Steve Wariner

All quotes by Steve Wariner.

Some people ask me during interviews,”Why are you doing so well and still staying on top?’ And I just scratch my head and go,’I don’t really know!'(he laughs) I’m not really sure why things keep working out so well for me. I just do what I do and keep on going. I think as the years go by, I’ve just gotten better at songwriting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gTnonaKNj0

The more you write the better you get at it.

I just keep doing what it is I do no matter what, I just keep going on. I’ve always stayed up on and been aware of what everybody else around me was doing, but I really looked at myself as my competition more than anyone else. I’ve always tried to keep getting better at what I’m doing myself, rather than just trying to keep up with what everybody else is doing. I’ve quietly gone about my business over the years. I’m not real flashy or controversial, I’ve gone about my business rather quietly. I’m just worried about me and not my competition.

I’m married with two boys. My boys are Ryan (14) and Ross (11), my wife is Caryn and we live just South of Brentwood, it’s a town called Franklin. My wife and I are really a good team. We’ve been together since about 1982 and she is very heavily involved in what I do. She’s involved in my publishing company and actually she runs our publishing business and administrates our company. So she is heavily involved in the publishing and management end of things, she’s pushing the numbers for us and that’s her thing. She’s really good at that. I have always tried to keep a good sense of balance with my career and personal life.

I like to think I’ve always had a good team around me as far as my business management and investments and those sort of things. I think being around some of my friends over the years, those of whom were not aware of the business end things, has made me all the more aware of it. I think that knowing Dottie West, who was my dear friend and I worked for her for years when I first moved here and had my first job, I saw what she went through with some bad business deals and she thought her money was really taken care of and it wasn’t and well, everybody probably knows that story, it’s a real sad story at the end of her life. I was there, so I saw it. So I do understand how it is when you don’t take care of business in the right way. Then on the other hand, Chet Atkins, who is my mentor and my hero, he’s always been a good business man and taken care of his business in the right way. So if there’s anybody who I kind of model myself after I guess, then it’s Chet Atkins.

Back when I cut “Why Good-bye” (?) I was wanting to get out of that “Urban Cowboy” kind of thing that was happening in Nashville at that time (he laughs) I was really wanting to get country music out of that. I always liked an edge on my country music. I always wanted to be more of on that side of it. That’s just kind of the stuff I wanted to do. I credit Tony Brown with helping me to achieve that sound (around 1982 to 1984),because he was producing that stuff. Him and Norro Wilson (spelling?) produced that stuff back then (1982 to 1984).

Tony and I saw eye to eye on songs and the sound and the players and everything. We were just a really good team I think. Whenever I write songs it’s less just when the inspiration hits. My songwriting happens more and more when I block off time for songwriting or cowriting. I’ve learned to discipline myself over the years more and more to be able to be a songwriter. I have to be able to do that now, because I can’t just rely on,’Well, it’ll hit me and when it hits me, I’ll do it.’ Because I’ve got to have an album ready, I don’t have time to wait on it. So what I do now is that I just block out time so I can assign the time and say,’Next Tuesday, I’m writing with Bill Anderson, Wednesday I’m with Mac McCanally.’ In the meantime, I keep a notebook where I jot down thoughts and ideas and I just refer to them whenever I’m in a songwriting session.

Sometimes, I’ll have a songwriting appointment and I’ll just stare at the other songwriter. But that’s not often. I think that’s due to the caliber of people I’m writing with these days. I write by myself a lot anymore, but most of the time I’m writing with co-writers and very rarely do I go blank because I think it’s the caliber of people I’m writing with.

I first came to Nashville back in 1973. Back then, as well as today, I love to talkto people like Chet Atkins and ask him about the old days gone by of country music.What I’ve seen is nothing compared to what he’s seen. But even in the short time I’ve been here I have seen a bit. When I first started making records, when I signed my deal with RCA, Chet was my producer. I talked him into being my producer, because he was about to step away from power from RCA. I signed my deal with Chet in late 1977 and he was not running the label anymore, he was wanting to back away and not be so busy and involved. Here I come along and I talked him into producing me. When I talked him into signing me up, my deal with RCA was a singles deal. That’s all they would sign me to was a singles deal. They never promised me an album or nothing. Meanwhile, the major record companies in Nashville today are signing some of the artists to million dollar record deals. Back then, they signed me as a singles artist. Now I guess you might denote a little bit of bitterness with me when I say this. When I signed my deal with RCA I eventually got to a point where I was after them so bad to put an album out, but they still wouldn’t do it. Eventually when I did talk them into putting an album out, my debut album was appropriately titled Steve Wariner. (Steve begins referring to his early hit singles.) I had a Number 1 record, which was “All Roads Lead To You”. I had a Top 5 which was called “By Now”. And I had a top 10 which was called “Your Memory”. Now those three records were out and already established as hits and I still could not talk them into putting out an album. My point where I’m going with this is, now country music is big business. There’s lots of people from New York and LA here now and it’s a big business. When I first arrived here and had a record deal, there was not even any artists who had managers. The only managers in the business were with the superstar acts. I didn’t even have a manager, I couldn’t even afford one.

