Pam Tillis
Interview and video by TL Chester
Pam Tillis is a country music singer, songwriter and musician. The daughter of Mel Tillis, Pam signed with Warner Brothers Records in 1981. In time Pam has founded her own label, Stellar Cat Records. Pam is not only a performer but an entrepreneur. I was fortunate enough to sit down and interview her after her show at Opryland.
TL: You have been known for revitalizing country music by incorporating pop, jazz, blues and folk into your music. You have a colorful career that is certainly versatile; what kinds of bands did you perform in before your first hit “Don’t Tell Me What to Do?”
Pam: Um, well, my first rock band actually had a country flair; but it was sort of like country rock. Actually it was way ahead of it’s time; it sounds like what you hear on the radio now. Just a real hybrid of music but then I moved to San Francisco where I was in a fusion band. It was just sort of electric jazz and I sung in like R&B kind of top 40 bands and that was fun. Just straight up torch music, jazz just a little bit of everything, yeah.
TL: Referencing the first question, you incorporate a lot of that in your music now?
Pam: I try to mix it in; I think there is a place where the boundaries blur and I like that. You know, it’s not really anything new. Bob Wills was doing western swing. That was country music and jazz married together. Country has never existed in a vacuum like a lot of people think. Um, the Beatles were listening to Buck Owens and loving Carl Perkins and you know music is intertwined.
TL: It’s been about 5 years since your last album; with the exception of the Christmas album, what is the average amount of time you spend touring and working on a new album?
Pam: It’s been since 2002 since the last album. Well touring, we tour pretty heavily especially in the past 5 years. We do about 120-130 shows a year. Um, albums, I’ve never rushed an album in my life. It takes at least a year to make. The last one we probably worked on was at least 2-3 years. We also take a lot of time to step back and live with what we’ve done. Part of it’s the process I think.
TL: You have said in a recent audio interview that you wanted to draw on the well a bit, regarding a variety of sounds for your album Rhinedstoned. How have your fans inspired you on while on the road regarding this new album?
Pam: Um, you know they’ve just embraced the music and I felt whenever we play it live, you know it may not be exactly the main styles of country that’s on the radio right now. They get it and they appreciate it. They know I am trying to make it fresh but still be really grounded in the roots of country music and they really appreciate it. My mom likes the album. (We both giggle a bit)
TL: The Boston Globe has called Rhinestoned the best album of your career; do you feel this is your best album ever?
Pam: Well, I think it’s a mature work. I like to think over time with every album you keep maturing as a singer and a musician. I know in a lot of ways, I think, this shows a good amount of maturity. You know I don’t rank the album so much as each represents a certain period of time where I am at, so I don’t compare them like that. If someone wants to call it the best I’m thrilled and I think the main thing I would say is we’re not looking backwards we’re looking forwards. I hope my best album is still yet to come. That’s what everybody hopes.
TL: Did you have 100% artistic creative control over this album?
Pam: Yea, that’s why you do your own label, just for that. The only people I feel I need to answer to are my fans. Even though we kind of, I don’t know, try to maybe do something a little bit different at times. I always keep them in mind and it feels like I am on a musical journey and I just want to take them with me.
TL: What song from the album do you feel is most personal to you?
Pam: “The Hard Way”.
TL: I love that song.
Pam: Why thank you, I wrote that with my brother.
TL: What has been the most touching moment in your career so far?
Pam: Oh, the most touching, hmmm, I had a lot of touching moments in my career. It would be hard to single one out. Singing with Patrick, he is a friend I met during fan fair when he was just a little boy, now he is grown up. I have known him since he was 8 or 9. He is disabled and blind. He is so gifted musically. He would come through my line and he would always sing my songs all the way through the line at fan fair, that’s what made me notice him. He would smother me with kisses, he couldn’t get enough. He has been featured in so many magazines now. He’s such an incredible person. If I sang a song during a show and I was off a key he would say “You changed keys” he’s brilliant. We sang together before, it was amazing.
TL: Do you still see him now?
Pam: Yea, we keep in touch. I have not seen him in a little while but I get emails all the time from his family. He’s been featured in People magazine. You watch these kids grow up. When you have a career of any length that’s a really special thing is to watch your fans grow up.
TL: You have begun performing in the Grand Ole Opry at the age of eight; did you know at that time what the magnitude of your performance was?
Pam: Daddy brought me up on stage. It’s not like my career began then by any means. All I knew was I wanted to sing. Daddy used to invite kids to come up on stage and sing. He used to sing “Amen” and would bring kids up on stage. I asked him “When you bring the kids on stage can I come to?” He said, “Yeah, if you think you can handle it.” So I did. My little knobby knees were shaking and my lip quivered like a little Elvis. I was hooked after that.
