You may look at Griffin Tucker and think, this guy is just a kid. Ok, more like a young adult, but he is still in his teens. His last year of his teens, but technically still a teenager. Do you remember what you were doing at 19? Starting college? Working a job with a boss you didn’t like? Griffin is traveling down a different path. You see, he’s a guy talented way beyond his years. His talent and his potential scared Lionel Richie who has seen just about everything in his long career in the business. Griffin has recently released two new singles, “Getaway” and “Gypsy Woman,” which are creating quite a buzz in the music industry. He took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with us and catch us up to speed on what’s gone on with him, what’s going on with him and what will be going on with him.
I’m Music Magazine: Dude, I mean this as a compliment. You are like a freak of nature; you’re like a rock version of Prince. You write your stuff, you play all the instruments, and you’re 19? Is that right?
Griffin Tucker: I’m 19.
Prince was pretty young when he made his very first album. He was in his teens when he cut his very first album, For You. He pretty much went into the studio and he did exactly what you’re doing. Writing and playing everything; it’s pretty amazing. I’m a huge music fan, so this is blowing me away. I’m seriously digging it.
Well thank you so much. I’m just so passionate about the music. I’ve really grown up always wanting to just create the best thing that I can create, and learning everything I needed to learn in order to do that. It’s been a long journey and it’s nowhere near complete, but I’m just really glad you like what we have out.
Talking about a long journey, you’ve got a lot of videos where you are so young performing. Was anybody in your family musically inclined? How did you catch this musical gene that you have?
Both my mom and my dad are very big music lovers. My dad loves to tinker around with instruments. My mom loves to sing. She grew up around the music scene when she was young. They both just really love music and they gave me all of the influences that I’ve grown up with. They’ve really just supported me through out this whole journey. Even still now, they’re always at my shows. They are always front row and there just supporting me. It’s really just more that they’ve always been there and just always supported me.
So was anyone in your family a musician?
A lot of the family members on my dad’s side of the family. They all at least play 1 instrument. Most of them play the piano. But they do more for the church or church type of music. They kind of grew up singing together and love to harmonize. But no one that was really serious into rock or anything like that. It was just a lot of sitting alone at home. I don’t know really if the multi-instrumentalist side came from one particular person. But I guess I got it from somewhere. (laughing)
So when you were young, did you start out taking any kind of lessons?
I started off with drums. But with drums I took very minimal lessons. I think I may have only taken 2 or 3 lessons. For drums, I was pretty much just self-taught. Listening to some that I love and watching videos of drummers that I loved and I just kind of mimicked what they were doing. It took me pretty far, but with piano I took about 6 months of piano lessons. A little bit of guitar lessons, but other than that I’m pretty much self-taught.
So what all do you play?
I play drums, I play bass, guitar, piano, keyboard, ukulele, mandolin, harmonica, of course I sing. Those are the big ones.
Wow. What do you have your eye set on next? What’s the next instrument you want to learn, or do you have anything?
There was a little band drive at my school when I was in elementary school. We would get to go around and try all of these different instruments to see what we best could sit for. I found that percussion was like the obvious best fit, but the 2nd option was woodwind instruments. So I’d really like to try my hand at playing saxophone, maybe some clarinet. Just kind of do one of those. That would be really cool.
Nice! You definitely need to have goals to go after! Do you know when you started to actually writing songs themselves?
My first endeavor into writing songs is around when I was 11 or 12. Up to that point, I’d been in a Beatles tribute band. I had toured with Zendaya, but I really wanted to make a name for myself. I couldn’t really do that without having my own songs. I always had this desire or this drive to want to create music. Like the actual arrangements, all the different parts. Not so much just creating lyrics. So whenever I did starting getting into that, my mom & dad set up the lyrical play. They would always write my lyrics for me and I would write all of the music.
When I started doing like “Girlfriend” and “Need You Badly” and “Gotta Get the Girl,” all of the music was me, and all of the lyrics were written by my mom.
Wow. That’s an interesting combination.
Yeah. It’s still to this day pretty much set the same way. My latest two singles, the music was all by me, and lyrics are all by my mom. The process for actually which came first was reversed for each, but it’s still that same way today.
So for song ideas, do you ever give ideas on the kind of song you want and she just translates it?
The processes differ each time, but usually I’ll have this riff in my head. Or some kind of instrumental hook I have and I’ll put it into my voice memos. Sometimes I’ll work on it right then and there. Sometimes I’ll let it sit there and wait until I come back to it. But usually it starts with focusing on one voice memo, making the whole arrangement. Then I’ll bring that to my mom and say “How does this make you feel? What emotion does this make you feel? Is it exciting, is it mellow?” So from there we start brainstorming ideas.
But sometimes, like with my latest song “Get Away,” she brought me lyrics first. She gave the challenge of “Here’s some lyrics, you write a song for this today. That’s what you’re going to do today.” I was like “Okay. Challenge accepted.” (laughing)
She went to go do something and I was just left alone at my house, trying out melodies, trying out different tempos, trying out different grooves, and eventually I arrived at something I really liked. I kept working at it and kept working at it, then showed it to her. She said “It’s perfect!” So it’s different every time, but it’s always a fun one.
So in 2017, you released your debut album. You’ve been doing singles now. Are you leading up to another full release?
I would love to be able to do an album soon. Actually at the shows that my band The Real Rock Revolution has been doing for awhile, we’ve been doing a whole lot of songs that we haven’t released yet. We’re still just working on and making sure they’re as good as they can be before we fully record them. We would love to make a full length album and kind of make a statement. Of course some of the problems is like financing and that type of thing. But we’re constantly writing, we’re constantly trying to get into the studio to record our stuff. Up until now there’s not really any concrete plans for an album, but it’s definitely the end goal.
