know. Yeah, I think we all have to pinch ourselves initially of like our... Yes, our initial introduction into the whole Playboy world. And then just looking back at all the memories, we're just like, wow, we're just... just filled with gratitude as is everybody else. When I told Echo that you were coming on our show, she just screamed. mean, she's like, are you kidding me? Yeah, we'll see. Because I grew up listening. My father, Fort Worth, and Austin, and I grew up listening to all you guys. So I knew you well. So I was very excited when. she said that you were coming on. Everybody, I'm supposed to say hello from a hundred people, you know, that are like, oh my gosh, you get to see Mickey Gilly? Yeah. Please tell him we love him. Tell him we love him. So I'd to give you a little musical trivia here that you probably don't know this, but in 1959 and 60, my very first chart record in Houston was a song called, It Wrong For Loving You? I love it. And the guy playing the bass guitar in the recording session was Kenny Rogers. Oh my gosh, how cool. And I know that song very well. Kenny Rogers. Wow. That takes you back a little ways. Oh yeah. That is cool. That is very cool. In 1957, I tried to follow my cousin, Jerry Lewis in the music industry. Right. I was working in a construction game, making a dollar 25 cents an hour, saved up $200, made my first recording. 50 something years later, the Yoplait yogurt company in Ireland used my first record in a commercial called Ooey Baby. No way. The Yo Play Yoga in Ireland used it in a commercial. That is so cool. trivia. That's I love Ireland. They used a 30 second clip and if you go to YouTube, you can pull it up. called Ooey Baby by Mickey Kelly. might even show you the commercial. I don't know. anyway, was a cute commercial about Yo Play Yoga Company. We will have to check that out. So where are you based? Are you in Texas? You live in Texas? My office is in Texas. And of course, uh, my, my band and everybody lives in Branson, Missouri, which is more of a central part of United States. Yeah. And that's where I keep the bus right by my old theater that I used to own. Okay. Which, I, uh, I still have part of it because I'm still carrying a note on it. But, other than that, um, my home is in Texas. Yeah. And, uh, your heart and my office is here. Yeah. Got it. And that's where I'm at right now in Pasadena. Okay. Not California, Pasadena, Texas. I know exactly where Pasadena is. I know. I you're probably going to find this hard to believe too, but we used to get mail to come to the club at the Pasadena, Texas. It'd be to Pasadena, California, but they knew it. Gilleys was in. Yeah, they would just say Gilleys. I didn't have my own zip code. My cousin, River Swigert, had his own zip code down in Baton Rouge. Yeah, y'all, they need to do a movie about Yeah, that is so interesting when Karina told me that Jerry Lee was your cousin. Yeah, and they're so different. God. You're so different, but you're so dynamic. Talk to us about Jerry Lee growing up and playing that piano like he did. Jerry started playing when he was about seven years old. Okay. And everybody asked me, know, undoubtedly... The greatest talent in our family was Jerry Lee Lewis. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. absolutely. And if you think about the fact that all three of us grew up in Faraday, Louisiana, we all three went to the same school and we're all three in our eighties now, six months different age. I'm the youngest, Jerry's the middle, Jimmy's the oldest. And we all three had success in a different kind of music. I had 17 number one country music songs. Jerry Lee is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reverend Squigget is one of the biggest selling gospel singers in the world. gives me good Yeah, to have a tripod like that in one family, that doesn't happen often. That's huge. I mean, for three guys to be that close in a little small town and have what happened, it's almost like it's It's miracle. Well, it's, believe, in divine. Yeah, was God's plan. Yeah, it God's plan. Let's get the Playboy record division to, you know, form a movie film and let's do a movie on Mickey Gilly. Let's do it. No, and I'll produce that. We're going to do it. Playboy. There's no longer Playboy that exists. with him. I'm going to tell you what. We will do it. Mickey, I want to talk to you about that because we do. have to get it. We have some ideas. Such a good movie. That will make such an incredible movie. We have to do it. Let's do it. I'm gonna be calling you. make that happen. Yeah, that's my thing. And we're planning a huge celebration of life party for Mr. Hefner because when he passed, there was no memorial or farewell for any of us to say goodbye to him. And it was really heartbreaking. And you know, we're still all mourning him and somebody of his stature deserves and needs to be honored with a celebration as such. You must be at that party when it occurs. Yes, we want to give you an invite. We would love you to be there. It'll be in his We're going to do it exactly the way he would have a party. At the Playboy Mansion. And just, it's going to be a beautiful thing. That would be awesome. You are a philanthropist. Get up and sing a song. That would be awesome. Yeah, you got it. You got it. So we will keep you posted. Thank you so much for coming on. Hey, thanks for having me on and it's been a pleasure, honor, telling you to lovely ladies. Thank you. And hopefully if I get somewhere close, you come to the concert. Yes, please. That would be a gift. I'll fly out just to see you. And we can chat. Yeah. So so Gilleys.com is where we can go. And for the Gilleys Food Department, you can find stuff there as well as Gilleys.com And you talk to Jeffrey. He's my office manager and my nephew. OK. And he handles all the food line and there's a lot of great. Well, I think in the food line, too, I think you'd like spices and things of that sort that it's delicious. yeah, anyway. All right. