John Berry: Looking Back…and Looking Forward

You’ve often heard the phrase, “The Power of A Song.” In the case of John Berry, those words have never been more true. However, the song that pushed the Athens, Georgia native to roll the dice in Nashville wasn’t one of his. Rather, it was a 1992 hit from Joe Diffie.

Berry had been recording on his own, self-releasing six albums between 1979 and 1990 (“I can’t listen to them,” he confesses. “It was horrible. A good man knows his limitations.”) when one night, the voice of Diffie inspired him.

“It was about two in the morning, and I was driving home from a gig. A song came on the radio that I had never heard before – ‘Ships That Don’t Come In.” Hearing that song moved him, and made him think outside of his Georgia comfort zone.

“For the first time, it occurred to me that this would be all that I would do. Maybe I’d just be a big fish in a really small pond. It really moved me. I went home and woke my wife Robin up, and through tears, I told her about this song and what it made me think and feel. I told her ‘I’ve got bigger dreams than that. We’ve got to come up with a plan.”

So, the couple went to work. “We decided to put on an industry showcase, and send out invitations. As members of certain organizations, we had access to the mailing lists. We were going to send them out three weeks before we did our first showcase. Then, we’d wait for three weeks to hear responses. If we didn’t hear anything, three weeks later, we’d do it again. We were going to do that every six weeks for a year. That was the plan. If nothing came out of that, we’d just punt,” he admits. “We set up our first showcase for the spring of 1992, and out of 250 invitations – one guy showed up.” A bad omen, you might think? Not exactly. That “one” was Herky Williams, who worked for well-known producer Jimmy Bowen. As it turned out, Williams was quite impressed with what he heard.

“He called me the next day after the showcase, and told me that Jimmy wanted to meet me. I was already back in Athens, so he set up a private showcase, and we went to Nashville and did it. He said ‘Come on and let’s do this thing.’ Berry’s first two Liberty singles – “She’s Got A Mind of Her Own” and “Kiss Me In The Car” were moderate hits, but his third single, “Your Love Amazes Me,” began to climb the charts at a faster rate, making its’ way into the top ten. Then, fate dealt Berry a cruel blow.

“I ended up having brain surgery on May 10 of 1994. That was a pretty intense deal. I had a cyst in the third ventricle of my brain. A lot of people have them, live their entire lives, and never even know it. Mine was in such a place that it blocked the fluid draining down my spinal column. It caused a backup of fluid, and caused these tremendous headaches.” The pain had an adverse effect on Berry’s personality. “I turned into the meanest person on the planet. I had the surgery on May 10, and that morning, ‘Your Love Amazes Me’ was number one on the R&R chart. I had the surgery, woke up, and was me again.” Ironically, as the song that would becoming a wedding favorite was being played around the clock at Country Radio, Berry’s health had affected his relationship with Robin.

“I had pretty much left her. I didn’t call. I was on the tour bus all of the time, and the guys in the band – who had been with me for a few years, they knew I was doing some kind of drugs or something. I had changed so dramatically. They were on the bus trying to find whatever I was doing that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. Of course, they could never find it because it wasn’t there.”

The story had a happy ending, as John and Robin’s marriage regained its’ strength as he returned to his old self. “Your Love Amazes Me’ was such a hit song that mirrored how my wife stayed with me through some really difficult times. I just turned into someone else, and everything that had been important just wasn’t important anymore.”

Berry maintained his rising career at the same time, hitting with such power ballads as “Change My Mind” and “You and Only You.” His 1995 acoustic performance of “If I Had Any Pride Left At All” remains a CMA favorite of that era. Whether headlining his own shows or opening for superstars like Clint Black, Berry says that seeing many fans open their cigarette lighters (or nowadays, cell phones) to his music is something he’ll never forget.

“I think any artist who really is worth their emotional salt will tell you that it’s pretty overwhelming that you have songs that touch people that much, that you can travel off to parts of the country that you have hardly ever been, and thousands of people will turn up to hear you sing. They’re singing along and holding up their phones, and there’s all this light. I think that anyone would tell you that it’s pretty awesome to think that what you’re doing means that much to people.”

John is still on the road, performing for his fans, and he’s opening himself up to a new musical challenge. “I started taking guitar lessons last week. I’ve been playing guitar for almost fifty years, and decided to start taking lessons. I’ve got these great electric guitars, including this Fender Telecaster that is remarkable, and I’ve got this really cool amp and all this stuff. I don’t know what to do with it. All I know to do is play rhythm guitar. I’m thinking ‘To heck with this. I’m going to learn to play some leads, even if it’s just a few of my songs, it would be fun to get out there and play some.”

“On my new album, ‘What I Love The Most,’ one of the songs I wrote is called ‘There Could Never Be Another Love For Me But You,’ and there’s a guitar solo on there that Brent Mason played. I think it’s one of the most beautiful guitar solos,” he says. “Every time I play the song, I skip to the solo. I just want to hear it. I wanted to play it, so I started taking guitar lessons. My fingers are killing me. I’m at the point right now where a lot of people quit playing guitar because it hurts so bad. But, I want to learn how to do it, and to do it right. Just having a couple of lessons is tremendous,” he admits, though he says he doesn’t think his band members need to lose any sleep over his guitar skills. “We’ll see. I don’t think that anyone who plays guitar with me has anything to worry about,” he says with a laugh.