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Published: April 21, 2022, 10:28 p.m.

Today on Too Opinionated, we talk with singer-songwriter H. Jack Williams!\xa0

You\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a life, a career, or a body of work quite like that of singer/songwriter/performer/composer\xa0H. Jack Williams.\xa0 \xa0 Jack himself credits equal parts luck, talent, and tenacity. \u201cMy whole life, I\u2019ve gone out and gotten stuff done,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I have unique emotional connections within me, and I\u2019ve always found a way to make that connection musically.\u201d But for one of Nashville\u2019s hardest-working songwriters and most in-demand co-writers \u2013 and now with flourishing work in film and television \u2013 it\u2019s been a one-of-a-kind 40+ year ride with some of the biggest names in Folk, Rock, and Country. And in many ways, he\u2019s just getting started.\xa0 \xa0 Raised in the tiny town of Eureka, Florida, Williams began writing songs shortly after his 1971 discharge from the US Marines Force Recon. It was while working in Atlanta as a trained Escoffier chef and moonlighting as a roadie that Williams went after his first break by knocking on Richie Havens\u2019 hotel room door. \u201cBanged on it all night long,\u201d Jack laughs, \u201cuntil he opened the door and I handed him a cassette.\u201d The Woodstock icon invited Jack to New York City to be his opening act, eventually playing on and producing the demo that got Jack a $500 advance from Clive Davis (who insisted on first playing Jack the demo of \u2018Mandy\u2019). By 1974, Jack was back cooking in Atlanta when he spotted a tour bus belonging to The Who. Still, in his chef whites, Williams approached the road crew and boldly asked for an introduction to Roger Daltrey. \u201cI knew Roger loved songwriters,\u201d Jack says, \u201cand Pete Townsend knew songs.\u201d Williams was ushered backstage that night and spent the next few months on tour with the band, eventually signing a deal \u2013 his first \u2013 with the publishing company owned by Daltrey, Townsend, and Who manager Bill Curbishley. For two years and dozens of unmentionable road stories, Jack was mentored by one of the greatest acts in rock history.\xa0 \xa0 Towards the end of his Who deal, Williams got a phone call from Ken Hensley, lead vocalist and primary songwriter of UK proto-metal rockers Uriah Heep, who invited Jack to move to London as the band\u2019s first outside in-house songwriter. Jack jumped at the invite, and amid opening UK shows for Havens and demo sessions with neighbors like Alvin Lee and George Harrison, Uriah Heep would record four of Jack\u2019s songs for the Gold albums\xa0Innocent Victim\xa0and\xa0Firefly. But it was a group of fellow small-town Florida boys that triggered the next chapter of Jack\u2019s career. \u201cLynyrd Skynyrd came to London for their Knebworth concert\u201d, Jack explains. \u201cI got to know the band, played Ronnie Van Zant some of my songs, and he suggested I come to Florida and be part of the Southern Rock scene.\u201d\xa0 \xa0 Williams moved back to the states, founding the Sarasota-based band Streets Of Ice, landing cuts with acts like Blackfoot and Molly Hatchet, and writing with Gregg Allman. Dickie Betts became a good friend and began producing the Streets Of Ice project. But when the band imploded just before signing their major label deal, Betts suggested that Jack\u2019s songwriting skills could find a full-time home in Nashville.\xa0\xa0 \xa0 With a $50 loan and a one-way bus ticket, Williams landed in Nashville and signed a publishing deal with The Oak Ridge Boys, who soon recorded Jack\u2019s songs \u2018Seasons\u2019 and \u2018Everybody Wins\u2019. Jack then had his first major hit, co-writing \u2013 with The Allman Brothers Band\u2019s Warren Haynes \u2013 Gregg Allman\u2019s \u2018Just Before The Bullets Fly. But when the mid-\u201890s Country Boom began to fade, Williams returned to his culinary background, opening restaurants in North Carolina, Memphis, and Olympia, running kitchen teams on research vessels in the Aleutian Islands and the Azores, and with supply ships during the Gulf War for which he earned a Medal of Bravery from President Bush. \u201cI\u2019d also played clubs in Seattle, which is how Leonard Chess signed me to a writing deal with Chess Records,\u201d Jack adds with a laugh. \u201cSo I guess we can add \u2018Blues Artist\u2019 to the list, too.\u201d \xa0 Williams returned to Nashville in 2005, owning a catering business while landing cuts with artists that included Montgomery Gentry, Black Stone Cherry, and on the\xa0Miracles From Heaven\xa0soundtrack. He signed a new publishing deal with Lynn Gann Music Enterprises in 2015, scoring even more cuts that included Canadian artist Aaron Pritchett\u2019s Top 10 hit \u2018Dirt Road In \u2018Em\u2019. \u201cWhen it comes to commercial radio stuff, I can write like a gunfighter,\u201d Jack says. \u201cBut at a certain point, I couldn\u2019t write another line about drinking beer in the back of a truck with a girl. I needed to find the soul of my music again.\u201d\xa0 \xa0 Jack began writing songs reflective of his lifetime of not only struggles but his continued sense of hope. He would soon \u2013 in more ways than one \u2013 find his voice. \u201cPete Townsend once told me, \u2018Always hire a great singer\u2019,\u201d Jack explains. \u201cI never believed my vocals were strong, which is why I always used other singers for my demos. But I began participating in singer/songwriter nights here in Nashville and got the kind of reaction I\u2019d never received before. When I started to sing what\u2019s in my heart, everything began to change.\u201d\xa0 \xa0 Williams soon began co-writing with Academy Award winner Kevin Costner, whose band Kevin Costner & Modern West had recorded two of Jack\u2019s songs (including the Top 20 hit \u2018Love Shine\u2019), leading Costner to cut four more Jack tracks for his 2019\xa0Tales From Yellowstone\xa0album. Jack signed with Anthem Entertainment for additional film & television work and has since collaborated with award-winning Welsh composer John Hardy. And after nearly five decades of music and adventure fit for a dozen lives, his 2020 emotional gut-punch EP\xa0Already Dead\xa0\u2013 produced by Brothers Osborne\u2019s Adam Box \u2013 became H. Jack Williams\u2019 first-ever solo release. \u201cI feel like a 20-year-old singer/songwriter again,\u201d Jack says, with the combination of fortitude and poignancy that still defines his life, his career, and his very best work to come. \u201cI\u2019m a survivor, and I keep pushing forward. I believe that my A-game has just begun.\u201d \xa0 Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod (Please Subscribe)