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Voice‘ Winner Craig Wayne Boyd Reveals Why He Almost Quit Music: Unlike some other talent shows, The Voice has always welcomed dues-paying veterans. And Craig Wayne Boyd, the country crooner who won The Voice Season 7 this week, may be the most seasoned of them all. He spent a decade on the Nashville circuit and on the road before he got his big break on The Voice, and now, he seems like one Voice winner with an actual shot at success in the real world.

“I know how much he’s put into this competition, firsthand. I’m also aware of how much he’s put into trying to make it as an artist in the music industry, and the struggles and the ups, and mostly the downs, that he’s had, all the doors shut,” Craig’s proud coach, Blake Shelton, told reporters backstage at Tuesday’s Voice finale. “There has never been a more deserving person to hold that trophy than Craig Wayne Boyd, as far as paying dues. You know what I mean? This guy has put his time in.”

Yahoo Music’s Reality Rocks caught up with Craig to discuss how The Voice came along just in time — right before he almost gave up on music altogether.

YAHOO MUSIC: It’s kind of surprising you were not a big star before going on The Voice. Hadn’t you been trying to get a big break in Nashville for years?

CRAIG WAYNE BOYD: Yeah, I had actually moved to Nashville coming out of a bad divorce, and I knew I had to start over — and what better place to chase your dreams than where dreams can be made, Nashville, Tennessee? And so I went out there and had fairly quick success as a writer. I wrote for, at the time, what was the world’s largest publishing company, EMI, as a staff writer, writing songs for other people.

Who recorded your songs? Any big names?

Well, you see, that’s the thing. I kept getting close. I had songs on hold with all the big artists of that time, and they wouldn’t make their albums. It was like timing never could come together for me.

What else were you doing in Nashville?

I was a professional demo singer, singing other people’s songs for them to pitch to artists. I was doing that and singing harmonies on other people’s albums and stuff like that. I just did everything I could to continue to try to make ends meet, and I quickly realized I needed to hone my skills as an entertainer, not just as a singer. So I took the show on the road and I traveled 243 dates a year. It was just being a road warrior, going out and playing honky-tonks. Sometimes it was two people, sometimes it was 2,000 people, but I always gave ‘em the same show.

Did you ever think of giving up?

Yes. It had gotten to the point where, having my son and having that responsibility, I could not financially afford to go out there on the road and do it anymore. It was getting to the point where something had to give… I remember a little more than a year ago, sitting in a pickup outside of a club after I had played to, basically, no one, and talking with my drummer, saying, “I may have to quit, because it’s not paying my bills. I’m losing my house. I’ve lost my pickup.” I didn’t know what I was going to do… And I remember that email [from The Voice] coming just the day after having that conversation.

If The Voice hadn’t come calling, what was your Plan B?

I really have never had a Plan B! But I was at the point where I was starting to think about finding one.

So I have to ask, now that you’ve won, are you going to keep the makeover Gwen Stefani gave you?

Absolutely! And I can tell you that it was not forced on me!

OK, so let’s talk about the album you’re going to make…

Oh, that’s been being thought of already. A lot of songs are ready for me to go in and play. I’ve been writing during the show, writing with other writers, via FaceTime and Skype, between the very few hours of sleep I’ve had. I’m definitely very hands-on.

Male artists dominate country music right now, but it’s more party-hardy, “bro country”-type stuff. Do you see yourself fitting in with that scene?

That’s not a direction of country music that I fit in. Do I find a place for it? Yes. But the kind of country music that I do is reminiscent of the older country, the classic country, but I feel like I’m putting a new twist on it. I just want to bring that subgenre of country music to the forefront. You might be surprised that there’s a whole young generation that is looking for that right now in country music. They’re going back and listening to the Merle Haggards and the Travis Tritts and the Hank Jr.’s and all that kind of stuff.

Do you hope to cross over to the pop or rock markets at all?

Well, one of the biggest compliments that I’ve been receiving, people have walked up quite a few times and said, “I’m not a country music fan, but I love what you do.” And that just proves the point that music is more than just the genre you’re in.

Many of the Voice winners have not done that well commercially after the show. It’s been a longtime criticism of the Voice franchise, frankly. How are you going to buck those odds?

