10 Questions with ... Steve Azar

1) Did you write everything on your latest album "Slide On Over Here," and what inspired the work? It's quite a complex album.

Yes, I wrote or co-wrote all songs on Slide. It has just always worked better for me to record my own material. It's the best way I know to be honest - first with myself and secondly, my fans. They deserve to know who I am. I usually get inspired from a more serious place in my own life and or lives of others around me. Even "I Don't Have To Be Me 'Til Monday," as free as it turned out to make you feel, came from a tough situation.

The entire Slide record was written during a stretch of highs and lows. I think the songs on it reflect my last couple of years personally and musically. Like all my records in the past, it has references to my upbringing in the Mississippi Delta.

2) You can go from fun and rollicking songs like "Moo La Moo," to sweet romantic songs such as "Sunshine." Have you always had that range, and what attracts you to so many styles?

I always want to take the listener on a journey, as if though they're reading a book. All songs have to have something to do with the other, and include an array of emotions and experiences each of us have, or will, go through. I feel I'm good for one love song per record-- and it better be a good one! One that is not thought out or planned -- one that can just write itself. "Sunshine" without a doubt was an obvious choice that was the perfect fit for this record.

3) Gary Valentine from "Kings of Queens" is in the "Moo La Moo" video. How did that happen, and did he really invent the "Moo La Moo" dance?

Gary and I became fast friends at Hootie and The Blowfish's, Monday After the Masters charity event a few years ago. We really connect together on stage and I wanted that to be showcased in the Moo video. I knew his personality would give the song that extra smile. He came up with the dance in a matter of minutes, that's why he does it so well. And I don't!

4) Speaking of celebrities, Morgan Freeman was in the "Waitin' On Joe" video. We know you're both Mississippi natives. How did that come about and are you two friends?

Morgan had moved back to Charleston, Mississippi shortly before the filming of the "Waitin' On Joe" video. He had opened Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, where my mom is from. As a child, my mom lived above the family owned grocery store on Highway 61. Charlie Pride used to come in from time to time in his baseball uniform. My Uncle Joe was the mayor of Clarksdale when he passed away at the young age of 33, so mom's family was well thought of in Clarksdale. I had this crazy idea of asking Morgan to narrate the video to help explain where I was in my head when I wrote the song. His business partner, Bill Luckett, who's now running for Governor of Mississippi, is from Clarksdale and was the hook up. I sent the song to them and Morgan said the song mattered and he would love to narrate and be in the video as well. It is important for me to show people my Delta roots; who I am as an artist and a person. I think the video did that and much more. It really worked out to be something pretty dang special. Morgan and I do cross paths every now and then, and its always moving to talk to him. Ground Zero Blues Club I'm told has a dish named after me - that's cool!

5) Where and when was the first time you ever heard one of your songs on the radio?

Actually, when I was 14, I recorded a few or more songs in Nashville. Danny Thomas and St. Jude started using one as their telethon theme song, so I believe it was Memphis where I first heard a song of mine on the radio.

As far as official single released to radio, it would have been in Milwaukee, Wisconsin back in 1996. I was driving with longtime friend, Lyric Street's Kevin Herring. He was working a song off my first album that I recorded in Nashville.

6) What are some of your favorite songs on the new album and why?

It's always hard for me to answer this question. When you write as much as I do, and have in the past, the songs that made it on were up against a lifetime of songs. So, they all matter. They all hold have their own unique characteristics but in turn work as a whole body of work.

7) What was it like touring with living legend Bob Seger? What were the audiences like?

Come on now, it was unbelievable, another one of my greatest musical moments (actually 7 months) of a lifetime. Originally we were offered the first seven shows. Kid Rock had made a call on my behalf to Bob, and I remember getting word back from my agent that Kid said, "Tell Steve, I hope it works out for him." Well, his fans and me hit it off like old friends. It just felt like they were my fans too. Night in and night out there was that common result, and I was very comfortable as an entertainer. After the seven shows were up, a Capitol Records act was supposed to finish the tour with Bob. Politics, politics, politics, but I understood. It did make sense, because Bob is a Capitol act, and that's just the way things were supposed to play out. It didn't though. My publicist called and said Bob's been talking about you in the press, and jokingly said, "He still thinks you're on tour with him." He had been asked a question in one of the Pittsburgh papers about what he thought about American Idol. He was quoted saying, "Just like my opening act Steve Azar, we've played a lot live." My publicist then said, "Maybe he'll call and ask you back." I thought to myself, yeah right! He did though, and we wound up playing 46 very memorable shows together. What a really good thing he did for my band and me. He shared his fans that he'd worked a lifetime to get. He showed extreme unselfishness. His entire team and crew did as well. Some of the Silver Bullet members would come out and watch our show. I mean every minute of every night. I wasn't just an opening act - I was Bob's opening act. I recall shortly after we came back, we were doing a four night run over the Christmas holidays at The Palace in Detroit and Kid Rock came up to me and said, "Hey when I said I hope it worked out for ya, I didn't think it would really work out for ya." Bob and the tour greatly influenced the direction of my Slide On Over Here record, and "Sunshine," my current single, was written when I was out with him. The first time we ever played "Sunshine" was on this tour.

