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April 24, 2023 - Doug Collins Podcast
45:25
On my Front Porch looking in
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
You know, as we were just talking offline and we're just getting ready to do this, Frank Myers, you know, looking at your resume, one that goes back is I think is something that's pretty cool to me.
Because I'm, as you've probably known, our audience knows, I go complete genre.
I go full school.
I mean, I started in the 60s with Johnny Cash live at San Quentin.
Okay, they don't know any track.
And so your stuff coming up.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, though.
Growing up, Ohio native.
Talk a little bit about that and then how you got into, you know, really country music.
Because, you know, if you look at it, it's like the old, what was the old song, you know, guy from, you know, Chris Labuddy shows up, didn't realize he had, was it Northern Ohio plates, didn't think he was going to be a country guy.
How did you get country out of Ohio?
Well, you know, my family is from Kentucky.
My dad was from Kentucky.
My mother is from, actually, she was born and raised over in East Tennessee.
And so I moved to Dayton, Ohio during, you know, the big boom, the industrial boom back in the day.
My dad was a champion fiddle player and guitar player and singer and he had a voice like Jim Reeves and my grandmother was a five string banjo player in the style of like Grandpa Jones, you know, hammer and claw.
And so I grew up in a musical family.
I mean, I heard music totally from when I popped out and until I left home.
I started playing guitar about nine.
My dad was, of course, a big country fan.
George Jones, Buck Owens, Dale Reeves, Jim Reeves, Eddie Arnold, you know, all of that.
And my sister was a big Motown fan.
So I heard a lot growing up.
You know, I remember in first grade watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan's show.
So I grew up in probably the best musical time you could ever grow up as far as diversity and the stylists and things that were in the music business back then.
Everybody was a stylist for the most part and There was no pro tools.
There were no computers, you know, helping the singers out back then.
You had to be able to sing.
And there were a lot of great groups.
And then we had the British Invasion on top of that.
And Elvis, you know, I loved Elvis.
I always dreamed about being his guitar player.
Of course, that never worked out.
But so, again, I started when I was nine.
I played a lot of shows.
When I was about 12, I guess, 11 or 12, there was a place called Memorial Hall in downtown Dayton, Ohio.
And I opened a lot of shows back then.
They would let me come out and do one or two songs.
So, you know, I met George Jones and Tammy Wynette and Porter Wagner and Dolly Parton, all these great people.
And when I was 14, I was actually a guest on the Porter Wagner TV show here in Nashville.
Porter Wagner.
There's a name right there.
I mean, you get Porter Wagner in there.
I mean, you're going old school.
Let me ask you, you name drop the Beatles, Elvis, those.
What about the other sort of, I guess, the Rebels of the day, the Johnny Cash, the Waylon Jennings, the Outlaw crew, the Chris Christopherson crew coming up?
Did that influence you as well?
No.
Of course.
You know, everything influenced me that was good.
And some bad, for that matter.
But, you know, when I was talking about those names, that was before Cash and all of them.
I mean, that was 60s, you know, 70s.
You know, we had all the music stuff going on.
And, of course, Johnny Cash and Christofferson and...
Willie really wasn't quite going yet.
He didn't happen, I think, until the 80s or late 70s, I guess.
Him and Waylon.
But no, I listened to everything just because I grew up with a musical background of everything.
So I really liked everything.
And I started tending more towards...
Pop a little bit just because of some of the groups and the harmonies and chord progressions and things that they were doing that caught my ear and helped me to become a better musician, eventually a better songwriter because I didn't move to town as a songwriter.
Yeah, because you were actually playing.
You were a performer and everything else.
When did you, before we get into a little bit more, when did you actually make the transition to Nashville and in that area, you know, sort of that became, you know, more the base.
I know you were a recording career as well.
Did that happen early on as well?
My wife and I moved to Nashville in April of 81. And I started playing lead guitar for a guy named Eddie Raven in about July of 81. And everything happened really fast.
I was very blessed.
I mean, there's so many people that have come here and just, you know, did the Bluebird and did all these things for years before they ever had a cut.
I was blessed to have a cut within six months of being here.
Right, right.
Yeah, and Eddie Rabin, you played a lot with him.
You did a lot of his stuff.
You know, I got Mexico, should have been gone by now, sometimes Lady.
I mean, just some really, you know, good stuff from that time and going off.
