Ronnie McDowell

Ronald Dean McDowell Sr. (born March 25, 1950)

It peaked at number 13 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles, and became a gold record. In January 1978, McDowell performed the song on the NBC special, Nashville Remembers Elvis on His Birthday, in which he appeared alongside a number of Presley's contemporaries. To date, "The King Is Gone" has sold more than five million copies.

McDowell was commissioned to cover a number of Presley's songs for the soundtrack to 1979 made-for-TV Presley biography film Elvis, McDowell also sang the Presley vocals for the 1981 TV movie Elvis and the Beauty Queen and for the 1988 TV miniseries Elvis and Me. All of the Presley's vocals for the 1990 TV series, Elvis, were performed by McDowell. McDowell charted a string of hit singles and albums for Epic between 1979 and 1986. Every single release, except one, became a top-10 hit, including "Older Women" and "You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation". Other hits during his Epic years included "Watching Girls Go By", "Personally", "You Made A Wanted Man Of Me", "Wandering Eyes", "All Tied Up", and "In a New York Minute".

Moving to Curb Records in 1986, McDowell scored a top-10 hit with "It's Only Make Believe", a duet with Conway Twitty on what had been Twitty's breakthrough rock and roll hit in 1958.

On January 17, 2018, he unveiled The Magic Moment, his original painting of Presley getting his first guitar at the Tupelo Hardware Store in Tupelo, thus kicking off the pilot for his forthcoming TV show, entitled Ronnie McDowell Painting America.

On January 22, 2019, McDowell was inducted into the Mississippi Music Project Hall of Fame in Biloxi, Mississippi, and was awarded the MMP Music Award for his lifelong commitment to the music industry, by Commander Joseph W. Clark.

In 2023, a collaboration with Dolly Parton and the Jordanaires, “I Dreamed About Elvis” (credited to Dolly Parton with Ronnie McDowell and special guests the Jordanaires), was released on Parton’s 2023 album Rockstar. When McDowell’s contributions were recorded is unknown, but the Jordanaires’ vocals would have to have been recorded at some point prior to 2013, when group leader/first tenor Gordon Stoker died and the group disbanded.

Personal life Ronnie McDowell resides in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He has five children. His son, Tyler Dean McDowell, was also signed to Curb Records. Another son, Ronnie Jr. and a nephew, Chris, recorded in a band called Six Shooter on Curb in 1991.

In June 2025, McDowell experienced difficulty speaking and singing at a concert in Oley, Pennsylvania, and was hospitalized for apparent signs of a stroke. Son Ronnie Jr. posted on Facebook on June 26 that his father was recovering.

Discography