A Conversation with Jonny Lang – HuffPost 4.26.10

Mike Ragogna: Your new album, Live At The Ryman, comes from a pretty fiery concert. Is it from the tour for your last album?

Jonny Lang: Right.

MR: So that was a couple of years ago. What’s been transpiring since The Ryman?

JL: I’ve been working on a studio record and just touring. Just on the road, doing a couple of different things. I did this Jimi Hendrix Experience tour a couple of months ago. They had a couple of great guitar players on there–Johnson, Brad Whitford, Joe Satriani, guys like that. And I’ve been playing on a few different people’s albums like on Cyndi Lauper’s next record which is going to be amazing.

MR: She’s always good. What else you got?

JL: I also played on Santana’s record that’s coming out, and did a tune with B.B. King on his record that’s coming up soon. I got to do a lot of good guest appearances, I guess.

MR: Do you prefer playing live or working in the studio? You seem to do an equal amount of both.

JL: Yeah man. They’re both different, you know, I like them both. I think at one time, I would have said I like playing live better. But I think that at this point, I like them both in different ways, you know.

MR: What’s your axe lately?

JL: I’ve been playing a lot more Les Paul these days than I ever have. I’m starting to like my Les Paul, so it’s pretty much between that and the Tele.

MR: Nice. Do you have any current guitar sponsorships?

JL: I’ve been with Fender for years and years, but no, nothing right now.

MR: You’ve toured with The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, B.B. King, Jeff Beck…everybody. Who are some of your favorite artists?

JL: Probably my favorite artists to listen to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder–I haven’t gone back in a really long time and really listened to them–my first guitar influences. It’s been awhile since I revisited that. I’ve been getting into different gospel artists; Aretha Franklin is someone I’ve been listening to a lot of. Not too long ago, she came out with all that unreleased stuff that nobody’s ever heard. I’ve been listening to that a lot as well.

MR: Who were your musical influences?

JL: B.B. King, Albert Collins, and Albert King were probably my three biggest influences.

MR: Which songs of theirs or which songs, in general, were your favorites?

JL: Like influential type songs, you mean?

MR: Yeah, and even favorite songs. Sometimes a favorite isn’t influential.

JL: From those guys, when I was starting out, I think stuff I studied the most was “Gambler’s Blues” which is B.B. King’s. There’s a song off Albert King’s, I think it’s called “Blues Power” that he did live at the Fillmore. And then, you know, basically any song off of Albert Collins Ice Pickin’ record. Those are the things I listened to the most probably when I was learning guitar.

MR: You can hear some of these influences floating through some of your recordings. For instance, on “Give Me Up,” you sort of have that “People Get Ready” thing going on.

JL: Right, yeah.

MR: Was it intentional to have Curtis Mayfield and other soulful elements jump into the mix too?

JL: Yeah man. I think I’m more influenced, just in general, not by blues artists, but more by stuff from Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder is probably my biggest musical influence of all. And Donny Hathaway.

MR: How about Motown?

JL: Yeah, I grew up listening to Motown stuff. My parents were raised listening to Smokey Robinson, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye… I think soul music has been more of an influence to me than blues.

MR: Yeah, you can hear it in your voice. Speaking of that, it’s been said you have the voice of a 40-year-old soul singer.

JL: I don’t know man. (laughs)

MR: Will the vibes of Stevie Wonder and folks like that influence the writing for your new project?

JL: Definitely, man. It’s weird that the side that I’m the most familiar musically I is not what I tend to make in the studio. I think the biggest reason for that is just, you know, I don’t want to just come out and release this off-the-wall sounding record that folks are used to listening to. But yeah, the stuff that I tend to write and that just comes out of me naturally is, I think, just more about songs themselves than having guitars at a centerpiece to them. Almost more folky-soul stuff I guess. I’m trying to find my heart with familiar stuff, and with what comes naturally to me.

MR: So, your sound grows and changes, reflecting what your life is and what you’re learning.

JL: Yeah, absolutely.

MR: Your song “One Person At A Time” that you revisit on the new album is such a positive statement. And to me, it’s like your strongest anthem out of all the songs you’ve ever written.

JL: Yeah, I think, you know, the last two albums, definitely. That was kind of my head space at that time. I’m just kind of thankful and grateful for, you know, my life and really enjoying what I do and being able to do what I love for a living. So that was kind of just my frame of mind at that point in time.

MR: Will your next studio album also focus on positive themes?

JL: The next record tries a little bit more to relate to people’s struggles, you know, difficulties in life. So, that’s kind of what I’m focused on right now.

MR: And how can you not feel positive after winning a Grammy in 2008. How did the whole Grammy thing affect you?

JL: Great, man, you know. It’s an honor to win a Grammy, of course. And it was very unexpected to win one in the genre that it won in.

MR: Are there any of your contemporaries that you’re a fan of?

JL: Yeah, man. One of my favorite guitar players is a guy named Mike Keller. He’s in Austin, Texas, but he’s from North Dakota and I am as well. He’s an unbelievable guitarist.

MR: And I imagine you’re also a fan of your sister’s. Wasn’t Jesse a semi-finalist on the eight season of American Idol?

JL: Yeah.

MR: How did that all come about?

JL: I think she was driving to Illinois with her boyfriend and they had heard that the auditions were going on in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He told her, “You need to drive there right now and go. You need to do this.” She was like, “No, I don’t want to do that.” So, he kind of pushed the issue. She went down there and auditioned and actually made it pretty far, man, she made it out to Hollywood. I was really proud of her, man.

MR: You seem very loyal to the folks in your musical world, and on Live At The Ryman, you take time to especially thank Jason Eskridge for opening up the show. What is it like touring with your gang?

JL: Oh man. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys to travel with. It’s like a family thing. Even all the crew, folks, bus driver; everybody gets along really well, man. We’re pretty tight. It really makes a huge difference when you play music with people that feel the same way about you, it makes all the difference in the world. It adds this whole different dimension of importance and depth to the music when there’s that kind of relationship with the people off the stage.

MR: Looking back over all these years, who was your favorite opening act gig once you started touring heavily?

JL: Opening for Aerosmith was an incredible time. Those guys were so nice to us, you know, and we continue to have a pretty good friendship with a couple of them. That was definitely a life changing thing for me, to see them and see their level of musicianship firsthand was incredible. You know, they let me get up and play with them a couple of times. That was very important for me.

MR: How old were you?

JL: I was 17…yeah, 16 or 17.

MR: You know, you were considered a prodigy and a credible blues-rocker before you were even out of your mid-teens. That’s got to be weird.

JL: I was kind of relieved when the “hey, you’re so young thing” started waning. Wow, man, I think you just realize that it is what it is. People like a handle to grab onto, and they’re going to make whatever they need to make out of it, you know?

MR: Well, you’ve been a grownup for a while now that happens to have a unique past. But it’s your present musical output that keeps your fans growing with you as you evolve into a greater writer and player with each album.

JL: Getting attention for just simply novelty value is a weird thing, man. I’d always felt that someday, you know, the music would speak for itself. And yeah, and hopefully it is. That’s my hope out of the whole thing.