Rodney DeCroo doesn’t play what modern radio considers country music.
“If I had to play modern country music, it would drive me to drink,” laughed DeCroo from the the middle of a successful tour in support of his new double CD “Queen Mary Trash.”
That statement is ironic coming from DeCroo considering he spent many years battling alcohol and drug addiction and getting into trouble by associating with some pretty “bad people” in Vancouver.
And while some people might say he’s lead an interesting life as a result, DeCroo disagrees.
“I wouldn’t say that, while other people were out accomplishing things, I was out getting drunk, doing drugs and committing petty crimes,” he said adding since he cleaned up, songwriting is his only addiction.
“I can’t write about somebody unless I can identify with them,” he continued, adding there there is no point to writing an autobiographical song unless there is a purpose to it.
“Otherwise it is just therapy which is only interesting to the person who wrote it. I want to write a song that is universal so people can relate to it,” De Croo added.
“Just because something happened to me, it doesn’t mean that it is important. I’ve met a lot of wild characters who are bigger and badder than I am,” he continued adding the tour has been going great so far, though not without incident.
“I was playing in Calgary and I wasn’t feeling very well, so I downed a third of a bottle of NyQuil, which put me to sleep, so I drank a couple bottles of Red Bull. Carolyn Mark had to walk me around the block, because I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to play. It’s been a long time since someone had to walk me around the block like that,” he said adding he is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge.
He’ll be bringing his five piece band to the Slice for an Oct. 1 show of his gritty, Steve Earle/ Bob Dylan/ Neil Young style country/ roots music with special guest Carolyn Mark.
He is pleased with the new double CD, which has drawn critical favour as well as positive audience response.
“I recorded 34 songs for the CD and had to choose 24. I couldn’t see anything which you could call filler,” he continued, adding being able to record a double CD is one of the benefits of being on an indie record label.
“I’m on a little label. I’m not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it’ s a real benefit is it gives me the artistic freedom to pursue something like this without having anybody tell me I can’t,” he continued.
“But it isn’t a concept album. I write about what I hope will be interesting to other people,” he said adding while his songs have autobiographical elements to them, a lot them are composites of people he know.
“I’ll be playing a lot of new songs from the new CD as well as some of the older material like “Bring It On,”” DeCroo described adding Carolyn Mark will join him on stage for a couple numbers and he will return the favour.
“It’s going to be a real good time and Carolyn Mark is a wonderful performer. I never get tired of playing these songs. I like them. I’m a performer, that’s what I do. If people want to hear a song, I’ll play it,” he said.
“I really feel lucky to be able to do what I want to do, making music with people I like being around,” he said.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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