Michael Barry Reid (born May 24, 1947)[1] is an American country music artist, composer, and former professional football player.
[2] In addition to athletics, Reid played Chicago gangster Big Julie in Penn State's production of the musical Guys and Dolls.
Although sacks were an unofficial statistic, the Bengals kept track of them and Reid retired as the leading sacker in the team's short history.
He made two trips to the Pro Bowl (1972 and 1973) before his retirement following the 1974 season due to knee and hand injuries and his desire to focus on a music career.
[5] When he abandoned his football career, he formed a band and began playing at a Holiday Inn location across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, then abandoned the idea of performing in bands and began playing solo at the Blind Lemon, and in the process, beginning to write his own songs.
In 1984, Reid won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song with "Stranger in My House", which was recorded by Ronnie Milsap.
Reid would also contribute compositions to artists such as Marie Osmond, Tanya Tucker, Collin Raye, Alabama, and Conway Twitty.
He also co-wrote, with Allen Shamblin, Bonnie Raitt's hit "I Can't Make You Love Me", which reached #18 on the Billboard Pop Charts and has been covered by countless artists.
A third album, New Direction Home, was released two decades later in 2012 by the small Off Row Records label[7] and is available on iTunes and Spotify as well as in an mp3 download from Reid's website.
[9][10] In 2019, he again returned to the musical theater stage with The Last Day, a commissioned production co-written with NYU Tisch School of Performing Arts Assistant Dean, Sarah Schlesinger, for Reid's alma mater, Penn State.