Gilley's could return to Pasadena party landscape

PHOTOS: Remembering Gilley's in Pasadena

Lynn Wyatt, one of the chairmen of the benefit premiere of Urban Cowboy, rides the mechanical bull at Gilley's Club. PHOTOS: Remembering Gilley's in Pasadena

Lynn Wyatt, one of the chairmen of the benefit premiere of Urban Cowboy, rides the mechanical bull at Gilley's Club. Photo: Fred Bunch, Houston Chronicle Photo: Fred Bunch, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 92 Caption Close Gilley's could return to Pasadena party landscape 1 / 92 Back to Gallery

A whole new batch of Buds and Sissys could soon be flocking to Pasadena to look for love in all the wrong places, if all goes to plan for a legendary country singer and his business partners.

Last week country legend Mickey Gilley took to his Facebook page to tease plans for a new Gilley’s location in his native Pasadena. It obviously excited residents in the area and most everyone who’s ever seen “Urban Cowboy” at some time.

Plans have been rumored for what seems like years now, with officials from Pasadena and even Gilley himself dropping hints about a new era of honky-tonk to come to the city, nearly 25 years since the world-famous location was gutted by a fire in 1990.

The Original Gilley's is best known to those outside of Texas as the backdrop for the John Travolta film "Urban Cowboy," which was filmed around Pasadena and Houston.

For locals it could be where they met their husbands, wives, or snuck their first beer.

The old Gilley's opened in 1971 and hosted nearly every major country star in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are recordings of early George Strait shows at the club that are pure Texas heat. You can hear the Justin boots sliding across the dancefloor as women swoon.

Original Gilley's memorabilia is still a big seller on eBay.

Last summer Gilley reached out to potential investors via a video posted on Facebook to see if anyone in the social media landscape would want to invest in the new venture. At the time Jeff McDonald, Gilley's personal assistant, said Gilley wanted his new club to look much like it did in the old days, with an eye on replicating the original interior with a modern twist.

Gilley can currently be seen most weeks in Branson, Missouri, performing at his own theater. He performs there a few nights a week, and comes back to Texas twice a month to attend to business affairs.

He has backed off a bit from Branson gigging as the economy there has taken a dip. He now spends more time on the road playing with fellow Gilley's alum Johnny Lee.

Gilley himself will be back in the Houston area on Thursday night for a party at Katy's No Label Brewing Co., where there will be a screening of "Urban Cowboy".

There will also be plenty of new Gilley's beer on hand to drink. A new version of it was released by the craft brewer in May to the delight of fans of all things Gilley.

Speaking from his office in Branson, Gilley says that the No Label version of his old beer is better than the original that was in the club all those years back.

August 5 will be a big day in Gilley's world, as that will be when he gets word whether or not the new Pasadena club will be a reality.

At 78 years old it sounds like he's ready for a new chapter in his career. He’s told family members he would like to solely be in the singing business, and not the club or theater game. Talking to Gilley, it sounds like he feels that he’s running out of time to open up back in Pasadena, but he has a sense of humor about it.

"I asked my lawyer the other day "Are we going to get this thing done before I die?" he laughs.

He wouldn't be a part of the daily operations for the proposed club, but he definitely has a distinct vision for what he wants it to look and feel like, since it would have his name on it.

Plans for the new complex last summer included a restaurant, a concert stage, and a museum, and all that a country dance hall would imply. A location off Red Bluff and Fairmont, near the Pasadena Convention Center, is the intended location of the club complex, according to Gilley.

He wants state-of-the-art everything, from lighting, staging, the dance floor, the bar, without losing the charm of the old ghost that he and co-owner Sherwood Cryer helmed.

"The club needs the right kind of atmosphere, you know, cool in summer, warm in the winter, not wet when it rains," he says. He estimates that it will take about 18 months to build the club once work eventually begins.

The decor, he says, won't be much different than the one made famous in the movies, just a bit modernized. Yes, there will be a mechanical bull, but even mechanical bull tech has come a long way since 1980.

There are already Gilley’s locations in Dallas, Las Vegas, and two in Oklahoma, but coming back to Pasadena would be a sort of homecoming for Gilley.. It’s a gift to the city and the people that treated him so well all those years back, he says.

He and Cryer didn’t part on such great terms (almost legendarily), he admits, due to business differences. One of his wishes is for a life-size statue of him and Cryer shaking hands to be included at the site of the new Gilley’s club.

“If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have a music career or anything that I have now,” he says.