A Conversation with Pierce Pettis (continued)

PM: Let's talk some about faith and families, since both seem to play big roles in your life. How many kids do you and Michele have, and what ages are they?

PP: Well, Michele and I only have one child, and he's sixteen months. His name is Owen. And he's a great kid, I'll tell you. He's something. And then I have three older children from a previous marriage. My oldest is nineteen, and he's in college. And my daughter lives with me, she's in high school. And then my next-to-youngest son, he's fourteen and lives with his mom in Atlanta. So I've got three teenagers and a toddler.

PM: So there's two kids at home, at the moment, is that right?

PP: That's right.

PM: Because of that, do you try to stay home as much as your career allows, or?

PP: Yes, indeed, I do. In fact, I've severely limited my touring--which I don't regret at all. I probably go out two or three weekends a month, and then the rest of the time I try to be home.

PM: Good for you.

PP: In fact, that's also one of the reasons I'm not in Nashville as much. I could probably be doing a lot more writing than I'm doing, but the thing is, it's just not worth the price. You really have to spend time with your family, because once your kids are grown, that's it. You're not going to see them anymore. So I try to invest a lot in that. Although, frankly, I think it probably makes me a better writer in the long run, because I have one foot in the real world, sort of.

PM: Yeah. And we've seen what happens to people who just think they've got to go write six, eight hours every day. I mean, that's just nuts, if you ask me. That's no way to write good songs, especially when you have two or three appointments every day.

PP: Yeah, I think so, too.

PM: I mean, if you're a novelist, that's different.

PP: Right. Oh, yeah, that's true with any job. I mean, a lot of people let their work become too important. I've done that myself. I did that years ago, and paid for it. You think you're working for your family, but really you get to where you're just working for working. And that's when you have to stop, pull back a little bit.

PM: I'm reminded here that our transcriber of the interviews said to say hello. She just opened for you in Little Rock, her name is Laurie McClain.

PP: Oh, man, yeah. She was great. And she was really nice, a really nice person. I was a little under the weather, and she gave me some tea and stuff. Yeah, I liked her. In fact, I got her CDs with me. Tell her I've got her CDs with me in my car.

PM: That's great. She's got some really beautiful songs.

PP: Yeah.

PM: One of my character flaws is that I'm not at all above gossip.

PP: Oh, that's all right.

PM: But I've never, ever heard anybody say a negative word about you.

PP: Really?

PM: Yeah.

PP: Oh, that's great. I guess I better leave that alone.

PM: Which brings me back to faith. Would you say a little bit about the role of spirit or maybe even religion in your life?

PP: Well, that's a private part of my life, and I don't--how can I say this? I like to be very honest in my writing and write exactly what I feel, exactly what I think. But my own philosophy as a writer is that I don't think writing should be about inflicting things on people. I don't think it should be, because it can get to a point where you're practically pushing somebody up against the wall and forcing him to think a certain way, and it ceases to be art, it's more like propaganda at that point. So I'm careful not to do that.

But at the same time, I don't want to feel in any way inhibited, like, "Oh, I can't say that, because that's too religious." There's no real intent other than trying to write a good song that's true to the subject. And I'll tell you, some of my highest compliments have come from unlikely places. I have a song called "God Believes In You." I have a friend in Britain who is an absolutely confirmed atheist. I mean, every time he can, he makes the point, "I'm an atheist," you know? But that's his favorite song. He'd rather hear that song than anything. He plays the song. He goes out and plays some shows himself, plays that song.

PM: [laughs]

PP: That's a very high compliment. That makes me very proud as a songwriter, because it's the song that got through to him, and the content wasn't a problem for him because the song did its job. There was nothing in the song that made him go, "Hey, wait a minute, he's trying to..."

PM: Shove something down my throat.

PP: Yeah. So that's what I try to be. It's a very big part of my life, I mean, it's who I am, as I'm sure it would be for anybody. But as a writer, I think I just need to be honest and say whatever I want to say, and let the chips fall where they may. Hopefully if you're honest in your work, if you don't have an agenda, then people will appreciate that.   continue

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