Will Schube on Aaron Lee Tasjan: Widening the Tent
Aaron Lee Tasjan is the perfect protest singer for our digitally divided era. He’s firm in his worldview, his leftist politics, and radical empathy but it’s this last point that makes him uniquely equipped to address the broken world we live in. There’s no hatred in Aaron Lee Tasjan’s heart. Even when he’s penning a scathing critique of our broken nation, like on “I Love America More Than You,” from his excellent 2024 LP, Stellar Evolution, there’s a sense of trying to understand, of coming to the conversation with an open mind. On that standout cut he sings: “Happy Independence/ I hope you're not dependent/ On We're all created equal to go live some kind of dream/ I'm not sure that sparklers/ Or twenty-dollar parking/ Is gonna get me free enough to hear the eagle scream.” Even when he’s criticizing the broken state of our nation, he comes at the perspective with empathy and understanding.
This perspective was illustrated during a recent show on his Aaron Lee Tasjan & Friends Tour, a revue-style showcase that featured the songwriter and a number of trusty collaborators moving between ALT originals, cover songs, and other cuts from each performer’s discography. “I had a guy come up to me in Kentucky, it was the first night of the tour, and he said, ‘I host a political podcast, and I played ‘I Love America’ every night leading up to the election on my podcast,’” Tasjan explains. “We had a lovely conversation. I went and looked him up. He's an extraordinarily conservative guy. I was heartened by it, because it could have been so easy to just say that they’re inherently a bad person. Where does that get you? Absolutism is not a conversation continuer.”
With this belief in the common good, Aaron is the perfect act to perform at Luck Reunion. The same values he holds dear — community, inclusivity, and the positive power of music — are the ones amplified each year by Luck Presents. We thought it would be worth everyone’s time to sit down with Tasjan and discuss his relationship with greats like Todd Snider and Elton John, teasing new songs on the road, and his relationship with Luck Reunion. Check out an edited version of the conversation below.
How long has Nashville been home for you?
This is my 11th year of living there.
You’re in between the rock and country scenes. Does that allow you to fit into either or are you alienated from both?
There are a few people like that in the city, some of my heroes, like Elizabeth Cook and Todd Snider. When I moved to town, I saw how artists like that could be misfits in the best way. I was like, ‘Ooh, yeah, I don't fit in either. Maybe I could do that.’
It's been a year since Stellar Evolution was released. How are you feeling about it a year in? Has the perspective changed?
Unfortunately it feels like one of those albums that got more true after it came out, in certain respects. There are pink triangles on social media accounts with an x through them—that's straight out of Nazi Germany concentration camps. Anybody who knows their history knows that and knows how intentional it is. There are no accidents. You just hope that the next four years won't be so slippery that we slide fully into something that's impossible to come back from.
Was that what you set out to reckon with on the project, or was it illuminating itself in a new way with this fresh context?
Yeah, I set out to write songs like “Alien Space Queen,” “Nightmare,” and “I Love America Better than You” against what I was seeing happening. There was a neighboring town to Nashville in Tennessee where they successfully made it illegal to be a gay person for a whole day or whatever before a bigger court put a stop to that nonsense. Having followed the history of all this all along, I recognize that what's happening right now is a reaction to the progress that has been made over time. I feel like there are so many conversations that happen around eradicating homophobia, eradicating racism, and eradicating all of these things. I would be in favor of that, obviously, but you also recognize that the fabric of the universe is the balance of all of these things. It's going to swing, there are good people because there are bad people.
You've always been outspoken and unafraid to speak your mind. Does that urge grow stronger now?
Yeah, I think our collective job as artists is building communities. I feel very much a product of the communities that I've been a part of. My community loved me into the person that I am. Here we are at Luck at the house of Willie Nelson, there's a guy who figured out a way to bring all kinds of people together. I take a lot of inspiration from that, and I think about that moving forward. If anything, I'd like to widen the tent. I had a guy come up to me in Kentucky, it was the first night of the tour, and he said, “I host a political podcast, and I played ‘I Love America’ every night leading up to the election on my podcast.” We had a lovely conversation. I went and looked him up. He's an extraordinarily conservative guy. I was heartened by it, because it could have been so easy to just say that they’re inherently a bad person. Where does that get you? Absolutism is not a conversation continuer.
