Diffie’s Winding Road Led Him to a Hit Country Record

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —  Joe Diffie has his own formula for finding the right country music song.

“I know what I look for. It’s something that moves me emotionally or makes me smile, or gets a lump in my throat. It’s something that I have lived,” Diffie said.

Diffie’s debut album, “A Thousand Winding Roads,” has produced a single that is a hit for the new artist.

“Home” is about the mud squishing between your toes on a soggy country road. It’s about mama singing “Amazing Grace” while hanging out the clothes. It’s the smell of supper on the stove.

The song has hit a chord among country music fans. It’s in the top 10 in Radio and Records and still climbing.

The story of Diffie’s success is, well, different.

He started out working in the Oklahoma and Texas oil fields. He also drove a cement truck and did time at a foundry.

But in the back of his mind was always the possibility of a career in country music.

After several years he got a divorce and lost his job at the foundry. It was time to come to Nashville.

When he arrived in Music City, he got a job at Gibson guitar, where he worked in the warehouse and wound up as a quality control specialist.

“When I moved here, I moved with the idea of being an artist. I wanted to hone my songwriting skills,” he recalled.

“When you come here it takes a while to be accepted because there are so many people who come to Nashville who are talented, but they have some personality flaw or they are not dependable. By hanging around long enough they find out if you are dependable.”

While at Gibson, Diffie would work nights and weekends recording demonstration records of songs. A co-worker at Gibson brought some of the demos to Johnny Slate, who owns a music publishing firm in Nashville.

And Slate brought them to Bob Montgomery of CBS Nashville, who eventually signed Diffie to a contract.

Diffie struggled with “Home” before actually including it on his album.

He said the song was in Slate’s publishing company’s catalog.

“As a matter of fact, the song almost didn’t make the album,” Diffie said. “I had listened to this song so many times that you become immune to it. But Johnny said, ‘Let’s listen to this song one more time. It’s a good song.’ So we listened to it again, and it brought a lump to my throat. I said if it can do that, let’s go ahead and do it.”

Diffie is naturally enthusiastic about his success so far.

“It’s hard to express how good this feels. I’m just a country boy, although that sounds like a cliche. But it’s true; I was raised on a farm. The success is more than I could ever have dreamed of.”