Renowned record producer and songwriter Dann Huff joins Apple Music for an interview with Nick Hoffman to discuss his work in the country music genre, how his upbringing influenced his career, playing on Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” and more. Tune in and listen to the interview with Dan Huff in-full this Saturday (March 5) at 8am PST / 10am CST / 11am EST or anytime on-demand here.
Dann Huff on his upbringing, watching session guitarists growing up
Anything in the studio, any guitar player that played in the studio to me was kind of above a godlike status. And that’s really all I set my sights on when I was certainly by the time I was 13, 15, no doubt. And then, started playing my first demo sessions when I was 17 or 18.
Dann Huff on breaking into music as a session guitarist, pursuing rock/pop over country
Here I was, early 20s, starting my career as a guitar player. I didn’t play country music. I didn’t listen to country music. None of it. I had no background. My father was in symphonic music, and my sights were on more rock music or pop music, you know? So consequently, Los Angeles really was a destination for me, more so than Nashville at that time. So, we moved out to the west coast and I was lucky enough to break in the session scene very quickly.
Dann Huff on the way Nashville music changed in the 90s
There was a change afoot and Nashville has always done this thing where it assimilates all the music of the day, the pop music of the day, just by luck. I was high profile enough as a studio musician, I played on enough big pop hits. Nashville at that time was hungry for that. I didn’t know anything about country music then. We were in 90s and I was absolutely terrified of it. And then all these producers basically told me, they said, “Look, we don’t need you to handle with the country guitar player. No, interpret it through your lens, through what you’ve done in your career and we’ll take care of the rest.” So, it was an invite that I couldn’t refuse, and is back to my session date.
Dann Huff on translating his success from L.A. to Nashville
When I came back one time to Nashville for Tony Brown, to play on a Reba record, and Steve Gibson was playing guitar, and Steve Gibson just smoked me, and I was just like, “I suck,” Tony, to his credit, he said, “Hey, just do what you do. Steve can do that.” But that was my fear of this landscape here [In Nashville].
Dann Huff on Mutt Lange, playing on Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine”
I’d been working with him on some pop records, rock records. And it was when he had mentioned, they started courting and he said he was going to come to Nashville and do a country record. I said, “Really? You’re not lying?” And he said, the funniest thing was, we were in London, this studio in London at the time, and this is in the ’90s, and he said, “Yeah, but I’m not going to use you.” He didn’t mean it as an insult. He said, “But I won’t be calling you,” is what he said. And I said, “Why?” He said, “Because you don’t know anything about country music really.” And he was studied enough to know that that was a true statement. He knew I was a rock pop session player. That’s why I was doing his other records. And fast forward, I knew he was in Nashville, starting to cut Shania’s first record. And I get this phone call midday one day, “Hey man, do you have some time? Could you come in and have a play?” That was the way he put it. And I said, “On Shania?” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “I thought you said I didn’t know enough about country music to play on it.” He said, “Yeah, but I’ve been reconsidering. I need your wrist.” Meaning he liked the way I played rhythm, the first song that I stepped into was “Any Man of Mine.”
