Vince Gill is about to release a lot of music. The 68-year-old signed a lifetime deal with his longtime record label, MCA Records. When announcing the news, Gill reveals will release an EP of new music every month for the next year, as part of the new 50 Years From Home series, giving fans plenty of original songs to enjoy.
“I’m feeling the most creative I’ve ever felt in my career these last few years,” Gill says. “I’ve collected a treasure trove of songs, and with my friends and partners at MCA we’ve come up with a way to release all this new music. It’s a partnership that’s lasted 36 years and I’m grateful for it.”
“Vince has been a major part of the MCA family for decades,” adds Mike Harris , President and CEO, MCA. “This lifetime agreement reflects our unwavering commitment to supporting his artistic vision and providing him artistic freedom while ensuring his legacy continues to grow.”
50 Years From Home: I Gave You Everything I Had, will be out on October 17. The project will include Gill’s classic hit, “Go Rest High on That Mountain.”
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What Vince Gill Says About New Music
Last year, the Country Music Hall of Fame member hinted that he had a lot of new music he was eager to share with his fans.
“[I’m] fired up,” Gill tells American Songwriter. Gill adds that he partnered with former BMI executive Jody Williams, who started a publishing company,
“I never had a publisher,” Gill explains. “That probably shocks people. I never felt the need to have one. I had a vehicle for my songs with my own record deal and my own records that I was going to make. That was enough for me.”
If Gill’s half a century as part of music has allowed him anything, it’s the freedom to write and record the music he wants, without any limitations.
“I felt like you could have a conversation about anything that was uncomfortable if you were not judgmental and you were kind of open to not pointing your finger towards somebody else, making them feel like they’re wrong or guilt them or any of that kind of stuff,” Gill says. “Some of these songs are interesting about what they entail and give people a little dose of that.”
“It’s not me trying to guilt anybody into believing what I believe,” he adds. “There’s not any of that kind of judgment in these songs, and that’s what I’m proud of most.”
Vince Gill Adds Third Verse to “Go Rest High On That Mountain”
Gill first released “Go Rest High On That Mountain” in 1995, inspired by the loss of both Keith Whitley and his brother, Bob Coen. He later added a third verse to “Go Rest High On That Mountain.”
“The last thirty years I’ve always felt like something was missing from this song,” Gill explained recently. “With this new third verse I finally feel like the song is complete.”
Gill has released decades of hit songs, but nothing that has had quite the impact as “Go Rest High On That Mountain.”
“When you look back at my life and my career being musical, that’ll be the one song that I’m known for,” Gill tells I Miss…90s Country Radio with Nick Hoffman on Apple Music Country. “And it carries more weight in that people went to that song when they really were hurting, when they’re struggling and going through the hardest part of their life, not the best part of their life. When you lose somebody that you love and you go, you want comfort. You need to feed that melancholy thing that you’re going through. I had no idea I was even going to do any of that.”