All language subtitles for Tennessee.Whiskey.The.Dean.Dillon.Story.2017.1080p.AMZN.WEBRip.DDP2.0.x264-NTb

I'm a songwriter,

singer songwriter, you know,
and I'm not...

by any stretch
of the imagination,

George Strait. Hell, no.

When I figured out he could
sing better than I could,

and he loved my songs,
I thought, there you go.

That's the ticket.

You write the song,
let him sing it.

♪ Flowed through my veins

♪ Since I was born

♪ Turns you cold

♪ Keeps you warm

♪ There's no escape,
it won't leave you alone ♪

♪ When you're a song

♪ You're so blessed

♪ Yet so cursed

♪ 'Cause every breath

♪ Is another verse

♪ You hurt like hell

♪ The whole world sings along

♪ When you're a song

♪ Goodbye, farewell

♪ So long

♪ Vaya con Dios, good luck

♪ Wish you well

♪ Take it slow

♪ Easy come, girl, easy go.

You know, Dean and I, you know,
we've had a special relationship,

no doubt about it.

The only other relationship,
you know, that I can think of

is Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

Dean Dillon and George Strait
are brothers.

They've been brothers
since they were both born.

He has a way
of making you relive...

He-he's almost like a
therapy session, in a way.

If you listen to a Dean
Dillon song, he will make you

relive all the bad stuff
in your life,

all the good stuff in your life,

and at the end you're okay.

He was one of the guys
I aspired to.

I wanted to be like that.

And I came outta Texas
worshiping Guy Clark

and Towns and those guys,
and Dean had that kinda

cool soft spoken sensibility
and those great rhymes.

When we would hang
out at somebody's house

or in a bar or something in
Texas, we would talk about

Dean Dillon being
this genius songwriter,

I mean it was just like
somebody beyond

that you would never meet
and that was like, you know,

lived in the clouds and
that would never happen.

Dean's just a...
Dean's a first rate song writer.

He's-he's top of my list.

♪ Vaya con Dios, good luck

You know, George is here tonight

at T-Mobile arena
in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gonna get up tonight and
sing a couple songs with him.

You know, always a thrill to
hear him do one of my songs.

It never gets old.

Pink room.

Just perfect for a
tough man to wear pink.

There you go.

All my fault.

We're gonna rock the hell
out of it.

I want you to welcome my
friend, Mr. Dean Dillon today.

I was unaware,
when I first moved to town

of George Strait. One of the
first songs I ever heard

of George Strait's,
and it might've been his

first single, I'm not sure.

But I was a freshman
in high school,

and I heard a song
called "Unwound."

♪ That woman that I had
wrapped around my finger ♪

♪ Just come unwound

I didn't know Dean
wrote that song,

but I knew I loved George's
record, I loved it.

♪ That woman that's been wrapped
around my finger just come unwound ♪

Then I found out who wrote it

and that's where I, after that,
just about every song

you heard of George's, you found
out Dean wrote that song.

Living, breathing,
he's the greatest songwriter

in this city,
there is no doubt about it.

I was here and got to see
the last of these guys,

and I called 'em giants

that got to roam Music Row.

And hopefully I got to
be in the room with 'em.

And the only thing
I needed to do

was to stand back and keep
my fucking mouth shut.

When this community talks
about the 1% of songwriters,

the top 1%, Dean Dillon's
been in that top 1%

for more than 30 years.

I don't even know if
Dean knows how important

he was to my career.

I'd had, "Maybe It was Memphis,"

which was a song of the year.
My song of the year.

But you're looking for
that thing to get you

over the sophomore slump.

So second album, I got with Dean

and we wrote "Spilled Perfume,"

and that was
my first platinum record.

♪ There's no use crying

♪ Over spilled perfume

Dean has a way of
writing really simple songs

that said everything.

And there is a genius to that,

that it's, uh,
you can't put your finger on.

You can't sit there and say,

you can't say, okay,
this is how you write songs,

because nobody knows
how to do it but Dean.

I just don't see that
in country music today.

I mean, yeah, there's a lot of
people

that go to Dean for songs,
but I don't know

how many of 'em have his
songs on every record

they ever recorded.

Spent my whole life doing it,

and there's nothing
else to do, in my book.

I'm not gonna do anything else.

Or I can't do anything else.

I guess I could, but I don't
think I'd be very good at it.

We were dirt poor.

My mother was a waitress
in a truck stop.

She met my dad there
at the restaurant.

He was a long haul trucker.

He was 40 years old
and she was 18.

And my grandfather, Bryce Field,

He didn't particularly like
that scenario.

Two weeks after I was born,
my dad came to see me

for the first time.

He came in off the road, he'd
been out on the road driving

and pulled down the driveway,
this old gravel drive...

and the minute he pulled
up next to the house,

my grandfather stepped out
on the porch

and had a shotgun.

And he pulled
the first trigger...

and hit him in the arm.

He threw up his arm,

and he hit him here in the arm,

pulled the other trigger,
and knocked the gun barrel

up in the air
or he'd a killed him.

He was just that kinda guy,
my grandfather was.

Uh, and my dad, he threw that car
in reverse, never came back.

And hell, I can't blame him.

If there was
that kinda bad blood

between my grandfather
and my father,

then I don't believe
I would've stayed

in that situation, either,
but shortly after that,

she got divorced and so
my grandparents raised me.

The way he grew up and
the hardships that he had

to face, you know, growing up,

certainly influenced

the way that he wrote
and writes.

When you're as creative
as Dean Dillon is,

and when you live
inside your own insanity

like Dean does, I believe...

you channel everything
that happened to you

as a young man and as a young
person that gave you fuel

to go and try to create
something beautiful

and wonderful and extraordinary.

When I was five years old,
my mom remarried.

And they came and
got me and took me

to Melvindale, Michigan,
and it broke my heart.

Because I had been raised
with my uncles,

when they told me we were
moving back to Tennessee,

I jumped up for joy,
and then they said,

but wait a minute, you can't go.

We're gonna take you to
Virginia and drop you off

at your grandmother's,
whom I'd never met.

So by the time,
I was 10 years old,

I really didn't know
who I belonged to.

The only friend I found
in that whole thing

was that tiger stripe
Stella guitar.

I slept with the damned thing.

My childhood
was not great, either...

and so I think that
had a lot of influences

on the way that I look at life,

and I'm sure he's the same way.

♪ We said good-bye
in Marina Del Rey ♪

♪ "I had a good time" was
the last thing I heard her say ♪

♪ As I walked away

If there's a songwriter
that's hypersensitive

to people and places and
things and their surroundings,

it is Dean Dillon.

When millions of people
gravitate to something,

and tears come out of their eyes

when they hear that song,
you realize

how important it is, but also,

there's something really,
really special

for all those words
to land in the right place.

