BobbyBraddock.com Q&A with Bobby Braddock.

Larry Wayne Clarke had a great Q&A with Bobby in November of 2001, at the time "I Wanna Talk About Me" had just perched itself a top the country music charts for five weeks, and Blake Shelton's career had just begun to soar.
http://www.larrywayneclark.com/braddock.html

Almost one year later, 9/ 2002, I asked members of Wayland Patton's Songwriter Forums to give me a set of questions that they would like to ask Bobby, he was gracious enough to give us some answers, which appear below.

Q: Just guessing, what percentage of the time would you say you come up with
words or a hook first, compared to a melody first?

A: 90%

Q: When Is your favorite and most creative time(s), Morning, Afternoon, etc...,
for writing?

A: Anytime works, but I seem to do better in the early part of my day.

Q: I've heard you are a big reader, what are reading right now?

A: "APRIL 1865, The Month That Saved America" by Jay Winik, and "IF I LIVE TO BE 100" by Neenah Ellis.

Q: When you're not feeling inspired and you're scheduled for a writing session, what do you do to get into a songwriting mood?

A: Write the bad stuff 'till the good stuff comes.

Q: How many songs did you write before you had a publishing deal? How many songs did you write before you had a Top 10 hit? How many songs did you write before you had a Number One?

A: Maybe 150 before getting a writing deal, another two years and 100 songs before I got A top ten, first #1 came a few months later.

Q: You've mentioned that you had to rewrite "He Stopped Loving Her Today" before Billy Sherrill was satisfied with the song. Have you had to rewrite any other songs at a producer's or publisher's request? And if so, which one(s)?

A: Not often, It's been a long time. Billy Sherill changed some lines in a couple of my songs without asking permission, but I didn't mind because his lines where better. In the song "Where Not The Jet Set" Billy added the line "The Jones and Wynette set ain't the flaming suzette set," maybe the best line in the song. Bill Anderson had me rewrite "Peanuts And Diamonds" at the session...then he came up with a chorus, and never took credit for it.

Q: Which up and coming songwriters do you think have the potential to become someone with the longevity that you have had?

A: Oh no, I'm afraid I'll leave somebody out. I'd say Rivers Rutherford, but that's probably because I'm focused on him right now; I'm about to do two of his songs on Blake Shelton and they're both killer songs...so that's probably me speaking as a producer rather than as a songwriter.

Q: Could you name some songs that others have written that are among your favorites?

A: I like all kinds of music, but my country favorites include "The Gambler," "Good Old Boys Like Me," "Broken Wing" and "Please Remember Me." I love a lot of the old Hank Williams songs, ditto Harlan Howard. This past year, I thought Alan Jackson's 9/11 song was a masterpiece, also "I'm Trying" was super as were a couple of Darryl Scott songs, also "Ol' Red", which I recorded with Blake... I wish I could say I wrote it, but I didn't.

Q: I've heard some stories about songwriters buying something extravagant after their first big hit, did you splurge on anything after "D-I-V-I-O-R-C-E?"

A: I went totally hillbilly: built a swimming pool.

Q: Do you ever shelve an undone song after it's been re-worked and re-worked but doesn't feel complete?

A: Oh lord yes, happens all the time.

If so, what's the internal single you get that you need to shelve the idea? Have he ever gone back to some of these ideas and had success in completing them?

A: When I get tired of fighting it, I put it to rest. Yes, I have resurrected discarded songs, quit often. If you're convinced it's a hit idea, don't bury it, just put it to rest for a while.

Q: Have you ever hit a prolonged dry spell and thought that the well had gone dry?

A: Not in my songWRITING, but a long dry spell in getting songs RECORDED. I just didn't give up, kept on writing and eventually it all started happening again.

Q: How do you respond to the comment that "I want to talk about me" wasn't country.

A: "I Wanna Talk About Me" told a story about real everyday people, I think that's country. I did it like a rap song, just for fun, and of course rap isn't typically country. But apparently it worked. I was glad to have it a #1 for five weeks in a row, and wouldn't change a thing about it. I've written plenty of traditional country songs too. I love all kinds of music. I just write what comes out of me and hope people will like it. If they don't, I understand. Every hit song is going to be hated by some people. The more a song is played, that increases the number of people who love it, but also those who will hate it. A lot of people have voted "He Stopped Loving Her Today" the all-time favorite country song, but I guarantee you there are people who say
"I just hate that song."

Q: What where your thoughts when "Time Marches On" didn't win song of the year? It was such a powerful song, did you wish it had been cut/released in a different year, were there any regrets? Or did you simply let it go and move on?

A: I applauded big when "Go Rest High On That Mountain" won. First of all Vince wrote that song about his late brother and his late friend Keith Whitley, and I think it meant more to him than my song did to me. Secondly, earlier that night he made some very complimentary remarks to me about "Time Marches On." The song with the most votes won; that's the way it's supposed to be in a democracy.

Q: Besides country, what is your favorite kind of music to listen to?

A: Rock & Roll from the 1950's through the 1980's. Also old Delta Blues...modern jazz...classical, especially Bach. And I love country music's countrier cousin, bluegrass, and I mean the really pure Bill Monroe-type Bluegrass.

Q: Do you remember the name of the first song you ever wrote? Or, what was the name of the first song you remember
writing?

A: When I was four or five, my parents had a friend named Mrs. Tidball. I wrote a song called "Tidball Sittin' Down On The Table," to the tune of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow." When I was seven or eight, I wrote a piano instrumental which I called "March Of The Ten Dead Men."

Q: I've heard several different 9/11 songs, from Bill Anderson's "God Bless America Again" to Alan Jackson's "Where Where You When The World Stopped Turning." Did the events of 9/11 inspire you to write a song along these lines?

A: I wrote one 6 months before 9/11 called "The Voice Of America." Eerily, it sounded like it was written about 9/11. The choruses were made up of familiar song titles, and one chorus contained these three titles: "New York, New York," "We Shall Overcome" and "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You." I listened to it shortly after 9/11 and that line spooked me, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, it was like a prophecy come true. Songwriters do that fairly often, not consciously, I've seen it happen before. Of course, when I wrote it, I was just using a Broadway show song title, a Civil Rights era song title and a cowboy song title, to show the diversity of America, never dreaming it would someday sound like a city attacked, a people's will to rise from the ashes, and the watchful eye of the President of the United States, who is from Texas.
I also wrote one that was inspired by the suppressed women of Afghanistan, called "I Will Not Be Held Down," but after we defeated the Taliban, the women were not as suppressed and the song probably became dated.