Hope youll indulge me for a bit.
Im kind of missing the desert.
Perhaps its SPF withdrawal.
Credit: Whitney Pastorek
Clearly, the guys doing something right.
So pull up a chair, why dontcha?
Imagine him with one very sunburned arm, and me relishing the brief shade from the tables umbrella.
Both of us are wearing sunglasses throughout the conversation, which is rude, but we value our eyesight.
And now I just turned 30.
We were playing four, five nights a week up there.
So I ended up graduating, but my main education was music.
I learned how to work a crowd, learned how to play a hundred drunk people on Friday nights.
EW:Did you go to college because you wanted something to fall back on?
Which every dad loves to hear.
And he said, I want you to go to college.
So we had a discussion.
And Im pretty stubborn.
Im a lot like him.
So he bribed me.
And he was true to his word.
Because theres more opportunities to view stuff, and songs are everywhere.
Were in bars and clubs every night.
So its easy to look out and go, Theres a song.
Brad Paisley and I are good friends.
Dierks Bentley we get along pretty well.
We sit together at awards shows.
EW:Im fascinated by this new crop, as you call it.
Youre sort of reinventing what country music is allowed to be.EC:Totally.
Were pushing the envelope.
Which I think is great for the industry.
Some of them have been huge, and sold millions of records.
And I think over time its become a little bit of what the industry can be.
And country music right now, theres no bigger umbrella.
Weve got Bon Jovi.
Youve got a guy like me, but you might also push it more on the traditional side.
I cant do Alan Jackson music any better than Alan Jackson.
Im not gonna beat him.
Im not gonna beat George Strait at George Strait.
Im not gonna beat Tim McGraw at Tim McGraw.
Im just trying to identify kind of what my sound is, and I feel like Ive done that.
The most important thing for me as an artist is having an identity.
I used a producer that had never produced a country record.
Most country artists get together in a big studio with all these high-paid musicians.
We did this record in a basement with a bunch of musicians I play with all the time.
They were made because they were allowed to be creative.
And it’s possible for you to feel that energy.
Thats what we tried to do.
In my opinion, the record is alive.
Theres not three songs on it that are your hit singles, and the rest of them are filler.
Theres actually a story there.
EW:Youre sitting here in a baseball cap.
Im not a cowboy.
I couldnt pull it off.
Id probably look like an idiot.
Im just not that guy.
EW:And whats with the motorcycle boots?EC:Theres a story here.
And theyre in the shop right now.
And I feel weird.
I feel a little bit like the security blanket is gone.
Ive never walked on stage without those boots.
I mean, Opry, Madison Square Garden any show Ive done, Ive had those boots on.
And the last two weeks Ive been without them.
So its kind of boots by rotation right now.
I just feel naked up there.
They had to go in.
And I thought it would be a quick job.
I have a nice guy from Pakistan who fixes my boots.
Mine come out in a bag, and hell go, You go now.
So I took em in, and first he thought he couldnt fix em.
I took him a record and said, You dont understand.Theseboots.
EW:So theyre like the Willie Nelsons guitar of boots.EC:Exactly.
I dont care what it takes, or how much money it costs.
These boots are gonna stay on my feet.
