Interview with Diamond Rio

The band that plays together stays together. Known as one of the first country bands to play on every one of their studio projects, Diamond Rio made country music history when their first Arista Nashville single Meet In The Middle landed them in the No. 1 spot. Now, 25 years later Diamond Rio is releasing I Made It, their tenth studio album. The title track was co-written by the band’s lead guitarist Jimmy Olander and features 11 new songs. Produced by Olander and Michael D Clute, I Made Itis a follow-up to their 2014 first-ever live album release: Diamond Rio Live. “As artists producing music as long as Diamond Rio has, fresh subject matter tends to get more and more difficult to come by,” says Jimmy Olander. “As a writer on the title track ‘I Made It,’ simply telling our story is freeing. This is a very specific story, the autobiographical melding of the migration stories my partners and I share about moving to Nashville. Collectively, we have achieved the amount of success that dreams are made of, but at the end of the day have learned having someone to share this amazing life with – ‘love’ and ‘be loved by’ is the real measure of success. It’s true, ‘I Made It.’” “We were fortunate to not be rushed with this project,” shares Gene Johnson. “Over the past few years we’ve taken the time to work on several projects that were on our bucket list; a Christmas album and our first-ever Christian and live albums.” Diamond Rio's other hits songs include: Love A Little Stronger, In A Week Or Two, Norma Jean Riley, One More Day, Unbelievable, Walkin' Away and Beautiful Mess.