First Published in Country Music International – March 1999

Best-known for steering LeAnn Rimes to the top with Blue and How Do I Live, Chuck Howard first found production success with Kippi Brannon at just 18 years of age

Chuck Howard is not a household name. A major player in a highly competitive field, he is one of the faceless Nashville music executives whose talent has resounded around the world without anyone being aware of his achievements. Continuously making new rules and pushing the envelope, Chuck made music history as the man responsible for the production on LeAnn Rimes's How Do I live?, which has become the longest running single on the American pop charts, spending well over a year on the top 100.

"We never intended for it to be a pop single, but when the film producers said LeAnn's version was too country, we went ahead and released it anyway and let the fans make the decision," explains Howard from his Nashville office, where he was not only reflecting on his many successes of the past, but also looking forward to the challenges of the future in his new role as an independent producer, following several years as s highly successful record label executive.

"It's just a great career record and continues to have life and get amazing recurrent airplay. We have a remarkable talent in LeAnn, who is proving she can compete not only with her country peers, but also with top pop artists like Celine Dion, Jewel, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. We're showing the world the kind of high quality recording artists Nashville is signing and projects we're producing,” enthuses Howard.

The single has gone on to sell more than three million copies internationally, with close on three-quarters of a million being sold in Britain, where the single has been in the charts for almost six months. But Howard, who first worked with LeAnn on her recording of Blue when she was just 13 years old, was honest enough to admit that back in 1995 he never had any inclination that she would become such a huge superstar.

"You always hope for that," he says, “but if you knew who was going to make it, then I'd be real lucky. It's all down to timing. She came along with just the right song at the right time, then once she made that breakthrough, her talent carried her up and up.”

Chuck Howard is well used to the vagaries of the music business. Born in Kentucky, he has lived in Nashville since he was four-years-old, and has always been surrounded by music. His father, the late Chuck Howard Sr, was a successful songwriter, responsible for Merle Haggard's I'm Always On A Mountain When i Fall, and dozens of other country hits. He recalls from the age of ten or eleven spending every spare minute in recording studios, singing back-up harmonies on demos and just totally immersing himself in the magic of making music.

"I just loved the studio and knew then that I wanted to be a producer," he recalls. "I just loved the creativity of the studio. I've done almost everything in the studio from running around to engineering to finally producing sessions."

His first success as a producer was with Kippi Brannon, a 15-year-old singer on a remake of Webb Pierce's Slowly in 1981. Released on MCA, it became a Top 40 country hit. Chuck was just 18; it was a genuine example of teen power. It is little wonder that several years later he was keen to work with Rimes.

"LeAnn is one of the most adult people I've ever worked with in the studio,"

he says. "She is not into the music, the arrangements and all that. She just loves singing. She can sing so perfectly on pitch and with such power and natural feeling."

Howard is no stranger to hit-making, having produced such diverse acts as Billy Dean, Hank Williams Jr., John Berry, Trini Triggs, Jeff Carson, Hal Ketchum and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. His most recent projects include an album with Hank Williams III (Hank Jr's son). He accepted the position of vice president of a&r for all three of Curb Record's labels in 1995. Since that time he has taken Curb to the Number One ranking country label from their previous position at 13.

Simultaneously, he has run a successful publishing company and unearthed new and successful talent. Rather surprisingly, though he has written a few songs, he has not followed in his father's footsteps as a songwriter or budding performer. "I don't really count myself as a writer, I'm a publisher and have had many successes in that field," he explains.

"My father died when he was only 44, so I didn't get to see my dad as an adult. I don't believe that you get anywhere on somebody else's coattails. It can open up doors, but you've got to be able to do it yourself and carve your own niche."

Chuck Jr has certainly done that. He has built the music and reputation of writers and entertainers for the past 20 years without much fanfare about himself. In the land of giants and conglomerates he is the icon for the small business who can enjoy big level success. Both of his independently owned Diamond Struck and Kinetic Diamond publishing companies have developed into multi-million dollar companies. Diamond Struck was named the second ranked country publisher of 1996, second only to the giant Sony-Tree, and way ahead of much larger concerns like MCA, EMI and Warner-Chappell.

Howard has made an impact through his uncanny ability to visualise and guide the raw and tender talents if unknown songwriters and singers. If one looks at the most successful and enduring stars of today one will find a connection to him. He is the publisher of such massive hits as Lorrie Morgan's I Didn't Know My Own Strength, Tim McGraw's She Never Lets It Go To Her Heart, Neal McCoy's Wink, Reba McEntrire's Is There Life Out There, Collin Raye's That Was A River, John Michael Montgomery's Long As I Live, Ricochet's Love Is Stronger Than Pride and dozens more. 

He has spent time nurturing the music and writers while building long-lasting relationships in an area of fast food friendships. Possessing almost a sixth sense in taking unknown and untried writers and providing them with an environmet to realise their potential, he was the first to recognise the talent in Tom Shapiro, Chris Waters, Chuck Jones, Rick Giles, Paul Nelson and Gary Burr. Howard helped bring Burr to publishing in the early 1980s and led him to his early chart-toping That's My Job sung by Conway Twitty. He also signed superstar Deana Carter to her current publishing deal.

For some time he has felt that his connection with Curb Records has restricted his freedom to chase the kind of musical projects that will bring him personal fulfilment. "You just reach certain points in your life," he says, 'where you decide: ‘This is not the right thing for me to do anymore.’”

"I want to produce more acts, and I'm also thinking of starting up my own label, Striker Records. I'm not doing it for the money. It's because I love the music. It will be great to make money but it's more important to get good music out there."

He will still continue to produce acts signed to Curb, but will also be able to work with acts signed to other labels that he really believes in. Though he has made a major career move, he has no definite plans in mind. The reasons are very personal, he says, but revolve around his family and more specifically his son who had brain surgery last summer. "I was in the hospital thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. Now I have two healthy kids, and that's the most important thing in my life."

As a producer, Howard likes to shake things up periodically. He often produces in Los Angeles or San Francisco. He paired Hal Ketchum with Todd Rundgren's old song I Saw the Light. He also tried—unsuccessfully—to pair Merle Haggard with Nirvana's rhythm section. "It would have been a perfect match," he says. "But I never heard back from Merle."

The next project he is looking forward to will be with Hank Williams Jr. "We're going to record a rockin; album, like he did way back in the mid-1970s. It might not be right for country radio, but it will be right for Hank Jr and his fans." Making music that is right for the fans is uppermost in Howard's mind. His success surpasses formal standards by reaching fans from country to pop to Christian. He is a strong believer in sustaining a bona fide superstar's career by ensuring they maintain a high profile and where necessary, take musical risks that should be supported by the record labels, regardless of whether it is radio friendly.

"We need to start working to sustain careers in country like pop has done with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Barbra Streisand, The Stones or Springsteen," he says. "It's a travesty what Nashville has done to superstars like Dolly Parton, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride or Johnny Cash. I don't want that to happen to the next new breed of superstar artists."