Collective Soul's Ed Roland Celebrates 30 Years with Tour and Double LP Recorded at Elvis' Palm Springs Estate
It's been 30 years since Georgia-born band Collective Soul stepped onto the noisy '90s rock scene. Their hard-hitting guitar riffs, introspective lyrics, and, of course, frontman Ed Roland's gritty yet soulful vocals solidified their sound in the post-grunge era. To celebrate three decades of music, the guys are on the road with old friends Hootie & the Blowfish and Edwin McCain for the Summer Camp with Trucks Tour . They've also released a double LP called Here To Eternity that they recorded at Elvis Presley's Palm Springs estate, making them the first band ever to do that since Elvis himself lived there. We caught up with Roland from his home in Atlanta to hear all about it. This is a LifeMinute with Collective Soul's Ed Roland.
Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Ed Roland from the band Collective Soul, and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:12It's been 30 years since Georgia-born band Collective Soul stepped onto the noisy 90s
00:17rock scene. Their hard-hitting guitar riffs, introspective lyrics, and of course Ed Roland's
00:23gritty yet soulful vocals solidified their sound in the post-grunge era.
00:28To celebrate three decades of music, the guys are out on the road with old friends Hootie
00:33and the Blowfish and Edwin McCain for the Summer Camp with Trucks Tour. They've also released a
00:39double EP called Here to Eternity that they recorded at Elvis Presley's Palm Springs estate,
00:45the first band ever to do that since Elvis himself lived there. We caught up with Roland recently from
00:52his home in Atlanta to hear all about it and more. This is a Life Minute with Collective Soul's
00:58Ed Roland. Hi. Hi there. How are you? Good, thank you. Thanks so much for joining us on Life Minute.
01:11Oh no, thank you for having me. Is that a double vinyl? Let's see it. Yeah, look at there.
01:18All our pictures and all that fun stuff. Very proud of it. Well, we recorded at Elvis Presley's
01:26estate in Palm Springs. We knew the guys that owned it and Elvis had spent his last Thanksgiving,
01:32Christmas, birthday, and his last three albums were recorded in that house, but it had been
01:36dormant since he passed. They were about to redo it and I just asked. I was like, hey, can we have
01:41it for the month of January? This is 2023. And they're like, of course, go in there. There's
01:45nothing in there. I was like, we'll put stuff in there. We'll stage it. We've got furniture,
01:50rented furniture out there that made it look like the king was still there. Came in and just started
01:55with 12 songs. And the guys were old fashioned. We record. Johnny sets his drum up, our drummer.
02:02Then we horseshoe around him. I present the songs. We rehearse for an hour. Everybody gets
02:06comfortable with it. And then, you know, three, no more than five takes. It's done. So they recorded
02:12in four days, 10 or 12 songs. We didn't go in to make a double album. So I tell them to take
02:16four days off, go hang out in Joshua Tree, go play golf, ride bikes, whatever you want to do.
02:21And I sat in Elvis's party room and had my vinyls. I'm a vinyl guy. I love vinyl. I had
02:26my record player and vinyls brought out. I just listened in Elvis's party room and somehow came
02:31up with 10 more songs. And then they came back in and knocked it out again. It was fun. I'm
02:36the first man to sleep in Elvis's bedroom. Everybody's really excited. The band stayed
02:40at Burt Lancaster's house, which is how we came up with the title Here to Eternity,
02:44because that was the big movie Burt was in, From Here to Eternity. I was like, well, that's
02:47interesting. That's the title. Everything fell into place. I slept in Elvis's bedroom. Our
02:53engineer producer slept in Priscilla's bedroom. And we set up the control room in Lisa Marie's
02:57bedroom and just went to town. I heard that actually Lisa Marie passed, that you guys were
03:02there. When she passed that night, the ceiling fell in her bedroom. So it was kind of spooky.
03:08People would come up to Elvis's house every day, just sit there and take pictures. And if I'd see
03:13somebody, I'd let them in. But then they would have vigils for Lisa Marie. They'd come there
03:16and just start singing Elvis's song outside. It was really beautiful, to be honest with you. It
03:20was kind of nice. So we'd invite them in and just go, hey, we're making a record here. Just make
03:24yourself at home. Drink some food over there, make yourself at home, and walk around. It was
03:29nice to see. And we met very interesting people doing that. I had met the guys that owned it about
03:34five, six years ago. And they were talking about redoing it. And they approached me about maybe
03:38doing a YouTube channel where people come in and promote their new songs. And then they do an Elvis
03:42song, very, very similar, like Daryl's House or something in that form. They'd asked me to do it.
