Whey Jennings Ignites A New Season Of Great Country Music With Baptized By Fire

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Wait, I got to tell you something. What did you put inside this new album baptized by fire?

I got I'm telling you, it's got to be some of that Nashville heat in the barbecue sauce

because I keep going back to this music. What is your secret sauce?

A secret sauce is a good Lord above, man. He's really led me to a dark place in the light, man.

That's what I've been trying to put out in my music. Oh my God. You just warmed my heart on that.

You are speaking my street. I'm over here in Charlotte, dude. I've got elevation church and man,

I do. I love my worship music and no wonder this fits inside my soul.

Yeah, I'm telling you, it's like it's a country music album. It is, but you know, I've got a lot of Jesus

in it. You know, it's because that's who saved my life, man. That's just the truth.

You know, you can hear that in the song, take his hand because I mean, to me, it is such a very

personal storyteller song and it makes me want to tell my story and others that through your words,

other people are going to write. Also, I wouldn't say this is 100%. You know, this is not really a,

let me see if I can word this correctly. I am a Christian. Yes. And I am a country music artist.

This is a country music artist. This is a country music album with Christian songs on it. There's

also songs on it about other parts of life. You know, it's like forcing nature. It's a really

kind of sexy song, you know. And there's like wild horses and bad habits. It's like an old

western, you know, I mean, an old god is working on fences and riding horses. There's all kinds of

things in this album. I mean, it's just, it's been the most vulnerable I've ever been because I

put everything that I've ever been through in my life in it. You know, I've been, I put in the

breakups. I put in no way. I feel about the world today. I put in, you know, I put in everything.

Everything I could possibly put in here. Yeah. I was gonna say it makes me wonder though. I mean,

if you weren't doing the country music, would you be hosting a podcast? Because I mean, everything

in here that you're sharing is stuff that we can relate with. I mean, it's it's almost like you're

sitting in our own little neighborhood. And you're saying, by the way, we can all get along here

together. Let's work on this today. Exactly. You know, I'm talking about doing podcasts.

Well, I just don't, I'm not really checking. I like to tell people I'm not really checking

technologically savvy. Like this morning, I woke up freaking out because I couldn't get my wife.

You know, my wife just didn't know she's a baby. So to get her up here to set this computer up for me

was pretty rough. But, you know, I'm just not very technically savvy or do something like that.

Well, you use the power of music. I mean, when you've got a song like Copperheads and butterflies,

I mean, dude, I mean, I want to know where you were at when you, when you received this song,

because I mean, that fiddle in it brought back a lot of memories of Lonnie Bell from Coin Radio

up in Montana. And he used to say it ain't a country song until you got a fiddle in the band.

Yeah, I'm telling you man, that fiddle wasn't in there begin with. This is what happened. I ride with

a buddy of mine named David Wade a lot of life. We get to go down a national and different people

that we know. We sit around and write songs. And he had that one in his back pocket. And every

writing session we was at, he pulled it out. You know, he's like, I'm like, in this song,

we're never going to be able to get this song to work. It's just not going to happen. And then we met

and ran into a guy named Telebooth, Tyler Booth. I don't know. He said down, he started playing his

riff to it. And it made it work like great. Yeah, I was like, man, that's amazing. So we put it on

the album in the studio. We recorded it. And by the time we got through recording it, I was like,

man, there's something missing in this song. I was like, I love the lyrics. I love the message.

I love everything about it. But I'm just not in love with the arrangement. And I was like, I just,

I was going to set it on the back burner. And then I talked to my producer, Gary Carter. I was like,

I want to travel one more thing with this song. And see if we can make it work. And he's like,

what's going to cost you? I was like, well, it's either going to cost me or it's going to sit on it.

We got in a fiddle there and replaced the bunch of the music that was already on it with fiddle.

And it just made that song pop. And I'm telling you this, it's been, it went from my daughter's

least favorite song to her favorite song. She has been hugging me to death to put this song out

because she's ready to hear it again. And I'm like, I'm going to, I will.

For the time of doing a great song, it's my stepmother's favorite song. It's my daughter's favorite

song, favorite song. It's amazing how that song come about.

Don't you love those moments in the studio, though, when you do have that vibe that you need to

bring something in and they turn to you and say, I got somebody but it's going to cost you

because that's what happened to me as well. Because they would look at me, a team of

Steadman would have one of the greatest guitar solos. And anybody go, okay, but we're going to

need Jim to do this. We're going to need it. And you're going to have to hire them to come in.

I mean, I don't even know these people, but you have to rely on them. Is that what you

had to go through as well? Trust them to bring in the right musician. Oh, yeah. My producer is

amazing. And if he said, if he says he's got somebody, he's got somebody. Trust me. Yeah.

I mean, he's amazing. I mean, he, man, having worked on these last two albums together.

