4/30/03

MDA National Youth Chairman Billy Gilman

MEET BILLY GILMAN
MDA National Youth Chairman

by Bill Greenberg

This profile could open with the words, “Billy Gilman is a lot like most 14-year-olds…”

There is a certain amount of truth to that statement. He likes video games and is a huge Harry Potter fan. He’s looking forward to learning how to drive. He gets pretty good grades (“except in algebra, which I’m not too fond of”) in the high school classes he takes by private tutoring.

And his younger brother, Colin, bugs him sometimes.

“We fight over — guess what? — the CD player,” Gilman laughs. “He puts on Eminem, just to annoy me, but when it’s my turn, I put on a Barbra Streisand CD to annoy him.”

On the other hand, Billy Gilman is anything but typical. After all, most 14-year-olds don’t have three best-selling albums, nor have they sung in front of capacity crowds across the country. And only a handful of teens — including Gary Lewis, Patty Duke and Mandy Van Benthuysen — have served as national youth chairman of MDA.

Gilman’s first album, the certified double-platinum (2 million sold) “One Voice,” was released a week after his 12th birthday in the summer of 2000. Less than four months later, Gilman followed with “Classic Christmas,” and his third album, “Dare to Dream,” hit record stores before his 13th birthday.

By the end of 2001, Gilman had garnered no less than four Billboard Music Video Awards, including Best New Artist in three categories (Country, Jazz/Adult Contemporary and Contemporary Christian) and Best Video in the Contemporary Christian category. He’d won the prestigious American Music Award for Favorite New Country Artist, become the youngest artist ever to be nominated for an Academy of Country Music Award (three of them, in fact), and starred in his own television special.

And as a harbinger of things to come, Gilman also appeared on the 2001 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.

Starting Early

Gilman first discovered his love of singing when he was 3 years old, growing up in Rhode Island. His mother had taped a television special on Sea World, thinking the toddler would enjoy watching the whales and dolphins frolic. But it was the music Billy fell in love with, especially Pam Tillis’ hit song, “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial.”

When Gilman was 5, his parents, Fran and Bill, bought him a karaoke machine, and by the time he was 8 it was obvious that not only did he love to sing — he was actually quite talented.

That’s when Gilman’s mother and grandmother arranged for him to meet Angela Bacari, a veteran singer, performer, recording artist and voice coach.

“One day, Billy's grandmother, Ginger, called me and said, ‘I have a grandson who can sing,’" Bacari remembers with a chuckle. “I thought, ‘Sure you do.’ He walked into my studio, a tiny blue-eyed blond, 8 years old. He sang, and I nearly fell over.”

After working with Gilman for nearly a year, Bacari sent a tape to longtime friend Ray Benson, guitarist for the country band Asleep at the Wheel. Benson helped Gilman record a professional-quality demo CD, and introduced him to agent Scott Siman who, along with Bacari, continues to manage Gilman’s career.

Losing a Different Note Every Day

What happened to Billy Gilman at age 13 is all too typical — his voice began to change.

“It felt like every day I was losing a different note,” he recalls. “I would sit at the piano and try to hit the notes I was used to being able to get. It was like, there goes my ‘F,’ then there goes my ‘high-C.’ It was very frustrating.”

Over the past year, with the help of doctors and under Bacari’s careful tutelage, Gilman’s vocal range has dropped from a mezzo-soprano to a tenor.

Gilman still has to be careful not to overtax his voice, which provided some frustrating moments during the recording of his latest album.

“I would go into the studio and never know from day to day what I’d have. We were down to the last month to finish the vocals so we could make the release date, and some days I couldn’t hit a thing,” he laments. “Then I’d go home and I wasn’t even allowed to speak, just so I could rest my voice.

“That was really hard for me. Can you tell?” he asks with a laugh.

‘Music Through Heartsongs’ – A Collaboration

In March 2002, Gilman was booked to appear on “Larry King Live” along with another young American icon — best-selling poet, peacemaker and MDA National Goodwill Ambassador Mattie Stepanek.

	MDA National Youth Chairman Billy Gilman and MDA National Goodwill Ambassador Mattie Stepanek

“We didn’t meet face-to-face, that night. I was in New York, and Mattie was in Washington, and they put the two segments together,” Gilman explains. “I’d heard of him, but I wasn’t that familiar with his poetry.

“Afterward, Angela called and said, wouldn’t it be great if we could put some of Mattie’s poems to music? I was kind of skeptical, but when Angela called to run it by Scott, he was already out buying the books.”

Of course, the toughest person to “sell” on the idea was Mattie himself.

“I was nervous in the beginning about making songs out of my poems, if it would work out or not,” Mattie recalls. “But when Billy sent us some samples of the things they were thinking about doing, we thought, ‘This is great!’”

The next step in what Gilman describes as “a chain reaction" was to enlist the help of David Malloy, producer of Gilman’s previous albums, who lined up a group of songwriters.

“The first time I looked at Mattie’s poems I wondered how well this would work,” explains Malloy, who also co-wrote the music to “For Our World” and “I Am/Shades of Life.”

