SONG BY SONG
THE FREAK PARADE
JR: Am I proud to be a freak? Hell yeah. Everybody in the world has something freaky about ‘em if you really got to know them. We all have our oddities -- we just embrace ours instead of hiding them.
BK: When we say “country music without prejudice we mean it. Race, color, and creed -- we want to invite everyone to our show. We’re still our there leading the freak parade, only now there are more people coming behind us.
COMIN’ TO YOUR CITY
BK: I’d say that’s the fight song for the next year and a half – and fair warning to everyone.
JR: We were only dreaming about coming to everyone’s city when we wrote that one a couple years ago while we were working with the Priceless Edge people mentoring these kids and letting them watch us write songs. We were dreaming then about what we’re doing now -- playing our music for the people.
SOUL SHAKER
JR: The most rocking country song ever recorded -- like the Black Crowes on speed. “Soul Shaker” rocks harder than rock & roll, but with fiddles and banjos, country lyrics and a whole lot of testosterone.
BK: Those are pretty rockin’ banjos, huh? That song is so descriptive of what John and I try to do -- shake your soul up a little. It’s about having that kind of love for a woman and telling her you’re going to love her like you mean it.
NEVER MIND ME
BK: “Never Mind Me” has that R&B soul vibe that I love. It reminds me of the great Bill Withers who made classic after classic. I love that awesome groove.
JR: I’d say that’s the easy listening side of Big & Rich. It’s the light the candles, get-your-girl in the mood kind of song, and who doesn’t need one of those?
CAUGHT UP IN THE MOMENT
JR: This song sort of reminds me of “All I Wanna Do” by Sheryl Crow -- one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s a crazy, freaky story about this lady picking up a guy in an airport, banging him on the plane and then marrying him in Vegas. It’s a mini-movie -- that song.
BK: This one was written before we were out there on the road tearing it up. That song is about living in the moment – like “Live This Life,” but a little more on that fun side, but with the same philosophy.
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LEAP OF FAITH
BK: John and I both were raised with incredible faith that we could do anything and we still have that faith today. Good things can happen from that kind of encouragement.
JR: Kenny and I wrote that one when we were stepping way out on that limb musically wondering if anyone would ever get it. It says, “to a rocket I’ve been tied/I’m ready for the screaming ride/It’s full of fuel and I just lit the fuse.” We didn’t know if the rocket was going to take off or blow up, but by God, we were going to get on it and ride it wherever it was going.
I PRAY FOR YOU
JR: That’s the second song Kenny and I ever wrote together. It was written in October of 1998. We wrote “I Pray For You” in about thirty minutes, and then we looked at each other. That’s the first time the real Big & Rich chemistry happened and we knew something was going down big time. That song also became my solo single – it went to like 52 on the charts and the label dropped me. But we always knew there was something special about that song.
BK: We were trying to write the ultimate song to let someone know you really love them. It was the first time we knew we were onto something together. Finally we’re going to have it on a record that will see the light of day in a big way.
FILTHY RICH
JR: That’s a pretty interesting song we wrote with three other guys – Freddy Powers who wrote so many great Haggard songs, Sonny Throckmorton who’s written dozens of country #1’s and a guy named Bill McDavid -- an automobile mogul from Texas who started hanging around with Freddy and writing. They’re these incredibly cool older guys who we hooked up with in Deadwood, South Dakota. This was around the time of Enron and World.com, and we figured somebody had to say something.
BK: Those guys are all between 60 and 75 years old, and just great to hang with. The song came out of a conversation we had. That same night we started “Filthy Rich,” we started “Deadwood Mountain” from our first album – that’s a good night. (BK)
JALAPENO
JR: That’s probably the closest in energy on this album to “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy).” It’s a straight up party song. I’m from Texas, so clearly I love “Jalapeno.”
BK: John wrote that song and I know when he first played it for me, I just said, “That’s a hit. Keep going.”
20 MARAGARITAS:
BK: I remember that night too -- somehow. We were having a party, throwing down and raising quite a bit of hell. The characters there are really me and John. Right around this point the new album seems to turn into a party.
JR: Kenny came up with that song one night when we were having a little party. I was in a little 900 square foot apartment in Nashville and we had 40 people jammed in there. Kenny started singing that song and I said, “Who wrote that one?” Kenny told me, “I’m writing it right now.” For the record, Kenny’s Billy and I’m Jose.
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BLOW MY MIND:
BK: To me, that song is about everything going on in the world today. It’s a cry out to live -- another song about living your life and being true to yourself. It’s inspirational music in a real country music/rock & roll way.
JR: That’s a song Kenny wrote in his band luvjOi after his solo deal fell through. Some of the guys in that band are in Big & Rich’s band today. I always loved that one so I asked Kenny if we could take a crack at it.
SLOW MOTION
JR: That’s probably the saddest song on the record, but we just love it.
BK: “Slow Motion” came about from a conversation about heartbreak -- all kinds of moments of heartbreak -- and how life suddenly gets slow and painful.
8TH OF NOVEMBER
BK: This is a true story about a man we are honored to know -- Niles Harris. He is one of just four men in his unit men who survived when over 1,200 Vietcong ambushed the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Every word of that song had to say so much. It was also a thrill and honor to have Kris Kristofferson on it. We would like to make more great music with him. This song is one of the biggest things we’ve been a part of and one of the most enlightening.
JR: We’ve already shot a video for this song with Kris Kristofferson in it. The man we wrote this one about is the same man who gave Big Kenny his Top Hat three years ago in Deadwood, South Dakota. We shot a documentary for the song for five days in Ho Chi Min, Viet Nam. Niles wanted to bury his boots there in honor of his fallen brothers. This story had such an impact on us, and success has given Kenny and me the resources to go and tell this story the way it deserves to be told.