‘The House That Built Me’ Writer Tom Douglas Talks Honoring Fellow Creators and Dreamers in New Film ‘Love, Tom’

In 2014, songwriter Tom Douglas was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, thanks to an enviable catalog of compositions that includes co-writing Collin Raye’s “Little Rock,” Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me,” Tim McGraw’s “Grown Men Don’t Cry,” the Keith Urban/Eric Church collab “Raise ‘Em Up,” and Lady A’s “I Run to You.”

During his inspiring, 12-minute acceptance speech that evening at Nashville’s Music City Center, Douglas offered a poetic encapsulation of music’s impact on culture through the years.

His new film, Love, Tom, which premieres today (Feb. 24) on Paramount+, marks the latest iteration in that speech’s evolution, with Douglas, 69, narrating the story of his own life and career and bringing viewers far beyond the hits, deep into the struggles, doubts, hopes and personal stories that fuel the creative process.

Years after that acceptance speech, the five-time Grammy nominee lengthened it into a one-man show, inspired by seeing Bruce Springsteen’s Springsteen on Broadway  in 2018.

“He was talking about his life growing up in Freehold, New Jersey. His story was my story,” Douglas tells Billboard. “The details were different, but the story was exactly the same. That’s just the power of narrative. With this, I’m hopefully guiding the listener and the viewer to remember their own story.”

Douglas says the speech has undergone five versions, as people began requesting him to speak during conferences and retreats. Oscar-nominated director Michael Lennox (Boogaloo and Graham) happened to see one of those performances in 2019 and reached out to Douglas with the idea of turning the performance into a movie.

“I immediately said, ‘Absolutely.’ I’ve always wanted to be in and around film, to see the convergence of drama and songs,” Douglas says. “I was fascinated to see how it would come together, but honestly it is Michael’s creative vision revealed on the screen.”

The film begins at Douglas’ Nashville home, as he recalls receiving a letter from a young, frustrated songwriter seeking his advice.

“I did what any good songwriter does: I wrote him back,’” Douglas says in the early moments of the film. “We all got here the same way, I suppose. We followed the song. We have a gift and with it comes an immense responsibility. Mine is really a story of failure. I wanted to give up, but I can’t give up on something that I love.”

Douglas tried his luck in Nashville in his late 20s, but quickly faced rejection. He and his wife Katie left Music City for Texas, where Douglas spent 13 years working in commercial real estate as the couple raised their three children.

Eventually, Douglas gave Nashville and songwriting another shot. He was 41 when he earned his first “cut,” when Raye recorded “Little Rock.” The 1994 song reached No. 2 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Tracks chart and earned Douglas his first CMA Award nomination, for song of the year.

In Love, Tom, he narrates the story of his childhood growing up in Atlanta, recalls a pivotal moment watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and recounts his father’s struggle with pain pill addiction. He also bears witness to the emotional peaks and valleys that come as part of the life of a songwriter — including the grit, inspiration, fear of failure, and frequent anxiety (or “the rat that sits at the edge of the piano,” as Douglas calls it). He also details how a marathon race inspired a Lady A hit, and how his relationship with his daughter inspired “My Little Girl,” recorded by McGraw as part of the movie Flicka. Another song, “Coming Home,” from the film Country Strong, received an Oscar nomination for best original song.

Along the way, Douglas visits various Nashville landmarks, including the Bluebird Café, the Nashville Pedestrian Bridge, Printers Alley and Parnassus Books. In one of the film’s most impactful scenes, Douglas, seated at a piano onstage at the Ryman Auditorium, shares the inspiration and painstaking writing process he and co-writer Allen Shamblin went through to craft the four-week Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “The House That Built Me,” which was named CMA Awards’ song of the year in 2011. (In 2020, the ACM Awards declared it the song of the decade.)

“Nashville becomes almost another actor in the film,” Douglas says. “The locations are so important, where songwriters live and work and dream. I wanted to just put a spotlight on songwriting and the importance of what we do. We really are writing the soundtrack of peoples’ lives.”

The film’s concluding song, “My Father’s Reputation,” touches on his rocky relationship with his father, who died in 1996, and how it impacted his career.

“It was a tumultuous rollercoaster at times. The last three years of his life, he really came back to himself,” Douglas says. “I made peace with my father’s passing and his life. But over time, I developed this fire of ambition that I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t about money or accolades or even validation. Years into it, I realized that I thought if I was successful enough, people would think better of my father. It sounds crazy to say it now, but at the time, it was very real. That is an unhealthy weight to carry. That’s really how ‘My Father’s Reputation’ came to be.”

Love, Tom was produced in association with Sandbox Productions (led by Sandbox Entertainment founder/CEO, artist manager and Monument Records co-president Jason Owen) with Sony Music’s Premium Content Division. Executive producers on the project include Douglas, Owen, Tommy Douglas, Austin Fish and Lennox. The film was directed by Lennox and written by Tom and Tommy Douglas.

A companion soundtrack, courtesy of Monument Records, features Douglas’ demos of songs highlighted in the film, with the artists who made those songs into hits — including McGraw, Lambert, Lady A, Chris Janson, Raye and more — lending their voices alongside his.

“I know all these folks, so I just sent them a text asking if they might sing with me on any or all of it. Within a few days they all said yes,” Douglas says. “There’s just a lot of love, back and forth. I’m so grateful for their friendship and their artistry, that they would lend it to this project.”

In recent months, numerous writers and artist-writers — including Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan and more — have made headlines for selling all or portions of their music rights. Douglas says he has no plans to sell his catalog.

“I have never sold a catalog, but I’ve never had anybody offer me $300 million for my catalog either,” says Douglas, who is signed with Sony Music Publishing. “I love owning the songs. They’re a part of me. If some hedge fund in New York is paying you a huge multiple for your catalog, they’re doing it not altruistically. They think there’s a financial benefit to them. I used to be in the real estate business and I almost look at these songs as little pieces of real estate that I own along the way. Some grow in value over time. Some don’t, but you just never know which one of them will get hot and take on a life of its own.”

What Douglas does have planned, on April 2, is a performance of Love, Tom at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Given the film’s origins as a one-man show, Douglas says he would love to turn Love, Tom into a residency.

“I wish I could find a small theater in Nashville, maybe off Broadway, and have tourists come in three nights a week. It’s cool to share this story with country music fans. So I’m actively looking for a place to do a residency like this. It’s a wonderfully interactive piece and hopefully it takes the audience on a journey back through their own life and childhood.”

Ultimately, he hopes Love, Tom will serve as an inspiration to the next generation of songwriters, creatives and music lovers in general.

“It’s in the pain and in the struggle, that’s really where the beauty and the creativity is revealed,” Douglas says. “Keep creating, keep struggling, keep bleeding on a page and beautiful things will bloom.”