Finding Strength in Adversity: How One Artist’s Journey Inspires Through Music

1. Can you tell us about your jour­ney and how you over­came strug­gles to get where you are today?

Wow that is a big one..you know, I’ve had a lot of obsta­cles in my life and I’ve had a lot of things along my jour­ney that were very tough, but at the same time, they allowed me to not only buck­le down and find that inner strength and find out who I was, and who I want­ed to be, but they also gave me a tes­ti­mo­ny so that I can share with oth­ers and help them through what­ev­er they’re going through. I found a sil­ver lin­ing in tragedy, and I found inspi­ra­tion in the chaos. I over­came them by hav­ing faith, buck­ling down, and putting in the work, You know, you have 2 options when you’re faced with things, you either sit down and let it stop you or stand up and find a way around it, and to get through it, and I decid­ed that I want­ed more for myself, more for my chil­dren and my fam­i­ly. I decid­ed to put the work in, and here we are.

2. How have your per­son­al expe­ri­ences influ­enced your music and sto­ry­telling?

From the begin­ning, I used music as ther­a­py, so when I was young and going through things, I start­ed writ­ing poet­ry, which lat­er turned into songs. It was always a way to express what I was going through and get it off my chest. Then through­out my career, it’s giv­en me a super deep bond with my fans and sup­port­ers, because so many peo­ple go through so many of the same things, and just me telling those sto­ries, gives hope and inspires oth­ers who have gone through the same things or going through tough times in their life, so the music comes direct­ly from per­son­al expe­ri­ence and through struggle’s that I’ve endured and watched peo­ple that I love go through as well. I don’t make mean­ing­less music, I try to make sure that every­thing that I write is some­thing that I would want my chil­dren to be able to learn from as well. Yeah, it’s been a bless­ing.

3. What mes­sage do you hope to con­vey through your music & first coun­try album; espe­cial­ly regard­ing themes of resilience and per­se­ver­ance?

Well, real­ly y’all nailed it. I want the theme to be resilience, per­se­ver­ance, and redemp­tion. I want peo­ple to know that they are not alone, that every­thing that they’ve been through, every­thing they are going through is just build­ing them for some­thing greater that’s in store for them. If they don’t give up, and they don’t lose hope, they can accom­plish any­thing, and they can over­come any­thing, so I want peo­ple to hear the sto­ries that I tell, I want them to feel the pain that I’ve been through and I want them to know that regard­less, what they have been through, what they are going through, they can over­come as well, and that there’s always a light at the end of the tun­nel. You know even in some of my dark­est songs, I still show that light, that hope, and that’s what I hope oth­er peo­ple get from it. I hope they get a sense of know­ing that they are not alone and that regard­less of what their sit­u­a­tion is, they have the pow­er to get through it and to change it.

4. How do you bal­ance authen­tic­i­ty in your music while also con­nect­ing with a wide audi­ence?

Well, I think authen­tic­i­ty is so impor­tant. For a long time, a lot of main­stream music end­ed up becom­ing a bunch of artists that were put togeth­er by labels, you know, peo­ple being some­thing they thought peo­ple want­ed them to be. Real true fans and real true peo­ple see through that, and even though they might still like the music and they might still dance to it, I’m gonna keep it 100% authen­tic at all times, so it’s real­ly not a bal­ance as much as just being me and know­ing that I’m always me. I might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but there are peo­ple out there who have been through or are going through things that I’ve been through and got through it. So, me being authen­tic, I think that’s what will stand the test of time. I don’t real­ly try to bal­ance it. I do me, and if they love me, they love me and if not, they will one day!

5. Can you share a spe­cif­ic moment or song that you feel encap­su­lates your jour­ney and strug­gles the most?

Well, since I write about so many dif­fer­ent peri­ods and sea­sons of my life and so many of the things that I’ve been through, I don’t know that “one” real­ly does, but if I had to say right now, of one that’s been released, I think “Road I Came” is one that real­ly tells exact­ly who I am, and it’s prob­a­bly the one that encap­su­lates the most of what I’m try­ing to say.

6. How do you see your music inspir­ing oth­ers who may be fac­ing sim­i­lar chal­lenges?

Well, I put it all out there, and I show them that it’s pos­si­ble, not only in the music but in my day-to-day life, that I’m here. I’ve been through all the stuff that I’ve been through, prison and mak­ing real­ly bad deci­sions. I didn’t give up, and if they don’t give up, they can get wher­ev­er they are try­ing to be too. I’ve turned it all around and here I am right now, doing what I love to do, being suc­cess­ful, feed­ing my fam­i­ly, per­form­ing in front of thou­sands every night and I think the proof is in the action. I’m show­ing them that it IS pos­si­ble.

7. What are your future goals and aspi­ra­tions in your music career, and how do you plan to con­tin­ue shar­ing your sto­ry through your art?

I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m just get­ting start­ed. So, stay tuned. My future goal is to do this until I’m 90 and I feel like right now, I’m in such an incred­i­ble place with the music that’s com­ing, that I’m record­ing now, and the music that I just released. It’s just get­ting bet­ter and bet­ter and the fans are get­ting big­ger and big­ger, and you know, my goal is to keep doing this, right here, and con­tin­ue shar­ing my sto­ry, my strength, my tragedy, my trau­ma, my redemp­tion through my music. it’s only up from here.

8. Who are some artists that you feel are mak­ing great waves in the coun­try music scene?

There are so many incred­i­ble artists right now. You’ll know, of course, my broth­er Jel­ly­roll, who is crush­ing it and is cre­at­ing the biggest wave that any­body could have ever imag­ined and I’m so proud of him. And there’s also so many good artists com­ing up. I love Bryan Mar­tin, he’s new to the scene and has writ­ten some incred­i­ble songs, and he’s got that out­law spir­it that’s been miss­ing for so long. The same spir­it as me, and I feel like it’s 1976 all over again. There are so many great artists pop­ping up right now, Y’know Post Mal­one com­ing into coun­try music, there’s a real­ly spe­cial thing hap­pen­ing right now, that I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of, and hap­py to see what hap­pens.

Be sure to keep up with his musi­cal jour­ney by fol­low­ing Stug­gle Jen­nings on insta­gram.