Mel Tillis Stuttered When He Talked and Never When He Sang

Mel Tillis stuttered when he talked and never when he sang. The stutter started after a bout of malaria when he was a boy. He was born in Tampa on August 8, 1932, and grew up in Pahokee, on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee.

Songs for Other People

He went to the University of Florida, left to join the Air Force, and ended up in Nashville writing songs. Other singers had the first big hits with them: Bobby Bare with “Detroit City,” and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition with “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.”

On Stage

When he became a star himself, he made the stutter part of the act and joked about it between songs. The Country Music Association named him Entertainer of the Year in 1976. He went into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and received the National Medal of Arts in 2012.

Tillis spent his later years near Ocala and died there on November 19, 2017, at 85.