Charley Crockett & Joe Rogan On Lack Of Authenticity In Pop Music: “They Don’t Know How… They’ve Never Lived It”

Callin’ it like he sees it… and I wholeheartedly agree.

Yesterday, Charley Crockett appeared as the guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he talked about growing up in South Texas with a single mother, and how he eventually started traveling around the country busking in cities like New York and New Orleans, and playing music for tips in his guitar case.

These days, he’s playing for a MUCH bigger crowd…

In addition to giving a beautiful explanation on how Willie and Waylon were so integral to each other’s careers, and why they became the outlaw pioneers that they did, Charley discussed a lot about why authenticity is so important in music, and how artists like Colter Wall have become so successful in large part due to how true to their lives their songs are, in addition to their raw talent.

Charley remarked:

“He grew up on Waylon and all that stuff, you know, and all the cowboy… he knows that cowboy music probably better than anybody.”

Rogan added that pop and hip hop artists are chasing that authentic element too, it’s just a lot harder to pull off outside of country because they lose sight of what that really means pretty quickly when labels and other things get involved:

“Well, that’s the thing when you’re talking about these hip-hop artists and pop artists… all artists, I mean even some of the pop artists, what do they want to be? They want something that resonates with people, they want something that really connects with people.

And if they think the vehicle to doing that is a hit pop song, they’ll take that route. But then they’ll hear something like ‘Kate McCannon,’ it’s like damn, that’s what I really wanna [make].”

Charley responded:

“You can’t do you can’t duplicate that. The only the only way to do that is a live it.”

It’s so true, and I think country music fans are particularly aware of that, and Rogan explained that comedy is very similar in that people want to know the art is coming from your soul and lived experience, because that’s what really resonates at the end of the day:

“It’s gotta be real. There’s something, just like I was talking about with comedy, like, they have to know that you’re really thinking that. It’s something in music too. They like when you write your own s*** too. They know it’s coming from someone’s mind, and their soul, it’s coming from their life experience. It’s who they are as a human being, this is their art. This is a true expression of their being. That’s what makes people loyal.”

But my favorite part of this conversation is what Charley said next, calling a lot of those pop artists bluff, so to speak, in how they want to talk the talk when it comes to pulling from the authenticity of country, but they don’t want to walk the walk. He didn’t reference anyone in particular, but it makes me think it could be about some of the pop artists we’ve seen getting into country over the last year or so:

“Those those pop artists just wanna take a picture standing next to authenticity.”

It’s so true, but it’s hard to duplicate, which is why country fans can be so harsh when it comes to “posers,” if you will, trying to cash in on what’s trendy right… and in my opinion, country is trendy because it’s so real, and with huge artists like Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, and even more independent artist like Crockett and Sierra Ferrell, that is palpable.

Rogan also had some interesting comments about how that very human element might be what saves “us from this AI s***,” because no matter how “good” it is, humans can sense when art comes from someone’s soul, and that’s intrinsic to the experience of being on earth, which no robot will ever be able to generate:

“Yeah, they do. Well, they wanna be it, but they don’t know how to get there. They don’t know how to do it, they’ve never lived it, you know, they’ve been paying attention to all the polls and the focus groups, and they’ve been listening to the executives, and they’ve been taking the advances and driving the Mercedes. They’re doing all the s*** that leads you down the wrong path, and then one day you realize like, f***, that’s not what I want.

It’s interesting, because there’s always gonna be these examples of something that pops through that’s real that people gravitate towards. And then there’s always gonna be these people trying to capitalize on it and make money off of it, and try to figure out how to re-create it in an inauthentic way. It’s not possible. That’s the one thing that might save us from this AI s***. Because AI is gonna create a bunch of really catchy songs, you know, but it’s never gonna create an Oliver Anthony song.

It’s never gonna create ‘Hard Times,’ you know, it’s never gonna create some of your s***. It’s not going to. It’s gotta come from a real human being. And there’s a thing that people are always gonna want. You’re always gonna want something that you know a real human being made. There’s something in it, you know. That’s why this building is filled with art.

I love looking at something that somebody made. It came from their soul. It came from whoever they are as a human, they laid it down. Whether it’s music, or whether it’s art, comedy. Whatever it is, it’s like, that that’s coming from a human. and we’re always gonna want to be connected to that.”

The point about a lot of pop singers getting wrapped up in the lifestyle elements of being a successful artist feels pretty on the nose too, and of course that can happen with country artists too, it just feels like that generally takes over the music less and it tends to stay more grounded than what’s being made at labels in New York City or LA.

It’s a really interesting conversation in terms of the AI stuff too, and probably one we’re only going to have more and more, unfortunately. It might be naive, but I like to think that they’re spot on and the human experience might only become more valuable as AI (unfortunately, in my opinion), starts to take over more of the world… a girl can dream, at least.

You can watch their conversation here:

The post Charley Crockett & Joe Rogan On Lack Of Authenticity In Pop Music: “They Don’t Know How… They’ve Never Lived It” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.