- yesterday
Three-time Grammy award-winning blues legend Bobby Rush and five-time Grammy nominated singer/songwriter/guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd have come together to release a new album, Young Fashioned Ways . The 10-track record is a very special collection of new blues songs that the two artists wrote and recorded together at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Their debut single, 'Who Was That,' is featured in Lionsgate's new film Flight Risk , starring Mark Wahlberg. The duo is also hitting the road for a 24-city U.S. tour ending in August. This is a LifeMinute with Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, my name is Bobby Rush.
00:02Hey, my name is Kenny Wayne Shepard, and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:06Three-time Grammy Award-winning blues legend Bobby Rush
00:09and five-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepard
00:14have come together to release a new album, Young Fashioned Ways,
00:18a very special collection of new blues songs that the two artists wrote and recorded together
00:24at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
00:26Their debut single, Who Was That?, has featured a new film, Flight Risk, with Mark Wahlberg.
00:33The duo is also hitting the road for a 24-city U.S. tour ending in August.
00:39This is a Life Minute with Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepard.
00:45Since I'm the oldest, let me tell you, I love the Young Fashioned Ways.
00:49I didn't come up with a title of this. I just wrote the song, a round song.
00:53It was a combination of a lot of people who have input said Young Fashioned Ways.
00:58I didn't say anything since I'm old as I am, so I'll let them have it.
01:01Now, my thought was, I'm going to do this record like I want to do it,
01:06and we're going to go back in later on and straighten what I've done up.
01:10I've messed up, do it over.
01:12And he said, well, you're the real deal.
01:14Do you really tell me I don't have to go back and do this stuff over what I've done?
01:19He just let me be me, and I would just Bobby Rush, and that's all.
01:24And I can really be me.
01:33I mean, this record for me is something I'm really proud of because, you know,
01:36I'm a fan of blues music, and in the bio they reference,
01:39one of my favorite blues albums is an album called Hard Again,
01:43which is Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter, and Johnny Winter produced it,
01:46and he played guitar on it.
01:47And when I was a kid, I used to listen to that album over and over again
01:50just to try to imagine what it must have been like to be Johnny Winter's
01:54making that record with Muddy Waters.
01:56And this was kind of like my moment to have something like that with Bobby Rush.
02:00If you want to turn somebody on to blues music,
02:03maybe they don't know what it is, and you want them to hear, like, the real thing,
02:07you know, you usually jump into the catalog.
02:11You go back several decades and find a record.
02:14You're like, this is it.
02:14This is what the blues is all about.
02:16But this is a brand-new album that just came out that people are hearing for the first time,
02:23and it's the real deal.
02:24To me, it's one of those records that if I wanted to turn somebody on to the blues
02:28in today's world and let them know, like, what it sounds like and what it means to make a blues record,
02:34I would play them this album.
02:35And I'm proud to have been a part of that.
02:38We went in to do this, and I think we didn't have no idea what we were going to do.
02:44We just know we have the ability to do good music.
02:47And it led us to something else.
02:49The music took us someplace that we hadn't thought about where we was going.
02:52And really, then rehearsal or think about where we was going,
02:56we were just going to do good music.
02:57Our respect for each other and the music that we love, it wasn't really a plan.
03:02Yeah, it was a really amazing experience going in the studio because
03:06neither one of us really knew exactly what we were going to do.
03:09I think we both had faith in our own individual talents and each other's talents.
03:15And then, like he mentioned, that there was a reason that we had been brought together to do this.
03:20We both kind of thought, well, we'll do something stripped down, you know, in acoustic.
03:24But as we were recording, we just left everything open
03:27and let the music tell us what it wanted and what it needed to be.
03:31The songs evolved, but everything started very stripped down.
03:34Just me and him sitting in a room together, a couple of acoustics, a vocal mic, and his harmonica.
03:40But some of the songs evolved into, you know, you got a whole band and a horn section.
03:45And some are totally stripped down and some have different elements of different instruments.
03:49But it was a really interesting process.
03:51And it literally was like, it was a discovery process from beginning to end
03:56because we didn't know what we were going to do when we got there.
03:59And so every step of the way was like, all right, what's going to happen next?
04:02I mean, this is as organic of an album as you can get.
04:07There's no fancy production on it.
04:10Everything he sang is exactly how he sang it in the studio.
04:15There's no trickery.
04:16We didn't use the computers to try and make anybody sound better than their actual performance.
04:21And some of the songs, even with the band, with the full band, we'd like the title track
04:26of the record.
04:27We just cut that live in the studio in like one take.
04:30The whole process was just as organic and real as it gets.
04:33And I think that's why the end result is so real.
04:38We were talking about this earlier as well.
