Keep in mind, musical artists are a very sensitive group of people…
Cledus T. Judd, whose real name is James Barry Poole, was a guest on the Try That In a Small Town podcast this week, where he talked about his journey in country music and how he brings comedy into that style of music. If you’re unfamiliar with Judd, he has been called the “Weird Al” Yankovic of country music, and his albums are mostly a mix of original comedy songs and parodies.
For example, his highest-charting song “I Love NASCAR” is a parody of Toby Keith’s 2003 hit “I Love This Bar.” He’s parodied a lot of hit country songs throughout the years, but there was another song that an artist you may know, Mr. Garth Brooks, was not a fan of at all… and he tried to stop Cledus from releasing and promoting it many years ago.
Garth and Trisha had a song up for Grammy consideration in the late 90’s called “In Another’s Eyes,” which was their first major collaboration. They weren’t married at that time, and in fact, both were still married to other people. Written by Garth along with Bobby Wood and John Peppard, the song was included on Yearwood’s compilation album A Collection of Hits in 1997, and it reached#2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, becoming a huge hit for both artists.
But Judd had a song out called “In Another Size” at that time, which was a purely comedic, outrageous parody about needing a bigger pant size because he’d eaten too much, Garth was afraid it might somehow compete with his single at the Grammy’s because the titles were so similar (well, kind of , I guess… seems like a bit of a stretch to me). That sounds crazy, and it was, but Garth wanted no competition when it came to the possibility of him winning the Grammy, and he confronted Judd in the parking lot of a Nashville golf course:
“And you’ll never guess who the one guy out of all the people that we know came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I got a problem with this.’ Garth Brooks. I was at Hermitage golf course, I walked into the parking lot, and he’s like ‘Hey, are you Cledus?’ And I said ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m not a fan.’ I said, Well, get in line.’ You know?
He laughed a little bit and whatever, and he said, ‘Look, I know you’ve got this song.’ Him and Trish did a song called “In Another’s Eyes.’ Remember that one? And I did ‘In Another Size.’
And Garth said, ‘Man, that thing is up for a Grammy, we don’t want anything to compete.’ And when he said ‘compete,’ my chest bowed out you know? So he said, ‘We’d appreciate if you would just hold off until after the awards.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ You’ve sold more records than the Beatles and you’re worrying about some lowly comedian keeping you from winning the Grammy?’
Sony didn’t give me near enough advance money if I have that kind of power. And I did the song anyway, and he won the Grammy. So it all worked out.”
I mean… I can’t even begin to fathom what was going through Brooks’ head to even think this was any sort of competition, so much so that he confronted Judd and basically told him to scrap his own song. That’s just next level… but to be fair, I’ve talked with enough publicists and music labels over the years to know they overthink everything when it comes to how an artist may be perceived. Especially when it comes to awards or album releases. Like Judd mentioned, Garth and Trisha won the Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals that year, and clearly “In Another Size” was no competition whatsoever…
But I think this story speaks to the music industry as a whole, especially in Nashville, and how some of the stuff in terms of awards, and even radio play, really works, or at least how people internally think about stuff. I can’t say I’m shocked that Garth would do something like this, but hearing Judd tell the story really is a trip.
Then again, Garth in his infinite genius only streams his music on Amazon Music (click for a 30-day free trial), so who really knows what he’s thinking at any time.
Check it out:
@officialtrythatpodcast You never know who you’re going to run into… and you definitely never know what they’re going to say. This week’s episode with @CledusTJudd ♬ original sound – Try That Podcast
You can watch the full podcast here:
I mean, you can listen to both songs yourself and see if you think Cledus had a shot at taking down Trisha and Garth at music’s most prestigious award show…
If you want to hear the rest of Garth’s music, get a free 30-day free trial of Amazon Music here.
“In Another’s Eyes”
“In Another Size”
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