Rugged Stuff

Neal McCoy, Real McCoy, Schmeal ShmcShmoy

By R. Keith Rugg, 9-16-08

	Neal McCoy has been honored as a humanitarian by more groups than you can shake a stick at. Promotional photo by Erick Anderson.

In a country-musical landscape full of drugstore cowboys and wannabe rednecks, there’s a singer from east Texas who is the real McCoy.  (Yeah, yeah, I know, I had to grimace even as I wrote the tail-end of that intro line.  But like it or not, corn is my bread and butter.)

Neal McCoy has been belting out authentic country music for two decades, with hits like Wink, The City put the Country Back in Me, You Gotta Love That, Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On, and more.  He’s currently got 11 albums to his name, along with more than 25 charted singles, and he’s still on the road for some 220 days a year.

If his Texas roots aren’t country-music enough for you, then how about this?  He was first discovered by Janie Fricke, who introduced him to Charley Pride, for whom McCoy became the opening act and protégé for several years.

But what strikes me so strongly every time I research or interview Neal McCoy is how much he’s just a good ol’ boy.  And by that, I mean a down-home ol’ fella that is a really good guy.

One example is how he stepped up to perform with the USO in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.  Hitting it off with Wayne Newton, who was the spearhead for USO entertainment after Bob Hope passed, Neal McCoy has performed 13 USO tours, both overseas and here in the U.S.

Another example is the humility and warmth he gives off during interviews.  The nice friendly Texas accent, no bragging, and he thanks you for your time… you gotta love that!

But his pet project is the East Texas Angel Network, developed by McCoy and his wife Melinda way back when his career was just taking off.  It’s an organization that has raised several million dollars for medical treatments and related costs for children of East Texas with terminal or life-threatening diseases. 

He’s got the annual golf tournament and music concert for the Network coming up in just a few weeks.  I asked if he gets any greens time in during the tournament.  “I used to, but these days I find I’m more effective when I just sort of travel around the event and act as an ambassador.”

His work with the East Texas Angel Network, among other things, such as playing a concert in conjunction with the Montana Special Olympics organization and his USO participation, have garnered McCoy awards such as the Academy of Country Music’s Home Depot Humanitarian Award in 2005, the Country Radio Broadcasters’ Artist Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2006, and the Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas W. B. and Brandon Carrell Humanitarian Award in 2007 (the highest honor that can be awarded to a non-Mason.)

“Aw, we don’t do it for the recognition or the honor,” he told me.  (See?  There’s that humility.) “It’s really nice to be recognized for the work you do, but there’s a lot of other people out there who do this kind of thing, too.” He did acknowledge, though, that the recognition that he receives then, in turn, helps to bring attention to the causes that he’s helping.

Now it’s a long way from Texas to the readership footprint of NewWest.net, but in Part II of the Neal McCoy article, we’ll talk language, looks and the Northwest connection.  Check back soon for it, and until then, you can surf on over to his Web site (a pretty darned good one) at www.nealmccoy.com, or check out the East Texas Angel Network at www.easttexasangelnetwork.com.

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