Aaron Watson

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Aaron is a religious guy and you'll notice in the last video, the Barbed Wire Halo and 3 crosses on his guitar...which is why I decided to add Barbed Wire Halo next. It's an older song of his...maybe it's off his gospel album...I'd have to look it up.

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After all these years, seems like Aaron Watson's #1 debut on the Billboard country chart (yeah, Aaron, way to go and well deserved) has lots of folks talking about him. Especially since he did it without a major label, outside of the Nashville system and without airplay outside of Texas ...and with traditional country.

I'll do some links and articles here.

Link:

www.cmt.com/news/1751032/aaron-watsons-the-underdog-overachieves-to-crown-albums-chart/

Texas fave Aaron Watson rockets to the summit of Billboard’s country albums chart this week with The Underdog. How’s that for irony? Nielsen SoundScan reports the package gained first-week sales of 26,340 copies.

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Link:

www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/26/aaron-watson-country-radio-gary-overton


Aaron Watson's success proves that country radio is out of touch

The Texan has shot to No 1 in the charts despite being ignored on country radio. It’s a sign that musicians can thrive outside the increasingly homogenised airwaves

Grady Smith

Thursday 26 February 2015 12.30 EST

“If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” That’s what Sony Nashville CEO Gary Overton told the Tennessean this weekend ahead of the annual Country Radio Seminar. The label executive’s comment raised more than a few eyebrows across the country world – and for good reason. Anyone paying attention to the Billboard charts over the past few months knows that Overton’s assessment is at best myopic and at worst hopelessly out of touch.

Two weeks ago, modern outlaw Sturgill Simpson passed the 100,000 mark with his independently released Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, despite not being played on mainstream radio at all. Then last week, Atlanta country rockers Blackberry Smoke stunned the Nashville media circuit when their sixth album Holding All the Roses topped the Hot Country Albums Chart – once again, without any mainstream radio support.

This week, independent music made yet another huge splash as Aaron Watson’s aptly titled album The Underdog replaced Blackberry Smoke atop Billboard’s hot country albums chart. The set sold 26,000 copies in its first week, almost surpassing the 32,000 units that his previous record sold in its entire run. Granted, those numbers won’t have Jason Aldean or Florida Georgia Line shaking in their boots, but they’re nothing to shake a stick at either, and they’re substantially stronger than the numbers that many established major label players have recently achieved.




Watson, a Texas-bred country musician, has seen his star rise in recent years by sticking to his roots and crafting hearty, heartfelt country music that cottons to a traditional sound far more than the pop-influenced bro-country crowding the airwaves. But he’s never been a powerhouse seller until The Underdog, his 12th album, which saw a handful of its tracks reach the upper ranks of the iTunes country chart ahead of its release. When the album arrived, it instantly shot to the pole position. “My name is Aaron Watson. I’m not played on country radio. And I have the number one record in country music this week. I do exist,” Watson told Saving Country Music this week when he was asked about Overton’s statement. “I also run a multi-million dollar business that employs up to 20 people,” he added.


Watson’s success is clear evidence of the thriving Texas country music scene’s rising stock. In Texas, the contemporary red dirt stylings of musicians like Wade Bowen, Sunny Sweeney, and the Josh Abbott Band reach an enthusiastic audience, and they’re poised for prime time exposure if The Underdog’s sales are indicative of a larger trend. It’s more likely, though, that Watson is that rare kind of artist, like Macklemore, who builds up enough notoriety as an independent entity that the public is forced to take notice. In this regard, Watson’s rising star makes it clear that country artists are absolutely able to thrive without the support of mainstream radio.

Overton’s own artist, Garth Brooks, has had to confront this reality in the past year. Mainstream radio has firmly rejected both his comeback single People Loving People and its follow-up, Mom, but thanks to his own robust following, Brooks has had no trouble selling out arena shows across the country. The quartet Little Big Town is also relying on exposure outside of radio for their great single Girl Crush. Thanks to internet buzz and a high-profile performance on The Ellen Show, the single is holding strong at No 4 on the iTunes chart and yet it is still sitting at No 35 on the country airplay chart. Of course, there’s also the sad reality that radio has all but shut out women despite their continually robust sales without the radio support.

