Mark Wills

It’s obvious that Wills is intent on being a good father (as he pauses to tell the folks in the background to wash their hands before touching the baby). But at the same time, his career is taking off and now is no time to think about taking a break.

“I got some great advice a few months ago and that was the baby is coming into my life,” Wills said. “I worked a long time to get to where I am and so the baby’s just gonna have to learn that she can travel with daddy and that kind of stuff while we take care of the business that needs to be taken care of.”

With a child to support, success has taken on a new meaning for Wills. “This is how I make my living and if I quit doing this, my baby doesn’t eat,” he said. “And trust me, she likes to eat.”

His motivations may have changed since Wills landed his first longterm nightclub gig at age 17, but the objective remains the same — stardom. And he’s well on his way, carrying a new maturity to his music. The first two singles from his second Mercury Nashville release, Wish You Were Here, “I Do (Cherish You)” and “Don’t Laugh At Me,” have hit No. 1 on the country charts.

Wills got much of his live performance experience at the Buckboard Country Music Showcase in Marietta, Ga. The singer of the club’s house band left, leaving a great opportunity wide open. “And I just kind of lucked into it, basically,” Wills said.

“It was a very fortunate move for me because I got to go from just singing in little dives around Atlanta to the Buckboard Country Music Showcase, which was a showcase place where a lot of nationally-known acts come in. It was a wonderful opportunity for me.”

Working at the Buckboard for five-and-a-half years was also an opportunity for Wills to learn about the business aspect of his career. “I didn’t have any kind of knowledge about this part of the business because I was so new,” Wills said. “You had to learn pretty quick.”

Handling his own business for a time, Wills said he managed to screw himself out of a lot of things. “I messed up some things in my career that I should have done differently, but fortunately, it didn’t cost me,” he said. “It wasn’t something that was a big major deal or anything like that, but a great learning experience.”

Fortunately, Buckboard owner John Gallichio took an interest in Wills’ career. Over the years, the two became close and Gallichio started managing the singer.

“I liked his business sense. And I thought of him more as a dad. I didn’t think of him as just a manager,” Wills said. “He and I have a great relationship. It’s very rare that an artist has somebody that they can fully trust as much as I do him.”

Gallichio still owns the Buckboard but expends much of his energy managing Wills through his Star * Ray Management company.

While Wills refined his live skills performing at the nightclub, he also worked as a demo singer. The combination of his live and recorded performances caught the attention of Mercury Nashville. As fate would have it, Gallichio was trying to pitch the label at the same time.

“[Mercury] had heard a few of my demos over there and liked my voice and got in touch with us,” Wills said. “And my manager had called them and they finally realized that they were looking for the same guy that we were calling about.”

After seeing Wills play at the Buckboard, it was pretty much a done deal with Mercury.

Though his self-titled debut for the label garnered a couple of hit songs, it didn’t translate into the record sales that he and Mercury had hoped for. While he doesn’t have a definite answer for that lag in sales, Wills isn’t overanalyzing the situation. All he knows is his current album is doing well so Mercury must be doing something right. “If something’s not broke, you don’t fix it,” he said.

Hmmm, sounds a little like fatherly advice. Speaking of which, what will Wills tell his daughter, Mally, if she decided to follow in Daddy’s footsteps and become a performer?

“It’s a decision she’ll have to make,” Wills said. “I will steer as much as I possibly can but you have to let them learn. That’s a lot easier said now than it will be done later.”

As he becomes accustomed to fatherhood, Wills is on the road touring the States headlining his own gigs and opening for Randy Travis on several dates this month.