Vince Gill’s Plan Is No Plan At All

For a few shows this year, Vince Gill fans got a double dose of the million-selling country star for the cost of one concert ticket.

The guitarist for opening act Patty Loveless had to suddenly rush home when his wife went into labor. That left Loveless short with a show in Memphis that evening.

“And so I got to play with Patty all weekend being her guitar player,” Gill said in an interview. “It was more fun than I had all year long because I got to go up there and just be a musician and play with the band. My adrenalin was going through the roof.”

Gill went on to play his own show each of those nights, and he scoffs at “show biz” conventions that say the star shouldn’t show his face until the grand entrance. (Gill recently toughened his own pretty-boy features by shaving his head and adding a goatee.)

Interviewed the day after taping an acoustic concert now airing on cable’s Country Music Television and The Nashville Network, Gill did not compromise his reputation as the most laid-back platinum singer in town.

While fellow Oklahomans Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire continually plot new career goals and strategies, Gill says he is not ambitious at all.

“I’d much rather react to life than plan it,” Gill said. “It’s more fun that way.”

Nevertheless, Gill is preparing to record a new album in January even as he is promoting “Souvenirs,” a greatest hits compilation on MCA Records. It features 15 hits, including such favorites as “I Still Believe in You” and his number from an Eagles tribute album, “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

Perhaps more interesting to latecoming fans is “The Essential Vince Gill,” 20 selections from his 1983-1988 tenure at RCA. That set proves that Gill’s vision was firmly in place long before he struck it big. Check out the ballad “Colder Than Winter” on that set for surefire goose bumps.

Meanwhile, Gill has been listening to Sonny Landreth’s CD and is thinking about adding some cajun spice to his next album. He says he’ll take the same advice he recently gave friend Amy Grant, and not be afraid to mess with a winning formula since “the farm is paid for.”

Gill, 38, worked for over a decade before becoming a solo hit. Born the son of a judge in Norman, Okla., he considered becoming a pro golfer but instead opted for music. Golf still competes for his affection and time with music, though. He started out as a bluegrass picker, his band Mountain Smoke being booed offstage once when they opened for Kiss.

He worked with Ricky Skaggs before getting his first big break, an offer to join the pop band Pure Prairie League. He sang lead on the PPL hit “Let Me Love You Tonight,” before joining the ultimate country music finishing school - Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band.

From there, he became a struggling new artist on RCA and one of the most coveted backup singers and session guitarists in Nashville. Pick up a album recorded here in the 1980s, and there’s a good chance Gill’s expressive tenor or guitar playing will be featured.

The sideman’s role is one he treasures still, performing on other artists’ records whenever his schedule allows.

“I don’t think that I’d have to be the one that everybody notices to feel secure in the fact that I’m talented,” Gill said. “I think it’s 10 times harder … to go sing the background part, the tight harmony part with say Patty or Reba or whoever.”

“That requires you taking your talents and making them work for this person. It’s not easy to do that stuff and I think that most people just kind of look at background musicians as kind of third-class citizens, and I don’t. They’re my heroes, so I still like to do that.”

In the 1990s, Gill moved to MCA and turned down an offer to tour with Dire Straits. He finally started having hits on MCA, including “Pocket Full of Gold” and “Liza Jane.” He became a frequent awards winner.

But in his own eyes, he doesn’t want to be a superstar.

“You got Madonna who sells gazillions of records and you got Bonnie Raitt, who doesn’t quite sell a gazillion records,” he said.

“Who would you rather be? I think I’ll be Bonnie. I don’t ever want to be the kingpin. I like just being one of the rest.”