Big and Rich

Rest assured that getting big and rich hasnt made the groundbreaking and multi-platinum duo Big & Rich any less freaky or fun. Success hasnt spoiled Big & Rich one bit, it just loosened the chain, explains John Rich. Everything weve experienced so far has just given us even more room to do even more stuff. And as Big & Richs much-anticipated and mind-blowing second album Comin To Your City proves loud and clear, sometimes more really is more.

The first album told the world who we are, and we are most definitely A Horse of A Different Color, says Big Kenny. Now the second album tells you what were going to do next -- were Comin To Your City, every nook and cranny.

Produced once again by Big Kenny, John Rich and Paul Worley, Comin To Your City -- released on November 15, 2005 -- is a brave and bold album that promises to put a little bang in your yin yang to borrow a memorable phrase from the albums title track. Comin To Your City also shows exactly how far Big & Rich have come in the past two years since they first brought a much-needed blast of fresh air into a country music scene that was becoming too stale and safe for its own good. And so the massive success story of Big & Rich is an unusually heartening one and the result of a tremendous Leap of Faith, to quote the title of one of the albums many standout tracks.

When we were making the first album Big Kenny was in debt $140,000 in credit cards, living in a little farm house out in a field, driving a broke-down truck, John Rich recalls. And I wasnt doing much better. We were two guys trying to make this outrageous album for country radio, and wondering, are we just completely pissing in the wind? I was what Id call a two-time loser. Id got fired from the band Lonestar. Then I made a solo album that didnt do anything. So Big & Rich was my third chance and if you get three chances in this business, youre pretty damn lucky. This time around, we didnt worry. We just went in and cut what felt good to us. The biggest thing weve learned so far is that if its turning on me and Kenny musically, it will turn on our fans.

On Comin To Your City, Big & Rich and company sound even more turned on to be making their own open-hearted, open-minded brand of country music without prejudice.

For Big Kenny, Our mission this time around was to step it up again and make Act 2 -- to make great songs into a great record, start to finish. Being Big & Rich, the only thing success has done is allow us to do more for more people and to make more music for ourselves. Were not resting on our laurels or kicking back for a moment. We have to have all extremes. See to John and me, records are more like mix tapes. We take it to all extremes and then make it all fit together the idea is to never get bored. We just try to find great moments wherever we go thats what keeps our yin and yang working, thats what keeps us Big & Rich. Hopefully what were doing will just keep encouraging more and more people to be themselves and be real.

Comin To Your City is a wide-ranging and widescreen tour de force -- all the way from the willfully weird opening of The Freak Parade, one of the duos characteristically funny but true statements of purpose to the concluding 8th of November, easily the most powerful and serious song they brought the world yet.

We know what we do is freaky, John Rich says. We know were combining stuff in the chemistry set that in the instructions say `Dont combine these things or they might explode. We say fine, lets combine them anyway. Well just wear a helmet. Thats our whole attitude toward music.

That kind of thinking has helped make the duo and the Muzik Mafia of which Big & Rich are proud, central members -- a force to be reckoned with, and a force for tremendous good in Music City. Already the Mafia has introduced the listening, watching world to an unforgettable cast of real characters like Gretchen Wilson, Cowboy Troy and now Jon Nicholson, James Otto and many more to come.

The thing Im most proud of is that the members of the Muzik Mafia have stuck together even after going multi-platinum, says Big Kenny. Its easy sticking together when youre all broke. Its been like being on a football team and winning the Super Bowl a couple of times. Its fun to win, but its a lot more fun to win with your friends. I know weve given the artistic community in Nashville a bigger set of balls, and weve watched our old friends getting signed. It was a big door to knock down. We have this philosophy that there should be no bureaucracy in creativity. Let the artists be the artists and do what they do. All the little boxes they put people in were beginning to suffocate creativity. The thing Im most proud of is that John and I have made a big enough crack in the door that other artists are sticking their foot through now.

In this way, Big & Rich are now part of a story even bigger than their own impressive success. I know weve given people hope and give labels some more courage, says Rich. Thats bigger than just our career thats impacting the business in general. Kenny and I love country music and the way we see it, its the most inclusive music in the world. Weve had black guys like Charley Pride, real hippies like Willie. To us country is the greatest music and if what we do expands what country means -- thats the greatest success of all. All the people we consider the pillars of country music -- lets name some: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Alabama, Garth -- all these people shook things up in a big way.

Now with Big & Richs Comin To Your City, you can hear the sound of a whole lot of shakin going on coming your way.