Jackson Dean stopped by the Audacy Studios at the Hard Rock in Nashville to talk with Katie Neal!
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00:00Here to celebrate the release of his brand new album on the back of my dreams
00:04ACM nominated Jackson Dean. How are you? I'm great. How are you? I'm good
00:09I need to like bring my level down a few notches because you're always so chill
00:14It's like you get animated. I always have to like recalibrate
00:17My level of excitement. No, we'll get animated here in a minute. I feel like you're always
00:22Cool as a cucumber, which is like a silly thing to say. That's right. I'm growing cucumbers. You're growing cucumbers
00:28Is this to like do part of the tick-tock trend right now where everybody's making cucumber salads
00:32They are you haven't seen this? Oh, no. Oh my god
00:35Everyone on the internet has bought themself a mandolin and they're slicing the cucumbers and they're like making these like Asian flair
00:42Salads interesting just in time for there to be like also like a cucumber salmonella issue
00:47Yeah, these are the really like useless things. I know just from talking on the radio all day
00:52We
00:56Got a bunch of tomatoes we packed green beans for a minute, but all the plants died
01:02Yeah, it's very sad
01:03I always think that I want to garden but then I feel like it's so much work like I listen to Carrie Underwood talk
01:07About it and I sell it sounds like a lot. He just kind of like water it and stuff
01:13That's you tell me it's easy
01:14It it was pretty it was pretty just like let it grow and it kind of just went wild
01:19We did have a lot of rain. That helps. I killed an aloe vera plant. So I'm not sure that gardening is really
01:27Good I'm glad you're giggling see now you're you're waking up a little bit
01:30I wouldn't like what does get you a little bit like riled up like I can't imagine like wins your energy at a 10
01:37Like is there a combination of alcohol or
01:41Sports or well, yeah anytime your adrenaline gets going
01:46No, the thought of being on stage gets me riled up yeah talking about music gets me riled up because I'm so passionate about it
01:55Yeah
01:56Yeah, okay. Well, let's talk about music. Let's talk about this new album
02:00Tell me about the decision to call this on the back of my dreams
02:04So threading the needle through this whole project and finding a all-encompassing
02:09Concept for it and to do something interesting with it all
02:15It's quite a challenge, you know
02:17I didn't walk into recording any of this music with on the back of my dreams in mind
02:25That song that that line comes from one of my favorite songs of the project
02:29Which is Jane and that chorus reads is thus it reads Jane Jane leaving me low
02:35I never held on but never let go Jane Jane just blowing in the breeze keeping me awake on the back of my dreams
02:41And the more that song grew on me
02:45the more that line started rolling off my tongue real good and
02:49It was just really awesome. And as we started getting mixes back, you know, this this project was done in three sessions
02:57Greenbrook was done in two
02:58but
03:00First half was done before I got picked up by the machine and the second half was after and this was done in three parts
03:07Only because of how much we were gone and how many shows we were playing and putting down these miles, you know
03:15So it was just like record the best of what we got here, but we're gonna pick and choose, you know
03:21Yeah, the catalogs huge, you know
03:24I'm signed right up the road a little louder right on music row
03:28That just came from there
03:31But the more that we started getting these mixes back and stuff and it's
03:35Looking looking looking looking looking I had a couple options and nothing really was like concrete enough for me to do it
03:42and I was like well
03:44Whatever. Let's just make it beautiful. Yeah
03:49The way that I look at like some of the songs on these record on this record like Big Blue and and
03:54Heavens to Betsy specifically. Those are scoring of picture frames, you know
03:59and
04:01They're just descriptive enough and also just undescriptive enough for the listener to put themselves into the song
04:09Feel and see what they need to or maybe even see their own story, you know in it, you know
04:18All the emotions that come from that these songs exhibit on this record
04:24Very much live within me and in all of us and that's the point of all music is
04:29To know you ain't alone. Exactly. Do you ever feel like
04:33It's threading that line of making it either too personal or like you were saying like leaving it just ambiguous enough that someone else can
04:40Insert their own story like that to me. That would be like a really hard balance to find
