Vince Gill Interview (page: 3 / 7) Country Music Hall of Fame	Print Interview

What did you learn from being a session musician?

Vince Gill: Being part of the supporting cast teaches you to do the work that they want you to do, that you're hired to do. You don't get to just do what you want and play what you want to play. You have to make something work, you have to make something fit, you have to be a chameleon.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I think some of the best advice I got as a young session musician -- the first time I played on something -- they came back and said, "Now just play me half of what you know. Okay, that was impressive, but that's not what I need here." So it's really an exercise on what's best going to serve the work in front of you, what's the job that will do that the best. And so, as the more you do it, you realize that it's much more of what you don't play than what you do play. And that's learning to play with people, and that's -- I spoke earlier about why music feels like a democracy to me, because it's everybody, it's not yelling at each other, they're all listening to each other. And that's what's great, because I'll play something, he'll hear it, that'll inspire him. That will, in turn -- they respond to each other. It's a call and answer kind of a thing. And that's what you're hoping for when you're playing. You're not just going, "I'm only playing my part and I don't care what everybody else is playing." It's this kind of beautiful experience, when everybody's on the same page and everybody's just bouncing. Then it's just like you're riding the cloud, you know. It's really beautiful.

What did Tony Brown and Emory Gordy teach you about writing songs and making records?

Vince Gill: Tony Brown and Emory Gordy were two great musicians. Both had stellar careers as record producers and session musicians, and were two of the best friends I'd ever made. Along with folks like Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell, they taught me what great songwriters were all about. I never had as much knowledge of songwriters as I did musicians. I was always a little more drawn to musicians than to singers. I eventually started trying to write songs, but that didn't come until much later, after years of just playing music.

Tony and Emory knew the value of a good song. That's why they both wound up being great producers and having successful careers. They produced the majority of my records. Emory produced the first two, and Tony produced all the ones I made in the 90's. They believed in me as a songwriter, which was really a great gift, living in a world like Nashville, where this guy that's parking your car can write better songs than you sometimes. It's a great town. It's a song town, that's really what it is. Moving there was a great lesson in learning about writing songs and getting better at it.

I marvel at coming to something like the American Academy of Achievement, because you see greatness in people, and you see suffering. You see all kinds of stuff, they're so inspiring. This trip to South Africa has been so inspiring, because of some of the struggles that people not only went through to achieve their greatness, but just to hear the spoken word be so eloquent, just to be so beautiful. I play the guitar a little bit, and I sing a little bit, and I pale in comparison to some of these folks.

But there's also a beauty in the simplicity of things too. Because I didn't go to college, because I was not an English major -- or a lot of reasons that my vocabulary doesn't have the depth that some of these people that I have the opportunity to meet here would -- I still have a way to communicate with people, and that's what my world has always been about, being a good communicator.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Hank Williams used to write songs that were simple. There was great beauty in their simpleness. And to me, great songwriters tell stories where you hear those words and you see the pictures. The songwriters are like painters. They paint pictures in their words and in their songs. And that's generally what I think you're trying to do as a songwriter, is paint pictures. Because I've always -- you know, music's in my ears, it's not in my eyes. And so that's what I'm always trying to accomplish, is to get you to close your eyes and see in your own mind and your own heart what these words mean to you. I think that's the beauty of the written word. Everybody has their own interpretation of it. So I believe that there's -- as simplistic as songs are -- sometimes there's a great beauty in them.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

You were in the music business a good 15 years before you finally had your breakout record. You'd been in Nashville for seven years, you had a recording contract with RCA as a solo artist, you were well-known inside the business, but you hadn't made the big breakthrough. Then in 1990, everything changed. What made the difference?

Vince Gill: I think it's as simple as having the right record at the right time, having the right song at the right time. As I go back and listen to my earlier records, I'm not surprised that they're not hits. Hit records sometimes are not necessarily that great either. It takes one to have another. You can't have the second one until you have the first one. It's such a Catch 22 that until you get on the radio and have a hit, you can't get gigs, because nobody's ever heard of you. It's just this whole cycle.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Even though I'd moved to MCA from RCA, and had seven years of struggles, and some records would get on the charts for a little bit -- but never that just out-of-the-box home run, slam dunk, giant hit record, you know, that everybody had to have, a real career record. I'd made my first record for MCA, and we released two singles, and not much happened. You know, it wasn't any different. And so I really, I would love to give MCA Records all the credit, they would like to hear me give them all the credit. But as it turned out, it was the right song at the right time, and that was a song called, "When I Call Your Name." And there was just something about it that struck that chord that was -- it was really fun to watch in a lot of different ways. For me it was fun just going, "Oh, that's what that feels like."

