The Eric Hagen Interview.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Call in to join the mix at seven oh one,
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(00:24):
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Enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome your host
Demitrius who Demi Black Reynolds. Enjoy the show.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey, Hey, hey, what is going on? Guys again? Welcome
to the show. You're listening to VRL. That's Vigilantes Radio
live right here on iHeartRadio, and my name is Diani.
I do have to say that this particular episode is
prerecorded and I can't wait to deliver it to your inboxes.
And for you guys who subscribe to the show, you'll

(01:07):
be the first to know, and I always appreciate that.
Before I bring my guests on, I do want to
say that, you know, don't lose sight. This is the
frequency of the fearless, you know, sometimes it's the heartbreaks
that teach us how to truly hear. The songs that

(01:30):
hit the hardest aren't the loud ones, they are the
honest ones. Eric Hagen knows that truth by heart. His
voice sounds like it's been carried on the wind from
another time where stories matter more than screams, and pain
was to price a poetry. It reminds us that sadness

(01:55):
isn't weakness, it's human and when you turn sorrow into
a song, you don't just heal, you make room for
others to do the same. You're not just here for
a talk show. And this isn't just radio. This is
revival for your mind, body, and spirit. This is Vigilantes

(02:16):
Radio Live. My name is Coach Deani, and change is possible.
Are you ready?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Are you ready? Are you ready radio? Are you ready? Well,
let's go, don't go?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
All right? All right again? Welcome to the show. You're
listening to vr L. That's Vigilantes Radio Live right here
on Iheart's Radio, and I am your host, Deani. Our
interviews are design to go beyond the music, news, books, art, acting, films, technology, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment,
to spirituality and sometimes even past that thing that we

(03:12):
call the ego. Our interviews are designed to go behind
the scenes into the minds of these brilliant people, you know,
the ones who are out there giving it. They're all
for me, for you, and for the world. Well, ladies
and gentlemen, tonight's guests is a voice you don't just hear,
you fill it in your chest. From the heart of

(03:34):
the Midwest to stages across America, Eric Hagen has crafted
a sound that's part country, part soul, and all heart.
His new album Make Country Sad Again pulls from the
golden era of heartbreak while redefining it for today. With

(03:54):
the voice that stops time and lyrics that tell the truth,
He's become one of Americana's most compelling storytellers. So please
join me in saying welcome friend to Eric again. Hey, Hey,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Hey, thanks for having me. I think I'm gonna have
to have you write my next bio.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Hey, I'll owner his dude, mister Eric again, Welcome to
the show man. We are very excited to have you here.
Before we really dive into everything that you have going on,
what's been on your heart and mind lately?

Speaker 4 (04:37):
You know, I'm just as artists and musicians and everything.
When you've got music that's about to enter the world,
it can be a little, uh, it can be a
little stressful and a little you know, I have some
self doubt and all that, all those human feelings come up.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
So I'm I'm.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Excited for you know, the album to drop and some
shows to support it. But yeah, man, it's it's it
can be a stressful time.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Man, what's the most stressful part about this?

Speaker 5 (05:09):
And how do you push through it? Uh?

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Well, I mean it's just you you know, you wonder
how many people are gonna hear what you have to say,
if people are going to like it, all of those
you know, all all that stuff that goes with releasing
any kind of art into the world. But I just
keep I keep doing it because you know, writing and

(05:37):
playing music is my therapy. So at the end of
the day, it's, you know, regardless of you know, how
it's received or if one person or a thousand people
hear it, it's you know, I really do it for myself.
So that's how I get through it.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Indeed, Indeed, I remember being an artist at one particular
time and my first my dating album, Like Eric, I
kept pushing it back a month after month because I
would hear something on the radio. I'm like, oh no,
my album's not ready yet because this particular artist dropped
the song and I don't have that kind of song
on my album. And then the next one would come
in the same thing would happen until three months past.

