Jo Dee Messina is still going strong 30 years after the release of her debut single, a song that went on to become her signature tune.
On the latest episode of American Songwriter’s Off the Record podcast, Messina told host Lisa Konicki about how life has changed since “Heads Carolina, Tails California” was released in 1996.
“I have more wisdom, I think, now than I did then. And you can tell it,” she said. “… [I was] fighting for that position and now there’s just a little bit more wisdom where I can look back now at people that are fighting for that position and go, ‘Wait, wait, don’t sell out on this. Don’t sell out on that. You don’t have to do this.’”
As for what she’s learned over the decades, Messina said, “You don’t have to sacrifice your entire life and all your belief systems just to be successful.”
Jo Dee Messina Discusses Her New Album
In the years since her freshman album was released, Messina has put out six more LPs, though there was a 12-year gap between her two most recent collections.
“It’s just what happened in the sense of the writing, people wanting to write with me, people wanting to co-write for their projects or just in general, write a song together,” she explained of the decade plus wait for Bridges, which was released in June. “And so then I started to build up that catalog of material, and someone’s like, ‘Make a record.’ And I was like, ‘All right, we’ll do it.’”
It’s safe to say it was worth the wait. On Bridges, Messina said fans are “hearing life, really.”
“Lessons that I’ve learned, paths that I’ve walked or I’ve seen others walk down,” she said. “Not every song about that on this record is about me. Some of them are situations that I’ve heard people talk about. And I’m like, ‘Oh, let me take that and write about that.’ But some of them are about me.”
Jo Dee Messina Breaks Down Standout Tracks on Bridges
Whatever category a song fits into, Messina said that “there’s always that kind of underlying thread of my faith” in her work.
Take “Don’t Let Them Hide Your Beautiful,” for instance. The song was inspired by an artist who came in for a co-write.
“They’re like, ‘Golly, I’m exhausted with everybody’s expectation of what I should do, and what I should wear, and what I should be… I’m over it. Don’t do this. You can’t do that,’” Messina recalled. “They were just so exhausted. I was like, ‘Look, I get the game that you’re in right now, and I’ve run the race that you’re running. Whatever you do, don’t let them hide your beautiful. You are beautiful. God created you beautifully. He has a purpose for you, what he created you to be. Don’t let them bury that.’”
Then there’s “Let Me Love You.” Messina wrote the track after she had a conversation with her eldest son.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t you know that I know you? I have loved you from before you were born. I’ve known you every single day of your life. I know what you’re hiding. I know the beauty that you are… I’ve seen you. I’ve known you in the purest form, and I’ve loved you every step of the way,’” Messina shared of what she told the teen. “He was going through something, and I’m like, ‘You’re hiding and I can see that you’re hiding because the you that I know isn’t visible to the world.’”
Jo Dee Messina on Turing Personal Experiences into Universal Messages
When she sat down to write about the experience, Messina realized the song would have a universal message.
“I was like, ‘This is what God says to us on an everyday level. Don’t you know I see who I created you to be? I see you, and I love you. So stop, stop, stop. Take down the wall that’s between you and me and hiding behind, I got this, I got this. Oh, I know,’” she said. “[We’re] becoming self-reliant when we are created to be reliant on him. He is the fuel, right? He is the fuel for us to run at full throttle. And so I kind of was like, ‘This is what God must say to us on a daily basis.’”
“We have life that beats us up. It takes a beautiful, perfected thing and we look like golf balls at the end. We got dents all over us. We’ve got the skin that’s peeling off of us. We’ve got cracks and bruises,” Messina continued. “We go through all of this stuff that the world beats us around, and he’s like, ‘Stop. Just look at me and let me love you because I promise I will walk with you through every step that you have to take.’”
It’s an experience Messina has lived with her son, whom she told, “I love you no matter what… You are now the product of the choices that you’re making. Now, will I be happy with all of your choices? No. Will I be there for you? Absolutely. Because you can’t break that bond.”
“I want to make it very clear to people that I might have said this to my son,” she said, “but this is what God is saying to you.”
Jo Dee Messina Reflects on Serving as an Inspiration to Younger Artists
It’s lessons like those that Messina has learned over her decades-long career, and stories that like that have made her an inspiration to the next generation of artists.
“All thanks for the glory of God,” Messina said of people looking up to her. “It’s amazing to me… It catches me off guard. It surprises me. I’m like, ‘Really?’ Because I was always just kind of running my race.”
While the fact that people look to her for advice is surprising to Messina, it’s also something she’s grateful for.
“It opens the door to share the Lord with people and that younger generation that’s coming up and that’s my real heart’s desire these days,” she said. “I love that. I see that as His workings to create a path or a bridge. You create a path and an open door to share with them what is important. [They are] learning through my own walk of coming from where they are into where I am now, and living a whole life in the span of things, and being able to reflect on what is really important.”
The post Jo Dee Messina Reflects on 30 Years of “Head Carolina, Tails California” and Delves Into Her New Album (Exclusive) appeared first on American Songwriter.
Author: Paige Gawley