On the latest episode of I Miss…90s Country Radio with Nick Hoffman on Apple Music Country, Nick spins some funny songs from the 90s era including music from Kenny Chesney, Mindy McCready and Billy Ray Cyrus, joined by Deana Carter, Tim Rushlow from Little Texas, Trace Adkins and more. Tune into the episode anytime on-demand now.
Trace Adkins on breaking into the industry
I didn’t really know where I was going to fit in, but I kind of felt like I had a bass voice that would maybe be just different enough that I might be able to earn a living. And it was ’95. I was right smack dab in the middle of it, when Scott Hendricks signed me to Capitol Records.
Scott Hendricks on meeting Trace Adkins
I was at the airport at the baggage claim, and Rhonda comes walking up with this humongous guy. She said, “This is the guy I wanted you to meet, Trace,” and he said, “Oh.” I said, “Oh my God. I can’t wait to hear you sing. If you talk like that, you got to sing like that.” Within a couple of days, I took everyone on the Capitol staff that would go, and we went to a club and Trace was doing a set in this club, and at his first break, I went up to him and signed him on the spot.
Bryan White on Neal McCoy
When I think of Neil, I think of persistence. He’s a guy that, a lot like Vince Gill, those two guys worked at it really hard for years and years and released multiple records without anything happening. But yet he, Neil, stuck with it and no doubt about it finally popped for him and it paid off. So when I think of Neil, I think of hard work and persistence.
Deana Carter on Mindy McCready
I was like a big sister to her in a way. She was always super sweet. But she was the hottie. All the radio guys were just a flutter about Mindy. She was blonde, she was tan, she was young. She could scuba dive for lobsters. She was sort of like the Bond girl of new artists. At radio, she had a lot of success because she was hot.
Tracy Lawrence on John Anderson
John and I got to spend a lot of time together over the years. We toured with George Jones. I got to work with John a lot over the years. I have so much respect for him. He’s just a sweet, gracious guy, and a phenomenal artist. What a style. Man, nobody sounds like John. He’s just a cool cat, man.
Tim Rushlow on Little Texas and breaking into success
We were real. There was no fake, there was no man-made band. We all had our own thing. And I think that we were playing five sets a night, six nights a week, and traveling a 1000 miles in a van and a trailer all night Saturday and Sunday, and getting to Farmington from Dallas, setting up, rehearsing all day, sound checking and playing, again, four or five sets a night till Saturday night at midnight it closed down, we pack it up and we take a NoDoz pill and a cup of coffee and drive a 1000 miles to LA and set back up and do it the next night. And so, healthy? Probably not. But did it get us there? Sure. And so those hours of rehearsals and those hours of working to make sure we could figure out how to make people quit drinking a beer and sit and watch us, that was half of it because that was the entertainment value. The other part of it was the crafting of the songs that the guys were writing. And then going, “Hey, here’s a new one. Work this up, Tim. What do you think of this?” And some fit me, some didn’t, and then we’d figure it out and then we just kept going until all of a sudden, we were a six year overnight success.
Tim Rushlow on the song “God Blessed Texas”
I think our reply was, well, it worked for Skynyrd with “Sweet Home Alabama,” so why don’t we just try it? We’re getting such a reaction to this song live, and it was such a danceable song. And at the time, people were loving it at line dance and the song wasn’t written for that. It was just written to be a great song. And it wasn’t saying Texas is better than anywhere else in the world. It was just simply saying God definitely blessed Texas with some beautiful women that love to dance. And that’s what the songs premise was about, and that it worked.
Tim LaRoche on Toby Keith
There’s sort of three parts to his career. There was the part when he was playing in a bar band, and then you’ve got Toby Keith who moved to Nashville and said, “Okay, I’m going to play by the rules.” And that was the “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” years, the earlier stuff. But then I think the third phase is you get the Toby Keith who was like, “That’s it. I need to do things my way or not at all.” And luckily that paid off for him because it’s hilarious.
Donna Valentine on Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart”
That is a song that could make or break an artist because it’s cheesy enough that people are like, “Oh God, I’m going to make a caricature out of the person who’s singing the song” or every time at a wedding going to get up and dance to that song. And it’s always going to create some kind of memory for you.
Luckily, Billy Ray Cyrus was able to have a few really legitimate, deeper singles that legitimized his career a little bit. He’s a great artist, but I really think that it could have gone either way. It was taking a really big chance by releasing that song.
Tim LaRoche on Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart”
Some people loved it and some people hated it, but my whole family was into the line dancing. I felt like maybe the song got connected to the line dancing. And it was like, it’s the best thing that could have happened to the song, and it’s the worst thing that could have happened to the song, because at the core of it is just a great, clever lyric. It’s an excellent beat. It’s a feel good tune.
