Hit Country-Rock Artist Koe Wetzel Talks About His New Album 9 Lives, His Single “High Road” And Writing His Songs

Over the past several years, Texas singer/songwriter Koe Wetzel has been known for his powerful singing voice, his music style that blends country, rock and other genres, and his rebellious, rowdy spirit and humor. His music combines country, rock, grunge and even hip-hop to create his unique sound. Impressively, he’s had hit success on both the Billboard rock and country charts.

This week (on July 19), Wetzel will be releasing his fifth album, called 9 Lives (on Columbia Records). It includes three songs that have already been on the charts: “Sweet Dreams,” “High Road” and “Damn Near Normal.” Earlier this year, “Sweet Dreams” was a Top 10 country hit that also reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And currently, Wetzel’s single “High Road” (a duet with rising artist Jessie Murph), is moving up Billboard’s pop and country charts.

9 Lives is a strong, consistent collection of songs that makes this album flow well from beginning to end. In addition to “Sweet Dreams,” “High Road” and “Damn Near Normal,” the album contains such highlights as “Reconsider,” “Hatchet,” and “Last Outlaw Alive.” Wetzel co-wrote 8 of the 13 songs on the album.

Wetzel grew up in Pittsburg, Texas, which is a town in the eastern part of the state. He started performing at a young age, and he later played football at Tarleton State University in Texas. However, it was in college that he decided to focus on his music and performing. He formed the band Koe Wetzel and the Convicts, which released an EP and an album. His boisterous music style and lyrics became popular among college students and young adults, and in 2016 he released his album, Noise Complaint, on his own YellaBush record label.

Wetzel continued to build momentum as an independent artist, releasing his next album, Harold Saul High, in 2019. Then in 2020, he signed with Columbia Records and released the album Sellout, which he humorously titled when some of his fans wished he had stayed independent. Notably, Sellout contained the platinum single “Drunk Driving” and two gold singles: “Good Die Young” and “Kuntry & Wistern.”

In 2022, Wetzel released his fourth album, Hell Paso, that included his hit “Creeps,” which charted on both the country and rock charts. The album also featured the chart singles “Money Spent,” “Cabo,” “Oklahoma Sun” and “Sad Song.”

Now with the release of his new album 9 Lives, Wetzel seems poised to take his music career to a higher level. It’s impressive that he’s already had three chart hits (“Sweet Dreams,” “High Road” and “Damn Near Normal”) prior to the release of 9 Lives.

In addition, Wetzel and his band are looking forward to launching a new tour after a year off the road. He is launching his Damn Near Normal World Tour as a headliner, playing shows across the U.S. and in Europe. On top of this, he will be opening for country star Morgan Wallen on his stadium shows.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Koe Wetzel. He discusses the making of his new album, and how he co-wrote “High Road,” “Damn Near Normal” and other hits.

DK: I read that you’re from Pittsburg, Texas. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?

Koe Wetzel: My mom traveled around and played music, and I had cousins who wrote and played music all through college. So I always grew up around it. I didn’t think I’d pursue it as a career, but it turned out that way.

DK: Your music combines country, rock and even grunge music. How did you come up with your musical style and sound?

Wetzel: I think just combining all of those together. My mom was always into country. That’s where I got all the songwriting ideas from. And then with the rock and grunge, I was a big Nirvana fan and I always loved the big hooks and melodies. I took every bit of it, every piece of the puzzle that I liked from every genre that I grew up listening to. And putting it all together and coming up with something that’s a little bit different than what people are used to hearing.

DK: Early on you released two albums, Noise Complaint and Harold Saul High, on your own label. Can you talk about these early albums?

Wetzel: Se started playing music around 2011, touring Texas. We tried to do whatever was hot at the time. What we were doing wasn’t working, so I decided to do my own thing. Then we did Noise Complaint, and thankfully people caught on with that. Then with Harold Saul High, it was the same thing. We added on to what we had done with Noise Complaint, and kept going with a country-rock sound and being ourselves. And once we did that, we were able to build a following that we have now.

DK: You then signed with Columbia Records and released the album Sellout, which has your popular songs “Drunk Driving” and “Good Die Young.” Can you talk about that album and writing those songs?

Wetzel: When we signed with Columbia, we had a bunch of people talking about how I was a sellout, that I signed with a major label. They kind of gave us shit for it. So I was like…We’re gonna roll with this. We did, and Columbia was awesome about it. It was like…We’re gonna have some skits in there, give you a little shit over it. So we did it, and the fans ended up really enjoying that.

“Drunk Driving” was a tune that I wrote at my buddy’s house in Alabama. We were playing guitar all night, and I fired up the chords and mouthing the words together. And my buddy was like, “What is that?” I said, “I don’t know, but I’m gonna write it.” I ended up writing it that night. I’ve had a couple of friends pass away from drunk driving, so it’s not a song that condones it by any means, But it was something that I felt I needed to write at that moment. And now it’s been one of our biggest songs.

