Josh Turner is humble with a capital “-UMBLE,” so even though he wrote the title track for his new This Country Music Thing album, he was nervous about releasing it.

His galloping country resume is a chest-beater, but one chest-beater every two decades is okay, right?

• This Country Music Thing is Turner’s 10th studio album on MCA Nashville.
• He debuted with “She’ll Go on You” in 2002, but “Long Black Train” — released one year later — was his first taste of commercial success.
• Talking to Taste of Country Nights, Turner made it clear that humility does not come at the expense of self-confidence.

While never the darling of awards shows, Turner’s career has tied country music’s past with its present. He’s a link between Randy Travis and Chris Stapleton, both of whom he’s worked closely with.

It’s a stretch to say a member of the 2024 Country Music Hall of Fame class has him to thank, but the deep-voiced 46-year-old from South Carolina has been at the front of a movement for years.

There’s a bit more gray in Turner’s beard in 2024, but he still sits fit and proper as he talks about Stapleton, his early career “splurge” and how a rap comparison convinced him fans would enjoy “This Country Music Thing.” The full unedited conversation can be heard during a recent episode of the Taste of Country Nights: On Demand podcast.

Taste of Country: It’s been 20 years since “Long Black Train.” Take me back to when that first came out. Did you have any big splurge purchases?

Josh Turner: A house (laughs). I was tired of living in apartments, so it was time.

Were you pretty confident back then?

Yeah, I mean, I was confident in a lot of ways. I’m not going to sit here and say that I knew everything, because I didn’t. I made a lot of mistakes back then, and you know, I wish I could go back and kind of coach my younger self on a lot of the business matters in this industry.

But musically, I was about as confident as you could get and still am.

Were any of those mistakes — did you miss any songs? Did you pass up any that went on to be big hits for other artists?

Yeah. The first one that comes to mind is Jamey Johnson‘s “In Color.” I remember hearing that and for whatever reason, I passed on it. And then next thing I know, Jamey’s having a big hit with it.

Any others?

Yeah there was some other minor ones. There was a Travis Tritt song, “Country Ain’t Country No More.” I think was one of them. And apparently, and I don’t even remember this, but I’m driving into town one morning and I hear Montgomery Gentry singing “Lucky Man.” And I texted my producer I’m like, “Man, have you heard this Montgomery Gentry song? This is incredible.” And he’s like, “Yeah, you passed on it.” I was like, “OK, I don’t even remember that, but I’ll take your word for it.”

You wrote the title track of this album. It kind of tells your story and name-checks a lot of people. Why this song now?

My producer fell in love with that song the first time he heard it, and I didn’t know how to think about it or what to think about it because it just kind of seemed a little arrogant, which … I didn’t know how my fans would take that. But he was like, ‘That’s what I love about it.’ He was like, it’s kind of like a rap song — he’s like, ‘Hey, look. Look at what I’ve done,’ you know? And he’s right. Young people just love it.

Looking back to your catalog, you cut a lot of Chris Stapleton songs before he got famous. “Your Man” is the most famous one of them. Did you guys have a relationship back then?

Yeah, Chris and I, we crossed paths a lot back then. We even wrote together. We were doing demo sessions together and all that kind of stuff. We were in and out of the same publishing company a lot. We knew each other and just were kind of in the same circles.

He co-wrote “Your Man.” That was my first No. 1 as an artist. That was his first No. 1 as a writer, so it was a big song for both of us. Still is. And yeah, I’ve cut several of his songs. He actually sang background vocals on “Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln” on that record (Your Man). It’s still kind of surprising to me to see how big he got as an artist, because I just never knew he wanted that. I thought he always just wanted just to be a writer and be behind the scenes.

John Anderson is part of your story. How do you feel about him getting into the (Country Music) Hall of Fame? 

I was over the moon excited when I found out about that, and I called him right away, and we talked that morning and just — it was well-deserved. I’ve been waving the John Anderson flag for a long time at the Opry and just throughout the industry and the business.

I’ve had him on several of my records. We’ve co-written a bunch of songs, and you know, he’s just been a huge mentor to me, and a friend to me, ever since I got in this business. So he and I have done a lot of life together, and I just love him to death.

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.