Josh Turner Writes A Book
Josh Turner has written several #1 hit songs, and sold over 5 million albums. But this week, he becomes an author, as he releases his first book, “Man Stuff.” We sat down with Josh to talk about his new role, and what you can expect to find in his book:
How’d this book come about? When I was in People magazine a while ago, the book company saw I was the “hottest father.” They saw the picture of me with my boys, which is now the cover of the book. They approached me with the idea of doing the book, and I was interested because it gave me the opportunity to say some things I normally don’t get to say. I felt like this was a way for me to open up and talk about experiences in my life that I learned from. So it was fun for me. I didn’t reference any other book, I just wanted it to be about me, what I’ve learned, and these stories are ones that other people can learn from too. I wanted to keep them short and sweet, simple life lessons.
You never shied away from faith, but was it part of your life: Growing up, men went to church, and I feel there’s been a decline in that in society, men have shied away of being leaders, doing the right thing, and so I touched on the reasons why I felt men stayed away from church. Men are wired different, they don’t like to dress up, they like to do things together, and I used this illustration in the book, my manager has 3 boys too, when he gets them on the farm, they open up, and I tried to initiate in order to get closer to my sons. There’s a lot of reason s why men aren’t in church, and hopefully that’ll compel them to get past those things.
Are any of the sayings in the book from you? I don’t know, they’re mostly from growing up. I liked listening to older people tell stories about how things used to be, the experiences they went through, those were times I wish I could record those things. A lot of this book came from my memory. I remembered a lot of sayings from then.
The forward was written by Jace Robertson: They were wanting someone to write a forward for the book, and I had goten to know Jace, and I felt a connection with him, so it was a natural selection for me. I felt like we were brothers separated at birth, we act like we’ve known each other our whole life. I asked and he agreed off the bat. When he sent the first draft, there weren’t many changes at all. We were all floored by how well written it was.
Examples from where your kids say things that surprise you? Oh every day. I have collections of things my boys have said that were touching or amazing. They say you learn more from your child, and that’s true. I’ve learned so much from my boys, patience, understanding, love, it’s made me a better person, also a more tired person, but I’m better because of them and the way they look at things. Sometimes they’ll say things that’ll stop me in my tracks. It’s amazing to watch them grow up knowing they’re your replacements, you’re passing things down to them so it’s a huge responsibility.
Anything in particular they said? One of the things that comes to my mind was when Hampton was driving a battery operated tractor, I was trying to get him to drive straight, and he was on the grass, I was losing my patience, and finally he stops and said, “Daddy, just help me.” It was like a dagger in the heart. That’s how we are as human. We don’t want a God who’ll yell at us, sometimes we just need help.
What do you hope people get from the book? The first person who read it was my wife, and she’s not a man. She read it in a day, what she loved was it was simple, it was very me, and she could tell I really put a lot of effort in making sure it was my voice. She said it was like listening to me talk. That was a big concern of mine. I wanted to write stories about life in general, not just about men. The title came from me and my second son Colby. We were going to my cabin, and my wife asked him what we were going to do, and Colby said ‘Man stuff.’ So that’s where the title came from. But it’s geared to men and women.
How was your dad a presence in your life? My daddy has been a huge influence in my life. He’s always stood up for what was right, he’s always been selfless, put his family first, hard worker, no fear, but he was very loving. He tried to pour wisdom into us, and he never accepted less than our best. That was something that made an impact on me. He & my mama wanted me to chase my dreams.
How’d you write it? How different is it from writing songs? I could get used to this. It was a grueling first day. It was 13 hours, but we sat and told stories. Some of them applied, some of them didn’t. I wasn’t hunched over a guitar, and didn’t have to exert myself. I probably could have told stories all day. It wasn’t solitary because I had someone in the room. It was therapeutic because I knew the stories were going to stay in this book for a long time, maybe after I’m gone. So that to me was a great honor, to know I was honoring the people I learned from. I was passing these stories on in a tangible form.
Where are you at with the next album? I’m about 9 songs into it. It’s the hardest song of my career. It’s been hard to write, it’s been hard to find the songs, it’s been frustrating. The good thing is I haven’t been in a rush. We thought we’d have a single out by now, but we didn’t have the songs. It’s starting to come together now. I’ve written close to 60 songs for this record. I’ve learned a lot from the process, so this will be a sweet record when it comes out because I’ve worked my butt off.
Category: NEWS
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
