You credit producer Frank Rogers for taking you through "Songwriting University," as you were recording Learn to Live. How did the two of you shape this album?
When I first started working on Learn to Live, I was supposed to meet with three or four of the "big dog" producers in country. Frank was first. He asked me what kind of record I want to make. I thought that was a great thing to ask. "All I Want" was the first song we had written and he knew exactly what I wanted to do. So I called Doc and said, "This is my guy. I don't want to meet anybody else."
I'm a singer. I'm not a musician. I play guitar out of necessity and out of wanting to write stuff. When you get with Frank, you get with all these writers and Nashville's great musicians. Before that, I never really co-wrote with anybody. For a couple of Hootie records, I've written with a couple of people but as far as writing for Hootie, we all just wrote our songs and just brought in and the band turned them into what we did.
It's great when you come up with a line and you think it's a great line and you have a melody to it. But the person next to you picks up that melody and changes two notes on it, something you would have never done just because you don't sing and you don't hear music that way. He sees it a different way and you go, "Wow! That's neat. That should do it." I loved it.
In the liner notes of Learn to Live you stated that this recording session was one of the greatest of your life. You also go on to mention "the fun times you had with your knee." What was that statement referencing?
I had knee surgery and got a staph infection. I was really out of it for months. I went on tour basically with my knee just strained enough so I can stand up. That was a tough time.
How did the fans respond to that? Some singers get sick and they cancel shows.
I don't know if they saw it that way. I guess people just see it as coming to the show. We didn't really make a big to-do out of it. We postponed some shows when I was in the hospital; that was it. We didn't really make a big deal out of it. And, you know, I don't want a big deal made out of it. I just want to do the shows.
Article comments
1 - Kit O'Toole
Great interview as usual, Clayton! I'm also glad he talked about "Back to Then," as I thought that was an underrated album. Hopefully he'll continue to record R&B as well as country and rock.
FYI: I wrote a "Cutout Bin" on "Back to Then" a while back.
2 - Sandra Swartz
Hi, we were part of the group at the 14th hole of the dye golf course at MAM-wanted you to know we all bought tickets to the tournament to support your charity-also we introduced this event to many of our friends who otherwise would not have come. We also raised 500lbs of food for Helping Hands in North Myrtle Beach-hope you now have the right info.