Shane Grove: Songs, Shawshank, and the Ghosts in Between
Takin’ A Walk Nashville
Songwriter Shane Grove shares his journey from mailman in Ohio to co-writing hits for Tanya Tucker and David Allen Coe, reflecting on serend
Key takeaways
- Shane Grove wrote 'A Million Reasons' while walking through Cincinnati, waiting to hear about David Allen Coe's court hearing—showcasing how life's uncertainty fuels art.
Main topics
- Songwriting journey from Ohio to Nashville
- Collaborations with Tanya Tucker and David Allen Coe
Notable quotes
'I wrote 'A Million Reasons' on a notepad while walking around downtown Cincinnati, waiting to find out if David Allen Coe's federal court hearing had gone his way.'
Conclusion
Shane Grove's story illustrates how persistence, serendipity, and the
Transcript preview
Speaker 7 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hi, Speaker 8 (0:04) this is Kylie Brakeman. Angela Geratana. Jeremy Colhane. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. Speaker 7 (0:21) And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. Speaker 8 (0:26) He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. Speaker 6 (0:31) You've never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Speaker 1 (0:36) Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (0:44) Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Poynter, chair of women's health and gynecology at the Adria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Poynter on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (1:14) In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author Petra Mathers and her husband Michael mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Dear honeys, this is goodbye. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? Listen to Death of an Artist on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:45) The World Cup is over, but if you caught the soccer bug and aren't sure what to do now, check out our podcast, Big Kick Energy. I'm Cameron Dicker, the kicker from the Los Angeles Chargers, and I'm here with Timmy Tillman, current LAFC star player. So, we know a little something about kicking balls. Each week, we'll tackle things like who's winning the Premier League this year? What do you think is harder, scoring a penalty kick or scoring a field goal? Join us each week for a quick chat with your soccer-loving bros about the best sport in the world, soccer. Just don't tell my coaches I said that. Listen to Big Kick Energy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 7 (2:21) Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, Black literature. I'm Jacquees Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Black Lit Podcast, we're outside asking why. They don't want a whole bunch of little Ella Bakers, Malcolm Xs, and Martin Luther Kings running around. And when you look at a lot of different cultures, they're like, we need to know where you came from. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you? reading next. Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (2:53) Hi, I'm Michael Imperioli. I want to tell you about my new podcast, Underground Zero. Speaker 6 (2:57) We're looking at the opportunity of a lifetime for us and the other families. Speaker 2 (3:01) It's about the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. What's in the Speaker 6 (3:04) tunnels? Gold bars, silver ingots. It could be worth half a billion. Speaker 2 (3:08) Starring Steve Schirrippa, Ray Abruzzo, and me, Michael Imperioli. How far are you prepared to go? Depends how far you are. Listen to Underground Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (3:24) Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday on our podcast, Lots to Say, with me, Bobby Bones, and Matt Castle. You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media. Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up. Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (3:54) Taking a walk Nashville. Hey Speaker 4 (3:56) listeners, it's Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville. What do Bigfoot, a mailman, Shawshank Redemption, and Tanya Tucker all have in common? Find out today during my conversation with songwriter Shane Grove. I take you through his journey of growing up in Ohio. to coming down to Nashville to write songs with artists like Tanya Tucker and David Allen Coe. We go through his music journey and his other endeavors in his career. Speaker 2 (4:34) Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your host, singer-songwriter Sarah Harrelson. Hey Speaker 4 (4:40) listeners, today I have with me Shane Grove, a singer-songwriter-podcaster from Ohio. Shane, thanks for being on today. Just tell us a little bit about how you got into music and how you got into the Nashville songwriting scene from Ohio. Speaker 3 (4:59) Well, am I really in the Nashville songwriting scene? Is that really like what's the measurement to be in the Nashville songwriting? Speaker 4 (5:07) So, I mean, you've written with so many different Nashville artists and songwriters. Speaker 3 (5:13) Well, I'll tell you this. As a kid growing up in north central Ohio, there was no thinking that you could write music that would someday be played on the radio. It just didn't exist. As young as I look, I'm a little bit older than what, you know, everybody would guess. Speaker 3 (5:36) Right. So there was no, you know, you just didn't have the opportunities that people have now to make those connections and, and dream those dreams. But I always liked to write and I started out writing movie scripts and I just enjoyed the whole process. And I had a friend who is a pro wrestler, Chris Hahn. He was a pro wrestler, wrestled in the WWF for a little bit, and he started getting in the movies. and doing stunt work and so i kept writing scripts but but a friend of mine eric Speaker 5 (6:09) westfall said you know how hard can it be to write a song Speaker 3 (6:14) like let's let's just try it and he was a big country music fan and so like a couple of dummies from north central ohio we thought let's try and and write a song what you know we we can this how hard could this be it's just like a poem and so we started writing Some songs we had no idea what to do. There was a local guy here who did some Southern Baptist type gospel music who actually put us in contact with a