The Greg Horne Band is performing on the Blue Plate Special (Tuesday, July 26th at noon). We hope you’ll join in on the radio or online, or come down to the studio and enjoy the show today!

The band has a new album, Working on Engines, which is out now. Learn more at http://www.greghornemusic.com/.

In the meantime, we sat down with Greg Horne to find out more about his backstory. He was kind enough to share his story, in his own words.

This is the latest in our Bullet Backstory series. Take it away Greg!

• Biggest musical influences – To play well with somebody you have to listen a lot and try to understand what their music is about. A big chunk of my musical life has always been playing as a support musician for lots of other people, so those people are probably my biggest set of influences. As far as who I’ve listened to and absorbed into my own work, the list is too large to be reasonable. Scratching the surface: Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon, Joni Mitchell, Richard Thompson, Buck Owens and Don Rich, Mavis and Pops Staples, Michael Hedges, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Howlin’ Wolf, Billy Bragg, Tommy Jarrell, Lou Reed, Patti Smith…
• What made you decide to pursue music as a career? – Through my school years I studied both music and art, bouncing between them. Eventually I found that music was sort of winning out for me in terms of time, focus and ideas. I studied music history and also learned a lot about teaching music from some great mentors. In my case music as a career involves performing and recording, but also teaching, writing and always learning.
• What advice do you have for young musicians who are trying to hone their craft? What has helped me the most was listening to and studying so many different types of music as a young person. Find people you like and then find out who they based their art on, even if it’s in different genres than you are used to. Then take those interests and put yourself in as many musical situations as possible. And practice, of course. That’s a lifelong thing!
• What’s your favorite thing to do in Knoxville? Playing gigs with my friends, like Jay Clark, R.B. Morris, and the Bearded, or hanging out and watching other friends play. Also listening to my wife Paige Travis when she’s on WDVX hosting Tennessee Shines!
• If you could work with any musician (living or deceased) who would it be and why? There are so many folks I’d love to meet, not so much to get my own thing out with them but just to see them be the people they are. Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper come to mind. They seem to be such cool people and have had such a huge positive impact rock, soul and blues. I’d also love to meet Doug Kershaw, the cajun fiddler. He’s 80 and as far as I know he’s still rockin’.
• Anything else you’d like to share? Favorite WDVX memory, etc? My favorite WDVX memory is a tie between my trips to the camper to play in Studio C, and watching Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale play a WDVX anniversary show from the wings at the Bijou Theatre.