Trace Adkins is all over radio and country video television with his latest single, “This Ain’t No Love Song”, off his Show Dog debut, Cowboy’s Back in Town. Roughstock recently had a chance to chat with Adkins about his new label digs, which just happens to be a record company started by Adkins’ touring partner, Toby Keith. So just what gives Adkins street credibility with the average working man? Is his new single too sexy-hot for music television? Well, read on and find out.

Roughstock (Dan MacIntosh): Your new album is on Toby Keith’s Show Dog label, and a lot of it has that macho, Toby Keith feel to it. I’m wondering; was that something intentional on your part, or was it just kind of what you were feeling like doing this time around?

Trace Adkins: No, it’s just what I wanted to do. I had over half of the album done before I ever moved over to Show Dog Universal. I already had six songs cut and we knew what we wanted to do on this record and that didn’t change when we went over there [to Show Dog].

Roughstock: So you sort of had this planned out, and when it came time to make the record, you just went ahead and made it.

Adkins: Yes

Roughstock: One of the songs I really like is “Hell, I Can Do That”. Do you have any recollections of things you’ve maybe seen a celebrity of athlete do where you thought, ‘Hey, I can do that.’?

Adkins: Oh sure, yeah. Any number of things, you know. I’m most reminded of back in the day when I had dreams of some day being on a big stage and singing. And I would go to shows and watch the guys performing up there thinking, ‘Man, I could do that!’ you know, ‘I just wish I had an opportunity to. That’s what I was most reminded of.

Roughstock: Was making the video for “Hillbilly Bone” a good experience for you?

Adkins: Yeah, it was easy. We didn’t do anything; we just sat at a table and reacted to what was going on. Yeah, it was an easy day. We just had a good time. Laughed a lot. Joked around. I always have fun hanging out with Blake.

Roughstock: I’m just trying to picture you and Blake in the same room because I know Blake is a silly guy. You’re probably not as silly as him, are you?

Adkins: No, I don’t think so. It’d be hard to. You’d have to make a concerted effort to be sillier than Blake is.

Roughstock: I’ll be you would. One of the songs I really like is the single, “This Ain’t No Love Song”. That’s one of the sexiest videos I think I’ve ever seen on CMT. Do you think this sexiness was something you wanted to accomplish with that clip? And do you feel like you succeeded?

Adkins: Well every time we do a video. I say we, when Michael Solomon and myself do a video together, it’s always this ‘How far can we take this, and have CMT still show it?’ And most times, the first edit gets sent back. The first copy of the video we submit is met with a call back to us and, ‘we can’t show this. You might take this out, or whatever.’ We usually have to change it. But this time we thought we went as far as we could again and yet this time they showed it.

Roughstock: I love your vocal on it. How did you find that song, and were you in love with it the first time you heard it?

Adkins: Yeah, I liked it the first second I heard it. It’s a Tony Lane song. I’m a huge fan of Tony Lane. I’ve recorded several things that Tony’s written. He has this way of -- it doesn’t matter what style of song it is -- Tony has a way of writing something where it has – to me, anyway – a cowboy feel to it. I don’t know how he accomplishes that. I don’t know if anybody else hears that or not. Maybe it’s just the way I hear the songs that Tony writes. There’s always something about it, even if it’s a real sweet lyric, he has a way of making it sound more cowboy somehow.

Roughstock: Now, the album is called Cowboy’s Back in Town. That title song is one you get some writing credit on, correct?

Adkins: Yeah.

Roughstock: Do you like to write more songs? Are you disappointed that you didn’t get more writing credits on this album?

Adkins: I don’t worry about that, you know. There are some people that always have to get a writer’s credit if they change a lyric to a song. I’m not that way. I change a lot of stuff. Sometimes I’ll hear from a writer and they’ll say, ‘Man, you changed that whole bridge’ or ‘Why…whatever’ and I’m, like, ‘Yeah, you know…’ But I’ve never had any of ‘em take offense to it because I think I don’t try to get credit for it; to have my name put on there as a co-writer because I changed something on a song to better suit who I am. I don’t need that credit, really. I don’t care about it. But that song was an idea that I had and it’s my story so, you know, I wrote the song.

Roughstock: I read you had a lot of fun making this new album. What made it so much fun for you?

Adkins: Well, about half of it I was in studio with an old, dear friend of mine, Ken Beard. And we hadn’t worked together in the studio in a long time. We just had a lot of fun doing it. We’ve been friends for a long time. So if you get to go into the studio with somebody that you have a relationship and you just laugh and have a good time in the studio. He and I are both from small, little tiny towns in Northwest Louisiana and we’re just always constantly reminding each other, ‘Can you believe we’re doing this?’ It’s great, you know. It’s just that kind of atmosphere. And we just savor every moment we get to spend in the studio creating stuff. We just have a lot of fun. And then Michael Knox, that’s the first time I’d ever worked with him and he’s kind of a new young gun coming on the scene and he’s just got boundless energy and so it’s fun to be around somebody like that, too.

Roughstock: Am I reading too much into it that you were a little burned out going into recording this new album?

Adkins: Well, when started this project I was in the middle of an option period in my contract at Capitol Records. And we were the middle of this negotiation. But I knew it was time to put out a new record, so I went ahead and got in the studio and started cutting stuff. And we’ll work all this other crap out. We’ll let everybody else do their haggling and figure this out. But I know where I need to be. I need to be in the studio, so that’s what I did. Then when I heard about the merger between Show Dog and Universal, it just seemed like it was cosmic, the stars lined up. And it was just, like, ‘That’s what I need to do. I think that’d be a good fit for me.’ And that’s what I did. It wasn’t about being burned out about the music. I always have a good time when I go in the studio. That’s just a lot of fun.

Roughstock: It sounds to me like you’re not real big on the whole business aspect and maybe you try to distance yourself from that.

Adkins: Yeah, I don’t really immerse myself in it. I don’t fancy myself a business man and I don’t wanna be. That’s not what I am. I’m forced to have to do that to a certain degree, but it’s not something I enjoy. I don’t get off on making business deals like some people do. It doesn’t thrill me. It’s a necessary evil in this business. That’s how I look at it. I don’t really enjoy that part of it.

Roughstock: Tell me about your relationship with Toby Keith. Did you have a relationship with him before you went into this business relationship?

Adkins: We had just been around each other socially a few times. Some of the guys in Toby’s organization I’ve known literally for over 20 years. And we played a lot of the same clubs when we were coming up working that Southwest circuit. And we both worked in the oil fields. So there’s always been this kind of usual respect and kind of just an unspoken thing between us. We just knew who each other was. What kind of men we were. We always got along great.

Roughstock: Do you think your experience of working in the oil fields helps you to better relate to the average country music fan, rather than being this artist that is sort of above every day life? That maybe you have a better connection with the typical listener because of your experience?

Adkins: I think so. I think that those people out there that are hard workin’ folks, that have to sacrifice when they spend the money to buy these tickets, I understand where they’re coming from. I used to be in that exact position. I didn’t get a record deal until I was 32 years old. I had quote-unquote real jobs for 14 years prior to that. Ten of those years I worked in oil fields. A couple years I worked construction after I first moved to Nashville. I always had labor-intensive jobs. And sure, I think it gives me integrity. It gives me street cred.