Just days before singer-songwriter Christian Lee Hutson released Paradise Pop 10., we got the chance to chat about some top tier live music moments with him. Hear about an unexpected set in Oslo, getting to walk Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams and having to walk home after being starstruck by Patty Griffin.
John Prine
I was a massive John Prine fan. When I was 14, I bought his record, "Common Sense," in a bargain bin for $5. Just got sucked in. Probably 2018, I was in Norway, I was on tour. I was extremely jet lagged, 13-hour flight. I was walking around Oslo with my friend, Phoebe, and we were just kind of like really dazed and out of it. Looked up and we're like, "So weird, Oslo, they've just got a random picture of John Prine." We did the translator or whatever and saw that he was playing that night. We were somehow able to get tickets and saw, it was an amazing show. He was like, dancing across the stage. Incredible. I'd seen him two or three times before, and I've never seen him dance, trying to impress himself and make himself laugh. There's just like 200 people in here. Wild to me. In my mind, watching John Prine, he's like an arena rockstar. That's how much of a legend I think he is.
Green Day
I'm 12 years-old. The Green Day album, American Idiot, has been announced. And my mom, when I come home from school one day is like, "I have this friend who's working on the set of this music video, and they asked if we want to come." And she's like, "It's a band called Green Day?" And I was like, "Oh my God, I have to go." I was a massive pop-punk fan. So we went to this airplane hangar by LAX, and got taken into this big room with a massive treadmill in it. We got to watch some kind of lip-sync, and walk along this lonely road, if you will, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” The bass player Mike Dirnt was like, "Oh, they brought kids in. What grade are you in?" I was like, "I'm in eighth grade." And he was like, "You're a big fucking eighth grader. Big fucking eighth grader." I felt like the coolest kid when I went back to school, and told everyone that I got to meet Green Day.
Patty Griffin
When I was like 20, someone gave me a Patty Griffin CD. And I became obsessed with her as a songwriter. 2017 I was in Marfa, Texas playing a music festival. She just so happened to be added to the bill the last minute. So starstruck. I get to watch her sitting on the side of the stage. She played every single one of my favorite songs. I was so disoriented by getting to see one of my heroes, that I missed the van back to the hotel and ended up walking along the side of the highway, all of her different worlds that she builds in her songs in my head. In the rain. Yeah, it was very dramatic. It was cool though.
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Christian Lee Hutson is back in Oslo, and has tour dates running through November 15. Dates and details here.