PawnShop Kings Perform ‘Make Me Whole’ — Video Premiere
Brothers Joel and Scott Owen of country duo, PawnShop kings were born in Texas but spent most of their lives between Southern California and Arkansas, which explains their marriage of pop-rock and rootsy country.
10 Artists You Need to Know: PawnShop kings
“Growing up here by the ocean and on the family farmland in Arkansas, our music is a balance of the beach and the bayou. Of course, ‘Make Me Whole’ is all bayou,” Joel tells Rolling Stone Country of the new song from the duo’s PSk EP.
All bayou… with a strong spiritual message. “Jesus make me whole,” they sing, “So I don’t let the evil take its toll.” Surprisingly, though, the song wasn’t inspired by scripture, but rather by sibling rivalry.
“As brothers we’ve been fighting about things our whole lives. After one embarrassingly childish display, we realized how tired we were of fighting about the same things over and over,” Scott explains. “This song is a cry out to be different, to be whole.”
PawnShop kings recorded this acoustic performance of “Make Me Whole” inside an old church on their grandfather’s property in West Memphis, Arkansas, showcasing the musicianship and unique harmonies that have created quite a buzz about their live concerts. Scott says their stage charisma is fueled by a desire to make their show an escape from everyday stress.
“We know how lucky we are to play music so we can’t be halfhearted up there,” he muses. “And since we’ve been singing together so long, we end up doing new things every night in songs we’ve played a thousand times. That keeps it fun. Which is good because we don’t use a lot smoke and lights. Well, not yet anyway.”