John Rich Says Nashville Needs To Take More Risks

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Exclusive: John Rich Says Nashville Needs To Take More Risks
July 05, 2005
By Phyllis Stark



In addition to his better-known gig as half of hot country duo Big & Rich, John Rich has quietly become Nashville’s new “it” producer and one of its most sought-after songwriters.

Rich first turned Music Row heads when he helped produce Gretchen Wilson’s multiplatinum debut album, “Here for the Party,” and co-authored several of its tracks, including her breakthrough single, “Redneck Woman.”

Next came his own success with partner Big Kenny in Big & Rich. That was followed by the surprisingly successful debut from protégé Cowboy Troy. His album “Loco Motion,” an innovative mix of country and hip-hop, was co-produced by Rich, who also penned many of its songs. The album came out on Raybaw, the Warner Bros.-distributed label Rich runs with fellow Muzik Mafia chiefs Big Kenny, Jon Nicholson and Cory Gierman. Muzik Mafia is the self-proclaimed tag given to a Nashville collective of like-minded artists who perform together and support each other’s work.

“Loco Motion” sold 51,000 copies in the first week after its May release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And Rich feels somewhat vindicated by the success of the black cowboy rapper he discovered.

“We were saying six months or a year ago, ‘Everybody watch out because Cowboy Troy is going to make a record and he’s going to be a big deal and people are going to like him.’ We got laughed at,” Rich says. “People went, ‘You’re out of your mind.’ ”

Now suddenly, Rich’s work is everywhere. He co-wrote Faith Hill’s current hit single, “Mississippi Girl,” and has two more cuts on her upcoming album, including a Hill/Tim McGraw pairing.

He co-wrote five songs on newcomer Jason Aldean’s upcoming debut, including current charting single “Hicktown.” And he has several cuts on Keith Anderson’s recently released debut album as well.

Rich and Big Kenny produced and recorded a song with Billy Joe Shaver, “I’m Gonna Live Forever,” which is on Shaver’s latest Compadre Records album and may also be included on the upcoming Big & Rich project.

In between Big & Rich tour dates, Rich is in the studio mixing the sophomore albums from Wilson and Big & Rich—both due in the fall. He’s also producing and writing with Warner Bros. artist Shannon Brown and preparing to produce the Raybaw debut of James Otto.

The sleep-deprived Rich’s ability to take on all of these projects at once is a testament to his youthful energy, fueled by a healthy dose of Crown Royal and by the adrenaline rush that comes with seeing his dreams come true.

“Everything’s so exciting right now I don’t want to sleep,” he says. “I’m afraid I’ll miss something.

“Since I was probably 20 years old, the only thing that consumed my thought process was music,” Rich continues. “I finally arrived at the place where I have these opportunities that I’ve been struggling for my whole career [and] I want to take advantage of them and really exhaust my potential . . . I’m really testing myself to see what exactly am I capable of.”

Rich says his sudden hot streak as a writer is due to a combination of “timing” and his own hard work on behalf of his songs. The Warner/Chappell writer estimates he has penned some 900 songs in the last 11 years.

“I know my catalog better than anybody and I’ll go through [it] and see that Tim McGraw is looking for this or that and I’ll put together a little CD of stuff he might like and I’ll mail it to him,” Rich says. “I’m real proactive in pitching my stuff . . . I’ll sit at the computer late at night and burn CDs out of my iTunes and pop them in the mail to people, and sometimes they get cut.”

Rich started off as a member of the band Lonestar in the ’90s before exiting to pursue a solo career. He recorded a critically-acclaimed album for BNA Records, but after a few failed singles, the album was never released and Rich was dropped from the label.

That album, which contained some of the earliest collaborations between Rich and Big Kenny, may yet see the light of day now that Rich has become a hot commodity.

Having seen the dark side of a recording career, Rich says, “The most satisfying thing to me is realizing that I’ve learned from my journey. I haven’t become a bitter individual. I’ve met artists who have gone through similar things that get really bitter. That just sucks the life out of your creativity and out of the life force of your music.”

Rich is very hands-on in the creative process at Raybaw, although Gierman runs its day-to-day operations.

“The point of Raybaw is to give artists that nobody else would ever give a chance to a chance to make their music,” Rich says of the label.

True to its name—an acronym for red and yellow, black and white—Rich says Raybaw represents artists with diverse music styles. Besides Cowboy Troy and Otto, the label’s roster includes the rapper Chance, who Rich describes as “the redneck Eminem.” His project will be worked by Warner Bros.’ New York staff.

Rich says the Raybaw founders are also looking to sign some “cutting-edge gospel” artists and possibly some bluegrass acts in the next 18 months.

“It represents all music,” Rich says of the label. “Music that we think is great, that we believe in . . . We’ve been through enough ups and downs to have learned the pitfalls of the music business and we’ve learned how to focus our passion [to] help somebody achieve their goals.”

He hopes Raybaw might set an example for the rest of Music Row which, Rich says, needs “less bureaucracy and [more] creativity. Record labels need to loosen the stranglehold they have on their producers and on their artists.

“Record labels come at these new artists with these packages like, ‘Here’s your producer, here’s your photographer, here’s the guys [we] want you to write songs with, here’s your timeline.’ It’s the red tape of creativity that kills artists.

“Country music really becomes great when the artist gets to be unique. If Music Row will start accepting that philosophy,” Rich adds, “I really think country music’s going to just go absolutely bananas in the next five years."