Vince Gill
By: Lori Smerilson Carson
Oklahoma has spawned an outstanding musical, the “Tulsa Sound” and several world renown country musicians such as Songwriter/Guitarist/Vocalist Vince Gill. He started his career in the 70s and has sold over thirty million albums. He was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2022, following his entry into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now, he has released his 7th EP NOBODY HELD HER LIKE ME that is part of a series from his 50 Years From Home. He will be touring Florida with shows featuring his new music, as well as fan favorites from the past. Floridians can experience these concerts June 18th in Orlando at the Dr. Phillip’s Center for the Performing Arts, June 19th in Clearwater at Ruth Eckerd Hall, June 20th in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center For the Performing Arts, June 25th in Fort Myers at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, June 26th in Sarasota at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, and June 27th in St. Augustine at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.
Catching up with Gill just prior to the tour, he revealed some details about his new show, his latest music, a bit about his past, and what fans can look forward to.
SFL Music Magazine: You are playing throughout Florida including the Broward Center on June 20th. What can fans look forward to with this new show?
Vince Gill: Well, gosh, killer band! Some of the best musicians on the Earth. A lot of guys that play in studios. I’m pretty fortunate to have as good a band as I do, and great singers. I’ve played for a long time. I love to play and I think that comes from years of being an opener where I can only play twenty minutes, or thirty minutes, or forty minutes at the most. I always made myself a promise. I said, if I ever get to be the big shot smarty pants, I’ll stand there and play as long as I can. So, I wear people out more often than not, but it’s just because I love to play so much. I’ve been playing with the Eagles the last ten years and because of that, I haven’t got to do an awful lot of my own shows. So, this whole summer I get to go out and try to remember my songs. A bunch of new stuff too. People will probably hear some new songs that they haven’t heard yet, and that always makes for a fun evening when you hear something you’ve never heard before, I think. All in all, it’s an awful lot of fun. They realize I’m having a good time and I think that translates.
SFL Music Magazine: You have your project “50 Years From Home” and on May 8th you just released the 7th EP NOBODY HELD HER LIKE ME. How did the whole idea for this come about?
Gill: I’m sixty-nine now, and I have without fail, I realize that I don’t have as much time left to be creative as I’ve had to this point, so it matters so much more today than it may ever have. I got into a real creative stretch and I wrote a lot of songs. I think over a period of the last four years or so I’ve written probably a hundred and fifty songs, maybe more, and I just try to find a way. We’re living in an age where people like a lot of content and like a lot of information, and so I’m trying to accommodate. This stretch has been remarkable! We decided, myself and the record company, to celebrate me leaving home fifty years ago. The summer of 1975, now it’s fifty-one, but when this got started the whole premise was, you left home fifty years ago to try to make it as a musician and kind of celebrate all those years, and some of the songs even reflect back to those earliest days, and some of the memories, that kind of stuff. So, it’s kind of a, I wouldn’t say a full circle moment, but it’s definitely gone round and round (he laughed).
SFL Music Magazine: I love the variety of the songs on the EP like “Nobody Held Her Like Me” has more of the bluesy sound. What inspired that song?
Gill: Well, it’s just a conversation with two old friends. One of my friends was in his last days, and he was a fine guitar player named Jimmy Nalls. We just sat around and talked about what he missed about not being able to play anymore. I think the interesting thing about that song is people are listening to it assuming it’s about a relationship about a woman, but in the end it says, “that old guitar was my sweetest muse and nobody held her like me.” It’s a neat twist that everybody thinks the whole time that it’s about a lover and what have you, and it turns out that muse was the guitar this whole time. That’s certainly the case for me. I’ve been playing since I can walk, So, that’s where that song came from.
SFL Music Magazine: I also like “Goin’ To Tampa” which is more funky and a bit jazzy. How did this one come about?
Gill: When I played with Pure Prairie League back in the 70s, we used to say that to each other. So, “I didn’t say I was going to take you to Florida. I said I was going to Tampa with you.” That’s kind of an old turn of a phrase, I guess, and it’s been in the back of my mind for forty-five years. I finally said, with “Big” Al (Anderson) and McKinley James, Mickey James, I told them that story. They said, “ let’s write that.” I think it has a neat wit to it, a pretty good sense of humor. All funky, greasy and the way I like it.
SFL Music Magazine: There is the ballad “Whenever You Come Around” which really highlights your strong voice, but the one that is very touching is “Mama’s Gone To Heaven” which I read was about a friend from the club.
Gill: Yeah, my golf buddy. He works out there at the golf club. He’d lost his mom and he was telling me about it and how he didn’t know what he was going to do. It’s just a sweet idea, so I gave him part of the song just from inspiring me to want to write it.
SFL Music Magazine: When he said, “who’s going to pray for me now.”
Gill: Mm-hmm. Nothing like a mama is there?
SFL Music Magazine: That’s right! What would you say inspires your music in general when you write?
