January 30, 2024 • 54 mins
Embark on a captivating odyssey as we chat with the incomparable Justin Wells, tracing the arc of his musical voyage from the Southern Rock vibes of Fifth on the Floor to his solo achievements. With a frankness that's as refreshing as it is rare, Justin elucidates the nuances of his artistic evolution, favoring heartfelt self-expression over the rigid confines of traditional genres. We navigate the sometimes hazy territories of Americana and Southern Rock, with our guest offering unfiltered insights into the essence of his sound and its place within these musical landscapes.
Reminisce with us about the bands that shaped our youth, an in-depth discussion about the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, and his most impactful records. We dissect Metallica's polarizing "St. Anger," celebrating the courage it takes for artists to experiment and push boundaries. Throughout, Justin's rural roots remain a touchstone, revealing how they've influenced not just his music, but also the shared experiences of our listeners from similar backgrounds.
Wrapping up this melodic journey, we delve into tales of collaboration, spotlighting the alchemy of co-writing and the magical synergy of working with talents like Shooter Jennings. As we tip our hats to unsung heroes behind the scenes, we also share personal stories that inspire tracks like "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Three Quarters Gone," painting vivid pictures of family and the working-class life. Finally, we whet your appetite for an anticipated West Coast rendezvous, promising seafood and stories with the one and only Justin Wells—whose genuine talent and authenticity in the music scene are as undeniable as they are celebrated.
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Shoutout to:
Justin Wells
The Wells Family
Marty Bush
Dusty Rust
Matt Woods
Abby Hamilton
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Background Music plays Justin Wells.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm doing well, Nick.
What's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's going, man, it's going.
You know it's been a moment.
We've been trying to gettogether for quite some time.
This is my first show of theyear, so welcome and thank you
for being there.
I wouldn't say it's a writer'sblock, I would say it's a
podcast block.
Right now, just a lot of thingsgoing on in my life and I
appreciate you helping me getout of the slump.
(00:55):
So thank you for being patientand thank you for spending your
Saturday evening with me.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Of course, yeah, thanks for the invite.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So, speaking of New Year, how was your New Year, man
?
How was your break?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Very chill, very relaxing.
No politics at the dinner table, man.
I call that a win.
No, everything's cool, man.
Everybody's healthy and aboutas low key the beginning of the
years I've had in recent memory.
(01:29):
I'm kind of here for it.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, that's what she said, so like you've been in
the business for a while, yeah.
And it's surprising, and it'snot always it wasn't solo at the
beginning, correct?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, I was in a band called Fit on the Floor that I
started 100 years ago no, in2006,.
We got together.
Then we're together for justshy of a decade before I started
my solo career.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Can I ask you how does one go from Southern Rock
Band to solo where you're at now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do you mean sonically , or like the logistics of how
do you kind of like switch from?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Like, the more I get down in the rabbit hole of
musicians and everything else.
They all started in a rock bandEspecially.
Yeah, it's crazy.
And then they go solo and thenthey do country like Marty Bush,
dusty Russ.
Those guys and you guys have aunique sound and you guys are
(02:43):
killing the sound.
Man, when did you know you hadwhat it took to go solo and to
stay solo and be successful theway you want to be successful?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that's a tricky question and I think I need to
kind of like answer a coupleaspects of it, one of which is,
without coming across likecombative, country music as a
genre takes me in and I'mappreciative of that.
And people call my musiccountry and I'm appreciative of
(03:22):
that and I'm a country kid inthat I'm from the country and
then, past that man, I hope Inever dishonor the genre because
I love the genre.
But I don't sit out to becountry.
I don't necessarily know why Ifit in that box, other than just
(03:44):
, I guess, my accent andespecially the spotlight on our
state that I'm sure you're awareof in that genre.
But you know, man, I was a rockkid.
The kids that picked on me andmine, which were the weirdos in
my little school out in thecounty, listened to a lot of
(04:07):
country music, and that was inthe late 90s and a lot of that
music was terrible, and so Ijust lumped all that in.
So I grew up on George Jonesand Hank Williams and then so
much rock and roll and so muchMotown.
So I was never a country fanand you go talk to anybody I
(04:29):
went to high school with and I'msure they're quite surprised
that, that I found myself inthis genre.
But I don't say any that to bemercurial, other than to to be
honest and not be an imposter,because you know this is a genre
that's steeped intraditionalism and people that
love the music take thatseriously, and I don't.
(04:50):
I don't ever want to step onthat, but also I will not.
I will not cater, you know I'mI'm expressing myself and my
viewpoint, so that's part ofthat question.
And then as far as fifth on thefloor is kind of the same thing
, man, like we were, everyversion of that band seem to be
(05:11):
a collection of guys that camefrom almost any genre but
country.
I learned a lot from those guys.
You know my bandmates, mybrothers, from a lot of other
aspects, and you know we gotcalled Southern Rock, which is
probably, as I guess that's asfair a moniker as as it could be
(05:34):
.
But I don't know, man, I hearBluegrass songs, I hear country
songs, I hear your rock and rollsongs that aren't I don't.
You know genres, tough yeah,and I, and I hate answering
those questions because toanswer them truthfully, I don't
think there's any way to answerthem truthfully without sound
like a massive asshole.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Gotcha, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say you fit the script
of plain country, though.
You have that Southern feel,that Southern rock.
You have just that raw feel.
I mean, you don't have one badsong, and when I say bad, it's
that pop stuff that I don'tlisten to, right, it's that
(06:20):
Americana and Folk is where youfit in, I believe, because it's
not so much country, it's notNashville.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's what I would say.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
No, it's, it's Lexington AF.
Yeah, right, ok, kentucky,kentucky and but you know, some
of that shit's good too, man,it's.
It's really hard to sorry ifthis is a family audience.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh no, you're good, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I have a terrible mouth, but all that's tough, and
you know it's.
It's a cliche at this point.
But like what is Americana whenI when I think of Americana, I
often think about Pretentiouskids dressing like their own
brother.
We're art, though, but it alsoincludes, you know, Uncle Tupelo
(07:10):
, which is rad, and you knowEmily Harris, which is An angel,
right, you know, I don't know.
All this is tricky and I'mterrible to answer these
questions.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
OK, ok.
So how does 2024 look?
Right now, as we're talking,going on tour, you got a new
album.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Nothing announced with the tour.
I do have a new album.
I have a new album that's beendone for some time and we're
we're shaking the hands behindthe scenes to, you know,
hopefully reach more people thanwe ever have before.
I look back on, you know, thefifth on the floor, discography,
(07:53):
and in my sense, and from albumto album.
You know I put out my firstalbum in 2007.
So you know, yeah this would bemy seventh album when it comes
out and I hear, I hear growth.
I hope you and listeners heargrowth, but really they always
(08:18):
seem like very, very differentthings.
Like you know, I feel like I'mbeing kind of challenging
answering your question, butalso think that I'm challenging
myself making these records tonot get in in these ditches that
I've dug as an artist.
You know, I'm not reallyinterested in you being
(08:42):
comfortable defining my sound orme being comfortable defining
my sound.
I want each album to have itssound and, you know, not not be
restricted.
You know, I'm kind of.
I'm kind of to my detrimentsometimes.
I want to, I want to just go myown way.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
What makes this new album different than the others?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think that I struggled with and I think a lot
of people struggle with.
I think a lot of songwritersstruggle with being happy and
and and really specifically likelove and being in love and and
and writing about love songs andespecially in these genres that
you're talking about, thatwe're talking about.
You know it's a lot ofheartbreak and that's dude.
(09:28):
You know some of my favoritesongs or heartbreak songs, but
you know that's a well-mined,you know situation there.
So anyway, during, during,during, lockdown, you know.
So here I here.
I've been a guy that's almost myentire adult life been to a
musician.
(09:48):
I'm a musician and I've got afamily Pretty good at keeping
those worlds pretty separate.
But you know, then all of asudden it's like hit the brakes
completely and we're going to behome, and we're going to be
home every day and it's soquickly.
I saw how much work and I knewthis and we know this
(10:11):
intuitively but how much work mywife puts into my dream, not
hands-on, but making sureeverything else is done.
I get all this glory.
I get my name on the marqueeand she should have her name on
the marquee because she's doingthe real work.
I'm just out here playing man,here I am, up under her feet,
(10:35):
right in this house, in thekitchen, not knowing what to do
with my hands.
I just started writing aboutthat.
I started writing out of thattruly humbling place, I feel
like, and just wrote this loverecord so sonically.
I wanted it to be that the lastrecord was this big, huge wall
of sound thing.
I wanted this to be appropriateto telling your partner that
(11:00):
you love them.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
A lot different than your previous sound.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah, the United States was.
I've been kind of thinking interms of dawn.
The distance was a very selfishrecord.
There's a lot about me and theUnited States was me trying to
go outward and really trying tothink about everyone.
You know, as we were kind ofbombarded with just vicious
headline after vicious headline,yeah.
And then this one I wanted tobe about her man.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Awesome, awesome, man , because, man, I was listening
to it today.
Man, you're, you know all yoursongs, you know during my run,
and I'm like man, there's notone.
I mean, yeah, you have thatlove song, but it's not really a
love song, it's, it's aheartbreak.
It's a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
The whole hook is oh yeah, that's kind of the tongue
in cheek is like I could.
I was trying to write one atthat time, man, and failing it.
It's tough dude, it's tough todo it and not and not be hokey,
you know.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Right, and you're not hokey, you're, you're not.
And with that heartbreak, manbrings angst, and you have that
deep voice and, man, you canjust feel it.
Oh, man, it's just.
Oh, my dude, you're preaching,you're preaching, and that's
what I'm saying, man, and thisthat's the kind of country I
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And for you to struggle doing a love song and
to make it about your wife, aGod gave it a listen, yeah, yeah
so that was a cool record andor that single, and also man,
I'm going to totally, I'm aboutto bomb this real hard, but no,
it's not Washington, okay, uh,oh, his name escapes me, but
(12:41):
there's a band from Eugene,oregon, called Horse Feathers,
kind of for this indie, indie toindie pop, beautiful songs.
Singer's name is Justin.
Oh man, I want to say thefiddle player's name is Nate and
and man, I'm really sorry Iforgot your name wrong.
I don't, I don't really knowhim personally, but he came and
played fiddle on that thing, sothere's an almost connection to
(13:03):
you.
Okay, up in that Northwest.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
All right, shout out to him.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, man Shout out to Horse Feathers.
Great, great band.
Y'all checked them out.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Would you consider yourself,your sounds, you as a musician,
underrated?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
On my, when my ego is big, sure, yeah, yeah, I don't
know.
