Kevin Skinner's Mayfield, Kentucky was Also Hometown to Songwriter Kent Robbins

Kent Marshall Robbins (1947-1997) wrote or co-wrote some of the most popular and memorable country songs of the 1980s and '90s and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1985 for "Country Song of the Year" for composing "Love is Alive" a number one hit by "The Judds".

Robbins was born April 23, 1947 in Mayfield, Kentucky, a town of 10,000 people in western Kentucky that is also the hometown of Kevin Skinner, 2009 winner of NBC's "America's Got Talent" television show. While both men are from the Mayfield area, Robbins left Mayfield to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Robbins wrote many hit country songs.

Beginning in 1974, Robbins wrote songs for Pi-Gem records, a label associated with Country Music star Charlie Pride. In 1981, he founded a music publishing business of his own along with singer, songwriter, and publisher Buzz Cason.

Robbins died near the height of his songwriting career on December 27, 1997 in an automobile accident near Clanton, Alabama.

In 1998, one year after his death, Kent Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Eddie Rabbit and Merle Kilgore.

"The Judds" and Gary Allen recorded his songs.

Country songs that Robbins wrote include "Straight Tequila Night" that he co-wrote with Debbie Hupp and which was a number one hit in 1992 for John Anderson. Singer George Strait had a number one hit with "Write This Down" in 1994, a song Robbins also wrote with Hupp.　

"Young Love (Strong Love)" was a another number one hit for "The Judds" in 1989. Robbins wrote the song with Paul Kennerly.

Trace Adkins had a number three hit in 1996 with "Every Light in the House". Gary Allen had two hits with songs written by Robbins. "Her Man" in 1996 and "It Would Be You" in 1998 both reached number seven on the country singles chart. "It Would Be You" was co-written with Dana Hunt Black. "Her Man" was also recorded by Waylon Jennings in 1990.

Songs written by Robbins and recorded by Charlie Pride include "When I Stop Leaving" and "You're My Jamaica". Kathy Mattea recorded Robbin's song "Maybe She's Human" in 1994.

Other songs on which Robbins has songwriter's credit were recorded by popular artists such as Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood, Brooks & Dunn, Randy Travis, Steve Wariner, and Janie Frickie.

Many of these love songs are still played on Country Music stations. Though Kent Robbins left Mayfield to pursue his Country Music career, he is remembered in Mayfield by the restaurant Hill's Bar-b-que which named its small stage area "The Kent Robbins Memorial Stage", a stage on which Kevin Skinner has performed.