Another Mike Reid?
May 29, 2009 at 2:46 pm Lori Shontz 1 comment
Turns out former Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins has a new hobby: writing country music.
Guess that’s what happens when you spend a lot of time in Nashville, where Collins is now playing for the Tennessee Titans.
He told The Associated Press recently that he’s been jotting ideas in a notebook for years, and that in 2007 he began to work with some established Nashville song writers, including Ed Hill, who co-wrote Tracy Lawrence’s “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” and Billy Lawson, who wrote “I Left Something Turned On At Home” for Trace Adkins. Both songwriters say Collins — who majored in labor and industrial relations, hardly an artsy field — has some ability. Collins certainly has endured some life experiences that could translate to country songs.
That said, he’s got a steep climb to become the best football player/songwriter in Penn State history. That honor goes to Mike Reid, the 1969 Outland Trophy winner and a four-time All-Pro for the Cincinnati Bengals, who has written No. 1 country songs and branched out into classical music and musicals. Read this 2001 Sports Illustrated piece for a nice look at Reid’s musical accomplishments.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Entry filed under: Famous Penn Staters, Penn State football, Penn Staters in the NFL. Tags: Cincinnati Bengals, country music, Kerry Collins, Mike Reid, Tennessee Titans.
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1. Kerry Collins Continues Country Music Rise « The Penn Stater | November 20, 2009 at 9:12 pm
[...] Kerry Collins will be known not as a quarterback, but as a songwriter? He’s been trying to follow the path of fellow Penn Stater Mike Reid for a while now, and he took another step recently when a song he co-wrote was performed at the [...]