I guess I mean we always wantmore because that's the society
we live in.
But you know when my, when mygratitude is where it ought to
be, I'm pretty stoked to, youknow, have bought a house and
(13:46):
have the cars we have, and youknow we do.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Okay, tell me about our vinyl sessions.
Man, a lot of people are goingraw.
I mean, your songs are raw asit is, but you took it down
acoustically and made it evenraw.
Or like, tell me about it.
Like, what made you do the four, five songs?
Was it five songs?
Four songs, yeah.
What made you do that album?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Uh, so that's a, that's a group of folks down in
Nashville that are doing thiskind of you know, that kind of
you know to video and to audiothing.
I think that I think that thereis an authenticity fetish
happening, and that's not anoriginal concept, but I think
(14:33):
that, as we have gotten soenamored with our screens and
things like that, um, you know,the, the heart of us, the soul
of us actually, probably morespecifically, is kind of
rebelling against that, and so Ithink that there's a lot of
drive towards music I can'tspeak to other genres, but more
in this kind of thing that, uh,you know, they want uh what is
(14:56):
authentic, and so they see someof these things where, again,
I'm picking on people, but youknow, people are dressing like
they're from the 1920s and thatkind of scratches that itch to
them.
They see a microphone out inthe holler and that scratches,
that itch.
This is a real thing.
And uh, sometimes it may be.
I can tell you from this side ofit that, uh, with production
(15:18):
being what it is, that they canmake that sound however they
want to.
It doesn't matter if themicrophone is out in the holler.
I think the only way to getanywhere near, uh, knowing if
that's true or not is to go buya ticket to a show and go see it
and listen to it.
But honestly, does it matter?
You know, uh, some of myfavorite records ever made were
(15:42):
great studio records.
So I don't, I don't know whatthis kind of obsession is, um,
but I just think at the end ofthe day, if you nick like a
thing who gives a shit, you knowgood, it doesn't matter what it
is.
Um, I feel like I'm beingreally heavy handed when you're
just asking a question about theArvano and to speak to that
(16:04):
specific, thing,bro, I had COVID that day and
didn't know it and then they hadme in a 95 degree uh warehouse.
Uh, I was actually supposed tohave a, uh, a piano player for
that session and the person thatwas setting that up failed me.
Uh, so I did it by myself anduh, and we did several takes and
(16:26):
they were all beautiful peopleat Arvano, man, very patient,
very helpful and uh, kind and uh, you know, I hope, I hope, I
hope the thing, I think we didgood work, but, dude, I was
miserable.
It was so I'm a big guy, it'shot as shit.
It was like 95 degrees and uhand like I said, got a positive
(16:46):
COVID result uh the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know you jam your, your, your answers
, but you know it just uh showsa lot of uh character from you
man.
You're basically outlawyourself, man.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I guess Bad ass dude You're bad ass, I don't know man
, I just I want to be honest youknow I want to be honest and
and it's, it's something that'sbeen eating at me, that, uh,
some of the other things.
I'm not Arvano's rad as shit,but uh, you know, the anything
with the mic in front of it outin the holler is suddenly this
massively authentic thing.
(17:22):
No, dude, we can.
We can pull the wool over youany way.
We want to out here.
All right you got my prayer onyou.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
No, no, no, you got this sound, man, and you said
George Jones, when I heard, whenI was listening to your music,
especially on my runs I listenedto a lot of country music on
and runs, especially, you knowyour guys is because the beats
per minute I try to stay beatsper minute, you know, and you
guys stay around the 130, 140range and that's where I start.
(17:58):
I try to stay and I'm like andI try to pinpoint your guys'
sound and I hear a lot of George.
I do, I do, and I and Ilistened to George back in the
day, went to Opryland as growingup as a kid, and I'm like, ok,
there's another thing too.
And then just, I wouldn't sayWilliams, I wouldn't say you
(18:21):
know, you know junior, but I'mlike you threw me.
I hear a lot of Southern rock,mm.
Hmm, there's, but I hear thejoke, the Jones, I do, so it's.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So you stopped me a bit, but, man, I got, I'm trying
to get the rock down, mm hmm,the rock is, you know, from my
youth and into this day, man,you know, metallica was huge.
James Hadfield is one of thegreatest frontmen of all time
and I don't even think that'sremotely debatable.
And CCR was huge.
(18:55):
So, like you know, I kind oflike came to country in this
very roundabout way.
You know, I got interested insongwriters in high school and
they weren't country writers,guys like Matthew Ryan, who's a
friend now, but really like mytop guys.
You know it's George Jones,it's Fogarty, it's leave on helm
.
You know this kind of thing theband is.
(19:18):
You know, when people talk aboutSouthern rock and that that can
be difficult to devon to, Ithink the band is the best of
that.
And for those dudes, you knowwe're Canadian.
So yeah, I don't know, I thinkthat I'm a hodgepodge, but I did
.
If I've done anything rightever and usually I have to throw
(19:39):
100 darts to get one to hit theboard it's that like very early
on, selfishly or ego orwhatever it might be I felt like
it was more important to figureout who I was as an artist and
as a performer.
Before I was even worth a shitman, I knew I wanted to sing
from in my heart, and I do a lotmore of that than writing songs
(20:02):
that are story songs, which Ialso love.
Yeah, you can hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You can hear it, man People.
If you guys I mean, when peopleknow that I have Justin Wells
on they're going to be like howdid you manage that?
You are looked up to man.
I just want you to know that.
Oh, thanks, man.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It's just because I'm six foot six yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And a badass.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's my wife.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
She might debate you on that, just check them out the
people that know, you know ofyou know, but the people who are
listening, the listeners thatdon't hit the genre and just
finally getting into this genrebecause of this podcast.
You guys have to check this out, man, this guy, it's
unbelievable.
It's not the hokey country, asyou said.
(20:53):
So with the rock, the southernrock, you almost have a it's
from second album, not the firstalbum.
Seven Mary three, fill to it.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That voice, that guy's voice, you know who I'm
talking about yeah, man, thatwas when I was in high school.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, yeah, same here .
You and I are almost the sameage.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I think I'm older by a couple years, three years.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I'll be 42 this year, okay, I just turned 42.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So okay.
Oh, right on.
Happy birthday, man.
Yeah, happy early birthday toyou.
You look a lot better than me,man.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I climb a lot of mountains.
I do my best.
I try to do my best, thank you.
I'll say that keeps your headright, yeah, I try, I try, man,
I try, but no, I was trying toget it.
The angst, I think, has thatrock feel of the voice of Seven
Mary, three, man, I grew uplistening to them religiously
(21:51):
and just can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You know who I always thought sounding like that dude
is my good friend.
I don't know if you're familiarwith him.
He's from Knoxville, tennessee.
His name is Matt Woods, a greatsongwriter who I've banged
around the country a lot with.
But it's just funny that youmentioned that band because I
don't know that I've ever beencompared to that guy or that
band.
But I remember the first time Iheard Matt's stuff I told him
(22:15):
that you know, he's a little bitolder than us, like a couple
years.
I don't know if that was aninfluence or not.
It might just be that part ofthe country.
I think those dudes are maybeEast Coast guys, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, yeah, I believe Florida.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Oh, ok, I was thinking, ok, I thought like
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, I think he went for Virginia.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Now we're going to have to go look out Seven Mary
three.
That was an interesting recordto come out when it did, man, if
you think, because that waslike what, like 97.
Yeah, there's a lot of likepost-grounds getting into that
really garbage slick Yarl-ingnew metal kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think they went from Virginia, I
do believe, and then they wentto Florida.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
They stayed in.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Florida afterwards.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
OK.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
All right, man, a lot of people in your genre.
They hit boss Bruce Springsteenthe greatest.
Yeah, it is, it is.
You know that Garan hitAtlantic City when I saw him.
You know there's a couplepeople that have done others.
You don't go that route, man.
(23:21):
You go somewhere different.
You go to Dire Straits, man,the great Dire Straits.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Well, I would cover Bruce.
I'd cover anybody if I feltlike I had something to add.
Bruce is one of my favoritesman.
My wife just got me a book ofhis for Christmas.
We saw him at Wrigley this pastsummer before he heard himself.
We saw him on Broadway a coupleof years before that.
I'm actually kind of surprisedI didn't mention him, because I
(23:48):
usually can't shut up aboutBruce.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, favorite album.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Favorite album is going to be tough.
I'm going to say somethingthat's going to be criticized
and heavily popular.
My favorite album is maybe therecord that got me to Bruce,
which is Wrecking Ball, which isabout four records, oh yeah, oh
yeah, and it's very slick andit's it's not as cool.
Maybe it's a lot of thoserecords, but there's some very
(24:14):
rad production choices on that.
You know what, though?
No, no, that's not my favorite.
Western Stars is, hands down,my favorite, bruce.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Bruce Really.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, I don't, that's okay.
Yeah, hands down.
There's nothing like it, man,it's.
It's a soundtrack to a movie.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I got.
You know that doesn't exist.
Ok, you mentioned and I forgotto ask James Hetfield Metallica.
What are your thoughts on, say,anger man?
Is it that bad in your eyes?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I feel like this podcast should have come out 20
years ago.
Hey, it's pretty, it's pretty.
St Anger is pretty bad dude.
Yeah, my opinion, I mean, I'min defense of load and reload,
though, man, I think that loadand reload or like like it's
kind of clown shoes, how peopledunk on that, because there's
some songs on that, and had thatbeen any of those dorks in that
(25:07):
kind of new metal scene,everybody would have lost their
minds.
Whatever man.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
I just thought I'd ask, man, because you said
you're a huge Metallica fan andSt Anger took me by surprise.
The snare is it takes a minuteto catch on.
I think it.
You know they were on tosomething, but the lyrics alone.
If you listen to the lyrics,that was James Hetfield's time
when he went to go to rehab andjust the angst in his voice and
(25:32):
the lyrics, man, I don't know.
Give it another.
I hear that.
Well, you know what I don'tlike that album?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I don't, and I try it .
I wanted to.
But I will say this, going backto kind of what we were talking
about earlier I'm so much moreinterested in artists trying and
failing, like reaching forsomething different and failing,
than I am anybody that's justgoing to get in the well worn
thing, and those guys could havedone that at any point.
It is insane that that band isas massive as they are.
(26:00):
You know, 40 years later,having gone through all the
changes that they went throughsonically and playing heavy
music, man, I mean, yeah, itgets like classic rock play, but
like you know, like our momsare not listening to Metallica.
Man, you know what I mean?
It's not you too.
No, I don't know that's.
