HCM’s Mike Carroll w/ Maggie Rose
We saw Maggie Rose open up for The Farm in Davie, FL this past October, and were wowed by her performance. She has a 6-piece, female-dominated band backing her, and put on one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. After reading this interview, scroll down to see a couple of videos we took of her show in Florida. It will give you a good idea of how great of a performer she is! The first one is her last single, “I Ain’t Your Mama” and the second one is her cover of Fun’s “Some Nights.”
Q: First of all, congratulations on winning MVP yesterday at the City of Hope Softball game!
A: Thank you!
Q: Your new single is “Better.” How’s the feedback from radio been so far on that?
A: The feedback from radio has been really positive because I think it’s a song that everyone can relate to, everyone has their stuff that they’re going through and they want to feel a little bit better. I’ve actually from radio and fans gotten all sorts of stories back about the specific personal things they’re going through and how they heard the song and it made them kinda in a small way feel like, “okay, things are gonna turn around.”
Q: Do you remember the first time you ever heard yourself on the radio?
A: I remember the first time I heard myself on the radio and wasn’t expecting it, it was actually here in Nashville, and I was driving my car. I had just left my band from rehearsal, and “I Ain’t Your Mama” came on, and I was like, “Everyone turn on your radio and turn it to WSIX!” And we all jumped out and started dancing around the car, it was really cool!
Q: You have a pretty big band there, you’ve got 6 pieces behind you? That’s unusual for somebody that’s just up and coming and getting started, especially as an opening act like when I saw you open up for The Farm.
A: Yeah!
Q: Have you ever passed up on a song that went on to be a hit for someone else?
A: Actually no, I haven’t passed on any songs that I’ve heard elsewhere. Although Reba did put a song that I wrote, “Preachers Daughter” on hold for a couple of months, and then it ended up not happening. She cut her songs and I think there’s still interest, but I had to go ahead and cut it. I would’ve been honored to have Reba sing it, but hindsight is 20/20 and I’m really happy that it’s on my album because it’s so much a part of who I am and what my sound is.
Q: What’s the #1 item on your bucket list?
A: Play Madison Square Garden, I mean that’s always one that I feel like as soon as I play a gig there I’ll have made it. But I felt that way about The Opry, and I just had my 10th Opry performance last night, and I still have to pinch myself every time I’m in that building, on that stage; there’s so much history there. I think doing a world tour would be amazing, and I’d love to incorporate charity work in that traveling because you’d be able to reach all these people with your music and go physically to all these places. I also think that if I’m that position it’s my responsibility to give back.
Q: What’s your favorite downtime activity?
A: I’m so sleep deprived right now that all I can answer right now is sleep, but there’s so many things that I love to do! I see a lot of movies, I feel like I like to make an event out of going to see movies, because just like you want to be on the cutting edge of what music is coming out, I think it’s really important to see that other huge media outlet that is cinema and see what people are watching. And I love movie theater popcorn, with extra salt! That’s the one junk food I will never give up!
Q: What’s something you’re passionate about?
A: In my music, I try and send a message of empowerment for women. That’s why I have a lot of women in my band; there’s my female drummer, base player, fiddle player. I want every person young and old to hear this music and become more confident and embrace your individuality.
Q: What’s your worst bad habit?
A: I crack my knuckles ALL the time. I crack actually everything. I crack my neck and my back, and…I asked my doctor if I should stop, but he was like, “honestly, it’s just like air bubbles,” so I think I just want to stop grossing people out though! Mostly, it’s weird! I feel alive after my neck cracks!
Q: You probably already answered this with your Opry answer, unless there’s something else, but what’s been your biggest “Wow!” moment so far in your musical career?
A: My biggest “Wow” moment, was…The Opry was definitely…my debut back in August was just surreal because I sang two songs…it’s almost like I blacked out. I was so nervous and overwhelmed. Nervousness, and then being overjoyed, humbled, and just overwhelmed by everything. Bombarded by emotions. But I also played Stagecoach in the desert in California, Palm Springs. And that was really beautiful to be on that stage because you look out and there’s this huge ferris wheel and just this vast crowd of people, it was very fun.
Q: I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be on the Opry stage. I took the tour on Monday. To me, I don’t think they should allow it, but they let everyone in the tour to stand in the circle to experience what it’s like to be in that sacred spot. I shouldn’t have been allowed to stand there, but to stand there in that empty room, I can’t even imagine what it must be like to perform there.
A: Well you’re clearly someone who appreciates the history. Anyone who takes the tour, I believe they’re taking an interest in what that building and what the establishment is about, it’s about the celebration of country music, not about the individual standing in the circle.
Q: If you weren’t in the music business, what would you be doing with your life right now?
A: Wishing I was in the music business (laughs). That question scares me a lot because I never really gave myself an opportunity to wonder about anything else. I left college early to come to Nashville. I just never got the chance to really weigh the options of, “If music doesn’t work out, what do I want to do?” And I think in a way it motivates me because it just makes me that much hungrier for it. This is absolutely what I’m supposed to be doing.
Q: Do you play any sports?
A: I played tennis my whole life growing up, and pretty much every sport that offered an extracurricular from elementary school to high school, but tennis I played everyday. My dad is very athletic, and I was pretty much the only one of his three daughters that would go out and play a round of tennis.
Q: What advice would you give to an aspiring artist?
A: I would say…to anyone that wants to be successful as an artist, they have to not compromise themselves and who they are. And I think along the last five years that I’ve been in Nashville, now six years, I made a few choices based on what I was told to do and what I was told was the right thing to do that defied my gut instinct. And I think there’s a balance that everyone needs to achieve between taking advice from people who are experienced and listening to what you know you can pull off and what’s true to you.
Q: And how would you classify the name change that you went through? (She formerly went by her real name, Margaret Durante)
A: I think that was me finally saying, “Enough! This is who I want to be, this is what I want to do.” I have way more fun with my music, I want to be a little bit left of center. I think before, everything that I was doing was being done in a very rushed way. I was with a major label when I first got to Nashville, and I was just kinda doing things that I was told to do and trying to do them to the best of my ability, but it was hard to cater something that already wasn’t in line with who I was to make it me. You should start from the beginning with who you are.