Bob DiPiero
For the past 20 years, Bob DiPiero has helped define the best that is Music Row. A legendarily funny and compelling performer, he sets the bar for present-day songwriters and entertainers. He is also a key part of the city's new leadership, a board member of the Country Music Association (CMA), a Leadership Nashville alumnus and former Nashville Songwriters Association, Inc. (NSAI), president who brings the creative and business communities together as few can.
As a raconteur, he may have no equal among his peers, and as a musical ambassador and bridge-builder, he has helped make Nashville a port of call for legendary performers from all genres, writing with Neil Diamond, Carole King, Johnny Van Zant and Delbert McClinton, among many others.
He is one of Nashville's most consistent and prolific writers of hits, and he remains at the top of his profession more than two decades after hitting No. 1 on the charts for the first time in 1983. His accomplishments led him to be nominated in 2004 to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
DiPiero developed his love for music in Youngstown, Ohio joining his first band when he was 14. He put himself through college playing in rock 'n roll bands and graduated from Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music before uprooting to Music City over 20 years ago. After sharpening his songwriting skills while teaching guitar for five years, he landed a deal with Combine Music, whose writers included Kris Kristofferson, Tony Joe White and Larry Gatlin.
His performing skills came into play when he helped found the Warner Reprise band Billy Hill from 1989-1991. The group was best known for "Too Much Month at the End of the Money" and its stellar rendition of the Temptations’ hit "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch (I Can't Help Myself)."
DiPiero's list of songs cuts a varied and impressive swath through modern country and speaks volumes about his versatility and vision. Although his first cut, Reba McEntire's "I Can See Forever In Your Eyes," climbed into the country Top 20, the Oak Ridge Boys' "American Made" put his name on the music map. The song won numerous awards and was used in major ad campaigns for Miller Beer and the Baby Ruth candy bar.
DiPiero has given the industry some of its most memorable moments, crafting 14 No. 1 hits recorded by country music giants including: Montgomery Gentry, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Shenandoah, and Faith Hill among many others. Bob's most recent single is Montgomery Gentry’s "She Don't Tell Me To."
DiPiero has received three dozen BMI Country and Million-Air honors: CMA Triple Play Awards in 1995 and 1996, Song of the Year for Vince Gill’s “Worlds Apart” at the Country Radio Music Awards in 1997, and Songwriter of the Year awards in 1998 at the Nashville Music Awards and in 2000 from Sony/ATV Nashville.
When Bob is not writing songs in Nashville, you can find him and his wife, Leslie, relaxing in Seaside, Florida. They were married in a beachside ceremony in June of 2006.