Hayes Carll knows himself.
Theres nothing like a deadline to get you working, he says, echoing the sentiments of writers everywhere.
It was a fruitful endeavor.
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But that was part of the beauty of it, it gave me a chance to experiment.
To me, the Bob Dylan bootleg series is one of my great joys in life.
While there is humor in it, it also feels a little sinister a bit like Leonard Cohen.
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She came into the writing room and we had never met before.
She was pissed off about some experiences she had had with men in the [music] industry.
And she just blurted that out All these fing fragile men and their egos.
And I said, Lets write that.
Originally, it was just about patriarchy and chauvinism.
It was not to minimize the issue of racism or anti-Semitism or anything like that.
But to take away their power in a sense by ridiculing them and minimizing them.
My natural personality is to want to get along and to be a people pleaser sometimes.
Jason Isbell is a friend and an artist that I really admire.
So we live in a divided time, which is whatTimes Like Theseis about.
Because thats messed up to me.
And I dont think I should be written off as that.
note: Pantera/Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot onstage in 2004.
]You get crazy people like that.
Because Im asking for unity, you think that I should be murdered onstage?
I was on a couch, not a porch.
And so I did, I just started, I got out the pen.
I didnt even have a guitar.
So the Johnny Cash part, that sound came in the studio.
It was a little different, initially, what I had written.
But I just was having fun with words.
How do I overcome this fear?
Heres something where Ive been falling short, whats going on there?
And just trying to engage, and not coast.
So that was the theme.
But I did it in a lighthearted sense, while taking it very seriously at the same time.
What it Isincludes Jesus and Elvis, which Kenny Chesney recorded for his most recent albumSongs For the Saints.
And more so than, say, your typical superstar.
And I mean in a perfect world, you get both of those things.
Hes been really good at writing that but also searching that out and finding it.
So when he asked to cut the song, I was thrilled.
When I started out doing this…I wanted to be a songwriter.
Its particularly special when that is a huge star in the country music arena, or any arena.
And how did it affect my life?
Theres some financial benefits to somebody on that scale covering your stuff.
And its just validating in a way.
And I thought he did a great job of it.
