Discusses new single, some greatest hits, his beautiful wife and what’s yet to come.
His new single was just released to radio, and now Darryl Worley is ready for prime time again. And he promises you won’t be disappointed:
“I put nothing but hit songs on this upcoming project. Any song you pick off it you could release as a single.”
Darryl and I talked about how the new song came to be, and I also delved into the stories and meanings behind a couple of his greatest hits. We really look forward to the upcoming album; and be assured that Focus on the 615 will have a review on it as soon as it’s out!
Matt: Tell me about the new single You Still Got It.
Darryl: It’s a song I wrote with Brett Jones, a real good friend of mine. When I got [to the writing session] he already had the chorus… As soon as I heard him doing it I said, “Man, this sounds like a hit!” So we sat down and wrote two verses and a bridge that day. Then, we both started getting ideas about who might record this song.
Matt: So it wasn’t originally written FOR you?
Darryl: I didn’t write it for me, no. We talked about Billy Currington, and James Otto, and some different folks that could pull it off. Even Randy Owen. I wasn’t thinking a whole lot about cutting it myself until, on a whim, I played it at a fan club party this past year. And they just went nuts! So when we finally went in the studio I told Brett, “I think I’m going to cut a track on this. He said, ‘Go for it man!’” He loved it.
Matt: Who’s the song about; what was your inspiration behind the song?
Darryl: Well on my side of the coin, I was obviously thinking about my wife. I just think she’s a hottie, I always have. I never get tired of looking at her, and that’s one thing I’ve always known would never change. So for me to write something like this was very natural. So it was all about her, and writing something a little bit fun. It’s actually a little bit of a different thing for me. You know, for the most part the big hits have been pretty heavy. But this is just being. It is what it is, and it’s not rocket science. It’d be nice if we can have a nice little hit with this thing.
“For the most part the big hits have been pretty heavy. But this is just being. It is what it is, and it’s not rocket science.”
Matt: That’s actually a really good segue into a question one of your fans submitted to us on Facebook (Thank you Jim for the question!): How does it feel to write songs like Have You Forgotten or Sounds Like Life with such deep meaning behind them AND have them go to number one because people loved them so much?
Darryl: You know with both of those songs I felt a great deal of responsibility to get it right, because I knew if the world got to hear those songs they had the potential to change people’s lives. And on both accounts I’ve had people approach me and say, “There’s no way you could know what that song has meant to me.” I mean, you don’t necessarily think of specific things like that when you’re writing a song. I think that’s important to us as songwriters to care enough about that song to just get it right.
Matt: I would be remiss if I didn’t also talk to you about Awful Beautiful Life, because when that came out I was in college, and that was EVERY girl’s status update on AIM! (Remember AIM?) So how did you come to write that song, and what does it mean to you?
Darryl: It means a lot to me. The guy I co-wrote that song with actually passed away not too long ago. His name was Harley Allen, and I think about him now every time I do the song. He said, “I want every syllable of this song to be right out of your real life.” And he said, “Everyone will have a connection to this song if we do it right.” He was a genius songwriter, and every word in that song is true. And it’s still the song of mine that probably gets the most recurrent airplay.
Matt: So you’ve obviously had a long career with chart-topping singles, a couple million albums sold, award nominations… What are you’re goals still? What would you like to do that you haven’t yet?
Darryl: To have a string of three to four significant hits in a row. That’s what everybody in this business needs to do to reach the next level. We’ve been out here a long time, but I believe if we do that now, we could be out here for another ten years, and maybe past that. So that’s my ultimate goal and that’s why I put nothing but hit songs on this upcoming project.
Matt: We certainly look forward to it. One final thing, give us a message to your fans:
Darryl: Hey guys, I just want to say thank you for all the years of support and love and understanding. Mostly, I just appreciate the fact that you guys can connect with my music and relate to my music, and because of that I just made the best CD I’ve ever made, and I’m looking really forward to getting it out there to y’all. God bless ya.
Check out more on Darryl Worley at www.darrylworley.com.
