Born 70 Years Ago Today in Western Oklahoma, the Country Music Mastermind Behind 25 of Blake Shelton’s No. 1 Hits

If you’ve been a regular country music listener over the past few decades, there’s a pretty big chance that you’re familiar with the work of Scott Hendricks. Hendricks is a record producer who’s responsible for helping produce and A&R some of the biggest country acts in music. Chances are, if you know artists like Restless Heart, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, John Michael Montgomery, Blake Shelton, and Dan + Shay, to name a few, you know Hendricks.

Hendricks was born on July 26, 1956, in Clinton, Oklahoma, where he would later plow fields while listening to the radio for hours on end.

It was there that he started to understand the makings of a hit song. It wasn’t long before he was taking classes at Oklahoma State University. There, Hendricks made connections that eventually led him to get a job at a recording studio. Through this opportunity, he met songwriter Tim Dubois, with whom he would later craft No. 1 hits.

The first No. 1 that Hendricks ever had was with the group Restless Heart. A few years later in 1989, Dubois became the head of Arista Records’ Nashville division, under which Hendricks produced acts like Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn. In the mid-90s, Hendricks was hired by Capitol Records in Nashville. There, he oversaw the signing of artists like Trace Adkins, Roy D. Mercer, and Keith Urban.

It’s for artists like Blake Shelton that Hendricks has played a major role, producing 25 of his No. 1 singles. Just a few chart-toppers include “She Wouldn’t Be Gone”, “God Gave Me You”, and “Hillybilly Bone” with Trace Adkins. Currently, Hendricks serves as Warner Nashville’s Executive Vice President of A&R, a role that he began in 2014.

Scott Hendricks on Trying Different Music Industry Roles

Hendricks has had a unique role in the music industry. It’s one that has led him to produce 78 No. 1 country singles and more than 120 Top 10 singles. It’s also one that has allowed him to work alongside some of the industry’s best upcoming talent.

In an interview with Mix Online in 2020, Adkins talked about the perspective he’s gained through trying different things.

“When I went to run Capitol Records, I was producing a lot of multi-Platinum-selling artists at the time,” he explained. “Somebody said, ‘You know you can make hit records, but you don’t know about this side of the business.’ I was like, ‘You’re right. I’ve never climbed this mountain. Let me learn about that challenge.’ So, I did, and it opened up a lot of new doors in a lot of different areas. Just be open and do your best and hope that it’s good enough.”

In 2015, Scott Hendricks was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. In 2021, he was inducted by Shelton into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

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