Great guy, great drummer, fun to travel with. Then there’s Michael Graham, the only
member of the band from my home town, Tu- pelo, Mississipi.
You mean Dr. Love. (Laughs) Dr. Love! When I met him he was working at a music store in Tupelo and I didn’t have any idea how talented he was but when he came into the band it was like “Wow!” He’s such a great thing to have. Then you got Ralph Freidrichsen who
plays bass. He’s been with us the least amount of time – with us only six years but a wonderful bass player, great singer. We’ve re- ally got a special blend. I really believe that. When you’re doing shows, some nights it’s magic and some nights it’s not magic. It’s just like anything else, you have good days and bad days. Even on stage. But we’re on, it’s freaking awesome. When we’re all in the right place, locked in, I’d put us against anybody, and I say that with the utmost humility. It’s just I know it. I see what’s out there and you know, there are some good bands out there, but I don’t think they’re any better.
I’m going to agree with you. Y’all get tight and sometimes it’s pretty amazing to watch. Like I said earlier, I love watching you play by yourself. I like it both ways… uh .. go ahead, say it… That’s what she said last night… (Both laugh) I slipped, I wasn’t ready, you had to coach me through that one.
Yeah, I’m sorry, stick with me, kid. You’ll be a star. Anyway, the next thing I was going to ask you about is the fact that so much of your music touches on gospel and Biblical themes and old time religion – where does that stem from in your life.
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I grew up the son of a Church of God Prophecy Pentecostal minister. You know, I’ve been in church my whole life. I under- stand that language and I understand that lifestyle so much that even though I’m not a gospel singer, I incorporate a lot of that into my music. It’s in everything I do. But I’m proud of that because I’m from Tupelo, Mis- sissippi, which is also the birthplace of Elvis Presley and he had a similar upbringing. He went to church growing up, he went to the black churches and the white churches grow- ing up just like I did. And that’s where he learned how to play music. So I embrace that part of my life, even though I’m not necessar- ily even a religious person anymore. I have my own beliefs, but it ain’t what I believed when I was a kid. You change as you get older. You get into a broader world and you question things that you once believed, and you learn that some of the things you were told coming up are not true. I say that in the nicest way. In some ways it’s called growing as a human being. Things I believed when I was 18, maybe I don’t believe now.
I still harbor the same beliefs I had when I was a kid - my dad was a Baptist minister – I have the same beliefs, but in a different way. It’s like I don’t look at everything in the Bible as literal now, you know? Oh no.
I still have that same spirit and belief in the Lord and all that, but just not the same way as when I was a kid. There are people that actually believe that the story of Adam and Eve is a literal historical document, but it doesn’t take much after you get away from that environment and look at other sources of information to figure out, in my opinion, that it isn’t a literal story.
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