Brothers Osborne on Country Music: ‘People Are Tired of the Bullsh-t’
“I think people are tired of the bullshit and are ready for the real substance,” says John Osborne, in between sips of a beer at Nashville’s Pinewood Social, overlooking both a scrapyard and the Cumberland River. He and brother T.J., who make up the rootsy duo Brothers Osborne, are holding court on the state of country. It’s a topic on which many are quick to voice an opinion, but few do so as candidly and on the record as the Maryland-born siblings.
After years of being served a platter of infectious but typically vapid hits, fans are anxious to hear songs that mean something, Brothers Osborne contend.
“We went through an era of big hit songs that no one is going to listen to 10 years from now. And we’re about to hit a decade of country that I think is going to be played for a long time. It’s about to hit the same stride it hit in the Nineties,” says T.J., who handles lead vocals opposite his guitarist brother. The band’s debut single, “Rum,” released last year, put a workingman’s twist on the drinking song subgenre and became a Top 30 hit, while new single “Stay a Little Longer” is poised to help effect the change they say is already happening in studios around Nashville. (Watch the duo talk about the song in a video premiering today on Rolling Stone Country.)
The problem with today’s populist hits, they believe, doesn’t lie specifically in “bro country,” hip-hop-influenced country or pop country, but in unoriginal artists who copycat the hot sounds of the day.
“There have been so many people that have followed a trend, [one] started honestly by Florida Georgia Line. That’s genuine. That’s who they are,” John says. “The problem lies in people changing their sound because it worked.
“I’ve always compared it to the early Nineties when hair metal was so huge, and you had these bands like Warrant, who were more about showing off and about the picture than they were about the music,” he continues. “It got to a point where it became so huge, it became a bubble, and the only thing that can happen is that bubble is going to explode. Which it did when Nirvana showed up. That’s what is happening now.”
But country’s impending transition may not come via a singular artist, á la Nirvana, says T.J. Instead, an array of diverse singer-songwriters and bands will lead the charge. They cite Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe and Eric Church, with whom they’ll return to the road in April, as examples. This summer, the duo will play amphitheaters with Darius Rucker, Brett Eldredge and A Thousand Horses.
“There are a bunch of artists now. There is a reason to go to this artist’s show and that artist’s show, because they are different from one another,” he says. “It’s not the same regurgitated bullshit.”