Steve Bogard
A songwriter with 22 ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC awards on his walls.
Steve Bogard has written 10 number-one country songs including George Strait's, "Carried Away" and "Carrying Your Love with Me," and Rascal Flatts' career breaker, "Prayin' For Daylight." Total sales for albums containing Bogard songs are well more than 150 million units. Bogard has won 22 ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC awards with hits and cuts by artists as diverse as Reba, Tanya, Patty Loveless, Etta James, The Four Tops, Sinead O'Connor, Jack Ingram, and Restless Heart. He has had two Grammy nominations for Best Country Song with Dierks Bentley and has produced nine major-label album projects for Arista, Virgin, Lyric Street, and Sony. Recent cuts include songs recorded by Kristian Bush and Walker McGuire and the #1 song "Seein' Red," the first single from Dustin Lynch's latest album. Bogard has had at least one number-one song in each of the last four decades.
After successful early forays in the Memphis and Miami markets, working with legendary producers Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd, Bogard was drawn to Nashville, when in 1983, an 11-year-old Bogard song, "Touch Me with Magic" became a top 10 hit for Marty Robbins. He spent more than 20 years as a staff writer at Warner Chappell Music, has owned his own publishing company and independent record label, and is currently a staff writer at BMG Music Publishing.
More than 15 years ago Bogard was elected to the board of the Nashville Songwriter's Association International (NSAI) and served an unprecedented seven years as NSAI's board president. During that time he worked closely with the NMPA, DiMA, the RIAA, BMI and ASCAP and SESAC on legislation affecting songwriters' rights and income in the digital space, covering subscription services, interactive streaming, satellite radio, and future digital uses of music. Bogard was the witness representing songwriters at the last and now the current Copyright Royalty Board rate setting proceeding. He was also the director of the Copyright Forum.
Bogard was recently unanimously re-elected president of the board of NSAI, and is on the board of MyWerx, voted one of Billboard Magazine's top 10 tech startups of 2010. A former board member of the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation, Bogard is a 1995 graduate of Leadership Music, served on ASCAP's Southern Writers Advisory Board, and has hosted the ASCAP Song Seminar. He is a member of both the Producers and Engineers and the Composers Wing of NARAS, The Recording Academy.