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure being on the show. Thanks having me. I just want to hang out with you all day. We can't to meet you in person and give you a big hug. My new best friend. love you. I can handle that. I don't mind telling you. It's been an honor and pleasure. Thank you. you, sweetheart. been an honor and pleasure for us. Bless you. much. a great day. All right. Bye bye. you https://gilleys.com/https://gilleys.com/ECHO JOHNSON (00:38) you Hey y'all, Echo here. Welcome back to the show. Today, we're going to get into some fun history about Playboy Records. I you all didn't even know that Playboy did indeed have a record label. We had no idea that Playboy even had a record label. And just through all of our research and talking to colleagues, friends, historians, we found out about Playboy Records. So with that, We had the absolute honor and privilege of interviewing the great Mickey Gilley, who was assigned to Playway Records. So we did the interview. It was fantastic. We went into the podcast, not knowing a thing about how to create a podcast, right? So we did it. We pulled it off, but we made a mistake with the... with the studio that we opted to use for our first go round of filming interviews. Short and sweet of it is the studio ended up erasing four of our shows, four, four of our shows. And they erased half of one of our shows. That show was Mickey Gilley. So I and Karina have been pondering how can we release the 20 minute interview we have with Mickey at the very least. and I came up with the idea, let's talk about Playboy Records, do some fun factoids, and then we'll roll into the Mickey Gilley interview. So that's what we're gonna do today. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment down below. Let's get into it. Okay, so today we're talking about Playboy Records. By the late 1960s, Hugh Hefner wasn't thinking like a magazine publisher anymore. He was now thinking like a media mogul. Playboy already had magazines, the clubs, the TV show, Penthouse after dark, a lifestyle identity, music was the missing piece. And it made sense. Jazz, soul and live music were already core to the Playboy Club experience. So Playboy Records was officially launched in the early 1970s as a division of Playboy. enterprises. Its mission was to create a label that blended sophisticated adult taste. This wasn't supposed to be a gimmick. It was meant to compete. Additionally, a fun little factoid is that Barbie Benton has long time girlfriend in the seventies, the woman who found Playboy Mansion West in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Barbie loved country, all things country, and she wanted to record an album. And so at the behest of Barbie Benton, as well as Hef's keen eye on the big empire, he said, let's go for it. And they created Playboy Records. It wasn't supposed to be a gimmick, it was actually meant to compete. So Hef used the TV pipeline strategy. This is where Hefner was way ahead of his time again. Playboy already had built in promotions through the shows like Playboy After Dark, or artists who performed on Playboy TV platforms. One of the biggest things about that show in particular, a Penthouse After Dark, was that Have had, because this was still an era of segregation, Have would have black artists come and perform and there was co-mingling of black people and white people. Actually, the show was not allowed to air in the South, believe it or not, because of this finite point. So I thought that was interesting. Playboy After Dark artists who performed on Playboy TV platforms, they could promote their music. They could build brand alignment, feed into the record label ecosystem. And this is early vertical integration. If you think about it decades before influencers and media brands did it. I always like to say that HEF was the OG of interactive media, social media, if you want to call it that, because he was doing this decades before social media even became a thing. If you look at every single magazine, they're tactile, they're fun. the sponsors and the advertisers, they would have hubs in there that were like, you would fold stuff out, it would turn into a picture, it would have different feel and like sensation to it. Like HEF was just way ahead of his time. Notable artists and breakthrough moments. Number one, label's biggest success was Teresa Brewer, a veteran pop singer who reinvented herself. Her disco era hit music, music, music. This became Playboy Records biggest commercial success hands down. Now, Playboy succeeded most when it leaned into existing stars, not by building new ones. Number two, there was a big country music push and Mickey Gilley was at the forefront of it. After 17 years in the country music industry, Mickey signed to Playboy Records and it was through Playboy's distribution deals that he became a major country star. Mickey would go on to have eight number one hits between 1974 and 1977 all through his affiliation with Playboy Records. Playboy tried to also diversify beyond jazz, not