Exclusive Interview with Joey + Rory

Tell us about your new album,  simply named Album Number Two

R: Well the name comes from a song called “Album Number Two” that really talks about all the pressures put on artists when they have their sophomore release. The artist I originally wrote it for years ago never ended up recording the song, and Joey remembered it and said we should put it on our record – it worked and was a fun topic too.

As a songwriter, Rory, you have teamed up with so many different artists, what is it like to collaborate with your wife and create albums together?

R: It’s really the best of all and honestly, as a songwriter, you almost never have any connection to artists. With Joey, I see her everyday, every moment in the songs that we do, and they mean something to us. So from the songwriting aspect, it has really given us a platform to share our story with people, and from a personal aspect, it has allowed us to be together sharing in this dream and spending moments onstage or recording which is really wonderful.

How has your turn on “Can You Duet” in 2008 since affected your quiet life in Tennessee?

J: A lot has happened in Pottsville, our little community, but in terms of everyday life – just going to Wal-Mart, grocery shopping, walking through airports, and being in the public eye, I feel has changed completely for us, especially when we are together. People recognize Rory first just because of his look and overalls. People come up and talk to us, and I think because of the TV show, they seem more into our lives than just hearing us on the radio or watching a video. They are watching you grow, as you are watching yourself grow, into the popularity of country music.

Speaking of country music popularity, you just won an ACM award and you are nominated for a CMA coming up in November. What is it like to be considered among the top talent in country music this year?

J: Of course we are thrilled and honored to be nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year, but Rory is also nominated for Song of the Year for “A Little More Country Than That.” To me, that is what I am most excited about: to go to the award show for him as a nominated songwriter. We don’t really know how to dress up, so for us it’s a date night. We do try to dress up a little bit more, but we still show up as we are, in overalls or jeans usually.

R: It is exciting, but it is also silly at the same time – {awards} don’t really mean that much to us. We are excited to be there mostly because as kids we watched all of our heroes on the award shows, so when we are on that stage or sitting in those first few rows of the audience, it is a big deal. For the industry and the fans to recognize us for what we are doing is great, but we don’t sing for awards, we do it because we love to sing and be together, and have been given the opportunity to do both.

“This Song’s For You” off your new album has been widely talked about – is it true you wrote it on a tour bus with Zac Brown?

R: We played a show or two with The Zac Brown Band last November, and Zac was heading up to Indiana where we were going too. So, Joey drove her truck with her dog and I jumped on the tour bus with Zac, and as the evening progressed and it got later and later, and we started working on song ideas. That song showed up and we wrote it pretty quickly. A few months went by and we really hadn’t thought about it until we started a West coast tour with Zac, and in the rehearsals the song showed up again. We decided to try and sing it on those tour dates, and the crowed really reacted in a big way to it. It just kept growing since then, so we got together to record it and shot a video. We have added it on our new record that comes out September 14th.

You spend your lives as a pair, so is it the music that makes your relationship extra special? Or is it your relationship that makes your music extra special?

R: We are real faithful people so we truly feel that it is God that makes our relationship extra special. The real connection is our faith more than anything else – it was the thing that brought us together in the first place, brought us together years later singing, and keeps us together and happy today.