Three chords, the truth and a room full of pure creative talent. About 1,300 guests gathered at Music City Center for the invitation-only 56th annual Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala.
The evening celebrated the songwriters behind some of music's biggest hits, inducting Taylor Swift, Lyle Lovett, Bruce Channel, Shawn Camp, Lee Thomas Miller and the late J.I. Allison.
The Oct. 26 celebration also brought more than 40 Hall of Fame songwriters onto one stage to honor George Strait as the second-ever recipient of the organization's Career Maker Award. Dean Dillon and Gary Nicholson presented the King of Country with a guitar signed by the writers gathered around him.
"When I first heard that they wanted to give me this award, I'm going like,
OK, I'll come. Only if I can make a speech," Strait joked. "You know how good at that I am."
Strait has recorded 264 songs written or co-written by 72 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members. Of those writers, 44 had not yet been inducted when he recorded their songs.
"I think they had this turned around because they made my career. I didn't make theirs," Strait said. "Nashville's shown me a lot of love over the years. I've always loved coming to Nashville and recording here around these guys and seeing them from time to time. And I just want to say thank y'all, all of you who sent songs my way and made my career. I appreciate it very much."
Taylor Swift remembers her beginnings
Brad Paisley introduced Swift, recalling the teenager who arrived in Nashville determined to become a songwriter.
"She is first and foremost one of us," Paisley said. "Somebody that came to Nashville as a teenager… All of us were like, how is this teenager doing this? How is she so brilliant?"
Country singer Lainey Wilson performed a bluegrass-tinged version of "Love Story" before Swift took the stage and confronted Paisley about a 2007 tour prank.
"I'm really surprised to see you here actually because we've been estranged since 2007," Swift joked. "He took a tour prank too far, filled my entire tour bus with live crickets, thousands of them. For months I couldn't sleep, just chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp all night. I considered buying a pet lizard to eradicate the problem. It was a dark time."
Swift said she was willing to forgive him because he had introduced her for the honor.
She then reflected on the words Nashville, songwriters and fame, explaining how the first two had shaped her life long before the third became a reality.
"I started writing songs when I was a little kid, and I knew from the time I wrote my first song that even if it couldn't be my career, it would be my passion," Swift said. "It would be what I centered my entire life around. Nashville is the place that I went to in my middle school daydreams. It was the place where all the wisdom that I wished to acquire existed in one place."
After signing a Sony publishing deal at 14, Swift spent afternoons writing with Liz Rose in a small red room at Jody Williams Music.
Her mother drove her there from Hendersonville High School. Swift remembered the receptionist's boyfriend occasionally stopping by: Eric Church. Behind the building, Nathan Chapman recorded her early demos in a small studio. She later fought for him to produce her debut album, which marked its 20th anniversary Oct. 24.
"I've been very fortunate. I've gotten to genre hop and travel the world and write with so many different people and in so many different ways," Swift said. "And the only reason that I've been able to have that kind of dexterity in my creative process is because of the fundamentals and the foundation that I learned here in Nashville. And I never forget that for a single second."
J.I. Allison's rock 'n' roll legacy
The ceremony began with the induction of the late J.I. Allison, whose songwriting partnership with Buddy Holly produced "That'll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue," "Think It Over" and "Well… All Right."
"J.I. Allison co-wrote some of the most significant and enduring songs in American music," music historian Robert K. Oermann said.
Chuck Mead of BR5-49 performed "That'll Be the Day" before Allison's wife, Joanie, accepted the honor on his behalf.
"J.I.'s best known for 'That'll Be the Day,' which he and Buddy Holly wrote years ago in West Texas," Joanie said. "They were just teenagers."
Bruce Channel's 'Dirty Dancing' legacy
Kix Brooks introduced Bruce Channel, whose 1962 hit "Hey! Baby" found a new audience through "Dirty Dancing."
"He took me under his wing immediately," Brooks said. "He made me feel so at home, made me feel like I was somebody, the way Don Gant did too. And I owe standing here tonight in large part to Bruce. We've been great friends and traveled all over the place together."
Lee Roy Parnell performed "Hey! Baby."
Channel remembered music publisher Don Gant helping him land his first Nashville No. 1 with T.G. Sheppard's recording of "Party Time."
"There's nothing unusual for him. He did it for so many. So many of your favorite songs came about because Don Gant had the foresight to get in the studio and do something with it," Channel said.
Lyle Lovett remembers his parents
Pat Alger introduced Lyle Lovett, recalling meeting him during Nanci Griffith recording sessions in 1984. Lovett handed him a cassette of roughly 18 songs, many later released on his first two albums.
Kathy Mattea performed "If I Had a Boat."
Lovett thanked the Nashville musicians who welcomed him, then spoke about his parents, who worked while attending night school at the University of Houston.
"I don't think there was ever a point in their lives when they made decisions based on what they wanted to do," Lovett said. "They made decisions in their lives based on what they had to do. When I came along, they didn't hold that against me and gave me every opportunity they could."
"It's such a privilege to be able to go through your life and do what you want to do," he added.
Lee Thomas Miller's family tribute
Lee Thomas Miller closed the evening with humor and an emotional tribute to his family. Randy Owen introduced him, and Jamey Johnson performed "In Color," which Johnson and Miller co-wrote with James Otto.
Miller thanked his wife, Jana, for supporting his career through decades of uncertainty.
"She has known me lost, broken, rejected, disappointed, disillusioned and irrelevant," Miller said. "I told her on day one I will never leave Nashville. I warned her the road would be hard and music would come first, and for some reason she signed up for all of that."
He remembered their son Levi, who died at age 25, and acknowledged their other children, Noah, Emma and Jacy.
Miller recalled arriving in Nashville in 1991 and getting fired four days into a job playing fiddle for Tom T. Hall. He also spoke about protecting songwriters' royalties amid challenges from technology companies.
"It is the greatest honor of my life, and I will be Silicon Valley's worst enemy as long as I can be productive," he said. "The radio was everything. The song is everything. Thank you, God. Thank you, Nashville."
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Swift reflects on fame at Songwriters Hall of Fame gala
