Christopher G. Tompkins (born

Muscle Shoals, Alabama Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, the population of Muscle Shoals was 13,146. The estimated popul ...

) is an American songwriter based in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. Since 2002 he has co-written songs for pop, rock, and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...

artists

Jimmy Buffett James William Buffett (born December 25, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffe ...

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single " Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is an Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Awa ...

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005. Her single " Inside Your Heaven" made her the only country artist to debut atop the ''Bil ...

Jason Aldean Jason Aldean (born Jason Aldine Williams; February 28, 1977) is an American country music singer. Since 2005, he has been signed to Broken Bow Records, a record label for which he has released ten albums and 40 singles. His 2010 album, ''My Kind ...

, and

Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adai ...

and has written charting singles for artists such as

Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs and Country ...

Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line is an American country music duo founded in 2010 by Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. Their 2012 debut single "Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was ...

, and

Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has released 16 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, four for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albu ...

. Tompkins has won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song, first for " Before He Cheats" sung by

in 2007, and also for Underwood's 2012 song " Blown Away". Tompkins has written 16 number one hits, and he won Songwriter of the Year by the

Alabama Music Hall of Fame The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then saw to its Phase One construction of a facility after a statewide referend ...

in 2007.

Early life

Chris Tompkins was born and raised in

Green Hill, Alabama Greenhill is an unincorporated community in Lauderdale County, Alabama. It is often mispronounced incorrectly as “Green Hill.” Greenhill is the hometown of Iron Horse Bluegrass, Secret Sisters, and Jason Isbell, a singer-songwriter and fo ...

and attended Rogers High School. As a teenager Tompkins started playing in a garage band with

Jason Isbell Michael Jason Isbell (; born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is known for his solo career, his work with the band The 400 Unit, and as a member of Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007. Isbell ...

Music career

2002–2009: First hits

Tompkins signed his first publishing deal at age 22, moving to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. In 2004 Tompkins had his first top 20 hit on the ''Billboard'' charts, co-writing "

Me and Emily "Me and Emily" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Rachel Proctor. It was released in March 2004 as the third single from her album '' Where I Belong''. Proctor wrote this song with Chris Tompkins. Content The song ...

" by Rachel Proctor. He started working with

Big Loud Shirt Industries Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...

during the summer of 2006 as a songwriter. He and songwriter Josh Kear wrote the multi-platinum seller " Before He Cheats", sung by

and released in 2007. It was named 2007 Single of the Year by the

Country Music Association The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...

. Tompkins won the 2007 ''

MusicRow ''MusicRow'' is a Nashville music industry trade publication which has been providing reviews, breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a ...

'' "Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year" award and was honored as the

songwriter of the year. The following year "Before He Cheats" won several categories at the

50th Grammy Awards The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...

, including Country Song of the Year. While at the awards Tompkins befriended Tom Higgenson of the indie rock group

Plain White T's Plain White T's are an American rock band from Lombard, Illinois, formed in 1997 by high school friends Tom Higgenson, Dave Tirio, and Ken Fletcher, and joined a short time later by Steve Mast. The group had a mostly underground following in Chic ...

. They soon began to collaborate, and Tompkins has since co-written several songs on their albums, including "Welcome To Mystery" featured in the motion picture ''

Almost Alice ''Almost Alice: Music Inspired by the Motion Picture'' is a 2010 concept album of various artists' music inspired by Tim Burton's film, ''Alice in Wonderland''. The album is also notable for featuring songs that were inspired from quotes directly ...

'' starring

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awar ...

2010–2012: Increased output

In 2010 he co-wrote the song " Ain't Back Yet" with

. The song reached No. 2 on the country charts, and also appeared in Chesney's movie ''Summertime in 3-D''. Also in 2010, He worked on a number of charting singles in 2011, including the Chris Young single " Voices." He co-wrote the duet "I Feel Like a Rockstar" in 2012, performed by

and

and landed his first

cut "Bama Breeze". He collaborated with Underwood once again on her 2012 album '' Blown Away'', notably on the second single of the same name. The single was co-written with his frequent collaborator Josh Kear, and as noted by interviewer Kurt Wolff, "the melody and overall sound of the song also stand out as something fresh and very different." Tompkins explained to Wolff that "Blown Away" was an "attempt at 'melodic pop' that was 'unique' yet still 'country.'" Tompkins also commented that "Blown Away" is "It's a completely different type of song for Carrie. She's got a lot of pop elements, and I listen to a lot of pop, but I listen to everything from

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to t ...

to Steely Dan. I think all that stuff shows up in my music, and I think it showed up in 'Blown Away.'" The single peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No. 1 on Billboard's

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart and won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

for Best Country Song in 2013.

2013–2017: Recent Projects

In 2013, Tompkins penned five songs including the number one hits " Round Here" and " Get Your Shine On" on

's debut album '' Here's to Good Times.'' Following the album's massive success, Tompkins collaborated again with Florida Georgia Line on number one hits like "Dirt" and "Anything Goes", contributing a total of eleven cuts to the band. Released in April 2014, He also co-wrote the song " Drunk on a Plane", recorded by

Dierks Bentley Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Capitol Nashville and released his eponymous debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's ''Modern Day Drifter'', a ...

which peaked in the top 3 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and number one on the

chart. The song later went on to be certified 3x

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Awards and nominations

Discography

References

External links

Chris Tompkins at Big Loud Shirt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tompkins, Chris American country singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Muscle Shoals, Alabama Country musicians from Tennessee Country musicians from Alabama Singer-songwriters from Alabama