You mentioned playing live. With the pandemic, did you guys have to stop playing live? Was there a total lock down for you where you’re at?
For the whole months of March and April 2020 all of the shows we had got cancelled. For some of my friends, whose income is reliant on playing shows, it was so scary. I know it was for so many people during that time. It put a lot into perspective. But we were actually fortunate enough to start getting back actually last May, here and there. It was a very limited and we were usually just playing outdoor venues. Then everyone could space themselves however they wanted to. It was really lucky, especially being in Texas. It was scary at first, but it’s starting to open back up now.
I don’t know what your travel radius is, but do you get to go out of Texas much to perform?
We haven’t actually done very many out of state dates. We’re usually playing the DFW area, sometimes we’ll venture a little north of that. But not really any out of state stuff that we do.
Looking at your videos on YouTube, not only are you a great musician, you’re a great showman,even from a very young age. It’s amazing to sit back and watch, erven when it is raw and still developing. Where did you channel that from?
I’d say it came from mostly different places. I think YouTube started right when I was about 4 or 5. So from a very young age, I was always just looking at other musicians and seeing how they carried themselves live. I was watching people like Paul Stanley, or Freddie Mercury, or Robert Plant, or Bon Scott, or Angus Young, and all of these great musicians who really just put on a show. Then I kind of just took everything that I loved and I just found natural and blended it together. It’s became so natural at this point that I just can’t really stand still when I’m playing. Even when I’m sitting and playing, it’s just a very natural need to move with the music.
I saw you on American Idol. I look at everything in life as a learning experience, both the good parts and the bad. What’s something that you took away from the whole American Idol experience?
That’s a really good question. I knew just going into the competition that I was never really interested in the competing part of it. I know everyone’s competing to be the next American Idol, but that wasn’t really what it was ever about for me. It was about meeting new people, meeting the people who won the show, meeting those on the show, and of course meeting the judges for the few minutes that I got to meet them. And of course, meeting all the people who watched the shows. The people I’ve been so fortunate enough to run into at my shows, or at restaurants. It was really about getting to reach a whole new group so I could share the gift that I’ve been given.
It’s almost a big networking kind of thing.
Absolutely. Just getting to talk with a lot of very talented people and people who share the same vision and the same goal as I do. Just to be able to play music and share what I’ve been given to as many people as I possibly can. It was really wild to get to meet people from all different walks of life that play all different genres, all people that are just incredibly talented with what they’ve been given.
I try to catch a little bit of Idol here and there, and The Voice as well. There was a very talented young female that was on The Voice a few years ago named Moriah Formica, she’s in an all female group now named Plush. She said she went into The Voice not expecting to win, but just using as a way of where this could get her. What level this could take her to. The ironic thing is when I interviewed James Durbin, who was on Idol and he told me the same thing. He said “It’s hard for rock to win Idol, but you have to look at it as what am I going to get out of this experience” So hearing you say that, it’s very interesting. Even at a young age, it’s very interesting to hear your side of that and what you got out of it. All of those paths crossed.
Absolutely. I think winning at such a giant competition. At some point you have to realize it’ll be a losing battle, you’ll constantly just be searching and searching for something bigger. You’re just looking for number 1. But if you’re really just passionate about the music and you really just love making something that other people identify with and bringing people together. That’s really what it’s about for me. I’m able to do that to an even bigger degree now that I’ve been on that show. That’s really what I take away from it.
What are you planning next?
The Real Rock Revolution is always writing. We’re really happy so far with how the few songs we’ve written have turned out. We’re hoping that we’re gonna be playing some more shows coming up. We actually have a show at The House of Blues in Dallas coming up. We’re hoping that we’re going to be playing more shows and writing more. There’s not a whole lot set in stone as of yet. We’re hoping we’re just going to be doing more of what we’ve been doing.
Nice. Keep rocking. There ya go! I could sit and talk music with you all day, but I know I need to end this. We like to end with something I call “3 for the Road”
which is three fun, quirky kinds of questions. If you could star in any television show, any movie, what character would you want to play in any of those?
Wow. To be completely honest with you, and my friends love to make fun of me for it. I haven’t watched a movie in so long or a tv show in such a long time. I’ve watched Bohemian Rhapsody like 5 or 6 times now and just to be in that whole story of being in that band and working your way up and making great music along the way. If I could just be in that world, that would just be amazing. That’s my cop out for not knowing any characters. (laughing)
It’s such a great movie. And the guy that played Brian May doesn’t get enough credit thrown his way. Didn’t he do a phenomenal job?
So uncanny just how much he resembles the actual Brian. It’s crazy. Rami deserved all the accolades he gets, but the guy that did play Brian May just astounds me.
Second questions; who was your first celebrity Nicks is just gorgeous and she has a wonderful voice, and I just love her songs. I play them still. I play “Landslide” and “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman.” Agnetha Fältskog from Abba also a crush at some point. I guess I just like blondes. That’s kind of way take away from that.
You had me at Stevie Nicks. Legendary! Last question; if music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
Oh my gosh. (laughing) What are some good wrestling names? I’d probably go with Keith Stone, because that’s my alias. It just has a ring to it.
Griffin, I appreciate your time dude! Best of luck with everything and keep rocking!
Absolutely and thanks for all of your support!
Interview by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
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