Ohio-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who, over the past four decades, has compiled a long list of country hits and chart-toppers on both domestic and international sales and radio airplay charts, including two Number 1 iTunes chart singles. He has been in Billboard magazine, on FOX TV, and has recorded popular duets with legendary artists like Ronnie McDowell and GRAMMY-winner Rhonda Vincent. He has been inducted into both the Indie Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ohio Country Music Hall of Fame. He is currently recording a new album, which he talks about during this interview.
“I’m so thankful and gracious that I get to do what I love to do. I love real, traditional country music.”
“Gary Cohn says at the end of his show, ‘Folks, if I don’t see you on the air, I’ll see you in the air,’ and that touched me, I mean, it just sent chills all over me. And I grabbed my pad of paper and my guitar, and right there at the kitchen table, fifteen or twenty minutes later, I had wrote Radio Friend.”
“When I write my music, I guess I could sit down and just write stuff, but it seems to be that I’m more content and I’m more happy with the outcome if I really feel a genuine inspiration.”
“My dad was an incredible country music singer and guitar player and entertainer, and I knew from a young age that’s something that I wanted to do.”
“My biggest gratification today, for me as a musician, is to get in that studio and have that music, that song that I just wrote, come to life. What an awesome feeling that is.”
“The musicians that I work with in Nashville, Tennessee, are absolutely astounding musicians. And I’ve been working a lot with the Beaird Music Group there in Nashville for about ten years now, and others.”
“Billy Yates… was a Nashville songwriter that wrote so many songs for people like George Jones and George Strait and so many of the huge 80s and 90s artists, Billy wrote a lot of those great songs. And I was fortunate enough to hitch my wagon with Billy and he introduced me to… some songwriters and the folks down there that really kind of gave me an opportunity… I learned so much by just watching him and listening and developing my own confidence within myself.”
“I’m a big USA, red, white, and blue, all-American boy and I’m proud of it.”
“That’s what’s really so special with my career nowadays is that I’ve gone from being a fan of all these wonderful artists, and now I can call ‘em my friend. If that ain’t success, I don’t know what is.”
“I was playing the honky tonks and stuff before I was legally able to be in ‘em.”
“We built a venue, it’s a big, beautiful barn, and it seats about 400 people, and we bring Grand Ole Opry stars once a month, June through October.”
“Right Where He Ought to Be”
“High Above the Midnight Sky”