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Interview: The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston

The frontman of Nashville’s country-fried Southern rockers The Cadillac Three tells all…

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1 I couldn’t live without my…

“For the band, it’d be lap steel. Kelby [Ray] is covering the bass and the steel part. You kind of lose half the band when he goes away. He has two channels and does them both with two volume pedals.”

2 In another life I would be…

“Neil [Mason, drums] would own a Mexican restaurant selling tacos and I’d be real fat, eatin’ there all the time.”

3 The moment that started it all…

“My first two tapes were Metallica’s …And Justice For All and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Greatest Hits. That explains a lot about why we sound like we do.”

4 The one that got away…

“My buddy always told me, never sell a guitar. So I’ve a shit ton of gear just sitting there. I’ve kind of kept all my stuff.”

5 My Spinal Tap moment…

“It happens every other day. We get lost going into every venue. You have those moments when you think you are going to be really huge in a city and you’re not, and those moments where you think you’re going to be nobody in a city and you’re huge. Back in the States, we watch that movie on the bus quite a bit.”

6 The best advice I’ve ever been given…

“My dad is a musician. He told me to write songs. Be creative and write songs. That’s how you really get in there and affect people and have a long career. I’ve always followed that. It’s fun, I love it and every now and again you get lucky and somebody likes your shit!”

7 The first thing I play when I pick up a guitar…

“It depends what tuning I’m in, but most of the time it’s some Petty riff. We have a song called The South, and sometimes I play the little bridge part. I like how that sounds, and you can always tell the guitar is in tune that way. If it’s regular tuning it’s always Nirvana.”

The most important thing on my rider…

“Jack Daniel’s and tequila.”

9 My guiltiest musical pleasure…

“I listen to a lot of pop music on planes and stuff. I just like good songs and different crafts, I like to listen to the way other people put together songs. I listen to a lot of metal, though, too.”

10 If I could learn to play one thing…

“No, I’m pretty bad-ass, I’ve got it all down. You didn’t like it? You don’t like my left hand? I thought I was throwing fire at you, man! [laughs]”

To keep up to date with the latest from The Cadillac Three visit: thecadillacthree.com

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