It’s been a case of another year, another great year, for the Brothers Osbourne with 2018’s new album Port Saint Joe proving a hit with music critics and an almost constant round of spectacular live shows. In preparation for their show at the o2, Damian Robinson caught up with lead vocalist TJ to find out more.
Hi TJ, we noticed you’ve just announced new tour dates in the US. No sooner are you about to start your UK arm you’re already planning the next round. Where does your continued motivation to play live come from?
We love being on the road; I think the most enjoyable part of what we like to do is playing to our fans. We’ve just finished in Canada, we get two days off, then we’re across to the UK. We try to jump from place to place as there’s nothing that can replace the feeling of play live.
You’re known for your intense live shows, is the heightened expectation of a Brothers Osbourne show a help or a hindrance for you?
It’s an interesting question because we were originally a pleasant surprise for people when we first started playing and people saw us. Then there was a heightened expectation when people came to the show, which made it a little harder, and I was proud that even with the higher expectation we still reach those standards every night. Now we’re in a position where people know it’s going to be a great show so there’s less pressure on both sides.
Your UK tour has been selling fast and some venues have had to be upgraded. How does it feel that more and more people want to see your live shows?
It’s awesome, it shocked us at first that country music could be so popular in the UK but the more we come back the more we realise that British people just like good music, regardless of any genre. The fact that people come to our show makes all of the hard work worthwhile, it really does. We’re very grateful to people who pay their hard earned money to see us play.
Your new album ‘port saint joe’ was released earlier this year; a few months on from its release how do you look back on the album?
There’s still a lot of songs which we haven’t been released just yet as singles and it’s amazing that when we play them people sing them back to us. In the states it tends to be a little more singles-driven but in the UK people seem to really get into full albums which we love.
You’re a fan of limited edition releases of your music, can we expect anything special on the merchandise table on this tour?
We’ll bring new stuff with us for sure.
The Brothers Osbourne play o2 Newcastle on 27th November. Tickets from https://academymusicgroup.com/o2academynewcastle/