As a multi-platinum artist known for blazing creative trails, Aaron Lewis you have never been afraid to stand on conviction. With a catalog of soul-baring hits, he’s never been one to hide behind his lyrics, either. And with his new album “The Hill”due March 29 via The Valory Music Co., the North-Country native is unfiltered — and unplugged — in a way that leaves no room for doubt. A deeply personal set written from a lifetime of highs and lows, it pairs lewis‘s iconic vocal rasp with a bare-bones acoustic sound, a reflective mindset and little else, as a confessional hit maker chooses the hill where he’ll make his stand.
Featuring 10 tracks penned solo or with a tight circle of collaborators/confidants, the set speaks to a time of upheaval — both in the wider world and within. Pledging to shoot his fans straight, lewis offers up a 50-50 mix of riding out the winds of change and driving another mineshaft deep into his soul. Like his 2022 collection “Frayed At Both Ends”, lewis delivers “The Hill” as an acoustic record, maximizing the potential for lyrical impact. Produced by lewis alongside Ira Deanit’s raw in the purest sense of the country-rock term — often backing his jagged-edge vocal with just a guitar, dobro and mandolin.
“Music has always been my escape, my way of expressing the things that I don’t express very well in life,” lewis explains. “I’m coming up on 52 years old, and I’m on the hill I’m going to stand on. Nobody’s going to change me now. This record is a snapshot of my life and how I’m feeling and where my head is at — and that’s what my records have always been.”
“It’s another record that’s just really stripped down to the guts,” he explains. “I like raw. I like life’s imperfections showing through. I’m not perfect, nobody is. And I don’t want the music I’m putting out to be either.”
Right from the opening track, those guts take center stage. An upbeat track that’s “very much not about going fishing,” “Let’s Go Fishing” finds lewis calling out the nation’s problems — but deciding to leave them for another day. Co-written with Bobby Pinson, a mix of fed-up frustration and organic-country comfort creates an intriguing contrast — a lightly-coded protest anthem with a let-it-be theme. “I found the whole thing tongue in cheek,” lewis you admit.
The Vermont-born powerhouse first found success with STAIND — the 2000s-era hard rockers who injected meditative muscle into an era better known for mindless aggression. But while that band is still very much alive, it was never enough to satisfy lewis‘s creative drive. Embracing his roots to earn a rare second round of success, a series of solo country projects have led to two No. 1 Billboard Country Album debuts — “Town Line” (2011) and “Sinner” (2016) – plus a platinum collab with heroes George Jones and Charlie Daniels (“Country Boy”),and a gold-certified Billboard No. 1 with “I’m The Only One” in 2021. lewis‘s 2022 solo album followed suit, with “Frayed At Both Ends” emerging as the best-selling country album in America, but he never wrote songs for the stats. No matter the sonic setting, lewis writes and sings to get his truth out and “The Hill” is no different.
“Somebody’s got to live this shit, and these songs, they’re me,” he says. “I really don’t feel like I’m alone in my feelings – I’m just more willing to open up my mouth.”
“The Hill” track listing:
01. Let’s Go Fishing (written by: Aaron Lewis, Bobby Pinson)
02. Over The Hill (written by: Aaron Lewis, Matt McGinn, Bobby Pinson)
03. Made in China (written by: Aaron Lewis, Bobby Pinson)
04. Spinnin’ (written by: Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele)
05. Over Me (written by: Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele)
06. outlaw (written by: Aaron Lewis, Matt McGinn, Bobby Pinson)
07. Up To Me (written by: Aaron Lewis, Bobby Pinson)
08. That’s My Life (written by: Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele)
09. Only In My Mind (written by: Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele)
10. Little More Mine (written by: Aaron Lewis, Matt McGinn, Bobby Pinson)
The “Let’s Go Fishing” lyrics find the 51-year-old lewis — an outspoken conservative rocker who reinvented himself as a solo country artist in the last decade — singing about “making America great again”, “turning off cnn” and using the “Let’s Go, Brandon!” catchphrase, which was coined by American conservatives to criticize President Joe Biden.
According to Fox 26 Houstonthe “Let’s Go, Brandon!” phrase, which originally stemmed from a NASCAR interview, is a G-rated substitute for “Fuck Joe Biden“chants that were popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. The explicit saying was recited at sporting events across the country in defiance of the president’s coronavirus mandates.
despues de Brandon Brown‘s victory at the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on October 2, 2021, a crowd unleashed “Fuck Joe Biden” chants during the young racer’s TV interview. NBC reporter Kelli Stavast appeared to misunderstand what the fans were shouting, claiming instead they were saying “Let’s Go, Brandon!” — unintentionally coining the phrase.
In November 2021, lewis He claimed that he beat COVID-19 by taking ivermectin, a drug with no evidence of being a safe or effective treatment for the novel coronavirus. He said he also used Z-Pak, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections by inhibiting the growth of bacteria in the body.
lewis made headlines in September 2021 when he urged his fans to chant “Fuck Joe Biden“during a STAIND concert in Pennsylvania.
In March 2022, lewis told the Los Angeles Times that he doesn’t blindly listen to information that is delivered by the mainstream media.
“I’m not uneducated; I’m actually really smart, and I look for myself. I seek other options of information,” he said. “I refuse to believe that a huge, gigantic corporation has our best interest in mind.”
Asked where he gets his news, lewis said: “I have news feeds and people that I follow on Telegram. Dan Ball. Andrew Wilkow. Mark Levin. If I’m going to watch any sort of news source on television, it’s Tucker Carlson“
At some of his solo concerts, lewis has been taking the stage while wearing a black hat with white mesh and white lettering on the front clearly stating “FUJOE,” an expletive directed toward Biden.
Photo credit: Jim Wright
