Page 60 - ION Indie Magazine JulyAugust 2019

“It’s tough sometimes. You see dollar signs. It’s like someone is telling you
there’s a big bag of money over there. You just need to be a little bit like
this. I rely on the people around me to pull the reigns sometimes. They’ll
say, ‘Joe that’s not you, man,’ and I agree. I trust my gut and if it doesn’t
feel right, I won’t do it.”

Nichols made it clear he doesn’t believe that he’s the authority on deciding
what music fits in which genre. He’s not afraid to step outside his comfort
zone either. Included in Nichols’ 2017 album “Never Gets Old” is a country
cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” The idea first came to Joe at a
festival he was playing in Arizona.

The guys in the band were on a break and Joe was about to play an acoustic
set. “I got a wild hair and started playing ‘Baby Got Back’ as a country song.
The guys hopped back in for the second half of the song and went with it.
The crowd was shocked at first, but then they really liked it! It was a lot of
fun.”

Mickey Jack Cones was producing the album Joe was working on at the
time and had the idea to run it down as a shuffle. The label liked it and put
it on the album. “I thought people are either going to love it or hate it,”
Nichols said. His management reached out to Sir Mix-A-Lot, who loved it,
and they made a music video in which he made a cameo appearance. “If
you do something good…if you do something great, people hear it and
they’ll want to buy it,” Nichols said.

It seems as if Nichols’ latest album is most appropriately titled “Never Gets
Old.” Staying true to yourself and making great music is a formula for
success…and that is an equation that never ages!

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Learn more about Joe Nichols at https://www.joenichols.com

Watch the video for “Baby Got Back” at https://youtu.be/gwti7-cEHh8