When Jake Owen dropped out of college in his home state of Florida to pursue a career in country music in Nashville, Tenn., he knew he had taken an enormous leap of faith. It was in 2003, and he had chosen an unfamiliar path, but something inside of him told him to follow his heart anyway.
Jake Owen Releases New Album, Dreams To Dream
Seven years later, he notched his first No. 1 at country radio with “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” and what followed was a string of even more hits like “Alone With You,” “Beachin’” and “The One That Got Away” as well as massive headlining arena tours. Needless to say, Owen knows what it feels like to be at the top of his game as a country heavyweight, but today he looks back fondly at the climb and the uncertainties that came along with it.
Now, after marking 20 years in the business, the country music superstar, 44, can confidently say he’s ready to shake things up again. And, he’s doing just that with the release of his first-ever independent album, Dreams to Dream, out today (Friday, Nov. 7) via Good Company Entertainment.
Produced alongside Shooter Jennings, son of outlaw legend Waylon Jennings, and songwriter Kendall Marvel, Dreams to Dream brings back that initial rush of uncertainty and excitement that Owen felt 20 years ago when he was just a talented young gun with a guitar and a dream. That mix of risk and reward is something he calls special, but Owen doesn’t take the opportunity of being able to transition his musical mindset lightly.
“I feel like artists who have been so fortunate to have success the way I have can get on cruise control mode, and you’re like, wow, this is going to be like this forever,” Owen told Music Mayhem of the constant grind he experienced during the last two decades of his career while backed by a major label. “I’ve known for longer than 10 years that this is an album that I need to make and I want to make, but I got caught up in…making sure everybody around me was taken care of and the grind of keeping the circus going. I finally realized, you know what? When I moved to town, I didn’t have any circus. And what I believed in is what created it. And so at this point, why am I just fighting to keep the circus alive, but I’m not trying to grow the circus?”
Owen finally gave himself permission to slow down with Dreams to Dream, and he credits artists like Miranda Lambert as inspiration for making that shift, recalling a time when he heard Lambert took time off to focus solely on songwriting. But Owen notes that’s not something he was truly able to do until now.
“I’m not mad. I’m not bitter about anything. I’ve had an incredible career, but one thing that I’ve never done is go make an album without worrying about commercialized success….,” Owen shared of how he had previously gone about making a record. “It’s okay to put the thing on pause for a minute…”
“I’ve been enjoying my life,” he adds. “I’ve been living with my kids. I’ve been feeling sober. I’ve been writing songs, and I’m still touring. I just got back from Europe, but I’m not doing it as much as I was. And it’s given me this perspective and time to reflect on my own life and then kind of put that through in my music.”
Raw And Authentic Storytelling
That time of reflection birthed one of the most personal projects for Owen as Dreams to Dream weaves together raw and authentic storytelling pulled from his real life, exploring topics on heartbreak, raising kids, loneliness, loss, and growing out of the fresh-faced kid that once packed up his bags for a shot at Music City life.
Owen didn’t cut his tracks in Nashville, though. The project came to fruition at Jennings’ Snake Mountain (Sunset Sound Studio 3) in Los Angeles, CA.
“There’s a line in ‘Dreams to Dream’ that says, ‘All I’d lost along the way, I came to find out here, with Shooter and a five piece band in the heart of Hollyweird,”’ Owen shared, referencing the lyrics of the fitting opening track on Dreams to Dream, which sets the tone for the entire collection and also offers a nod to Hank Williams Jr. “The song is truthful, line for line. It’s about realizing that all I’d lost along the way, I came to find again. I fulfilled every dream I ever had, but somewhere along the road, it became more about the grind of the business and less about the music … .I wasn’t doing this to chase radio. I wanted to make an album my mom could put on and say, ‘That’s my son.’”
It turns out, his mother did exactly that as Dreams to Dream not only showcases a new side of Owen with a return to old-school country, but also puts his vocals front and center.
“She loves the song ‘Long Time Loving You,’” Owen says, smiling. “She’s always been a fan of my voice. She used to tell me, ‘Jake, I love it when you sing, but sometimes your songs are so loud I can’t even hear you.’ She was right. This record sounds like me.”
13 Tracks On Dreams To Dream
Of the 13 tracks on Dreams to Dream, 10 serve as originals while two are stellar covers — the previously released “Them Old Love Songs” by Waylon Jennings and Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Middle Age Crazy.” Two songs, the title track and “The Jukebox Knows,” feature collaborations with Savannah Conley and Johnson, respectively.
And, there’s a serendipity that runs through Dreams to Dream. Owen recently bought a building in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, that he plans to turn into a restaurant. He purchased the facility with the idea that he sometimes wishes he could enjoy the simple things in life when he’s busy out on the road. Among the new material on his album sits an older song, “Wouldn’t Be Gone” that had been pitched to him 15 years ago. The track was offered to him for his third studio album, but it was “The Journey of Your Life” that made the cut for that project.
