This interview is going to be in a bit of a different format than most- mostly because there was a ton of ground to cover, and I couldn’t bring myself to cut much of these interviews. So today, I’ll bring you part 1 of my chat with John McEuen, tomorrow you’ll get part 2, which is my chat with Nathan McEuen, and then later this week, part 3 will be more with John! Get ready, y’all, because you’re in for a treat. Read on to find out what John’s experience has been like playing with his two sons!<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What has it been like working with your kids on this latest project?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Well, I don\u2019t think of them as kids anymore. I grew up with then when they were kids, and then they started getting into music. They\u2019re now 31 and 35, and they\u2019re really on their own in their own right. My young men are now the couple of session players that I would hire for my own projects. I got the players that I wanted, and I happened to be related to them, so it was a good thing! It\u2019s really a wonderful thing.<\/em><\/p>\n You know what\u2019s strange about it is that there are a lot of things that happen musically when we\u2019re not even looking at each other, and we\u2019ll hit the same note or the same complementary note. We were doing a TV show in Kentucky, and we extended the end of a song for about 20 seconds, and all it took was for Jonathan to look at me and raise his eyebrow. We didn\u2019t have to talk about it; I knew what he meant. It\u2019s magical things like that that are hard to find in music.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Did you teach them how to play when they were growing up?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> You know, it\u2019s hard for me to say that because I would show them one guitar lick, and then five minutes later, it turned into five guitar licks. As they got older into their teens, I\u2019d be the one saying, \u201cHow did you do that? (laughs).\u201d The acorns got bigger than the tree in my life! It was quite an exciting thing.<\/em><\/p>\n But originally sure, I showed them some chords, I showed them a few things, but they took it and expanded on it. Then, because of their backgrounds and what they were listening to, they expanded.<\/em><\/p>\n Jonathan always tells me he was six years old backstage with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and he was listening to the music from behind, and that was exciting to him. But then he saw and heard the audience reacting, and he wanted to be out there.<\/em><\/p>\n I knew when he was in 6th<\/sup> grade that he was destined to be on a stage in some fashion. In sixth grade, he was the lead in the play, \u201cThe King and I\u201d. He was a sixth grader playing the lead in a high school play. So they rehearsed for a couple of months, then they ran five weeks of the show, it was extended for two weeks. At the end of the last show, I went backstage to go and find him and tell him what a great job he did, and I couldn\u2019t find him. Someone said he was in the broom closet, so I went to the broom closet, and there he is in there crying! So I said, \u201cAre you ok?\u201d And he says, \u201cWhat am I going to do now? It\u2019s over!\u201d (Laughs)<\/em><\/p>\n And then with Nathan, he started playing, and then he got on stage for the first time, and he was just comfortable. He knocked people out! There\u2019s a picture on the album of him sitting on the edge of a stage. That was in Branson, Missouri. I invited him up on stage, and he had the shirt, he combed his hair, and he was smiling. After it was over he said, \u201cDid I do good?\u201d And I told him it was hard to follow him, and that\u2019s what we need (laughs)!<\/em><\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t let my kids on because they were cute, although they were cute, and they still are. But I let them on because they were good. They rehearsed something, and they could do it. They could make people laugh and clap.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s kind of what it was like watching them grow, and then they started writing their own songs and adding their influences. They have their own accomplishments to be proud of. Nathan has sold about 20,000 albums just on his own just from stage and CD Baby and stuff. And Jonathan is Dave Mason\u2019s favorite guitar player.<\/em><\/p>\n Dave kind of took Jonathan under his wing. Jonathan moved out to Ojai and it took him about three years, but on Dave\u2019s last album, Jonathan played guitar and sang background vocals on it.<\/em><\/p>\n It was really great when Jonathan called me from Dave Mason\u2019s studio last year. \u201cOnly You Know and I Know\u201d is a Dave Mason song we did on this album. But Jonathan called me from Dave\u2019s studio and said, \u201cDave\u2019s listening to the rough mix!\u201d Then he called me back about an hour later and was really excited about it and said, \u201cDave wants to add a vocal on it!\u201d So on track 14 of this album, you\u2019ll hear Dave yell, \u201cWe\u2019re going country!\u201d (Laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n When I was that age, my highlight was being able to record with Earl Scruggs. He created the bluegrass banjo. Jonathan has that, and Nathan has been able to play and sing with a lot of people, write a song with Crosby Loggins, Kenny\u2019s son. That\u2019s on the album.<\/em><\/p>\n I try to think of analogies for this, and it\u2019s like being a chef that has had some success, but I wasn\u2019t very good at dessert. But then they started cooking, and not only could they make everything I was cooking, but they could make desserts too (laughs)!<\/em><\/p>\n What we do live reflects all those influences that they had, from Phish to Dave Mason to Nirvana to rock and roll\u2014 the Beatles, Little River Band. When they were 9 and 11 years old, they\u2019d make Little River Band music videos singing the songs. They knew how to make a music video, you know? It\u2019s just such a riot to watch some of these. Seeing a ten year old sing \u201cLonesome Loser\u201d (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n I remember one time Jonathan told me it was really tough in high school getting made fun of with his long hair and playing the guitar, that stuff. And he told me he didn\u2019t say anything about it, but he used to tell me, \u201cDad, it\u2019s tough to hear that stuff when just the night before, I was on stage with Vince Gill and Charlie Daniels playing solos and singing harmonies. Then I have these high school kids ask me who do I think I am, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m anybody, but those people liked what I was doing.\u201d He knows he wouldn\u2019t have been out there doing that unless they did.<\/em><\/p>\n Vince Gill told me once several years ago that he was going to turn around to see who was coming up behind him, and it was going to be Jonathan (laughs). I didn\u2019t tell Jonathan that.<\/em><\/p>\n And Nathan, he would have similar things happen.\u00a0 I\u2019d have people tell me what a great guy he is and that he knocked them out.<\/em><\/p>\n They aren\u2019t doing what their father did. They do their own thing.<\/em><\/p>\n Be sure to stay tuned to part 2 of The McEuen Sessions\u2014 an interview with Nathan McEuen! In the mean time, keep yourself busy with this Spotify link, and preview John’s latest record with his sons!<\/p>\n The McEuen Sessions on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>John McEuen & Sons Nathan and Jonathan<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0An Interview with John McEuen by Casey Pukl\u00a0 If there’s one thing that’s evident when talking to John McEuen, it’s that he’s like any other parent who is proud of their children. It’s just that not everyone elses’ kids have played with Dave Mason, Vince Gill, Charlie Daniels, or sold 20,000 records out of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-5976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32919,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976\/revisions\/32919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/2209778087_a72d9bacfc.jpeg\" "\\"2209778087_a72d9bacfc\\"")
<\/a>If there’s one thing that’s evident when talking to John McEuen, it’s that he’s like any other parent who is proud of their children. It’s just that not everyone elses’ kids have played with Dave Mason, Vince Gill, Charlie Daniels, or sold 20,000 records out of the back of their car. Needless to say, McEuen has a lot to be proud of.<\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Sunday, April 29, 7:00 pm<\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$29 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n