AVE: So, what are you doing right now?
ST: Not really much right now, just made some tea, just kinda got my iPod shuffle going. That's one thing about what I do.
AVE: Are you at home now?
ST: Yeah, we're at home. When I'm off, I'm off. I'm just kind of moseying around.
AVE: You're scheduled to play the Real Big Deal festival here in Gainesville. Have you ever been to Gainesville before?
ST: I'm pretty sure that we've played Gainesville. It all kind of gets blurry to me. If we have, it's been a long time.
AVE: Is there anything specific in Gainesville that you're looking forward to doing or seeing?
ST: I have no idea. In every town we go to, sometimes there's zero time for that, and sometimes we have a day and a half to do stuff. I kind of have a feeling we're going to be in and out of there. But, maybe I can vacation there one day.
AVE: Will this be a national tour?
ST: Last week we got back from Europe, and I believe we counted it was our 11th tour of Europe. And we constantly tour the U.S. So, we're on the road pretty much, you know, 200 days of the year. We just got back from Europe, and now we're at home for about another week, and then we're getting ready to head out and do it all again. It's kind of festival season right now, spring and summer, and we tour through the fall, and we start slowing down at the end of fall, beginning of winter, for rest.
AVE: So, you said you've done 11 tours of Europe. And you've been together for ten years?
ST: It's at least ten years. I'm thinking it's more twelve maybe now. The first formation of the band was '96.
AVE: Two hundred days a year ¾ that's a lot of touring. Now, what do you like most about that?
ST: Well, you know, I'm very lucky to call this my job, you know? And I get to do what I love so much, and play music and see the world, mostly. I've met a lot of really great friends on the road, and I get to see some very interesting, very unusual things from traveling so much. Things that you never know about until you get out there, you know?
AVE: Is there anything particularly memorable that you've seen recently or in the past years?
ST: That's always a tough question. We have some constant tours, and it all becomes a blur. But, you know, once I get off the road and get home I can think back and kind of reminisce a little bit. You know, it's really hard to say one particular thing that stands out, but this time Europe was really, really super great for us. We had a really good time. Did a lot of great festivals. Got to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers last Saturday.
AVE: You know they're from Gainesville?
ST: Yeah, I know, my favorite band and I'd never seen them until last week, so that was a huge thrill.
AVE: I have to say, you guys do have a Tom Petty sound.
ST: Why, thank you. I know we all grew up just studying him and still adore him.
AVE: So, when you tour, are you on a bus, or a fleet of busses?
ST: Yeah, we only have one bus. It's packed full though. It's usually twelve people on the bus at all times. The band, and then we have four- to five-piece crew members from time to time. Then the driver. It's like a circus, like the redneck circus on the road.
AVE: Do you guys have a favorite pastime while on the bus for however many hours?
ST: No, we just mostly, we listen to so much music. There's probably an iPod for each person on the bus, so we have a nice iPod dock in the back. And a lot of the times we carry out a little record player. We go record shopping a lot. Still like the old vinyl.
AVE: Do you guys normally listen to the same thing, or is there any competition for the iPod dock?
ST: There's no competition. We sometimes play a game called "beat that." Someone starts in a circle, someone will put their iPod on, and then if you go in any direction whatsoever, play a song, and then the next person as soon as that song's over has to come up with something just as good or better.
AVE: That's so funny.
ST: Yeah, it is funny, we all truly are music lovers and dorks … I tend to go back and listen to all the old soul music and country music and '70s rock 'n' roll mostly, but, for example, Patterson [Hood] he keeps me informed and keeps all the rest of us informed on the brand new and coolest new young bands and newer stuff, so I end up listening and loving a lot of it, so I'll go buy it too. But he's the one that likes to buy the new stuff. So we all kind of have our things. And [Mike] Cooley loves Hall and Oates. We got it all goin' on.
AVE: Are there any specific artists that are out now that you're listening to?
ST: I love, my favorite band, one of my very favorite bands and people and good friends now, is this band called Centro-Matic, and they're from Denton, Texas. I can't get enough of them; they're just great. And I love The Felice Brothers, too, they're great. They're pretty new. They've only been around touring for a year and a half, I think. They're from New York.
AVE: What's the biggest compliment you've, either personally or as a band, ever received?
ST: I don't recall who exactly said what, but … well first of all we've been called the greatest rock 'n' roll band touring, so of course that's the one. And we were nominated for a Grammy when we did a record with Bettye Lavette last year, and it was nominated for a Grammy, so of course that was a huge thrill. We've been called the hardest working band in the business.
AVE: Well, 200 days on the road a year …
ST: It's a lot. I think Willie Nelson beats us as far as touring. He tours more than anybody I've ever heard of. But I don't know of too many other people who tour like we do.
AVE: If you could tour with any artists that are on the road right now, who would you pick up?
ST: It would have to be Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. No joke. I think it would be a cool line-up, you know, it'd be a great … I would want to go see it if I was a fan.
AVE: I've read that you don't like to be called a southern rock band. Is there any kind of genre that you would put yourself in, or how would you label your music?
ST: You know, I don't really have too much problem with that, some of the guys do, but I think maybe I haven't been in the band as long as they have, and they're maybe just simply over-hearing that, you know? I don't know what it is. I think we're a rock 'n' roll band, and I think we're from the South so I definitely see why people say we're a southern rock band. I just think we're rock 'n' roll. And sometimes we sound very country because we come from the South. We are country. I hate labels, anyway. I hate it. There didn't used to be too much of that.
AVE: How would you describe southern rock?
ST: Southern rock. Oh boy, I think you better have at least two loud guitars and you better have a rhythm section that can hold it down and makes you wanna … you better make people want to dance.
AVE: I read that your new album, "Brighter Than Creation's Dark," had some of your first songwriting contributions. Is that true?
ST: Yes it is.
AVE: What is your favorite track on that record out of the ones that you contributed?
ST: Oh, that's a tough one. I can't pick a favorite song off any of our records and certainly can't pick a favorite one of mine. I think we tend to do "I'm Sorry Houston" most at the shows ¾ we tend to pull that one out most of all. But, I don't know. It's hard. I guess the only way I could pick that is that when I write it all comes out of nowhere, spur of the moment kind of thing, and it's mostly coming from emotions, so maybe a song might tend to take me back to a certain point in time, and I wouldn't like to do that as much, but … it's hard to say.
AVE: You're going to be playing this Real Big Deal Festival here, so, I have to ask, do you think you are a real big deal?
ST: [Laughs] Well, I don't know about that. It depends on where we are.
