TIFTON — Country musician Ronnie McDowell and his full band are coming to the Tift Theatre this Friday, Aug. 10.

Ronnie McDowell has a string of hit songs that go back decades.

Following the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, Ronnie McDowell came out of nowhere with his heartfelt and self-penned tribute song “The King Is Gone” on the independent Scorpion label. The record took off, gaining airplay on country and pop stations across the country and around the world. To date, “The King Is Gone” has sold more than 5 Million copies.

The young Vietnam War veteran from Portland, Tennessee quickly followed up with a second hit for the Scorpion label titled “I Love You, I Love You, I Love You” before being signed by CBS Records – Epic label in 1979.

McDowell charted a string of hit singles and albums for Epic between 1979 and 1986, including “Older Women” and “You’re Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation.” Other hits during his Epic years included “Watchin Girls Go By,” “Personally,” “You Made A Wanted Man Of Me,” “All Tied Up,” and “In A New York Minute.”

Moving to Curb Records in 1986, his current label to date, McDowell scored a Top 10 hit with “It’s Only Make Believe,” a duet with Conway Twitty on what was Twitty’s breakthrough hit from 1958. Two years later Ronnie teamed up with Jerry Lee Lewis for a rocking duet that McDowell wrote titled,”You’re Never Too Old To Rock N’ Roll.” He also recorded another Top 10 hit with his version of the pop standard “Unchained Melody,” which also became a #1 country music video.

To date, McDowell has scored more than 30 top ten records.

Two of McDowell’s most recent projects on Curb Records include an album of beach music with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters, entitled, “Ronnie McDowell with Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters.”

The second project is a new country album titled “Ronnie McDowell Country”, a collection of six new McDowell penned songs, and a few country standards by writers as Buck Owens, Harlan Howard and Dallas Frazier.

McDowell sang 36 songs on the soundtrack “Elvis,” the Dick Clark-produced television movie that featured Kurt Russell as the performer. He also was the singing voice for the television movie “Elvis And Me”, the ABC television series about the early years of Elvis’ career titled simply “Elvis” as well as, the 1997 Showtime special “Elvis Meets Nixon.”

Georgia native Justin Spivey will open the show. Tickets are on sale now at www.FreshTix.com. Doors will open at 7:00 p.m.

This show is presented by McAlpin Entertainment and “fueled by” Conger LP Gas.