Rob Crosby

Did You Know?

• He turned down a chance to join the band Burnin' Daylight in 1995 to focus on his solo career.
• In 2014, Crosby co-wrote "Calm After the Storm," which finished second in the Euro Song Contest with The Common Linnets.

Biography

Rob Crosby, whose full name is Robert Crosby Hoar, came into the world on April 25, 1954, and grew up in Sumter, South Carolina. He finished high school there in 1972. He wrote his first song at nine years old, and by the time he reached the fifth grade, he had formed a band called The Radiations. During his high school and college years, he played shows across South Carolina and later throughout the Southeast.

In 1984, he relocated to Nashville with his family and started performing in local venues. That same year, a businessman from Atlanta offered him $700 each month in exchange for a share of his future songwriting royalties. Crosby took a job as a staff writer, and soon the country group Chance took his song "She Told Me Yes" into the top 30 on the charts in 1985. Over time, his songwriting credits grew to include several Billboard top 10 hits, such as Eric Paslay's "Friday Night," Martina McBride's "Concrete Angel," Andy Griggs' "She's More," and Lee Greenwood's "Holdin' a Good Hand."

His songs have also been recorded by artists like Blackhawk, Brooks & Dunn, Ty Herndon, Paul Overstreet, Carl Perkins, Restless Heart, Ricochet, Paul Simon, The Wilkinsons, and Darryl Worley.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Crosby recorded for small independent labels Guru Records and Southern Tracks Records. After a performance at a songwriter's night, he landed a deal with Arista Nashville. His first album, Solid Ground, came out in 1991, and its first three singles—"Love Will Bring Her Around," "She's a Natural," and "Still Burnin' for You"—all climbed into the top 20 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. But his next two albums didn't sell well, and Arista dropped him in 1993.

He signed with River North in 1995 and released his third album, Starting Now. Neither of its two singles broke into the top 60 on Billboard. That year, he was asked to join the band Burnin' Daylight, which included former members of Southern Pacific and Exile, but he chose to keep working on his solo career. In 2003, he returned with One Light in the Dark on CSC Records, a set of original songs.

He followed that with Time Is a Gypsy in 2003 and Catfish Day in 2007. In 2014, Crosby joined the Dutch band The Common Linnets alongside his son Matthew. The group featured Dutch singer-songwriters Ilse DeLange and Waylon. DeLange and Waylon competed in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest and finished in second place with "Calm After the Storm," a song Crosby co-wrote.