honey. They were ready to play. And we just whipped that CD out, truthfully. I was in the session three times, two to cut tracks and one to do master vocals. And then he overdubbed the background vocals with Bekka and with Scott Boyer, and then he did the horns, and the slide guitar and all. You know, he’s a pro- ducer and I’m a singer. I let him do his job and he lets me do mine and we do real good together that way. (Laughs) You know what I mean?
For sure. He’s the best. How did you choose which songs to cut? Well, for instance, “Some of My Best Friends” - that song I’ve been trying to cut for ten years. When I first came to Nashville, I was in a meeting with the songwriter Gary Cotton, and I said play me your baby. Play me the one nearest to your heart that probably won’t ever get cut. So he played me “Some of My Best Friends,” and I went to the ground. I said, I want to cut this so bad. And nobody would touch it with a ten foot pole. So when me and Johnny got together, I said hey John, do you want to take a risk? He said, well I will if you will. So we decided to do it, and Johnny sug- gested “For What it’s Worth.” So we had those two. And then “Beautiful” was just in a stack. I didn’t know the writer before, but Johnny submitted a file with his songs and “Beautiful” was on it, and I went, oh God, I can eat this one alive! (Laughing) This is like raw meat to me. That and “It’s Gonna Rain All Night.” I was in Heaven.”
When I first heard “Some of My Best Friends” I thought you had written it. Well I must be doing my job, because if I can make you think I wrote it then it must be coming from my gut and soul. That’s great.
It sounds like your philosophy. It is! When I first heard it my heart embraced it. I thought, I couldn’t have said that better myself. I feel that from the marrow of my
bones. When I sang it at SXSW in Austin, it just came out Buffalo, I swear it, I sang “Some of my best friends are gone, I’m thinkin’ about Stevie Ray Vaughan.” I brought the house down. I swear to God it was not planned. It was totally channeled.
Do you have any personal favorites on the album? Well, I loved “Witness for Love” because I got to sing with Randall Bramblett, and doesn’t he have a sexy voice? It’s hot. And of course I like “My Strongest Weakness,” my kid and Gary Nicholson wrote that. And I like “Shake Something Loose,” that’s another Randall Bramblett song. Those are the up tempo songs. But really I’m going with “I Do Be- lieve,” that one makes me cry. And “Some of My Best Friends.” And I love “Bless ‘Em All, Y’all.” But I’m glad I ended with the Dan Penn song “He’ll Take Care of You,” because it’s a spiritual. It’s a different kind of spiritual. My spirituality comes from a Christian basis be- cause that’s what I was taught, but I believe in
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