Interview: Austin Brown Talks HOME FREE at TempleLive Fort Smith & Robinson Center

We love our music here at BroadwayWorld Arkansas, whether it be in a big Broadway musical or a touring country act. With over 70 million streams on Spotify (I'm pretty sure I've done a million of those by myself), 151 million views on Youtube (I can't get enough of the Oak Ridge Boys/Home Free Elvira collaboration), and a million followers on Facebook, there is no question that HOME FREE is growing and growing in the music arena. Their vocal skills are top-tier, the concerts are so entertaining, and I love them! I am a huge fan and was ecstatic to hear that the band, which consists of Adam Rupp-beatboxer extraordinaire, Rob Lundquist - smooth lead tenor, Tim Foust - with his sexy bass singing (HEY! any fan will agree with me), Adam Chance-another deep, dreamy baritone voice, and Austin Brown-the cute one who covers those high cascading riffs, is cruising through Arkansas once again, but this time they will be making two stops: TempleLive in Fort Smith on Wednesday, March 1, and Robinson Center in Little Rock on Thursday, March 2. My fangirling heart decided to reach out and chat it up with HOME FREE's Austin Brown to talk about the tour and their new album, So Long Dixie, which is available on popular streaming apps and downloadable on iTunes.

BWW: First off - big fan! I've seen you guys twice now, both times in Conway at Reynolds Performance Hall. I saw the Christmas show and a regular show. You guys are awesome!

Austin Brown: We have a good time, and I love Little Rock. One of my best friends in the world lives there. He's an actor, actually, and he just moved back to Little Rock from LA.

BWW: Oh, my goodness! Who is it? Maybe I know him.

Brown: Quinn Gasaway. He's doing a lot of theater stuff downtown right now. We went to college together. He's the kid in Oh Brother Where Art Thou. We went to college together, and we've been super close ever since. We don't talk near as often as I wish we did, but he's a good buddy of mine, and I've visited him in Little Rock a handful of times.

***Side Note*** During the interview I couldn't remember until later when I saw that I've reviewed two of his shows-both at Murry's Dinner Playhouse.

BWW: Wow that is so cool! Ok, so, we're excited you're coming back to Arkansas. You're going to TempleLive in Fort Smith on March 1st, which I have not been to that theater yet.

Brown: I don't think we've been there yet either.

BWW: But I looked at the pictures, and it looks like a really cool venue. After that, you come to Robinson Center, March 2nd.

Brown: I can't wait. I hope my buddy can come out. There is always a good crowd in that area.

BWW: Well, you guys are great. Arkansas loves you. So, I was listening to all of your stuff, and I saw that in 2020, you started doing your own projects as well.

Brown: Yes, sure did. It turned out to be a silver lining of the pandemic, for sure. It was sort of by necessity at first, because who knew when we were going to go back on the road, and I had never planned on doing anything solo, you know, this early in our career. Like, I thought, 'oh many years down the line when we got a lot more time and we're not on the road near as much, I will probably start releasing some of my own stuff.' But the pandemic happened, and I just wanted to be sure I never had to get another job that wasn't singing again. So I figured I would start releasing my own stuff, and it seems like all the rest of the guys sort of had their own direction as well. We kind of all did that in different ways, and it's been really fun and really fulfilling, and it's great, because it's just such a supportive community within the band. Everybody's just so supportive of each other. You feel like you can do anything.

BWW: Are you going to get to do any of your own songs in the concert?

Brown: Oh no, not yet. Well, I mean, you know we're doing a song or two of mine that I've written, for sure...Tim's as well, like original songs that we'll probably be releasing on our own as well, but for now it's just a HOME FREE show.

BWW: I noticed on So Long Dixie, there were quite a few of those you co-wrote.

Brown: Oh yeah, for sure. Tim wrote basically half the record, and I wrote the other half. We didn't plan on releasing a record that was all originals from the two of us, but, you know, we were trying to find songs for the album. Tim sent all his in, and I sent all of mine in, and the guys were listening to all of them, and their favorites were the ones that we had written. So, that's the ones we went with.

BWW: That's so awesome!

Brown: Oh my gosh! It's so fantastic- so unexpected. It's sort of a benchmark as an artist to have done an all-original album that's all written by people in the band. It's a pretty cool thing to have achieved.

BWW: Well, I love it. There are a few favorites on there-- Everybody Walking This Land and, of course, Folsom Prison Blues.

Brown: Oh my gosh- Those are classics! We do those in most of our shows right now- real, real crowd favorites, and it's just awesome getting to hear Tim and Chance just sing like that! I mean... come on...they will literally rattle your soul!

BWW: YES! So good. Another one I love off of the So Long Dixie album is Remember My Name- that's a good one.

Brown: Oh yeah. It's funny... everybody's got their own choices, and it's just been really awesome hearing and getting all the feedback from everybody over the years, and then with the new record, everybody's got a different favorite. I think that's one of things I love the most about music. You know, no matter what you do, at this point, if you do it from your heart, they're going to be people that resonate with it.

BWW: Absolutely! Ok, tell me what it's like to tour with these guys, because you guys have been touring for a long time now, right?

