Mickey Gilley singing at Treasure Island

Mickey Gilley hasn't actually set foot in the club that bears his name on the Strip, but he has one hard luck of an excuse.

"I was paralyzed from the neck down," the 75-year-old singer says, after a fall in the summer of 2009, a few months before the dance hall opened at Treasure Island.

Given that, it's amazing to find him back for a Saturday show in a nearby ballroom at Treasure Island.

"I can't play the piano yet, but my hands are slowly improving," Gilley says by phone from Branson, Mo., where he has spent most of the past 23 years in a theater branded with his name.

It would be hard to name a singer whose name has been better branded during his absence. The 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy" made a national phenomenon of the original Western dance club in Pasadena, Texas. The singer gets a licensing fee from hotel operator Phil Ruffin for the club that's had a presence on the Strip since it opened at the New Frontier in 1998 (moving to Ruffin's Treasure Island after that property closed).

Younger people "probably associate me with Gilley's more than some of the songs I've had," Gilley acknowledges, even though he charted 17 country hits at No. 1. "Not as many as George Strait," he says with a laugh, "but I can't complain about my career. I'm fixing to turn 76 years old and I'm still out there performing."

"Urban Cowboy" also launched a trend of country "crossover" hits led by Gilley's cover of "Stand By Me."

"I like to consider myself a country act, but in the beginning I was hopefully going to be a rock 'n' roll act," thanks to his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis. "But I didn't have the baritone-type voice."

Some people tell him he's singing better than ever now. His reply? "Think about it. I don't have to concentrate on playing the piano now. I can concentrate on singing."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.