And he played
"Marina Del Rey."

He goes, ah, he goes, ah,
I don't think you're gonna

like this, but you know,
it's just one of the songs

on here, just give it a listen.

He said, I don't think
it's really for you,

but just listen to it.

And I listened
to "Marina Del Rey,"

and I go, whoa, dude,
can I have that?

♪ Like castaways

♪ In Marina Del Rey

Well, ladies
and gentlemen, the Beatles.

I think seven years old,

well, everybody in the world,
I think,

sat down that night in front
of the TV if you had one,

and I thought if music
can have that impact

on a soul, on a human being,

I darn sure
wanna be a part of that.

When I was 16 years old,
my uncle Ronnie

dated a girl that was in

with Merle Haggard
and the Strangers.

Now, I remember
getting in my uncle's car

and we drive to Knoxville
at a Holiday Inn,

and we beat on the door
there and Merle Haggard

opens the door,
and all the Strangers.

He says, sit down, kid,
said, play me some songs.

And I played him, I think,
four or five

of the worst pieces
of crap you've ever heard

in your life, and he
looked at me and he said,

you've got about seven years
before you start writing

the caliber of stuff that
people will start recording.

And what was funny about that,

it was almost seven years
to the year

that I, you know,
started having hit records.

It was pretty eerie.

Shortly after I graduated
from high school,

I stuck my thumb out on
the side of the interstate

at the Oak Ridge Gallaher View
exit and chased my dream.

He came to town for the
first time and hitchhiked here

at 17 years old, and a
hippie picked him up.

Hey, thanks for stopping.

Yeah, man, where you headed?

Nashville.

I'm going by there.

Jump on in.

I sit down on the front seat,

and the moment I sit
down in the front seat

with him and he looked at me
and he goes,

you smoke pot?

And I said, duh.

And I thought, we're either
gonna have

a hell of a time getting there,

or we ain't gonna make her.

What are you doing in Nashville?

Well, I'm a songwriter.

Ha, good luck.

I think really being
a good songwriter

has to start with,
at some point in your life

really being hungry.

Something got inside
of him and lit a fire

and lit this brain up.

And lit his soul to make
him want to be creative

and to find commonality
with people.

He made it on his own,
he did it on his own.

He went to Nashville on his own.

He wanted...
He had that fire in him

that he knew
that he could write.

I got into town
and didn't know a soul

and somebody pointed Music Row
out to me and...

Thought I'll go to
these publishing companies

and these record labels
and just walk in cold

and I asked the receptionist
if there was anybody there

who'd listen to my music

and about that time, this big
old guy walks around there,

out of the hall there and says,
yeah, man,

come on back, I'll listen
to your songs.

And we went in his office
and the telephone rang

and he talked like on that
phone for what I thought

was forever, and I'm sitting
there twiddling my thumbs,

nervous as a cat
on a hot tin roof.

Finally he hangs the phone up

Hey, I gotta go,
I got this long-haired hippie

just came into my office.

Looks at me and he goes,
I'll tell you what, kid,

Go get a haircut, come back,

and then I'll listen
to your music.

That didn't sit too well
with me.

I beat on a few more doors.

He ended up going down here
at the bar.

He went in there
and Faron Young was sitting

there on the bar stool.

He said, kid, what do you do?

He said, I'm a songwriter,
I just moved here.

He said, set your ass
up there, let's drink.

And he just kept pouring
Dean beer, beer, beer, beer.

Then he goes,
I don't feel too well.

He says, come here, boy,
and he grabbed him by the arm

Said, come in the bathroom here
with me.

And he said, do this, and he starts
sticking his finger down his throat,

and he just puked everywhere.

Grabbed him by the collar, set
him back up on the bar stool.

Get that boy another beer.

At that point he was,
you know, young guy,

but he was a whiskey-drinking,
hell-raising guy.

I mean he was, I think he
thought he was Hank Williams.

Or wanted to be Hank Williams,
you know.

Ever since the Outlaw
project broke wide open,

it was such a huge album,
the music business always

looked for the next outlaw.

The funny things is, so
many times people portrayed

themselves as the outlaw,
and yet they've never

really done anything
rebellious in their life.

Dean Dillon never portrayed
himself as an outlaw.

He absolutely was
an authentic outlaw.

He was on the edge.

You know, but his talent
was so massive

you know, I mean,
it was part of the package.

Being wild and reckless
was part of Dean Dillon.

When you talk about
Dean and as I've said,

he's like a brother
to so many artists,

um, I would think that this was
his first music brother.

Gary Stewart.

These two guys were great
for each other,

and they probably weren't so
great for each other at times.

There was cocaine, you know?

And me and him and Gary
were in the back seat

of a taxi and we were,
decided we should do

all that cocaine before
we got to the airport.

So we're bent
over down thinking-

trying to get where
the taxi driver couldn't see us

snorting all that stuff
we could.

The best country music
honky tonk singer ever born

to ever draw breath
was Gary Stewart.

I mean, I thought Gary was
the greatest raw honky tonk

singer I ever heard.
He kinda reminded me

of a wild Jerry Lee Lewis,
and every song

was drinking, every song
was misery and heartache

and he could sell it,
and then Dean's over here

writing all these wonderful
songs that everybody's recording

that you love, and I thought

if they could've stayed
together long enough

that they could've been
a dynamic duo.

I finally got a job
portraying Hank Williams...

in a Country Music USA show
at Opryland,

which was a big theme park
back in those days.

And I walked on stage
and I did my three songs

and I walked off stage
and there stood that guy.

He said, that was great.

He said, can you come
to my office next week?

I wanna hear some more
of your stuff.

And I looked at him and I said,

get your hair cut and I will.

True story.

You can't make that shit up.

Dean came to town
and slept in a coal bin

over here off of 18th Avenue,
down in the basement.

Frank Dycus
was an old songwriter

who ran Au Par
Publishing Company.

And, 'course, Dolly and Porter
had the downstairs studio

and then there was a coal bin
under there.

I'll let you play with
some of those songs,

and lemme see what I can do
with 'em.

And you can work around here
in the office

in the studio, but I ain't
gonna let you sleep here.

Don't know you.
I ain't givin' you a key yet.

So he made him sleep down
there in the coal bin.

Anywhere to lay your
head sounded good to me.

And he said, he'd peek
out that hole

and there'd be, like, Porter
Wagner in that rhinestone suit

and Dolly
and the whole damned thing

coming off that bus, you know?

And he was like, wow, that's
country music right there,

I mean, Porter and Dolly.

I first heard of Dean when
a songwriter in the company

named John Schweers
had gone to Opryland.

Well, the country singer
was Dean Dillon,

so I signed him for,
he liked to tell everybody,

for $50 a week,
but he would've taken 25.

Dean always wore this
little floppy looking hat

and he would come in
the office with a guitar

in one hand, no case,
and a bottle of whiskey

in the other hand.

