STAR Views: Glenn Cummings

Estella: Your latest single is "Good Old Days." How did you come across it and what drew you to record it?
Glenn: Wow! My producer, H. L. Voelker, was out looking for songs for me, and came across this song. I just fell in love with it immediately; I said, "This is my life!" All of us look back at on the things that we've done growing up and say, "Man, I wish I could go back to that moment and time!" You wish those times would stay forever. But, they don't. You have families, kids, and things change in your life all the time, then you kind of forget all the fun you used to have. So, I try to ride my four-wheelers on the weekends, go out and do performances, and try to remember the "good old days." You have to look at each day as your last day and enjoy it, because everyday is a "good old day to come." That's what made me want to cut that song.

Estella: Will you do a video for it?
Glenn: When you’re a new artist on a brand new label, and you're just coming out of the box, the success we had with my first single "Big" was really incredible! The thing is a lot of artists who just get signed to any given label think they've "made it." But, the fact is, you've just started! I know that, because I've learned it! It's quite humbling, really. So, what we're going to do this time is really focus the majority of our energy on radio. Basically, the label's standpoint is we're going to try to promote the single to get as high on the charts as we can get it. When you do a video, it's quite expensive. Radio tours are very expensive, too. Like, if we would have held back on the "Big" video, we might have been able to do more radio tours to get it up the charts more. So, you learn your lessons, budget properly, and instead of putting out that large chunk of money for a video, we want to get higher up on the charts with "Good Ole Days." Then of course, the higher up the single is on the charts, the better it'll be perceived at networks like GAC or CMT. When you're bringing them videos that are high in the charts, it gets better rotation.

Estella: So, you've been hitting up radio stations across the country. Why is that important to you?
Glenn: Country radio is where I want to be played, and building relationships with the radio stations is what I've done for the past few months. I want to let everyone know that I want to be a part of the country music family, of this great network of people. For people to take their time out of the day – and these guys are busy! – to meet me and let me sing for them for a good 30 to 40 minutes, it's humbling to know that these radio guys love you music and are interested in meeting with you. And, hopefully down the road, we're going to be back to these stations! This is an ongoing thing every year, so I want to build a really strong relationship with radio and I feel really great about that!

Estella: Having just finished your recent radio tour, do you have any road stories to share?
Glenn: I’ll tell you a funny story! We were leaving a station that had never met me or heard my record yet. We basically told them that their competitor station was playing my record and we had to be at their station by 1:00 that day – and asked if they knew the best way to get there. So, there were Stephanie Callahan and David Brainard – they're my guitar players, and Nina Rossman, who is the national promoter for my record label, with me all in the car. The problem is I'm a drive-a-holic – I don't let anyone else drive! I'm always the one who gets in trouble if anything happens. That station basically said, "Hey, here's the best better way. It's an alternate beautiful scenic route, and it should be able to get there a little faster. Well, that scenic route turned out to be through the mountains – up, down, many curves in the road, and we got stuck behind a semi-truck that was going ten miles and hour. Course it was beautiful, but we were running way behind – and we've never been late to any radio station visits, especially one where we're going to be on the air and they're playing my record! All of a sudden, the highway opens up. There are no more winding, twisting roads through the mountains; it's just a wide-open highway. So, I just floored it! Next thing I know, I look behind me, and I see lights, and I'm thinking, Oh, my gosh! It's been years since I've gotten a ticket! Of course I pull over. This officer must have been seven-foot-five – he was huge! [NOTE: Glenn's pretty "big" himself, standing a towering six-foot-five.] He walks up to the car – of course, my heart's pounding like a tornado! – and taps on the window. I wind the window down, and he says, "Son, could you step to the back of the vehicle, please?" He basically let me know that he's going to take me to jail, that the speed I was going was over 80 miles and hour, and in that area, anything over 80 miles an hour, you're going to go to jail! While he's telling me all of this and he's calling for backup – and when the backup officer shows up, he's even bigger than the first guy! – I'm sitting there with my rear end up against this car, and I'm looking in the back of my car. Well, Nina, Stephanie, and David were dying laughing so hard and taking pictures from inside the car. You know, they think I'm just getting a ticket – they don’t know I'm sitting out there about to pass out! But, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, Right now, I'm in Sedona, Arizona, I have my wife and kids back home in the midst of a hurricane, I'm in the process of missing a major radio interview, AND there's the prospect of probably going to jail! I was really nervous! I start thinking about how I'm going to get out of this. My single "Big" is at radio, and I had some CDs in the car. So, I basically said, "Officer, look I'm just an artist. We're on a radio tour, I've got a radio station I had to be to at a certain time, and I didn't even know I was speeding." I ended up taking pictures with the two officers. I still got the ticket, but they didn't take me to jail. So, we sent that picture to Country Weekly magazine, and they used it! Then, I got a call about a week after the issue came out – because in the picture, I was wearing a station t-shirt – it had the call letters of this station on there. Well, they called to tell me they had added my record! And, the program director there got promoted to a major station, because they saw I was wearing a station t-shirt, and it was all over Country Weekly! That program director got a promotion, I got an article in Country Weekly out of it, I didn’t have to go to jail, and I got some really great pictures out of it! So, that's one of my best road stories!

Estella: For fans who do not have your debut album, Big, where can they purchase their copies?
Glenn: They can find it at http://www.WalMart.com, http://www.Target.com, and of course on my website, http://www.GCCountry.com. If they can't find it at those stores, either buy one off my website, or request it at the stores, and they'll get more copies. But, if they buy it from my website, they get an autographed copy.

Estella: And, another great thing about getting their copies off your website is because you're donating proceeds from merchandise sales to UNICEF. Why were you compelled to get involved?
Glenn: UNICEF helps with schooling, restructuring and rebuilding communities affected by various tragic instances, rather than just throwing money at them. So, I really believe in the work they do, and I'm proud to help out any way I can.

Estella: When you're not attending to music and/or business affairs, what are some things you like to do?
Glenn: Ride my ATV. I'm not as crazy on that as I used to be. Can't say that I'm safer on it, but I'm addicted to it; that's my drug! That's when I listen to demos all the time! Also, going to the gym; I love lifting weights and working out, in general.

Estella: What is something interesting about you that fans may or may not know about you?
Glenn: I'm a true family man! I've got a beautiful wife who, fortunately, is behind me in this business. I've got two beautiful girls, Lexi and Savanna – one's six and the other is five. The funny thing about them, Lexi says, "Are you bigger than Tim McGraw yet?" She watches my video and goes, "Daddy, that's a great video! You were before a Blake Shelton video. Does that mean you're bigger than Blake Shelton?" I have to explain to her, "Daddy's not quite there yet, but we're working hard at it." Now, I'm in trouble, because she wants to see all the charts! She always goes, "Daddy, where are you on the charts now? You need to be at the top, Daddy!" I tell her, "Honey, if I'm going to be at the top, I've still got a lot of work to do. I've got a lot of traveling to do." And, she tells me, "I don't care, Daddy. I want you to be at the top!" So, I've got support from my six-year-old girl!

Estella: That is just the sweetest thing!
Glenn: For the last several years of me working at this dream and traveling so much, they're the most supportive little girls. When I have to leave town, they give me high-fives and say, "Daddy, good luck; do good!" They're not crying and upset; they want me to do well. Lexi, she's got my pictures up on the wall, and she cut out and pasted this huge picture of a mansion up on her wall to where she can see it everyday. She goes, "Daddy, get to the top as quick as you can, because that's the house that we want!" That's the kind of thing – it's support, not only from my wife, but my kids; I have a whole team of people that believes in me, so I'm real fortunate!