About John Cirillo
“So I wrote this song with
John Cirillo.”
John Cirillo was a prominent Nashville songwriter, mentor, and friend. You always knew someone who knew him, if you didn’t know him yourself. He seemed to be everywhere at once. Often you’d walk into any writer’s night and hear someone say from the stage, “So I wrote this song with John Cirillo…”
John had an incredible knack for building community wherever he went. You know you were in good company if you were in any room with him.
Sadly, John passed away from brain cancer at the age of 67 on September 12, 2022.
This scholarship was created in his honor, to continue his legacy: Write great songs with great people, and support them in this industry.
Decades of Songs, from California to Nashville, Tennessee.
John Cirillo was an award winning songwriter who has spent the last 8 years in Nashville getting to co-write with some of the most talented young singer/songwriters in town.
John has had over 30 cuts from independent and signed artists. And did he have stories! Within eleven months of moving to Nashville, Taylor Hicks, American Idol Winner of season 5, recorded John’s song “One Of Those Nights”. Sadly before the song came out, Taylor was dropped from the label and the recording was never released. “Welcome to Nashville, John!”.
John also scored one of his first sync licenses in November 2019, co-writing the “theme song” for the non-profit group, Inspire Kindness, titled, Keep It Kind, with singer/songwriter Nicole Lewis, which was featured internationally with it’s released in 2020.
In September 2019 he had his first independent radio number #1 song , Moving Day, released by Jennifer Belle and co-written with Sarah Spencer and Sam Gyllenhaal. He also is proud of the single release and music video of his song, If You Drink, performed by Country Rocker Chris Turner and co-written with Sarah Spencer and Dan Reifsnyder. Chris Turner, a Marine Vet, has used the song as a cornerstone of his on-going effort to bring awareness to the important issue of PTSD.
From his bio, “John is grateful to be living his dream of being a songwriter and blessed with the support of his beautiful wife, Ruth, and his dog (and constant co-writer), Micky.”
The John Cirillo Songwriting Scholarship
What others may not know about John unless they’ve known him themselves, is how involved and generous he was in the lives of his artist and songwriter friends.
Throughout the course of his music career, he took countless aspiring writers and artists under his wing. This took many forms: Sometimes it was paying for much-needed demos, pitching their music on their behalf, setting them up with industry connections, or simply giving advice based on a life well-lived and many lessons learned.