always successfully, but they tried. Number three, soul and RB talent, artists like Brenda Lee Eager, Candy Stanton, these signings all lined with the Playboy Club sound and urban nightlife culture. Playboy leaned heavily into jazz artists. Think instrumental lounge acts, sophisticated cocktail culture sound, this was HEF's favorite. It matched the brand perfectly, but it limited its mass appeal. And then this is when the problems arrived. So let's talk about why Playboy Records struggled. First and foremost, there was an identity crisis. Was Playboy Records a jazz label, a pop label, a novelty brand, and never really fully committed? Industry competition was... brutal. They were competing against powerhouse labels such as Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, Motown. These labels had deep rosters and established credibility. Number three, brand perception problem. The Playboy name worked against the label in some cases. Radio stations hesitated to play them and some artists didn't even want the association. It was seen as a lifestyle brand, not a music authority. Number four, distribution challenges. Playboy lacked strong national distribution pipelines early on. And then there was the retail leverage. Compared to major labels, even Playboy's great standout artists, their records struggled to reach audiences. A misalignment with the times. By the late 70s, disco had exploded, punk and rock evolved, and hip hop emerged. Playboy's sophisticated lounge identity started to feel outdated. Then there was the quiet decline and exit in the 80s. By the early 1980s, sales underperformed, strategic focus shifted elsewhere, and Playboy Enterprises began scaling back music operations. The label faded quietly, there was no dramatic shutdown, it just simply became irrelevant at that point in time. The label wasn't about hits, it was about reinforcing the Playboy identity. It was an early example of brand expansion failure. Not every lifestyle brand, AKA as ever, translates into every medium and music proves that. TV and music integration was ahead of its time. Playboy After Dark functioned like an early cross-platform promotional engine. The label reflected Hefner's personal taste until the day he died. This was his favorite style of music. It mirrored Hef's own personal preference and ultimately that would come at the cost of Playboy Records. It never produced a true superstar. No major artist ever became synonymous with Playboy Records. The Bunny brand didn't carry over to music. What worked in print and clubs didn't automatically translate to record sales. It was competing during a golden age of music labels. The 70s were dominated by powerhouse labels. It was a very tough environment to break into and to be successful. It showed the limits of vertical integration. Even with built-in promotion, execution still matters. It was part of a larger Playboy Everywhere strategy. Magazines, clubs, TV, records, merchandise, have won a total cultural saturation. It's now a forgotten piece of the Playboy empire. Most people, even fans, don't know it existed, much like Karina and I, and to our surprise, which makes it perfect content for you. But here's something most people don't know. Playboy didn't just try to control magazines and nightlife and television. It also tried to control music. In the early 1970s, Hugh Hefner was no longer thinking like a publisher. He was thinking like a cultural architect. Because by that point, Playboy wasn't just a magazine. It was a lifestyle. The clubs had a sound, the mansion had a vibe, the brand had rhythm, and Hefner wanted to own that rhythm. So Playboy launched its own label, Playboy Records. The idea was simple but ambitious, to say the least. create a soundtrack for the Playboy lifestyle. Sophisticated, smooth, late night, something you'd hear in a velvet booth under dim lights with a drink in hand. And on paper, it made perfect sense. Playboy already had built-in promotion. Through shows like Playboy After Dark, artists could perform in front of a national audience. The clubs featured live music. The magazine had cultural influence. This was vertical integration before anyone was calling it that. Again, HEF way ahead of his time. But here's where things get interesting. The label never quite figured out what it wanted to be. Was it going to be jazz? How about pop? Was it soul? Let's go in a country. It tried to be all of the above. And in the music industry, that's a dangerous place to live. Because while Playboy leaned into lounge and sophistication, America was shifting. The 1970s music scene was exploding. Rock was evolving. Disco was taking over dance floors. Country music was finding new audiences. And right in the middle of that shift, you have an artist whose story intersects with Playboy in a way most people don't even realize. Mickey. Now, Mickey Gilley is best known today for helping define the urban cowboy era of country music. But what about before that? He was grinding it out in Texas clubs, building a following the hard way. Night after night, song after song. And for a moment, Playboy Records saw something in that. Because Gilley represented something the brand didn't fully have yet, authenticity. not the curated fantasy of the mansion, but the real lived in energy of American nightlife. Playboy Records made moves into country music, trying to expand beyond its jazz and soul roots. An artist like Mickey Gilley became part of that broader experiment. Now this is important, Playboy didn't create Mickey Gilley, it didn't manufacture his success. What it tried to do was plug into it, and that was a pattern for the label. It struggled to build stars from scratch, but it occasionally aligned itself with artists who were already on the rise. That speaks to a bigger truth about Playboy Records. It had vision, yes, but it didn't always have focus. It had access, absolutely, but not always credibility in the music world. And it had branding power, of course, but branding alone doesn't sell records. Because while Playboy was trying to carve out its place in music, it was competing with giants. Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, Motown, labels that didn't just understand music, they defined it. And against that kind of competition, Playboy Records slowly started to fade. No major superstar, no defining sound, no breakout moment that stuck. By the early 80s, quietly disappeared, no big announcement, no dramatic ending, just gone. But here's the thing, even though Playboy Records didn't become a music powerhouse, it still tells you something important about Hugh Hefner. He wasn't satisfied being part of culture. He wanted to own every piece of it. The look, the lifestyle, the conversation, and yes, even the soundtrack. And that brings us back to Mickey Gilley because while Playboy's music ambitions may have faded, Gilley's story did not. In fact, it was just getting started. All right, so that was the business side of it. But now we get to hear from someone who actually lived it. Before he passed, we had the incredible opportunity to sit down with a true legend, Mickey Gilley. And fun fact, this was his very first Zoom interview. So yeah, we had to break him in a little bit. He loved every bit of it though. What you're about to hear is real, it's unfiltered, and it's straight from the era when all of this was happening in real time. Here's our conversation with Mickey Gilley. That's only boy ever had a record label. Absolutely. When we got the whole story and figured out that Barbie Benton did it for Barbie because she wanted to sing and then so he delegated so and so to be in charge of it. and then found out that you were part of it and that was the beginning of your career. Well, Leon, who was your PR guy back during the Gilleys days, he and I are friends on Facebook and he sent me a picture of a playmate on a bull in your club and he said, do you know her? And I said, I don't, she's gorgeous. I said, we are doing this vodcast, the Bunny Chronicles. And that's pretty interesting history when he was telling me about Gilleys and that you cut your first records with Playboy. That was your first label. We were blown away. wasn't my first recording, but it was my first number one song in the nation. Right, right, right. Yeah. And you had... I had struggled for 17 years trying to have hit songs. And I walked in recording studio one day. Uh, actually, uh, the lady heard me sing a song on the little TV show I had locally in Houston. Uh huh. And, I walked in the club one night and she said, today on your TV show, you did my favorite song. And I said, what was it? And she said, she called me baby all night long. I said, yes, ma'am, that's a Haunton-Haverton. And she says, I want you to record that for me. got 300 jukeboxes and I have the jukebox here in the club and I'm going to put it on 300 jukeboxes for you to be good for you around this part of the country. And, the people that hear your music, you know, on the jukebox. And I hadn't been making records at that particular point in time. And I told her, so I said, you can get Harlan Howell's version of it. That's where I left the record. And she said that records out of print. Bottom line was she taught me to go into the recording studio to record. She called me baby all night long. And for the B side, I picked a song called room full of roses that I grew up singing with Judy Lewis and Reverend Swaggart. Oh my goodness. Your cousin. We were just boys growing up in Faraday, Louisiana. Yeah. And whether Some of you people don't know this. I mean, I'm 85 now and in my eighties. And of course, my cousin, Jerry Lewis, is six months older than I am. Reverend Swigert is a year older than I am. So we're all in our eighties, but we all grew up in Faraday, Louisiana. Right. And we all three learned to play piano and perform. And we all three had success in music, which is really ironic to think. Bottom line is I had 17 number one country music songs thanks to the the Playboy Record division, by the way, because they broke the ice for me. Everybody else turned me down. There you got it. This is with Barbie, the one you recorded with Barbie. Well, we need to mention the fact that that's so cool. The way the thing happened was I was in Nashville, Tennessee, trying to get a record company to pick up Runeful of Roses because it was my first number one song in the Houston market. And everybody turned it down. And I was getting ready to leave when a friend of mine by the name of Eddie Kilroy, who later become part of the record division and open an office there in Nashville, representing the Playboy record division. And he says, he asked me what I was doing in Nashville. And I told him I was up there trying to get the recording released to a major label so they could take it nationally for me. And he said, I got a company to take it. And I said, who? And he said, Playboy records. And he was sort of a jokester and I thought he was kidding with me. And he said, come to my office. I went to the