I mean, I do have a quick question for you, because I've always been fascinated by this.
You know, guitars, I've always been fascinated, though, by the banjo.
And you talked about your mom, you know, playing the five-string banjo.
My grandma.
I have heard...
And again, you've had some who play guitar and say banjo is just so hard to play.
And then I've had others who say banjo is easy to play and they don't play guitar.
What about you?
Did you ever cross over and play both?
Or did you learn both from your mom?
Or is that myth sort of true?
You either sort of do one or the other.
Well, you know, first of all, it was my grandmother that played.
My mom didn't play anything.
But I did end up playing a little five-string banjo and learning Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Cripple Creek, and some things like that.
You know, I wasn't a great banjo player.
player.
I just did it mainly, you know, when my brother and I had a band up in Dayton, I would pull the banjo out and just do a few songs just for, you know, diversity, more or less.
And but I was more of a guitar player.
And again, I started playing guitar when I was nine.
Right.
So you made that up.
Well, a question here comes because you talked about performing and, you know, being an artist, part of the side.
And you're bringing, because I've talked to a lot of songwriters who, you know, they do their own songs.
They go do songwriter rounds.
They go to the Bluebird.
They go around the country.
But as far as never, you know, they never put was out front, so to speak, as an artist.
It was always part of their part.
How is being an artist?
And basically, as you started, I think, probably more as an artist and I'm sure writing songs as well.
Do you think that influenced you in your writing style?
Was it mainly you were writing more for yourself and other people liked it?
Talk to us a little bit, you know, for the person out there who likes to perform, but also has that little bit of writing that has that writing side in them as well.
Well, as I told you, I didn't come to town as a writer.
I came as a guitar player, but I had put some melodies to other people's lyrics when I come to town.
And getting the job with Eddie, you know, Eddie was such a great and is such a great songwriter.
You know, I just wanted to show him a few of the songs that I had put melodies to.
And he liked my melodies, and it kind of went from there.
We ended up writing together.
We went and we opened a show for Tanya Tucker down in New Orleans in October, I guess, of 81. And she had a title that she wanted Eddie to write with her, and it ended up being the three of us writing the song.
It was called Changes.
And that became the title cut of her first Arista album when Arista first went to town.
And that happened around November, I guess.
And during that time, the guy that produced her was David Malloy, who produced Eddie Rabbit.
So I met David, and he really loved the song Changes.
And he said, we're going to be cutting Rabbit in a few months.
If you got anything, bring it over.
I said, great, I will.
I didn't have anything at the time, but within the next few months, I ended up writing You and I, and I took that over there.
It wasn't written as a duet initially either.
Oh, wow.
Well, let's start off there, because that was sort of your first breakout hit there.
That was the one you and I and today, folks, on the podcast, we've got a great...
Frank's brought his guitar with us, and he's willing to do a couple of these lyrics.
Frank, let's go back to you and I. What sort of got together?
I know you met the Eddie Rabbit folks, but how did Crystal...
You said it wasn't a duet, if I understood you correctly.
How did Crystal Gale and Eddie Rabbit get together to do this duet that really became a great, great song?
Well, what happened was they recorded the song and David thought the song was too short, believe it or not.
Usually they say they're too long.
And so he ended up taking the first verse of the song and just copying it and making a second verse out of it.
And he wanted me to try to write another verse because he took my second verse and took it down and put it as the third verse.
So he called me and I tried to write a second verse, but everything I wrote he didn't like.
So Eddie had asked Crystal Gale to come and sing background vocals on the song.
And that's how it started.
She was just going to put some background vocals on it.
And while she was in the studio learning the song, you know, that second verse came back around, which was the same as the first.
And she started answering it, kind of practicing while they were doing her mic check.
And that just hit David.
He said, that's it.
That's how we're going to do it.
And she said, what?
I'm just warming up.
She says, no, no, no, no, no.
We'll let Eddie sing the first verse by himself.
And when it comes back around, you answer him.
And then that's how it became a duet.
Wow.
Because the song just seems so natural.
I mean, you would think that's the way it was written and it was intended for this way the whole time.
Yeah, you know, I believe in divine providence and, you know, it has its hand in everything and it was just meant to be, you know.
That is amazing.
Well, before I let you play a verse or so of that song, just to remind people of that greatness of that song, you've hit an air.
