Little Big Town After Touring with the Eagles: ‘They’re Sober, We’re Not’
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The award-winning quartet known to all as Little Big Town recently wrapped a hectic summer tour after the release of their tenth studio album, Mr. Sunshine. In the latest episode of The Spout Podcast: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook unpack stories from the road, admit they still get nervous before performing on national television, explain the process of picking who sings lead, ponder what shoes are best to wear with a romper, and decide which superpowers the Kardashians would embody if they appeared in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.
After 24 years of being a successful music group, one would assume nothing could shake the nerves of these industry pros. When asked if they still get nervous, Schlapman quips, ”Everything gets me nervous. Everything.”
Westbrook adds, ”You know what makes me the most nervous is live TV. It’s like, you know. When you’re doing awards shows like singing live on the Grammys or even late-night TV sometimes. I don’t know, there’s something about that. The countdown… you know, you got three minutes to play your song and it’s all this build up all day, all day, all day and it’s like, ‘Go’, that is nerve-wracking for me.”
Television may bring out their nerves, but the one thing where they all feel good is on the road. Earlier in the year, Little Big Town toured alongside Miranda Lambert before joining the Eagles on their European tour this summer. Different tours bring out different aspects of the group. Although they admit the “vibe is the same,” there are slight differences.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just that one is more fun. Like, Miranda is just crazy like us, you know, like, crazy in a good way,” explains Fairchild. “You know, the Eagles, it’s more of, like, we are intimidated and we need to behave and, you know. We want to honor their process.”
“And they’re sober and we’re not,” adds a laughing Schlapman.
“But with Miranda, it’s like, you know, we might end up in a pool all day long, like, before the show, or write a song,” Fairchild continues. “It feels like family, so we are always the same, but we do need to adapt.”
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Later in the podcast Host Josh “Bru” Brubaker asks the group about their process for deciding who will take the lead on a song.
“We’ve had songs in the past where we’ve all been in the room writing and we’ve all tried it and honestly, left it on the floor in the cutting room floor because it didn’t feel right for any of us. So sometimes we’re, like, finding things for each other. Sometimes we’re writing specific things. Sometimes it was written in a key that just fits someone’s voice,” says Fairchild. “There’s no real, like, rhyme or reason. It just happens. But if it’s a kind of a mean-spirited, sassy song, it’s usually me.”
Speaking of sassy, Fairchild tells the story of beating Susan Sarandon and Elijah Wood in a game of beer pong on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“Actually, Susan Sarandon said, when it was down to the two of us, she said, ‘if one of us wins, let’s both win’ And I went like this, ‘Yeah,’ but in my heart, I was like ‘no way,’” Fairchild admits to The Spout Podcast.
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Schlapman defends Fairchild by explaining, “She’s not normally the competitive one, but that afternoon she went and bought new, very expensive tennis shoes from, like, Neiman Marcus. And she was dead set that she was going to win that beer pong and by George, she did!”
And even though the group won beer pong, they can’t decide what their superpowers would be if they were characters in a Marvel movie, but they did have some ideas for The Kardashians.
“The Kardashians would be, like, hair extensions that grew really long and then, like, choked you to death,” jokes Fairchild. “Or eyelashes that are like, ‘BAM!’”
“Or their Spanx fly off and squeeze you into oblivion,” suggests Westbrook before Fairchild corrects him and lets him know “it’s Skims, Jimmy, not Spanx.”
No doubt about it, Little Big Town’s superpower would be their sense of humor, coupled with the power of their magical four-part harmonies that have made them one of country music’s most successful vocal groups.
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Listen to the full interview with LITTLE BIG TOWN on The Spout Podcast NOW. The Spout Podcast can be heard on Spotify, Google, iHeart, Apple Podcast, or any other major podcasting platform. Click HERE.
