Garth Brooks has said if it weren’t for songwriter Kent Blazy, there probably would be no Garth Brooks. You can also see the video of this episode here and follow the prompts to leave comments: https://youtu.be/CcAqcQTCEhw
In this episode, Kent tells us how he became a songwriter, the stories behind his hit songs, songwriting tips, the value in preparation and perseverance, and about his heart wrenchingly personal album “Authentic.” Kent also answers some fun personal questions!
Philanthropy-Alive Hospice: https://tinyurl.com/wnue293k
https://kentblazy.com/
Social media platforms:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Kentblazymusic/
Apple Music- https://music.apple.com/us/album/authentic/1533211254
Amazon Music- https://music.amazon.com/artists/B000QJNYE4/kent-blazy
YouTube Music- https://music.youtube.com/browse/VLPLiWpxuDpuH7i0ZJUOh7uzwRH0apLDqSwZ
(Subscribe for more content: https://www.youtube.com/c/BoredandCuriousPodcastwithMaryKatz)
Bio:
Kent Blazy is an American country music songwriter from Lexington, KY who now calls Nashville, TN home. His credits include several singles for Garth Brooks, as well as singles by Gary Morris, Diamond Rio, Patty Loveless and Chris Young. Blazy has a total of seven number one hits to his credit. Kent Blazy was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. At an early age, he played rhythm guitar and sang in various local bands, citing The Byrds, Rodney Crowell and Joe Ely as influences. He later played for Canadian singer Ian Tyson. Later on, Blazy met former Exile member Mark Gray, who suggested that Blazy move to Nashville, Tennessee. Eventually, he signed to a publishing contract, but the publishing company closed; despite the loss of contract, Gary Morris sent Blazy's "Headed for a Heartache" into the top 5 on the country charts. By the late 1980s, Blazy met with a then-unknown Garth Brooks, who gave him the idea for a song entitled "If Tomorrow Never Comes." He and Brooks co-wrote the song, which went on to become Brooks' first number one hit. Brooks continued to record Blazy's material throughout the 1990s, including the singles "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)," "It's Midnight Cinderella," "She's Gonna Make It," "Somewhere Other Than the Night" and the George Jones duet "Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?)." He also co-wrote "That's What I Get for Lovin' You" by Diamond Rio and "Can't Get Enough" by Patty Loveless in the late 1990s. Blazy, along with songwriters Pat Alger, Tony Arata and Kim Williams, recorded an album entitled A Songwriters' Tribute to Garth Brooks, which included their renditions of songs that they had written for Brooks. This album was released in 2001 via VFR Records. Other songs that Blazy has co-written include "You Can Let Go" by Crystal Shawanda and "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" by Chris Young from 2008 and 2009 respectively, as well as American Idol season 8 finalist Danny Gokey's debut single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me."
Intro music artist credit: Short Guitar Clip by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Garth Brooks has said if it weren’t for songwriter Kent Blazy, there probably would be no Garth Brooks. You can also see the video of this episode here and follow the prompts to leave comments: https://youtu.be/CcAqcQTCEhw
In this episode, Kent tells us how he became a songwriter, the stories behind his hit songs, songwriting tips, the value in preparation and perseverance, and about his heart wrenchingly personal album “Authentic.” Kent also answers some fun personal questions!
Philanthropy-Alive Hospice: https://tinyurl.com/wnue293k
https://kentblazy.com/
Social media platforms:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Kentblazymusic/
Apple Music- https://music.apple.com/us/album/authentic/1533211254
Amazon Music- https://music.amazon.com/artists/B000QJNYE4/kent-blazy
YouTube Music- https://music.youtube.com/browse/VLPLiWpxuDpuH7i0ZJUOh7uzwRH0apLDqSwZ
(Subscribe for more content: https://www.youtube.com/c/BoredandCuriousPodcastwithMaryKatz)
Bio:
Kent Blazy is an American country music songwriter from Lexington, KY who now calls Nashville, TN home. His credits include several singles for Garth Brooks, as well as singles by Gary Morris, Diamond Rio, Patty Loveless and Chris Young. Blazy has a total of seven number one hits to his credit. Kent Blazy was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. At an early age, he played rhythm guitar and sang in various local bands, citing The Byrds, Rodney Crowell and Joe Ely as influences. He later played for Canadian singer Ian Tyson. Later on, Blazy met former Exile member Mark Gray, who suggested that Blazy move to Nashville, Tennessee. Eventually, he signed to a publishing contract, but the publishing company closed; despite the loss of contract, Gary Morris sent Blazy's "Headed for a Heartache" into the top 5 on the country charts. By the late 1980s, Blazy met with a then-unknown Garth Brooks, who gave him the idea for a song entitled "If Tomorrow Never Comes." He and Brooks co-wrote the song, which went on to become Brooks' first number one hit. Brooks continued to record Blazy's material throughout the 1990s, including the singles "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)," "It's Midnight Cinderella," "She's Gonna Make It," "Somewhere Other Than the Night" and the George Jones duet "Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?)." He also co-wrote "That's What I Get for Lovin' You" by Diamond Rio and "Can't Get Enough" by Patty Loveless in the late 1990s. Blazy, along with songwriters Pat Alger, Tony Arata and Kim Williams, recorded an album entitled A Songwriters' Tribute to Garth Brooks, which included their renditions of songs that they had written for Brooks. This album was released in 2001 via VFR Records. Other songs that Blazy has co-written include "You Can Let Go" by Crystal Shawanda and "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" by Chris Young from 2008 and 2009 respectively, as well as American Idol season 8 finalist Danny Gokey's debut single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me."
Intro music artist credit: Short Guitar Clip by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
They said "He'll never get a record deal with a name like Garth."
Mary Katz (Host):Welcome to another episode of Bored and Curious. I'm your host, Mary Katz. Garth Brooks himself has said if it weren't for today's guest, there probably would be no Garth Brooks. His name is Kent Blazy. And not only has he co-written "If Tomorrow Never Comes," "Somewhere Other than the Night," and "Ain't Goin' Down ('til the Sun Comes Up)," but he is also a 2020 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee. His latest album is titled Authentic. And today we're going to talk about all of that, the stories behind some of your favorite songs and Kent will tell us about the importance of being prepared and perseverance. We'll also get to know Kent a little better with some fun personal questions like "What's the worst thing you did as a kid?". Alrighty. Let's get started. Well, first of all, thank you so much for joining the podcast today. I'm so excited to have you on. I'm having a Beatles moment. I'm like, how do I do this without, you know, ending up having a restraining order against me? Anyways, thank you very much for being on today. Um, let's get started by, um, can you just tell me what you wanted to be as a kid? Because most people, you know, wanted to be a firefighter baseball player and you became a songwriter. Most people don't have that in their, you know, on their radar.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, I was one of those kids that dreamed of becoming a baseball player too. And, um, my dad had been a, a PE teacher and all that stuff. So from an early age, he was throwing the ball to me and having me hit and catching all that. But we also, we grew up in a little town in upstate New York, Woodstock, New York, before it was Woodstock the pop festival. But even back then, it was a small town, but it had a lot of authors that lived there and painters artists, uh, actors from New York city lived up there sometimes. So as a kid growing up, I met all kinds of people that were creative, that were making a living, being creative. And even at early age, you know, you'd go to somebody's house and they'd say, "Hey, I just wrote a book. Can I autograph it for ya?" Or they're working on a huge painting in their living room. And I thought this is a cool way to make a living. So, uh, we moved to Lexington, Kentucky because IBM where my dad worked used to mean I've been moved. And, uh, so we moved there and, um, You know, it's a totally different world from where we were, but, um, so I mainly concentrated on baseball, but I also was writing poetry and stuff like that and got some things published, like in high school books or new, uh, yearbooks or papers or whatever, you know, and I thought, well, you know, people must like it enough to, uh, want to publish it. And then when I got my guitar, I was like, well, I write poetry. I guess I can write songs. So I handed in my baseball uniform and got a guitar and that was the end of my baseball career.
