Up until 1979, all of the songs that I had written were just to have something original to perform live. I had never really thought about anyone else doing them or that people made money from it. It took spending the time in the Bellamy Brothers' organization to see songwriting as a business. While the Brothers always seemed to be operating on a shoestring as artists on the road -- they were making money hand-over-fist from their writing. It finally dawned on me -- "Write, boy, write!!!" But the artist thing was still a hard mindset to overcome.

In 1980, I was back home from the road and in need of work. Len Walls allowed me to return to my various duties at Central Sound Studio and even though the pay was a little spotty, it still provided some income and reasonably unlimited access to the studio.

It was probably about the spring of 1980 when Len called me one morning and said he had been contacted by a songwriter who was looking for a local studio to record demos. He thought he should probably get us together so I gave the guy a call. The songwriter was Herb McCullough, who had just recently had some national success with a song recorded by Moe Bandy, but had decided to move back into this (his home) area for a break from the Nashville rat race. I can say without a doubt that it was Herb McCullough who took songwriting out of the abstract and made it something real to me.

After hearing some of my songs, Herb asked me if I would like to accompany him on his next trip back to Music City. I was thrilled. Next thing I knew I was hangin' out in the offices of and playin' my demos for folks like Ray Baker, Ray Pennington, Rex and Vern Gosdin, and the guys at Hilltop Studio. I got my first rejection when producer Ray Baker played one of my songs, "Close Enough to Perfect", for one of his artists, Joe Stampley, who passed on it.

With the success of Alabama's single release of "Close Enough to Perfect" in 1982, Chip Peay secured me a position as a staff writer for the Welk Music Group, which was, at that time, the second largest publishing conglomerate in Nashville. Herb was also a staff writer for Welk during this period. For a time, he and I were privileged to work under the tutelage of the legendary Bill Hall, who was the head of Welk's Nashville office. Actually Bill was probably the only high roller in Nashville who really had faith in me as a writer and was the only one to ever tell me I should not move to Nashville but remain in Florida and continue to write. I regret that he passed away before I had the opportunity to get to know him well. After Bill was gone, his successors showed very little interest in my songs and eventually I would be dropped from the Welk roster.

For several reasons, the end of the eighties also brought an end to my writing success. I wrote many more tunes - but working the theme parks took away any time I could take to keep up my Nashville connections. If you don't keep up with them -- they disappear. You know, "Use 'em or lose 'em". And also when the theme park thing ended very suddenly -- it kinda did a number on my psyche. It took a few years to get over that one and somewhere along the line I lost my confidence. I just couldn't seem to get the words to flow anymore. It is a barrier that I hope -- with the help of God -- to overcome some day.