After scoring countless hits with his rock band Staind, lead singer Aaron Lewis has decided to dive head-first into country music with "Town Line," that hits stores 1 March 2011.
"It just kind of seemed like the natural progression, the way I tend to write," said Lewis. "The songs over the years that I've written by myself and brought it to the band, songs like 'Outside,' 'It's Been Awhile,' 'So Far Away,' 'Everything Changes' 'Epiphany,' 'Tangled Up in You,' if you took those songs and put country accompaniment to them, they would fit on this solo record that I'm putting out."
Staind songs as well as those for "Town Line" were written on an acoustic guitar, Lewis said. Songs that are written that way — if penned simply — usually can be turned into anything" he added.
And so far Lewis has garnered much respect from the country music fanbase with the first single "Country Boy."
In the first week, it sold more than 20,000 digital singles, debuting at No. 9 on the Billboard Country Digital Singles sales chart. The striking video for "Country Boy" quickly hit No. 1 on the CMT.com chart, receiving more than 200,000 views during its first 10 days on the website.
Lewis admitted that he questioned his abilities before "Country Boy" hit the charts.
"I've always been quite self-doubting," he said. "you try to do your best to avoid the negativity. And it seems like anytime you have success in this business it doesn't matter what genre it is, you've sold out. I've heard it all before. Well, it may be true in some instances but it hurts my feelings because it's not true for me. I've always written every single song. I've written all the lyrics. I have a hard time unless it is claimed as a cover — I love playing covers. I would have a hard time playing a song that somebody else wrote and claiming it as my own. This new song, the single that's out right now, is definitely the most straightforward, autobiographical. Every single thing that I say is completely, 100 percent true song that I've written. Not that there's untruths to other songs. I'm just saying this one is the most straightforward by far."
Lewis tells his story on "Country Boy" over a slide guitar. Featuring a fiery fiddle lead from Charlie Daniels and a booming verse from George Jones, "Country Boy" strikes a balance between classic and modern country. The collaborations came about organically, he said.
"They heard the song and I'm very lucky that (producer) James Stroud, who helped me produce the record, knows a lot of people," Lewis said.
"He's been doing this an awful long time. He asked me who I was thinking of to be on the song with me. I was like, well, just kind of shooting for the stars, 'It would be amazing if Charlie could come in and lay down some sort of fiddle track.' He was like, 'That's a great idea.'
“He picked up his phone — he didn't go into his directory — he dialed the number just off the top of his head. 'Hey Charlie, what's up. I got a guy in the studio he's a big fan. He would love to have you come and play something on the record.' He was like, 'Thursday, 10:30?' and said 'I'll see you then.' He hung up the phone and it was done. I caught my breath."
Stroud asked if there were other performers on his wish list. Lewis mentioned Jones.
"He is the Rolls Royce of country music," Lewis said with a laugh. "I said, 'It would be amazing if he came in and sang the voice of the devil.' And, James picks up his phone and hand dials George's number. Almost word-for-word the same thing happened. They came in, listened to the song and they were all about it."
"My whole childhood had country music in the background," Lewis said. "All of my family on the Lewis side is a bunch of hillbillies. They're just from Vermont. That's the only difference. They all talk like the Pepperidge Farm cookie guy."
Lewis admitted that he's having somewhat of a difficult time promoting "Town Line." He said the album should have come out months ago instead of during a time when he's working on a new Staind collection.
"Yeah, nothing like leaving yourself negative time in your schedule," he said with a laugh. "But, oh, it's (the Staind music) going to be good. It's going to be good. It's some of the heaviest stuff we've ever done."
"It's going to be me and my bus driver," Lewis said. "He actually drives my tour bus. He is this unbelievable musician. He plays all sorts of different stringed acoustic instruments and he plays the piano and he plays the pedal steel and he plays all this stuff as good as anybody. So he's going to be out with me and he's going to pick up a different instrument depending on what the song calls for.
"I'm definitely going to play Staind songs. I'm not really sure how that's going to work. It's going to be two different things I guess; it's going to be the Aaron Lewis solo thing where I would have to assume that when I go out and tour that record, I'm going to put together a country band and go out and play them and add in some new songs that I didn't put on the record. Those will be songs that will be on the full length that inevitably will be coming. And then do this other thing as what it is."
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