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10 Questions with ... Jameson Rodgers
September 21, 2020
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Jameson Rodgers was raised in the small town of Batesville, Mississippi, with Country music at the core of his upbringing. While he had dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, he quickly changed career paths after picking up a guitar in his 20s and feeling inspired to chase a new goal of becoming a singer-songwriter in Nashville. After a move to Music City, Rodgers landed a publishing deal with Combustion Music in 2014 and saw major songwriting success with his first cuts, including Florida Georgia Line’s “Wish You Were On It” and “Talk You Out Of It,” as well as Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You.” Rodgers released his first self-titled debut EP in 2016, and another in January 2018. His debut single, “Some Girls,” is in the top 5 on the Mediabase Country singles chart with high hopes for achieving #1.
1. Your debut single, “Some Girls” is currently top 5 and climbing - congrats! What does it mean to you to have your debut single be so well accepted at Country radio?
I feel extremely blessed. I’ve got several buddies who got record deals before me, and for whatever reason their song went to 30-something, or 40-something, or 20-something, so I didn’t really know what to expect. You kind of only have -- it feels like -- one or two artists a year that have a debut single that can kind of break through the top 20, top 10 or whatever. It’s what I’ve been working for, so it kind of seems surreal. You’re so into it all the time that you don’t really think about how cool this is.
2. With a name like Jameson Rodgers, it’s like you had no choice but to be a Country artist. Is making it in that field what you’ve always had your heart set on? Did you ever have your eyes on another career?
It’s funny, Jameson is not a family name or anything. I think my mom had a neighbor growing up named Jameson or something like that and she just always said if she ever had a son she was going to name him Jameson. So, that’s where I got that name, kind of random. She’s never even had a taste of alcohol, so it’s ironic that she named me after whiskey.
I didn’t pick the guitar up until I was, like, 20 or 21 years old, in college. I always loved to sing. There’s videos of me as a kid singing “Friends In Low Places” at Christmastime, and I would always walk around high school singing. I was the guy that was walking down the hallway singing, [Travis Tritt’s] “Here’s A Quarter” or something.
I played baseball forever, through junior college, and went to school in Memphis to play. When I got there, my roommates were playing guitar and I realized that I should just pursue that. I didn’t even finish school there. I quit at Christmas and just went down to Southern Miss [Mississippi] and started writing songs with roommates. Next thing you know, I’m talking one of them into moving to Nashville with me.
I’m just a kid from Batesville, MS. Just a small town. It’s not like you can just pursue being a Country music singer growing up in a little town. It’s not even an option, or at least it doesn’t seem like. I just never even thought about it until I got to college and people are starting to request these terrible songs that we were writing [laughs].
3. You wrote the title track of Luke Bryan's upcoming album, “Born Here Live Here Die Here.” Can you share the story behind that song, how it got written, and how big of a party you threw when you found out it was the title track?
I wrote that song about three years ago. We were out on the road. I was driving the van and the [band] guys were sleeping in the back. We were going to a fair or somewhere in Indiana; just riding through this middle of nowhere small town Indiana, and my bass player wakes up, raises up and [is] kind of getting his wits about him. We’re rolling through this little town and he’s like, “Man, this is one of those towns you’re born in and you die in.” He was just talking randomly; he wasn’t talking to anyone specific. I didn’t say anything, but I thought, “Well, that’s kind of cool.” [I] thought about it for the rest of the drive, and when we got to the venue I just put in [my notes] “born here die here,” and wrote out some notes by it.
A week or two later, it was my first write with Josh Thompson, and I’ve always been such a big fan of his. His debut single is called “Way Out Here,” [and has] kind of the same vibe, so I said, “Man, we should write something like that.” I just took that title, “Born Here Live Here Die Here” in there [the writing session] and we wrote it in about two or three hours and the rest is history. It’s pretty crazy.
When they announced the title track it was just such a surprise. [Bryan] had it cut for like a whole year, so the excitement of him cutting it had kind of already gone away. I just thought, “I hope it makes the album at this point,” because it had already been recorded for so long. Turns out I guess he loves it so much he made it the album title! Hopefully it’ll make the radio one day. Who knows?
4. Although you’ve seen success on the charts as a songwriter, you’re actually not one of the writers on your single, “Some Girls.” How is it different (if at all) to see a song you recorded climbing the charts versus a song you wrote that was recorded by another artist? Is there added pressure or responsibility you feel to have the song perform well on the charts since it was written by others?
It’s funny [that] I didn’t even write “Some Girls.” It was a song I just fell in love with several years ago. When you’re coming up with several amazing other songwriters, you kind of share demos with each other and what not, and I just always told my buddy [Jake Mitchell] that I would cut that one if nobody else did.
It’s definitely weird seeing my name next to, like, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan and all those guys on the chart. I don’t even know how to describe it. You write so many songs, it just seems like it takes forever. It takes so many stars to align to get [a song] there [on the chart]. It takes an artist liking the song, [then] liking it enough to record it, liking it after they record it, and then a whole team liking it after they record it enough to put it on the radio, and then radio liking it [enough] to play it. It’s just very hard. Any time I’ve had a song on the charts, I just soak it up because you’re not guaranteed another one.
The “Some Girls” single [success] I kinda want for my buddies [that wrote it] and my team more than I want it for myself, just because it’s way more than just me working hard. For one of my buddies that wrote it [Mitchell], it’s his first single, and he is such an amazing songwriter. He’s a co-producer on my record too, so he just deserves it so much. I want it more for people like that, and my manager and agents, than I do for myself, really. That sounds weird, but it’s true.
