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| Jamey Johnson performing one of his many hit songs. Photo by Jessica Bray of Kentucky Country Music. |
When it comes to curating a
sound of traditional country music, Jamey Johnson has made a name for himself
in the music community. It has been over
17 years that he landed in Nashville after living his life running the music
circuit throughout Alabama and Georgia.
The journey has taken him on major stages, but also smaller intimate
settings that are perfect for the listener to take in all that is being sung
through the soul of Jamey Johnson.
This past weekend, Jamey Johnson
performed for a double night stay at Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. Having performed at the venue for many years
now, it and the fans have formed a special bond thanks to the power of music.
Prior to his show, I had the
opportunity to sit down and speak with Jamey Johnson over his journey, as well
as personal encounters, stories behind songs, and more. Below is that conversation and I hope that
you enjoy reading it. Be sure to check
out Jamey Johnson’s website for future concert dates and music at www.jameyjohnson.com.
Kentucky
Country Music: You have developed a
pretty strong fanbase in Kentucky over the years. However, out of all of the venues, you always
come back to Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. What makes this place special for you?
Jamey Johnson: The
first time I played Renfro Valley, I didn't know anything about the history of
it. I didn’t know anything about it at
all, but after I got done with the show that night I knew it was
different. It was different from just
about everywhere else we would play. I
don't know to what degree is more so, but the fans were just so welcoming and
attentive of what we were playing and respectful. Over the years, I think fans in general have
just become that way with me more so at the different venues too, but at that
time it was a little more uncommon than you know. Most of the places we would play with big
crowd, but the crowd that came that night, they were good to us. I don't mean insinuate that anybody else was
any less enthusiastic about what we were doing.
It was just different. I don’t
know how to tell you.
It was just more of a family type environment. It reminded me of living rooms when I was
growing up. We played guitar in the
living rooms of the church members. I
remember us going to one of the Deacon’s houses where my Sunday School teachers
and Kindergarten teacher were all gathered around. We’d break out guitars and play music; and
afterwards or in between, we’d have dinner.
Everybody bring a covered dish and that sort of thing. Those kinds of deal just got to be so big
after a while and it that was fun to be a part of. I think that’s what Renfro Valley felt like
to me after that first show.
I went outside by the merch stand and stood there for hours
while people came by. And not just to
get autographs and take pictures, but to tell us how much they loved us and
that sort of thing. It was really
touching. It kind of came on my radar
just from that. Over the years, I’ve
learned more about its history and just how close it is for me.
And some of the things that I found out about it is that at
one point it was owned by Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran and I think Ray Price. Hank Cochran and Jeannie Seely got married
here. Yeah there's a little bit of
history that connects me to it even more.
When they changed out the road signs back here at the RV camp there's it
one of the roads is called Hank Cochran Way.
They brought me the old sign, so now I got that sign hanging in my
studio in Nashville.
I remember that
show. I have been to quite a few
concerts, but that was the first time I saw people stop in their tracks when
you came out to sing Kneel at the Cross in the encore. There was something about the energy in the
room that you cannot describe, but it was a special night indeed.
It was incredible.
It definitely got my attention.
Since the last
time you performed at Renfro Valley, you have undergone some band changes and
additions. Tell me more about who you
have on hand these days.
My oldest standing band member would be Cowboy Eddie
Long. Cowboy and I started working
together in 2005. I guess my second
oldest would have to be Mark Crum. He
joined our band in 2009 and because none of the rest of the guys would take a
job, we made Mark our band leader. He
was the new guy and came in as the band leader.
Chris Hennessee and I met in 2000 in Nashville. I had first moved to town January 1st
of 2000 and within a few months, I was down on lower Broadway getting a lay of
the land and kinda seeing what it was all about down there. He had a house gig at Tootsie’s and another
one at Legend’s Corner. Every time I’d
walk in, well the first time I had to ask, “can I sit in and do a song?” They were having so much fun, I wanted to get
up there and join in. Every time after
that, I’d walk in the door and he’d recognize me right off and invite me up to
sing. It was completely against the
protocol down there that day. None of
them guys wanted you to come in and take their stage for fear that you’d end up
with their gig. Headhunters was a real
thing going on Lower Broadway, and probably still is today. There’s always somebody better coming in the
door looking to get your gig willing to do it for free. So it was a really different attitude that he
took. He wasn’t afraid of that. He was
just real good at what he did, so I never forgot that. Later on, I found myself needing a guitar
player and he found himself needing a gig.
