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By Kelly Dunn
I'm meeting with Billy Yates at his offices on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. Billy is Country to the core. The man and his music and have been on a magical, musical tour since he was a young man growing up in Missouri. He's as sincere as the day is long. I believe he's one Country artist deserving of more exposure and critical acclaim. Aside from his great songwriting ability anyone would be proud to have Billy as one of their close friends. Here's a blurb from his web site which really sums it up best: "Billy Yates may be best known as a hit songwriter, having written songs for some of Country Music's best including: GEORGE STRAIT, KENNY CHESNEY, SARA EVANS, JOE NICHOLS, JOHN MICHAEL MONTGOMERY, DAVID ALLAN COE, RICKY VAN SHELTON, RICOCHET, DARYLE SINGLETARY, TRACY LAWRENCE, JEFF BATES, DOUG STONE, OAK RIDGE BOYS and GARY ALLAN, not to mention the GEORGE JONES' classic, "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" and his Grammy-winning smash, "Choices". Billy Yates is also one fine Honky Tonk singer! With five CD's to his credit, Yates currently records for his own, M.O.D. (My Own Damn) Record Label and tours Europe extensively where he also dominates the airplay charts there with his smooth honky tonk style of traditional country music."
As Billy walks into the meeting room he's wearing a cowboy hat, shirt, jeans, boots and a big smile!
Kelly Dunn: Billy! Great to see you! I'm glad you have a little time to spend with me today!
Billy Yates: It's great to be here! I'm on the road alot but I'm here and ready to go! (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: Hows the new cd going?
Billy Yates: It's doing excellent. The sales are great! Most of my marketing is done in Europe as opposed to the States here. There's the single, "Better Every Beer" which is getting great response in Europe and in North Americas. I also recorded a duet with George Jones called, "Choices". Doing that song with George Jones was very special to me.
Kelly Dunn: How did the duet with George Jones come about...
Billy Yates: We met back in '92 and we stayed in touch since then. We really hit it off as friends. We get together every once in awhile to sing, play and just hang out. During one of our visits I told him about this song I wrote and that I wanted him to record it with me. The scheduling was a nightmare but we got it done. The timing actually delayed the release of the CD. George sounds pretty dog gone good. You know, he's seventy five years old now and he sounds as good as ever!
Kelly Dunn: Is it different to market a CD yourself in Europe as opposed to here in the United States...
Billy Yates: Well, I own my record label so overall it's hard to compete with the bigger labels. Country music is much bigger here than it is in Europe. Over in Europe it's primarily Pop music.
Kelly Dunn: I've been told that Keith Urban is big over in Europe but he's marketed as a Pop artist...
Billy Yates: Country music just isn't that big over there. Depending on who you speak with you'll get different answers. For me the fan base in Europe is great so it makes it worthwhile for me to go there and do shows and make appearances. The last show I did there was in Lithuania and there were 42,000 people at the concert. So the numbers are good for me to pursue it. But the sales are not big enough for the larger labels to really go after the European market.
Kelly Dunn: Do you sell t-shirts and merchandise in Europe?
Billy Yates: Primarily I sell CD's. It's difficult to bring t-shirts with us so we have manufacturers to take care of it.
Kelly Dunn: It must be hard to ship stuff since 9-11...
Billy Yates: The biggest problem is the Customs Office, and yes, the security thing...
Kelly Dunn: What about using marketing through Wal-Mart or places like that...
Billy Yates: I have offices here on Music Row and I do get approached about distribution deals and such everyday. But again it's getting the exposure to push the CD's. Honestly, I could put my CD's into Wal-Mart today but without the radio airplay it's hard to get someone to buy the CD. I do have a lot of venues but I don't pursue that here in the States as much as I do in Europe.
Kelly Dunn: I was just wondering how all that works...
Billy Yates: It's a great question and really it's just hard to compete here with the big labels without the airplay.
Kelly Dunn: I don't get why you don't get more airplay...
Billy Yates: Well, for an independent to release a CD here, the manufacturing, the shipping… it's a lot of money. But the pay off is great if you're willing to take the chance.
Kelly Dunn: So Europe will be the main focus for awhile...
Billy Yates: Well, it is, I've found my niche over there. I've been able to bring Country music to places that it was never played before. Like non-Country venues like The Paradise where all the major rock artists perform, like The Rolling Stones. So when we play there we really give the music an extra edge to it because that's what they like. When we first get up on stage their like, "What is this?" But soon they are bopping their heads and soon they are really into it and enjoy it. (laughter) It's like they have discovered a whole new kind of music. So if you present the music in such a way that it's cool they'll buy into it. That's really an exciting thing to me, to expose Country music to people that have never heard it.
Kelly Dunn: How did you start out in music...
Billy Yates: I grew up in a musical family. My folks had a radio program while I was growing up. We played churches and other venues. On both sides of the family every body was very musical. I have an uncle that's still a songwriter in Nashville who has had songs cut by George and Tammy and other people like the Wilburn Brothers, that kind of thing. So as a kid it was always in the back of my mind...just maybe... (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: So you were really living and breathing music at a young age!
Billy Yates: Oh yeah! I was growing in the middle of nowhere in Missouri walking those fields singing and thinking I was on the Grand Ole Opry stage (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: How long have you been in Nashville?