8) You are ranked as one of the Top 5 golfing musicians in the nation. With all that you have to do with touring, recording, a family - can you play regularly? Are you hosting a tournament this year?

Well, let's just say that when you're just a singer- songwriter, husband and Dad, and on tour, it is possible to keep your game at a pretty high level. But when you are all that and producing your records, running a record label, being involved in every decision, it makes it really hard to keep a low handicap or at least consistently play to it. So right now I'm living a little off a past reputation. Golf has taken a back seat these past couple of years, and my game is definitely showing that now.

Back to running the record label, I say I'm actively involved in all label decisions, but I'm seeing great things being done every day without my prior knowledge. I believe in the people I have brought aboard and I am feeling myself freed up more and more everyday to do what I love the most, write, record and perform. That's where I wanted Ride to be at this point. Bottom line, for now I'm concentrating on my career and my label, my Ride team, making and playing music and hitting the road with my band.

9) Are you still giving lessons on TV on the Golf Channel?

I had a great time filming Playing Lessons with Kenny Perry, and I learned a lot. (Except it screwed up my sand game.) I was in a car accident a couple years ago, and it really has affected my take away, so I've learned how to generate power on the downswing. It was humbling to watch my swing on TV, but the results were good. In golf, that's what matters.

10) What would you still like to accomplish in your career?

Consistency and balance, both are so important to me. That's why I formed Ride Records. To me, successful career as an artist would be to get to make honest unfiltered music and perform as long as Willie Nelson or make records as long as Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger have. I believe a music career is a journey. All of us have our peaks and valleys -- all of us. I've been doing this since I was a child, cutting my teeth in blues clubs in the Delta. Mentored by people like Eugene Powell, Little Milton and later influenced by so many great songwriters here in Nashville. I've been writing and playing out live my entire life, it's what I do. It's all I'll ever do.

Good news is with a song like "I Don't Have To Be Me 'Til Monday" I've stayed on the radio. It's approaching 3 million spins and has become a staple on the airways. I remember well what a struggle it was and how long it took to work Monday up the charts. Currently, "Sunshine" is showing all the right signs, from strong sales in markets that are really spinning the record, to researching #1 in markets early on, and a load of most requested stories that any record label would give the green light to bring it home. My web team at Ride has also planned an extensive Internet campaign and is showing significant growth and passion for this record. "Sunshine" is sitting 10 places higher and in the Top 40 on the charts when you look at the total picture of all monitored BDS reporting stations. It's the only record making such a jump. So that tells us we are getting REAL airplay and impacting the listener. So, WE WILL WORK THAT HARD to prove ourselves, this single and beyond.

My record label is the platform for me to get to continue to do all this and more, and allows me to grow and find both balance and consistency. I also have a new desire to help other acts make great music. Ride Records is the vehicle.

1) Every chowhound knows that while Mississippi is known for music, it also is known for great food. What great hole-in-the-wall would you take us to down there?

It would take a couple days of eating, so get ready to put on some pounds.

First stop, Doe's Eat Place for the steak and hot tamales. Then we have to go to Sherman's for good 'ole Mississippi Delta farm-raised catfish. Both restaurants are in my hometown of Greenville. For a true Italian experience, we would go to Lillo's in Leland. On Thursday nights they have a live band, and the drummer has to be at least 100 years old. They start playing and everyone gets up and dances around their tables, then when the band takes a break (pretty much after each song) people go back to eating. It's wild and their food is off the hook. Go for the pizza.

Then for BBQ we'd go to Abe's in Clarksdale. It's a famous joint my cousin owns at the infamous Highway 61 and 49 split (the crossroads where legend has it, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil!?!) There is an old weathered ceramic pig out front that marks the spot. Paul Simon, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, you name 'em, they've probably been there. Paul Simon once asked Abe, "Do you know who I am? Abe answered, "You're one of my cousins from Greenville?" Enough said!

2) Name 3 albums that you just can't live without and why.

Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits, Muddy Waters' The Anthology, and Indianola by Steve Azar. Come on, let me have one!!!

3) What was the first album you ever bought?

I think it was John Denver's Poems Prayers and Promises. But I can't even remember what I ate yesterday, so I'd say it's just a good guess.