He was fresh off a publishing deal that was paying him some salary and
so he needed to take a gig and start making a little bit of money. I was proud to have him. He plays guitar and also plays harmonica and
sings.
Jimmy Melton and I started writing somewhere around ’04 or
’05. We started writing together. He would also hire me to come in and sing
demos from time to time. It was always a
pleasure to get to work with him because Jimmy represents the old traditional
style of country music. He’s all about
it. He grew up playing it. He got to Nashville I think somewhere in the 80s
and has been there ever since. He’s one
of those guys that just has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that’s ever
happened on Music Row. He remembers who
wrote what. He remembers what the demo
sounded like and how much more better it was than the cut. He can tell you where all the bodies are
buried and who put them there. So it was
really fun getting to cut my teeth on Music Row politics and country music and
stuff like that with someone like Jimmy show me the ropes. After Merle Haggard passed away, I was asked
to come out on the road and do these shows that Merle had committed to with
Willie. The first thing I thought of,
“well I’m going to need a guitar player that knows every Merle Haggard song
known to man.” He was the first and only
person I thought of and so I called Jimmy to come out and do those shows with
me. I can’t remember how many shows we
did, but he just stayed with us. It was
great having him out and it is still great having him out. We still do a lot of that Haggard stuff, but
we do a whole lot more that he is well versed in. He plays lead guitar and he plays banjo.
My keyboard player is Jefferson Crow. I really don’t remember how we came across
Jefferson. I know I was leaning on a
couple of guys in the band to help us out.
He came out to join us one day on one of our runs. I think my initial thought was that we were
going to try this out and see how it works.
We had a couple of other keyboard players join us. Typically, if we don’t have a keyboard
player, we’ll bring Moose, Jim Brown, he played on all of my records. Moose also travels with Bob Seger, which is
the reason why he can’t travel with us.
He’s already got a traveling gig and when he’s not doing that, he’s home
back in Nashville making records. He’s
got a studio at his place. Somehow the
reference came up, “you should try Jefferson Crow on the road,” so we brought
Jefferson out and soon as started playing I realized this guy a musician. There’s a difference between somebody who can
play a bunch of songs and might know 5 or 6 keys and someone who can play every
song in every key. A musician doesn’t
really have limitations. They have the
ability to transpose and the ability to learn everything there is in every
key. He’s just been a God send over
there. He can play everything. I kinda dig the fact that one of his
influences is Garth Hudson from The Band.
Garth was known for being able to make it talk, make it sing. It’s not just playing chords and riffs. Those are all nice and everything, but he had
the ability to just make a sound, an effect that provides a background for a
song. Jefferson does that all the
time. He’s reason a lot people get
chills out there and they’re not sure why.
It’s probably because of something Jefferson is doing over there on that
B3 or on that keyboard, or the combination there of. He’s a wizard at it and I love having him
over there.
We have two drummers, partly because I like having two
drummers. Growing up, I learned music in
a drum and bugle corp. One drummer is
great, but can’t play everything you want to hear or everything I’m accustomed
to hearing, especially on drums. Having
two drummers, they have to find a way to coordinate the two of them. Having one on drum set and another on a
percussion station, you’re going to get those different sounds partly they’re
not going to play the same things. The
other thing that happens as a direct result of that is tempos are fairly easy
to lock in and they are fairly easy to speed up and slow down. It sounds more like music. I never have been one for laying it on the
metronome and making it stick to a beat.
That’s too much machinery and that’s too robotic and humans just aren’t
equipped to listen to music that way.
You can, it’s not bad for you or nothing, but it’s just that we live and
breathe. You wouldn’t take a breath
exactly the same volume of air every single breath or you’d just get bored to
tears after a while. We have to have
some things with some degree of difference, some degree of inconsistency,
because that’s what life is. So I like
having two drummers back there to kind of shake up some of the monotony and
kinda rushing and dragging at the same time.