You and your friends have been traveling the country playing shows. What has it been like bringing along a group of close collaborators?
What I've learned is the power of community and people coming together to do something as a collective is really inspiring to people. Whether they know ahead of time that that's what they're signing up for or not. I started to question at a certain point during this tour, wondering how good of a job I did of explaining what this was going to be because it seemed like some people were showing up and being like, ‘Oh, I didn't know we were going to see all these musicians.’ I loved seeing everybody play together, supporting each other on each other's songs. Everybody's been really excited to see this collaboration happen, and it’s just a great reminder of why it's important to keep lines of communication open between people.
Would you like to bring this concept into the studio as well?
Yeah, I would. We've recorded some of these. There's no definitive plan for it, but I wanted to have it because the thing that's great about these shows is they're all once in a lifetime. We never do the same thing the same way again.
What does an average night of the tour look like?
We've been doing two sets, a proper ALT set and then a Friends set where everybody's going to do a couple of songs. I like when guests get to do a couple of songs, they can get in the vibe, take people on the journey with them a little bit, make it more of a performance.
You can be a bit of a sideman, too, which is cool.
I look at it as helping. It's like, how can I help make this song sound the best that it can? Maybe I'm just singing harmony, or maybe I'm playing keys or doing something else, but whatever it is I want to do that. It's such a fun concept.
You’ve also had support from older musicians. I know Elton John is a fan. Talk to me just about that generation of musicians, Willie Nelson included.
I think these elder statesmen, a lot of them did things in their time that were unprecedented musically. In their lives and politically as well. It’s especially great to hold on to in a time where we're going through all of these unprecedented things. You see the strength of a person who can make it through. All of that reflected in the life and catalogs of these great artists. I've been really fortunate to get to spend some time with some true hero musicians and artists. What I take away from those experiences is the pathway to basically living your dream. Angélique Kidjo told me, “Not all money is good money.” At one point, Walmart wanted to give me $30 or $40,000 to use “Success” in their employee training video soundtrack. I was just like, “Man, I can't.”
There's a pretty good chance that no one ever knows that you did that, too.
Maybe not, but I remember Angelique popped in my head and I made my decision pretty quickly. I decided to just graciously say no and live to fight another day.
What makes Luck Reunion different than a regular ol’ festival?
This is so fun because first of all, there's the comraderie. You see all your old friends and that's amazing. But then if you're a music fan, which is where I come at it from…my goodness, the lineup today is staggering. How do I be in four places at once?
When you’re on the road, are you figuring out what you're doing next recording-wise? Is that informed by what you're doing on the road? Or can those two things work independently for you?
I like to combine them because the songs are about the inner conversation as our buddy Jason Isbell would say, but I'm trying to connect. If I have new songs, I'd love to bring them out on the road, see how people respond. It's a pretty legit litmus test.
Talk to me a little bit about the economics of being an independent musician these days. It's easy to romanticize being back here amongst Willie Nelson, people like that in this amazing scenery, but then you're getting in a van or a bus after this and heading somewhere else. How are you able to balance that artistic pursuit with the economics of it, which are increasingly dire?
Like lot of folks in my position, I've had to diversify my income resources. But for a person like me, and this gets at the heart of everything that I'm putting on with this show today too, I like to help. If I can help as a producer, if I can help as a session musician, if I can help as a songwriter, as a co-writer, I really do all of those things. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to continue to work in music as I'm diversifying my talents. I’m working on something with Todd Snider, and watching somebody like Todd Snider make a record, it's impossible not to learn. If you're not learning anything, you're not paying attention. That's a lesson in and of itself.