In Adam Gold’s excellent Rolling Stone piece Why Country Radio Still Matters, Skip Bishop, the former SVP of promotions at Sony Music Nashville, speaks enthusiastically about new technology services being primary tools for new music discovery and says that record labels should embrace them. “Several years ago, we didn’t have YouTube, we didn’t have the streaming sites, we didn’t have one big, powerful thing called SiriusXM,” he says. “To a really savvy record executive, you can go to the streaming services and to SiriusXM and you can find out if you have a hit record before you go out and test your relationships at terrestrial radio.”

This line of thinking makes perfect sense, but it has yet to take root at country radio, where homogeneity reigns supreme. If major labels and radio corporations really wanted to pay attention to the clues provided by consumers, then Aaron Watson and Kacey Musgraves would be enjoying major rotation on the airwaves, and songs like Girl Crush would be playing during peoples’ morning commute.




As it stands, though, the powers that be like all the bland sameness. It allows them to pump out generic music by generic male stars with all the efficiency of a McDonalds assembly line. The fast food chain is a perfect metaphor for modern country radio, actually. If you eat enough McDonalds, it will soon become the only thing you want to eat. The same thing happens when listening to only one sort of music – you start to want similar sounds and wince at variety. That is precisely why it’s imperative that country radio starts looking to the fringes, to the people not already on radio, to the ones that theoretically “don’t exist.” Because if the format doesn’t, then country radio will become so one-note that it will collapse upon itself and go the way of rock radio, ceasing to exist altogether.

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Link:

www.rollingstone.com/music/features/aaron-watson-goes-from-indie-underdog-to-county-charts-top-dog-20150225


Aaron Watson Goes From Indie 'Underdog' to Country Chart's Top Dog

The Texas star explains how he topped the Billboard Country Albums chart without a record label or national radio support


By Andrew Leahey February 25, 2015

Aaron Watson
Aaron Watson's 'The Underdog' made its debut at the top of the country charts. Lindsey Cotton

For the second week in a row, America's top-selling country record isn't a big budget release by Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert or any of the usual suspects. It's Aaron Watson's The Underdog, an independent album released without the help of a traditional record label or a national radio campaign.

Aaron WatsonCountry Traditionalist Aaron Watson Howls With 'Underdog' »
Haven't heard of it? You must not live in Texas.

For the past decade and a half, Aaron Watson has been one of the Lone Star State's heaviest hitters. National trends have come and gone during those 15 years — country-pop, hick-hop, bro-country — but his spurs-and-Stetson traditionalism remains unchanged. He's the kind of country artist you'd take home to mama: a church-going family man whose songs are filled not with AutoTuned vocals and half-lit salutes to Jack Daniel's, but fiddle solos and PG-rated lyrics that sing the praises of truck stop coffee, Frank Sinatra and marital bliss.

As of this morning, Watson is also the kind of artist who sells 26,340 copies of his 12th album, The Underdog, during its first week of release. That's enough to place him at the top of the country charts, outpacing his closest competitor, Sam Hunt, by more than 10,000 units. Over on the Billboard 200 chart — which ranks all records together, regardless of genre — The Underdog sits at Number Eight. To help put those numbers into perspective, consider this: last week's Number One country record, Blackberry Smoke's Holding all the Roses, climbed to the top without even cracking 20,000 copies.

"A lot of people call me 'up and coming,' but it's more like 'slow and steady,'" says Watson, speaking to Rolling Stone Country via cellphone during a tour stop in Texas. Soundcheck is just around the corner, but he's still happy to talk at length, speaking with the unhurried Texas twang of a man who wants to stop, sit down and savor the moment rather than rush ahead to the next milestone.

"I've been doing this for 15 years, 12 albums and 2,000-plus shows," he adds. "I've been with my manager, my booking agent and my distributor forever. We have wonderful working relationships, and what we're doing right now is pretty much a 'David versus Goliath' kind of situation, because I've never been embraced by the music industry. There's only so many times you can be told you'll never make it. At some point, you have to say, 'Hey, we're gonna need to take a different route to get where we're wanting to go.' And that's what we did. If someone shuts a door in your face, you don't let that stop you; you pick the lock, take it off its hinges or find another door that's open."

