Vince Gill looks back on career after giving fans 'Next Big Thing'

Gill said the album shows he's made strides in songwriting.
By NANCY STETSON
SCRIPPS HOWARD
At 45, country music superstar Vince Gill is far from being an elder statesman in the industry. Though a revered and much-rewarded performer, he hasn't been around as long as, say, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson or Merle Haggard.
But at 45, he knows a lot more than he did at 25, or even 35.
Sometimes you have to stick around for a while before you get some perspective. And that sense of perspective certainly shows on his latest album, "Next Big Thing."
"I lost a brother, I lost a father," Gill says. "You start to feel mortal and just kinda wanna look around, figure things out."
It's been three years since his last album, "Let's Make Sure We Kiss Good-bye."
"It felt good to sit back and not make a record for a while," Gill says. "I think it's life that's going to dictate to you what it's going to throw at you. You can be reflective, because you've lived a good deal of your life. If I live to be 90, I've lived half.
Precious things
"It's not so much the losses, but the years," he says. "Things start to feel really precious these days, from a personal standpoint. So things have more depth. I think you feel more, you think more."
"I think, if there's anything about this record I could be proud of," he says, "I feel like I sing and play like I haven't in a long time. I did take some strides in songwriting. That's what I feel proudest of. The songs are making progress."
The title cut, "Next Big Thing," which sounds like a skiffle with a honky-tonk piano, is a look at how capricious fame is:
"Well, a kid will come along, make the young girls smile
They'll all put his picture in their pink bedrooms
All hail the brand new king
Everybody's waitin' for the next big thing"
Gill tackles the subject again in "Young Man's Town." But Gill doesn't sing it with bitterness,.
He's been in the music industry for about 30 years, first with bands such as bluegrass' Mountain Smoke, then Ricky Skagg's Boone Creek and as the lead singer of Pure Prairie League, before going solo in 1984.
He has four platinum records, four double-platinum, one quadruple-platinum and one five-time platinum. He's won 15 Grammys and 18 Country Music Awards (including Entertainer of the Year twice and Song of the Year four times).
Gill's been on the soundtrack of 11 movies, including "The Apostle," "Tin Cup," "Indecent Proposal" and "Prince of Egypt."