DONNIE FRITTS
Still Leanin,’ Still Funky! The KUDZOO Interview
his excellent new album, Oh My Goodness, movies, Muscle Shoals and a whole lot more.
Hey buddy, it’s good to hear your voice. I know we go way back and I’ve been looking forward to talking to you.
by Michael Buffalo Smith Down around Muscle Shoals, Alabama,
there are truly some of the finest songwriters to be found. Donnie Fritts is right up there at the top of the list. Not only is Fritts a brilliant songwriter, he is also an excellent musician, and a long standing keyboard player for the Kris Kristofferon band and has played witha veritable “who’s who” in popular musicians, and acted in several movies. We caught up with Donnie to chat about
Yeah, me too man. I’ve got a bunch of questions here, well not a bunch, prob- ably, I don’t know, fifteen but I’m gonna go back a little ways and ask you some stuff. You’re such a legend in songwriting, how much do you feel like the town of Muscle Shoals played a part in your success? Well, it played a big part in the fact that this is my town, too, you know? This is my town. This is where I was born. I’m one of the few people that’s connected to Muscle Shoals who was actually born here, you know? So I was here from the very beginning and just being a part of that first studio and watching one thing lead to another. We kept writing, and fi- nally got a hit on Arthur Alexander. He was like a brother to me. I loved Arthur. So all those early days meant the world to me and it kind of shaped me into… especially the kind of music that I was going to write, you know, I loved Arthur’s writing and Dan had a…obvi- ously, Dan Penn had a big influence on me…
Oh yeah. He was about 17 and had a hit, and we always looked up to Dan. So anyway, it was a big part
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