Background and career
Basil Glen Ballard Jr. (born May 1, 1953) is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing on Wilson Phillips' debut and sophomore albums, Wilson Phillips and Shadows and Light, as well as co-writing and producing on Alanis Morissette's 1995 album Jagged Little Pill and Dave Matthews Band's 2001 album Everyday. As a songwriter, he co-wrote songs including "All I Need", "Man in the Mirror", "Hold On", "Hand in My Pocket", and Josh Groban's "Believe". As a producer, he has worked with Van Halen, Bon Jovi, No Doubt, Shelby Lynne, Goo Goo Dolls, P.O.D., Annie Lennox and others. Ballard founded the production company Augury in 2011. In collaboration with Alan Silvestri, he wrote the score for a musical adaptation of Back to the Future. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2023.
Ballard grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, where he began playing the piano and writing songs at an early age. His maternal grandfather was John R. Junkin, a speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He began playing guitar and playing in a band called the Unknowns beginning in the fourth grade. While attending the University of Mississippi, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he released a solo album. He earned a bachelor's degree in English, journalism, and political science, graduating in 1975.
After college, Ballard moved to Los Angeles with $400 and the phone number of the only person his uncle knew in L.A., a golf pro at the Bel-Air Country Club, whom Ballard called and asked if they knew anyone in the music business. The only person they knew was Tutti Camarata, the owner of Sunset Sound Recorders, who invited Ballard to a recording session. Camerata offered Ballard some studio time, which Ballard used to develop his songwriting, arranging, and production skills. He began working for a division of Rocket Records and continued learning about the music business. In 1978 Ballard wrote a song for Rocket artist Kiki Dee, which led to his being signed as a staff songwriter for MCA Music Publishing.
Ballard wrote, played, and produced an increasing number of songs and projects in the 1980s, contributing to albums by the Pointer Sisters, Paula Abdul, Camilo Sesto, and others. He co-wrote and produced the title track "All I Need" on Jack Wagner's 1984 debut album All I Need. He also co-wrote the song "You Look So Good in Love", a hit for George Strait in 1983 and one of Strait's biggest hits. When a song Ballard co-wrote was included on George Benson's 1980 album Give Me the Night, Quincy Jones took notice of his abilities, and in 1985 Jones hired Ballard as a songwriter and producer for his Qwest Records label. In 1987, when Jones invited a group of songwriters to his home to write hit songs for Michael Jackson's upcoming album, Siedah Garrett and Ballard co-wrote "Man in the Mirror". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, and was certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was nominated for Record of the Year at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards. In 1989, producer Richard Perry introduced Ballard to Wilson Phillips, and they collaborated in his Encino home studio to produce a four-song demo that included the song "Hold On", co-written by Ballard. The demo earned the group a record deal, and Ballard produced the trio's commercially successful debut album, released in 1990. "Hold On" was the album's lead single and won the Billboard Music Award for Hot 100 Single of the Year for 1990. It became a worldwide hit, earning two nominations at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards. In 2017, Billboard ranked the song 15th on its list of "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time".
Ballard and Garrett collaborated with Jackson to write the song "Keep the Faith" from his 1991 album, Dangerous, and the song "I Never Even Told You", included on the soundtrack for the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. In 1992, Ballard worked with Wilson Phillips on their second studio album, Shadows and Light. In March 1994, Ballard's publishing company introduced him to Alanis Morissette, and the two worked together at Ballard's home studio to write and record demos of the songs that became Jagged Little Pill. Ballard and Morissette took the demos to various record labels that passed. In January 1995, they approached Guy Oseary at Maverick Records, who signed Morissette. Released in June 1995, the album was the best-selling album of 1996, and won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album and Album of the Year. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Morissette again collaborated with Ballard on her 1998 follow-up, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Other artists with whom Ballard co-wrote and/or co-produced projects in the 1990s include Curtis Stigers, Lea Salonga, Van Halen, Aerosmith, and The Corrs. In 1997, he launched Java Records as a joint venture with Capitol Records. He wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film Clubland, a music-driven film about an aspiring musician in Los Angeles.
In 2000, Dave Matthews flew to Los Angeles to meet with Ballard with the intention of finishing material for an upcoming Dave Matthews Band album, and ended up co-writing 12 new songs with Ballard in 10 days. Ballard produced the album, Everyday, which was released the next year. In 2001, Ballard's Java label moved from Capitol to the Island/Def Jam family of labels. In 2001 a 17-year-old Katy Perry, then known as Katy Hudson, moved to Los Angeles to work with Ballard due to his past work with Morissette, one of her major inspirations. In 2004 she signed to Ballard's Java Records label and began work on a solo record to be released in 2005, but the record was shelved after the label was dropped. Ballard introduced her to Tim Devine at Columbia Records, where she was signed as a solo artist. Ballard worked with Lisa Marie Presley to develop her debut 2003 albumTo Whom It May Concern, co-writing five of its tracks. He also produced or co-produced albums by No Doubt, Shelby Lynne, Goo Goo Dolls, P.O.D., Annie Lennox, Anouk, and Idina Menzel. Together with Dave Stewart he established Sly-Fi, a production partnership. Ballard co-wrote several songs for film with Alan Silvestri, including "Believe", performed by Josh Groban in The Polar Express (2004), which won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Ballard and Silvestri again collaborated on "Gently as She Goes" and "A Hero Comes Home", performed by Robin Wright and Idina Menzel) in Beowulf (2007); "Butterfly Fly Away", performed by Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009); and "God Bless Us Everyone", performed by Andrea Bocelli in A Christmas Carol (2009).
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