Mary Katz (Host):That's awesome. Who's your team?
Kent Blazy (Guest):It was the white socks. I mean my big, my big sports team, um, New York Yankees, because my dad was a huge Yankee fan. And so when we would go back and visit relatives and stuff, he would take me to Yankee stadium. And, um, so I had to be a Yankee fan. I kinda got out of it when they went on strike in the 1990s. I kinda gave up watching all sports, but, uh, my wife's kinda gotten me back into, uh, sports again. So I'm a Yankee fan again.
Mary Katz (Host):All right. That's awesome. I know at one point you were, um, touring, um, with, I believe it was a band in Canada.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Right. With Ian Tyson was the leader and he's like the Bob Dylan of Canada or something to kind of Gordon Lightfoot or something and just a great songwriter performer and a big star up there. And so I was playing guitar for him and he was very helpful with my songwriting and encouraged me to do it. And we had a band that was Canadian band, but I was kind of the leader of it. So he would let me open the show for like a half an hour playing my songs and then he would get up and do his stuff. So, you know, when somebody who you really look up to as an amazing artist and songwriter gives you encouragement. Itencouragement; Itjust makes you think, wow. You know, this may be possible for me to do that.
Mary Katz (Host):All right. Um, and, and then when you did finally, what was the final push for you to actually go to Nashville and do that?
Kent Blazy (Guest):So a friend of mine in Lexington, Kentucky, there was actually a group called Exile and they were a big pop group. And then they actually went country. But, uh, one of the guys in the band, the bass player, Sonny LaMaire was a good friend of mine. And so when I was off the road, one week I went to visit him and he had this new guy in Exile named Mark Gray. And Mark was probably one of the best singer songwriters artists I had ever heard in my life. Very soulful and, um, So Sonny said, "Well, play, play Mark some of your songs." And I played him some things and he said,"Well, you need to move to Nashville." And Ian had been telling me the same thing. And Mark said, "Well, if you come down there, I'll help you any way I can, I'll introduce you to people." And so I thought, well, if these two people believe in me, I'm heading to Nashville. So that was really what pushed me over the edge. When it came time to moving to Nashville.
Mary Katz (Host):I've only driven through Nashville. And even that was enough for me to tell my husband, like,"We need to move to Nashville. This is beautiful." Like we didn't even stop.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. And it's beautiful place. And there's a creativity in the air here that's nowhere else. It's very interesting. You know, it's, uh, like I would go write with Garth when he was living in Oklahoma and he would keep saying,"There's just no energy out here. I can't write out here." And I went out there and I'm like, "You're right. We better, we better go back to Nashville to write songs." There's just some kind of creative energy here that I love. So come on!
Mary Katz (Host):Oh, gosh, I want to so bad. I want to go to the Bluebird. I want to go to the Opry...
Kent Blazy (Guest):And you definitely have to see a show at the Ryman.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. And if I recall correctly, um, I believe in a prior interview you had said that you didn't, you got kind of tired of touring.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. Um, you know, Ian was based out of Calgary, Alberta, and so that's pretty, pretty far away for a Kentucky boy. And, um, so it's kind of a back and forth thing and you were away from your friends and your family and stuff. And so I did it probably two years with him and I just decided I need to concentrate on my songwriting. I've been out on the road for five or six different years with bands and it's time just to get into Nashville and see what I can do.
Mary Katz (Host):And so you moved to Nashville, you're writing and, um, You've written on my, uh, the story behind the song list. I have a few here. And so "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was your first song that, that you heard on the radio, right?
Kent Blazy (Guest):No, my first one was, and I was very lucky when I moved to town. I figured it would take four years to have something happen. And in the first year and a half, I had a top five record by a guy on Warner Brothers, Gary Morris. And so that kind of opened the door for my songwriting. And it was kind of the reason that I ended up writing with Garth because I was the only person who had had a top five record or top 10 record that would write with him. And, uh, they were asking different people who had, had hit records to write with him. And I was the only one that would do it, I guess.
Mary Katz (Host):So when you heard, um, the other, the other song before, do you, do you remember the first time you heard that on the radio? And like, is that, that just feels like it would be like a mindblowing.
Kent Blazy (Guest):It is a mind blowing thing. Um, it's one of those things where, you know, in most jobs you can kind of see. When you do a job, you're going to like even painting the house. You know, when you're done, you see you painted the house and it looks good. Uh, in songwriting, you just never know you keep writing songs and writing songs. And so finally you have one that does something and it's, it's like a miracle it's like magic to be driving down the road and hear a song that you wrote that you've been working so hard for so many years come out on the radio speaker,
Mary Katz (Host):That's a, that's... I can't, I cannot fathom what that must feel like, but yeah. On that note, like you, you write some very emotional songs. So when you're, you know, if you're out at the Bluebird performing or whatever, I, how do you get through those really emotional songs? Cause I can't listen to some of them in the car without crying, let alone...
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. There's some times I can't get through them and there's some songs I just don't really perform because I can't sing them without crying. And "If Tomorrow Never Comes" sometimes it's the same way to get through that one. But, um, there's just some songs I'll sing at home. But I won't sing at the Bluebird because I'll, I won't get through it.
Mary Katz (Host):Wow. Yeah. I saw Reba in an interview and she was like, "I look for the exit signs." And I'm like, I, I still can't. I don't even make it to that point to just, I don't know. I can't, I don't see how you guys do it.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, I call it a pull over to the side of the road moment. And, you know, there used to be a lot of songs on the radio that did that to me in the nineties where you just hear something and you, you know, you know, you start tearing up and it's like, I've got to pull over the side of the road.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I can't drive.
Mary Katz (Host):Which songs do that for you?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, a big one for me was "Heart of the Matter" by Don Henley. Um, the other one was"The Song Remembers When." Um, there was a Reba song. I'm trying to think of which one it was that just, "Is There Life out There?" That was another one. There was so many great ones."Ships that Don't Come in" was another fabulous one. Um, "Walk Away Joe," what a great song. You know, and there was so many of those that I pulled over over to the side of the road a lot in the nineties.
Mary Katz (Host):One of the reasons I started this, this podcast is I'm, I'm a huge music fan. And I grew up listening to mostly nineties country and the songs back then, I feel like had so much heart and they had a lot of emotions. They had so much feelings and they just, you know, they were very relatable. Whereas now I hear more, I guess it's just more easy listening. It's just kind of like, it's on. I mean, do you think that's missing from country music now?
Kent Blazy (Guest):I really do. And you know, I don't want to sound like an old fogy, but, um, you know, you go back to the sixties, seventies, eighties, there were those songs that still get played because they had that emotion. They had that heart. And I just wonder how many of these songs that have come out during bro country in the last 10 years are ones that people are gonna want to listen to in the future, you know. Are they giving them some kind of emotional support, some healing, uh, some joy? And, um, I, I just don't hear it all that much. You know, the one song that did it for me this year was, um, I think her name is Ingrid. Uh, what is it? Ingrid Andress. And it's called "More Hearts than Mine." And that was just such a real song. And it was so emotional and so true and they let the song and the singer speak for themselves. They didn't try to overload the, the music or the arrangement or whatever. And, uh, it was, it was the one song this year that made me pull over when I heard it. I was like, Oh my God, this is what would be nice to hear a lot more of.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely that, that is a very, very emotional song. I, it gets me all teary, too. I'm in the car with my kids and they're like, "Mama, you okay?" I'm like, "It's, I'm just going to change the station."
