July 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Join us in this special episode of Takin a Walk as we sit down with Grammy-nominated songwriter Sandy Knox to explore her remarkable career and her latest groundbreaking project. Known for writing hits for music legends like Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, and Neil Diamond, Sandy shares insights into her creative journey and the stories behind her songs.
In this episode, Sandy also introduces her innovative audiobook musical, Weighting: My Life If It Were A Musical. This first-of-its-kind project blends storytelling with 21 original songs co-written by Sandy herself. Inspired by her personal experiences, Weighting takes listeners on a heartfelt and humorous journey to Foundation House, a fictional weight-loss retreat where the characters confront issues of body image, self-worth, and friendship. Through laughter, tears, and powerful music, Sandy offers a unique narrative that resonates deeply with anyone who has faced struggles with identity and acceptance.
Tune in to hear Sandy discuss the inspiration behind this “boo-sical,” her process of merging narrative and song, and what this new creative chapter means to her as an artist and storyteller. Whether you’re a fan of her songwriting or curious about this genre-blending audiobook, this episode promises to be an inspiring and entertaining walk with one of music’s most gifted voices.
Support the show: https://musicsavedme.net/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I definitely write a little left of center, and I
don't write I don't have tunnel vision when I write.
What I mean by that is that I don't sit
down go I'm gonna write a country song.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I just sit down and try to write a good song.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I'm buzz Night, the host of the Taken a Walk Podcast.
This is the show where we talk to fascinating people
and get their inside stories. And today it's a great
story from the incomparable Sandy Knox. A Grammy nominated songwriter,
music industry trailblazer. She's written songs for icons like Reba
McIntyre and Dion Warwick, and she is somebody who just
(00:38):
doesn't look back. She's forging ahead with new projects, including
her highly anticipated audio book, where she shares even more
of her remarkable journey and the lessons she's learned along
the way. Let's talk to Sandy Knox on the Taken
a Walk Podcast. Taking a Walk, Sandy, Welcome to the
(01:01):
Taking a Walk Podcast. So nice to be with you.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thank you for having me here today.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
So it is called taking a walk, Sandy, So I
do have a responsibility to ask you if you could
take a walk with somebody living or dead. I prefer
it if you're around the world of music, that it
be a music person, but it doesn't have to be.
Who would you take a walk with and where would
(01:27):
you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Can I have two people, one music one non music,
of course, Okay, if I'm taking a walk in the
music scene, I would love to take a walk with
the fabulous songwriter Johnny Mercer, who wrote some wonderful songs
in the thirties, late thirties.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Forties, fifties, sixties. You know, he was a great influence
on me his lyrics.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
When when I was a kid and I was eating
up all my parents' record collection, I noticed that I
kept liking the songs of this guy, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Mercer, and so he would be one.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You know, he's responsible for Oh God, I'm pretty moon
River at that line, my huckleberry friend because he was
raised in that area where they picked huckleberries with their
buddies and stuff. So he I would really love to
pick his brain because I don't know. You know a
lot of people today writing they use rhining dictionaries or
(02:32):
rhining apps where they can.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Figure out a rhyme. I don't know if those were available.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
When he was writing, and some of the stuff that
he came up with was was just fabulous, just wonderful.
So he would be my music person, my non music person.
Both of my grandfathers were passed away before my parents
even met. I would really love to meet the man
who raised my father, because my dad was a wonderful guy,
(03:02):
and he was really smart, and he did things the
right way, and he was just full of integrity. And
I would love to have a conversation with the man
that was his father. And you know that that couldn't
happen he had already passed away, but.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You know, he was a different kind of man.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
My dad was born and raised out in the bad
lands of New Mexico, and his father was one of
the bankers in their small town of Truth or Consequences,
New Mexico. That's where my dad was born and raised,
and they also owned the only hotel in town. And
so I would just I'd be really curious to walk
(03:47):
with that man and just get to know my father's father.
That would have been That's something I think about a lot.
And of course, as you know, as we get older,
we start looking into our ancestry and we start wondering about, well,
where did I come from? So that that's one that
I would be really happy to do.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh that's nice. Thank you for sharing that. That's such
a great couple of walk suggestions for sure. And I
know your dad was a part of this journey you
made ultimately to Nashville to pursue a career in songwriting.
With that fifteen hundred dollars and no connections in town
(04:27):
situation in your life when you made that trip a
what inspired you to make that trip? And did your
dad try to talk you out of it?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No, no he did not.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
At that pointhen I got to Nashville, I had already
been out in LA for a year. About a year
and a half earlier, I got accepted into ASCAP's Workshop
West and I only I think at the time they
only took twelve people a year, and I've submitted my
songs and I got accepted. I went out there for
a year. After that was over, I came back to
(05:04):
Houston and I was telling everybody I was a songwriter.
And at this point I'm twenty two, twenty two and
a half, but I was working in a department store.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And I was going out with my friends.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And we were going to the discos and dancing and
having fun every night. And one day my dad said
to me, I think you might want to look into
going to secretarial school and learn how to type and
get you know, maybe have that. And I when he
suggested that, I was so offended that he did not
(05:40):
and I said, well, I'm a songwriter. And he said, well,
you're not being a songwriter, You're just going out and
having a good time. And well, first off, let me
just tell you. My dad was so good at reverse psychology.
And I didn't realize till later what he was doing.
