Friday, May 2, 2003 | 9:25 a.m.
Country music legend Mel Tillis is no stranger to Las Vegas. The Tampa, Fla., native has been performing here off and on for more than 30 years.
"Back in the '70s I started out at the Golden Nugget," recalled the 71-year-old Tillis during a telephone interview from his home in Nashville. "And I worked at the Frontier hotel one time 18 weeks in a row."
Slowed slightly by his famous stutter, Tillis rattled off a list of venues where he has performed: the Sahara, the Dunes and the Sands among them.
"I worked one time for Wayne Newton at the Aladdin," said Tillis, who will be at the Las Vegas Hilton with daughter Pam tonight and Saturday.
Things were a little different back then.
"It was a lot of fun in them days," Tillis said. "It's still a lot of fun but back in them days after you finished your show at nighttime you'd go to the lounges and see some of the acts, like the Treniers, Bill Cosby and Redd Foxx."
Frank Sinatra was a friend of Tillis'.
"He'd be at Caesars and sometimes Frank would call me up and say, 'Mel, want to hang out?' " Tillis recalled. "He was a night person. I went up there several times and visited with him and we talked all night.
"Everybody knew each other. Wayne Newton, Robert Goulet, they were great guys to hang with. All of us did the same talk show circuit -- Johnny Carson show, Merv Griffin, game shows. Everybody knew just about everybody."
Some of the biggest names in show business at the time would come backstage to visit with Tillis after a show.
"Phyllis Diller would come back to see the guys and gals," he said. "Debbie Reynolds stopped by. Bert Reynolds."
Tillis has come a long way since growing up in Pahokee, Fla.
Before his career took off in the late '50s he attended the University of Florida at Gainesville and worked a baker, cook, house painter, strawberry picker, railroad fireman, truck driver and also served in the U.S. Air Force.
During the Korean War he was stationed in Okinawa, where he sang country music on the Armed Forces' Far Eastern network radio station.
In 1952 he wrote his first song, "Honky-Tonk Song," which was recorded by Webb Pierce and went to No. 1 on the country charts. The song went to No. 1 in 1957 for Webb Pierce.
Tillis moved to Nashville in 1957 and wrote a second song for Pierce, "I'm Tired," and signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. The first song he recorded was "Honky-Tonk Song."
Tillis' songs have been recorded by more than 600 artists, including Brenda Lee, Charley Pride, George Strait and Ricky Skaggs.
In 1976, Tillis was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame, and that same year was named the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year.
During his more than 45 years in the music business Tillis has won numerous awards. The CMA Entertainer of the Year is the one that has meant the most to him.
"Because you are voted in that by your peers," he said.
For most of his career, Tillis had a relentless tour schedule, performing not only in major venues in such places as Las Vegas, but in small clubs in rural America.
However, for many years he was based in Branson, Mo., where his fans came to see him in droves. Tillis joined a number of major stars, such as Roy Clark, Bobby Vinton and Andy Williams, in building their own clubs at the resort town in southwest Missouri.
Tillis sold his club last summer. His last performance in the venue was New Year's Eve.
"I'd been there for 13 years, doing 400 shows a year," Tillis said. "I'd had enough."
But he didn't completely cut the strings with Branson. He still performs about 14 dates there a year, including one last week.
Tillis travels with a fair-sized band -- 10 musicians and three singers (the Stutterettes).
He says it's smaller than it used to be.
"This is my smallest band in years," Tillis said. "When I sold the theater, I cut back."
He also has cut back on his performance dates, down to about 100 a year, which allows him to spend more time at his farm near Nashville and his ranch near Ocala, Fla.
"I've got a little more time to do other things now, like paint," Tillis said. "I'm into oil painting, and I love it. Been doing it about four years now. It's very satisfying. It takes your mind away from everything but the subject you are painting."
But he will never quit singing. He's even building a recording studio at his home near Nashville.
"I enjoy it," Tillis said. "I enjoy what I do. I guess that's the main thing."
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