Leslie Jordan and Ashley Monroe join Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly on Apple Music Country. Jordan talks about his new album and book – How Y’All Doing – and Ashley Monroe talks about the inspiration behind her new album Rosegold. Listen to the full conversation on demand here.
Leslie Jordan on Company’s Comin’
That just came out of nowhere. I’ve sang all my life in church, and I was in a choir when I was a kid, but I’ve never considered myself a singer. But we’re told, “Just sing for the Lord. Just sing for the Lord. And so sing out.” Travis and I got silly and start singing those old hymns. We’d have him singing on Sunday on Instagram, we’d pick us a hymn. And we got the Baptist Hymnal, but we knew every word to every song, and we’d sing. And not that I even go to church now, but I started thinking. When you’re raised like that, these songs bring comfort. I just love singing them, and that’s a wonderful thing. So we thought, “Let’s record them.” And I made a list, and not one person turned me down.
Leslie Jordan on “Little Light of Mine”
It’s such a sweet song. I think of it more like a lullaby, something you’d hear in the nursery or something. We recorded it. The musicians got together in Nashville and, of course, you can get the best ones going, and they laid down all the tracks. And then I was back in Los Angeles and I went into the studio and listened and I laid down my tracks, not knowing yet who was going to sing any of these songs. They were thinking maybe a man, and I said, “No, it’s got to be a sweet, sweet voice,” and when we heard Katie Pruitt came back to us with it, it takes it to a level that just far surpasses anything. Just me singing it, and you know what? I held my own, I think. Now there’s a thing called Auto-Tune, because I would hear myself, I’d say, “Lord!” It was like in fourth grade when I had read that poem, “Gather children and you shall hear of the midnight ride” of Paul Revere. And Mama bought me a tape recorder and I recorded, “Gather children and you shall hear…” And then I played it back and this is what came out, [high pitch] “Gather children and you shall hear…” I said, “I sound like a woman. Oh my God! I sound like a woman,” and I’ve always hated my voice, and so to hear the way in which they were able to take my voice and add a little of a broad tone, that’s always real good. And I’d say to Travis, “Oh my God. I just sound like an old woman.” He’d say, “Don’t worry. We’ll take it down a little bit. Butch it up.”
Leslie Jordan on going to his first gay bar
Isn’t it wonderful though, that as we got on through life, that we found like-minded people? And I tell a story that, first time I ever went to a gay bar, I borrowed mama’s car, and I drove down, I wasn’t about 17, but I just wanted to see queers. And I knew there was a gay bar, I was going to park on the street, I wasn’t going to go in. I just wanted to sit … It was the old Cross Keys Lounge. And then it became the Powder Puff years later. But I wanted to sit across the street and just watch queers go in and out. And I got out of the car, and I was trying to see good, and here came two old drag queens. They were famous back then, Victoria Vagina and that other one, what was that other one’s name? Something or another, they all had those silly names. Baby Wipes was my name, I was Miss Baby Wipes. But anyway, they came down the street, and one of them said, “Look over here at this one, here. No bigger than a wore-out bar of soap, little bitty one.” And I thought, I’m going to projectile vomit. If they come over here, I’m going to sh** myself. And they came over and said, “What are you doing?” And I said, “Nothing.” I was so nervous. And the one queen said, “I’ll tell you what he’s doing, you’re trying to get up enough nerve to go over there, in that big, bad gay bar, aren’t you?” And I said, “Uh-uh (negative), no, I’m not.” And they got on either side of me and walked me in. And I remember, like people say there’s always a time in people’s lives where you realize, “Well, it’s not going to be the same after this.” Be it walking down the aisle at a wedding, nothing is ever going to be the same after this, having a baby. For me, walking across it, honey, I was home. I had landed. There were all those queers in one bar, so you had young, old, black, white, you had college students, you had, oh, everything. We had one queen that was so old, they called her Miss Boo. And she would come down there, she’d ride the bus in drag. I thought that was so brave, she’d get in drag and ride the bus to the bar.
Leslie Jordan on youth
I was cute when I was young. I really was. I don’t know what happened. You know what happens, you just get older. But I was just precious. But you know what? But here’s the deal. I didn’t know it. I look back at pictures of me when I was young, and I think it wasn’t that I didn’t have good self-esteem. I just didn’t think anybody would be attracted to me. And when you grow up with a secret and the whole gay thing, and the only time you have sex is sneaking out in the bushes, behind the barn, or the J.C. Penney’s restrooms. And that’s just so sad. But anyway, I didn’t know, and that saddens me. People always say, “What would you say to your younger self?” I’d tell him, “You’re just precious, and you’re worthy, and people love you.” I always knew, I was always popular, but I never thought I looked… And I look back and think, “Oh my gosh, you were adorable.”
Leslie Jordan on Vestal Goodman and Joni Eareckson Tada’s “Farther Along”
Leslie Jordan: I never got to see her, but I’ve just worshiped her, the Goodman family, everything they’ve ever done, I’ve listened to over the years, and Vestal… and now that I came to Nashville and had talked about her, all her people have been calling me, her son, or calling and texting me “Can we all get together?” I didn’t have time, but I remember her version of “Farther Along.” And it had to do with Joni, somebody that’s in a car crash or something and lost the use-
Hunter Kelly: Joni Eareckson Tada.
