Keith Cochran performs at The Renaissance Center Jan. 15

Release Date: 12/20/2004. Expired: 1/15/2005

Broken bones didn’t make Keith Cochran a good singer, but a few injuries are responsible for the career change that turned the dirt bike rider into a recording artist.

The country singer/songwriter will perform in concert at The Renaissance Center in Dickson on Saturday, Jan. 15. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $6 for children under 13.

A native of a small Tennessee town, Cochran didn’t get serious about music until he picked up a guitar while recovering from a year on the professional dirt bike racing circuit.

“During the recouping time of my body, I picked up my guitar to give me something else to think about and for the first time became very serious in my efforts to master it,” Cochran says.

He eventually joined some friends to play at parties and honky tonks. While playing at the grand opening of a friend’s auto body repair shop, Cochran was approached by a man who said to call him if he wanted to pursue a music career.

“I decided then that if I was going to make anything out of myself this just might be the chance that I’ve been waiting for,” Cochran says. “I know that if I didn’t try it then, I wouldn’t know and it’s way too much fun entertaining people not to try.”

Cochran called Rod Harris, who signed him to Jenn-Rod Artist Directions, the management and development company operated by Harris and his wife Jennifer.

Cochran has been busy writing songs and working in the studio. His debut recording, Granny’s Eyes, contains five songs, including the title cut, an original composition about Cochran’s relationship with his grandmother.

“I write love, life and family into my music,” Cochran says. “When I sing someone else’s songs, I sing about love, life and family. My songs are taken from the ‘reals’ of life, everyday things that everyone can relate with.”

Asked about his musical influences, Cochran is quick to list some of the all-time greats of country music, as well as artists from rhythm and blues, pop and folk music.

“I really like the Georges - Strait and Jones, but I couldn’t leave out Merle Haggard,” he says. “Then there’s Keith Whitley and Webb Pierce. Webb had that high, flashy delivery. I think about the energy and showmanship of Faron Young. But there’s a lot of fun in Roger Miller’s work. Lefty Frizzell’s delivery of Long Black Veil paints a picture across my mind. He and Hank Williams, Sr. were vocal Rembrandts. Townes Van Zandt, a serious fun writer. The styling of Roy Orbison, the solidness and sincerity of Otis Redding. Also the guitar work and song style of James Taylor.”

While music was a part of Cochran’s life in school and church, it was not his first career choice. In high school, he learned the art of training and showing horses. He competed in bareback and saddle bronc riding in rodeos, even once trying his hand at bull riding.

Out of high school he got a factory job, which paid good money but didn’t have enough “action.” He started riding dirt bikes competitively until injuries forced him out in 1995. But three years later he was riding again, realizing a dream by making it to the Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch. He broke his leg in his first race but finished the week of competition.

After moving up to the intermediate level, he returned to the National Championships, only to break his arm and be forced to withdraw. He returned in 2000 and finished with a national ranking of 29th out of more than 500 competitors. That fall, Cochran entered the professional circuit and raced for more than a year before he finally had to stop to let his battered body recover.

With time on his hands and a guitar to keep him busy, Cochran says he thought back to his elementary school music teacher, who taught him “that any instrument played correctly could put quite a bit of life into a song.” He remembered the feeling he got from the monthly Wednesday night singings at church. “Each time I got up to sing, part of me was scared. If I didn’t get to sing, the other part of me felt disappointment.”

He also remembered a summer beach party where there was a guy playing guitar and everyone singing along with him. “Since that night all I’ve wanted to do is be able to play and sing better so I could be that guy sitting on the beach having fun with a bunch of people, some I’d know and some I wouldn’t... Making music, writing songs and entertaining, this is how I want to earn my living.”

For more information on Keith Cochran’s Jan. 15 concert at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call the box office at (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

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