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Braden Heidner Lowe and Associates was formed with the ability and passion to offer clients an unsurpassed level of government relations and association management services. Tune in to our podcasts to find out what is happening in your local political arena, how you can increase association involvement, how to hone in on good professional and personal skills, and more!
Scott Heidner: [00:00:00] BHL podcast listeners, welcome back for part two of our podcast with guest Tony Migliore in Nashville, Tennessee. so this next one, gosh, I mean, probably the biggest name of all. You actually played a live show. You were the side man with Elvis Presley.
One time. One time, yeah.
Tony Migliore: Well, it, you know, it was fairly early in my Nashville career. They took a whole band to Tuscaloosa, to the university, 'cause he was doing a couple of days of concert. Uh, two days. Two days.
No two concerts in one day. so I went down to play piano. I was just a sub, [00:01:00] and it was one of the most electrifying moments I'd ever seen. I mean, yes, everybody knew who Elvis was, and he was this larger than life figure, but he was very humble. The portrayal that some have put on him, was not really who he was.
He was very devoted to family. He loved gospel music. And one Grammy, he received, I think, I think he only ever got one Grammy, and it was for a gospel album.
Scott Heidner: That's a trivia question not
many
of us would get, right.
Tony Migliore: I, I think that's right. Yeah. You know, uh, I probably, probably wrong.
But, anyway, it was, I don't know how many people that, arena held, but that was in the days of flashbulb cameras not what we have today. A constant flashing. Throughout that place you couldn't see was it just [00:02:00] blinding? I'd never seen anything like it before in my life or since.
Unbelievable.
Scott Heidner: And, and to last the entire con concert, you know, not just the first five minutes he walks out, but you said it never stopped. No.
Tony Migliore: And and the screaming and all, you know, all, all the things that you hear about. Yeah. They were all true.
Scott Heidner: And, was it nerve rattling to know that like, this is a big deal.
This is one.
Tony Migliore: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I was, I was scared to death. It, it was, yeah. Got through it, lived through it. Still have the backstage pass. Do you really? I do. This, that's one of the things you don't get rid of. Yeah. I bet that's right. I bet that's right. I've had, I've had people offer me money for it and I said, oh, don't think so.
Yeah.
Scott Heidner: Well, I mean, talk about taking out the bucket list and checking one big box. Yeah. Played a show with Elvis Presley. Yeah. Good grief. You also worked the, the forgotten, you know, rockabilly, whatever you wanna categorize 'em as. Carl Perkins, you worked with him a little bit [00:03:00] too, didn't you?
Tony Migliore: Mm-hmm. Did, uh, did a couple of albums with him.
Yeah. Later in his career.
I keep saying, these people are so nice and, but, you, you're not bringing up fortunately, the ones that aren't size, so that's good. But, no, Carl was a very sweet man, very humble. He had some mishaps in his earlier life. Yeah. But, we had the best time with him. And he was so appreciative of the other musicians.
I mean, especially the guitar players on the session we're all looking at him like, I'm playing with Carl Perkins, and he's going, man, I can't believe how great you guys are. That's awesome. Uh, it was a mutual admiration. And, and,
Scott Heidner: what a fun vibe to record in.
Tony Migliore: Yes, absolutely.
Scott Heidner: No doubt.
Tony Migliore: Yeah.
Scott Heidner: My dad always said, Carl Perkins, but for you, you mentioned he had some mishaps early in his career.
In terms of his talent and what an entertainer he was, should have been huge. Like [00:04:00] Elvis, he, he loved Carl Perkins. Mm-hmm. Well move on to another artist. This is another fun story. Hank Williams, Jr. Speak, speaking of a couple mishaps early in the career, but, uh, my gosh, an unbelievable longevity and mm-hmm.
An unbelievable story. And if I've gotten my facts right, you can confirm. You kind of got called in almost on a unexpected last minute deal and ended up playing on one of the most iconic albums ever. Mm-hmm. At least of that era. For sure. Tell us, tell us about that.
Tony Migliore: I got a call from his producer, Jimmy Bowen, and said, I need you to overdub some piano on one of Hank's albums here that we're working on.
And I said, okay. So I go in, I think it was like a Saturday even it may, it may have been a Saturday. But, so I went in and [00:05:00] Jimmy came in and he said, Hank has left some notes for you on Track 24. Just listen to what he says and do that. So he left and the engineer and I were there together and we started working on this thing.
And I played through, I'm not sure if I played on seven or eight songs, but most of them, but a good number of them. Yeah. And, uh, that turned out to be the, country boy can Survive album, good grief. And, but you know, at the time, who knows, but Hank
Scott Heidner: wasn't there.
Tony Migliore: No, he wasn't. I've actually never met Hank face to face.
Scott Heidner: So you, you can survive, but you've never actually met Hank. Right. That's amazing. Boy, you're permanently attached to some big songs there, though. That's crazy. Eddie Arnold. Mm-hmm. So that is an old, old school name, but he was, big in my house as a kid. [00:06:00] What was your exposure there?
Tony Migliore: Met well through, um, through Owen and Harold Bradley.
I met Eddie. Eddie and Owen and Chet were the three of 'em best friends. Henry Ray Stevens also. They were great friends. They did things together outside of They would go on the boat together. They were just best buddies. Harold called me to play on a later album with, Eddie.
And, uh, so I went in and met Eddie at that time. I, I had met Eddie earlier, but just casually, like at lunch or something, but we didn't really know each other and so I went in and played on this album got to know Eddie a little bit and subsequently played on another album. And he asked me to come out with him, to Laughlin, Nevada.
He was about to retire, [00:07:00] and he said he was doing his last road gig in Laughlin at one of the hotels there. I think it was two weeks. And if I would come out and play piano and conduct for him. And I said, yeah, why not? And uh, so I did. And it was a fun time, you know, and Eddie basically retired from the road after that, after that gig.
And I, I hate to think that maybe I put him over the top, over the edge, but I don't think so.
Scott Heidner: Well, it sounds like he knew it was gonna be his last, but to me that's just another moment. Like so many of the others you've had to, well, to have ever played with Eddie Arnold would be mind blowing to me, but to know you played and conducted, probably wrote the orchestral charts.
Tony Migliore: I don't think I did. Okay. I think they were already written up.
Scott Heidner: Uh, but two have played and conducted for the last ever [00:08:00] Eddie Arnold show. I mean, I think Eddie Arnold, the trivia, he certainly doesn't have the most number one hits, but he. And I think, I think George Jones has the most top 10, but I think Eddie Arle maybe has the most top 40 charting songs in country music history.
Very possible. Yeah. And I also think he is, now it's my turn to say a fact that I'm not entirely sure about, but I think he is the only artist to chart in six different decades. And what pushed him into that last decade, he did a duet with Leanne Rimes. Mm-hmm. On cattle call. Mm-hmm. Yes. And I think it barely blipped into the charts, but I think it put Eddie on as the only, the only artist to chart in all those decades and still be alive.
Right. Part of the Wow. Yeah. Actively recording. I didn't, I didn't know that. Yeah. His pedigree is Oh, I know. It's just [00:09:00] superlative. And of those, well, I'm not gonna rank 'em of those three crooners, him and Ray Price and, and Jim Reeves. I don't know. Well, two more artists I want to ask you about, and then I'm gonna switch gears into your touring life, which honestly, to most people is probably the bigger story even than what we've talked about.