It was just instant friendship.

I heard Carol King
and James Taylor

and it changed my whole agenda.

I thought, you know,
if you could take

those kinda melodies
and put 'em to these

Merle Haggard
lyric driven songs,

you'd have a gold mine.

And to me, he might argue
with you,

but to me, where he
really killed Nashville

was with his melodies.

I don't know what
the connection we had,

but I got an idea that
was all about the melody.

'Cause I'm a melody guy,
and Dean's one of the best

melody guys
that I've ever known.

So that's where
I started pushing myself.

1979 I had my first
number one record.

And I remember the first
time I heard it on the radio

I was going under the
Fessler's Lane overpass,

I had my radio turned on
and it came on the radio

and I pulled over and cried.

Incredible

that one of my songs
was actually good enough

to get played
on a radio station.

For a songwriter
that's really good,

you know,
that's getting cuts and stuff

they normally won't take
a chance on an artist

that maybe has just gotten
signed and they never heard

of, and I was writing
back in those days,

but I didn't really
have a lot of confidence

in the songs that I was writing,

and I thought-I thought,
well, maybe I should look

other places and I'd just
gotten out of the army

and immediately started
looking for a band.

That's where the Ace
in the Hole band started,

was in those days.

Played Green Hall, we played
all of these places around

that had the dance hall,
we played 'em.

And we were just playing music,

just having a great time,

not making a lot of money,
and there were times

when I really did almost quit,
just to,

and go back to doing something,

agriculture.
Fortunately, I didn't

and I kept going,
but I was real fortunate

that Dean and Frank
took a chance on me

and ended up signing with MCA.

I struck up a conversation
with a guy

named Shel Silverstein.

Talked Shel into
writing a song with me.

And by noon,
we had the worst country song

known to man written.

Shel was writing songs
like "A Boy Named Sue."

I mean just big old country
music records.

I'm thinking, man,
I have blown my chance.

So I'm walking
out of Third Coast,

when lo and behold, look
who's walking through the gate

coming in, it's Frank Dycus.

I said Dycus, it's Dean,
you 'member me?

I said I got a record deal
and an idea for a song.

He goes, I remember you, kid.

What's your song idea?

She's got me wrapped
around her finger,

but tonight I'm gonna unwind,
which I thought

was a great idea,
and he thought for a minute

and he looked back at me,
and he goes,

well, how 'bout that woman
that I had

wrapped around my finger,
just come unwound?

And when I heard him say that,
I thought,

man, that's better,
that's even better.

We wrote that song
'bout 45 minutes.

I'd bummed a case of beer
off this Budweiser truck

that come by the house.
He'd bet me 10 bucks

I couldn't do it.

So we're sitting there
popping tops

on them beers
and shaking and how-dying

and high fiving 'cause
we'd written that song

we thought was pretty good,

and 'bout that time,
this old boy

comes flying down the street,
pulls up the curb,

rolls his window down,
says hey, he said,

I'm cutting this kid from Texas,

I need some songs for him.

Y'all got anything?

Well, that old boy
was Blake Mevis.

I told him, I said, yeah, man,

we just finished this
thing called "Unwound."

We was gonna pitch it
to Johnny Paycheck,

but he's in jail.

Thinking that Paycheck
might cut that song,

and I think he was in jail
or something,

I don't know what it was, but,

so I ended up getting "Unwound."

And that started
a whole big mess.

♪ Give me a bottle

♪ Of your very best

♪ 'Cause I've got a problem

♪ I'm gonna drink off my chest

Pretty much that's how
I found material

for that first record.

I don't remember
all the songs on there,

but I think there was
probably five songs

on there that Dean Dillon
and Frank Dycus wrote.

That Dean had that way
of writing songs that was

right in George's
vocal wheelhouse.

♪ 'Cause nobody in his right
mind would've left her ♪

♪ I had to be crazy
to say goodbye ♪

♪ Nobody in his right
mind would've left her ♪

♪ Even my heart was smart
enough to stay behind ♪

Sitting in a bar one night.

Imagine that.

This lady walked in
named Jeannie Seely.

And she said, I got somebody
that wants to meet you.

And I said, well,
who might that be?

And she said, Hank Cochran,

and I like to have fell
out of my chair.

Hank is Dean.

What Hank... What Dean Dillon
did as a songwriter was

he took the lyric form
and the heart

of a Hank Cochran,
he just took all that stuff

from the 60s and 70s
that he grew up on.

He was just taking
what those guys did

and just taking it up about
five or six more notches.

Just about everything
he writes is light years

ahead of everybody else.

I did happen to meet
Hank Cochran by accident

when I first moved to town.

And knew him a little bit,
and knew he and Dean

were writing a lot, so I knew
besides the Strait songs,

you know,
Dean was more than legit.

And a real long story short,

he asked me to play a song and
then that led to another song

and another song and at
four o'clock in the morning,

four o'clock seems to be
my witching hour,

for some reason, but he finally
said, okay, that's enough.

And he said...
Looked at me and he goes,

you wanna go to the Bahamas
with me in the morning?

Dean can say so much
in just amount

of words just like this.

It's like Hank said, you know,
and Dean said the same thing.

If it looks this big on paper,
that means it's great.

And for the next few years,

we lived on a boat
called The Legend.

And we did nothing...
that was legal.

And I actually drunk
myself sober that night.

And it is possible,
I've done it.

And at four o'clock
in the morning,

I looked at old Hank and I said,

♪ Well, excuse me

♪ But I think
you've got my chair ♪

Him and Hank Cochran
wrote that somewhere

in I don't know, Florida,
or there on Hank's boat,

or I don't know
the story really,

but it was something like that.

And could there be a better
song than "The Chair?"

I mean, melody wise,
and story wise,

it's just so well written.

♪ Oh, if you don't mind,

♪ Could I talk you
out of a light ♪

That's still one of my
favorite songs to do on stage.

♪ Well, thank you,
could I drink you a buy ♪

♪ Oh, listen to me

♪ What I mean is
can I buy you a drink? ♪

♪ Anything you please

We got through the first
verse in five minutes.

It just poured down on paper.

Then we got stuck.

And as he often did,
he got up and walked around

that boat, pulling on that
beard, He walked back in there,

he looked at me,
he said how about this?

Well, thank you. Can I drink you a buy?
Oh, listen to me.

What I mean is can I buy you a drink?
Anything you please.

I thought this is
the most brilliant thing

I've ever heard in my life.

♪ No, I don't mind at all

♪ Oh, I like you too

♪ And to tell you the truth

♪ That wasn't my chair
after all ♪

♪ Oh, I like you too

♪ And to tell you the truth

♪ Oh, that wasn't my chair
after all ♪

♪ Doo doo doo doo doo

We finished the song and I
think it was the next day

we got a call, I did,
from George,

he goes, where are you and
when are you coming back?

