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Vince Gill wins Will Rogers award
He sees it as a different honor, one for who he is, not what he does.
Vince Gill receives the Rotary Club of Will Rogers Spirit Award at the Cain's Ballroom on Sunday. TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
Published: 11/9/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/9/2009 9:09 AM
There's nothing like doing what you love and being recognized for it, but country superstar and Oklahoma native Vince Gill views his most recent honor differently.
The singer and songwriter, who has earned 20 Grammy Awards — more than any other male country music artist — received the 2009 Will Rogers Spirit Award Sunday night at Cain's Ballroom.
"This, to me, has so much more to do with me as a person than it does about me as a singer or a guitar player or a songwriter, just because of what it embodies and whose name is attached to it," said Gill before the Rotary Club of Will Rogers 2009 gala. "There was not a more likable man in the history of our state than Will Rogers."
Before the gala, Gill sat in a small back room of the next door Crystal Pistol, where more than 100 VIP guests were ushered in to have their photos taken with him. Afterward, seated at a small table behind the club, Gill put the life behind him and the night to come into perspective.
"I look back at a pretty neat life. I started traveling probably in 1974, playing with bands, going places, riding in vans, buses, trucks and cars for 35 years now. It hasn't changed. It really hasn't changed all that much. It's still fun to play music in front of people and have them respond."
Gill said he still enjoys making music as much as he ever has. The honor he received Sunday night, however, speaks of the complete person known as Vince Gill, not just the musician. He said he owes part of who he is to his home.
"I've never forgotten where I come from. I've lived in Tennessee longer than I've ever lived in Oklahoma, but Oklahoma will always be home to me," Gill said.
"What I love about this place is the people. And there's just something about these people that is unlike anywhere I've ever been.
"Maybe it's because it's familiar to me, but I think it's because there's such a great wealth of common sense in the people from Oklahoma, this whole region of the world — here, Kansas, Nebraska," he continued. "They're salt-of-the-earth type people. They live off the land, they live in the dirt, they work in the dirt, they know the value of hard work."
Do those roots show through the man?
"Well, I hope so ... I'm going to write songs and play and sing like however I learn and hear how to do it, but the way that I treat other people, the way I live and react to success and failure is important," he said.
"I want more than anything to remain a man of character and remain a man that is unchanged. If somebody who's known me when I was 15 who knows me now at 52, what I'd rather hear more than anything in the world is, 'That's the same kid. That's the same guy.' "
Vince Gill: a lifetime of music and charity
Born and raised in Norman,
Vince Gill began in music
early, encouraged by a musician
father. By the time he
entered high school, Gill had
learned to play guitar, banjo,
bass, mandolin, dobro and
fiddle.
He played in a bluegrass
band before moving on to
Louisville, Ky., where he
would play with several other
bluegrass groups. A move to
Los Angeles would put him
in contact with many people
who would affect his career.
When he signed with RCA
records in 1983, he moved
his young family to Nashville
and worked on a solo career.
After switching labels, Gill hit
upon a string of hit albums
throughout the 1990s — including
“Pocket Full of Gold,”
“The Key” and “When Love
Finds You.”
His most recent work,
a four-disc box set of 43
original songs, was released
in 2006 and featured work
from fellow musicians, Sheryl
Crow, Rodney Crowell, Alison
Krauss, Michael McDonald
and others. It also features
Gills’ wife, Christian music
and crossover singer Amy
Grant, whom he married in
2000.
Gill has also been involved
with raising money for
charitable causes and organizations,
such as the June
“Challenge America” concert
he and Grant hosted in Washington,
D.C., to raise awareness
and support for disabled
veterans and the Vince Gill
& Amy Grant Golf Classic in
Aspen, Colo., to help disabled
Americans. He recruited talent
for Stars Nashville Sing
for a Cause to raise money for
students in Tennessee.
Last month, Gill and singer
Keith Urban hosted a concert
to benefit the Country Music
Hall of Fame and museum.
He serves as president of the
museum’s board of officers
and trustees.
TV appearance
Vince Gill will be profiled on
an ABC TV special. “In the
Spotlight: Bright Lights. Big Stars.
All Access Nashville” is scheduled
to air at 9 p.m. Tuesday on KTUL,
channel 8.
Others to be profiled include
Checotah native Carrie Underwood,
Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw
and Martina McBride.
Karen Shade 581-8334
karen.shade@tulsaworld.com
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
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