Joe Scaife

Joe Carlos Scaife (November 26, 1955 – June 12, 2024) was an American music producer and recording engineer based in Nashville, who produced many mainstream country hit records over a 25 year span in the late 20th and early 21st century. Among them are K.T. Oslin's "80s Ladies", Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart", and the Gretchen Wilson's songs "Redneck Woman" and "Here for the Party". The hallmark of Scaife's career was his ability to recognize potential in unknown performers, then pair the newcomers with perfect country songs that fit them. As a music producer, engineer and singer, Joe Scaife was responsible for selling 80 million records. Music critic Robert K. Oermann called it "the anthem of a generation". Scaife's production of it was released on Cyrus' album Some Gave All in 1992. It won both Scaife and Cotton a CMA Award for"single of the year."

In 2003, Scaife produced the song "Redneck Woman", a song by a former bartender at Nashville's Printer's Alley named Gretchen Wilson. Critic Markus K. Dowling called it an "iconic swampy, rocking country classic".

Death and legacy Scaife died in Franklin, Tennessee on June 12, 2024, at the age of 68.

Scaife and his family lobbied Belmont University to pursue the creation a music business program, a dream championed by his father Cecil Scaife. It eventually led to the creation of Belmont's "The Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business", a successful institution that reached its 50th anniversary as of 2024. Joe Scaife and his two sisters created the "Cecil Scaife Endowed Scholarship" to provide financial assistance to prospective students.