One of the things I always try to talk about with my songwriters is in the state of play now versus the state of play, you know, Back in the 80s and 90s, when you're really writing to get on an album, you're really writing to get that track on an album.
If you had the number one, that was fantastic.
I mean, I got Mexico with Eddie Raven.
I mean, those were great, but you were getting paid differently.
And nowadays, younger writers in the last 15 years don't really have that concept of writing for an album cut, so to speak.
Mm-hmm.
What was your remembrances of that?
I know I've had some songwriters talk about, you know, all of a sudden I got this huge, gigantic check, and it was, you know, that one.
And that just doesn't happen as much these days.
Unfortunately, it doesn't happen these days because of streaming and everything.
And first of all, I want to thank you for being such a big champion of songwriters and all the work that you did on the bill that was passed quite two years ago, I guess.
Yep.
You know, you were a big proponent, and I guess still are a big proponent for songwriters, and I sure appreciate that, and I want to thank you on behalf of all songwriters.
Well, thank you.
It's easy for guys like y'all.
Y'all have touched me so much, that's for sure.
Well, again, I was working with Eddie Raven, so we were writing songs, and he would cut just about everything we wrote, so I wasn't really sitting down trying to write.
For artists, when I wrote and it wasn't with Eddie, I was just trying to write a great song.
And let it kind of land where, you know, where it may.
Other than a few times that my first writing partner was Steve Dean over at Tom Collins Music.
And, you know, Tom produced the Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Millsap, Steve Warner, Sylvia, some big ones.
And by the time I was there, he was just still doing Barbara and Sylvia, I believe, and maybe Steve Warner.
So there were a few songs that we specifically tried to write for Barbara.
Right.
That Tom had kind of requested.
And so we got, you know, a few cuts with her.
But nothing, you know, really major.
We had a single with her called Crossword Puzzle.
And it came out about the time she had that big car accident.
And it just killed the single.
So, you know, it was still great.
Oh, yeah.
Well, it makes it, you know, again, as you look at, you know, everything going on, you look at the different writers.
When you first, as every, you know, because you had the privilege of being on, and the opportunity, I guess, was to be on, like, Porter Wagner's show, hearing some of your stuff, you know, sort of on a different medium.
What was it like hearing your song, such as you and I, being performed by somebody else and then hearing it on the radio?
It's always interesting to me here how songwriters respond to that.
Well, I specifically remember where we were the very first time I heard you and I on the radio, and my wife and I were driving down West End Avenue, and I think we were close to the Parthenon area.
And it came on, and it just blew me away.
I had to pull over and listen to it.
You know, it's amazing.
I mean, anytime you hear one of your songs on the radio, it doesn't really get old, you know.
You know, you're thankful for it.
It's just a kind of surreal kind of feeling for you when that happened, you know.
You know, to think that this is something that developed in your head, you know, as an idea.
And then, you know, you wrote lyrics and you came up with a melody for it.
And then the miracle of getting the song cut.
And that was the big thing.
Aaron Baker and I had a long conversation about that, how you get it on there and all of a sudden it's there and you're hoping to make it and then all of a sudden you start getting enough royalty checks to say like, hey, I can actually do this.
This is going to be a living.
Yeah.
You know, the money that I was making from songwriting, I was able to put in the bank because I was playing guitar for Eddie Raven and I was being paid there.
And then after nine years with Eddie, I ended up playing guitar for Marie Osmond for four years.
And then after that, I was in the duo Baker and Myers for about four years.
How was working with Marie Osmond?
It was great.
She's awesome.
The family is awesome and first class all the way.
And she's everything you would think she is.
Oh, wow.
That's pretty cool.
Well, Tim, let's get to Eddie Raven because after you and I, I Got Mexico.
Why don't you play a little bit of I Got Mexico for us?
Okay.
This is with Eddie Raven, number one, and for a lot of our listeners, this goes back to 84, and so for those of you in the audience, I was a senior in high school, freshman in college, so let's put this together here.
So this was Eddie Raven's first number one record as an artist.
Yep.
I just got tired of that same old job.
Tired of fighting that freeway mob.
I bet you never thought I'd really go.
I'd never get as far as Mexico.
But I've even learned to speak the language some.
Down on the beach drinking coke and rum.
You wouldn't know me with this golden glow.
So can you.
the sun in Mexico.
I'm eating right and I'm living good.
