Jason Ringenberg – We will always be on that road trying to get there
ND: Is that something that’s happened to you?
JR: Oh yeah, man, hundreds of times. That’s also what the song is about. It’s an ongoing process. There are some people who are blessed to be saved. The rest of us have to work at it all the time. I think especially if you travel, you have to work at it all the time, whether you’re Christian or Muslim or Jewish or American Indian. It’s a uniquely American Christian idea that you can become saved and then everything is OK. That’s a very modern idea. I don’t quite understand it.
ND: That gets at something that’s part of this album, I think, that you try to get at something that’s true to you. There’s a big part of the American songwriting tradition that’s just about writing entertaining songs. But you’re part of that line of songwriters that’s trying to get at something that reflects your experience.
JR: You know, I include myself in a heritage of writers who are like that. It’s a great group to be a part of. None of us make any money [laughs]. Or very few of us do. But we are all on this path. We’re never going to get there — that’s the cool thing about it. Steve Earle is never going to get there. Lucinda Williams is never going to get there. Jimmie Dale Gilmore is never going to get there. Kevin Welch is never going to get there. We will never get there, but we will always be on that road trying to get there. It’s the primary focus of all of our lives. Economics is secondary. If we can make money at it, that’s fabulous. But it’s the journey that’s the important thing.
ND: All of those people you mentioned have a certain reputation — they’re not the most famous musicians, but they’re going to be listened to for generations. That idea of glory without fortune, have you reconciled with that?
JR: Glory without fortune? [laughs] That’s a good line. Internally, when I first got into music, I never thought about the commercial aspects of music. After I got into the Scorchers, especially in the middle point, I thought about it way too much. I think Warner said it the other day, “I didn’t make the money, but I got the longevity.”
What’s the old saying: A Frenchman admires a man of culture, an Englishman admires a man of breeding, an Italian admires a man of taste, an American admires a man of wealth. I think that’s an awful thing. I don’t like that about America. We put way too much emphasis on money. We need to pay more attention to what’s in our hearts.