Mac Davis to be Honored as BMI Icon at the 2015 BMI Country Awards
BMI will proudly celebrate the extraordinary songwriting career of Mac Davis by naming him a BMI Icon at the Company’s 63rd annual BMI Country Awards to be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, at BMI’s Music Row offices in Nashville. The BMI Icon award is given to songwriters who have had a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers and Davis joins a list of past honorees that includes renowned songwriters Vince Gill, Dean Dillon, Tom T. Hall, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and others.
“We’re honored to celebrate the incredible career of Mac Davis,” said Jody Williams, BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville. “Artists ranging from Elvis to Avicii have recorded his songs. As an artist himself, Mac’s hits were embraced and loved internationally by both pop and country audiences. He hosted his own network TV variety show, appeared in many feature films, and even starred on Broadway, but Mac’s unique songwriting ability is what really sets him apart. In every way, Mac Davis is a BMI Icon.”
Davis has established himself as an all-around entertainer: songwriter, singer, actor, TV and radio personality, performer and legend. He has enjoyed success in almost every facet of show business, from the late sixties to the present, beginning with his time in a college band, playing parties and local clubs around Atlanta. As a songwriter, he wrote several hits for Elvis Presley, including “In the Ghetto,” “Memories,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “A Little Less Conversation,” the global hit re-released in 2002. A three-time GRAMMY nominee, he has also written hits for Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Rascal Flatts, while “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” “Stop and Smell the Roses,” “One Hell of a Woman” and “Hooked on Music” are among the hits Davis wrote and recorded himself. Having headlined some of the biggest and best known venues around the country from Las Vegas to Atlantic City to Carnegie Hall in New York, Davis performed on Broadway as Will Rogers in The Will Rogers Follies. He also hosted a live radio show out of Los Angeles, titled Labor of Love, which highlighted classic country music and the men and women behind the songs. In addition to having a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame, Davis was also inducted into both the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and, most recently, has been dividing his time between songwriting and recording an album of new material.
Along with a musical tribute to the new Icon, BMI will crown the Country Songwriter, Song and Publisher of the Year, while saluting the writers and publishers of the past year’s 50 most-performed songs from BMI’s country catalog. BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill will host the ceremony with Jody Williams, BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville.
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