This Week’s Backstage Country Host: Joe Nichols
Country music fans are buzzing with excitement for Joe Nichols’s latest album! Joining Kelly Ford as co-host of Backstage Country for the entire week, he’ll walk down memory lane and share stories and inspirations to some of his greatest hits.
Joe Nichols Share Backstories Behind Biggest Hits
From October 21-25, Nichols will take over the airwaves as he shares the stories behind some of his songs, including his latest song, “Better Than You” with Annie Bosko. He’ll also talk about the inspiration for some of his hit songs in the past, like “The Impossible,” which peaked at number 3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs.
From His 1st Album to His 11th
Nichols will be releasing his 11th album Honky Tonks and Country Songs on October 25. He reminisced with Ford about his experiences recording his first album. “I would go in with this cocky attitude in the studio and say, ‘You know, I could sing eight songs in a day.’” He explained, “Each one requires about ten takes. So, you know, 80 songs. The time in the studio didn’t bother me. I could be in there 12 hours, and it didn’t bother me.”
However, after recording a lot of albums during his career, Nichols realized, “When a song feels right, it clicks in the studio, and you don’t have to do it 100 times. You’re just doing it.”
A Good Tequila Story
As they reminisced, Ford asked Nichols if there was an interesting anecdote behind one of his songs from his fourth album, III. Unsurprisingly, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” was written in a bar, on a piece of napkin (no joke!).
“Gary Hand and John Wiggins wrote this song, and I think they were in a bar after having a really brutal day songwriting and couldn’t come up with anything. So, they decided to heck with it.” He continued, “They went, got drunk and one guy offered another guy a shot of tequila and the guy said, ‘Now that makes my pants fall off.’ So, one wrote it down on a napkin.”
Nichols shared the guys had another writing session after that but still thought the song to be a little inappropriate. “So, I think they turn the story into maybe a little less weird, a little more playful. And so, I think in doing that and this has been my experience for the last 20 years, almost 20 years since that song has been out that’s everybody’s got a good tequila story.” The song nearly didn’t make the cut. Fortunately, Nichols begged the label to release it as a single. Now, country music fans have the perfect anthem to drink tequila to!
For more of Joe Nichols’s music, videos and updates on his tour dates, visit his website at joenichols.com.