Billy Yates: I've been here twenty years now and I still fell like a youngster. You know how it is coming to Nashville, and if you love Country music the way I do it is the best feeling in the world. While I'm walking down the streets of Nashville I think of all the history, the people that have walked these same streets, I still get that feeling twenty years later! And now I have my own office on Music Row...
Kelly Dunn: You are really a true success story...
Billy Yates: If you knew where I came from it really is! I can't complain about record deals that didn't work out and things that didn't happen. To be able to call George Jones a friend, to have played the Orpy more than a dozen times, it's more than words can say.... As a kid from Missouri I had a dream of making music. I was a kid when I came here. The thing about being a kid is you have no fear and you don't understand the obstacles...
Kelly Dunn: If young people had the mind of an older person I don't think they'd do it...
Billy Yates: That's right, I don't think they would. A kid is just like, "There's the world.." As a kid you don't think about the odds of not making it. For the first five years I played for nothing just so people could hear me play. I paid the dues. A lot of what I know I learned the hard way because there was no other way to learn it...
Kelly Dunn: At one time you were connected with some of the bigger labels...
Billy Yates: My first deal was made before I came to Nashville. I recorded four songs for RCA and that didn't work out. Then I moved to Nashville and signed a deal with Curb Records. One single came out in '92 but it never worked out. It took a long time to get out of that contract. Eventually I signed with Almo Sounds which was owned by Jake Moss and Herb Alpert who owned A and M Records, you know, the song, Tijuana Brass. Then I went to Sony and I had two singles that flopped. Basically I was kicked out the door of every label!
Kelly Dunn: Listening to your music you seem very secure in what you're doing...
Billy Yates: Well I am. It's what I believe and what I love to do. In fact I'm not an expert in anything except what I know, and that's Country music. Still, today I enjoy lot's of other kinds of music. For instance, I was listening to Joss Stone on my way to work today. She's got a great voice, she's probably never heard of me or Country music but I appreciate great talent. The thing that gives me goose bumps is when I listen to great traditional, Country music. At the labels there was always a part of me that never felt fulfilled. I always felt like I was making some kind of compromise. I never felt I was true to myself. Even though the songs I did with the labels were Country by anyone’s standards, it still wasn't the way I wanted it. At some point I just had to walk away from all of it and just do it the way I wanted to do it. You can call them bad experiences but I call it an education...
Kelly Dunn: You couldn't buy that education...
Billy Yates: It's a college education if there ever was one for the real music business...
Kelly Dunn: I get asked that everyday, "Is there one book I can buy..." And it's like...
Billy Yates: Yes that's it. The sad truth is I get calls everyday, asking me how can they get their songs heard and there is no easy way, there is no one way...
Kelly Dunn: I think a lot of people outside of Nashville thinks there is a building with a guy inside with a Yes/No stamp (laughter)
Billy Yates: So much of it is having the ability but it's being at the right place at the right time. Networking, somebody liking you and taking a chance...look, the odds are against you. There are only a handful of people making money and it's nearly impossible with all the big publishers, middle publishers etc...
Kelly Dunn: That leads to this phenomenon I've been thinking about that doesn't get much attention: How many albums and songs get cut that never get released...
Billy Yates: Absolutely. Probably warehouses full of CD'sare sitting there waiting to be released.
Kelly Dunn: Who do you surround yourself with for ideas and such...
Billy Yates: I surround myself with young people. I have a few 19, 22 years olds that I have around the office. I like their emotion and their energy. They have lots of ideas and I like that.
Kelly Dunn: It seems that as people age the ideas seem to get stuck in time...
Billy Yates: Yeah, people tend to get jaded after getting so many rejections and are they always remain bitter about it. It thrills my soul to be in it! To be able to go down to Nashville and then write a new song, go into the studio. It’s a great thing!
Kelly Dunn: Do you have a group of co-writers that you stick with?
Billy Yates: I've got a handful of people that I write with on a regular basis. But I don't write with anyone more than once or twice a month.
Kelly Dunn: So what's new and exciting this year!
Billy Yates: In February I'm shooting a pay-per-view show, On-Demand, for Comcast down in the Bahamas. And then I'm shooting two more in Switzerland and Norway during July.
Kelly Dunn: Is this being shot in-concert, live concert?
Billy Yates: This will show everything leading up to the concert, having fun, snorkeling, I'll be on the beach with an umbrella drink writing a song (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: So it like a, "Day in the Life with Billy Yates"?
Billy Yates: Yeah, it's going to fun and hope everybody enjoys watching the show! I
Kelly Dunn: What guitars do you own?
Billy Yates: Well I have a bunch of guitars. I'm not a great guitar player but I love playing. (laughter) Some of them I feel I don't deserve based on the way I play. But I have Taylor's, Martin's, I have a handful junk guitars. My favorite is a 1947, D-28 Martin. I only take it out if I'm playing the Orpy or somewhere here in town. There's a guitar that I leave in Europe an Epiphone EJ-200, a big jumbo guitar. The guitar I write with all the time is a Takamine.
Kelly Dunn: Do you like Gretch guitars?
Billy Yates: I love Gretch guitars but I don't own one...yet! (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: Billy, 2007 sounds like it's going to your best year ever. I wish you all the success in the world!
Billy Yates: Kelly, I really appreciate everything and I'll see you at one of shows! Tell everyone at SongwriterPro that I said hello!
Visit Billy Yates's web site at: www.BillyYates.com or www.MySpace.com/billyyates
Article: © SongwriterPro.com Kelly Dunn - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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