Now that things are clicking for Saving Abel, can you remember back to when things looked particularly bleak for you guys in the early going?
A lot of us had our jobs that we were working at – we were doing the music thing, but you got bills, and you gotta pay ‘em. When [Saving Abel’s manager] Scott Frazier came along and introduced us to Jason Flom, the CEO of Capitol, we were excited. We were freaked out, actually – we thought we’d won the lottery. But it took a long time for the paperwork to come through and for them to finalize a lot of things. So there was a point there where we were at a stalemate for, like, six months, trying to survive. We had quit our jobs, but I started taking odds-and-ends jobs and [my bosses said] “I thought you were signed with Capitol.” And I’m like, “Well….” But it does take a while – it’s gotta go through a lot of people and lawyers and accountants. There were times when ramen noodles were eaten for a week. But you always do what you can with what you have, because you don’t want to live the rest of your life wondering. I’m just glad it came up on the good side for us – at least for right now. We’re booked until the beginning of the new year. It’s good to be busy in this business.
Yeah, it seems like you haven’t been off the road the entire year.
We went on a tour with Evans Blue back in November, and we got home about mid-December. And from about mid-December until January 14, we got to be at home. We left on the 14th, and pretty much haven’t gone back. [laughs]
That has to be draining. Any trick you’ve picked up to survive the grind?
Dude, yeah, there’s one that works the best for me. You look at this job – all the press, all the radio performances and the headlining shows and the co-headlining shows and the 40-minute sets and the 50-minute sets – and you have to look at it one day at a time. If you look at it in a broad perspective, the work is just so overwhelming. That’s how you survive it: “What do I gotta do today?” You get that done, and then you just live up to the next day – and see if you can do it better.
How did rock music come into your life?
Music has always been a part of my life, ever since I was a baby. My dad plays guitar, banjo, mandolin. Growing up, two Saturdays out of the month, the family would come over, and we’d have six people playing guitars. It was always around – it’s kind of been a comfort zone for me.
Lots of kids grow up dreaming about joining a band, but eventually you have to give that up and find a real career. How did you keep that from happening to you?
Like you’re saying, everybody eventually grows out of the rock-star phase. You get to be 17 or 18, and you’ve got to start thinking about what you want to do with your life. And there’s so much pressure at that time – going to college, paying your bills. But music’s just always been there for me. My dad’s always had my back. There’s always been instances when I had to do the music thing and work at the same time, and, dude, it was freaking horrible. I’d stay up 18 hours a day. I’d go to school from 7 [in the morning] to 3. Then I’d work at Wal-Mart from 3:30 and get off at 9 or 10, because I had to go to school the next day, but those managers make you unload trucks till 1 or 2 in the morning.
That would be horrible. But I read that one of your jobs back then was running a movie theater, which sounds pretty great.
Dude, I know it’s sad to say, but it used to be the highlight of my life. But it was so much fun running that place. I was the technician, and I used to put the movies on the reels. Growing up in high school, we were Southerners, we drank – underage drinking, I know it’s not cool, but a kid does what a kid does. But we’d pack the coolers full of beer and when everybody else went home, we’d stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning just watching movies. It was awesome. I had a blast there, man – my first band used to practice in the movie theater.
Last question: If “Addicted” is the only song based on personal experience, does that mean “New Tattoo,” about a crazy sexual escapade with a hitchhiker, never happened?
Well, Jason is the one who wrote that song. He says that that’s a true story. I wasn’t around when it happened, y’know. I can’t discredit him. [laughs]
