T.G. Sheppard - Biography
Long before country-pop hit-maker T.G. Sheppard rose to the top of the charts with his singular mixture of honky-tonk pathology and Don Juan-esque sexual braggadocio, he had led an interesting career as a both a rock & roller and behind-the-scenes Memphis song plugger. He was a record distributor to boot, a gig that carried him from Stax Records to Graceland (Elvis personally gave him the extravagant present of a tour bus) and ultimately to the top of country charts, where he was a virtual fixture throughout the early 1980s.
Born William Neal Browder, July 20, 1942 in Humboldt, Tennessee, he grew up with a strong familial connection to the country field. His uncle was veteran Grand Ole Opry comedian-ventriloquist Rod Brasfield (a close friend of Hank Williams; Brasfield’s dummy, Bocephus, supplied Hank Jr. with a lifelong nickname) and, as a child, Sheppard also received instruction on the piano from his mother starting at very early age. He would eventually master the guitar as well.
By 15, Sheppard struck out his own, running away from home and settling in Memphis—at the time a hotbed of R&B, blues and rockabilly. There he billed himself as Brian Stacey and landed jobs with various bands, most notably playing rhythm and singing back-up for Travis Wammack. Indie label Sonic Records took a chance on the youth, but each of his singles flopped. By 1966, a deal with Atco resulted in a regional hit, “High School Days,” and Sheppard went on the road as the opening act for such big name rock bands as The Beach Boys and The Animals.
Sheppard switched gears in the late 1966, becoming a song promoter (or “plugger”) for Stax Records’ in-house Hot Line Distributors. Sheppard’s skills led him to a plum gig as Southern regional promoter for RCA, but by the mid-’70s he returned to country and made minor history by singing with Motown’s Melodyland subsidiary, becoming one of only two artists who did country at the fabled soul label (Pat Boone was the other one). His glossy pop-tinged single “Devil in a Bottle” went to #1, as did the follow-up, “Tryin’ to Beat the Morning Home.” Despite several more Top 20 singles, Motown gave up country in 1976, just as Cash Box magazine named him Best New Male Artist of that year.
Sheppard took his country-pop sound to Warner Bros. Records, where his career kicked into high gear. In 1978, Sheppard’s pop and R&B informed single “When Can We Do This Again” made the country Top Ten and ignited an impressive run that saw him score 15 consecutive Top Ten hits over the next several year. Ten of these—among them “Last Cheater’s Waltz” and “War Is Hell (On the Homefront Too)”—went all the way to #1. While those songs stuck closely to established country themes, his one-night stand specials (with titles like “Do You Wanna Go to Heaven” and “I Loved ‘Em Every One”) exploited the new audience which the hit movie Urban Cowboy had brought to country, and kicked off a trend of songs celebrating casual sex that Nashville cashed in on until the AIDS crisis rendered such material questionable.
Nonetheless, the hits kept coming throughout most of the 1980s for Sheppard. A move to Columbia Records, which unfortunately coincided with the rise of the Randy Travis-spearheaded New Traditionalists, signaled a shift in audience tastes that, by the time Garth Brooks arrived, proved commercially disastrous for the singer. Columbia eventually cut him from the roster, but Sheppard kept on touring (and packing in his faithful fans).
In 2004, Sheppard issued his first album in years, Timeless (Destiny Row), and continues to perform regularly throughout the Southeast.