office and he had this little 45 with the money head on it through the record at me. He said, there it is right there. You know, it sends some records. And I said, I couldn't believe it. He says, they will take this record. And I said, really? So we jumped on the airplane and flew out to Los Angeles. And of all things, I still remember the guy's name. His name was Tom Takeyoshi. That was running the record division from Mr. Hefner. I have to look at the record division there in Los Angeles. Yeah. They took the record and it came on the national scene at 75 with a star and went all the way to number one in the country music charts. That is so is just an amazing, again, golden nugget of history that we just retrieved. And I love that song. I love that song. And by the way, I was in Playboi Magazine too. Oh, you were? Fancy. What was your year in months? I did an interview, you know, not as good as you. What issue? Shame on me for not looking for that. issue? Yeah. What issue was that, Do what? What year was that? I think it was 74, 75. We'll have to look into that. It was it was an article. They did an interview with me. They did the best. Yeah, yeah, they did the most incredible interview. So, yeah, we'll have to look that up. And how many hit songs did you have with? the Playboy label. had a total of 17 number one records, but eight or nine of them was on Playboy records. In the beginning, I had my first one was Room Full of Roses. I overlooked an orchid, Wind Up Above, City Lights. She's pulling it back again. Bring It On Home. Don't the Girls Get Pretty Close in Time. So that was seven, I think. I think I had seven, but I had some top tens in there too. I have to ask you, just because I was looking at the Playboy logo, not the bunny head, but how it's the red cursive and it's so similar to Gilleys. I wonder if your designer had something to do with that, because that's pretty catchy. I'm drinking this vintage. It tastes really, you need, the Bournon date is not, it's way past due, darling. It's still delicious. You need to bring back the Gilleys beer. Hey, hey, look, at Shiner, Texas. We go through Shiner all the love Shiner Bock too. I love Shiner, yeah. I'm from Austin, so I'm a Texas girl, Believe it or not, my office manager has brought the Gilley Foodland back into view again. Oh, and he also has quite a few different things as far as the Gilly line is concerned. It belongs to him. He's my nephew and he runs my office for me. So he does the Gilly beer. He does marinades. does the Gilly chili and it's really, really some good products. love some marinate. I keep trying to get him to, you know, to expand on his, because it is really good stuff. In fact, I go to a lot of places and people say, you know, where can I get this? Where can I get that? I said, call my office, call the office. Okay. We will cause I love Gilly.com. Okay, Gilleys.com Hey Mickey, let me ask you a question. So how many years, when did you open Gilleys in Pasadena? We opened the club up in March of 1971. Okay. And in 1973, Room Full of Roses became a top record for me in the Houston market. that's what I was gonna ask you, if you performed at your club and how long were you doing your music career? of coinciding with Gilleys, but you just explain what happened with my musical career was that you'll get that you like this little story because when room full of roses went number one on the Playboy record division and the nation, we had booked Conway Twitty at Gilleys in Pasadena, Now, now Conway's coming down and he's listening to the country music stations on his bus and he's hearing room full of roses. But he had put two and two together and figured out that Mickey and Gilleys wanted to say right. Right. Right. And I get to open the show for him. love it. Because I'm playing the club. Right. so when he hears me on the piano, when I made the arpeggio on the piano and I started in room full of roses, he said in the dressing room, he's hearing me sing this song and it dawns on him. This is the guy that's got the record and is number one in the country. I'm talking about it. And I went back to say hello to Conway and the first thing he said to me was, he asked me if I had an agent. And I said, I don't think so. And he says, I'll have somebody down here in a couple of days to talk to you. Well, you know what I thought about it at a particular point in time, here's a guy that has more number one songs than any man on the planet. And he's asking me if I had an agent. I didn't know at the time that when he sent this guy down to talk to me that him and Loretta Lynn on the agency called United Tellers. my goodness, him and Loretta That's how my career got started. love it. You just got hooked up with the proper people. That's beautiful. the get go. I love Loretta Lynn. love her too. Two weeks after I signed the contract, I went to Nashville and I was opening shows with Conway Twitty on the road. So that's how it happened. star. How awesome. I mean, your talent, of course, but my gosh. Two of my favorite people in the music industry was course Conway Twitty and Loretta yeah, can't go wrong with her. my God. And Emmylou Harris, her voice is like an angel. absolutely. I mean, we can go on and on and on. I just love old country. That's where my heart lies. Well, they were really country. talk about that all the time. It's not it's it's Southern Rock. Some of it. not real. It's like it's yeah. And they're not the country. Yes. Like bizarre. mean, this is we're talking to the real