Jimmie Allen on his new album, mental health and touring with Carrie Underwood
His new album, Tulip Drive is out now
Jimmie Allen sat down with Absolute Radio Country’s Elaina D. Smith, and boy, did they have a lot to cover. 2021 was a wild ride for Allen, he became the first Black solo performer to win New Male Artist of the Year at the 2021 ACM Awards, competed on the US reality show, Dancing with the Stars and won New Artist of the Year at the CMA Awards.
Whew! So what’s in store for this 2022? A new album and touring with Carrie Underwood, you know, as you do. His third studio album, Tulip Drive is available now. How does Jimmie feel about having a new record out?
“It feels great, I’m super proud of this record. The first album where I wrote every song, directly connected to me and experience. The songs I didn't write that fit me personally in a certain situation.”
Allen definitely tapped into his own personal experiences, he named the record after the street his Grandma lived on in Delaware. “I had a lot of great memories there. I always knew that Tulip Drive would be an album name, the only one I didn’t was Bettie James, I knew Bettie, after my grandma, but after my father passed, I wanted to throw his name in there as well.”
His father, James, passed away, and the lead single off the project, Down Home, is dedicated to him. “This is the first album I’ve ever been personal on, I wanted to start with my father, someone who was very influential in my life, someone who will never be replaced. I feel like there’s a lot of people out there who have lost someone they love and who made an impact on their life. I wanted it to be a song about my dad that’s not a sad song, it’s more like a letter.”
A song like that has to be emotional to sing on stage. “Every time. 1 out of 3 performances I'm going to tear up. It’s my favourite song to sing but also I hate it the most.”
Tulip Drive has a whopping seventeen tracks, but Jimmie initially had forty songs to choose from. How on earth did he choose? “It didn’t take long, I just wanted to listen to the record and pick songs that made sense. A lot of the time, I don't choose my favourite song, because your favourite song might not be what’s best for that project. It’s a feeling, I always tell people to trust your gut.”
One song that Jimmie is excited for fans to dig into lyrically is Settle On Back, which he wrote about his experience with bipolar disorder.
“The song describes what I do when I need a break, when I feel this business gets too much and not in a mentally stable place. I like to go home to Delaware and fish and hang out with friends who have known me my whole life. When my father was alive, whenever I had my bipolar breaks, I’d call him and visit him and he’d always know what to say to me to pull me back, or certain experiences like hunting and fishing.”
We’re loving the new album, and clearly, we’re not the only ones. Carrie Underwood picked Jimmie to join her on tour this year! “Her team reached out to mine and asked if I'd be open in the fall to go on the road with her and I was like, uh, yes!” Jimmie told Elaina.
“I’ve always been a fan from afar, and we always talk at Award shows and we link up. We had a cool conversation a week or so ago. I’ve always respected her as an artist and now getting to know her as a person, she’s amazing.”
Carrie is known for bringing out her support acts on tour to sing with her during her set. Any idea what she and Jimmie might perform? “We haven’t talked about what song we’d sing on stage together, but I’d love to do If I Didn’t Love You - her collaboration with Jason Aldean - that song’s a smash.”
Jimmie has got plenty of collabs of his own on this new album, Jennifer Lopez, Cee-Lo Green and T-Pain, to name a few. How did he get all these people on his record?
“I have a friend who works with JLO and he reached out being like hey, they want to do a new version of her song with a country artist, would you be down? And I was like sign me up. So I recorded it and sent it the next day.”
“With CeeLo and T-Pain, I was in Miami and my buddy I was in the studio with was playing with this T-Pain song, CeeLo had a chorus he didn’t like so he asked me and I freestyle this chorus and a couple days later i messaged t-pain like i have this song with CeeLo and he said let’s find another artist and i was like, wait, let me get a verse in real quick!”
Jimmie might be working with some of the music industry’s biggest names these days, but he never forgets the days when he was a struggling artist, and makes sure to always pay it forward.
“Every album after Bettie James, is going to have an artist who doesn’t have a record deal. Neon Union was on Bettie James, Katie Ohh has been a demo singer in town for a while and I asked if she wanted to be an artist, she said yes, so we kept her on the song. I knew I wanted to make the song a duet and was going to pitch it to someone. She’s a beast.”