Interview: The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston
The frontman of Nashville’s country-fried Southern rockers The Cadillac Three tells all…
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.”
8 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