(06:16):
I was like, you know what, I just got to
do it.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
I just got to do it. I get it.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, the same thing man or or you hear something
in a song, a lyric you wish you'd change, and
you know it's never going to be perfect, so you
just got to get it out in the world, and
otherwise it's never finished indeed.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Man, So make a country sad again. It's such a
bold title. I know everyone's saying, make America great again,
make this great again, or make this again? What does
sad mean to you in the context of music? Is
it pain? Is it truth? Is it release?

Speaker 5 (06:56):
All of the above? Really?

Speaker 4 (06:57):
I mean, you know, we in the in the country
world or the Americana world, We've got plenty of pop country,
and we have plenty of songs you can go and
dance at the bar too, But you know, country really was,
you know, decades ago, fifties and sixties, we're talking about
you know, men and women singing about heartache and heartbreak

(07:20):
and hard times, you know, and and you know guys
like Waylon Jennings and you know, George Jones and Hank
Williams singing. You know, I'm so lonesome I could cry.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Back then it was you know, you were just talking
about real things. And in today's world, there's plenty of
plenty of happy music and danceable music and you know,
stuff to get your your blood pumpin. Stuff you can
go to the to the bar and dance with your
friends too. But we all get sad too. We all

(07:52):
have hard times, and sometimes it's nice to hear somebody
talk about those things and let you wallow with a
glass of whiskey while you while you sit back and
listen to those you know, sad stories.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Mean that's how I remember it growing up. I'm from
the South, Mississippi, so we had blues and we had country,
and both genres would make me a screamly sad or
make me.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Sometimes sometimes they need that though, right, sometimes.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
You need that.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I mean some songs would like hit it right
on the head. Like I was going to do that.
I feel that that's my soundtrack, you know.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, the blues for sure, I mean blues in country, Ah,
blues always, but you know, country was kind of.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
The same way.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
You know, that's when you sat down with a beer
or a drink and you, you know, thought about your
breakup or you know, something you were going through and
it was comforting to know if someone else was going
through the same thing at the same time.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and you said you write songs as therapy. How
has that creative process helped you face your own personal storms.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
I have struggled with mental health, you know, my entire
adult life, and I think it would it would be
an even bigger struggle than it than it is if
I didn't have an outlet like music, you know, I could,
I could choose to do some much more destructive things

(09:28):
with my time, I think, so, you know, And I
just write. I naturally write sadder songs because, like I said,
it's my therapy. I don't need to write something. If
I'm happy, I'm I'm good.

Speaker 6 (09:40):
You know.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
And but when when times are tough or going through
some hard things, or I see other people going through,
you know, something difficult, you know, it occupies my mind,
it gets it off my chest and it becomes my
own personal therapist.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, from accuse me to.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
Forget about you. I believe your lyrics cut deep.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
How do you find the line between honesty and exposure
when you write?

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Well, I used to write very, very personally. Every song
was very personal, and then in the last couple of years,
i've you know, I've gone you know, as you said,
you were an artist too, so you know, we can
be pretty, you know, narcissistic, right, everything's about us. But

(10:34):
you know, I started to write about people I knew,
or situations they went through or places I've been, and
so they weren't quite as personal, but somebody would relate
to it. But in the end, even if I'm writing
about you know, if I wrote a song about you,

(10:56):
you know, or some story you told me, I wrote
a song about that in the and if I go
and listen back to it, it's really about me too.
You know, the truth in yourself always comes out in
that story. You don't have to say I or me,
but it's gonna come out. And I guess that's a
good thing about music is it's relatable. It should be
relatable to anybody listening to it.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, when did you make that shift from I don't
want to say self centered, you know, lyrics, but more
of a relatable tone that anyone who's going through that
can you know, relate to it.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
I think maybe maybe two two years ago or so
two three years ago. I I actually went uh to
the Black Hills of South Dakota, sent a little vacation.
I brought my guitar and I thought I'd write a
million songs and I only wrote one. But it was

(11:59):
it was witnessing kind of the poorer parts of these
resort areas like you'd see, you know, in Kentucky and
West Virginia where where you know, I've got a lot
of downtrodden people who were, you know, affected by the
opioid crisis and.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
And I wrote a song about that. You know, it
had nothing to do with me, and but you know,
I felt it was pretty powerful and people related to it,
and it was kind of like, well, yeah, I could
I can tell stories of other people's struggles too, you know,
It's not just my struggle in the world. Other people

(12:41):
have struggles and maybe they might be something different. So
I started to switch gears a little bit with that,
and that's been helpful to write too.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, you have an amazing gifts. How long have you
been writing?

