Vince Gill
Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country, bluegrass, and rock singer, songwriter, and musician. He began in a number of local bluegrass bands in the 1970s, and from 1978 to 1982, he achieved his first mainstream attention as lead singer of the soft rock band Pure Prairie League. After leaving that band, Gill served as a backing musician for Rodney Crowell before beginning a solo career in 1984. Gill recorded for RCA Records Nashville from then until 1988. A year later, he signed with MCA Nashville, where he would have his country music breakthrough with When I Call Your Name between then and 1990. Gill has remained with MCA for all subsequent solo albums.
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant Gill
April 12, 1957
Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Singer, songwriter, musician
1975–present
His commercial peak came in the first half of the 1990s, starting with his breakthrough album When I Call Your Name. Gill has 65 entries on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including four solo number one hits: "I Still Believe in You", "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away", "One More Last Chance", and "Tryin' to Get Over You", all between 1992 and 1994. He has also had number-one singles as a guest on Reba McEntire's "The Heart Won't Lie" (1993), Chris Young's "Sober Saturday Night" (2016-17), and the multi-artist collaboration "Forever Country" (2016). All of Gill's albums released in the 1990s were certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with the highest being 1992's I Still Believe in You at quintuple-platinum. Gill has won 22 Grammy Awards, the most among solo male country music artists.
Gill was a member of bluegrass group the Time Jumpers from 2010 to 2020, and joined the rock band Eagles in 2017 following the death of longtime member Glenn Frey. He has also participated in a variety of collaborations, including songs by Patty Loveless, Brooks & Dunn, Kelly Clarkson, and Maren Morris. From 1980 to 1987 he was married to Janis Oliver, one-half of the country duo Sweethearts of the Rodeo. He married Christian pop singer Amy Grant in 2000, and has recorded several songs with her. Additionally, Gill has written songs for Alabama and Ty Herndon, and holds a number of credits as a backing vocalist and session musician.
Gill's music is known for his songwriting, his tenor singing voice, and his lead guitar work, with many critics noting his prolificacy in both ballads and up-tempo material. In addition to guitar, Gill plays mandolin and Dobro. His personal life is defined by his easygoing demeanor, leading many to term him as the "nicest guy in Nashville".
Biography[edit]
Vincent Grant Gill was born April 12, 1957, in Norman, Oklahoma,[1][2] as the youngest of three children to Jerene and Stan Gill.[3][4] Stan Gill worked as a judge and also played guitar and banjo, both of which he also taught his son how to play.[2][5] His mother also sang and played harmonica.[6] The Gill family often listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, as well as contemporary rock and roll artists.[7] Both parents also enjoyed golf, a pastime which Gill himself would develop as well.[8] As a child, Gill began playing a guitar his grandmother owned, and learned how to play "Old Shep" on it when he was five years old; three years later, he and his half-brother Bob played the Beach Boys' "Long Tall Texan" on a local radio show. Gill also took guitar lessons from a local guitarist named J. Julian Akins.[9] Additionally, Gill brought his guitar to school for show and tell a number of times, where he would entertain students by playing "The House of the Rising Sun".[10] Gill also learned how to play Dobro, fiddle, mandolin, and bass guitar during his teenage years.[2] He developed an interest in bluegrass music after becoming friends with the son of his father's friend, who was a fan of the genre and also played mandolin.[11] After graduating high school, Gill chose to become a bluegrass performer. He briefly founded his own bluegrass band called Mountain Smoke, which once opened for Kiss.[6] According to Gill, the crowd began booing and throwing objects on the stage, to which Gill responded by flipping the bird and mooning them.[12][13] After Mountain Smoke disbanded, Gill moved to the state of Kentucky.[2] There he played in the bands Bluegrass Allliance and Boone Creek, the latter of which also featured Ricky Skaggs as a member.[14] In 1976, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he briefly joined fiddle player Byron Berline's backing band, Sundance.[14]
Musical style[edit]
Gill's music is defined by his tenor voice, guitar playing, and breadth of influences. The editors of The Encyclopedia of Country Music wrote of Gill, "With an aching tenor, award-winning songwriting skills, and virtuoso guitar chops that rivals those of any ace Nashville session player, Vince Gill is one of today's biggest country superstars."[14] His vocal style has also been noted for its bluegrass music phrasing.[132] Steve Huey of AllMusic describes Gill as "one of the most respected musicians in the history of country music".[2] He characterizes Gill's early work as influential in the neotraditional country movements of the late 1980s to early 1990s, but thought his membership in both Pure Prairie League and the Eagles showed an interest in his music outside of country music as well.[2] Sarah Rodman of Entertainment Weekly referred to Gill as "the Oklahoma native with the tenor kissed by angels and the guitar prowess of a man who made a deal with the devil" and stated that he "rose to become one of the most respected names in country music, often serving as a link between the classic artists that preceded him and the generation of stars that have followed in his footsteps."[137] Jeffrey B. Remz, writing for Country Standard Time, stated that Gill "was a fine singer with his sturdy tenor, and his guitar playing has always been considered top notch. A heavy touring schedule resulted from his success with concerts sometimes going on for three hours. He was not a paint-by-the-numbers kind of country performer."[6] Joe Bosso of Guitar World describes Gill as having "virtuosic and sweetly expressive solos" in both flatpicking and fingerstyle guitar; in the same article, Gill himself stayed that he "play[s] what's necessary".[100] Erlewine called Gill's songwriting style "tasteful and assured".[94] Of his guitar playing, Jo Sgammato stated that his playing lead guitar while also being a vocalist was uncommon among country music artists; she also noted that critics had compared his style to Eric Clapton and Chet Atkins.[138]
Gill cites Merle Haggard as one of his main influences. In 2003, he stated in an interview with Country Standard Time, "he's the greatest singer, the greatest phraser, and then on top of that, his songs are really poetic."[6] He has also named female artists he grew up on, such as Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells, as influences.[128] Gill said that he characterized his own songwriting by "simplicity", a characteristic he also thought was present in the works of Hank Williams.[139] Jo Sgammato also noted in The Vince Gill Story that Gill's albums had a higher number of songs written by him than his contemporaries did.[140] She also thought the track "Nothing Like a Woman" from I Still Believe in You had a Motown influence due to Gill's "high, wailing chorus", while comparing both "Say Hello" from the same album and "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" from The Key to the Bakersfield sound.[141] Additionally, Sgammato observed that Gill tended to have hits with ballads more frequently than with up-tempo material, although she cited "Liza Jane" and "One More Last Chance" as successful examples of the latter.[142]
Gill has also been named as an influence by other artists. Jason Sellers played bass guitar in Gill's road band in the late 1990s,[143] and consulted Gill a number of times for career advice prior to singing with BNA Records in 1997. In a review of his debut album, Jeff Davis of Country Standard Time thought that Sellers idolized Gill and was "imitative" of him.[144] In turn, Sellers filled in for Gill on a number of live performances of "Don't Rush" where Gill was unvailable.[145][146][147] Country and bluegrass singer Charlie Worsham has named Gill as an influence, and claimed that "Liza Jane" was one of the first songs he learned to play on guitar. In 2018, Gill gave Worsham a custom-made guitar, which Worsham played on his second album Beginning of Things.[148]