I'm doing a new album.

I said, well, I'm not
telling you where I'm at,

and I ain't coming back
to Nashville.

And Hank goes, well, now,
hold on a minute here,

we're running a little low
on money.

I write all the melodies
to stuff I do,

and I just couldn't get
a good finish on that,

on this song,
and he said, well, play this.

He said, play...

And if you listen
to that melody,

because everybody,
like I said, at that time,

takes a little bit about
of every songwriter,

♪ I love you too
and to tell you the truth ♪

♪ That wasn't my chair
after all ♪

And I said, Hank,
we can't do that.

And he goes, why not?

And I said, 'cause that's

♪ Crazy for cryin'

♪ Crazy for tryin'

♪ And I'm crazy for loving you

Yeah.

And I said, you know,
one person that I don't want

pissed off at me
is Willie Nelson.

And he goes, and I swear
to God, this is what he said,

he goes,
well, Willie won't mind.

And here's why he said that.

1965, I think, Hank was
writing for Pamper Music,

Pamper Publishing Company.

And the owner came to him
and said, man,

you're doing so good,
we're gonna up your draw

$25,000 a year.

And Hank said, no, you're not.

And he said you're gonna
take that $25,000

and sign Willie Nelson.

And that's what they did.

And so Willie didn't mind.

Dean was making records
on RCA at the time,

and so I became his bass player,

so I went out on the road
with him when he'd do gigs.

He got a record deal as
well, shortly after I did.

Before I started this
journey, I had,

actually had
his Slick Nickel record.

I just loved it.

Although Dean had record deals
and made some great albums,

I don't think Dean's voice
was particularly suited

for country radio at that
particular time.

As Bob Dillon had difficulty
at times with popular radio.

I get this call
from Erv Woolsey,

and he asked me
if I wanna meet George,

and I'm like, of course I do,
you know,

up until... I think we'd had
three or four records,

and I'd never met the guy.

He was kinda focused
on his recording career

and I was focused on my
recording career,

and I was still trying
to suck songs outta Dean

that he wasn't gonna cut.

I think that the highest
charted single

I ever got to was 30 something.

I was kinda jealous
a little bit.

I mean, I go down there and
walk in, walk up to his table,

we shake and howdy, and you know,
I'm chain smoking Marlboros,

and he looked at me
and said, man, you mind

not smoking? He said, that
smoke really messes with me.

And I went, you mean, that?

Kinda blowed that, and it was
like, you know what I mean?

And I think Erv was going, eh.

You know what I mean?

It was like, what are you doing?

You know?

I'll have to go along with

if Dean says
that's what happened,

because I totally don't
remember it, but...

that sounds like what Dean
would do

if I were to tell him to
put his cigarette out.

My first impression was,
you know, this guy's got it all.

He's got the look,
he sings great,

and he's a good guy.

And that was important to me.

A real cowboy.

And I wanted to be a cowboy.

I was around 'em both
and I seen it,

and it's really kinda... They're
the same person, sort of.

It's kinda really,
I don't know, there's a lot

of similarity there,
it's really wild.

And so they're
like two brothers.

And especially when
they hand a guitar over

when they're like jabbing at each
other, you know what I mean?

I seen that firsthand a couple
of times and I was like, wow.

I totally thought he
was gonna be an artist.

Because I always
loved Dean's singing.

His soulful voice just is...
Whenever he would

pitch me a song, I would always
want him doing the vocals

on the demo.

♪ Once I get there

♪ I'll drop anchor

♪ Toast the one
who broke my heart ♪

♪ I'd like to thank her

♪ C'est la vie

♪ Come what may

♪ I probably would've
blown it anyway ♪

♪ Life goes on

♪ I will, too and then my sin

♪ Take me to somebody else

♪ God made boats like this
for guys like me ♪

♪ So c'est la vie

I'm in the studio putting
down vocals on "The Chair."

And I look around
and Hank's gone.

And I ask the engineer,
I say, where is he?

And he said, well, I think he's
back over

in this room writing a
song with Royce Porter.

The guy who had written
"Homecoming 63" with.

And I said, well, not
on my darned session,

without me, they're not.

So I go over there
and open the door

and Hank's like a kid
with his hand caught

in a cookie jar and he goes,

Dean, listen to this idea
we've got.

And they played me
a little bit of it,

and he said, what do you think?

And I said, man,
that's horrible.

I said, y'all can't be serious.

And he goes, yeah.

You want in on it or not?

And I knew better.

♪ If you leave me

♪ I'm won't miss you

♪ And I won't ever
take you back ♪

♪ Girl, your memory

♪ Won't ever haunt me

♪ 'Cause I don't love you

♪ Now, if you'll buy that

♪ I got some oceanfront property
in Arizona ♪

♪ From my front porch
you can see the sea ♪

♪ I've got some oceanfront
property in Arizona ♪

♪ If you'll buy that, I'll throw
the Golden Gate in free ♪

So get done with that song

and he goes, well, now
what do you think about it?

I said, I hate it.

And he goes, well, why?

I said I don't want people to
think I'm a funny songwriter.

Life ain't funny to me.

And I didn't.
I didn't wanna be known

as a funny songwriter
and the other thing

that bothered me-the hell
outta me 'bout that song

was every time we'd get...

♪ If you'll buy that, I'll throw
the Golden Gate in free ♪

Every time we'd get
to that point,

Royce was singing it,
and he'd go,

♪ If you'll buy that
I'll throw ♪

♪ The Golden Gate Bridge
in free ♪

And it would run all over me.

Every time.

♪ If you'll buy that
I'll throw ♪

♪ The Golden Gate Bridge
in free ♪

And I said Royce, listen,
if they don't know

what the Golden Gate is,
they ain't gonna get

this damned song anyway.

And the other thing is,
it's outta meter.

So you're gonna have
all these dancers

colliding into one another.

It's doomed.

So I finally convinced him,

♪ If you'll buy that I'll throw
the Golden Gate in free ♪

So the funny thing
about that song was,

as bad as I hated it...

it came in the charts
at number one

and sold a million records
the first week it was out.

And where was Deano
when that song came out?

Boat?

Nope.

In a bar.

I had enlisted myself
at the Betty Ford Center

in Rancho Mirage, California.

And I did so good,
I liked it so much

I went back four times.

I just finished my new album

and it happened to be
right around

the same time that George was
looking to cut his new album.

And so he calls me up and
says, meet me in my office,

and I did, Monday morning,
10 o'clock

of the week he recorded,
I was always in front

of George Strait playing songs
for him.

'Cause every time that man
would cut,

it'd be like, well, I said,
it was like Elvis come to town.

It was like Presley came to
town to cut a record, man.

I mean, this town would
fucking buzz, man, for weeks.

