CIO: You grew up in Cumberland Gap, TN. What was it like growing up in a small town?
RA: Actually I was born in Knoxville, TN, and grew up in Cumberland Gap, a very tiny town just north of Knoxville – it’s in east Tennessee. You’ve heard of Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road? That’s right where Cumberland Gap is, where the settlers found the mountain pass.
It has lots of farms – tobacco, dairy farms. It’s real country, not much to do there. My friend from Boston says living there in the city you have access to everything – heck he’d die without a Starbucks. What we did wasn’t much, we had a Hardee’s when we were kids, you know the fast food place, and a couple of other places. Mostly we went to the river and fished and did that kinda stuff. It’s growing up just like Tom Sawyer!

CIO: You went off to college and got a degree in psychology?
RA: Yes, I went to junior college for a couple of years in Morristown, and then Walter State and then transferred to Tennessee Tech for a major in psychology. It was about 80 miles east of Nashville and I still live out in that neck of the woods.

CIO: You worked with young boys in trouble while in college?
RA: I did, I worked as a counselor during my internship, practical, whatever you want to call it. It was a place called Woodland Juvenile Delinquent Center, a place where they sent juvenile boys, ages 12 to 18 who’ve been arrested for major crimes. They were some pretty rough young characters. Most of these kids, you come to find out, had been abused somewhere along the way and they all suffered to some degree from a learning disability. It really affected them. Most of them, at heart, really wanted to be good guys. Some were just mean, that’s all you can say, they were just flat out mean. But a lot of them have been knocked around, abused in some way and that’s how they learned to deal with everyone. It was a great learning experience for me and I think about those guys often.

CIO: Did it influence your music?
RA: It has really helped me to focus on finding music that really, really reaches people. I can remember being there, maybe with a gang member from the ghettos of Memphis, who probably never heard country music in his life. He could be at the point of what they call “getting bucked” which is “I’m breaking out of here” even if he has to go through me, or three of me, to do it. A lot of the time there’s nothing you can do but try to wrestle them down because they’re going to bust your head. Sometimes I’d wrestle them down and someone would get my guitar and I could play anything and they’d forget why they were mad. They’d start listening to the music and want to learn how to play guitar. I’d start teaching them. I know there’s music therapy out there, but this was my first real experience with that. I believe that music can speak to somebody when other things can’t.

CIO: Is that what you look for in the music you select or write, something that rings true?
RA: Yes. I learned that with “Honesty”. When Honesty was out it got to people, it was real. For me, when I first heard it, I thought, oh its just a sappy ballad. But musicians, producers, my wife kept telling me I had to do that song. We did and man people just reacted to, it was a real thing they could relate to.
“Honesty” came from a real place. A lady named Patience Clements wrote it with David Kent, but it was Patience’s story. It was her one and only cut. It’s the only song she’s ever written and had recorded by someone and it was a hit! I think it went to number 3 on the charts, but it came from her actual separation and divorce. I think she has a big boat now called “Honesty”!
It comes from a real place and I don’t have to tell you that the single that’s out there now, “If You’re Going Thru Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)” has gotten more email hits than I did from “Honesty” because everyone in all situations can identify--if you’ve had problems, if you’ve been married, there’s going to be rough patches in life.

CIO: Who were your musical influences?
RA: Everybody. I grew up and my folks listened to Ray Charles and Modern Country Music – an album my folks had and I discovered and they’d catch me listening to all the time. When I was little it was Ray Charles, Charlie Rich, Glenn Campbell. Then I got into Hank Williams Jr. and Randy Travis, Charlie Daniels and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think I really came up with that country music Class of ‘89 – Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Those are the guys that changed my life’s direction. I saw them and knew that was what I had to do – give up everything to try and do that.
Growing up I thought there was Nashville country music and Texas country music. When I played in the south, people would say play some country music and you played, I don’t know, Merle Haggard, and they would again yell play some country music. Then you play Give Me Three Steps, Lynyrd Skynyrd and they’d yell “yeah that’s it.” Country music in the south can be Alan Jackson to Skynyrd.
When you head up north people you would play Skynyrd and they’d want Merle Haggard and the real working man’s music! There are great country music fans in the north.

CIO: Your first album, “Honesty” was released in 2003. You have a new album coming out in July. Will it also be on Curb?
RA: Yes. Well, we don’t have a title yet, we’re kinda of working on it. Maybe Going Thru Hell-- they like to sell things based on your first single hit from the CD. There are a lot of songs that could be the album cover – not sure right now. But if they look up Rodney Atkins they will surely find it.

CIO: Did you write a lot of songs on this one too?
RA: I don’t think I wrote as many as I did on the last album. I just wanted to find the best songs for the project. I tried to really write within myself, to write about what I knew for this record.

CIO: Are you planning a video?
RA: Well, you know, that’s up to the label at this time. Someday you kind of hope to finance your own videos, but at this time it is completely up to them. I hope so, for me, visibility is something I need bad. I need someone to put a face on the music. I played somewhere not long ago. We were playing an acoustic version of “Honesty” for a radio station or something and after the set this lady comes back and says you sang the heck out of that Collin Raye song! And I think, what Collin Raye song did I sing? She says “Honesty” – and I said no that was me, all me! I need to build that visibility up, so I’d definitely like to focus on doing a video so people can put a face with the name.
The best thing today is that people get online. That’s where they go for information. I know that I get contacted by people all the time. The label set up a website, a Rodney Atkins Street Team site and a MySpace for me and I get most or more messages from both.

CIO: Are you happy with the way the new CD is turning out?
RA: Yes. It was done different. Instead of going in to the studio and singing tracks, I recorded it at home, right here, looking out the window with my son coloring behind me. You can’t beat that. The one thing about this CD is that its much more country!

You can see Rodney Atkins as he tours this summer. He’ll be opening for Montgomery Gentry and on other tours. His new CD is tentatively scheduled for July 10. For more info on Rodney, check is website at www.RodneyAtkins.com.