The Definitive Collection

It's hard to believe that Lee Greenwood did not arrive in Nashville until his late 30s, celebrating his first hit at 37. But by that time, he had become a consummate musician. He started with a saxophone at age 10, learned piano and bass, and formed his first band, the Moonbeams, while still in junior high school in Sacramento, California. He turned down a music scholarship to the College of the Pacific, abandoned a promising career as a baseball player and even skipped his graduation ceremony to start a job in a Reno, Nevada, hotel with his band the Apollos. Reno, followed by Las Vegas, provided invaluable training for Greenwood and finally paid off when he met Larry McFadden, who was then playing bass for Mel Tillis in Reno. McFadden eventually brought Greenwood to Nashville and actually managed him through his first seven years in country music. In Nashville, Jerry Crutchfield, then head of the MCA Music publishing company, signed Greenwood as a staff writer and produced his first session where Greenwood's unique blending of R&B vocal chops and country music fused into a top 20 hit with It Turns Me Inside Out. Only two years after his debut, Greenwood was voted the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year for 1983. The following year he won that award again, as well as the Grammyr for Best Country Vocal Performance. By 1985, he was recognized for his songwriting talents by the CMA, winning Song of the Year for God Bless the USA, a song that continues to inspire and take on new meanings as America faces it's many trials and tribulations.