Considering the fact they are pushing the boundaries of country songwriting, the songwriting trio the Love Junkies came into formation rather conventionally.
The respective publishers for Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose and Lori McKenna arranged for the three songwriters to get together for three days of good old-fashioned co-writes. Pairs within the threesome had written together before, but the Love Junkies, as they are now called, had never collaborated as a trio.
The Love Junkies discussed their writing process and how they churned out international smash hit “Girl Crush” in a panel about women creators at the Music Business conference in Nashville on Monday. They were joined by Mary Wilson, a founding member of the Supremes.
McKenna said the spark of an idea came from the song title. She said Lindsey walked into the room and, upon hearing the name of the song, rather quickly sang what became the first four lines. When members of Little Big Town came over later in the day and also fell in love with the song, the Love Junkies knew they were onto something.
“That was one of those moments where we didn’t really have a lot of say in where that song was going to go from there,” McKenna said. “Out of her face came these first four lines, and we weren’t in charge of how that song was going to get played because it was so beautiful and so perfect and this genius came right through her. We were going to chase it and we were going to follow it.”
But McKenna said they didn’t know the song would be controversial. Advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights have used the song as a sort of anthem. McKenna said the song is actually about a woman who wants a guy who’s with another woman.
“We knew it was a song about jealousy,” McKenna said.
The Love Junkies also take a conventional approach to their songwriting, with designated appointments and writing sessions that span about three days, during which time visitors are not allowed.
Lindsey, Rose, McKenna and Wilson were guests for a panel entitled “How to earn respect as a female creator.” It was the third of three panels on Monday about women in the music industry.
Though their panel did not go deep into the issue of women in the music business, Wilson’s description of her career painted the picture of an industry evolving to become more welcoming of women.
Asked for what advice she might give women in the audience, Rose said, “I’m a songwriter, I’m a publisher, I’m a mother, I’m a wife, I’m a friend. I never thought, ‘Oh, I can’t do this because I’m a female.'
“I never thought about it,” Rose continued. “I just knew I had to support a family, so I just went to work. If I sat around and thought about that and whined about that, I can’t imagine the things I wouldn’t have done.”
But Wilson said things were different when she was rising through the ranks with the Supremes in the 1960s.
“When we started singing in 1959 and started traveling in 1961, there were very few women,” Wilson said. “There were no women who were CEOs. When we traveled the world, the only thing women were doing was bringing the tea if we were in Europe, or the coffee here.
“It has changed a lot because women were at home and we took care of the home. Whereas now we have great women CEOs all over America and all over the world, which is wonderful. And most of those women do juggle doing the business and having children.”
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