Leslie Jordan: Joni Eareckson Tada sings “Farther Along.” And then all of a sudden the camera comes over to Vestal and they play up under her and she says, “None of us have had the struggles that this young lady have had, none of us. And we wonder why her, why her. The further along.” And I thought I’d go wet my pants.
Ashley Monroe on writing her song “The New Me” with Brett James and being inspired by a Bible passage
I wrote it with Brett James. My dad died when I was 13. I moved here from Knoxville when I was 15. And then, I feel like around 17, a friend introduced me to my first publisher, she introduced… somehow it got with Brett James pretty quick. And he really took me under his wing. And had me co-write with anyone, everyone. He wrote with me all the time. And he and I wrote “The Truth.” We’ve written so many songs together and had a great friendship. And then there was just a time where life just goes this way, and you don’t really know why. But one’s going this way and one’s going this way, and you just don’t talk for a while. And then I saw his name on my calendar to write. I’m like, “Oh yes. Oh my gosh, I’ve missed him so much.” And so I wanted to… I thought it would be cool to write that with him as well. And he’s in a great place now. He’s different than he was even when I met him. And been through divorce, his kids are grown. I used to babysit his kids. It was just a different stage in his life, but he’s really happy and all that stuff. It was cool to have that song with him. And then, after we wrote it is when I… I think it’s in Isaiah 40:13. I need to look it up. I know it’s in Isaiah. But that’s just such a comforting passage to me. “Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?” It’s so subtle, but it’s so hopeful. It feels like a deep-rooted hope in something great and renewing. I think that whole song, some people have said, “So, is this the new you?” And it’s like, “Oh my gosh.” The whole point of that song is I’m alive and on fire now that I’m ready to love. But it’s like, I can never say what kind of music I’ll be doing because I follow whatever melodies come in. You know what I mean? And these melodies were very specifically what they are. And their production was very specifically what it is. But I also feel that I can be more than one thing. I can do more than one thing. Well, it’s just, right now, I feel like this is a new chapter in my life.
Ashley Monroe on her song “I Mean It” on ‘Rosegold’ and being in long term relationships
It was funny because I wrote it with Nathan Chapman and we were talking about the first trip after you have a kid and the couple goes away and I’ve realized this is kind of common. And normally the couple does not have a fun time. And so we both were kind of talking about that, like the trip from hell after the baby was born and you go away by yourself, of which we both had a story to tell. And then that’s where it came from. It was like, “you know, I’m telling you I mean it,” when it goes deeper than that, when it’s like that person’s your person. And the line that gets me every time there is, I think “what it really comes down to is the fear of losing you. I’d be in the dark without your light.” I mean, every time I hear that, I’m like, “Ooh.” That it’s just like a perspective adjustment, I guess.
Ashley Monroe on her song “Drive” on ‘Rosegold’ and being inspired by the feeling of love
Who knew that becoming a mom would make me feel sexy? But “Drive,” I feel like I had done “Hands On You” and I had done “Wild Love” on my last record, and “Drive” was one of the songs, I wrote that on my birthday. All of my favorite songs, I feel like that I’ve written in the past as well have been given to me on my birthday, almost like a little gift. So when we wrote that one and I had that, [singing], going into the write and I was like, “Ooh, I like this.”
I think that, that sensual side of love, John, my husband, sees me in my sweatpants and zero makeup, zit cream, but there’s something about just owning that sensual side. And that feeling, like you said, that Chris Isaac “Wicked Game” feeling. This whole record I wanted to capture, freeze frame this feeling, and have it be all the sides of love, all of the fire feelings that love gives you.
Ashley Monroe on being influenced by LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, and 90s country
I wouldn’t have started singing if it hadn’t been for LeAnn Rimes and that’s the truth. I mean, no, I wouldn’t have started singing out. I would have always been singing, but when I was young, when I saw her doing it out and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this voice and how cool that she’s young, but she’s got this old soul.” And I just related to that feeling, And so daddy would be like, “Billie’s out there mowing, go out there and sing for him.” And I’d be like, [singing] Practicing. And I remember learning to yodel because LeAnn Rimes did and all day long going, [yodels] And my brother being like, “Shut up,” And then all that to say too, even Shania, I remember the feeling that was it, “Come On Over,” I mean, the feeling of that piece is so timeless and just so dreamy and beautiful melodies and there was no rules to it, it just felt so genuine. And I mean, gosh, me and Miranda the other day, she picked up her guitar and started singing “The Woman in Me” and I sing harmony, we’d never sang that together before, and we both were covered in chills because we both knew every single lyric we knew how to- it was just one of those magic moments. We actually did that to Shania’s “The Woman in Me,” I did, the other day with the girls and I almost couldn’t get through it, I was thinking of Wynonna. Actually, I didn’t get through it, verse two, I stopped because I started bawling. But you know, a lot of those songs, the nineties country songs have these beautiful melodies, like “The Song Remembers When,” I mean, there’s just so many stunning, beautiful melodies that I’ve missed sometimes and want to resurrect those kinds of things, those kinds of feelings, those records.
