Raised in several small Texas towns, the constant new kid learned that you had to find a connection with somebody, while at the same time having a blatant disregard for what they thought. “You had to figure out what mattered to them, and at the same time, have a real strong sense of what mattered to you,” says Pinson. “I think that’s why my music is what it is.”
Bobby started writing songs after he graduated from high school, though he got off to a rough start. “I sent one of my songs to one of those places I saw in a magazine just before I went into the Army. The only piece of mail I got during basic training was a letter from that magazine rejecting my song.”
After three years in the Army, Bobby paid the first of his dues playing clubs and fairs across the country. In 1996, he moved to Music City with a “sack full of songs that weren’t worth packin’.” Label exec's weren't rushing to meet him and for the next three years, he delivered everything from pizzas to the Yellow Pages, worked as a banquet server and bought and sold junk at yard sales and auctions to survive.
In 1999, Bobby signed with Sony/ATV Music as a staff songwriter. In 2000, he signed to what is now known as Stage Three Music. Bobby’s songs could be heard on albums by LeAnn Rimes, Tracy Lawrence, Blake Shelton, Marty Stuart and more. Though songwriting paid the bills, Pinson’s desire to be an artist were alive and well.
In 2002, Pinson started playing artist/writer showcases around Nashville. Though there were still no record label eyebrows raised in the beginning, the “Bobby Pinson buzz” was spreading fast among the underbelly of Music Row.
Producer Joe Scaife heard him at one of these shows and, excited about what he heard and interested in Pinson’s raw ruggedness, began to work with Bobby. Then Gretchen Wilson came along and things with Scaife slowed down. Four million Gretchen records later, Pinson got his shot when RCA’s Renee Bell asked, “Joe, what else ya got?” After nine years and some 30 outside cuts, Pinson and Scaife teamed to produce Bobby’s debut album, Man Like Me.
“My music is passionate and honest and is carved from pieces of my life. Not that everything is literally true, but the feelings are true, and the emotions and experiences are real, even if they’re not mine. I put myself into the character of that small town guy who’s made it out, or the one who hasn’t.
“I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned without saying, ‘Here’s what ya gotta do.’ I’ve never come from that spot. My parents didn’t come from that spot with me. It was like they were telling me, ‘you'll figure it out, but if you want a hint, here it is.’ That's what I try to do with my songs. I'm just a guy who's been ‘the idiot’ who doesn't mind saying so for a good cause. I think people will hear ‘the idiot’ long before they'll listen to the man on the soapbox.
“Some people have called me an ‘outlaw.’ Boy, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash would get a good laugh out of that. I just think for myself and speak my mind. With that often comes the ‘outlaw’ tag, but I'm just honest and real and not askin' anyone for permission to do what I do. If that scares the Hell out of somebody, then so be it!”
Pinson's songs paint real life pictures of pain, regret, God, the devil, and the girls that make you believe in both. His songs are tinged with wit, stained with whiskey and framed with “wisdom by default.” Bobby's music is the portrait of who you were, who you are, and who you want to be.
Take “One More Believer” for instance. Bobby describes the song himself ... "A crooked road doesn’t seem crooked when you’re on it. It’s not until you get to a high point in your life where you can turn and look back on those questionable miles you traveled and realize how far you strayed from the straight and narrow. I’d had a couple years there where if “It Happened” in a bar on Music Row, I either knew about it or caused it. It was usually B. I walked out of a club one night and there, in the middle of the street, I met a woman who made me not care if I ever stepped foot in one of those places again. It turned into a “real long hello,” then I married her. This song is me standing on a hill, closing my eyes, taking a deep breath and saying, 'Thank you, God, for seeing me even when I wasn’t worth looking at'.”
His songs may not be typical CCM fare, but they're honest words from a man who has lived hard, yet was still able to find grace.
