Dwayne O'Brien

Biography

Dwayne O'Brien is a native Oklahoman who moved to Nashville in 1987 after graduating college with a degree in chemistry that he earned on a music scholarship. In 1988, O'Brien co-founded the country band Little Texas which went on to chart 15 top-ten singles, three number-ones, and sell over seven million albums on the Warner Brothers label. The group also collected three Grammy nominations and garnered the Academy of Country Music award for vocal group of the year, and the CMA award for album of the year for their contribution to Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles. O'Brien has enjoyed success as a songwriter having co-written the majority of the band's hits including the number-two "Kick a Little," and the number-one country and pop crossover hit "What Might Have Been." O'Brien also co-wrote the Hall and Oates hit "A Promise Ain't Enough."

Since earning a master's degree from Vanderbilt University in interdisciplinary communications in 2005, O'Brien has been a regular contributor to Vanderbilt's scientific journal Exploration and Vanderbilt Magazine. O'Brien continues to write, tour and record with Little Texas, and loves teaching at Belmont, flying, and golf. He makes his home in Brentwood, Tennessee with his wife Delisa, and sons Dylan and Dawson. They attend Brentwood Baptist Church.