03:48And then the pandemic happened and all of that wackiness. They still didn't know what they were
03:52doing. And then I was like, well, just let me come in for a month. Me and the boys, they were great
03:57to us. Being from the South, being from Atlanta, it's a very cult-like. Growing up, I remember
04:03having Elvis tunes on all the time. My dad was a minister, so we had gospel, hymnal music. Elvis
04:08was allowed, but it was a lot of Elvis gospel stuff. It was like the 50s music that played
04:13around the house until I was of age and found my own little niche and what I wanted to listen to.
04:18But yes, he was a big part. Who were some of your other influences?
04:22First and foremost, my parents. My dad was a minister of music first, and my mom played piano
04:26in the church. So that just introduced me to everything. But as far as rock and roll, it'd be
04:32Elton John and Bernie Top. And that was the first record I bought with my own money, was Elton John's
04:36Greatest Hits. Had no idea who he was, just looked cool in the picture. I thought, man, that kind of
04:41looks cool. Then after that, it just started going haywire because I was of age and my dad would take
04:46me to shows. He took me to see Johnny Cash, took me to see Liberace, The Kinks, Eagles, and he took
04:52me to see Elton. And that's kind of when it just kind of, to me, it was like, I just want to be a
04:56songwriter. I'd like to be on stage, but I just want to be a songwriter, like Elton and Bernie
05:00and Johnny and Dave and Ray, The Kinks. There was no other, nothing else I wanted to do. That was it.
05:07Because my dad was operatic trained. He was supposed to go sing opera in Italy
05:11before him and God had a talk and he decided he wanted to be a minister. He had this beautiful
05:15baritone operatic voice, and then I'd come out. It took me years to get comfortable with how I
05:20sounded, but it's just how I sound. My dad was always so supportive about it and was like, well,
05:25have the full body like he goes. Not everybody does. He goes, I think it's great. Just keep
05:30doing what you're doing. Find it. He just kept going, just stay in pitch. It is a little different
05:36and that's okay. But you know, you're always self-conscious at the beginning. You're like,
05:40oh God, I don't sound like Tawny Shaw or David Bowie. I don't sound like Elton. You finally just
05:45let go and you kind of go, I am as God made me. This is all you get. I had a friend. I was, I'll
05:51never forget, I was at their lunchroom in high school and I just said, I'm going to learn to
05:54play guitar. I want to write songs. And my buddy, who is the only guitar player in the school,
05:58says I have an extra acoustic. So the next day he brought an acoustic guitar to me, let me borrow
06:02it. And he brought me an Elvis book and an Eagles book that showed you how to do chords. I learned
06:08from that. And my dad got me a Barry Manilow cheat music. And what about your brother? How did you
06:14guys realize you were going to do something together? We really did. You know, there's a
06:1710 year age difference and I didn't even know he played guitar. I came home from work one night to
06:22go see mom and dad. He was still in high school and he's playing guitar. And I was like, dude,
06:26I didn't know you play guitar. He's like, yeah, I'm trying to learn. And I was like,
06:29okay. We just started jamming a little bit. He and the rest of the guys were in a frat band when I
06:34was in a basement studio, putting all the first song on the first album, Hints. I was just trying
06:38to get a publishing deal. And then Shine just kind of had a life of its own. It just took off. And
06:43then I called my brother. I was like, hey, would y'all mind learning two or three songs that I
06:48basically interjected myself into their band. What comes first for you, the lyrics or the music?
06:56Music comes first. And a lot of times the lyric, something will spurt out and I'll go, okay,
07:00that's it. But the melody comes first for sure. It's easier for me then to fit the lyrics into
07:06the phrasing that I want or what I hear, I should say for the melody. But sometimes they come
07:11together really quick. I think I've only written two songs where I had the lyrics first. I just
07:15wrote a story and then I put the music around it. I'm not Elton and Bernie. I don't know how he does
07:21that. It's more musical for me first just to figure out that melody. And then hopefully most
07:26of the time something just blurts out. I'm like, okay, that's the thesis or that's the subject
07:30matter. Here we go. Now put the piece of puzzle together. Let's talk about the album for a bit.