Kent Blazy (Guest):But yeah, exactly.
Mary Katz (Host):What do you think-
Kent Blazy (Guest):"The House that Built Me" was like that too, you know, or "Drive His Truck." There were a few in the last few years and I kept hoping it would maybe swing around more, but you know, it's a whole different world than it was in 1990. And in 90, as far as how many artists there were and how many record labels. And, uh, so many people were looking for outside songs back then, and it's not so much these days, they want the writers to be the artist. And I think part of that's missing; the real heart of things. And, you know, Garth Brooks is probably one of the best writers there is, but every album, he did had half outside songs and, you know. He found things like "The Dance" and "Friends in Low Places" that took his career to another level. And I don't think people have really studied that and see what an amazing song can do to your career. And they're out there. I hear him at the Bluebird. I hear them at other writers rounds, uh, but they don't get recorded these days.
Mary Katz (Host):And on that note, my next question kind of ties into that. Um... Since the start of your career, what are the biggest changes you've seen from the beginning of your career to now? Would you say that's the biggest change is just the number of songwriters?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah, I think, uh, probably the biggest thing is that the business has shrunken so much. Um, and I think a lot of it happened when we quit selling CDs. Because if you and I wrote a song and Tim McGraw recorded it, that was on a CD. When the CD came out and it sold, we would make money. When they went to downloading, if you and I had a song on Tim McGraw's record and we went to downloading and nobody downloaded the song, you wouldn't get paid. And so people tend to download just the hit these days. But now that we've gone to Spotify and those kinds of things, the money is so small that publishers can't even pay songwriters to write songs anymore like they did when I came to town. It used to be, somebody would sign you to write and it was kind of like a loan. You would write for them and they would pay you. And then when the song got to be a hit, you would pay them back. And I just don't see how that would work these days. There's also maybe three or four labels with 20 artists on it compared to back when there were 20 labels and 20 artists, and they were all looking for songs. So that's, that's the biggest change that I see. It's gotten so much smaller.
Mary Katz (Host):So if, if you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
Kent Blazy (Guest):How much time do you have?
Mary Katz (Host):We have all the time you want.
Kent Blazy (Guest):To see uh songwriters get paid what they're supposed to get paid. And, uh, with every new high-tech invention that comes along, the money keeps getting more and more scarce. You know, like you, you could have a song "All About the Bass," which was a big Megan Trainor song. I think it had 50 million hits. And the songwriter on the song told me he made $4,000. You know? So imagine... I had a song that was a, probably top 15 song on a Sony artist. And it was about a dad dying; a girl that did it. And I guess daughters told other daughters about it, whatever. And so one night I'm on YouTube and it comes across my screen and it's got 12 million hits. And I've never had anything that got 12 million hits. And so I called my administrator and I said, "Well, what does this pay?" And she said, "Well, I'll get back to you." She called the next day and said,"That'll probably be like $300."
Mary Katz (Host):How is that possible? I don't understand the pay structure. Cause you would think that more streams, more hits would equal more pay.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, it would, but what they're paying per stream compared to what a radio hit would be through BMI or ASCAP is minuscule. It's like less than one 10th of what you would make, uh, with, uh, a radio hit.
Mary Katz (Host):Okay. Hmm.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. That's what I say. Hmm..
Mary Katz (Host):What, what do you think is the biggest misconception about songwriting or the music industry in general?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, the one thing is people think if you've had one hit you could retire. And you're a multimillionaire. I see that all the time with, uh, friends of mine who've had hits or, or what people say to me or to them. And, you know, that would be nice if that was the case. And maybe been more of the case back in the nineties, but these days you can have a major hit and you know, it may get you through a year if you're lucky. And then if you've had to pay a publisher back or something, you know, and then you've got to pay taxes and everything else. So it's, it's not the glamorous life that people think it is.
Mary Katz (Host):See, and that's, um, I'm so glad that you're saying that because I think a lot of people have a glamorized view of the music industry and they think that they're going to, you know, move to Nashville or Atlanta or wherever and, and, you know, hit it big. And it's just not the same as it was, even though more songs are getting played, if that's right.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. I mean, that's true. And I see, you know... the people that I was working with in the eighties and nineties, it wasn't about... They all wanted to write a hit song, but more when you were in a room, they were trying to get the heart and the emotion of a song. And, um, it wasn't about the fame and it wasn't about the money. And these days it seems like there's a lot more people that are interested in the fame and the money and the acknowledgement rather than heartfelt songs that are going to change people's worlds.
Mary Katz (Host):Hmm. I can see that. Um, so is there anyone in the industry that you haven't worked with yet, but you really want to?
Kent Blazy (Guest):I would love to write with Jason Isbell. He's an amazing guitar player, singer songwriter. It would just be fun to hang out with him and see what we could create together. Um, I love writing with people that are great electric guitar players, because that's my main passion other than songwriting, it was playing electric guitar and it would be fun to see what we could come up with. Awesome. Well, why haven't- Ya haven't called him? Um, no, you know, it's, it's, it used to be where you could get in touch with people pretty easy and the eighties and nineties. But anymore, there's just so many people around the artists, themselves that even people I know. It's really hard to get to people you've written a number one song with it. You can't get to anymore. It's just the way the world is these days.
Mary Katz (Host):Okay. Hmm. Times are changing.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Bob Dylan said that 60 years ago, and that song it's as relevant today as it was 60 years ago. The times they are changing.
Mary Katz (Host):All right. Moving on to the story behind the song. Let's give it a try. Let's uh, start with "If Tomorrow Never Comes."
Kent Blazy (Guest):All right. So this is my favorite story and it may take a while, but, um, so... in Nashville when you're trying to make a living, you have what they call all the irons in the fire. And so I was playing in a band. I was doing studio work. I was writing songs during the day and I kind of saw where the business was going. So I started my own little demo company. And, um, so I can play a lot of instruments. And so I would do demos for other writers and do, uh, ones for myself. But when I moved to Nashville, I would take my songs around and people would go, "Well, I like that song, but who the hell is singing that?" And I'd always made my living being the lead singer in a band.. So I was kinda surprised, but then I realized the caliber of the singers that are in this town. And so when I started my studio, I started trying to get the best singers to sing. And I had like Billy Dean and Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Joe Diffie, um, Trisha Yearwood. All these people saying demos for me because they couldn't get a record deal. And it was just so crazy. I'd be like you with my headphones on listening to Joe Diffie come through my headphones. And I'm like, how can you not sign this person? And Trisha Yearwood, she was like my favorite female singer. You know, I would put her on everything cause she was just like the most phenomenal voice. And it's like, how can she not get a record deal? So anyway, because of all that, uh, Bob Doyle, who was Garth's manager knew I had a demo studio. And Garth was cleaning churches and selling boots, and he knew he could make more money singing demos. So they came over and they played me some songs. And I said, "I'll be glad to use ya." And he quickly became my favorite guy demo singer because he could sing anything. But when they were leaving that day, Bob says, "Well, Garth writes a little bit too." And so I said, "Well, yeah, let's get together and write a song." And so the first song that we sat down to write together was "If Tomorrow Never Comes." And Garth had brought this idea in and I remember sitting on the couch and he was standing up above me. And he walked through the door and he said, "I've got this idea that I've run by 25 writers. And nobody likes it." I kind of looked up at him and said, "Gee, thanks." And he, he kind of got a little testy and he said, "Well, don't you want to hear it?" And I said, "Yeah, you know, play me what you got." And so he played me what he had and, and he stopped. And I said, "I really liked that idea. It's something that my mother used to tell me, you know, tell the people you love, how you feel about them while they're still alive." And so he said, "Well, what's wrong with it?" And I said, "Well, you're killing off the main hero in the song like in the first two lines of the song, it's like killing off the hero in the movie in the first three minutes. Where do you go after that?"