And I went to bed that night. I was so
I was insulted. He did not think that I was
(06:02):
going to be that I was a songwriter. And I
went to bed that night and I got out my
calendar and I counted up six months to the day.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
What is six months to the day from now?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And it was August thirteenth and nineteen eighty three, and
I'm all right, I'm unpacking my bags in Nashville, Tennessee
on August thirteenth and nineteenth later this year. So that
was my goal, and that's what I did. So I
continued working in the department store and saving my money, and.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The day before I don't know what day of the
week it was.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I think I think August thirteenth was like a Thursday
or something. My car and that U haul was loaded
up and we drove to Nashville, my dad driving the
U haul, me driving my car, and we rolled in
and I had already come a couple of months, about
a month before, and found an apartment and we rolled
in and we unpacked all my stuff and I didn't
(07:00):
have a thing. I had a piano, a guitar, a
real to reel tape player, and I had a cassette
machine so I could get things off my reel to
reel and make cassette copies. And that's about all I had.
And some clothes. That was about all I had.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So yeah, my dad did not my parents did not
discourage me. They actually encouraged me.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Well, but was that reverse psychology something that shaped your
resilience to this day?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh gosh ya, yes, yeah, I would say that when
when when people say, well, you can't do like on
this this audio book, I had several people say well you.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Can't do that, you can't do you can't write.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
An audiobook that has music in it, and I'd be why, Well,
nobody's ever done it.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's not a reason not to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I do kind of have that little part of
me that digs in my heels and goes, well, wait
a minute. If somebody says, oh, I think I'm gonna
see if I can maybe make it happen.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, yeah, that bolsters the reason to do it for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah. Can you share the story but behind your your
first break as a songwriter and how it felt to
hear your song recorded by a major artist?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
H Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The first time I heard my song recorded by a
major artist.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
There were two. There was.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had a single on Dionne Warwick It's called where
My Lips Have Been? And at the same and the
same day, the same week, I had I cut on
my first cut on Reba Uh called he Wants to
Get Married.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
They both came out the same week.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That was the first time that I heard two major
artists doing my songs, and that was such a gratifying moment.
And I've told people, I sat on the floor of
my apartment and I just played each song back to back.
I played this one, I played that one, I play
this one, I play that one, I just, you know,
(09:11):
surrounded myself with those voices of those legendary artists.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Singing songs that I had written. And my parents were
glad to hear that too.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
They kind of like, she's she's made it, I guess.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
So how do you maintain this great sense of humor
and positivity during tough times?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's hard sometimes, you know, happy people aren't happy all
the time. But I'm I will say, I always try
to lean on the positive sign and things are going
to be better and whatever. You know, there were moments
that were really, really, really tough to get through. There
were moments that I didn't know if I I had
(10:00):
a I was going to have any money to buy
dog food for my dog, or you know, you know,
make the rent. Those are tough, you know, those are scary,
and those are tough times. But I just always had this.
I always knew that I could go get another job.
I was capable of working. I had worked since I
was fourteen years old, is when I started pulling in
(10:20):
a paycheck. And I just always knew that, you know,
it'll be okay, it's going to be okay. I'm going
to take I'm going to make sure it's okay, so,
but it is hard sometimes to keep a positive attitude.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But I think most of my friends and people.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Who know me know that I err on that side.
I drive in that lane more than I drive in
the in the slow lane of sadness. There's a songbook
right there, the slow light set.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yeah, that's brilliant. Share with the audience your approach to
writing songs that address difficult and taboo topics. And in particular,
one that comes to my mind is she Thinks his
name was John. That was one of the first AIDS
related chart hits. So how do you approach difficult topics
(11:13):
such as that?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Thank you for mentioning that song. That song's very important
to me, you know. I had that idea because of
something a woman said to me at a little gathering,
a little party. She was referring to someone a boyfriend,
and she made a comment and I just remember thinking, ooh,
then that may not be the smartest way to go,
(11:36):
And I had the idea. I brought that idea up
to several co writers. None of them were interested because
it was a negative. The way I was thinking about
how to write it, it was probably not going to
have a happy ending.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I had seventeen pages.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Of lyrics already written, and I normally overwrite and then
I start condensing andmizing on my words and stuff. I
finally one of my co writers who was very young,
Steve Rosen. He had just come to town. He wasn't
jaded yet and he didn't know.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
To say no.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
He said sure, so we started working on it. The
reason that song is important to me is because in
nineteen seventy nine, my brother, who was recovering from testicular cancer,
had a blood transfusion and five years later he had
full blown AIDS and we found out that that blood transfusion,
(12:33):
he had gotten HIV from that blood transfusion. So he
was two weeks before his thirtieth birthday when he passed away.
I put myself in his shoes. What if I got
that news? What if I would What would how would
that affect me? What would what would that mean to
me if I found out?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And then at that point when I was writing the song,
and I put myself in those shoes, and that's how
the song eventually became. You know what it was? I
originally wrote it with the target was Bonnie right, because
she was looking for something I believe the song plugger
(13:13):
at the time said Bonnie was looking for a socially
conscious song, and so we finished it and got it recorded,
and that was the pitch that I thought was going
to happen. But by that time, I think Reba had
cut a couple of my tunes and she was familiar.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
With my name.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So they went ahead and made the pitch, and Reba
put it on a hard hoole and she got it,
knew what it was about, and put it on a
hard hole.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I was even.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Performing that with my live band, and I got the
word from someone in either the publishing camp or whatever
that Riba wanted to ask if I would take it
out of the show because she didn't want to give it.
