Sneaking Into Nashville

Sandy Knox Realizes Her Childhood Dream

By Nancy Sweid

I snuck into Elvis' hotel room," Sandy Knox reveals with great pride and just a touch of amusement. Yes, the woman with a reputation for co-writing emotionally sensitive, intelligent and powerful songs, including "Does He Love You" and "She Thinks His Name Was John," once had a serious thing for the King.

"I loved Elvis. 'Don't Be Cruel' is the first record I remember owning, even though it came out before I was born. But I loved Elvis. I loved his songs. I loved the lyrics. When he died, people I hadn't heard from in years called me to see how I was doing."

Knox was 16 and had gone to Atlanta to see Presley perform. She and two friends hatched the plan to invade their idol's room the next night, but got only as far as his floor. Security guards booted them out, but that didn't discourage the three girls.

"The next night we went back when he was on-stage, because we know the security wouldn't be at the hotel then. We got all dressed up to look older. We got into his room and jumped on the bed. We stole all his pillowcases and sheets and towels. I took a glass that he drank from that was at the table by his bed. We rolled around on his bed screaming, "I'm in Elvis' bed!"

A tiny maid making her rounds opened the door, and the three screaming girls shut up and sat bolt upright. The maid stared at them. They stared at the maid. "I didn't see anything," the maid said, then she shut the door and walked away.

Knox still has the pillowcases to prove her tale, but it also contains all the elements of the kind of song this former Texan likes to write. It's a story. It has a twist ending. And it makes you laugh. "One of my little rules of songwriting is that you have to cause one of three effects. You have to make people laugh or cry or want to make love. If you don't cause that, then all you've got is a little ditty," Knox says.

Though she seemingly came out of nowhere to supply McEntire with three big hits, Knox has been writing since she was just a wee thing. At age 11, Knox announced to her parents that she planned a career as a songwriter. She began that career with a little song containing the lyrics, "Oh, since we broke up, Chuck." She called it "Up Chuck." "My parents thought that was so clever, that it showed promise." They went out and bought me a guitar.

From then on, Knox constantly wrote songs. Whenever she got discouraged, her parents reminded her that if she gave up, then she had a 100 percent chance of failing. She tried life in Los Angeles, but found it didn't suit her. She moved back home to Houston, but realized that sitting there talking about becoming a professional songwriter wouldn't make it happen. She had to move to where the business thrived. That meant either back to L.A., on to New York, or off to Nashville.

With L.A. already scratched from her list, Nashville became Knox's destination, but only as the lesser of two evils. She never considered herself a country writer and she had all those images of Hee Haw dancing through her head: women in wagon wheel skirts. Twangy, whiny country music. Her thoughts were no pleasant, but she didn't think she could afford New York City. So her dad helped her move to Nashville. She had $1,500 in her pocket and knew not one solitary soul in town. When her dad went back to Houston, Knox cried. "I wailed. I was scared to death."

That didn't last long. She came to love Nashville a week after she settled in. Three weeks into her move, Knox's neighbor heard some of her songs and offered to help.

"He told me he worked with a woman whose husband was in the music business and maybe she could help me," Knox recalls. "I said sure, and soon my neighbor came back and said, 'My friend's husband is Roger Sovine and he's and executive at Tree Publishing. He'll listen to your tape."

Knox didn't know a whole lot about Music Row, but she knew who Roger Sovine was. She didn't hold out much hope but dropped off her tape anyway. Next thing she knew she was having lunch with Sovine and he was offering her a deal. He wanted her to record any of her new songs at their studio with their musicians and give Tree the right of first refusal. If they didn't want the song, she could pitch it elsewhere. Knox nodded agreement, a bit stunned that all this was happening.

Next, Sovine started thumbing through his book of Tree writers, trying to come up with a writing partner for his new discover. "I know somebody I want you to write with," he told Knox. "You'll get along great. I want you to write with Harlan Howard."

Knox recalls the moment vividly. "Remember, I didn't follow country music," she says now. "I looked up and said, 'Well, what's he written?' I did. I said, 'What's he written?' Roger just said, 'You don't know who Harlan Howard is? You're not ready to write with Harlan Howard.' and he kept thumbing through his book."

She knows Howard now. She knows country music now. She continues to be surprised that her song are accepted by county artist because she doesn't try to write country. She just writes.

But Knox, who entered the spotlight when McEntire and Linda Davis recorded "Does He Love You," a song she wrote with Billy Stritch, likes her place in Nashville just fine. "I love hearing Reba McEntire's voice singing my songs," says Knox, who has heard country music's reigning queen cut four of her songs. "Anything of mine she wants to do, it's fine with me."