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Big & Rich with music

The stellar duo of Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich find it's all about making that music, no matter what form it takes.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published October 27, 2005

[Getty Images]

Big Kenny, left, and John Rich of Big & Rich perform in September in New York.

There is truth in advertising. Big Kenny is really, really big.

At 6 feet 3, ex-carpenter big. Multiplatinum album and handcrafted top hats big. Big as in Big Kenny Alphin, half of country superduo Big & Rich.

And on this afternoon last month, Big Kenny is feeling especially big. He's shaking off a wee-hours party celebrating Faith Hill's No. 1 single Mississippi Girl, written by his partner, John Rich, and guitarist, Adam Schoenfeld, who is signed to Big Kenny's publishing house, Love Everybody Music.

"With so many good things happening, you've got to celebrate them all," said Big Kenny. "Sometimes you just have to give it everything you've got and ride on fumes."

It has been two years since Big & Rich broke through with Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) from their debut album Horse of a Different Color. In 2001, Alphin and Rich were among the founders of a bar-based, new-country movement called the "Muzik Mafia" that has nurtured artists like Cowboy Troy and Gretchen Wilson, whose hit Redneck Woman was also co-written by Rich.

Big & Rich's second album, Comin' To Your City, hits stores Nov. 15. Bay area fans will get a sneak peek Saturday when the duo's tour with Brooks & Dunn comes to the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa.

Big Kenny called the St. Petersburg Times en route to the Funkey Monkey Pub in Seymour, Ind., to talk about life as a big, big country star. Here are excerpts:

It's high times for you guys; you've got two CMA Award nominations. But you're up against your tour mates, Brooks & Dunn, for Vocal Duo of the Year.

I tell you what, they ought to just go ahead and bronze that award, call it the Brooks & Dunn Award, put it in a big case somewhere, and build a monument to it. We love the guys. And they're excited for us. They've put us on a tour, which is awesome. We'll just be happy to show up and hang out with them.

The video for Comin' To Your City seems like it's designed to turn country music fans on their heads. I guess they just don't think booty-shaking space aliens have any place on CMT.

Nobody told me that. I haven't heard that at all. Everybody's telling me they freakin' love it. All my friends' kids are going, "Big Kenny, I love the new video, I love it!" To them it's just bright and sunshiney. It's fun and vibrant and colorful. That was our interpretation of that song, you know? John's a big sci-fi guy; he's even writing a movie screenplay right now, a sci-fi, that's just super-cool. It's off the hook.

When you set out on a project like that, whether it's in the studio or on a video set, do you consciously decide, "What can we do that's different," and just go in that direction?

No, I'd say what we do is just have as much fun as we can have. We're just being ourselves. This is America. People can say whatever they want to. Amen-ahh! Hallelujah! That's what makes it so great.

Is that attitude embraced in Nashville?

Oh, God. That "No. 1" party we had? Ninety-nine percent of the people there were industry. It was a constant line of people coming up to me, John, Adam, everyone from the Mafia, hugging us and going, "Thank you. This is so refreshing. This has opened so many more doors for us in Nashville." We're just doing what we love to do and trying not to let anything hold us from making the best music we can possibly make.

Do you foresee a day when you guys might stray from country music and branch out into rock or pure hip-hop?

We're doing everything we can think of. Country music is on the verge of being the true All-American music format. Think about it, dude. I guarantee you do not turn on one station of one format, and that's all you listen to. You've got an iPod, and you've got a computer, and you've got your entire catalog of all the music you've loved and lived with for all of your life: blues, swing, '70s rock, '80s rock, '90s rock. Martina McBride has a record that is her singing all the great country classics. And guess what? I got that son of a gun in my iPod, right next to Sinatra. When we're chilling out on the bus, just kicking back, I put that in rotation with him. That's what we all do. We love music. And we make it.

It's an iPod culture. People play the tracks they want to play.

You know what I heard the other day? JACK-FM; it's one of those stations whose motto is pretty much, "We play whatever we want." They told me that they've got Save a Horse now in regular rotation. It's a revolution that's happening right now in music. It ain't about format.

What do you remember most about your days back in the Pub of Luv, where the Muzik Mafia sessions first started?

There was total creativity without bureaucracy. We did not give a s--- who came. If you came there, you came because you loved music. And you couldn't have packed another person in there edgeways. It was a sardine can. And we played and sang anything we wanted to. That's the ultimate freedom.

When's the last time you played a club that small?

I played in one the other night. Jon Nicholson had his album release party in a club. All of us were there, so we all got up and jammed. I mean, the place was packed to the freakin' gills, and we just got up and had fun.

Just like the old Muzik Mafia days.

It was old school, no doubt. We still do it every chance we can. We were just at this little pub - I can't remember the town we were in - but it was the only bar in town. It was a bowling alley, a bar and a stage. We went and just had our way with it after a show. My understanding is the dude made enough to pay his back taxes and keep his place open.

I read a message board post that suggested you guys should have played the Dukes of Hazzard. Any thoughts?

I'm so busy, I don't know how we could have done anything else. We have meetings on hold with film companies that have come to us with their ideas, wanting us to do movies with them. We've had a variety show we've been working on for years now. You remember Mac Davis? You remember Laugh-In? You remember Hee-Haw? Take all that s--- and combine it together, and that's what we'd be doing.

That seems to be what a lot of hypercreative artists tend to do - branch out and try new art forms.

You gotta, man. I just want to be as creative as I possibly can. We gotta get more people playing guitars and pianos and stuff. We're just trying to plant seeds of creativity everywhere we can plant them.

-- Jay Cridlin can be reached at 727 893-8336 or cridlin@sptimes.com

Big & Rich open for Brooks and Dunn, 7 p.m. Saturday. Also on the bill are Cowboy Troy and the Warren Brothers. Ford Amphitheatre, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $29-$53.75. (813) 740-2446 (Ford Amphitheatre); or Ticketmaster: (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

[Last modified October 26, 2005, 10:11:06]