Mickey Leroy Gili was born on March 9, 1936 in Natchez, Mrs., to Irene (Louis) and Arthur Gili. Growing up in nearby Feridey, Lewis grew up singing gospel harmonies with his cousins, Mr. Swagart and Mr. Lewis, and sneaked into local jukeboxes with them to listen to blues and honky-tonk music.
Mr. Gilly’s mother bought him a piano when he was 10, shortly before he came under the tutelage of his cousin-inspired cousin Jerry. However, Mr. Gilly would not start playing professionally until he was in his 20s, a few years after moving to Houston to work in the construction industry.
He released his first single “Ooh Wee Baby” in 1957, just to wait 55 years to find an audience: he appeared in a TV commercial for Yoplait yogurt in 2012. His first record reached the charts. “Is It Wrong (For Loving You)” (1959), starring future star Kenny Rodgers on bass guitar.
Settling in Pasadena in the early 1960s, Mr. Gili began playing regularly at the Nesadel Club, a rough and rolling honki-tonk owned by his future business partner, Mr. Krayer. However, his musical career did not gain popularity until 1974, when Hugh Hefner’s Playboy re-released his version of “Room Full of Roses”, which was the number 2 pop hit in 1949 for singer Sami Kay. Mr. Gili’s iteration became the number one country single.
Mr Gili has since enjoyed a decade at or near the top of the country’s charts. In the midst of the Urban Cowboy boom, he had six consecutive No. 1 hits.
As Gilley’s movement has given way to neo-traditionalism, which is returning to the foundations of country music from the mid-1980s, Mr Gilley is increasingly turning his attention to his nightclub, where a protracted conflict with Mr. n Cryer, who died in 2009, had previously forced the men to end their partnership. Mr. Gilly closed the honky-tonk in 1989, a year before a fire destroyed much of the building.
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