Wheeler Walker Jr. Is Bringing the Occasion Again to Nation Music
Nation music star Wheeler Walker Jr. desires you to keep away from Nashville. The Kentucky-born singer has no disdain for outsiders, however fairly laments the town for accepting what he likes to name “posers” into its limits. “This metropolis is popping into fucking Disney Land. On a regular basis you go down there it’s like Halloween. New Yorkers and LA fucks dressed up in cowboy costumes.”
When Walker connects with AskMen by telephone, he’s simply returning from being downtown along with his spouse the place they frolicked trying out reveals that left him feeling extra depressed than ever. Fortuitously for Walker, his new album Intercourse, Medication & Nation Music presents a reprieve from the “unhealthy” music he’s fed up with, and provides him and his listeners a chance to get again into the stream of listening to enjoyable music.
RELATED: Humorous Guys Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan Have a Longtime Comedic Connection
Over the course of our dialog, Walker reveals his system for a profitable music profession, how he attracts the strains between work and private life, and the way being authentically distinctive is the one strategy to differentiate your self.
AskMen: Was turning into a music sensation at all times a part of your plan or did you ever produce other aspirations?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I’m from Kentucky and as a child I cherished nation music and I cherished rock and roll and I at all times needed to play music. I assumed, “What if I may simply play music and never have an everyday job?” That was the aim.
My aim was simply to pay the piggly-wiggly payments and eat meals. To not promote out reveals or play theaters. I’ll take it, however my desires and aspirations weren’t that huge. I simply love enjoying music.
You play a gig and also you get twenty 5 bucks and also you surprise, “Man, I’m wondering if I can get twenty-five bucks an evening? That will be nice.” And now, as you in all probability know, I’m getting twenty-five mil an evening. So it’s significantly better.
AskMen: The economics have actually modified.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Yeah, completely. However that’s again when twenty-five mil meant one thing.
AskMen: For those who’re not doing thirty mil, what are you doing?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: The home costs in Nashville…what’s that going to get you? A rental?
AskMen: Nicely that’s due to all of the New Yorkers and LA-ers coming in and scooping up the actual property.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: These fucking assholes.
AskMen: Together with your burgeoning profession and rising recognition, how do you stability your work and your private life efficiently?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: You form of simply draw a line, you realize? That is my time, don’t fucking hassle me. And that is work. Spouse, child—don’t hassle me. You simply have to attract that line. I hate to be so blunt about it.
When you begin making a dwelling on this enterprise, you do understand it’s a fucking job. It’s a nice job, however it’s nonetheless a job. Like, my household wouldn’t cease by. I imply, I assume they might cease by my job, because it’s separate from my dwelling life. It’s an excellent job, however it’s only a job, so that you draw that line.
AskMen: Are there occasions when that line is crossed and in that case, what occurs?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I’m the one who crosses it after I say one thing loopy in an interview or on an album, and my household goes, “Hey, um, that ain’t cool.”
I had a music on my first report the place I talked about my uncle Andy. And I modified it to ‘Andy’ so my uncle Randy wouldn’t be offended. However he listened to it and I assume I mumbled after I sang or no matter—I don’t bear in mind. Within the music, I I mentioned “Then I’ll seize uncle Andy, attain round give him a useful.” My uncle Randy referred to as me up like, “The fuck you giving me a useful for on a fucking report?” I’m like, “Oh, it’s ‘Andy,’ it’s made up. I’m attempting so as to add some inventive license to it.” However he nonetheless thought it was him. You gotta watch it, you realize?
AskMen: Nicely that additionally sounds extra like a Randy drawback than a Wheeler drawback.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I didn’t give my uncle a useful so I ain’t sweatin’ it, however I don’t need my uncle pondering I used to be saying that. I need to clear it up.
AskMen: That touches on the significance of communication in relationships.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: For those who’re going to say a reputation, be sure to enunciate. I like to present classes to the youthful people arising.