Well, he's got 'em hold...
Publishers were calling each other,

songwriters calling each other.

Strait's coming in town.

When we would find out
the dates that Strait

was going to record, at Acuff
Rose we would take shifts

standing at our window,

which overlooked
Herb Woolsey's office,

and when we would see the
limo pull in the gate,

and George and Norma
would get out,

we would run into the rest of
the building

and go, Strait's here,
they've arrived,

they're in town.

And this time around, I
played him about 20 songs

and he didn't like anything.

Dean had written so many
great songs for George,

and George had
had so much success,

and there was a little point
in there,

and I was still playing in
bars and trying to find my way,

and it was a little point
in there

where George was still
having number one hits,

but they didn't have that thing
that I'd,

in the writing of it,
the song was different.

It had changed highways.

It'd gone off on the shoulder.

And they weren't
those Dean Dillon songs.

I said, oh, well, maybe next
time, Boss.

And I'm walking out the
door, and he goes, hey, Dean,

you've got a song that I've
heard about.

It's a song called,
"Easy Come, Easy Go."

And I said, yeah, man,
that's my first single

off my new album.

And so then I heard that
he'd cut it on his record,

he was recording, too,
and I said, man, Dean,

I really want that song.

He said, if you'll
let me have that song,

I promise you
a number one record.

And in my mind, I'm thinking,
let's see,

last year I spent $30,000 of my
own money,

my songwriting money propping
up this recording...

singer aspiration,
and it garnered me nothing.

And by that time, we'd had
some big records together.

Marina Del Rey, and
Nobody In His Right Mind,

and I did the math in
my head, and you know,

number one record's
a half million bucks.

So I didn't hear from him
for awhile,

and then I don't know,
a few days, or weeks later

he said, you know what, man, you know how
he talks, I'm gonna give you that song.

I know right where I was,
I was in Oklahoma City

on Interstate 240
between Western and Walker,

and my wife had to go to Kinkos.

And she went in to get
something in Kinkos

and I was sitting in the car,

and this George Strait song
come on

and the second it was
done she got in the car

and she got to hear the
last chorus of the song.

I said, you hear this George
Strait song?

She goes, yeah.

I go, it's incredible.

It was "Easy Come, Easy Go."

And I said I guarantee you,

I guarantee Dean Dillon wrote
that song.

Walked right down
the street to Atlantic,

walk in to the office there
and tell Rick Blackburn,

I said, I've got some good
news and some bad news.

And he goes, well, what's the
good news?

I said, "Easy Come, Easy Go"
is gonna be the next single.

And he said, well, then,
what's the bad news?

I said, it's on George Strait.

I said, stick a fork in me,
I'm done.

And he goes, well,
what do you mean?

I said, I don't wanna
make records anymore,

I just wanna write songs from
here on out.

He said, you know, I don't...
This recording thing,

I just, it's not doing it
for me,

so I don't know, I think things
work out

for a reason, and whether or
not it would've been a hit

for Dean, who knows?

Fortunately, I got that song,
I think it was a number one

record, I'm not sure,
but I know it was a hit record.

♪ Says she's had enough of me

♪ I've had enough of her too

♪ I might as well go on
and set her free ♪

♪ She's already
turned me loose ♪

♪ No fault, no blame,
nobody done no wrong ♪

♪ That's just the way
it sometimes goes ♪

♪ Sometimes two people
just don't get along ♪

♪ It's time to hit the road

♪ Goodbye

♪ Farewell

♪ So long

♪ Vaya con Dios, good luck,

♪ Wish you well, take it slow

♪ Easy come, girl, easy go

We did that for 35 years.

Every once in awhile, he
and I and his son Bubba

get together and we
write songs together,

and that's awesome.

It's easy when you've got
the king of country music

sitting there and you're
writing with him,

'cause you know
what he's thinking,

and what he likes
and doesn't like,

and it just makes my job
really easy.

To get him together
with my son, especially,

who really,
really is trying to learn

to be a good songwriter,
you know, to get somebody

like Dean to help him and
teach him and show him things,

and stuff, you know,
it's pretty special.

And I get this phone call
one day,

and it goes something like this.

Hey, Dean, Bubba and I have
been down here

kicking some songs around

and we was just kinda wondering
if you'd

come down here and help us out.

And I went, duh.

You know, "Here for a Good Time"
was Bubba's idea.

♪ Every day I wake up

♪ Knowing it could be my last

♪ I ain't here for a long time

♪ I'm here for a good time

You can't-you just can't
trade that for anything.

Just pretty special for about
old Dean.

♪ Pour me some moonshine.

I had been a fan of his.
I know sometimes that he said

he was a fan of mine.
What I guess he doesn't know

is that I was a fan of his.

He calls me and says, hey, we
should write a song together,

and I said, yeah, sure,
which I don't know, I'm too

nervous or insecure to say,

oh, yeah, let's hang out.
I go, yeah, sure, you know,

thinking that that
would never happen.

So then he calls me back
another time

and he says, listen, I'm
gonna come down to Houston

and see your show at the
Houston Rodeo

and I'd like to hang out
with you a couple days

and write songs.

I said, uh, oh, okay, uh.
You know?

We started talking about
"This West Texas Town,"

as I recall, and we kinda
banged around on that

and then Dean, as he will,

it's just like boom, he goes,
okay,

let's go, you know where
some antique stores are.

I said, yeah, sure,
so we got in the car

and we drove,
just saw the countryside

and talked to these people,
in these antique stores,

it was they, it totally cracked
me up.

We wrote the song called,
"West Texas Town,"

that Dean and George Strait did
as a duet

on George Strait's Troubadour
record,

which was, as far as I
understand is only,

George's only
Grammy winning record

that he ever had,
so it was like, bingo.

And it was... You know,
when I was writing,

I don't really think
about anything happening

for the song.

I try to think
in terms of making

the best song that you can,

and really making sense.

And you know, when that
happened, it was almost like

unreal, like a dream, you know?

♪ My little dish
in that panhandle ♪

♪ Lights up
like a Roman Candle ♪

♪ When I reach
that West Texas town ♪

Dean was like, what other towns

are in Texas?
And I was like, what, you mean

around like Amarillo?

And he goes, yeah. I was
like, well, there's Lubbock

and there's Idalou,
and there's Plainview,

and there's Big Spring,
and he goes,

you know, then he goes,
in that Dean kinda way,

all right, so Big Spring up
to all the way to Plainview,

and I was like, okay, that
works,

I don't know how you have
that map in your head,

but that's exactly how you
would go.

