The Story Behind the Song: 'Riding With Private Malone'

I'm Bart her bacin executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association and this week the story behind the song for The Tennessean in Tennessee and calm riding with private malone mr Wood newton it's got a real 'no stu it it just I'll never forget the first time I heard it but you and Tom Shepard wrote it was that the first time you two never wrote together it was I think that was that was a magic day so described the story behind well I wish we could I could say we got it in 15 or 30 minutes but it's it really was one that took more than one get together but from the word go and by the way I met I had already thought I'd finished the album on David ball right and it got delayed because we were working out the details of who was going to distribute it and and what label or whether we were going to do our own label and that type of thing so in the meantime we wrote the song and then we did it I did I would play and sing background with David ball on the Opry Grand Ole Opry and then we did this Mathew Gillan had a show called Opry star spotlight that was on afterwards and Tom Shepard was one of his favorite new young Sarek songwriter so it was though out there in the Opryland Hotel and people gets kind of real loose fun spontaneous type of thing so that's where I met Tom Shepard and I just thought he has got so much energy such a young great young guy and I loved his singing everything something told me that I should get together try to write wait a minute and so I was the one that instigated writing with him and he had actually had that the song and had tried to get a couple other people to write it with him and nobody wanted to touch you I bet it was there now Wow so um he had he had he is a big classic car nut and he had been on the internet and he had found this website about a guy that had a Corvette in fact the 66 Corvette has his own website a guy dedicated home his own website but he said that the we used that story about the buttons on the radio 'inna but it picked up the oldie show especially late at night he said it's every time he got in the car it would go back to an oldies station and one to one he he dialed in you know well it's in private Malone's car and in the song the new owner basically there's no way he's going to have an accident he can't survive but he's riding with primals yeah well you know when he wouldn't owner the first thing that got me was when he opened up the glove box and that's when he found the note and this day was 1966 and this is what he wrote he said my name is Brian and he said and if you're reading this I didn't make it home so I'm the guy it just showed the bravery of some those guys that are going off to fight they know they may not come back well and I'll tell you it was it was a real honor to our military and I have a special intersection with this song with you I heard it before the record came out and you and I were on a Nashville Songwriters Association trip to Washington to do some copyright advocacy and I said would get in the car and before we had a meeting we went to the Vietnam Wall and described that experience well first of all that was regardless of what you knew anybody but everybody knows somebody that this his name is on that wall and out of my class of 28 people Sammy Evans his name is on the wall and so just that alone was emotional one name that's not on there is Jeff Davis Newton my cousin who had a Corvette and he went to Vietnam and I saw him on the day got back and he had been awarded two silver stars because he was in a close combat shootout and he was just kind of saying I don't know how I made it and he got killed in his Corvette that night during that very night he got lying so that's it so there's oh yeah and you you there's a directory there yeah it looked for the name in the song yeah I looked for the I was curious to see if there just happened to be a and room alone by any chance there there was not and I'm glad there wasn't but there were about 13 Malone's and so we did a rubbing when I did a you know were you do pencil if he's paper and rubbed the name and we rubbed in Andrew and I'm alone and I was part of the part of the package we sent out with her with the single it set a tone would you and I the rest of the day it was very sober but very introspective and I think even for you the author of the song it meant more after that we went and played it for many members of Congress we ran into some military veterans there yeah and played it in the the reaction was stung that song really helped resurrect David balls career it did in mind not to mention mine and Tom Stallman they say it's a seven-year town and Tom had gotten to Qatar two before but it's his first real single so gosh it's life-changing when something like that comes along and really you know if you're not as I independent record without millions and millions in promotion money it just hit a chord with America it did have the disc jockey yeah and the program directors and it went straight up the charts and it stayed there along by the way I've got to mention Carl P may fail a long time Nashville Hall of Fame the song the wife's just been inducted into the Tennessee radiohalos well and and well deserved and he was one of my first friend and in in Nashville but I had gone to his daughter's graduation he said way up to I said was just happened to have a seat here whatever did and I gave him the demo of Davey bolts singing the guitar vocal of the song when he's a Vietnam vet himself and he played that on his morning KDF radio show and he said the phone's lit up the only thing that had matched that before was murder on music row who was shot left it great story but back to the song real quickly you said this was over several sessions because I know you've written songs right mega hits and they just yell him out but junk about crafting at you and Tom well it first first of all we kind of wrote it just the three chords and it went on you know it was a story it kind of got we broke some rules because its first the first time the chorus comes around he entered it from the point of view of the note from the voice of the guy that that owned the car then the next time the other courses change a little bit so that's sort of a like rule you don't normally want to break you want to keep your chorus the same most of time makes it simpler and the song ended up being 4 minutes and 40 seconds long it's like that's another rule you know if you want to hit you keep it around 3 minutes to reach 45 or something like so we knew I know that I craft us on but it just went on but as we wrote the song there would it just somehow made this particular story was was was our imagination but it for real it had happened I mean those are urban legends of those classic hot cars it happened to all over America am i right because this may be one of the few songs that's ever happened with a lot of great songs a lot of your great songs you mentioned from Arkansas from very personal experience but you crafted a character and as you continued writing it it did become real and personal and the character took over and helped character you create it up right the final version of that it did and and you know there's still some mystery about it and and by the way even the structure of it it goes on it goes into a minor that we as we got most of the lyrics and then it was also much the same you just sat three courting and we went up and then it just kind of evolved and start bringing in those two minors and three minor I know that's tech no speech but the the minor chords and and all if it works the character kind of into the end of your sessions it headaches and in a week we really discussed about what the people some people got on that can't believe you crashed it and burned it it's lucky well we talked about that I mean we could have had him me just go by and me to meet a pretty girl you know what about the car it was about the spirit and yeah so final question I've been with you and seeing this happen and there have been some remarkable stories from people you've heard from about that oh right there is on Facebook there is a writing with private malone website that people just such fans of it and it was the first song where i was plugged in because i was the producer and and involved with the record label so it was the first song of mine where people we had people emails that people that were writing in and some of them were from one memory I'm an eight-year-old World War two veteran I had to pull off to the side of the road this song you know got me I said man when that when that happens that's what happened to me when I heard by the time I get to Phoenix or songs like that you know so what an honor that is and you said you the same thing happened to you so it's that powerful I think it's time to hear a verse and chorus over last week for the Tennessee and the story behind the song would newton write a private malone opened up the good bucks and that's when i found a note date was 1966 and this is what he wrote he said my name is private and room alone and if you're reading this then I didn't make it home but for every dream that shatters another one comes true this car was once a dream of mine I it belongs to you and though you may take her and make her your own you'll always be riding with private you

Channel: Tennessean

Views: 146,409

Keywords: 2979661123001, tennessean, music, harman, home, NSAI, nashville, songwriters, bart herbison

Id: VWbylRhmfHI

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 03 2016