She didn't want it out there and about she wanted
us to close down close ranks on it, so to speak.
(13:58):
So that song was never supposed to be a single.
You got attention and the radio started getting behind it
and moving it up the charts. It took a life
of its own, and I have heard again through the
grape vine here in Nashville that MCA Records had a
special meeting and said we either we get behind this
(14:20):
or not. We got to make a decision, and they
chose to get behind it, and they released it as
a single. And before that happened, I was starting to
get you know, normally songwriters, we don't get a lot
of press. We're a little bit behind the scenes. We
can choose to be as famous as we want if
we hire someone to help drive that, but for the
(14:40):
most part, we're a little bit behind the curtains. And
I started getting a lot of attention because of that
lyric and because of that song and front some front
page things on a couple and a couple of newspapers
in the country, and you know, not front front page,
but on other sections.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
They're living sections.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Much And I've called my mom and I said, I
need to have a conversation with you and dad about
the song.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And I said, how do you this song is growing
legs of its own. How do you feel about this?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Because they're asking me about how I wrote it, and
I would like to be honest that I wrote it
about Billie's passing, about his situation, and I'll never forget.
My mom said, if it keeps one a mother from
having to go through this, we're.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Behind you one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So Yeah, Bravo is right. It ended up.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That is another song that I know for a fact
from letters that I got and stuff that it affected
people's way of thinking about HIV. Yeah, and you're right,
it was the first song that was done about AIDS
and HIV.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
We'll be right back with More Than Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
If there's a piece of advice you and your current
life could give to your younger self, what would that
advice be?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know, I have to say that would be don't
give up.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I can put it in a way I don't know
if I can use a little bit of salty language.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Of course you can't. Okay, I'll cover my ears.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
When right before I.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Was getting ready to make the move here, my dad
took me to lunch at one of his favorite restaurants
in Houston, and I said, do you have any advice
for me? And and again I'm twenty four years old,
and my dad said number one, he said, don't take
note for an answer.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
And number two and he said.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
This in the Latin, and I can't remember it in Latin,
but it was don't let the bastards grind you down.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But he said it in Latin.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
That's so great.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I would so this Sandy would still adhere to that,
to that advice and just like keep going.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
So you've obviously had people in your life that have
you know, been important, whether it be your dad or
others that have took the time and mentored I would
imagine knowing you for just a little bit on this
this interview, you are mentoring people at this moment right now.
(17:37):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I am going to say yes.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I I don't do this too much anymore, but I
used to teach a lot of songwriting workshops with the NSAI,
the Nashville Songwriting Association.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I was on their board for many years. I've taught.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Classes, I have done workshop But if I can just say,
the woman who has been so involved in helping me
get the audiobook Waiting My Life, if it were a
musical to where it is, is a woman who's sitting
off here to my side right now, and her name
is mann and Ward. And I know that not only
(18:22):
has she been a gift in helping me, because she's
like thirty six years younger than me, and she knows
how to maneuver through all the text stuff and the
social stuff, but she was the project manager and the
creative director on this project. She's also a singer songwriter
and a very good singer songwriter, and many times she
has said to me, what a gift this has been.
Working with you on this. I've learned so much. So
(18:46):
I can proudly say I'm pretty sure I'm still mentoring
a few people here and there, but she has let
me know many times that's what's happening.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
You know. There's somebody that occurred to me that was
on the podcast, and I don't know if you know
him personally. You probably do, named Charlie Peacock.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Not the name. I don't think we've ever met.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Oh well, you have parallels that are so interesting in
terms of your approach to your work in that my
view of it from Afar is much like Charlie. For you,
it's not about this world of stardom and notoriety. It's
(19:30):
about doing amazing work, putting creative things out in different ways,
in different forms, and that's similar to Charlie as well.
So it just occurred to me as we were talking
the unique parallels, you know, the mentoring aspect, the label aspect,
(19:52):
in terms of you know, creating as well, but I
just didn't know if you knew him. Tell me about
Wrinkled Records.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I did well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I did a CD on my own in about nineteen,
I want to say nineteen ninety seven, ninety eight, and
the name of the CD was called Pushing forty, Never Married,
No Kids, and it was all about kind of songs
that had at so many songs that had been put
on hardhold but never quite got cut because the artist
(20:24):
might be a little shy about recording some of the
songs or whatever, because I definitely write a little left
of center, and I don't write.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I don't have tunnel vision when I write.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
What I mean by that is that I don't sit
down and go I'm going to write a country song.
I just sit down and try to write a good
song and wherever it falls. I think I predominantly write
adult contemporary pop.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I think that's what I write. But I did the
CD and.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
My attorney at the time, who I adore, and he's
not my attorney, Moore, but we still talk all the time.
And he said, you can't put your age in the title,
And I said why because at the time, I think
I was thirty eight thirty seven thirty eight, and he said, well,
you just can't because of the industry. And I said, well, well,
that's what's wrong in the industry. I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Put I'm going to put my age in the title.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So as a little joke to get under his under
him a little bit more, I said, I'm going to
name the label my label that I'm putting it out
on Wrinkled Records, and he just laughed. So anyways, fast
forward about ten years later, I moved back to Texas
for a while when my father was declining and I
(21:34):
was in Austin. And when I moved back here in
two thousand and six, I decided to resurrect Wrinkled Records.
