Sunday, June 06, 1999
'Guitar junkie' Gill never planned for fame
BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was 20 years ago that a then-unknown, 22-year-old singer/guitar player named Vince Gill joined his first nationally known band, Cincinnati's Pure Prairie League. After scoring a 1980 Top-10 pop hit, “Let Me Love You Tonight,” he joined Rosanne Cash's backup band as harmony singer/lead guitarist.
Going solo in 1983, he recorded a commercially unsuccessful EP for RCA, released a year later along with EP debuts by Keith Whitley and the Judds. Moving to MCA in 1989, he evolved into Nashville's most dependable hitmaker, winning armfuls of Grammys and statuettes from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.
Thursday, he returns to the Tristate for a concert at Riverbend (Deana Carter opens the 8 p.m. show). Recently, he answered a few questions.
IF YOU GO
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• Who: Vince Gill; opening act Deana Carter
• When: 8 p.m. Thursday
• Where: Riverbend Music Center
• Tickets: $37.50, $25 pavilion; $17.50 lawn, at Ticketmaster outlets or call 562-4949.
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QUESTION: What was the most important thing you learned playing with Pure Prairie League?
ANSWER: Oh, everything. I learned a lot about the big-time record business. I learned about (song) publishing. I learned about how to make records, learned about studios and producers and all kinds of things. I said, “I like this. I can do this. This is for me.”
Q: What's your favorite Pure Prairie League song?
A: Just gettin' to sing “Amie” was pretty cool.
Q: What's your most vivid memory of Cincinnati?
A: Skyline Chili.
(But before the Skyline folks start planning their national ad campaign, let Vince finish.)
“I never did like it very much. To be honest, I don't mean to be rude, but the taste of it was not the greatest thing. I grew up in Oklahoma and that Texas chili was a little thicker and different.”
Q: What's your earliest musical memory?
A: ""How Great Thou Art,” hearing my grandmother play it on piano. What was really sweet is I wound up recording it on an instrumental record with Amy Grant, a guitar version. It turns out she said that was the first thing she remembered hearing. I bet it was a lot of people's first musical memory.”
Q: Who are your musical idols?
A: Chet (Atkins) would be one. There's so many in this genre of music, country music, that I loved. I've twisted the dial and bought all different kinds of records. My folks had records and my big sister and big brother had records before I was old enough to buy 'em. We had everything from Canned Heat to Elton Britt.
Q: The major changes in your life, the death of your brother, the death of your father, have been reflected in your songs. Has your divorce (in 1997 from Janis Gill, his wife of 17 years) affected your songwriting?
A: Maybe some. Out of respect for everybody, I've kept that kind of just private. You're gonna read into every song whatever you want to read into it. What was funny, especially with this last record, everybody would go, “Oh that's about the divorce.” But if I wrote a sad song 10 years ago, people would say it's just a sad song.
Q: How many guitars do you have?
A: I don't know. I'll bet probably a couple hundred. I'm a guitar junkie. But you know, I use most of 'em; a lot of 'em have been gifts.
Q: What's your favorite instrument?
A: I've got a '42 D-28 Herringbone (acoustic Martin) that's pretty priceless to me, and a '53 Tele (Fender Telecaster) that I've played for my whole life.
Q: What have you been listening to?
A: Right now? Goodness! I've been listening to a jazz station all the time. The real stuff, from way back, really great stuff. It's not that light, slick stuff. It's just fun.
Q: You've won just about every possible award, sold loads of platinum albums, gotten to play with just about everyone you ever wanted to. What goals are left for you in country music?
A: The truth is that I never did set any of the things I've accomplished as goals in the first place. I've been much more interested in reacting to life than wishing, hoping, planning, all that kind of thing.
Y'know, I just kinda let things shake out of the tree like they're going to. I didn't think the phone would ring and they'd say, “Come sing with Gladys Knight” (“Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing” on Rhythm, Country & Blues);“Come sing with Barbra Streisand” (on Ms. Streisand's forthcoming CD). Things like that you never expect and you can never plan for. And certainly, winning awards, there's nothing you can do about that.
I think I've always done what I wanted to do and all the things that happen because of it have happened because of it, and not because it was dreamed about and planned. It would have always been fine with me just to be Rosanne's guitar player.”
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