- He wrote the song "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", a hit for Kenny Rogers in 1968. The song was based on a couple having marital problems, who lived near his family home in Florida. Tillis left the couple's true life ending out of the song wherein the husband murdered his wife and then killed himself.
- He served in the Air Force for four years, during the period of the Korean War.
- Father of Country singer Pam Tillis.
- Prolific country singer/songwriter and periodic actor, who scored nearly six dozen hits on Billboard magazine's country singles charts between 1958 and 1988.
- While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, during the Korean War, he played local bars with a band he formed called the Westerners.
- His biggest country hit, 1972's "I Ain't Never," had been a major hit for Webb Pierce in 1959. Pierce's version stayed at No. 2 for nine weeks late that summer.
- Owned 2 radio stations in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas in the 1980s.
- Has six children, six grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
- He grew up in Pahokee, Florida.
- He was awarded the 2011 American National Medal of the Arts, by President Barack Obama, for his services to music on February 13, 2012.
- The Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year for 1976.
- Silver Springs, Florida: Songwriter and singer. (February 2012)
- At the time of his death he was living full time in Ocala, Florida.
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