Shooter Jennings is part of that new wave of country rock thats been getting real popular lately. Legacies such as Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams have been burning up the rock clubs lately. Cowboy hats have become a common sight in the East Village of late and thats why Jennings latest album, Electric Rodeo, has become such a big hit.
Buy Electric Rodeo
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Shooter, what are you up to?
Shooter Jennings: Im in Albuquerque, about to do a gig.
DRE: I was just in Albuquerque visiting the set of a movie.
SJ: What movie?
DRE: Its called Beerfest.
SJ: Oh really? I know whats his name, because he did Dukes of Hazzard. I was a big fan of Super Troopers, I loved that movie. I met
DRE: Jay?
SJ: Yeah, Jay Chand...whatever the hell his name is, we talked on the phone a bunch and he ended up using one of our songs in the movie.
DRE: It was a hell of a lot of fun.
SJ: So its one of those monkey
DRE: Broken Lizard movies.
SJ: There you go. I havent seen Club Dread, but I loved Super Troopers.
DRE: Its a classic.
SJ: Theyre filming down here right now?
DRE: Yeah, check it out.
SJ: I should see if I have Jays number, give him a call and see if he wants to chill.
DRE: What inspired the new album?
SJ: We started working on the new album before the first one even came out. We got about halfway through so it was like we were inspired as a group. Weve grown a lot and we were really excited to play music. Id written a couple of songs, [Leroy Powell] wrote one, and we started working on it, next thing you knew it was done. Im really proud of it because I feel that it takes what we do in another direction that no one thought we would go in. They expected us to come up with Put the "O" Back in Country Part 2 and to me this is another step forward.
DRE: It sounds like you work pretty closely with the band.
SJ: Yeah, were a real bands band. We play everything, we play live, our sound is heavily dependent on 357s [the band Shooter works with]. They write songs too, on this record Leroy wrote Hair of the Dog and we co-wrote Aviators and Manifesto No.2 together. We operate like a real band and conceptually I dont even understand how people operate the other way with the singers picking the songs, and the studio bands and all that shit? I dont understand it.
DRE: How long have you known these guys?
SJ: Ive been playing with them since 2003. We got together and we made the first record. Weve had a great run and really grown as a group. Were a bunch of wild motherfuckers.
DRE: Were you not ready to make an album until you met these guys?
SJ: Heres the thing, I had this other band for six years and we burned our candle out and I didnt know what to do. Then I met these guys and a couple months later we had an album together and we met this producer Dave Cobb. Dave is like the fifth Beatle with us. He has a lot to do with the sound and we all work really well together. So we did the second album and I dont feel like were going to be changing our formula anytime soon.
DRE: With your lineage, was it like you were destined to play music?
SJ: I fell in love with music really early and I played drums when I was really young. Then when I was about 13 or 14 something clicked and I knew this was what I wanted to do.
DRE: What clicked?
SJ: At the time it was around 1994 and Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral came out. I thought it was awesome and I was so inspired that this one guy did all the music. I sat down at the computer and started recording. Then I started playing with people and I fell in love with the history of rock and roll.
DRE: Do you use computers a lot?
SJ: Even though we record everything on tape, I believe in ProTools and anyone who refuses to use it is stupid because its an art form in itself. You can really do things you cant do anymore. You can really go in there like its a piece of artwork, though we use both mediums quite heavily. We usually record the track live and then we dump it into ProTools and start working from there.
DRE: How did you meet Dave Cobb?
SJ: I met Dave Cobb in 2003 after wed been playing for a while. We were looking at another managing company and someone from there introduced me to Dave. We met and instantly bonded because we come from similar backgrounds, hes a southern boy and I am too. We did one song with him and I knew he was the right guy for us.
DRE: Did you ever meet Johnny Cash?
SJ: Oh yeah, he was my godfather. He was awesome. I was around him a lot because Highwaymen took off in 1984 and I was five years old so I was on the road with them. I got to go overseas and spend a lot of time with all those guys so I was really lucky. When youre a little kid, you take a lot of shit for granted.
DRE: Did you go to the Oscars?
SJ: No, I didnt go, I was proud of Joaquin [Phoenix] and Reese [Witherspoon] but I dont go to those kinds of things unless I have to.
DRE: Unless youre nominated, right?
SJ: Yeah. Exactly.
DRE: Were you impressed with Joaquin?
SJ: Yeah, I was super impressed. I thought he should have won the Oscar. He learned how to sing all those songs really well and that record has gone gold. The first gold record Ive got hanging on my wall is the Walk the Line soundtrack. Its number two in Australia.
DRE: I read you have a radio show on Sirius.
SJ: Oh yeah, 11 pm on Sunday and 6 pm Saturday.
DRE: Has The Howard Stern Show helped you guys out?
SJ: I dont know. I was on the show once, its helped Sirius with getting people to get on board. I love Sirius Radio. I love Outlaw Country, I think its the best radio station there is.
DRE: Do you hang with Hillbilly Jim?
SJ: I dont, I hang out with Mojo Nixon every once in a while. I havent hung out with Hillbilly Jim, Im looking forward to that.
