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I know you grew up in a musical family, did you always want to be a musician, or did you just kind of fall into it because it was all around you?

Gosh.  I’ve always wanted to be an entertainer.  I always wanted to be “The Guy” obviously with that.  I started playing when I was nine.  My dad played fiddle, and my older brother played guitar.  My uncle played mandolin, and my grandma played banjo.  I mean I didn’t have much of a choice. 

So y’all were probably into a lot of bluegrass then?

No my dad – I mean he liked bluegrass – but he was more into Jim Reeves and stuff like that back then.  Of course he loved George Jones and Buck Owens, so I grew up on that. 

Who were your biggest musical influences, and are they still influences on your work today; or have your influences changed?

Well I had a very wide influence on me.  Of course growing up it was George Jones, Buck Owens, Jim Reeves.  It was The Beatles, Motown – so a wide range – and as I got older it was Lynyrd Skynyrd, southern rock, and The Eagles, a big influence, Doobie Brothers, Earth Wind…stuff like that, even The Carpenters just because of the great melodies and things I guess. 

Was there ever a defining moment of truth where you realized that you wanted to be involved in music for a living, not just as a hobby?

I just grew up doing it.  That’s just what I did.  I don’t know that I ever made a conscious decision…I guess I did actually.  I was a quarterback playing football and a pitcher in baseball.  My sophomore year in high school I got my nose broke playing football, and my mom made me choose between football and music.  So that’s the only time I’ve ever had to choose. 

So I guess you probably resented mom at the time but are probably thanking her now.

No.  I didn’t.  I don’t remember resenting it cause I loved music, and I don’t think there was really ever a question in my mind ever what I was going to do. 

Although I did some other things to make a living, I was always going to do music.  Even if I had to do something else today to make a living I would still write songs, and I’d still play.

I know when you were growing up you opened for a lot of people like Dolly Parton and George Jones, so how was that?  Were you ever star struck, or was that just a part of life for you?

Oh, I was star struck.  You know being 11 or 12 years old and getting to play on shows with Dolly Parton, and Porter Wagoner, and George Jones, and Tammy Wynette…Golly, there’s a bunch of ‘em. 

You can go to my website, that’s probably where you saw some of the pictures…the early years.

Yeah, real early.  Before most people knew what music was, you were playing it with stars.

Yeah, I was very fortunate, very blessed.

How did that come about?

Well, I won a contest in Dayton when I was 11, I think Called Star Trail.  There’s some pictures of that in there.  That was the first thing that I did out publicly.  So it must’ve come somehow thru that.  I don’t remember to tell you the truth how it came about.

Now you weren’t in Nashville very long before you landed a gig with Eddy Raven.  How did you get that opportunity?

I was playing at a nightclub here, and knew a drummer buddy of mine from Ohio left Ohio to be on the road with Margo Smith back in the day.  So I knew he was down there, and I had touched base with him.  He was playing in a band down here, and Eddy Raven heard their band and hired the whole band.  Well the guitar player of that band was Tim Mensy.  Tim quit that band to join the group Bandana, so he was the singer and guitar player in the group Bandana.  So Charlie called me, and I got the job.

How big of an influence was Eddy Raven on your early career in terms of allowing you to progress into different things?

Oh, Eddy was wide open.  I mean Eddy wrote with me.  I was just green as a lyricist really.  I had good melodies, and he liked that.  We just started working together.  I’d bring him ideas, and if he liked it, we worked on it.  The first song I guess that we wrote together that got cut was a song that we wrote with Tanya Tucker called “Changes.”  We did two or three shows with her, and she gave the idea to Eddy.  I think we were in New Orleans, and we were on our way to Fargo, North Dakota.  On the way up there he told me about the idea, and when we got up there we wrote the song. 

Did y’all write “I Got Mexico” together?

Uh huh.

So I guess that’s when you first really got into writing songs, with Eddy, or had you been writing songs before?

Uh huh.  I had been writing, but most of my writing was putting music to people who had a lyric.

So is that still kinda where you come from?

Oh no.  I do both now.  I think I’ve come a long way as a lyricist.  I mean, I wrote “You and I,” the Eddie Rabbit, Crystal Gayle song by myself.  I know it isn’t a great lyric, but the melody and everything…