NASHVILLE, TN. (Curb Records) - In 2004, primed for a big-time comeback after six years away from the country charts but still without a record deal,
Billy Dean took the grass roots plunge and independently released a rockin', bluegrass romp of John Denver's classic 'Thank God I'm A Country Boy.' Rekindling the country music world's interest in the one time, Grammy winning multi-media sensation, the Top 20 hit led Dean to a new deal with Curb Records and, to the delight of his fans everywhere, the recording of Let Them Be Little, his first studio release since 1998's Real Man. The album is due out March 29.
Even as Dean watches with amazement as the title track zips quickly up the Top Ten of Billboard's Country Singles Chart, he's got his mind on the scheduled second single 'This Is The Life,' or at least the moment of the song's inspiration.
'I woke up one day, looked over at my fiancee Stephanie who I love, thought about my kids Eli (age 12) and Hannah (age 10) and how well we were doing since my divorce, and about my small house in this little neighborhood of Nashville, which is so different from when I lived on the proverbial Ponderosa, and realized, it's just great to be here,' says the proud single dad. 'This is the life and I love it. I've arrived.'
Putting his money where his lyrics are, he's already back on the road, co-headlining with Craig Morgan as 'The Guys Night Out Tour,' which will pick up steam this summer. Dean's looking at three TV pilots, is writing music for a new musical based on the writings of 'Yankee Jones, The Briefcase Poet,' and has big plans to stop at numerous Tower Records and Wal-marts throughout the U.S. in support of Let Them Be Little. He's been with Stephanie, an elementary school teacher, for five years, but it's finally time to make it official—they've set a May 7 wedding date.
Perhaps most importantly, he's still loving the heck out of being dad to Eli and Hannah, who are clearly following in his musical footsteps. Hannah sings and plays guitar, while Eli has been learning studio engineering while also playing electric guitar. As he teaches them the ropes of making and recording music, he's also come a long way on the domestic front. When he first got divorced eight years ago, he asked longtime nanny Willie to step aside so he could be more hands on.
'I acted all confident, but when the kids got sick, I wasn't sure I could take care of them,' Dean recalls. 'I mean, they saw me as a great playmate, but dealing with the nasty stuff like the flu? It sucked at first. I gave Eli too much of this one medication and he threw up all over the place. They still remember that. But it's going great now. We do candlelight breakfasts on school mornings, and Stephanie is a great stepmom to them. I say there's two choices-you can have an awesome career and screw up your kids, or you can have your kids love and respect you even if you don't make a dime.'
The impending success of Let Them Be Little finds Dean enjoying the best of both worlds, with the title track—a tune he originally wrote with Lonestar's Richie McDonald for that band's album Let's Be Us Again—perfectly reflecting what he's learned as a father over the years.
"That was the key thing," Dean says. "I've always had this big kid at heart thing going on with tunes like 'Billy The Kid' and 'Young Man,' but then I had to grow up. Part of the process involved the kids parenting me. Like, if I was fighting with my ex-wife, my little girl would go, 'Well, why don't you just not fight?' And I'm like, 'Uh … yeah! Why do I get suckered into fighting like this?'
These kinds of things made me listen to my kids in a new way. That's where that line comes from in 'Let Them Be Little': 'And now you're teaching me how only a child can see.' I'm really having the time of my life with them now, and they're excited that dad's back playing and singing again.'
This is great, life-affirming news from a guy who went in a few short years from living the hyped up American Dream to suffering humbling personal and career breakdowns that artists like him write downcast country songs about. An overnight sensation after his victory on Star Search, Dean shot like a comet from a childhood marked by poverty and struggle in Florida to the height of celebrity.
He won a slew of awards—including BMI accolades for his best-loved hits 'Billy The Kid' and 'Somewhere in My Broken Heart'—both reprised on the new album—acted on soaps and hit prime time shows, was all the rage on the morning show and late night circuits and dated hot celebrity actresses.
But as the spotlight trained on his 6'4" frame, the young star saw only a kind of fog as he looked back from the stage. "I was having a great career," he remembers. "For four or five years everything I did went into the Top Five - but it went against everything I was about. I was a simple country person and a new dad. I had no idea how to put it into perspective.
'I'd play these gigs where everything would feed back, and my voice was tired, and I'd smile through it all and go 'Screw it, I'm getting a $25,000 check for this,'" he adds "I felt like a hypocrite. Playing music was no longer fun. I almost had throat surgery. But I wanted the career, man. As a result, I got divorced and I nearly had a nervous breakdown until I realized that I had to define what was making me so unhappy."
Trading showbiz illusions for his true role as a father, Billy recorded one last album seven years ago and then rebuilt his world, top to bottom. "I began by facing my darkest, worst fears," he says, "which came from growing up poor. So I took that off the table. For three years I spent down to the last dollar, selling property and dipping into credit cards - but I was bankrolling my freedom. I was doing what I had to do to make sure I could have a career on my own terms, without saying 'yes' to everybody who wanted me to do this or that. And I began to feel better.
While his early career was highlighted with major hit ballads, Let Them Be Little, appropriately enough, finds Dean cutting loose and tearing it up with more raw energy than ever before. 'The best part of coming back is doing it on my own terms, against the normal plans of the music business. My voice is better than ever, too. If I only get one moment back in the spotlight, I'm proud of being able to share my story, my great love of life and the investment I've made in my kids.'