DRE: Were you ever a wrestling fan?
SJ: I was, man when I was a kid. I have this story, I think it was Hillbilly Jim but I could be wrong. I was in an arcade when I was about eight years old and I was trying to get money out of one of those change machines and it kept spitting my dollar back. This guy comes up to me and said he was Hillbilly Jim and he was a wrestler. He folded the money, put it in and it worked. I learned that trick from him when I was eight. If it was him, it was really pretty funny.
DRE: How did you get the radio show?
SJ: My mom [Jessi Colter] was doing this thing in Arizona called The Outlaw Connection and it was a tribute to my father. Steve Van Zandt, who Id met through my girlfriend, has a show. I was asked if I wanted a show and I was like Sure! I started going into the studio to do it but I was really nervous. Then after awhile I got the hang of it and figured Id do it from home. So now I just take my laptop and I program the whole two hour show from my iTunes. I put in little bits in-between, send in a CD and they put it on the air. A lot of times Ill pick bootlegs and weird stuff they dont necessarily have.
DRE: I read your mom has a new album.
SJ: Yeah it just came out February 24th. Its real good so Im happy that shes in the spotlight now. She hasnt really cut a record in years and the reviews have been great.
DRE: I read you and [girlfriend] Drea [de Matteo] are doing an album.
SJ: Oh, were not doing an album together. Dreas awesome but were not doing one together. Im going to produce one of my moms. We still want to do a tribute concert for freedom and independence and use my dad as the center for it. It would be an outdoor concert that we would shoot as a movie and release it in theatres as a documentary. We would have all these different artists from The White Stripes to what outlaw country plays.
DRE: Apparently you smoke a lot of weed, which is cool.
SJ: Yeah, I get the reputation more than I do it. Im very unlucky when it comes to getting caught carrying pot on a plane. So my mistakes give me my reputation.
DRE: Do people in the music industry smoke good pot?
SJ: Yeah, you can find it in Hollywood. Its everywhere out there.
DRE: I always wonder if the people in Hollywood smoke good weed or shwag.
SJ: When youre on the road youve got to have people that you know or else you end up with a bunch of shwag. If youre stuck without any pot in El Paso, things dont turn out in your favor. I have a story I probably shouldnt tell about Tommy Tutone. I have a new word for really bad pot. I call it Tutone pot because Tommy shows up at a show in Portland and breaks out this big bag of weed. Hes going to be so fucking pissed that Im saying this but it was the worst pot ever and I ended up paying for it. We got Tutoned!
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy Electric Rodeo
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Shooter, what are you up to?
Shooter Jennings: Im in Albuquerque, about to do a gig.
DRE: I was just in Albuquerque visiting the set of a movie.
SJ: What movie?
DRE: Its called Beerfest.
SJ: Oh really? I know whats his name, because he did Dukes of Hazzard. I was a big fan of Super Troopers, I loved that movie. I met
DRE: Jay?
SJ: Yeah, Jay Chand...whatever the hell his name is, we talked on the phone a bunch and he ended up using one of our songs in the movie.
DRE: It was a hell of a lot of fun.
SJ: So its one of those monkey
DRE: Broken Lizard movies.
SJ: There you go. I havent seen Club Dread, but I loved Super Troopers.
DRE: Its a classic.
SJ: Theyre filming down here right now?
DRE: Yeah, check it out.
SJ: I should see if I have Jays number, give him a call and see if he wants to chill.
DRE: What inspired the new album?
SJ: We started working on the new album before the first one even came out. We got about halfway through so it was like we were inspired as a group. Weve grown a lot and we were really excited to play music. Id written a couple of songs, [Leroy Powell] wrote one, and we started working on it, next thing you knew it was done. Im really proud of it because I feel that it takes what we do in another direction that no one thought we would go in. They expected us to come up with Put the "O" Back in Country Part 2 and to me this is another step forward.
DRE: It sounds like you work pretty closely with the band.
SJ: Yeah, were a real bands band. We play everything, we play live, our sound is heavily dependent on 357s [the band Shooter works with]. They write songs too, on this record Leroy wrote Hair of the Dog and we co-wrote Aviators and Manifesto No.2 together. We operate like a real band and conceptually I dont even understand how people operate the other way with the singers picking the songs, and the studio bands and all that shit? I dont understand it.
DRE: How long have you known these guys?
SJ: Ive been playing with them since 2003. We got together and we made the first record. Weve had a great run and really grown as a group. Were a bunch of wild motherfuckers.
DRE: Were you not ready to make an album until you met these guys?
SJ: Heres the thing, I had this other band for six years and we burned our candle out and I didnt know what to do. Then I met these guys and a couple months later we had an album together and we met this producer Dave Cobb. Dave is like the fifth Beatle with us. He has a lot to do with the sound and we all work really well together. So we did the second album and I dont feel like were going to be changing our formula anytime soon.
DRE: With your lineage, was it like you were destined to play music?
SJ: I fell in love with music really early and I played drums when I was really young. Then when I was about 13 or 14 something clicked and I knew this was what I wanted to do.
