Kellams: All right. If you're a fan of the country music of George Strait, Ferlin Husky, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, good news. Cory Cross is coming to Fayetteville tomorrow. He's driving up from his hometown of Fort Worth. He'll be playing at the latest edition of Jumpsuit Jamey's Big Honky Tonk Dance that takes place at Shelton Tucker Craft American Legion Post. We caught up with Cory this week as he was driving from an errand in Dallas back to his home near Fort Worth.
Cross: You know, I've been listening to country music my whole life. At the beginning, it was sort of out of my control. It was just because that's what everybody around me was playing. And then I actually sort of rejected it when I was like a kid. I thought country music was kind of corny. But then once I got older and started like exploring music on my own, and found guys like Johnny Paycheck and Waylon and those guys, I fell in love with it. So yeah, I would definitely call what we do country music.
Kellams: I love the song "Quit Quittin'." It's just like, it's got everything. It's someone who's trying. It's someone who's been through something and someone who has just a little bit of resignation as well.
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Cross: I actually wrote that in Shreveport, actually. So yeah, I was living in Shreveport, Louisiana. I wrote that in, I think it was around 2021, is when I wrote that song.
Kellams: But yeah, do you, I brought that song up and you remember where you were when you write. Do you have those connections to most of the songs you write? You can either remember what inspired or where you were.
Cross: I typically remember where I was because, yeah, I don't know why, but I typically do remember where I was. And then a lot of the songs that I've written, I mean, some of them are just straight up like based on actual events, but most of them are like, they're sort of like stories that take a bunch of different, like, actual events and sort of like put them all together, you know what I'm saying? Sort of like an exaggerated nonfiction is the way I would describe it. "Quittin'" is definitely one of those.
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Kellams: If there is any song that's ever perfectly made for a jukebox, it's "Cryin' in a Honky Tonk."
Cross: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that song, I mean, we wrote that song to be played in honky tonks, obviously. But yeah, that was our, I mean, that's what we had in mind when we put that song together, for sure.
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Cross: Even though this new album that we're about to come out with, some of the songs I've had written for, I mean, there's a song on "There's More" called "The Highway" that I wrote when I was 19. So that song was like over a decade old when we decided to put it on that album specifically, and we decided to put it on that album specifically because it fit the ideas of that album.
Kellams: When will that album be ready?
Cross: The first single off of our new album will be out Sept. 18, and then we're going to put out a single every month until February, and then the whole thing will be out in February.
Kellams: Will we be able to hear some of those songs live this weekend?
Cross: Oh yeah. Yeah. We'll be playing about four songs off the new album.
Kellams: Finally, I want to ask about the jacket that's on the cover of the album "There's More." It's this great jacket, kind of a nudie suit type jacket with the pearly gates on the back. Where'd you find that?
Cross: My friend made that for me, actually. Yeah. She, out of Austin. Her name is Haley. Her Instagram handle is @rhinestoner. And yeah, she made me that suit, man. She found that vintage powder blue suit. I told her the idea that I had. And she put it all together. So that's custom made. If anybody out there is looking for a custom rhinestone suit, man. Yeah. @rhinestoner, I think, is actually her handle on Instagram, but it's awesome. It's awesome.
Kellams: Hey, thank you so much for spending part of your drive in the metroplex with us. Can't wait to see you this weekend.
Cross: And we're stoked. Can't wait.
Kellams: Cory Cross will perform at the next Jumpsuit Jamey's Big Honky Tonk Dance at Shelton Tucker Craft American Legion Post in Fayetteville tomorrow night. Complimentary dance lessons begin at 7. The band takes the stage at 8. Tickets are $20. Cory Cross' most recent album is titled "There's More."
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