Q&A: Whiskey Myers' Tony Kent talks about influences, big breaks ahead of Evansville show

For Texas-based band Whiskey Myers, touring and meeting fans has always been a big part of what keeps them going.

Especially for percussionist Tony Kent, who has been in the band for almost 10 years. He'll be with them Thursday night for a show at Evansville's Ford Center.

"You get that feeling from a crowd and it's the greatest feeling in the world," he said.

The band formed in 2007 in East Palestine, Texas, and released their debut album, "Road of Life."

The band consists of singer Cody Cannon, guitarists Cody Tate and John Jeffers, drummer Jeff Hogg, bassist Jamey Gleaves, and Kent, who also plays the cowbell.

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He's actually on a break from the instrument at the moment as he just had surgery on his hip. Cowbells may be a hand-played instrument, Kent said he tends to get into the instrument like Will Ferrell in the 2008 "Saturday Night Live" skit "More Cowbell."

"I would get a little crazy and my legs would go flailing in the air," Kent, 38, said.

As a genre-bending band, they don't identify with being a country band andlean more towards rock.

"We're country boys playing rock n' roll," Kent said. "It's always gonna sound a little country because of the way we talk and where we're from."

For their last two albums, the band has decided to self-produce. In total, they've sold more than 1.5 million albums and have amassed over 2 billion streams.

As part of their 23-city tour, Whiskey Myers is stopping in Evansville to feature music from their fifth album "Tornillo," including the popular song, "John Wayne." They will be joined by special guests Drayton Farley and Matt Koziol.

The Courier & Press talked with Kent ahead of the upcoming show.

When did you get started in music?

I got started when I was about 21, that's when my first tour was. I was playing with a band out of Brooklyn. I always wanted to play music but that didn't really feel like an option. But I was in my junior year of college and wasn't happy doing that. And the opportunity came up for me to go on the road, which is what I really wanted to do. And I struggled for years touring in a van but I loved it. And I always wanted to keep doing it. I come from a musical family, so music was always kind of in my DNA.

When did you join the band? Why Whisky Myers?

In 2015, the bassist and I joined around the same time. He and I were in another band together that used to open up for Whiskey (Myers) a lot. From the moment I met those guys, it was just an instant bond and brotherhood. After that band was over, the original members of Whiskey Myers asked me to go out as a drum tech at first and that just kind of led to me coming on stage sometimes. And I never went home, I just ended up staying on stage.

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How has the band developed over the years?

We've definitely gone more to the rock side of things. Texas kind of has its own scene and so for a long time, we were just kind of doing the Texas and Oklahoma circuit and kind of the regional things, and then we started making the national push. And just it started sounding a little bit more rock and roll.

The last two albums we've self-produced so I feel like those really are a good representation of us because there's nobody's outside influence telling us what to play or suggesting something − it's literally the six of us sitting in a room working out the songs.

What are some of your favorite songs that you guys have done?

My favorite, definitely to play live and might be my favorite overall, is called "Die Rockin" which our singer Cody wrote with another Texas artist, Ray Wylie Hubbard. It's got good energy and I love the lyrics. Also, some of like the slower ones like a new one called "Heart of Stone" and it's probably my favorite to listen to, especially if I'm in a sad mood.

What's the highlight of your career so far? How were you able to get that opportunity?

In 2019, we got asked to open for the Rolling Stones in Chicago at Soldier Field. And that's definitely high up there as a highlight because I didn't know that opportunity existed.

Their booking agent was at a show that we were playing and he was recording and sending the videos to the Stones and they're like, "Oh, they sound cool, let's have them out." I think it was just as simple as that. Just be in a band for 10 years and then just happen to randomly run into the Stones' booking agent. It's that easy.

What's it like being on a long tour?

It's harder the older that you get ... We've been home the last week, and all I wanted to do was get back out on the road. But it definitely has its challenges: You miss home and your family. But it's so humbling and so gratifying to get out and see fans and see their reaction, especially people coming up and saying they've been waiting to see us for so long and they're so excited. That keeps us doing what we do.

Who are some artists that inspired you?

My other bandmates probably differ on some of these but my top three are The Beach Boys, Tom Petty, and The Rolling Stones. I grew up loving The Beach Boys, and they're still my favorite band.

What's the band's song-making process?

Usually our singer, Cody, and one of our guitar players, John, have the songs that they've recorded in voice memos or our demos on Garage Band. And so we'll just have a huge list of songs that we'll put on a dry-erase board. And we'll just go down the list and literally sit in a circle, and work on one song at a time. And if we're not feeling it, we'll move on to the next one. But if something feels right, we sit there and hammer it out and get the basic parts of the song, and then press record and roll.

The cool thing about that is everybody has input. And if somebody has an idea, even if it's we think it's a bad idea, we're still going to try it. And sometimes it's not the right idea, but it might lead to something better. It's basically us just sitting around jamming.

What is the story behind "Tornillo?"

We recorded it in January 2021, at this studio called Sonic Ranch out near El Paso, Texas. It's in the middle of nowhere on a 2,500-acre pecan farm. We all live out there while we're making the records and we're just out there for like a month at a time so there's no distractions and really nothing else to do. So we just work on music.

And so we hadn't been on the road since February 2020 because COVID shut everything down. So we hadn't even really seen each other that much in almost a year. So it was great and inspiring just to be in a room with people making music again. And I think we were there for about three and a half weeks and then we had a few weeks at a studio in Hill Country in Texas after that to put on horns and background vocals and stuff but the majority of it is recorded out at Sonic Ranch and we're super excited about it. I'm very proud of the way it turned out.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Whiskey Myers band set for performance at Evansville's Ford Center