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An Exception to the Rule: ‘Sometimes Y’ Writes a Love Letter to Rock n’ Roll

We all grew up learning the rules of the alphabet. A, E, I, O, U… and Sometimes Y. An exception to the rule. Outside of the regular bounds of grammar and spelling. When it comes to music, the combination of Shooter Jennings and Yelawolf is the exception to the rule. A pairing that on its face looks completely random. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I got the chance to speak with Sometimes Y, both Shooter and Yelawolf, to talk about the making of the Sometimes Y album and more.

Both born in 1979, these two artists have had a deep love and appreciation for the music and pop culture of their youth. While Shooter was discovering new music as a teen in the early 1990s, his father Waylon Jennings was a bit mortified.

“I showed him [my dad] Nine Inch Nails and he got [really] worried, real fast,” Jennings explained about his early influences. “Because [of] the lyrics and shit. It’s like suicidal shit and… he went and did an interview and said, ‘I think Trent Reznor is a musical genius but a lyrical idiot.’ And I was mortified.”

When Shooter was playing Lollapalooza with his dad and his band, Yelawolf was growing up in Antioch, Tennessee. But, they were both taking in the music of their youth. And not just country music, not just rock music and heavy metal. They were also getting deep into hip hop.

“Everyone watched ‘Yo! MTV Raps’ and Headbangers Ball‘, you know? … Yelawolf said this the other day. He said we were really lucky because we got the 70s rock, 80s into the golden era of rap, and grunge. And all of that. We saw Metallica ‘One’ and we also saw, like, NWA at their height.”

It was that variety and that era of experimentation musically that inspires the music behind Sometimes Y. So, how did it end up happening? How does a kid from a trailer park in Alabama and the son of Outlaw Country royalty come together to put out one of the best rock albums that has been produced in years? Well, family, of course.

‘Sometimes Y’ Got Started with a Little Bit of Struggle

Those that have been following Yelawolf’s career since the early years know the connection between the southern rapper and Shooter Jennings. That connection is Struggle Jennings, nephew of Shooter. Born a little later than his uncle in 1980, Struggle, or William as Yelawolf calls him, has lived an interesting life. From collaborations with Yela to going to jail for a number of years and then rebirthing his music career after.

“My nephew Struggle, introduced me to him [Yelawolf]. I was playing in Atlanta in like 2009 or 10 because we were doing Black Ribbons, I know that.”

Black Ribbons didn’t pan out how Jennings wanted. His solo career took a dive. Meanwhile, Yelawolf was about to sign with Shady Records and go on a run of albums that solidified him as a genre-bending hip-hop artist. Culminating in his 2015 hit record Love Story.

Shooter Jennings, son of the late Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, opens for Toby Keith during the “Big Throwdown II” tour Saturday 8/13/2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion in Devore. (Photo by Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Yelawolf would stay with Shady Records until 2019 when he decided to go independent and focus on his Slumerican label and brand. Much like Marshall Mathers did with his aforementioned label.

However, soon after 2010, Shooter leaned into producing. First with Jason Boland & The Stragglers on Dark and Dirty Mile. Soon, he was producing Grammy-winning hits with Brandi Carlile, putting Tanya Tucker back on the map, and more. Still, he wanted to cut a record with Yelawolf.

It took years of planning. Things didn’t work out here and there. Then, the pandemic happened. But, with Yelawolf out of his deal, and Jennings in the middle of his new career outside of solo music, it seemed like a perfect time to do the record. They wanted to record in April 2020, but everything was closed. By June 2020, things started to open a bit more, but in the shadow of George Floyd’s murder.

“You mentioning, William, Struggle… His birthday party… I went to his birthday party, let’s say it was on a Sunday, right?” Yelawolf broke down for Outsider. “And the looting and all that shit had just started [in] downtown Nashville. This was like a day after George Floyd’s murder… Let’s say that was on a Sunday. Then Monday I flew to LA. And, I landed in LA to military trucks on the interstate.”