And I think we did an EP before that. Yeah, we did, we did an EP before that. And this is our

second full week album together and me and him worked together very well. You know, that's

why he put me on here as co-producers because I was kind of, I was, and some about this album,

I had to have it my way. You know, man, I just had to all be right. I mean, I was still writing

lyrics to these songs in the studio. I was like, that ain't right. I got to change it. And I was

like, I told him in it myself to death on his album. I mean, I wanted to make sure every line,

every note, every single part of this album was perfect. And it ended up, you know,

I had to pay for a little extra studio time because I had to go back and do a few things over and

over again. But I believe it was worth it. It's the best thing I've ever done in my heart.

And hopefully everybody receives it the way I'm delivering. I want to see those studio notes

because I still have my notes right, change the lyrics and stuff like that. And wasn't always

that I agreed to it. It's just that I had to trust them in order to, you know, to move some

words around. And but how did you, how did you do something even, even with a song,

what love and you does? There had to have been a time where you go, you know, all right,

we'll do it. But it's got to have my emotions in there by changing it just a little tidbit because,

I mean, this song right here to me, this is going to be the summer love song, dude. I'm going to,

I feel something in that song. Man, I'll tell you what, that's a great song. But you know,

that's the only song on the album that I didn't really want to change anything on. That was written

by Justin Spears. And I was like, man, this is amazing. I love this song. Justin Spears

made him cover of Take His Hand. He sent me Take His Hand and what love and you does.

Yeah. And I was like, man, I love the idea of Take His Hand. I need to change a few things

of it though. And he was like, okay, that's fine. I mean, I said, what love and you does?

I'm just going to leave it the way it is because I love it. I think I may have changed

a word or two in it. Wow. Wow. But as far as what love and you does goes, it was perfect when I got it.

And I'm going to give that hats off 100% to Justin Spears. He's a great songwriter, man. He really is.

Please do not move. There's more with way Jennings coming up next.

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His brand new album is called Baptized by Fire. We're back with singer songwriter

Wei Jinnings. Do you get the opportunity to step into the realms of what the authors are

writing about your family tree because I'm so inspired by your family tree. Scott G. Shay has

got this brand new book that's coming out about your grandfather and it's about his history before

music and do since I know about that and I heard this new album from you, God you have no idea

what it's doing to my soul knowing that that it's just a journey that just continues to blow us

all away. Man, I'll tell you what, it was really intimidating trying to start a music career

knowing who my grandfather was because I had fears when I first got out here, you know what I was like

I'm never going to break out of that shadow and you know a lot of them fingers came true. Yeah,

it's been really, really hard to break out of my grandfather's shadow and if it's torn made

me to the point where you know I don't want to out you know I'm not how you're trying to outdo

my grandfather, you know I'm just trying to do me you know me to try to be my own branch

on my family tree you know. But my grandfather shines a shadow so huge that it's almost impossible

to get out of and the only person I've ever seen accomplished what I've tried to accomplish

is Hank Jr., you know, he was able to, he was able to just blow out there and do his own thing,

you know. It hasn't been that easy of a journey for me, you know, I mean it's been,

been rough because of one thing I spent like eight years doing everything wrong, you know,

they only went out there and just honestly I was making a mockery of my family name if you want

to know just looking back in my opinion. But I feel like these last six, seven years I've been doing

a pretty good thing man. I feel like I've not, I've stopped trying to, you know, try to carry

on a name and trying to create a name, you know what I mean. Nobody's ever going to be

well in Jennings. Well in Jennings is well in Jennings. Yeah, so it took me a long time to realize that,

you know. What what I'm feeling from from that story now is is that I feel like that it's the

Peter story from the Bible because, you know, because Peter, you know, had, it was struggling as

well. And when you said when you turned around, I'm going, oh my God, Peter turned around as well

and he started lifting people up. And so with an album like baptized by fire, look at all the

people you're going to lift up because you turned around and said, I'm going to do it this way.

And I mean, and even when you've got a song like, uh, count, can't outrun a train. If you aren't

going to be moving people with this one, as my mother would say, you're going to shake a leg

to this song. My God, this is a piece of music. Yeah, man. Yeah, you've brought up two songs that

had nothing to do with writing. Oh my God. Hey, I want to train my brother Jack Steven Dixon,

he plays a bass for me, man. He sent me that song, which he's a production on it. You know,

I mean, I think I might have changed a word or two, too. But that's a Jack Dixon song, man. He's

either a great writer. He's always had that, you know, that rock and groove. He's been working for me

for more of my whole career off and on. You know, I mean, he also played bass for David Allen

Kova for quite a few years. But um, but he wrote that song and my wife told me to cut it for two

years. And I was like, I don't know if I can pull that off because it was like it was so groovy,

you know, and I was like, okay, but this time we'll do it. So I took it in the studio and we

baked it up a little bit because I wanted to go there faster because of, you know, you can't

ever run a train, you know. So I believe what we did to it was pretty great. You know, it's an awesome

song. And I love it. I do. What is it like for you to go from a debut album to a sophomore album?