Mary Katz (Host):Do you, do you remember the lyrics that, that, so the original lyrics, do you remember what those were?
Kent Blazy (Guest):It ended up kind of being the second verse of the, of the song because I thought it's a good verse, but it doesn't make sense coming in first. So, uh, I said to him, "Well, you know, we need to change that." And he said, "Well, what would you do?" And he says, I spewed out this whole first verse, which may be true because I was looking at the lyric the other day, the original lyric of it. And he wrote the whole first verse out in his handwriting down below the chorus. And he's never written another lyric down that we've ever done on another song. So it must've been true. And so we wrote this song and we thought it was a really great song. Uh, Garth did a little guitar vocal in my studio that day and we pitched it around town for, I don't know, maybe a year and nobody was interested in it and nobody was interested in him. They said, "He'll never get a record deal with a name like Garth." And, uh, So one night he got to play at the Bluebird and sing one song because another artist didn't show up. And somebody from Capitol Records who had passed on Garth for the third time that week heard him sing"If Tomorrow Never Comes" and said,"Hey, why don't you come back in? Maybe we missed something." So he went back in the Capitol, got a record deal. And, um, "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was his second single and his first number one record. So, uh, you know, from when we wrote it, he was cleaning churches and selling boots. And the next thing you know, he's Garth Brooks,
Mary Katz (Host):You know... and, uh, honestly that song, um, is one of the reasons I started this podcast because I was, um, you know... COVID hit and we lost Joe Diffie. And we lost Charley Pride. And I'm like, these people that I've admired for my, basically my entire life are just like... I don't know what's going to happen next. And then I saw Reba in an interview talking about, um, you know, the terrible plane crash that killed, you know, half of her crew. Um, and she, in an interview in the interview, she was saying that, you know, if there's something you're wanting to do, you just gotta do it. And I was like, well, you know, if Reba says I gotta do it, I just gotta do it. And, um, And I thought- And then my next thought was, cause we don't know if tomorrow never comes and like, and I was like, okay. So here we are.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. Well, that's the thing. It's like, appreciate what you have every day and appreciate the people who you love every day. And, you know, nobody's promised another day after that. And I think that's why it resonated with people in the Heartland. You know, maybe the people in the music business didn't get it when we were pitching it. But, you know, we've gotten so many letters from so many people of how they've used that song so many different ways. And then it's kinda been a hit around the world by another guy, Ronan Keating, who's, uh, an Irish English artist. And, you know, you can be in Italy and you hear that song come on and you go, "Wow, here I am in a, in a country; I can't speak the language, but there's my song playing. So it's touched a lot of people and it's that sentiment that everybody knows, but sometimes you just need to hear it come from somebody.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. We all get wrapped up in our day to day thing and ya just, you know, you never realize it until it, um, till it hits you, you know,
Kent Blazy (Guest):Right. Exactly.
Mary Katz (Host):Okay. Moving on to "Somewhere Other than the Night."
Kent Blazy (Guest):Okay. So Garth and I are a lot alike in that we like the right songs from titles; and so like him coming in with "If Tomorrow Never Comes." And so I always have some titles to run by him and he always has some titles to run by me. And so that day we got together and neither one of us liked the other person's ideas at all. And so that's the most frustrating thing in a song writing session is when you have two writers or three writers in the room and nobody likes any ideas at all. So I had this black Labrador, uh, that loved to play Frisbee and Garth loved this dog. And he said, "Let's just go out on the back porch and throw her the Frisbee. And, you know, we can sit out and talk and maybe an idea will come or some- or something." And so we threw the Frisbee for like two hours because she just wouldn't give up. And we talked about women and politics and the music business and the state of the world. And so it was getting to be near the end of the day. And I thought, "Well, we're not going to write a song today. That's cool." And we went back in the house and he picked up a guitar and he sang a line and I sang a line back to him and he sung a line. I sung a line and I thought,"Well, we're writing a song." So he wanted it to be about a farmer or rancher, kind of being from Oklahoma, who hadn't really been paying enough attention to his wife. And so he's saying, "Well, you know, we need to get in there what turns a man on when he's coming home from work." And so I hadn't watched Oprah Winfrey. I just heard about this, you know. But, uh, she had a show about how to turn your man on when he comes home from work. And, uh, the one woman had said, "Well, I get naked and I wrap myself and cellophane." And I told Garth and went, "Oh, I don't like that one at all." And I said, "Yeah, me neither." I said, "Well, what about standing in the kitchen with nothing but an apron on.?" And so being a farm boy, he kind of liked that. So that's what ended up getting into "If Tomorrow Never Comes." And I think it helped the sale of aprons when the song became a hit because, uh, I don't think aprons had been in a song for a long time. So we stuck that in there, but, uh, it was just him wanting to get that country rancher feel into the song and the, and he thought that really did it. And you know, at the end of the day, we never dreamed it would be a single, but it ended up being a hit song. And same thing, lots of people saying,"Well, you know, made me be aware. I needed to tell my wife more that I love her and, you know, show her that I really care about her." So, you know, that's what you aim to do when you're writing songs is to give people a, an appreciation for what they really have in their life.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah, I had my husband listen to that song about three weeks ago because we hadn't been on a date in over a year- in about a year. And I was like, we were just going through the day, COVID and everything. Just the day-to-day trying to, you know, keep everything... We have... We have a, four-year-old, a three-year-old, and an 18 month old. So it's a crazy, it's a zoo in there. I'm in the garage apartment right now and really happy about it.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I understand. It's good you have a place to go.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. So, um, yeah, so I, I was like, we haven't been on a date in like a year and I'm like, I'm like,"Listen to this song because we just, we gotta, gotta date again. Like it can't just be we're with kids and then we watch Netflix..." like just, Hmm. And so he, he heard the song and now we've been on three dates.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I love it. And that's kind of what we've been aiming to do on a Friday night. We'll order some food from a different place and get it delivered and have a little date right in the in the, in the den or something, you know. Set up a nice table and candles and, uh, all that, nice table cloth and just make it a date.
Mary Katz (Host):Exactly. Okay. And moving on to, uh, "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song). I, I just, I I'll tell you, I, when this song came out and I was talking to my dad and, um, he, he was like, "What music you listening to these days?" And I was like, I thought, "I really like that 'Gettin' You Home' song." And he's like, "I didn't need to know that."
