Going Crazy (Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe) by Tim James
Tim James is the writer of, among other standards, the song “My List,” recorded by Toby Keith. It has been on albums that sold more than 11 million copies. As James himself says, “Not bad for a Robitussin-selling, basketball-playing, 40-year-old guy that nobody had faith in.”
Yes indeed, and remarkably, James had a #1 song in the country. He was once told he had a better chance of getting struck by lightning than having a #1 hit. One might call that crazy.
In fact, that’s what James calls it in the new memoir of his life, entitled Going Crazy (Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe).
Complicated Path That Often Feels “Crazy”
Each of us, you could argue, has our own degree of crazy, and James’ life and adventures are no exception. Sometimes, just sitting back and reflecting on how and why your journey took the route it did, and depending on how much you are influenced by a spiritual connection, well, the only word to describe it all is “crazy.”
So James was going crazy trying to figure out his life, for a while in his small hometown in Tennessee and then in Los Angeles, and back and forth. James says of his first stint in LA, “countless beach days, lots of endless nights, acting, forming a band, nearly drowning in the ocean, having my brains bashed in with a steel pipe, more twisted ankles in basketball games than I can count, celebrity friends, Carmel, San Diego, Santa Barbara, great food and even better friends.”
James’s childhood is a time of search and discovery, pickup games here and there, scuffles that had ranging effects and learning moments, various relationships, family bonds, faith, and the ultimate decision to follow his dream, first being a singer but eventually a songwriter. But it isn’t that simple – James takes a job as a pharmaceutical salesman while trying to earn a buck. Readers are taken through the various stages of pursuit, the roundabout connections he made that led to opportunities in the music business.
Performing, he found, was “strange and surreal, much like a drug.” But James already had missed the reasonable age window for becoming a performer. “So I focused on what I could do without age limitations: I could write.”
As for writing, James says, “Diving off into the great abyss of creativity is a feeling like no other, but it is scary and exposes vulnerability.”
An In-Depth Character Study
To that end, Going Crazy (Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe) is an in-depth character study. It not only takes readers behind the scenes of the music industry but also behind the scenes into the trials, tribulations, emotions and mind of a man searching for his inner self and battling many of the obstacles we all face in one form or another in this journey called life. James is a convincing writer, letting us into his thoughts and feelings every stop along the way.
James starts each chapter with a verse from a song, to represent his present state of mind and the story he is about to tell. It should come as no surprise to find among his selections the Paul Simon hit, “Still Crazy After All These Years.”
Crazy is in the eye of the beholder. Is it unusual, for instance, for Tim James to choreograph his own death in the very first chapter? That might be crazy, but for all the resilience and determination to live life to the fullest, that’s one performance for which readers, fortunately, will have to wait.
About Tim James:
Tim James is an award-winning songwriter from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Having written standards such as “My List” (Toby Keith), “Give It All We Got Tonight” (George Strait), “Love Like Crazy” (Lee Brice), and others, James has seen the music industry from the inside out, for better and worse, in richer and poorer times. Tim James still writes and performs while continuing to have his songs recorded by some of the biggest names in country music. He is the father of two teenagers and two dogs, happily living in his hometown.
