After three hit records and 11 songs on Billboard’s hit list, country singer Andy Griggs has parted ways with RCA Records.
But that’s nothing but a challenge for the 32-year-old native of Monroe, La.
“I’ve been writing a whole lot and getting ready to make album No. 4,” says Griggs, who’s excited to be in control of his own destiny in the studio and plans to shop the record to other majors.
In the meantime, he’s hitting the road hard: “If you don’t love getting out there and playing the music, man, you chose the wrong profession,” he says with a chuckle.
Here’s what else he had to say:
Q: You’re about nine years out from your debut record. What has a decade in the business taught you?
A: Man, it’s taught me all kinds of things. There’s good and bad with your dreams, just like anything else, and that makes you value your music so much. I guess the music business will teach you that, man. The only thing you want to hold onto as tight as you can is the music, and not necessarily the music “business.” Let everybody else worry about the music business.
Don’t get caught and carried away in the shuffle, and you just stay focused on the songs.
Q: You were a preacher for a while. So how hard a choice was it for you between ministry and music?
A: I always asked God for him to make the choice and not me. I just knew the direction I would go would be his decision. Things just started opening up for me in music as soon as I said that prayer. And by no means did I turn my back to the ministry and church. I just changed jobs, that’s all. I’m still a God-fearing Christian. God and family and church are still huge priorities in my life. I just swapped paychecks.
Q: I was a little surprised that you and RCA split ways. The last record spawned two Top 10 hits (“She Thinks She Needs Me” and “If Heaven”) and went to No. 7, just like the record before.
A: I think their vision and my vision were two different things, and that just comes with the territory. There’s no hard feelings or anything like that. It was just a lot of, the direction I was wanting to go was a different direction from them, and vice-versa.
Q: That sort of frees you up for this next record.
A: I’m finally doing music and writing and recording it the way I want to record it, singing it the way that I want to sing it. So, man, it’s a brand new chapter, a brand new season in my life.
Q: How frustrating is it, how much people are fixated on the business side of country music?
A: It’s only as frustrating as you let it be. It depends on which way you look at it. Every person is different. I’ve seen a lot of artists get so frustrated that they literally throw in the towel and leave town. And I’ve also seen lots of different people that grin and bear with it and roll their eyes and keep going.