Watson didn't pick those doors locks alone. Multiple times during our conversation, he credits the same triumvirate — "my faith, family and fans" — for taking him from the smallest dancehall in Texas to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, where he'll play next month. Other key players in Watson's uphill climb include CAA booking agent Aaron Tannenbaum, who's been assembling his 200-plus yearly tour dates for the better part of a decade, and longtime manager Gino Genaro.

Watson has been with Thirty Tigers for more of his career, too, joining the company's roster during its very first year. These days, Thirty Tigers — a business that offers its clients an à la carte menu of management, marketing and distribution services — is one of the biggest names in Americana music, its logo stamped onto the back flaps of albums by Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson and St. Paul & the Broken Bones. Back in 2002, though, the company was untested and unproven — much like Watson, who'd only released one album at the time. The songwriter wasn't even making enough money on the road to pay for his own hotel rooms, which was why he found himself sleeping on the floor of the Nashville home owned by David Macias, Thirty Tigers' co-founder, during a trip to Tennessee's capital. The two underdogs hit it off, kickstarting a decade-plus business relationship that continues to this day.

With Thirty Tigers' help, Watson enjoys many of the benefits that a record label would normally provide — especially distribution — without giving up his independence. It's a win/win situation for both sides. Thirty Tigers' biggest success stories have always been the songwriters who, like Watson and Isbell, operate outside of the Nashville norm, relying not on radio airplay (although Watson has enjoyed several Number One hits on Texas radio) but on heavy touring, a strong social media presence and a grassroots fanbase to sell albums. Instead of spending time developing those artists' following, Thirty Tigers can throw its weight behind targeted areas — say, getting Watson's music into record stores outside of Texas, or pairing him up with the same publicist who helped break Brandy Clark's career in 2013.

"There's a value system behind the guy," says Macias, who signed Watson as his first client. "He'll play a show and start talking to a 10-year-old kid afterwards, and his manager will come up and try to get him to talk to a radio programmer instead, but Aaron's not gonna do anything until he sits down and finishes that conversation with that kid. Sometimes, you say, 'Come on, we've gotta conduct business,' but it took us a long time to understand this is who Aaron is, and this is what motivates him. And that's good business."

"When we first started working with Thirty Tigers," Watson remembers, "David asked me, 'How many records do you guys move a week?' And I said, 'Well… about four. We sell about four records a week.' But we felt like we had something with a lot of potential to sell more, and David actually listened to that. The people at Thirty Tigers have become like family since then."

What does all of this recent success mean, though? Is Nashville losing its stranglehold on country music? Is Texas's music scene about to gallop into the national spotlight? Or, as Macias puts it, is Watson's Number One album a sign that listeners are looking to abandon the beers n' babes motif of bro-country in favor of a "more traditional type of country music that's largely been absent from the airwaves?"

Watson doesn't know the answer, but he does think there's enough room on the field for everyone to play ball.

"People ask me about the Sam Hunt record," he says of Montevallo, the pop-influenced, heavily synthesized album that's currently sitting just below The Underdog on the country charts. "Sam Hunt's record is killing it. I own that record. It's probably the most un-country record I've ever heard in the country music industry, but at the same time, it's a great record. My record is incredibly country in comparison, and that's ok. I've told people, 'Hey, wouldn't it be a shame if you went to the store and the only kind of jelly on the shelf was grape?' Sometimes you want apricot. Sometimes you want strawberry. You need different flavors."

Different flavors, indeed. In an industry that's spent the last half-decade dishing out a litany of undercooked songs about country girls, dirt roads and Sundaze, it's The Underdog — not its competition — that's spicing up the menu. If Blackberry Smoke's chart-topping Holding All the Roses was a victory for the little guy, then Watson's album is something much bigger: a sign that maybe, in a genre whose leaders still view radio airplay and major-label record deals as the biggest keys to success, an outsider can climb to the top without playing by Music Row's rules.

