ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of T.G. Sheppard

T.G. Sheppard was born on July 20, 1944, in Humboldt, Tennessee, USA. Sheppard headed off to Memphis after high school, where he worked in various capacities of the music business. T.G. initially recorded as a pop artist under the name of Brian Stacy, opening shows for the Beach Boys. Early in his career, T.G. became close friends with Elvis Presley. Elvis gave T.G. his first tour bus and Sheppard even lived at Graceland for a while during their friendship. After working his way through the music industry, Sheppard emerged in the mid-'70s as one of the leading country-pop singers, bringing the music closer to rock-influenced sounds.

In 1974, Sheppard signed with Melodyland Records, which was a short-lived country label that was owned by Motown Records. Sheppard's breakthrough single, Devil in the Bottle (1975) unexpectedly climbed to number one and was followed shortly by another number one single, Tryin' to Beat the Morning Home (1975). Several subsequent releases also made the Top-10 such as, Motels and Memories (No. 7, 1975) and "Show Me A Man (No. 8, 1976).

Named "Best New Male Artist" in 1976 by Cash Box, T.G. signed with the upscale Warner Brothers label in 1977 when Motown decided to get out of country music. T.G. enjoyed his greatest success with Warner Bros. Starting with When Can We Do This Again (No. 5, 1978), he had a series of fifteen consecutive Top-10 releases, including ten No. 1 songs. The biggest were, Last Cheater's Waltz (No. 1, 1979), I'll Be Coming Back for More (No. 1, 1979), Do You Wanna Go to Heaven (No. 1, 1980), I Loved 'Em Every One (No. 1, 1981), Party Time (No. 1, 1981), Only One You (No. 1, 1981), Finally ( No. 1, 1982) and War is Hell (On the Homefront Too) (No. 1, 1982). T.G. scored another major hit with Slow Burn (No. 1, 1983).

Sheppard continued to chart well throughout the latter half of the '80s and between 1986 and 1987 he had a series of upper chart singles, including Strong Heart (No. 1, 1985), Half Past Forever (No. 2, 1986) You're My First Lady (No. 2, 1987), One for the Money (No. 2, 1987), after he switched labels and signed to Columbia.

During his Columbia days, he worked with renowned producers Rick Hall and Bob Montgomery to create four more albums to add to his repertoire. However, his audience waned dramatically at the end of the '80s, when his radio-ready sound became eclipsed by a number of new performers such as Garth Brooks and Randy Travis.

Between 1989 and 1990, T.G. didn't record at all and he was dropped byColumbia. However, T.G. continued to tour and in 1995, he took a two-year hiatus from the road to perform exclusively for eight months a year at T.G. Sheppard's Theater In The Smokies, a state-of-the-art theater in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Dec. 6, 2010.