A lot of guys spend their lives saying no because it's an easier way to keep your job.
Actually I was writing with people that didn't get records.
Although I like the work I've done in the past, I like what I'm writing now even more.
As far as his recording career, it almost seemed that it just wasn't meant to be and no matter what we did, it turned out wrong.
Barry and I were in the middle of building a house, and I was in the midst of having a nervous breakdown, because that's what you do when you build a house.
Barry is an incredible singer. He's even gotten better through the years.
But actually the Nashville market is far more interesting, certainly lyrically, for me now than the pop market.
But also there are all the famous stories about the songs that have been rejected, but then went on to become hits.
But I must say I am happiest when something hits and I've written it with Barry. After all these years, I am still amazed by his genius.
But I'm someone who the more afraid I am, the more I want to do it to get the fear over with.
Even when I think I'm writing really young, they say it's too mature.
I can't seem to write young enough anymore.
I had written this really depressing ending in which when everybody says you get over things, and I thought I would love again, but wrong again.
I wanted to write for Broadway.
I was always very linear. I had to be a good girl and finish verse one before I would allow myself to have the pleasure of verse two.
I've always envied individual songwriters because they can set their own pace without having to deal with anyone else.
It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn.
My nature is to be linear, and when I'm not, I feel really proud of myself.
On the other hand when you are someone who records their own songs you are basically stuck writing for one voice and for one style that can stifle you a bit. It's a real trade off.
Sharing a triumph with someone you love is an incredible high.
She could only write with him at night and she was wasting her days just sitting around. So he thought I could write with her during the day. And that was Carole King.
So it was a good idea, and I learned that you just have to think faster than I was thinking and move more smartly than I was moving.
Some of these things I think are fated, or written in the stars, or it was the right place at the right time. I don't know why.
That first writing session, what Dan Hill calls a creative blind date, is always a real challenge, and you bring that back to your partner when you return to writing with them.
That's what it is every time you walk into the room to write with someone new. It's like, oh god I have to take my clothes off 'my creative clothes' and let them see all of my flaws.
The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.
The difference is that when those barren periods occur no one's waiting for a record from us, so they don't even notice we've been gone.
The main reason he wanted to be a recording artist was because it gives you much more freedom in your writing. You only have to please the artist and the artist is you so you can be more daring and experimental.
Then we kind of come back and appreciate that feeling of comfort that we do have together. It's like, oh now I can really let go.
There is the great creative part of it. The writing is the best part.
We all have fertile creative periods and times when we can't figure out how we ever did it.
We are the yin and the yang of the creative process.
We have gone through some difficult times like everyone else and perhaps our working together and respecting each other's abilities, in addition to that little thing called love, helped us survive.
We never consciously shifted styles.
We somehow managed to live through the trends without succumbing to them. When disco came in, we survived without writing a disco song.
We were very fortunate to have been on the scene when we were.
We wrote what sounded good to us and hoped it would find a home.
When you feel good about what you've written, there is just no high that is greater.
Yes, mostly with Carole and Gerry, who were our best friends and our biggest competition. It was a very complex relationship.
You just have to believe in yourself when you've got something, and just keep pounding on the door, because if you pound long enough, somebody is going to open it.
You made a lot of mistakes, and you wrote a lot of crap. But it was all part of the learning process.
You'll probably hit them in the face, but Sometimes it's something you've got to do.
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