Janie Frickey, Janie Frickey. So true country music fans will know the name. If you're not deeply into country music, you might not, but you've probably heard her, whether you knew it or not, because of how prolific, prolific she is. As, as backup singer in addition to her own substantial, you know, career.
How did you meet her and what's your relationship there?
Tony Migliore: I met Janie in sometime in the seventies. She had been living in Memphis and singing jingles over there, for those that aren't familiar with that term. [00:10:00] Commercials, singing commercials. And she moved over here to Nashville and I was working for a company that was doing a lot of jingles.
I mean, we'd do maybe 3, 4, 5 a week. Some were small local car dealerships. Some were things like United Airlines. And Janie kind of became one of the premier singers of, of a lot of those jingles. She, and, and she was singing a lot of big national campaigns, things like Red Lobster and United and, I can't name 'em all, but, you know, doing very well, doing that.
And one day she, she and I were friends, we were hanging out and she said, uh, they wanna sign me to a record deal with Columbia. What do you think? And I said, well, if that's your [00:11:00] dream, I guess you want to do it. But, uh, but you're, you're doing so well as a jingle singer and you get to go home and play with your pets at night, and you're not having to travel the country on a bus.
So weigh the two. What do you think? And, uh, obviously she went for the career and I, I, and I don't blame her one bit because she had a, she had a sterling career. And, uh, she's still one of the absolute best female singers to ever come through this town. And a sweet, lovable gal. Yeah. Yeah.
Does she still work? Some? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't seen her in a while, but, uh, yeah, she'll come into town now and then do the Opry and, but I think she's still working some, a very versatile voice. Oh, yes.
Scott Heidner: Boy, she could do a lot of things. Great singer. Mm-hmm. Well, let me, the last question I want to ask you about gigs [00:12:00] and yet another topic where, younger listeners may have to do some research, but back when The Tonight Show was its best version with Johnny Carson.
Mm-hmm. You, I'll, I'm not even gonna preface it. Tony, you just tell us the story. You found your way and had a remarkable experience there.
Tony Migliore: I did. I did. Um,
Scott Heidner: well, was it, was it Willie? Is that, no, it
Tony Migliore: was
Scott Heidner: Don McClain. Was
Tony Migliore: it Don? Yes. Okay. And we're gonna get into that later. Okay. Um, I, I had been recording with Don and writing some arrangements and stuff for his, record albums.
He called me to come out to California and do The Tonight Show with him. And, we did it twice. The first time he had to do the Obligatory American Pie and Vincent. The second time we went out and he said, I want, I wanna do this old song from, I guess the [00:13:00] thirties. Nobody knows you when you're down and out, and, uh, he said, I want you to write an arrangement for that band.
And that band at the time was probably the, the cream of the crop. They, they definitely were the Tonight Show Band. There was none better. And, uh, so I said, okay. And needless to say, I was nervous as a cat. Um, but, I went out, we went to the rehearsal and you know, there I am sitting at the piano.
Derrick Smith stepped away and Doc Everson looks at me. He says, Tony, this is your chart, right? I said, yeah. He says, the band is yours. And he just stepped back and, the rehearsal went flawlessly. Thank God. I mean, I could have, it could have been the end of me, but it went really well.
And I had [00:14:00] several of the musicians in the band come up to me afterward and say, man, we don't get to play that kinda stuff anymore. You know, most of what we do are record covers. So it's fun to do something like that again.
Scott Heidner: So you got to be not only write the charts for, but got to be the conductor for the Tonight Show Band
Tony Migliore: for the one song.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Hey, that's, uh, one more than anybody else I know or will ever know. And again, it will be a little bit lost on the younger audience, but I mean, that was the. Yeah, that was the elite. Yeah. I mean, there's no higher pinnacle, well, not many higher pinnacles to go than that in its time. That's pretty awesome.
Yeah. Well, I tell you what, that is a, a run through and believe it or not, just a fraction of the stories and the artists. But, and I could talk about that stuff for days with you and enjoy it very much. But let's switch gears to your touring careers. I say careers somewhat [00:15:00] intentionally.
While you have played out and toured with numerous people, there are are really two very significant sustaining stops that you have made. Mm-hmm. And the first one we mentioned earlier that when you came to town, the godfathers of the producers, the Bradley Brothers and Billy Cheryl and Chet Atkins.
Mm-hmm. To the extent listeners know Chet Atkins is probably less as a producer and more as one of the greatest guitarists that ever lived. Right. One of the greatest musicians to ever come through town. You end up as his band leader,
Tony Migliore: as his piano player first.
Scott Heidner: Okay. Well, yeah, walk us through the progression.
Uh, did you meet him via getting asked to come in and play on a session?
Tony Migliore: No, actually I met him some years before I was, I was hired to just go out and do. A fair, with, uh, boots Randolph. At the time they were traveling as the trio. They called it the Masters Festival. It [00:16:00] was Boots Randolph, Floyd Kramer and Chet Atkins.
And, uh, so they would do a concert, you know, each one would do his own segment. So I gotten called to go out and play with Boots. So that's when I met Chet. But we didn't really, we didn't know each other. A few years later, Chet had a, a piano player whose name was Randy. Good Room, and Randy. Good room, though not necessarily recognized, by too many people is an incredible songwriter.
And in 1978, I think, yeah, in 78 78, he, uh, he had three or four monstrous hits that basically set him up for life. He had bluer than Blue. The Michael Johnson. Michael Johnson, yeah. Oh gosh. What a great song. It's sad to belong to someone else when [00:17:00] the right one comes along. Oh, wow. England Dam. Yeah. And a little song called You Needed Me and Murray, and.
Suddenly he was too busy to go out with Chet and he called me and said, can you go out with Chet next weekend? And I said, yeah, okay. Is it okay with him? And he said, yeah, I'll make it. Okay. Wow. And so I went and I had a rehearsal at Chet's House the day before we left and went out and played a weekend with him in snowstorms up in Ohio.
And, uh, and a few weeks, about a month later, 'cause Chet wasn't doing, Chet didn't do that much road work. He might've done 30 to 40 shows a year out because he was still so entrenched in Nashville, in producing and doing things like that. So about a month later, Randy called me again and said, can you go out with Chet again this weekend?
I said, [00:18:00] okay. So I went out and a few weeks later Randy called back and said, why don't you just take the gig?
Scott Heidner: So I have to ask, at that point, you were doing fine, you know, if you hadn't got the gig, your studio Yeah, I was doing a lot of studio work. You were doing fine. Doing fine. Yeah. But did you. You know, nobody appreciates a great musician like other great musicians.
Right. Did you view that as a Oh my gosh, Chet Atkins, like this is an opera, it's kind of invitation you may not get twice. Mm-hmm.
Tony Migliore: You know, Mr. Guitar as he was down. Yeah. And, uh, the guys in his band were great players. He didn't work that much and it was mostly like a Saturday or a Friday and a Saturday, so it didn't really interfere with the session work that I was doing.
I probably lost, may maybe would've lost some, some sessions to [00:19:00] that, but, it's okay. You trade one for the other when you need to.
