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

In 1993 you started the "Vinny" Pro-Celebrity Golf Invitational to support junior golf. What motivated you to do that?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I had a great experience as a kid with junior golf, with the availability to play golf on all the courses in Oklahoma City, where I grew up. And I felt like if I did well in my career, it would afford me the opportunity to help out, and I've always wanted to be a charitable type person. I wanted to help other people out, and so I started this tournament to raise money for kids to have an opportunity for junior golf, for kids to have a place to play, and ability to play, and talent to play. So I started a fun golf tournament, and it's lasted for 17 years. Raised about $4 or $5 million for kids across the state of Tennessee. And it's got one of the best programs in the country for young people.

They're very supportive of young people, and I felt okay with doing that because of my past, and because I do all the other things as well, for sick kids and Make a Wish and St. Jude's. I never felt like any cause was more important than any other. Let's just do whatever we have time for. Let's do them all, help them all out. So I don't really just champion the one cause. I know I've done the golf tournament for 17 years, but I've done other things equally as long.

What is the "All for the Hall" initiative?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'm the President of the Board at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and when I got on the Board I would go to the meeting, kind of looking around, going, "I'm not doing anything, I don't know why I'm here." You know? And I asked the Director, whose name is Kyle Young, I said, "Why do you got me here, I'm not doing anything?" And he said, "Well, we like you," and "Let's find a way to make an impact here. What are the biggest problems we've got?" And one was, they built a beautiful new facility downtown. It cost a lot of money, and it was trying to make it work, pay it off and all that. And I said, "What's the artist community done for the Hall of Fame?" And he goes, "Not much." You know, you've got to be kidding me. And so this was built for them by pioneers that have come before them, and so I had this idea. I said, "I want everybody that plays music for a living to play one night for free." I said, "If you're Kenny Chesney and you play in front of 20,000 people, give us that money. If you're this guy and you play in front of 200 people, give us that money. And just go out and play for the love of music one night during the year." And so I invited, I don't remember, 400 or 500 artists and musicians over to our house for dinner and tried to implant this seed of what they could do for the Hall of Fame. And there's been a few people that have come on board and helped out, and it's just slowly building, slowly growing. And it's really neat, because I just feel like that if you really love music, you know, why wouldn't you go play one night just for the love of playing music, instead of big box office and the big pocket full of cash, you know? Just book one more gig. You'll get healed up pretty quick, you know.

So there have been a few guys that have come on board, and we've raised a lot of money and we've done a couple of neat shows. We did one in New York City with Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, myself and Levon Helm from The Band, and we've had some great people come and help out and do those things. We're doing one in Los Angeles in October 2009. Who's coming, I don't even remember now. Just really neat, great people that have written songs and had great careers. Keith Urban's going to help out. I wasn't supposed to announce it yet. Who else? Rascal Flatts. A lot of people are coming on board, and I just figured that the artists' community should make the biggest difference in the future of the Country Music Hall of Fame, because it houses everything that has been done to this point. And if there's a more reverent place, I don't know what it could possibly be than the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, do you remember where you were when you got the news that they were going to induct you?

Vince Gill: That was a headscratcher. I was so grateful that it happened to me so young. A lot of people felt that I was too young. Me included, to some extent. But they passed a new law in the eligibility of being able to be inducted. The laws that were in place said you had to start your career prior to 1975, and there are so many people since 1975 that would obviously be great additions to the Hall of Fame. So they started, I think four years ago now, a new category that didn't have to be prior to 1975. So the first year was Alabama, the second year was George Strait, and the third year was me.

So I felt like I've had a great career. I like to look at my career in the entirety of all of the supporting roles I've played in music in addition to just my own artistry. And I don't feel quite so weird about being inducted when I look at it in its entirety and think of all the years and all the records and all the things that I've tried to do to help the music.

And I also understand that the only reason it was possible is because they changed the eligibility. So I said, "Well maybe I do have a chance now in my lifetime," and it came quite a bit sooner than I ever hoped it would. It can't get any better than that. I didn't have anything to do with it, other than create what I've created over the years. There's a committee of, I think, 300 voters throughout the industry, and nobody really knows who they are. I know who a few of them are. But there's a list that comes before them of several names and they just vote who they think is deserving. So they voted, and I'm trilled to death.

What do you see as the next great challenge in music, country music, American music?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Vince Gill: The technology is kind of ahead of the curve of the ability for everybody to be paid properly in a sense. That's the biggest issue I see, is the people that are able to get the music for nothing. And that impacts songwriters, it impacts publishers, it impacts so many people that most people wouldn't even think about, that they're part of the income stream that makes a living out of the music business. And I feel like, if you think about a download costing a dollar of a single song, with iTunes, or whichever of those companies you use, that's what you paid for a single record in the late 50's and early 60's. I'd like you to find me something that costs the same thing today as it did then, and wonder how we're expected to survive. So there are great challenges because of the technology being able to decimate our industry. But regardless of all that stuff, they'll all figure out how the new business model is going to work and it will be fine. Because people are always going to want and crave and need the creative process. So I never fear that music will go on. It will live on and it will inspire and it will change the world. It will do all the same things that it's always done. When something's great, it's just great. It doesn't matter if it's 1920 or 2010, you know, great is great.

What do you think you know about achievement now that you didn't know when you were younger?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I think I've learned that the result is not as important as the work. I feel like the journey is more important than where I wound up at the end of the journey. The end of the journey is not the exercise, it's the journey. And I feel the same way with my achievements -- with the tools that I had to achieve them with -- felt as great at 17 as they do at 52. As you grow, and as you get older, all you're hoping to do is get better at what it is that you're doing. I know I sing better, play better, write better today than I did ten years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. All the above. And I heard Kenny Rogers speak not long ago, and he said something that was pretty impactful to me. He hadn't made a record in a long time, and they said, "Why did you make a record? You haven't made one in a long time. Were you worried that it might not be successful?" And he says, "My interest was not making a record that was successful, it was making a record that was significant." And I just loved the heart in that, because that to me is the equivalent of an achievement.

The things that I've achieved that feel the best, are actually things I received. In the sense that I think I'm giving something to someone, and then in turn I got something back that I never expected. It's the unexpected thing that you receive that to me is a better definition of achievement than what you do for yourself.

What does the American Dream mean to you?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The American Dream to me is, it's a fair chance. I think that's all anybody could ever want and anybody could ever expect. I see an awful lot of people that think they're entitled to things. You've got to earn them, you know. They have to be earned. You're not entitled to -- you know. You parent a kid, and they think they're entitled to every toy on the shelf. And you just go, I don't think so. To me, that's what I'd like to see. The American Dream for me would be a fair chance for everybody, not just the "haves." You see a lot of life where most people are too hung up on the pecking order of things, and not everyone does get a fair chance. It was always my argument with my father about anything was, until there's a level playing field, you can't have a right answer to something. So that would be my definition of the American Dream is a fair chance for everybody.

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

What do you think will be one of the big achievements in the next quarter century?

Vince Gill: Oh boy. I'm hoping it's wisdom we find in ourselves to think about the world instead of ourselves. If we could find a way to put ourselves last instead of first, I think we'd be better off. I think there are things we do that just obliterate the planet, and it's mostly out of greed and selfishness that that comes from. So hopefully we can find a way to put ourselves last instead of first.

Here's our last question. What advice would you want to give your grandchildren to leave behind as your verbal footprint?

Vince Gill: Be kind.

Thank you so much for sitting down with us today.

Vince Gill: it's been a pleasure.

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