Oh, and also you would possibly need to change it just a little extra from ‘Randy’ to ‘Andy.’ Richard might need been just a little higher.
AskMen: Proper, as a result of then there’s much less room for confusion.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Yeah, I ain’t received an uncle Richard, so I ain’t gotta fear about him. I don’t assume I do, however you by no means know. You do all these reveals, swiftly you bought cousins and uncles you ain’t ever heard of.
AskMen: Let’s pivot to your new album—Intercourse, Medication & Nation Music. Creatively for this one, what was the inspiration and thought behind it?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I believe I noticed every album had a theme to it. With this [new] one, I took a while off, the pandemic hit, and after I received again within the studio, I used to be like, “Man, this one we gotta have enjoyable and we gotta fucking rock out and kick some ass.” I do know that’s not likely a theme however it was form of what the album was going to do.
I knew that throughout the pandemic that everybody was going to have their lame, unhappy, “what the pandemic was like for them” album. I didn’t need to fucking do this. I needed the other, like “Let’s simply fucking social gathering. Let’s have some fucking enjoyable.”
AskMen: Cooped-up folks want enjoyable.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Precisely. Clearly I like my nation music a fucking lot, however it’s all genres which are shitty proper now. Can we simply have some good music that’s fucking enjoyable like after I was a child? Who’s having fucking enjoyable now after they’re enjoying music? All of them appear like they’re fucking depressing.
AskMen: Is that why the title of the album—Intercourse, Medication & Nation Music—is called such? Wheeler Walker Jr.: I grew up on the concept of intercourse, medication, and rock and roll. I cherished Weapons N’ Roses, I cherished Lynyrd Skynyrd, I cherished Software, I cherished Soundgarden—I cherished all that shit. Then intercourse, medication, and rock and roll simply appeared to vanish—simply changed into a bunch of pussies. I felt there have been some extra badass folks in nation music.
I believe the good nation—which could be very few and much between—sounded extra like rock to me than the rock shit. You assume Nickelback’s having intercourse, medication, and rock and roll? I don’t assume so.
There was once music for the viewers, like “Man, I need folks to listen to this.” Now, it’s someone’s fucking diary or their inventive assertion. Who offers a fuck about what you need to say about your fucking inventive assertion? Go write poetry. Go to a fucking poetry slam for someone else. All I hear is boring inventive bullshit. I’m simply uninterested in all this fucking shit out right here, you realize?
Like, you don’t hearken to ACDC like, “Man, I’m wondering what they’re attempting to say?”
AskMen: Is it truthful then to say Intercourse, Medication & Nation Music and the music you’re creating isn’t a lot revealing your self in a diary, however fairly offering tunes to let folks rock out?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I’m nonetheless telling tales about myself or placing myself within the first individual of loopy tales my buddies inform me.
There’s a music referred to as “God Informed Me To Fuck You,” which clearly I sing about me, however it’s really a narrative a buddy informed me. He was attempting to have intercourse with a extremely Christian woman and he or she clearly was a virgin and needed to attend till marriage. They mentioned they had been going to hope on it, so he mentioned he prayed, and God informed him that they need to fuck. So I used to be like, “Right here’s a fucking music.”
AskMen: What ended up taking place?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Can I inform you just a little secret? That they had intercourse they usually’re married to today. Trying again, I wouldn’t say he was tricking her, however I believe he was attempting to be sly like all teenager could be, they usually’ve lasted the lengthy haul so it’s good.
AskMen: May it even be that God really spoke to him and informed him that he wanted to have intercourse together with her?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Nicely, I’ve no proof that it’s not true. And I’m positive when he mentioned it to her that he believed it greater than I even do.
AskMen: Are many of the tales you inform then centered solely on family and friends?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I like Weapons N’ Roses, however I bear in mind listening to “Welcome to the Jungle” and seeing the video and I simply didn’t know that life. I’m singing about me and my buddies and my redneck cousins and my redneck household. I’m simply attempting to sing the shit I do know. If I sing a music I dig from my viewpoint, and Snoop Dogg digs it, there’s some honesty there I might hope.