Scott Heidner: So kind like the Elvis gig. I have to ask you, where your knees knocking together the first time you have to play music with somebody like she Atkins.
I was a little, I was a
Tony Migliore: little nervous. I wasn't as nervous as I was at the Elvis thing, but I was a little nervous, but I, I was confident and I don't think too cocky, but, uh, you know, we had a good time El and, and talk about a, talk about a, a witty person I mean, you wouldn't know it to look at him because he was just quiet, mild mannered.
He was the type that when he got through saying something, he'd just walk away, wouldn't say goodbye, see you later. Nothing. He'd just kind of drift off. And, uh, but we, we had some really good times. And about a year after I started playing with him, he asked me if I could, write arrangements for an orchestra.
And I said, yeah, I think I, [00:20:00] yeah, I can. And this was before the Mickey Gilly thing.
Scott Heidner: And can I ask you, was he wanting you to write arrangements for the orchestra for his show that he was touring with or for some other artist that No, for him he was involved in, for him, for his show.
Tony Migliore: First, he asked me if I could, if I could conduct an orchestra, and I said, yeah, I can do that.
And so he said, okay, I want you to conduct the next, show we do. The next show that we did was in Rochester, New York with the Rochester Philharmonic made up of many of the teachers at the Eastman School of Music. Oh gosh. So I'm standing up there in front of this orchestra and I'm having.
People in the French horn section go, I know you, you almost failed my class. I don't remember who you were. Oh my gosh. And that was intimidating. I bet. For some reason it was very intimidating to me, but, it went off fine. So I started conducting for Chet at that [00:21:00] point. And then he asked me if I could ride some arrangements and I did that too.
Scott Heidner: And is that a little intimidating? 'cause if anybody would have an ear to find the hitch and the giddy up on one of the arrangements? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That would be Jet.
Tony Migliore: And there were, you know, there were times, a couple of times when he said, you know, when I, I'd write something and we'd, we'd run it through a rehearsal and he'd say, can you, can you change that part there and do something, you know?
Yeah. And he might have had an idea or just say, do something else there. And in our business, if you're not adaptable, you're nothing. Yeah. You have to be adaptable. You have to say, Hey, you're hiring me to do a job, so I'm gonna do it how you want it.
So of course. And you don't get your back up about it. You just do it. And those people that are successful in our business are very adaptable.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Boy, you, you hear that consistently mm-hmm. From the studio musicians too. Yeah. That's the key to longevity. That's right. Having the talent and the chops is [00:22:00] just step one.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, and the, and the differential is usually in step two and three and four. Are you easy to work with? Are you dependable? Are you flexible? Exactly. Do you make it about them, not about you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Well, it sounds like Chet was a, a, a reasonably easy guy to work with. Very easy to work with.
And that's interesting. I'd certainly never heard anything to the contrary mm-hmm. Or seen anything that would make me think otherwise. But I did wonder, just because his talent was so extraordinary, sometimes those types of personalities can be very intense and perfectionist about the music.
He was a pretty easy guy to work with. He was so laid back. Yeah. That's amazing. 'Cause that's a guy, if you think about it too, I mean, very successful and a lot of recognition and wealth that came with it. But that guy was under tremendous amount of pressure. I mean, he had his [00:23:00] fingers in everything.
Tony Migliore: Well, he ran RCA for. Quite a few years. Yeah. And signed,
Scott Heidner: which is a job for most people. If you run RCA, that's your only job. Right. But he did it while producing and touring. Right, right. Writing and hiring, signing new artists. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, it's a real credit to him. Yes. With all that to still be pretty laid back guy to work with.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's a good reflection. Yeah. Interesting. Listener, I only asked this question. This is another one of those points where I hope listeners that don't know might at least just go Google the term Chet Atkins. One of the people, not the only one, and some people get a little fussier about the debate of who is it?
I don't. Mm-hmm. But he was an important part of the Nashville sound, bringing it to music one, one
Tony Migliore: of the, basically one of the two, originators of the Nashville sound, the other one being [00:24:00] Owen Bradley. They were the ones that brought country music, which before that was considered hillbilly music.
They brought in and started adding strings and making it, and they called it Countrypolitan. And made it more, more, appealed to a broader. A cross section of people and,
Scott Heidner: and the Nashville sound, you know what that means? And again, I hope some listeners are scrambling out to at least Google it and invest 60 seconds.
But, you know, country had almost prided itself on being more stripped down and Yes. And rhythmic and the chord progressions weren't as complex and Nashville sound meant bringing in strings, horns, arrangements. Mm-hmm. In some cases, not all, but in some cases a little more sophisticated chord progressions and things of that nature.
Right. And Che, as you said, was one of the two along with Owen Bradley, that were largely responsible for it.
Tony Migliore: Exactly.
Scott Heidner: [00:25:00] And the reason I bring it up, one is just, it's an important contextual moment in music history, but two, yet again, one of the most fundamental moments in country music history, largely brought about by Chet Atkins.
Oh yeah. And the guy you ended up touring with for how many years?
Tony Migliore: About 20
Scott Heidner: years. About 20 years. Yeah. You know, another ho hum yawn in the life of Tony Migliori. It's ho No, I, I, I know. I don't mean to be too flipp about that's, but your life is full of those moments where for most people, that moment alone, if that is all a person had ever done, was toured with Chet for 20 years.
That would be, oh my gosh. Mm-hmm. That's a huge deal moment. But for you, it's just, you know, one and another. No, I, I probably shouldn't have said ho ho. It's okay. I was not intending to be flippant, but, well, I,
Tony Migliore: You can see how for some that could be become that. Yeah. Uh, can I, when when you work a, when you work a job, let's say [00:26:00] for 20 years,
Scott Heidner: yeah.
Tony Migliore: After a while, the job could become humdrum.
Scott Heidner: So I want to tell a story real quick, if you don't mind. Go. Yesterday Tony and I spent the entire afternoon together talking, partly in preparation for the podcast, but just talking a lot about music. Mm-hmm. And, and the music business and everything else. But as I got more, detail about what you have done and what you have played on, you know, a lot of wow moments, but a few moments of, a lot more than, wow.
A few moments where I just almost came outta my chair, you know? Oh my gosh. That was you and a couple of them were, I wanted to try to share with you what an impact it had made on me what you had done that I didn't even know. I mean, it made an impact on me when I was a. 10-year-old, not, not, you know, or, or a 15-year-old, see how old I am.[00:27:00]
Oh, this story was meant to be a compliment and I just derailed myself there with, some ageism. But no, I wanted, yeah, I, I just was mind blown to know that these things that had had such an impact on me, and now I'm having a cigar, you know, sitting across the couch and finding out with the guy that played those parts and did those things.
By the way, one of 'em listeners, unfortunately it's not out on streaming services, but if you ever get a chance to hear Don McLean's tribute album to Marty Robbins, he did a cover of a song called Don't Worry About Me, with a Piano intro that probably changed my life forever. Poor Kevin we're looking at across the table.
He, he had to hear it from me and watch me thrash about, about how amazing it is and so of a dozen other people, and, come to find out it was you that played it. But where I'm going with this story is [00:28:00] this, and what made me want to get into it, Tony, is you made the comment, you know, it, things could get ho-hum depending on how you approach your career.
