Top Country recently got the chance to chat with Jon Jones from The Eli Young Band about performing with Dallas Smith, touring with Darius, 10,000 Towns and getting snowed in at Walmart parking lots! Read all about it below.

TC: You recently performed with Dallas Smith for the CMT special “Live at the Edison”, how was that?

JJ: It went very well, the fans here are fantastic. Considering it was a show that no one could drink at we were worried it was going to be a little tame but everybody was great, singing along to all of the songs and treating us very well.

TC: Had you ever met Dallas before then?

JJ: No I don’t think so. I mean considering I live right outside Dallas I’ve never met the man before! It was really fun to get to watch them play because I feel like in a way we were opening up for them since they’re known so well up here, it felt weird that we were playing after them. I know Dallas has got a family at home and he was planning on leaving as soon as they were done but he ended up sticking around for the whole night and watched us play, his whole band did and they were really gracious and showed us a great time.

TC: Let’s talk a bit about 10,000 Towns, I heard that you guys had said you wanted to record songs that were going to be more fun to play live for this record, is there a certain song from this album that you consider the most fun to play live?

JJ: It always feels like whatever the current single is. It’s so cliché to say it’s the most fun song but it really is because it’s fun to watch that song grow with an audience during a tour. We’ve seen it a handful of times with songs that have become hits, when we first start playing them they’re hits in our minds but no one knows any of the words or anything about them. Our current single “Dust” is definitely the most uptempo song we have on the record so that makes it fun to play and full of energy on our end. Its fun to see the reaction change week in and week out as people learn the words and kind of internalize the song and then it starts meaning something to people, more than just knowing the words. With songs like “Crazy Girl” and “Even If Breaks Your Heart” it was really months before people had lived with the song for a while and really made it their own, that’s when it becomes that next level kind of fun thing on stage.

TC: Also on this album all four of you got to write together, what was that experience like?

JJ: It was great, I don’t know why we’ve never done it before! It’s so strange to think that a band of four guys who’ve been together since college, 14 years now, never sit down and write together. For the longest time that wasn’t a priority, we always felt that once we got in the studio together that’s really when the song kind of finished getting written and we all really got to put our stamp on it. But you know the way songwriting and publishing work is that those who write the words get the credit for the song so in that aspect it’s the first time we’ve ever all done it, and it really wasn’t hard. We would always bring another songwriter into the room with us because we are so easily distracted and we would never get anything done, that’s usually been the problem in the past – we’d talk about it, start, and then ten minutes later someone would leave the room and never come back. It was never an argument we’re just four guys that go squirrel and then we’re lost. It was fun and we got some really great songs. “Prayer For The Road” we wrote that way, which is great because it’s the one song on the record that really talks directly about our lives and travel and says something about our lifestyle and what we do, so it was nice that all four of us could be part of writing that.

TC: 2014 is still getting started but what’s been the most memorable moment for you so far?

JJ: Being out with Darius Rucker, and we still have another month left of that tour. This has been the never ending winter tour for us – which I know you kind of have that going up here as well, I see the snow on the ground – but being a band from Texas for years and years and years we used to tour down there and we’ve caught every winter storm. We’ve been stuck in the north east and we spent a lot of time snowed in at Walmart parking lots, waking up in a couple of feet of snow drift. The weather’s been memorable but also getting to tour with Darius, with Hootie, because not only has he had an amazing country career but he’s got all these great songs from Hootie and the Blowfish that he can bring out and he’s been a great host and it’s been a great experience, so those two things.

 

TC’s Fun 5

1. Favourite superhero? Superman

2. Comedies or horror movies? Comedies

3. Guilty pleasure? Lasagna 

4. Favourite TV show? American Horror Story

5. Something you can’t leave home without? My iPhone

 

Watch the video for “Drunk Last Night”:

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