Keeping Your Antenna Up Pt 2 - Rivers Rutherford On Tim Mcgraw's "real Good Man"

[Ty Hager]

This bit of our conversation was insightful on a couple of different levels….and, speaking of insightful on different levels - my book “Nashville Songsmiths - In-Depth Interviews with #1 Country Songwriters†is available at Amazon through Sunday for free!!  Just click below.

RR:  I tell ya, I was at a party with my wife, and this girl comes up to my wife and says, “I love your husband and I’ll tell ya why - he’s a bad boy but he’s a good man.† And it was a room full of songwriters, and as soon as she said it, I thought, Gosh, that’s a hit title…
TH:  And you were wondering how many other people in the room thought the same thing….
RR:  Exactly.  I thought, there’s no sense in even writing it ‘cause there’ll be thirty of ‘em by tomorrow afternoon, ya know?  But nobody really heard it…I mean, they heard her say it but they didn’t get it as a song title, and I could tell.  And she kinda walked away and my wife turned to me and said, “Who is that woman and why is she saying that about you?† And I said, “Well I’ll tell you what - if you’ll promise not to grill me about it, I’ll promise to buy you something nice when it’s a big hit.†(laughs)
TH:  And did you?
RR:  (laughs)  I did, I did. 
TH:  And one of the things you have to do as a songwriter, you always have to have to be on the look-out for a snippet of conversation, something that just hits you the right way, and something clicks.
RR:  You know, some days for me…months’ll go by and nothing sounds like a song.  And then I’ll have a week or so where everything everybody says sounds like a song.  It’s really funny how that works.  And then I’ll start writing a bunch of songs that I really like…and I’ll dream ‘em, and everything else.  And then all of a sudden it stops, and I’m back to slaving away, tryin’ to make it happen again.  You start getting scared that it’s never gonna come back again.
TH:  Do you really?  Is there a point where you think you’ve written your last hit?
RR:  Absolutely.  I’ve thought that so many times, I can’t even count it…I thought that when I was twenty-two.  I thought I’d written my last song.  But it always seems to come back around, you know?  I think the older I get the more I realize, it’s in there, I’ve got plenty to say.  As long as I show up and do the work, kinda roll up my sleeves and dive in, sooner or later something’ll percolate.

Ty Hager
author, “Nashville Songsmiths - In-Depth Interviews with #1 Country Songwitersâ€

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DUGKMIG

Audio clips from the interviews here:

 

[Alistair]

Uncanny, I often talk about 'Having My Antennae Up' when I am in a songwriting mood. They've been down for two years though.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Alistair

[Ty Hager]

They'll rise again...lol.  You're just subconsciously stockpiling the ideas.

[KateSmith]

Good stuff, man!