Industry Celebrates Parmalee’s Fifth No. 1 Hit

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Pictured (L-R, back row): Adrian Michaels, Josh Tomlinson, Matt Turner, Abram Dean, Greg Gallo, David Fanning, Andy Friday, Andy Sheridan, Kari Barnhart, Tom Luteran, JoJamie Hahr, Jon Loba; (L-R, front row): Scott Thomas, Matt Thomas, Josh McSwain, Barry Knox; Photo: Larry McCormack

BMI brought Parmalee and their team together on Wednesday evening (Jan. 15) to celebrate the group’s fifth No. 1 hit “Gonna Love You.”

Industry members, friends and family gathered inside the warm lobby of BMI before receiving an equally warm welcome from BMI’s Josh Tomlinson. Gathered on stage behind him were songwriters Abram Dean, David Fanning and Andy Sheridan alongside Parmalee’s Matt Thomas, Scott Thomas, Barry Knox and Joshua McSwain.

Tomlinson began by congratulating Parmalee’s Thomas, a co-writer on the track, along with manager and producer Fanning on their significant achievement of five No. 1s. He then turned the spotlight to Sheridan and Dean to present them with a custom Taylor guitar for penning their first No. 1 track.

Reservoir’s Greg Gallo was the first to speak, congratulating Parmalee with a commemorative plaque and a special donation in their name to MusiCares. Following Gallo, Concord’s Matt Turner took to the podium to speak about Dean, praising, “Abram is a dream songwriter to work with, he is talented, he sings his butt off and he is just an amazing friend.” Turner then joked, “I told him that after he has multiple No. 1s I am going to change his name to Abraham because he will be the father of many hits.”

To speak on Sheridan, Major Bob’s Andy Friday stepped up, saying, “The thing I look up to Andy the most for is the way he lives his life, it’s Jesus first, then his family and then his job. If you look behind the scenes, and look at his family, that is how you figure out someone’s true character and their work ethic and Andy has both.”

Other speakers included Sony Music Publishing’s Tom Luteran, Studio Bank’s Kari Barnhart, who presented a donation to The Mental Health Initiative in the crew’s honor, and Stoney Creek’s JoJamie Hahr and Adrian Michaels.

Of the songwriters, Sheridan spoke first, “When I was really young and wanted to quit piano lessons, my parents told me, ‘When you make a commitment you don’t quit.’ Thank you to my wife, family and Major Bob for not quitting on me. Most of all, thank you God for this blessing and thank you God that when you make a commitment you don’t quit.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t cry first,” teased Dean. “The word on my mind is thank you – thank you to Matt, David and my wife for keeping me sane as this song slowly worked its way up the chart for 60,000 weeks.”

Fanning spoke next, congratulating the songwriters, “For me, there is no better two people to have a number one with. These are two of the most hard working and talented guys I have ever worked with. I am in awe of y’all’s talent.”

Finally, Matt, Scott, Barry and Joshua closed out by thanking their co-writers, label, video production team and families, “Thank you so much to everyone in here who had a hand in making this song go No. 1 and everyone who stood beside us. We truly appreciate you.”

John Nix Arledge
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