BIG KENNY, JOHN RICH, AND THE MUSIC MAFIAPart II
Phil, in your question about "How did they meet someone on the inside?" It comes through a lot of sources. First of all you have to understand that in this town, like most businesses, we are all "Six Degrees of Separation." Kind of all Kevin Bacon, in some ways. (There is a game, where you can take the actor Kevin Bacon, and extrapolate where he has been involved with almost every actor in Hollywood. "Kevin Bacon was in the movie "Footloose", where he worked with Elizabeth Shue, who was in such and such movie with Meryl Streep, who acted in such and such movie with Jack Nicholson..." and on and on and on..)
It is sort of like that here with songwriters and artists. Nashville is known as a "Circle of friends" and one circle intersects with another circle. As people negotiates open mics, to writers nights, to "special events" to being known by publishers, record labels, etc. And a career is born.
"BIG KENNY" Alphen, is a friend of mine who went on to be a part of the "MUSIC MAFIA" with his group, "BIG AND RICH" who have had multiple platinum records, hit songs and tours. I met Kenny on one of his first nights in town and was around that group of people a good deal for a while. They are just one of the millions of stories in this town, many others are doing the exact same things, get to various levels but most just don't succeed like they did. But I digress.
Kenny, myself and many others were doing writers nights around town. These were mostly invited shows, where you would go meet the hosts, get a chance to play, prove yourself and be put into a standard rotation on ongoing writers nights. In my first four years there was an every Monday night show at the THIRD COAST, which was a resturant bar, where the modern day BOUNDRY is. I met Kenny about 8 years into town, around 1996. By that time, the Third Coast was still going but not on a regular night. So there were other places like BOGEY'S, which was one of four or five regular places we all gathered.
Kenny, who had been in bands in Virginia, was playing with other musicians he met and ran his own night. He would have a "house band" of five or six players, that would invite other writer/artists to come sit in. His night usually was on Tues. nights, WHILE he was playing the writers nights with the rest of us. I met him on a writers night when he came over to me after one of my sets. He was very excited saying "I WANT YOUR VOICE" and I, of course, said "I WANT TO LOOK LIKE YOU!!!!" You see, Kenny was really good looking and always had a TON OF WOMEN around him. And it just so happened that at the time I was getting divorced and actually the day after I met him, he and his roommate, came to help me move out of my wife's house.
I moved into an apartment right across the street from his and we hung out all the time. Playing vollyball, being at the pool and of course, A MILLION GUITAR PULL PICKING PARTIES. This is the thing that "outsiders" have a problem understanding. The people who become the "big dog writers" have spent years building relationships. They extend far beyond songs and performing. WE are each other's support groups and therapists. We all go through break ups, other love lives, and of course, a good deal of food and drink. We all would host parties in our apartments, out on pontoon boats, in farmer's fields, on the lake, doing Christmas parties (we even have "orphan" Christmas parties here, where people who are far away from home can go to someone else's house for Christmas. We are extended families.
This is where those writing relationships come from. And we all play in each other's shows. As Kenny and many others of our cadre advanced into open door publishing appointments, writing with higher level and more connected writers, the reputations grow.
One of the more interesting events that happened on Thus, nights (his show being on Tuesdays) was called "THE LODGE." This was a big warehouse that was essentially owned by some rich guy that a friend of a friend knew. This friend was staying in a small apartment in this warehouse, that was a "toy barn" for the rich guy's boats, jet skis, motorcycles, collector cars. In another corner of this was a bar set up, some couches, and a PA. On Thursday nights, about 100 of us would gather, pay $5. and there would be a keg of beer. We would drink and play. All night. I mean it would never get started till 10:00 PM, and would go till daylight. It was kind of open, with people just getting up either in groups with people they played and wrote with.
In this group of people who socialized ALL THE TIME, there were people like:
Billy Austin writer of the Homewreckers "Leave the Pieces".
David Vincent Williams, writer of "I'm Moving On" and "Just Got Started Loving You"
David Leigh, writer of "Letters from from Home"
Tony Lane, writer of Speed, and dozens of George Strait Hits
The Kinleys Sony recording artists
David "Doc" Abbot future video director and documetaries for National Geographic
Four or five future publishers
Various musicians that were at that time and future times being involved with Gretchen Wilson, Hank Williams Jr. and BIG AND RICH.
This is the key. The Lodge is kind of where it all came together. A big drunken party. But hundreds of future cuts were heard there, dozens of songs that would go on to be HUGE hits, and writing relationships.
It was at one of these that a singer named John Rich showed up. I wasn't there that night.
Over time, John and Kenny began to link up. They wrote together, did other shows. That "Lodge show" morphed into something called the "Music Mafia" and that was the "Pivot point" for their ultimate success. But had it not been for all those other shows, parties, private get together's, the "Mafia" probably would have never existed.
During the day, they were all trying to get publishing deals and writing with different people. They all worked side jobs, I think Kenny had a delivery job or something. At night they wrote, played other shows. Then they all would have a deal for a while, get some cuts that probably didn't go anywhere, and go up and down. John, was the lead singer for a group called "Lonestar" who got a deal, and he got fired or quit, (depending who you talk to).
The "Music Mafia" show, became THE Tuesday night show to go to. It was always five stools up front, with various musicians playing behind the main singers. The stools would be taken by people like Kenny and John, James Otto, Gretchen Wilson, (who was a bartender at Bourbon street Blues and Boogie Bar John became involved with.)
John, was producing demos on each of these artists on songs they wrote together.
Every Tuesday, first at a place called THE PUB OF LOVE, which was the size of a closet, the second at MERCY lounge, AND ALWAYS STANDING ROOM ONLY. They called themselves "The MUSIC MAFIA, because they were rebels. And did whatever kind of music they wanted. Rock, rap, country, blues, covers, whatever they wanted. There would always be special guests that came in. I was invited and tried one time but couldn't get near the stage because it was so crowded. So I missed my "MAFIA MEMBERSHIP."
Basically there were ALWAYS a LOT OF WOMEN around all these groups of people. So it was where all the GUYS went. Including Record company people, who could bring their out of town guests, (RADIO PROGRAMMERS, who they wanted to play their records) and they could get them....well..... entertained, on any given time.
Among the members of some of these nights were executives from NASCAR who decided to put the whole thing on the road, playing NASCAR events on weekends. NASCAR, who run races on Sunday's usually have HUGE THREE DAY TAILGATE PARTIES with hundreds of thousands of people. This is what the entire Mafia guys did. So they were building enormous FAN BASE at the same time, making a lot of money and building their own writing and recording.
When GRETCHEN took off with "REDNECK WOMAN" (A song written with and produced by JOHN RICH,) the next of the crew was BIG AND RICH with SAVE A HORSE RIDE A COWBOY. This was a huge phenomenon, and actually throwback to the days of the OUTLAWS, (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jesse Colter) back in the 70's. You might remember songs like GOOD HEARTED WOMAN, MAMA'S DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS, and others from the 70's and 80's. There are always NASHVILLE REBELS, and that was one of those times. Before that was HANK WILLIAMS SENIOR. Today it is ERIC CHURCH, CHRIST STAPELTON, etc. the people that break the mold and then everyone tries to copy.
Big and Rich and the entire menagere' caught fire in the music critics, audiences and THEN RADIO. They had some big tours, sold a ton of merchandise, more hit records. Then of course, they all kind of burned out, split up, lost record deals, but still had high profile. John went on "The DONALD TRUMP reality "APPRENTICE" television show and all of them continue to pop up in POP CULTURE. I see them on VHI shows all the time.
So that, Phil, is pretty much how it always happens. The people get on the "inside" as the people around them BECOME the insiders. One thing leads to another. It is never one song or one show. There might be one that is a pivot point, but there are dozens and hundreds of people, places and things, involved. For every one that "make it" there are hundreds of people who are on the fringes of those successes, still involved, still working,but might not get the breaks. It's not personal. Just business. Happens that way.
One of those people is "your's truly."
But through it all, we still know each other, still see each other from time to time. Kenny once told his wife that I was the guy who kept him in Nashville when he was all depressed and wanted to quit. So I guess I have some value.
But if you want even more evidence, look at it like this.
Through Big Kenny, I met David Vincent Williams. David and I wrote "Rescued Me" which was recorded by JOHN BERRY. Last year I met, hung out with and wrote with John Berry. Through David, I met RICHARD ORGA, who would go on to be the publisher of I'M MOVING ON and IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE. " Richard got out of the business for a few years but now has come back with a new publishing company and a management company. When I first was working with Richard, we missed with the publishing deal we tried to do on me. That is a WEIRD STORY.
But though that I developed our relationship. The first artist I was going to bring to him was FRANKIE BALLARD, but Frankie got signed before I could get him there. The second artist I brought him is DANI JAMERSON, who is currently working with Richard, who is connecting her with other writers and helping build what she is doing.
One person who meets another person who introduces that one to another person. Sooner or later, you find your songs, yourself, in different and sometimes better places. If you were to look at Eric Church, Chris Stapelton, Luke Bryan, Megan Trainer, Kacey Ballerini, Casey Musgraves, Lady A, Little Big Town, you name it, their careers are very similar. They come to town. They hang out. They work on their craft and their relationships. They form little circles of friends. Those friends move into positions of power and their own work gets elevated.
Six degrees of separations.
That is how it works.
MAB
