Vince Gill is weighing in on the rise of AI use in music. The country star was the latest guest on American Songwriter’s Off the Record podcast, and, during his appearance, he told editor-in-chief Lisa Konicki why he’s “not crazy” about AI’s rise.
“I’ve been fooled. I’ve listened to stuff and I heard a singer a while back and I said, ‘Who is this?’” he said. “It’s incredible. I don’t think anybody really can sing that good. I’m not sure I believe it’s real, but the girl was beautiful and soulful and I’m just sitting there going, ‘I want to find this girl and I want her to sing on my record. That’s what I’m looking for.’”
“It is remarkable what the technology can do, but my point is, at some point, you have to admit to yourself you never did anything,” he added. “You didn’t really write that song. You didn’t really record that song. You didn’t really sing that song. So, please don’t jump up and down and tell me how great you are, because you didn’t really do anything.”
Vince Gill Shares Why AI Can Be “Really Detrimental”
With that in mind, Gill said, that he thinks AI can be “really detrimental.”
“It’s taken a lot of work away from musicians with all the demos that are getting done are probably AI generated or Suno,” he said. “All these guys are getting taken out of the loop of being able to get paid to play, and I don’t think that’s right.”
“If the technology is able to take the sound of my voice and replicate it, that’s all I have that’s mine, is the sound of my voice,” Gill continued. “You’re able to take that and go create things with that. That doesn’t quite seem fair to me.”
By contrast, Gill does his songwriting work the old fashioned way—by sitting down and writing.
“I’ll have a little verse, some words. Melodies come pretty easy to me because I’m musical and can play. There’s no one way. Some songs come from a groove… All kinds of songs take you different places,” he said. “I’ve got little snippets of a line or two here and there, and I’ll finally find my way to them and see what makes sense.”
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