Kent Blazy (Guest):That would be a father's response. Yeah. But you know hey you've got kids. What can I say? So, you know, it's interesting. I work with this kid and I've been working with him for 20 years. Cory Batten, is his name. He's a phenomenal singer song writer and, um, great performer. And so we were trying to get him a record deal, and we're going through the motions of going to all the record labels. And we came pretty close a couple of times. But we were down at RCA and we were playing his project for this woman. And I knew it wasn't going very good because she was watching the worst hundred storms of the worst, uh hundred years on, uh, The Weather Channel at the same time. So I kind of figured she wasn't really into listening to what we were doing. So when we left another A&R person came up to me and she said, "Hey, I've got this new artist, Chris Young, and he's had three singles. They haven't done anything. If he doesn't have a hit single next time, he's gone. Would you write with him?" So Cory is standing right there with me. And I said, "Yeah, if I can bring Cory." And she said, "I don't care what you do as long as you get with Chris." So we didn't really know anything about Chris and he didn't know anything about us. And we got together and it was one of those days where nobody liked anybody else's ideas. And it was really stressful because one, it's hard enough to get to write with a rec- a recording star anymore, or recording artists even. And two, if he doesn't have a hit single, he's gone. So we had to write him a hit single. So we kicked stuff around and nothing was going anywhere. And, uh, so Cory is a spewer, I call him. And Garth's kind of a spewer too. You can be working on a song and they'll be over in the corner when you take a break. And they're writing another song. And so one day I was fixing Cory lunch and he was getting something out of the refrigerator. And I heard him in the refrigerator sing, "All I can think about is gettin you home." And I said, "What is that?" He said, "I just made that up." And I said, "Well, sing it into my voicemail." So, uh, Here we are with Chris. We don't have any ideas. And I said, "Hey, wait a minute. Let me find this thing that Corey sang a while back." So I found that little snippet, no guitars, nothing, just the vocal. And I played it. And Cory said, "I love that idea." And I said, "Yeah, it's your idea." And Chris said, "Well, we don't have thing better to write. We might as well write it." So we ended up starting on writing that song and we got to the chorus and, uh, we couldn't think of anything that rhymed with uh door that was clean, you know. So finally I said, "Well, how about seeing her black dress hit the floor?" And Corey said, "Well, you're just a dirty old man." I said, "I won't argue that." And Chris said, "I'm too young. I can't sing something like that." So we kicked around other ideas for like 30 minutes and then I fixed them lunch. And I said, "Okay, y'all think about it." So Corey said he was looking around my room and, you know, I had a number one song about standing in the kitchen with nothing but an apron on and"Ain't Goin' Down"is kind of risqu. And he said, "You know, Chris, he's had pretty good luck with risqu songs." And Chris said, "Well, we ain't got anything better to do. Let's put that in there." So we put that line in there and we finished the song that day. And Chris did a guitar vocal in my studio and he took it down to the record label. And they called me and said,"Well, we love this song. We want to cut it on Chris." And I'm like, "Great!" So the next week they called, they said, "We cut the song. We love it. We want it to be his first single, but we want to change one thing." And I was kind of wondering, okay, what do they want to change? And they said, "Well, we love the title"Gettin' You Home," but in parenthesis, we want to call it (The Black Dress Song). So I thought, well, the dirty old man got vindicated that his, his line got into title of the song. And I think it's kind of like selling aprons. I think there were a whole lot of people that got black dresses after that. So that's a good thing.
Mary Katz (Host):You're gonna to open up a clothing store, with just aprons and black dresses.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Now, there you go. See, you're an entrepreneur, you're a creative spirit. It'd probably go good in Dallas, you know?
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. Well, Oh man. Gosh. Yeah. I, I, I can't do retail. retail, Kent.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Everybodys cooking these days. So, you know, aprons may be, you know, back in style. You never know
Mary Katz (Host):They could be! All right. And speaking of, "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up), that was my next song on my list. Do I, do I want to know the story behind that song?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, yeah, it's really great because, um, Garth had introduced me to Kim Williams and the three of us had started writing together. And like I said earlier, Garth likes to write from titles and he called me up one day and said, "I want to write a song with machine gun lyrics." I didn't have a clue what that meant, but I said, "Okay, well, come on by." And he said, "Call Kim Williams; tell him to come over." So we got together and he had this title,"Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up). And he said, "If we write this right, it's going to be the first single off my next record. And I'm going to fly through the air in Dallas, on a wire while I'm singing it." And I think this guy's delusional, you know. But I had moved into a house that had sat vacant for a year and a half. And so a lot of work was getting done on it. So we went out and sat on the back porch and we just wrote machine gun lyrics all day and laughed. We had such a good time cause it was all in so much fun writing with those two guys. And finally, we were all really sunburned from being out there all day. And so we kind of had a whole outline of the song and Garth said, "Well, I want to put a, uh, a little guitar vocal down of it so I can show it to my producer." And so we went in and I didn't have a lot of my studio set up yet, but Garth wanted a drum machine on it. And back then drum machines were really bad, especially if it's a guitar player programming a drum machine. Because then it sounds like a guitar player playing drums, which is not a good thing. And so I got the drum machine going and Kim and Garth were standing behind me. And one of them went, "Oh my God..." And I turned around and there were termites coming out of the floor and the ceiling and the wall, like thousands of them. And I guess the drum machine pissed them off. That's all I can say. And so I was freaking out cause it's my new house. And it has a letter that says you have no termites and here's millions of them. And so Kim Williams had the greatest sense of humor and he said, "Hey, don't worry about it. When Garth and I wrote "Papa Loved Mama" there were cockroaches crawling all over my apartment and it was a number one record. And this is going to be a number one record too." And he was right. And Garth flew across the Dallas stage, singing it, hanging from a wire. So...
Mary Katz (Host):Oh, I've got some mice crawling around in my ceiling up there. Maybe we could, I'll just grab little- Her name is Reba MyGuitar, over there. We could grab her and then we can write a hit. So anyway, I got to throw my cat up there at some point, but... I'm going to find a hole, put her in it, take care of it.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Very quickly.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. Um, all right. Let's move on to, uh, your latest album Authentic. The title track is "Authentic." And so I take it you have an appreciation for people that are authentic.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. That's, you know, we were talking about earlier. I just don't see the authentic, like I saw it back- I mean, you knew what Haggard was. You knew what George Jones was. You know they weren't putting on any kind of act. They weren't trying to be something. Uh, it was just real. And, um, I was just kind of making a statement on how I would like things to be and what I appreciate, you know. Who I go back to listen to. And it's, it's what you feel is real. And everybody of course has their own opinion on it. But to me, there's just the people that, you know, when you hear them, they're authentic. And then the other ones that are kind of posers.
Mary Katz (Host):Can you tell after, with all your experience in the industry, can you tell when someone isn't being authentic?
Kent Blazy (Guest):I can a lot of times, you know. I can tell when they've made something up, just because they know it will be commercial or they know it'll be, you know, received by whoever they want it to be received to, without really thinking, you know, what's this song going to be like in 20 years? Am I going to have to sing this song in 20 years? I mean, I think you could sing "If Tomorrow Never Comes" the rest of your life. But there's some other ones, like, I won't mention any names, like, do you really want to be singing this when you're 60 years old in front of an audience? You know? And so that to me is what "authentic" is, things that hold up over time. The picture on the cover is of a 1920 Martin guitar that was totally destroyed. And a friend of mine put it back together for me. And those were all handmade. You know, these days, most guitars are made on some kind of assembly line, but back then, the guitar that's on the picture, there are only, I think 40 of them made that year.
Mary Katz (Host):Wow.
Kent Blazy (Guest):And so, you know, they make 40 guitars an hour anymore. So that to me is another authentic thing. You know, it's real. That's real wood. It's, uh, it's held the test of time and that's authentic to me.
Mary Katz (Host):That's awesome. I sh- I really enjoyed that song, too."Rose" that one almost made me cry. Just even like, you know, "they might call me," uh, what was the lyric- um, Martin, but yeah, "You can call me Rose."
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah, that was the one I wrote about her. And it's all a story about, you know, how she was junk. She was left for junk and friend of mine fixed her up and now she's beautiful again.
Mary Katz (Host):That's nice. Um, so I, uh, going back to the"Authentic" though, um, I've heard some artists in the past, um, talk about when they first became recording artists. And that they, um, the label wanted them to, uh, be something that they weren't.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Right.