♪ Ah, sing it Dean

♪ From Big Spring
all the way to Plainview ♪

♪ I can't wait
to get to you know who ♪

♪ In that West Texas town

♪ I drive through hell
and half of Texas ♪

♪ Just to get to her
by breakfast ♪

♪ Waiting in
the West Texas town ♪

♪ I'm on my way to Amarillo

♪ I can't seem to get
my fill of that ♪

♪ Little West Texas Town

♪ I've got a sweet thing built,
right Betty ♪

♪ Head to toe,
she's mighty pretty ♪

♪ Living in
that West Texas town ♪

And then I can't do this.

♪ Friday comes,
it's time to roll ♪

♪ Time for me to hit the road

♪ I've got my eyes
on the horizon ♪

♪ My little dish in that pas...

♪ My little dish
in that panhandle ♪

♪ Lights up
like a Roman Candle ♪

♪ When I reach
that West Texas town ♪

That's it.

♪ Baby,
turn the porch light on ♪

♪ Your sweet Daddy's
coming home ♪

♪ To that West Texas town

Ta-da.

There we go,
that wasn't too bad.

There you go.

The caveat there was Dean
had never sung with George,

and George had cut so
many of Dean's songs,

and so they did this duet
on this song,

so that was really proud moment
for me,

and it was, I think it was a
really proud moment for Dean.

♪ If I'm gonna self-destruct

♪ I'm gonna go for bust

♪ Do it right

♪ Just as right
as wrong can do ♪

♪ So just let me go to hell

♪ The way I want to

♪ Ain't no half way
on this one way ♪

♪ I've already sealed my fate

♪ The devil knows my name

♪ You can't save me
from the flames ♪

♪ It's too late

♪ Too late

I remember coming home
from the office

and I'd just had
a number one record.

I had three babies
under the age of five

and there was all this turmoil

constantly when I came home,
you know,

and I walked in my house
that day

and she went off and I went in
my office

and sat there for a minute

and looked at my desk and took
my arm

and raked it clean.

She came in there and
I said I'll never live

another night in this house.

And I didn't.

A lot of the demons that had
chased him

in his early years
of coming to town

were sort of pushed
to the sideline

and when he went through his
first divorce

and with children involved, it-
he reverted back

to some of those things
that had brought him relief

and helped him escape.

Gary tried to call me the
day he committed suicide.

And I'd taken those calls a
million times,

and that's the one
I didn't take, but Dean was,

Dean was still... Dean was probably
headed down the same path.

I mean, not suicide,
but Dean was having trouble,

you know,
handling his day to day,

and we were...
I can say that

because I was through it
with him,

I was right there
when it happened.

And that had... Well, I'll
tell you how bad it hurt,

it hurt bad enough
that it put me in

Parthenon Pavilion Home
with a nervous breakdown.

Dean's love for his
children is unsurpassed.

He has a deep, deep love
for his kids.

I became this every other
weekend dad.

He had blacked out
and I said, so, Dean,

if you know there's this edge
that you're about to go over

with one more drink, why
do you have that one drink

that's sort of
the tipping point?

He said because for a little
while the pain goes away.

But you move on, you know,
you do what you gotta do.

He dealt with it in the only way

that he really knew how to deal
with it.

At that time, moment in time
in my life,

if I, I had a bad drug and
alcohol problem and I knew it.

And I knew if I didn't
do something about it,

it was gonna kill me.

I don't think he found pleasure

necessarily in those things

I think that they were
a relief mechanism.

He finally come up one day
and he said,

man, I love you, and
I'm sorry if I was ever

an asshole to you, and I said,
well, dude,

I mean, you know, I pick out
who the assholes are.

You know, I've been very
blessed and very fortunate

to have people in my
life that cared enough

to give me a second chance.

But you gotta know
I got past it,

and I'm not that guy today,

and I don't ever wanna be that
guy again.

You know, Dean and I
have a lot in common.

You know, we have... We actually
have the same birthday,

Dean and I do, March 26th.

So that's really, that was
really odd.

Dean was definitely someone
that showed me

that you could come from a
small town

and achieve big things,
and Dean was definitely

someone that I looked up to.

We had similar life
experiences that led us

down this path.

And that was a big part
of my connection

and it still is a big
part of my connection

with Dean Dillon.

Troy Tomlinson
comes in and says,

hey, man, would you, man,
would you mind

writing with this kid named
Kenny Chesney?

He goes, he's been
dying to write with you,

but I told him no, he
ain't up to your level yet.

I was very scared to write
with Dean the first time.

I was brand new,
outta East Tennessee,

and Dean was writing
at Acuff Rose Music,

and by that time that I
got signed at Acuff Rose,

Dean was a songwriting icon
in this town.

I knew that Kenny loved Dean,

so one day Dean
was in the office,

and I'm like, hey, we got
this Kenny Chesney kid,

man, I think it's gonna work.

Well, of course I'll write
with him,

man, he's an East Tennessee boy,
he's a brother.

So I played him this
song called "The Tin Man"

that Kenny had written.

He listened all the way
through it very patiently,

as Dean can do when he wants to

and at the end of it he said,

I believe
I'll write with that boy.

We played him a song
"The Tin Man,"

and he wants to write with you.

And I went, oh, I remember
driving in,

I had a little apartment
out in Mount Julia,

Tennessee, and I was driving
into town,

scared to death.

Kenny comes in, he's
got his guitar, man,

he's torn all to pieces,
he's gonna write

with the Dean Dillon.

And I was beating around
on the guitar like that,

but when I walked in the
room, Dean didn't even really

look at me, he was staring out
the window,

he was smoking a cigarette.

Even though it was a
non-smoking building,

he was smoking a cigarette,
looking out the window,

and Kenny's talking about ideas.

You know, I just know we're
gonna write

something great today.

And he was rubbing his
chin like this, you know,

and you could tell he was deep

into thought on something.

And I turned around and I do
this yawn.

He goes, Chesney,
hang on a minute.

He goes, you're gonna have to
give me time

to get down on your level.

And man, he looks at
me and that jaw drops

and I bust out laughing.

It was awesome.

I mean, for Kenny, I
can't imagine how he felt

at the moment, but it was
honestly the very beginning

of what has become this
brotherly relationship

between the two of them.

Song, one song of Dean's
that we had a big hit on

with Kenny was called
"A Lot of Things Different."

♪ I'd have spent
a lot more time ♪

♪ In the pouring rain
without an umbrella ♪

♪ Covering my head

♪ And I'd stood up
to that bully ♪

♪ When he pushed
and called me names ♪

♪ But I was too afraid

Buddy Cann is my record
producer, and he's a great

songwriter himself, and he
has really great songs since,

so when Buddy sends me a song,

he rarely sells it, you know.

He doesn't say, you've
really gotta hear this.

He just sends it to me
just to see

what I think and feel about
it when I listen to it.

But on "A Lot of Things
Different," Buddy goes,

you really need to sit
down and listen to this.

It's gonna take a minute
to get through it,

but this is just
classic Dean Dillon.