07:37More. Tell me about some of the songs on there.
07:40Well, Mother's Love was the first one I wrote for the record.
07:54Boy, man, it's such a heavy riff. But like I said, just Mother's Love just kept coming up,
07:59coming up. So I wasn't going to deny it. So when I presented to the guys, I was like,
08:02it's called Mother's Love. And they're like, that's cool. So it was kind of that way.
08:07I love Bob Dylan, Where Are You Tonight. I recorded that live at the Ryman Theatre
08:11in Nashville, which was a lot of fun and kind of a big deal for me. Be The One I recorded in Elvis'
08:17bedroom. That one was the last song I wrote when the guys were on vacation. They were coming back
08:21in that morning and I'd had like nine songs prepared, but I wrote that that morning. So I
08:26went in and did it as a demo in Elvis' bedroom, just me and the piano. The first take, I forgot
08:31the lyrics. Second take, I messed the lyrics up. The third take, I got it down. So when they came
08:35in, I said, here's what I wrote. And I'll never forget, my brother goes, we're not adding anything
08:40to that. Just leave it as is. And I was like, you don't think we should put strings or anything?
08:44He goes, nope, that's it. I was like, OK. That was interesting. La Di Da is what my grandmother
08:49used to sing walking around the house. That was just her phrase, La Di Da. And I was like, OK,
08:54I'll write a song like, you know, you just pick a couple of different things in life.
08:57It's one of the records that, you know, you're always proud when you get done. We always look
09:00at each other as a band and go, OK, that's the best we could do at that point. But being at Elvis'
09:05house for a month, and we spent a week doing shows during that time. But in 29 days, we recorded
09:10the double album. And I'll never forget, we were listening. It wasn't mixed, but we, you know, all
09:13the ideas were there. A couple of vocals I had to redo. But we got done. We were just hugging each
09:18other like, man, how do we just do that? We don't even realize what we did. And it's just because
09:22we got in a flow. And I always go back to, like, we're a really strange rock and roll band. We not
09:27only like each other, we love each other. We love each other's company. There's jokes flying all
09:31over the internet between us and our little groups. We enjoy each other's company, not just
09:35musically, but just hanging around. Come see us out with Hootie and Edwin McCain. It'll be a fun
09:39show. 45 cities all over. So once again, we all kind of grew up together. We're all on the same
09:45label. All of us have known each other for 30 years. It's almost like a frat. A lot of golf,
09:50a lot of joking with each other, pranks and fun stuff like innocent stuff. But it's always good
09:55to be around people and bandmates and other bands that have no ego. They feel as blessed as we do to
10:01be on that stage and where we are in our life and our career. That's what Hootie and Edwin, both
10:07bands, bring to the table. Squeeze in three new ones and one cover. And then it's the rock and
10:13roll show. Edwin McCain called me the other day. We're going to have him join us on a song. And he
10:17goes, I don't play with clicks or anything. That messes me up. I was like, no, dude, we're real
10:22and raw. If we had clicks, it would really confuse us. We're already confused enough.
10:27We like depending on each other. That's basically it. Just, you know,
10:3015 hour minute set that's just kind of showcases the history of Collective Soul with the new.
10:36How did you come up with the name Collective Soul?
10:39I was reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. And I think the character Howard Rourke was in there
10:45talking about we're all a collection of souls. And I thought collection of souls. Kind of cool.
10:48I remember yellow pinning it. I thought collection of souls. What about collect?
10:52Collective Soul sounds like a unity, a true unity, a one unity in which a band should be.
10:57To be honest with you, it's the only one all the guys agreed on to. They're all kind of names being
11:01thrown out there. You know, you hope you live with it for the rest of your life. They're all over the
11:05place. But when I said Collective Soul, everybody was like, OK, it wasn't like we jumped up and down
11:10and thought it was the greatest name ever. But it's the one that everybody went, OK.
11:14What does music do for people?
11:16What music means to me is imagination. There's no boundaries. You know, you go back to the Beatles,
11:21they would write songs that were just beautiful, acoustic ballads sung with orchestration,
11:25and they'd be trippy. To me, first rule of rock and roll is there is no rule.
11:30And that's where the imagination comes into play.
11:37To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast,
11:39Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.