The band formed after Steve Naghavi and Chris Ruiz met in 1989 at a Berlin club. In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, each week we will release a new video featuring NSAI executive director Bart Herbison interviewing a Nashville songwriter about his or her work.And One is a German new wave, synthpop and EBM band founded by Steve Naghavi and Chris Ruiz. 1 record, and yes, it's going to win a Grammy." Very prophetic. Rick goes, "Yes, it is going to be a pop single. They played it, and it started out, and I actually thought it was a joke at first, until we got into it, and thought "Wow, this is cool.". So we walk into Al's office and sit down, and the next thing I know here comes Rick Blackburn. He says, "Hey man, is Gary with you by any chance?" I said, "Yeah, we're actually writing today." He says, "Well, come across the street. So one day Gary and I are writing up here in Nashville, and I get a call from (A&R executive) Al Cooley. The craziest thing: We didn't know anything about that. It was a hip-hop kind of thing that they had out, "So Much In Love." Morris asked, "Do you mind if David cuts a track on these guys?" They said, "No, go ahead." He did a label with us, and we have this new group called All-4-One." They had their first single out. Rick said, "No, I don't want to make country radio mad." He says, "Well, OK, then we just signed a deal with David Foster to do some production things. The story behind that is Doug Morris, who ran Atlantic at the time up there, he asked Rick Blackburn, who was running Atlantic Records at the time here, if he would try to crossover "I Swear" with John Michael. It won all of these awards, and then this never happens - All-4-One, they're on fire, and they cut it. What happens next is nothing short of incredible. I'm not sure it's better than what we have," and that was his comment, and that was on a houseboat up in Kentucky with him and his mom and dad, and Eddie (Montgomery) and Troy (Gentry) before they even became Montgomery Gentry.īut he changed his mind, and he did it. Then I personally pitched it to John Michael (Montgomery) three times. So we got back to Fame, and we sat in (songwriter/producer) Walt Aldridge's office and wrote the verses. I said, "I wrote a chorus to that title you gave me this morning." Robert's not there. It was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and we were driving back to Fame (Studios in Muscle Shoals) because I left my car there. We went to Robert's house and wrote a song, and Robert made us some barbecue chicken and we ate. We were writing with Robert Byrne that day, God rest his soul. I got to thinking, "I swear what" you know? "I swear on my life? By the moon and the stars?" I just kept thinking of all these things and put the lyric together, and the music came with it. and it's like, 'I'll love you forever.' I just think it's a good title." I said, "Let me think about it on the drive down." So I did, and I actually wrote the chorus, music and words, driving down to his house. He says, "I've got an idea for you to think about on the drive down. I live about three hours from Gary, and one morning he called me when I was getting ready to go down (to Muscle Shoals, Ala.) to write. You came to town and you were Eddie Raven's bandleader, and through that you met a character named Gary Baker. Watch Video: Story Behind the Song: 'I Swear'įrank, I'm gonna make a lot of songwriters mad here.