04:48This is the thing about writing with metaphors, yeah
04:52Poetry, you know
04:55You know, we're Smith's down here, you know
04:58Yeah
04:58I have I'm very fortunate to have moved here and and found a really great group of guys that I work with
05:05You know Luke Dick
05:07Ryan Tyndall
05:09Case better and you just hide, you know Park Chisholm, you know
05:14Jason Lanning just like I was fortunate enough to have time down here to build
05:19The kind of people I wanted it around me to be feeding me with this inspiration for me to then turn
05:26And take what they spit at me and turn it into my own dialect, you know
05:31Translated through my own dialect, you know, that's such a good way to put it. Yeah with these 13 songs
05:35Do you feel like I know you were talking about how the catalog is so big and I can't even imagine how hard it is
05:40Trying to narrow down what to pick
05:41but did you feel like you set out with I want to say this with the album or did the songs that you were picking kind
05:47of choose that direction I
05:53Had a feeling that if another century was gonna go it was gonna be put at the at the end and to
06:01Construct it in such a way of like there's a beginning and there is an end like there's an opening and a finale
06:07yeah, and the opening is big and beautiful and hopeful and the end is just
06:13Just the knife just it takes
06:16Long time for the knife to get to the hilt, you know, and and then at the end, it's just thank you come again
06:22Yeah, you know
06:24But like
06:27Everything from not just the words alone, but the musicality of this has so much character, you know
06:33a lot of like texture
06:36Oh, yeah
06:38Because life is dynamic, you know
06:40it's in especially in this in when in this profession is what was chosen to do is the highest of highs and lowest of lows and
06:48like
06:49It just it swings so far, you know
06:52I got the idea the pendulum swings so far, you know
06:56you find yourself operating at the extreme ends of what you're feeling, you know, and
07:01That's what our music is about is pushing it to the max of its capability of the Western America program
07:07Oh, yeah, you have three verses three peaks, you know three courses you got
07:13Go how do you feel like you're have you found a balance to the high highs and the low lows?
07:19Yeah. Yeah, it was it was I ain't I'm not 18 anymore
07:24This is true, this is true, but I've put down a lot a lot of miles and a lot of crazy miles but like I
07:36Seen people go crazy, you know, and I've been I'm still running baby and and growing and
07:43I'm very fortunate that
07:45My mother and father gave me a level head somewhat
07:50But yeah, it's a lot better. But a lot better now than
07:54I know right? That's it's like you got us you reach a point where like wow
07:57I can't feel this bad anymore, especially as much as you guys are traveling
08:00You're like I need to be doing really healthy things when I feel better when you watch the Sun come up and go down
08:06Three times each and and it's coming up on the fourth. You're just like
08:12All right, yeah, and you feel your body inside kick into that, you know eighth gear and you're just like oh
08:19Okay. Yeah one more. I
08:21Can do it, you know, I always hear artists talk about
08:25Sophomore slump like and the anxiety that comes with that
08:28Did you have any anxiety about that?
08:31Like was I in the back of your mind at all?
08:32Like I know some people like whatever other people it makes them crazy
08:35so my take is a little bit different on this because I was I've made projects before I came here and and
08:42Kind of started preparing myself for you know
08:46Which preparing myself for pretty much what became Greenbrook which was kind of our my first
08:54Hello to the industry in that big of a way
08:57Yeah, and like my that was my first go-round, you know, and I've always heard that you've you've got a year
09:04I'm sorry. You've got your entire life to write your first record. You got six months to write your next one
09:10And
09:11And it was it was funny and I was like, I don't know if I fall into that category exactly
09:17but I got two years this record between Greenbrook and this one is there's a long time and that is
09:25strictly based on industry scheduling and
09:27on account of me being gone and playing as many shows as I possibly can and taking it to the people in the flesh and
09:35in real time in
09:37The old way, you know
09:40and
09:42you know all this is so we can go and play it live for the
09:46For the people and that's what it's all about, you know
09:50Now that the album has been out a few weeks and you've been playing some of the songs at shows
09:53What is maybe like surprised you about some of these songs that you weren't expecting or?
