Interview with Brian Duckworth from the group Taylor Made
©2011 By Bronson Herrmuth
You can listen to this 15 minute interview: Part 1 of 2 (2.8 MB) mp3 Part 2 of 2 (3 MB) mp3
Bronson: How are you Brian?
Brian Duckworth: I'm doing good Bronson, how 'bout yourself?
Bronson: Thank you for doing this.
Brian Duckworth: My pleasure.
Bronson: So you guys have been busy!
Brian Duckworth: Like a one legged man in - that - contest. You know which contest I'm talking about. (laughing)
Bronson: Your main stay thing that you do really is truck driver, right?
Brian Duckworth: Yes, I drive a concrete mixer.
Bronson: Like you do day runs?
Brian Duckworth: That is my day to day job. I usually start about 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning and we get done when the orders are done. So sometimes it's 12 hours, sometimes it's 10, sometimes it's 14, 16.
Bronson: So whoever it is that you work for must be very understanding, as far as with your musical career.
Brian Duckworth: They are absolutely understanding. Alcom which is another company, our mother company is J. F. Allen who does a lot of road jobs up around home there in West Virginia and yeah, they have been absolutely understanding and were it not for Alcon, I probably wouldn't be able to be here doing this.
Bronson: So how long have you been with them?
Brian Duckworth: I've been with them almost 3 years.
Bronson: And then you're also a 1/3 member of your family band, Taylor Made?
Brian Duckworth: Absolutely.
Bronson: How does that work for you? One minute you're driving the truck and then the next minute you're on stage in front of 4 or 5 thousand people.
Brian Duckworth: It's fun! We still have our day jobs because as fun as this is, it's not paying the bills yet. Knock on wood, hopefully it's going to here real soon. Every things lookin' up and rollin' real good. Yeah I still have my day job, still drive my truck.
Bronson: At the same time you're married and you have 3 sons!
Brian Duckworth: Absolutely! Married the love of my life October 1st of 2010. Somebody once asked me how I met her and I just kinda laughed because I really don't remember ever meeting her. I have known Tina my entire life, as far back as I can remember knowing people, I've known her and her family. Just don't remember meeting her or falling in love with her, it's just always been there.
Bronson: It's like from when you were babies, right?
Brian Duckworth: We grew up in church together and from what her mother told us, when they started coming to our church, she was two and I was one. So there I've done goofed up and let you know that my wife's a year older then I am.
Bronson: Uh oh!
Brian Duckworth: If she hears this, boy I'm in trouble!
Bronson: Somebodies in trouble. Well you got enough in there about how much you love her I think she'll understand.
Brian Duckworth: It can't hurt.
Bronson: That's probably the hardest part when you're gone right? Your boys ever get to travel with you?
Brian Duckworth: Every once in a while they get to come catch a show or two. My youngest one, Logan, can pretty much sing every song we've put out. All he wants to listen to is what he calls daddy songs. So him and Tina will ride around in the car an he always wants to hear daddy songs. Even though she doesn't sing much, she knows every word 'cause he just wears her out on Taylor Made (laughing).
Bronson: Your whole family, it's incredible. You're one of 7 siblings and your were raised by a single mother, right?
Brian Duckworth: Yes we were. The cliche sound of it is that we grew up on the back porch playing guitars and singing. We're just as country as the day is long and that's where it started.
Bronson: And now you're doing the same thing with yours and they're just carrying it on.
Brian Duckworth: Yeah, absolutely. I'll get the guitar and I try to sing 'em to sleep, teach 'em songs. My oldest one Zachary is a drummer in the high school band, well middle school band. He goes to high school next year I believe. He's a drummer and the middle one's into performing and he sings along with the TV, and like I said the youngest one knows every song I've got.
Bronson: So if one of them comes to you and says, "I'm decided I'm going to be a musician." What's your thoughts on that?
Brian Duckworth: I would encourage him. I have had so much run at this and it's been a dream for so many years, I can't imagine not having tried it. It looks really really good at this point. It's looking like the stars are coming into alignment and hopefully if this hits well enough, my 3 sons can make that decision and not be hurting for it. I don't mind working 14 hour days and then driving three hours to do a practice or a show so my sons won't have to work like I do. I don't mind the idea of doing that.
Bronson: You bring that to your music too. Everything you're thinking about is family. Family, state, country. That's you guys whole mode.
Brian Duckworth: It's hard to not think about family when you've got your brother or your sister right there with you. It all revolves arounds around us, our families, our children. It all rolls in there together and without that support from that same family, we couldn't do this.
Bronson: I've been hearing a little bit of this new record y'all are making. Give me your own thoughts on this six-pack that you're doing.
Brian Duckworth: Oh this six-pack is going to be awesome. I can not wait to hear the finished product when it's out there. It falls into the vein of what people wanna hear but yet it's just different enough to be catchy. We're just having a ball with this. I can not wait till it's out.
Bronson: You were actually doing a photo shoot for it yesterday, right?
Brian Duckworth: Yes and even went totally different on that. They did a photo shoot with me not wearing a cowboy hat and not wearing cowboy boots and that's a first for me. I'm not a cowboy, I'm a redneck that dresses like one but I have worn cowboy boots my whole life. To wear flat shoes, it's fun. It's different and I like that.
