Joe Nichols

When “The Impossible”, soon to be followed by the nothing if not country “Brokenheartsville”, reached the radio in 2002, I, along with many people, thought we had found this generation’s commercially successful true country singer. Joe Nichols has never disappointed those seeking vocals reminiscent of Strait, and at times, Haggard, but there are many that have been slightly confused by his records, appearing alternately bright and full then darker and a bit quieter. Having these thoughts in mind I visited with Joe for nearly an hour after his appearance at the Austin Rodeo. We began by discussing his early career.

 

Joe’s first release, a self titled offering on Intersound, hit the streets in 1996. Those that followed Country Music during that time will remember that the mid 90’s was marked by an increase in the number of labels and an increase in the signing of younger acts. Both trends played a role in Joe’s debut. Joe recalls that “They (Intersound) were more of a rap label at the time and decided to take a chance on a country guy.” And about the role his youth played, Joe acknowledges that the “record label needed someone with that kind of combination so it worked out for everybody.”

 

Joe describes the record’s impact by saying it was a “good experience” and did something for all involved. “It was good for me, and it was a good experience, to move, I was in Arkansas; I lived in Fort Smith at the time. And I had a manager that wanted to put some money in me and invest in me, and my manager became like a record label type. And I don’t know if Intersound was looking to expand a whole lot with their country division, but I think (they) wanted a kind of foothold in Country Music. And it worked out for me; it gave me a chance to leave Arkansas and go to Nashville and record a record, which I was all about. It wasn’t about the money.”

 

The record itself was “recorded in about two days, everything start to finish. It was done. Which you know, was a learning experience. It was one of my first experiences; actually it was my first experience in the studio recording an album. There wasn’t much before that. It was a lot, a lot really quick, but it was a good experience. It showed me the kind of things to be aware of the next time in the studio, how things are professionally done, and if you hurry things most of the time you’re going to miss a lot of stuff. So the next time around when we cut the first big real record for Universal South there were a lot of changes, we took our time, we did a lot of things differently, we were deliberate and made sure that it was satisfying and what’s in our hearts, and not just put together a list of songs and hope that one or two of them will hit.”

 

Another possible answer to why the record was not a smash was offered in Joe recalling that Intersound “didn’t have a Country division promotion department. They only had a Country President and one guy to do publicity and stuff and that was about it. The rest we had to do ourselves.”

 

But all of this is not to say that the record found no success. “For an independent record it did really well. It sold a few records and that was great thing for the record label. But it did more for my desire to be bigger and better. It was good, but I think it did more for my desire to be an artist more than any financial success or touring successes. It didn’t offer much in that respect but it did make me want to go further.”

 

After the Intersound release, Joe signed with Giant Records. “I was signed by Doug Johnson in the twilight hours of Giant Records in 1999. I think 2000 was the year Warner Brothers sucked up Giant.” Joe’s time on the labels never produced a release.

 

“My experience with both of those labels weren’t great, they weren’t ideal but I hold nothing against them. They were good companies that didn’t make great decisions all the time but it wasn’t anything personal against me. Looking back Giant was all but over by the time I got my record deal. Their total body of work just wasn’t working.”

 

However, some good did come from his time on their rosters. “It was one more experience that I couldn’t have paid for. You know... one more thing that I learned about how business works, and one more thing that I had to get over, because it wasn’t personal to me, it wasn’t like that this was my bad luck, it wasn’t something set out to destroy me or nothing. It was just something that happens all the time in business, in the music business especially. And I am better for it, I kept my direction and my eye set on what I thought was right for me. God set a path for me, and sometimes I didn’t agree with it, but I ended up here for a reason.” 

 

It was also during this time that Joe more fully realized his direction. “We got to go in the studio a little bit; we didn’t get to make a whole record, but did get to make a few sides. We got to have more experience in the studio, had something to play for the new label, Warner Brothers, and had some kind of direction that we were going to go, a little bit of an identity, which before was just a singer.”

 

“But, anyway, Warner Brothers and me didn’t see eye to eye direction wise. They wanted more flash and pop, ironically, and energetic. I didn’t buy that philosophy, and they did a classy thing. They did what a lot of labels aren’t willing to do, which is recognize that this is a bad situation, nobody’s on the same page, and rather than tie you up for three or four years, getting you to see it our way, we’ll let you go and see if there is a home for you out there. And they did and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because, again, I was searching for a place that would actually let me be me and that was Universal South.”

 

Joe’s first release on Universal South, Man with a Memory, would bring the success Joe hadn’t found elsewhere. It would sell over a million copies and produced several top singles.  

 

“It’s been eight years now since my first single, I can look back at the decisions and I can look at what we were thinking at the time. I think at the time we had a good direction. We had a good idea of who I was, and when you have that everything else fall in line. We put together this album that was a country album, that kind of  had a little bits and pieces of anything traditional that you would, you know, dig.”

