A lot of his rowdy fans
. . . are asking if these changes are going to tame Travis, his music, and his high energy performances.
‘Obviously getting married in the last year, and having a baby, spawns some wonderful love songs. I’m very excited about that. Love songs have always been a stable part of my career, and there are definitely some love songs on this new album. There’s going to be some stuff on there that is very much in the style and tradition of what I’ve done in the past, which is country rock oriented. Stuff that tends to ‘put some drive in your country’, so to speak. There will some things on there that would be considered very traditional ‘straight ahead’ country music. It will be a nice mixture of all the things that I’ve done over the years that have been successful for me. I think success is being in a position in your life where you do things, not because you have to, and not because somebody else is telling you to, but because you want to. When you don’t have to worry about letting the business dictate to you.’

One thing that everybody loves about Travis
. . . is how easily he moves from one style of music to another. Travis accredits this to his upbringing.
‘I was born and raised in a little town called Marietta, Georgia. I grew up in a suburban southern setting, and had a lot of really good influences. I was in a perfect place for music, as far as the location. Just to the north of us, we had Nashville and country music. Just to the south of us we had Macon, which is the birthplace of a lot of southern rock, like Lynard Skinner and, the Allman Brothers Band. Then just a little bit west, in Mississippi, we had the Delta Blues, which was a huge influence on my music, and of course southern gospel music. My Mother sang in church with her sisters when she was growing up, and my father messed around a little bit at home on the guitar, and sang from time to time.

My Mother said I could snap my fingers when I was a year and a half, two years old. I know that one of the first songs I ever learned was a song called ‘King of The Road’. Anybody could walk up to me and want me to sing, I wasn’t shy about singing at all. I would jump right into ‘Trailers for sale or rent’, and do the whole song for them, whether I was in a shopping center or a grocery store.’

Singing for fun was one thing
. . . but devoting your life to it was another matter. Travis’ parents thought he was crazy.
‘My Dad especially. I think my Dad is like so many other people. I have read biography’s on so many other folks in country music, where they said the same thing. Their fathers were like mine. He thought that music was "something you sung around the house. It definitely wasn’t something that you pursued as a job, ‘cause all musicians turned out to be either drunks, or drug addicts, or both. They never ended up ever owning anything, and most of them were people that sang for a living because they were too lazy to work, and all they did was bounce from club to club, and never really amounted to much." That was his feelings in general, until my first album was released and started selling.’

Travis has often taken a detour
. . . off the beaten path to do a movie, usually westerns. It’s easy for fans to see that he looks quite at ease in the saddle.
‘I’ve got a couple of quarter horses that I love to ride when I get the chance. There’s something about the whole persona of a cowboy that really appeals to me. The mystique of a cowboy is something that is in my blood. Something I love. So, it’s nice to go out and play cowboy every now and then. I made the mistake on the first movie I ever did with Kenny Rogers, which was Rio Diablo, of doing many of my own stunts. I paid the price for it. I got up every day practically stiff as a board, couldn’t hardly move! I just completed a movie in Spain, ‘The Long Kill’, which is a western, with Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. It will be out on CBS this fall. So this time around, I learned a very valuable lesson, really good stunt men are great about making you look good on camera. They made me look so much better than I could have made myself look. I did a few things on my own, but most of it was theirs. The movie and the new album should come out about the same time, so it should be a good fall.’

Travis & Jolene
Although Travis loves horses
. . . when he wants a little more ‘horsepower’ he breaks out his Harley. The first time I met Travis was at the Country Radio Seminar, and he had brought his Harley with him, up to the fifth floor of the Opryland Hotel!
‘I took it out with me, starting about 4 years ago. I started riding it on stage. That’s how I made my entrance. It was a great entrance, and the nice thing about it was that I had my motorcycle with me all the time. So, in the afternoon, I could get on the bike, take a short ride, and just get rid of any uptight frustration. We didn’t do it last year. We did a big package tour and run out of room on the trucks. This year I’m touring alone, so we’re making plans to bring it out.’

Travis did say he hopes to spend some time riding while out on the road, but he didn’t say if he was going to be riding on the streets, or on the stage?!

And he admits that being on tour with his family, has changed his eating habits.
‘The band stops at restaurants. Just my wife and baby, and myself, travel on our bus, and we do all of own cooking. It’s really tough to get the nutrition that you’re suppose to get, when you’re out on the road. It’s hard to keep your weight down. I’m one of the worst in the world. I have a tendency to fluctuate up and down in a 25 to 30 pound range anyway. I like to cook. I cook real simple stuff. My wife and I have a deal, if I do any cooking, she will do all the cleaning up, ‘cause I hate the cleaning up part. I have a little catfish pond, and a little bass pond. I go out from time to time and do a little fishing, and have a little fish fry. I clean my own fish.’

Well, I guess every wife has to draw the line somewhere!

Travis has also learned how to change his exercise routine, so that it includes family time.
‘I try to work out at the hotels. At least, if we don’t get a chance to actually hit the gymnasium, we get the stroller out and push the baby around for a little while before the show. Over the last 10 years, I’ve probably done more exercising on stage than anywhere else. I don’t stand still, and don’t stay in one spot. Anybody that has seen me perform knows that I get around on stage. I try to make that my aerobic workout of the day.’ 

Anyone that has ever seen Travis Tritt perform, knows that he has a certain ‘animal magnetism’ about him.
‘You know, the whole time we were filming this movie, Kris kept calling me the Lion. He said, "Travis you look like a lion," ‘cause I pace back and forth a lot. I do that on stage as well, and I’ve seen myself written up that way. I like being the guy who paces back and forth, never satisfied with what’s going on, always searching out something else. Kind of stalking what’s around the corner, trying to find out what’s going to be happening next.’

really are twins, which gave them double the pleasure, of seeing the first song off their new album go up to charts to give them their first top 10 hit!

• 2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix-4 slices bread
• 1 onion, chopped fine-3 cans of chicken broth
• 2 tsps. Poultry seasoning-1 stick butter
• 1 can cream of chicken soup-Salt & pepper to taste

• Jolene’s variation, add 2 tablespoons of sage to the seasonings.