"I'm not creating some New Age outlaw movement here," Watson insists. "There's plenty of love to go around. It's not me versus Luke Bryan — although he does owe me a couple of shows. I let Luke open up for me in 2009, and the whole deal was, I was supposed to go out to the southeast and open up some shows for him. Six years later, I'm still waiting for that phone call. Ha! I guess he can send me a text to let me know where to show up."

Hey Luke — your move, bro.

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Link:

tasteofcountry.com/aaron-watson-the-underdog-no-1/

By Rebekah Bell February 26, 2015 5:00 PM

Aaron Watson‘s independently released album, The Underdog, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

Released without the backing of a traditional record label or national radio push, The Underdog nonetheless became the week’s second-highest overall debut.

“I wanted to raise the bar both musically and lyrically when making this record,” Watson explains in a press release. “The Underdog is the album I always wanted to make. I’m excited about this record.”

Watson has been a country music mainstay in his home state of Texas for the past 15 years, and he is excited about his “slow and steady” progress. “To be 15 years, 12 albums, and 2,000 shows into my career and to feel like I’m just getting started. Man, that’s a good feeling.”

Hailed as a “proud country traditionalist” by the New York Times, Watson has been compared to country greats like George Strait and Chris LeDoux. Rarely caught without his Stetson hat, the independent artist knows that perseverance and patience are essential ingredients for success. Many of the album’s tracks present rich, storied accounts of unsung heroes who succeed through steadfastness.

“What we’re doing right now is pretty much a ‘David versus Goliath’ kind of situation, because I’ve never been embraced by the music industry. There’s only so many times you can be told you’ll never make it,” Watson notes during an interview with Rolling Stone Country. “At some point, you have to say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna need to take a different route to get where we’re wanting to go.’ And that’s what we did. If someone shuts a door in your face, you don’t let that stop you; you pick the lock, take it off its hinges or find another door that’s open.”

Visit Watson’s website for information about his new album and upcoming tour dates.

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Link:

tasteofcountry.com/aaron-watson-independent-artist/

The Underdog: Aaron Watson on the Good and Bad of Being an Independent Artist

By Billy Dukes February 17, 2015 11:06 AM

Aaron Watson
BIG Label / Thirty Tigers

There’s a song called “Fence Post” on Aaron Watson‘s new The Underdog album that may give you the wrong impression of the Texas-bred singer. Or, it may be more autobiographical than he knows.

“Fence Post” is a story — his story — about a meeting-gone-wrong in Nashville. It’s somewhat unfair to paraphrase a five-minute-long work of nonfiction in a sentence or two, but essentially the track is a message for underdogs everywhere to stay true to their dreams, even if some expensive suit in a Music Row office building tells you that you’ll never make it.

That’s what happened to Watson, but he’s not bitter.
"At the end of the day, I have a dream. If you aren’t going to be a player, then I had to figure out another way to skin that cat."
“Since having that guy pretty much stomp on my dreams, we’ve created this multi-million dollar business,” he tells Taste of Country. The track — a last-minute addition to The Underdog — has received most of the press leading up Tuesday’s (Feb. 17) album release. The circumstances he describes began over a decade ago, before he’d released the majority of his 12 studio albums. Watson says he’s not upset or bitter. But it’s hard to ignore the chip on his shoulder.

“I’ve never thrown out any fightin’ words,” the 37-year-old father of three adds. “At the end of the day, I have a dream. If you aren’t going to be a player, then I had to figure out another way to skin that cat.”

Watson remains an independent artist — by choice. When forced to decide between bending his sound to fit mainstream values and ideals and staying true to his faith, family and fans (his three Fs), he decided on the latter.

As for that chip? It may be more of a badge, one any independent artist who survives in today’s musical landscape wears with pride. In addition to writing and recording the songs, touring and doing interviews, artists like Watson have one other job: everything else.

“We’ve been promoting this record, and we’ve been going hardcore where maybe the major label artist has a lot of people posting pictures and posting comments,” Watson says. “That’s me. That’s me this morning waking up seeing that my record is No. 2 on the iTunes country chart, taking a screen shot of that and posting and thanking God for blessing me.”

“From day one it was like, guess who came up with the album art cover? Me. Guess who wrote 12 out of the 14 songs? Me. I’m sitting there unwrapping CDs at 2 o’clock in the morning and signing them.”