Sure. How much success you have or whatever. But when I finally got myself contained yesterday, you were very kind, letting me hop around and put my palm and my forehead and, and when I finally came back to earth, I asked you and I thought your answer was awesome. I said, Tony, does it ever get common seeing that your, what you have done has made that kind of impact on people like you just did with me?
Uh, I, I think you could see it wasn't just a Oh wow, I like that lick. You played that cool. I mean, it's a lot deeper than that.
Tony Migliore: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: And I asked you, do you ever get tired of that? And you took a second to reflect before [00:29:00] you answered and you just smiled and said, it makes me feel really good, Scott. It makes me feel really good.
It
Tony Migliore: really does, because when we're doing these recordings, we have no idea how it's gonna turn out. You know, if 10 people are gonna hear it, or a billion or whatever Yeah. In between, and we have no idea if this is, you know, we say, oh, that's a hit. Oh, well how do you know what a hit
Scott Heidner: is? And even if it's only 10, because the Don McLean version of, don't Worry About Me, that you can't even stream, that didn't get hurt by 10 million people.
Right. It changed my life. Well, and so even the ones that aren't hits
Tony Migliore: Yeah, it does. It does.
Scott Heidner: They touched. Make me feel good. Yeah. I thought your answer was, there's kind of beauty to the sincerity and the simplicity of the answer, which I think you took a minute to reflect on mm-hmm.
Before you offered it and you said, yeah. Nope. It makes me feel really good, Scott. Yeah, it does. Makes me feel really good. And it, it should, [00:30:00] boy, the impact music has on people is deep. Anyway, I don't know where we were going with that when we were on Chet Atkins. We were wandering around.
Where, where were we on Chet? What's, what's left to tell? I think we were talking about the Nashville sound and how you, he brought the strings and the more, musical complexity and a little more mm-hmm. Uh, ballady sound at times, those kind of things. Right. Yeah. And you were, you were part of that camp.
I understand you weren't the creator of the Nashville sound. No, of course. Of course not. But you were making music with the guy that, but I benefited from it. Yeah. Let's put it that way. And you were adjacent to it. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Well, anything else you wanna share about Chet, because he is such an important figure in music history here.
Tony Migliore: Just, the type of person that he was. You see him walking down the street, you wouldn't, you'd pass him and not think twice. Just [00:31:00] another guy walking down the street. But he had such a depth of heart in his music and in his feelings. He wrote, someone wrote a song about his father, and I'm not sure if Chet wrote this on, but, he sang it, later in his career.
His father had passed years before and, he could barely get through that song. I remember the first time he performed it on stage, he didn't get through it. He kind of, kind of stopped, stumbled a little bit, and then tried to go on and, you know, uh, when you, when you're that sensitive about, about things, they, they, they, they grab your heart and make juice come outta your eyes.
Yeah.
Scott Heidner: You know, in my opinion, it is a small percentage of people that have that level of emotional commitment to music. Yes. Um, in my, just my opinion. But I think if you have this arc of a [00:32:00] hundred percent of the people, there's maybe 10% of 'em that don't really care about music and aren't moved by it, and they'll tell you.
So. Yeah. And then I think there's about 80% that all do love music. And are impacted by it and probably think they're impacted, you know, in a, in a high level. Sure. But they're not quite. And then there's that 10% that are like that, that a song at any given moment can just open the floodgates and change your day.
Mm-hmm. And your demeanor. And, you know, some of my friends that I think share that level of intimacy with music, we talk about the fact that, you know, you can hear a song sometimes, and let's say you were 14 years old when that song came out in an instant, in an absolute instant, you feel the same way you did when you were 14.
And you think about the things you were doing mm-hmm. When you were 14 years old mm-hmm. You [00:33:00] almost relive some of the emotions you had. Sure. At age 14. Yes. It's an extraordinary thing, but I'm not sure as many people have that true depth like you're talking about Chet did. Mm-hmm. I think that's awesome.
I'll make one more comment about Chet and we'll move on. I always, one of the things I always loved about Chet, just it's all about personal taste. You and I had a good conversation yesterday, Tony, about how the fact that a, a good showman is appreciated by a wide audience. Yes. I tend to not be one of them.
Okay. I am in the minority on that and I know it, and that's okay. But I love the Don Williams, Conway Twitty, George Strait model where people just come out and give you a massive musical effort mm-hmm. And not much to go with it. Excuse me. And the reason I bring this up with Chet, Chet was one of the most musically sophisticated guitar players that you'll ever [00:34:00] find. Mm-hmm. But I think to the average lay person watching him play, they might not even know, they might not get it, that he was playing a leap break.
Yes. He was so not flamboyant with his body language and his facial expressions. Mm-hmm. No, I cannot think of any great guitar player ever that to a lay person would be easier to underestimate when you watch him perform live. Then check because he was so non-theatrical mm-hmm.
While doing extraordinarily complex things. I've got a little
Tony Migliore: story about that, please. I can't remember the town we were playing in, but we played a concert somewhere, one night. And there the review, someone did a review of the show, and, and Chet used to joke about the critics. He would say, we have a lot of critics come to our show and they [00:35:00] listen for musicianship, and they listen for this, and they also listen for mistakes.
So you'll notice that we throw in a few for them. But that, that's not really the story I was gonna tell you. We played this concert one night and the critic who wrote in the paper the next day said, I didn't feel like I was at a concert. I felt like I was sitting in the living room on the floor listening to some guy play the guitar.
And Jett just said he just missed the whole thing. Yeah. Because
Scott Heidner: that's exactly what he was doing. Yeah. Well I was gonna say, I take it that that critic meant that as a criticism. Yes, he did. And there's your whole story right there, because that's the venue I'd want to hear an artist in. Sure. I'd want to be sitting on living room floor or feel like I just had that experience.
Yeah. Right. But I think the masses, the, the majority, well,
Tony Migliore: they need to see the lights and the flash. Yeah. You need to see something and the pyrotechnics and all that other stuff. Yeah. And, and
Scott Heidner: that's not to judge them. That's what the [00:36:00] majority wants. And so that's fine. But like I said, I'm not, that's not me. Yeah.
And I always appreciated and enjoyed that about watching Chet perform. Mm-hmm. I lied. I do have one more Chet Atkins question. In all those years, you probably had some encounter, maybe you didn't, with one of my absolute all time favorite pickers. Jerry Reed. Was he ever around while you were working with Chet?
Tony Migliore: Just on the, on the periphery. 'cause Jerry had his own career going on and, but yeah, I, you know, I was around him a few times. Never actually worked with Jerry. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: But, was he as gregarious? Oh yeah. Outside of Spotlight as he was in Oh yeah,
Tony Migliore: A few. I'm sure you saw those movies that he was in with Burt Reynolds.
That was Jerry Reed. I'll be a son of a guy. Just a wild man. That's awesome. But, uh, but an incredible musician. Yeah. Half the time he didn't know what he was doing, but he just did it. And, and he was just that
Scott Heidner: unreal. Yeah. I remember, [00:37:00] Jerry Reed, bought his greatest hits cd Well, I'll shorten the story.
