A real
life incident inspired Aaron Tippin's latest hit, but fortunately
for the writers -- Tippin, his wife Thea and Philip Douglas -- the
real life version had a happier ending than the song.
"Thea and I were having this little spat one day," Tippin said,
"and I said, 'Let's kiss and make up.'
"She said, 'I'll tell you what you can kiss. You can kiss this --
wait a minute! That might make a good song."'
With the co-writing help of Philip Douglas, who had been Tippin's
collaborator on earlier hits such as My Blue Angel and
Working Man's Ph.D, they turned Kiss This into a No. 1
country song.
Aaron Tippin grew up in the mountains of South Carolina, where he
played in local honky tonks.
After a failed teen-age marriage, he moved in 1982 to Nashville,
where he spent his days writing songs on Music Row, his afternoons
indulging a passion for weight lifting and his nights working in a
factory in Kentucky.
He soon saw success in two of those activities, winning
weightlifting competitions and landing a recording contract.
He first hit the charts in 1991 with the title cut from You've
Got To Stand for Something.
Through the 1990s he was consistently on the charts
with such hits as There Ain't Nothing Wrong With the Radio, I Got
It Honest, That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You and For
You I Will.
His seven albums have sold a total of five million copies.
Thea Tippin (nee Corontzos) was born and raised in Great Falls,
Mont., and moved to Nashville in 1984.
After receiving a music degree from Belmont University in 1987,
she sang on local, regional and national commercials and also did
background vocal work on recording sessions.
While working for Reba McEntire's Starstruck Entertainment. she
met Aaron Tippin.
She helped establish his management company, Tip Top
Entertainment, in 1994, and they were married in a traditional Greek
Orthodox ceremony in 1995.
Kiss This is her first major country cut, although she and
her husband have successfully collaborated to produce Theodore Emory
(Teddy) Tippin in 1997 and a second son scheduled for release in
early December.
Thea and Aaron are featured -- as singing partners as well as
co-writers -- on Aaron's new CD People Like Us on the song
The Best Love We Ever Made.
Philip Douglas left Murfreesboro in January 1974 to play guitar
in a night club at the Red Carpet Inn in Bowling Green, Ky.
The Red Carpet is now the Executive Inn, and the band, originally
the Music City Limits, is now Liberation, but Douglas is still there
five nights a week, playing guitar and leading the group.
He started writing songs in 1984 when his friend and former
bandmate Mickey Hiter began having success as a music publisher in
Nashville.
After a few minor cuts he teamed up with Tippin for My Blue
Angel and Working Man's Ph.D, both of which won airplay
awards from ASCAP.
His songs have also been recorded by Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Van
Shelton, Western Flyer, Chad Brock, Deryl Dodd and Chris Cummings,
and he had two songs in the TV movie False Identity.
Douglas is convinced that his nightly contact with country fans
over the last 25 years, not to mention the opportunity to try out
new tunes, has had a positive effect on his writing.
So even though he has a No. 1 single to his credit, he has no
plans to give up his night job.
Oct 22, 2000
A real
life incident inspired Aaron Tippin's latest hit, but fortunately
for the writers -- Tippin, his wife Thea and Philip Douglas -- the
real life version had a happier ending than the song.