♪ Oh I, I'd done
a lot of things different ♪

♪ I wish I'd a spent
more time on my dad ♪

♪ When he was alive

♪ Now I don't have the chance

♪ And I wish
I'd a told my brother ♪

♪ How much I loved him

♪ Before he went off to war

♪ But I just shook his hand

They pitched that song
to Tim McGraw.

McGraw put it on hold
and ended up

not recording it, and Kenny
heard the song

and he wanted to cut it,
so we cut it

and it became one of the
biggest things we had.

I went and saw Bruce
Springsteen in Orlando

at the arena there,
and I was talking to Bruce

in catering and he
goes, that song of yours

"A Lot of Things Different,"
he goes,

I absolutely love that song.

He goes, did you write it?

And I said, no, but one of my
best friends in the world did.

And his name's Dean Dillon.

And you could just tell
that Bruce

was thinking
about that composition

and how it was put together,

and he told me how much
he really loved that song,

and I called Dean first thing,
I said,

Dean, you're never gonna believe

who just told me they love
"A Lot of Things Different."

♪ On and on, oh I

♪ I'd done
a lot of things different ♪

Dean and I wrote a lot of
songs together after that.

And I was going through
one of the worst periods

so far in my life.

There's a thing in Nashville

amongst songwriters is we
always try

to get the guy going through
the divorce

'cause he's got some good
stuff to write about.

And that's what we do
and it's kinda funny,

kinda sad in a way, but it's
the truth.

You know,
that heart's wide open,

bleeding like a sucker, man,
and you know,

you can get some great songs
outta guys

when they're going through
an emotional roller coaster.

I was on my boat in
the Virgin Islands a lot

and I wrote a bunch of songs on
that boat.

Some that I finished
and threw in the ocean.

But Dean came down and
we wrote, got the guitar,

messed around, we wrote a
song called, "I'm Alive,"

right there that morning,
setting on my boat

and Willie Nelson cut and I
recorded on my Lucky Old Sun

record, ended up being a
duet with Dave Matthews.

♪ Today's the first day
of the rest of my life ♪

♪ And I'm alive

♪ And well, I'm alive and well

♪ The stars are dancin'
on the water here tonight ♪

♪ It's good for the soul when
there's not a soul in sight ♪

♪ This boat has caught its wind
and brought me back to life ♪

♪ Now I'm alive and well

The other night I was
honored at the BMI Awards

with the president's award,
and Dean got up there

with his guitar and had his
sunglasses on

and sat down like he does,
you know,

and spoke about our
friendship and sang that song

in front of me, and it's
hard, it is really hard

to rattle my cage now, I mean,

emotionally in public.

But Dean started
singing that song

and he got through the
first verse and the chorus

and he literally disarmed me.

♪ It's times like these

♪ I wish I were a tin man

♪ You could hurt me
all you wanted ♪

♪ And I'd never even know

♪ I'd give anything

♪ Oh, just to be a tin man

♪ And I wouldn't
have a problem ♪

♪ And I wouldn't need a soul

I mean, I just lost everything.

So there I am with my
girlfriend,

my family, my mother and a lot
of people

around these tables that meant
a lot to me

in my life and know how much
this moment means to me,

the fact that Dean Dillon
one of my oldest songwriting

pals ever is singing this song
for me.

It was a very emotional moment.

♪ ...miss you so

Love you, brother.

Dean's probably
my favorite writer.

And he deserves every bit
of accolades he ever gets

and he hasn't got the
ones he deserves yet,

but we're working on it.

Toby and Scotty hook up and
are writing

all these monstrous records
for Toby,

"Whiskey for My Men,
Beer For My Horses,"

"I Love This Bar,"
all that Toby Keith stuff,

Scotty's sitting right there
with Toby writing his stuff.

♪ We'll raise up our glasses
against evil forces ♪

♪ Singing "Whiskey for my men,
beer for my horses" ♪

Dean is one of my best
friends in the world

and I'm very fortunate to
have a good friend like him

and he feels the same way
about me,

I've heard him say, but I like
being around talented people

and feeding off that, and
he's definitely, probably

the most talented I've ever
been around.

Scotty said I always
wanna get you two together.

You're my two favorites to
write with,

and I always wanted
to get you two

in the same room.

We started having some
success together,

the three of us, and I owe that
all to Scotty Emerick, man.

And then you know, like
I said, I found out

what kinda guy Toby is, and
just a great,

again, Toby sets himself
apart from everybody else.

Toby was always
a Dean Dillon fan

and I wanted to bring Dean out

and meet Toby and us
write a song together.

Me and him and Scotty got the
best room

we could find in Albuquerque,

and it was the best room we
could find.

And we holed up for three
days and ate green chili...

enchiladas, me and Scotty
had a couple Coronas,

Dean stayed straight and
we wrote about six songs.

We wrote "It's a Little
Too Late," number one.

♪ It's a little too late

♪ I'm a little too gone

♪ Little too tired
of this hanging on ♪

♪ So I'm letting you go

♪ while I'm still
strong enough to ♪

And from that point forward,
it happened quite often

and it became a friendship.

And he's written some
just monstrous records,

you know, and then on top
of that, he's overseas

touring during the Afghanistan
wars and going to play

for our soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan

and wherever the hell
those generals want him to

go over there and play,
and just doing a great

job of it over there, you know,
supporting

our troops,
playing for our troops.

I wanna salute the families
of the boys and girls

that are proud enough to
wear my country's uniform.

They're also present tonight.

Thank you for your sacrifice.

I took him, Bobby Penson,
and Scotty and three

or four other writers
down to my house

for writer's retreat in Cabo.

And we wrote about 20 songs
and me and Dean and Bobby

wrote the latest single I have,

which is "A Few More Cowboys."

Now, I don't know if they'll
still play

a country song on the radio
anymore,

but what we need I think
we got it, but what we need

is a few more cowboys.
Figure this shit out.

♪ If the White House
was in Texas, man ♪

♪ We'd get a straighter answer

♪ If they'd let us smoke
what we want ♪

♪ We'd have a lot less cancer

♪ There'd be much more daddies

♪ Sons could be proud of

♪ We'd have half the crime

♪ We'd have twice the fun

♪ With a few more cowboys

♪ Be a lot less outlaws

♪ With a few more amens

♪ Be a lot less bad calls

♪ With a few more yes ma'ams

♪ And a lot less yes men

♪ This world would be
a better place to live in ♪

♪ With a few more cowboys

The president of the
label I'm at right now

told my manager the other day,
he goes,

I don't know if they'll still
play country on the radio

but this song Toby, Dean,
and Bobby wrote

is as good as Toby can do.

He goes, if this song would've
been in his wheelhouse

of 22 year career, when
there was a period of time,

a four and a half year,
four year period of time

we spent 51 weeks at
number one on Billboard.