And I decided I was going to go for a
lot of my artist friends who should have had deals
and didn't get deals because of maybe they were considered
they were over the.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Hill or whatever.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So I went for some of my friends who I
knew deserved a record deal. So Wrinkled Records kind of
was geared toward that demographic of baby boomers and people
over forty forty five years old.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
So that's what Wrinkled was about.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And we did several great records, and you know, We
did a couple with BJ Thomas, who was one of
the most loveliest men to work with. I can't say
enough wonderful things about that kind, lovely man and what
an incredible vocalist. His voice was so good up until
the time he passed. But Wrinkled was we were going
(22:32):
for critically acclaimed stuff. That's what I was going for,
not radio got to get on the radio. It was
more about let's make really good, some really good music,
and we did. We did about five or six projects
that were all critically acclaimed.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
And then it was.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Time I decided to As I started bringing myself to
get more and more serious about Waiting, which had been
in my head for so many years, I brought Wrinkled
to a close and you know, eventually just you know,
let it go, dorm it again.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So that that was Wrinkled.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
It was so much fun, and I worked with so
many people that I I had always believed in, you know,
always believed in them and believed they needed to have
a record.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It seems like a sort of a sister labeled to
some extent to this thing called Oh Boy Records that
John Prime founded.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah right, And I'm not that familiar with that that label.
I have to be I have to be honest. I'm
not familiar, but yeah, I would assume that you know John.
What I know of John, he always was a little
left of center himself.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Yeah, that's what That's what occurs to me. So you're
super excited about the outcome here finally getting out to
the public. Brag about that a little bit in terms
of the amount of work and how excited you are
to be breaking new ground and taking it to the public.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
The waiting I just spelled like you know, the weight
of the world or how much do you weigh?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
It's spelled that way, but it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Does kind of mean, you know, because I would hear
people say this, I went to this place, this diet
center after a bad boyfriend, I wanted to lose a
few pounds, went to this place. This is what the
seed was born for this audio book, and basically so
many people had said. Basically, I'll just put in a
(24:27):
nutshell nutshell that people had said, if I could just
lose twenty pounds, you know, my boyfriend would come back,
things would be better, I'd be healthier.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
They had a whole list of things that would be
better if they.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Just lost twenty pounds and that kind of put the
seed in my head where I started working on. You know,
everybody's waiting for something to happen, and it's also that
they want to lose that twenty pounds of weight, and
that's when it'll happen. So Waiting is an audio book
slash musical, and I call it a boozy goal because
(24:57):
I've joined those words together. I've been working on it
for many, many years. It's taken on. Through the years,
it took on, it morphed into a couple of other things.
At one point, I thought it was just going to
be like a Broadway musical, a live show, a musical,
and then at the beginning of COVID and the Lockdown,
I started thinking about it in another way and thinking,
(25:20):
you know, I think I think I could write this
whole thing, and I think I have done voiceover work
in my life, so I thought, I think I could
narrate it, and I started writing it and once I
put it on that cap, it poured out of me
and the song started pouring out of me and the
song ideas and.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Then it became easy.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But all the other stuff we had to do on
the background, recording, the narrations, getting all the songs written
and recorded. We're talking about this project happened over from
the moment the seed into the thought entered my mind
to us releasing this now next week when it goes
when it's available for sale, almost thirty years, about twenty
(26:07):
eight years, and you know, there were tons of life
got in the way. You know, I took care of
my parents when they were aging. I had some health
issues and had to put some things on the back burner.
But I'm so happy about it. I did some focus
groups with a few people and let about twenty five
people hear it. Not only did it get nothing but
(26:29):
positive feedback.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
After people heard it, I would get really.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Heartfelt emails from them where they shared their story about
their battle with their own body and losing weight, keeping
weight off, or being too thin, or how it affected
other members of their family.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
So I think we've got a.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Pretty universal topic, you know, everybody can relate to. And
I will tell you it's poignant, it's fun, there's moments
that are very sad, it's uplifting. But I take you
on a journey of all these characters that I met
at this place. My characters are loosely based on these people,
(27:12):
but all these characters that I met and their song
and what they were going through.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I write songs for each of the chapters.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I don't know if I told you this, but
it's only five and a half hours long. It's not
like a twenty hour audio book. It's pretty direct and
to the point. You know, when you write songs, you've
got to you've got to begin a story, tell the story,
and end the story inside three to five minutes. And
I had that same attitude with the book. I thought,
(27:39):
I'm going to just keep it pretty succinct and just
I'm just going to try to keep it moving all
the time, the storyline and not have it go on
and on and on forever, because I get bored pretty
use in a little add I don't know if you
can tell that, but I get distracted pretty easily. So
that was important that I kept it in that little
time capsule.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Congratulations, I'm bringing it home. It sounds so amazing. So
I do want to close. I want to ask you,
is there a trend in music in the industry that
excites you and is there a trend that you wish
would just go away?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Hmmm, I don't know. That I have.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well, I can tell you I listened to a whole
lot of different music. If you went into my playlist,
I'm all over the place.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And what I listened to. Is there a trend that
I wish we'd go away?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
I can tell you that. The other day, when I
was scrolling on something, probably on Facebook, I came across
some AI generated songs And that's a little disconcerting. That's
a little scary. And they weren't very good and they
felt robotic. That that doesn't make me happy, especially when
(28:54):
I think about the hard work you put into making
the perfect song, getting that song written. So that's that
I wouldn't mind seeing that go away.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
You know, I was kind of reading your mind thinking,
I'll bet she's going to go towards AI. I just
had a sneaking suspicion, Sandy, Yes, sorry, Yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
There's a beauty.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And when you read a lyric of another writer and
you are just, oh my god, that's such a beautiful line.
