Chris Janson and Kid Rock might just be two of Country music’s most unlikely friends. While their dynamic has us scratching our heads, we have to admit their friendship makes for some fun stories, like the one time Kid Rock tried to convince Chris to go to Waffle House at 1AM in a Rolls-Royce.
LISTEN NOW: Chris Janson tell Rob + Holly the full story
“One night he was over at my house during Christmas time and it was like 1 o’clock in the morning and I was really tired, and I don’t drink… he was like, ‘Hey! Let’s go to Waffle House! And I was like, ‘Noooo, let’s not to go Waffle House.’” Janson told Audacy’s Rob + Holly.
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“He was like ‘Seriously, dude! Here’s what we’re gonna do, I’m gonna get a Rolls-Royce, I’m gonna have it brought down here to the house’ — this is a true story — ‘I’m going to have it brought down here to the house and it’s going to pick us up and we’re going to go to Waffle House, and then we’re going to go downtown to [Nashville’s] Lower Broadway and see my bar.’ And I was like, ‘Bro, I ain’t goin’.”
Wow, he must’ve been really tired to turn down those smothered hash browns and a ride in a Rolls-Royce!
“We ended up hugging on the front porch. He went to bed, I went to bed… I think he went to bed, I don’t know,” Chris laughed. “He freakin’ calls me grandpa because I go to bed early in his world… I live a really wholesome lifestyle.”
Kid Rock isn’t the only friend who is trying to get Chris in touch with the late-night hours. He also shared the making of his new album, All in, which releases April 29 involved a few late night text messages from Eric Church.
After forming a friendship during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Chris and Eric found themselves fishing together and before they knew it — cutting a song for Chris’ new album.
“It was 3:45 in the morning, I’ll never forget it,” Janson said of hearing from Church for the first time regarding the song, “You Me & The River.” “I get this text with a voice memo on it and it’s Eric Church playing a work tape and it says, ‘This is kind of dark and out there. But I thought you might like it. See what you think.’”
“I hit him back and I was like, ‘I love this, why don’t we do a duet?” Janson said. “Just threw it out there and immediately… he hit me back, he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m all in. Let’s do it!’”
Not only did the pair record the track together, they also filmed a music video, which Janson says got a little awkward when he had to bury Church and throw dirt in his face.”
“Burying Eric Church was not easy to do… it freaked me out,” he shared of the music video process. “He was like, ‘Throw some dirt on my face,’ and I was like, ‘I can’t do that, man.’ Then we was like, ‘No. Really.’ So I did and then he was like ‘A little bit more!’ And I was like, AWK-WARD!”
“You Me & The River” is the only song on Janson’s album that he didn’t have a hand writing, but is not the only song that involved Church. Janson continued on to explain he and Church co-wrote “Flag on the Wall,” after Eric sent another late night text message with a verse already written.
“Again… 5:45 in the morning, weird time to get a message,” Chris laughed. “He sent me this half done song and a little work tape of it and he was like, ‘What do you think?’… I loved it, so I threw it out there again… ‘I love this, why don’t we co-write it? Let me finish it.’ So, that’s where ‘Flag on the Wall' came from.’”
It’s clear Chris Janson is a good guy who makes good music by the sheer amount of high profile collabs included on this album. He also welcomed Travis Tritt and Rhett Akins to sing as well as Kid Rock to appear in a music video. We can’t blame ‘em all for wanting to be a part of it!
Chris’ album, All In, is available everywhere now.
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