Garth Brooks Thought The Song “Murder On Music Row” Was About Him: “Are You Trying To Send Me A Message?”

Guilty conscience, eh?

Obviously there are all kinds of jokes these days about Garth Brooks being an actual murderer, thanks to comedian Tom Segura and his wife, Christina P, coming to the (inevitable, really) conclusion on their Your Mom’s House podcast that Garth is, in fact, a serial killer.

Take a quick look at any mention of Garth on social media and you’ll immediately see that the comments are flooded with questions like “Where are the bodies?” and folks begging for closure for the families of his victims.

But the song “Murder on Music Row” had nothing to do with an ACTUAL murder.

Written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, and originally recorded by the writer’s bluegrass group Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, the song became a hit after it was covered by George Strait and Alan Jackson in 1999, despite the fact that it was never released as an official single.

The “Murder on Music Row” is actually a metaphor for the Nashville music industry killing traditional country music in pursuit of commercial success and profit:

“Nobody saw him running from sixteenth avenue.
They never found the fingerprint or the weapon that was used.
But someone killed country music, cut out its heart and soul.
They got away with murder down on Music Row”

Amen.

Now, before I go any further, we need to take a look back at what was going on in country music at the time the song came out. When George and Alan’s version was released, we were 10 years removed from the emergence of the “Class of ’89,” a group of neo-traditional country singers who were widely praised for their classic country sound – guys like Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and of course, Alan Jackson himself.

But through the ’90s, Garth Brooks was also becoming a mega-star, not necessarily for his traditional country sound but for his rockin’ shows that rivaled the massive productions typically found in pop and rock, as well as his sound that pushed the envelope for what was considered “country” at the time. (Of course when you compare it to some of today’s country, Garth’s music sounds country as hell, but that’s probably more of an indictment of where country is today than anything).

At the time though, there were plenty who were critical of Garth and not happy that he was seemingly taking country in a more “pop” direction.

It obviously wasn’t just Garth though. Shania Twain was also a massive superstar, and she blurred the line between country and pop more than anybody. And there were plenty of others who were pushing country to its outer edges (or so we thought) at the time.

So “Murder on Music Row” wasn’t necessarily aimed at any particular artist. In fact it takes aim more at the Nashville machine, the record labels who sold out for money and the radio stations that replaced fiddle-and-steel soaked heartbreakers with more friendly pop hits.

But when Garth heard the song it must have touched a nerve – because he thought it was about him.

Songwriter Larry Cordle discussed his hit on the podcast Murder on Music Row, which is produced by the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean and isn’t just about the song, but about an actual music industry murder that occurred on Music Row in 1989.

And he said that when he was coming up with an album cover for his version of the song, he chose a location on Nashville’s 16th Avenue, the street once famous for housing the major recording studios and labels that built country music.

The album cover featured a man loading a steel guitar into a hearse, with chalk outlines of a man and a guitar on the street beside him. And in the background, there’s a sign for 16th Avenue.

As it turns out, Cordle chose the location for a pretty simple reason: It was the only “16th Avenue” sign on the street.

But on the corner of that street, just outside the frame of the photo, sat a building called Jack’s Tracks Recording Studio. The famous studio was owned at the time by producer Allen Reynolds – who produced music for, you guessed it, Garth Brooks.

Garth had recorded many of his albums at Jack’s Tracks, and when he saw the cover for Cordle’s Murder On Music Row album, he immediately recognized the location of the photo – and thought that Cordle was trying to call him out with the song and the album cover.

According to Cordle:

“Garth Brooks had been trying to reach me, I heard one day. So when I called him, and I don’t think he meant it in a bad way, but he said, ‘Man, I couldn’t help but notice that that’s right up here by Allen’s… Are you trying to send me a message or something?’

I’m like, ‘Garth, it’s the only 16th Avenue sign in town that I could even find.'”

Seems like Garth has been dodging those murderer accusations for longer than we’ve realized…

Well obviously the song wasn’t written about Garth (at least not that Cordle will ever admit), but listening to it 25 years after it became a hit, it’s still as relevant today as it was back then.

Oh, and that Jack’s Tracks studio just off to the side of the album cover? It was later bought by Garth Brooks, who renamed it Allentown Studios in honor of Allen Reynolds – and he still owns it today.

The post Garth Brooks Thought The Song “Murder On Music Row” Was About Him: “Are You Trying To Send Me A Message?” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.