STEVE WILLIAMS

Steve Williams started playing solo gigs when I was 16 working in bars. One of his first memories was the night an old drunk guy asked him to play “Me and Bobby McGee.”  He did, and the man gave him a dollar. He said, “play it one more time," and then gave Steve another dollar. This went on all night (Steve made 19 dollars that night)!

 

Steve joined an Illinois based band, Woodrose, at age nineteen and had been writing songs for a couple years by then. At twenty-two, he hooked up with Arrow Memphis (1976). They were pretty much country-rock based and gigs in the midwest were slim, so they headed to Tucson, Arizona where a friend, John Edwards, offered them a place to stay at his ranch at the foot of the Tucson Mountains. They became the house band at a place called the Stumble Inn and released a self titled album, Arrow Memphis in 1980.

 

Steve's wife (Terri) and he moved to Austin Texas in 1985 to join “Toby Beau.” They returned a year later when he got an offer to play with the Russ Bono Band. Steve went on to start a new classic rock band called The Blast and after a couple years of local success they were asked to be the back up band for a new Atlantic Nashville artist Woody Lee. That’s how he got to Nashville.

 

Steve wrote a few songs with Woody and that led to him signing my first Publishing deal with Malaco Music Publishing. That was 19 years and 5 publishing deals ago. Steve has been fortunate enough to have had two #1 songs (“Redneck Yacht Club” and “I Get To”) and to have had songs on 3 gold records. "Where Have I Been All My Life” was recorded by George Strait  (Twang album) and has been heralded as one of his most poignant songs to date.