Joe Scaife

Beloved studio engineer, record producer and music publisher, Joe Scaife, passed away on June 12. He was 68 years old.

Scaife earned a degree in Music Engineering and Recording from Nashville's Belmont University, getting his first taste of success with K.T. Oslin's 1987 hit, “80’s Ladies.” This led to a long string of recording sessions with some of the genre’s top-tier vocalists, including Montgomery Gentry, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Alabama, Glen Campbell, Lionel Richie, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Shania Twain and Toby Keith, among others. As a producer, Scaife was one of the creative masterminds behind massive projects like Billy Ray Cyrus' debut record, Some Gave All, which included his breakout hit, "Achy Breaky Heart," as well as Gretchen Wilson's breakthrough Here For The Party, featuring her career-defining "Redneck Woman."

Across his career, Scaife sold more than 80 million records and garnered over two billion streams. With a sprawling list of awards and accolades to his name, he received six nominations as a producer from the ACM. Among them are three nods for Album of the Year (Here for the Party - Gretchen Wilson, 2004; It Won't Be the Last - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1993; Some Gave All - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992), two Single Record of the Year nominations ("Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson, 2004; "Achy Breaky Heart" - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992) and one for Video of the Year ("Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson, 2004).