His creative spirit never hits snooze, either. Song and lyric ideas are perpetually scrolling through Watson’s mind like some sort of old movie reel. The Underdog is out, but he’s already got the concept for the next album. Currently he’s looking for days a year away to figure out when to record.

“It really is always about the next one,” he says in a voice that sounds both overly-caffeinated and careful. “Especially if you’re an independent artist, you’re only as good as your next record. That’s the truth. We live and die by putting out quality records.”

Watson says he’s not bitter, but will admit he has scars. If everyone wasn’t talking about “Fence Post” they’d be talking about “Bluebonnets.” The song’s second verse pays tribute to his late daughter, Julia Grace, whom he and his wife lost in 2011. His tone changes when he talks about her, his family and that song.

“Not long after losing Julia, we took some Easter pictures of our other three kids,”he says, explaining the poetic metaphor without prompting. ”We went to the cemetery where she’s buried, kind of up in the hills near the town of Buffalo Gap.”

“There were all these bluebonnet flowers and I’m staring at my three kids and they’re sitting in this field of bluebonnets and in the background I can see where we buried my daughter. It was a feeling I’ll never forget,” the singer says, “Like ‘Wow, life is so fragile.’”

“We went back to the cemetery a few weeks later and the temperature had gotten hot enough that the bluebonnets had all died.”
"So pack light and love heavy / Give it all your heart and soul / So in the end you won’t regret one thing / Life is like bluebonnets in the spring"
The song’s brilliance lies in what it’s not. “Bluebonnets” isn’t so personal to Watson that any country fan can’t wear it as his or her own. The first verse will recall images and memories of a lost grandparent. His chorus will undress the most guarded heart.

“That Look” (about his wife) and “Getaway Truck” add some levity to the album. As a whole, The Underdog isn’t nearly the roller coaster the two most memorable songs indicate. “Wildfire” may be the best song. It’s certainly the one with the most commercial appeal, and no, not just because it’s a John Mayer cover.

“I thought ‘I could make that one of the countriest-sounding songs you’ve ever heard,” he says.

Add Sam Hunt to the list of unexpected artists this traditional cowboy appreciates and you find a man with complexities, not a caricature. You won’t find him in skinny jeans or a backwards baseball cap like Hunt or Luke Bryan, but that doesn’t mean he’s judging.

“Luke Bryan pulls off the skinny jeans. I don’t,” Watson says. “To each his own.”

“It’d be sad if there was just one type of jelly.”

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Link:

www.savingcountrymusic.com/aaron-watson-talks-hitting-1-with-the-underdog

Aaron Watson Talks Hitting #1 with “The Underdog”

February 25, 2015 - By Trigger // Random Notes // 81 Comments

aaron-watson-the-underdog“My name is Aaron Watson. I’m not played on country radio. And I have the #1 record in country music this week. I do exist.”

This was Aaron Watson’s reaction to the comments of Sony Records Nashville CEO Gary Overton, who said earlier this week, “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” But overall the Texas country star took a much more humble, appreciative, and inclusive tone.


Whether it’s irony or poetry that an album titled The Underdog is the #1 album in all of country music right now, and #8 overall with 26,340 units sold, it’s certainly sweet news to the fans who’ve been with Aaron through 12 albums, 15 years, and over 2,000 shows, sticking with the more traditionally-oriented country star through thick and thin, and now finally emerging on top after all this time.

There was concern when Billboard changed its rules at the end of 2014 to include streaming numbers in the album chart formula that these album success stories would start to become fewer and more far between. But so far in 2015, it has been anything but from the strong showing by independent artists. From Blackberry Smoke claiming last week’s #1, to Sturgill Simpson cresting the 100,000 mark, and now Aaron Watson walking away with the top spot, independent music is on a winning streak.

To put the achievement in perspective, appreciate that The Underdog sold nearly 4-times the amount of albums as The Mavericks’ Mono album released by Big Machine Records on the same day, and from a sensational act that like many independent artists, relies on solid album sales. It’s not often we talk about an artist launching their career in earnest in their mid 30’s, but add Aaron Watson to a list that also includes Brandy Clark and Sturgill Simpson.