Mary Katz (Host):And, um, and then when they got the chance to actually be themselves is whenever they started making, you know, hit records. So do, do you have any insight into why labels sometimes try to get artists to portray themselves in an inauthentic way?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, the one thing I see is like when something's working in the music business, they try to get everybody else to kind of clone it, to get kind of the same crowd maybe. And, um... So, what happens is they'll sign somebody that they think has a lot of talent. And I've had this happen to two or three friends of mine and even the last couple of years. And they sign them for one thing. And then all of a sudden they just kind of start changing the agenda. You know, you have to write with these people or you have to cut your hair different, or, you know, you have to start singing this kind of thing. And I've had a few young people actually walk away from the deals that they had because they couldn't be who they wanted to be. And it, to me, it seems more prevalent now than it used to be. And I think part of that is if you don't have a hit song right away on the radio, you're gone. Where like, you know, 15 years ago, Kenny Chesney probably would have been gone after his first record, but they let him develop into Kenny Chesney. And I don't see that development much anymore, unless they're pushing you to be what they want you to be. But. The greatest time in music, to me, was like from mid sixties to mid seventies, where nobody told the artist what to do. They were just who they were. And because of that, you had all this incredible music that didn't sound like anything else, like Jimmy Hendrix and the Beatles and whoever else. And, uh, my favorite story about that is when Garth was on, uh, Capitol Records and Jim Foglesong was the president. He signed Garth and then he left right after that. And a new president came in who was like probably the most powerful person in Nashville. And he had Garth out to his house and they had dinner and he told Garth,"You're going to have to fire your management and fire your producer. And I'm going to start producing you. And I'm going to find new management." And most artists these days would go, "Okay, I'll do that. You know, whatever it takes to keep my record deal." And Garth said, "No, Sir, I can't do that." And he stayed with who he was and I think he won that guy's respect because of that. And he did it his own way. And that's why he became Garth Brooks because he stood up for what he believed in. He didn't let anybody else try to make him anything, but who he wanted to be.
Mary Katz (Host):Do you think that maybe artists now are just so, um, I don't wanna say afraid, but, um, they don't want to rub people the wrong way? They just don't have that kind of courage perhaps.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, yeah, it's so hard to get a record deal. And even friends of mine from maybe 10 years ago or whatever who had record deals and, and now they don't. You know, they just basically said "I was so scared of losing my record deal, that I would do anything they told me to do." And in the end they ended up losing their record deal anyway. So it's kind of a catch 22. And that's why I tell every young artist that I work with, "Make your first album be something you're really proud of because you may not get a second chance. And do you want to be looking at that album 10 years goin'- 10 years later and go, 'Man, I wish I had done it this way, or I wish I'd done it that way. I wish I'd been who I really was.'" And, um, that's what it's all about. That's the authenticness of being able to stand up for who you are and you lay your career on the line because of it.
Mary Katz (Host):All right. And "Faith Stronger Than Fear."
Kent Blazy (Guest):Okay. So I was writing with Garth the day that, uh, they blew up the Oklahoma City thing. I still get emotional-
Mary Katz (Host):Wow.
Kent Blazy (Guest):-about it-
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah.
Kent Blazy (Guest):His mom called him up and said "They blew out the windows in my house." And so Garth said to me said, "I gotta leave. I'm going to Oklahoma." And so I got together with, uh, a guy who was an unknown songwriter at the time, Craig Wiseman. And I had this idea that I wanted to write about the Oklahoma thing. And it was "Faith Stronger Than Fear," and I wanted to pitch it to Garth. And so I thought we'd written a really good song and I pitched it to him and he was thinking about cutting it. And then Tony Arata came out with this great song that he pitched a Garth called "The Change," which blew my song out of the water. But "Faith Stronger Than Fear," every time something would happen, like 9/11 or the COVID that's going on now, every time that song would come back to me. Like things keep repeating themselves, you know. And I need to get that song out there. So that was one of the old songs that I pulled out to get on the album, because I thought everybody needed to hear that we got to have faith stronger than fear. And you know, I get so many comments on it. People think it's a new song, but it's been around since Oklahoma bombing and nine 119/11and all that. So, um, I'm really glad it finally got out there.
Mary Katz (Host):And, um, and that song is definitely a testament to, um, to the next song the Sun's Gonna Shine Again.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. And you know, that's another- I wanted this album to be, uh, give people hope and give people a possibility of what's coming after this. And so this was another old song and it had kind of been a bluegrass song coming from Kentucky. And, um, I just thought it was a good closing song on the record to give people a possibility of,"Hey, when we get through this, the sun's going to shine again." You know, and I know everybody thought it would be over with by now, but, uh, you know, we just got to keep hanging in there and do everything we can and work together to get through this together.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. What other songs from that album do you want to talk about?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, my favorite one is the one that starts the record. Um, "Thanks to You." And that's because, um, I have this place where I walk my dogs every day. It's a little lake here in Nashville. When you come, I'll take you there, but you can't tell anybody I took you there. Um, and, uh, so there was... I was walking one day and this guy came up to me and he said, "You stole my dog." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" He said, "That's my dog. You got my dog." And so this little white dog had been a rescue dog. So I'm thinking, well, maybe it was his dog at one time. And so I said, "Well, he is a rescue dog..." You know... And he said, "Oh no, mine died. But he looks just like him!" You know... And so, um, every once in a while I'd seen him out there and he's like, "You stole my dog!" You know... hahaha. And so then I didn't seem for like six months and uh, one day I saw him and I said, "Man, where have you been?" He said, "Well, my wife's dying of a brain tumor."
Mary Katz (Host):Oh no...,
Kent Blazy (Guest):And I said,"My wife died of a brain tumor." And so I said, "If there's any way I can help you..." You know, and I didn't see him for like another year and then he was out there and I could tell his wife died, you know. And so I said, "Man, you know, here's my number. Here's my name. Call me." We didn't know each other. And so I said, "Well, who are you anyway?" And he said, "Well, I'm Steve Allen." And I said, "Well, what do you do?" He says, "I'm a guitar player."
Mary Katz (Host):Wow.
Kent Blazy (Guest):So he had been in this hit group 2020 in the eighties and had been on American Band Stand and the whole bit, but I didn't know who he was. And so I said, "Well, let's start writing together." And so I had this idea and I wanted to, uh, have him be the one who wrote it with me because it was about starting a new life. And we both have new wives that are incredible. And you know, uh, it's just more amazing than I can imagine. And so we we were writing a song and when we got it done, I thought I'm ready to do a record. And this song was kind of the reason that I did the record. And so this little white dog created miracles, you know.
Mary Katz (Host):Wow. That's incredible. All right. Well, hopefully this part won't make you cry. On a very happy note, 2020 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I know. I'm very, very honored. Uh, you know, when you come to town, you dream of that, but you know, there's, I think there's only like 200 people in there or whatever, you know. So the possibilities always seem pretty limited, but I had some pretty powerful people in my corner pushing for that. So, uh, it was quite an honor to get that call and it really made 2020 be a lot more special than it would have been otherwise.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. So what did you, what did you do when you, when you heard the news?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, what happened was, um, I got a call from Mark Ford, who is the head of the Nashville Songwriters Association. And he said, "Garth wants to have this show for the Billboard show that he's got coming up and he wants you to put together a little in the round of some writers and we need to talk about it. So, um, why don't you think about it? And we'll get on a Zoom call with him and talk about it." So we get on the Zoom call and we're talking about this show and all that. And he gives me the date and I said,"You know, every time you call me to do something and you give me a date, I always have something going on." And he said, "Well, it's not about that anyway. It's about you being in the songwriters hall of Songwriters Hall of Fame. So it was cool that he was the one who wanted to break the news to me.