(26:20):
If I'd have been on the coastI'd have been a punk rock kid,
but Metallica is as close as wecould come out.
And Po Donk, harrison County,kentucky, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, so Dire Straits.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So far away.
You don't hear that often, butyou mastered it.
It was a less than three minutesong, right?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Mine are the original , I'm not really sure Yours.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
The original is like five.
Yeah, because they have apretty long outlet or outro.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Well, you know that song.
So I grew up on Dire Straits.
Man, like dad was a big, youknow petty Dire Straits, pink
Floyd, pink Floyd's like myfavorite band of all time.
Dire Straits wasn't his rat.
Mark Knopfler is one of thebest to ever pick up a Fender
Stratocaster.
Yeah, that song particularly.
(27:14):
I remember hearing it in thisweird kind of limbo time which
is about a year between fifth onthe floor breaking up and and I
started writing songs from myfirst record.
And I remember hearing thatsong and just thinking that you
know that that band gets alittle bit dunked on because
that 80 sound is definitelythere.
You know that kind of arenarock thing is definitely there.
(27:35):
But come on, man, these aregreat songs.
Yeah, delivered like kind oftoo effortlessly.
And hearing that song, if youdon't pay attention to the
lyrics, man, it's a pretty likeuplifting thing.
Those lyrics are.
You know that's a Hank Williamssong and that's like that.
(27:57):
That really struck me for some.
You know, after having heardthat song hundreds of times, I'm
like these lyrics are brutal,man, yeah, I think.
I think that there is a lot ofsadness to be wrangled out of
this song and that arrangementcame to me in a red roof in and
(28:17):
wherever we were I want to sayCharleston, west Virginia so
quickly that I spent a lot oftime looking across the Internet
trying to make sure I wasn'tripping off something I'd heard,
because I'm like this iscertainly this is.
It came to me too quickly.
You know what I mean, but thegood, the good stuff tends to do
that.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What was it about that song that you put on your
album?
Because you could have done somany.
You could have done Romeo andJuliet.
I'm just saying, Well it fitwithin the record.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
To me it fit within that kind of like OK, so kind of
talking a little bit more aboutthat time and I just I didn't
know what I was going to do.
We just had our twin girls andwe were broke.
We were as broke as we've everbeen.
This band that was really juststarting to get good kind of
like national attraction.
It imploded rapidly and it'slike that whole thing.
(29:14):
I'm like man, I guess I need togo get a job at the Toyota
plant, like I got to.
This has got to get done.
I got she signed on to this,like the babies didn't sign on
to this.
I'm not going to let them down,kind of thing.
And so if you listen to thatrecord knowing that that came
from my punk ass and a ChevyEquinox by myself with an
(29:37):
acoustic guitar and just tryingto go to some of these markets
that we'd had and seeing howmany fit on the floor fans were
going to stick around, which isless than I had thought.
Anyway, so to that Dire Straitssong, that fits in there, man,
those lines, you know I'm tiredof making it work over the
(29:58):
telephone that that was allthere and I don't know if fit in
that narrative that I wastrying to tell, which was
everything I just said out of mymouth in song form, you know
missing my wife, missing my newbabies, not knowing what the
hell I was doing and beingincredibly massively alone you
(30:21):
know feeling I got you, yeah,man, yeah, yeah, I jammed your
elbows.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Man, I'm just like these guys.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That song, that song on that record like I'm trying
to put myself in that becausethat was we recorded that in
2015.
And there's two songs on thatalbum that we did in one take.
That was one of them and youcan even hear it.
There's a vocal part thathappens late in the song that
that I'm not thrilled with.
My voice kind of cracks, andyou know we went to do it again
(30:52):
and I sang it quote, unquoteright, and that hurt was there
was less of that hurt.
I'm like that's got to juststay and hopefully nobody ever
bust my ass on it.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
No, I would say it was emotion, emotion.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So 2024, when do you think that album is going to
come out, man?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
The new one.
I don't think that.
I think that that album willcome out in the summer or in the
fall.
Any I wanted out last year.
I'd love for us to be talkingabout that record right now.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Is it tough just to sit on a record?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, man, I'm like incredibly impatient if you, if
you hadn't picked that up yet.
So like and I think I think alot of artists like this man you
work hard on a thing and onceyou get it to where you feel
like it's ready, then you'reyou're ready for it to get out
there, you're ready for peopleto hear, and, especially as you
kind of like Release albums theway you're supposed to, with a
(31:53):
team behind them and stuff.
There's just there's so manydamn hands in them Excuse me,
too many, you know, chefs in thekitchen and that can make
things come out a little late,almost to the point where it's
almost like hey, I want to starttalking about the one after
that, you know, but yeah, Nowthe 2024 summer, how are you not
(32:18):
biting at the bits to like hey,I want to like, give him a
taste, put out a song here.
It's tough.
It's tough to the point too,man, that you know I don't it's
not like I'm going to be upthere doing hip hop yet, but but
like it is, it is enough.
It's a significant enough sonicdeparture from the last record
(32:39):
that I want to have.
The guys you know I want us tobe presenting that way now,
because that's what I'minterested in and that's what's
going to serve these songs.
But I ain't trying to blow thattop either.
So we're going to take thisdowntime to start setting that
up and getting that into placeand it'll be a little different.
(32:59):
But trust me, man, I am I amperpetually the least patient of
all of us.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
OK, that doesn't seem like it, but I just moved.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I just moved slow.
It's not my choice, it's justgravity.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
All right Touring.
Will you follow up with thetour?
Will you start it up with thetour?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
If we land the, the relationship that I think we're
about to land, I'll be on tourplenty.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
OK, ok, thoughts of coming out West.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, man, like I said, that tour last summer not
by my choice was was cut shortto the tune of three weeks and I
was going to hit the West Coastfor the first time.
I've never been out there,which is frankly embarrassing at
this point in my career, butI'll be out there.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
OK, ok.
Well, I, I I've been sitting onthis one episode of Dusty Russ
and I said somebody looks up toyou.
He said where's he?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I met him at Kansas City, but is is he from?
Where's he from?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I believe he lives in Oregon, but I believe he lived
in Kansas as well.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
But he's from Oregon Originally.
You're saying yeah, yeah, yeah,he was sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oregon, vancouver, portland area.
But yeah, he, he mentioned youand he's like I would love to
you know tour with Justin Wells.
I was like all right, all right?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, dusty, let's get it done.
Brother, you're right, you'reright.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Good guy.
I think I'll be putting it outsoon the episode now.
Collaborations Any.
On any coming up?
Have you thought about it Anylike?
If, what's your collaboration?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So what are you talking about?
Like if, like somebody elsesinging on a track, kind of
thing.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Duets, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
No, no, but in the writing process on this record
there are two collaborationsthat I'm infinitely proud of and
that's another kind of.
That's another way that youknow I don't want to say how I
frame this, Just that's anotherway that some intimacies are
(35:26):
showing themselves on this newrecord.
I've never been a co-writer.
I've got some co-writes, youknow.
I've co-written with somehomies Jason ED comes to mind
but that's always, you know,Jeff Shepherd but that's almost
always been somebody else'sthing.
It's rare that I let peopleinto my thing, and mostly
because of what we talked aboutearlier, that I'm speaking from
(35:48):
my heart, so it seems kind oflike silly to co-write.
But speaking to thecollaboration, I wrote one with
that guy, Matthew Ryan, who Ifirst heard on FM radio when I
was a freshman in high schooland who, maybe single-handedly,
or maybe him and another artist,got me into lyrics and got me
(36:10):
into songwriting as somethingother than just to fill up the
verses you know like takinglyricism seriously.
So we wrote one together that'sgonna be on this record.
And then my longtime friend,one of my favorite people in the
world, one of my favoritesongwriters in the world, guy
named Adam Lee, who now is mytour manager, which he's
(36:35):
incredibly overqualified for andshould just be out there
touring himself.
But we wrote a couple for thisrecord that I'm immensely proud
of.
So, yeah, and everything'scollaboration, that's something
I wanna speak to.
Earlier too, man, and I'll tagit here.
You asked what was it like goingfrom the band to solo, and I
feel like that is very unfair,only because I mean I'd say, if
(37:00):
anything, there are more handsinvolved in my art now than ever
before.
There are so many kinds ofunsung heroes, and I really
tried to focus on them with theUnited States and in the artwork
.
You know I had pictures ofeveryone that touched that album
and I think there's like 40photos on there.
(37:22):
So I just get all the credit,man, and it is my art and
ultimately I make the call.
But, as you I'm sure know, andany of your listeners that care
about the music business,there's so many, so so many
people, not just in the studio,but even in the studio.
I think there were 10, 11musicians that played on this
(37:45):
new record.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And man, you're just a guy, you know.
But man you have some friendsand one produced.
You have a producer, anotherbadass, I mean, he's quite the
guy.
I could only imagine partyingwith that guy.
But Shooter Jennings, man.
How was that?
How was that?
How did you get that?
If you don't mind, you know,just quickly discussing how did
(38:10):
you get him to produce youralbum, man?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I just asked him.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
And he's just saying yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Well, we had become friends, kind of via Twitter and
at that time, man, he wasreally ringing the bell for a
lot of independent artists andthe music business was
infinitely different then.
This stuff that is kind of likeselling out arenas now, was
this very, very, veryunderground thing and there were
(38:39):
a couple of festivals thatwould have a lot of us types,
but, and even you know so thatwas a very small scene.
But so we just kind of bodyedup.
Man, he's a sweetheart, he's anincredibly, obviously
incredibly talented songwriter,producer, but, dude, he
similarly is not restrained byyou know what you have to do.
(39:03):
What traditionalism is this,this, this, this, this?
And that really drew me to him.
That was, you know, a couple ofthose records are very kind of
like guitar heavy, what youmight call Southern Rock.
I don't know if that was pushedout of Southern Rock.
I think they were kind ofcalling him country.
But here it is bunch of LA guys, you know, long hairs, man, and
(39:25):
anyway we struck up afriendship and then just kind of
, you know, in our cups onenight I said, man, we're, you
know, kind of shopping producers, like I know that at that time
he'd only produced his own work.
I think he'd maybe done one ofhis mom's songs, but I don't
even know if he'd done a full.
I'm pretty sure he'd not doneany records other than his own,
(39:47):
and so I asked him and thinkingyou know we're drinking thinking
.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you just did you party with him
?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, we partied, you know, yeah, we partied.
But I asked him and he saidfuck yeah, man, and I'm thinking
that's a bullshit.
You know that's a bullshit.
And I think it was like twodays later he texted me and said
yo, send me those demos, let'sget to work.
