Hit Country Songwriter Hugh Prestwood on Why He Had to Start a GoFundMe Account

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Hugh Prestwood has written such hits as Crystal Gayle’s “The Sound of Goodbye,” Michael Johnson’s “The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder,” Trisha Yearwood’s “The Song Remembers When,” Randy Travis’s “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart,” Highway 101’s “Bing Bang Boom,” Shenandoah’s “Ghost in this House.” For several years, especially during the (pre-streaming) ’80s and ’90s, he made a good living at a time when album cuts were plentiful and helped pay the bills even when they weren’t chosen as singles. Eventually, those big cuts tapered off. In 2020, British artist Rumer recorded an album’s worth of Prestwood’s songs on Nashville Tears: Songs of Hugh Prestwood, though the album yielded no major hits.

But on Jan. 10, Prestwood, 79, launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for help, revealing that he and his wife Judy could no longer afford the $2,300 per month rent on their Long Island, N.Y. home they’ve lived in for the past decade, and needed financial aid to move closer to family in Texas. In his GoFundMe letter, Prestwood noted that in 2012, they were forced to sell the home they had purchased in 1984. He also had to sell his catalog of songs. He added that he and his wife had been struggling financially for several years, and were three months away from being homeless.

More than 600 donations poured in over the next several days — from artists including Travis and Tracy Byrd, as well as fellow songwriters and/or producers Buddy Cannon, Dallas Davidson, Garth Fundis, Luke Laird, Kelley Lovelace, Keith Stegall, and Craig Wiseman, Big Machine Label Group founder/CEO Scott Borchetta and Hipgnosis Songs Fund founder Merck Mercuriadis. Prestwood’s GoFundMe campaign, which originally had a goal of $25,000, has raised more than $104,000.

Prestwood talked to Billboard about his situation. His story in his own words follows:

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I was really desperate. A friend told me I should do a GoFundMe page and I didn’t really know much about it. I thought I was going to look like such a bum, telling everybody that I’m busted and no one’s going to contribute. Then all of a sudden, all these things started happening, people began donating. It’s still remarkable to me.

My first big hit was with Crystal Gayle, and I think that was in 1984. Because of CD sales and greatest hits CDs, it continued to pay me a reasonable amount of money even 20 years later. Then, all of a sudden, around 2005, just one day I wasn’t getting any money — and I thought, “What the hell is going on?” I realized the whole file sharing thing had forced the music business into a new business model. It was all downhill from there.

Probably around 2010, I started thinking, “I’m going to have to sell my catalog. I can’t make my house payment.” I started inquiring around and I found a great guy named Scott Parker who has Hearts Bluff Music and he bought my six big hits and gave me a good amount of money — about $300,000 dollars — and at the time that was great. That kept us going. But then, especially these days, it goes quick. So that was done.

My basic retirement plan was simple. We had this amazing old Victorian house and that’s where my money went. That was my nest egg.  I knew I could sell it for a few hundred thousand more. We ended up selling the house [in 2012], and between that and the catalog sales we were able to keep afloat for quite a while. I was continuing to get to Nashville sometimes, but it was somewhat expensive for me to get down there on a regular basis. I’ve never been just hanging out and getting the general vibe from other writers about what they did for their retirements. Some of them got really into the stock market when it was happening, but by that time, I was not able to participate.

About two years ago, I ended up selling the rest of my Universal songs — really for peanuts, but I was having trouble paying my electric bill, so that’s what I had to do. But catalogs aren’t worth that much now, unless it’s big performers. I got all the songs back that Universal had that didn’t cut, so I have hopes that some of those will resurface.

I would not recommend anybody wanting to become a songwriter right now. If you are a performer, that’s another thing, but if you are a pure writer, that’s pretty brutal. But, if you are an aspiring writer, write what you want to write. Don’t get caught up in what you think you should write. Write from your heart.