Back then nobody was selling records, the only artists who were selling records were the major artists. If you went gold, that was a big, big deal,if you sold 100,000 copies, then that was good. My point in all this is, country music is really grown up now. It’s really a lot bigger dollars you’re talking now. People like Garth Brooks have taken it into places and made it so much bigger then it’s ever been. It’s so much more widely accepted now then it was years ago. Back then it was a smaller business. I think the only thing about it now is that there is no such thing as artists development. Back then a label would sign an act and then they’d stand behind them and work with them. The word development, that’s what it means, development. It meant if you found somebody you believed in, you would hang with them and work with them. Now there’s hardly any development. You might get a shot or two and get a couple of singles. If it takes off and starts selling, then fine, they’re on your case. If not, then they’ve moved on to the next act, they’ve moved on to the next guy or girl. So, that’s the one thing. Now it’s more based on the dollars. It’s more big business. The competition factor is what’s amazing. Radio keeps going the other way(with smaller singles adds for the stations playlists) with their slots. There’s thirty or less slots for radio and every year there’s eight million acts coming out. Do the math, it just don’t work. Somebody is going to get left out. It’s the same way with touring on the road. There’s only so many people who can be out there touring, working these venues on the road. So somebody is not going to make it.

I think growing up in the country has a lot to do with things in this business and with your songwriting.

I was a talking about this with Garth Brooks today. Garth Brooks is a really good guy. I think a lot of people who just don’t like him or have something bad to say about him because he’s successful. People might think because of the fact that he’s real polite and he’s real courteous, that it might be contrived. I can tell you, it’s not. He is from the country and he was rasied with good, proper manners. It’s just the way he was raised up. He’s from Oklahoma, his brother Kelly is the same way. His mom and dad are the same way. They just brought up their kids to be that way. You know, I’ve been around Garth a lot and even whenever there’s nobody around to see him, he’s polite. It’s not like he’s doing it for somebody to see.

So I think that what you do musically reflects who you are and the way you were brought up.

It’s a reflection on your parents and they’re parenting. As far as some artists who are not country, they’re out there trying to fool the fans. You can fool them once but you can’t fool them the second time. The fans know who is real and who isn’t. I like to see all these big pop star or pop star who has been away from their career all these years. Suddenly their career has waned and they’re down here in Nashville they’re telling everybody,’Oh, I’ve really been country all along. Now I’m coming here to make the my country album now that my rock and roll carrer is over with. But I’ve really been country all along.” (he laughs) You see that here in Nashville all the time, over and over. I’ve got a few tracks already cut and the songs are some stuff that didn’t make this current album, but they’re wonderful songs anyway.

So I’m already starting working on my next album. I plan on going back into the studio in about a month or so and working on some new material. I’m not touring much, I’ll be touring more heavily in the Fall. I’m going to do some dates with Clint Black and some things with Tim McGraw. Then I’m also planning to do some little cameo things with Garth here and there. The TV stuff they’ll let me on and that’s about it. I’m not touring all that much this year. I’m working on the songs for my next album, I would say there’s a change a little bit in my music. I did a Bill Anderson song that he and I wrote, it’s called “I’ll Always Have Denver”. I just love this song. It’s a real romantic story, heart breaking kind of song. It’ll have a full arrangement with strings. It’s real pretty.

Then there’s a thing I wrote with Marcus Humman, the titled is called “My Brain Is Fried”. It’s a really neat song, more of a pop edge kind of thing.

I’m more passionate about my guitar playing then anything else in my career. I don’t work at that, I have fun with that. I play every single day and I’ve got a collection of guitars. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m very, very passionate about my guitar playing. It’s something that I do every single day of my life. I study by listening to records every chance I get. You never quit learning on guitar. Once you think you’ve learned it all and you’re there, you realize you’re actually an idiot on guitar. You’re never there on the guitar. Even Chet Atkins is still learning new stuff on the guitar every day. If you ask him, he’ll tell you that. Everything that I do, comes through the guitar. I use it with my songwriting, I use it whenever I’m performing on-stage. I love the Opry, I’m so proud to be a member. There’s got to be some more of the younger artists getting involved in the Opry.

Some of the younger artists have to take the responsibility and carry the torch. We’ve lost a lot of our members over the last couple of years. Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff. There’s got to be people who are going to carry the torch and go on with the Opry and I want top be one of those individuals. I know Vince Gill has said that and I know he means it. I know Ricky Skaggs and myself and Vince, well we’ve talked about this stuff before. We’ve got to keep the torch burning. You see the Opry means a lot more to me because I was raised listening to the Opry broadcasts. So it means a lot more to me than it might mean to some other people. As a boy, my mother and father listened to the Opry, back then you could get it on clear channel radio across the country pretty much. So the Opry is sacred ground to me because I was raised listening to it every Saturday night. When I was a little boy, I would dream about what it would be like to be up there on-stage playing my music. So being a member of the Opry today means a lot to me. I really like being a part of it.