BMI will honor Bobby Braddock as a BMI songwriting Icon during its 59th annual Country Awards. The private ceremony is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 8 at BMI’s Music Row offices in Nashville, Tenn.
The Icon award is given to BMI songwriters who have had a “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.” Braddock, who will be celebrated with a musical tribute that evening, joins a list of past honorees that includes Billy Sherrill, John Fogerty, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Isaac Hayes, Merle Haggard, Brian Wilson, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, the Bee Gees, Ray Davies, James Brown and more.
Along with George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and Billy Currington’s “People Are Crazy,” Braddock’s songwriting repertoire also includes “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “I Wanna Talk About Me,” “I Feel Like Loving You Again,” “Texas Tornado,” “Old Flames Have New Names,” “Golden Ring,” “Thinkin’ of a Rendezvous,” “Faking Love” and “Time Marches On.”
Thirty years after his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Braddock became the only living songwriter to have penned chart-toppers in five consecutive decades. The CMA Award winner has earned 30 BMI songwriting awards, and ten of his compositions have earned more than one million performances each. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame earlier this year, Braddock is currently writing his second memoir, Hollywood, Tennessee: A Life on Nashville’s Music Row, the follow-up to 2007’s well-received Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter’s Youth in Old Florida.
During the BMI Country Awards, BMI will crown the Country Songwriter, Song and Publisher of the Year and salute the writers and publishers of the past year’s 50 most-performed songs from BMI’s country catalog. BMI President & CEO Del Bryant will host the ceremony with Jody Williams, BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville; and Clay Bradley, BMI Associate Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville.
