When he was fifteen, Mac was walking home late one night and stepped into the First Baptist Church. Sitting down at the piano he began playing and "in the time it took to sing it" he had written a song called "People Call Me Jesus." His songwriting career was born. Mac didn't consider himself a songwriter at first because "I never sang it and I never played it for anybody and I didn't even write it down. I didn't do anything I associated with songwriting."
Mac was soon noticed playing in the many area nightclubs and at seventeen was asked to play a session at Wishbone Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. One night Mac was working a session on a Hank Williams, Jr. album. There was a cancellation in the schedule, so the session players began to play some of their own material. That fateful cancelled session led Mac to his first cut, "I Need You Tonight" on Hank Williams, Jr.'s Highways and Diners album. Soon after, Ariola Records developed an interest in the new songwriter.
Mac released his first album Mac McAnally when he was 19 years old. One of the songs "It's A Crazy World" received heavy airplay on AM radio stations across the country, and went to No. 2 on the adult contemporary charts and broke the pop Top 40. In early 1978 Mac's second record No Problem Here was released, followed in 1980 by Cuttin' Corners on MCA Records
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