Gary Nicholson
Sept 10, 2025–How does it feel to take center stage at The Grand Ole Opry?
“Well, it was wonderful.”
So saith Gary Nicholson, who as a Hall of Fame Songwriter and Grammy Winner, got his first solo spot under country music’s biggest spotlight at the age of 75.
Not that it is undeserved. Nicholson has more than 700 recording credits with 500 performers including Willie Nelson, Ringo Starr, Fleetwood Mac, John Prine, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, George Strait and Delbert McClinton. But it still surprised and pleased him to step onto hallowed wood. While the prolific songwriter had played on the Opry numerous times as a sideman through the years, he never pictured himself as the main attraction in the center circle.
“You know, I never, ever imagined that happening,” he said. “It was a surprise to be asked. I was thrilled and nervous. But they were so nice to me, and they gave me a little gift package. I got to bring the McCrary Sisters with me to sing a song that I wrote as a tribute to John Lewis, called Make Good Trouble, and Charlie McCoy sat in on One More Last Chance. It made that special.”
[Go here for trailer of his Opry performance]
This tickles me to know even an uber-successful songwriter gets the tingles, because the closest a hack like me ever got to the Opry stage was loitering on the sidewalk in front of the original Ryman Auditorium during a break from pitching songs on Music Row. We did end up on some other stages there, where the entertainment was not music-centered–but that is another tale, one not be told while certain parties are still alive.
Nicholson’s acknowledgment by the Opry is a lesson for all musicians who toil outside the publicity circus, yet who keep creating new music well into the AARP years. Why, after a long, successful career in the music business, does Nicholson keep writing? This is a discussion I’ve had with other artists: what motivates you to keep creating in spite of either 1) disappointing failure, or 2) staggering success?
His response surprised and pleased me:
“I enjoy the ‘doing of it.’ I enjoy the process of writing songs.”
In all my speculation, this simple reason had eluded me. Yes, the simple pleasure of the creative process is reward in itself. He goes on…
“Songwriting is all I’ve ever done and it just remains something I’m interested in. You don’t know what’s going to happen with a song, and you can’t do it and be thinking about the results while you’re doing it, because it’s going to sabotage the flow. Every time I hear a song that sounds like it was chased down to be written, it’s a vibration I can feel. I don’t want to hear the ‘trying’ in the writing of it.
“The goal is to write a song that’s so right that it sounds like it just grew out in nature, and somebody came across it accidentally; that it was already written. They just stumbled on it and here’s this magic thing that happened. You don’t want to see where the pieces were welded together.”
Nicholson will be sharing his seamlessly-linked songs and his songwriting stories with Johnny Nicholas at the Hill Top Café north of Fredericksburg on Wed, Sept 17.
“Johnny and I are old friends, and we’re just going to swap songs and tell stories. We’ve both got a lot of history and we’re just going to have a really good time with songs, just for the fun of it. And if people are curious about songwriting, maybe they’d like to witness that. We present a show where we don’t know what’s coming next.”
I couldn’t let Nicholson go until I asked a question that’s been on my list lately. Where, after all those years, do the ideas come from? It actually gave him pause, before he answered.
“Well,” he said, “the ideas are in our culture. They’re everywhere. They’re in conversation daily, and just a reflection of life experience. The ideas are apparent if you’ve got your antenna out. I’m always listening. If you’re not looking for ideas, they’re not going to be there. But you’ll hear a phrase somewhere that sounds like, oh, that could be a song.”
Nicholson can’t not keep writing songs.
“I keep doing it, and it doesn’t have anything to do with age or anything like that. I just enjoy doing it.”
Details:
Gary Nicholson will perform at the
Hill Top Cafe, 10661 US-87, Fredericksburg, TX
Sept 17, 2025, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
www.hilltopcafe.com
Phil Houseal is a writer and owner of Full House PR.
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