Nelly joins Willie Jones on Crossroads Radio on Apple Music Country to talk about producing in a pandemic, believing in ‘Over and Over,’ respecting country music, and Real Husbands of Hollywood. Tune in live for free to the full episode Monday, September 6th at 5pm PST/7pm CST here.
Nelly on Constant Learning and Adjusting To Change
“I think it’s more or less about the passion, more or less than who you are, because I don’t think … The older you get, you realize you’re never too old to learn, especially not learn anything about yourself. That’s the thing that you’re always looking to do. So I don’t think I will ever really know myself 100% until the day I die. Then I will know. You don’t know what you’re capable of. I’m in a business where things change. Hour, days, weeks, they change, so you don’t know what the next part is going to be. But I do look forward to embracing it and hopefully continuing to make music. Then we’ll see, bro. Coming from where I come from, I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to be here today.”
Nelly on Believing in ‘Over and Over’
“I mean, to be 100% honest, man, everybody at my label wasn’t too happy when I came up with that idea. They were even less enthused when I said I wanted to release it as a single. You know what I mean? But it was one of those situations where I believed in my fans and I believed in some of the things that my uncle taught me when he got me into music. It’s just like, yo, let that music speak for itself.”
Nelly on Working with Country Artists
“I’m doing me, bro. Yeah. Ain’t none changed. I’m doing me when I walk in. You know what I mean? I’m doing me when I walk in, man. That’s the only thing I can do and I would be disrespecting all the people that showed me love to get her because doing me got me here. You know what I mean? You don’t change it once you get there. I think what it’s more or less of is being down in Nashville, in that land of the hits. You know what I’m saying? And taking what Nelly do and embodying that music. Now understand, obviously that don’t happen for everybody, because you got a lot of people in Nashville looking to strike it, so a lot of people don’t come out of there with them records. You got to have that energy. But I was able to get the writers and the producers to understand like, “Listen, whatever you’ve been thinking about doing, but haven’t been able to do, your wildest thoughts and all that, that’s the (silence) I’m here to pull out.”
Nelly on Producing in a Pandemic and Respecting Country Music
“Actually, man, I don’t think that I would’ve been able to get it out the way that I have if it had not been for COVID, if it had not been for pandemic. I think because again, out of the respect and out of knowing that I got to somewhat get this right. You know what I mean? I got to get this right. But first of all, I got to get somebody to believe in the project. As far as working with you, as far as your label, then you got to get artists and producers from that genre of music to believe in the project. So I think it was just one of those things to where knowing all those things had to coincide. I think with the pandemic hitting it really allowed me to knock down and latch in and think this thing out and come up with a maneuver of how I wanted to do it. No, I’m not going to call it a country album. I’m not going to disrespect country artists and thinking that Nelly’s going to wake up and be a country artist one day. No, but what I can do, what I can do is show my appreciation of country music as a overall from the radio, to the artists, to the world have embraced, Nelly since Country Grammar.”
Nelly on Real Husbands of Hollywood
“Well, it really was good, man, getting back with the fellas, man. I think we all kind of didn’t realize how much we kind of missed that camaraderie and just being around each other man, and getting a chance to do that show. And I’m so happy when we first did that show, Kevin was huge. But now when you look at it, where my brother’s at right now, man, it’s like, wow, I’m so proud of him and so happy for him and dude just keep finding new levels. You know what I mean? And everybody on the cast, I love JB, how can you not love JB? Bor, Duane, you know?”
