by Steve Huey The daughter of country legend Mel Tillis, Pam Tillis made her own way in the music business, eventually becoming a contemporary country star in the 90s. Tillis was born on July 24, 1957, in Plant City, FL, but raised mostly in Nashville and started taking piano lessons at age eight. She switched to guitar at 12 and played in talent contests during her teenage years. Somewhat wild and rebellious, she survived a near-fatal car crash at age 16 that required extensive facial reconstruction. Fortunately, she recovered fully and pursued music aggressively at the University of Tennessee, singing with the High Country Swing Band (which played country-rock and jug band music) and in a folk duo with Ashley Cleveland. She quit school in 1976 and worked at her fathers publishing company, placing her composition Ill Meet You on the Other Side of the Morning with Barbara Fairchild. She also formed her own backing band, which soon relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and renamed themselves Freelight; they developed an adventurous style based on jazz and rock, not country. Tillis returned to Nashville in 1979, though, and sang backup for her father while raising her first child as a single parent, fronting an R&B band, and continuing to write songs, a couple of which were recorded by Gloria Gaynor and Chaka Khan.Tillis performed regularly at Nashvilles Bluebird Cafe with several other female singer/songwriters and landed a deal with Warner Brothers in the early 80s. She released one album, the pop-oriented Above and Beyond the Doll of Cutey, in 1983 and had her first chart single the following year with Goodbye HIghway. Several more singles were released through 1987, but none even managed to make the Top 50; even so, Tillis was making her name as a songwriter for Tree Publishing, with compositions recorded by Highway 101 and Conway Twitty, among others. In 1989, the same year she acted in a Tennessee production of Jesus Christ Superstar, she landed a new deal with Arista. Tillis released her label debut, Put Yourself in My Place, in 1991, and the lead single, Dont Tell Me What to Do, raced into the Top Five, giving Tillis her long-awaited breakthrough. Of the albums five total singles, One of Those Things and Maybe It Was Memphis also made the Top Ten (as did the album). 1992s Homeward Looking Angel was an equally successful follow-up, with Shake the Sugar Tree and Let That Pony Run both making the Top Five.Tillis co-produced her third Arista album, 1994s Sweethearts Dance, which proved to be her most successful yet and earned her the ACMs award for Female Vocalist of the Year. Spilled Perfume, When You Walk in the Room, and In Between Dances all went Top Five, and Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) became her first ever number one hit. Released in late 1995, All of This Love was the first album Tillis produced by herself, and gave her Top Tens in Deep Down and The River and the Highway. Two new songs from 1997s Greatest Hits compilation, All the Good Ones Are Gone and Land of the Living, both went Top Five as well. 1998s Every Time reflected her recent divorce from songwriter Bob DiPiero and gave her a near-Top Ten hit in I Said a Prayer. A reshuffling at Arista delayed the release of Thunder and Roses until 2001, so in the meantime Tillis performed on Broadway in the Leiber & Stoller tribute production Smokey Joes Cafe. Thunder and Roses found Tillis commercial momentum slowing down, and she and Arista subsequently parted ways. She caught on at Epics roots subsidiary Lucky Dog and debuted for them in 2002 with Its All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, a collection of her fathers material that finally found her embracing his legacy on her own terms. Rhinestoned appeared in 2007 from Stellar Cat Records.