{"id":58177,"date":"2025-07-12T00:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58177\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T00:07:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:07:28","slug":"shane-mcanallys-journey-to-50-no-1-country-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58177\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane McAnally\u2019s Journey to 50 No. 1 Country Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, a lesson in being humbled: According to transcript time stamps, it was near the three-minute mark of our first interview that Shane McAnally dropped two numbers on me that, when combined, redefined what I thought was possible in the music industry. The numbers were 50 and one.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Granted, I was embarrassed I was unaware of this impressive detail \u2014 or, feat, I should say. We proud journalists typically scour the internet and peek under every virtual rock in search of nuggets of info to pose questions around. That random event in 7th grade theater class? Let\u2019s hear about it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I had done my fair share of research and was entering the interview with plenty of biographical information to throw him questions out the wazoo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For instance, I read McAnally calls nearby Mineral Wells his hometown. I saw he\u2019s won four Grammys as a country songwriter and started his own music publishing company, SMACKSongs, in 2012. I was surprised to see he co-hosted a primetime NBC songwriting reality show called \u201cSongland.\u201d It\u2019s also not hard to uncover the detail that he co-wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony-winning Broadway musical, \u201cShucked.\u201d<\/a> I read his bio on Apple Music and several articles, most of which referenced the huge hits McAnally\u2019s written for the likes of Reba McIntyre, Kenny Chesney, Morgan Wallen, Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves, and more. And, yes, I knew some of those hits even topped the charts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t know was exactly how many McAnally-penned songs had reached such a summit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fifty. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, 50 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country charts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what caught me equally off-guard was the nonchalant way McAnally dropped this hearty bit of information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 14 years of trying to do [the whole songwriting thing], I got my first song recorded, and that turned into a windfall,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy; I\u2019ve had 50 No. 1s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFif \u2026 fifty?\u201d I asked, so stunned by the number I assumed I misheard him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShane, is that unheard of? Is that some sort of record?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, kind of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He could take the credit \u2014 the feat is as uncommon as a Fort Worthian who doesn\u2019t have an opinion on brisket (in other words, two; there are two songwriters in the history of tracking the popularity of music who have 50-plus No. 1 hits, and McAnally is one of them) \u2014 but he doesn\u2019t bite.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, McAnally explains how the charts have altered over the past 15 years. He suggests he has an unfair advantage because of a change in the system and country playing nice as a collective, thus songs no longer stay at No. 1 for long. As he puts it, he just happened to hit when this shift occurred.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStatistically, on paper, if you just use the numbers game, it would look like I\u2019ve done more than [fill in blank with classic country artist],\u201d McAnally says. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard for me to say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m the only one who\u2019s done this,\u2019 because there are the Kris Kristoffersons of the world who maybe had four No. 1s, but you can\u2019t devalue someone\u2019s catalog or their life\u2019s work just because this strange number system started happening in the last 15 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also quick to point to his collaborators who help pen songs. In the prolific production facility that is Nashville country, it\u2019s always a team effort, and McAnally has worked with countless A-list singers and songwriters to produce tunes that manage to rise above the cacophony of countless releases that go out at any given time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in the same breath, he admits he\u2019s damn good at what he does. There\u2019s a reason he has so many songs that stand out. And, yes, talent has a lot to do with it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked really hard at [songwriting], but it was also my gift,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was what I was supposed to be doing. At a very early age, I knew how to mathematically do songs. I don\u2019t know. I look back at some of the things that I wrote early on and that it didn\u2019t make sense that I knew how to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This dichotomous combination of humility and confidence appear to be two of the main ingredients that make up McAnally\u2019s personality and, when combined with his talent and perseverance, are reasons for his success.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve admittedly never met McAnally in person. We had a couple of hour-long conversations over the phone, in which he\u2019s as gracious and engaging as anyone, but his current Santa Barbara residency kept us from shaking hands and chatting over coffee or the like.