A Conversation with Pierce Pettis (continued)

PM: Has "You're Gonna Need This Memory" been pitched around Nashville at all?

PP: I don't think so. That's the one I wrote with Irene Kelley.

PM: Right.

PP: I wrote that toward the end of my tenure at Polygram. I was at Polygram for years, and then they were taken over by Universal. So I wrote that during the year at Universal. But really, during that year things were really chaotic. People were coming and going. Guys I'd worked with for years were suddenly gone, and then there'd be somebody else I didn't know. And by the end of the year, I left also. So I don't know if those songs ever got any real attention. It's not anybody else's fault, it's just the way it is. Frankly, if you have some wonderful writers leaving, and there's another group coming in, you're going to concentrate on the ones coming in, so--

PM: Yeah, that's the classic conundrum.

PP: So unless Irene pitched it, I don't think so.

PM: Although it was rendered in a folk way, that has elements of a cuttable song in Nashville.

PP: Oh, yeah. I think so, too. I'd love to hear Emmylou do that song.

PM: Absolutely.

PP: This is really great, maybe she'll read this. I would love to hear Emmylou do "Leonardo." I think that song would be perfect for her. I don't know why, but in my mind, I just see her doing that song.

PM: Oh, okay. I'll vibe that with you, and we'll see if between us we can get that in front of her, because that's a very good call. That's a very good cast, as they say.

PP: Either that or I'll get a really nasty letter from her manager, "Leave Emmylou out of this."

[laughter]

PM: And speaking of being able to hear the co-writers, I've also been listening to your previous CD, State of Grace. I'd only ever heard our mutual buddy Tom Kimmel sing his great version of the song "Crying Ground." But that's an incredible read you got there on State of Grace, which is another great record.

PP: Well, thanks. You know, that was Jonell Mosser singing with me on that.

PM: Ah, yeah.

PP: So that wasn't too hard to do, really.

PM: Well, there's a voodoo singer for you, big time.

I'm a big Kimmel fan, both the man and the music. What's your chemistry with your fellow Alabaman like, and how far do you guys go back?

PP: We talk too much, that's the main thing. I'm going to see Tom on Monday. I'll tell him you said hi.

PM: Oh yeah.

PP: We're supposed to write. We always get together to write and end up talking instead.

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, right.

PP: That's an Alabama thing, the mouth. So we just go on about stuff and forget to write songs. I think it's a little bit of a liability. I love hanging out with Tom. I consider Tom a real good friend. Every now and then we tour together a little bit. We went out in Colorado last year, we were out there for a few weeks. We were calling it "The Two Headed Thing from Alabama," or something like that. He's great company, he's a good guy.

PM: Yeah. [for more about Tom Kimmel, see our interview with The Sherpas]    continue

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