The interesting
thing, you added a horn section to the band.
It reminds of me the major productions from Ray Charles and Ray Price
big band with country flavor appeal.
Sturgill Simpson even added horns to his live performances after his
last album.
I had these guys out before I knew what Sturgill is
doing. I’m glad he has a horn section
too and I’ve heard great things about them.
I brought mine out because it was a sound that was missing. Again, I grew up learning music and playing
music in the drum and bugle corps. So I
got two drummers, so I need a horns section.
So the guy that I called was Mart Avant.
Mart Avant wrote all of the sheet music for the drum and bugle corp I
grew up playing in – South Wind Drum and Bugle Corp. I called up Mart to come up Nashville and
help me with some horn parts on this Johnny Cash stuff I was working on. Of course, he knocked it out of the
park. He writes his own
arrangements. He wrote some really great
parts for these songs. I told him, “I
would really like for you guys to come out on the road with us. We got a good band, but we just got to fill
it up a little bit.” I just wanted to
hear it. I couldn’t wait to hear what
we’d sound like with a full band playing behind me. So, he brought out Jimmy Bowling and Dick C.
Aven. Both of them play sax, both of
them play just about anything there is to play.
The name of the brass section that Mart put together, they have played
for The Temptations and The Four Tops for the past forty something odd
years. It’s called Tuscaloosa Brass and
last year they got inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
The drummer’s names, by the way, are Tony Coleman, who you
just met. Tony played with B.B. King, I
want to say from 1973 and on. I couldn’t
be more proud to have him out with us because when we play blues, it really
sounds like blues. I mean, if you can’t
get any better, you’ve got the man’s drummer back there holding time and
filling up the sound.
Rob Crawford is
very versatile drummer. He can play all
kinds of style. I can turn and go, “I
like it, but I don’t really love it just yet.
What can you do to shake it up, or what can you do to kinda change
things up ever so slightly.” He’s always
got another idea. He’s very easy to get
along with. It’s not very common for
drummers to be able to switch things up that easily. A lot of drummers have a very rigid way of
thinking and once they learn a song this way, it can never change. Between me and Rob, the band don’t know what
to expect every night. We’ll start a
song off slow one night and then we’ll chase it down their throats the next
night. It’s good to have someone back
there that I don’t have to discuss all of that with. He can gather from the slightest little hint
from my guitar what I’m going after. It
makes it a whole lot of fun. It makes me
feel like I have more control over a band and not less. It’s really fun.
And then there’s Melonie Cannon. In 2001, when I was shopping for a record
deal, I met Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson.
I asked them, “if I am able to get an opportunity here, will y’all
produce my record?” And they both agreed
they would. That started my relationship
with Buddy and Norro. Norro just passed
away yesterday (June 8, 2017). Norro
wrote the Charlie Rich song, “The Most Beautiful Girl.” He also wrote “The Grand Tour” and a bunch of
other great songs. Buddy wrote “Set Em Up Joe.”
He’s had some George Strait songs over the years and he was producing
Kenny Chesney; and still is. Come to
find out, he used to write with Vern Gosdin.
He used to work with, hell he played bass with Waylon for a while. He also played bass for Mel Tillis and The
Statesiders a long time ago. Through
Buddy, I met his daughter Melonie. My
family and their family are real tight.
Might as well be extended family to one another. In fact, Buddy and my dad have the same birthday. Melonie’s birthday is two days away from my
sister’s. Buddy’s wife Billie and my
mom, their birthday is two days away too.
Melonie’s a great singer. She’s
had a bluegrass career and I’m proud to have her helping us with the vocals.
I think that’s all of the band. There’s a bunch in the crew I can mention –
T.W. and Chad. In fact, we’ve got
Sturgill’s stage manager out with us, Dalton.
For the first time ever, I’ve got a guitar tech. He’s got the same name as my uncle that
taught me how to play guitar in the first place, Bobby Joe.
I remember back
in 2008, you released the High Cost of Living album. I had been to a couple of shows before and right after that release. You performed at the Lexington Opera House
and from the moment you dropped the first note, fans were singing word for
word. However, there is something
special about In Color. Whenever you
play it, the fans immediately get up from their seats and start singing along. Personally for me, it brings me to tears reflecting back on my grandparents and looking at their old photographs. I always hope one day that folks reflect on the photos that I have taken. As a songwriter, what feelings come over you
hearing them sing along to In Color?
