Back in March, the West Virginia Daily News reported that Greenbrier East High School alumnus Steve Mackey had been nominated for “Bass Player of the Year” by the Academy of Country Music (ACM).
The ACM Awards are the industry’s way of “honoring the biggest names in country music.” The requirements to be nominated in this category “include, but are not limited to, a commercially released single or album embodying the player’s performance, which achieves Top 20 or better on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Billboard’s Top Country Albums or Mediabase Country charts.”
This year’s list of nominees included Mackey, Glenn Worf, Mark Hill, J.T. Cure and Tony Lucido. These five individuals are not only amongst “the biggest names in country music,” but also must be included in any legitimate list of the 20 most talented artists in the world.
According to Jeff Bryant, Mackey’s extraordinary musical ability “became evident almost immediately.”
Bryant, now superintendent of Greenbrier County Schools, served as GEHS band director during Mackey’s high school years.
“It became apparent during Steve’s tenure in high school that he was destined for a great musical career,” Bryant said, shortly after the ACM Award nominations were announced.
Early in April, Mackey took time to speak with the West Virginia Daily News by telephone from his home in Nashville. During that conversation, Mackey spoke as highly of Bryant as Bryant did of him.
“He was the coolest…he was the coolest,” Mackey said. “I will always be indebted to him because he saw immediately that there was nothing else that I was gonna do.”
After graduating high school in 1984, Mackey earned his degree from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, Bryant’s alma mater.
“But I love Jeff,” Mackey said in April. “He was really important to me and is really important to me now.”
Since his time at Greenbrier East, and then Berklee, Mackey has gone on to play with such artists as Dolly Parton, Tom Bukovac and Luke Combs. In doing so, he has established himself as one of most versatile musicians in the industry. However, Mackey remains both humble and perpetually excited by how he makes his living. When Mackey spoke with WVDN in April, he shared with us how playing with Peter Frampton in 2018 was the fulfillment of a childhood dream.
“The first album I ever bought with my own money, my parents drove me to Lewisburg…drove me to Fairlea, and I went into Hecks to buy ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ Mackey said. “I was 10-years-old, and I will never forget coming home and putting it on, and hearing it right when the needle dropped on the record.”
As Mackey explained, Frampton had a short-notice need for a bassist to join his band for a New Year’s Eve show.
“So anyway, I get this phone call. And I thought, ‘there is no way I can turn this down.’ But it wasn’t only cool in that respect. It was cool because it was one of the most musical gigs I’ve ever been on. He (Frampton) was a pleasure to be around. Also, everybody else in his band had been there for 10 or 15 years. They’d all heard his stories, and I hadn’t heard any of them. So, when they all rolled their eyes and went back to their bunks, I stayed up ‘til two in the morning with him. And he’d go, ‘oh Steve, you haven’t heard this one!’
“He had the coolest stories … like 60’s rock stories, especially. He was basically a rock star since he was 15-years-old when he got kind of discovered by Bill Wyman. So he grew up around the Stones and all those people, and he looked at them the way we do, but they were just a little bit older. So he was right in the middle of it. And to hear stories about Bill Wyman calling his (Frampton’s) mom to ask permission for him to come pick him up to take him to see Hendrix at a club in London, it was incredible.”
“The Peter Frampton thing, that, literally, was a dream come true. And so is the good relationship that I still have with him.”
When the door closed on the 2021 ACM Awards, it was Tony Lucido who was named “Bass Player of the Year.”
On Saturday, August 7, Mackey once again took the time to speak with WVDN.
“He’s really a great friend of mine,” Mackey said of Lucido. “You know, all of those guys – there were more bass players who were on the list to be nominated. Your name kinda gets thrown into a pile according to who plays on number one songs that year. Obviously, some guys play on more number ones than others. But that’s what throws your name into the pile, and then the board votes on the nominees.”
But Lucido is by no means Mackey’s only friend. Once again, Jeff Bryant offered his support and his appreciation.
“Even though Steve Mackey — musician extraordinaire — didn’t win the ACM Award, we are every bit as proud of him as we ever were,” Bryant told WVDN. “Steve is a major force within the country music family and a major player in the very exclusive world of studio musicians.”
Bryant went on to say: “Personally, I am honored to know Steve as a former student, music colleague, and most importantly, as a treasured friend.”
Despite not having been selected for the award himself, Mackey’s humility and excitement remained unphased, and the joy he expressed over his friend being honored was unmistakable.
“But Tony, man…” Mackey continued, unable to hide the happiness in his voice. “If you turn on the radio — with anybody on that list — if you turn on the radio, you’re gonna hear them, and you’ll probably hear Tony the most. So this is really well-deserved for him.”
Regardless of the 2021 ACM Awards, Steve Mackey truly is our “Bass Player of the Year.” Despite the success, the fame, and the bright lights of Music City, in his heart, Mackey will always be a Greenbrier kid.
“It is an honor to be recognized for achievements and milestones in your career,” Mackey said. “But that pales in comparison to the feeling of friends, family, and people you don’t even know, genuinely wishing you well. Of course this is my home. I grew up feeling that.”
Author’s note: I wrote a more extensive article about Steve Mackey for the May issue of The DayTripper. For this article, I reused parts of the conversation I had with Steve back in April (including the Peter Frampton story). After speaking with Steve today, I find myself feeling very much the same now as I did after our first conversation four months ago. So, I can think of no better way to end this article than the way I ended that one…
As it appeared in the May 2021 edition of The DayTripper Magazine: “What I promise you that Steve Mackey doesn’t get, is that someday I’ll be telling somebody all about the time I got to have a late-night rap with Steve Mackey. And when I do, I’ll be talking to that somebody about Steve Mackey the same way that Steve Mackey was talking to me about Peter Frampton. And I’m pretty sure that somebody will feel like I do…”
