The man who’s gifted us with some of country music’s best gems of the early 2000’s, like “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” and the classic, “Brokenheartsville,” can partially thank his career to one doubting songwriter.
The mastermind behind Joe Nichols’ debut single, “The Impossible” is none other than Lee Thomas Miller, a Nashville veteran with over 30 years in the songwriting business who’s penned hits for Trace Adkins (“You’re Gonna Miss This”), Garth Brooks (“People Loving People”), Brad Paisley (“Perfect Storm”) and even Jamey Johnson (“In Color”). The Kentucky native has a long list of iconic songs and artists that he’s developed over the years, including both his and Nichols’ first-ever number one chart topper.
Miller recently appeared on the Ten Year Town Podcast with Troy Cartwright to reflect on some of his career’s biggest moments so far, in which Cartwright touched on this number one milestone. Miller detailed the absolute underdog story of how “The Impossible” came to be, and let’s just say he wasn’t initially thrilled Nichols was the one to release it.
He told Miller that at first the song was a bit of a dud and pushed to the side by a lot of labels and artists, “Nobody Cared. I played it for the A&R guy at RCA, and he loved it. And I remember he called me and said everybody’s heard it, everybody’s passed. I love it, but I don’t have anybody else to play it for. And then it sat.” At this time, in came legendary session guitar player, Brent Rowan, who brought the up-and-coming artist he was producing, a young 25-year-old Joe Nichols.
On the hunt for his breakout track, the two went to EMI records where Miller’s song was waiting to be dusted off. Miller explained, “They literally kind of handed him off to one of the junior pluggers who kind of opened up what they considered their B or C drawers and played him some stuff they liked, but ‘we’re not gonna get in trouble for playing this to this kid who doesn’t have a record deal.”
As Miller described, the beginnings of Nichols’ career were based on a lot of up in the air “mights” and “ifs.” Spearheaded by Tim Dubois and Tony Brown, they were in talks about a brand new label with the promise of signing Nichols, who was just thrown to the curb after losing his independent record deal. Obviously, Miller saw the potential in his own song and was rocky about the whole situation– especially when into the picture comes “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” mega artist, Mark Chesnutt.
Nichols had expressed his interest in the song and recorded a rough mix that Miller initially thought was just “fine.” He said, “I’m listening to it, knowing this isn’t Tracy Lawrence, you know, and this isn’t Mark Chesnutt.” When Miller received the call that “big star” Chesnutt was now on the bandwagon and had cut it, he saw this as the perfect opportunity.
Until, of course, his dreams were fumbled out of courtesy to this fresh-faced artist. “My publisher called me and said, ‘We have a problem,’ and she said, ‘I promised that song to Tim Dubois,’ and I said, ‘For the guy that nobody’s ever heard of? Well, this is a terrible idea. Mark Chesnutt has already cut it’ she says, ‘We have to honor the…he says it could be the first single.'”
Despite Miller kicking his feet in frustration, sure enough, Nichols went on to release the song as his first single in 2002, and it became the initial track off of his debut album, Man With A Memory. While the expectations were for the song to absolutely flop given its low charting numbers, against all odds, it went on to rise from spot 61 to 57 to then number 19.
Miller then shares the heart-stopping moment he received the news, it had become his first career number one, “We get up to number five, fast forward a week, I’m at the YMCA, we have a one-year-old kid, they paged me to the front desk.” He assumed the worst, thinking a family emergency was at hand, “I always laugh and say I ran faster to the front desk than I was running on the treadmill, and they hand me the phone, and my wife is sobbing, and I said, ‘Oh my God what?’ and she said, ‘You went number one.'”
Now, while there’s no doubt the ’90s staple, Mark Chesnutt would’ve surely done this track justice, thank the Lord it fell into the hands of Nichols, who went on to gain six number one hits. Not to mention the fact that it’s a timeless track and continues to stand the test of time as a country music banger with now over 18 million streams on Spotify alone.