News
Entertainment
ENLARGE
VAIL, Colorado — Glen Campbell — who will be in the Vail Valley Thursday — thinks he's kind of like a horse whisperer, with one notable difference — he works with songs instead of animals.
Campbell, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005, became famous in the late 1960s with hits such as “Gentle on My Mind,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman.” In the 1970s, his success continued with “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Southern Nights” and others. The kicker is, Campbell didn't write any of these songs — he just picked them and adapted them to get the sound he wanted.
“I'm a ‘song whisperer' — a doctor. I'm a song doctor. I just do things like I want to hear them,” Campbell said. “I don't want to do a song that I don't like.”
His taste and sensibilities have proved themselves sound time and again. The accolades and awards have been piling up for four or five decades now, and the resulting list is a long one. On that list are 12 albums certified “gold” by the Recording Industry Association of America, four “platinum” and one “double platinum” (“Wichita Lineman” in 1968). He has won eight Grammy Awards (three were “Hall of Fame” awards won in the past 10 years), three Dove Awards, seven Academy of Country Music awards and three American Music Awards.
Campbell is especially humble about his success, and he said he was just lucky to get to sing well-written songs.
“I was blessed with the songs,” Campbell said. “I heard ‘Rhinestone Cowboy' on an album cut … How lucky can I be, or how blessed can I be? That's probably my biggest hit.”
Campbell did change the original “Rhinestone Cowboy” around a bit — as he has with many of his songs — but he said the changes are more or less just personal preferences.
“I did it about twice as fast as the demo, and just changed it around like I wanted, like I wanted to hear it,” Campbell said. “If you can please yourself, you're going to please probably a big percentage of your audience.”
In 2008, Campbell released another album of changed-around and crowd-pleasing songs, but with a twist — all of these songs had already been made famous by other artists. In fact, the well-received “Meet Glen Campbell” included songs by Green Day, the Foo Fighters and U2 alongside tracks from Tom Petty, John Lennon and Jackson Browne.
“It's songs that I like and I like to sing,” Campbell said of the album. “I hear songs on the radio sometimes that are big hits, and I say, ‘Wow, I would have done that a little different,' and that's just me.”
Doing what he likes has worked for Campbell so far, and touring is another thing that he likes to do, especially since he's got two of his daughters performing with him now and he recently got to do a tour of the United Kingdom.
“The band, everybody, everything that I've got I've had in place for eons. I just go out, and I wanted to go back to England again anyway. It's a lot of fun,” Campbell said. “I've got my daughters with me, and they sing together. It's just a family thing, and I enjoy doing it.”
Campbell said concertgoers at his shows can expect to hear some stuff from the latest album, but he said he's a bit partial to the classics.
“You can expect to hear all the stuff that's naturally been in the charts and the songs that people are familiar with. I'll do songs from the latest album and that kind of stuff,” Campbell said. “But I kind of like the old stuff — it's hard to make anything better than that old stuff.”
Campbell, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005, became famous in the late 1960s with hits such as “Gentle on My Mind,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman.” In the 1970s, his success continued with “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Southern Nights” and others. The kicker is, Campbell didn't write any of these songs — he just picked them and adapted them to get the sound he wanted.
“I'm a ‘song whisperer' — a doctor. I'm a song doctor. I just do things like I want to hear them,” Campbell said. “I don't want to do a song that I don't like.”
His taste and sensibilities have proved themselves sound time and again. The accolades and awards have been piling up for four or five decades now, and the resulting list is a long one. On that list are 12 albums certified “gold” by the Recording Industry Association of America, four “platinum” and one “double platinum” (“Wichita Lineman” in 1968). He has won eight Grammy Awards (three were “Hall of Fame” awards won in the past 10 years), three Dove Awards, seven Academy of Country Music awards and three American Music Awards.
Campbell is especially humble about his success, and he said he was just lucky to get to sing well-written songs.
“I was blessed with the songs,” Campbell said. “I heard ‘Rhinestone Cowboy' on an album cut … How lucky can I be, or how blessed can I be? That's probably my biggest hit.”
Campbell did change the original “Rhinestone Cowboy” around a bit — as he has with many of his songs — but he said the changes are more or less just personal preferences.
“I did it about twice as fast as the demo, and just changed it around like I wanted, like I wanted to hear it,” Campbell said. “If you can please yourself, you're going to please probably a big percentage of your audience.”
In 2008, Campbell released another album of changed-around and crowd-pleasing songs, but with a twist — all of these songs had already been made famous by other artists. In fact, the well-received “Meet Glen Campbell” included songs by Green Day, the Foo Fighters and U2 alongside tracks from Tom Petty, John Lennon and Jackson Browne.
“It's songs that I like and I like to sing,” Campbell said of the album. “I hear songs on the radio sometimes that are big hits, and I say, ‘Wow, I would have done that a little different,' and that's just me.”
Doing what he likes has worked for Campbell so far, and touring is another thing that he likes to do, especially since he's got two of his daughters performing with him now and he recently got to do a tour of the United Kingdom.
“The band, everybody, everything that I've got I've had in place for eons. I just go out, and I wanted to go back to England again anyway. It's a lot of fun,” Campbell said. “I've got my daughters with me, and they sing together. It's just a family thing, and I enjoy doing it.”
Campbell said concertgoers at his shows can expect to hear some stuff from the latest album, but he said he's a bit partial to the classics.
“You can expect to hear all the stuff that's naturally been in the charts and the songs that people are familiar with. I'll do songs from the latest album and that kind of stuff,” Campbell said. “But I kind of like the old stuff — it's hard to make anything better than that old stuff.”
