"It was something I wanted to do forever," says Reddick, who recently released his first country solo album, Just Woke Up, via Brando Records. "I grew up in a house where music was always playing, and most of the time that music was country."
Born in Grapevine and raised in Wichita Falls, Reddick says his parents played a lot of Waylon and Willie, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers.
"I learned to sing by listening to Eagles records, so I knew that this was something that I always wanted to do," he says.
Reddick credits his mother with teaching him how to harmonize and for his general love of music.
"It's funny," he says. "She always sang the harmony in everything, and so I would say to her, 'Why are you singing like that? You're singing it wrong.' I didn't really know how to put it into words but little did I know that she was teaching me to harmonize. And I'm still like that. When I sing along to the radio, I always pick the harmony."
The punk rocker is currently on the road with Bowling For Soup on a co-headlining tour with Less Than Jake. His solo effort, Just Woke Up, comprises 12 songs, mostly written by Reddick and The Nixons' Zac Maloy, a longtime friend of Reddick, who also produced the album.
"He actually became the driving force of the whole thing," Reddick says. "[Maloy has] been living in Nashville, writing country for a while. It really wasn't the plan to do the whole record together until we got started, and then it just made a lot of sense."
Reddick says that during the height of the pandemic, the duo wrote songs together over text message, before entering a small studio in Nashville.
"We wrote all of the songs in about three weeks over text message, just sending each other lyrics and little musical ideas here and there in voice recordings," he says. "We just had this big Google folder where we organized everything, and then the next thing you know, we had an album."
Reddick says Maloy hired session musicians to record the album, and they needed only one day to track all the songs.
"He hired the musicians here in Nashville, and they [recorded] the record in one day," he says with a chuckle, "and then I flew here just over a year ago and did the vocals in two days."
Reddick's debut album features appearances by Uncle Kracker, Frank Turner, Cody Canada and even Stephen Egerton of Descendants, whom Reddick credits for getting him into punk rock.
"A lot of people weren't super surprised whenever I made the move to country, because [Bowling For Soup] had done several country-leaning songs throughout our career." – Jaret Reddick
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"This rockabilly song, 'Natalie,' that we did, I just thought, man, who better to play than the guitar player from my favorite band in the world?" Reddick says. "It's a little bit of a departure on the record, but we had a lot of fun doing it."
Given that Bowling For Soup has dabbled with country-esque songs in the past, Reddick says the genre shift shouldn't be that surprising.
"A lot of people weren't super surprised whenever I made the move to country, because [Bowling For Soup] had done several country-leaning songs throughout our career," he says, naming off songs like the twangy "Drinkin Beer on Sunday" and the rockabilly-infused "All Figured Out."
Reddick says once Bowling For Soup wraps up its remaining tour dates this fall, he'll focus on his solo act until the punk rockers make their next move.
"I'm really gonna start hitting it hard, as far as shows are concerned, next year," he says. "I'll be opening up for Bri Bagwell at Gruene Hall [Aug. 27], which will be my first full-band show with all Texas guys, and then we'll be doing the State Fair of Texas October 22."
Reddick says his first single, "One of the Good Ones," cracked the Texas Regional Radio Report's Top 40, where it has spent the last 15 weeks.
"I'm already thinking about what my next move is going to be," he says. "It feels good, and I'm very, very, excited about it."
