Unpredictable country star Phil Vassar heads to Hoover

Country music star Phil Vassar rolls into Hoover on May 6 for two shows to close the 2016-2017 season at the Hoover Library Theatre.

But you never know what you’re going to hear when you go to a Vassar concert.

“We never have a set list,” the 52-year-old Vassar said in a phone interview from his home in Nashville. “We never do the same show twice. It’s fun. It’s very impromptu — on the fly.”

He and his band might play some of the Billboard Hot Country No. 1 tunes he wrote and recorded, such as “Just Another Day in Paradise,” or they might pick one of the hit songs he wrote for other artists such as Tim McGraw, Jo Dee Messina, Collin Raye and Alan Jackson.

It could be something from his first self-titled album in 1999 that earned gold certification for shipping more than 500,000 copies, or they might pick a song from one of the seven other albums he has recorded since then.

“The guys don’t know what we’re playing. I don’t know what we’re playing. It keeps it fresh,” Vassar said.

So many shows these days are so choreographed where people do the same songs and even the same head bobs every night, Vassar said. “It almost loses its soul.”

He prefers to fly by the seat of his pants and walk without a net, he said.

But folks who show up for his shows in Hoover likely will get to hear some of his newest material, he said.

On May 15, Vassar plans to release an addendum to his “American Soul” album that came out in November, he said. The new 16-song album, called “American Soul Summer,” will have five new songs on it, he said.

Since the late 1990s, Vassar has written 10 No. 1 country songs and 26 top-40 hits. He was named Country Songwriter of the Year twice by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Vassar grew up in Virginia and went to James Madison University on an athletic scholarship, playing quarterback on the football team and running the decathlon on the track team. The work ethic needed for sports prepared him well for a music career, where his heart has always been, he said.

“All I ever wanted to do was be a singer,” he said. “Music was just something that was in my soul.”

Vassar grew up listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Joel, Elton John and Merle Haggard, and his dad was a big George Jones fan.

“Lionel Richie was my hero,” he said. Listening to him and Joel is what inspired him to play the piano, he said. The first song he learned to play was “Easy Like Sunday Morning.”

Vassar left college and moved to Nashville in 1986.

“The second I pulled into town, I knew this was my home,” he said.

He got a job as a bartender, taught himself to play the piano, started playing in bars and later bought a bar where he frequently performed. He struggled for years but finally earned a name for himself as a songwriter before making it big as a singer.

He’s written fun party songs to slow ballads and reflective pieces about God. The key to songwriting is to find songs about real life and topics people can relate to, he said.

He and his band tour all year long, though they took a month off in March. He’s looking forward to a Christmas tour with Kellie Pickler, he said.

Vassar came to the 250-seat Hoover Library Theatre once before in 2014 and said he enjoys the opportunity to play in smaller, more intimate venues.

“It’s like you’re sitting in your living room and can talk to folks,” he said. “We love it.”