It’s hard to imagine singer/songwriter Vince Gill ever struggling in his career. He’s done amazing things as a musician, from penning award-winning solo albums to joining up with The Eagles for a reunion tour. Unfortunately, Gill did experience quite a bit of hardship early on in his career. Establishing a career in Nashville as a country singer is no easy feat, and things were not looking good for Gill. That’s why it’s so surprising that he turned down an opportunity to join the famous band Dire Straits at the time, considering it would have likely landed Vince Gill his first major record deal.
Vince Gill made his way to Nashville after a pretty successful ride with the country-pop outfit Pure Prairie League. He scored his first hit with the band in 1980 with “Let Me Love You Tonight”. However, things were going agonizingly slow for his career once he arrived in Nashville. Despite signing a solo deal with RCA that wasn’t exactly minor, his albums lacked consistent hits and he couldn’t quite hit his breakthrough.
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Why Did Vince Gill Turn Down the Opportunity to Join the Dire Straits?
One day, Gill got the call that Dire Straits wanted him as part of their band. This would have likely eventually landed him a major record deal, and in the meantime, it would have made the singer a lot of money.
“I get a call from Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and he said, ‘Hey, I’m going on a world tour, I want to see if you’d come and join the band,’” said Gill of the phone call. “It would’ve solved all of the financial problems I had.”
Still, Gill didn’t think it was the right opportunity. And that decision ended up being the smartest one he could have made.
“I told myself, I said, ‘Man, if, if you do that, it’ll be like throwing in the towel,’” Gill continued. “‘You’ve worked so hard to try to be a country artist of some validity,’ and if you do that, in my mind, it meant admitting failure, and that wasn’t much of an option for me.”
[See Vince Gill Live On Tour]
He ended up declining the offer from the eventual four-time Grammy-winning band, noting that he believed he had something special to offer country music on his own. After turning down the offer, he went on to release the 1989 album When I Call Your Name. That album was Gill’s breakthrough, and the title track hit no. 2 on multiple country charts. Everything else is history! Though, it would be pretty cool to see Gill perform as part of Dire Straits.
Photo by Jason Kempin
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