Paul Overstreet
Musician · b. 1955 · Vancleave, Mississippi
Best known for
Songwriter
Paul Overstreet is a Mississippi-born Nashville country songwriter whose catalog includes Randy Travis’s “On the Other Hand” and “Forever and Ever, Amen,” Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing at All,” and the Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge.” BMI named him Country Songwriter of the Year five years in a row from 1987 to 1991 — a streak no other writer has matched.
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- Born Paul Lester Overstreet on March 17, 1955, in Vancleave, Mississippi, the youngest of five children of a Baptist minister.
- Moved to Nashville at eighteen with ten original songs and a guitar.
- Placed his first major cut in 1982 with George Jones’s “Same Ole Me.”
- Co-wrote “On the Other Hand” (with Don Schlitz) and “Forever and Ever, Amen” for Randy Travis; both reached No. 1 country in 1986 and 1987.
- Co-wrote “When You Say Nothing at All” with Don Schlitz; Keith Whitley’s 1988 recording reached No. 1 country, Alison Krauss’s 1995 version reached the country Top 5, and Ronan Keating’s 1999 cover hit No. 1 in the UK.
- Charted twenty-seven Top-Ten country songs as a writer or co-writer.
- Won two Grammy Awards and the ACM and CMA Song of the Year awards in 1987 and 1988.
- Named BMI Country Songwriter of the Year five consecutive years, 1987 through 1991 — an unmatched streak.
- Sang in the trio S-K-O (Schuyler, Knobloch & Overstreet) in 1986–87; the group’s “Baby’s Got a New Baby” reached No. 1 country.
- Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and announced as a 2026 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee.