Mickey Gilley Visits GilleysMuseum — 2-18-13
Hey ya’ll,
As you may know, Mickey Gilley performed in concert at Treasure Island (TI) Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday evening, February 16, 2013. Following the show he came down to Gilley’s at the TI and performed a number of songs along with his band. As always, he was great. Not only is his voice as strong as ever, he’s a terrific entertainer, keeping the audience glued to his every word. And funny, too.
Following the Gilley’s performance I had a short conversation with Al Embry, Mickey’s manager, and we arranged for them to come see the collection. I even picked them up at the hotel and drove them out to see it on Monday, February 18 in the late afternoon – early evening. We spent about an hour talking about different items in the collection, many of which Mickey was stunned to see.
Of course he was very surprised to see one of the famous Gilley’s truck mud flaps he had autographed and sold to Mike and Frank on “American Pickers” in 2011. Here is a picture of Mickey standing next to the mud flap here at GilleysMuseum.
Mickey Gilley and Gilley’s Mud Flap at GilleysMuseum.com on 2-18-13.
While looking at our collection of Gilley’s posters Mickey said that he loved our “Encore” album cover poster and that he didn’t have one. So I gave him a brand new poster, still in its original cellophane wrapper, and he said he would have it framed to hang in his Gilley’s restaurant in Branson. What a great new home for this great old Gilley’s poster. FYI, we still have a few of these available on our Buy/Sell/Donate page. Just click on the link at the top of the page.
Then Mickey was kind enough to autograph two items for us. The first is a large drawing of Mickey Gilley that was used as a promotional poster in record stores back in the 1970’s. This same poster used to hang in the office at Gilley’s Pasadena, Texas and is seen in “Urban Cowboy” when Wes (the bad guy played by Scott Glenn) was caught trying to rob the club near the end of the movie.
Here is a picture of Mickey Gilley autographing his likeness.
Mickey Gilley signs his poster at GilleysMuseum on 2-18-13.
The second item autographed is a mint copy of the book “Saturday Night At Gilley’s.” This book is in short supply and a copy in new condition with Mickey Gilley’s signature is now an important part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection.
Here is a picture of Mickey Gilley as he signs the book for us.
Mickey Gilley autographs the GilleysMuseum.com copy of “Saturday Night At Gilley’s” on 2-18-13.
One of the parts of the collection that really blew Mickey away was our collection of vintage original Gilley’s buckles. He stated that several were extremely rare and some were one-of-a-kind prototypes that the club never sold to the public. He couldn’t believe they had found their way to our collection and couldn’t put a price on them.
Here’s a picture taken by Mickey’s manager, Al Embry, of me and Mickey Gilley standing over the Gilley’s buckle collection.
Bubba & Mickey Gilley admiring the GilleysMuseum.com Gilley’s buckle collection.
Mickey was also amazed to see our Gilley’s leather saddle and Gilley’s leather purse, not to mention some matchbook errors and a prototype Gilley’s key chain. Also, our blue Gilley’s men’s dress shirt with the Gilley’s Beer bottle on the back was something he said he loved and had never seen before. It’s the only one of its kind that we’ve seen too.
By now our time was running out (he unfortunately had to get going for a dinner meeting) and he was pretty much speechless. The only thing he could say was that our collection had to be the biggest and best in the world and that it was far beyond anything he had. I was both humbled and happy. Here is a picture of me and Mickey in front of an Urban Cowboy album poster, again taken by Mickey’s manager, just before leaving GilleysMuseum.
Bubba & Mickey Gilley in front of Urban Cowboy album poster.
During the trip back to the hotel we discussed the progress of the talks to open a new Gilley’s club in Pasadena, Texas and he said he thought the collection would make a great addition to the club. We’ll see how that all progresses.
Until then,
Bubba
GilleysMuseum.com Blog 