deal here. Yeah. He's the real deal. It's true. So a little bird told me that it's the 50th anniversary of Urban Cowboy this year. Is that true? that amazing? That is amazing. Beautiful. Yeah. is really amazing. I don't mind telling you. It's not a day that goes by that I don't think John Travolta will keep my career alive. Yeah. Yeah. Speak to that. I mean, that had to have been a huge deal for Gilleys the club, right? And I heard, and he said, I've heard him say it was one of his, I don't know when he was saying it, but that it was his greatest role. Really? I mean, it really was one of his, ones that just stuck with him and loved playing that role. What made it so awesome for me was because when I found out that he was going to do the film, I thought about the fact is he came off a Saturday night fever and all of a sudden he's going to do this urban cowboy thing, which would turn into be a country night fever. And they could have named it either one, know. But I'm glad they called it the urban cowboy because it really gave us some credibility as far as bringing a lot of different music together in one. particular film that wasn't necessarily country, but it introduced what we were doing to the rest of the world. The whole Gilleys brand, your whole thing that still today, I was telling you, you had asked me, Mickey, if I had been to Treasure Island. Well, my husband works for the show there. so I mean he fixes that bull. They always call him because he can fix anything. And so that bull breaks all the time. There's earrings, there's jewelry below it. mean, but I told you I rode that bull. I think you said something about you being full of bull, but you'd never get on the back of one. really? He said something So you never rode the bull at Gilleys? Come on. Yeah, yeah, she said she wrote the bullet. You there's still Gilleys You never did. But you did you ever you never rode the bullet Gilleys, Mickey? well, I mean, let me put it like this. Yes, I wrote it, but it's very slow. OK, fair enough. And it was sort of a picture thing, you know, they want to take pictures of me on the bull. But no, I never tried to write it like a cowboy stride. Right. And aboard that. That's too much. That's too much pain. Too much pain. Love it. So is there going to be something special done for the Urban Cowboy? I mean, they should re-emulate Gilleys and bring it back for a big, I don't know, party. I tell you what, the Urban Cowboy thing had happened when we had the 40th anniversary. Me and John Lee were on the road and of course I couldn't bring enough other people together, you know, to make it happen. But we called it the Urban Cowboy reunion tour and you'd be surprised at the kind of crowds that we drew out there on the audience. to hear John Lee sing, Looking for Love. And of course I had Stand By Me in the film. And of course with the band, you know, we added the other songs that, that, you know, was performed at like Hello Texas and Anne Murray's, know, Could I Have This Dance and Boss Gags, you know, Love Look What You Did to Me. We put all the songs together and put it in a medley. And the people really got a big kick out of it. bet a medley of all those together. know. got goosebumps. So cool. It was a lot of fun. had a good time doing it too. And by the way, we're still doing the music and the sound, trying to film the Urban Cowboy. John Lee's still singing, Lookin' for Love, and I'm still singing Stand By Me. At 85, I'm still out there performing. your rendition is my favorite. I it. Love it. You'll to play it when we get in the car. I haven't heard his rendition Oh, you have, in Urban Cowboy you have. Oh, and I didn't even realize you've heard it over and over on the radio. Of course. You're gonna... It was a little bit different than Benny King's version because it was slowed down a little bit and had a little more of a touch of smoothness to it. think that the way that the producer produced it for me in Nashville. We have a request. We want you to sing a Can you sing a song for us? Sing Stand By Me for us. is the only light we'll see. No, I won't be afraid. I won't be afraid. Just as long, just as long as you stand by me. from the chorus everybody sings. That was awesome! That was beautiful! Oh my God. I'm in love with you. I wish we could go back and it one more time. Echo's in love with I'm in love with you. Do you date younger women? Well, I'll you what. One of the most played recordings that I made back in the 70s was the girls all get pretty close in time. was number one for me on Playboy Records and it's still getting played today and that's awesome. Very cool. I The girls definitely get better looking at close in time. Yeah, the more you drink, the more of these you have. And I don't mind telling you, when the song come out, the ladies started to request that tune, the don't don't, but the guys started looking better than me closing time too. Isn't that the truth? I love it. So you're on tour right now, aren't you? I'm what now? You're on tour right now? Well, he has a theater. I'm going out to do three dates in Texas and then I'm going back to Branson. OK. And then I got to look at my schedule and see where I'm going from there. What are the dates in Texas? I'm still working in Branson in the spring and the fall. Okay. Just two days a week. I've been there for 25 plus years and we put the urban cowboy thing back together on account of the fact is I joined it with my friend Johnny Lee after being apart from him for quite a few years. Sure. When we put the thing together in Branson and we've been on the road. doing the urban cowboy music and it's been a lot of fun. Well, you need to come to Vegas. What? Where are you? Where are you going in Texas? What are the dates in Texas? We're going to New Brunsville, Kerrville, Kerrville, and then we got a private showing down close to Corsican. You can't call the exact town, but anyway, for three days right in a row. Yeah. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So New Braunfels, New Braunfels, are you going to play at the What's the name of that place there by the river? I'd have checked it. But what's. Yeah. Anyway, well, I get on a bus. You just go where they tell you exactly. I. Yeah, you're you're you're going just particular time and I say, OK, let me get dressed. I'm I'm there. Well, I just asked because I'm from Austin and I'm going back there to buy a home in the next month or two. So if. you were actually gonna be in New Braunfels, I would come down and see you, but I don't know that I Absolutely. Yeah. I can't wait to get back to Texas, by the way. I know, well, I am tired of California. I was just there. I got eaten up by mosquitoes. That's the only thing. was fishing You gotta like Vegas, though. Vegas is a fun town. Oh, it is. I love it there. Yeah, she loves It's hot. It's only 115. Oh, that's enough. It's a little warm, but we don't have the humidity. So that's nice. So Mickey. I'm still working girls. I'm so glad. You know what? I did have a question for you because we have to ask everyone this because it's mostly we've been paying this homage to Hef and all of the people who have circulated through over the years. And you obviously, I can't say get your start, but your first, you know, actual signing that got you kind of on the way. Yeah. With Playboy Records. I did want to ask you, do you remember when you met Hef and what that was like when you met Hugh Hefner? And I know you were hanging out with Barbie Benton because you and her recorded together. Well, thanks to Barbie, she took me to the mansion there in Los Angeles. that's where some of the movie stars usually hung out there. was all new to me what was going on. I met Mr. Hefner, I think he wearing his robe. But I got to say hello to him. And thanks to Barbie, I'd never been able to do that, but it been for her. She took us out there. So that's the thing that I remember the most. Because of the fact that she took me out there and it was awesome to be able to say that I wanted to imagine. It'd be fun to get you two together to sing. I know. We're trying to track down Barbie. Yes. She's a sweetheart. She really was. Everybody just says lovely things about her always. And that was really, true love. Absolutely. I got to work with her in recording session, so it was fun. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. Yeah. I heard that duet. I loved it of you two. It was awesome. This is it. It was very awesome. This is it right here. the one right here. Well, I found it. My husband ordered I was so excited. Look at that picture. Barbie is so know. So cute. So beautiful. It was so awesome being part of the Playboy family, I don't mind telling you, because I was very fortunate to meet Mr. Hefner and be a part of the label and to have the success I had with Playboy. And then of course he sold out to Columbia and I went over to Epic. But I enjoyed being on the Playboy label. was a lot of We were just fascinated by that because we really had no idea. And then we had learned later, you know, they had to eliminate certain things. There was just too much going on. And that was one of the things they cut. I just thought that was so funny. thought, this, this is trivia I did not know. I mean, we're learning so much. Thank you so much for saying that in reference to Playboy and to Mr. Hefner, because, you know, that's what it is all about is just what an incredible human being he was and a gracious man. You know, he created the record label for Barbie Benton because he loved her that much and she wanted to sing. And so that's what he did. And then lo and behold, all this other stuff. then big, you know, it's here's we're talking to a legend. Thanks to her, I had my first number one song on Playboy Records. It hadn't been for the Playboy Record division. I probably never would have made it as a performer and a country music charge because of the fact that I got turned down everywhere. Well, God bless. That's Yes, I love that. So it all worked out. Yeah, it did just fine. I never thought I'd be... I never thought I would have been a centerfold. I look back, I'm like, well, my gosh, you know. Yeah, I think we all have to pinch ourselves initially of like our... Yes, our initial introduction into the whole Playboy world. And then just looking back at all the memories, we're just like, wow, we're just... just filled with gratitude as is everybody else. When I told Echo that you were coming on our show, she just screamed. mean, she's like, are you kidding me? Yeah, we'll see. Because I grew up listening. My father, Fort Worth, and Austin, and I grew up listening to all you guys. So I knew you well. So I was very excited when. she said that you were coming on. Everybody, I'm supposed to say hello from a hundred people, you know, that are like, oh my gosh, you get to see Mickey Gilly? Yeah. Please tell him we love him. Tell him we love him. So I'd to give you a little musical trivia here that you probably don't know this, but in 1959 and 60, my very first chart record in Houston was a song called, It Wrong For Loving You? I love it. And the guy playing the bass guitar in the recording session was Kenny Rogers. Oh my gosh, how cool. And I know that song very well. Kenny Rogers. Wow. That takes you back a little ways. Oh yeah. That is cool. That is very cool. In 1957, I tried to follow my cousin, Jerry Lewis in the music industry. Right. I was working in a construction game, making a dollar 25 cents an hour, saved up $200, made my first recording. 