“At the time, I loved it, but I was just starting out,” Owen says of “Wouldn’t Be Gone,” which didn’t align with what he was doing back then. “I didn’t have kids yet. I didn’t feel like the guy who wanted to slow down. Now, I listen to it and think, ‘That’s me. Oh my God, I just bought this building down here. I want to, part of me sometimes wants to just cook hamburgers and say, ‘Hey’ to my local Kingston Springs residents, and not worry about the grind of this whole thing anymore. There are nights on the bus when I miss my daughter’s cheerleading performance or a theater thing or worry about my parents back home, and I think, ‘Man, I’d give anything to be there.’ That song just hits home now.”
“Sobriety Completely Changed My Life”
Four years sober, Owen speaks openly about how that transformation has shaped his new outlook.
“Sobriety completely changed my life,” he says. “It gave me gifts I didn’t even know were right in front of me. I was that guy who didn’t know any better; I was the single guy. I had a lot of insecurities, but I also overcame my insecurities with this confidence that came across as an arrogant person, too. And so sobriety for me has given me the ability to not wake up in the mornings after a night where I made a bad decision. Now, I wake up proud of myself. I like this version of me.”
That change hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Friends and even other artists ask how I did it,” Owen shares. “They say, ‘You just seem happy.’ I tell them, I don’t have it all figured out. But I’m more excited about the unknown than scared of it. That’s the difference.”
With his independence comes a new rhythm, more time at home, more presence as a father, and a deeper appreciation for the stage.
“Being home more makes me love the road more,” he explains. “When you’re constantly going, you don’t stop to appreciate the wins. I learned that from Greg Fowler, who toured with Alabama for 25 years. He said, ‘We went from the Bowery to the Hall of Fame and never stopped to look around…He said, ‘The minute we’d win Entertainer of the Year,’ which they won five times, he said, ‘It was like we were on the bus to some sold-out show somewhere else. We just never truly appreciated those moments.’ And he is like, ‘I wish we did, because it just kind of felt like we were living in it.’ And he’s like, ‘It’s not until you get older or until maybe some others in the group or band pass away, you’re all sitting around talking about those moments and you realize, whoa, wish we could relive that again.’ So I think for me, the slowing down on the side of family life has allowed me to regain an absolute appreciation for the road again.”
20-Year Journey In Country Music
When Owen reflects on his 20-year journey, there’s no regret — just gratitude.
“I’d tell my younger self, ‘I’m proud of you,’” he says. “Not for every decision, but for following your heart. You didn’t know what you were doing, but you did it anyway. You believed. I would just say, congrats on just navigating something that you and your family knew nothing about. Congrats on finding your way to, I guess to me, to being someone that’s more mature and more grounded in ways, I still am not perfect. And I guess that’s also what I’m excited about, is just I’mlike, well, if I feel good waking up now in the mornings, I’m, I’m proud of me in a non-arrogant way. I am kind of proud of the things I’ve gone through. I’m proud of the decisions that I’ve made to get me to this point.”
That same belief drives him into this next chapter.
“This album feels like the most honest thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “For the first time, I can hand my 72-year-old mom a record and she can say, ‘There’s my baby boy.’ That’s success to me.”
The Future Of Jake Owen
As for the future, Owen doesn’t see himself going backward.
“It’s just evolution,” he says. “I’ve always admired artists like Kenny Chesney. He evolved into a guy that most people associate with the beach. You know what I mean? The Jimmy Buffett of country music. And it’s like he still sings ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy’ on the shows out on the road, but he’s also singing songs like ‘Knowing You’ and just deeper stuff. And that’s part of, to me, why I love Kenny. He’s evolved. He’s still proud of who he was, but yet he’s still constantly trying to see what’s next for him … .For me, it’s kind of the same way. When I put out ‘Beachin’ and ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night,’ everybody’s like, oh man, here’s the next beach guy. Give us your next summer song. Most of the time, the label and everybody else were like, they’re kind of right. Let’s just give another Jake a fun song. And they worked right. But I kept having to show up for that. And it just feels good that I feel like I’m showing up as me at this age. I’m being mature, I’m being honest. I’m not trying to pull anything over on anyone. It’s like, if you like it, cool. If you don’t like it, no worries. If it does well or doesn’t do great. It’s kind of on me, and I’m okay with that. The same way I felt when I moved to town. It’s like, if this doesn’t work out, it’s on me. But if it works out, I’m going to be really proud of myself. And that’s kind of where I’m lying these days.”
“What I’ve learned the most is if your heart tells you to do this, do this, do this. If you keep ignoring it, your heart is never going to give up on you. Your heart will keep telling you…Follow the message. And I can genuinely tell you that that’s what I did,” he adds. “I’ve done tons of interviews today and I haven’t caught myself feeling like I’m bullsh—ing anybody. You know what I mean? Genuinely, I sense my own excitement, and I don’t know that I’ve ever felt that excited about things before.”
For more information on Jake Owen and his upcoming projects, visit jakeowen.net.
