Columbia Nashville's Tyler Farr ain’t your basic bro-country—more your redneck yearning to be real. With George Jones’ guitar player as a former stepfather and raised by his Missouri farmer father, he knows the difference between Chippendale country and the genuine article. His #1s “A Guy Walks Into a Bar,” “Redneck Crazy” and “Water in My Whiskey” harken back to Merle Haggard, John Anderson, Hank Williams, Jr. and Johnny Paycheck: hard-working men who like to drink at the end of a long week, fully knowing the chaos it creates. Coming up in the clubs of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, he’s lived these songs, giving Suffer in Peace deeper impact. A Skynyrd fan, he brings the torque modern country fans like, but the operatically trained Farr keeps drilling. Good prep for his verbal root canal from HITS’ always-hammering Holly Gleason.

So who is Tyler Farr?
Well, I’m not your typical redneck with a Confederate flag flying around. I listen to Eminem before I go onstage to get up… I covered Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” on “The Bobby Bones Show.” Kept it in her key, but dropped the low parts way down where Jamey Johnson woulda sung it.

Miley’s surprising.
A song is a song—it’s great or not. Look at the lyrics of Miley’s song: It could be a really good country song. Licking the sledgehammer, on the other hand…

So what’s country?
[laughs] In some way, shape or form, it needs to have the roots in there. I’m a literate person, and I’m all about the melody. But if the lyrics aren’t there… I’m out. So there are a bunch of ways to be country, but you need to pick one.

Where are you in this?
I’m not one of those guys who goes, “Awwww, forget about the past…” From my stepdad touring with Jones and loving all that old stuff on vinyl, it goes between Alabama and Johnny Cash or Haggard. The kinda stuff you hear on WSM 650 AM.

Don’t all the kids say that?
Yeah, some people like to talk the talk, but you ask yourself, “What are they trying to say?” Listen, every song is about kissing some girl, and having a sip on something. Um, in the kind of country I was raised on, they don’t sip, they drank ’em. They took shots, drove in cars—and really lived life. They were blue-collar men who worked hard, and country music was for them. It was their lives, their troubles. You might have a husband and his wife’s cheating… or he lost his job.

Now you can’t really do a ballad or a heartbreak song, because it has to be all tempo and fast, but that ain’t right. Sure, we’ve all been to a party at a bonfire, sneaking that first drink when Mom and Dad aren’t looking, but that’s a specific moment and it’s special. It’s not just some party that could be anywhere or any time over and over and over… That’s fine and all, but that ain’t life.

And you sure can’t hold on to it. Younger fans who wanna have a good time, even they feel other things. Look at “He Stopped Lovin’ Her Today”? That wouldn’t get cut today, or Vern Gosdin’s “Is It Raining at Your House.” And that pain, everybody’s felt it.

Like your song “Withdrawals.”
Yeah, you know, that’s real. Everyone’s loved someone it really hurts you to kick.

Well, the video with you underwater like that is riveting.
Eric Welch, the director, asked if I could sing under water, and I said, “Well, I’ll try.” He pushed me and pushed me, and at a point, I literally thought I was going to die.

Not exactly up-tempo positive.
I write what I know: there’s a lot of heartache in that. But I’m engaged, too. I own a little farm now. I’ve been evicted from three apartment complexes, that’s real. Anyone who acts like that’s not gonna happen doesn’t get it. I think you need both.

Like “Better in Boots”?
It’s summer, and why not have something uptempo? And I do like girls better in boots. I’ve never been about flashy girls as much as real women – and if you listen, that’s all in there. It’s me making my point about what’s attractive.

How’re you liking Randy Goodman and the new team?
It feels like there’s more of a plan in place, and a strategy. They have reasons for what they’re doing. I’ve only met them a bit, because right now I’m on the road with Jason Aldean through the end of the year and they’ve got a lot on their plate, too. But they’re doing things with a purpose; for a guy like me, I like that.

Looking down the road…
I’d like to have fans like Hank Jr. He’s a little rough around the edges and he does what he wants, but the fans buy every T-shirt, they come out for every show, every CD he puts out. He sings their lives. They know it. If I can do that for the next generation of people, that’ll be fine.