How did they do that? You know that there's a
joy in discovering great lyrics.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
I love the contagious spirit you have. Congratulations on everything.
It sounds like it's only the beginning. So you you
have a lot of stuff going on in a great
way and it's an honor Sandy Knox to be able
to talk to you on Taking a Walk. Thanks for
being on, Thank.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
You for having me buzz I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I definitely write a little left of center, and I
don't write I don't have tunnel vision when I write.
What I mean by that is that I don't sit
down go I'm gonna write a country song.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I just sit down and try to write a good song.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I'm buzz Night, the host of the Taken a Walk Podcast.
This is the show where we talk to fascinating people
and get their inside stories. And today it's a great
story from the incomparable Sandy Knox. A Grammy nominated songwriter,
music industry trailblazer. She's written songs for icons like Reba
McIntyre and Dion Warwick, and she is somebody who just
(00:38):
doesn't look back. She's forging ahead with new projects, including
her highly anticipated audio book, where she shares even more
of her remarkable journey and the lessons she's learned along
the way. Let's talk to Sandy Knox on the Taken
a Walk Podcast. Taking a Walk, Sandy, Welcome to the
(01:01):
Taking a Walk Podcast. So nice to be with you.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thank you for having me here today.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
So it is called taking a walk, Sandy, So I
do have a responsibility to ask you if you could
take a walk with somebody living or dead. I prefer
it if you're around the world of music, that it
be a music person, but it doesn't have to be.
Who would you take a walk with and where would
(01:27):
you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Can I have two people, one music one non music,
of course, Okay, if I'm taking a walk in the
music scene, I would love to take a walk with
the fabulous songwriter Johnny Mercer, who wrote some wonderful songs
in the thirties, late thirties.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Forties, fifties, sixties. You know, he was a great influence
on me his lyrics.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
When when I was a kid and I was eating
up all my parents' record collection, I noticed that I
kept liking the songs of this guy, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Mercer, and so he would be one.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You know, he's responsible for Oh God, I'm pretty moon
River at that line, my huckleberry friend because he was
raised in that area where they picked huckleberries with their
buddies and stuff. So he I would really love to
pick his brain because I don't know. You know a
lot of people today writing they use rhining dictionaries or
(02:32):
rhining apps where they can.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Figure out a rhyme. I don't know if those were available.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
When he was writing, and some of the stuff that
he came up with was was just fabulous, just wonderful.
So he would be my music person, my non music person.
Both of my grandfathers were passed away before my parents
even met. I would really love to meet the man
who raised my father, because my dad was a wonderful guy,
(03:02):
and he was really smart, and he did things the
right way, and he was just full of integrity. And
I would love to have a conversation with the man
that was his father. And you know that that couldn't
happen he had already passed away, but.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You know, he was a different kind of man.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
My dad was born and raised out in the bad
lands of New Mexico, and his father was one of
the bankers in their small town of Truth or Consequences,
New Mexico. That's where my dad was born and raised,
and they also owned the only hotel in town. And
so I would just I'd be really curious to walk
(03:47):
with that man and just get to know my father's father.
That would have been That's something I think about a lot.
And of course, as you know, as we get older,
we start looking into our ancestry and we start wondering about, well,
where did I come from? So that that's one that
I would be really happy to do.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh that's nice. Thank you for sharing that. That's such
a great couple of walk suggestions for sure. And I
know your dad was a part of this journey you
made ultimately to Nashville to pursue a career in songwriting.
With that fifteen hundred dollars and no connections in town
(04:27):
situation in your life when you made that trip a
what inspired you to make that trip? And did your
dad try to talk you out of it?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No, no he did not.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
At that pointhen I got to Nashville, I had already
been out in LA for a year. About a year
and a half earlier, I got accepted into ASCAP's Workshop
West and I only I think at the time they
only took twelve people a year, and I've submitted my
songs and I got accepted. I went out there for
a year. After that was over, I came back to
(05:04):
Houston and I was telling everybody I was a songwriter.
And at this point I'm twenty two, twenty two and
a half, but I was working in a department store.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And I was going out with my friends.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And we were going to the discos and dancing and
having fun every night. And one day my dad said
to me, I think you might want to look into
going to secretarial school and learn how to type and
get you know, maybe have that. And I when he
suggested that, I was so offended that he did not
(05:40):
and I said, well, I'm a songwriter. And he said, well,
you're not being a songwriter, You're just going out and
having a good time. And well, first off, let me
just tell you. My dad was so good at reverse psychology.
And I didn't realize till later what he was doing.
And I went to bed that night. I was so
I was insulted. He did not think that I was
(06:02):
going to be that I was a songwriter. And I
went to bed that night and I got out my
calendar and I counted up six months to the day.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
What is six months to the day from now?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And it was August thirteenth and nineteen eighty three, and
I'm all right, I'm unpacking my bags in Nashville, Tennessee
on August thirteenth and nineteenth later this year. So that
was my goal, and that's what I did. So I
continued working in the department store and saving my money, and.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The day before I don't know what day of the
week it was.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I think I think August thirteenth was like a Thursday
or something. My car and that U haul was loaded
up and we drove to Nashville, my dad driving the
U haul, me driving my car, and we rolled in
and I had already come a couple of months, about
a month before, and found an apartment and we rolled
in and we unpacked all my stuff and I didn't
(07:00):
have a thing. I had a piano, a guitar, a
real to reel tape player, and I had a cassette
machine so I could get things off my reel to
reel and make cassette copies. And that's about all I had.