With “Good Die Young,” it goes back to the same concept. I’ve have buddies who passed away way too soon, and I’m not very good at speaking my mind or getting emotional with people. So I do a lot of that through my music. It’s very therapeutic for me, to get out what I feel.

DK: Two years ago you released your album, Hell Paso, and some of the songs have a harder rock edge, like “Creeps” and “Money Spent.” Can you talk about your Hell Paso album?

Wetzel: I think with each record, it’s gradually gotten to that more hard-nosed, hard rock sound, although it hasn’t been on purpose. We didn’t go into the studio saying, “We’re gonna make a rock record.” I just think it’s how our sound has evolved over the years.

Going in with this record, we had songs that we thought we could cut loose a little bit and turn up the distortion with the guitars, and make the drums heavier. It wasn’t planned—we went in there and did what we’ve been doing for the last 10 years, and it came out the way it did. It was also one of the first records that I had a lot of co-writes on. I had a lot of help from guys who had a metal background, and it definitely showed on that record.

DK: I like your new album, 9 Lives. The songs sound consistently good from beginning to end. Can you talk about making this album?

Wetzel: When we went in, we didn’t plan on it being an album. We planned on having a songwriting retreat near El Paso, Texas. It was me and Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Sam Harris, Josh Serrato and Carrie K. We went out there for a couple days of songwriting and maybe get a couple singles out of it.

Then in two and a half days we came up with four songs that were on the album, and we looked at it and said, “Man that was kind of easy. It all came very naturally. Why don’t we do it again?” So we did it again in Nashville and came up with another three or four songs. And before we knew it we looked up and had a full record. It all blended together, and we threw in a couple songs like “Reconsider” and “Last Outlaw Alive.” Before we knew it we had a full record, and it turned out to be one of my favorite ones that I’ve done.

DK: I like your songs “Damn Near Normal” and “High Road,” which features Jessie Murph. What’s the story behind writing those songs?

Wetzel: “Damn Near Normal” is a song about, when I go back home I’ve got friends that live normal lives. They have families and kids and work 9 to 5. And if you’re on the outside looking in, it looks like I’m always on the road…always gone. The life that I live is different from their’s, whereas at the same time we’re still pretty much the same people we were back then. So it was a song that I wanted to say…my life’s not normal compared to other people, but to me it’s normal enough. It was a fun song to make. That was a song we wrote the first time we were in El Paso. After we wrote it we looked around and we were like, “Hell yeah, this is a cool tune.”

“High Road” was another song that we put together, and it was kind of like “Sweet Dreams.” It has a little R&B feel, a little slow, but it’s still got that groove to it. It was about past relationships that I had gone through, and dug deep all the stuff I’d forgotten about until Gabe (Simon) got it out of me. It was about going through fights, and how it usually goes when you’re going through those fights.

With me and Jessie (Murph), we’ve been friends for awhile and we wrote a couple times. Then I sent her this song and I said, “I’d love you have you on this.” And she knocked it our of the park. She came in and gave it a girl’s perspective, and she crushed it. It was great to have her on the record.

DK: Besides the songs we’ve discussed, what are your favorite songs on your new album?

Wetzel: We have a song called “Twister” that I really enjoy. We got into Nashville and wrote it for the movie Twisters, but it ended up not making the movie. I guess that was a blessing in disguise, because it rounded out the record for us. And it’s a fun song to play, a storytelling song, and I love to tell stories. I also like “Reconsider,” which was written by Keith Gattis who passed away last year. I’m a big fan of his, and it’s an ode to him and all he’s done for country music and music in general. So it was cool to cut that song and hopefully do it justice.

DK: In the last few years, you’ve had many songs on both the Billboard country and rock charts. How does it feel to have both country and rock fans liking your music?

Wetzel: It’s been great. I’ve always felt from the jump that I wanted to be as diverse as possible with my music, and not be labeled under one genre. And I don’t think anybody know what genre we are (laughs). But that’s all right with us….that’s where we want to be. So to have fans on both sides and to be able to get played on country radio and rock radio is awesome. And hopefully we’ll continue to broaden it. It’s great to have fans all over the place.

DK: You’re about to launch your Damn Near Normal Tour, and you’re also opening some big shows for Morgan Wallen. Can you talk about your live show and your touring?

Wetzel: We’ve been headlining tours for awhile now, but this will be our first world tour. We’re going to Europe this year which is great. We’re doing 13-14 shows over there, and I’m really excited about that. We get to play a lot of new venues that we haven’t played, and some venues that we’ve played before. And it will be good to see fans that we haven’t seen in a while. It’s been almost a year since we’ve been on the road, so it’s great to get back out there. And Morgan Wallen having us be a part of his tour is crazy, especially since we’re doing Cowboys Stadium with him in Arlington. That’s a dream come true for us, so we can’t thank him enough.