SHARE Jim Newberry/Special to The Commercial Appeal. Sir Mack Rice performs Saturday 2/17/2007 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. Jim Newberry/Special to The Commercial Appeal. Sir Mack Rice performs Saturday 2/17/2007 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago.

By Bob Mehr of The Commercial Appeal

The author of "Mustang Sally," the co-writer of "Respect Yourself," soul legend, and Stax Records stalwart "Sir" Mack Rice died Monday night at his Detroit home from complications of Alzheimer's Disease.

Rice's death was confirmed by family friend Pat Lewis in a statement to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. He was 82.

Though he lived in Detroit for more than 60 years, the city that produced Motown, it was Memphis and Stax Records that would become a creative home for Rice. He would pen hits for Stax artists including Rufus Thomas ("The Funky Penguin, Pt. 1"), Albert King ("Cadillac Assembly Line"), Johnny Taylor ("Cheaper to Keep Her"), and the Staple Singers ("Respect Yourself").

"I was completely in awe of him," said Scott Bomar of Memphis R&B band the Bo-Keys, who worked with Rice starting in the late '90s. "He was like this mythical songwriting giant — he'd written 'Mustang Sally' and 'Respect Yourself' and all these songs that were lesser known but just as amazing like 'Money Talks' and 'Tina the Go-Go Queen.'"

"He was a real spiritual person," added Bomar. "He had a real kind spirit, a very kind man and thoughtful human being. And that came through in his songs. When he saw human suffering or injustice it affected him and his way of working through it was to write a song about it. He was writing songs in an era when a song actually had the ability to change people's hearts and minds. And something like 'Respect Yourself' is a message song and it resonated with a lot of people."

Born Bonny Rice in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1933, as a teen he was an avid fan of the "race" music of the 1940s — Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, T-Bone Walker — but he had no aspirations to play. Eventually, one of his Clarksdale running buddies, a young Ike Turner, took him under his wing. "Ike was trying to teach me to play piano, but I wasn't interested," recalled Rice in a 2007 interview with The Commercial Appeal.

His family headed north for Detroit in 1950. In high school, Rice joined his first singing group, the Five Scalders, winning a couple of talent contests. But after graduating, he was drafted into the Army and served several years in Germany. When he returned to Detroit in 1955, his mother mentioned an ad in the newspaper placed by a group looking for new members.

The group Rice would join was the Falcons, and it would feature two singers who later figured prominently in the Stax story as well: Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd. The Falcons enjoyed some success over the years, with hits like "You're So Fine" and "I Found Love," before Pickett left to go solo in 1963. Afterward, Rice and Floyd kept going as a duo for a couple of years, touring the South heavily. Eventually, Floyd split for D.C. and Rice began toying with the idea of writing songs. "I'd written a few things with the Falcons, but none of the hits," he noted. "But I had a few ideas."

One of Rice's ideas was a "joke song" about Ford's new sports car. Originally titled "Mustang Mama," it was soul queen Aretha Franklin — who played piano on Rice's original demo — who suggested the song's now famous title, "Mustang Sally."

In 1966, white R&B-pop group the Rascals made the newly rechristened "Mustang Sally" the b-side to their multimillion-selling smash "Good Lovin'," helping open Rice's eyes to a career as a writer. "Until then, I wasn't writing for a living. I was writing for a feeling," he said. "But that kinda started me getting into the groove."

Although Rice had scored a small R&B hit with his own version of the song for the Mercury/Blue Rock label — it was session producer Andre Williams who gave him the nickname "Sir" Mack — the definitive version came with Wilson Pickett's rendition, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama . "He's the one that caused that song to be as big as it was," said Rice.

Through his connection with Pickett — who cut a series of hits at Stax during the mid-'60s — Rice's path began to draw closer to Soulsville. Steve Cropper had been working with Pickett and also had begun collaborating with Rice's old Falcons bandmate Eddie Floyd — the pair had sired the hit "Knock on Wood." It was while promoting the track in Detroit in 1966 that Cropper first crossed paths with Rice, who was soon brought into the Stax fold. Although Rice would cut a handful of solo singles for Stax over the years, his main focus was writing for others. He began commuting regularly from Detroit to Memphis starting in 1967.

Compared to his previous label experiences, the communal spirit that Rice found working at Stax was something of a shock. "Isaac Hayes and David Porter cut a tune of mine called 'Hold It, Baby' for Sam and Dave," said Rice. "That was my first break. I never thought I'd get one on Sam and Dave 'cause they was hot as fire. But David and Isaac, them guys was not a selfish production team. Somebody like me could come in with some material, and they would cut it. They would always reach out. That surprised me."

"We had unity at Stax, and a love we had for each other. Whites and black, got along like brothers — and sisters, 'cause we had women working there, too."

Rice remained with Stax until the very end, when bankruptcy consumed the label in the mid-'70s; in fact, he was one of the company's last full-time employees.

After the demise of Stax, Rice would reunite with Cropper at the guitarist's TMI studio. Although he never recaptured the chart success of his Stax days, Rice's catalog of songs have endured. "Mustang Sally" and "Respect Yourself" have been covered several hundred times by an array of artists that include everyone from B.B. King to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buck Owens to Bruce Willis.

In the early '90s, Rice resumed recording, putting out a series of solo albums, his last coming in 2006. He continued to perform — playing at the Stax Musuem and Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans — until his illness forced him to retire.

Plans for services are pending.