The opening lines of George Strait's No. 1 smash "Cowboys Like Us" are:
I take off time to time with those crazy friends of mine
Head out on steel horses with wheels and we ride
We burn up that road to old Mexico, blend in with the desert
Just we amigos and we ride
The song was written especially for Strait by hit songwriters Anthony Smith and Bob Di Piero about the country superstar's annual motorcycle ride with some buddies into Mexico.
Fellow country star Danny Griego can top King George's "steel horses with wheels"--motorcycles. Griego crosses the country heading to his more than 3,000 gigs (and counting) in something with more steel, more wheels and more power than any Harley. Griego's constant traveling companion is Desirea--a 54-foot-long, 53,000-pound Peterbilt 379 stretch semi-truck transformed into a tour bus.
"She's running good," declares Griego to HNGN about Desirea. "She's a good ship. Still strong. Built in 2005. She's home."
Griego recently reached No.10 on Billboard Biz' "Hot Singles Sales" chart with his single, "The Coast Is Clear," which also reached No. 30 on Billboard's and Mediabase's Adult Contemporary charts. "The Coast Is Clear" is the debut single from the singer-songwriter's new album, "Cowboys, Outlaws & Border Town Dogs."
Griego continues to tour the U.S., and is the exclusive performer at many of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) races. He and his band are also supplementing their official NHRA 16 date-32 show tour with "Operation Thank You" shows at military bases along the way.
Griego first came to Nashville after a prominent record executive heard him sing the national anthem and perform in concert following a PRCA rodeo in Laughlin Nevada. Naturally, Griego rode into and out of the arena on horseback.
Over the years, he has lived on and off in Music City, learning from masters who became friends and mentors-including Hank Cochran, who wrote hits for Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, and Eddy Arnold, among others. Another one of the memorable events from this time in Griego's life is a duet with the late Waylon Jennings that Griego penned titled "At The Crossroads." He will be releasing the duet on an upcoming project along with a video for the song featuring rare footage of Jennings.
Griego's diverse blend of styles include Outlaw Country, Americana, Mainstream Country and Latin; his songs "I Think She Only Likes Me For My Willie" and a rare duet with Billy Joe Shaver, "Feelin' Like A Three-Legged Border Town Mexican Dog," are on rotation on Sirius XM's 'Outlaw Country' and on 'Willie's Roadhouse.'
This isn't the first time Griego has kicked up dust on the country scene. In 2007, a spirited video he created for his infectious ode to "Wal-Mart Girls" received spins on CMT, racked up thousands of views on YouTube and made him a sensation in parts of Europe.
And he recently performed his patriotic ballad, "Lady Liberty" on FOX News' "Huckabee," the hit series hosted by Gov. Mike Huckabee. "Lady Liberty" is on his "Cowboys, Outlaws & Border Town Dogs" album.
HNGN recently caught up with Griego for an exclusive interview just as he and Desirea were rolling into Las Vegas for a NHRA gig.
HNGN: How did your affiliation with the NHRA come about?
DG: There are a lot of parallels between racing and the music business. I had a buddy who was racing cars. He was underfunded and he was his own mechanic, his own driver. He invited me out to a race. He was trying to find a sponsor.
I drove around the area of the track in a golf cart for about a day looking at the opportunities there. I noticed that the Hot Rod Association didn't have any entertainment in the pit area, known as Nitro Alley--it's where all the vendors are. Knowing that entertainment is what has really augmented NASCAR and the Indy car sports, I decided to sponsor my buddy's race team and I also started performing shows in the pit areas.
After about a year of that, the NHRA came to me and asked if I would be interested in doing entertainment in every venue. So now I provide the entertainment in Nitro Alley at all their big events.
Chevrolet Performance just came on board. They branded my stage and made me a 40 by 30 wind wall. And we have other big sponsors interested in helping out.
My goal next year is to bring in big acts like ZZ Top and Steve Miller. I'll work with them and I'll be one of the opening acts. That way we can build an entertainment platform on top of the NHRA's 55,000-per-race venue.
The NHRA is really a family. It's just one big family that rolls around all across the country. It's very neat for me to be included in that family.
HNGN: Tell us the story behind your new hit "The Coast Is Clear."'
DG: "The Coast is Clear" was written by Scotty Emerick and Red Lane. Scotty wrote a lot of Toby Keith's big hits. And Red's written some great songs, like "Miss Emily's Picture" and "New Looks From An Old Lover." He wrote songs for Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
Red wrote a lot of big songs with mega-hit writer Hank Cochran and I was really good friends with Hank. In fact, I first met Red when I was living in Nashville in Hank's house.
I was saying goodbye to Hank. It was pouring down rain and I was getting ready to leave for a tour through the Southwest. I was geared up for rain. I had my long duster on, my saddle bags over my shoulder and a straw hat, 'cause it was still summertime. And I had a guitar case in my hand.
