Ahead of Fort Worth appearance, Vince Gill figures he’s better now than 30 years ago

Vince Gill may never sell out AT&T Stadium like a Garth Brooks, but as an artist he almost no equal in country music.

He can fit in playing next to Don Henley and Joe Walsh with the Eagles just as easily as he can sit in a smaller club singing any number of his hits from his 40-year career.

Not many artists, be it country, rock or pop, can genre-jump like Vince Gill.

He’s 65, and figures he’s better today than at any point in his Grammy-winning career.

“Being creative is your mind; it’s not physical,” he said. “It makes sense that an athlete can’t run or be as nimble as they once did.

“For a lot of people, whether they’re an actor or a musician or whatever, at some point the audience is just ready for the next thing. The next group. That’s the way life works. That’s why you don’t live forever.

“I don’t think people are washed up but people move on. In the creative side of things, a lot of people do their best work but it goes unnoticed because people move on. This town (Nashville) is full of them. They’ve had their run, and audiences want the next guy up, what the old guy used to do. Nobody is immune from it. It’s fair, and it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

The amazing part is that it has not happened to Vince Gill.

Gill is scheduled to play Billy Bob’s on Aug. 13.

He recently chatted on the phone with the Star-Telegram about his career, the Eagles, and the state of country music.

Please forgive me but you’ve played Billy Bob’s before, yes?

A ton of times. I think I played there in 1981 when it opened. I can’t prove that. I played with Rosanne Cash there in 1982. I’ve played there a bunch of times under a bunch of different configurations.

You’ve likely played every conceivable venue there is under every different possible stage set up ...

I have. Three times.

How does a Billy Bob’s compare to other places? Is it different, or is just that name that sets it apart?

It’s a beer joint foremost, and I think they would call themselves that. Roy Orbison once told me, ‘Oh, kid, it’s a little bit bigger beer joint.’ It’s a cool place. It has a great vibe. I’ve always loved Fort Worth; my dad lived there for a little while, and it reminded me of home and Oklahoma City.

You have lived through country music’s changes over the years; it feels like it was niche, then in the late ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s it was huge, and now it’s flowed back to thriving as a niche sound again. Agree or disagree?

I don’t know that I would even know how to define it. I’ve been such a part of it for 40 years, but prior to that the 20 to 25 years as a fan listening to my parent’s records. So I know it entirely.

The first records were from the late 1920s, and they were really powerful. My mom was born the year Grand Ole Opry opened (in 1925), and I look at (country music) in its entirety of 100 years, not just the ‘90s.

It evolves, and then it slides back into a traditional place. Even in the ‘50s, they were making it slicker with Eddy Arnold, and then it goes back to honky-tonk. Then it goes more R&B. It all ebbs and flows to me.

A lot of people point to the ‘80s and ‘90s and that success when they sold so many records. That’s why people use that measuring stick of sorts. In all of the years I’ve been doing this music, none of the notes really change. The people do.

Dave Grohl said to make it in music you have “to suck;” basically, you have to practice and practice and work through being terrible; with social media, TV talent shows, does an aspiring artist have the room to be terrible?

It is interesting in the record company world I had a lot of years to fail, and they kept letting me fail. These days it’s so expensive to try that they can’t afford for you to fail. I want a kid to sound like a kid; “he’s pretty good, for a kid. He will get better.”

I know for a fact I am at my best now at 65, not when I was 35 or 25. It only makes sense that you would get better, but what happens now is that you don’t get noticed.

When it comes to picking a set list for a concert, how do you select the titles?

These days it’s, “What can you remember?” I’m kidding. I pick out what is familiar; what the band knows, and what I think the audience will like. There are a handful of songs that made you able to have a career, so you play those.

Is there pressure in a concert setting to perform the song like it sounds on a record, CD or iTunes?

To some degree the expectation is that you are not going to be as good as you get older. That you won’t be able to do it the way you once did. It hasn’t happened to me yet, but I know it will at some point. I won’t be able to push the air the way once did.

But certain songs deserve to be played like the record because they are iconic. You see the Eagles and when they play “Hotel California,” it should be as familiar as the record.

Now, sometimes it can be fun to change up a song, and make it different. I also believe that the great songs you can play them any way you want to and they will still work. The bones are there.

There was a gentleman named Fred Foster who produced Roy Orbison and he told me, “A great song you can play slow or fast. The great songs play themselves.” Each song is different, and some songs deserve to be played the way they sound.

You joined the Eagles; you probably know all of those guys well, so when you did join was it a glove, or was it awkward and difficult?

They are all musicians, singers and writers and in that way I knew I could fit in seamlessly. I think it was people’s perceptions that, “Why is this country guy going to that band?” I understand that.

Don Henley was complimentary of me that I was the only guy he thought of who could do this. I’m a bit of a chameleon musician and can find my way into all different kinds of music.

I don’t think any of us had any concerns; some of the folks on the outside were not sure it was a good idea.

I am only doing this because of a tragedy when we lost Glenn Frey (who died in 2016). I’m not up there fist-bumping that I’m with the Eagles. I don’t blame fans who don’t want to hear anyone else sing, “New Kid in Town.” Nothing is better than the original.

I’m all good with it. The more people who have experienced what we do I think they walk way OK with it.

A little less than 20 years ago you were a part of an ensemble that played “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” with the late Earl Scruggs on David Letterman’s show. There was you, Earl, Steve Martin, Marty Stuart, Glenn Duncan and a powerhouse lineup of bluegrass players.

I do remember that.

How on earth did all nine of you line up your schedule to play one four-minute song?

I would venture to say it was easy because it was the love and admiration we all had for Earl Scruggs. We had all been on Letterman before; I had done it eight or 10 times. But when you get a chance to hang with your heroes you take it, and Earl was a hero to all of us.

You have done nearly everything a person in your field can do, so what is left on Vince Gill’s To Do List?

I don’t know that I set out to do any of it. I just showed up. I’d like to take credit but that’s really what happened. The phone rang and it was, “Hey, do you want to come down and play? OK.” I didn’t map out any of it.

I worked hard, had some talent, and I was fortunate it all fell in line.