Legendary Songwriter Bobby Braddock Discusses his Career and New Book

It is rare that a song becomes part of American popular culture. Imagine being the songwriter of two such songs. That is one of the many accolades afforded Bobby Braddock. The Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee regaled a capacity crowd with tales of his life, stories behind some of his biggest hits, and his own renditions of his tunes at the Ford Theater of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville on September 15.

Braddock is now an author and producer as well as a songwriter. The first volume of his memoirs, Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida (LSU Press), was released in March to unanimous critical acclaim but, Braddock said, "That doesn't translate into sales." The book has sold well in Nashville and in Auburndale (which is frequently pronounced by Floridians as Orburndale; hence, the title), where Braddock's brother Paul still lives and now has to endure being called "Paulie," a childhood name.

Braddock began the 95-minute "Poets and Prophets" session at the Ford Theater by admitting to being nervous. "I usually screw up the first song," he admitted, "so I'll start with the fourth song." He did a verse of his fish pun classic "I Lobster and Never Flounder," which was a highlight of Pinkard and Bowden's debut Writers in Disguise album. After giving the crowd a good laugh, he sang the haunting "Time Marches On," which he later described as "condensing a person's life into three minutes."

The combination of the two songs is a good sample of Bobby Braddock's catalog. The man who began his Nashville career as piano player in Marty Robbins' band has produced such comical numbers as "Did You Ever" (Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery), "Her Name Is..." (George Jones), and "Bleep You" (Cal Smith). He has also written spine-tingling songs such as "Time Marches On" (Tracy Lawrence), "I Believe the South is Gonna Rise Again" (Tanya Tucker), and "Revelations" (Waylon Jennings).

Braddock spent a good deal of time discussing two of his biggest compositions with emcee Michael Gray of the Hall of Fame staff. He told how Tree song plugger Curly Putman (himself an outstanding songwriter) suggested a slight tempo change on the chorus of a song that no one seemed to want. "The melody's too happy for a sad song," Putman advised. Braddock took Putman's advice, and in less than a month Tammy Wynette had recorded what would become one of her signature songs, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."

Braddock's other contribution to American song culture began in 1977 when he wrote a song about a man who could not let go of the past. "The protagonist in that song is a very bad role model," he told the audience. The song did not get recorded until 1980, when Billy Sherrill, the legendary producer (and man who had made a hit of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E") recorded it for George Jones. Braddock said he "gave the song a 7" when he first wrote it, and in fact was more interested in hearing David Allan Coe's recording of "The Great Nashville Railroad Disaster" at Sherrill's office. One listen to the track cut with Jones, however, and Braddock knew it was something special. The song in question: "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Although initially "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was nothing special in the Jones catalog (many of his other songs spent longer periods of time at #1), the pain and emotion Jones conveyed in the song reached a nerve with listeners worldwide, even outside of country music. As a result, "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was named CMA "Song of the Year" two consecutive years (the second song of three songs to ever accomplish such a feat; the others were Freddie Hart's "Easy Lovin'" in 1971 and 72 and "Always on My Mind" in 1982 and 83) and became the song named "best country song ever" and "song of the century" in various polls. Braddock admitted he was apologetic to other songwriters when the song won its second "Song of the Year" CMA award, then quipped, "But I'm always open to getting things I don't deserve."

Braddock confessed he never considered himself much of a singer, not possessing the fire in his belly to be a singer full-time ("Fire in my throat, maybe, it never made it to my belly"). Even so, he released five albums, the last of which was Hardpore Cornography. One song on the album was titled "Dolly Parton's Hits" ("bouncing up the charts"). One program director in Utah was offended and told Braddock so, to which he replied, "Maybe you'll like my next song, it's called Porter Wagoner's blank." (Braddock, much like his tune "Bleep You," did self-censor.) For the record, Braddock said Parton "liked the song. She thought it was funny."

When the topic turned to production, Braddock described it as "the job from hell." His work with Blake Shelton has netted the young singer a number of hits (including the song "Some Beach," which features Braddock in the video as "the sadistic dentist"). His least favorite part of producing is having to reject songs pitched to him. "I remember how I used to feel when that happened," he admitted, "so I don't like that very much."

For a man who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1981, Braddock shows no signs of resting on his laurels. Monetary problems of the past behind him (at one time he admitted he had to sell the rights to his songs to his publishing company, Sony-Tree, because of debts and taxes, although Braddock praised the late Buddy Killen, president of Sony-Tree, for allowing Braddock to still receive a portion of royalties), he continues to write hits, scoring #1 songs in his fifth decade (thanks to Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me," which Braddock performed with tongue more firmly in cheek than Keith's rendition).

The session ended with Braddock performing two more of his compositions, "The Nerve" (recorded by George Strait on Carrying Your Love With Me), which he described as being inspired by a book about Einstein, and the classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today." After the performance, he went to the Hall of Fame gift shop, where he spent over an hour signing copies of Down in Orburndale.

Among the fans and friend in attendance for the "Poets and Prophets" program were legendary songwriters Bob McDill and John D. Loudermilk (the latter the subject of an earlier "Poets and Prophets" segment) and singer/songwriter Marshall Chapman. The fact that songwriters took time out of their busy schedule on a lovely Nashville Saturday afternoon ("McDill doesn't do this at all," Braddock said afterwards, indicating his gratitude for the songwriters' presence) shows just how much respect the Nashville community has for Bobby Braddock. The songs that played over the speakers, a small sampling of his long list of hits, showed why he is so deserving of that respect.