25 years ago today, Pickin On Nashville was released on Mercury Records Nashville. It changed Doug, Fred, Richard, Ricky Lee and my life profoundly. After many years of playing music in different situations, we finally found our callings. We were not an over night success by any means, it came at a time in our lives when we really needed it. It gave me the license to play a Les Paul and Strat through an old Marshall stack in a genre that was geared mostly towards Fender, Fred to play a double bass kit, it gave us all a license to be ourselves. In June of 1989, I left my position as lead guitarist with Ronnie McDowell, after nearly 9 years. We then signed our deal with Mercury, finished two more tracks to go along with the 8 others that we had recorded and used on the infamous Pink Tape, and shot a video for Walk Softly. Was I scared and unsure about the future? Yes. I wish I could tell you that I knew all along Pickin On Nashville would sell over two million copies, win a Grammy, several CMA, ACM, Billboard and other accolades, I had no clue what was going to happen after it was released Oct. 17th, 1989. Each of us made sacrifices in our lives to make it work, not just me, everyone has their own special story. In retrospect, it was an amazing exciting time, never to be duplicated. Immediately after leaving Ronnie McDowell, I took a job at The Record Rack in Glasgow selling vinyl, cassettes and CDs. Thanks to Betty and Chip Kingrey, great job and great folks to work for. I worked there from June, until late Fall, right up to the time of the Pickin On Nashville release. I even worked on into the winter Holiday months. It was pretty cool selling copies of our LP to folks! Between The Record Rack, a few HeadHunters gigs and doing some subbing for folks, I was able to make enough money to get by till The HeadHunters started touring on a regular basis. I was working at The Record Rack the very day that the Walk Softly video premiered on CMT. I was at the counter watching the TV when a young African American boy came in to get change for a snack machine, there was a laundry next door. The moment he came in, the video came on, so I was transfixed in the TV set. The little guy looked at the TV, then at me 2-3 times. He said, Mister, is that you on TV!? I laughed and said, Yes, afraid so! After that video premiered, it wasnt long before Walk Softly was released as a single, then Pickin On Nashville shortly followed. Our lives were forever changed, it was a wild ride to say the least! I am eternally grateful to God, and still amazed today. Believe it or not, I havent listened to Pickin In Nashville in its entirety in a few years, I will pull my old vinyl copy out tonight and go down memory lane. Happy 25th Birthday Pickin On Nashville, heres where it all started back in 1989.....crank it up!!!!! Greg
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 15:17:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015