(40:16):
And I said okay, man, okay, andthat was a beautiful time.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
It was short.
You know, we had a week out inLouisville and then I think we
kind of touched things up for aweek in Lexington and I'm really
proud of that record.
Man, we charted that record.
That was a different time.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
So you doubted.
You doubted too.
What's?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
You doubted yourself as well.
Does that happen?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
No, I doubted him just because I still had a lot
of that ego of youth and justthat kind of mistrust.
Man, there's a lot of sillyfools in this business.
I didn't think that that ashooter, but there's a lot of
(41:09):
bullshit talk.
Man, yeah, I got you.
Homeboy was ready to get towork and that fired me up.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Did you fan boy when he said let's do it?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
No, because no, because we I mean like no,
because, honestly, because he'snot that guy dude, and I'm not
that guy either, but like he's ahuman being like us man.
I mean, we bonded over fuckingarcades.
You know old computer games andshit and He-Man, so you know
(41:39):
he's just a dude that lovesmusic.
I've not met a lot of peoplethat love music as much as
Shooter Jennings and it's clearin the work he's doing to this
day man.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
No, I don't fan boy.
Dude, If Dave Gilmore walked inthe room right now, yeah, I
probably fan boy, but other thanthat, no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I kind of fanboyed you in front of my wife the
other day.
And it's like yeah, man, I gotthis big name coming.
You know, she's like who?
I didn't say the name, but I'mlike yeah, and then you said the
name and she's like who?
Yeah, no, no, no.
So we're almost done.
Now, is it true?
You had another rendition ofanother cover of Elton John?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Um, we did, uh, I did a seven inch uh project where
we uh, there's a series calledneed to know out of uh,
california, this label, and um,they just wanted to uh, I think
the thing was always like youknow, there's other folks that I
(42:47):
think Todd Snyder had done itat that point, Um, that guy,
matthew Ryan, did it after me,um, some folks, whatever, uh
yeah, but but it's like a seveninch right, like so you know,
seven inch vinyl you got.
You got room for one song oneach side and I think I think,
at least, as it was told to me,that was the style, excuse me,
(43:09):
was was uh, one side was like asong of yours.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
And it kind of stripped down fashion.
And then the other side was tobe a cover and uh, yeah, man,
elton John again another artistwho I'm surprised I didn't list
one of my favorite.
Uh, every, probably thegreatest showman of all time.
Um, yeah, and I did Mona Lisa'sand Matt Hatter's, my favorite
Elton tune.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Uh, yes.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
It's like lyric, it's like lyrical Muhammad Ali man,
it's.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
It's outrageously good so my question, my question
to you is it's only on seveninch, there's no digitally.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
No Dang.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Hand All right, Because the I got a handful of
them in the office right now.
So okay, the killers do a greatjob on the revamp and then the
restoration.
I mean I love the revamp.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
The revamp is good Is that the big one they did.
He did like one that was abunch of like kind of all genre,
and then one was like kind ofspecific country, right, yeah,
and some of that was awesome andsome of that was kind of not.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah, I don't.
I don't remember the killer, sothe killers did that song.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
And it is perfect.
And, uh, marin Morris did it onthe restoration, which was the
country side, which was good too, but man, the killers, I mean
dude, I'm a huge killers fan.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, sure, I've seen the killers.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, they, they, they do an awesome job.
So I'm just like, okay.
When I heard that you did that,I'm like is there any way?
Because I looked and looked onYouTube, I looked on every
platform for that and I'm justlike, dang it, I need to get
that and you get that taste tosee what I'm surprised it's not
on YouTube Because I have, uh,performed it.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
But that's one of those things, man, uh, not
unlike the you're talking about.
It's cool that you know.
I appreciate you.
You listen to all the stuff,man, because you're talking a
bunch of these singles that havekind of dropped sporadically
here and there.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Um, but sometimes it's a really interesting thing.
Sometimes you make a thing in astudio and you love it and I'd
say it's true of both that andthat love song and just for
whatever reason, it doesn't makeits way into the set.
It's not even necessarily bychoice.
I've had songs that are myfavorite, songs that don't work
live, and then I've had livesongs, many songs that uh would,
(45:25):
I would dare say you know,ordering on fan favorites,
definitely songs that peopleloved.
They just we get in the studioand it's just not inspired and
I'm not going to just slap athing, you know, out there, uh,
haphazardly, um.
So yeah, I don't know, I was, Iwas trying to think, as we were
talking about this, what is?
Yeah, dude, miranda Lambert didmy father's gun, that's right.
(45:47):
I couldn't remember what songshe had done on that, on that
Elton tribute, but uh, dude, shemurdered that.
I thought it was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, not a fan.
What uh what, Miranda Lambert?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, on that, elton John yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
No, I have the album I.
It's good, it's good yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, man, I need to go re-listen that, because I
kind of listened to that on afamily vacation, not really
giving it the yeah, you'retelling me, I would like to yeah
.
Yeah, I definitely would haveheard it and I'm sure I loved it
.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Moms does a good uh cover as well.
Oh, I love that one man.
Yeah, that's, that's prettygood.
Uh, the mom Ferdinand Son.
Oh, yeah, yeah, they do a songof his, and it's just the band
or just Marcus?
It's not, it's the band, it'sthe band.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
What song did they do ?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm going to go back and I'm going to listen to this
as soon as I can.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
It's one of my favorite.
I listened to the killers andthat one over and just so yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, got man Dude, he had that banger on that Ted
Lasso.
Uh, that Ted Lasso theme song,that was a hook.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Oh yeah, I haven't watched Ted Lasso man it's a
different comedy.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Yeah yeah, it was fun at first.
It started sucking quickly,okay.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
If somebody, a listener, had to pick up you
know Spotify or Apple or analbum, you know just any album
what song would you have themlisten to to get the whole feel
of who you are as a person?
A musician, lyricist, familyman, what's that?
(47:24):
That's challenging.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
That's a good question.
Uh, huh, well, you know, man.
Hmm, that this is maybe thebest answer.
I have right this second.
That's a really good question.
Thanks for asking.
Uh, is a song off my lastrecord called temporary blue,
and uh, that song is about mydaughters.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
but if I got three of them, you're going to hit the
feels.
Uh, uh, the feels.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Well, you know, if you're asking me to kind of like
, best find a song thatencapsulates what I'm trying to
do, I think that is the countryof song on that.
Well, first of all, uh, myfriend Abby Hamilton saying on
it, uh, an artist you need toknow immediately Abby's blown up
and doing really well Um, andshe crashed it and that was a
(48:15):
great experience.
But uh, that song, I think, isreally the country's thing on
that album, which is anotherwise decidedly not country
album.
But it goes from that into thisbig weird insane pink floaty
thing in the middle, uh,intentionally in I and then
comes back out of it into thatkind of country shuffle.
Uh, I think that lyrically isone of my best songs I've ever
(48:38):
written.
But sonically, getting in andout of genre um is kind of my
personality to a T, so maybemaybe start there and then
listen to everything.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
All right, I have my three.
Okay, tell me I'm going tostart off.
I'd be more interested inhearing yours than having to
tell you mine, oh, I just try toget the have people you know,
get you Now, you didn't ask methree, you asked me one.
I have a question, Okay Wellnow we'll.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
we'll first give me one, All right.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Three quarters gone.
Okay, yeah, talk about your dadand life right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
That was a hard.
That was the other song, by theway, that was done in one take.
That what you hear is is theonly version that we, that we
sang and played in the studio.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And it hits, it hits.
I haven't really said anythingon social media about what I'm
going through, but it's good Now, the rock and roll, the dogs
man, the voice, the voice.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, and then that's the song that connected me with
a bunch of folks.
You know the dogs.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
And man, I really live.
I lived in Kentucky, I went, Ilived there, I know it.
I went to college in Indiana,so I know the Midwest.
I love blue moon of Kentucky.
Man, yeah, it's a wholedifferent side of you man from
the dog.
It's like night and day, youknow, and uh that's why I have
three just to have the people tocheck you out.
(50:07):
Just the different sounds youdon't have a different sound but
just how you take of thosesongs and just make it your own,
and gritty and raw, and justthe lyrics, and you being the
person that I enjoy listening to.
Man, you're not, you're not,you're not, you're not hokey,
you're not fake, you're justdude.
(50:29):
You're the man of your word,man.
And that's why I put thosethree down and wanted to share
it with you, and that'smeaningful.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Thank you, man.
Uh, three quarters gone and itholds a really special spot in
my heart.
You know, I mean it's it'sabout my family, but I, you know
, talk about you know, dad's.
Uh, I wrote that when my dadretired and he, you know his
factory man his whole life and,uh, I think, somehow
inexplicably works harder now asa retiree.
But uh, you know, he'd givenhis whole body to the kind of
(51:00):
American dream, the nine to five, the 401k and, um, not, you
know, a little while before heretired I saw his, you know the,
the the market collapses, 401kwas halved.
And here's a dude who is thehardest working man and the, the
most American dad dad you canimagine, loved his kids, you
(51:22):
know, provided, did the thingthat you're supposed to do?
Right, yeah, you go, you goclock in, clock out, and you're
supposed to be taken care of.
And uh, I didn't quite see itas much that way.
Now he would probably arguethat.
but, um, right, you know, so hehad just retired and he's in
this new phase in life and I wasthinking about how, how, uh,
you know, you age, man, things,things change and people come
(51:47):
and go and, uh, families, what'sthe most important?
Yes, yes, so I appreciate youman.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I really appreciate you.
Thanks, I'm glad, I'm glad weline this thing up.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Do the stars aligned?
Yes, yes and uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
I want to apologize you know the, the, the tag here,
there and everywhere in between.
I really appreciate yourpatience.
Yeah and dude, your musicspeaks volumes, especially to me
.
That song does.
My dad's been 24 years in thearmy, so you know when you
started off that line on the, onthe, on the, on the four years
(52:18):
in the army, so you know, whenyou started off that line, I was
like okay, I feel it.
You know, I, I hear it, I sawit, I, when you were explaining,
I can just you know, vision,what you went through as a kid,
as as myself.
You know what I mean and so, uh, it's heartfelt.
Man, I appreciate your music.
(52:40):
I want others to appreciate ittoo.
I know the people who know ofyou do, and they're going to get
a kick because I get tointerview you.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
Oh man, I just appreciate you having me on on
your podcast and and uh andintroduced me to your fans, so
you know.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
So, like I said, man, thank you for your time.
Man, I'm a lifetime listener, afan.
When you come out West, I willbe seeing you.