Bronson: The last time we visited you guys were getting ready to do a radio tour, how'd that go?
Brian Duckworth: That went great. Got down into Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, little bit of Georgia. Wonderful people. Every station we went to we were very well received, just the nicest people. I can't think of a single bad experience out of that whole trip. Truly enjoyed it and just heart broken the following week was when the tornados went through Alabama and there was a lot of people affected that I'm sure had listened to us, had heard us. A lot of the people that we spoke to at the radio stations, there's 2 or 3 of the radio stations that were pretty much just leveled by those tornados. Just heart breaking to us because you feel like you're a part of it. People being that friendly, you can't help but feel for them. It's not just another part of the country now. It's some place where you've been and you know people. It makes it tough.
Bronson: You think there's any chance you guys you might be able to get involved?
Brian Duckworth: I truly hope so. I would be more than happy. I wouldn't care if I have to walk and hitchhike to do it. I would be more than happy to go down there, I really would. I'd love to go down there and help those people out.
Bronson: You guys did a big show here just recently in Bluefield didn't you?
Brian Duckworth: Yes, Bluefield, West Virginia. We did a show with, let me see, Brantly Gilbert, Justin Moore, Easton Corbin, Craig Morgan, Montgomery Gentry and Dierks Bentley. All just fantastic showmen. just wonderful learning experience. Just goes to show you how far you have to go before you reach the level of some of those performers, just unreal.
Bronson: Did you have a chance to hang out with them back stage?
Brian Duckworth: We hung out with a couple of them for a little bit. Just fun people. That's what great about country music. Everybody is just so down to earth. The biggest star in country music is still the most down to earth person you'll ever meet. They're just like you and me, they really are. Just wonderful people.
Bronson: Tell me a little bit about how you feel about songwriting.
Brian Duckworth: You almost have to write to get your story out. Every body writes what they've lived. Your greatest hit may be something you've never experienced but your greatest song is gonna be the one you lived. If it's never released, if it's never heard, your greatest song to you - the one that means the most to you - is the one you've lived and you felt, and it's important to me to write those songs.
Bronson: And you're working with one of the best songwriters in the country.
Brian Duckworth: Oh yeah, we've been writing with Bobbie Fisher. Fantastic, wonderful man. Love him already. To be with that caliber of a songwriter and sit down, it's really a hard feeling to describe. The honor, the flattery, the humble. It's just fantastic to sit down with a man like that and he is willing to sit down with Brian. I'm just an old hillbilly from West Virginia and this mans sitting down and writing songs with me. I just can't describe how humble and how grateful I am for that opportunity.
Bronson: Do you find yourself getting ideas as you're goin' down the road?
Brian Duckworth: Oh yeah absolutely. I've written two or three songs. Before I was driving a concrete mixer I was an over the road truck driver and there have been a couple loads along the way, and I won't mention any names because usually I use an excuse of needing to fuel up or needing to eat, but there as been more then one occasion that I've pulled a truck off to the side of the road to write a verse (laughing).
Bronson: Just to get out that pad and that pen (laughing)?
Brian Duckworth: Yeah it gets to rolling around in your head and you've just got to write it down because you know when you come into a big city and start fighting traffic and lights, you're going to forget.
Bronson: As a truck driver you were probably listening to every radio station you can find?
Brian Duckworth: Oh yeah you're constantly listening to songs to see what's out there, what kind of grooves. Always trying to find a new guitar riff or something that you can doctor up. You've gotta listen to what's out there to know what to put out there.
Bronson: You're ready for some touring. You know how to get out there and stay out there.
Brian Duckworth: Yeah, unfortunately I do know that part of it (laughing). I've been a road dog for years.
Bronson: And you get to travel with your brother and sister so as long as the 3 of you don't kill each other.
Brian Duckworth: You were making it sound really fun and interesting leading up to that (laughing). No, I can't imagine doing this with anybody else, I really can't. Love 'em to death. We're typical brothers and sister. We have our arguments, we have our spats, but that's just all it is.
Brian Duckworth: Before long you guys are going to have a heck of a family band.
Brian: I hope so.
Bronson: It's going to be like the King Family, some of these great families, the Jacksons.
Brian Duckworth: See we grew up listening to the Gospel, so we had the Happy Goodmans and the Crabb Family.
Bronson: Right, just like that. That same kind of legacy.
Brian Duckworth: I certainly hope so. Greg and Wendy have got some of the prettiest little singers, that they call daughters that I've ever heard, and like I said my 6 year old son already knows pretty much every song we do. He's getting a pretty good grasp on it, he's getting a good handle on it.
Bronson: I bet grandma's proud. I bet your mom is proud of all this.
Brian Duckworth: Oh absolutely, she's loving life. It just tickles her to death to see those grandkids sing.
Bronson: I'm hoping to meet her and the whole family.
Brian Duckworth: I hope so. Anytime just give us a call.
Bronson: I really appreciate you for doing this.
Brian Duckworth: It was my pleasure.
Bronson: And good luck out there on the highway.
Brian Duckworth: Thank you.
(Authors Note) You can read the story I wrote about Brian Duckworth after we did this interview.
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