Sturgill Simpson Wrote “Turtles All The Way Down” In A Hotel Shower: “Had To Jump Out To Write It Down”

Singing in the shower turned to writing in the shower.

On May 13, 2014,  Sturgill Simpson released his revolutionary record, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, produced by iconic producer Dave Cobb. The album is now regarded as some of Simpson’s best work, and arguably the best country album of the past 25 years… one that has changed the perspective of country music among fans.

In the height of 2014, “bro-country,” Sturgill saw this as a chance to break the mold of cookie-cutter looks and lyrics, creating a project unlike anything on country radio at that point. With a title inspired by Ray Charles’ boundary-pushing 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Simpson resonated with the idea of testing the waters and reversing time, taking the sound back to its traditional roots.

The result was a project that amplified what country music started as, and while not immediately, signaled the beginning of the end for the bro-country era of mainstream country music. Stu essentially picked the lock, and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, launched by a CMA Awards duet with Justin Timberlake of all people, flung the door wide open for a whole new world of non-mainstream country music (AKA excellent country music) to come to the forefront. Flash forward to today, we have non-mainstream acts like Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Turnpike Troubadours, Zach Bryan, Charley Crockett, Whiskey Myers, Cody Jinks, and more playing for massive crowds and earning Gold and Platinum certifications.

The album was nominated for a Grammy, but sadly did not take home the honor, it was still a massive win for independent artists and for moving the needle back toward a more traditional sound.

With roots in Hindu mythology, the song is essentially about drugs, and how various forms of psychedelics can help to open your mind up on the innate search for truth that is part of the human experience. Of course, many people look to spirituality for truth and meaning so it also serves as a sort of indictment against organized religion. But at the end of the day, Stu concludes that ultimate truth us unknowable, and that love is the only thing that’s “saved his life.”

“So don’t waste your mind on nursery rhymes
Or fairy tales of blood and wine
It’s turtles all the way down the line
So to each their own till we go home
To other realms our souls must roam
To and through the myth that we all call space and time…”

In 2018, Simpson appeared as a guest on Sarah Silverman’s Hulu series, I Love You, America, and shared with Silverman how “Turtles All The Way Down” came to be. After Silverman sang a few lines of the song, she joked That’s what she sounds like in the shower. Simpson gives a light chuckle, then notes that the comparison is pretty funny because he actually wrote the first verses of the famed tune in a hotel shower.

“Well, that’s weird because that’s actually where I wrote it. In the shower, in a uh, somewhere, I don’t know where we were, but we were in a hotel. I was taking a shower ’cause leaving, we had to get on the road and drive more that morning, and the whole first and second verse came and I was like, ‘This is kind of weird.’ I had to jump out of the shower to write it down, and I slipped. I totally almost killed myself.”

Thank goodness no serious injury occurred as he got out of the shower. Can you imagine a world where Simpson became concussed and forgot the lyrics he came up with? We’d be out one stellar song. Simpson continues:

“I ran outside to the parking lot, and the band they were all at the van and I just kind of started reading, singing it to them. They all just looked at me like I lost my mind, and I was like ‘Nah, this is gonna be cool, trust me.'”

Cool, it is indeed. “Turtles All The Way Down” is one of the most beloved songs from Simpson’s catalog and changed the game of country music at the time of its release.

I guess this is further proof that some of the best ideas come from being in the shower or sitting on the pot…

Fire up “Turtles All The Way Down” before you go.

The post Sturgill Simpson Wrote “Turtles All The Way Down” In A Hotel Shower: “Had To Jump Out To Write It Down” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.