|
|
Gretchen Wilson Biography
|
|
|
|
Gretchen Wilson was born on
June 26, 1973, and raised in rural Pocahontas, Ill., 36 miles due east of
St. Louis, where numerous trailer parks are clustered among cornfields and
pig farms. Her mother was 16 years old when she had Gretchen, and her
father, unfortunately, had moved on with his life by the time she was 2.
Whenever they couldn't make rent, which was every few months, they packed
up what little belongings they owned and moved down the road only to find
yet another trailer.
With only an eighth-grade education, she was cooking and tending bar at
Big O's, a rough-and-tumble bar five miles outside of town, alongside her
mom at age 14. A year later and living on her own, she was managing the
roughneck joint with a loaded 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun stashed
behind the bar for protection.
The father she never really knew provided her with the musical talent to
sing. "My dad just picked around on the guitar and has a quiet
voice," Gretchen says. She made it a point to meet him for the first
time when she was 12. "His family, I'm told, had a little traveling
band. I think it was a gospel band." In any case, from an early age
she could sing. Long before karaoke machines, she got up on stage every
night at Big O's with a microphone and sang along to various CDs for tips.
She soon found herself fronting a cover band and for the first time she
felt like maybe there was a life for her outside Bond County. She moved to
Nashville in 1996.
Wilson became somewhat
discouraged after a brief encounter with a local musician, whom she
happened to recognize at a Nashville music shop. She asked for advice, and
he said she needed to create a buzz. It would take her four long years to
figure out what he meant. In the meantime, she got a job slinging drinks
at a bar in Printers Alley.
A few years later, and now with a daughter, she still had no luck in terms
of getting a record deal. One Friday night, singer-songwriters Big Kenny
and John Rich (of Big & Rich) walked into the bar and heard her sing
with the house band. She remembers, "John followed me up to my little
cubby hole bar upstairs with his trench coat and cowboy hat and I think
his exact words were, 'Hey, how come you ain't got a record deal yet?' I
looked at him in disgust … threw him a business card and a little
homemade demo and said, 'I'm busy. I'm working right now.'"
For months he tried getting in touch with her, and for months she ignored
his calls until someone finally said, "Look, you should really return
his call. He might be able to help you out." He not only introduced
her to his circle of friends -- "they started to use me singing on
some demos" -- but he also taught her how the Nashville songwriting
community really works. She also became a member of the Muzik Mafia, a
loose-knit group of singers, songwriters and musicians who get together to
jam (and party) every Tuesday in a local Nashville nightspot. It was in
front of her peers -- very honest peers -- that she honed her songwriting
style. She later signed with Sony Music Nashville.
Gretchen Wilson Links
Gretchen
Wilson Official Website |
|
