“Writing is my favorite thing. I absolutely
love what a song can do to people,” White
says. “I’m just a small town guy from Hokes
Bluff, Alabama that’s gonna write about
the outdoors and write about my dogs and
write about the fish I catch and the trouble
that I have and the travels that I’ve been
blessed to go on.”
White says he’s like “a hamster on a wheel”
when it comes to writing new material. “If I
see a tree I’ll rhyme tree 50 different ways:
tree, bee, sea, believe . . . I used to drive
my poor mom crazy and drive my wife
crazy now because it’s all about rhyming
and about making things make sense, and
they’re all puzzles.”
Talking about his new music, White says
“I’m going to be proud of my family and put
their mess ups and screw ups in there too .
. . You go to anybody’s Thanksgiving dinner
table and you realize that everybody’s got
a crazy uncle Bob or crazy aunt Marcy or
whatever it is, and those people are in my
songs. I think that’s what makes music real.”
While White’s music is relatable and easy
listening, his lyrics tell a deeper story than
what’s on the surface. For example, the
line “Nobody’s talking but we’re all on
the phone” from “Back to Free” paints the
familiar picture of a room full of people
with their noses stuck in their phones.
White says we need to “disconnect to
reconnect”. “I think the coolest thing in the
damn world is to cut your phone off and
build a fire and sit around it with your dogs
or your wife or your kid or significant other
and tell stories.”
That image of family and friends sitting
around a fire is the basic concept for the
brand White is creating. “We’re so fast-
paced now . . . I think it’s important to slow
10
down,” he says. “Look at all the stuff we’re
dealing with psychologically that we didn’t
deal with 20 years ago . . . It’s so hard to be
truly happy in this world. I’m looking at kids
that are 13 and 14 that are my nephew’s
age and they got all this stuff they’re
competing with . . . it’s just like, just chill
out. Get on your 4-wheeler and go ride and
go fish and go figure out how to catch a
squirrel and that’s the music.”
“I would love to have a hit, a huge hit on
the radio, but I want to build something
bigger for the Kingdom and myself,” White
says. “I can’t wait ‘til that day where my
platform is big enough to where I can go
out there and start music programs - and
that don’t have to wait, that’s what we’re
doing now - but I’ve watched Zac Brown
do some pretty massive stuff in and around
the state of Georgia and that’s what I do it
for. I love it.”
April 2018
INSIGHT