Monday, March 23, 2015

EXCLUSIVE ARTIST INTERVIEW: CRAIG WAYNE BOYD, WINNER OF NBC'S "THE VOICE"

Photo credit: Jennifer Smith / Lovin' Lyrics

Thank you to Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of  NBC's hit series, "The Voice", and a longtime friend of ours, for taking what little free time he has to himself to agree to sharing some of it with us for an interview. We know his time is very limited and he's very gracious to allow us to be part of it. The entire interview was supposed to be video, but due to interruptions and equipment issues, we had to take part of it and make it a written interview. We were able to salvage bits and pieces on video.

Lovin Lyrics: We're here with THE VOICE, Craig Wayne Boyd. He's been the voice to us for a long time now.

CWB: Awww, you're too sweet.

Lovin' Lyrics: How are ya? How are you getting used to all of this?

CWB: I am doing well. I'm not sure you ever really get used to it. I just keep my nose to the grindstone and don't pay attention to the rest  of it.

Lovin' Lyrics: One day you can walk down the street and have total anonymity and the next day everyone knows who you are.

CWB: Yeah, that's true. Um, it's different but it's what I signed up for.

Lovin' Lyrics: You're not an overnight success story like everyone thinks you are. You've worked so hard for it. 

CWB: Right, yeah. I've been doing it a long time, kickin' the streets.

Lovin' Lyrics: We've known you since 2009 when we met you through Buddy. Now it's like "OMG! That's Craig on The Voice! Craig just won the freakin' Voice!"

CWB: And that was the second go around in Nashville. It's been a long time for sure.

Lovin' Lyrics: It has to be stressful but you'd never know it from how you just glide through it. You're so cool with everyone.

CWB: I think it was kindergarten that they voted me "least likely to have a heart attack" just because I'm so laid back. (Laughs)

Lovin' Lyrics: So everyone has asked you about your background, told your story about how you almost gave up and were close to being homeless. We know you had to use a screwdriver to start your truck sometimes.  What's something about you that we don't know?

CWB: Ha! Since I've had my new truck, I think I've put maybe 15 miles on it ! There's really not much to tell, I've told everything. I'm pretty much an open book, nothing to hide, I've been very open, probably  more open than I should be. I've told the bad, the good, the ugly and the indifferent.

Lovin' Lyrics: Is there anything people would be surprised to know about you?

CWB: I like to cook! I have a brand new grill. Probably one of my favorites to make is Asian Green Beans that are to die for. It includes brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, crushed red pepper. The recipe is listed in the recipes section on my Facebook. Go check it out!

Lovin' Lyrics: Does that travel well overnight in case you should want to send some to a certain music promoter who's in this room right now?

CWB: Oh, it's much better the next day.

Lovin' Lyrics: So your huge breakout moment on "The Voice", the one that really grabbed America's attention, was the performance of a hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross" which I thought was fantastic, the perfect choice. Was that your decision to perform and if it was, did it get any negative feedback or discouragement from the show?

Hear Craig Talk about His Song Choices on "The Voice"

Lovin' Lyrics: Well, I bawled through the whole thing, I'm not gonna lie. (laughs) ... because just seeing you up there and knowing what you've gone through to get there and seeing you play in the honkytonks, seeing you in the rounds and then seeing you at that point finally getting your redemption was a great thing to see and I know that everyone in the neighborhood heard me when I screamed when you won. (Craig laughs). So, when you were standing up there and it comes down to you and Matt, how did you keep from fainting? I would have fallen right on the floor.

CWB: Um, they had told us ahead of time that if we won, be prepared to sing and that's all I was thinking. It was "Oh my goodness, I gotta sing, pull it together." ... (shrugs shoulders) ... That's all I was thinking. My son was up there and I was like "They want me to sing, everybody's expecting me to sing." ... (laughs) ... that's all I could think. But I've always been that guy, like, the show must go on no matter what happens. Like when I broke this ... (rubs his shoulder) ... the folks out in Macon, GA probably remember I showed up the day after I broke my collarbone, I snapped my shoulder. I was up there, I took my sling off and held onto my suit jacket and played the whole show. I was bound and determined I wasn't gonna show that I was hurt because the show must go on and that's always been my mentality.

Lovin' Lyrics: Sounds like you've had a pretty strong upbringing.

CWB: Yeah (smiles).

Lovin' Lyrics: Like I said, we all kinda "met" your family on the show

CWB: My dad is one of those guys that ... it doesn't matter if he's sick as a dog, he's gonna go drive his truck.

Lovin' Lyrics: They seem like such sweet people.

CWB: My mom is a very determined person too. I got it from both sides.

Lovin' Lyrics: I love how they get on your Twitter or Facebook and jump in for you, defend you, speak up for you when it needs to be done. That's pretty great that they're so interactive with it.

CWB: Yeah, absolutely. They're pretty great.

Lovin' Lyrics: Ok, so your new single out is "My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face" which Blake held back. I guess he'd had it for a long time waiting on the perfect voice to come along to sing it, it wasn't right for him and here you were.

CWB: He's had it since ... um ... I wanna say that song was written in 1998 or so. It's been around awhile.

Lovin' Lyrics: It's doing very well.

