🎤24 #1 songs
🏆Grammy and ASCAP award-winning songwriter.
Brett James came to Nashville 28 years ago in a 1982 Datsun, with his acoustic guitar, a four-track recorder, and a single garbage bag stuffed with clothes. He dreamed, like thousands before him and thousands more that would follow, of singing his songs for arenas full of people. And just like so many of those people, life didn’t work out for him quite the way he had envisioned.
For one thing, Faith Hill cut one of his songs. Then so did Carrie Underwood. And Kenny Chesney. And dozens of other artists, ranging from Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, and Florida Georgia Line to Kelly Clarkson, Meghan Trainor, and Nick Jonas. James had more than 500 of his songs recorded, for albums with combined sales of more than 110 million copies. Twenty-five of those songs became No. 1 hits. He co-wrote the opening theme for the television broadcast of Super Bowl LII.
So people did pack arenas — even stadiums — and heard Brett James’ songs. He just wasn’t the one singing them.