And some clothes. That was about all I had.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So yeah, my dad did not my parents did not
discourage me. They actually encouraged me.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Well, but was that reverse psychology something that shaped your
resilience to this day?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh gosh ya, yes, yeah, I would say that when
when when people say, well, you can't do like on
this this audio book, I had several people say well you.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Can't do that, you can't do you can't write.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
An audiobook that has music in it, and I'd be why, Well,
nobody's ever done it.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's not a reason not to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I do kind of have that little part of
me that digs in my heels and goes, well, wait
a minute. If somebody says, oh, I think I'm gonna
see if I can maybe make it happen.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, yeah, that bolsters the reason to do it for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah. Can you share the story but behind your your
first break as a songwriter and how it felt to
hear your song recorded by a major artist?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
H Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The first time I heard my song recorded by a
major artist.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
There were two. There was.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had a single on Dionne Warwick It's called where
My Lips Have Been? And at the same and the
same day, the same week, I had I cut on
my first cut on Reba Uh called he Wants to
Get Married.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
They both came out the same week.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That was the first time that I heard two major
artists doing my songs, and that was such a gratifying moment.
And I've told people, I sat on the floor of
my apartment and I just played each song back to back.
I played this one, I played that one, I play
this one, I play that one, I just, you know,
(09:11):
surrounded myself with those voices of those legendary artists.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Singing songs that I had written. And my parents were
glad to hear that too.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
They kind of like, she's she's made it, I guess.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
So how do you maintain this great sense of humor
and positivity during tough times?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's hard sometimes, you know, happy people aren't happy all
the time. But I'm I will say, I always try
to lean on the positive sign and things are going
to be better and whatever. You know, there were moments
that were really, really, really tough to get through. There
were moments that I didn't know if I I had
(10:00):
a I was going to have any money to buy
dog food for my dog, or you know, you know,
make the rent. Those are tough, you know, those are scary,
and those are tough times. But I just always had this.
I always knew that I could go get another job.
I was capable of working. I had worked since I
was fourteen years old, is when I started pulling in
(10:20):
a paycheck. And I just always knew that, you know,
it'll be okay, it's going to be okay. I'm going
to take I'm going to make sure it's okay, so,
but it is hard sometimes to keep a positive attitude.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But I think most of my friends and people.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Who know me know that I err on that side.
I drive in that lane more than I drive in
the in the slow lane of sadness. There's a songbook
right there, the slow light set.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yeah, that's brilliant. Share with the audience your approach to
writing songs that address difficult and taboo topics. And in particular,
one that comes to my mind is she Thinks his
name was John. That was one of the first AIDS
related chart hits. So how do you approach difficult topics
(11:13):
such as that?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Thank you for mentioning that song. That song's very important
to me, you know. I had that idea because of
something a woman said to me at a little gathering,
a little party. She was referring to someone a boyfriend,
and she made a comment and I just remember thinking, ooh,
then that may not be the smartest way to go,
(11:36):
And I had the idea. I brought that idea up
to several co writers. None of them were interested because
it was a negative. The way I was thinking about
how to write it, it was probably not going to
have a happy ending.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I had seventeen pages.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Of lyrics already written, and I normally overwrite and then
I start condensing andmizing on my words and stuff. I
finally one of my co writers who was very young,
Steve Rosen. He had just come to town. He wasn't
jaded yet and he didn't know.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
To say no.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
He said sure, so we started working on it. The
reason that song is important to me is because in
nineteen seventy nine, my brother, who was recovering from testicular cancer,
had a blood transfusion and five years later he had
full blown AIDS and we found out that that blood transfusion,
(12:33):
he had gotten HIV from that blood transfusion. So he
was two weeks before his thirtieth birthday when he passed away.
I put myself in his shoes. What if I got
that news? What if I would What would how would
that affect me? What would what would that mean to
me if I found out?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And then at that point when I was writing the song,
and I put myself in those shoes, and that's how
the song eventually became. You know what it was? I
originally wrote it with the target was Bonnie right, because
she was looking for something I believe the song plugger
(13:13):
at the time said Bonnie was looking for a socially
conscious song, and so we finished it and got it recorded,
and that was the pitch that I thought was going
to happen. But by that time, I think Reba had
cut a couple of my tunes and she was familiar.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
With my name.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So they went ahead and made the pitch, and Reba
put it on a hard hoole and she got it,
knew what it was about, and put it on a
hard hole.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I was even.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Performing that with my live band, and I got the
word from someone in either the publishing camp or whatever
that Riba wanted to ask if I would take it
out of the show because she didn't want to give it.
She didn't want it out there and about she wanted
us to close down close ranks on it, so to speak.
(13:58):
So that song was never supposed to be a single.
