Comin' To Your City is a wide-ranging and widescreen tour de force -- all the way from the willfully weird opening of "The Freak Parade," one of the duo's characteristically funny but true statements of purpose to the concluding "8th of November," easily the most powerful and serious song they brought the world yet.
"We know what we do is freaky," John Rich says. "We know we're combining stuff in the chemistry set that in the instructions say `Don't combine these things or they might explode.' We say fine, let's combine them anyway. We'll just wear a helmet. That's our whole attitude toward music."
That kind of thinking has helped make the duo and the Muzik Mafia - of which Big & Rich are proud, central members -- a force to be reckoned with, and a force for tremendous good in Music City. Already the Mafia has introduced the listening, watching world to an unforgettable cast of real characters like Gretchen Wilson, Cowboy Troy and now Jon Nicholson, James Otto and many more to come.
"The thing I'm most proud of is that the members of the Muzik Mafia have stuck together even after going multi-platinum," says Big Kenny. "It's easy sticking together when you're all broke. It's been like being on a football team and winning the Super Bowl a couple of times. It's fun to win, but it's a lot more fun to win with your friends. I know we've given the artistic community in Nashville a bigger set of balls, and we've watched our old friends getting signed. It was a big door to knock down. We have this philosophy that there should be no bureaucracy in creativity. Let the artists be the artists and do what they do. All the little boxes they put people in were beginning to suffocate creativity. The thing I'm most proud of is that John and I have made a big enough crack in the door that other artists are sticking their foot through now."
In this way, Big & Rich are now part of a story even bigger than their own impressive success. "I know we've given people hope and give labels some more courage," says Rich. "That's bigger than just our career - that's impacting the business in general. Kenny and I love country music and the way we see it, it's the most inclusive music in the world. We've had black guys like Charley Pride, real hippies like Willie. To us country is the greatest music and if what we do expands what country means -- that's the greatest success of all. All the people we consider the pillars of country music -- let's name some: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Alabama, Garth -- all these people shook things up in a big way."
Now with Big & Rich's /i]Comin' To Your City[, you can hear the sound of a whole lot of shakin' going on coming your way.
