Both my grandfathers and my mother's brother were musicians.
— Sturgill Simpson
I tried to make a honky-tonk country record - rough-hewn, cut fast, and all analog - like I wasn't hearing anymore.
It's hard enough to sit at a table and talk to most people as it is. But we can go to some town, and there's 300 people we've never met before, and by the third song, we're connecting with everyone in that room.
Let's just cut a live record with three microphones in four days and talk about lizards and aliens. If I had taken that idea to even an independent label, I don't see a label out there that would've said, 'Oh yeah, that sounds great. We know how to market this.'
I didn't graduate from college, so I might as well be on Atlantic Records, right?
I'm grateful to all the non-risk-takers.
I just can't sit down and write three verses and a chorus and a bridge anymore. It just don't find it inspiring.
My wife thinks I'm crazy.
You spend all this time reading or thinking or praying or searching or exploring.Maybe there's an Omega Point of love.
Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley - guys like that were huge influences.
I just have to do what it is going to make me happy, first and foremost - what is honest and what is sincere. Anybody that listens will hopefully connect with that.
I'm just gonna write a record for my kid, and if people hate it, it doesn't matter.
I knew I wanted to make a concept record in song-cycle form, like my favorite Marvin Gaye records where everything just continuously flows.
All I'm really interested in musically is trying to make concept albums. Serving a larger sum than the parts.
There's a lot going on in country music, with indie-label hipsters and underground bloggers arguing their interpretations of what country is, and pop-country stars defending themselves. That deserves to be poked fun at.
I've been reading about the idea of cyclical lives - it matches up to the idea of string theory and a multiverse. So I wanted to write a record about that instead of another song about broken hearts and drinking.
It's a long road, so we are just trying to stay focused and grounded and keep moving forward. I'll take it, though.
I knew I loved playing bluegrass, so I'd end up down there on Sunday nights at the bluegrass jam.
Elvis was a way bigger influence than Waylon Jennings, but you don't wanna tell people, 'I never really listened to Waylon.'
I had a great job with the railroad, a good salary.
The art is what can't be put on a timeline. You can't say, 'Well, I'm going to make a record in May because that's when the producer has a window.' So just recording and getting things out is paramount for me.