You got attention and the radio started getting behind it
and moving it up the charts. It took a life
of its own, and I have heard again through the
grape vine here in Nashville that MCA Records had a
special meeting and said we either we get behind this
(14:20):
or not. We got to make a decision, and they
chose to get behind it, and they released it as
a single. And before that happened, I was starting to
get you know, normally songwriters, we don't get a lot
of press. We're a little bit behind the scenes. We
can choose to be as famous as we want if
we hire someone to help drive that, but for the
(14:40):
most part, we're a little bit behind the curtains. And
I started getting a lot of attention because of that
lyric and because of that song and front some front
page things on a couple and a couple of newspapers
in the country, and you know, not front front page,
but on other sections.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
They're living sections.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Much And I've called my mom and I said, I
need to have a conversation with you and dad about
the song.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And I said, how do you this song is growing
legs of its own. How do you feel about this?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Because they're asking me about how I wrote it, and
I would like to be honest that I wrote it
about Billie's passing, about his situation, and I'll never forget.
My mom said, if it keeps one a mother from
having to go through this, we're.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Behind you one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So Yeah, Bravo is right. It ended up.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That is another song that I know for a fact
from letters that I got and stuff that it affected
people's way of thinking about HIV. Yeah, and you're right,
it was the first song that was done about AIDS
and HIV.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
We'll be right back with More Than Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
If there's a piece of advice you and your current
life could give to your younger self, what would that
advice be?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know, I have to say that would be don't
give up.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I can put it in a way I don't know
if I can use a little bit of salty language.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Of course you can't. Okay, I'll cover my ears.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
When right before I.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Was getting ready to make the move here, my dad
took me to lunch at one of his favorite restaurants
in Houston, and I said, do you have any advice
for me? And and again I'm twenty four years old,
and my dad said number one, he said, don't take
note for an answer.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
And number two and he said.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
This in the Latin, and I can't remember it in Latin,
but it was don't let the bastards grind you down.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But he said it in Latin.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
That's so great.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I would so this Sandy would still adhere to that,
to that advice and just like keep going.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
So you've obviously had people in your life that have
you know, been important, whether it be your dad or
others that have took the time and mentored I would
imagine knowing you for just a little bit on this
this interview, you are mentoring people at this moment right now.
(17:37):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I am going to say yes.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I I don't do this too much anymore, but I
used to teach a lot of songwriting workshops with the NSAI,
the Nashville Songwriting Association.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I was on their board for many years. I've taught.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Classes, I have done workshop But if I can just say,
the woman who has been so involved in helping me
get the audiobook Waiting My Life, if it were a
musical to where it is, is a woman who's sitting
off here to my side right now, and her name
is mann and Ward. And I know that not only
(18:22):
has she been a gift in helping me, because she's
like thirty six years younger than me, and she knows
how to maneuver through all the text stuff and the
social stuff, but she was the project manager and the
creative director on this project. She's also a singer songwriter
and a very good singer songwriter, and many times she
has said to me, what a gift this has been.
Working with you on this. I've learned so much. So
(18:46):
I can proudly say I'm pretty sure I'm still mentoring
a few people here and there, but she has let
me know many times that's what's happening.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
You know. There's somebody that occurred to me that was
on the podcast, and I don't know if you know
him personally. You probably do, named Charlie Peacock.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Not the name. I don't think we've ever met.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Oh well, you have parallels that are so interesting in
terms of your approach to your work in that my
view of it from Afar is much like Charlie. For you,
it's not about this world of stardom and notoriety. It's
(19:30):
about doing amazing work, putting creative things out in different ways,
in different forms, and that's similar to Charlie as well.
So it just occurred to me as we were talking
the unique parallels, you know, the mentoring aspect, the label aspect,
(19:52):
in terms of you know, creating as well, but I
just didn't know if you knew him. Tell me about
Wrinkled Records.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I did well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I did a CD on my own in about nineteen,
I want to say nineteen ninety seven, ninety eight, and
the name of the CD was called Pushing forty, Never Married,
No Kids, and it was all about kind of songs
that had at so many songs that had been put
on hardhold but never quite got cut because the artist
(20:24):
might be a little shy about recording some of the
songs or whatever, because I definitely write a little left
of center, and I don't write.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I don't have tunnel vision when I write.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
What I mean by that is that I don't sit
down and go I'm going to write a country song.
I just sit down and try to write a good
song and wherever it falls. I think I predominantly write
adult contemporary pop.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I think that's what I write. But I did the
CD and.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
My attorney at the time, who I adore, and he's
not my attorney, Moore, but we still talk all the time.
And he said, you can't put your age in the title,
And I said why because at the time, I think
I was thirty eight thirty seven thirty eight, and he said, well,
you just can't because of the industry. And I said, well, well,
that's what's wrong in the industry. I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Put I'm going to put my age in the title.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So as a little joke to get under his under
him a little bit more, I said, I'm going to
name the label my label that I'm putting it out
on Wrinkled Records, and he just laughed. So anyways, fast
forward about ten years later, I moved back to Texas
for a while when my father was declining and I
(21:34):
was in Austin. And when I moved back here in
two thousand and six, I decided to resurrect Wrinkled Records.
And I decided I was going to go for a
lot of my artist friends who should have had deals
and didn't get deals because of maybe they were considered
they were over the.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Hill or whatever.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So I went for some of my friends who I
knew deserved a record deal. So Wrinkled Records kind of
was geared toward that demographic of baby boomers and people
over forty forty five years old.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
So that's what Wrinkled was about.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And we did several great records, and you know, We
did a couple with BJ Thomas, who was one of
the most loveliest men to work with. I can't say
enough wonderful things about that kind, lovely man and what
an incredible vocalist. His voice was so good up until
the time he passed. But Wrinkled was we were going
(22:32):
for critically acclaimed stuff. That's what I was going for,
not radio got to get on the radio. It was
more about let's make really good, some really good music,
and we did. We did about five or six projects
that were all critically acclaimed.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
And then it was.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Time I decided to As I started bringing myself to
get more and more serious about Waiting, which had been
in my head for so many years, I brought Wrinkled
to a close and you know, eventually just you know,
let it go, dorm it again.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So that that was Wrinkled.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
It was so much fun, and I worked with so
many people that I I had always believed in, you know,
always believed in them and believed they needed to have
a record.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It seems like a sort of a sister labeled to
some extent to this thing called Oh Boy Records that
John Prime founded.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah right, And I'm not that familiar with that that label.