“I felt my greatest challenge — both as a writer and as the lead producer — was to make sure the music and production were true to the poems,” Malloy added. “I would read the poems often through the course of the project and make sure the musicians had a chance to read them before any tracking or overdubs.

“Everyone, especially Billy, was sensitive to this.”

But Gilman makes it clear that “Music Through Heartsongs” released by Sony Music, was a collaboration in the truest sense.

“We didn’t just take a bunch of Mattie’s poems and set them to music. Mattie and Jeni [Mattie’s mom] had veto power over each song. We would send rough tapes from the studio, and I would talk to Mattie about the ‘elements’ of each poem.”

In fact, Jeni Stepanek receives credit as the album’s executive producer, and three of the songs feature Mattie reading his own words.

Two Voices Unite

After months of communicating by telephone and mail, Mattie and Billy finally met on Feb. 15, at the MDA Heartsongs Gala in Washington.

“It was great to finally meet him and spend time with him in person,” Gilman says. “It was weird, because on one hand I already felt like I knew him really well, through his poetry.”

But that meeting was also the first time that Gilman came face to face with the noticeable effects that mitochondrial myopathy has had on Mattie — and with the uncertainty of Mattie’s future.

“It was very emotional for me, because I felt like I was becoming Mattie’s voice,” Gilman explains. “Especially when I was singing ‘It Happened Anyway,’ which is about the death of Mattie’s brother Jamie.”

Ironically, Gilman also says that the process of lending his voice to Mattie’s words helped him come to terms with the changes in his own voice.

“Mattie has a really strong message, and I sing basically about the same things —about what the world is going through, and peace and spirituality. Concentrating on Mattie’s message, I got to the point where I said, ‘You know, if my voice cracks, it cracks — big deal. The message — that’s the real key.’

“He’s fighting for his life every day,” Gilman says of Mattie. “It’s hard to think about that and still remember to worry about any of my problems.”

“Music Through Heartsongs” also allowed Gilman to have more input than he did on his previous albums.

“Don’t get me wrong — I’m still really proud of those albums,” he hastens to say. “But I was very young and inexperienced, so they just told me what to sing and when. Now that I’m older and I’ve been on tour, I really felt like I was able to have more direct influence on this album.”

In fact, Gilman shares songwriting credit with Bacari for two of the tracks (“About Memories” and “About Watches”).

Musical Diversity

With a dozen different songwriters, all working to tailor their music to fit Mattie’s poetry, it should come as no surprise that “Music Through Heartsongs” features a wide variety of musical styles and textures.

“I would describe this album as one of a kind. There was no formula, no guidelines or parameters to follow. We only had to follow our hearts,” Malloy says. “This album was made with a lot of joy, much laughter, a few tears and many prayers.”

Since the April 15 release of “Music Through Heartsongs,” Gilman and his team are waiting — with varying degrees of patience — for the public’s response.

“I’m either jumping up and down or scared to death, because I don’t know what the fans will think of it,” Billy says.

Gilman is especially anxious to see how his country music fans will react.

“I owe my country audience so much that I really hope they’ll enjoy this album,” he says. “There are a couple of songs that still have a country feel to them, but I’m also hoping to introduce Mattie’s message to an even broader audience.” The album even features a Hawaiian-themed song (“Songs of the Wind”), ukulele and all.

Ultimately, Gilman sees himself as a classic crooner, able to tackle any song, anywhere, any time.

“I want to do everything,” he says. “I’d like to do Broadway, I’d like to do an album full of the old standards — maybe even a movie soundtrack. I’d also like to act, someday.”

‘To Guide the Wisdom of the Grown-Ups’

From “About Things That Matter,” Music Through Heartsongs (2003)

Helping others — particularly young people — is important to Gilman, and he’s excited about his role as MDA’s National Youth Chairman.

“Not just because I get to help Mattie and Jeni and MDA, but because they’re asking me to help energize other young people to get involved. I know it’s kind of a cliché, but I really do believe that young people hold the key to the future.

“Plus, I get to be on the Telethon again — that’ll be cool.” The MDA Telethon will be broadcast nationwide on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.

Less than two weeks before the April 15 release of “Music Through Heartsongs,” Billy Gilman spent a day at MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., learning about the organization and its programs.

“There’s a lot to learn about MDA that most people don’t realize,” Gilman said. “But if I’m going to represent MDA, I’d better know what I’m talking about.”

By the end of April, Gilman was ready to travel to Orlando, Fla., to represent MDA at the 57th Annual International Career Development Conference, held by longtime MDA national sponsor, DECA – An Association of Marketing Students.

From there, it was on to Universal Studios to appear on the popular Nickelodeon Television Show, “Slime Time.”

So while Billy Gilman may or may not be “typical,” he’s a teen-ager who can be just as much at ease frolicking in Nickelodeon’s Green Slime Geyser, as he is meeting the executives in the MDA boardroom — and just as effective.

Just don’t ask him to do algebra.