I’m assuming you’ve recorded in some interesting places over the years. What was it like doing sessions in Buddy’s living room?
Well, the good thing about working with Buddy is that when he opens up his house to you, he’s serious about it. [Laughs] You start singing on the front porch, then go to the living room—and it’s not like he’s moved the furniture out or anything! You just move the coffee table back, put the lamp on top of the coffee table and start recording. This is god’s truth! And from there to the dining room and the kitchen, you’ll find mics up in the ceiling. I’d never seen this before. The windows are open, birds are singing, people are coming by with their cars and trucks, the gardener’s out there working in the garden and everybody’s in key. The dog barks and it’s the same key you were already in, so it doesn’t make any difference. [Laughs] It’s an extended family with a special feeling that says, “We’re gonna let you get on the horse and ride a little bit, so enjoy yourself.”

There’s a great moment on the record at the end of one of the songs ...
Oh, god, you’re talking about “Ain’t Got You,” right?

Right, the Springsteen song, where you say, “Ya’ll got religion?” at the end and everybody cracks up.
I didn’t even know he was recording that!

My theory, having seen Bruce live a couple of times, is that his whole “preacher man” persona was borrowed at least in part from having seen you play live gigs over the past several decades. It takes a true preacher to influence an actor trying to play one.
No, I stole it from him! I didn’t even finish singing his words! What happened was we started that song with only three musicians, and then they start comin’ in with the barbeque. You come in with a box of barbeque, you’ll upset anybody. [Laughs] And we were recording and now it’s an open house. You come in through the front door with a box of barbeque, the musicians are taking their guitars out of their cases and startin’ to play, then someone starts up on a banjo, there’s people dancing, doing a jig, my daughter’s in my pocket tryin’ to get my credit card, someone’s writin’ a check—and I said, “Hey, I’m tryin’ to sing here!” And Buddy says, “Keep going, don’t stop the track!” and I said, “What the heck, ya’ll must’ve got religion, it’s hog wild up in here!”

Sounds like it was basically a family jamboree in there.
That’s exactly what it was. You’ve hit it right on the head. It was a family jamboree, and the only problem is that now I can’t get a call through to Bruce Springsteen. [Laughs] I only get his answering service.

I remember hearing that Nashville originally started out as a project with you and Wilson Pickett, back when he was alive. Is that where the concept came from?
Oh, yeah, that was one of our dreams, that we were gonna do a country album together, because it was just the two of us left. Of the original soul clan, you see. And Ben E. (King) was so wealthy from “Stand By Me” he doesn’t need to record any more! [Laughs] After you have 10 hits with the same song, you’re not even trying to record. I’m so proud of him, he has his own golf tournament that he does so well with charities. We were lucky enough to do a tribute. But doing something with Pickett and I, our plan was to do a country album and a gospel album. I’d hooked up the rest of the soulsters to do this with Wilson, and my heart was just broken; broken in two. And ironically it was coming back from Nashville, driving back in the car when they called and told me he was gone. I remember it was a rainy day, we’re driving down the highway, and my only thought was just to keep going, to try not to stop.

Maybe somewhere out there he was looking out for this project, helping it along.
Well, we thank god for all the great spirits we encounter in our lifetime, because nothing is promised in this life. I know, for example, that my grandmother is watching out for me. When you think of the angels in heaven that watch over all of us—our grandmothers, grandfathers, aunties, uncles, the ones who really cared—you say to yourself, “All is well.” And let me continue to do what I do, and do it well. When you sit down to write something, it comes from your soul, not your pen. You change whatever you write because you feel the change; that’s what makes it perfect, what makes it right. You know that’s true. That’s the god, the soul inside of you. No matter what type of music I’m singing, I put the soul into it that god has given to me.

