“To Hell With Them”: How Vince Gill’s Stalemate With His Record Label Led to His First No. 1 Hit

Vince Gill might be one of the biggest names in the country music industry now, but back in the early 1980s, he was still an aspiring singer-songwriter struggling to get his record label’s approval of his own work. RCA executive Joe Galante had signed Gill to the label in 1983, but after three relatively unsuccessful albums in a row, RCA started to limit the scope of what they wanted Gill to record.

With the help of friend and producer Barry Beckett, Gill finally got the green light to record what he wanted. While this didn’t save his working relationship with RCA, it did get the “nicest guy in Nashville” one step closer to his first smash hit.

How Vince Gill Worked Around His Record Label’s Hesitations

Vince Gill’s first three releases with RCA achieved moderate success, but RCA wasn’t necessarily looking for “moderate.” Unable to shake his somewhat low position on the country charts, Gill started to feel more pressure from his record label to cut other people’s songs instead of his own. Gill and RCA experimented with different instruments and producers, which led Gill to Barry Beckett.

During an interview with the Musicians Hall of Fame, Gill recalled a pivotal moment he had while working with long-time producer and session player Beckett. “I was going in and playing Barry’s songs, and he wasn’t responding to them. Finally, after a few meetings, I said, ‘Barry, I’m puzzled. I’m playing you some songs, you know, and you don’t respond. I don’t know if you don’t like them, and you don’t want to say you don’t like them; I can take it if you don’t.’”

“He said, ‘Well, that’s the problem. I do like them.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t understand.’ He said, ‘Well, I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but RCA said because of your past with none of your songs really cracking the code, they said I couldn’t record any of your songs. And he says, ‘That’s my problem. I like your songs way better than this stuff that we’re getting. I don’t know what to do.’”

Gill told Beckett he wasn’t sure what to do, either. Beckett then replied, “‘You know what, hell with them. I’m going to cut your songs because they’re better,’” Gill said.

Beckett Helped Bring In The Songwriter’s First No. 1 Hit

Vince Gill and Barry Beckett cut five or six songs, which Gill promptly delivered to RCA for their consideration. Gill remembered the label’s response was lukewarm. “They just said, ‘It sounds like what we’re used to from you.’ So, I said to them, ‘Well, let me go.’” The executive who signed Gill, Joe Galante, resisted at first, emphasizing that he believed in Gill. But Gill pushed back, saying he just wanted to try something different to see what happened.

The split was ultimately amicable, and Gill went on to sign a record deal with MCA in 1989. Gill’s first album with MCA was When I Call Your Name. After three albums with little success, Gill finally got his breakthrough record. The title track of the album garnered Gill his first Grammy Award in 1991 for Best Male Vocal Country Performance. From there, Gill’s star continued to rise.

Without Gill’s stalemate with RCA—and his friendship with Barry Beckett—the singer-songwriter’s career might not have turned out the way it did. Luckily for Gill (and country music lovers), his late 1980s career shook out exactly the way it was supposed to.

Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images