Speaker 4 (12:56):
I didn't start playing. I didn't even teach myself how
to play guitar till I was in.

Speaker 5 (13:01):
College, and probably you know not, you know.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
Several years after that start writing.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
So not too long.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
I mean ten fifteen years probably of.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Writing my own material. I guess.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, so college, you teach yourself how to play the guitar.
What broke that?

Speaker 4 (13:20):
On homesickness? I think I had a guitar. I had
two guitars in my life. I had one. I got
one on my like fourth or fifth Christmas, and within
the same day I stepped on it and broke it.
And then when I was a teenager, I got my
uncle's guitar and my little brother took it out of

(13:43):
the closet and ripped all the electronics out of it.
So growing up, I never I never learned how to
play because something always happened. But then I went to
college and I.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
Was a little homesick.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
I bought a cheap, you know, crappy guitar off eBay.
I think strings were way too far off the front board.
It was a terrible guitar, but I you know, I
learned how to play you know, some of my favorite
songs on.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
It, and you know got hooked from there.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Were you singing at this point?

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah? I sang as a kid too.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
I was always singing, you know, singing with the radio
and singing with my parents' records. There's always music around
the house. My parents were kind of, you know, not
of the exactly the hippie generation, but they were you know,
kind of in that realm, and you know, a lot
of records around the house. And I was always singing.

(14:34):
So so I need, I need, I needed something to no.
I mean, I'm the only one that plays any instruments
in my in my family, so it's as far as
playing music, yeah, I'm the only one that, I mean,
music wise. You know, my whole family was there was
always whatever was going on there, there was always music on.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I like households like that, Well there's just music flowing
through it.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
I mean I as a teenager, I found my dad's
record collection and I thought it was the coolest thing
and played the hell out of everything that was in there.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
So what kind of music flows to your household.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Oh man, I well, I got a daughter who's going
to be ten, so there's a lot of Taylor Swift.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
Happening right now.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
So me, personally, I listened to everything from you know,
classic rock to nineties grunge to you know, modern country
and all that kind of stuff. But you know, my
daughter's getting into music and she's listening to Taylor Swift
and Chapel Roan and all that pop music, which I
don't listen to personally, But you know, I'm glad she's,

(15:50):
you know, found music she likes and I don't prohibit
her from from listening to whatever she wants to.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
In DS, she's a Swift, She's a Swift.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
Yeah, she was.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
She was cranking the new album that came out while
she's getting ready for school, so.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
She was on top of it.

Speaker 7 (16:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
So you're about to hit the road on tour. What's
going through your mind as you pack up for this chapter? Excitement? Nerves? Both?

Speaker 5 (16:19):
Oh yeah, a lot of both.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
I've got rehearsals coming up with my band, so, you know,
just nailing everything down, and there's always a lot of
nerves going out there when you go play shows. You know,
people are going to be there. How well is it
going to go? Is your voice going to hold out?
All the things you can worry about. But my favorite
thing about playing music is that you can drive six

(16:41):
hours to the gig. You can, you know, get a
flat tire, you can be worried about what's happened, going
to happen, you can, you know, everything can be stressful,
but you go play an hour and a half and
you don't think about anything else in the world for
that hour and a half. It's like chasing that feeling
forever of that, you know, just that bliss that you know,

(17:05):
mindful bliss that you've got. You got nothing else happening,
no worries, no no cares, just playing music.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, what keeps you grounded while you're out there on
the road and blessing the people.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
I'm just, uh, you know, setting a good example for
my kids that, you know, if they have things they
want to pursue and and have passions that you know,
you go ahead and do them, you know, while you're
while you're on this planet, man, just do whatever makes
you happy, whatever you know makes your heart full, go

(17:43):
do it.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
You know.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
I enjoy meeting new people and hearing their stories. And
connecting with people when I tell my story and uh.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
You know really brings you.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
It brings you, you know, ground you like you said,
just like, yeah, this this person understands what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
You know, they feel the same thing.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
It's just a it's a beautiful experience to go do it.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
The So the song that we are playing tonight is
called Accuse Me, and you are re releasing this track
through Young Outlaw Music. Let's talk about your label. How
did that partnership come about?