09:57I'll say it's been really really awesome to see what song is whose favorite
10:04even
10:05even like
10:07In the listening parties that we did prior to the release and stuff
10:10It was really awesome to go and be like was your favorite, you know
10:13A lot of people would say century and that was and I was just like really the most abstract thing on the project
10:18I love it. Okay, you know and then other people would be like sweet appa that jams so hard. I'm like
10:28But always
10:30the the feedback of
10:33Heavens to Betsy is just magic and in such a moment in our set it it's it's right
10:39Somewhere right around the middle of our set
10:43And it's just such a moment out there and I'm glad that
10:48I'm so glad that country is giving it this much love and a song that pulls on your heartstrings this much in this way
10:56in them in a very
10:58matter of you're gonna look yourself in the mirror on this one and
11:02Have a good long. Look. Yeah kind of way exactly
11:06I wanted to talk about the single because I don't know that I know the story behind you writing that I know that's been a
11:11Fan favorite for a while and like you said a big moment in the show
11:14So excited to see it with a single but tell me about like inspiration of writing that so that was written
11:19Right up the street had a little louder the music grow. I will never forget
11:24driver Williams
11:26Who plays for Eric Church everybody?
11:28Lee guitar walked through the door and he said Heavens to Betsy boy. What do you think about that as a song title and
11:35Before I could ask him
11:38Before I could say I didn't know what that meant
11:42Little just a little flash of a picture frame kind of just like Big Blue is you know
11:46I hope a flash of a picture frame of a dad sitting on the outskirts of heaven on the edge of a cloud looking down
11:53On his daughter with a CB in his hand one breaker breaker one nine heavens to Betsy and
11:59It was just like a powerful enough
12:03Little thing in my head I was just like, okay
12:06That's what I'm gonna hold on to through this whole right and it looked beautiful on paper
12:10it was it was me driver Williams and Benji Davis and it looked beautiful on paper and
12:15It was really dark Benji's very very dark and it was the first time I had written
12:20Driver and I just started playing it on radio tour to kill time and I
12:27just
12:29I've seen that song
12:32pull real tears about of people and
12:36Just be like I didn't know I needed to look at this situation from this perspective
12:41and not in a in it thing I love about it is that it's
12:47In it thing I love about it is that it's not and it's not a poking in your chest way. Yeah, it's
12:55It's a very it's very humble song like if you're in the moment to receive it, it'll hit you. Yeah
13:01Yeah, and the music behind it is all the unspoken love and all the things that were left unsaid that the man died with
13:10you know and
13:12To bring that into the world
13:15Every show is like
13:19It's really powerful
13:20Yeah
13:21when you're talking about people crying I was I saw a post or a comment that Jelly Roll had left on a post that was
13:27Saying hey, like he had goosebumps on his soul the first time he heard you sing that song and I loved it
13:32Cuz I think he called you like baby Bubba
13:35Is that what he calls you? Yeah. Yeah
13:37He said I've been jelly for a little while now and and he reminds me so much so much of my older brother
13:45just same
13:47Same mannerisms, really? Yeah
13:51then some of the same places and just very much reminds me of of him and
13:57but he's always been so good to me and you know, he's
14:01He is his own man, you know
14:03He really is and he's a legend. He's absolutely legend, you know, but he tells you baby Bubba. Is there something you call him?
14:10There's going big dog big dog. Yeah
14:13Going on big dog. No, every time I every time I see him. It's usually a few minute long hug
14:22And then you've been out on the road playing a bunch of dates with Laney
14:25Oh, yeah, which I'm sure has just been a blast would have been some of the highlights from this
14:30Well, we did the Greek a little while ago of just about two weeks ago if I'm
14:35Playing out time in my head, right?