Now we know who you are. It's like watching a binge watch on TV. Give me two or three episodes,

and I now know my characters is because when I sat down with baptized by fire, I'm going, yeah,

this is my guy way. Yeah, we're here now. I appreciate that man. Like I said, I just took my time

and I put together the songs that I thought really were great that it came out for me in my heart,

you know, and I sat down with some great writers and we all put our heads together and we made

these songs as good as we possibly could, you know, like wrong for the time I sat down and

me and David and Moose wrote that song Moose Brown. Yeah. And then we're loving you,

those are written by Justin Spears. Can't ever run a train was written by Jack Dempsey.

Damn, if I stay, I wrote that with David Wade and Karen Waldorf. And that that song right there

I think is going to be pretty powerful. It's a breakup song, but you know, it's really

more of a silver lining in there too, you know. But see, you put your voice in a place where

everybody is. In other words, they could be in their car. They could be at work. They could

be going into a nightclub. I mean, when you've got a song like Damn DeFi Stay, you are speaking

directly into our hearts in the song. Yeah, that's what the plan is, man. I mean, I do this for

a living for that reason, you know, I mean, I want to be able to reach out and grab somebody

wherever they're at in life. And then money. That's my whole goal, you know.

I feel like we accomplished that from time to time. That's good. And you can never be accomplished.

You know, but my favorite song on this album as a song I wrote was West shift. My wife used to

work in a nursing home. You know, my wife, my wife is my little story. I love her.

And she told me the most beautiful thing she ever saw was when an older couple

went up and passed away. And then the other one would pass away broken heart. Because that was

the strongest example of love she had ever seen. And me and West looked at each other and we

just started sharing it. We got to write that, you know. So we sat down with our song called I'll

see you soon. And that's really what I want my love stories ending to be. You know, it's kind of

a hard song to listen to. And it's kind of, you know, a lot of people think it's a sad song.

But I think it's a beautiful ending to a love story is what I think. And you know,

far as emotion and pulling emotions out of people. That is me and West is both. That's our, you

know, our everyone, you know, our big top dog song that we've ever written because of the song

writer. It may not be the biggest hit we ever wrote, but it's definitely the most emotional song.

Oh, my God. Because I thought of my mom and dad instantly with this song. And because my mom

and dad danced all the time in the kitchen. And I always said, well, they had their final dance.

But when I heard this song from you, it was not a final dance that they're still dancing. And

you give me hope. You give me hope that they're still watching us and all that kind of stuff.

And that's what I love about your lyrics. It's like, dude, there are no thing. There's,

there's no walls in front of what you share with us. It's like, you give it to us and we're going,

God dang, I needed that song today. That's what I talk to people about at the most books

I've ever showed them. And that's also why I keep doing this, you know, if I can touch one or

two people with my music, that's enough for me. Well, how about touching one or two people with

that fashion? Boy, I'm here's the thing. I'm shocked that you don't on your merch table have

have designer clothing because man, I would love to be up on your microphone looking out there

watching all your style and fashion in that crowd because you bring you and that is such a powerful

statement. You have my clothes. I do. I do. Yeah, like I got my first

school shirt probably about three years ago. And I was like, man, I love this shirt, you know,

and I started, you know, button in them up and, you know, chucking them in and all this stuff.

And I was like, now, you know, I started my career. I wore all I wore every one was a t-shirt

in a vest. I was like, we're going to switch this up quite a bit. So I grew up in my beard out

long. Yeah. And I started wearing these school shirts. And I kind of got addicted to them. My wife

was like, had enough. You know, I love them so much. I just a little bit of shirts shirt.

And the problem is you can't wear the same one over and over again. Nope, nope, nope.

You got to have more and more and more. So now I got like a whole basement full of these shirts,

but she's not happy about it. That's so funny. You say that because you know,

people will ask me, so what do you have in your closet right now? So you don't want to see

what I have in my closet. It's all about the performance. You're going to look in there and go,

you can't wear this out to dinner tonight. I said, yeah, because it's about the performance.

What I'm going to be doing next on that stage. Exactly. That's the truth is, you know,

shell clothes are just bad. You don't want to wear them out. You don't want to wear them on

shows on. You see me out in public. You're working out, man. That's it.

Like a twist and a ball cap usually. You see me at a show. I come to put on a show.

There's two things in my job, in my job, they're important. How you sound and how you look.

That's it. And that's the truth. Oh my God. Where can people go to find out more about this

album and and where you're going to be on tour because I'm hoping to God that he plants your

feet inside our soil here in Charlotte. We're going to, if you go to waygennings.com,

that's w-h-e-y-j-e-n-n-i-n-g-s.com. You'll take it to my website. And you'll see a picture of me,

and you just scroll down past all my videos that are on there, and you'll see my tour dates down

there below it. And there's a bunch of them. So you see that I'm not coming to your town.

Be sure to shoot us a message and we'll try to get something in your town. I love it. Well,

please come back to this show anytime in the future way. You know that door is always going to be

open for you. I so appreciate it, but it's been awesome. Well, you'd be brilliant today, okay?

You too, man.