Tommy Lee News

After a 30-year career on the fringe of Music Row, singer/songwriter John Anderson is gearing up for an improbable third run at mainstream success.

"Easy Money" (Warner Bros.), his 27th album, counting repackages, comes out May 15. It marks his first release since 2000's overlooked "Nobody's Got It All" (Sony).

The new disc was propelled by an energetic infusion from one of Nashville's hottest players, John Rich of country duo Big & Rich, who produced the album and co-wrote many of the songs with Anderson. An unabashed Anderson disciple, Rich turned what started out as a songwriting collaboration into a full-blown album project, with all the considerable juice behind it Rich can muster.

"What inspired me to work on this project is the mere fact that John Anderson is one of the greatest country singers in the history of country music, and he has been absent from radio for several years," Rich says. "I wanted to hear him singing again, simple as that. He's as good, or maybe better, than he ever was, and many of my artist friends consider him a major influence on their music, as do I."

The irony of returning to Warner Bros. with a hot-shot producer is not lost on Anderson, who was once the label's young gun himself. "We did a lot of good business with Warner in the early days," he says. "Not only did I get hits, but back then I got paid for most of them, I believe."

PREMIER HITMAKER

The Apopka, Fla., native first came to Nashville in the late '70s with little more than a dream and a voice that Mark Knopfler described as sounding "like he's singing through a volume pedal."

"Actually, when I first came to Nashville, I just wanted to sing and play for a living," Anderson, 52, says over the country ham special at a local diner. "I always said if I could just pay rent, anything above that would be a bonus."

Within two weeks, Anderson was singing and playing at the city's Lower Broadway honky-tonks, developing one of country's most distinct vocal deliveries. He signed to Warner Bros. in 1979, where a lengthy string of hits (20 Billboard top-10 singles) followed, beginning with "1959" in 1981.

Anderson became one of country's premier hitmakers of the '80s with such staples as "Your Lyin' Blue Eyes," the gold-certified "Wild and Blue" (his first chart-topper in 1982) and the 1983 mega-hit "Swingin'," recently named No. 30 on the list of top jukebox hits of all time by the Amusement and Music Operators Assn.

"I catch myself sometimes emulating his voice when I'm writing a new song," Rich says. "His voice has been in my head since I started listening to music. He is the George Jones of my generation. Period."

After a dry spell, Anderson stormed back to the airwaves in the early '90s with hits like "Straight Tequila Night," "I Wish I Could Have Been There" and the Florida Everglades anthem "Seminole Wind"; the album of the same name has sold double-platinum. He last cracked the top 10 of the country singles charts in 1995 with "Bend It Until It Breaks."

Anderson's handlers estimate he's sold more than 10 million records. Along the way, he has also recorded for MCA, Capitol, BNA and Mercury.

NO USE CRYING

Back on the road, driving his Chevy Silverado through the winding backroads of Smithville, Tenn., 50 miles east of Nashville, where Anderson has lived for nearly three decades, this master of twang seems to take his oscillating career all in stride.

"You can get as frustrated as you want, and you can rant and rave and stomp around the living room in front of your wife and kids and make them miserable. Or you can cuss everybody down on Music Row all you want to, it still don't do any good," he says.

Now, it seems, the Row is appreciating Anderson again, thanks to Rich and his Big & Rich partner Big Kenny, who have also worked with Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy.

With Rich at the helm on "Easy Money," Anderson betrays his roadhouse rocker roots on the title cut, "Funky Country," "Brown Liquor" and "If Her Lovin' Don't Kill Me." Such sounds have rarely been heard on Anderson albums, but Anderson says he started his musical journey as a Florida rocker, distorted guitars and all.

As stone country as his vocal is, Anderson has never seen many barriers in music, having confidently covered acts ranging from Bruce Springsteen to the Georgia Satellites. "I always said I can sing 'Thriller' just as good as Michael Jackson can sing 'Lyin' Blue Eyes,"' he says with a grin.

His audience has been just as varied. "Even back in the old days, in the early 1980s, we'd play places on the West Coast, we'd have a great mix," Anderson says. "Everything from punk rockers to bluegrass hippies."

Anderson says his live shows have always rocked pretty hard, even after he defined himself as a "country" artist. "The band, when we played 'Black Sheep' and 'Chicken Truck,' we were rocking that hard anyway, we just didn't get away with it a lot in the studio," he says.

For "Easy Money" there were no such restrictions with Rich at the board, and though Anderson has co-produced most of his albums, he felt comfortable handing the wheel over to Rich.

Rich's influence is undeniable on the record, but it's still pure Anderson, and the country ballads and signature vocal would have fit nicely in any of his previous heydays.

Whether "Easy Money" blows up or not -- country radio programmers seem reluctant to add anyone over 40 unless their name is Reba or Strait -- Anderson will continue to work the touring circuit, as he has from the beginning. This unrepentant road dog has missed only two shows (due to a heart attack and a kidney stone) of thousands booked through the years.

"A big part of the last six years that's about all we had to go on, touring and writing new songs," Anderson says. "What keeps us going and always will keep us going is getting out on the road. That ol' bus window and me are real good friends after 30 years."

Reuters/Billboard