Little Big Town join Today’s Country Radio for an interview with Kelleigh Bannen to talk songwriting, curse words, and their new single, “Hell Yeah.” The band also discuss their process for deciding who sings lead and how their sound is greater than the sum of its parts. Tune in and listen to the episode in-full on-demand here.
Little Big Town on the Guys Pitching the Girls Songs They Write
PHILLIP: Hey. If it’s not believable, [Kimberly and Karen] they’re like, “Nope.”
KELLEIGH: Really?
KAREN: [Phillip and Jimi] wrote this one a while ago.
JIMI: Yeah, a couple of years ago.
KAREN: And we’ve been holding onto it and we really, really knew that it was fun and it sounded like a smash and it felt good as the lead single of this brand new body of work for us as band. Yeah, I love it. I love the soulfulness of it and the playfulness.
JIMI: It’s a feel good breakup song. Is that possible?
KELLEIGH: You know what, Jesse Frasure, I’ve heard him call that sad songs for the dance floor, and I love that category. Who’s the toughest A&R person in this group? Who’s actually the person that’s trickiest to get them on board?
PHILLIP: I think Kimberly.
KIMBERLY: Well, probably on this one.
PHILLIP: It’s got to be real good if she wins.
Little Big Town on Recording a Song with the Word “Hell” In the Title
PHILLIP: I didn’t know [“hell”] was a cuss word, first of all. Then Kimberly’s like, “That’s a curse word, sir.”
KIMBERLY: Well, times do change. When we were kids, remember, we couldn’t even say the word “pregnant” or “fart.” So now-
KAREN: You couldn’t.
KIMBERLY: But anyway, it’s fine. Except that it’s not a word I really want my kids to say, but now my five-year-old, the only part of the song she sings is, (singing) “Hell yeah, hell yeah.”
KAREN: We’re just breaking down barriers. We’re breaking down barriers.
JIMI: We’re breaking down the Southern Baptist barriers.
Little Big Town on Choosing Who Sings Lead Vocals on What Songs
PHILLIP: I feel like it’s been a shared love of, what is the right moment? What is the right song? Who’s the right voice for this moment? It’s always a nuance of beautiful art and we love making art together. And we’ve always shared that. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about this band. I love hearing everyone’s voice. And when we share it, it’s broader than one voice. We share something special, and I love that about this band.
Little Big Town Reveals Jimi Initially Sang Lead on “Hell Yeah”
KAREN: The identifiable sound that fans came to love often had Kimberly on the top, Philip on the bottom and the two of us in the middle. Well, songs like “Sober,” flips it around or a song like, “Hell Yeah,” now the melody is on the bottom and the stack is on the top. So it’s always like trying to get that buzzy beautiful, whether we want it to be lush or raw, what kind of energy we’re going for. It also depends on the key center and just all kinds of things when we’re in making a record.
JIMI: Yeah. I mean, and we’ll go through a lot of times with songs, talking about the process of who sings it and try it. Like I sang “Hell Yeah” to begin with and it didn’t work, it didn’t feel right. And so it’s like we go through the process, sometimes it’s a quicker, you get there and you’re like, that feels great. Or you’re like, it’s just not quite right.
