Bionic Buzz® got to interview country music star and Billboard Top 10 Songwriter Danny Griego over zoom. He is an Arizona-born, Texas-based country singer-songwriter whose music has a rich blend of Outlaw, Cowboy, Americana, and Latin influences. From his early days gigging around Arizona saloons and rodeos, to lengthy stays in Nashville where he forged lifelong friendships with country music icons including late great legends Hank Cochran, and Waylon Jennings, Griego has created a diverse catalog of songs that reflect his personal story.
Some of his songs like ” Twenty Two ” (2018) and the single with Michael Martin Murphey “Lady Liberty” (2014) were written to honor American military veterans; he has made frequent stops to sing at military bases and venues around the country during his tours. Griego’s story is one of destiny: while he was in college earning a business degree, he survived a lightning strike to his body during a fishing trip in Eastern Arizona. While rehabilitating his motor skills, particularly in his right hand, his doctor recommended learning how to play classical guitar. Using his grandfather’s old nylon-string Spanish guitar, Griego taught himself how to fingerpick, and soon found himself dreaming up songs, which he would sing into a tape recorder when he woke up. After college, Griego went on to build a successful career as a businessman, owning several franchises and properties around the Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona area, one of which catered to his musical interests. As owner of Matt’s Saloon in Prescott, Griego and his Country Thunder Band played regularly both there in the region, and in Las Vegas, as he continued to hone his skills as a performer and songwriter.
Red Lane and Danny Griego
Griego eventually made his move to Nashville in the early 2000’s where he forged creative relationships writing with legendary songwriters such as Hank Cochran, Red Lane, Max D. Barnes and John D. Loudermilk. Some of the songs he worked on during this period were collaborated with Waylon Jennings and Billy Joe Shaver, with whom he became friends. A 2007 album, Destination, helped to establish him as a recording artist, though it would be another seven years of hard touring and writing before he delivered its follow-up. With 2014’s Cowboys, Outlaws & Border Town Dogs, Griego dialed-in on an authentic sound that combined his myriad of influences and interests from the maverick Outlaw Country of the 1970s and classic cowboy songs, to more contemporary Americana and Latin that launched one of the albums singles, “The Coast is Clear,” inside the Billboard Top 10.
By then, Griego and his Texas based band of seasoned veteran musicians, “The Cowboy Cartel,” supported the album with more touring, playing a variety of venues, from NHRA pro-stock motorcycle events — (the singer owns a National Hot Rod Association team) — to military bases. His song, “Twenty Two”, saw him collaborate with fellow country singer K.P. Fitz and the two created a short film about the suicide epidemic among war veterans (at the time of the song’s release, there was an average of 22 U.S. veterans taking their own lives daily).
Jessie Colter, Waylon Jennings and Danny Griego
Griego returned in 2019 with the heartfelt single, “You Never Stop Loving Somebody,” which charted in the Top 20 on both Billboard and Mediabase. This year commenced with a shotgun start: recording a defining project co-produced by Griego with the original Outlaw Ritchie Albright; and a collaboration with the legendary Augie Meyers (co-writing and joining forces on “The Whole Enchilada”); a duet with the talented Jessi Colter; the recently released AC follow-up hit single “Inevitable” (charting at #25 on Billboard and Mediabase in the Top 30); and the lost Waylon Jennings duet “At the Crossroads” to be released later this year.
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