Biography[edit]

Stevens was born in Alum Creek, West Virginia.^[2] At age nine, he and his brother Warren entered a talent contest and won first place.^[3] Eventually, they and cousin Terry Dotson formed a band called Jeff Stevens and the Bullets, with Jeff on lead vocals and guitar, Warren on bass guitar, Dotson on drums, and Jim Mayo on rhythm guitar and harmonica.^[4] The band recorded Bolt out of the Blue for Atlantic America Records in 1986, which accounted for the singles "Darlington County" (a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song^[3]), "You're in Love Alone" and "Geronimo's Cadillac." A fourth chart single, "Johnny Lucky and Suzi 66,"^[2] led off a second self-titled album. In the mid-1980s, Jeff Stevens and Dotson co-wrote Atlanta's singles "Atlanta Burned Again Last Night" and "Sweet Country Music."^[3]


The Bullets broke up in 1990 and Stevens remained on Atlantic as a solo artist, working with record producer Keith Stegall for a solo debut album which was never released.^[3] From there, Stevens found work as a songwriter, writing a string of hits including the singles "I Fell in the Water" by John Anderson, "Down in Flames" by Blackhawk, the number one hit "Reckless" for Alabama,^[3] and "Big Love" and "I Wanna Feel That Way Again" for Tracy Byrd.^[5] George Strait also recorded Stevens' "Carried Away," "Carrying Your Love with Me" and "True,"^[5] the first two of which went to number one as well. Stevens had another number one in 2004 with Tim McGraw's "Back When."^[5]


In 1999, Stevens began work as a record producer, co-producing Jerry Kilgore's debut album Love Trip. Among other acts Stevens produces Luke Bryan, and co-wrote Bryan's singles "All My Friends Say", "Someone Else Calling You Baby" (which went to number one in early 2011), and "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", also a number one hit for Bryan in late 2012.