Interview with Rory Lee Feek 2006:
"A few months ago I got a call from Ichabod Cain, the morning show host on KMPS in Seattle, WA. He told me a story about a man named Richard Butsch that he had met at an event the radio station had been part of recently that included some soldiers that we're just coming back from the war in Iraq. The man had commented to him how much different their reception home was from his when he came back from Vietnam. Ichabod said the man's story hit him really hard and he told me that he thought there should be a song written about how some of the soldiers from Vietnam have probably never been welcomed home. He challenged me to try and write it and to sing it in December on his morning show when I was to come to Seattle for Blaine Larsen’s wedding.
In the months that followed, I got together with my good friend and co-writer Tim Johnson, and we took Ichabod's idea and wrote the song. It seemed to write itself. In early December, I sang it on Ichabod's show and the response was tremendous. Around the end of the year, Tim and I went in the studio and recorded a full demo of the song and sent it out to the crew at KMPS. They played the song on the air and once again the listeners responded with heart-wrenching emails and calls to the station. I'm thrilled to be a part of such a beautiful song and story that's still unfolding."
Rory was raised in the small mid-west town of Atchison, Kansas along with his four brothers and sisters, Rory became interested in music while listening to both his father and grandfather play the guitar. It was learning of his grandmother's gift for poetry, however, which lead him to his interest in words.
At age 15, while listening to such great artists such as Don Williams, Merle Haggard and Jim Croce, Rory began playing the guitar. It was when he first heard the song "The Blizzard" recorded by Jim Reeves and written by the legendary Harlan Howard that Rory's passion for songwriting developed. Rory comments, "When I heard that song, I knew I had to try and write".
After high-school and two tours of duty in the Marine Corps., Rory decided to follow his love for music. Moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area, Rory began playing various nightclubs to support himself while honing his songwriting skills during the day. By 1995, Rory"s passion for songwriting had grown to the point that he knew he had to move to Nashville.
As fate would have it, it was shortly after his move to Nashville, that Rory was signed as a staff writer for the man whose song had inspired him to write, Harlan Howard. It was during the next five years that Rory would go on to write such hits as 'Someone You Used To Know' for Collin Raye and 'Chain Of Love' for Clay Walker while having other songs recorded by such artists as Reba, Lorrie Morgan, Waylon Jennings, Mark Wills, Randy Travis, Terri Clark and John Michael Montgomery. Rory wrote the # 12 single on R&R entitled 'The Truth About Men' by artist Tracy Byrd. And more recently had a #1 with the song "Some Beach". Rory recently had songs recorded by Terri Clarke, Kenny Chesney and Randy Travis, Blake Shelton, and Catherine Britt among others. He just finished producing an album on Blaine Larsen, which includes five of his songs.
Dubbed by the Nashville music community as, "A storyteller of small town American" and "A Norman Rockwell with a guitar", Rory signed with Blacktop Music Group, Inc. in April of 2001. Mike Sebastian, head of publishing, comments, "Rory is one of the most talented writers I've had the opportunity to work with". "You can hear the ice in the glasses, smell the smoke in the air and see every detail through Rory's lyrics and melodies".
Recently married to Joey Martin, Rory is also the father of two beautiful teenage daughters, Heidi and Hopie and owns an 1870's farm and house in southern Nashville where they live.