Speaker 5 (18:28):
You know, they.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
Heard some music I submitted, I think, and you know,
reached out and I think the first track that they
heard was Accused Me, which I had already put out.
But it's been one of my most popular songs to date.
And you know, they I always have some kind of
labels that come around, or you know, somebody is always

(18:52):
knocking at the door, but it's usually you know, in
this business, it's it's usually uh, not in your best interest.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
And but I got to talk.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Into the the women that that own and run Young
Outlaw and just really felt good about our conversations and what,
you know, what they had to say about my music
and the direction they wanted to take. And I said, well,
let's let's run with that. And I've also got you know,
an album in the bag if you want to do
that too. So you know now we're we're hitting the

(19:22):
hitting the ground running.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Indeed, indeed, all right, guys, here it is accuse me,
and then we'll be right back to put hagar Hagen
in our traditional hot seat. He could perform for us
if he wants to. He could sing, rap, do spoken word,
tell a joke. We love dad jokes, tell a story,
We even love stories, play an instrument, give some advice,

(19:48):
or do nothing at all. That is cool as well.
But for right now here it is accuse me, stay tuned.

Speaker 8 (19:56):
Give you on accuse me. You want to spend your
nuts running round.

Speaker 9 (20:22):
Then you want to come home and be me down.

Speaker 8 (20:32):
You want to stand there and say it's all the love.

Speaker 9 (20:42):
You want to run round, drag my name through the moon.
You wannacuse me.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
Of drink and you.

Speaker 8 (20:58):
Jimmy wanna excuse me.

Speaker 10 (21:03):
For never need enough.

Speaker 8 (21:08):
Anything?

Speaker 9 (21:09):
I can take me, take it off cheese, anyone.

Speaker 8 (21:19):
Of excuse me? Where do I they?

Speaker 9 (21:28):
Anyone else?

Speaker 7 (21:29):
Cut me?

Speaker 8 (21:50):
I want to spending your maxine? I no way. Then
you want to stand male.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
To me.

Speaker 9 (22:10):
You wanna stand there and say it's all the lifebody wanted.
Let anyone ecuse me?

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Take it to.

Speaker 9 (22:36):
Any wanna have me? Never been anything that can tine?
Take it up? Anyoneta cheat me? When will that? He

(23:02):
had accuse me?

Speaker 11 (23:28):
I don't think anything.

Speaker 9 (23:44):
When you jus.

Speaker 8 (23:50):
Turn into.

Speaker 7 (23:59):
That will be.

Speaker 8 (24:04):
What a thing I can say?

Speaker 11 (24:10):
Let's say, ok, way away?

Speaker 9 (24:43):
Anyone not excuse me?

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Oh yeah, this song has a lot of soul in it.
This is my type of music. Oh man, I fell
every note of that well, love it, eat that live.
Such an incredible record, such an incredible feeling. Oh my goodness.
All right, go ahead and bring Eric back on. Hey, hey,

(25:12):
your bag lie with us and in our hot seat?
Do you want to participate?

Speaker 4 (25:18):
I think I have to now, don't I'm already here?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
All right? What would you like to do?

Speaker 4 (25:26):
I think maybe I'll just do what I do best
and maybe just play a little snippet of a of
a song on the upcoming record.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
All right, here we go.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
This is a song called Giving You Up, and it'll
be on my Make Country Sat Again record coming out.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
I thought us play a little.

Speaker 10 (25:46):
Bit for you got a head, love tea, cigarettes and sodasn't.

Speaker 8 (26:16):
Solnelyla taking October.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Mhm, given you, oh.

Speaker 12 (26:35):
Dragon in October? Maybe then how Be's tober now On
said it's over, not.