14:37That was pretty awesome. That was a whole big shebang
14:41It was
14:42Beautiful time. We had a couple days out there and went to Venice and all that stuff
14:47The last two shows that we had this last run were the biggest crowds that I've seen for us at on the tour
14:54Which we've played so we played one place in Idaho
14:58Before and we got out there and we were just like, oh, let's throw down
15:03Like it was that's fun. Yeah, it was it was so fun and
15:08The tour is beautiful, it's a great show
15:11they the I come out earlier in set and sing a little bit and
15:18It's it's really wonderful and to see what she does, you know
15:21Not just musically and whatnot
15:23but like to see what she does and bringing the gals up the little girls up and stuff and
15:28it's amazing like I
15:31Don't know if I could ever do anything like that like
15:35Grace the girl. Yeah, like gracefully like that. I'm just like I just pin my ears back and let you have it
15:43Yeah, it's just it's amazing what she's what she's doing and she deserves every ounce of praise that she's ever gotten and is
15:51About to get yeah. Well, I'm so glad that you're having a fun time out on that tour when I was getting ready for everything
15:56You're coming in today
15:57I was looking at something that your record label sent over that I had never seen before
16:00There's a line in your your bio that says you like to make leather goods
16:05The wood-burned art I knew about what leather goods. Are you making? So
16:12I've been very industrious since I was
16:16Ankle biter
16:18How would your mom describe you being industrious?
16:21So let's put it this way. My dad got tired of me stealing tools out of our shop, which my dad's a bricklayer and
16:29Ran I mean 150-man roster business of
16:34Bricklayer and crew so he got me tired of me stealing tools out of there and
16:38He built me. I think I was like 10. He built me an entire workbench behind
16:44The living room couch and it was kind of like my playroom growing up
16:50I guess but he literally put a whole whole workbench. I had a vice Dremel
16:55Bandsaw whole nine yards and you're how old at this point 10 10 somewhere around and you're just making whatever you're coming up with
17:02Yeah, yeah
17:03It was I won't go into into all of it
17:06But I've been I've done a lot of leather work over the years and the fact that I travel out of now
17:12That I've taken around the world with me twice now. I saw myself. It's out of
17:18Spanish leather from Madrid from a bull
17:21How did you get that? How did you find that?
17:23There's a spot right down the street from B&A it's called it's called Tandy leather and they got a bunch
17:29It's like a Walmart of leather working. I guess Wow
17:32But yeah, you just get a hand puncher and some 500-pound test pair cord and just just a few things
17:38You can pick up from the store. Yeah. Yeah, just a few things
17:41Just go at it and you just kind of cut your pack cut your pieces and just be like well
17:47That's got to go to that to make this work and bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam
17:51I feel like you and Cassie Ashton need some sort of collaboration because she's always making some crazy
17:56Outfit and I'm like I could just never yeah, she made her own saddlebags and whatnot everything. Yeah, it's great. That's so badass
18:03I know every time I watch her doing those videos. I'm like, yeah
18:07Yeah, it's awesome. And you very similarly making all of your leather. It's mine. Mine's very very very very
18:14It is not it is not fine work it is it is it is very
18:20That's one word that you could could use
18:24Yeah, I mean it'll last you a lifetime but it ain't gonna be all that pretty
18:30Well, I think it looks great. And then I saw you've a birthday coming up at the beginning of October turn 24
18:36what was maybe highlight of
18:3923 and like what are you looking forward to like any new habits that you're implementing in 24? Oh
18:49Time to think about it. Yeah, no, I
18:53Can't remember what I did last year for my birthday. I think I was working
18:57That's right. I was in Bristol
19:01Now this year we're gonna go have a little bit of fun and and we're gonna shoot some music videos up in the mountains back
19:07home and
19:08up on WV and I
19:12Don't know I mean since I stopped playing ball, I stopped working out pretty much
19:16so I think maybe if anything maybe and
19:19You know 24, you know, you got to get you gotta get shaped back kind of situation might be happening here. But uh,
19:28But no, I already started eating right and you know, I tried to do that last year with
19:33being on the road and you know
19:35started that from like New Year's and
19:38Cut all the fast food out and oh, yeah, I can only imagine being on the bus. It's probably so easy
19:42It's like we're stopping to Taco Bell. Do you want something from this gas station of that like? Yeah
19:46Yeah
19:46so got away from all that and got myself a lot healthier than I was when I was on radio tour and running hard and
19:56But yeah, and I think I'm just gonna start working out good for you, yeah, I'm on the self the self-care train
20:04I love to hear that. Well, listen, the album sounds amazing. I'm so excited for you
20:08Thank you so much for coming in and taking time to see us. I really appreciate it. No, thank you for having me
20:12I appreciate you
20:16You