I'll probably be messaging you.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
You don't have to answer, but I'll be like, dude,
I'm in, I'm in the crowd, I'myelling, you know now you're
going to have to show me thegood eats, although Adam, I
think, knows him cause his hisdad is from Seattle, so I think
he knows a bunch of someWashington area hangs.
But yeah, man, I'll get outthere, probably this year, and
we'll and we'll meet in person.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yes, um, you can't go wrong with the seafood here,
man.
Yeah, hey, listen, dude, I'lltear up some seafood, let's go.
I'm originally from.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Louisiana.
It's a different kind of sea.
It's a nastier seafood but buteven better.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Still still, justin, keep killing the music scene.
Man, keep being you.
I see it, others see it.
What you stand for, just be you, man All right yeah, hey man,
(54:02):
grab me on brother.
Background Music plays Justin Wells.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm doing well, Nick.
What's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's going, man, it's going.
You know it's been a moment.
We've been trying to gettogether for quite some time.
This is my first show of theyear, so welcome and thank you
for being there.
I wouldn't say it's a writer'sblock, I would say it's a
podcast block.
Right now, just a lot of thingsgoing on in my life and I
appreciate you helping me getout of the slump.
(00:55):
So thank you for being patientand thank you for spending your
Saturday evening with me.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Of course, yeah, thanks for the invite.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So, speaking of New Year, how was your New Year, man
?
How was your break?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Very chill, very relaxing.
No politics at the dinner table, man.
I call that a win.
No, everything's cool, man.
Everybody's healthy and aboutas low key the beginning of the
years I've had in recent memory.
(01:29):
I'm kind of here for it.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, that's what she said, so like you've been in
the business for a while, yeah.
And it's surprising, and it'snot always it wasn't solo at the
beginning, correct?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, I was in a band called Fit on the Floor that I
started 100 years ago no, in2006,.
We got together.
Then we're together for justshy of a decade before I started
my solo career.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Can I ask you how does one go from Southern Rock
Band to solo where you're at now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do you mean sonically , or like the logistics of how
do you kind of like switch from?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Like, the more I get down in the rabbit hole of
musicians and everything else.
They all started in a rock bandEspecially.
Yeah, it's crazy.
And then they go solo and thenthey do country like Marty Bush,
dusty Russ.
Those guys and you guys have aunique sound and you guys are
(02:43):
killing the sound.
Man, when did you know you hadwhat it took to go solo and to
stay solo and be successful theway you want to be successful?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that's a tricky question and I think I need to
kind of like answer a coupleaspects of it, one of which is,
without coming across likecombative, country music as a
genre takes me in and I'mappreciative of that.
And people call my musiccountry and I'm appreciative of
(03:22):
that and I'm a country kid inthat I'm from the country and
then, past that man, I hope Inever dishonor the genre because
I love the genre.
But I don't sit out to becountry.
I don't necessarily know why Ifit in that box, other than just
(03:44):
, I guess, my accent andespecially the spotlight on our
state that I'm sure you're awareof in that genre.
But you know, man, I was a rockkid.
The kids that picked on me andmine, which were the weirdos in
my little school out in thecounty, listened to a lot of
(04:07):
country music, and that was inthe late 90s and a lot of that
music was terrible, and so Ijust lumped all that in.
So I grew up on George Jonesand Hank Williams and then so
much rock and roll and so muchMotown.
So I was never a country fanand you go talk to anybody I
(04:29):
went to high school with and I'msure they're quite surprised
that, that I found myself inthis genre.
But I don't say any that to bemercurial, other than to to be
honest and not be an imposter,because you know this is a genre
that's steeped intraditionalism and people that
love the music take thatseriously, and I don't.
(04:50):
I don't ever want to step onthat, but also I will not.
I will not cater, you know I'mI'm expressing myself and my
viewpoint, so that's part ofthat question.
And then as far as fifth on thefloor is kind of the same thing
, man, like we were, everyversion of that band seem to be
(05:11):
a collection of guys that camefrom almost any genre but
country.
I learned a lot from those guys.
You know my bandmates, mybrothers, from a lot of other
aspects, and you know we gotcalled Southern Rock, which is
probably, as I guess that's asfair a moniker as as it could be
(05:34):
.
But I don't know, man, I hearBluegrass songs, I hear country
songs, I hear your rock and rollsongs that aren't I don't.
You know genres, tough yeah,and I, and I hate answering
those questions because toanswer them truthfully, I don't
think there's any way to answerthem truthfully without sound
like a massive asshole.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Gotcha, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say you fit the script
of plain country, though.
You have that Southern feel,that Southern rock.
You have just that raw feel.
I mean, you don't have one badsong, and when I say bad, it's
that pop stuff that I don'tlisten to, right, it's that
(06:20):
Americana and Folk is where youfit in, I believe, because it's
not so much country, it's notNashville.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's what I would say.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
No, it's, it's Lexington AF.
Yeah, right, ok, kentucky,kentucky and but you know, some
of that shit's good too, man,it's.
It's really hard to sorry ifthis is a family audience.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh no, you're good, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I have a terrible mouth, but all that's tough, and
you know it's.
It's a cliche at this point.
But like what is Americana whenI when I think of Americana, I
often think about Pretentiouskids dressing like their own
brother.
We're art, though, but it alsoincludes, you know, Uncle Tupelo
(07:10):
, which is rad, and you knowEmily Harris, which is An angel,
right, you know, I don't know.
All this is tricky and I'mterrible to answer these
questions.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
OK, ok.
So how does 2024 look?
Right now, as we're talking,going on tour, you got a new
album.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Nothing announced with the tour.
I do have a new album.
I have a new album that's beendone for some time and we're
we're shaking the hands behindthe scenes to, you know,
hopefully reach more people thanwe ever have before.
I look back on, you know, thefifth on the floor, discography,
(07:53):
and in my sense, and from albumto album.
You know I put out my firstalbum in 2007.
So you know, yeah this would bemy seventh album when it comes
out and I hear, I hear growth.
I hope you and listeners heargrowth, but really they always
(08:18):
seem like very, very differentthings.
Like you know, I feel like I'mbeing kind of challenging
answering your question, butalso think that I'm challenging
myself making these records tonot get in in these ditches that
I've dug as an artist.
You know, I'm not reallyinterested in you being
(08:42):
comfortable defining my sound orme being comfortable defining
my sound.
I want each album to have itssound and, you know, not not be
restricted.
You know, I'm kind of.
I'm kind of to my detrimentsometimes.
I want to, I want to just go myown way.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
What makes this new album different than the others?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think that I struggled with and I think a lot
of people struggle with.
I think a lot of songwritersstruggle with being happy and
and and really specifically likelove and being in love and and
and writing about love songs andespecially in these genres that
you're talking about, thatwe're talking about.
You know it's a lot ofheartbreak and that's dude.
(09:28):
You know some of my favoritesongs or heartbreak songs, but
you know that's a well-mined,you know situation there.
So anyway, during, during,during, lockdown, you know.
So here I here.
I've been a guy that's almost myentire adult life been to a
musician.
(09:48):
I'm a musician and I've got afamily Pretty good at keeping
those worlds pretty separate.
But you know, then all of asudden it's like hit the brakes
completely and we're going to behome, and we're going to be
home every day and it's soquickly.
I saw how much work and I knewthis and we know this
(10:11):
intuitively but how much work mywife puts into my dream, not
hands-on, but making sureeverything else is done.
I get all this glory.
I get my name on the marqueeand she should have her name on
the marquee because she's doingthe real work.
I'm just out here playing man,here I am, up under her feet,
(10:35):
right in this house, in thekitchen, not knowing what to do
with my hands.
I just started writing aboutthat.
I started writing out of thattruly humbling place, I feel
like, and just wrote this loverecord so sonically.
I wanted it to be that the lastrecord was this big, huge wall
of sound thing.
I wanted this to be appropriateto telling your partner that
(11:00):
you love them.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
A lot different than your previous sound.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah, the United States was.
I've been kind of thinking interms of dawn.
The distance was a very selfishrecord.
There's a lot about me and theUnited States was me trying to
go outward and really trying tothink about everyone.
You know, as we were kind ofbombarded with just vicious
headline after vicious headline,yeah.
And then this one I wanted tobe about her man.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Awesome, awesome, man , because, man, I was listening
to it today.
Man, you're, you know all yoursongs, you know during my run,
and I'm like man, there's notone.
I mean, yeah, you have thatlove song, but it's not really a
love song, it's, it's aheartbreak.
It's a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
The whole hook is oh yeah, that's kind of the tongue
in cheek is like I could.
I was trying to write one atthat time, man, and failing it.
It's tough dude, it's tough todo it and not and not be hokey,
you know.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Right, and you're not hokey, you're, you're not.
And with that heartbreak, manbrings angst, and you have that
deep voice and, man, you canjust feel it.
Oh, man, it's just.
Oh, my dude, you're preaching,you're preaching, and that's
what I'm saying, man, and thisthat's the kind of country I
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And for you to struggle doing a love song and
to make it about your wife, aGod gave it a listen, yeah, yeah
so that was a cool record andor that single, and also man,
I'm going to totally, I'm aboutto bomb this real hard, but no,
it's not Washington, okay, uh,oh, his name escapes me, but
(12:41):
there's a band from Eugene,oregon, called Horse Feathers,
kind of for this indie, indie toindie pop, beautiful songs.
Singer's name is Justin.
Oh man, I want to say thefiddle player's name is Nate and
and man, I'm really sorry Iforgot your name wrong.
I don't, I don't really knowhim personally, but he came and
played fiddle on that thing, sothere's an almost connection to
(13:03):
you.
Okay, up in that Northwest.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
All right, shout out to him.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, man Shout out to Horse Feathers.
Great, great band.
Y'all checked them out.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Would you consider yourself,your sounds, you as a musician,
underrated?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
On my, when my ego is big, sure, yeah, yeah, I don't
know.
I guess I mean we always wantmore because that's the society
we live in.
But you know when my, when mygratitude is where it ought to
be, I'm pretty stoked to, youknow, have bought a house and
(13:46):
have the cars we have, and youknow we do.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Okay, tell me about our vinyl sessions.
Man, a lot of people are goingraw.
I mean, your songs are raw asit is, but you took it down
acoustically and made it evenraw.
Or like, tell me about it.
Like, what made you do the four, five songs?
Was it five songs?
Four songs, yeah.
What made you do that album?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Uh, so that's a, that's a group of folks down in
Nashville that are doing thiskind of you know, that kind of
you know to video and to audiothing.