\u00a0So, rather than visual things like stature, hairlines, or mannerisms, my first impression was based solely on voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s hopped a couple times between Nashville and California since his early 20s and has technically lived longer outside Texas than in Texas, his accent remains more Lone Star twang than Tennessee drawl. After all, once one gets west of Highway 360, the accent starts to thicken as the longitude increases. And given Mineral Wells is a one-hour drive west, we suspect McAnally will always carry his twang as a Texan tell.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And McAnally readily acknowledges his ability to tap into the Texas mindset. While I was asked not to give away too many details, I can say he is working on a project where this skill will suit the task at hand. \u201cI am a really proud Texan,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I also have that wink of \u2018it\u2019s another planet.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This unnamed project will serve as the follow-up to \u201cShucked,\u201d the 2023 Broadway musical in which McAnally co-wrote the music and lyrics with Brandy Clark, one of his frequent collaborators. Robert Horn provided the book. And this zany musical about, of all things, corn, will make its Fort Worth debut at Bass Performance Hall<\/a> Tuesday, July 29, and will run through Aug. 3. Being only an hour away from Mineral Wells, it\u2019s a hometown show for one of the production\u2019s creative minds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to [make it to the showing],\u201d he says. \u201cI haven\u2019t been to any of the [traveling] shows except for Nashville, and my Memaw, who lives in Azle, is really wanting me to come in so I can go with her and her friend.\u201d But juggling so many creative projects is no doubt time consuming and taxing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless, the show\u00a0will give Fort Worthians an up-close and live view of McAnally\u2019s talents with words and melodies. Then again, we have little doubt you\u2019ve already witnessed\u00a0his\u00a0songwriting chops, even if you didn\u2019t recognize it at the time. Fifty chart-topping country tunes don\u2019t vanish or go unheard, especially in Fort Worth. Not only have you heard his music, you\u2019ve likely sung along \u2014 loudly and off key.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McAnally was sleeping on his sister\u2019s couch in Nashville when he found out a song he\u2019d co-written with J.T. Harding had made it to No. 1 on the Billboard country charts, Kenny Chesney\u2019s \u201cSomewhere With You.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As McAnally puts it, it was many years of nothing \u2014 writing songs into the ether and battling drug and alcohol addiction and financial woes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had lost his car, his home, his record deal,\u201d McAnally\u2019s mom, Margaret Terry, says. \u201cBut he never gave up. I mean, he was still singing and trying to make it. And I knew he was going to make it because he wasn\u2019t giving up at 35.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite not coming from a musical family or having any \u201cpedigree\u201d in the industry, there was always a sense that McAnally wasn\u2019t just going to survive but soar. That, no matter how long it took, he\u2019d eventually catch his break, get\u00a0discovered by a country music bigwig, and the rest would be history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew it was going to work out for him,\u201d his younger sister and best friend, Tiffany Young, says. \u201cI knew he was too talented, and, also, he wasn\u2019t good at anything else. He needed this to work out for him because he was just so good at it, and that\u2019s what fueled his fire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, McAnally was all-in on songwriting from the word \u2026 you know what? Forget the word \u201cgo.\u201d He was likely all-in on songwriting since he could form his first words, whatever those might\u2019ve been.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Margaret, McAnally would frequently visit his grandparents as a kid, where he started listening to country music at the age of 3. \u201cHe would listen for hours at a time,\u201d she says. \u201cBarbara Mandrell was his childhood idol and still is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019d start writing songs when he was 6 and performing at 12. By the age of 15, McAnally was a featured performer at the Texans Theater in Branson, Missouri. And the following year, he\u2019d perform at Johnny High\u2019s Country Music Review here in Fort Worth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could light up a room,\u201d his sister, Tiffany, says about his early years in Mineral Wells. \u201cHe was an entertainer from the start, whether it was singing or making people laugh, or he could just walk into a room and command it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite all the signs pointing to a career in music, McAnally decided to give higher education a shot and attended UT in Austin for one year. And one year of living in the world of academia is all it would take for him to pack his guitar case and head to Nashville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent my whole year basically writing songs,\u201d McAnally says. \u201cI had never had the freedom to just [do what I wanted], even though I was supposed to be in class. But I didn\u2019t have a parent over me saying, \u2018Go to school.\u2019 So, I just sat in my dorm room and wrote songs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He failed every class his second semester and moved to Nashville. He\u2019d snag a record deal, a couple of publishing deals, and released his debut solo album in 2000, the self-titled Shane McAnally. But, beyond one song that squeaked into the Top 40 on the country charts, nothing was moving the needle. \u201cSo, I moved to LA to try to make something happen,\u201d he says, before he ended up back in Nashville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tiffany, who had attended\u00a0Middle Tennessee State University, was also living in Nashville at the time. She\u2019d offer up her couch and helped him get a job as a waiter where she worked. It was a gig. It paid. But McAnally was still penning songs.<\/p>\n