I don’t know if I can name it, but if I could describe it,
I could say it has a lot to do with mutual understanding. That’s how we relate and that’s our
bond. It’s just not in that song, it’s
in the rest of them they sang too. That
there’s a reciprocal bond there. I know
you. You know me. I get you and you get me. We understand one another and we relate to
one another. In a lot of ways, we are
one another. It’s always special hearing
them singing the words back to you. I
remember when that started happening with High Cost of Living. There were grown men coming apart that would
come up and tell me at the end of the night that song was their life.
Of course, with In Color when we started doing it, people
connected with it in a real way. They
really did connect with it because they can remember all the times they sat
down looking through the family photo album at the old black and white pictures
trying to get the back story of where I came from. Knowing my own personal history is fine, but
it doesn’t feed that longing to know where all of us came from. We want to know what happened before us. How did I come to be? You know there’s people in this world that
were one decision away from not being here at all. It’s that mutual understanding that I think
bonds us together. I love hearing their
stories. I love people telling me about
how their family came from dire beginning or other people that came from
royalty and reached dire beginnings.
It’s very interesting to hear the military connection with
that song. All of the families that have
been touched by the selfless act of a Veteran that because of a man who gave
his life, their uncle, their grandfather came home safe. There’s families that have the opposite side
of that story that their loved one gave his life so that somebody else could
come home safe. In a way, the song is
the direct bloodline, the direct connection of bloodlines through combat like
that.
The verse about the wedding day came directly from a
picture I have of my grandparents the day they got married. A black and white picture of my
grandparents. The line “look at that
smile, I was so proud,” PawPaw wasn’t smiling in that picture at all. He wasn’t smiling at all in that
picture. He was standing tall and proud,
but he was very serious about it. It
meant business to him. At the time, he
was 19 and my grandmother was 14 and she was too young to get married. Her brothers thought so and her brothers, in
fact, wanted to hang him from the nearest oak tree. And PawPaw had to run away with her to get
married so it was very serious to him that day.
That line, “look at that smile,” was his sense of humor. That’s exactly what he would say looking at a
picture, “look at that big ole smile,” and you would look at him going, “I
don’t see a smile?”
Over the last few
years, you have been asked to perform at several tribute concerts. From Merle Haggard to Waylon to Randy Travis,
Kris Kristofferson, Little Feat, The Band, and so many more…how do you pick
each song that you are to perform?
The first thing that happens when it a tribute show gets
added, is that all of the artists jump all over their favorite choice. I always sit back and won’t even respond to
the emails asking what song I’m going to do.
I wait until everybody’s happy that they picked the one they want to
do. I usually pick from what’s left
over, the ones that people might have forgotten about. I guess that’s my, it could be me being lazy,
or it could be me being indecisive. In
fact, it’s usually the case waiting until everybody else has picked their song,
I’ve still got about 5 or 6 that I’m trying to decide which one to do. It’s different criteria each time.
With Merle, it was almost impossible to pick a song. Merle Haggard wrote so many great songs. I was talking to Don Was after that tribute
show and we could have done that same show the next night and not done any of
those songs and had just a strong of a show.
It was incredible the catalog he left behind. What makes a man want to say so much? We were definitely blessed to have Merle
Haggard in country music for all those years.
With Waylon, you
did Freedom to Stay, which is interesting because the first time I saw Wayne
Mills in concert, he performed that song.
He turned to me afterwards and asked if I did Waylon justice as he knew
I was a huge Waylon fan. Then later on
it was performed at his funeral. Then
you ended up playing it at the Waylon tribute.
Wayne and I started playing shows together in 2002. The first play Wayne and I played a show
together was in my hometown in Montgomery with the Jubilee City Fest. I think it was May 2nd that
year. I had this brand-new album called,
They Call Me Country. I went down
there and played my old bar, Pure Country, one night. Then the next night I went downtown to play
the Jubilee City Fest. That day, I
opened for Wayne Mills and Randy Travis.