Mary Katz (Host):That's amazing.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I think he cried more than I did. But, uh, he's more emotional than I am, I think. But. Yeah. And it, it was just such a happy time. My wife was out working in the garden and I texted her and I said, "You've got to come in and hear this." So Garth got to tell her too. And, um, next, I guess November of this year we'll do, hopefully with COVID gone, we'll do a big party about it. And there'll be two years together instead of the one 'cause we couldn't do anything last year because you can't gather anybody together. But you know, it's, I'm in there and it's gonna happen.
Mary Katz (Host):I gotta wonder if Bobbie Gentry is going to show up.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Oh, I hope so. I mean, that was such an honor. What an amazing artist she was, you know. And, uh, it would be just a thrill to me to meet her and Steve Earle you know. He's been one of my favorites for a long time and he's one of these people that just keeps creating no matter what, which I love. And, uh, so it it's gonna be a fun time.
Mary Katz (Host):So have you celebrated at all yet?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Just a little bit, you know. Um, Garth had us out of the house a couple days later to have dinner and kind of celebrate with Bob Doyle who kind of started the whole thing. And, um, and then Cindy and I, uh, we celebrate every day, you know. We kind of make a little toast to uh Songwriter Hall of Fame and being healthy and happy and all that kind of thing. So just kind of planting that seed every day.
Mary Katz (Host):Now, I don't know, um, how those ceremonies work. Like if, um, if you have to be invited to like attend at all, um, like you just see it happen. So have you, have you been to see anybody else get inducted?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah, I have been and you know, they, they usually have it in a pretty big ballroom where anybody can buy tickets. I think the first tickets go to publishers and songwriters and stuff like that, but when they have, uh, tickets left over, anybody can can buy tickets. And I think it usually seats like 1500 people or something like that. So, yeah, there's a possibility of you coming.
Mary Katz (Host):Hey. Don't tempt me. I, I will, I will expense that. Um, do you have your speech prepared?
Kent Blazy (Guest):I don't. I figured I have time-
Mary Katz (Host):Ya have a little bit of time.
Kent Blazy (Guest):-with it being delayed a year. But you know, I kind of start tossing those things around in my mind. And, and, uh, you know, just- It'll kind of be about if one thing hadn't happened, the next thing wouldn't have happened. That leads to the next thing happening. And, you know, at the synchronicity that God wink or whatever that, that keeps you going. And, um, when you're about ready to give up and you know, certain people in certain places change your life forever. So that's kind of what it's going to be about.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. All right. Moving on to, just for fun. All right. Let's say you're driving. You get pulled over 'cause you went, you know, one mile over the speed limit. It can happen, right? Cause you, you wouldn't go like 15 over or anything. Surely not. But-
Kent Blazy (Guest):No.
Mary Katz (Host):No... Do you bring up like songs that you've written to the police officer? And if you do, does it get you out of a ticket? Well, hello, pupper! There's a doggie!
Kent Blazy (Guest):No, I have not, but that's a good idea. I'm lucky that I don't get pulled over very often. So, uh, um, one time I was pulled over. I had a guitar in the back and so that kind of worked in my favor 'cause they were, I guess, you know, it was late at night and I'd been playing in a club and they figured what anybody who's leaving a club had to be drinking. Well, I don't drink when I play. And so they pulled me over and you know, made me walk the white line and take a breath test or whatever. And they said, "Well, you, you haven't been- you don't have any alcohol in your system." And I said, "No, I play in a club." And he said, "How can you play in a club and not drink?" And I said, "Well, I'm a guitar player. There's my guitar right there in the back." And so he let me go. And that was probably the thing; I didn't talk about hit songs, but I just talked about, I'm a guitar player. I don't drink when I play and-
Mary Katz (Host):"Yeah, I don't think I could walk the white line sober. Like I, I don't have the coordination.
Kent Blazy (Guest):You know, there's a lot of pressure! You're kinda scared, you know. You're trying to do real good and it is, it's weird. Your adrenaline's going and, but I did it! So that's good.
Mary Katz (Host):Good work. What are some of your favorite places in Nashville?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, I have to say the Bluebird Cafe, uh, is my favorite just because of all the wonderful gigs that I've had there and, and Garth getting a record deal signed from there. And it's just the place that's known around the world as a haven for songwriters. And there's very few of those. There's more now than there ever was, I think. But, um, any chance I get, I try to go there and hear what's happening. W- we've done an Alive Hospice show for probably 25 years. Every January, the Bluebird donates all the money to hospice. And so this year not being open, they've really been trying to get around it other ways and having streaming shows and stuff like that. And I just go more power to them for trying to keep that whole thing alive during the middle of this whole pandemic that we have. The other favorite place is where I'm going to take you to the lake um, when you come, but you can't tell anybody. Because it used to be, there was nobody there and due to COVID I think we've had 2.2 million people there this year.
Mary Katz (Host):Oh my god. Because everybody's trying to get outside!
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So kind of weird to be out here at this park, but you always, you got to wear masks and everything else because there's so many people out there. So I've been trying to find some new places. And then I love Gruhn Guitars because I love old guitars. And I have some friends of mine that work there. So back when you could go hang there, I would go hang there. And also Walter Carter's is another great vintage guitar place in Nashville. And I just love seeing old instruments. You know, they all have a story to tell and some of the most battered and beaten ones have the best stories to them. So those are some of my favorite places to hang out and Country Music Hall of Fame. I take everybody who comes to town to there just to see the history of country music and the great exhibits they have, and they have great halls. I do a lot of shows down there and the acoustics are always great. The audience is always great. So it's, it's, uh, a must see for anybody who comes to town.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. Tell me about a time when you were starstruck.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Well, I think my favorite time was, uh, the guy who signed me to BMI and who was very influential in getting me to move to town was a guy, Harry Warner. And Harry, uh, his best friend was Chet Atkins.
Mary Katz (Host):Oh, okay.
Kent Blazy (Guest):So they hung out together all the time and I really wanted to meet Chet. And so I'd gotten this old Gretsch guitar that had, uh, it was called the Chet Atkins model and had had his fake autograph, you know, on the pickguard or whatever. And so I wanted Chet to sign it. And so Harry said, "Well, we get together every Saturday at Cracker Barrel and we eat. And so just come on by with that guitar and I'll get Chet to sign, sign it." So, uh, we get there and there's like a table for 10 and there's me and Harry and Chet are there. And we're talking and this guy sits across from me and I look up and it's Sonny Landreth, who is my favorite slide guitar player in the world. And then this other guy sits next to me and I look around it and it's Mark Knopfler, who was in Dire Straits and I'm going, "This is unbelievable!" you know.
Mary Katz (Host):"What world am I in?!"
Kent Blazy (Guest):These are some of my favorite people in the world. And they're, uh, they're all sitting here at Cracker Barrel, you know. But they were all huge Chet fans and so they all wanted to be around Chet. And so I've got to have Chet sign my guitar, but also got Sonny Landreth and Mark Knopfler to sign the guitar. So that was pretty cool too.
Mary Katz (Host):That is wild. All right. So let's say you get a good hit on the radio. You get your nice check. How do you treat yourself?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Let me think. I think, uh, you know, at this point in time with, uh, not being able to travel for so long, I think that's what we would do is, is find some fabulous trip to go on and treat ourselves to be in landlocked for a year and a half or whatever.
Mary Katz (Host):Like where? What's on your, uh, what's on your bucket list for travel?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Um, we'd love to go back to Italy. We went there a couple of years ago and had a great time. And, uh, and France, there's a lot of, uh, of the, uh, national parks that we want to get to. We were supposed to do a Park City, uh, Utah festival this year that got canceled and we were going to go to all the monuments out there and, uh, Bryce Canyon and stuff like that while we were out there. So maybe we'll aim for that this year too. I think they're going to try to have it again this year, if everybody gets healthy again. And so we'll go out there and just do some things in America too.
