#231 Keith Stegall

Songwriter Trysts

For multiple Grammy, CMA, ACM Award-winning producer Keith Stegall, music has always been his life, strongly influenced by his dad, 1950s Abbott Records recording artist, Bob Stegall. The elder Stegall also played steel guitar for the legendary country singer Johnny Horton. Born in the central Texas town of Wichita Falls and raised in Shreveport (the home of the Louisiana Hayride, a stage his father often graced) the Stegalls were constantly playing and writing songs on guitars and the piano. It was by chance he met another famous Texan, Kris Kristofferson, who inspired Keith to move to Music City.

“Show me what you’ve got!” Kris told Keith backstage at a Kristofferson show. Keith played a couple songs, which prompted Kristofferson to remark, “Son, you need to get your ass to Nashville and hang out with other writers. They will break you down and make you the best you can be.” Keith took the advice to heart and three months after his arrival in 1978, Keith co-wrote his first hit, Dr. Hooks’ 1980 smash Sexy Eyes. Soon after, Helen Reddy, The Commodores, Johnny Mathis, and many others rushed to record Keith’s songs. Most notable was Al Jarreau’s career hit We’re In This Love Together. Eventually Keith signed a record deal with Capitol Records and later Epic Records. He released a pair of albums in the early 1980s with minor chart success. “Because I grew up in the studio,” Keith recalls, “the mistake I made was that they told me to produce myself.” The upside, he says, was he learned how to produce other artists by producing himself.

In the midst of trying to get his own artist career off the ground, a struggling nightclub singer named Randy Ray asked Keith to produce an independent album to sell at his local gigs. The project led to Keith producing the standout songs On The Other Hand and Reasons I Cheat on the singer’s epochal debut, “Storms of Life,” under the singer’s new moniker… Randy Travis.

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