Fourteen years is one hell of a hiatus to take off from releasing music. But sometimes, all it takes is one single driving force to light that fire from within you. For country veteran Jamey Johnson, it took something deeply personal from within to inspire his big comeback album.
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Recently, Jamey Johnson spoke with Billboard to discuss his new album Midnight Gasoline releasing this week. There, he reveals how the late country legend Toby Keith would share ideas and collaborate with him. He remembers his friend's work ethic and his mind for music that still inspires him to this day. "Toby Keith had one of the most amazing memories of anybody. I mean, perfect recall on lyrics he hasn't seen or heard in 34 years. Remembers every chord, remembers every word. He could remember names, faces, conversations, ideas, just an infinite stream of memory," Jamey says. "And as a songwriter, he was very picky about phrases he would use. If it didn't sound like his vernacular, it had to change until it fit right because he wasn't going to put something in there that didn't sound the way he would talk."
Jamey Johnson Reveals How Toby Keith is The Driving Force Behind His Comeback Album
It's these things that Jamey notices when collaborating with Toby Keith that inspires them to work together. They lay a little bit of the groundwork and he assumes he'll have plenty of time to finish up the record. "We were working on a song toward the end. I called him up one night and shared a few lines with him, and he added a few lines and we turned around and wrote this whole verse. We laughed a bunch, and it was one of those that I thought, 'This is great. There's gonna come a time I'll get out to Oklahoma or maybe he and I will meet up somewhere at a golf tournament, but we'll have some time sit down and finish this thing up,'" Jamey says.
Sadly, though, they never get the opportunity to finish what they started. Toby Keith passes away before they ever get to record more together. However, the tragedy gives Johnson the inspiration he needed to make his comeback record. Moreover, he realizes that he has limited time on this earth and doesn't want to waste it idly. "The writing was already coming back to me, piece by piece, but I still didn't have any ambitions on making a record. When Toby passed away, it moved everything into high gear because I realized that that was the end of his discography, that we weren't getting another Toby Keith record. And that's what drove me to wanting to finish my own discography," Jamey says.
"It's what made me understand that I'm nowhere near done, and so it's time to get busy. After he passed away, I immediately started talking about this session and started trying to get all the particulars in order. It was time for me to get in the studio again," Jamey concludes.
