Has COVID-19 encouraged you to write or record any vocal tracks remotely?
Gene Watson: I’m not really into that. I’m old school. It’s hard to put yourself in a positive mode with what’s going on. I’m about to lose my mind because I’ve never been off the road this long, although I was sidelined during my successful battle with colon cancer [in 2000]. I’ve been living on the road for nearly 60 years.
You gotta do what you gotta do. I certainly don’t want to get sick. As quick as the pandemic settles down, I’d love it if we could pick up where we left off. We were rolling heavy when the virus hit. We were hot. We were playing all the jobs that we could play, and our audiences were fantastic and driving all kinds of crazy distances to see the shows. All that came to an abrupt halt and shut us down [in March 2020]. Man, it’s a hard pill to swallow. I’m not sure when we jump back out there that it will be as hot as when we had to quit. All we can do is try to gather it back up and maintain our popularity status [unless it is postponed, Watson will be in Amarillo, Texas, with Moe Bandy on March 6; visit GeneWatsonMusic.com to stay in the loop].
In the meantime I’m trying to put a new CD together, too. I’ve got plenty of things to get my mind on. It’s just the fact of gettin’ your mind straightened out [laughs]. I’ve been working on the album for quite some time [prior to March 2019]. I’m not gonna go into the studio until I’ve got everything exactly like I want it. I foresee the album being a little bit different. In fact, I’ve thought about titling it Outside the Box. I’m gonna do some things that I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not gonna leave the country field. I’m gonna keep dancing to the records that got me here.
There’ll be original songs. There also might be a cover or two that folks have never heard because I’m finding stuff from way back in genres besides country. I can’t necessarily put my finger right on what it’s gonna be, but I’ve got a lot of ideas. Me and my producer [Dirk Johnson began playing synthesizer, keyboards, and piano for 1993’s Uncharted Mind and stepped in the production chair for 2009’s A Taste of the Truth, 2014’s My Heroes Have Always Been Country, 2016’s Real. Country. Music., and 2017’s My Gospel Roots] are gonna come up with a real unique album that the fans will enjoy.Was that always the case?