Rodney Crowell is an American musician best known for his work as a country singer, songwriter, and producer. He has won two Grammy Awards—Best Country Song in 1990 for “After All This Time” and Best Americana Album in 2014 for Old Yellow Moon. In addition to these accolades, he has written fifteen No. 1 songs and remains one of the most respected writers in American roots music. Crowell has had five No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, all from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt. He has also produced for and written songs recorded by numerous major artists. Influenced early on by Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, Crowell spent three years performing guitar and vocals in Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band.

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Born on August 7, 1950, in Houston and raised in nearby Crosby, Texas, Crowell grew up in a musical household. One grandfather was a church choir leader, the other a bluegrass banjo player. His grandmother played guitar, and his father sang semi-professionally in bars and honky-tonks. Crowell began playing drums in his father’s band at age eleven, and as a teenager he performed in several Houston garage rock bands, mixing contemporary hits with country songs.

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In August 1972, Crowell moved to Nashville to pursue a music career and was quickly signed as a songwriter after being discovered by Jerry Reed. Emmylou Harris had already recorded his song “Bluebird Wine” for her album Pieces of the Sky, and after hearing him perform at the Armadillo World Headquarters in early 1975, she invited him to join her backing band in Los Angeles as a rhythm guitarist. Crowell accepted and left the next day to join Harris’s Hot Band.

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In 1977, Crowell formed The Notorious Cherry Bombs with Vince Gill, Tony Brown, and other musicians as a side project. The following year, he signed a solo deal with Warner Bros. Records and released his debut album, Ain’t Living Long Like This, in late 1978. In 1980, he reassembled his touring band under the name “The Cherry Bombs.” The group reunited in 2004 as The Notorious Cherry Bombs and released an album with Vince Gill that featured the breakout tongue-in-cheek hit “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night.”

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Crowell’s commercial breakthrough came with the 1988 release of Diamonds & Dirt, a critically acclaimed album that produced an unprecedented five No. 1 singles—an achievement rarely matched in any genre. Only albums like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream have equaled that feat.

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Over five decades, Crowell has built a towering catalog that is impossible to summarize fully. He was once married to Rosanne Cash, and together they formed a highly creative musical partnership that continues through collaborations and mutual influence. Crowell has been honored with six Americana Music Awards, including the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting, and is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by legends such as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Etta James, Van Morrison, Bob Seger, and many others.

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He also received the prestigious ASCAP Founders Award—one of the organization’s highest honors—given to songwriters who have made pioneering contributions to music and influenced generations of fellow creators. Previous recipients include George Strait, Alan Jackson, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Neil Young.

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Even before his own hits, Crowell earned significant success as a songwriter. “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” became a signature song for Waylon Jennings, and “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” was a hit for The Oak Ridge Boys. His first major pop breakthrough came with “Shame on the Moon,” recorded by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band for the 1982 album The Distance. Featuring harmony vocals by Glenn Frey, the song spent four weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, topped the Adult Contemporary chart, and reached the Top 15 on the country chart in early 1983. Its dark, poetic quality and broad appeal helped establish Crowell as one of America’s most compelling and versatile songwriters.