50 something years later, the Yoplait yogurt company in Ireland used my first record in a commercial called Ooey Baby. No way. The Yo Play Yoga in Ireland used it in a commercial. That is so cool. trivia. That's I love Ireland. They used a 30 second clip and if you go to YouTube, you can pull it up. called Ooey Baby by Mickey Kelly. might even show you the commercial. I don't know. anyway, was a cute commercial about Yo Play Yoga Company. We will have to check that out. So where are you based? Are you in Texas? You live in Texas? My office is in Texas. And of course, uh, my, my band and everybody lives in Branson, Missouri, which is more of a central part of United States. Yeah. And that's where I keep the bus right by my old theater that I used to own. Okay. Which, I, uh, I still have part of it because I'm still carrying a note on it. But, other than that, um, my home is in Texas. Yeah. And, uh, your heart and my office is here. Yeah. Got it. And that's where I'm at right now in Pasadena. Okay. Not California, Pasadena, Texas. I know exactly where Pasadena is. I know. I you're probably going to find this hard to believe too, but we used to get mail to come to the club at the Pasadena, Texas. It'd be to Pasadena, California, but they knew it. Gilleys was in. Yeah, they would just say Gilleys. I didn't have my own zip code. My cousin, River Swigert, had his own zip code down in Baton Rouge. Yeah, y'all, they need to do a movie about Yeah, that is so interesting when Karina told me that Jerry Lee was your cousin. Yeah, and they're so different. God. You're so different, but you're so dynamic. Talk to us about Jerry Lee growing up and playing that piano like he did. Jerry started playing when he was about seven years old. Okay. And everybody asked me, know, undoubtedly... The greatest talent in our family was Jerry Lee Lewis. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. absolutely. And if you think about the fact that all three of us grew up in Faraday, Louisiana, we all three went to the same school and we're all three in our eighties now, six months different age. I'm the youngest, Jerry's the middle, Jimmy's the oldest. And we all three had success in a different kind of music. I had 17 number one country music songs. Jerry Lee is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reverend Squigget is one of the biggest selling gospel singers in the world. gives me good Yeah, to have a tripod like that in one family, that doesn't happen often. That's huge. I mean, for three guys to be that close in a little small town and have what happened, it's almost like it's It's miracle. Well, it's, believe, in divine. Yeah, was God's plan. Yeah, it God's plan. Let's get the Playboy record division to, you know, form a movie film and let's do a movie on Mickey Gilly. Let's do it. No, and I'll produce that. We're going to do it. Playboy. There's no longer Playboy that exists. with him. I'm going to tell you what. We will do it. Mickey, I want to talk to you about that because we do. have to get it. We have some ideas. Such a good movie. That will make such an incredible movie. We have to do it. Let's do it. I'm gonna be calling you. make that happen. Yeah, that's my thing. And we're planning a huge celebration of life party for Mr. Hefner because when he passed, there was no memorial or farewell for any of us to say goodbye to him. And it was really heartbreaking. And you know, we're still all mourning him and somebody of his stature deserves and needs to be honored with a celebration as such. You must be at that party when it occurs. Yes, we want to give you an invite. We would love you to be there. It'll be in his We're going to do it exactly the way he would have a party. At the Playboy Mansion. And just, it's going to be a beautiful thing. That would be awesome. You are a philanthropist. Get up and sing a song. That would be awesome. Yeah, you got it. You got it. So we will keep you posted. Thank you so much for coming on. Hey, thanks for having me on and it's been a pleasure, honor, telling you to lovely ladies. Thank you. And hopefully if I get somewhere close, you come to the concert. Yes, please. That would be a gift. I'll fly out just to see you. And we can chat. Yeah. So so Gilleys.com is where we can go. And for the Gilleys Food Department, you can find stuff there as well as Gilleys.com And you talk to Jeffrey. He's my office manager and my nephew. OK. And he handles all the food line and there's a lot of great. Well, I think in the food line, too, I think you'd like spices and things of that sort that it's delicious. yeah, anyway. All right. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure being on the show. Thanks having me. I just want to hang out with you all day. We can't to meet you in person and give you a big hug. My new best friend. love you. I can handle that. I don't mind telling you. It's been an honor and pleasure. Thank you. you, sweetheart. been an honor and pleasure for us. Bless you. much. a great day. All right. Bye bye. you