Gill: I just love the emotion that’s in music. I’m drawn to the sad side. I’m drawn to melancholy. I like that because it stirs up the most amount of emotion when you’re playing or your singing or you’re trying to tell a story. I guess you’re just trying to have a conversation with people musically in the words you write, in the melody you write, the way you play and sing. So, that’s always kind of been the crux of it for me was how I responded to hearing it and in turn, trying to do that for other people.
SFL Music Magazine: You said you’ve been playing since you were walking? How did that happen?
Gill: Yeah. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t hanging on a guitar. My mom has a picture of me when I was maybe a year and a half old. I was still a baby and I was sleeping face down on the couch, and there was a little guitar with me on the couch and I had my arm around the guitar. Sadly, in the picture I’m wearing a dress, but that’s another story (he laughed).
SFL Music Magazine: That sounds like a good story!
Gill: It was the heat of Oklahoma. I was probably wearing my sister’s hand me downs more than likely. We were a struggling family and what have you, but it never took. I haven’t worn any since, so I think I’m good (he laughed).
SFL Music Magazine: Plus, you are married to Amy Grant.
Gill: She won’t let me wear her clothes (he laughed again).
SFL Music Magazine: On this latest EP you have featured two Stratocasters on the cover. What made you choose those two guitars?
Gill: Well, each record has a different guitar on the cover. Like the very first record I made, I put the guitar that I bought fifty years ago when I left home. Found this old great Martin guitar and kind of started my whole career with it. Each one after that always had some significance to the path. One had my two guitars that I learned to play on that were my father’s before I got my own guitar. One was one of my oldest friends that I wound up with his guitar. It’s a real precious Martin D-45, and the two Strats were, one of them I got from the family of Duane Eddy. A great guitar player and his son, Duane gave it to him in 1959 when he bought it new, and his son played it his whole life and sold it to me some years back. It’s probably my favorite Stratocaster. Then the black one, I got from my best friend Benny Garcia. There's a song on the first record that’s about Benny called “Benny’s Song” and he was my best friend growing up. He came out and toured with me and was my guitar tech. That was his guitar that I bought from him in the 70s for two-hundred dollars and a pair of boots. I made him a promise. I said, someday I’ll sell it back to you for two-hundred dollars and a pair of boots. Sadly he passed away and I didn’t get to do that. So, each one has a significance. The record before was a red Gibson ES-335 that was my first guitar when I was ten years old. So, every one of those instruments has a really deep significance in my life, in my history.
SFL Music Magazine: Like you said, you’ve been touring with the Eagles. You also have a lot of accolades. Eighteen CMA Awards, the most Grammy’s by a male solo country artist, twenty-two Grammy Awards, Eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and you just were awarded the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. What would you say attributes to your success and longevity?
Gill: I would hope to think the quality of the music has stood the test of time. That’s what you’d hope for. The significance of it for me is how long I’ve done it. I mean, it was a hard living when I left home at eighteen and started playing. It was astounding how little money I needed to live on. It kind of set me up for a lifetime of loving getting to do what I do. I know without fail it was never about a dollar. It was never about trying to make a lot of money. It was just about trying to get better. Trying to be a better musician. Trying to be in a better band. Trying to write better songs. Trying to sing better. I’ve spent most of my life as a session musician too, playing and singing on other people’s records. At this point now, over a thousand artists records I’ve worked on, sang on and played on. I love the whole arc of just getting to be a part of it. I don’t ever have to be front and center guy. My favorite compliment I ever got from Don Henley with the Eagles was, somebody asked him early on when I started playing with him ten years ago, said, “why did you get the country guy in your band?” And he smiled and he said, “because he knows how to be in a band.” So, it’s kind of always been my M.O. just to play your part and do what’s necessary. Make what you’re doing better, and that will suffice.
SFL Music Magazine: Is that something you would recommend to a new artist?
Gill: Well, I guess. It seems like it might be harder now, but I think it’s still the same. I think nobody ever gets tired of a great singer singing a great song or a great musician playing a great part. Music to me is where the word democracy really finds it’s best definition because you gather five, six musicians in a room or in a band or in a studio or what have you, and you serve the goal of the song. The common goal is the song. So, if everybody does their part and don’t really care who gets all the credit, it’s kind of cool. It’s very democratic. It's beautiful.
SFL Music Magazine: Is there going to be an eighth EP?
Gill: Yeah, at least a dozen. We’re going to do this for a year and I’m having so much fun doing it, it might continue. But at this point, we have twelve scheduled to release and seven are out, so we have five more. One comes every month. It’s like the milkman (he laughed). We used to have a milkman that delivered milk to the house. That was back in the old days.
SFL Music Magazine: How do you fit all this in with the Eagles?
Gill: It’s pretty difficult. I spend a good bit of my spare time in the studio.
SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else you want people to look forward to with the new show?
Gill: That I love key lime pie! I’ve played for a long time, and I love key lime pie, but please don’t bring me one (he laughed).
