Brothers Osborne: Working too hard to pretend

• Sonya Jasinski
• BROTHERLY LOVE: John (left) and TJ Osborne.

Brothers Osborne, TJ and John, are one of several acts leading the charge to put artistry back into what can seem like an unvarying landscape of similar singles in country radio. Their latest single “Stay A Little Longer” resonates with country fans all the more for it. The song was the number one added single in country radio the week of its release, making a fitting follow-up to their breakthrough track “Rum” and a warm primer for the debut full-length they’ve hinted at for later this year. The band recently hit the stage in Alpharetta opening for Darius Rucker, the latest show in a line of big bills they’ve played with artists such as Eric Church and Little Big Town.

TJ took a few minutes out of his day to talk about how they got here, what they’ve learned on the road, and where they hope to go next.

You and John are brothers, but you didn’t start your music careers together as a duo. How did you guys grow up with music, and when did that turn into what we hear with Brothers Osborne today?

We started playing music when we were young. Both of our parents wrote songs and played and sang, and my dad played guitar. We just picked it up from an early age. There was never a time when we were like, ‘You know what? We’re going to play music.’ We just did.

John moved down to Nashville and got in a band that was getting some pretty good notoriety in town. Shortly after, I followed him down here, trying to get into music myself. At the time, John was a very well-known guitar player — as he should be — and I was like, ‘You know, I think I’m going to do my own thing for a little bit. I don’t want to ride on the coattails of John’s work.’ So I went out and tried to start making my own name as a singer and songwriter. We started playing, and a lot of times when I’d play a full-band show I’d have John play guitar for me, because obviously, he’s my brother, and he’s incredible at guitar.

So people would make comments all the time: “Man, the two of you together is just a really cool, natural thing.” I guess we never really noticed because we’d been doing it our whole lives; it didn’t seem like anything unusual. So finally, we were like, “You know, everyone keeps mentioning this. Maybe we just need to actually pursue this.” We started the band, which at the time was called Captain Kid, and then we switched our name to Brothers Osborne. It took off from there. That’s when we got signed, and a lot of things just falling into place.

So you and John wrote “Stay a Little Longer” with Shane McAnally. How did it originate?

John and I like to have songs that maybe touch on the same topics, but have something different to say that haven’t been talked about very much. We did that with “Rum,” where we kind of took rum and made it not a beach song: it was about not being at the beach, turning it on its axis a bit. So one day we were there, and we sat down with Shane and John just started peddling on this little guitar part, sort of singing this melody. We started coming up with the feel of the song. There isn’t really a song that talks about the in-between. There is love gained and love lost — we hear a lot of those types of songs — but there’s not really that awkward stage, where it’s on the way in or the way out. Shane started riffing on the pre-chorus, and because it’s not something that we’ve talked about very much in songs and haven’t really heard very much, it all started flying out of us. It wasn’t necessarily one personal experience that only I had felt, or John or Shane, but it was something that we’d all gone through and dealt with. I think that’s the thing that resonates about the song. It was really easy to write because it came from a very sincere place.

You’ve been out on some really huge tours. Is there anything you’re picking up from the people you’re touring with on these larger bills?

Everyone’s show is so different. From the way they open a show, whether it’s Darius Rucker or Little Big Town or Eric Church, their audiences are different. Its interesting for us to realize, “Okay. It’s okay for me to go somewhere and have someone not really like what I do.” Just because it’s in country music doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to like it. Certainly at one point in time, you’re not going to like me for what I might say or what I might do. So I might as well go ahead and say it and do it now and get it out of the way. We can move on with our fans that like it. I think a lot of people pander to their audience: They pretend to be something they aren’t, because they’re scared of someone not liking them, instead of saying, ‘You know what? I don’t want anyone not to like me, but at the same time, I’m not going to be something else just so you will like me.”

Real artists that have been successful all kind of have that attitude. Particularly Eric Church: He’s not going to be an asshole just to be an asshole, but he’s not going to apologize for being himself either. That’s a thing we miss, I think, with a lot of artists these days, country artists, too. They’re so scared of being themselves. But why be anything else? I work too hard to pretend.