State I’m In (Commentary)

This is Big Machine Radio. I am Becca and I am talking to Aaron

Lewis today. His new album, State I'm In, is finally available

You can stream it, download it, you can purchase it at the store

So, this next song, it is the title track of the album, and it is

So raw. I mean, I listened to it and I felt like you were laying

Your soul bare in front of everybody, and I wondered, when you

Write a song like this by yourself, is it one of the hardest songs

To write because it is so vulnerable, or is it easier to write

Because you're simply just putting

The truth down on paper or in lyrics?

Depends on how you feel about it as a songwriter. The hardest songs on

You are usually the easiest songs to write because there's so much

Emotion behind 'em, and it almost writes itself. It just kinda pours

Out of you—as a songwriter, anyways. I mean, I know that some people

Would be like, "Ugh, yeah, it just pours out of you, huh?" One thing

That I've, after hundreds of songs and twenty-one years of doing this

With a record label and close to thirty years of doing this in my

Forty-seven years of life, no, thirty, yeah, thirty years (Wow)

You know, high school bands and everything else (Right), more than

Thirty years, I'm supposed to write songs. I really think that this

Is what I was supposed to do (Right) . "State I'm In" was a really

Easy song to write. I think, you know, not being a songwriter, the

Part that I would feel would be difficult is that I would almost want

To censor myself because it's so personal, and I might try to stop

Myself from letting the world see that deeply into me, but I mean

I guess that's the makings of an amazing songwriter. I've shared more

In my songs over the years than I've shared in personal conversations

With my closest friends. People just don't know it. Well, I would

Recommend that they look at the lyrics, they study the lyrics, they

Listen to these songs. I, uh, one of the things that I've always

Tried to do as a songwriter is the more perfectly vague I can be in

Those songs, those songs that I just alluded to that I've expressed

More and people just didn't know it, because one of the things I've

Always tried to do is be perfectly vague so that ten people could

Listen to that song and at least come up with five different things

Out of those ten people that—maybe two people might hear it the same

Way (Right), but fifty percent, each one will be something different

That they got from that song. Well, and that's what was interesting

When I was listening to the album and making these questions

Because I remember when you and I had a conversation about your last

Album. You are very resistant to doing what is traditionally called

A "cut-by-cut," where you tell the story behind the song and what

You intended and what it was supposed to mean, because you didn't

Want to take that right from your fans to be able to interpret it in

Their own way. Because I was purposely being vague in those songs

And I didn't want to talk about what those songs were about for real

I've clung very tightly to the, if I tell you what the song is about

Then I rob you of your interpretation of what that song was and

And it might ruin it for you. You might have thought it was about

Something completely different and clung to that and related to that

So much, and then I tell you what it's really about and you're like

"Ah." Right. But with these songs, there's not much vagueness going

On. No, and that's what I was going to say, is that this song isn't

Vague at all. And it's kind of a different, it's a different point

In my life, a different mindset going into it. These songs aren't

Supposed to be vague. These songs are supposed to be owning it. You

Do indeed, and one other thing I wanted to ask you about State I'm

In, I mean, you have two of the most iconic voices out

There right now on this song with you, Jamey Johnson and

Alison Krauss. Is there sort of a validation to have

Those kinds of artists approve or like so much what you're

Doing that they want to put their voices on it with you?

No, not at all. Okay. I'm kidding. (Laughs) I don't know. Of course

You know, with all of the efforts of invalidation that I seem to

Encounter, it means everything to me that greats like George Jones

And Charlie Daniels and Willie Nelson and Jamey and Alison and, ah

Man, Vince Gill, and every session guy that's ever recorded with me

It's almost the only validation I get, aside from my fans. Right

I sit there going, "My money's no greener than anybody else's

Money and I'm paying the same money for these guys to be in here

But they don't have to do it." Right. They don't have to do it

They certainly don't have to be excited about it every time it

Comes around. They don't have to have an absolute blast in the

Studio with me every time that they do, but they're there. They

Change their schedules around. That's pretty awesome. It is. Well

I want to play this song for people because, I mean, just the heart-

Wrenchingness of it as I listen to it, and it is the title track

From the album. There's an accordion. That's an accordion, that "

Mer-neh-ner-neh-neh." Oh, really? It's an accordion. I never would

Have put that in this song or thought that that was in this song

We were getting clever in the studio. Evidently. I'll have to listen

Again and see if I can hear that accordion. This is the title track

Off Aaron Lewis's new album, which we are celebrating today with

His album release special. It's "State I'm In" on Big Machine Radio