And in the front door walks Red. He starts shaking the rain off his duster. He's dripping with rain. Water is pouring off the brim of his hat. He looks up at me and I look at him. Then I turn to Hank and said, "That's what I'm gonna look like when I get old." And Red countered with "Hey, man!" Since that meeting Red and I have become great friends. We've written a ton of songs together.
So, one day I was in Hank's house. He and I were writing a song, and in another room Scotty and Red were writing a song. I walked by the opening to their room when I heard Scotty singing the tail end of the song they'd just written. It was "The Coast Is Clear." I told him it was a hit song and I wanted to cut it. After a couple of false starts with other artists being interested in the song, I cut it and it did well for me.
Listen to "The Coast Is Clear" here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo5MtXt-M8k
HNGN: How did your friendship with Waylon Jennings come about?
DG: I grew up doing a lot of hunting and fishing up in the primitive rainforests in Arizona. Around the campfire we'd always listen to the outlaws--Waylon, Willie and others. Those were some of the best days of my life listening to that music.
One day a cousin of mine was going to introduce me to Richie Albright, Waylon's long-time drummer. I met Richie in a studio and he told me go into a room and lay down a couple of songs. I took my '53 Gibson guitar and Richie recorded two of my songs. One was "At the Crossroads," which I wrote about turning down some recording offers. The other was "Leavin' Down Cold."
A couple of years go by and Richie calls me. He says he's pitching "Leavin' Down Cold" to Waylon. Some months go by and I get the news that Waylon isn't going to cut the song. He didn't like it.
About six months later I was in the studio working on some songs. Mike Kennedy was playing drums for me and he said, "Hey, Danny, here's your hero." I looked up and Waylon Jennings was hovering over me in full Waylon attire. I saw his eyes under that big black hat lookin' down at me. He was there to see me.
What brought him there was that he had been driving down the road in his Cadillac. In the tape player was the 30-minute tape of my two songs that Richie had given him months before. He listened to "Leavin' Down Cold"--the song he didn't want to record--and then there was just dead air on the tape. He let the tape keep going and it finally flipped over to the other side. That's when he heard--for the first time--"At the Crossroads." He had never listened to that side of the tape.
Waylon took the tape out of player and the tape didn't have anybody's name on it. But he knew it was the tape that Richie gave him. So, he called Richie and said, "Hey, man, who's singing that song 'At the Crossroads?'" Richie said, "What are you talking about?" Waylon said, "That song on the tape that you gave me." And Richie said, "That's Danny. I told you about him." And Waylon came back with, "I want to cut that song with that guy."
So the day he came into the studio we spent the rest of the day he and me singing and layin' down "At the Crossroads." That day began a friendship and we started running around together. He had a house in Mesa, Ariz., and I had a house in Prescott, Ariz. I had a '64 Cadillac limousine, so I'd go grab him up from his house. We'd go to dinner and just hang out.
HNGN: And the duet you did with Waylon on 'At the Crossroads' turned out to be very significant, didn't it?
DG: That was the last non-posthumous duet Waylon ever did. After he died, I didn't want to immediately put the song out and ride the airwaves on his name. So, when I did my "Destination" album, I didn't put the duet on it. I never released the song or gave it to anyone in radio to play or anything like that. I just held on to it. But enough time as passed now that I'm going to put it on my new album, which should be out in the fall of 2015.
HNGN: You spend a lot of time, a lot of miles, on the road. What is the toughest thing about being on the road so much-and what is the best thing?
DG: The toughest part is seeing all the people around you going on with their lives and raising their babies, continuing their legacy as a parent and hanging out with their family, spending that quality time. Meanwhile, I'm starring at the white lines going under my truck. That loneliness of not being able to spend time with the people you love is hard.
Now, the best part of being on the road is when you can make a difference. For example, the other night we were playing in a huge club. It had been a rough day for us. It was wintertime and the heater on the bus was broken. A guy that was fueling up the bus had put the nozzle to the side of the tank and about $800 in fuel was pumped out on the concrete--which really cut into the profit margin of the show. It was a bad day and I was second guessing myself, wondering what it the hell I was doing chasing my music dreams.
After the show, a woman came up to me and told me she had been separated from her husband for three months and she was living in a hotel. She asked me who wrote the song "Eres Tu?" It's a Spanish and English song that I sing. The title means "It's You."
When I told her I wrote it, she started crying. She said the song was "a life changing moment" for her. Then she said, "I know exactly what to do now. I'm going back home tonight."
Being able to make a difference in one person's life gave my time on the road meaning. But it wasn't really me that helped her with the song. I was just holding the pen. You know, if you're born with a hammer, then you drive nails. The Lord gave me a pen and a guitar, so I write songs and I play music.
For more information on Danny Griego's life and his music--plus a cool shot of his mega-tour bus Desirea--check out dannygriego.com.
