I went to Emory University for one semester. When I got out of high school, I moved to Atlanta in ‘58. In the late ‘50s you moved to Atlanta and joined Vee-Jay Records. I put words to them when I was about 14-the same time Buddy Holly started making it. He said, “You did not.” He couldn’t fathom that and neither could I. I remember my Daddy asking me, “What’s that song you’re whistling?” and I told him I made it up. Nobody in my family played instruments or sang. I don’t call it a talent I call it a gift. As soon as I learned to whistle I started making up songs. My daddy thought every kid should learn to whistle. I started writing melodies when I was seven, eight, nine years old. It was so strange to see a local boy accomplish the things he did and become so huge. I used to go to the dances at Lawson’s skating rink and see him play on weekends. I remember sitting on my front porch and seeing Buddy Holly purposefully drive by at 25 miles an hour in his brand new Pontiac Catalina with these good looking girls in the car… going, “Woah! If he can do that, I can do that!” I wrote about it in “Texas In My Rearview Mirror.” I mention if Buddy Holly could make it that far, I could too. It’s like a muse of some sort, the West Texas plains.

There’s a feeling of isolation out there I think inspires a lot of people. Yet if you stand back and look it’s a vista, you can see for miles and miles. There’s tornadoes and foul weather and wind blowing constantly. Joe Ely jumps in my head, and he’s a poet. There’s a passel of people out in West Texas that are good writers. Growing up in Lubbock, how did that environment impact on your work as a songwriter?

Currently working on a new CD, his first since 1994’s Will Work For Food, he’s still passionate about songwriting-still caught up in that intoxicating rush of writing a great tune. By the turn of the ‘70s, Mac would also go on to enjoy major success as a recording artist, straddling the pop and country worlds and racking up an impressive array of timeless gems like “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” “I Believe In Music,” “Stop and Smell The Roses,” “Hooked On Music,” “One Hell of A Woman,” “You’re My Bestest Friend” and “Texas In My Rearview Mirror.”Īn inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000, at age 66, Mac is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Through the years, whether composing hits cut by the likes of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Glen Campbell, Lou Rawls and Bobby Goldsboro, Davis’s innate gift as an evocative storyteller is a hallmark of his work. 1 smash, “In The Ghetto,” Lubbock, Texas, native Mac Davis’s place in the annals of important songwriters would be assured. This article originally appeared in the January/February 2009 issue.

Glen campbell mac davis music