I think that I think that thereis an authenticity fetish
happening, and that's not anoriginal concept, but I think
(14:33):
that, as we have gotten soenamored with our screens and
things like that, um, you know,the, the heart of us, the soul
of us actually, probably morespecifically, is kind of
rebelling against that, and so Ithink that there's a lot of
drive towards music I can'tspeak to other genres, but more
in this kind of thing that, uh,you know, they want uh what is
(14:56):
authentic, and so they see someof these things where, again,
I'm picking on people, but youknow, people are dressing like
they're from the 1920s and thatkind of scratches that itch to
them.
They see a microphone out inthe holler and that scratches,
that itch.
This is a real thing.
And uh, sometimes it may be.
I can tell you from this side ofit that, uh, with production
(15:18):
being what it is, that they canmake that sound however they
want to.
It doesn't matter if themicrophone is out in the holler.
I think the only way to getanywhere near, uh, knowing if
that's true or not is to go buya ticket to a show and go see it
and listen to it.
But honestly, does it matter?
You know, uh, some of myfavorite records ever made were
(15:42):
great studio records.
So I don't, I don't know whatthis kind of obsession is, um,
but I just think at the end ofthe day, if you nick like a
thing who gives a shit, you knowgood, it doesn't matter what it
is.
Um, I feel like I'm beingreally heavy handed when you're
just asking a question about theArvano and to speak to that
(16:04):
specific, thing,bro, I had COVID that day and
didn't know it and then they hadme in a 95 degree uh warehouse.
Uh, I was actually supposed tohave a, uh, a piano player for
that session and the person thatwas setting that up failed me.
Uh, so I did it by myself anduh, and we did several takes and
(16:26):
they were all beautiful peopleat Arvano, man, very patient,
very helpful and uh, kind and uh, you know, I hope, I hope, I
hope the thing, I think we didgood work, but, dude, I was
miserable.
It was so I'm a big guy, it'shot as shit.
It was like 95 degrees and uhand like I said, got a positive
(16:46):
COVID result uh the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know you jam your, your, your answers
, but you know it just uh showsa lot of uh character from you
man.
You're basically outlawyourself, man.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I guess Bad ass dude You're bad ass, I don't know man
, I just I want to be honest youknow I want to be honest and
and it's, it's something that'sbeen eating at me, that, uh,
some of the other things.
I'm not Arvano's rad as shit,but uh, you know, the anything
with the mic in front of it outin the holler is suddenly this
massively authentic thing.
(17:22):
No, dude, we can.
We can pull the wool over youany way.
We want to out here.
All right you got my prayer onyou.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
No, no, no, you got this sound, man, and you said
George Jones, when I heard, whenI was listening to your music,
especially on my runs I listenedto a lot of country music on
and runs, especially, you knowyour guys is because the beats
per minute I try to stay beatsper minute, you know, and you
guys stay around the 130, 140range and that's where I start.
(17:58):
I try to stay and I'm like andI try to pinpoint your guys'
sound and I hear a lot of George.
I do, I do, and I and Ilistened to George back in the
day, went to Opryland as growingup as a kid, and I'm like, ok,
there's another thing too.
And then just, I wouldn't sayWilliams, I wouldn't say you
(18:21):
know, you know junior, but I'mlike you threw me.
I hear a lot of Southern rock,mm.
Hmm, there's, but I hear thejoke, the Jones, I do, so it's.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So you stopped me a bit, but, man, I got, I'm trying
to get the rock down, mm hmm,the rock is, you know, from my
youth and into this day, man,you know, metallica was huge.
James Hadfield is one of thegreatest frontmen of all time
and I don't even think that'sremotely debatable.
And CCR was huge.
(18:55):
So, like you know, I kind oflike came to country in this
very roundabout way.
You know, I got interested insongwriters in high school and
they weren't country writers,guys like Matthew Ryan, who's a
friend now, but really like mytop guys.
You know it's George Jones,it's Fogarty, it's leave on helm
.
You know this kind of thing theband is.
(19:18):
You know, when people talk aboutSouthern rock and that that can
be difficult to devon to, Ithink the band is the best of
that.
And for those dudes, you knowwe're Canadian.
So yeah, I don't know, I thinkthat I'm a hodgepodge, but I did
.
If I've done anything rightever and usually I have to throw
(19:39):
100 darts to get one to hit theboard it's that like very early
on, selfishly or ego orwhatever it might be I felt like
it was more important to figureout who I was as an artist and
as a performer.
Before I was even worth a shitman, I knew I wanted to sing
from in my heart, and I do a lotmore of that than writing songs
(20:02):
that are story songs, which Ialso love.
Yeah, you can hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You can hear it, man People.
If you guys I mean, when peopleknow that I have Justin Wells
on they're going to be like howdid you manage that?
You are looked up to man.
I just want you to know that.
Oh, thanks, man.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It's just because I'm six foot six yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And a badass.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's my wife.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
She might debate you on that, just check them out the
people that know, you know ofyou know, but the people who are
listening, the listeners thatdon't hit the genre and just
finally getting into this genrebecause of this podcast.
You guys have to check this out, man, this guy, it's
unbelievable.
It's not the hokey country, asyou said.
(20:53):
So with the rock, the southernrock, you almost have a it's
from second album, not the firstalbum.
Seven Mary three, fill to it.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That voice, that guy's voice, you know who I'm
talking about yeah, man, thatwas when I was in high school.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, yeah, same here .
You and I are almost the sameage.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I think I'm older by a couple years, three years.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I'll be 42 this year, okay, I just turned 42.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So okay.
Oh, right on.
Happy birthday, man.
Yeah, happy early birthday toyou.
You look a lot better than me,man.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I climb a lot of mountains.
I do my best.
I try to do my best, thank you.
I'll say that keeps your headright, yeah, I try, I try, man,
I try, but no, I was trying toget it.
The angst, I think, has thatrock feel of the voice of Seven
Mary, three, man, I grew uplistening to them religiously
(21:51):
and just can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You know who I always thought sounding like that dude
is my good friend.
I don't know if you're familiarwith him.
He's from Knoxville, tennessee.
His name is Matt Woods, a greatsongwriter who I've banged
around the country a lot with.
But it's just funny that youmentioned that band because I
don't know that I've ever beencompared to that guy or that
band.
But I remember the first time Iheard Matt's stuff I told him
(22:15):
that you know, he's a little bitolder than us, like a couple
years.
I don't know if that was aninfluence or not.
It might just be that part ofthe country.
I think those dudes are maybeEast Coast guys, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, yeah, I believe Florida.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Oh, ok, I was thinking, ok, I thought like
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, I think he went for Virginia.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Now we're going to have to go look out Seven Mary
three.
That was an interesting recordto come out when it did, man, if
you think, because that waslike what, like 97.
Yeah, there's a lot of likepost-grounds getting into that
really garbage slick Yarl-ingnew metal kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think they went from Virginia, I
do believe, and then they wentto Florida.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
They stayed in.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Florida afterwards.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
OK.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
All right, man, a lot of people in your genre.
They hit boss Bruce Springsteenthe greatest.
Yeah, it is, it is.
You know that Garan hitAtlantic City when I saw him.
You know there's a couplepeople that have done others.
You don't go that route, man.
(23:21):
You go somewhere different.
You go to Dire Straits, man,the great Dire Straits.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Well, I would cover Bruce.
I'd cover anybody if I feltlike I had something to add.
Bruce is one of my favoritesman.
My wife just got me a book ofhis for Christmas.
We saw him at Wrigley this pastsummer before he heard himself.
We saw him on Broadway a coupleof years before that.
I'm actually kind of surprisedI didn't mention him, because I
(23:48):
usually can't shut up aboutBruce.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, favorite album.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Favorite album is going to be tough.
I'm going to say somethingthat's going to be criticized
and heavily popular.
My favorite album is maybe therecord that got me to Bruce,
which is Wrecking Ball, which isabout four records, oh yeah, oh
yeah, and it's very slick andit's it's not as cool.
Maybe it's a lot of thoserecords, but there's some very
(24:14):
rad production choices on that.
You know what, though?
No, no, that's not my favorite.
Western Stars is, hands down,my favorite, bruce.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Bruce Really.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, I don't, that's okay.
Yeah, hands down.
There's nothing like it, man,it's.
It's a soundtrack to a movie.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I got.
You know that doesn't exist.
Ok, you mentioned and I forgotto ask James Hetfield Metallica.
What are your thoughts on, say,anger man?
Is it that bad in your eyes?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I feel like this podcast should have come out 20
years ago.
Hey, it's pretty, it's pretty.
St Anger is pretty bad dude.
Yeah, my opinion, I mean, I'min defense of load and reload,
though, man, I think that loadand reload or like like it's
kind of clown shoes, how peopledunk on that, because there's
some songs on that, and had thatbeen any of those dorks in that
(25:07):
kind of new metal scene,everybody would have lost their
minds.
Whatever man.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
I just thought I'd ask, man, because you said
you're a huge Metallica fan andSt Anger took me by surprise.
The snare is it takes a minuteto catch on.
I think it.
You know they were on tosomething, but the lyrics alone.
If you listen to the lyrics,that was James Hetfield's time
when he went to go to rehab andjust the angst in his voice and
(25:32):
the lyrics, man, I don't know.
Give it another.
I hear that.
Well, you know what I don'tlike that album?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I don't, and I try it .
I wanted to.
But I will say this, going backto kind of what we were talking
about earlier I'm so much moreinterested in artists trying and
failing, like reaching forsomething different and failing,
than I am anybody that's justgoing to get in the well worn
thing, and those guys could havedone that at any point.
It is insane that that band isas massive as they are.
(26:00):
You know, 40 years later,having gone through all the
changes that they went throughsonically and playing heavy
music, man, I mean, yeah, itgets like classic rock play, but
like you know, like our momsare not listening to Metallica.
Man, you know what I mean?
It's not you too.
No, I don't know that's.
(26:20):
If I'd have been on the coastI'd have been a punk rock kid,
but Metallica is as close as wecould come out.
And Po Donk, harrison County,kentucky, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, so Dire Straits.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So far away.
You don't hear that often, butyou mastered it.
It was a less than three minutesong, right?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Mine are the original , I'm not really sure Yours.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
The original is like five.
Yeah, because they have apretty long outlet or outro.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Well, you know that song.
So I grew up on Dire Straits.
Man, like dad was a big, youknow petty Dire Straits, pink
Floyd, pink Floyd's like myfavorite band of all time.
Dire Straits wasn't his rat.
Mark Knopfler is one of thebest to ever pick up a Fender
Stratocaster.
Yeah, that song particularly.