I had a single, 51 weeks in
four year period of time,

it's about a quarter of the time

we're sitting number one,
and we were

writing 'em
and spitting 'em out.

"Beer and My Horses,"
"I Love This Bar,"

"America's Soldier,"
"Good As I Once Was,"

Just every time we come out,

this would've been
one of those songs.

And you know,
Mike Dungin was like,

this is like
"Beer For My Horses."

It was a six week number one
and this one

struggles on the charts you
know, because

they just don't play it no more,

and I'm not gonna be one of
those guys

that sit around and
say that the young guys

that they're not playing
country anymore,

it's what it is.

♪ And it's about high time

♪ We looked 'em in the eye

♪ Get our head out of the sand

♪ Hit 'em with
a big John Wayne ♪

♪ By God they'd understand

♪ With a few more cowboys

♪ Be a lot less outlaws

♪ With a few more amens

♪ Be a lot less bad calls

♪ With a few more yes ma'ams

♪ And a lot less yes men

♪ This world would be
a better place to live in ♪

♪ With a few more cowboys

Over the last 30 plus years,

I've watched a lot
of ebb and flow

in the music business.

We're in a season now,
and we've been in a season

where the music's changed
pretty dramatically again.

Lyrical output, if you will,
is a more,

I'll say, kind of, college fun
type lyric

and some refer to it
as bro country.

I mean, let the kids rock, man.

That's, if that's what
Nashville wants to sell,

that's what the industry wants
to sell,

let 'em sell it, it's cool,

let 'em go do their thing,

make their money, we still
get to come out here at night,

play to sold out concerts,
those songs'll never go away.

We got under the tent
just in time

and when our circus was
going on, we were killing it.

We were the elephants and the
trapeze artist and the lion.

We owned it.

And let these guys own what
they own,

but we're not gonna switch to
hip hop.

And if they're wanna do, if
everything's gotta be hip hop,

and bro country,
or whatever they call it,

let 'em be, man, but
me and Dean and Scotty

and Bobby Penson, you
know, all my old guys,

we're all gonna be sitting
around still trying to write

that one country song that
everybody has to listen to,

so, and that's our challenge
now,

and we accomplished
everything else.

A couple years ago,
man, I had to come back

out on the road again.

Here I sit, you know?

Two years removed from
being able to concentrate

solely on writing songs,
I'm back out here

on the road playing clubs
and bars, anywhere they'll

you know, pay for me to play.

He's right, and if I cut
the best song in the world

right now, I don't think
the radio'll play it, either.

So I see where he's coming from.

You know, and I always
said to myself

I'm not gonna be mad
when that happens to me,

because I saw it
happen to Merle,

I saw it happen to George,
and other artists, you know,

the radio just quit playing 'em.

I was going, what the hell,
where's Merle's records

this month or this year or what?

I still wanted to hear 'em.

And so that's the kinda
thing that happened

to me as well.

One thing that is for sure.

Great song... Artists come
and go, phases come and go,

but great songs that touch
people never go out of style.

I'm very proud that guys
like Dean Dillon still

write songs, because
I'm still the kinda guy

that wants to record
those songs.

Here's the thing
about Dean Dillon.

He still wants to make
music and he still wants

to make music that other
people can hear and enjoy.

So there will always be,
always, a spot

for Dean Dillon whether
it's a song that he wrote

30 years ago that gets re-recorded
or whether it's a song

that he writes this morning,
there will always be a space

a place, for Dean Dillon.

The Nashville sound
meets the soul of Memphis.

Get your feet, Nashville,
for it's Chris Stapleton

and it's Justin Timberlake.

♪ Used to spend my nights
out in a barroom ♪

♪ Liquor was the only
love I've known ♪

♪ But you rescued me
from reachin' for the bottom ♪

I'd had this idea
for a long time

called "Tennessee Whiskey."

♪ ...being too far gone

You're as smooth
as Tennessee Whiskey.

♪ You're as smooth
as Tennessee whiskey ♪

You're as sweet
as strawberry wine.

♪ You're as sweet
as strawberry wine ♪

You're as warm
as a glass of brandy.

♪ You're as warm
as a glass of brandy ♪

And I stay stoned
on your love all the time.

♪ And I stay stoned
on your love all the time ♪

A little "Tennessee Whiskey" I'd
like to sing for you this evening.

Hell of a song.

Well, he wrote it.

I think the first person
I pitched "Tennessee Whiskey"

to was this guy.

It was, and I turned it down.

I made it priority
that anything I thought

was any good
that he heard it first.

The first time I heard George
do it,

I thought, wow,
that's a great song,

I might've screwed up there.

I would've bet the farm,
so to speak,

that he would cut that
song, and he heard it

and he goes, I think I'll pass.

♪ And you're as smooth
as Tennessee Whiskey ♪

That was a dream come true,
because to me

the big four were George
Jones, Merle Haggard,

Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn

and if you could get a cut
on those four,

man, you'd won the lottery.

That song's been recorded
by how many people now?

And then this crazy
guy comes on the scene

in country music and his
name's David Allen Coe.

Motherfucker, open the gate!

Brad Paisley cut that
song and put it on an album.

And then a guy called
Chris Stapleton gets a call

from Justin Timberlake.

♪ Nothing like your love
to get me high ♪

Climbs to number one on iTunes,

he sells a million records.

♪ Tennessee Whiskey

♪ You're as sweet
as strawberry wine ♪

♪ And you're as warm
as a glass ♪

My wife loved the paycheck.

♪ And I stay stoned
on your love all time ♪

It was a hell of a song, Dean.

Good song.

My bad.

So anyway, here's another
song that Dean wrote

that I was fortunate enough
to cut, so...

Beautiful song.

♪ I burn with desire each time
my heart fans the fire ♪

♪ To that old flame
that burns inside of me. ♪

♪ Nobody in his right mind
would've left her ♪

♪ Even my heart was smart enough
to stay behind ♪

Dean, everybody in here knows
how special our relationship

has been throughout the
years, and I wanna thank you

for that and thank you
for being a friend to me

and sending me songs when
nobody knew who I was or nothing

and you took a chance sending
your songs out there with me

and I really appreciate that.

♪ Each night finds me dreamin'

I live, eat, sleep,
and breathe songs.

It's all I've ever done.

It's all I ever loved.

♪ ...she was still around

And in the immortal words
of Hank Cochran,

isn't this wonderful?

♪ Still around

Dean Dillon.

♪ Flowed through my veins

♪ Since I was born

♪ Turns you cold

♪ Keeps you warm

♪ There's no escape,
it won't leave you alone ♪

♪ When you're a song

♪ You're so blessed

♪ Yet so cursed

♪ 'Cause every breath

♪ Is another verse

♪ You hurt like hell,
the whole world sings along ♪

♪ When you're a song