Tom Douglas spent the majority of his career operating behind the curtains as a songwriter, penning big hits for Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Lady A, and Chris Janson, among others. His first hit arrived in 1994 when Collin Raye took "Little Rock" to number two on the Country charts, and he gained momentum in the 2000s when McGraw brought Douglas' "Grown Men Don't Cry" and "Southern Voice" to number one. Lambert turned "The House That Built Me" into an award-winning standard in 2010 and, from that point on, Douglas maintained a prominent position in Nashville, with the 2022 film Love, Tom serving as his introduction to the public at large. Accompanying the film was a soundtrack featuring the warm, plain-spoken Douglas singing his songs alongside the vocalists who made his tunes famous.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Tom Douglas was born on January 27, 1953. He fell in love with music as a child, drawn in particular to Elton John and Glen Campbell. He earned an MBA from Georgia State University in 1977 but after spending a few years selling advertising, he decided to ditch his chosen career path to move to Nashville in an attempt to break into the music industry. With the support of a couple of friends, he opened a publishing company, but after four futile years, he agreed to move to Dallas with his wife so they could raise a family.

After 13 years spent raising his family while working in commercial real estate, Douglas revived his songwriting dreams after attending a songwriter seminar in Austin, Texas. There, he met Paul Worley, a producer who shopped a few Douglas originals in Nashville. He found an interested ear in Collin Raye, who cut "Little Rock" and took it to number two on Billboard's Country charts in 1994. "Little Rock" wound up being a massive hit, earning a CMA nomination for Song of the Year, leading Douglas to a deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 1994.

Douglas relocated to Nashville in 1997, and a year later Jim Brickman took their co-write "The Gift" to number one. The songwriter connected with Tim McGraw in 2001 and the pair wrote the number one hits "Grown Men Don't Cry" and "Southern Voice." The pair also collaborated on My Little Girl, a children's book published in 2008.

Douglas's next big hit arrived in 2009 when he co-wrote "I Run to You" for Lady A. The next year, he and Allen Shamblin co-wrote "The House That Built Me," which became a Grammy Award-winning Country Song of the Year after Miranda Lambert recorded it. The song turned into a modern standard with the ACM's first-ever award for Song of the Decade.

Early in 2011, Douglas was nominated for a Best Original Song Academy Award for "Coming Home," a song featured in the 2010 Gwyneth Paltrow film Country Strong; it also received a similar nod from the Golden Globes.

Tim McGraw turned "Meanwhile Back at Mama" into a Grammy-nominated hit in 2014, the same year Douglas was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His stirring acceptance speech slowly went viral online; eventually, Douglas took inspiration from Springsteen on Broadway and turned it into an hour-long one-man show which in turn became the impetus for his 2022 film Love, Tom.

In 2015, Douglas landed another number one country hit when Keith Urban and Eric Church recorded "Raise 'Em Up;" it also received a nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Douglas collaborated with Shamblin on Shatter the Madness, a multi-media project built around some of the pair's songs. In addition to writing, Douglas sang on Shatter the Madness, taking lead on a version of "The House That Built Me."

In 2018, he had a hit with "Drunk Girl," recorded by Chris Janson. The next year brought "Dear Hate," a song recorded by Maren Morris and Vince Gill that received a nomination for Country Song of the Year from the Grammys.

In 2022, Douglas released Love, Tom, the film inspired by his 2014 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame acceptance speech. Released simultaneously with the film's streaming premiere, the soundtrack featured Douglas' versions of his best-known songs sung in conjunction with such guests as Lady A, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert, and Chris Janson. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi