Tompkins signed his first publishing deal at age 22, moving to Nashville, Tennessee. In 2002 he and Joe Doyle co-wrote a song for J. Michael Harter, and in 2004 Tompkins had his first hit on the Billboard charts, co-writing "Me and Emily" by Rachel Proctor. He also co-wrote "Time Machine" on Shelly Fairchild's 2005 album Ride, as well as "I'm Gone" on Bo Bice's 2007 See the Light album. He started working with Big Loud Shirt Industries during the summer of 2006 as a songwriter. He and songwriter Josh Kear wrote the platinum seller "Before He Cheats", sung by Carrie Underwood and released in 2007. It was named 2007 Single of the Year by the Country Music Association. Tompkins won the 2007 MusicRow "Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year" award and was honored as the Alabama Music Hall of Fame songwriter of the year. The following year "Before He Cheats" won several categories at the 50th Grammy Awards, including Country Song of the Year. While at the awards Tompkins befriended Tom Higgenson of the indie rock group Plain White T's. They soon began to collaborate, and Tompkins has since co-written several songs on their albums, including "Welcome To Mystery" on Almost Alice. Tompkins co-wrote the song "Voices" along with Chris Young and Craig Wiseman in 2008, which peaked at No. 37 on Hot Country Songs, and would later reach No. 1 when released in 2010. In 2009 Tompkins wrote "Don't Cost a Dime" on Martina McBride's Shine album.
2010-12: Increased output
In 2010 he co-wrote the song "Ain't Back Yet" with Kenny Chesney. The song reached No. 2 on the country charts, and also appeared in Chesney's movie Summertime in 3-D. Also in 2010, he co-wrote "Kiss Me When I'm Down" by Gary Allan. He worked on a number of charting singles in 2011, including the Chris Young single "Voices." He co-wrote the duet "I Feel Like a Rockstar" in 2012, performed by Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw. He collaborated with Underwood once again on her 2012 album Blown Away, notably on the second single of the same name. The single was co-written with his frequent collaborator Josh Kear, and as noted by interviewer Kurt Wolff, "the melody and overall sound of the song also stand out as something fresh and very different." Tompkins explained to Wolff that "Blown Away" was an "attempt at 'melodic pop' that was 'unique' yet still 'country.'" Tompkins also commented that "Blown Away" is "It's a completely different type of song for Carrie. She's got a lot of pop elements, and I listen to a lot of pop, but I listen to everything from Randy Newman to Mozart to Rihanna to Steely Dan. I think all that stuff shows up in my music, and I think it showed up in 'Blown Away.'" The single peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song.
2013-14: Recent projects
He also co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's 2013 single "Get Your Shine On" with Rodney Clawson, peaking at #5 on the Hot Country Songs and #1 on the Country Airplay charts. He also co-wrote The Band Perry's 2013 single "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" and Frankie Ballard's 2013 single "Helluva Life". At the 2013 ASCAP Country Music Awards he was awarded "Song of the Year" for Luke Bryan's "Drunk on You". "Jumped Right In" by Canadian country rock artist Dallas Smith was nominated for Single of the Year at the 2013 Canadian Country Music Association Awards. "Lookin' for That Girl" is a song recorded by American country music singer Tim McGraw, released in January 2014. Co-writer James T. Slater told Roughstock that the idea came when writing with Mark Irwin, who suggested that the two write with Tompkins. Slater said that he had an idea that "wasn't really fitting anything" when Tompkins played a loop on a drum machine and came up with the song's title. He also co-wrote the song "Drunk on a Plane", recorded by Dierks Bentley and released in April 2014. It is Bentley's 18th career single to peak in the top 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay chart and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. He co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's 2014 single "Dirt" and co-wrote Jason Aldean's 2014 single "Burnin' It Down", which both peaked at #1 on the Hot Country Singles chart after only 2 weeks in release. The songs hit #11 and #12 on the all genre BillboardHot 100 singles chart.
