Andy Griggs will be performing on the Forever Country stage at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, June 7.
Griggs has been performing at CMA Music Fest since the late 90s. He said his first single “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely” was released in December of 1998. When he began performing at what is now CMA Music Fest, the festival was still held at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. Griggs recalled one year that he performed with Waylon Jennings after the festival moved downtown, which was something Griggs called a life long memory.
Griggs recalled that he did a long radio year to promote “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely” that lasted about a half a tear. The song was written by Griggs and Brett Jones. It was also the title track of Griggs debut album. It was one of four songs co-written by Griggs on his debut album. He also co-wrote “I’ll Go Crazy,” which was a top ten hit. “She’s More” and “You Made Me That Way” were also singles released from the album.
It was “If Heaven,” a single from his 2004 album that Griggs said penetrated the most. “My mother and I buried of family members,” Griggs said. He said that his mother encouraged him to record the song.
Another song Griggs co-wrote and recorded was called “Twenty Little Angels,” a song which was inspired by the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Griggs recalled that his mother, who was a school teacher, called him crying and told him to turn on the television. He said those words and melody came to him in about 15 minutes. Griggs explained that if a songwriter doesn’t write an idea that it will cause them to lose sleep. He wrote the song with Bobby Pinson, but Griggs didn’t know if they wanted to release the song.
Griggs said that the demo of the song was played on the radio in Nashville. “I don’t know to this day how that demo got played in Nashville,” he said. After it was played, people wanted to hear it. They donated the money from the song to charity. “I’ve never made one penny off that song and neither has Bobby,” Griggs said. He said that it did raise a lot of money for the families.
Although Griggs has written a lot of the songs he has recorded, he considers himself a singer. “I didn’t come to Nashville to write…I came to sing,” he said. He said that he writes maybe half of the songs that he records.