Matthew McConaughey Wants Young Musicians to Get Bold (and for Post Malone to Release a Country Album)
Matthew McConaughey knows that it can be tough for up-and-coming artists to get their big break. That’s why the actor (and longtime country-music lover) is helping develop a mentorship program called the #101BoldNightsMusicMentorship, which in collaboration with Wild Turkey and Spaceflight Records (a non-profit label), will open the doors for an emerging musical artist to work one-on-one with a mentor.
McConaughey knows that the everyday artist struggle is real. “You hear a lot of legendary musician say, ‘yeah have a day job while you’re trying to do it’,” he told Rolling Stone. “You know what I mean? Wait tables, do what you need to do while you’re trying to do it. That happens in my industry, too.” Helping work on artists’ musical goals and career advancement is a big part of the mentorship — for one lucky winner, that is.
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The mentorship can be won through an online contest (which involves posting a video of an original song or performance on your public Instagram channel, sharing your story in the caption, mentioning #101BoldNightsMusicMentorship, and tagging @WildTurkey), but the Interstellar star and Wild Turkey Creative Director knows just how important first impressions can be for anyone who’s trying to make it, even if your music can be discovered online.
“You’re taking a chance. That’s a risk. But we applaud someone who says, we know what we’re doing, we know what we love. We’re doing it for ourselves.”
McConaughey sat down to speak with Rolling Stone about the “101 Bold Nights” program, his craziest live concert experience, and why Post Malone needs to release a country album, yesterday.
I know that you’ve worked with Wild Turkey in the past. But what are you specifically hoping the “101 Bold Nights” program will achieve?
So each year we always gather together to decide hey, how do we want to give back? A previous year, we did turkey deliveries in Lawrenceburg. We visited first responders in Houston and LA. You know, last year we did the Local Legends [campaign], where we were celebrating local legends — people who were helping to keep music alive during Covid. When we couldn’t do live events, these were the people in Nashville and New Orleans and different places across the states that were giving people music virtually.
“I’ll take music as a form of entertainment over any other one in my life, if I had to pick one.”
I like music. You see my background, I’m surrounded by all kinds of instruments (Editor’s Note: his wall was indeed covered in various guitars, both acoustic and electric). I’ll take music as a form of entertainment over any other one in my life, if I had to pick one. And Wild Turkey agrees — we think it goes right along with our theme of “trust your spirit”. People that are carving their own path through life. We want to help out some young musicians that make could use a chance like this, could use someone like Spaceflight to help mentor them to have the best chance of succeeding or sharing their music.
What do you think that young musicians can still learn from the older generation? From these “living legends” like you said, that they can’t get just from experimenting making music in their bedrooms?
Obviously, it’s a tough gig, and a lot more people are doing it a lot more. There’s a lot of people who want to do it. They’re just can’t make a living doing it. You hear a lot of legendary musicians say, yeah, “have a day job while you’re trying to do it”. You know what I mean? Wait tables, do what you need to do while you’re trying to do it. That happens in my industry, too. It’s pretty hard to get out of the gate. Get maybe even minimal traction. And if you fade out, to make like a comeback. Or to get back in the game if you were out.
You can get successful online now by making your own songs and putting them out on your own channels. And all of a sudden, you’re known for a beat. There’s also so much, that DJs are so popular now. I don’t know if you’re gonna see punk rock bands getting the same attention. Where do they find their life line? What’s their gig? How hard is it for someone in that genre, live music-wise, to make it? Is a band writing their own songs?
I mean, we applaud someone who says we know what we’re doing, we know what we love. We’re doing it for ourselves. And we hope we got an audience that we draw to us if we just maintain and keep doing it how we want to do it. We’ll draw what audience we draw, and what we don’t draw, we didn’t want them anyway. [laughs] We also applaud that, but you’re also taking a chance. That’s a risk.
With some of these older bands, the first album, these legendary bands are using the best. The sophomore album is a bit of a drag, you know? It’s like, “oh my gosh, we know what works now”. Bands get aware of what they were doing. And it’s a lot of times it’s hard for that second album to be near as good as the first. For a lot of my favorite bands, their first album was a killer favorite, before they kind of knew what they were doing.
They do call it a “sophomore slump” for a reason. But they have to experiment a little bit.
That’s the other thing. How do you go out every night and play that hit, the one that everybody loves, over and over and over. Like it’s the first time. I know some musicians are like, ‘I won’t! I can’t stand it!’. And as a fan I like it when they do, but I also appreciate when you hear bands play a hit live and some people are like, “well, that’s a completely different version.” You’re like, well no shit. They’ve been playing it every night for 10 years, they had to do something fresh to get their own rocks off.
I had a record label for a while. I had this band Mishka, a reggae artist. I mean, pushing a reggae artist isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world either. But we would try, and maybe I could get his music heard by someone in the commercial sector, or my industry, that was looking for commercials and things like that. But that’s all I could do, was try to help them get heard. And we didn’t get anything picked up. Did it for a few years. It was a hobby, it was fun. I no longer do it.
But be ready to get on the road and sit around with some friends who, after a while in the back of the van, may start thinking a little bit and say, “hey, what we’re doing we love. We didn’t use coats and dyes and 9-5s for a reason. So let’s go do it.”
What do you think it is about performing live that’s so special, especially for these up-and-coming artists?
Especially coming out of Covid, people are flocking to go get back together again and see live events. I can listen to the same tune now on my great speakers, and it can sound great and I can have that personal experience, but it’s a completely different thing than what you’re talking about. If I’m catching up on a band, I like to get to know them pretty well through their album or through an electronic system before I go see it live. So when I get to have an idea and anticipation of “this is a tune I like”. Just to know it so I can really sing along and jam with them.
I’ve had some experiences with bands that I was like, eh, and then I saw them live and was like, “holy shit, I’m in”. The Cure did that to me. When I saw them live, I was like, “this is a new top five favorite band”. Some bands you go, they should’ve just keep recording, or that venue should’ve done a better soundcheck. I’ve heard some bands where the songs weren’t necessarily ruined, but I wish I wouldn’t have heard it like that.
But the energy of a live show when you’re there is killer. One of my favorite memories is going up to live shows at Hirsch Coliseum up in Shreveport, Louisiana. That was the place we saw all our big shows in my time, in the late Eighties. It was rock bands for me.
What was your craziest concert experience there?
Probably late-Eighties N.W.A. They’d choreographed a part early on in the songs where they opened their coats and pulled out what looked to be like…(Editor’s Note: it’s at this point that McConaughey stopped himself, saying it was “a very inappropriate story for today”.)
But I got on the stage and sang “Pink Houses” with John Mellencamp in 1992. Oh, that was a good one. He was somebody whose music I grew up jammin’ with, and then fortunately, later on in life, actually got to meet him. I said, “you remember in Houston? ’92? I do, because it was me on stage”. And that was pretty cool.
What artists or songs have been on heavy rotation for you recently? Got a good record-listening cocktail?
When I look out in the evening with the sun going down I like my Longbranch. For older, deeper tracks, I never get tired of digging through old Creedence. I’ve had many different seasons in my life where I’ve said I’m going to dive into Dylan for a few months, and I still haven’t got my bearings. I’ve been jamming to Chuck Berry here lately. My son and I will jam to the Foals, an English rock band.
And I’m a fan of Post Malone. I think that guy’s talented and funny and all kinds of stuff. Did you hear him do country? He performed at a Texas benefit after the freeze here. It was great. People were lobbying for him to make a country album, and I think he really should.
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