Phil Vassar photo by Jim Wright, courtesy of Universal Records South.

He may be an acclaimed performer and chief executive of a successful business venture, but he's also the son of a factory worker from a small, Southern, lunch pail town.

"I grew up poor," Phil says. "Not middle class, we were just poor. You don't really know it or understand it when you're a kid. I never had a car. I didn't have one even college. I'd have never even gone to college if I couldn't run fast or jump high."

The track scholarship to JMU gave Phil a way out of a town where there were only two career options – both factories, and it was college where his musical passions first took serious hold. He moved to Nashville and banged out a living playing piano in local clubs while writing original music and pursuing an artist deal. His father's work-a-day ethos propelled him through the long-odds gauntlet Nashville poses for arriving aspirants.

"My dad worked at a GE plant, and even though I don't make minimum wage I still work my ass off," Phil says. "Even today, I still have that work ethic where you feel like if you don't work hard you're not going to eat. That's something my dad instilled in me and my sisters. I'm not in that desperate place anymore where I'm wondering if I should buy gas or milk, but I can definitely relate to that guy."

Hard work paid off for Phil, first as a songwriter. He scored hits with Alan Jackson ("Right On The Money"), Tim McGraw ("For A Little While"), Jo Dee Messina ("Bye Bye," "I'm Alright") and BlackHawk ("Postmarked Birmingham"). His self-titled artist debut bowed in 2000 on Arista/Nashville, and the hits continued to pile up: "Carlene," "Rose Bouquet," "That's When I Love You," "In A Real Love" and more. He was named ASCAP's songwriter or writer/artist of the year multiple times.

His early success as a writer led, last year, to one of the most unique hits packages to come out of Nashville in recent years. With only three studio albums under his belt, Phil offered up Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which was split between hits he's had as an artist, as well as new recordings of the smash singles he'd written for others.

The release closed a chapter for Phil, with Prayer Of A Common Man opening another. "I loved Arista," he says. "When I first started out it was the renegade label, but with all the mergers it has been through there are a lot of artists over there now. I was always the guy who wrote his own songs and produced his own records so it was kind of, 'Well, he's okay. Let's worry about the other artists who need more help.'