Johnny Lee

We were much too young to fully appreciate Urban Cowboy upon its release, yet we watched the movie over and over, rooting for Bud and Sissy and singing along to the musical performances at the original Gilley’s. The hirsute Johnny Lee was clearly the star of this spectacle, contributing such classics as theme song “Lookin’ for Love.” We’d later groove to his “Pickin’ Up Strangers” too, even though we thought it was about the dangers of giving rides to hitchhikers–Lord knows what we thought “Cherokee Fiddle” was about. This weekend, Lee returns to Gilley’s (albeit in a different town and in a different century), giving you a chance to relive the “hard-hat days and honky-tonk nights” of 1980, especially if you were in preschool the first time around.