5. You have had the opportunity to tour with some great artists, most recently Luke Combs, who you released the song “Cold Beer Calling My Name” with. What kind of lessons have the headlining artists you’ve toured with taught you that will help you on the road on your own headlining tour?
I had never played an arena before, so Luke asking me to go play 60 arenas with him last year, before I even had a record deal, speaks very highly of him in my opinion. Throughout the whole year, just being around Luke and seeing how he treats people and the kind of people he surrounds himself with, hard workers and good people, shows me what I would want a team to look like. You’re on the road with these people year-round, so you kind of need to like them [laughs]. Watching how hard he works, it’s cool to see. Just being around somebody who is blowing up so fast, everybody is wanting a piece of him. Watching how he handles all that stuff is cool.
6. You posted a sweet tribute to Charlie Daniels after his passing in July, sharing that he took time to visit with you backstage the night of your Grand Ole Opry debut. What kind of influence have classic artists, like Daniels had on your music? Anyone else you look up to that has influenced your sound?
That’s all my dad. My dad’s whole generation was George Jones, Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels and Conway Twitty. When I was in high school, we would always go sing karaoke at my uncle’s place or around town, and those are the kinds of songs I would sing. I grew up listening to that music and ’90s Country, obviously, all that good stuff. That [Opry debut] was a crazy special night to begin with, and then [meeting with Daniels] happened towards the end of the night, which was pretty cool. He just walked up and was like, “Man, that last song [‘Desert’] you played acoustic was incredible,” and just talked to me for 10 minutes. It was pretty unreal.
7. We know you have a full-length album in the works, and we’re excited to hear it. How's it coming along? What can fans expect from the project?
Last year I thought I had finished the record, but I went on a writing retreat in January and wrote, like, six songs that everybody was just like, “They have to be on the record, too.” I was like, “This is going to be, like, a 20-song record” [laughs]. We’re just about finished with [those] six songs. We’re thinking probably [at the] end of this year, start of next year we’ll drop the whole thing … maybe. That’s not a definite plan, but it’s what I’m predicting. It’s some of the best writing I’ve done. I cannot wait for everyone to hear it.
8. In light of the current pandemic, you started your own Facebook streaming series, “Saturday Nights Live.” How has that series helped you through these tough times? Has it helped you to stay engaged with fans while you’re off the road?
If this whole pandemic thing happened 10 years ago, how different it would look for the artists because the whole Facebook Live wasn’t a thing until the last few years? It’s definitely been cool to stay engaged with fans. I know a lot of them were looking forward to the tour we were going to do. I think any time someone can listen to a song and it perks them up, that’s a good thing. Or it gets them through a tough day, or it’s something to just look forward to. I hope I was successful in that at least.
9. The pandemic has affected the music industry in many ways, a lot of them negative. Is there anything positive that has come out of the downtime quarantine has provided for you and your music, or are you ready to just get back on the road and pick up where you left off?
It’s a little bit of both. Having a break was nice for sure, just because last year I was gone probably five days a week every week. Last year took a toll on me, but it was worth it, clearly. I think the biggest silver lining is that I’ve been able to write more. The first six or seven years in town all I had to do was write a song until three or four o’clock and then go play nine holes or something [laughs]. It was a pretty dream life. Then, you get a record deal and you’re never at home anymore, which is good. It’s a good thing. The past few [months] I got to write with Dustin Lynch and a few other guys. Who knows if that would’ve ever happened if we were all on the road?
10. You were an accomplished baseball player throughout your school years and played in college. Any similarities you see between the game of baseball and the music industry? And in what ways has being an athlete helped you navigate the music industry?
It definitely parallels. When I moved to Nashville, it’s kind of like playing minor leagues. The minor leagues have all these levels: Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A. In my brain, when I got a publishing deal, it was like I went from Single-A to Double-A. And then I get a booking agent and that takes me halfway to Triple-A [laughs]. And then you get the Luke Combs tour and you’re all of a sudden in Triple-A. Now, I have a song in the top 10, it kind of feels like I’ve at least made the 40-man roster [laughs]. In the music industry, it takes so long to see the fruits of your labor ... so it takes the work ethic of an athlete. You can’t get discouraged when you have a couple games without a hit.
Bonus Question
We saw you made an appearance in HARDY’s music video for “Give Heaven Some Hell.” What was the filming experience like?
We were on [HARDY’s] boat like a week before the video [shoot]. He just randomly said “Hey, Hunter [Phelps] and Jake [Mitchell], and a few other of our close buddies are in this video next week, do you want to be in it?” I knew the song. I think it’s going to be a massive hit, so I was like, “Yeah.” It was kind of a silver lining with this whole quarantine, not being on the road, I had time to do that. Who knows, if everything was normal it would’ve been hard to get everyone together like that in the same place for a whole day.
That whole day [of shooting] was hot! We had to wear a suit for, like, eight hours, and when we had the bonfire it was 95 degrees outside. The fire made it like 140 degrees, and they kept telling us to stand around the fire and act normal [laughs].
It’s one of the coolest videos I’ve seen in a while just because it’s a genuine friendship between all of us. You don’t just see a bunch of up-and-coming writers and artists [in a video] like that very often, so it’s pretty cool.
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