Brown: Oh yeah, I mean we're family at this point. We've been together for years. You know, not everybody's made for the touring life. It's not even a quarter as glamorous as a lot of people might think from the outside. Being in a tour bus and going to a different city every night, you know, can be a grind, but we've all learned how we best interact with everybody. The bus is tight. There's 10 to 12 people on the bus at any given time, and it gets full. Everybody's got different sleep schedules. We all get along, which is really the saving grace of this whole thing, like, we actually like each other. We have a good time; we laugh a lot. Touring at this point feels so normal for us, you know. Before the pandemic, we were doing about 150 shows a year, which is so many. We were never home. Adam and Rob both have kids at home now. They have families. They both have two kids a piece. Everybody's trying to focus more as we grow as a band and as individuals. We want to focus more on our families at home and spend more time at home. So, we've cut it back to about 100 shows a year; that's sort of like the benchmark we're trying to set. We'll see how long that lasts (he laughs). It's going pretty good right now, and we're having a lot of fun. We get to go to Australia next month. We will get to go to Europe, most likely, later this year. We've gotten to go all over the world doing this. I don't think there's anything else that any of us would rather be doing. It's a real blessing and just a dream come true for all of us.

BWW: I love it! That's so exciting.

Brown: It really is.

BWW: OK, so I've looked at your bio, and you've basically been singing since birth, but if you were not doing Home Free, what would you be doing now.

Brown: I'd probably be homeless with a box outside on the street in New York City singing for pennies, you know.....ummmmm...no. But, the best way to put it, you know, Tim kind of talks about it this way as well- Luke Combs wrote a song-it's called Doing This. He says 'if I wasn't doing this, I'd still be doing this,' right?

BWW: Right.

Brown: Just at a different level. I would still be making music, because that's what I do. I'd be playing in bars, or I'd be a piano man down the street somewhere, or I'd be on Broadway, you know, trying to make it happen up there. Wherever I could sing for a living, would be what I would be trying to do- there's no doubt about that.

BWW: I read that you went to college for a musical theater degree.

Brown: I went to college at Oklahoma City University for music theater. It was a great time. Whenever I was in high school, I was a singer, of course, and my dad was like 'you know you can get a full scholarship for singing too,' and I was like 'really?' So, I looked into it, and the only thing I could find to do that was for music theater, and so I pursued that, and I got that. I had a great experience; I learned so much. I still like to fancy myself an actor and think that one day when we have a little bit more time, I might try to pursue that down the line. So yeah, I'm a big musical theater nerd too, along with all of my country roots.

BWW: Broadway World loves to hear that. So, with all of this touring, what do you do on your down time?

Brown: I like to read a lot these days. I'm trying to educate myself more. I don't read many fiction books at this point. I read a lot of fiction as a kid, but now I'm reading a lot of psychological, self-help stuff, a lot of tax books and trying to learn more about the financial system- that's when I'm on the road. When I'm at home, I am working in the yard- I'm working on the house with my two hands. My father was a building contractor and so was my grandfather and my great grandfather. They all built houses. So, when I'm at home, I like to use my hands. I just got my shop all fixed up. Right after New Years and the last six weeks, I've been working so hard to get my house in order, so I can finally do all the things I want to do when I get home. So, I'm either cutting the grass, working in the flower beds or messing around with the garden in the back, or I'm working on the house, fixing it up. We're getting ready to enclose my garage and build a whole studio in there, and I'm going to do most of that myself. I'll probably pay someone to hang the drywall to speed it up, but yeah, I just like working with my hands and working in the yard.

BWW: Wow! You sound busy.

Brown: I try to stay busy; I really do. You know, busy hands make for a healthy mind.

BWW: Are you staying around Nashville or is your home in Georgia?

Brown: I'm in Nashville, just outside of Nashville- just east of Nashville. I'm about 22 minutes from downtown. I get to pretend I'm in the country. I got deer in my yard every single day, but if I need to pop into a studio, it's a shorter trip from my house to downtown Nashville, then it is from my momma's house into Tifton. So, I get to kind of pretend like I'm in the country, but I still got neighbors.

BWW: Well, this has been a joy. Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

Brown: I think for anyone who comes to the show, they're going to enjoy it. Whether they are 8 years old or whether they're eighty years old. We have such a good time. You're gonna laugh a lot; you're gonna really feel the music. I try and tell people who aren't our fans but have seen what we do, if they like what we do, but they're like 'I don't know about this acapella thing,' if they just come see a show, it will change their mind forever. For 999 people out of 1000, if you come see the show, it'll click. You'll be like, 'wow I get this,' and it's just such a fun time. So, anybody who hasn't seen us before, if they take the chance and come to see us, they certainly won't be disappointed.

BWW: Well, I definitely think you guys are the greatest. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. I can't wait to see you in Little Rock on March the 2nd.

I know firsthand that you DO NOT want to miss this show. If you are going to see HOME FREE at TempleLive Fort Smith, visit their website at https://fortsmith.templelive.com. For tickets at Robinson Center in Little Rock, go to https://www.robinsoncenter.com/events. Of course, there is a link as well on the HOME FREE website https://homefreemusic.com. There, you will also get a complete list of their tour schedule, information about their new album So Long Dixie, and merchandise. So, get your tickets, and I'll see you there!

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