There's a totally different reaction from an audience when there's that familiarity of something massive. I'm just trying to think back to those days.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'm grateful for the years of struggle, because it got a lot of people rooting for me -- industry people, musicians and what not. And then when it finally happened, they felt, they finally went, "Finally!" You know, and there was a collective kind of, "Now all is right with the world. This is as it should be." Because people would say, "I can't understand why you're not having hit records. You sing beautifully, you play beautifully, you play with great musicians. You're writing songs with great songwriters." And it just hadn't happened. And so then that song came along and that got the door open. And once you can get that door opened, then you have the opportunity of longevity, you have the opportunity of making a difference and being heard, and all that was great. It was an amazing run of a great successful period of country music, too. Arguably the biggest in its history as far as record sales and attention and all of that. So yeah, I was beyond grateful. But it never changed my focus on what I loved, what I wanted to do. Even though I was starting to have big hit records, I still worked on everybody else's records. I still loved being part of the process.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. "Okay, now I've got the result I wanted. I've made it. I've done great!" and all that. That wasn't what I was after. I still longed to be called on the phone, "Hey, will you come sing on my record?" "Hey, will you come play on my record?" Yeah, I'd love to, because that's what I think has been the most fun. Even more so than my own success as an artist was the diversity and the collaborating that I got to do because I was willing. Most people, they don't want to do that. They don't have any interest in it. And I just love the fact that the phone would ring and who would be on the other end sometimes. Eric Clapton called one time and I answered the phone. He goes, "Vince, it's Eric Clapton," I go, "Yeah, sure. Who's yanking my chain?" You know? And he said, "No, seriously. I want you to come and play on a record of mine. I want to record one of your songs." Yes! You know, this is all great. And you just never know who's going to be on the other end of that phone. To me, I've always been a reactor to life, and not a planner and a worker trying to accomplish something. I just want it to all happen naturally.

That feels the best to me, because I just think that music is something that doesn't have an answer in a sense. It's just this thing that you listen to, and you either like it or you don't. It's not like a ball game where it's over and you know who won. And I am so grateful that I am not hung up on the results of what something has done to define it for me. You know, the definition is in the work, hands down. Once that work is done, and I have finished it and done it to the best of my ability, whether it sells ten copies or 10 million, that doesn't change one note of that work. So to me, the answer lies within the work. That's what's motivating to me.

When you were recording "When I Call Your Name," did that process feel any different? Did you have any idea this would be such a hit?

Vince Gill: One thing I was grateful for is that it was a really traditional country record. I really like deep, deep-rooted, hardcore, twangy kind of country music, the old school stuff. I don't like the new stuff very much. The contemporary side of it's okay, I've done some of it. But I'm not as crazy about it as I am those great old records of the '50s and '60s that I grew up on, and to me is the definition of what country music is. "When I Call Your Name," the two elements that made it much more special than it was, were the piano player, a fellow named Barry Beckett, who played all that Muscle Shoals stuff and produced a bunch of great records. He was a dear friend of mine, and he just passed away a couple of weeks ago.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. He came in late one night and played the intro to "When I Call Your Name." There's a piano intro on that song, and it's lonesome, and as soon as it happens you know what record it is. And that's another thing why I love being a part of making records, is because the musicians often times define records, make them memorable when they play something -- before the singer ever starts singing -- that gives it its definition and its identity. And they never get the credit, near enough credit for it, but they deserve it. And that's what Barry Beckett did as a piano player to that record. It defined it, and you knew exactly what song it was as soon as it started. And that happened late one night. We called him, it was like two in the morning. I said, "Hey, we need a really cool intro on this song we're working on." He'd been a friend of mine for years and produced some things on me, and we were great friends. And he came in and played and left. My favorite part of that story was, after it had become a hit, he came to the party. We had a big party that I finally had a hit record. And he hugged me and said, "Man I'm so proud of you. I think that's so great, you deserve it, and long time coming." And he says, "By the way, who played piano on it?" I said, "Are you kidding me?" He goes, "No, that intro." I go, "Well it's you." He goes, "Oh, well no wonder I liked it." And he had forgotten that he did it, you know, because he does so many things and it's hard to remember 'em all.

So that's an element that made that song much better than the song was in its original state of a guy playing a song. It's all those elements that turn it into a great record and make it memorable. And then Patty Loveless sang the harmony, and she has this aching, beautiful, crystal Kentucky voice that is one of the greatest things I've ever heard. I had sung on all of her records for years.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. We had recorded this song, we had this great intro, we had everything done, then we wanted to put harmony on it. And Patty Loveless had become a dear friend and she just has this Appalachian, Kentucky, beautiful voice that is unlike anything I've every heard. And I thought, you know, we sound really good together on her records, I wonder how it'll sound with her on my record. And so I called her and asked her if she'd come sing on it. And the first line of harmony that she sang, I just looked at Tony (Brown), and he looked at me, and we both got chills on our arms. And that's as big a reason as that song was a hit, you know, for all those reasons. It had so many great elements. That's when a record is neat, when it's not only a good song, when it's also a good record, it's also all the things just kind of line up. I have an old friend that used to say, "Great songs play themselves. Just get out of the way." And hopefully that's what that was, but there were a few elements that really made it stand out and make it special.

I think a lot of artists think that their project -- their film, their record -- is really special. But did this song in particular seem any different than the others you'd recorded before?

Vince Gill: I had no reason to jump up and down and say, "This is going to be the song of the year. This is going to change my life." I didn't know. I was just doing all that I knew how to do. Any time I was in the studio I was just trying to do my best. I think sometimes you kind of can hear a song. I mean, "That really sounds like a hit. That's a great song." Sometimes the stars line up and sometimes they don't.

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