After announcing her highly anticipated sophomore album, Trail of Flowers, and making her television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Sierra Ferrell sat down for an extensive interview on the Zach Sang Show in which she discussed everything from her influences and misgivings about modern country music to her past adventures trainhopping and five overdose experiences.
In the video podcast, the open-ended format allows Ferrell and her interviewer to delve into a number of topics, beginning with her background growing up with a single mom in low-income housing. “I had to watch her struggle and it was hard,” she says. She describes moving so often that she attended six elementary schools, observing that it helped her learn how to make friends and also showed her the lack of equality among different area codes.
The conversation quickly turns to Ferrel’s experience leaving home to hitchhike with a friend, and all the things she had to learn to survive as a traveling nomad before she found busking. She discusses her time hopping trains and finding community through jam sessions, as well as her past struggles with drug addiction.
“I’ve died five times, and I’ve seen some things, and I’m not scared of dying from that.” Asked to explain more, she says she “used to be a junkie” and goes on to describe a blissful out-of-body experience in vivid detail:
[Before] I knew it, I was in the corner of the room looking at my body, and [my friend’s] like still shaking me … And then I’m flying and I see this little tiny pin of light and it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then there’s these little beans in around the circle of the light and they’re like leaning in and they’re like cheering me on and then all of a sudden the only thing I felt was total bliss and joy and happiness. … and then I was, like, depressed for months after that because I felt … coming back here after what I felt there it’s just like there’s just so much pain here, so much suffering here, and there’s no pain or suffering there, like, at all.
In addition to her adventurous past, the conversation covers Ferrell’s musical history, writing process, and experiences collaborating with artists like Zach Bryan, whom she calls “super respectful” and “super sweet” before describing the indulgent spread of candy and snacks his crew had in the studio.
“I walk over and it’s gushers, fruit roll ups, goldfish, Cheez-Its, Capri Suns. I mean, of course I had one of everything, but I was like, ‘Well, when in Rome.’ And then I was like, ‘Well what’s for dinner,’ [and they were] like, ‘Well, we’re going to order Wendy’s.’ [So I said], ‘Alright, spicy chicken sandwich it is!’”
She also discusses her love of jazz and complex feelings about country music. “I have a country heart with a jazz mind,” she says. “The heart of country music is pure and genuine it comes from a place of the working class people traditionally. They’re talking about the hard times that they’ve went through and the hard times they’re still going through, but they smile about it and they joke about it and they make a show of it. Today it’s more about being a thoroughbread. … It’s missing a core ingredient sometimes. I feel like it’s missing that raw genuiness. It’s more L.A. I guess.”
Watch the full interview with Sierra Ferrell on the Zach Sang Show below. Her new album, Trail of Flowers, is due out March 22nd. Click here to pre-order/pre-save the album. Visit her website for a list of her upcoming tour dates.
Sierra Ferrell On The Zach Sang Show
[Video: Zach Sang Show]
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