It’s interesting that you use the word “soul” in this context. I’d have suggested that any style you’ve ever tackled would just have that word tacked onto the end of it. Rock-soul, country-soul, gospel-soul. No matter the genre you happen to be singing in, you’re still looking for the truth in these songs.
Those are the spices we cook with, our trade secrets. When you sprinkle a little bit of your love, a little bit of your ideas, a little bit of your feelings, a little bit of your belief, when you put it all together and mix it up, you bake a great story. And I try to do the same thing in song. Once you put it out there, it’s written, it’s in history. People can come back years later and still get a glimpse of your soul. Going back to Wilson, I remember talking with him about his music and he’d say, “‘Midnight Hour’ and ‘If You Need Me,’ that was my thing, wasn’t it?” I’d tell him, “That’s your groove, Will. When people hear you sing those songs, they know you ain’t gonna do it at 11:00, you gonna wait ’till midnight.” And when he sang “Mustang Sally” you could actually see the car, see the girl; you could feel it. Otis Redding and “These Arms Of Mine,” it was his magic in that song. “Mr. Pitiful.” I remember him crying when he would sing that, because he remembered people calling him pitiful. “You’re pathetic, man, why don’t you do something?” God blessed him to do something with his life, and I’m grateful for the same chance in mine. These guys’ lives touched upon mine, and hopefully mine touched upon theirs, too. I’m just here to say, “Thank you.”

You’re a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist now, and there are people like the Stones who’ve been very forthright about the influence you had on their careers early on. When you talk about the people who’ve influenced you, you have to know that there are others you’ve influenced just as equally.
Ray Charles reaches me every time I hear “I Know You’re Gonna Miss Me.” It’s just so unbelievably real. When I was a kid, my mother used to send me down to Mr. Hillers’ market for half a pound of sage sausage, and he’d make the sausage right there on the spot. You’d have to wait there until he’d put it all together. And he’d say, “Does she like it real sagey, or just mild?” And I’d say, “I don’t know, Mr. Hillers! She just likes it the way you made it before!” [Laughs] And she’d say to me, “That guy knows just how I like it.” He put his soul into that sausage, it was his thing. And we’re losing that, we’re so commercially minded now. So we miss the magic of the moment.

My experience is that the music that’s most universally appealing and speaks to people on so many levels is often something that is intensely personal to the artist. I’m not sure where I’m going with this related to your sausage story, but my sense is that you’ve always been singing about “your thing” in a way that is very personal to you. But people expand it into something much more lasting, more real, to them.
You relate to that magic moment, that time, that feeling. It brings back the tear, it brings back the joy of knowing you made it through that period when nobody believed in you, when people said, “I don’t know why you’re doing that, why don’t you go get yourself a job!” [Laughs] God’s got a job for all of us, something for us to do. This is the secret to life, really. When you find your calling, answer it. You may not get a chance to pick up that phone again. God’s given you all these talents, now it’s up to you to expand upon those talents, make them better, greater.

It may sound funny, because you never really went away, but how do you feel about people labeling you a “comeback artist”?
Well, it makes me smile to think that they even believe that I went somewhere and came back and was able to come back! That’s wonderful. My grandmother taught me to never turn down a blessing; in the blessing lies a lesson. You have to listen to one to really hear the other. Somebody might say, “So this is your big comeback?” And my reply is just, “Thank you.” Life is about living and learning. We just need to get that across to some of our young people. Not about living and hurting, living and lying, living and dying. It’s about living and giving, living and sharing, living and caring. And learning what the word “love” means. It’s not about sex, or passion, or something fleeting like that. It’s a moment of life until death do we part. It comes from the heart, not the mouth.

So I know we joked about a hip-hop album, but what are your future plans in terms of your next recorded project?
Well, if we sell a few records with this one, we’ll get the opportunity to do another. [Laughs] My heart is bursting with joy to talk with people about this project. This is a decision I made, but the Lord knows better than I what direction he wants me to take and what steps he wants me to make. I’m just following that lead, and here I am. I stand here in the wilderness just hoping somebody will hear my cry.