04:40But when it comes to music, it's like the universal language, especially when you're playing
04:45music together, all of a sudden there's this understanding amongst players, even if maybe
04:51you might walk into it thinking, oh, well, you know, what could we have in common?
04:56We're decades apart.
04:57We actually have a lot in common.
04:59The moment you start playing music, all that goes out the window because you're relating
05:03on a level that has nothing to do with surface or age or anything else.
05:09All of a sudden, it's almost like you're connecting on a spiritual level.
05:13The bottom line is it's like you're feeling the music.
05:15He's feeling the music.
05:17You don't have to be a certain age to feel music.
05:19You don't have to be a certain age to be moved by what you're hearing and what you're
05:23playing.
05:24Yeah, the age doesn't matter, but I think the knowledge of the music doesn't matter.
05:29What you have, Ken, is the knowledge of the music because we talked about me doing what
05:35I'm doing, singing the blues like I sing it.
05:39You're a singer, but you don't sing that kind of a blues.
05:42You are like the Muddy Waters of Auburn Royce, a few guys like, and you recognize that.
05:47I recognize that I don't sound like the country western guy, and I knew that, so I can't fool
05:53myself, and that's what I respect about you.
05:56You knew you couldn't sound like a Muddy Waters.
05:58There's two different kind of things, and you recognize that.
06:01I don't have no favorite song, but I do have a song I will recite.
06:05I was talking about three things I want to do in my life, these three things I want to
06:12do, making money, making music.
06:16Now, these things I like, these three things I like to do, all three of a kind.
06:21I got two on my heart, and the other one on my mind.
06:26And those kind of things, I just love to tell those kind of stories.
06:29He's a master storyteller, and I admire his lyrics, and the way he tells the story in
06:35such a way.
06:36It's so creative, but as far as favorites, it's like with every album that I ever do,
06:42my own personal records or a collaboration like this, you kind of go through phases of
06:49like, well, this one's kind of my favorite now, and that one's my next favorite, and it
06:53evolves, and I gravitate towards certain songs.
06:57I started, I loved Who Was That, because I thought, you know, that's why it's the first
07:10track on the record.
07:11I love the energy of it.
07:13It makes you feel good.
07:15And then, Oh, Hey Baby.
07:17Hey baby, girl, you got me so confused.
07:22Then I was really, really digging on that one.
07:28Now I'm really digging on You So Fine.
07:32When I had just like the very, very rough recordings as we were making the record, and I would go
07:37back and listen to stuff before I started mixing the record, and through that process,
07:42it was how long?
07:4340 Acres.
07:44And that was one of the ones that was really cool to me, the way it came together, because
07:48he had gone out and picked up a guitar and started playing it by himself at first, and
07:55I was in the control room doing something else, and he was just out there, and he started singing
07:59and playing.
07:59And he did it enough to where I could hear what the lick was on the guitar.
08:04But then he came into the control room with me, and I asked if I could have the guitar,
08:10and so I started playing the riff.
08:12And so then all of a sudden, we're sitting in the room, in the control room, and they're
08:18putting microphones up, and they're getting him a microphone, and we just recorded right
08:21there.
08:22We weren't even planning on recording it in that moment, but it just started coming
08:26together.
08:27So we just captured it right there in a very unconventional way, because normally you would
08:31never record a song in the control room.
08:34You go out into the live room for that kind of stuff.
08:36But it was literally, everything was just happening so naturally, and you had to be
08:41ready to capture the moment whenever the moment occurred.
08:44So that one was always really special to me as well.
08:47We did some rehearsals, and basically, the run of the show for now is, he and I are going
08:54to go out, and we're going to open the show and do a whole set together of songs from this
08:59record with a very stripped-down version of the band, and make it feel real intimate,
09:04you know, like the audience is sitting right there with us, you know, almost want to draw
09:09them in to, like, they feel like they're on the stage with us.
09:11And we'll take a break, and then we'll come back out, and I'll do some stuff with my band,
09:15and then we'll bring Bobby back up towards later on in the show, and then do the more
09:19electric-sounding songs.
09:21And so you'll get Kenny, Wayne, Shepard, and Bobby Rush doing a set of music that's really
09:27cool and intimate, which will be different for anybody who's ever come to any of my shows
09:31or his shows, and then you'll get the Kenny, Wayne, Shepard Band experience, and then you'll
09:34get the Kenny, Wayne, Shepard Band and Bobby Rush experience as well at the end of the
09:38things.
09:39And that's all subject to change, too, because just like this record, we just let the music
09:43dictate what it wanted and what it needed to be.
09:46And so we'll do the same thing.
09:48We have intuition for doing this for so many years.
09:51It's like, we'll see how the people respond.
09:54It's going to be a very, very special experience.
09:56I'm anticipating that there's going to be a lot of people that are going to show up that
09:59have seen one of us or both of us at some point in the past, and they're going to get
10:04a really cool, unique, one-of-a-kind experience for this tour.