(27:14):
I remember hearing it in thisweird kind of limbo time which
is about a year between fifth onthe floor breaking up and and I
started writing songs from myfirst record.
And I remember hearing thatsong and just thinking that you
know that that band gets alittle bit dunked on because
that 80 sound is definitelythere.
You know that kind of arenarock thing is definitely there.
(27:35):
But come on, man, these aregreat songs.
Yeah, delivered like kind oftoo effortlessly.
And hearing that song, if youdon't pay attention to the
lyrics, man, it's a pretty likeuplifting thing.
Those lyrics are.
You know that's a Hank Williamssong and that's like that.
(27:57):
That really struck me for some.
You know, after having heardthat song hundreds of times, I'm
like these lyrics are brutal,man, yeah, I think.
I think that there is a lot ofsadness to be wrangled out of
this song and that arrangementcame to me in a red roof in and
(28:17):
wherever we were I want to sayCharleston, west Virginia so
quickly that I spent a lot oftime looking across the Internet
trying to make sure I wasn'tripping off something I'd heard,
because I'm like this iscertainly this is.
It came to me too quickly.
You know what I mean, but thegood, the good stuff tends to do
that.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What was it about that song that you put on your
album?
Because you could have done somany.
You could have done Romeo andJuliet.
I'm just saying, Well it fitwithin the record.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
To me it fit within that kind of like OK, so kind of
talking a little bit more aboutthat time and I just I didn't
know what I was going to do.
We just had our twin girls andwe were broke.
We were as broke as we've everbeen.
This band that was really juststarting to get good kind of
like national attraction.
It imploded rapidly and it'slike that whole thing.
(29:14):
I'm like man, I guess I need togo get a job at the Toyota
plant, like I got to.
This has got to get done.
I got she signed on to this,like the babies didn't sign on
to this.
I'm not going to let them down,kind of thing.
And so if you listen to thatrecord knowing that that came
from my punk ass and a ChevyEquinox by myself with an
(29:37):
acoustic guitar and just tryingto go to some of these markets
that we'd had and seeing howmany fit on the floor fans were
going to stick around, which isless than I had thought.
Anyway, so to that Dire Straitssong, that fits in there, man,
those lines, you know I'm tiredof making it work over the
(29:58):
telephone that that was allthere and I don't know if fit in
that narrative that I wastrying to tell, which was
everything I just said out of mymouth in song form, you know
missing my wife, missing my newbabies, not knowing what the
hell I was doing and beingincredibly massively alone you
(30:21):
know feeling I got you, yeah,man, yeah, yeah, I jammed your
elbows.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Man, I'm just like these guys.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That song, that song on that record like I'm trying
to put myself in that becausethat was we recorded that in
2015.
And there's two songs on thatalbum that we did in one take.
That was one of them and youcan even hear it.
There's a vocal part thathappens late in the song that
that I'm not thrilled with.
My voice kind of cracks, andyou know we went to do it again
(30:52):
and I sang it quote, unquoteright, and that hurt was there
was less of that hurt.
I'm like that's got to juststay and hopefully nobody ever
bust my ass on it.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
No, I would say it was emotion, emotion.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So 2024, when do you think that album is going to
come out, man?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
The new one.
I don't think that.
I think that that album willcome out in the summer or in the
fall.
Any I wanted out last year.
I'd love for us to be talkingabout that record right now.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Is it tough just to sit on a record?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, man, I'm like incredibly impatient if you, if
you hadn't picked that up yet.
So like and I think I think alot of artists like this man you
work hard on a thing and onceyou get it to where you feel
like it's ready, then you'reyou're ready for it to get out
there, you're ready for peopleto hear, and, especially as you
kind of like Release albums theway you're supposed to, with a
(31:53):
team behind them and stuff.
There's just there's so manydamn hands in them Excuse me,
too many, you know, chefs in thekitchen and that can make
things come out a little late,almost to the point where it's
almost like hey, I want to starttalking about the one after
that, you know, but yeah, Nowthe 2024 summer, how are you not
(32:18):
biting at the bits to like hey,I want to like, give him a
taste, put out a song here.
It's tough.
It's tough to the point too,man, that you know I don't it's
not like I'm going to be upthere doing hip hop yet, but but
like it is, it is enough.
It's a significant enough sonicdeparture from the last record
(32:39):
that I want to have.
The guys you know I want us tobe presenting that way now,
because that's what I'minterested in and that's what's
going to serve these songs.
But I ain't trying to blow thattop either.
So we're going to take thisdowntime to start setting that
up and getting that into placeand it'll be a little different.
(32:59):
But trust me, man, I am I amperpetually the least patient of
all of us.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
OK, that doesn't seem like it, but I just moved.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I just moved slow.
It's not my choice, it's justgravity.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
All right Touring.
Will you follow up with thetour?
Will you start it up with thetour?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
If we land the, the relationship that I think we're
about to land, I'll be on tourplenty.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
OK, ok, thoughts of coming out West.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, man, like I said, that tour last summer not
by my choice was was cut shortto the tune of three weeks and I
was going to hit the West Coastfor the first time.
I've never been out there,which is frankly embarrassing at
this point in my career, butI'll be out there.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
OK, ok.
Well, I, I I've been sitting onthis one episode of Dusty Russ
and I said somebody looks up toyou.
He said where's he?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I met him at Kansas City, but is is he from?
Where's he from?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I believe he lives in Oregon, but I believe he lived
in Kansas as well.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
But he's from Oregon Originally.
You're saying yeah, yeah, yeah,he was sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oregon, vancouver, portland area.
But yeah, he, he mentioned youand he's like I would love to
you know tour with Justin Wells.
I was like all right, all right?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, dusty, let's get it done.
Brother, you're right, you'reright.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Good guy.
I think I'll be putting it outsoon the episode now.
Collaborations Any.
On any coming up?
Have you thought about it Anylike?
If, what's your collaboration?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So what are you talking about?
Like if, like somebody elsesinging on a track, kind of
thing.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Duets, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
No, no, but in the writing process on this record
there are two collaborationsthat I'm infinitely proud of and
that's another kind of.
That's another way that youknow I don't want to say how I
frame this, Just that's anotherway that some intimacies are
(35:26):
showing themselves on this newrecord.
I've never been a co-writer.
I've got some co-writes, youknow.
I've co-written with somehomies Jason ED comes to mind
but that's always, you know,Jeff Shepherd but that's almost
always been somebody else'sthing.
It's rare that I let peopleinto my thing, and mostly
because of what we talked aboutearlier, that I'm speaking from
(35:48):
my heart, so it seems kind oflike silly to co-write.
But speaking to thecollaboration, I wrote one with
that guy, Matthew Ryan, who Ifirst heard on FM radio when I
was a freshman in high schooland who, maybe single-handedly,
or maybe him and another artist,got me into lyrics and got me
(36:10):
into songwriting as somethingother than just to fill up the
verses you know like takinglyricism seriously.
So we wrote one together that'sgonna be on this record.
And then my longtime friend,one of my favorite people in the
world, one of my favoritesongwriters in the world, guy
named Adam Lee, who now is mytour manager, which he's
(36:35):
incredibly overqualified for andshould just be out there
touring himself.
But we wrote a couple for thisrecord that I'm immensely proud
of.
So, yeah, and everything'scollaboration, that's something
I wanna speak to.
Earlier too, man, and I'll tagit here.
You asked what was it like goingfrom the band to solo, and I
feel like that is very unfair,only because I mean I'd say, if
(37:00):
anything, there are more handsinvolved in my art now than ever
before.
There are so many kinds ofunsung heroes, and I really
tried to focus on them with theUnited States and in the artwork
.
You know I had pictures ofeveryone that touched that album
and I think there's like 40photos on there.
(37:22):
So I just get all the credit,man, and it is my art and
ultimately I make the call.
But, as you I'm sure know, andany of your listeners that care
about the music business,there's so many, so so many
people, not just in the studio,but even in the studio.
I think there were 10, 11musicians that played on this
(37:45):
new record.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And man, you're just a guy, you know.
But man you have some friendsand one produced.
You have a producer, anotherbadass, I mean, he's quite the
guy.
I could only imagine partyingwith that guy.
But Shooter Jennings, man.
How was that?
How was that?
How did you get that?
If you don't mind, you know,just quickly discussing how did
(38:10):
you get him to produce youralbum, man?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I just asked him.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
And he's just saying yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Well, we had become friends, kind of via Twitter and
at that time, man, he wasreally ringing the bell for a
lot of independent artists andthe music business was
infinitely different then.
This stuff that is kind of likeselling out arenas now, was
this very, very, veryunderground thing and there were
(38:39):
a couple of festivals thatwould have a lot of us types,
but, and even you know so thatwas a very small scene.
But so we just kind of bodyedup.
Man, he's a sweetheart, he's anincredibly, obviously
incredibly talented songwriter,producer, but, dude, he
similarly is not restrained byyou know what you have to do.
(39:03):
What traditionalism is this,this, this, this, this?
And that really drew me to him.
That was, you know, a couple ofthose records are very kind of
like guitar heavy, what youmight call Southern Rock.
I don't know if that was pushedout of Southern Rock.
I think they were kind ofcalling him country.
But here it is bunch of LA guys, you know, long hairs, man, and
(39:25):
anyway we struck up afriendship and then just kind of
, you know, in our cups onenight I said, man, we're, you
know, kind of shopping producers, like I know that at that time
he'd only produced his own work.
I think he'd maybe done one ofhis mom's songs, but I don't
even know if he'd done a full.
I'm pretty sure he'd not doneany records other than his own,
(39:47):
and so I asked him and thinkingyou know we're drinking thinking
.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you just did you party with him
?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, we partied, you know, yeah, we partied.
But I asked him and he saidfuck yeah, man, and I'm thinking
that's a bullshit.
You know that's a bullshit.
And I think it was like twodays later he texted me and said
yo, send me those demos, let'sget to work.
(40:16):
And I said okay, man, okay, andthat was a beautiful time.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
It was short.
You know, we had a week out inLouisville and then I think we
kind of touched things up for aweek in Lexington and I'm really
proud of that record.
Man, we charted that record.
That was a different time.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
So you doubted.
You doubted too.
What's?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
You doubted yourself as well.
Does that happen?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
No, I doubted him just because I still had a lot
of that ego of youth and justthat kind of mistrust.
Man, there's a lot of sillyfools in this business.
I didn't think that that ashooter, but there's a lot of
(41:09):
bullshit talk.
Man, yeah, I got you.
Homeboy was ready to get towork and that fired me up.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Did you fan boy when he said let's do it?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
No, because no, because we I mean like no,
because, honestly, because he'snot that guy dude, and I'm not
that guy either, but like he's ahuman being like us man.