That was the first show we ever played together. I had been hearing about Wayne for 8 or 9
years by then. It went all the way back
to me being in college at Jacksonville State.
I used to hear about the Wayne Mills Band. Some fraternity would book them and we would
hear they were in town and we’d drop in uninvited, unannounced try to catch a
listen to them. I always liked the fact
that he was unapologetically country as hell.
In fact, unapologetic isn’t a strong enough word to describe how Wayne
felt his right to play country music the way he liked it. I’ve always had a great respect for him and
to know too that we did that show together, we traded phone numbers and within
months, he and I are booking gigs together, both of us. It would be some frat show, some bar
somewhere. If we weren’t playing
together, we were touring kind of in a cycle.
Like he would tell me all of the gigs he was doing and making a little
bit of money. He’d give me the guys’
numbers and I’d call them up and start booking myself in them same bars. Those are the kinds of songs we were doing –
“Freedom to Stay” was one of those.
I think it was somewhere around ’03 or ’04 when Wayne and I
played Harry’s Bar in Tuscaloosa. We
started the show that night at 8 o’clock.
It was me and him, and his guitar player, Peso. Dave Woest is his name. We started that show at 8 o’clock that
night. It was just the three of us. It was an acoustic gig, but we had a room
full of people. Wayne and I immediately
started drinking, which was customary for us back then. As soon as you start playing, that’s a good
time to have your first drink. So, we
got Jack Daniels coming to the stage. It
might as well had been a barrel with a straw rolled up there. We drank so much Jack Daniels that night, I
can’t even begin to tell you. And they
kept them coming. Good God every time
that cup went empty, here comes some more ice and here comes some more Jack
Daniels. And we weren’t mixing it with
nothing, we were just pouring it straight.
Solo cup full of ice and fill it up with Jack Daniels and that’s it,
that’s your drink. That show that
started at 8 p.m. didn’t end until 4 a.m. the next morning. Wayne and I had sat there and played 8 hours’
worth of solid country music because we wanted to and had nothing better to
do. I can still remember getting in my
truck and sleeping a couple of hours trying to sober up. I made a lot of awful mistakes back then, but
I cherish that show. I cherish all of
those shows that I got to do with Wayne.
He was a great man and a great friend.
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| Jamey Johnson and Wayne Mills performing in 2010 in Bowling Green, Ky. Photo by Jessica Bray of Kentucky Country Music. |
I always enjoy
hearing Wayne Mills stories and I miss seeing him anytime I’m down in
Nashville. You are right - he was unapologetic country as that is what he truly was. I am always amazed at the stories many have shared. He was a true entertainer on stage that worked hard.
Someone that I keep in touch
with when I’m down in Nashville that was also a friend of yours and Wayne is Rowdy (Jason Cope).
I’m tickled pink that his band The Steel Woods are doing well these
days.
I love that. That’s
what he wanted from the first time I met him.
I knew he was destined for something huge. I’m so glad that he’s seen it come to
fruition. We met in LA around ’07. I went out there on a trip. We had just done this session in Nashville
for That Lonesome Song. We had a great
album just off that. I kinda already had
a direction for the album. I was very
happy with it, but I was getting a lot of pressure from Dave Cobb to come out
and let him produce some songs. He kinda
had this idea and these instruments. He
had this place and he had this band he was working with, which was Rowdy and
Chris Powell and Brian Wade on bass.
Dave was very exciting about the idea of me coming out there and doing
some songs with him. I kind of kept
shoving it off at first. Then I saw that
I was going to be out there anyway doing something else. I said, “look, let’s do it in town while I’m
on this run right here.” I think it was
going to be 4 or 5 days that I was going to be working in L.A. on this other
thing. I ended up spending that time in
Dave’s studio. It was either day one or
day two of our studio time out there that I had this idea for a song, but I
didn’t have time to write it. Shannon
Lawson and James Otto came to the studio that morning, not to write, they just
came. They wanted to see what we were
doing in this studio. I sat down with
them two and Rowdy and told them about this idea for this song. I said, “we got a little time while we’re
getting the mics set up, let’s see what we can do with this.” We ended up writing Can’t Cash My
Checks. Instead of recording a guitar
vocal like we almost always do if it’s a Nashville type co-write, we were in the
studio so it just became the first song we recorded that day.