I’m going to continue to do what I always do, which is work my butt off, keep my nose to the grindstone, and push forward. I am a firm believer that hard work will pay off.

Lyndsey Parker, Managing Editor

https://www.yahoo.com/music/voice-winner-craig-boyd-reveals-why-he-almost-105467748686.html

‘VOICE’ WINNER CRAIG WAYNE BOYD DEBUTS AT NO. 1 ON HOT COUNTRY SONGS

Craig Wayne Boyd, the seventh-season winner of NBC’s The Voice, rockets onto Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart at No. 1 with his coronation single “My Baby’s Got a Smile on Her Face.”

Boyd becomes just the second artist to launch at No. 1 since Hot Country Songs began as a multi-metric chart in October 1958. Garth Brooks is the only other act to bow atop the chart, having made history when “More Than a Memory” blew in at the summit on Sept. 15, 2007 (when the list was based solely on radio airplay).

After Boyd won the latest season of The Voice, and performed “Smile,” on the show’s Dec. 16 episode, the track enters atop Country Digital Songs with 99,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music.

Concurrently, Boyd’s cover of Alabama’s No. 4-peaking 1995 ballad “In Pictures” enters Country Digital Songs at No. 3 (30,000) and Hot Country Songs at No. 28. His take on Randy Houser’s “Boots On” (which hit No. 2 on Hot Country Songs in 2009) with Voice coach (and his mentor on the show) Blake Shelton enters Country Digital Songs at No. 9 (23,000) and Hot Country Songs at No. 33.

Boyd also collects the Hot Shot Debut on Top Country Albums at No. 35 with The Voice: The Complete Season 7 Collection, which starts with 4,000 copies sold. No. 1 on Top Country Albums? Brooks, whose Man Against Machine returns for a fifth week on top [2-1] as the chart’s Greatest Gainer [81,000, up 32 percent]).

Boyd, who toiled in Nashville for 11 years before winning The Voice, plays the legendary Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on Jan. 3. His debut Dot Records album will follow. “I hope to bring to light songs again that have stories with meanings behind them,” he says.

“I feel like I’m a spokesperson for all of those guys who have paid their dues and slugged it out. If they truly believe in themselves, don’t quit. Find any avenue you can; it will pay off.”

Additional reporting by Gary Trust

Billboard | December 23, 2014

https://www.yahoo.com/music/s/voice-winner-craig-wayne-boyd-debuts-no-1-050058355.html

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AC/DC’s RHYTHM ROCK HERO MALCOLM YOUNG ENDS HIS CAREER

Our tickets are in the rafters. Row XYZ. It’s 1980 in the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. My older brother is a senior in high school and I’m a freshman. His friend has a van and a warm six pack of Milwaukee’s Best. I reluctantly drink mine with authority and turn the car radio to eleven — Back in Black on cassette tape. My brother’s friend sees how terrible our seats are and laughs. He suggests we rip the stub off his seat after he gets in. We’ll then hold his stub over our XYZs as the usher examines it with a flashlight. It works. We’re on the floor, heading toward the stage. The crowd is a raucous one, not that friendly. Black biker jackets, shit-kicker boots and stark pugnacious stares. This coupled with the testosterone, beers and brown weed and everyone’s on edge. A fight breaks out, punches thrown. It’s a war zone. We may or may not get out alive. Security is in yellow jackets. They grab two drunk thugs and drag them past us to the exit. Perhaps we’ll sit in their empty seats. My brother has his finger on my lower back. He does not care about the fights, the aggressive vibe. He only wants to get closer and closer to the stage. I move when he moves, pushing through people who really don’t want to be jostled. “Sorry. Excuse us, sorry.”

