Josh Turner’s 20th Anniversary

Hard to believe, but Josh Turner’s hit “Your Man” is now 20 years old. To celebrate, Josh is releasing a commemorative 20th anniversary vinyl edition of the album on August 14.

Josh remembered how that song marked a big change in his career: “That was intentional. We picked up that people had pigeonholed me after Long Black Train. We wanted to come with something completely different, but was still Josh Turner. We thought Your Man would accomplish that. It showed people I had versatility to pull it off.”

It was more than just the one song. He had back to back #1s with Your Man and Would You Go With Me. That really set things up for him: “That was a huge deal. It meant something commercially within the industry. I proved I could have chart success. The sales of that record were incredible. It debuted at #1. It was pretty crazy.”

The song had long lasting influence. The song was part of Scotty McCreery’s win of American Idol in 2011. He & Josh did a duet version of Your Man on his new album “15.” We asked Josh about that: “Scotty’s the best. He’s been a good sport with me raggin’ him about the song lyrics. I’m glad we were able to laugh about it on the duet version. I just listened to it yesterday.”

Your Man was partly written by Chris Stapleton, and it was his first #1: “I’m not super close to Chris, but I’ve known him a long time. I knew him as a writer. I knew he had an interesting voice. It was hard for us to find a key to agree on because my voice is so low, and he can go so high. I never thought he wanted to be an artist. When he did, it was a shock to me. He was always so shy. I’m very happy for him, and he’s done well. I’ve cut a lot of his songs, and he actually sings backgrounds on Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln that’s also on the Your Man album. So you can hear him there.”

The year 2006 was very busy for Josh. In addition to his #1 hit and album Your Man, he also became a father for the first time. His oldest son Hampton will turn 20 in October. We asked Josh to update us on Hampton: “He’s pursuing the music thing too. I help him as much as I can. He’s learning a lot. He was part of something I did recently. He’s learning a lot, and we’ll see what the future holds.”

Josh was a regular co-host on Country Countdown USA, going back to 2006.

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Category: CO-HOST