A Few Moments with T. Graham Brown
With three #1 singles on the country charts and a rich history in country music, it’s easy to understand why T. Graham Brown was a fan-favorite on The Country Music Cruise 2014 when he came in to substitute for an ill Ronnie Milsap. We are thrilled to have him back onboard in 2016. The Country Music Connection sat down to get a few more stories from this interesting artist.
When Tony Graham Brown first arrived in Nashville, everyone took his calls. Then the people on the other end of the phone realized that he wasn’t the Tony Brown who ran MCA Records and produced George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, and many others. And they’d hang up on him. So he remained Tony to his wife, Sheila, and close friends, but, to the world, he became T. Graham Brown. His first hit came in 1985.
Some people commented that your last album FOREVER CHANGED had the feel of classic Soul music, and you did your first couple of albums in Muscle Shoals. Were you an R&B fan growing up?
I grew up in a little bitty town in Georgia. There was a 500 watt AM station and they played everybody. Aretha, the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis. No format. That’s what I heard. And the first band I heard was at the black church across the tracks from where we lived. We just had a piano in our church, but the black church had a band, and they rocked out! You could hear ‘em at our house.
So any thoughts of doing a straight-up Soul album?
Funny you should mention that. I’d love to. I have a buddy, Mike Farris, we were both up for the same Grammy this past year [in a new category, Best Roots Gospel Album], and he won, but we could make a great Sam & Dave-type record. He’s a white dude but he sounds just like Al Green.
Back when you started, was there a “lightbulb” moment when you were singing and thought “Hey, I can make a career out of this?”
I started in Athens, Georgia. Went to school there. I had a band and we’d play what they called Carolina Beach Music: Drifters, Coasters, Platters, Tams, Zodiacs. That kind of thing. I’d gone to the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship. All I’d ever wanted to do was play baseball. Then our band got this opportunity, and I went to my coach and asked what I should do, and he said, “Tony, I think you oughta go sing.” It kinda hurt to hear him say that, but it turned out he was right. That was 1973. I made my first record two years later.
Your band back then in Georgia was Reo Diamond. Did you do a double take when Diamond Rio came along?
I told them I’d beaten them to that name! I soon left that band to go solo. I was still in Georgia when I saw a TV show about David Allan Coe, and I said, “I’m gonna be THAT guy.” I went from a real conservative look to the long hair, beard, Outlaw look. My wife, Sheila, was doing her Masters in animal science. She came home one day and said, “Let’s move to Nashville. If we don’t, you’ll always wonder if you could have made it.”
You know that a bunch of other guys got off the bus that week or drove into Nashville that week with the same goal as you. How do you deal with those kind of odds?
Just jumped into it. Never doubted that I was gonna make a name for myself. I got a songwriting deal pretty much right away. Sheila went to work at a department store. I tell you, it was fun!
When you first moved to Nashville, you sung jingles. You were the voice of Taco Bell’s Run for the Border. Was this around the time of the talking Chihuahua?
I was replaced by the talking Chihuahua! Talk about a blow to your ego! I’ve probably done more jingles than any man alive. Every beer, every soft drink, every car. I’ve been a shill for anything you can imagine!
Do you remember where you were when you heard that “Hell and High Water” was your first Number One single?
Honestly, I don’t. I was on the road. I was on the road three hundred days a year then. I know I was happy, but it was a blur.
You came along at an exciting time in country music history. Your first LP came at the same time as Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Keith Whitley, Marty Stuart, and several other guys who were taking country back to its roots.
Everyone had their different spin on it. Marty was rockabilly, Randy was pure country, Dwight had the Bakersfield sound. I was the Soul man.
Which of all the songs you’ve done has the most personal significance for you?
“I Tell It like It Used to Be” has a lot of significance because it was my first Top 10 hit, but hands down the song that holds the most significance for me personally is “Wine into Water.” It’s about my struggle to get sober. It wasn’t that big of a hit, but it has helped an untold number of people. I’ve had so many people come up to me and tell me that. There was a guy who said he was on crack. He’d blown through his savings. His wife and family had left him. He drove out into a field and connected a hose from the exhaust to the cab of his truck and he was going to commit suicide. He had the radio on, and he heard that song. Turned his life around. A woman came up to me and said she was going to shoot herself when she heard the song. I have no other explanation than it’s the hand of God. Sheila and I feel like we’re the custodians of that song. We don’t own it. We use the income from it to support International Cooperating Ministries, building churches in Third World countries. I’m a Bible Belt Christian. It’s real to me.
Any new projects you’d like to share with us?
I worked on the Buddy Holly Country Tribute CD and DVD with David Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Sonny Curtis, Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers, and a bunch of others. It benefits the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation in Buddy’s hometown, Lubbock, Texas. Buddy’s widow, Maria Elena, asked David to put it together, and we’re all real pleased with the way it turned out.
Have you performed on many cruises?
Quite a few. Some are great, some not so great, but I’ve got to tell you that the StarVista LIVE/Time Life Country Music Cruise is the best. First class all the way. I came in at the last minute in 2014 when Ronnie Milsap got sick, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I loved it! Saw a lot of artists I knew. It was like a family reunion. And we got to meet the fans face-to-face, spend some time with them. So I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone in 2016!
Join T. Graham Brown on The Country Music Cruise 2016. Book today