I'm doing everything I said I would.
I should have left a long time ago.
He's got you, I got Mexico.
Oh, my God.
That's so good, Frank.
I mean, amazing, brother.
Thank you.
And this is why I do what I do.
It's why I love having you all on.
It's why I love doing this is because when you started playing, you started singing right there.
My mind went back to 100 yards from where I'm sitting right now to where my mom and I grew up.
And, you know, being a senior high school, hearing that on the radio, and my mind went back to all of those, you know, thoughts at that point.
That's awesome.
That is just so cool.
Does it still get you to think like, you know, for myself or you hear people, I know because you play rounds, you play, when people talk about a song and what that means to them?
You know what?
That means more to me than anything is the power of the song is...
It's just really unbelievable, the power of a song, especially with some of the songs I was blessed with, like, I'm Already There and I Swear.
You know, so many people have told me, you know, that was our wedding song.
That was, you know, I sent that song to my dad.
Or, you know, the stories are just really cool.
The money is good when you go out and do these things, but truthfully, having the people come up to you and tell you what one of the songs that you wrote meant to them and how it affected their lives, you can't buy that.
No, I can't.
You had some more hits with Eddie Raven.
You also worked with that small little group.
They tried Alabama.
They worked in there.
But 10 years later, you had probably, and I would assume, maybe not from your perspective, but probably one of your most awarded hits.
The one that a lot of people know, and that is, I swear, John Michael Montgomery.
Before you play it, talk to us a little bit about that song.
Because like I said, that's one of those I can see having played at special moments.
That kind of thing.
Talk to us about that.
Well, I swear it was written about six years before it got cut.
Oh, wow.
Gary Baker lives, my partner at the time, lives in Sheffield, Alabama and has been there for many, many years.
He actually moved there.
He's from Niagara Falls, moved to Texas to play for a while.
And I think he met Lenny LeBlanc down there.
And anyway, Lenny lived in Muscle Shoals and brought him there to be the bass player for LeBlanc and Carr.
So he did that.
Anyway, so I'm about three hours away from where I live to where he lives.
And he called me one morning and said, Frank, I have a title I want you to think about on the way down.
And it's called I Swear.
It's a love song.
It's like, I swear I'll love you forever.
I swear I'll always be there, that kind of thing.
And that's basically all he gave me.
And on that three-hour drive down there, I wrote the chorus to it.
And, you know, later that day, in Fame Studios there, we wrote the rest of the song.
And then we did a demo on it, or he did a demo down there in the Shoals.
Everybody in town passed on it.
All the big names at the time.
And it was about, so we wrote this in about, I got 85, 86, somewhere in there.
And then we started working together.
I actually got him the job playing bass in Marie Osmond's band.
Oh, really?
Yeah, so the keyboard player and her musical conductor, Jerry Williams, God rest his soul, he just passed away at the end of the year.
Oh, wow.
Good friend, a musical genius.
Anyway, we were playing him some songs, and he played us some songs and some tracks that he did for other people and stuff.
And we got to I Swear, and he really liked the song, and I said, you know what, I've never really liked this demo.
Why don't you see if you can do a track for us?
And so he came up with a track and sent it to us, and I put the guitars on, and Gary put the bass on and sang it, and I sang backgrounds, and that was the demo that I played for John Michael Montgomery that got the song cut.
And I actually played it three times for John Michael before he finally cut it.
Oh, wow.
It ended up being the very last song that they cut when they were recording the Kicking It Up record.
And the last song they cut and first single from the batch.
Of course, it was a four-week number one.
How many times do you hear that?
You know, it's the last song.
We got it in there right at the last time.
Well, play us a little bit, and then I want to talk more about it.
Okay.
I just need to push this microphone back a little bit.
I see the questions in your eyes.
I know what's weighing on your mind.
You can be sure I know my part.
Cause I'll stand beside you through the years.
You'll only cry those happy tears.
though I'll make mistakes I'll never break your heart I swear By the moon and the stars in the sky I'll be there I swear Like a shadow that's by your side I'll be there
For better or worse Till death do us part I'll love you with every beat of my heart I swear That amazing.
I mean, fabulous.
I mean, it just, again, another one that brings back so many memories.
But there's a little bit of twist to this one, and I'd love to get your take on this, because not only was it a huge hit for John Michael Montgomery, the awards, everything else, this song was also a number one by another group.
