| “It’s a heavy love song,” Johnston explains. “‘Double Wide Grave’ is another song I wrote about me and my wife, but it happened to be written when we were also dealing with the loss of Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters. I made that track a day or two after he passed. At the time, I was producing the Foo Fighters’ guitarist Chris Shiflett’s album, so I got to witness the pain the band was going through. I did everything in the song like they would’ve done it, just with a southern TC3 spin added in, and it worked.”
Sometimes change is so gradual that it barely registers, and sometimes it’s like slamming into a brick wall. Just ask TC3: in 2020 the Nashville trio of Johnston, Neil Mason, and Kelby Ray released a pair of albums in Country Fuzz and Tabasco & Sweet Tea, then entered a season of dramatic upheaval that left them reeling.
“We put out 31 songs in one year. It was like, let’s give people a breather. Let’s give us a breather,” Johnston says. “We were coming off COVID and then my dad passed away. It’s a whole different life now. Talk about having some shit to write about.”
The ACM-nominated group’s sixth studio album, The Years Go Fast, is the product of coming through those trials and emerging on the other side — battle-scarred, a little older, a little wiser, and more willing to be vulnerable. It’s expansive in sound, reflective of the way The Cadillac Three continue to tinker with their swaggering brand of country-rock, but it still sounds like only the three of them can.
“This record does have a lot of growth, a lot of hurt and heartbreak,” says Mason, the group’s drummer. “We are a little more grown up now, but we’re still doing the same thing we were doing in the beginning.”
The Years Go Fast is a statement about big change, but it’s also about the ways friendship, love, and family are anchors when everything starts to fall apart.
While the changes that shaped The Years Go Fast were often sudden and shocking, the group’s sound has shifted in a slightly more subtle fashion. There are still thunderously heavy half-time breakdowns that nod to their roots, but each album offers a new glimpse into what sounds have captured the group’s attention, whether it’s the organic funk of Tabasco & Sweet Tea or the pronounced metal influences on The Years Go Fast. The fans tend to eat it up, but it’s never done in the name of fan service.
Johnston and Mason frequently write songs for other artists, and Johnson has notched 10 country Number Ones outside the band. He notes that it never works for the band to think about what might work on radio. “Anytime we’ve tried to chase anything, we have ultimately failed,” he says. “It’s the times when we step out and put our hearts on the road so people can drive over them, that’s where we win.”
And that’s what The Years Go Fast ultimately does. Hearts are on the line, bleeding from loss and beating for connection. It’s a blood-and-guts study of love, friendship, and resilience, but one that didn’t come easy.
The Years Go Fast is available for pre-order, with tracks ‘Young & Hungry’ and ‘Double Wide Grave’ out now. Catch TC3 on the road this fall as the trio continues their The Years Go Fast US Tour. For tickets and more information, visit thecadillacthree.com. |
