By BRAD SCHMITT and PETER COOPER

Staff Writers

Country music figure steals the show after day of medical tests

It was a good night in the midst of a bad year for Merle Kilgore, the storied songwriter-manager given an achievement award during yesterday's International Entertainment Buyers Association dinner at the Hilton Hotel downtown.

''I'm scratching and fighting my way back to the top,'' said Kilgore, 70, whose 2004 has included heart surgery, two back surgeries and a lung cancer diagnosis.

The co-writer of the classic country hit Ring of Fire and the longtime manager of Hank Williams Jr., Kilgore is undergoing medical tests to determine how best to treat the cancer.

Country television personality Lorianne Crook, booking agency CEO Rita Lee and booking agent Greg Oswald stood to praise Kilgore, but it was Kilgore himself — from a wheelchair — who stole the show, as usual.

With wife Judy at his side, he said he came to the IEBA event after a long day of tests at Vanderbilt University Medical Center because he was told that he would be presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Hank Jr., but he was deeply moved to instead receive the award himself.

''I'm glad I won it before he did,'' Kilgore said with a smile, drawing gales of laughter from the crowd. ''Don't tell him!''

Then Kilgore launched into one of hundreds of his famous stories, telling the crowd how years ago he once booked Little Richard into Municipal Auditorium.

''It's sold out, and the crowd is rocking. Then three or four people came up and said, 'That's not Little Richard!' Well, we didn't have TV in Louisiana,'' he said, voice trailing off as the crowd roared.

''I mean, this is a nice-looking young black guy who screamed 'Tooty Fruity!' '' he said. ''I only had to refund four tickets.''

Kilgore went on to talk about his great love for the Williams family, his love for the business and his love for the agents in the room.

Kilgore's association with the Williams family began more than five decades ago, when he was an adoring teenager who carried Hank Williams' guitar up a studio staircase. He later became a disc jockey and a performer. He broke into the music business as a songwriter when Webb Pierce recorded Kilgore's More and More and made it a No. 1 country hit.

After that, Kilgore recorded as a country, rock and folk act, even sporting the nickname ''The Boogie King'' for a while. His biggest songwriting marks came in the country field, with hits including Claude King's Wolverton Mountain and Johnny Horton's Johnny Reb.

Kilgore joined Williams Jr.'s road show as the opening act in 1964 and became his manager and the vice president of Hank Williams Jr. Enterprises in 1986. In that capacity, he negotiated the deal for Williams Jr.'s performance at the opening of each edition of ABC's Monday Night Football