Most people, and that includes me. Just think of him going up to a guitar and an open tuning and playing it exceptionally well. Mm-hmm. And I was reading somewhere deeper and deeper about Jerry Reed and how often, you know, he would do a different tuning on the guitar, to get a different sound approaching the song.
And it, it was, this was a long time ago, but it was one of my first moments of, my gosh, these guys are really playing on a whole different level. It's not just about the mechanics and the excellence and creativity here. It's before you even pick that thing up and start playing, it's what tuning do I need to be in and how can I nuance this?
And, and for a guy that really wasn't classically trained, I don't think, Jerry Reid. Oh, no. Yeah. It's amazing. Well, I said it was gonna be my last Chet Atkins question. Okay. About 11 minutes ago. Okay. So maybe I, maybe I probably ought to move on. So now [00:38:00] we finally get to, what you are still doing to this day, but have been doing for 25 years ish.
Ish. Almost 40. Almost 40. Yes. Oh my gosh. I thought it was 25 or 30. Yeah, almost 40 if you count.
Tony Migliore: Starting in the recording studio.
Scott Heidner: Oh, for goodness sakes with him. So, for any listeners that have ever heard, bye bye Miss American Pie and Starry, starry Vincent, and I mean, all of those songs, the Great Don McLean, you have had the privilege to work with both in the studio and on the Road for almost 40 years now.
Tony Migliore: Mm-hmm. Started recording with him in 1985. Wow. And, uh, so this'll be the 40th year actually. And we recorded, you know, several albums during that time period. And about 1992, he asked me, he said, you wanna go do some dates with me? [00:39:00] I said, yeah, sure. and actually I had a, I had a five year period where I was working with both Chet and Don, doing concerts, but neither of them at that point was doing very much.
And in the five years that I worked with both of them, we only had one conflict where, where they both had a show the same night. And Chet being Chet said, go with Don. He's gonna be around a lot longer.
Scott Heidner: Oh my gosh. Did he really? He did. Wow. That is a selfless
Tony Migliore: absolutely.
Scott Heidner: Thing
Tony Migliore: to do. Absolutely. I didn't know what to, what to, to do.
At that point. I thought, okay, you know, I gotta talk, I gotta talk to Chet about this. And, uh, and he said, no, absolutely. Chet loved Don McClean's music. As a matter of fact, before he ever even knew who Don McLean was in the [00:40:00] early seventies, he recorded, he produced, the song called, and I Love You, so on Perry Como, which became a worldwide hit, and that was a Don McLean song.
And, uh, in every show that I ever did with Chet for those 20 years, he would play Vincent on the guitar, just on the acoustic guitar beautifully. Um, and, you know, ultimately finally got to, to meet Don. And, uh, I think they were throwing together on the Ralph Emery, Nashville now show one night.
He knew that I was working with Don and uh, I gave Chet a copy of, Don's. First Christmas album that we did. And he called my house one day and left a recording [00:41:00] on my machine saying, I've been listening to that Christmas album of Don's, and he's such a talented singer and a writer. And, and I just, I just love it.
And, and so I saved it and I gave, made a copy for Don, which he still has today.
Scott Heidner: That's
Tony Migliore: awesome. And, uh, oh, wow. Yeah. And finally one day, Chet said, next time Don's in town, bring him by the office. And so I called, I said, Don's in town. Do you wanna get together with him? He said, yeah, bring him up.
And so we went up, he Chet was in the kitchen making a ham sandwich, and she said, do you want a sandwich? So we had lunch. That was, That was having lunch with Chet. And, they got to be friends too. And Chet always had such a respect for Don's writing and his singing.
Scott Heidner: Can I interrupt you for a moment?
Of course, of course. I'm gonna do this yet again. This, this is, you are the Forest Gump of the music world run into people. So you just [00:42:00] casually said, so Chet Atkins called me and he said, the next time Don McLean's in town, I'd like you to let me know and set it up. You do realize, Tony, that would be like somebody just.
Cavalierly saying, babe Ruth called me and said the next time Ted Williams is around, you know, bring him by. I mean, this is a, well, that was, but I was working with Che. I know, but that's,
Tony Migliore: that's
Scott Heidner: extraordinary to have somebody of Chet Atkins impact and importance, you know, go to you to say, bring me somebody of Dawn's impact and importance.
That's a crazy life. It's amazing. Just amazing. Yeah.
Tony Migliore: Uh, you know, when you're, when you're in the middle of it, you don't really think of stuff like that. Yeah. You know, how it, how it would impact someone else, but this is what we do.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. You know? Yeah. I, I see that with Kevin and the rest of the guys that I work with down here in Nashville, they'll just mention [00:43:00] stories in passing all the time, you know?
Oh yeah. Kevin will play the Opry and be like, yeah, such and such was there tonight. Or I, got to see him backstage and, you know, I'm just having a seizure up in Kansas getting this text message for those of you that work in it every day, and it's not to say that you are cavalier about it because you're not, and Kevin's not, and the other guys aren't either.
They're still, I think folks do a good job of keeping perspective of how blessed they are to be in it. But it's true of anybody if it's mm-hmm. Whatever you're doing, if you do it every day, it, you can't be wowed by it every day. Right. It just doesn't, doesn't work that way. And I get that, but to us outsiders, you know?
Mm-hmm. To, to hear a casual moment of Yeah. Chet called me and said, next time Dawn's in town, bring him by. I mean, that is the intersection of two epic, epic music icons and you were the axle. You know, it's amazing. But anyway, go on. So you brought Don up and Chet made him a ham sandwich. We had
Tony Migliore: ham sandwiches in, [00:44:00] in, in the kitchen above Chet's office.
Yep. And had a, had a nice little chat and visit and then, they kind of stayed in touch with each other too.
Scott Heidner: I'm gonna take a minute here, or too, I've referenced him a couple times. He's not logged in with the headphones in the microphone, but Kevin Key is in the room here with one of my buddies.
And I would be terribly remiss if I did not mention to listeners, I would've never met Tony Migliore ever without Kevin Key. And I could say that about a lot of other experiences in my life, but we are only here today. That's right. Because of Kevin Key. But for Kevin Key, that's right.
You would not be. And so, appreciate you, sir. Thank you Kevin. And, uh, Kevin, his intersection with Tony. I'm amongst possibly others, but the big one is Kevin is also, part of Don McLean's touring crew. Mm-hmm. Tony, I believe, hired him when we can, when we can get him. Right. He's so busy. And Kevin was the one that came to me [00:45:00] and said, you know, Scott, I know how much you enjoy the music industry, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
He said, in a town full of stories that are pretty meaningful, Tony's is one. If he'd do it, I think you should go capture. And boy, so it's your fault. It is his fault. It's entirely his fault. Okay. So coming back to Don McLean, let me offer you a couple of editorial comments and I would just love to hear you comment on them.
Okay. As a listener, just a Don McLean fan, not the guy interviewing you, just a guy that listens to the music. And I'm not gonna be smart enough to say this the right way, musically, probably, but in my opinion, he has an ability that is hard to quantify. And you don't find it that often. His, a lot of his music, not all of it, but his [00:46:00] music to me, both the instrumentation and the vocal, the timing is, I say loose, but I mean it in a complimentary way.
Mm-hmm. You know, even if his music, even if you put it on a metronome and it's right on the beat every time it doesn't feel like it, it has a life. Mm-hmm. It has a character. It doesn't feel like it's glued to it. And I would say the same thing about his vocal. His vocal feels like it comes in when it was meant to not, when you hear a metronome mm-hmm.
Click in his use of space. Yes. Both musically, but especially vocally. I think it's pretty unique. 'cause while Don is a wonderful singer, you know, he's not Ray Price or Vince Gill, and Don would probably tell you that too, but Oh my gosh, does he have [00:47:00] a gift for that? And a style. Mm-hmm. That's what I believe is a listener.
But I would love to know what you think is a guy that's played with him for 40 years.
Tony Migliore: He, he has an ability vocally. He can, he can sing ahead. He can sing behind. He feels every word, it's not just a sentence, it's each word.
And he also uses, as you said, space breathing is part of singing. And he uses that as its own part of the lyric. When he sings, he puts everything into it, especially when he sings a ballad. And his favorite singers were not the run of the mill people that you would think of.
He loved Marty Robbins as a singer. He loved Roy [00:48:00] Orbison as a singer. Oh, yeah. And he loved Elvis. Because to him, those individuals had almost almost an operatic approach to their singing. They would sing these big ballads and, and just, you know, he said, well sometimes be like, I was listening to Mario Alonza or someone like that and never sing.
He got to meet Roy Orbison and, and told him that he absolutely loved one of his songs, or loved, he loved a lot of his songs, but one in particular. And he got to record it a few years later and he had a worldwide hit with crying. Yeah. And he changed it entirely from the way Roy did it. He slowed it down, made it a, a very slow ballad and just sings it beautifully and still sings it beautifully [00:49:00] even at this age.
Yeah.
Scott Heidner: And even from the musicianship side on top of the focal, I think of Vincent when I hear it and Tony, I don't know if it's if it's real or it's in my head or at times to a metronome, but even his acoustic, feels from a dynamic standpoint, like it will push and then it will pull back and it will push and it will pull back and always exactly when it was meant to.
Tony Migliore: And that's mostly his vocal approach to it. 'cause when he's doing a song like Vincent, he's, his playing is pretty well in time. You know, you wouldn't necessarily put a mess right on to it, but it's pretty solid. And then he weaves his vocal in and out of it. Yeah. And that's the beauty of something like that.
Scott Heidner: You know, he has such a book of music, extraordinary music.
Tony Migliore: Most people love American Pie because you can sing along and you can, you know, dance to it or whatever you wanna do. But, it [00:50:00] has become an anthem for a generation, or more. 'cause we have kids, we have people from eight years old to 80 come to these shows.
And, you know, people bring their kids and their grandkids to these shows. And everybody knows that song. But Vincent, for those that are more sensitive to a lyric like that, or a story like that, most people don't really even realize that it's a story about a person. And, you know, they think, oh, I love that Starry Starry Night song.
It's a story about Vincent Van Bow.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. When I referenced the song earlier, I kind of sang the Story Star I Right. And the reason for it was I knew that would be more broadly known by the people listening than if I said Vincent Vincent. Right. Yeah, for sure.
Tony Migliore: He's got a wealth of songs, some like that, you [00:51:00] know, and I Love You.
So, I mean, it's been played at more high profile weddings. Um, I think Harry and Megan danced to that song at their wedding. Oh my gosh. Wow. And, a lot of people say, oh, we love that song. We got married to that song. And yeah. You know, it means a lot. Whatever it means to you is what's important.
Yeah. It's not what it means to him necessarily. 'cause he knows what it means to him, but if it means something to you, he's done his job.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. And I think a real magic moment for any songwriter, I think something we all aspire to at times, if you write, is to write something that prospectively will mean something different.
To different people. Exactly. Because if you can do that, you've done something a little more sophisticated and meaningful. There is nothing wrong with writing a song that [00:52:00] has one clear story mm-hmm. Without room for interpretation. Right. Most music is that way, including most music I love. Mm-hmm. But if as a writer you can write something that is profound enough to mean something in very different to two different active listeners.
Mm-hmm. Oh, what a coup as a songwriter, what a great moment that is. Well, Vincent specifically, I will say, is in that category. There's a, a handful of songs out there that the story itself as, as the individual parts don't really strike you as sad. And yet when you listen to it in summary, it just leaves me in tears.
Old dogs, children, watermelon, wine. That's a great one. Yeah. Good, good old boys like me, Don Williams. And Vincent to me is the same way. I mean, if I'm in the right or the [00:53:00] wrong head space, that song can leave me misty-eyed on any given day. And it's so much more than, than just the sum of, its, its individual lyrics.
Mm-hmm. And what a gift. Mm-hmm. Oh, what a gift. Yes,
Tony Migliore: absolutely. As a writer. Yeah. And, and most of his writing is not the, what you think of as he doesn't write to be commercial. And, you know, and he, and he jokes about that's why he hadn't had a bigger career. But,
Scott Heidner: but, uh,
Tony Migliore: I mean, he, he told me he didn't write American Pie as a, as, you know, as what, what it became.
He wrote it as a show closer and then they recorded it and the rest is history and it's, it's got a life of its own.
Scott Heidner: Tell me what it's like when he does launch into American Pie in front of a live audience and you're on stage to see it and feel it. That has to be a dynamic, [00:54:00] almost unlike any other,
Tony Migliore: it's a thrill. Yeah. Because you get to see, when you're on stage, you get to see the people out there. They suddenly light up, you know, and, and, and his concerts.
He'll, he takes people on a, a little journey. You know, he will start off strong and, and get 'em, you know, revved up and then he'll ease off. And he, he may be, he may do four or five ballads in a row because he feels like it. He never uses a set list. And all the years I've worked with him, we've never ever had a set list except when we're playing with an orchestra because they need to have that.
Yeah. you know, but even that is somewhat changeable,
Scott Heidner: but, so no set list that mean No click, no click.
Tony Migliore: Oh, never. We don't click. What's that? No, we're playing music here. We're not, we're not, we're not doing computerized [00:55:00] things. His shows are completely live. We, we, we use no, uh, no tracks.
Uh, behind the scenes. Everything is live on stage and you come to hear the music we have no smoke, no pyrotechnics. It's just the five of us on stage. And God
Scott Heidner: bless that man. Yeah. What, organic, analogs. So, so there's not a set list. Yeah. How many times a night, if any? So there's no set list, but it's almost the same songs every night?
Or how often does he come up and be like, Hey fellas. You know what, why don't we try blah? And you're just,
Tony Migliore: he won't even
Scott Heidner: say
Tony Migliore: it. He'll just launch into something and everybody in the band knows that. Okay. You know the song, you know when to come in.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. If
Tony Migliore: it's something you don't know, you lay out, but let him do it by himself.
Yeah.
Scott Heidner: That's awesome.
Tony Migliore: I, I think that's awesome. I think that is so great. It, [00:56:00] it's, it's very, you know, organic. It's very organic. Yeah. It really is authentic. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Um, He, uh,
sometimes will sing a song totally solo, no guitar, no accompaniment. And if, if we're in a really live, setting, like certain theaters of the old wood and no fabric, he'll step away from the mic and just sing it. Like someone used to sing it a hundred years ago. Wow. And, um, it can be quite, quite captivating.