That picked up your version of it, did a cover of it, all for one version.
Did you have much, and this is a curious question for me, and for songwriters out there, I guess, they took what you wrote, and then they changed a little bit of it.
How does that work from you owning the songs and everything, and then did they call you and say, hey, we want to record this?
Tell us how that worked.
Well, first of all, you know, they licensed the song and it's still our song, whoever wants to do it.
But so John Michael was on Atlantic Records and Atlantic Records called head honcho down here, Rick Blackburn at the time, and asked him, you know, would he consider taking John Michael's version AC? And he said, no, I don't want to tick off country radio.
And he said, well, we got a new group up here called All for One.
And David Foster is producing a couple sides on them, and they want to do this song.
So that's how it happened.
They just cut it, and David Foster produced it, did an awesome job.
And I didn't even know it was cut until it was actually coming out.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, the head of A&R at the time, Al Cooley over at Atlantic, called me up and asked if Baker was in town.
I said he was.
And we went over there and he sat us down and he said, check this out.
And he put the CD in and went, I swear.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you, my first thought, just because I was just like so high, I thought someone had made a parody of the song at first.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
I can see it.
It was so great, and it just kept getting better.
And at the end of the song, Rick Blackburn walked in.
He said, that's a new group on Atlantic Records in New York called All for One.
And David Foster produced that on them.
And yes, it's going to be a single.
And yes, it's going to go number one.
And yes, it's going to win a Grammy.
And everything he said came true.
It was an 11-week number one on the podcast.
Yes.
And truthfully, it was number one around the world.
Oh yeah, it was pretty amazing.
Well, and the interesting part about that though, think about this for just a second, Frank.
That song, you know, from a country perspective, it was amazing.
You know, John Michael did it, y'all did it, it was great.
It would have had its influence.
But by that same token, taking it AC, taking it adult contemporary, taking it with a new, higher version.
Because there are probably some people listening to this podcast today that remember the All for One version as opposed to the John Michael Montgomery version.
Oh, absolutely.
Imagine the multiplying effect of those two groups, and it goes to what is the power of a song, the power of lyrics, the power of that moment, that you can have two completely different genres singing it, and it still touches lives in a huge way.
Yeah, I mean, that's what I said earlier.
The power of a song is unbelievable.
And a great song doesn't care who sings it either.
I mean, the difference in the song is really the production, you know, at the end of the day.
Unless it's, you know, lyric specific to a certain genre, you know, lots of people can count it.
Well, that is amazing.
And like I said, again, it's really cool to know, you know, and listen to you talk about it, and you're so humble talking about it.
But I mean, these are, you know, these, like I said, you said, you know, people play them at weddings.
They play them at, you know, different times in their life.
I've always spoke about it when I talk about music and what songwriting and music means to me.
It's taking what's, you know, in your heart, and it goes through your mind, and it comes back out into your hands, and it's written down for ages.
It's almost like the songwriting, to me, It's like the farmer who's planting, who's in his 70s, who's planting a new roll of apple trees.
He'll never probably see the apple trees bear fruit, but somebody else will.
And your songwriting is just amazingly, you know, in that it touches, you do that and you've had the privilege of having songs, you know, like that.
I think that's just an amazing kind of time.
A couple of your songs, though, really touch me, and I want to move ahead.
It seems like you do all these great songs, and you do a lot more in the middle, and then we come up again another round from me.
And you started working with a band called Lone Star.
And two of the songs that I want to talk about with Lone Star are I'm Already There and My Front Porch Looking In.
For a minute here, just sort of, let's take the first one.
I'm already there.
Talk to me about that song.
What was sort of the impetus behind it?
And I want to tell myself a little bit about that song and really the next one as well.
Okay.
Well, you know, it's a true song.
You know, I knew Richie McDonald before he ever was in Lone Star.
I met him in Texas when I was playing with Eddie Raven.
Actually, I met all of Lone Star in Texas when they were in different bands, and then they came here and formed Lone Star.
So Gary and I were going to write with Richie, and we showed up, one of the PROs in town, and Gary wasn't there.
It was just Richie and I. We were sitting there talking and having coffee, and it was a Monday.
And we had just come off the road, both of us, as Lone Star came off the road and Gary and I as Baker and Myers.
We were just shooting the breeze.
