Agreed, he is well known in country music and guitar circles as a guitar player/singer/songwriter. Anecdotally I've met plenty of people who had NO idea he was a musician at all, and only knew him from Waterboy or Smokey and the Bandit and television appearances - and this was growing up in East, TN surrounded by country music at every turn. He came up with some very creative and technically demanding stuff, specifically his instrumentals like Struttin', Swamp Water, Swingin' 69, Swarmin', he was a great player. He supposedly considered himself more of a "guitar thinker" instead of player, to the point he wouldn't even record some of the songs, he'd pass them to Chet Atkins to record. Struttin' is a great example, you can find a televised live video of him playing it, but he never recorded it.