guy named George Clinton who had a studio in downtown Nashville. Not the P-Funk George Clinton. That'd be a much better story. But we got some demos made. But the guy who sang the demos was a guy named Daryl O'Donnell. And anybody listening from Nashville probably knows who Daryl is. Daryl had a record deal of his own years and years ago. Daryl played for a long time down at Rippy's and stuff, him and his son. So we kind of like formed a relationship with Daryl. Just through the demos he did, we thought it was so cool. Not knowing any better, and we just kind of like, hey, would you like to write? So Speaker 5 (7:27) we started writing with Daryl, a guy in Nashville who had... played regular gigs and stuff and who had had a Speaker 3 (7:35) somewhat of a career. And lo and behold, about the fifth song me and Eric wrote, Daryl and Clinton put on one of their albums. It was called Last Pew. I had sat down and wrote this song with the idea that I was going to get it right to Darius Rucker and he was going to sing it. Okay. That hasn't happened yet. Darius Speaker 5 (7:57) hasn't probably heard the song. But it has been recorded a couple different times by a couple different artists. Speaker 3 (8:06) And, you know, it was the first time we wrote something. Like I said, it was like five or six songs in that we thought, wow, this sort of sounds like something, like maybe we know what we're doing. About 200 songs later, Speaker 5 (8:22) it took before something else. But it was enough of a Speaker 3 (8:29) kernel of success, I should say, or that gave us just the inkling of an idea that we could keep doing this. And it was something we loved to do. And lo and behold, step by step. here I am talking to you, Speaker 5 (8:50) you know, it's been, it's been a long journey, you know, I've paid, I've paid some dues. Yeah. And it's by like for anybody listening that wants to Speaker 3 (9:02) be in the music business, like it just, nobody's handing you. You know the golden ticket, okay, unless you're just so talented it is it's undeniable and You know, I don't really I don't sing I don't play it's I just write and so I'm always dependent on You know writing with really talented people like you You know, you're one of many the young singer-songwriters that I'd write with now and on a semi-regular basis that I couldn't do anything if it wasn't for you guys. And there's so many, like, I can't believe you're not more well-known for the stuff you do. I mean, you have a great voice and you're a really great writer. I think it's just a matter of time before people discover how wonderful you are, you know? And I know I'm buttering you up a little bit, and I'm already on the show, but I'm being truthful. You walk away from rights. Mike Calley is another young guy who I write with a lot. And you're like, man, these guys are so talented. But you live in Nashville. There's a lot of talented people. And you really have to work hard, keep being consistent, showing up, and have some breaks. And along the way. I met some people. I became friends with a man named David Wade, who was David Allen Coe's manager. And I got to have a relationship with David, Speaker 5 (10:47) which turned into him cutting a couple songs. The last album that David actually did in Nashville with original stuff, and he recorded two songs that I wrote. But that project in itself has taken a decade, literally Speaker 3 (11:07) taken a decade to come to fruition and come out. And, you know, through David, I formed a relationship with Tanya Tucker. She's recorded a couple songs of ours that I've written with, you know, David Wade, Eric Westfall, and Moose Brown, who some people might know. He wrote a little song called Five Alive. clock somewhere, you know, and talk about being. What's surreal is sitting at the, you know, he calls it the Moose Lodge, his Speaker 5 (11:42) office studio above the garage. And you're sitting there. One of the first times you're in Nashville, me, you know, I'm speaking in the third person here, like Ricky Henderson. But you're sitting there and you're writing with a dude who, his Grammy's sitting over his shoulder. Okay? His Grammy's sitting over his shoulder. There's gold records on the wall. You're Speaker 3 (12:05) sitting there writing. Willie Nelson is on the phone calling him because he wants to talk to him about something or Jamie Johnson. Speaker 5 (12:12) And is this real? Like, I'm just a mailman from Ohio. Like, what am I doing in this world? But, but, you know, we showed up. I showed up. I made those trips to Nashville just to write with Moose a couple times because we knew that it just everybody Speaker 3 (12:32) wasn't getting that chance. Speaker 3 (12:36) Good things came out of those, you know, and through those relationships, you know, Tanya is become a friend of mine. I mean, it's not like we're having dinner every week or anything, but we text each other. She always wants to hear songs I've written. In fact, a song we just wrote a couple weeks ago, you know, I sent to her, you know, she loves to hear. the stuff and she she's a great um i Speaker 5 (13:10) want to say resource but if she likes something she's not afraid to send it on to some people that um it would be amazing to get a cut by you know what i'm saying so those are the relationships you make along the way um Speaker 3 (13:27) because they always talk about you know finding your tribe, so to speak, and the group of people. Now, if my tribe includes David and Tanya, I'm in big trouble because David's already passed. Speaker 5 (13:40) So I kind of get some, but the great thing is you get to be around these people and have a relationship with them. Speaker 3 (13:50) And you know then when Tanya or David, who are, you know, David is one of the greatest. writers probably the last 50 i mean some of the stuff he's written is is really good if Speaker 5 (14:04) he's Speaker 5 (14:07) wanting or willing to cut something you wrote, you have to actually give yourself a little credit and say, wow, maybe I did Speaker 3 (14:15) something. Like you don't give yourself too much credit, but, um, it's kind of, it's kind of cool because there are no nonsense people when it comes down to what's good and what isn't. I mean, you're, you're a legend because you know what's, you know what a good song is. And, um, I feel blessed that, you know,