I bet. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: And take some courage Oh yeah. To do that. Oh, to step out and do that. I mean, there's nowhere to hide with your vocal. He's, he's got no fear. Yeah. He has
Tony Migliore: no fear of that. And he figures somebody's gonna like it. You know, if there are a thousand people out there, maybe five of 'em will like this.
Yeah. I don't care about the rest of them. So you mentioned that right? I
Scott Heidner: asked if he, you know, how often does he [00:57:00] tell you, Hey fellas, let's try this and do it. You said, he doesn't even tell us, he just does it. I'll share a thought with you. Kevin and I have talked about this numerous times as a, as a listener and as a fan and as, when I would come down to Nashville for years and years just as a lover of music and, you know mm-hmm.
Crawl into some bar and while other people were tourists were flittering in and out every 30 minute, you know, I would find a band that I loved and I would just be So you there sit for Yeah. Four hours. But when you know me and all of my people would come down here if we heard a band and they would cover a song or songs and, you know, it was really pretty flawless.
Mm-hmm. And well done. We certainly enjoyed that. Yes. Um, And some extent maybe would, you know, keep us coming back, but we weren't talking about it on the way back to the hotel. Boy, did you hear 'em when they did, you know, if we make it through December, it was just [00:58:00] spot on. But what would absolutely endear a performer to us and make us want to come back over and over and over again is when you'd ask for something.
You know, we'd say, Hey, do you know if we make it through December, by Merle Haggard and, or whatever. And the, you know, front man of the band would be like, no, I don't, but hang on. And he'd look over, you know, his bass player, whatever, and they'd be like, no, I know that. And, you know, he'd be like, uh, and you know, his lead player might be like, oh, the records, and see, I think you can do it.
And, you know, they'll huddle up and Right. And then they try it. And even if it doesn't come off well, which usually it does, but even if it doesn't, do you admire them for, for their effort? Oh, the humanity of it. Yes. And the personalness of it. And the personalness is probably not a word. It's so vibrant and.
When bands would try that, and Kevin and I [00:59:00] talk about this too, it's venue dependent. You don't wanna go play the Apollo and go off the cuff and have it go bad. Yeah. You would want to respect the venue, but when you're playing at a bar for mm-hmm. You know, people that are there personal drunk anyway.
Or even for Don, sometimes with his trusting fans that are there to have a Don McLean experience That's right. For him to be so organic and so inspired and mm-hmm. Off the cuff. Mm-hmm. And to try things and to even just sing acapella, you know, I would guess, and I have never had the pleasure of seeing a Don McLean show, but I would guess that's part of the reason you will.
Oh, I hope so. I hope so. But I would guess that's part of the reason he has sustained such a fan base for so long, is that he has that humanity and that,
Tony Migliore: and, and his songs have such impact on just the average guy. You know, I could tell you a couple stories, but I won't because they're too personal to the people [01:00:00] that lived them.
But, you know, have people come up to 'em and say, you know, I was on drugs on the street and I heard such and such song by you, and it changed me, man.
Scott Heidner: That's gripping. It is. It really is. Yeah. Uh, you know, the, well, I still think he's new. He's not new. Jamie Johnson songwriter. Mm-hmm. That's big today.
Mm-hmm. He has a song titled That's Why I write Songs, Uhhuh. And it's the whole song about, as a writer, when you hear those stories and what it does to you Yeah. To learn what you've done to someone else through your writing. It's one of the most powerful things in the world. Yeah.
Tony Migliore: Yeah. And Don always has people coming up to him telling him things like that.
Yeah.
Scott Heidner: That's awesome. Well, what else I've got, I still want to touch just a little bit. We won't take near as much time on it, but I still wanna touch just a little bit on the business side of the music, which we haven't [01:01:00] even tiptoed into. But what else about Dawn, if anything, would you want listeners to know, or do you think are a critical part of his story?
Or have we have we hit most of it already?
Tony Migliore: We've hit most of it because, because most of it is who he is. The writer, the artist, you know, music is some, some, someone once said, music is my life, but it's all our lives. Those of us that live it, that perform it, and even. People such as yourself that are the listeners. You may not be up there playing it, but you're feeling it. And that's what he's about. He wants you to feel something, even if you hate it, he wants you to feel something.
I'm not sure what more I could say about that. Uh, yeah, the business side of
Scott Heidner: things, you know, it's just business. And when I say the business side, I'm not talking about how money works or payments or anything like that. I'm talking about your story. [01:02:00] Uh, it's come up on the margins of things we've talked about.
For example, Tom t Hall, you bought his studio. Mm-hmm. And as we were talking earlier, you mentioned your business partner and you mentioned this person had an office next to mine. Oh, yes. It, it's easy to tell from context that in addition to playing on sessions and touring and writing scores and band leading and things like that, that a substantial part of your energy and your involvement down here has been, I.
In some other aspect, and I would, would just be curious to know if that was in production or a and r or artist management or contracts or, you know, what is that, because that's a part of your story too.
Tony Migliore: Well, when you're in this business, if you're doing anything on the business side of it, you're kind of doing a little bit of all of that.
Yes. I was involved in some production, and [01:03:00] as a partner in a studio, obviously we were trying to rent the studio out as much as possible. And we'd bring our own artists in to record there.
Scott Heidner: And when you say your own artists, so you were at least at some level keeping an eye out for somebody with potential that Yes.
Might. Yeah. Okay. So an A and r function there?
Tony Migliore: Yes, kind of. And, uh, yeah. It's amazing how many wonderfully talented people that you never hear about that, you know, their work is sitting on a shelf somewhere. Yeah. In our business, you have a hundred of those to every one that makes it, and the one that makes it may not be as good as the other 99.
But there's something about that one that makes it, they make it. Yeah. Um, but the, there, you know, there's a lot of wonderful music. That just never gets heard.
Scott Heidner: So you talked [01:04:00] about, you know, trying to keep a studio rented alive. Right, right. Um, that's kind of interesting. One of the things as you know, I mean, it's changed so much back then, if you wanted to cut an album, you had to go rent a studio that had all that equipment, et cetera, et cetera.
Whereas today is quite different. Yeah. You know, I mean, I think of the vocals. I do my vocals in Kevin's guest bedroom. Yes. Right, right, right. That's the studio. Uh, but how, at that time, this is just personal curiosity, how much of the time you would rent out in the studio was two people who either were or were actively pursuing some level of legitimate success versus people like me that just come down.
Just a love of music, no ambition.
Tony Migliore: You're pretty unique in that aspect because you didn't look for a career in music. You didn't try to get a [01:05:00] record deal and you were doing this for yourself. People would call that a vanity record, but you know, that's not really a, that's kind of a pejorative term.
Mm-hmm. And I don't like to use it, but, you were just doing this because you loved doing it and you weren't. You know, trying to become a star, but most, I would say 99 out of a hundred come in because they have stars in their eyes. And somebody back home said, you sing better than so-and-so. Right. You should go record.
I'll be darn. And they get their selves together and come in and try to, try to do something to make a career. Yeah. And most of 'em unfortunately don't. Yeah. And a lot of times you have to say, well, you're good, but you're not that good. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, and you have to be able to say no [01:06:00] to them, even though it hurts 'em.