Mary Katz (Host):Alrighty. I got a few more fun questions and then we'll be just about done. All right. I don't know why I ask this question to people, but it's just, I'm fascinated by the response. So who's your celebrity crush?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Oh, boy, that's a tough one. I'll tell you. I watch so little Netflix and TV or whatever.
Mary Katz (Host):You don't even know who's out there.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. I don't know who's out there, but I'd have to go with Reba McEntire. You were talking about that. I just saw her on the CMA awards and she was still fabulous. And she put a couple songs of mine on hold, uh, last month that are 10 years old that are pretty country. And I thought "Go Reba!" You know, go back country again, which she's fabulous at that. So, you know, she's just always so positive, so perky and, uh, she doesn't let anything stop her. And I love that.
Mary Katz (Host):Absolutely. What's the worst thing you did as a kid?
Kent Blazy (Guest):How much time do you have?
Mary Katz (Host):As much time as you're willing to spend!
Kent Blazy (Guest):Um, I think probably the worst thing in, in my mind is- So have you ever seen the movie Christmas Story where the kid wants to BB gun?
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah.
Kent Blazy (Guest):And he gets the BB gun.
Mary Katz (Host):"You'll shoot your eye out!"
Kent Blazy (Guest):That's right. So that was my mother."You're going to shoot your eye out." So, um, I got a BB gun for Christmas and it was kind of like, Nashville is right now in Lexington. We had a really bad snow storm. And, uh, so I took my BB gun outside and, um, I shot at snowman I'd made. Well, I didn't realize that everything had frozen the night before. So the BB bounced off the snowman and knocked out the back window of my dad's car. So that was kind of the end of my BB gun for awhile. And, uh, you know, it's like, how did that happen? I don't know. I never thought that it would bounce off a snowman and end up taking a window out.
But I learned that day:you gotta be careful where you're aim anything.
Mary Katz (Host):You got a physics lesson that day.
Kent Blazy (Guest):I did. Yeah.
Mary Katz (Host):What's the riskiest or most adventurous thing you've ever done?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Whew. You know, I really think coming to Nashville because, um, there's so many people that I know that are way more talented than me back in Lexington, Kentucky, or anywhere else that never could get up the nerve to come to Nashville, Tennessee. And so anybody that moves to Nashville, any young artist I'm talking to or whatever that are thinking about it, I say"You gotta be crazy to move to Nashville to think that you can compete with everybody else that's already been there. But if you don't, you're going to live the rest of your life going,'What if I had gone to Nashville? What would've happened?'" To me, that's the most risky thing. You're, you're risking your whole life to go chase some crazy dream, you know. And your parents were hoping you'd be an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor. And instead it's like, "Hey, I want to become a songwriter or I want to become a singer." And, uh, It takes a lot of nerve to stand up for that and chase that dream. And, you know, I'd say 90% of the people that come, it doesn't happen for them, but still they took the chance. And every once in a while, magic and miracles come together and somebody becomes famous or becomes a hit songwriter or whatever, but it's just risky. And most of us come to town with little money in our pockets and no jobs and just pursuing that dream, whatever it's going to take.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. You know when I was moving, um- I'm originally from Arkansas, like, like a tiny town called Smackover, Arkansas. Like, whatever your thoughts you're having right now, you're right. But, um, I moved here to Dallas, like as soon as I could after college and I had like $400 in my pocket. I had a truck, I had a place to stay for a while. I was like, all right, let's just make it work.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. And that that's, uh, that takes a lot of courage, you know, and it takes a lot of belief in yourself that you're going to make it happen. So congratulations to you! Look where you are.
Mary Katz (Host):Yaaaay!
Kent Blazy (Guest):Even with mice in the ceiling!
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah, that's just- It's 'cause my husband feeds the birds. He likes feeding birds and squirrels. And so we got a whole ecosystem here. And that's why we got a cat and it's just a zoo... But-
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. Put him up there for awhile.
Mary Katz (Host):Well, the next question was going to be, when is the last time you cried and why, but that was roughly 15 minutes ago. So I can move on to...
Kent Blazy (Guest):That would be me! Yeah.
Mary Katz (Host): I'll just move on to:. What is the biggest, the biggest compliment you could ever receive?
Kent Blazy (Guest):Your song changed my life.
Mary Katz (Host):Wow.
Kent Blazy (Guest):That's something you dream of from the time you start writing, you know, to have impact on people, to write songs that are going to touch their hearts and their minds and their souls. And for somebody to say that it's like, thank you universe for allowing me to be there.
Mary Katz (Host):That's wonderful. All right. Moving on to, could you not. So go ahead and put it out there. Whether it's professional or personal or traffic related or just something with your dog. I don't care. What is it? Just tell the world, "could ya not...?"
Kent Blazy (Guest):Could you not be a new writer or artist and show up at a writing appointment with no guitar, no idea, no computer, no lyric pad, anything. You just show up and expect that somebody else is going to do it. Could ya not do that?
Mary Katz (Host):Be prepared.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Being prepared is the most important thing to having anybody want to work with you again.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. It's like going to a job interview with like, no, no idea what you're doing there. No-, you don't even know what the company does.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Exactly. Yeah. What, what good is that going to do?
Mary Katz (Host):Okay. Moving on to why in the Sam Hill, did we say that? So I'll give you, I'll give you a couple options here, if you want. I have Sam Hill and I've got a country mile.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah. How far is a country mile?
Mary Katz (Host):Well-
Kent Blazy (Guest):You know, my favorite one, I think that when you said that is Holy cow. What's a Holy cow?
Mary Katz (Host):I wonder if that's-
Kent Blazy (Guest):How did that come about?
Mary Katz (Host):I wonder if that that has anything to do with, um, with India. Because I believe it's in Hindu, in the Hindu religion, they, they worship cows. That would be a Holy-
Kent Blazy (Guest):Yeah, they don't, they won't kill them because it may be their relative.
Mary Katz (Host):Or something like that.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Holy cow!
Mary Katz (Host):All right. A country mile, according to Grammarist.com, a country mile is a term that dates back to at least the 1800s.. It is a deceptively long distance. The idea behind a country mile is the fact that most country roads are not in a straight line. Instead roads in the country tend to meander up and down and all around. This makes it seem as if a mile in the country takes longer to cross than a straight mile in the city.
Kent Blazy (Guest):That makes sense. I mean, if you've ever driven the winding roads of North Carolina or East Tennessee-
Mary Katz (Host):Or Smackover, Arkansas...
Kent Blazy (Guest):a country mile seems like a long way away.
Mary Katz (Host):All right, Kent, that is all I've got for you. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about before I let you go?
Kent Blazy (Guest):No, you've done an amazing job. I love doing this. I'd love to do it again anytime you want. And if there's any way I can help you get other people, let me know.
Mary Katz (Host):All right, Kent. That's all I got. So, um, I really do genuinely appreciate you coming on today and um, hopefully we'll get this thing up in about a month.
Kent Blazy (Guest):Okay. And I'm honored and I hope you keep your power and that it warms up there like it's supposed to warm up here.
Mary Katz (Host):Yeah. Y'all stay warm out there.
Kent Blazy (Guest):You too!
Mary Katz (Host):All right. Thank you so much!
Kent Blazy (Guest):Thank you!
Mary Katz (Host):Bye-bye Alrighty, folks. Thanks so much for checking out this video. Got lots of more fun stuff coming up. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel and give us a follow over on social media. Make sure you check out Kent's latest album. Thanks again! And we'll see you in the next episode!