And then we just started throwing some titles back and forth as to what we might want to write that day.
And nothing was hitting me.
Nothing was hitting him.
And Richie just went over to the piano and started the beginnings of this song.
And I said, Richie, what's that?
He said, I wasn't going to play it for you.
I thought it might be too personal.
And he said, I called home and I talked to Lori and the kids.
And, you know, Rhett got on the phone and he was about three or I guess back then.
And he said, Daddy, when are you coming home?
And he said, I got off the phone and cried like a baby and started this.
And I said, well, I think it's awesome, man.
This is what we're going to write today.
So we ended up writing the song.
And for people who travel all the time and miss things with their families and their I miss baseball games or whatever it is.
You know, truck drivers, just anybody that travels for a living could relate to this.
And it became a seven-week number one song for Lone Star.
And then the coolest thing happened.
The military adopted it.
And we have binders three inches thick of emails from military families about how the song touched their lives.
Yep.
Well, and also the song, you know, Tommy, it came out a little bit before it, but I know there's a lot of things written about it, and as I was doing my research and looking at stuff, it also became associated with 9-11 as well, you know, with this idea of everything going on.
This one is special for me, and...
Along with the next one we're going to talk about now, that's that front porch looking in.
It's sort of like two songs that say a very similar thing for those of us in life who travel a lot.
You mentioned that just a minute.
Whether you're a drug driver, whether you're on the road, you're a politician, you're a salesman, you're a songwriter, whatever.
And there's times that you're on the road and you miss a baseball game.
You miss something going on.
And that thought that I'm hearing you in the background, and I'm alone in a hotel room somewhere, but I'm already there.
I want to be there.
And then is that more personal melancholy, as you said.
And then you've got the transition to the front porch looking in, which is, I'm home, I'm looking at it, and this is my world.
Everybody thinks that the world is looking out, but the world is actually looking in.
So...
Amazing look there.
So let's do this.
Why don't you do back to back?
Why don't you go from, I'm already there, then transition it in to my front porch looking in and let's talk some more about it.
And if I don't cry, you know, we'll be doing pretty good here.
He called her on the road from a lonely cold hotel room.
Just to hear her say, I love you one more time.
Thank you. you And when he heard the sound of the kids laughing in the background, he had to wipe away a tear from his eye.
A little voice came on the phone, said, Daddy, when you're coming home, he said the first thing that came to his mind, I'm already there, take a look around.
I'm the sunshine in your hair.
I'm the shadow on the ground.
I'm the whisper in the wind.
I'm your imaginary friend.
I know I'm in your prayers.
Oh, I'm already there Yeah, yeah The only ground I ever owned was sticking to my shoes Now I look out my front porch at this panoramic view.
I can sit and watch the fields fill up with rays of golden sun.
Or watch the moon lay on the fences, like that's where it was hung.
My blessings aren't about me, it's all about the land.
I never keep the view.
My front porch looking in.
There's a camera top that can barely walk with a sip of a cup of milk.
A little blue-eyed blonde with shoes on wrong cause she'd like to drench herself.
And the most beautiful girl holding both of them.
The other few I love the most is my front porch looking in.
Wow.
I mean, yeah, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes.
Yes, it was there because I can remember being gone and hearing these songs and they just come back.
For me, and I hope you sort of saw my contrast, and I hope you're listening to the podcast, two songs basically saying very similar things, but in two very different styles, in two very ballad, melancholy, one upbeat.
Did you ever contrast those two in your head, or were they just written in separate times?
No, they were written in separate times.
I mean, I'm Already There was about actually being gone on the road, calling home and missing the family.
And then the other one is obviously we, you know, Richie and I and Don Firm are the co-writer.
God rest his soul.
He's gone now.
He was strictly a lyricist and he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and he couldn't play an instrument.
But he was a great lyricist.
And we were up on Richie's big old wraparound porch.
Looking at this beautiful view of his home was the first time that we had been there.
And the kids were inside playing and had this big old picture window.
And Don loved kids.
And he was watching the kids and he was laughing at them and cutting up with them.
And Richie and I were again, we're just kind of staring off at this beautiful view.
And I'm saying, Richie, this is such a beautiful view.
There's got to be a, we got to find us a hit song idea off this front porch.
I know there's one.
The view is awesome.
And Don just said, well, it ain't as good as the view looking in.