CWB: It debuted at #1 on the sales chart, tied with Garth. It was very cool. It goes to show that my style of country is relevant.

Lovin' Lyrics: I've always loved your style and I think, along with a lot of others, that you're gonna be the new voice of country music and kinda bring it back where it started.

CWB: It will not be for the lack of trying.

Lovin' Lyrics: So you've got this huge social media following, enormous, country wide, world wide, heck, I'm waiting on Mars to start a Yallers group. They're all called Yallers after your Twitter handle, CWBYall.

CWB: What a blessing. Ya know, it's funny how that name even got started. I um ... the Y'all started ... I walked into, at the time it was Blue Bar in Nashville, and a fella, Blue Foley, he was like "It's Craig Wayne Boyd ya'll!" and I was like "Where did you come up with that???" He said "Dude, you need to listen to your voicemail." I was like "What?" So I went and checked it and evidently I had had a little too much to drink one night and um, my voicemail had messed up and so I was having to do a little thing on it. It said please state your name and evidently I said "Craig Wayne Boyd Y'all"... (laughs) ... I forgot that I did it and so everybody would call my phone and hear "Craig Wayne Boyd Y'all" and that's where it all started ... and now ya know!

Lovin' Lyrics: Well these fans are rabid. I mean rabid. As long as I've been doing Twitter and social media, I've never seen a fan base this protective and 100% dedicated to an artist like the Yallers are with you. It's great to see it so widespread and positive. It's all age groups, male, female. 

CWB: It's amazing and I'm so thankful. Yeah, it's crazy. It's from 15 years old to 83, 84 I think is the oldest? It's a Yaller that's active. It's crazy. They really are the best fans ever.

Lovin' Lyrics: So on social media, people don't seem to realize that although you do answer your tweets and comments when you can, that your schedule doesn't allow you the time to be on constantly and that is a huge reason you can't respond to each and every person as much as you'd love to. Tell me what a typical day in the life of CWB looks like now that you've won the show.

CWB: My typical day, um, for instance ... in Vegas ... and that was a non travel date. It started at 6 in the morning and I got up with about 30 minutes to get myself together for my first radio call. And then, uh, yeah, that was at 6:30am, and then I had a 6:45am call, then a 7:15am call, and then get ready and run downstairs for a 9:00am on camera interview with the local TV station. Then I had a magazine come in and wanted to do a sit down interview which was 30 minutes and I did that and then went and did a charity event with Gary LeVox where we shaved people's heads and that was at noon, left there and at 3pm we had the stage, set up all of our equipment, checked our systems, our inner ears, had sound check, and then by the time we were done with that it was 6:30pm. I ran back to my hotel room, got dressed, was back down by 7:30pm and on stage at 8:00pm. I played from 8pm to 8:45pm, then had meet and greets at 8:45pm, then after show interviews and dinner, then got back to the room for a couple hours sleep before getting up to do it all over again.

(Tour manager interrupts and let's Craig know we need to wrap it up because his meet and greet is ready.)

Lovin' Lyrics: I promised a few Yallers that I'd ask you a few of their questions. Cheryl Daigle wants to know how many tattoos you have and what your favorite whiskey is.

Craig Answers Cheryl's Question

Lovin Lyrics: Tina from the street team wants to know if you ever heard from George Strait after performing his song on The Voice. 

Craig Answers Tina's Question

Lovin' Lyrics: Brian Struxness wants to know how long it usually takes you to write a song and how easy is it for you to come up with ideas for songs?

Craig Answers Brian's Question

10 comments:

Gail O said...

Jennifer, this turned out great!! :)

Unknown said...

GREAT interview!Thank u Lovin Lyrics!Ur #Yallers love u Craig Wayne Boyd!xoxo

Lulu CT Yaller said...

Great interview and really fun video clips of Craig! Love to see more of this kind of interview. Thanks so much! Lulu CT Yaller :)

Andie Lynne said...

Excellent job sistah! Thanks for posting this Jen! You rock! Sorry I missed you in Nashville... Hangtime soon! XO

Unknown said...

Great interview!! #yallers love ya Craig

Pittsburgh Yallers said...

Jenn, how cool for us that you got this time with CWB! I think you both are awesome and at the top of your game. Nothing but love to you both. Christy

Christy Lebovitz said...

Thank you, Jenn. Awesome interview. You are amazing and we do love all things CWB. And we are the best fans ever. You both rock. Nothing but love from Pittsburgh Yallers xo

Unknown said...

Good interview! I love learning new facts about Craig. He is one of the hardest working men I know. I recently saw him in Solana Beach, CA at The Belly Up. Craig is a sweet and gracious man. He also gives a heluva great boot stompin, Honky Tonkin show. I can't wait to see him again next time he's in So Cal. #yallersrock!

Unknown said...

Jenn - fabulous interview! Thanks for the format of this one, it's great! #Yallers love Craig and appreciate that you obviously think as much of him as we do. #YallerLove

RitaGSmith said...

Craig and I have the same great grandparents, and our family is so proud of him! We love him so much!! we are so proud of him, and we want him to enjoy all of this attention, and fame, he had always been our "country star"! prayers for health and happiness!