Prattville Native Using His Love of Music to Entertain Others During COVID-19 Restrictions

By Mike Oakley

Tommy Merrick has spent his life looking for ways to serve others.

As a youngster growing up in Prattville, his dream was to be a disk jockey. He loved music and, being an only child, his mother encouraged him to sing along to songs. His dad played a little guitar and his uncle was an accomplished musician who sang at weddings and gatherings.

After dinner, Merrick would retreat to his room and listen to the radio or to his dad’s music collection. Although his and friends’ influences were the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and other rock bands, his dad was a fan of Eddie Arnold, Jim Reeves, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass and Johnny Cash. So, the son developed an eclectic taste in music and a near-photographic memory of songs, the year they came out, and who sang them. His dad recorded him on reel-to-reel tape when he was about 3 years old, singing Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

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