CRS 2024: 5 QUESTIONS WITH JAY ALLEN 

1) You released your newest song about a month ago, a cover of Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season.” What does this song mean to you personally that made you want to introduce your version of it?

My label ONErpm were like, “We think it’d be cool if you put out a cover of a trending song.”

You know, that’s really not what I do, but I started listening to the Top 50 worldwide trending songs. We were on vacation with the family. My sister-in-law is 18 and she had her boyfriend with her, and I got to “Stick Season” and thought, “Man, his voice is different.” Her boyfriend was like, “Yeah, that’s my favorite song right now.” So, I listened to it 4 of 5 times and really fell in love with the lyrics. It’s a very honest song about his heartbreak and I think if you’re human you can relate to heartbreak.

So, I released my own version of it that’s kind of like 3 Doors Down meets country.

2) Besides this cover release, you’re also coming off successes with “Halfway House,” “Heart Ain’t Gonna Break Itself,” “Jello Shot,” and your current single, “No Time Like The Present.” Is there more new original music coming down the pike that we can expect this year?

Yeah…we’re in the studio right now.

When I shared with my manager that I had never actually been in a studio in Nashville, her jaw dropped and she was like, “Well, we’re gonna change that!” So, we’ve been in the studio the last few days cutting new stuff and it’s really cool to be doing it the right way for the first time with real session players in a real studio with a real producer.

3) You also kicked off your first headlining tour in early February, “The Night of Hope Tour.” There’s still a lot more dates throughout the spring…Give us a bit of a preview of it. What can your fans expect from these shows that they haven’t seen from you before?

Everything I do musically, I always want it to tie back to a cause. What started it for me was that I lost my mother to Alzheimer’s. While she was still sick, I brought her on stage, and we had a “break the internet moment” that taught me that you could turn your pain and your sadness into something really beautiful.

We’ve already shared all the heartache stories and have raised a lot of money for Alzheimer's toward finding a cure, but we thought, where’s the hope?

My manager introduced me to a connection that she made with a girl from Kansas City (Ann) who’s been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She wanted to bring us in for her gala called “Night Of Hope,”  and my manger thought, “What if we called the whole tour that and we shared our stories of how you can reverse Alzheimer’s?” Ann has found a way to reverse it. She had a trainer, dietician, and changed her entire lifestyle.

So, we’re sharing that message of hope and are also bringing a party to everyone to give them one night off from this crazy world with a rock-n-roll, full band show.

4) How do you feel that sharing your story at these shows is helping people find hope though their own similar situations with this disease?

You hear a lot of times, thanks for putting it into words. Alzheimer's and dementia are both really hard to express and talk about. If you were the son or daughter and you’re now suddenly the care giver, it’s a difficult thing to embrace.

I’ve had guys come up to me after a show and be like, “Man, thank you so much! I go to school all day and then come home and take care of my mom who’s sick.”

It opens a door, a safe place, for people to share their stories. 

It’s always gonna be less about me. I’m really trying to use my music to help people through the gift God’s given to me.

5) We have so many aspiring songwriters and artists that read our website, so we always like to end by asking this…what is the best piece of advice you can offer?

This was a piece of advice given to me by someone I really respect, Billy Currington. When I first moved to Nashville almost 11 years ago, I started a band and we thought we were getting a record deal and all of it fell apart. It was my first heartbreak in Nashville.

I decided as a naïve kid that I was going to play one last show and then call it quits. So, I played that show at 3^rd & Lindsley for a bar of like 12 people with their backs turned to me. They didn’t even watch the show, but that seemed fitting. I had my answer.

I walked off stage and Billy Currington and his girlfriend happened to be sitting on the other side of the bar. He shook my hand and said, “Jay, I don’t know you, but I just watched your show. Just a piece of advice, never leave because the last man standing wins.”

That is literally the reason I stuck it out.

Everyone’s on a different journey, so I would say to just keep your head down and keep going because you never know what tomorrow could bring.

(Interview by: Jeffrey Kurtis) 

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