For episode 84 of the podcast, we interview the legendary Josh Turner about his first UK tour, his faith and why he still loves making records.
How does it feel finally coming over to the UK – you’re obviously huge in the States, so it must feel strange playing to audiences that you’re not familiar with?
Yeah, I mean it’s funny because I’ve met fans from all over the world back in the States, doing different events where they travel from all over — but I always seem to get these fans from the UK that will either go to CMA Music Fest or they’ll travel to different shows over in the US. They’re just begging me to come over here. I had a guy in New Hampshire, this was maybe a month ago, and he said that he was coming to one of these shows over here and I said ‘You couldn’t wait for me to get there, you had to come over and see me.’ So I know they’ve made it very clear and plain to me that there’s a demand for me over here.
It’s a pretty special venue, Union Chapel, was that a very intentional choice obviously with the message of the album?
Yeah I think so, it just made sense because we’re still promoting this record and I’m very proud of this record, I mean it’s still in the top 10 in the country album chart. It hasn’t dropped out of the top 5 on the Christian chart since October last year – we’re going on a year now.
I was going to say, does that feel crazy, it’s been a year and it’s still there…
It’s surreal because we haven’t released a single off of this record, there’s certain retailers that wouldn’t even carry it.
It’s very powerful, particularly with streaming nowadays, that a record can do that well without a single. People buy into the record in its entirety…
Granted I know that the sales overall are way down than what they used to be – because of things like streaming, but I have to look at it comparatively to what else is out there and the fact that I’m still selling tangible product right up there with the young bucks…
I think it’s special that people are still buying into the entire record, and particularly with the message of this album being so important.
You sound like you come from the same mindset as me, because I’ve never liked the idea of just putting out a single. I’ve always wanted to make a record and an experience for the fans. I want them to be able to buy something and hold it in their hands. It’s art and I enjoy that part of it. It feeds my creative spirit because not only can they listen to the music but they can look at the album liner notes, they can look at the pictures and they can read the something I write within there, they can read the lyrics, all that kind of stuff it helps them feel like they know me — that’s how I felt with artists growing up.
It’s baring your soul…
Yeah, they put a face with a name and they figure out what that artist is all about. I’m still into that and I’m glad my fans are, as long as it sells…
Obviously this was a very different direction in terms of your music, what was the difference in the journey and process with this one – had this been something that was always in the pipeline?
I mean it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do but it never was really on my priority list. I say that respectfully because my Christian faith and all that is the most important thing in my life both professionally and personally. I tell people I’ve been a Christian most of my life but I feel like the lord called me to be a country artist, because that’s where my heart has always been. I’ve always loved it. I’ve always been good at it.
It’s done pretty well for you so far…
Yeah, yeah it’s helped me make a living. It’s just something that I still love after all these years. I knew that at some point I’d love to write a gospel record and so last year when the opportunity came about it was easy because I had been making a mental list of songs for years and not only that when Gator Music Group came onboard and helped me make a live performance DVD of the record that just took it to a whole new level.
You grew up singing hymns in church, did it feel almost like a return to childhood, were there lots of memories that got dredged up?
Oh yeah a lot of songs on the record are ones I remembered from childhood, singing in church and that kind of stuff so it was easy for me to go in and do that.
Sonically and artistically, it must have been a very different process?
Well I wanted it to sound like a country record sonically, but at the same time I was not thinking about radio. I was not thinking about anything commercial. I wanted the songs to be reverent and respectful in the way we presented them and I wanted my voice to be able to show that so that my fans could feel that.
I guess you must have had very different stories to from those fans. Has this record been, not more important, but different in the stories they’ve bought to you?
It’s been more significant yeah, you’re dealing with people’s hearts and their souls with this kind of music, like I say I wanted to be serious minded about it, I wanted to be reverent. I’ve been able to influence people through my country music, so I knew it was a no brainer that I would be able to do even more of that with this kind of record and that’s been true… I’ve had people of all ages come up to me and talk about what this record meant to them. I had two people just recently, one had actually attempted suicide and obviously it didn’t work but she realised that she was doing the wrong thing and she said that my record really had helped her get over that this last year, it’s really helped her get her life back on track. Then I had a guy probably 15 years older than her had the same story and it’s just bizarre. I’ve said for a long time, right after I got my record deal was when I realised what a powerful platform I had. I wrote ‘Long Black Train’ from my apartment when I was in college by myself and I didn’t think about anybody else when I wrote that song I just wrote it. That song ended up being the title track and my first hit and kind of my signature song and it started making a difference in people’s lives. I started getting all these stories of how it had changed or saved people’s lives. That was when I realised that this is not about me, this is about the people that hear it, I have this platform I can either use it or abuse it.I have that choice every morning when I woke up and I decided to use it.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… (laughing) ooh that’s a heavy one, how long does the sentence have to be? Powerful, I think that really sums it up. I believe that God created music andI think that’s one thing we’re going to have to look forward to in heaven is music and it’s not going to be like anything our earthly ears have heard. You can either choose to make good music or not and I choose to do it to the best of my ability and hope that someone gets something good out of it.
Country music is…. awesome when it’s done right, and it’s terrible when it’s done wrong (laughing). I’ll just leave it at that.
Josh Turner is… that’s not an easy one to answer. I wrote about this in my book, because I’m complicated even my standards. Josh Turner is complex.
