LONGVIEW, Texas — Neal McCoy has played shows for thousands of adoring fans over the last three decades and he's still on the road. He can also be found on social media entertaining the masses.
Through it all, McCoy has always called East Texas home. Dana Hughey sat down with the country singer for a very special CBS19 Originals.
East Texas has produced its fair share of country stars – Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and even fellow Jacksonville native Lee Ann Womack, but first, there was Neal McCoy. And he's just as down to earth, patriotic and talented as people may imagine he is.
When he's not entertaining at shows across the country... this is likely where someone will find McCoy at his Old Glory Horse and Cattle Ranch. Sounds about as country as you can get, but that's not initially where McCoy saw himself.
"I had aspirations to be a professional singer," McCoy said. "I would watch American Bandstand just about every Saturday. But when I'd watch Michael Jackson for the first time with the Jackson Five, the 'ABC easy as 123.' I was watching that, and he was dancing around and I thought, that's what I'll do."
So, McCoy sang his way into the Westside Elementary School choir and kept the same tune into Jacksonville Junior and High Schools.
"I'm a true baritone. The choir director would say, you know, Neal, can you sing second tenor or bass or first tenor, whatever they needed me most. And I said, yes, sir. I think I can. Yeah, you know, I just sing it. And you just tell me if I'm hitting it," McCoy recalled.
He's been hitting the right notes ever since graduating high school in 1976, but that doesn't mean the path to stardom happened overnight.
"I was ready to get out of there and go rule the world. But how will I ever do that? How would anybody discover me? Who's going to come through Jacksonville, Texas looking for a singer," he said.
At the time, McCoy wasn't singing or even listening to country music.
"I liked Barry Manilow. I love the Carpenters and stuff that people had to really have good voices," McCoy said.
Then, in 1981, a country music contest in Dallas changed McCoy's direction.
"I didn't know much country music at all. They said what song are you going to sing? And I thought, I hope 'Danny Boy's' considered country. So, I said 'Danny Boy,' and they said someone's already singing it and I said, 'someone's already singing it. How can they sing it? It's not country? Okay, I'll do Ronnie Milsap.' I just heard... once in every life... so '(It Was) Almost Like a Song' and I knew it had a bottom and a real big top end. So, I said, 'I'll show out.' And that's what I sang and ended up ended up winning that night," McCoy said.
That's where he met Charlie Pride, who signed him to his management and booking agency.
"He worked for years trying to get me somebody to sign me to a major record deal and just couldn't get it done. And finally in about 1988, I've been working with Charlie for five years. And Charlie said, 'You're gonna have to get out from under me.'"
After working bars, just trying to get someone to notice his talent, McCoy was signed by Atlantic Records Nashville division.
"He said, 'I think you can get a record deal.' And I said, 'you got to be kidding me.' I almost tear up. When I talk about any of these life changing moments, even though it's so small. It is a big deal. I mean, a guy with a major record label wants to work with me, and I just thought, oh my gosh, because at the time I was already 32. I thought I'm way past my prime."
McCoy's dreams finally came true with his first big number one hits in 1994, "No Doubt About It" and "Wink." You'd think he'd leave it all behind for Nashville, but not McCoy.
"We just made a conscious effort and said, 'we're gonna raise our family here. And it was one of the best decisions we ever made," McCoy said. "My wife gets 99% of the credit. "It has turned out fantastic. Because I still got the same wife for 43 and a half years, we got two kids, grandkids. We live comfortably and I still get to sing for a living and entertain."
He cherishes his time entertaining U.S. troops during his 17 United Service Organizations tours.
"That hits me deep because I really love our military," he added.
And it's not just giving back to our troops, but people here at home.
"So, I thought we all will put money into a fund to where it'll be there when they need it. And so, we can give it to them, somebody finds out about their child being sick, and then we can help them then not six or seven, eight months down the road. They need help now," McCoy said.
McCoy's East Texas Angel Network has raised over $12 million to help East Texas children who are living with a terminal or life threatening disease.
"It has been hugely successful, because of East Texas. Where we live, they have great hearts. And we get help from other people across the country that are just Neal McCoy fans that say, 'if Neal believes in this, I believe in it,'" he said.
Speaking of fans across the country, they've been joining him live on Facebook for more than eight years to say "The Pledge of Allegiance" and sending him Old Glory mementos.
"I have a lot of them that will come up and say this, it makes my day to be able to say the 'Pledge of Allegiance' with you," he said. "Knowing that other people are out there, other patriots that feel the same way I do. And I can't get out. I can't get to shows anymore."
"So when you come on, they'll sit and wait," McCoy said. "I joke about it, so when people see me they go, Neal, you look a little tired. Yeah. So you know, I haven't slept in, in eight years," McCoy added as he recalled his commitment to saying The Pledge every morning.
But no matter how tired he is, McCoy always has time for his fans.
"I get to bring joy to people every day. Almost every time I stopped somewhere, somebody wants to say hello, or take a picture," McCoy said.
He considers that a privilege and all these years later, he just want to fans to walk away from a Neal McCoy concert feeling like they've had the time of their life.
"I try to compare my show to a great movie. In the great movies, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think. They twist all your emotions and I think that's what I try to do in our show," he said.
At 66, he just wants to continue making sweet music for as long as he can.
"You know, when I'm saying slam bam, I'm feeling all right. You know, singing songs like 'Wink' and 'The Shake' and 'Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On' and having you know, having hits with those, I'd always wanted to show people that I could really sing," McCoy said.
So, he finally made a Great American Songbook album in Los Angeles several years ago, titled, "You Don't Know Me."
What we do know, and there's no doubt about it, Neal McCoy is an CBS19 Original.
He also has his own coffee appropriately named, Old Glory Horse and Cattle Ranch Coffee, with a medium roast called The Pledge coffee, a play on what he has become famous on via Facebook.