Country Songwriter Profile: Craig Wiseman - Building A Music Company and Giving Back

Not only one of Nashville's best songwriters to have ever put pen to paper, Craig Wiseman is also one of the most business-savvy with his own Big Loud Shirt publishing house which houses Rodney Clawson, Florida Georgia Line and Chris Tompkins. Read on here to learn more about Craig's career here!

Tuesday night (June 4), hit songwriter Craig Wiseman will host his ninth annual Second Harvest Food Bank benefit concert in Nashville, Stars for Second Harvest. The benefit will feature some of music’s finest and hottest acts, including Florida Georgia Line, and helps kick off a fun-filled week as part of the 2013 CMA Music Festival. 

But when he’s not planning fundraising events, Wiseman is hard at work on his songwriting craft, having penned some of the biggest songs out of Nashville such as Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying.” Roughstock recently spoke with Wiseman about his upcoming benefit at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and the journey to now in the country music industry. 

Alanna Conaway: Tell us about this year's lineup for your Stars for Second Harvest event.

Craig Wiseman: The lineup is rockin'! Probably the coolest thing is last year I had to go out there and explain we had this baby band called Florida Georgia Line and now this year they’re headlining. They are huge supporters. They are headlining the show and [recently] had their second No. 1. Our pre-sales are through the roof. There’s already over 1,000 pre-sold, and I’m sure a lot of that is due to those guys. So they are headlining this year … the band nobody heard of last year, and now look at them!

Our writer [from my publishing company Big Loud Shirt] Chris Tompkins is going to be there, who just won his second GRAMMY for [Carrie Underwood’s] ‘Blown Away.’ Our other writer, Rodney Clawson, is Billboard’s Writer of the Year. Chris and Rodney have both had five No. 1 songs in the past six months. I always try to grab a couple of the hottest writers on the Row, and they just so happen to write in the room right next to mine. So we’re going to get them out there, and we just found out that my buddy Ronnie Dunn is going to come by. We’ve got Florida Georgia Line closing the show, of course. We’re going to give them a little more time so their fans will get to see more of them. That is going to really be a treat. I always try to throw a comedian in there, just to make it a little more of a variety show. So we’ve got Ralphie May. I love him! He is great and hilarious! I have to get my picture made with him. He’s been my favorite comedian for five or six years. There may be a couple of other surprises. I have a few other artists and songwriters who said they may stop by and sing a song … it’s going to be a nice little Tuesday night!

Alanna Conaway: You are obviously a very busy songwriter in high demand, so why is it so important to you to continue doing this event year after year?

Such is life … everything’s a pain in the butt to accomplish anything. It goes back to my coach in high school … you have your goals and your obstacles. This charity really speaks to me. The idea of anybody going hungry, especially in America, it’s like are you kidding me? And it really goes on. I love the charity. They are so great. They are very hands on and motivated by what they accomplish. Every dollar literally buys four meals. O’Charley’s is underwriting the event, so they are picking up all costs, so with a $25 ticket, that’s 100 meals. 

A lot of my friends this time of year ask me why I do it because my schedule does get nuts. Everybody has compassion. There are people who sit with the elderly who are dying. That’s amazing. Spiritually, I think God’s given everybody that level of compassion within themselves. If they seek it, they can find it. If you find it, you can do charity and you can give, and you receive far more than you give. This has really turned into a fun show. I get to bring my friends out to the Ryman … it’s just fun. And moving it to CMA Week has been a real shot in the arm.

Alanna: For those few people living under a rock who have never heard of Craig Wiseman, give us the story of what brought you to Nashville.I’m a songwriter, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be! I grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I started playing guitar for church camp when I was 15. I learned a couple of songs on guitar, and for some reason, the first thing I thought to do was to put my own words to the music because it made more sense to do that. So I just started writing songs. I was in bands. I played drums for 10 years, six or seven nights a week. I just always did music. I kind of thought you had to be a Don Henley or a Phil Collins guy. I thought to be a songwriter you had to have the band as your vehicle. Then I discovered in Nashville, you could just write songs. I got here, and I started doing that. I played for a few more years … all of a sudden, slowly but surely, I started getting cuts. Then I had my first No. 1 in 1994, and I just had my 20th No. 1 with, of all things, an active rock song for seven weeks with Three Days Grace a couple of months ago. I’ve got the Blake Shelton single out right now, “Boys ‘Round Here.” I’m a songwriter. I’m one of those guys. I’ve got a building right here on [Music Row] on the world-famous 16th Avenue. I’m in the middle of a dream come true. That’s generally why I’m running around with a [cheesy] grin on my face!

What is that next goal you would like to reach?We have Florida Georgia Line, so we’ve kind of started finding and doing our own thing where we’re not just a publishing company taking songs to Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney, hoping they will cut them. Now days, things are changing, so we’re trying to our own thing where we can develop an act. We found Florida Georgia Line, developed them ourselves, and managed to take care of them, cut their records and do all of that. This has been a very cool, new and exciting thing, especially as the music business changes. There’s more and more unknowns, so to work towards establishing some known’s to where you’re more and more self contained … you control your own destiny is nice. We’ve got some great writers here, and we’ve all been together for years. This is a great company. When we did the FGL thing, it was like, look … we’re going to be here next year. We’re going to be here the year after that. We’re going to find another FGL. These people I work with, I love. They’ve got a job, and they’ll always have a job. We keep it fun and we have parking lot parties. It’s a goal of mine to run a place that is fun to work for. I’ve got the right people and the right team. We’re having fun, and we’re very, very blessed and doing well.

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