“And I went straight to the hotel, stayed the night, went in the morning, straight to the studio. Like, in the height of it all. In LA. It just added on to all these pieces where – frankly, I was also, personally affected.”

A Summer of Anger and Protest

Amid one of the biggest surges of protest and social unrest in modern history, Sometimes Y recorded an album. In Los Angeles. At Sunset Sound. It all came together, not when they planned it to, but at the same time, it happened in the perfect time and place.

“The serendipitous side of it, the fact that we had spent years planning this record, right?” Yelawolf explained. “And it lands during this time, I thought, ‘Who in the fuck is cutting a record right now, but us?’ Like, seriously. On Sunset? It was almost like, here guys, this is your role during this.”

“Totally,” Shooter added on. “They opened the studio for us. This was a period of time when there were like curfews. So they let us go work in there and it felt important. It felt like we got cast in a role we didn’t know we were going to be cast in.”

Inside the small studio, the band could seal off the outside world. However, it was impossible to escape it completely, and they didn’t want to escape it either. In fact, they put themselves into the midst of things and fueled their energy and creativity with the passion of the people.

“I felt the reasoning behind the marches, I felt and understood what was like, I wanted to be there,” Yelawolf said. “Matter of fact, a few times, we did get out there and walk on Sunset with the people. So you know, you have to think constantly, helicopters are over the studio all day every day. All day every day, helicopters following the protests that was going down Sunset. So, the air was just so thick.”

“So, at any rate, it like, blossomed into this beautiful piece of music. I knew it was going to come out on one specific record, and it did. It came out on a record, ‘Fucked Up Day’. And the whole band just fucking cried out. Like, everybody let go of that frustration in that record.”

As far as the silence of the soundproof studio, that went out the window as soon as you stepped into the private courtyard outside, Shooter explained what that was like as well.

“I don’t mean to be like, oh, just dramatize the situation. But you have to realize just how intense it was. Like, we’d be in the studio but there’s a courtyard that’s shared between the studios at Sunset. It’s walled in, like, you can’t see outside, but you can hear everything.

“We would walk out of that studio and it was like, helicopters constantly flying, honking in support of [the protests], and then like chanting. Thousands and thousands of people chanting. So, you go outside and it’s like…loud.

Shooter Wanted to ‘Blow Peoples’ Minds’ With Yelawolf Record

If you are going to take the time to record in the summer of 2020 in Los Angeles, with Yelawolf… then you better have high standards and hopes for the project. Shooter knows that others have tried to do rock albums, but he wanted to do it right.

“Sometimes other people when they go, ‘Hey I’m cutting a rock record,’ they make a very very mediocre rock record but just for the shock value that they did a rock record.”

Going into this project, the producer knew what he wanted the effect to be. He didn’t want folks to shrug and go, “That’s cool.” He wanted to go above and beyond.

“I just looked at it like, I want to blow peoples’ minds, Yelawolf fans’ minds. We had this long conversation that kind of led to this, I wanted to facilitate the environment for him to do something brand new and exciting and very special. So, when we got there like he [Yelawolf] said, we didn’t know what was going to happen.”

It wasn’t until he was hanging out with friends for his wife’s birthday party in July of 2020 that he knew he had something special. Well, he knew it was special, but he finally knew that the project had legs outside of his own feelings about the record.

“I’m telling you, man, I’m a cynical motherfucker, and I hang out with cynical, judgey people. Snobby music lovers. … And I sat there, and I put it [‘Make Me a Believer’] on, this guy Chris Childs man… he’ll tear everything I’ve done down. In a good way, he’s not an asshole, it’s just not for him. He was like ‘Holy shit!’”

Shooter’s friend wanted to hear more. He made the producer play it again, and then another song.

“That was the minute I knew, I’m not crazy, this is fucking awesome. It’s all about, it’s all about Yelawolf.”

Writing a Love Letter to Rock n’ Roll and Not Mimicking The Past

Going into this project, there was one thing that Sometimes Y was not going to do… mimick the past. While they draw inspiration from Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, and so much more, they never wanted to copy those sounds. And, if you think you know the inspirations behind the tracks, you don’t.