Before McAnally\u2019s first No. 1, he co-wrote \u201cLast Call,\u201d which appeared on Lee Ann Womack\u2019s 2008 album Call Me Crazy. The song did well, peaking at No. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved Lee Ann,\u201d Tiffany says. \u201cShe was one of his favorites, so that was a huge deal. I don\u2019t remember what number it went up to, but that was, like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ve got some traction.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019d follow this up with songs for Luke Bryan and Kenny Chesney, and the rest is, indeed, history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the first time he played me [his first No. 1]\u00a0song [\u2018Somewhere With You\u2019],\u201d Tiffany recalls. \u201c[My brother and I] were in a parking lot and would always play songs. He had an iPod, and he would bring it home, and we would listen to mixes. And when he played me that song, I had full-blown chill bumps on my arms. I said, \u2018Well, this is it. This is a huge hit.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tiffany confirms that her chill bumps have been historically accurate in predicting No. 1 songs, which started occurring at a rapid pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt was 14 years of nothing,\u201d McAnally says, \u201cand then it just sort of retroactively started to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Tiffany, \u201cShortly after [\u2018Somewhere With You\u2019], he had another No. 1 hit. And then another one. And then another.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2012, McAnally started his own publishing company, SMACKSongs, which now has 28 songwriters and offers management and artist development. As the company was just getting off the ground, McAnally hired Tiffany. \u201cIt was always kind of our dream to work together,\u201d she says. \u201cThey hired me, and I don\u2019t really think they quite were to the point that they needed me full time, but they made it work \u2026 probably a little sooner than they thought they would.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are few country artists \u2014 at least those in the upper echelons of stardom \u2014 who have yet to work with McAnally. And, it\u2019s not necessarily just because he\u2019s a walking, talking hit factory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great songwriter,\u201d Tiffany says. \u201cBut, really, what I\u2019m most proud of is the way that he treats people. When people are working with him, he will make them feel like they\u2019re the most important thing. He has this way of making people feel good, and he believes in people. If he\u2019s going to work with you, it\u2019s because he believes in your talent and who you are as a person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Circa 2013: Just a couple years after his first No. 1, every other song on the country station seemingly\u00a0has Shane McAnally as one of its writers.<\/strong> Many of these hit songs were co-written by Brandy Clark, a singer-songwriter who\u2019d released an independent album, 12 Stories, that happened to catch the ear of Robert Horn, who had been tasked with writing a musical adaptation of the TV variety show, \u201cHee Haw.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know, \u201cHee Haw,\u201d a show whose heyday occurred in the 70s,\u00a0is an amalgamation of a country fair, a dad joke convention, and a fever dream stuck inside a hay bale. Somehow the show lasted 25 years (you can still watch reruns on RFD-TV), and the Grand Ole Opry, who owned the rights, wanted to do a musical based on the characters from the show. So, Horn was tasked with creating a narrative out of variety show characters, and he wanted Clark and McAnally to pen the music and lyrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After five years of creating, recreating, writing, rewriting, and hiring a revolving door of producers, they finally opened the musical \u201cMoonshine\u201d in Dallas. While the \u201cHee Haw\u201d title had gone, McAnally says the musical was still based on the show\u2019s characters. Despite a successful run in the city to the east, the performances did not result in an invitation to Broadway, or even off-Broadway, or even off-off-Broadway.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two years later, what seemed like a creative swing for the fences that quickly\u00a0fizzled\u00a0would reignite\u00a0thanks to some six-degrees-of-separation Broadway contacts. A producer would get his hands on a script, sing it with praises, and pick it up for Broadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe producer rights, at that point, had expired,\u201d McAnally says. \u201cSo, we had to rewrite most of it.\u201d The collective efforts of Horn, Clark, and McAnally resulted in \u201cShucked,\u201d a high-concept musical whose concept is \u2026 corn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, corn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The story, which takes place in a small town populated by honest, if simple, folk, follows Maizy (get it?), appearing as the sole plucky resident of her community who leaves county lines in search of help when the town\u2019s corn starts mysteriously dying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was fortunate enough to catch a performance when the show came through Dallas in late 2024. And, without giving too much away, those who plan on seeing it are in for a real treat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the musical takes place in the fictional Cobb County, USA [somewhere north of south and south of north], I didn\u2019t think it a stretch to wonder if anything in the musical paralleled Shane\u2019s life in Mineral Wells \u2014 whether there was anything biographical in the story or lyrics. So, I asked his sister and mother whether they saw flashes of his upbringing in the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a minute of thought, they both responded, \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s true, I can\u2019t find any evidence that McAnally had a childhood affinity for corn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McAnally grew up in a single-parent household, with his mother, Margaret, taking care of him and his sister, who\u2019s nine years McAnally\u2019s junior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we were just a very typical Texas family, except it was just my mom,\u201d McAnally says. \u201cBut that wasn\u2019t atypical either. I mean, there\u2019s a lot of single moms raising kids.