Out of the Ashes Fact Sheet

Matt and Jack met because Matt cold called him. He convinced local indie label owner to share his number.

After Jack and Matt performed at the initial Renaissance Rodeo Show, Jack invited Matt back to his house and asked Matt if he would like to make an album together. The next step was that Matt had to bring all of his previous recordings and demos of his songs over for Jack to listen to. Matt describes the experience of sitting across from Cowboy as they smoked cigarettes and played through 3 cds of songs without any conversation in between as: surreal, wonderful, and excruciating all at the same time. After all the songs were listened to, Jack turned to Matt and said, “This is going to be fun. You remind me of Kris Kristofferson…you can’t really sing, but your lyrics are really great.” Matt took this as a supreme compliment and it’s one of his favorite memories of the process.

Another one of Matt’s favorite memories is from during the mixing process, prior to the fire: “I was sitting alone in the sound room listening to a mix, and Jack came back upstairs into the studio after a nap, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and slippers. He sat down in a chair by the soundboard, lit a cigarette, leaned back, closed his eyes, and said, ‘Ok, play it back again.’ It’s certainly one of my most special memories of the time I spent with Jack. It was the most beautiful thing for me, to see this absolute legend, this genius of music, lean back and tune into a mix of my song, sitting there with a cigarette in his underwear. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.”

Although Matt was in the backyard with Jack and his family while the fire fighters were putting out the fire, and the next morning, helping to carry out the remnants of what remained in the studio, he declined to speak directly about the events of that day in the backyard. Though there was an article published by the Tennessean that covered the event.

Aside from being a legendary music producer, writer, and executive, Jack was also a ballroom dance instructor. Matt has a copy of a Billboard magazine from the seventies and the issue is mostly about Jack. He’s featured on the cover with the words, “Music City’s Pied Piper.”

The song We Must Believe In Magic, was the first song Cowboy played for Matt the night that they met. Matt told us,“He played me his version of course, despite the fact that Crystal Gayle and Jonny Cash had both recorded versions of it. I fell in love with the song, and the spirit of that song is really what formed the basis of our brief friendship. It was such an honor that he agreed to sing a duet with me on the tune. We slowed it way down and almost turned it into a lullaby, or prayer.”

“I always knew that Jack was not totally blown away by what I was doing. He’d seen it all, and he’d worked the best of the best. I think it was more that he dug my energy and spirit. I think it tickled him that this young kid knew who he was and was so passionate about learning from him, and learning how to write and record a great song in general. I think that is why he let me hang around and decided to help me. And it’s true, I was like a kid in a candy store handing out with him. Before the fire I used to just run my fingers of the 2inch tapes he had on the book cases, with names like: Louis Armstrong, Jonny Cash, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Dolly&Porter, written on them. I felt liked I walked through a portal into another dimension every time I went to his house, it was Jack’s magic funhouse, it was his dimension. And after the fire, when the house and studio had been rebuilt, it felt like he had walked through the portal, and found himself in our dimension, an ordinary dimension…it was strange. It still makes me sad to think about. But, he never changed. Up until the last time I saw him before he passed, he had that spark, and humor.”

“I only knew him for 4 years, I know that I barely saw or understood even a tiny fraction of this man’s history. I know that I barely was able to scratch the surface. But the short time I did get with him taught me so much, and deeply reinforced the passion in me to always honor that which comes before us, in all traditions, whether music, philosophy, or any of the other arts. I was barely a blip on Jack’s radar, but it changed my life, and he knew it. I think it made him feel good that even at 80 years old, he was still completely transforming a young writer’s world.”