Tom Douglas (songwriter)
Thomas Stevenson Douglas (born January 27, 1953) is an American country music songwriter. He has written Top 10 Billboard Country hits for John Michael Montgomery, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Collin Raye, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney and others.
Early life[edit]
Tom Douglas was born in Atlanta, where he grew up with musical influence from his father, who sold steel by day and played the piano and ukulele at night.[2] Douglas describes, “There was always music in the house” and describes his father as being an artist at heart. Tom took piano lessons in second grade, but didn't find real interest in the instrument until he first heard “Your Song” by Elton John. He would often practice and learn by playing Glen Campbell hits, especially those written by Jimmy Webb, who is Douglas’ idol.[3]
Douglas graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1975, and from Georgia State University in 1977 with an MBA. He worked in Atlanta selling advertising, but decided to quit his job to pursue his calling in songwriting. At the age of 27, Douglas opened a small publishing company with two of his friends, and moved to Nashville to pursue music for four years.[4] During his time in Nashville, he met his wife, Katie, with whom he decided to move to Dallas to work in commercial real estate, where he would stay for 13 years and raise 3 children.[3]
Career[edit]
In 1993, after revisiting songwriting as a hobby, Douglas attended a songwriters’ seminar in Austin and he played his song “Little Rock” for producer/publisher Paul Worley, who decided to take some of Tom's songs back to Nashville with him. One of his first cuts, "Little Rock," recorded by Collin Raye, made it to the country top ten in 1994, peaking at #2.[5] "Little Rock" was nominated for Song of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1994,[6] and received a "Million-Air" award from Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) for receiving one million spins on country radio.[7] Douglas then signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in June 1994,[8] and returned to Nashville, Tennessee in 1997.[7]
Douglas topped the charts again in 1998 with his second number-one hit, “The Gift”, as recorded by and co-written with Jim Brickman.[9] In 2001, Douglas started cowriting for Tim McGraw, and wrote the Number One singles "Grown Men Don't Cry" and "Southern Voice," as well as the Top Five songs "My Little Girl" (which also became the end title for the Fox film, “Flicka” in 2006) and "Let It Go."[8] He cowrote on McGraw's 2015 album Damn Country Music As well.
He also co-wrote Martina McBride's "Love's the Only House," as well as Lady Antebellum's Number One "I Run to You."[8][6] In 2009 Tom received the rare Triple Play Award, in which he had three number one hits in a year. These included Lady Antebellum's “I Run To You”, followed by Tim McGraw's “Southern Voice” and Miranda Lambert's “The House That Built Me”.
In 2016, Douglas decided to venture out of his regular co-writing to create Shatter the Madness, a project written with his songwriting partner Allen Shamblin. The project consisted of a mixed-media collection of songs and music videos about a man's struggle to find wholeness in a broken world. Douglas was a vocalist for the four-song project, which included his version of the hit Miranda Lambert made famous, "The House That Built Me."[10]