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residing in Mineral Wells, Margaret worked at a boutique clothing store with McAnally\u2019s grandmother, which was one of four or five jobs she had at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Shane being nine years older [than Tiffany], when he got into high school, she was still in elementary school, and he was able to help me a lot,\u201d Margaret says. \u201cHe knew he had to pitch in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mineral Wells, a town of just over 15,000 residents\u00a0an hour west of Fort Worth, might be best known for its historic landmark: an abandoned and reportedly haunted<\/a> hotel. Opening mere days after the stock market crash of 1929 and shuttering 35 years later, Hotel Baker’s 14 empty stories\u00a0remains the Mineral Wells’\u00a0tallest structure\u00a0\u2014 water towers notwithstanding. It’s no\u00a0stretch to declare this pale-bricked\u00a0relic of the Roaring Twenties\u00a0as the town’s most striking distinction from\u00a0other communities scattered across the Texas plains. And the majority of Mineral Well natives\u00a0are undeniably small-town Texan\u00a0through and through. They’ll offer you sweet tea before asking your name, survive on healthy doses of Blue Bell and brisket, and are highly suspicious of anyone who drives a Prius.<\/p>\n

While he expresses love for his\u00a0hometown, for McAnally, one of his deeper struggles was feeling unable to live openly and authentically in Mineral Wells.<\/p>\n

Soon after he left home for college, he would come out as gay to his mom and sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a gay kid who felt very outside [in Mineral Wells],\u201d McAnally says. \u201cReally, I just wanted to be cool and found myself chasing that true Texas thing. I had this idea of what it meant to be a man or a Texan or a rancher or a football player. And all of those things are still a part of me, but I can see now that they aren\u2019t natural to me. But I understand. I was brought up in a place where that\u2019s what was important, and I don\u2019t have any ill feelings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to his mom and sister about the moment McAnally came out, their responses to the revelation were understandably different from one another, but both emphasized they love and accept McAnally for who he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just so proud that he was able to be honest about who he was,\u201d Tiffany says. \u201cAnd I think a lot of his success could not have come until he did that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Margaret admits it took her a little while longer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I didn\u2019t understand,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it all worked out, and I couldn\u2019t be prouder of Shane and his husband, Michael. I love them both so much.\u201d Margaret\u2019s fears also concerned potential negative reactions among her neighbors in Mineral Wells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is everybody else going to take this? I knew I was okay with it, but what is my best friend going to say?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what was the reaction?\u201d I ask.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody said, \u2018It\u2019s going to be fine. Shane is Shane. We\u2019re not going to love him any less.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And within the country music industry, where McAnally\u2019s open about his sexual orientation, he\u2019s clearly a hit songwriter before anything else, which is exactly how he prefers it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I wasn\u2019t just gay, I was also the biggest songwriter in Nashville,\u201d McAnally says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been interesting because those are two things that seem like they shouldn\u2019t go together. But I was able to establish myself as a songwriter first, which is what I always wanted. Being gay is just a part of who I am, but I don\u2019t want it to be the lead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

McAnally now lives in Santa Barbara with his husband, Michael, and their 12-year-old twins, Dash and Dylan. And he has more projects \u2014 songs, musicals, comedy shows \u2014 in the works than one can possibly keep track. Perhaps it\u2019s the result of forever chasing the thrill of his biggest career accomplishment: the opening night of \u201cShucked\u201d on Broadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like all 50 of those No. 1s happening at one time,\u201d McAnally says. \u201cIt was unbelievable. I mean, I say it\u2019s the best and worst thing that ever happened to me because it\u2019s a high that I will chase probably until it either happens again or I die.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our money\u2019s on the former. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interested in seeing Shane McAnally’s “Shucked”? You can purchase tickets at the Bass Performance Hall website here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First, a lesson in being humbled: According to transcript time stamps, it was near the three-minute mark of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,8067,12043,29751,185,3988,7371,7372,35556,975,19514,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-58177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-arts-and-culture","11":"tag-brian-kendall","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-country-music","14":"tag-fort-worth","15":"tag-fortworth","16":"tag-longform","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-song","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-top-story","21":"tag-tx","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837352860422488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}