It's hard these days to turn on the radio and not hear a song penned by Jaren Johnston, the lead singer of The Cadillac Three. Johnston is currently responsible for Jake Owen's "Beachin'," and other credits include Keith Urban's "You Gonna Fly," Tim McGraw's "Southern Girl," Dallas Smith's "Tippin' Point" and Owen's "Days of Gold."
However, songwriting was the furthest thing from Johnston's mind growing up. "I was actually a drummer as a kid, up until I was about 22 or 23," he reveals to Roughstock. "My dad bought me two guitars – a classical guitar and a electric guitar when I was 13 for Christmas. He was really adamant about me learning how to write songs. He always said you can make a living playing drums, but you can make a fortune writing songs. I was always enthralled with that. Ever since he gave me those guitars, I would sit there and listen to Nirvana songs or Clint Black or Keith Whitley, and I was picking them out and discifering their story to learn how to do that. I've always enjoyed that. I started taking it seriously in my late teens/early 20s."
Luckily for Nashville he did make the transition. Johnston is also the sole writer on his band's current hit on the rise, "The South," on top of numerous album cuts with the likes of Eric Church, Frankie Ballard and more. So who would his dream cut be? The obvious choice of course ... Garth Brooks!
"Garth Brooks was one of my favorites growing up," says Johnston. "I think that would probably be one of the coolest things to get a Garth cut. That's a bucket list one right there, as far as country goes."
Related Jaren Johnston Content:
Story Behind The Song: "Days Of Gold" | Story Behind The Song: "The South"
Story Behind The Song: "Beachin'" | Story Behind The Song: "Southern Girl"
Read the lyrics for "The South" here!
Follow Jaren on Twitter here. Follow The Cadillac Three on twitter here. Follow Roughtock on twitter here!
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