Remembering Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers

Harold Reid had one of the most familiar voices in music history, his songs are still played on classic country radio stations, and yet most folks never knew his name. He died Friday from kidney failure at the age of 80. He is 3rd from the left in this photo.

L-R, Jimmy Fortune, Don Reid, Harold Reid, and Phil Balsley.

Harold was the iconic bass voice and comic relief of the Statler Brothers, the group that sold more records and concert tickets than any other country act for three decades.

Their last names were not Statler, and except for Harold and Don Reid, they weren’t brothers.  Other original group members were Phil Balsley and Lew DeWitt, later replaced by Jimmy Fortune.

In 1964, they hit it big with the pop-country hit “Flowers on the Wall,” (“smokin’ cigarettes and watching Captain…Kang-a-roo…”) then backed up Johnny Cash for several years, and later exploded with more hits like “Bed of Roses,” “Class of ’57,” “I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You,” “Thank You World,” and “Do You Know You Are My Sunshine.” They also recorded several top-selling gospel albums.

They sold out theaters around the nation, making an annual stop at Chattanooga’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium from 1977 to 1999.  I took my parents to one of their shows which featured a relatively unknown Barbara Mandrell as the opening act.  She played just about every instrument known to man, and then the quartet came out with about two hours worth of hit songs and laughs.  I don’t remember every show I’ve attended that well, but I sure remember that one.  My parents loved it too, along with about five thousand other folks.

The Statlers also performed twice at the UTC Arena, in 1984 and 1990.

I also remember Harold for a character he created on a comedy album that is one of my all-time favorites.  The group dreamed up a small-town group called “Lester (Roadhog) Moran and his Cadillac Cowboys.” Harold was “Roadhog,” the leader and emcee of a weekly radio show that aired on a tiny radio station.  It paid tribute to (and parodied) the local shows I had listened to on small radio stations each Saturday morning.  It was absolutely hilarious, and I still have it in my collection today.

I always admired Harold and the Statlers for the way they retired.  In 2002, they called it quits with a concert near their home in Salem, Virginia.  It was filmed, and released as a video, and it was a beautiful performance.  They did all their old hits, and their old comedy routines. It was a classy show, with all their family members and many longtime friends in the audience.

In my mother’s later years, when her memory was pretty much gone, I would play the video for her each Sunday afternoon, sometimes more than once.  She knew every song, and would happily sing along.  In each comedy routine, Harold either delivered the punch line, or he WAS the punch line.  Mom laughed every time, as if it were the first time she heard it. So did I.

Unlike many entertainers who “retire,” then keep coming back, and coming back, for more money and adoration, the Statlers left the scene gracefully, with no looking back.  Harold told the Staunton (VA) News-Leader that he couldn’t believe the life he had led. He said, “Some days, I sit on my beautiful front porch, here in Staunton, Virginia … some days I literally have to pinch myself. Did that really happen to me, or did I just dream that?”

It was all real, Harold, and it was really, really good.