Kerry Kurt Phillips is an American Songwriter. After growing up in Henderson, Kentucky and Vincennes, Indiana, (he takes pride n claiming two hometowns as his own), he moved to Nashville in 1988. Two weeks later he was signed as a staff writer for the Larry Gatlin-owned publishing company, Texas Wedge Music. His very first cut came two and a half years later when George Jones recorded the classic, “Where the Tall Grass Grows”. The song was later recorded by Vern Gosdin, Ricky Van Shelton, Tom Wopat and others.
Since then, Kerry Kurt’s catalogue of over 1000 songs has garnered five #1 singles as surveyed by Billboard, and Radio & Records and have been recorded by country music’s biggest stars. He has been awarded 75 gold records and 36 platinum albums accounting for certified sales of over 45 million records and he has been called “One of America’s favorite songwriters.” One of his biggest achievements was winning the TNN/Music City News Song Of The Year Award for Billy Ray Cyrus’, “It’s All The Same To Me.”
ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) has recognized 15 (14 Country and 1 Pop) of Kerry Kurt’s works as being the most performed songs in the nation in each of their respective years. In addition, his peers in the NSAI (Nashville Songwriter’s Association International) have awarded three of his compositions their certificate of achievement, as has the Songwriter’s Guild of America. Kerry Kurt’s songs have also been featured in the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA, on numerous network television shows and motion pictures and have been used in Hallmark Greeting cards and in national ad campaigns by Ford Trucks, General Motors, Pepsi Corporation, Applebee’s the PGA and the NFL.