“I’m no rock star,” Aaron says humbly as he took some time to speak about his #1 achievement.

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What does it mean to you to have the #1 record in all of country music?

It’s kind of hard to put into words. I’m a little overwhelmed by the thought of that. I can say that I’m just incredibly thankful and gracious. It’s tough when you start thinking about how it’s taken me 15 years, 12 albums, and 2,000 shows to get here, it makes for a pretty neat story. What’s funny is, obviously I’m excited, but the part I’m most excited for is all the people around me who’ve been working so hard for all of these years. It’s a huge victory for them. Personally, I don’t really get too wrapped up in awards and chart positions and stuff like that. My award is being blessed with the opportunity to make a good living for my family. I love music. To be at the top of that list for one week, I feel incredibly blessed.

You get to live the dream a lot of people can’t, and so when you get one of these achievements, it’s something so many people share together. It’s not just you. It’s something a collective community that has coagulated around music or an artist gets to share in.

If you look at my career and the fact that I have no mainstream radio support, I can go on and on about how God has blessed me with the best fans in the world, and they take it personal to see me succeed. A lot of people can relate to me because I’m just a regular guy out there trying to make a living for my family. Mainstream music has never embraced me. It’s been a discouraging relationship, if you could even call it a relationship. But at the end of the day, like with anyone that has a dream, are you going to let someone’s discouragement be the obstacle that keeps you from going after your dream? I just look back at my career and see all the doors that God has opened, and all the different people he’s blessed me with, and who have taught me things along the way. And to be so deep into my career and feel like I’m just getting started, that is a great feeling. I feel the best is yet to come. I’m excited about this record, but I’ve kind of even more excited about the next record I’ve already started to write.

Getting to work with a guy like Keith Stegall. It was like getting my Master’s Degree in music. Getting to experience the way he makes music, I kind of feel like I was the young apprentice. Sometimes people think because I’m an independent artist from Texas that I’m anti Nashville, and I’m anti mainstream. But I was raised on a lot of George Strait records that were all made in Nashville, TN. So was Keith Whitley, and so was Alan Jackson. I’m a big fan of Merle Haggard, and Willie and Waylon. Really, in the past it’s been Nashville hasn’t wanted much to do with me. I’ve never been the one out there throwing around fighting words.

My deal is I have to stay true to myself and my music, and through that I have these principles that I stand on. And when I’m making a record, I have to ask myself, “Am I staying true to my faith in God? Am I staying true to my family, and am I staying true to my fans?” If any decision I’m making betrays one of those pillars, then it’s not something that I should be doing. I want my music to be a positive influence on people, that helps people get through some tough times. That’s what I live for.

I had a kid come up to me last week in Lubbock, and we we’re doing all of these CD release signings in store and all of these CD release parties. He came up to me and said, “Hey, I got the record, and I just got to say that I listened to the title track ‘The Underdog’ and have been reading about your story. And I’ve been trying to get into medical school and keep getting turned down, and had kind of given up on my dream of being a doctor. But I’m not going to give up on that. This inspired me to get back in the game.”

That’s what this is really about. Everybody loves the underdog.

You said you receive no mainstream radio play, and a few days ago the CEO of Sony Music Nashville was quoted saying, “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” As someone on the outside looking in to radio play, what do you think about that statement, especially sitting on the perch of your #1 album?

I think that’s A: It’s a very inaccurate statement. And B: I think Gary Overton is saying that because this week is the big CRS week in Nashville, so maybe he was saying that because every country radio show has shown up in Nashville this week. But I would also say, “My name is Aaron Watson. I’m not played on country radio. And I have the #1 record in country music this week. I do exist. And I also run a multi-million dollar business that employs up to 20 people.” And I would also say that for a little family in Abilene, TX, they think their daddy is the best country singer since Hank Williams. So I do exist. I just think that’s a very narrow-minded way of looking at things.

