Wheels Off with Rhett Miller
Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for the Old 97s, hosts “Wheels Off” a show about the messy reality of the creative life. Conversations with musicians, writers, artists, actors, and comedians about the pivotal moments that shaped their work, what it means to create in a digital age and grapple with the challenges, and the joy, of living a creative life.
Episodes
September 15, 2026 • 42 mins
Rhett sits down with Hrishikesh Hirway — creator, host, and executive producer of Song Exploder, the podcast where musicians break down how their songs came together — for a rare turn on the other side of the microphone. Hrishi recently returned to making music after years away with his new album, In the Last Hour of Light, and he and Rhett dig into what pulled him from songwriting into podcasting, the difference betwee...
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September 1, 2026 • 25 mins
North Carolina singer-songwriter Caleb Caudle joins Rhett ahead of a run of Texas and Louisiana dates with Old 97's. Caleb talks about his new album, Heavy Thrill, and his brand-new label, Handplow Records; recording at Johnny Cash's Cash Cabin studio; and how a punk-rock kid ended up writing alt-country. He and Rhett also get into burning out on the road, and Caleb shares what 13 years of sobriety have taught him.
His new album H...
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August 18, 2026 • 33 mins
Rhett sits down with Kishi Bashi for a wide-ranging conversation about creative growth, touring, and what it means to keep making honest work after 15 years in music. They talk about the 10-year anniversary of Sonderlust, and the shift from trying to make “the album” to treating each record as a snapshot of a creative moment. They get into his background as a jazz violinist, his Berklee years, and how boredom, nature, a...
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August 4, 2026 • 44 mins
Jobi Riccio is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter with a resume that already includes the John Prine Songwriters Fellowship, a Grand Ole Opry appearance, and tours with Jason Isbell, Lucius, and Iron & Wine. She joins Rhett to talk about her musical path, which runs from bluegrass jams to the indie-leaning rock of her latest record, Face the Feeling. Riccio is candid about quieting her inner critic and the songwriting lesson t...
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July 21, 2026 • 38 mins
Rhett welcomes Jim Ward — frontman and guitarist of Sparta, and a member of At the Drive-In — who dials in from El Paso to talk about the new Sparta record, his punk rock roots, and building guitar tone.
Ward and Rhett dig deep into songwriting: co-writing over email, and why Ward always writes music before lyrics. He explains his one hard rule for songwriting and shares a peek into his own process, from voice memos to...
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July 7, 2026 • 28 mins
Rhett welcomes Tift Merritt — Grammy-nominated songwriter and one of Americana's most influential voices — to talk about Sugar, her first album in nearly a decade, recorded live in Nashville and shaped by everything that happened in the years between.
Now based in her hometown of Raleigh, Merritt reflects on leaving New York, finding meaning offstage, and returning to music with renewed purpose. She traces the origin o...
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June 23, 2026 • 30 mins
Josh Ritter has built a twenty-year career writing songs that collapse the distance between folk tradition, literature, and revelation. He joins Rhett from his home in Brooklyn where he’s doing what he calls “rehaunting” his world — the intentional process of reintroducing strangeness and synchronicity after a long stretch on the road.
Ritter and Rhett also get into the interior work — imposter syndro...
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June 9, 2026 • 48 mins
Aaron Lee Tasjan joins Rhett for a conversation about joy as armor, the craft of songwriting, and the long game of staying creatively alive.
Tasjan talks about why he does his best work from a higher, more positive frequency — and what that actually means for writing songs. He unpacks why creativity gets harder with age, the books that shaped his process, and why the most powerful thing a young artist can do is realize they ...
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May 15, 2026 • 30 mins
Author Emily Franklin joins Rhett to talk about her 25th novel, Love and Other Monsters — the untold origin story of Frankenstein and the monsters we create on the page. They get into what it takes to sustain a prolific creative life. Emily also opens up about shedding critical inner voices, why poetry is the structural foundation of everything, and what it means to take bigger creative risks later in a career.
Emily Frankli...
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April 28, 2026 • 28 mins
Anthony Horowitz, one of the world's most prolific and versatile storytellers, joins Rhett for a conversation about creativity, craft, and the enduring power of the mystery novel. Horowitz reflects on a career built from the most unlikely of beginnings: a miserable boarding school, a library that became a refuge, and a boy who learned to make friends by telling stories. The two discuss his new book A Deadly Episode, and what it was...
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April 14, 2026 • 35 mins
Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells joins Rhett to talk about making music for 17+ years, trusting instinct over trends, and navigating anxiety, identity, and the pressures of the modern music industry.
Follow Alexis @alexiskrauss
Follow Sleigh Bells @sleighbells
Follow Rhett @rhettmiller
Wheels Off is hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Executive producer is Kirsten Cluthe, Studio Kairos. Music by Old 97’s. Episode artwork by...
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March 31, 2026 • 36 mins
Rhett catches up with Kevn Kinney, frontman of Atlanta roots-rock institution Drivin N' Cryin, one day after his 65th birthday and on the eve of a new album. Recorded while Rhett's the Old 97's are deep in sessions at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, the conversation is a warm, wide-ranging exchange between two lifers. Kevn talks about the new record (produced by former bandmate Sadler Vaden, with Peter Buck on guitars), why he's likely don...
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February 17, 2026 • 40 mins
Theater director, playwright, and multimedia artist Jared Mezzocchi joins Rhett for a conversation about what it means to make ambitious, technology-forward work without losing the human heart of the story.
Mezzocchi shares how he’s drawn to projects that seem “impossible” on paper—from a pandemic-era play about content moderation, to a site-specific production about the 1944 Hartford circus fire. He explai...
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February 8, 2026 • 39 mins
Rodney Crowell, often called a “songwriter’s songwriter” and a foundational voice in Americana, joins Rhett for a conversation about intention, craft, and the long game of staying creatively alive.
Crowell shares hard-won lessons about process: how spending time on memoir pages puts him in a “workshop of words,” so that when he turns back to the guitar he’s already thinking in language. He talk...
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February 3, 2026 • 31 mins
Lizzie No makes music rooted in the traditions of blues, folk, and country, filtered through an indie sensibility that resists easy categorization. Often compared to Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, and Adia Victoria, she moves easily between musical worlds, collaborating with artists including Brian Dunne, Pom Pom Squad, and Domino Kirke.
In this episode, Lizzie joins Rhett to talk about why folk music is a process rather than ...
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January 6, 2026 • 42 mins
Hayes Carll joins Wheels Off for a wide-ranging, deeply reflective conversation about songwriting as a lifelong practice rather than a race. Speaking candidly about his early obsessiveness, creative doubt, and eventual comfort in his own voice, Carll traces the evolution of his process—from locking himself in a room chasing melodies to learning how to trust silence and timing.
The conversation explores how Carll writes songs...
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December 23, 2025 • 35 mins
Will Johnson joins Wheels Off to talk about making Diamond City on a four-track cassette recorder, touring with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, and building a creative life that spans music, painting, and writing. A conversation about patience, fearlessness, collaboration, and why the quiet stretches matter just as much as the work.
Wheels Off is hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Executive producer Kirsten Cluthe, Studio Kairos....
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December 9, 2025 • 29 mins
Rhett sits down with singer-songwriter Clover County, whose debut record arrives after years of writing, refining, and navigating the rollercoaster of early adulthood in public. From her roots in Athens and Atlanta to discovering her home on the road, Clover talks candidly about identity, ambition, private versus public life, and how she’s learned to trust her instincts as her songs evolve.
She breaks down her writing proces...
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November 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Rhett welcomes Jonathon Linaberry, the creative force behind The Bones of J.R. Jones, for a conversation about music, artistic evolution, and the emotional realities of releasing work into the world. They discuss his new album Radio Waves, life in upstate New York, and the tension between creation and promotion.
Jonathon traces his unexpected path from punk bands and art school to becoming a one-man musical entity, reflects on ano...
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November 11, 2025 • 38 mins
Writer David Fleming joins Rhett to dig into craft, career pivots, and the true story behind A Big Mess in Texas—the wild rise-and-fall of the 1952 Dallas Texans (owned by Rhett’s grandfather). Fleming talks about finding meaning in real life, learning to “disappear” as a writer, managing deadlines without losing your mind, and why the work (not the label) is what matters. It’s a candid, funny, and gen...
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