# Mike Cooley (musician)

John Michael Cooley (born September 14, 1966) is an American songwriter, singer, and guitarist from Tuscumbia, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals. He is a member of the band Drive-By Truckers.

## Background

Cooley received his first guitar at age 8, spending time with a local bluegrass musician to pick up the instrument. In 1985, he formed the punk-influenced band Adam's House Cat with Patterson Hood. The band was chosen as a top ten Best Unsigned Band by a Musician contest in the late 1980s. After the end of Adam's House Cat, Cooley and Hood performed as a duo under the name "Virgil Kane." While living in Auburn, Alabama they started a new band, "Horsepussy," before splitting for a few years. It was during this split that Hood moved to Athens, Georgia and began forming what would become Drive-By Truckers with the intent of luring Cooley back into the fold.

## With the Drive-by Truckers

Hood and Cooley formed Drive-By Truckers in 1996. Cooley contributed one song to their debut record Gangstabilly and three songs to the follow-up, Pizza Deliverance. Cooley wrote five songs for the breakout double album Southern Rock Opera, which received a four star rating from Rolling Stone Magazine. Cooley added four songs to the Truckers' next two records Decoration Day and The Dirty South, including his signature song "Carl Perkins' Cadillac". He wrote two songs for the follow-up A Blessing and a Curse and seven for Brighter Than Creation's Dark. He has written three songs for each of the Truckers' records Go-Go Boots and The Big To Do and six songs for their 2014 release English Oceans.

## Solo career

In 2013, Cooley released his first solo effort The Fool on Every Corner, a live album recorded at Atlanta's The EARL.
On June 15, 2014, Cooley, Patterson Hood, and Jason Isbell performed at a benefit concert in Florence, Alabama's Shoals Theater. The live acoustic concert was released as an album, Mike Cooley Patterson Hood and Jason Isbell Live at the Shoals Theater on November 6, 2020.
Cooley and Hood occasionally perform as an acoustic duo under the moniker Dimmer Twins.
On May 22, 2021, he performed at a benefit concert in Brookwood, Alabama in support of striking workers during the 2021 Warrior Met Coal strike.
Cooley lives in Hoover, Alabama with his wife and children.

## Drive-By Truckers contributions

| Year | Album | Song |
| 2022 | Welcome 2 Club XIII | "Maria's Awful Disclosures" |
| 2022 | Welcome 2 Club XIII | "Every Single Storied Flameout" |
| 2020 | The New OK | "Sarah's Flame" |
| 2020 | The Unraveling | "Slow Ride Argument" |
| 2020 | The Unraveling | "Grievance Merchants" |
| 2016 | American Band | "Ramon Casiano" |
| 2016 | American Band | "Surrender Under Protest" |
| 2016 | American Band | "Filthy and Fried" |
| 2016 | American Band | "Kinky Hypocrite" |
| 2016 | American Band | "Once They Banned Imagine" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "Shit Shots Count" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "Primer Coat" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "Made Up English Oceans" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "Hearing Jimmy Loud" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "Natural Light" |
| 2014 | English Oceans | "First Air of Autumn" |
| 2011 | Go-Go Boots | "Cartoon Gold" |
| 2011 | Go-Go Boots | "The Weakest Man" |
| 2011 | Go-Go Boots | "Pulaski" |
| 2010 | The Big To Do | "Birthday Boy" |
| 2010 | The Big To Do | "Get Downtown" |
| 2010 | The Big To Do | "Eyes Like Glue" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "3 Dimes Down" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "Perfect Timing" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "Self Destructive Zones" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "Bob" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "Lisa's Birthday" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "Checkout Time in Vegas" |
| 2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "A Ghost to Most" |
| 2006 | A Blessing and a Curse | "Gravity's Gone" |
| 2006 | A Blessing and a Curse | "Space City" |
| 2004 | The Dirty South | "Where the Devil Don't Stay" |
| 2004 | The Dirty South | "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" |
| 2004 | The Dirty South | "Cottonseed" |
| 2004 | The Dirty South | "Daddy's Cup" |
| 2003 | Decoration Day | "Marry Me" |
| 2003 | Decoration Day | "Sounds Better in the Song" |
| 2003 | Decoration Day | "When the Pin Hits the Shell" |
| 2003 | Decoration Day | "Loaded Gun in the Closet" |
| 2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "72 (This Highway's Mean)" |
| 2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "Guitar Man Upstairs" |
| 2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "Zip City" |
| 2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "Women Without Whiskey" |
| 2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "Shut Up and Get on the Plane" |
| 2001 | Pizza Deliverance | "Uncle Frank" |
| 2001 | Pizza Deliverance | "One of These Days" |
| 2001 | Pizza Deliverance | "Love Like This" |
| 1998 | Gangstabilly | "Panties in Your Purse" |

## Discography
### Live Albums

* The Fool on Every Corner (2013)

## Sources

* ↑ AL.com blog
* ↑ "12 Questions with Mike Cooley". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
* ↑ News
* ↑ "Drive-By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". www.rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
* ↑ "Live at the Shoals Theater".
* ↑ "Dimmer Twins".
* ↑ Kelly, Kim (May 19, 2021). "'Alabama Strike Fest' Planned to Help Striking Coal Miners". Rolling Stone. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
* ↑ "Personal challenge: Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers readies for solo shows at Birmingham's WorkPlay (Video)". December 16, 2011.