And they're gonna go somewhere and somebody's gonna blow smoke up their dress and say, honey, you're the best. You know? And, and they'll take your money and, yeah. Record you. And, uh, you know, yes. It costs money. And if you're not willing to invest in your own career, why should I be wanting to put my money down if I don't believe enough in you to wanna take a chance?
Scott Heidner: I am surprised, you know, Kevin. It has told me similar. I am surprised there aren't, there aren't more people like me that just do it out of pure love. And
Tony Migliore: there are, but not, there aren't that many.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. You mentioned vanity project. This is just a side note, but, it took Kevin and one of our other very, very good friends, Tim t he's a long time national.
Do you know Tim? I don't know Tim. I've heard, I saw you nod. I thought maybe you knew [01:07:00] him. He's, I know, I know who he is. I don't know him. Long time touring Nashville. Mm-hmm. Guy. And just a wonderful human being. It took both of them in succession. I would've never dreamed of coming to Nashville to record an album because it absolutely felt like something that only somebody with a grotesque ego would do.
It did. It really did. And it took Tim and Kevin both kind of challenging that. Mm-hmm. And saying, you are, you are looking at it entirely the wrong way. Mm-hmm. Absolutely the wrong
Tony Migliore: way.
Scott Heidner: You have something
Tony Migliore: to offer.
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Tony Migliore: And if, and if, if five people on the planet, get something from what you offer. Yeah.
Then it's worth it. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: I agree with that. I don't know that I have something to offer necessarily, but I, I certainly agree. If, if there's, you know, five people that get joy from it, that's worth it. And, you know, frankly, it has to be satisfying to you as the person [01:08:00] doing it. Uh, but it was a journey, Tony.
It was, because it felt very much like a vanity project. I thought two kinds of people came to Nashville to record people that had recording contracts or people that were arrogant enough to think they should. And I thought that was it. And Kevin and Tim really had to walk me mm-hmm. Back from that and say, you are leaving an extraordinary opportunity and a lot of joy on the table by looking at it that way.
Yeah. You know, you could have, you would have a wonderful experience if you came down and did this. Mm-hmm. And I am so thankful that they did that. They talked you into Oh my gosh, good. You know, it's like going to, fantasy baseball camp every year. Yeah. Um, you know, playing with your, uh, yeah. It's, it's just extraordinary.
Well, anything else on the business side of your career that you wanna talk about at all? Do you ever get into songwriting at all?
Tony Migliore: Never have. Yeah. I wrote a little instrumental many, many, many years ago, and as a B [01:09:00] side to a little single record that we did back in the early seventies.
Yeah. But, uh, that's about the extent of it. I'm in a, I'm in a town of great songwriters. Why in the world am I gonna try to compete with them? You know? I mean, everything that comes outta me would be like Moon, June Spoon. Right. I'll take what they've done and I'll make an arrangement of it.
Yeah. That's kind of my forte.
Scott Heidner: There is an answer to the question when you said, why would I do that when I live in a town full of songwriters? A genuine perspective answer to that would be because it brings you joy. But it is interesting to see, when I look at Kevin and all the other guys down here, you know, there is a split.
There's a lot of those guys that are very, very called Yes. To write. Yes, absolutely. And then there's a lot of 'em that,
Tony Migliore: that aren't.
Scott Heidner: No. And I'm not just, yeah. I'm not, you know, they've got another path that, that they get their joy from. And writing's not part of it. It's, [01:10:00] last side note on this, but, you know, when I write things, sometimes I write the music with it too.
Mm-hmm. But every once in a while, not very often, but there've been a few where I've just come to Kevin and said, you know what, here's the lyric. Yeah. Bring it to life. Yeah. If you would please. And you'll
Tony Migliore: co-write that part of it. There are so many collaborations Yeah. In this town, when I first came, I didn't know that more than one person would write a song, and every now and then, you'll get somebody that won't wanna listen to someone else, say, no, no, that's my song.
That's the way I wrote it. And that's what it's gonna be. Most of the time you never hear that song.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Co-writing is, you know, it can be an extraordinary and powerful thing. Mm-hmm. It also, takes some courage. At least in the beginning, you know, I suppose if you're Bob McDill, you don't ha you just got plenty of courage to go co-write with whoever.
But when you're new to it [01:11:00] mm-hmm. You're, you're taking the risk that the ideas and the inspirations you bring to the table are not inspired, and you're gonna have to take that hard medicine. And that's, that's
Tony Migliore: tough. That's right. Especially if you're a young, new songwriter and you get the opportunity to get a co-writing session with somebody that's well established, and you come in with a, handful of ideas and go, what do you think of this?
And what else you got? You know, and you, you. Slowly become more and more deflated as the session goes, a song you, I've seen, I've seen that happen to friends. A song you spend
Scott Heidner: six months writing, you get to play one verse and they're like, yep. Next. Yeah, next. That, that doesn't go anywhere. Well, I tell you what, anything else, last notes that you want to share with our listeners before we call it a day?
Tony Migliore: I've been [01:12:00] very blessed in my life
and God gave me a gift as a child, and I didn't know where that gift was gonna take me. But each little step went to another step, to another step. And here I am a ripe old man. And, and I've had, you know, as a career, it's been you, you've actually brought more out of my career than I even thought about, to be honest.
Scott Heidner: That makes, now I'll turn the tables on you. Something you said to me yesterday, Tony, that makes me happy.
Tony Migliore: Well, thank you. Yeah. And I'm glad it, I'm, I'm glad it does. But when we're immersed in our careers, we're not really thinking about what is this doing? Who is this affecting? You're just going, okay, I've, I've gotta play this.
I want to go do that gig, or I want to go do this session, and you [01:13:00] don't know what's gonna come out of it. Like we said earlier, when someone says, that really impacted me what you did there, and you go, wow, I didn't, I didn't know it did, but thank you. Because we don't usually get that to get the, that feedback.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. And I wish there's just not a way to do it. But I wish you all did get more feedback. I wish there was a way for, you know, well, we don't
Tony Migliore: need a lot, but every now and then when someone says, you know, that something you did impacted them in a good way. Then it makes you feel great. Yeah. Really does.
No doubt.
Scott Heidner: Well, Tony, I have enjoyed this more than I have the words to say, and I'm so appreciative that you took time out of your schedule to come sit down, thank you, and share your story.
Tony Migliore: I really appreciate you having me, and, and this has been a joy for me. Good. I've really enjoyed, I've never done one of these before, [01:14:00]
Scott Heidner: which is crazy to me.
Somebody with your resume doesn't get asked to do one once a month.
Tony Migliore: We're just, we're just working musicians. Right, Kevin?
Scott Heidner: Well, I'm gonna wrap up with a few thank yous. Kevin Key, thank you again for being the catalyst that brought all this together. Our good friends here at Cigar Bar Especial in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you want a cold drink or a fine cigar, no better place to be. Right, Kevin, and of course, Tony, thank you for making time. I think you story is extraordinary. I think your career is extraordinary and I sure appreciate the grace with which you have shared it with us.
Tony Migliore: Well, thank you. It's been my pleasure.
Scott Heidner: Alright, BHL listeners, thank you for tuning in. We'll catch you on the next episode of the BHL Podcast. [01:15:00]