Diamond Rio enjoyed one of the biggest hits of their career with their Grammy Awards-nominated single “One More Day.” The song, which was released as a single in 2000, became a No. 1 hit on the country charts and a Top 10 hit pop hit as well.
Diamond Rio admit they had no idea how powerful “One More Day” — which was written by Bobby Tomberlin and Steven Dale Jones — would be. Below, the band’s lead singer Marty Roe and Diamond Rio guitarist / dobro player / banjo player Jimmy Olander share with The Boot the story behind “One More Day.”
Jimmy Olander: [One time we played at the Grand Ole Opry] and Bobby Tomberlin, one of the writers, came out. I’m standing there in the green room — and Bobby, he used to work for Bill Anderson, for years — and there was one of these Opry cast pictures. I was like, “Bobby, come over here. Is this Roy Acuff?” They’re all holding banjos; Uncle Dave Macon was in it.
We’re sitting there talking, and he brings up “One More Day.” He says, “I was here with Bill Anderson.” He points to the other wall, where they now have the iron where it signifies where the flood [waters rose to in the Grand Ole Opry House during the 2010 Nashville flood]. He says, “There was a phone right over there, and I had my messages forwarded to the Opry line. I took the call from you, on that phone, telling me that you guys had cut “One More Day.” Standing right here.”
Now Bill Anderson drifts into the conversation, and he’s hearing Bobby say that. He says, “You know what? Bobby played that song for me. He had a Walkman with it.” He heard the cut. He listened to it, and he says, “Well, I guess you’re going to be quitting.”
Marty Roe: When we cut it, we just thought it was a great love song. We loved it. There was no way we could have guessed just how much it would mean to our career and to our fans.
They used it in a lot different ways than I think we ever would have dreamed of: as a memorial to Dale Earnhardt; on 9/11, it took off and had a resurgence after that. It seemed to say what people wanted to hear and what they wanted to say about somebody they lost.
We hear stories and see people at every show that tell us how much that song meant to them. So, it definitely took on a life of its own. We picked it, we cut it, we loved it, but we sure didn’t know that it would have the impact that it did.
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TheBoot.com
