Mickey Leroy Gilley was born on March 9, 1936, in Natchez, Miss., to Irene (Lewis) and Arthur Gilley. Growing up in Ferriday, La., he grew up singing gospel harmonies with his cousins Mr. Swaggart and Mr. Lewis, and sneaking into the local theater with them to listen to blues and honky-tonk music.
Mr. Gilley’s mother bought him a piano when he was 10 years old, not long before he was raised under the boogie-woogie inspiration of his cousin Jerry. However, Mr. Gilley won’t start playing professionally until he’s 20, a few years after he moved to Houston to work in construction.
He released his first single, “Ooh Wee Baby,” in 1957, only to wait 55 years for it to find an audience: It ran in a TV commercial for Yoplait yogurt in 2012. His first chart-topping sound, “Is It Wrong (For Loving You)” (1959), featured future star Kenny Rogers on bass guitar.
Settling in Pasadena in the early 60s, Mr. Gilley began performing regularly at the Nesadel Club, a stage owned by his future business partner, Mr. Cryer. However, his recording career did not take off until 1974, when Hugh Hefner’s Playboy label re-released his version of “Room Full of Roses”, which was a number 2 pop hit of 1949. for singer Sammy Kaye. Repetition of Mr. Gilley became a number 1 country single.
Mr. Gilley then spent a decade at or near the top of the national rankings. During the Urban Cowboy boom, he had six consecutive No.1 hits.
As the movement that Gilley spawned gave way to the neo-traditionalism returning to the basics of country music in the mid-80s, Mr. Gilley’s attention grew more and more into his nightclub, where a protracted conflict with him arose. Cryer, who passed away in 2009, had previously caused the men to break up their partnership. Mr. Gilley closed the building in 1989, a year before a fire consumed much of the building.