And when he said that, we all looked at each other and realized we had something to write about.
That is so true.
And you know, in this really interesting, for those of us who travel a lot, in fact, it's really, taping this podcast today, I just got off a plane.
Fortunately, my wife was traveling with me.
Most of the time she doesn't.
And, you know, I just come in from getting off the plane, been gone for a few days.
And, you know, my sons, my kids are now grown for the most part.
And one of them came in about 10 minutes before you and I started taping this podcast.
And just the thoughts and the feelings that came back.
My favorite view is here.
I mean, I can go all over the world and be talked about everywhere, but this is my favorite view.
It's such a perspective for folks, Frank.
And songs, for me, they help us remember that.
Well, absolutely.
And you know, I tell young songwriters, when they ask for advice, of course I give them advice on different things, but one of the main things I tell them is, write from the heart to the heart.
Yep.
From the heart to the heart.
And write about things you can relate to.
Write about real things and things that people can relate to.
When you start writing about all the things you really don't know, it comes out.
It shows.
Yeah, it does.
Well, your writing is, again, there's so many songs for us to cover.
I wanted to cover some songs.
One, it had a lot of meaning to me, but also, as you just said, you write about things you know I podcast and talk about.
It's something real authentic for me that songs that impacted and touched me.
And I think that is what is important.
You've now...
Written across four decades, okay?
Easily four decades, not counting your prior time in five decades and six decades.
What do you see out there for the, and maybe it comes back to that authenticity question you just answered.
What's kept you, if you were telling a young songwriter now in today's environment, because it seems like we're always changing what's hot and what's not, and they're having to chase, unfortunately, more of that one-time wonder than they are the bigger message of album cuts and things that you first came into.
Is it that?
Is it just be authentic, be who you are, and the song will find itself?
Is that sort of a thought you would give to somebody starting out or in the middle of maybe even a rut right now?
Well, you know, I think it depends on the situation of the writer.
You know, the writer may be signed to, let's just say, you know, Florida Georgia Line.
Of course, they're broke up now, but they started a publishing company and they had some writers and programmers and they were writing stuff for them, you know?
Right.
So they kind of had the people they were going to write for.
I just always tell songwriters, you know, write something...
That's going to connect with everybody.
Write something that's going to be here when you're no longer here.
Write those evergreen songs.
Don't chase what's going on today, because if you start chasing what's happening today, by the time you get there, it's something else.
So just try to write the best song you can any time that you sit down to write, because You know, you're gonna spend however long you're gonna spend trying to write a song.
You know, you're wasting your time if you don't try to write the best song you can.
And I think what helps make a song the best song is by finding the best idea.
And it's an idea that you can sink your teeth into.
And, you know, really write about as opposed to just something fluffy and just fun, which you got to write those songs too.
Everybody wants to have fun.
But the songs that seem to have the staying power are the ones, again, written from the heart to the heart, connecting with a wide variety of people.
And you write it in a way that it doesn't matter what background you're from, what ethnicity or anything else, you know, They connect to it.
And they put their own story into it.
It's just like you said, you know...
With your front porch looking in, you know, your place is right there where you are right there.
And that's the same for everybody.
It's your home.
It's your roots.
It's, you know, whatever.
So when you write songs that, you know, people can relate to, then that's what makes a hit song.
And that's what makes a song stay around long after you're gone.
Thanks, Ed.
Folks, I can't put it any better than that.
Frank summed it up.
It's like everything else in life.
Be authentic, be who you are, and it'll last a lifetime.
Frank, you've already touched many, many lives in more ways than we could ever talk about here, and you'll ever know, and I think that's the great part about songwriting that we have.
But it has been a blessing and a joy to have you on the Doug Collins Podcast.
Thank you so much for sharing your love and wisdom.
It's been my pleasure, and thank you for asking me to come on, and hopefully we can do it again sometime.
Next time you're in town, maybe.
We're looking actually maybe to come up, and I've told Bart about this, and for all listening on the podcast, we're looking at maybe time to time.
I'm going to go to Nashville.
We're going to sit in that old Nashville Songwriters back studio room there, and we're going to get a lot of us around to talk about this all at a time, and I think it's going to be really cool.
You'll definitely be a part of that.
I do appreciate it.
Thank you, buddy.
Take care.
God bless.
And folks, we'll see you again next time on the Doug Collins Podcast.
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