“For my friends and me, Bob McDill is who we wanted to be,” said Schlitz, 71, who wrote “The Gambler” and co-wrote “Forever and Ever, Amen,” among many hits. “We tried to be like him.

In a career that spanned three decades, songwriter Bob McDill landed no fewer than 31 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Country Music charts – enduring classics like “Gone Country,” “Good Ole ...