When the lights go out the crowd roars and I look up to see a two ton liberty bell descending from the stadium ceiling. It says AC/DC on the side and singer Brian Johnson comes on stage to pummel the “Hell’s Bell,” with a sledge hammer. Bong!… Bong!… Bong! When I get my footing I can see him, Angus Young, the lead guitarist. No celebrity will ever matter as much to me as this person. In fact, my musical life will be altered forever within the evening. It will take years to know what grabbed me by the throat that night. But the answer lies in the tandem and rhythmic sound of the young brothers’ guitars and their ability to play hard rock blues through a wall of Marshall amplifiers. The sound is anything but “Heavy Metal.” It’s more Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis or Big Joe Williams of the Delta Blues. So much so that Angus is mimicking Chuck Berry’s duck-walk, all the way across the enormous stage. Malcolm, the elder, is the antithesis of Angus. He stands to the right of the drums, head down, legs wiggling, hair in his face. He is the spinal chord of the philosophy, laying all the foundation for the sound which enables Angus to be a pentatonic madman, climbing up and down his fret board with the ease of breathing. Malcolm only walks forward on stage to offer his backing vocals on certain songs. Cliff Williams on bass, moves only when Malcolm does, staying mostly locked in his stage-left pocket, his hair swinging to the romp. Drummer Phil Rudd is great for this band, an amazing and powerful metronome. 1980 was a better year for Phil. In 2014 he was accused of plotting to murder someone (charges dropped) and cops found nasty drugs in his home. He will not be joining the boys on the upcoming tour. Cliff Williams says there’s no rift between band members.
• • • • • • • • • •
Born Scottish, Angus and Malcolm moved to Australia in the ’60s. Their brother George was a member of the Easy Beats, a British invasion era pop group that scored hits in America with Friday on my Mind and Love is in the Air. Angus was a school kid during this time. His older sister Margret noticed he liked to play guitar as soon as he got home, failing to remove his school-boy uniform before practicing. She also had a sewing machine that had the letters AC/DC on the back. Angus and Malcolm took the name, the uniform and George’s guidance as producer and set out to play hard rock live. Angus would wear his school clothes on stage for the next four plus decades, only removing it during his adored live strip-tease.
• • • • • • • • • •
The East Rutherford thugs are dads now. You may have seen them. They’re the calm, silver-haired dudes who still attend AC/DC shows, the people who happily pay $20.99 for battery-operated devil horns for their 14-year-old son standing next to them. AC/DC is a family event now. The arenas are filled with people like me, wanting to share the experience with kids and anyone that hasn’t seen them live. Your feet will lift off the floor.

Malcolm was showing signs of dementia during the band’s last album, Black Ice. Famously private, the band took years to tell fans that the co-founder of AC/DC would alternate between his home and a nursing home for the rest of his life. His rock career was over. In a recent article in Guitar Magazine, Angus said they were waiting, even skipping their 40th anniversary celebration in the hope that Malcolm would show signs of recovery. It did not happen. Malcolm is 61 which is considered unusually young for the ailment. In his place for the upcoming support of their new album, Rock Or Bust, Stevie Young, Malcolm and Angus’ nephew will play rhythm guitar. He is only a year or so younger than his Uncle Angus and has been playing music with him all their lives. Stevie toured with AC/DC in 1988 when Malcolm did a stint in rehab.

30 years after I saw the brothers Young do their thing, I cannot stop hearing those very same riffs. I’m at a pro baseball game. A relief pitcher enters the game as Hells Bells forces 40,000 people to come alive. A TV commercial for Walmart, another commercial for a car. Back in Black featured in the film, Iron Man. “Shook Me All Night Long”, “Thunderstruck”, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, “Highway To Hell”, “For Those About to Rock We Salute You”, “Sin City“. In Target, I can buy AC/DC drinking glasses and a Fly On the Wall buckle belt. Original singer and lyricist Bon Scott would not believe his eyes and ears. He died from alcohol abuse about a year before Back in Black was made in 1980.

My son is 14 now. He understands my devotion for the band, and likes them too. For my birthday he gave me Back In Black, remastered on vinyl. I nearly wept and told him the band has a new album and there’s only one person I want standing next to me when the two ton bell descends from the ceiling. He says he can’t wait. I envision us both in battery-operated devil horns, arm in arm, and being amazed at how time flies. And I just know our bodies will start to rise, to the epic and timeless grooves of Angus and Malcolm Young.

By Joshua Braff

Read the whole article here (article was shortened for the newsletter):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-braff/acdcs-rhythm-rock-hero-ma_b_6363192.html

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