Speaker 10 (26:55):
Given you.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
Sit, I'm giving you, give in you.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
So that's a little taste of the single that's out
right now.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Plus it'll be on the record that comes out this month.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Absolutely. When does the album drop? October fourteenth? All right, Monday,
I believe Tuesday. That's Tuesday, Tuesday, one day off? All right,
that is dope. All right, So all right, this is
our mic drop moment. If you could leave one line

(27:50):
from Make Country Sad Again ringing in our ears, what
would it be and what does it mean to you?

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Man on one line from Make Country Sad Again? Yeah,
I mean it probably.

Speaker 7 (28:09):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
There's a line in the in the last song which
is pretty fitting and it's uh it's a song called
Sad as Hell and uh, and one of the lines
in it is, uh, I'm not depressed, I'm just sad
as hell. So uh, it's kind of the theme of

(28:34):
the album is just being a lot of sad stuff
and and uh the album ends with something like that,
like you can be sad, but you don't have to
be You know, you can deal with all these things.
You can deal with being sad, going through heartache, going
through hard times.

Speaker 11 (28:51):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
It doesn't mean you have to to give in and
and give give up.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
It's uh, you can just be sad as hell, and
I know that other people are doing it with you,
and we can all go through it together.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Indeed, indeed, and where can our listeners connect with you
on the internet find out tore information and check out
more music.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
You can go to my website erichaganmusic dot com. You
can find me on all the social media platforms Eric
Hagan Music and all streaming platforms. Right now, all my
music is on there and everything coming out will be
on there wherever you.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
Listen to music.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
And you can also order the new album on vinyl
when it comes out October fourteenth.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
All right, all right, listeners, Just in case you need
that information, I will exclude it and the description of
this episode and in the show notes, so all you
guys have to click the links and get everything all
Eric Hagen, Well tonight. Eric Hagen reminded us that sadness
isn't a check to run from. It's a song to

(30:02):
be sung from the Midwest to stages lit with hope
and with sadness. He's proven that country music still has
a room for truth. With Make Country Sad Again, He's
brought back the honesty of George Jones, the soul of Stacks,
and the authenticity of a man singing his own story

(30:23):
to every listener out there chasing connection. Remember, sometimes your
tears are the proof that you're still alive and you
still feel something, So keep singing through them. Eric Hagen,
thank you for your grit man, Thank you for your voice,
your truth. Your music is awesome. I've added a few
records to my personal playlists and to our audience.

Speaker 5 (30:43):
Make sure you.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Follow Eric everywhere and scream Make Country Sad Again when
it drops on the fourteenth, and don't forget to subscribe
to Vigilantes Radio Live, leave a rating and share this episode.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
Thank you so much, Eric, Hey, thank you so much
for having me. That's a little bit.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Take care. I have a great night. Thanks by.

Speaker 8 (31:08):
Peace, too old use.

Speaker 7 (31:10):
My name is Dean and I am the host of
Vigilantes Radio Live.

Speaker 5 (31:17):
I think that we are beyond just.

Speaker 7 (31:21):
Asking cool questions and getting cool responses. I think that
we are here.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
As creatives to provide an example that you can do
things different outside of expectations because some of us simply
we're not born into the club.

Speaker 7 (31:41):
But there is perhaps a door window or back gate
that we can leave a clue for you to get into.
Life is short, but there are plenty of moments to
try and get it right. Pursuing the dreams and learning
from mistakes maybe tough, but recret it's tough to book

(32:03):
your interview. Email us at v radio at only one
video dot com. That's a v as a victorious or
visit only one Media group dot com.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
I'm counting on.

Speaker 5 (32:18):
You, Heaven.

Speaker 13 (32:20):
We all are counting to step into your purpose and
your passion. You are listening to Vigilantes Radio Live iHeart Radio,
providing you with an opportunity to dive in.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
You, and now listening to vigil Lances Radio, the people's
choice for quality interviews, art, music and art topics, hosted
by Demetrius Houdini Black Reynolds. All episodes of this podcast
are available for free download at www dot only one
Media group dot com.

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