If you look at the chart right now, you seem me, and then you see a guy like Sam Hunt. Now a lot of people would assume that a traditionalist like me would not like Sam Hunt. But I’m going to surprise you. I have his record, it has some really cool moments, there’s some really good songwriting in that record. It’s also the most un-country record I’ve ever heard—I’ll be honest about that. But if Sam Hunt is making the music inside Sam Hunt’s heart, then who am I to say whether it’s good or not? So I think it’s cool that there can be a guy like Sam Hunt, and a guy like Aaron Watson, a guy like Luke Bryan, a guy like Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell. It doesn’t mean I’m listening to Sam hunt in my truck. But I try to just stay away from the me vs. them. I took this record and I let every label in town have an opportunity to listen to it, and it wasn’t their cup of tea.

I’ve never been able to depend on the mainstream, and I am very content with where I’m at. But I’ll also say that I’m running a business here, and how awesome would it be to be able to share my music with a bigger audience? Now if you tell me that for me to have those opportunities that I’m going to have to change myself, then I’m not interested in that. It’s not about a record deal, it’s about the record. It’s about the music.

Even though you don’t have a lot of mainstream radio support, you do have a lot of support on Texas radio.

Absolutely. Texas radio has been huge for us. What’s been cool is because of Texas radio jumping on board, there are stations around the entire country that are digging what we’re doing. From coast to coast, we have these stations that are going above and beyond to support my music. Those are the people I’m most excited for this record. Maybe they’re not those Top 40 guys. That mentality is why I have the #1 record in country this week. It’s the same mentality all the fans have. They take it personal to see that I succeed. I’m not a rock star. I hang out after every show, and hug, shake hands, and thank fans for supporting me. I think I have such a great appreciation for for my fans and the radio stations that play me because I understand how blessed I am to have them because I understand how hard they are to come by. If I was 20-years-old, and someone gave me a record deal, two tour buses, and I instantly had hits, how can that person appreciate the situation compared to me, who it’s taken 15 years? Right now, I just wish I could hug everybody.

We’ll you have hugged everybody, and you have shaken their hands. It was just vice versa.

You know what, they’re hugging me back. This week, all my fans and the radio stations that play me, they’re hugging me back.

And you know, I’ll say some things. I’ll put some hashtags where I’m like “Put cowboy back in country music” or “say no to skinny jeans.” Those things I say out of fun. I don’t have anything against the Bro-Country thing. Some of those songs are pretty cool. I think I wish the mainstream music world would be a little more open-minded to artists that have different styles. If I was to critique the mainstream scene it would be, “You know guys, it’s pretty narrow minded to expect every artist to write that kind of song, or sing that way, or dress that kind of way.” I’m mean do we really just want one flavor of jelly here? Can we have a few other favors?

It’s always been a fight more for diversity and balance, because it can swing the other way too. If you all you had was really hardline traditional country music on mainstream radio, that’s not going to get the job done either.

Absolutely, you hit the nail on the head. If every artist was like Sturgill Simpson, would Sturgill be doing what he’s doing right now? All these artists in the end are just out there trying to provide for their families, and pay off their wife’s credit card just like me.

How much has the rodeo community played into your success?

It’s been huge. I love the rodeo and I have lots of friends on that circuit. At the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas, I play there every year, so you have hundreds of thousands of people who come in from all around the country and they get to hear me play, and then they go back to their corners of the worlds, and that’s helping me plant seeds in other regions. Plus there’s nothing more fun than fairs and rodeos.

Over the last 15 years, have many times have you pondered quitting music, at least as a full time pursuit?

Never. It’s what I do. I’m a country singer. You can tell me that I’m not good enough for the mainstream, but you can’t tell me that I’m not a country music singer. About 3 1/2 years ago, my wife and I, we lost a little girl shortly after she was born. That knocked my feet out from under me for a while, just because I was heartbroken and homesick, and getting up on a stage and singing to people having fun, it was a struggle. But one night I just said a little prayer. I said, “God, if this is what you want me to do for a living, I could sure use your help.” Honestly, from that moment on I felt a huge difference in my attitude. We’ve had a lot of success since then. You do it because you love it. You don’t do it to get rich or famous. You do it because you have to, because it’s part of you. I’m just thankful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to do something that I love, and I will never ever ever take that for granted. I will never take my fans for granted, and I will never take one single spin on radio for granted.

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