In this Times photo from May 2015, Jesse Priest belts out‘ The Thunder Rolls’ for his Holly Pond hometown crowd during the
Battle of The Bands at 2nd Fridays in downtown Cullman.
How long have you been playing guitar?
Twenty-seven years. I actually started playing the drums because my parents had some friends that would play music, and my mom would sit in and play drums for them sometimes. I thought that was cool, so they brought me a drum kit. That kind of fizzled out. Then I was just like,“ I want a guitar.” And they ' re like, Okay, sure, you know. And then they bought it for me, and I took to it like a cow to cud. Took after it and didn ' t let up. It was a cheap little 100-dollar Indiana guitar, black like Johnny Cash ' s guitar.
What do you play now?
Oh, it varies. I have a Taylor that I play most consistently at shows. I also have a Martin that I play some, and I have a bunch of Telecasters. That ' s my favorite guitar, so I play all those that I can.
What ' s your favorite type of music to listen to?
I love Southern rock. Just the kind of the bluesy and the raspy and the grit and the flow of their voices. I ' ve also gotten real big into singer-songwriter stuff. So people that are just under the radar. Somebody ' s local little musician, you know, from, I don ' t know Oregon, and stuff like that. I love that niche. The real writing and singing and the stories.
What’ s your guilty pleasure listen?
Cher. I love Cher. I love Dolly Parton. Of course, I think you have to. I don ' t think anybody has anything bad to say about either one of those ladies. But,“ Believe,” if that song comes on by Cher, I just scream it out in the car.
Do you do a cover version of‘ Believe?’
I don ' t have a cover, unfortunately.
Will you be prepared when people read this and request it?
I guess I need to be. I ' ve always said I wanted to do a cover, and the band guys were like, " Are you sure about this?” And I’ m, " I really want to do it.” So, maybe this will push us to have to do it now.
Who inspires you musically?
My whole life, I ' ve been a massive Prince fan, that ' s why I have purple raindrops tattooed down my arm. It ' s because that is one of my favorite songs. He was such a genius on every instrument, like he could just play everything. He was a great artist as well, the lyrics and his voice and his playing, but just the way that he knew and felt music. I really loved that.
Another big one would be Michael Jackson. I don ' t know how you compete with those two, but those two were great.
I ' m an old soul, I ' ve been told. I vibe with all that. Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorite artists. Stevie Nicks and stuff like that. Then of course Chris Cornell( Soundgarden) and Eddie Vedder( Pearl Jam). I love all those people who wrote very intimate lyrics and made you feel something in their music.
Describe your style of music?
We have some of your cliché country kind of southern rocky stuff where it’ s, driving down the road and doing this, that, and other, but then we also have a lot of stuff that I pull from deep. Me and my buddy Daniel Harbison write a lot of stuff together. It’ s from our life experiences and the things that we just dig deep and pull out.
We wrote a song called " King of the Wild Ones,” and there ' s just some parts in it that are like real deep parts. One of my favorites that we ' ve ever done is a song called " Moon Child.” I wrote it through the eyes of seeing myself, even though the story is from the point of view of a female. I wrote it because I was like, well, it fits better for a girl’ s perspective. You ' re singing about this lost love that she had and this intimacy that she had with music, and then she goes down like a dark path in her life, and then at the end … you know.
So it ' s just like“ Stay wild, moon child, and you can ride the western wind.” Me and Daniel and Justin Veal wrote that song, and it ' s one of my favorites that we ' ve ever done. I could kind of reflect on it as part of my journey in life.
Who are other artists you perform with?
I also play with Chris Whitehead, Josh Gowens, Zane Emerson, Eric Figueroa … we call him“ The Fig.”
Cullman magazine | HOLIDAY 2026
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