The Cadillac Three describes their music as “country fuzz,” and some people would call it country music’s rockin’ cousin. With songs like their debut release, “The South,” it’s interesting to realize that TC3 lead singer Jaren Johnston has also written less rockin’ songs like “You Gonna Fly” for Keith Urban, “Southern Girl” for Tim McGraw, Jake Owen’s new song, “Beachin,” and he even has a song on the new Rascal Flatts album. While those songs weren’t necessarily the kind of thing The Cadillac Three would put on their own album, Jaren explains, “I grew up in Nashville, born and raised, and song-writing was, you know, my Dad used to pitch songs when I was a kid and he would tell me, ‘The key to everything is writin’, write, write, write.’ You know, and he got me a guitar when I was thirteen.”

It doesn’t matter what kind of song he writes, the goal is always just to write the best song possible, even if it isn’t something he would necessarily record himself. Jaren says, “If it comes out kinda heavy, talkin’ about fightin’ or somethin’ we’ll probably end up cuttin’ it. But if it comes and it’s, you know, a little bit different, and I send it to Dierks (Bentley) or whoever, it’s different every time. It’s weird, I just write and I try to write the best song possible and if works for us, great, and if it doesn’t, somebody else will do it.”

These days, Jaren gets to hear two of the songs he wrote for Jake Owen performed live every night since The Cadillac Three is opening for him this summer on the Days of Gold Tour.

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The Cadillac Three – songs you write are different :32
Jaren Johnston – “It’s different. You know, I grew up in Nashville, born and raised, and song-writing was, you know, my Dad used to pitch songs when I was a kid and he would tell me, ‘The key to everything is writin’, write, write, write.’ You know, and he got a guitar when I was thirteen. So I think when I started doin’ it I just kinda like would write, I’d just try to write the best song. And if it comes out kinda heavy, talkin’ about fightin’ or somethin’ we’ll probably end up cuttin’ it. But if it comes and it’s, you know, a little bit different, and I send it to Dierks or whoever, it’s different every time. It’s weird, I just write and I try to write the best song possible and if works for us, great, and if it doesn’t, somebody else will do it.”