10:08And I think a lot of people are going to come and see us curious about the two of us
10:13when they're going.
10:14But I can tell you now that when Kenny, Wayne, Shepard, and I are on stage together, and they're
10:20going to see their love and respect from each other.
10:23I love for music, love for people, and I treat people like I wish to be treated.
10:31That's my personality.
10:32I don't have to put on air.
10:34I guess everybody can see that I love people.
10:37And I don't have no chip on my shoulder about where I've been, what I've done, how I've been
10:41treated, because most of my treatment comes from me.
10:45But I'm here to just play my talent and do what I need to do.
10:48And it's going to be something that Kenny and I are going to make a statement to the
10:53world.
10:53I don't want people to look at the two men like a black and white issue.
10:57There's two men from Louisiana that have love and respect for each other, and their music
11:02is going to do it and do it well.
11:05I grew up around music because my dad was in the radio, and we had music playing around
11:09the house, in the car, everywhere we went 24-7.
11:14And he loved all kinds of music, and so do I.
11:16So I was raised on everything from gospel music to funk and jazz and R&B and soul and
11:23country and southern rock and roll and everything in between.
11:26I just kind of soaked it all up at a very young age.
11:29And then I started playing.
11:30The first time I got on stage, I was 13 years old down in New Orleans on Bourbon Street.
11:34And that's when I found out that maybe I could actually entertain the people.
11:39And that kind of was the beginning for me.
11:41I just can't remember a part of my life where music wasn't a big part of me.
11:45We went to see every concert that came through town.
11:48Because when you work at a radio station, you get free tickets to just about every show,
11:52and you get to meet the band because they want you to play the records and stuff.
11:56So my dad met everybody, and we always go backstage, and we'd go see every concert.
12:00So it exposed me to all these different parts of the music business at a very young age,
12:05especially the touring world and what it means to put on a concert.
12:08Nobody knew, including myself for a long time, that all that was going to help contribute to the artist that I was eventually going to become.
12:16Music's been a part of my life as far back as I can remember.
12:19And I got turned on to blues music.
12:20My first concert, my dad took me to see when I was three years old.
12:23He took me to see Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.
12:25I don't remember that.
12:26Obviously, I was three years old.
12:28But I do believe that that had to have left an imprint on me.
12:31And that's probably what sent me down the path of my love and appreciation for blues music,
12:37was that exposure at such a young age to those artists.
12:42Oh, I have so many.
12:43When you've been here as long as I have, I have so many.
12:46I think Ray Charles, I was at the New York, 19, 758.
12:54There's no favorites for me.
12:56It's just all the things that I feel like are learning experiences.
12:59But this is certainly one of my favorites.
13:01And I mean, I know that sounds like a predictable answer, but this is definitely a highlight.
13:06I mean, my first album came out 30 years ago, so I've been doing it for a little bit of time myself.
13:10There's a lot of highlights.
13:12Making this record with him was such a great experience.
13:14I think the end result is an incredible record.
13:17And I think the tour is going to be an incredible experience for both of us and for our fans.
13:21You know, this one is still in the process of happening.
13:23We can't live for yesterday and we can't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I know what's happening right now.
13:28And this is special.
13:30Well, I think blues music is about life.
13:32It's about human interaction.
13:34It's about relationships.
13:36It's about ups and downs, lefts and right.
13:39Every single bit of it is just really about living life.
13:42And I think that's why people can relate to it.
13:44At the end of the day, for me, blues music has been my employer.
13:47It's been my therapist.
13:49It's been my comfort.
13:51It's been my companion.
13:53You know, it's been so many things in so many ways.
13:56I can't even imagine my life without blues music.
13:59Well, personally, blues is what I know and blues is all I know.
14:03And I often use the word that blues is the mother of all music.
14:07If you don't like a blues, you probably don't like your mama.
14:10Blues is not just something that makes you feel bad.
14:15It's not just something that makes you feel good all the time.
14:18The same thing makes you laugh.
14:20The same thing makes you cry.
14:22But you could say, but when you lose your love for someone or something happens in life,
14:28you talk a licks of the blues.
14:30It sounds sad.
14:31But then again, it's happiness.
14:32It's because I remember the saddest time to me was on the Monday morning when I had to go back to court after being off to begin having a party.
14:44But the good time was always on a Friday or Saturday when I was getting off to get ready to go to the club to play the music.
14:52The thing you learn from the blues and the thing you go through, it's just part of life.
14:57I'm glad to be where I am now in life, know and learn what I have learned through the blues.
15:04To see more of this interview, visit our website, lifeminute.tv.
15:09And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, Life Minute TV.
Recommended
5:18
6:09
5:24
7:22
6:10
5:17
3:48
5:53
5:23