That song has
affected a lot of farm families that’s for sure not knowing if they have enough
money from their crops to pay the bills they have held off on paying to raise
that crop.
It was the idea of having somebody that’s thoroughly honest
that yeah, you can’t cash your checks.
It doesn’t mean you can’t take them yet, but you gotta hold onto it
until payment comes through.
Playing that song
at Farm Aid had to be pretty emotional in front of the family farmers out in
the audience.
When you’re singing it to the farmers that connect with it
the best, yeah it can be emotional. But
it can be emotional anywhere. There’s a
lot of people that can relate to that that aren’t farmers. There’s poor people everywhere you look doing
the best they can to make ends me and still don’t.
Seeing that you
always have a fresh take of a classic song deep in a catalog, do you feel like
you are a curator of songs for future generations when you perform them?
Well it’s just there.
I never have looked at any song I wrote as a single or an album
cut. Just like you wouldn’t look at your
kids and say, “oh this one is going to be successful and this one’s gonna suck
and this one’s gonna kind of be there.”
You would never do that. Well I
don’t do that with songs. It’s either
important to me and relevant to me or it’s not.
If I put it on an album, it’s because it is important and relevant and I
want people to hear it. Or I want to
share it with people, or I would bother.
I believe the same to be true about Waylon, Merle Haggard, Hank Cochran,
and Willie and Kristofferson, Cash, and the rest of them. I know for a fact they thought about them
that way. When I’m going through my
record collection and I find that little gem that preaches to me, heck I want
to put that on stage. If it did that for
me, I want it to do that somebody else.
That’s the name of the game – it’s more about the songs that
preach. Sometimes it’s just about
finding the songs that are fun. I
caution people to don’t put a whole lot of weight in this idea that I’m some
kind of prophet. That’s a lot of undo
accolade for me to begin with. And don’t
forget I’m the same guy that wrote Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. I just there’s a time and place for
everything. By the way, that’s my
connection to Billy Ray Cyrus. He and I
wrote the two worst songs in country music history – Achy Breaky Heart and
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.
He's such a great guy.
His attitude to everything is just so pleasant. He probably doesn’t realize all that stuff
that’s going on out there. He doesn’t
pay an attention to it. He’s just so
laid back, so unassuming.
He called me go play this police officer’s memorial service
in Nashville – Officer Mumaw. At the
time, I had a show that night so I said, “yeah I’ll see you there.” I had the show and when the show gets over
with, I flew to Nashville. The next
morning, I got up and got ready to go do this memorial service. I kind of knew the song he wanted to do,
Some Gave All. I still remember it
from the nineties. So, I didn’t have to
listen to it, I just knew it. Well I got
to the church where the memorial service was.
He and I ran through the song a couple of times and then it was time to
go play. And in all the time that went
by from the time he asked me to do this and the time we were sitting on the
stage playing it, I didn’t have the chance to read any news what this police
officer had done. I’m glad I
didn’t. There’s no way I could have sat
out there and played without bawling like a baby in front of this crowd if I
had known.
We came off the stage after playing that song and that’s
when I grabbed my phone and looked up the latest news reports and found out
about what had happened. This officer
died in the line of duty trying to get this lady out of her car because she had
pulled her car into the Cumberland River in Nashville. It wasn’t an accident. She intended to take her life and he intended
to save it and he did. He saved her life
and it cost him his to save it. And
those officers were just as surreal as I’ve ever seen a group of people. They understood and I know they understood it
before, but it really became a real reality after that of what they were doing,
what their job required of them was the ultimate sacrifice. Should it be required, then that’s what we’re
here to do. I think I was aware of that
in the Marine Corp and I know they are aware of that in the police force. That memorial service has really bonded me to
the Nashville Metro Police departments and the local sheriff’s departments in a
real way. Every time I see those guys
since then, they’re shaking my hand, thanking me for being there. I’m shaking theirs, thanking them for doing
what they do. I’m thankful for Billy
Ray. I think the world of that song and
I’m glad he wrote it and glad he was paying attention to the news that
day. He really caught a spirit.
