OVERCOMING DOUBT THROUGH ACTION!
Hi again, fellow Songwriters! This is the second in my continuing blog series about the craft and business of songwriting, using interview segments from my book "Nashville Songsmiths - In-Depth Interviews with #1 Country Songwriters" to highlight specific issues pertaining to both the craft and business of songwriting, "From the Mouths of Pros!"
Even after a multitude of #1 smashes, from Brooks & Dunn's "Ain't Nothing About You," to Brad Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Goin'," to Kenny Chesney's "Living in Fast Forward," Rivers Rutherford STILL has days filled with doubt...
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.
TH: So you force yourself to write?
RR: Yes. I don’t feel like it every day, but I do it every day. There are days that I can’t wait to get in and write songs, and I don’t write anything good. There are days I’d rather get a root canal than write a song. But I show up and I write hits. There’s just no accounting for it, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, there’s no rhyme or reason to it, you just gotta be present to win.
TH: And you’ve had way more hits than root canals.
RR: (laughs) Thankfully. So far anyway.
Here's a cool audio sample of Rivers talking about When I Get Where I'm Goin'
UP NEXT: Billy Montana on Writing for Artists
Even after a multitude of #1 smashes, from Brooks & Dunn's "Ain't Nothing About You," to Brad Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Goin'," to Kenny Chesney's "Living in Fast Forward," Rivers Rutherford STILL has days filled with doubt...
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.
TH: So you force yourself to write?
RR: Yes. I don’t feel like it every day, but I do it every day. There are days that I can’t wait to get in and write songs, and I don’t write anything good. There are days I’d rather get a root canal than write a song. But I show up and I write hits. There’s just no accounting for it, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, there’s no rhyme or reason to it, you just gotta be present to win.
TH: And you’ve had way more hits than root canals.
RR: (laughs) Thankfully. So far anyway.
Here's a cool audio sample of Rivers talking about When I Get Where I'm Goin'
UP NEXT: Billy Montana on Writing for Artists