Coffey Anderson Asks What Can He Do Better

Coffey Anderson: Thank you so much. It dropped last night at 12:01 Friday morning and my phone started blowing up. I’m trying to sleep because I have to sing in Dallas at 4:45 a.m. at WFAA. I look at my phone and I’m getting all these congratulations. I thought to myself, we already had our baby! (Laughter) Then I saw all the messages about charting and I got emotional because I’ve worked so hard.

CA:  I only looked at the Country music charts and saw we were number 2. I was thrilled. Then I woke up this morning and Neal McCoy messaged me and congratulated me on being Number 14. I thought, “Oh no, we dropped.” So, I went and looked and saw we were still Number 2, but there was another chart that includes ALL genres and there we were Number 14, ahead of Pink and Justin Timberlake.

CA:  And this is done with an independent label. It was a handshake and a cellphone, a laptop and a guitar. My music is created with a small business feel. My drummer has been with me for eleven years and it’s his wife who handles my merchandise. A guy who lives in my hometown introduced me to my lead guitarist. I found my steel guitarist on Instagram and I stole him from Kacey Musgraves. We run this like a small business, but it’s not a small business at all when you are competing with the Kane Browns’ and the Luke Bryants.’

CA:  This is how Country music is run. You are hired by a label and the label will pay the radio stations sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. That’s why when you listen to the radio and you think to yourself, that’s not a good song, it’s because they are paid to play it. The label hopes the artist turns into a star. What I did was go to my fans and say pre-order my album and I’ll get out there and sing and work to let people know the album is out there. I have always tried to win fans over the old-fashioned way by singing and playing and the new-fashioned way through social media.

CA:  There are a lot of people that get upset because the Nashville model is very controlled. They run radio, the artists and they own the venues. House of Blues is owned! They pump all the artists through there so the artists don’t even have to be booked. I have literally gone against a very controlled system and won today with a hit record.

CA:  Absolutely!

CA:  I came from playing guitar and leading worship in our church for our youth group. Then I put everything on line and became the Number One best selling Christian Artist for a while, and I was doing this from an apartment. People started calling me to come sing at their places and would ask me how much. I said a thousand dollars and a plane ticket, and they would say, ‘That’s all!?!” Suddenly I was getting more bookings, so I went to the booking agencies and said I needed help, but they told me I wasn’t on a label. I told them I was getting sixteen booking requests a day.

CA:  We get about 35 booking requests each week.

CA:  Absolutely, and it’s such a blessing. Some of them are weddings and first dances. I love doing that. I love knowing my song, ‘Better Today’ was played the first moment that people shared with their last name.

CA:  I think it gave me a much wider audience. Everybody is political in some way. Not everybody likes Country music or whatever, but everyone has their political beliefs. So, when I said this is what I think you should do at a traffic stop, suddenly everybody was going, “Who is he?” Some people got offended by it but it’s information. You might be offended by the stop sign and not stop but if a greyhound bus is coming down the road you are gonna meet the Lord real quick, but the sign says stop. You don’t have to listen. I wanted to put the video up for those people who didn’t really know what to do. People get nervous at job interviews and tests and real nervous when they see red and blue light behind them. They tend to freeze up, so I felt we needed something to help the normal guy like me.

CA:  My heart was really heavy from all the incidents that had been going on. My dad worked in law enforcement. Law enforcement protects me, so I can do what I do best and not have to watch my back at my jobs. Also, I am a black man in America and I have seen things from a different perspective. The media spins things and they really are brewing hate.

CA:  I thought about it for a couple of days and then I called Chief Waybourn who is now Sheriff Waybourn of Tarrant County. We had an 18 minute and 37 second conversation where I told him what I wanted to say and was I right? I told me that was exactly what they teach. So, I called my buddy Kenny and told him to come hold a camera.

CA:  The funny thing is I didn’t realize how big it got until Homeland Security calls you and they have ‘20/20’ on the phone for a three-way call. They wanted to know if I could ask the President one question what would I ask. I said I would ask, had he ever been pulled over and what was his experience like? They hung up on me. I thought to myself, I guess I didn’t get the job.

CA:  Literally five minutes later they called back and told me I was going to be at the White House in sixteen hours and you can’t tell anybody.

CA:  I felt like it was a responsibility to really try and make the best situation we could by going into a meeting of the minds and see if we can come out of here with a solution. Everybody has feelings, and everybody has an opinion but that’s like a butt crack, eventually it will stink. (Laughter) Depending on who you talk too…you eventually get to someone who says, “Your opinion stinks!”

CA:  I do. I can’t shut it off.

CA:  I can hear a phrase and write a song around it.

CA:  I believe sarcasm is the fruit of the spirit. I think “catchy” always wins. I know what I would like to hear. I like smart lyrics.

CA:  I think it comes from my granddad who sang in Gospel quartets. He was a big man who could sing in a deep baritone, “Swing low sweet chariot coming for to carry me home” His voice would just carry. Then my Mom sang. She was in a girl group and my cousin had a band that had a number one hit years ago. Music has always been in my family, but no one was into Country music because they didn’t grow up in Bangs, central Texas like I did. I’d watch those old guys playing on flatbed trailers in the middle of town with the radio shack lights. It would be terrible lighting, but they would play their music and I thought they were Rock Stars! One of them drove a bread truck and one of them worked at the feed and seed store, but they were Rock Stars to me. I kind of picked up where they left off.

CA:  No, I was an All-American basketball player for two years. I was recruited by the Utah Jazz. They were looking for a tall two guard. I didn’t have the money to go to Utah. I had never left Bangs. My mom had passed away and my dad was sick, so it didn’t work out.

CA:  I picked up the guitar in my sophomore year in college because I was bored. I bought a guitar book and learned the chords. I still have the book.

CA:  Absolutely, I cannot shut it off. I was the little kid who had to be told, “SIT down.” My dad was a Cajun Veteran Pentecostal so he believed in whipping so that was the only thing that kept me still…a little bit. I remember when I was in third grade my teacher, Miss Rambo gave me a book titled ‘The Mouse and the Motorcycle’ and told me I couldn’t talk to anybody until I read that. I literally fell in love with reading. My favorite store is Barnes and Noble. My wife has to drop me off and thinks I am such a geek. She told me I was hot, but I was such a geek.   

CA:  I read every computer and technology book I can. I learn what’s coming up. When I saw that Facebook has 1.3 billion users I started optimizing my website early. When we made the ‘Better Today’ music video we made a vertical version, so people could hold their phones up and watch it. The vertical version had 1.1 million views in the first week and a half.

CA:  I think you are always 2% away from greatness. Maybe this is not for everybody, but I always look to see what I am doing wrong. I always ask what can I do better?