I have to be I have to be honest. I'm
not familiar, but yeah, I would assume that you know John.
What I know of John, he always was a little
left of center himself.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Yeah, that's what That's what occurs to me. So you're
super excited about the outcome here finally getting out to
the public. Brag about that a little bit in terms
of the amount of work and how excited you are
to be breaking new ground and taking it to the public.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
The waiting I just spelled like you know, the weight
of the world or how much do you weigh?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
It's spelled that way, but it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Does kind of mean, you know, because I would hear
people say this, I went to this place, this diet
center after a bad boyfriend, I wanted to lose a
few pounds, went to this place. This is what the
seed was born for this audio book, and basically so
many people had said. Basically, I'll just put in a
(24:27):
nutshell nutshell that people had said, if I could just
lose twenty pounds, you know, my boyfriend would come back,
things would be better, I'd be healthier.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
They had a whole list of things that would be
better if they.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Just lost twenty pounds and that kind of put the
seed in my head where I started working on. You know,
everybody's waiting for something to happen, and it's also that
they want to lose that twenty pounds of weight, and
that's when it'll happen. So Waiting is an audio book
slash musical, and I call it a boozy goal because
(24:57):
I've joined those words together. I've been working on it
for many, many years. It's taken on. Through the years,
it took on, it morphed into a couple of other things.
At one point, I thought it was just going to
be like a Broadway musical, a live show, a musical,
and then at the beginning of COVID and the Lockdown,
I started thinking about it in another way and thinking,
(25:20):
you know, I think I think I could write this
whole thing, and I think I have done voiceover work
in my life, so I thought, I think I could
narrate it, and I started writing it and once I
put it on that cap, it poured out of me
and the song started pouring out of me and the
song ideas and.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Then it became easy.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But all the other stuff we had to do on
the background, recording, the narrations, getting all the songs written
and recorded. We're talking about this project happened over from
the moment the seed into the thought entered my mind
to us releasing this now next week when it goes
when it's available for sale, almost thirty years, about twenty
(26:07):
eight years, and you know, there were tons of life
got in the way. You know, I took care of
my parents when they were aging. I had some health
issues and had to put some things on the back burner.
But I'm so happy about it. I did some focus
groups with a few people and let about twenty five
people hear it. Not only did it get nothing but
(26:29):
positive feedback.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
After people heard it, I would get really.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Heartfelt emails from them where they shared their story about
their battle with their own body and losing weight, keeping
weight off, or being too thin, or how it affected
other members of their family.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
So I think we've got a.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Pretty universal topic, you know, everybody can relate to. And
I will tell you it's poignant, it's fun, there's moments
that are very sad, it's uplifting. But I take you
on a journey of all these characters that I met
at this place. My characters are loosely based on these people,
(27:12):
but all these characters that I met and their song
and what they were going through.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I write songs for each of the chapters.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I don't know if I told you this, but
it's only five and a half hours long. It's not
like a twenty hour audio book. It's pretty direct and
to the point. You know, when you write songs, you've
got to you've got to begin a story, tell the story,
and end the story inside three to five minutes. And
I had that same attitude with the book. I thought,
(27:39):
I'm going to just keep it pretty succinct and just
I'm just going to try to keep it moving all
the time, the storyline and not have it go on
and on and on forever, because I get bored pretty
use in a little add I don't know if you
can tell that, but I get distracted pretty easily. So
that was important that I kept it in that little
time capsule.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Congratulations, I'm bringing it home. It sounds so amazing. So
I do want to close. I want to ask you,
is there a trend in music in the industry that
excites you and is there a trend that you wish
would just go away?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Hmmm, I don't know. That I have.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well, I can tell you I listened to a whole
lot of different music. If you went into my playlist,
I'm all over the place.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And what I listened to. Is there a trend that
I wish we'd go away?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
I can tell you that. The other day, when I
was scrolling on something, probably on Facebook, I came across
some AI generated songs And that's a little disconcerting. That's
a little scary. And they weren't very good and they
felt robotic. That that doesn't make me happy, especially when
(28:54):
I think about the hard work you put into making
the perfect song, getting that song written. So that's that
I wouldn't mind seeing that go away.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
You know, I was kind of reading your mind thinking,
I'll bet she's going to go towards AI. I just
had a sneaking suspicion, Sandy, Yes, sorry, Yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
There's a beauty.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And when you read a lyric of another writer and
you are just, oh my god, that's such a beautiful line.
How did they do that? You know that there's a
joy in discovering great lyrics.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
I love the contagious spirit you have. Congratulations on everything.
It sounds like it's only the beginning. So you you
have a lot of stuff going on in a great
way and it's an honor Sandy Knox to be able
to talk to you on Taking a Walk. Thanks for
being on, Thank.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
You for having me buzz I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Lynn Hoffman
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