Vince Gill

Vince Gill

BIG THINGS FOR VINCE GILL

The Country Star Tries On a New Hat
In this age of uncertainty, it's nice to know there are a few things we can count on. The talents of songwriter and vocalist Vince Gill are among them: His witty and insightful perspective on everything from heartbreak to growing old to the current state of country music have made his albums instant classics. Still, the Next Big Thing marks a departure of sorts, as it's the first time in some 15 years that Gill has released an album without longtime producer Tony Brown by his side. Gill talked with Barnes & Noble.com's Lisa Zhito about the self-produced album and offered his opinions on music critics, Music Row, and a few other Big things.

Barnes & Noble.com: Is this the first time you've produced on your own record, or just the first time you've taken credit for it?

Vince Gill: Gosh, well, I've felt like a part of the production on all my records with Tony, and if you called him he'd tell you the same thing. I just never had any desire to try and take credit for it and be a co-producer, as much out of respect for Tony as anything.

B&N.com: So why was this the right time?

VG: I knew he was leaving [MCA Nashville] to start his own label, and I kinda felt like, well, I may not want to turn up with a new record that Tony and I have done if he's just left, so this might be a good opportunity for me to see the kind of record I'd make on my own. So I just went in and did it. I cut some songs, gathered 'round some great musicians, had some fun, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. There are some different songs for me on it. I don't know, I feel like they are more...well, I don't know how to describe them, other than that hopefully I've grown up a little bit as a songwriter.

B&N.com: How does Next Big Thing fit in with the other albums you've done? Is it a natural progression for you?

VG: The last two records I made were both done at pretty odd times in my life, not odd as in good or bad, but just odd. With The Key, it was, I had gone through a divorce and losing my father, and just kinda really reminiscing about how much I loved the traditional side of country music, so I made a record that was really traditional from start to finish. And then, when it was time for the next record after that [Let's Make Sure We Kiss Goodbye], I fell in love with [singer] Amy [Grant] and we got married, so all those songs were about how I was feeling great, happy, and that kind of really threw people for a loop, I guess. So much in my past I pretty much had done sad songs.

B&N.com: In fact, that record was roundly criticized for being too mushy. Did that bother you?

VG: No, it didn't bother me. I feel like if you get panned for being happy, that's not such a bad thing! Dog a guy for being happy, that's pretty bizarre. So I kind of saw the humor in it and moved on.

B&N.com: Well, what place in your life does Next Big Thing reflect?

VG: This record is, life is in a great place, I'm in a great space.

B&N.com: Talk about some of the songs on it.

VG: I think my favorite song on the record is a song called "Young Man's Town." I also wrote a song about Merle Haggard called "Real Mean Bottle," and I wrote another called "This Old Guitar and Me," which is kinda my life story to this point.

There are some interesting co-writes. I wrote with Dean Dillon and some songs with Big Al Anderson that are totally different for me, a different feel. I just had a lot of fun, I didn't feel like there were any parameters on what I could and couldn't do.

B&N.com: I hear that it's much harder to produce yourself because there's no one to bounce ideas off.

VG: Well, for me it's just lonely! I don't think it's any harder than it's ever been, because I've still got to do that work, regardless of whether Tony is sitting there or I'm sitting there. I still have to play the solos and do the things that I do on my records, I still put in the work. I think that it's more lonely, and it's hard.

B&N.com: You produced a few tracks on Amy's Legacy...Hymns & Faith album.

VG: Oh, that was so much fun! I co-produced the whole record with Brown Bannister, who years ago produced a lot of Amy's early records. They were going to do a hymns record, and they said, "We think you might be an interesting choice because you don't have all the years tied into these songs like we do." So I didn't have anything to do with picking the songs, but I got to musically take them in places I thought might be interesting, so it was a real neat collaboration among the three of us.

B&N.com: Is producing other artists something you're interested in doing more of?

VG: I don't know. I think it's a natural progression for me, but I know I don't want to do a lot of it. It's very time consuming. It really does take a lot of time to make records, to be in the studio and do all that stuff. I'm actually in the process right now, they've asked me to produce two sides on Amy's pop record, which she's been working on for some time, and I do feel a little like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing here!"

B&N.com: You've also found some undiscovered talent and nurtured them through the process in the past. Would you want to do more of that?

VG: That would be fun! Yeah, I produced a record by Sonya Isaacs, a young artist on Lyric Street Records, and I enjoyed the process until the record company got involved. Then it was kinda like, why are they doing this? I understood why they made most of the decisions they did, but sometimes they make decisions that aren't the most musical. They know what they have to accomplish, and I know that's why those decisions were made and I don't fault them for that, but still it took the creative process and almost shoved it aside, from my perspective.

B&N.com: It's the business versus the music.

VG: It is, and I totally understand it, I get that, but a steady diet of that I don't think would be good.

B&N.com: So you don't want Tony Brown's gig?

VG: [laughs] No, not yet!

February 27, 2003