I mean, we bonded over fuckingarcades.
You know old computer games andshit and He-Man, so you know
(41:39):
he's just a dude that lovesmusic.
I've not met a lot of peoplethat love music as much as
Shooter Jennings and it's clearin the work he's doing to this
day man.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
No, I don't fan boy.
Dude, If Dave Gilmore walked inthe room right now, yeah, I
probably fan boy, but other thanthat, no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I kind of fanboyed you in front of my wife the
other day.
And it's like yeah, man, I gotthis big name coming.
You know, she's like who?
I didn't say the name, but I'mlike yeah, and then you said the
name and she's like who?
Yeah, no, no, no.
So we're almost done.
Now, is it true?
You had another rendition ofanother cover of Elton John?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Um, we did, uh, I did a seven inch uh project where
we uh, there's a series calledneed to know out of uh,
california, this label, and um,they just wanted to uh, I think
the thing was always like youknow, there's other folks that I
(42:47):
think Todd Snyder had done itat that point, Um, that guy,
matthew Ryan, did it after me,um, some folks, whatever, uh
yeah, but but it's like a seveninch right, like so you know,
seven inch vinyl you got.
You got room for one song oneach side and I think I think,
at least, as it was told to me,that was the style, excuse me,
(43:09):
was was uh, one side was like asong of yours.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
And it kind of stripped down fashion.
And then the other side was tobe a cover and uh, yeah, man,
elton John again another artistwho I'm surprised I didn't list
one of my favorite.
Uh, every, probably thegreatest showman of all time.
Um, yeah, and I did Mona Lisa'sand Matt Hatter's, my favorite
Elton tune.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Uh, yes.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
It's like lyric, it's like lyrical Muhammad Ali man,
it's.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
It's outrageously good so my question, my question
to you is it's only on seveninch, there's no digitally.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
No Dang.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Hand All right, Because the I got a handful of
them in the office right now.
So okay, the killers do a greatjob on the revamp and then the
restoration.
I mean I love the revamp.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
The revamp is good Is that the big one they did.
He did like one that was abunch of like kind of all genre,
and then one was like kind ofspecific country, right, yeah,
and some of that was awesome andsome of that was kind of not.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah, I don't.
I don't remember the killer, sothe killers did that song.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
And it is perfect.
And, uh, marin Morris did it onthe restoration, which was the
country side, which was good too, but man, the killers, I mean
dude, I'm a huge killers fan.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, sure, I've seen the killers.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, they, they, they do an awesome job.
So I'm just like, okay.
When I heard that you did that,I'm like is there any way?
Because I looked and looked onYouTube, I looked on every
platform for that and I'm justlike, dang it, I need to get
that and you get that taste tosee what I'm surprised it's not
on YouTube Because I have, uh,performed it.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
But that's one of those things, man, uh, not
unlike the you're talking about.
It's cool that you know.
I appreciate you.
You listen to all the stuff,man, because you're talking a
bunch of these singles that havekind of dropped sporadically
here and there.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Um, but sometimes it's a really interesting thing.
Sometimes you make a thing in astudio and you love it and I'd
say it's true of both that andthat love song and just for
whatever reason, it doesn't makeits way into the set.
It's not even necessarily bychoice.
I've had songs that are myfavorite, songs that don't work
live, and then I've had livesongs, many songs that uh would,
(45:25):
I would dare say you know,ordering on fan favorites,
definitely songs that peopleloved.
They just we get in the studioand it's just not inspired and
I'm not going to just slap athing, you know, out there, uh,
haphazardly, um.
So yeah, I don't know, I was, Iwas trying to think, as we were
talking about this, what is?
Yeah, dude, miranda Lambert didmy father's gun, that's right.
(45:47):
I couldn't remember what songshe had done on that, on that
Elton tribute, but uh, dude, shemurdered that.
I thought it was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, not a fan.
What uh what, Miranda Lambert?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, on that, elton John yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
No, I have the album I.
It's good, it's good yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, man, I need to go re-listen that, because I
kind of listened to that on afamily vacation, not really
giving it the yeah, you'retelling me, I would like to yeah
.
Yeah, I definitely would haveheard it and I'm sure I loved it
.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Moms does a good uh cover as well.
Oh, I love that one man.
Yeah, that's, that's prettygood.
Uh, the mom Ferdinand Son.
Oh, yeah, yeah, they do a songof his, and it's just the band
or just Marcus?
It's not, it's the band, it'sthe band.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
What song did they do ?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm going to go back and I'm going to listen to this
as soon as I can.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
It's one of my favorite.
I listened to the killers andthat one over and just so yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, got man Dude, he had that banger on that Ted
Lasso.
Uh, that Ted Lasso theme song,that was a hook.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Oh yeah, I haven't watched Ted Lasso man it's a
different comedy.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Yeah yeah, it was fun at first.
It started sucking quickly,okay.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
If somebody, a listener, had to pick up you
know Spotify or Apple or analbum, you know just any album
what song would you have themlisten to to get the whole feel
of who you are as a person?
A musician, lyricist, familyman, what's that?
(47:24):
That's challenging.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
That's a good question.
Uh, huh, well, you know, man.
Hmm, that this is maybe thebest answer.
I have right this second.
That's a really good question.
Thanks for asking.
Uh, is a song off my lastrecord called temporary blue,
and uh, that song is about mydaughters.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
but if I got three of them, you're going to hit the
feels.
Uh, uh, the feels.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Well, you know, if you're asking me to kind of like
, best find a song thatencapsulates what I'm trying to
do, I think that is the countryof song on that.
Well, first of all, uh, myfriend Abby Hamilton saying on
it, uh, an artist you need toknow immediately Abby's blown up
and doing really well Um, andshe crashed it and that was a
(48:15):
great experience.
But uh, that song, I think, isreally the country's thing on
that album, which is anotherwise decidedly not country
album.
But it goes from that into thisbig weird insane pink floaty
thing in the middle, uh,intentionally in I and then
comes back out of it into thatkind of country shuffle.
Uh, I think that lyrically isone of my best songs I've ever
(48:38):
written.
But sonically, getting in andout of genre um is kind of my
personality to a T, so maybemaybe start there and then
listen to everything.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
All right, I have my three.
Okay, tell me I'm going tostart off.
I'd be more interested inhearing yours than having to
tell you mine, oh, I just try toget the have people you know,
get you Now, you didn't ask methree, you asked me one.
I have a question, Okay Wellnow we'll.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
we'll first give me one, All right.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Three quarters gone.
Okay, yeah, talk about your dadand life right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
That was a hard.
That was the other song, by theway, that was done in one take.
That what you hear is is theonly version that we, that we
sang and played in the studio.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And it hits, it hits.
I haven't really said anythingon social media about what I'm
going through, but it's good Now, the rock and roll, the dogs
man, the voice, the voice.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, and then that's the song that connected me with
a bunch of folks.
You know the dogs.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
And man, I really live.
I lived in Kentucky, I went, Ilived there, I know it.
I went to college in Indiana,so I know the Midwest.
I love blue moon of Kentucky.
Man, yeah, it's a wholedifferent side of you man from
the dog.
It's like night and day, youknow, and uh that's why I have
three just to have the people tocheck you out.
(50:07):
Just the different sounds youdon't have a different sound but
just how you take of thosesongs and just make it your own,
and gritty and raw, and justthe lyrics, and you being the
person that I enjoy listening to.
Man, you're not, you're not,you're not, you're not hokey,
you're not fake, you're justdude.
(50:29):
You're the man of your word,man.
And that's why I put thosethree down and wanted to share
it with you, and that'smeaningful.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Thank you, man.
Uh, three quarters gone and itholds a really special spot in
my heart.
You know, I mean it's it'sabout my family, but I, you know
, talk about you know, dad's.
Uh, I wrote that when my dadretired and he, you know his
factory man his whole life and,uh, I think, somehow
inexplicably works harder now asa retiree.
But uh, you know, he'd givenhis whole body to the kind of
(51:00):
American dream, the nine to five, the 401k and, um, not, you
know, a little while before heretired I saw his, you know the,
the the market collapses, 401kwas halved.
And here's a dude who is thehardest working man and the, the
most American dad dad you canimagine, loved his kids, you
(51:22):
know, provided, did the thingthat you're supposed to do?
Right, yeah, you go, you goclock in, clock out, and you're
supposed to be taken care of.
And uh, I didn't quite see itas much that way.
Now he would probably arguethat.
but, um, right, you know, so hehad just retired and he's in
this new phase in life and I wasthinking about how, how, uh,
you know, you age, man, things,things change and people come
(51:47):
and go and, uh, families, what'sthe most important?
Yes, yes, so I appreciate youman.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I really appreciate you.
Thanks, I'm glad, I'm glad weline this thing up.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Do the stars aligned?
Yes, yes and uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
I want to apologize you know the, the, the tag here,
there and everywhere in between.
I really appreciate yourpatience.
Yeah and dude, your musicspeaks volumes, especially to me
.
That song does.
My dad's been 24 years in thearmy, so you know when you
started off that line on the, onthe, on the, on the four years
(52:18):
in the army, so you know, whenyou started off that line, I was
like okay, I feel it.
You know, I, I hear it, I sawit, I, when you were explaining,
I can just you know, vision,what you went through as a kid,
as as myself.
You know what I mean and so, uh, it's heartfelt.
Man, I appreciate your music.
(52:40):
I want others to appreciate ittoo.
I know the people who know ofyou do, and they're going to get
a kick because I get tointerview you.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
Oh man, I just appreciate you having me on on
your podcast and and uh andintroduced me to your fans, so
you know.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
So, like I said, man, thank you for your time.
Man, I'm a lifetime listener, afan.
When you come out West, I willbe seeing you.
I'll probably be messaging you.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
You don't have to answer, but I'll be like, dude,
I'm in, I'm in the crowd, I'myelling, you know now you're
going to have to show me thegood eats, although Adam, I
think, knows him cause his hisdad is from Seattle, so I think
he knows a bunch of someWashington area hangs.
But yeah, man, I'll get outthere, probably this year, and
we'll and we'll meet in person.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yes, um, you can't go wrong with the seafood here,
man.
Yeah, hey, listen, dude, I'lltear up some seafood, let's go.
I'm originally from.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Louisiana.
It's a different kind of sea.
It's a nastier seafood but buteven better.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Still still, justin, keep killing the music scene.
Man, keep being you.
I see it, others see it.
What you stand for, just be you, man All right yeah, hey man,
(54:02):
grab me on brother.
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