AskMen: Didn’t Snoop repost one thing of yours?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I believe that’s an excellent comparability as a result of Snoop Dogg’s rapping about shit I don’t fucking find out about, however I can inform he means it and I fucking love Snoop Dogg. So, simply being trustworthy in what you realize—I don’t assume Snoop Dogg would dig what I used to be doing if I used to be singing nation songs about Compton. I dig what he’s doing as a result of—initially—he’s fucking superior, and second of all, it’s trustworthy and it’s actual shit. And I’m singing my actual shit and he doesn’t know my life however he digs my trustworthy, actual shit. And I dig his trustworthy, actual shit to be so blunt about it.
AskMen: There’s a relatability round honesty by means of music.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: Yeah, and that’s form of the place I believe nation received misplaced the previous few years. The honesty, the stuff I cherished in nation—the Waylons, the Willies, and the Billy Joe Shavers—that form of actual, trustworthy fact simply disappeared and changed into fucking songs about vans and beers and bullshit that nobody can fucking relate to.
AskMen: On the relatability tip, do you could have any collaborations on the brand new album that you just’re tremendous stoked about?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: There’s some stuff arising down the highway that I can’t speak about, however there’s lots of people who’ve reached out.
One of many bands that reached out—Nickelback, who I used to be speaking about earlier than—they needed to do a music with me. And I used to be like, “Fuck Nickelback.” So I wrote a music referred to as “Fuck Nickelback,” and thought it will be cool to have a music referred to as “Fuck Nickelback” that includes Nickelback, which was a music about how a lot they suck. I despatched it to them to sing it with me and I assume they didn’t get the joke as a result of they informed me they handed on it.
I mentioned, “Don’t come to me—don’t come to Wheeler Walker Jr. in search of a duet and anticipate me to kiss your fucking ass. It simply ain’t taking place.” That’s why collaborations with me are laborious as a result of I don’t have time for any fucking bullshit. I’m not going to faux I like Nickelback to get a music with them.
AskMen: Despite the fact that they had been the preliminary outreach, not less than they gave you the decency to cross. Generally you don’t hear something from these people.
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I agree with that. In the event that they’d simply saved quiet, it will have been annoying. The music will need to have been good in the event that they heard it and instantly mentioned “no.”
AskMen: What’s one of many driving forces behind your success up till this level?
Wheeler Walker Jr.: I believe the success of any artist is being your self. If you wish to hearken to Wheeler Walker Jr, there ain’t another Wheeler Walker Jr. You need to hearken to Snoop Dogg, there ain’t no different Snoop Dogg. You need to hearken to Waylon, there ain’t no different Waylon. There ain’t no different Willie. I’m not evaluating myself to those folks, however there ain’t no different Bob Dylan. You need Bob Dylan, you don’t go “Nicely, there’s one thing form of shut.”
You don’t go, “I need to hearken to Weapons N’ Roses, so what’s form of like Weapons N’ Roses?” For those who’re simply true to your self, you’re not going to sound like anyone else, you realize?
Even for a fucking shitty band. My difficulty with a Greta Van Fleet is, simply hearken to Zeppelin. There’s one other Greta Van Fleet that was higher. You simply should be distinctive, and the way in which to be distinctive is to simply be your self. Nobody desires a watered-down model of a basic rock band. I don’t know hip-hop that properly, however I’m positive there’s plenty of watered-down artists attempting to be Snoop Doggs that individuals don’t hearken to. It doesn’t work as a result of they’re simply doing an imitation.
Like I mentioned, if you wish to see or hearken to Wheeler, there ain’t no person else. I believe I’ve received my very own lane and the artists I like have their very own lanes, too.
Observe @wheelerwalkerjr and take a look at https://www.wheelerwalkerjr.com for tickets and tour dates
You Would possibly Additionally Dig:
