Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Jim McBride died Tuesday morning (Jan. 6) at age 78. https://musicrow.com/2026/01/country-songwriting-great-jim-mcbride-passes/

Jim and I became friends when we were both signed to SBK SONGS NASHVILLE in the late 80s. Photo: Jim in his music row office holding up my 2005 CD album Grace & Gravity.

Jim McBride was one of the most humble, down-to-earth guys you’d ever encounter. Kind and caring, a true friend and one of the greatest songwriters in country music history.

Want proof … ? I’m posting this link here again in case you missed it at the top … https://musicrow.com/2026/01/country-songwriting-great-jim-mcbride-passes/

So many memories, but I’ll leave you with this one story. One day at SBK one of our song pluggers caught up with me to tell me that he’d secured a cut of a new song of mine called “What I’m Workin’ For”. I asked which artist was going to record it…George Jones maybe?…Waylon Jennings….? No, he said, it’s a new artist named AJ Jackson who was newly signed to a record deal and my song would likely be his first radio single. I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t George Jones as the song I wrote was perfect for George’s style, but a cut is a cut so that’s good news. A week later I learned that AJ’s deal fell apart and my song wouldn’t be cut after all. Oh well, that was that. A week later, I happened to go downstairs to our recording studio to get something I’d left in the control room the day before and there was Jim in the tracking room listening to a playback of a song demo he and another guy were working on. He said, hey Frank,  I said hey Jim…and then he said have you met Alan …I said no and walked over to meet Alan who was the vocalist on song demo…it was only then I realized he was AJ Jackson and he realized who I was and expressed his disappointment that his record deal hadn’t turned out the way he was expecting for himself and me and my song. He seemed to be a bit depressed, so I tried to lift his spirits by encouraging him forward in his career and he said “ no Frank…I know now…after 7 years in this town …that I’m never, never, never, never going to make it in country music…”. I felt bad for the guy.

Things changed for AJ Jackson after that. The rest is history.  On January 8th, Alan Jackson said in tribute, “Jim was a good man and a great and genuine songwriter. He understood country music and touched many with his songs. Jim and I wrote some of my favorite songs together and I don’t know if my career would have ended up quite the same without his help, inspiration, and encouragement in my early years. Thank you, Jim, rest in peace. – AJ”