You mentioned
earlier that you have been working with John Carter Cash on a Johnny Cash
project. What can you tell me about that
project?
John Carter has a good number of poems that Johnny
wrote. I say poems because they don’t
have music to them. He’s working on an
album where’s he’s pairing up these songs with songwriters from our day to
finish up these Johnny Cash songs. One
of them that I know he’s most proud of and you can’t get it anymore – he’s got
Chris Cornell having finished one of these songs and then recorded it. I’m excited for it to come out. I got to do a couple of them. Part of it was just really cool to get this
lyric in that we didn’t have a second verse to.
So, John Carter and I sat down and wrote a second verse. The way we did it was by creating something
akin to a painter’s palette. Where
instead of colors on the palette, we put words on the palette out of context
and took words that he used when writing his first verse. We just added words that fit the palette that’s
similar the words and we took those words and built a second verse out of those
words so that it’s still the same context and continues to the story. Of course, the music, it just kind of washes
over. It’s what I think Johnny, in the
same vein of what Johnny would sing. If
I was writing with Johnny Cash, it wouldn’t be any different I don’t think
unless he had something really awesome to consider. It was really fun to do that. I know that John Carter is really excited
about to put that out. I sure was.
Within the last
few years, you broke free from a major label deal and started your own
independent label. So many fans have
wondered about new music. I know that
you released Alabama Pines single and the Christmas album. When can fans expect new music?
Eventually, but I’m in no hurry and no rush to get it
done. I'm making progress on the creative
parts of my brain. It’s been about 7
years ago, I got a concussion. I slipped
on some ice coming out of the studio one night and I hit my head pretty
hard. What I found out from a
neuroscientist out in Scottsdale, Arizona, here recently is that ever since
then, my brain has been locked in a hyper vigilant state, which it focuses on
survival. Anything that isn’t directly
relevant to survival, it just doesn’t focus on it all anymore.
So out went the songwriting, or the focus on songwriting,
or even the openness to it even. I can
still write. The craft is still
there. The inspiration isn’t always
there and even when it is, it isn’t very easy for me to focus on it the way
that I once did. But it’s coming back
little by little. So that’s one of the
reasons for going so long.
The other would be that we have been touring so
aggressively for the past ten or twelve years that it’s just not in harmony
with what is required for me to be successful in the writing room. It’s hard to come off of the road where you
got two or three days in between runs.
It’s hard to come home and drop your luggage and head right into the
writing room. I live alone. I don’t have a housekeeper. I don’t have a bunch of people to take care
of this stuff for me, so when I get home, I got a lot of work to do just to
pick the house up. Then I got to wash
clothes, pack my bags, and get ready to go again. There’s a lot of resistance I say to
songwriting for me. I’m getting the hang
of it you know. The only way I’ll be able
to completely write out of sheer inspiration, I’d have to come off the road for
a period of time for a good while. I’m
not ready to do that yet. The truth is,
I really love it. I love traveling. I love playing all of these shows for all of
these folks. I love that they love it
and I could do that for a long time. I
don’t see me ever quitting it.
I believe you are
proof that whether or not corporate radio plays your music, it is heart of the
small town locally own radio stations like here in Kentucky that continue to
play your music because they listen to the fans. They take listener requests and those
listeners yearn for good music like your songs.
I don’t think Woody Guthrie got a whole lot of trophies and
number one parties and stuff like that for his music either. But everybody in the world knows “This Land
Is Your Land.” I think that’s the thing
of country music, or the thing of music in general that I follow more than any
other. I can remember a manager that I
butted heads with one time. He sent me a
message on my phone and said, “I just wanted to be the first to tell you your
new single died at country radio today.”
Well he and I hadn’t talked in several months and that’s because the
last time we talked, he was trying to force me into correcting my mix on that
particular song so that we can get more spins at country radio. I didn’t want to stop what I was doing to
work on that mix because I’m already on something else. I mixed that song with T.W. and I put it
exactly where I liked it to be. I had no
intention of fixing that mix in the first place. His message just kind of stunned me of how
the level of cruelty exists in this business because of what I wanted and he
wanted were two different things. I
wanted to write songs that preached to the people. I wanted to tour around until I get too old
to go and play my songs for those people.
