Steve Bogard
Steve Bogard has had #1 country songs in each of the last 4 decades. He has written a current total of TEN #1 country songs, including George Strait’s, “Carried Away” and “Carrying Your Love With Me,” Rascal Flatts’ career breaker, “Prayin’ For Daylight” and Dustin Lynch’s 2017 #1 “Seein’ Red,” He has had two Grammy nominations for Best Country Song, the #1 “Every Mile A Memory” and top 10 “Long trip Alone,” both recorded by Dierks Bentley. Total sales of albums containing Bogard songs are well over one hundred fifty million units.
Bogard has received twenty-two ASCAP, BMI and SESAC awards with hits and cuts by a diverse array of artists that includes Reba, Tanya, Patty Loveless, Etta James, The Four Tops, Sinead O’Connor, Jack Ingram, Restless Heart, Conway Twitty, Waylon Jennings, Delaney & Bonnie, The Oak Ridge Boys, Lonestar, Steve Wariner, and many more.
Elected President of the Board of Directors of the Nashville Songwriters Association for the first time in 2006, he spearheaded industry initiatives resulting in a mechanical right for songwriters in an interactive stream, lobbied for the passage of the Songwriters Tax Equity Act, creating a boom in writer catalog sales, and guided the purchase of both the current headquarters of NSAI, the Music Mill, and the Legendary Bluebird Café. He stepped aside in 2013 after an unprecedented 7 years and was reelected in 2017 as the historic Music Modernization Act took shape and passage in October 2018. Bogard testified as a songwriter witness at both the 2006 and 2018 Copyright Royalty Board trials, the latter resulting in a record 44% increase in streaming royalties for songwriters.
Bogard is currently a staff writer and Chief Operating Officer of Truth or Dare Music, which includes management, publishing and record label services. From his move to Nashville in 1983 on the heels of a Marty Robbins BMI award winner “Touch Me With Magic” to his current cuts as a Truth or Dare Music staff songwriter, and Treasurer of NSAI, Steve Bogard has made an indelible mark on the Nashville songwriting community.