 

Its lead-off single “The Impossible” served as a good introduction to radio. “It kind of stuck out as the obvious most complete thing that was inspirational and that would be a great introduction. The vocal was a country vocal, and it was a good inspiring song. We needed a good introduction to the radio and the fans, and we needed a good one and not a polarizing one either. So it was a great foot in the door. Then right behind it, we followed it up with “Brokenheartsville”, which is probably our most country hit, and maybe our biggest country hit. That’s probably gonna get played on the radio for the next 15 years.”

 

 

““The Impossible” was three on Billboard and “Brokenheartsville”, number one. But the bigger scope of that was that in 2002, there was nothing like what we were fixing to do, nothing, nothing at all. So we had “The Impossible” and “Brokenheartsville” was launching, then Josh Turner came out, and Dierks Bentley came out later in the year. It came like that, within the next year and a half there were a bunch of guys that had that kind of stuff. It’s not because of me but it’s because of what the people around me allowed us to do in the studio, and that they had faith in “Brokenheartsville” and “The Impossible.” There was a little bit of a shift in what male singers were doing.”

 

“Of course, there are some guys that have followed all of that and have become more successful than I have. But like I said, about the time that we had Man with a Memory and got so much attention, I remember reading in the paper that Kenny Chesney thought, ‘This guy got Grammy nominations?’ And he thought ‘This is kind of weird, this guy’s getting Grammy nominations and he’s only sold about 150,000 records.’ This was when “The Impossible” was the big song. There were a lot of people, who just thought, ‘What the hell? This isn’t right.’ So... it got a lot of people’s attention. Whether it was right or wrong, it got people to talking about it. So, like I said, there was a lot more, like, Country Music that came out right after that. And that’s what that first album did. That’s what it did for us.”

 

Joe’s next release, Revelation, was one that most did not expect as a follow up to Man with a Memory. Revelation is a quieter, almost darker record. Joe agrees and explained that “There are a lot of reasons for that. The first record was huge and did a lot of things. We had a lot of success at radio and were selling a lot of records. All the while when that was happening my Dad died. That was a big deal. Along with that came a lot of depression. I mean looking back on it now, I can call it depression.”

 

“I mean I drank a lot of more. I did everything a lot more. Just played with passion but it was more anger than it was fun or joy. So the record mirrors that and reflects that there is a lot of hurt in this kid’s mind, a lot of pain in his heart. The record has a lot of God, but not the kind of God that Josh Tuner puts out. Really it’s not the same kind of God songs. It’s more of anger about myself and asking God to help me out, or something like that, you know, more dysfunction. It is a dark record, and it was a dark time in my life.”

 

“I would say success-wise, and I think success is relative when talking about a record, but financially success wise, for the record label and myself, I would say revelation was a failure. It only sold 250,000 records, around there. The first sold a million. There’s that sophomore slump everyone talks about, of course it’s not as good a record. But honestly I think it’s a brilliant record. And it’s not because we were geniuses, but because we were completely honest.”

 

I couldn’t help but ask if it should be considered a bit of a concept record. Agreeing, Joe replied “That’s a great way to put it. It was a very accurate, accurate record for where I was at. And I wouldn’t ask for anything more. Because if I had put out a record that was joyful and glee and sunshine and it was happy and stuff, then I would despise that record today. I would hate it because it would mean I lied ......putting out something that was a complete act.”

 

“To me, music never has been about that. I’ve had countless conversations with people over how to project happiness even when you are not happy. And I agree to that to a certain extent. But as far as making a record goes it needs to be all about what’s in here (points to himself). It needs to be congruent to what’s going on in my life. So that’s why I think the record is a great record, one of my favorites, if not my favorite record that I put out, because it was dark and there was a lot of therapy involved. I’m grateful for that record, it’s probably never going to be anyone’s top five country record lists, but for me it was the perfect record at the time.”

 

Joe followed Revelation with III. Placing III in perspective, Joe describes III as being “a kind of coming out of a cloud record; it had a lot of happiness. There were still some sad songs in there but even those were a little more inspiring. So it was a good record, and at the time, pretty accurate for where I was. You know if everything had gone smoothly from day one we would probably be in a different place, and probably telling a bunch of different stories. But things didn’t happen differently, my Dad did die, and I did battle with a lot of different stuff that I shouldn’t have been doing. That’s just part of my story. And III comes along, it’s again kind of honest, it’s a happier record, with a lot more love songs in there, and “Tequila (Makes Her Clothes Fall Off)” is a fun song.”

 

I suggested that with Real Things, his next album, the darkness seemed to reappear. Again, Joe was quick to agree, “Again very accurate.......You know with songs like “My Whiskey Years”, we’ve had conversations about this very thing, the danger of those types of songs for me. They can bring up the dark side of me that’s really a tough son of a bitch to beat, and been such a part of my life. So that record is more of that guy that Revelation was. It had some fun stuff on it. “It Ain’t No Crime”, was fun but more of an angry type of fun.”

