“This gig started out so grass roots, basically with a song and an old broken down bus,” says Tully Kennedy, long-time bassist for country music star Jason Aldean. The band is celebrating their second consecutive #1 single from the album Wide Open and the recent release of their live DVD, Wide Open Live & More. “To see where it’s come is amazing - we use to play for nobody! So to show up and see seven or eight cameras ready to film our show was quite a moving experience for us.”.
Over the past decade, Tully has established himself in the modern country/rock lexicon by playing and/or recording with Rushlow, Jewel, Robbie Neville and ex-Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch. He has also logged countless hours playing on a variety sessions in the Nashville studio scene. Working with such a variety of artists has allowed him to develop a highly sought-after style, which is incredibly solid without being mechanical and supportive without simply relegating itself to the background.
In addition to the massive success with Jason Aldean, Tully founded NV Entertainment with fellow Aldean band mates Rich Redmond and Kurt Allison along with fellow producer David Fanning. One of their first projects was a remix of Aldean’s #1 hit, She’s Country that has led to dozens of offers from labels to produce other acts.
We recently caught up with Tully who had just filmed an episode of CMT’s popular concert series, Crossroads. The show, which is a meeting of modern country acts with classic rock artists, found the band performing with Bryan Adams.

What was it like backing up Bryan Adams?
It was great! Bryan did three of Jason’s songs and we got to play Cuts Like a Knife, Summer of ’69 and Heaven. To play those classic songs with the actual artist was quite a thrill. Bryan is a very good bass player you know and he had some very specific things that he wanted. And he loved the Aguilar rig! He commented on the DB 412 and how punchy and tight it sounded.

The band is playing large venues now – what do you need to get from your rig?
For me it’s a little tricky because I’m singing as well. Everything that comes out of my rig goes into my vocal mike. If I wasn’t singing, I could just crank up the rig but because of where my vocal mike is, that also goes into everybody else’s monitors. I need to feel the bass yet I still have to have room to fit my vocal, Jason’s vocal and the guitars in my monitors. That’s the reason why I’ve always loved Aguilar; it’s big and round yet it still has that tight feel to it and it never gets muddy. Now you know why every opening act that has ever played with us ends up calling you guys for an endorsement (laughs)!

How is it different achieving your tone in outdoor settings?
With an outdoor show the sound just goes up into the air so I can turn it up a little more that day. It’s a give and take with the front of house and the volume that I can play at from day to day might change depending on the venue and how the venue handles low-end. But the only thing that I change is the volume; the actual setting of the rig never changes. I haven’t changed the way I run my EQ settings on the DB 750’s ever! You crank the DB 750 or play at a lower volume and the tone doesn’t change which is quite magical actually!
I’ve been using Aguilar since early 2003 and every time I turn on a DB 750, I know what it’s going to sound like, no matter what room we’re playing. And that’s important because we go from playing arenas with Keith Urban, who we’re opening for right now, to headlining our own shows, which might be half civic center/arena shows to outdoor festival shows. So room-to-room, it sounds very consistent.

Are songs written as a group or does Jason bring ideas into you guys?
Generally Jason will have two or three songs that he’s written and everyone turns in songs and what ends up on the record is always what the best group of songs turns out to be. What I love most about the Wide Open record is that we really did cut it raw. Most of those songs are tops, third take. So it’s very organic, very old school. We cut it at an older studio and we didn’t use Pro Tools so it sounds huge when it hits radio! It’s a high-stress situation because generally, we will cut five songs a day in two sessions, from 10 – 1 and then from 2 - 6. It ends up sounding like Jason and very much like a band. We don’t have a whole lot of time to over think things, which can sometimes be a great thing.

So the recording process is fast paced!
It is a fast paced situation - five songs in two sessions! Jason will then do vocals about a month later but as far as all the tracking goes, it happens within a couple of days. Sometimes it’s better not to have all that time to over think things. Like I said, we cut everything at a very old studio which is great, a lot of classic records have been cut there. And unlike most studios, there is only one cue mix so everybody is on the same mix. It can be very challenging since your not going to hear yourself the way you want to but it really forces you to play as a band. You’re going to hear what everybody else plays, you’re not going to over play because you can hear what everybody else is doing so you don’t want to step on their parts.

How about coming up with individual parts?
Everybody is involved in the arrangements. As a bassist, I try to have my one “moment” but the parts I love to play are very melodic and support the song. That’s the kind of music I’ve always loved, that Tom Petty/U2-approach to cutting records which is so melodic. You’re not going to hear a bass solo on a Jason Aldean record (laughs) but you are going to hear solid playing! I’ve always appreciated the virtuoso playing but the kind of playing that I’ve always loved is the simple, melodic approach. This way, when you do step out and do something, like on a bridge or turnaround, it really pops out and it’s more of a special moment.

What are your thoughts on the new live DVD, Wide Open Live & More?
It was very exciting. When you’re going in to record a live DVD, you want to perform a perfect show, which rarely ever happens. But if you’re trying to avoid making a mistake from moving around and performing, that defeats the purpose. We forgot that the cameras were there because you have to perform still. The whole reason that the DVD happened was because of our live show. And what you see on the DVD is what we played that night – we are happy that no one replaced any parts, what’s there is there and it really represents what we do on stage.

Thanks Tully for such a great interview! We look forward to the new DVD!