How we wrote ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ by Kent Blazy

Kent Blazy on If Tomorrow Never Comes: “Nobody was interested in the song.” Photo: Moments By Moser Photography

The country songwriter got more than the demo singer he was looking for when he started working with Garth Brooks

Kent Blazy is a songwriter from Lexington, Kentucky, best known for his work with country megastar Garth Brooks. Having also written songs for the likes of Gary Morris, Diamond Rio, Patty Loveless and Chris Young, Blazy’s contribution to Music City’s vast catalogue was recognised on 1 November 2021 when he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame. His own recording career remains a rewarding listen. For The Byrds, his collaboration with Steve Allen, is an album sonically rooted in the sounds of the 60s that also finds the pair reflecting on their lives in the here and now.

Returning to Blazy’s work with Brooks, the duo’s writing partnership spawned songs such as the Top 5 singles Ain’t Goin’ Down (’Til The Sun Comes Up), Somewhere Other Than The Night, It’s Midnight Cinderella and She’s Gonna Make It. Perhaps their most successful collaboration came with the first song they ever wrote together, If Tomorrow Never Comes. Brooks’ first No 1 Hot Country hit, it’s a song beloved by other singers. Renato Russo, Ismael Miranda, and Engelbert Humperdinck have all tackled the ballad, while Irish pop sensation Ronan Keating took the song to the top of the UK Singles chart with his 2002 version. So it’s over to Kent to tell us all about how the pair hit the ground running…

First published in Songwriting Magazine Summer 2023 issue

Released: 21 August 1989
Artist: Garth Brooks
Label: Capitol Nashville
Songwriters: Garth Brooks, Kent Blazy
Producer: Allen Reynolds
UK Chart Position: –
US Chart Position: –

“Garth wanted to sing demos, because he knew it would pay more than cleaning churches and selling boots. He came over and he played me a cassette, I heard six songs and I liked what I heard. I said, ‘I’ll start using you.’ And he said, ‘I write a little bit too.’ So we set up a writing appointment. Like I said, he wasn’t Garth Brooks then, but he came in and he said, ‘I’ve got this idea I’ve run by 25 writers and nobody liked it.’ I said, ‘Well, gee, thanks,’ and he said, ‘Well, don’t you want to hear it?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, play me what you got.’

“So he played me what he had and I loved the idea. Because it’s what my mother used to tell me, ‘Tell the people you love how you feel about them while they’re still alive.’ What was wrong with it was that he was killing somebody off in the first couple of lines of the song. It’s like killing off the star of the movie in the first three minutes. There’s nowhere to go. So he said, ‘What would you do?’ And I told him, and we did it. And at the end of the day, we both thought we had a really good song. So he went into my studio and just did a guitar/vocal of it.

Garth Brooks (left) and Kent Blazy performing If Tomorrow Never Comes at the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) 50th anniversary celebration

“I just knew that the first verse had to bring people into the song by having this relationship going on, and then he could use what he had about losing people in his life as the second verse. That gave a bigger depth to If Tomorrow Never Comes, because first you’re talking about your wife and then you’re talking about other people. He liked that, and we went with that. I think it’s worked pretty good.

“I could not believe this kid that was 25-years-old had the depth to be able to come in and write the song. I’ve always kidded him that he was 25 going on 50. Right from the beginning, we clicked and we became friends and we became co-writers. We’re still friends today, and that’s very unusual in the music business.

“I think it’s just a universal idea that touches everybody who’s either lost somebody or loved somebody. It comes at it from a different angle, and Garth’s delivery on it is fantastic. All of that together makes it the song that it is. That a 25-year-old could sing that kind of depth in a song still amazes me. What you hear these days on the radio is 40-year-old country guys singing about spring break, and you go, ‘Come on now, you’re 40 years old, sing something deeper than that’. But Garth had that depth right from the beginning and he still does.

“It goes against how the first songs usually go. But sometimes you can write the very best song with somebody for the first time because you have no preconceived notions on who they are and where it’s going to go. I think that’s kind of how it was with Garth. He just came in and I didn’t realise at the time he was such a fantastic writer, but he truly was. Garth was so far ahead of most of the people in town. It shows in all the albums that he’s done and all the songs he’s created.

“We pitched it around town for about a year and nobody was interested in the song or in him. They said, ‘No DJ is ever going to play a guy named Garth, can you imagine saying “Garth” on the radio?’

“Magic and miracles happen in Nashville all the time and sometimes you just don’t realise it. Garth had been turned down by everybody and the song had been turned down by everybody. One night, he got to play one song at the Bluebird Cafe. Another artist who was supposed to be there didn’t show up. So they called Garth and said, ‘Can you come in and sing one song?’ For some reason, he sang that song.

“Somebody from Capitol Records, who that week had passed on him for the third time, was in the audience to hear the other person. So Garth sang that song, and afterwards, the guy, Lynn Schultz, came up to him and said, ‘Well, maybe we missed something. Why don’t you come back in?’ So he went back in and they gave him a record deal. If Tomorrow Never Comes was his second single and his first [Hot Country] No 1. Talk about the right place at the right time!

Released: 29 April 2002
Artist: Ronan Keating
Label: Polydor
Songwriters: Garth Brooks, Kent Blazy
Producer: Steve Mac
UK Chart Position: 1
US Chart Position: –

“So finally I got to hear his version of it and I thought he did an incredible job. Then it became a worldwide hit. I could be in France or Italy and I’ll hear that song come on the radio or on something in a store. Then the other cool thing was going to Ireland and hearing the audience. This hadn’t happened in America, but they were singing every word to the song when he would just quit singing, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m in a foreign country and these people know my song.’ It was just so overwhelming and it still is.

“I did meet Ronan very briefly one night when he was in Nashville. I was hoping we would get to spend some more time together but it didn’t work out. I’d love to meet with him and hang with him again to thank him again for what he did.

“It still gets to me every time I hear it on the radio, or every time I play it. It just means more to me all the time. It’s a very special song. It’s that song that I think a songwriter prays that they’ll write some day. A song that has a life of its own. When people ask, ‘What’s your favourite song?’ It’s gotta be that one”

For The Byrds by Kent Blazy is out now. For all the latest news, go to kentblazy.com

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