Page 33 - Black Velvet Issue 97

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“We had a good time shooting that. It was really fun,” John
Fred adds, before explaining the family element which the picture
has. “That tree has been on my grandparents’ farm for, I don’t
know, maybe 200 years, and for some reason it’s the only one in
this whole field of cattle that has just been there and didn’t get hit
by lightning. So yeah, I knew that was the tree and I’m glad it was
that one. We had a lot of fun shooting it. In a way it represents
Black Stone Cherry; it’s stood the test of time and avoided all the
lightning bolts like we have. With the title ‘Family Tree’, we needed
something, we had to have something pretty stoic to put on there
without it seeming too boastful or anything like that. It was some-
thing from our farm, right behind the practise house; sometimes
when you need something, something just speaks to you. I’m so
glad we took it and it came out like it did.”
learly family is special to Black Stone Cherry and so too is
Chome, so it is only fitting that a piece of home can be found
on the cover of the new album, but it also comes up in their music
and none more so than on ‘Southern Fried Friday Night’ where the
band again play homage to their home town and their corner of
the world and all the things they love about it. To wrap up the in-
terview, we ask Jon and John Fred what their ideal Friday night is
and if it’s changed over the years. “Definitely” is the immediate re-
sponse from them both. “Netflix, couch and changing diapers” is
the more detailed response from John Fred before Jon chips in
with, “If we are being more serious, it’s Amazon Prime!”
His joke is followed by a heavy sigh from John Fred, who ad-
mits, “Man, we’re boring, I wish we could say something like we
have the craziest parties. To be honest, though, that song does
talk about where you are from. Every part of the world has their
way of partying.” His voice trails away as he thinks about his an-
swer prompting Jon to jump in and tell us more about their history
as young musicians playing at the practise house in Kentucky.
He tells Black Velvet, “When we were kids, we would have bon-
fires down at the practise house. It wasn’t an everyday thing and
we’d have all kinds of friends come down and we’d play some of
our original music, some covers, we’d have other musicians come
and play, it’s actually how we came to have Ben in the band by hav-
ing one of those parties. It was me, John Fred and Chris playing
in the band at the time and Ben was there that night and somehow
we ended up getting him to pick up a guitar and it just snowballed
into the next day and he came back and it became the four of us.”
John Fred adds, “We’ve had so many good memories from
down at the practise house and it’s so funny now because when
we are on the road, if we have any days off we’ll park in a mall car
park and we always get into trouble with their security because we
take a section of the car park, usually the one furthest from the
mall as possible and, well it looks like someone is having a field
party on concrete and they’ll come over in the golf carts to ask
what we’re doing and we’ll say, “Man, we’re just having a party,
we’re just chilling out,” and they’re “but you’re in a mall parking
lot!”
“We’ve been kicked out of a few mall parking lots for having
barbeques”, laughs Jon.
So where are the best Friday nights? “We’ve been fortunate
enough to go around the world and see some wonderful places”,
says John Fred. “We love England, Spain, Italy, Germany, so many
places back home,” adds Jon before John Fred concludes, “I
dunno, of all the places we get to hang out and all the wonderful
experiences we get to have with people from all over the world, I
think still the coolest place we get to hang is that practise house;
what we appreciate through the heart is when we have ourselves
and our friends hanging out in that yard outside that spider-in-
fested house!”
While most of us would have loved to experience first-hand
some of these amazing memories Black Stone Cherry forged as
they honed their talents with their friends and family in Kentucky,
we are blessed that as one of rock’s most popular acts they are
now bringing the memories to our backyards and with ‘Family
Tree’ some very special memories are soon to be made. Home is
where the heart is and if rock is your home and your heart, it’s
where you will find Black Stone Cherry.

Black Stone Cherry play Download Festival on Saturday June
9th followed by further European festivals and will be back in Eu-
rope later in the year. For more information, visit www.black-
stonecherry.com. ‘Family Tree’ is out now.
Words by Michael Coventry
Band Photos By Harry Reese
BLACK STONE CHERRY