Five Questions With Hillary Lindsey
Hillary Lindsey’s songs have been cut by Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Shakira, Lady Antebellum, Sara Evans, Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Tim McGraw and Luke Bryan to name a few. Her first No. 1 was “Blessed,” sung by Martina McBride.
Lindsey is part of the trio of female Nashville songwriters who call themselves the Love Junkies. The Love Junkies wrote Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” which won a Grammy for Best Country Song and a CMA Award for Song of the Year.
Six of Lindsey’s No. 1 hits are singles cut by Carrie Underwood. Lindsey co-wrote eight songs on Underwood’s “Blown Away” album.
Q Having written so many hits for Carrie Underwood, do you write songs now specifically with her in mind?
Once you get in the middle of a song, you realize it might be good for Carrie, or Keith Urban or whoever. You can kind of feel it; you can tell who you think should sing it.
Q When you have that feeling, do you send it directly to them?
You can, if you’re brave enough. I try to keep my distance from that a little bit because I don’t want to feel like I’m pushing my songs on anybody. I have my songs under Daniel Lee at BMG. I’ll send it to him, and he’ll send it to the manager, producer or occasionally directly to the artist.
Q What started your interest in songwriting? Did you first start out writing poetry?
I did a little bit. For me, they went hand in hand. I never took lessons, but for whatever reason, I would sit down at the piano in my parents’ home, when I was very young, and play, and the melodies and words would come out. It was very natural for me. Nobody told me to do it; nobody taught me to do it. I just did it. That was my journal. We had cassette recorders, and sometimes I would record them. Sometimes I would just write down lyrics on a scrap piece of paper.
Q How did the Love Junkies form?
Those are two of my best girlfriends in town. Lori McKenna and Liz Rose had been writing together for a couple years. I had written with Lori once years ago. I was honestly very nervous about writing with her because she is so amazing. I didn’t know if I could be as good. I was intimidated by her.
She and Liz had developed a really good relationship, and somebody decided the three of us should write together. So we did — for two or three days straight.
We stayed in our PJs and lounge/workout clothes, would get up, have breakfast and talk song ideas. At 5 o’clock, we’d take a break and sometimes, back then, we’d write until 2 o’clock in the morning. Then get up and do it all again. We still do that.
Our first song was “Sober” that Little Big Town cut.
Q Were you surprised by the controversy over the lyrics to “Girl Crush”?
It did surprise me. It showed that whoever felt that way didn’t listen to the lyrics. It was just a complete misunderstanding.
So many people in this town — artists, songwriters, fans — came out and championed the song. Artists were wearing “Girl Crush” hats, and it turned out for the better. It made people listen to the song, and the focus that ended up being on the song was that people loved it instead of hating it.