July 26, 2005
© Tony Phipps
Tim Nichols: Life after "Live Like You Were Dying"
By j. poet
After 20 years as a professional songwriter, Tim Nichols experienced a career watershed moment with "Live Like You Were Dying."
The song, co-written with Craig Wiseman, and the first single and title track from the Tim McGraw album, set a record of 10 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Radio and Records chart. It won CMA Song and Single of the Year, a GRAMMY for Best Country Song and a nomination for the overall Best Song award. An inspirational gift book based on the song's lyrics shot to the top of the New York Times special gift book bestseller list.
So what's life like after "Dying?"
"It's really good," Nichols said with a chuckle, calling in from Destin, Fla., where he was vacationing with his family. "And not too different. I still run late to writer's appointments and that sort of thing. The day we had the No. 1 party was also the day the GRAMMY nominations were announced. I was writing with someone else that day. After the party I went back to work and finished another song." When Nichols and Wiseman wrote "Live Like You Were Dying," they knew they'd done a good day's work, but could never have predicted the song's enormous impact.
"We knew it was the kind of song you don't write everyday, but didn't know it would be No. 1 for 10 weeks, or turn into a book or a movie," Nichols said, who's scored 13 BMI Award winning songs. "Chuck Gordon, who produced 'Field of Dreams' for Kevin Costner, called us up to talk about developing a movie around the song. We had a lunch meeting with him at a hotel in Beverly Hills and while we were eating, Kevin Costner came over to talk to us. It's hard to imagine all that coming out of one song, but when I started writing years ago, it was hard to imagine anything at all would come out of my songs, so you never know."
Nichols came to Nashville in 1980 without a master plan in mind. "My career has been marked by a series of unfortunate events," he said. "Each disaster pointed the way to something better."
Nichols grew up in a working class family that moved back and forth between Portsmouth, Va., and Springfield, Mo. Albums by Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley made a big impression on him, as did live performances by the Statler Brothers, Hank Williams Jr. and Cash shows featuring the Carter Family and Carl Perkins.
"I had a guitar and messed around with singing a bit, but not seriously," he said. "In college, I was going to major in broadcasting, thinking that might lead to music somehow, but the school dropped the program due to lack of interest. So I got a night job at a factory making buckets for KFC and started taking guitar lessons."
Nichols put together a band and played locally. His guitar teacher knew a guy in Nashville who said he could arrange a record deal, but it was a scam. After thousands of dollars disappeared, Nichols and his father went to the Attorney General's office for help.
"While we were talking to someone in the Attorney General's office, '60 Minutes' called," Nichols said. "They were doing an expose on Nashville rip off artists."
Nichols, his dad and Mike Wallace confronted the guy who had stolen their money. "The '60 Minutes' exposure got my band some better gigs, and led to legit business connections, including Si Siman, a publisher who told me 'If you're going to hunt tigers, you have to go where the tigers are.'"
Nichols took the advice and moved the band to Nashville.
Between gigs with his band, Nichols worked on his songwriting. He performed at writer's nights at the Bluebird Cafe and Douglas Corner and met his first co-writer, Canadian producer, musician and writer Gilles Godard.
"Right after I met Tim we started writing together," Godard said. "I took five tunes we wrote to Canada and produced them for Ronnie Prophet and they all became Top 10 hits in Canada. Tim always brings real humanity to a song. He says things the way the average person would say it, but with a little twist that makes it sound even more real."
Meanwhile, Nichols had taken a job performing at the Opryland theme park in Nashville. "One day I got home from work and found a check for $1,400, royalties for the songs I'd written with Gilles. I started thinking that songwriting wasn't a bad way to make a living." Through the years Nichols and Godard went on to write hits for Terri Clark ("I Wanna Do It All") and Patty Loveless ("That's the Kind of Mood I'm In").
Ronnie Milsap was so impressed with Nichols' "This Time Last Year" that he cut the song and signed Nichols as a writer to his Milsap-Galbraith Music Group. Milsap also scored a Top 5 hit with Nichols' "All Is Fair in Love and War." Since then, Nichols has been a consistent hitmaker. He's penned No. 1 songs for Trace Adkins ("(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing"), Terri Clark ("Girls Lie Too"), Keith Whitley ("I'm Over You" and "Brotherly Love") and Lee Ann Womack ("I'll Think of a Reason Later"). Today he writes for Warner Chappell Music. Throughout his career, he's had songs cut by Tracy Byrd; Kenny Chesney; Faith Hill; Alan Jackson; Buddy Jewell; Sammy Kershaw; Reba McEntire; Jo Dee Messina; Brad Paisley; Collin Raye; Aaron Tippin; Travis Tritt; SHeDAISY; Clay Walker; Gretchen Wilson; Chely Wright; and others, but nothing garnered as much attention as "Live Like You Were Dying."
Nichols, who lives in Franklin, Tenn. with his wife Patsy and their two sons, Tyler and Landon, still has no desire to make his own albums or go on the road again.
"You know what they say about your 15 minutes of fame," Nichols concluded with a laugh. "I figure I've used up 10 or 11 minutes of mine, but that's OK. I just want to get back to what I do best, songwriting. Whatever performing bug I've got I can satisfy by playing writer's nights, but as far as getting a band and a bus, no thanks. I don't need my own album; it's enough work trying to get on other people's albums."
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® 2005 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
