Dean Dillon was born on March 26, 1955, in Lake City, TN, and learned to play guitar at a young age. At 15, he appeared in a local Knoxville variety show as a songwriter and performer; by the end of high school, Dillon had his mind set on Nashville. Almost as soon as he arrived in Music City, Dillon was on his way. He met songwriter Frank Dycus, who introduced him to idol and honky tonk legend Merle Haggard. He also worked with ex-Porter Wagoner fiddler Mac McGahey's combo at the Opryland theme park. In 1976, he landed the role of Hank Williams in the Country Music Show at Opryland. While there, a friend introduced him to songwriter John Schweers, who became Dillon's mentor. Three weeks later, Barbara Mandrell recorded three of Dillon's songs. In 1979, Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius had a number one hit with his "Lying Here in Love with You." Between 1979-1983, Dillon charted eight times, and broke the Top 30 with "I'm into the Bottle (To Get You Out of My Mind)." He also wrote hits for other country stars, like the 1983 George Jones hit "Tennessee Whiskey." These successes established Dillon as a performer and songwriter; however, they were also a telling reminder of his bouts with drug and alcohol abuse. In late 1983, a freshly rehabbed Dillon was paired by new label RCA with Gary Stewart, the "King of the Honky Tonkers." The two mens' vices fed off of one another, and while their two bleary, good-timing albums were successful (especially 1982's Brotherly Love), the partnership had little use for the straight and narrow. After Those Were the Days, Dillon took a five-year hiatus from recording, cleaned up his personal life, and concentrated on songwriting. He wrote or co-wrote a number of hits during this period, and had considerable success with George Strait, who took five of his songs to the charts between 1985-1988. The exposure landed Dillon a new contract with Capitol, who released two Ricky Scruggs-produced albums, Slick Nickel and I've Learned to Live. The latter featured the Tanya Tucker duet "Don't You Even Think About Leaving." Dillon next signed with Atlantic, where he issued his most successful album. 1991's Out of Your Ever Lovin' Mind referenced the hard country of Dillon's heroes, but it also flirted with pop. The LP was lauded as a throwback, an answer to Nashville's penchant for vapidity. While he stopped performing, Dillon's songwriting career thrived for the rest of the 1990s, as he continued to work with Strait and newer faces like Kenny Chesney. In 2002, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (along with Bob Dylan and Shel Silverstein). Early the following year, Dillon signed a songwriting contract with Sony/ATV Tree, which came after his 15-year relationship with Acuff Rose, a smaller publishing company Sony acquired in July 2002. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide