Keith Stegall's on top of the world. As an honest to goodness "jack-of-all-trades," Stegall currently works at Mercury Nashville as the vice president of A&R, bringing new acts to the label like Terri Clark and Kim Richey; he's an accomplished songwriter; he produces such acts as Alan Jackson and Sammy Kershaw and he's a proud father of three.

In an effort to further his musical prevalence, he's also affixed the title, Artist, to that list by recording his own album, "Passages."

The road to Nashville for this Texas-native started at the age of four when he began playing the piano. With his father, Bob, as a steel guitar player for country legend Johnny Horton, Stegall attended country concerts at The Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport before he was even in school. At eight, he made his stage debut at a local hoe-down in Tyler, Texas.

Four years later he took up guitar and joined a rock and soul band called The Pacesetters. By 15, Stegall turned to folk sounds and began writing his first songs. In high school he toured in a folk group called The Cheerful Givers and wrote gospel tunes. During his college years in Shreveport he ironically worked in both churches and bars, honing his conducting/arranging skills in one and his showmanship in the other.

Following the advice of Kris Kristofferson, Stegall moved to Nashville in 1978 and had immediate success as a songwriter. In fact, three months after arriving, he co-wrote his first hit, Dr. Hook's 1980 pop smash "Sexy Eyes." A host of other acts recorded his songs, including Al Jarreau, who hit big with "We're In This Love Together." Those in Nashville also took notice of his talents. Such acts as Conway Twitty, Charley Pride, Jerry Reed, George Strait and Steve Wariner recorded his material.

He also had his share of success as an artist. First at Capitol in 1980, he did a two-year stint starting in 1984 at Epic Records, yielding his big solo hits, "Pretty Lady" and "California." Despite being nominated for the Top New Male Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music awards in 1985, Stegall became disillusioned and left the spotlight.

It wasn't until Nashville nightclub singer Randy Travis asked him to produce a $5,000 album that Stegall once again made his mark in country music. He also landed back on his songwriting feet when Ronnie Milsap took "Stranger Things Have Happened" up the charts in 1990.

Meanwhile, one of his songwriting partners continued asking him to produce a tape to pitch for a record label contract. In 1990, he finally gave in and produced his songwriting partner, Alan Jackson. Since that time he's produced all of Jackson's albums and co-written three of his number one hits.

How long has this album been in the works?

It was before I even had the chance to make the record or even a record deal. This goes back to three years ago. I was determined that I was going to make a record again, and I began to turn down projects and open some space to do the record. Then all this other stuff happened in the mean time, coming here. We actually started recording the record in November, a year ago. The record was finished in May. I took a little more time on this than I thought I was going to take.

You wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the album. Is it important to you to have most of your stuff on there?

For this particular album because it is more of a concept album than most records are. For the first time, I knew there were songs on here that I needed to say. The center-piece song on the album is a song called, "Middle-Aged Man." Everything else kind of found its way around that song. Once I kind of got the focus on that, I really began to write quite a bit.

Are you critical of your work?

Probably so. Probably harder on myself than anybody else is. Especially things that I write by myself. When you're co-writing you can bounce things off your co-writer. When you're writing by yourself you sometimes second-guess yourself too much.

I was reading in your bio about a time when you went into a slump. What was that time like, especially since you are so successful now?

I came to town and got really lucky early on and had a couple of huge pop records as a writer, and it was like that was a rarity in this town. I took it for granted. I took a lot of things for granted the first time around. Then career things went side-ways, and the artist thing went side-ways, and getting songs cut finally ground to a halt. All of a sudden this thing that I thought was so easy and would always be there, wasn't there any more. Nobody was calling for my songs. Nobody was cutting my songs. It gave me a real dose of what it was like to be outside of the circle again. I told myself, "If you get a shot at a second wind in this career you need to really appreciate it and never take one bit of it for granted. That's kind of where I've been since things turned around for me. They can turn around very quickly. That's just the way this business is.

What, in your mind, makes this album different?

Probably the songs. (Laugh) This record is pretty much a grown-up record. I did pay attention, because there are some things that obviously work for radio. That's part of the whole thing. You've got to get your music heard. Somebody asked me not too long ago, "Why do you want to do this thing and be a star again?" I said, "It's not about being a star; it's about being an artist." The music to me is more of an artistic impression of things I really needed to say for my own head and make the music from that place instead of, "Well, let's have a hit record and do this and sell T-shirts." Not that that stuff isn't all part of it, but to me it was the chance to make the music that I really wanted to make and not compromise it.

Do you have an advantage over other acts because you hold an executive position with the label that you also have a deal with?

Only to the degree that I watch what's going on, but I don't have any secret buttons to push. I wish I did. I'd be pushing them. Only to the extent that I'm allowed to see how hard everybody has to work to get a hit. Most of these people are my friends around here. It's tough for anybody though. Sometimes I wonder if it's not even tough for me after being out there and doing it the second time around.

As the vice president of A&R, would you sign yourself?

That's kind of like asking yourself if you would hire yourself. Probably not because you know what your weaknesses are....That's a hard question because you can't be objective. I probably wouldn't because I'd go, "I know what you'll do when you get in this situation."

If you had to prioritize all the things you're doing as far as singer, songwriter, producer and so on, where do those fall?

Above all these other things, before I am a producer or an A& R guy, I'm a songwriter first because that's what brought me to town. I still believe that old saying, "Dance with the one that brought you." It's the one thing that insures my sanity. If the world should fall apart on me tomorrow, I can always write a song and know that I can always survive in this business as a songwriter. After that, it would be a selfish thing to put my own artistic ambitions above the roster that I've tried to create here. When I came in here my intentions were to help build a roster that would be successful and then launch my own career. I guess being a producer/A&R guy would come in there next. Then my artistry. I kind of put it in it's own proper place until the timing's right.

Are you going to tour at all?

That's been discussed. My feeling about that is this. Touring is an expensive little hobby to have, and without a hit record, unless you just want to go out there and play honky tonks just for the sake of playing. My world really consists of writing and producing and artistry, so to cut into that is defeating the whole purpose of what I'm about. If the record continues to react the way that it's reacting and we get a hit record off it and then the second single seems to do well, then it's time to say, "yeah, let's talk about putting a band together and heading out."

Does a lot of that stem from the first time you had an album out?

Absolutely, man. I learned a lot out there. I learned what not to do. I was out there touring without a hit record, with a bus and band, and I could just feel myself getting crunched out there. The first thing I decided was that I'll never, ever own a bus again. If I ever use a bus again it will be leased, so when it breaks down in the Mojave Desert, you can get on the phone and go, "You've got a bus that's broken down out here. Come get it because I'm gettin' out of here." I learned a lot the first time around.