I wanted to inspire that generation and their kids’ generation, and
their kids’ generation the same way my heroes did for me. All that he wanted to do is to tell me that
my single died at country radio.
I called Willie like I often do whenever something
confusing like that comes down the line.
I told him what happened. Willie
laughed and said, “my songs usually a long time before they get to country
radio.” And he then said to me a piece
of advice I’ll never forget. He said, “now
Jamey those guys are going to come and go.
Those managers, those label heads, those figure heads in Nashville, they’re
going to come and go. They don’t even
stay at the same company for very long. They
trade up and put on a different jersey.
But you and I, we got to get on our bus and we got to go take our music
to the people. That’s our role. We don’t have to listen to that stuff and we
don’t have to be phased by it and certainly don’t have to be controlled by
it. We got to get on our bus and we got
to get around and take our music with us.”
So, I didn’t pay attention to that manager anymore and it
was soon after that I fired that management company. I’m happier today not having a manager. I don’t have anybody to butt heads with on
anything. When I want to do something,
we just do it.
I would love it, if the day comes, that country radio plays
my music because the fans want them to.
But I don’t think it will ever happen.
Country music is controlled by the board members, the stockholders of
the corporations who buy and sell the ads that country music has to sell to pay
their bills. That’s not an accusation,
that’s something that is a cold hard fact.
They have to play what those stockholders require them to play because
that’s what’s necessary for them to get more and more listeners. They have to entice those people into that
station. It’s not to their benefit at
all that they support me because when they tell me to something, I’m not going
to do it. I’m just not going to jump up
and play their corporate shindig for free just so I can get some more spins on a
market. I’m too busy. I’ve got things to do already. I’ve got shows that I’m trying to get around
to and when I’m not doing my shows, I’m going to go home and I’m going to spend
time with my daughter. Try to see if I
can get to know her a little better before she’s all grown up.
It is amazing
seeing photos I’ve taken over the years of her joining you up on stage. She has truly grown up.
She’s thirteen now and pushing 5 foot 8! This kid’s going to be tall.
Going back to
radio, I do know several stations in Kentucky that are listener driven. One of them is WFKY in Frankfort,
Kentucky. In fact, they have a listener
countdown and they’ll play Ward Davis, even “Old Worn Out Cowboys.” They played “Alabama Pines” and the listeners
were calling in requesting to play it.
The fans want good music.
Have you thought
about putting together a Gospel album considering the number of hymnals and self-written
tunes you have sang on each album?
In my mind, I’ve already done one. I produced the Blind Boys of Alabama gospel
album called, Take the High Road. We
did that in 2010. It was the most fun I
can say I’ve ever had in a studio doing anything. The fun part was that we didn’t have a list
of songs when we started that first session.
We didn’t have any idea whatsoever what we wanted to do other than get
the Blind Boys of Alabama in the studio, get the band together, and let’s start
from the very beginning. It’s an album
that was literally born right there in the studio. We didn’t reach out to a whole lot of other
artists. They heard we in the studio doing this and a lot of them just stopped
by. Bobby Bare stopped by along with Vince
Gill, Lee Ann Womack, Hank, Jr. It
really was incredible to watch this album come to fruition in the way that it
did. George Jones came by.
As far as doing my own gospel album, I’ll probably do that
someday hopefully soon. I know that I
need to get this band in the studio.
They’re too good to not record.
As a father, what
lesson do you hope that your daughter, Kylie, has learned all these years from
you.
Not
everything can be priority number one. Only
one thing can be top priority. My top
priority has always been her. Everything
else is secondary. I really hope that
she understands that and I know she does.
She’s so smart. She made straight
A’s on her report card all year long. I
don’t know, but I just want her to know that God, family, it’s all the same
thing. That’s your top priority. What you do for a living, traffic, bills,
none of that crap matters. It just doesn’t
matter. I never heard of anybody on
their final day on the planet concerned with bills, or traffic, or what they
did for a living. When we’re on that bed
taking our final breath, we’re not going to be thinking about it. We’re going to be thinking about the things
we loved the most. That’s going to be
God, our kids, our families, treasuring our time. That’s what I would want for her.