TL: At what age did you learn to play classical piano?
Pam: Oh, about 8 years old, that was a big year for me. I had an aunt that passed away and she left my mom a few hundred dollars but it was enough to buy an upright piano. Man the moment it came into the house my little butt was glued to it. I took to it. I think I was about 11 or 12 daddy got me a gut string guitar. Nylon string, classical style guitar because he thought it was easier for my fingers. There was a lady on television that taught folk guitar and I learned the cords that way.
TL: What were your favorite songs to play?
Pam: Some folk songs like “House of the Rising Sun”, “Blow the Man Down”, music from Tom Dooley and Tender Ladies. From there it was easy once you learned the basic cords. A whole world opens up in front of you.
TL: Was performing with Ringo Starr in 2000 a surreal experience for you?
Pam: Yeah, that was an incredible thing. He came to town, he had an all star band and I was a huge Beatles fan. Daddy was a staff writer for many years. So he would bring a lot of different artist’s music home that he would study and emulate. He started bringing home these Beatles singles. I loved them. We fell in love with them. I am dating myself but the Beatles were it. So singing with Ringo Starr was amazing, I didn’t have the heart though to tell him I had a crush on Paul though.
TL: As a Beetles fan, what song do you most enjoy?
Pam: When I was a kid I was emotional, shy, moody not the kind of kid that gets on stage and performs in front of millions of people. Music moved me so deeply; I couldn’t even listen to “Yesterday” without crying. That melody just moved me. They say that music colleges have studied that melody, music theory people, to figure out why it is so enchanting. It has such a hypnotic tension throughout the whole thing.
TL: What genres of music do you enjoy that might surprise fans?
Pam: Well, I love so many different types of music. World music, like exotic music. I like folk music from different countries. When we were in the Islands we bought a Caribbean CD. I like really primitive music, really raw bluegrass, or folk music. I like music that sounds like it was played by humans. I get tired of a lot of commercial music. That being said, I grew up listening to rock and roll from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Robert Plant. I got to meet Robert Plant, I thought I would die. I love Elvis Costello and all different kinds of music. I love Aretha Franklin. I love soul music and I used to sing a bit of R&B. I love great music. I miss James Brown. I like the blues.
TL: What celebrity would you most like to meet at this point?
Pam: I have not met James Taylor. I really love him. I got to meet Sting and that was incredible. He talked to me, he actually knew me. I’d thought I’d die. I have got to meet some pretty cool people. I got to meet Tony Bennett, which blew me away. I admire him so much.
At this point Pam was gracious enough to share a bottle of wine with me.
TL: Are there any songs that you have done that you feel is a mini movie such as your father’s song “Ruby”?
Pam: That’s funny you should say that because I called that song a mini movie. I had a video director who said he wanted to experiment with a long form music video. He wanted to take three of my songs and put them together and make a piece out of it. We never did, it was a pipe dream but he wanted to use “Homeward Looking Angel”, “Calico Plains” and “Melancholy Child”. He thought collectively they would have made a great movie. A fan wrote a screen play on “Let that Pony Run”.
TL: You are a domestic diva, is there anything that you absolutely dread doing at home?
Pam: We gardened for four and a half hours today. I look like I have been thrashed. (Showing me her arms) We severely resent junk mail. It’s such an assault on the environment. We hate going through it. We feel invaded every time we open the mail box.
TL: Someone had given me the clever idea once to write “return to sender” on it and now I do that with junk mail.
Pam: I love that idea; I have seriously contemplated doing that. Let it be on their conscious.
TL: At what point have you embraced the internet and how has it made communication with your fans easier?
Pam: Well, I am still a little behind the curve on that. I try to be current. I am sure we could do more of it. We have a web page I am proud of, http://www.PamTillis.com.
We use Google every day, iTunes affect us greatly. We can do more research that way and arrange play lists. I can listen to it before I buy it now.
TL: It also gives good exposure for fans.
Pam: Yea, now I can find music I never knew existed before. Myspace is a good opportunity to communicate with fans. (http://www.myspace.com/pamtillis)
TL: A lot of artists communicate through bulletin boards and blogs rather than email otherwise it would take up all of their time just responding and never getting any work done.
Pam: That’s true with any job, you could spend 8 hours responding to just email so you have be cautious of time. At least you can share personal photos and stories to fans.
TL: Where can fans purchase your album?
Pam: Barnes and Noble, Borders, Wal-Mart, Amazon but we’re not in Target. The website is the best place to get it because you can get an autographed CD.
To see Pam’s show at Opryland you can get information on the website at http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordopryland/events/PamTillisDinnerParty.cfm or by calling 1-866-972-6779. The show runs from Nov. 18th till Dec. 25th.
http://www.PamTillis.com
http://www.myspace.com/pamtillis