Well, it’s been quite a ride. It started in 1997, when I played my first show with some college buddies at Legends Corner on Broadway. I was 19. After the Marshall Dyllon experience, I needed a home base where I could hone my craft, build my show and gain exposure as a solo artist. I started playing The Stage on Broadway on Wednesday and Friday nights in 2003, first as a keyboardist for a great band called Third Wheel, then soon after I inherited those spots at The Stage as my own. Since then, I’ve worked Friday nights at The Stage for 11 years, and somewhere along the line my Wednesdays turned into Saturdays at Legends. I’ve done in excess of 900 of my own shows at those venues, and somewhere north of 300 as a keyboardist backing up other artists there. Crunching the numbers, I’ve entertained somewhere around a half-million people during my time playing on Broadway. I’m very proud to have been an ambassador of sorts for Nashville, proud to have “made it” on that street which I believe to be the greatest live music proving ground in the world. I’d like to think I had a hand in making a lot of people’s Nashville experience the blast they came here for. I’ve been most blessed by the chance to work with incredible musicians, many of which are my dearest friends. I expected to find the best pickers on that street, but I also found some truly great people. I even met my breathtaking wife right there in Legends Corner. The guys, the staffs of both clubs and many of the Nashville friends who would come to see me perform became a family to me. I’ve laughed with them, sometimes cried with them. They’ve seen me through the highs and lows of nearly half of my lifetime, from losing my father to having a daughter, then a son. So I’m writing now to tell you all that I’m ready to step away. My goals and dreams in life have changed. I’m older and certainly wiser. But I’m tired-er. I’m ready to have weekends like the rest of the you. I wanna take my wife on a Friday night date. I wanna sit on the couch and watch a Saturday night football game with my kids. There are other changes coming, which I will fill you in on in the coming months. And please don’t take me as whiny or sore, because I’m not, but today’s Country Music isn’t what I grew up on or moved here for. That’s a discussion for another time and place, but suffice it to say that most of what I hear doesn’t move or inspire me. Maybe that’s because it has changed. Maybe it’s because I have. Likely both. But it is what it is. I just feel in my heart that it’s time to turn the page. Now, I still have shows planned I am very excited about later this summer and into the fall. But first, we’re gonna rock it this weekend and the next…The Stage Friday and Legends Saturday. I hope to see a lot of the familiar faces that have brought me so much joy over the years during these last two weekends downtown. Then at 10:15pm on Saturday, July 26th, I will pack my gear up like I’ve literally done a thousand times, and step aside. And the next wild-eyed, big dreamer will hit the stage, and the beat will go on. I leave blessed. I leave grateful to each and every single one of you that sang along, bought an album, bought a drink, or just lent me their ear so I could pour out my heart and soul. So come on out this weekend and next, and let’s do it up like always, like nowhere else in the world. This is Nashville, baby. We know how to rock an encore. Love and gratitude always. -Todd
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:19:03 +0000