Lucy Woodward Wasn’t A Pop Puppet

Lucy Woodward, who has been singing in New York clubs and commercials since she was 16, made it clear to Billboard.com that she didn’t let a major producer come in and shape her first album. “I’ve been writing for the past five years, but the last year I got really serious about it,” Woodward said. “I had written half these songs before I met John, and I wanted to work with him for a long time, before he produced Michelle Branch and became ‘John Shanks.’ I knew I was going to make a guitar-based record, and I loved what he did. When you’re the new act on Atlantic Records, people come forward and try to work with you, but I was like, ‘No, it has to be John.’”