Ep. 44 - GORDON KENNEDY ("Change the World")

Gordon Kennedy is a Nashville-based songwriter, producer, and guitarist best known for co-writing “Change the World,” which Eric Clapton took to the top of the charts and kept in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary rankings for an unprecedented 81 weeks. That success won Kennedy a Grammy Award for Song of the Year and turbocharged his commercial songwriting career. After scoring a #3 Billboard country hit with “You Move Me” in 1998, Garth Brooks went on to release 10 more Kennedy-penned songs on his 1999 Chris Gaines album. These included the Top 5 pop hit “Lost in You” and “It Don’t Matter to the Sun,” which fell just shy of the Top 20 on the country chart. Kennedy has enjoyed additional charting singles, such as Faith Hill’s “It Will Be Me;” the Clark Family Experience’s “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch;” Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s “Love Will Always Win;” Carrie Underwood’s “The More Boys I Meet;” and Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Help You Now,” “I Will Not Be Broken,” and “Gypsy in Me.” Other artists who’ve recorded Gordon’s songs include Tim McGraw, George Strait, Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek, Joan Osborne, Bruce Hornsby, Wynonna, Jerry Reed, Martina McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, and more. He has worked extensively with Ricky Skaggs and Peter Frampton, earning two Grammy nominations for his work on Skaggs’ Mosaic album and winning a Grammy for producing Frampton’s 2006 album, Fingerprints. His most recent project is called Heel, a celebrated reunion album with his mid-1990s band Dogs of Peace.