 

“So Real Things was, I wouldn’t say, a Revelation II, but the same type of guy that’s fighting with trying to be happy and of course that’s when personally I had to walk away and figure out what’s most important to my life. I went to treatment and met a group of guys who showed me what God was and what his love is like, which is a big thing for me because I’ve never known that in my life. And they actually showed me how to run toward life, or walk toward life, instead of running away from it.”

 

Between Real Things and his latest release, Old Things New, Joe continued to make headlines. Performing at the 2007 funeral of celebrity Anna Nicole Smith brought some of this attention. About his relationship with Anna Nicole Joe stated simply that, “I think some people think I had a great relationship with Anna Nicole Smith. The truth is I really didn’t know her that well. She would come to the Opry. She was a fan.  And we talked then and maybe one other time. I know when she was at the Opry, the times we saw her there, she sang every song we ever sang. She knew every word to every song we played. That was kind of neat, but when they called and asked if we would sing at her funeral, it wasn’t because we were great friends. It was because at the time one of her favorite songs was “I’ll Wait for You”, and she was a fan of my music. And so her family wanted to extend us an offer to come down and play.”

 

“To be completely honest again, it was not something that I was very willing to do.” After receiving the invitation to play and considering the atmosphere surrounding her funeral his initial thoughts were, “There’s no way in hell I want to go do that. That’s a circus, literally a carnival. I’m talking about the circus that was around her death. I mean the people that were involved and the characters that were going absolutely nuts. They were acting like children and media hounds. I thought this is a disaster, and I remember talking to my now wife and telling my best friend, Brent Rowan, who produces a lot of my stuff, ‘I don’t want to do this. What do you think?’”

 

Eventually it was decided that maybe it should be seen as a “good opportunity to go down there and do something with class. And offer some class to a situation that is probably not showing a whole lot right now. And maybe there would be some people that would grab on to that concept and might turn some things around and bring people back to reality a little bit.”

 

“So, it became a thing where I instructed the guys that were going down there to play with me and management and everybody else that we won’t do any interviews or talk to any media. This is not about us gaining our ten minutes of exposure here. There were strict instructions not to talk to any media.” Press outlets were calling “every twenty or thirty minutes. We told them all, “This is not about that, this is what everyone else is doing. Everyone’s taking advantage of this opportunity that way. What we’ll do is we’ll go and show some class. We’ll do a respectable thing and we’ll honor her and play her songs and respect somebody passing away. And that’s what we did.”

 

“And through the entire time it was appalling to see humans behaving like chimpanzees. It was. I can’t describe it in any other way. It was like watching a daycare running amok. I put it harshly but it was tragic. You know, a person had died, and it was almost like everybody had forgotten about that part.”

 

Another headline came with the announcement the Joe would star on Broadway in a theatrical version of Pure Country. Having not heard anything since this 2009 announcement, I asked if it was still going to happen. Joe’s answer didn’t provide much hope for those waiting to buy tickets. “I think right now the chances are not good. I give it about a 10% chance of happening with me in the play. Because at the time when we went up to audition for this, the touring schedule was a lot lighter. We hadn’t come out with our new album yet. We committed to doing that not knowing what our touring schedule or radio presence would be. A lot of stuff has changed since we agreed to do the show. And the time that they had that we allowed them to complete this show, to put it on, has expired. So, we probably won’t be able to do the show if it doesn’t happen in a very specific amount of time of the year.”

 

Of course, the economic downturn is a factor as well. “The economy slowing down changed New York drastically. The theater companies that own the theaters went from x amount of theaters and x amount of shows to half of those theaters and still the same amount of shows. So it created a kind of logjam in New York. It pushes a lot of things back and it makes money harder to get and it....changes a lot of things when it comes to putting on a show. So when that affected them, of course it affected us.”

 

But thankfully, regardless of personal struggles or any Broadway setback, Joe is back on the charts with his latest album. A listen to Old Things New will show that Joe can still deliver a true country performance. Songs such as “It’s Me I’m Worried About” and “An Old Friend of Mine” only stand to prove Joe’s point that, “You could probably look at each one of my records and tell what kind of place I’m at personally.”

 

Like before, Joe’s latest has a certain feel. But this time it is one of uncertainty. “Coming out of treatment and wanting to make another record and see if this is what I want to do sober for the rest of my life... Is this something I still have passion for? Old Things New is a very timid stand. That’s the best way I can describe it. It’s a very emotionally painful process to be happy.”

 

 “You know, I’ll give it everything I got and the rest is in God’s hands. And hopefully he does wonders here. Because I have no idea of who I am or what I want right now. I know if I’m a singer, I’m a country singer. If I’m gonna sing songs, they’re going to be country songs.” And then he adds with a laugh, “I couldn’t sing it any other way.”