DRE: What clicked?
SJ: At the time it was around 1994 and Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral came out. I thought it was awesome and I was so inspired that this one guy did all the music. I sat down at the computer and started recording. Then I started playing with people and I fell in love with the history of rock and roll.
DRE: Do you use computers a lot?
SJ: Even though we record everything on tape, I believe in ProTools and anyone who refuses to use it is stupid because its an art form in itself. You can really do things you cant do anymore. You can really go in there like its a piece of artwork, though we use both mediums quite heavily. We usually record the track live and then we dump it into ProTools and start working from there.
DRE: How did you meet Dave Cobb?
SJ: I met Dave Cobb in 2003 after wed been playing for a while. We were looking at another managing company and someone from there introduced me to Dave. We met and instantly bonded because we come from similar backgrounds, hes a southern boy and I am too. We did one song with him and I knew he was the right guy for us.
DRE: Did you ever meet Johnny Cash?
SJ: Oh yeah, he was my godfather. He was awesome. I was around him a lot because Highwaymen took off in 1984 and I was five years old so I was on the road with them. I got to go overseas and spend a lot of time with all those guys so I was really lucky. When youre a little kid, you take a lot of shit for granted.
DRE: Did you go to the Oscars?
SJ: No, I didnt go, I was proud of Joaquin [Phoenix] and Reese [Witherspoon] but I dont go to those kinds of things unless I have to.
DRE: Unless youre nominated, right?
SJ: Yeah. Exactly.
DRE: Were you impressed with Joaquin?
SJ: Yeah, I was super impressed. I thought he should have won the Oscar. He learned how to sing all those songs really well and that record has gone gold. The first gold record Ive got hanging on my wall is the Walk the Line soundtrack. Its number two in Australia.
DRE: I read you have a radio show on Sirius.
SJ: Oh yeah, 11 pm on Sunday and 6 pm Saturday.
DRE: Has The Howard Stern Show helped you guys out?
SJ: I dont know. I was on the show once, its helped Sirius with getting people to get on board. I love Sirius Radio. I love Outlaw Country, I think its the best radio station there is.
DRE: Do you hang with Hillbilly Jim?
SJ: I dont, I hang out with Mojo Nixon every once in a while. I havent hung out with Hillbilly Jim, Im looking forward to that.
DRE: Were you ever a wrestling fan?
SJ: I was, man when I was a kid. I have this story, I think it was Hillbilly Jim but I could be wrong. I was in an arcade when I was about eight years old and I was trying to get money out of one of those change machines and it kept spitting my dollar back. This guy comes up to me and said he was Hillbilly Jim and he was a wrestler. He folded the money, put it in and it worked. I learned that trick from him when I was eight. If it was him, it was really pretty funny.
DRE: How did you get the radio show?
SJ: My mom [Jessi Colter] was doing this thing in Arizona called The Outlaw Connection and it was a tribute to my father. Steve Van Zandt, who Id met through my girlfriend, has a show. I was asked if I wanted a show and I was like Sure! I started going into the studio to do it but I was really nervous. Then after awhile I got the hang of it and figured Id do it from home. So now I just take my laptop and I program the whole two hour show from my iTunes. I put in little bits in-between, send in a CD and they put it on the air. A lot of times Ill pick bootlegs and weird stuff they dont necessarily have.
DRE: I read your mom has a new album.
SJ: Yeah it just came out February 24th. Its real good so Im happy that shes in the spotlight now. She hasnt really cut a record in years and the reviews have been great.
DRE: I read you and [girlfriend] Drea [de Matteo] are doing an album.
SJ: Oh, were not doing an album together. Dreas awesome but were not doing one together. Im going to produce one of my moms. We still want to do a tribute concert for freedom and independence and use my dad as the center for it. It would be an outdoor concert that we would shoot as a movie and release it in theatres as a documentary. We would have all these different artists from The White Stripes to what outlaw country plays.
DRE: Apparently you smoke a lot of weed, which is cool.
SJ: Yeah, I get the reputation more than I do it. Im very unlucky when it comes to getting caught carrying pot on a plane. So my mistakes give me my reputation.
DRE: Do people in the music industry smoke good pot?
SJ: Yeah, you can find it in Hollywood. Its everywhere out there.
DRE: I always wonder if the people in Hollywood smoke good weed or shwag.
SJ: When youre on the road youve got to have people that you know or else you end up with a bunch of shwag. If youre stuck without any pot in El Paso, things dont turn out in your favor. I have a story I probably shouldnt tell about Tommy Tutone. I have a new word for really bad pot. I call it Tutone pot because Tommy shows up at a show in Portland and breaks out this big bag of weed. Hes going to be so fucking pissed that Im saying this but it was the worst pot ever and I ended up paying for it. We got Tutoned!
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
. o O (hmmm, the dukes of hazzard song at my wedding...that is so white trashy my boy will crackthe hell up if i slip that in! hahaha)
Sloane said:
Shooter is an amazing musician and an all-around good guy. His success is well-deserved.