“My influences are not what you think they are, trust me,” Yelawolf explained. It was the most serious he sounded the entire interview.

“[Kids now] their appreciation of what rock music is is pretty limited,” Shooter explained. “Like you have bands like Greta Van Fleet doing this garbage reinterpretation… that’s the cynical snobby person in me that’s like, ‘This is horrible.’ I have issues with it. For his style, those guys in that band are just kind of imitating what guys who came before did. With Yelawolf’s thing, it’s a completely fresh take on all this.”

“I felt immediately that ‘This is the thing that rock n’ roll needs to bring it into the modern era.’ It needs to be born of someone who came from the 80s, 90s world that we grew up in, which was MTV,” the producer lamented.

When you listen to Sometimes Y, you will find all these hints and familiar sounds. However, I promise you that you can listen to all the 80s metal, R&B, hip hop, 90s grunge all you want. You will not find something that sounds exactly the way this does. It’s because this isn’t “paying tribute” to the past. It’s a love letter. Just take it from Shooter himself.

“I think it’s definitely a love letter to the rock n’ roll that we grew up listening to. Tom Petty was rock n’ roll at the time and it never felt kitschy. He was rock n’ roll to the day he died, and he made great records.”

From Music to Cars and The Clothes He Wears, Yelawolf Marries the New and the Old

For Yelawolf, it comes down to mixing the old with the new to make something entirely different, unique, and hopefully mind-blowing. While talking about the possibility of owning a retro-fitted, electric box Chevy one day, the singer-songwriter related that back to his music. Because, of course, he did. Classic Chevys and vintage style is what the artist raps and sings about all the time.

“My whole style, and it does apply to my music, it does apply to my records, is that… I love the juxtaposition of nostalgia with new technology. I apply that to everything that I do. From art to the clothes that I wear. To the house I live in, the cars I drive, and the music I make because Sometimes Y is that. It’s nostalgia with new. It’s visiting ideas we were inspired by, but using today’s ideas.”

an-exception-to-the-rule-sometimes-y-writes-a-love-letter-to-rock-n-roll
Photo Credit: Jesse Lirola

Yelawolf and Shooter aren’t going to chase nostalgia. They won’t chase a certain sound. Instead, they make their own sound. Because, as the Sometimes Y frontman puts it, “do the most you can do with what’s available now because it’ll be nostalgic in 20 years, I promise. You don’t have to do something that’s been done before to feel nostalgic. Because everything is going to be vintage one day, man.”

While talking with Shooter and Yelawolf, the energy they exude is contagious. Their passion and love for the music is clear with every point they make and with every lyric on the album as well. No matter how well this album does as far as sales and streams go, this is something that everyone involved has pride in.

Sometimes Y Is Proud of The Art They Made, and They Don’t Care Who Buys It

After all that they went through to record the album, the planning that failed, then rescheduling, recording during the Summer of 2020, and all that went into this project… Sometimes Y is damn proud of their work.

an-exception-to-the-rule-sometimes-y-writes-a-love-letter-to-rock-n-roll
Photo Credit: Jesse Lirola

“We just so happened to love the same shit, like a lot of the same shit,” Yelawolf explained with sincerity. “And it unfolded because of that and we’re just fucking, we’re stoked. I know we’ve talked a lot, but as you can tell we talk a lot about it because we love the album. We really do love this album and we love what we’ve done.”

Shooter shared similar sentiments to finish our interview together.

“Everybody there [in the band] is so proud of what they did and it’s a beautiful thing. Because we are cynical people, we are judgey people and we’ve gotten fucked. Because we believed in great music and tried to make great things and to turn it around and put it on people who don’t understand it.”

“This record, I don’t think anybody cares if 10 people buy it, 10,000 people buy it, or 1 million people. We are proud of what we accomplished with this. And the people we really care about are the people who love it even more.”

Sometimes Y, the band, and the album are out now. Listen wherever you find your music, or don’t. They don’t care either way.