Jonny Lang Was Can Sit Down and Say, “I’M Going to Write His Conversion to Christianity in 2000
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ISSUE #34 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #34 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN Was it hard getting back into the writing But I have gotten caught in the trap of trying PASSION PLAYER groove after a seven-year break? to create music for that purpose. I just let it When I’m writing by myself, I have to wait be what it is, and if it ends up being a radio for it to happen. I’m not somebody who hit then that’s a bonus. A crucial event in the life of Jonny Lang was can sit down and say, “I’m going to write his conversion to Christianity in 2000. He’d now.” But when I’m writing with somebody What drew you to a musical career? been involved in self-destructive habits at we can bounce off each other. I’ve known I remember watching the Motown 25 TV the time, and his newfound faith turned him Tommy for maybe 15 years and we’ve always special and all those amazing artists— around personally and offered his music a written together. I always wanted to do Michael Jackson doing his moonwalk. That new positive spirit as well. “It’s always running a record with him. was the defining moment for me: I want to in the background,” he says about his faith. do that. Later I started taking lessons from “I filter life through my relationship with What’s behind the title? a fellow my dad knew who was in a blues God, so anything that comes out creatively It refers in an abstract way to things I’ve band in Fargo. When I was 13 they wanted goes through that filter, whether I’m really felt in my life. “Fight for my soul” is a thread me to audition to be their singer. I also conscious of it or not.” The blues has always that runs through the songs. It’s a good played a little bit of rhythm guitar, but I got been at the root of Lang’s music—and he’s descriptor of the record. I always try to come better at guitar as time went on. Being in a found himself in a unique position: topping up with an album title that’s not the title of good band right off the bat was important. both the blues and Christian charts. There one of the songs, although it always ends up If I had been sitting in my room listening to was a time when the genres were considered being titled after one of the songs. records and trying to play like other people, oil and water. But Lang isn’t conflicted. “I I wouldn’t have progressed as quickly as don’t consider any of my albums blues What is the title track about? I did playing live. records, except my first,” he says. “There are The idea came to me about a little girl whose mom is a prostitute and her mom’s mom What was it like being noticed by was a prostitute—that’s her life and all she’s Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy at such a ever known. But one day something hits young age? her and she says, “I don’t have to do this. I can’t even explain. I never get over that. There’s something inside of me that wants It freaks me out, and not because they’re to be what I am, and I’ve got to fight for celebrities, but because others who are so that.” We all go through a point when we good at what they do would consider me someone they want to hang with musically. It’s such a huge compliment. To be this little white kid and have someone like Buddy Guy ‘If something wanting to play with me. I’m thinking, “Do I even have a right to play this music?” But isn’t happening Buddy said, “Don’t ever let anybody tell you that. It’s not about that.” He never treated me JONNY LANG right away I just like a little kid. From that moment on, if Buddy A former guitar prodigy shows he’s all grown up with a sharp new set Guy said it was OK, nobody would ever be scrap it.’ able to tell me anything else. By Jeff Tamarkin decide what to take with us from our What’s the future of the blues? AT 33, JONNY LANG HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS A MASTER in any one direction. And if something isn’t happening right away I just childhood and what to leave behind so we There weren’t singers who were trying guitarist and vocalist for nearly two decades. A teen prodigy with a scrap it. There’s nothing I hate more than laboring over something can become our own person. to be like Billie Holiday for 40 years, and 40-year-old voice when he cut his debut album Smokin’ in 1995, that’s supposed to be fun.” suddenly in the ’80s all these female jazz he’s grown up in the public eye—and so has his music. Fight for My Soul is the seventh album for the Fargo, N.D., Do you write songs ready to record? singers started claiming Billie Holiday as In his early years Lang made his mark playing and singing blues- native, and his first studio release since 2006’s Turn Around. His The songs exist in our heads. There isn’t their main influence. She was always there some blues guitar influences on my records, rock. He was so gifted he was taken under the wing of giants like sabbatical from recording was a carefully planned decision, with much preproduction. There’s no, “Here’s waiting to be found, and I think that’s the but the songs for the most part aren’t blues Portraits by Jeff FasanoPortraits Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Ronnie Wood. In recent years he’s reasons close to home. “I didn’t want to miss the first years of my the template, guys.” We just play a song for same with blues. It will always be there, songs. Culturally, I’ve never been a blues brought a new level of sophistication and depth to his music. Never four kids’ lives and be that dad that they have no memory of,” he says. the band on acoustic guitar or piano and let and someone will always come around to guy. I still love that style of music but I just has that been more apparent than on Fight for My Soul, Lang’s latest Once he was ready to return to the studio, Lang says, he and the musicians do what they want. pick it up. That said, once Buddy Guy and go wherever the wind is blowing me.” Lang release. Musically, the Grammy winner incorporates more mainstream Sims looked at “about 50 songs that were lying around. A lot of the B.B. King and a few other guys are no longer doesn’t consider himself part of the Christian R&B and pop polish, but his maturity is displayed in his lyrics. lyrics were written toward the end, or they took a different form than Are you hands-on in the studio? with us, it’s gone, man. Not that nobody’s music genre, either. “It’s actually pretty funny “In some cases they’re metaphorical but in others they’re literal,” I had originally planned on. Tommy helped me write the lyrics on a lot I don’t know enough about it. Even though going to do the blues justice but it’s unique to me that it got accepted in the Christian says Lang of the album’s 11 songs, most co-written with co-producer of the songs, and some were ones that he brought that were almost I’ve been around it all these years, there’s because it’s as much of a cultural thing as music world. I never really planned on that,” Tommy Sims. “It’s probably my most personal record. Each one is finished.” From his home in L.A., Lang discussed his new album, his no reason for me to get all up in there. That it is a musical thing. There aren’t going to he says, adding that he’s caught flak from different, but that’s not on purpose. I don’t do a whole lot of steering early years, and his admiration for Justin Bieber. would just slow things down. But I am busy be any more guys that grew up in that era, those within both the blues and Christian barking at people. who went through what they went through music communities. “You’re never going to culturally—and the music was birthed out please everybody, which makes me think ‘Once Buddy Guy and B.B. King and a few other guys Are you trying to make hits? of their experience. When they’re gone, we maybe I’m not supposed to please anybody. I would like for there to be one or two songs lose that part of history. We’re all standing For me, life’s about trying to honor what are no longer with us, it’s gone, man.’ on an album that get played on the radio. on their shoulders. God has given me.” 48 49 M mag 34.indd 48 4/24/14 4:05 PM M mag 34.indd 49 4/24/14 4:05 PM ISSUE #34 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #34 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN JONNY LANG RALPH STANLEY KARMIN SUZANNE VEGA NICKEL CREEK Won’t stop DOLLY Joey Foley/Getty Images Joey Foley/Getty PARTON Still hungry KAISER CHIEFS New intent Onstage in Indianapolis, 2011 ‘There isn’t much preproduction.