Yahoo Finance The Cadillac Three's Jaren Johnston Channels Pain of Losing His Dad into New Song 'This Town Is a Ghost'
Jaren Johnston lost his dad Jerry Ray Johnston to COVID in January 2022, and says he "had 42 years of subject matter" to work with while writing the song
One Sunday, not long after the death of his father Jerry Ray Johnston, The Cadillac Three frontman Jaren Johnston found himself driving with his wife and son around the Nashville neighborhood where he was raised.
"I was like, 'Hey, let's go by the old house real quick so you can see where I grew up,'" the singer recalls to PEOPLE. "We get over there and the house is open, it's been sold and there's nobody in it. It's been gutted and the door is just wide open."
So in they went, stopping into Johnston's old bedroom and taking a moment to grieve their loss together as a family.
"It's things like driving around in your hometown that spark things — we sat in my bedroom and we all cried," he says.
The loss of his father is a pain Johnston, 42, has had to live with since Jan. 9, 2022, when Jerry died of COVID at age 65. It's also one he's finally ready to channel into song, via the emotional new track "This Town Is a Ghost," which PEOPLE is exclusively premiering.
"It took a while before I felt comfortable diving into that, and when you dive into some s--- like that, you're going to cry all afternoon," he says of writing the song. "I typically work pretty fast, but that one just kind of poured out because it was a topic that had been on my mind, and I had 42 years of subject matter."
The song references all the reminders that linger for Johnston, like Jerry's still-ticking Rolex watch, the red bandana that brings to mind his former country group Bandana, and any passing car with a Louisiana license plate like his.
"Everything in that song is a very, very true statement," he says. "The night I found out that he had COVID I was at my beach house and I punched the refrigerator and broke my f---ing hand, because I'd been trying for so long to get them to do something because I knew he was a target for that virus just because of his age and his weight and his health. So that's where the 'I can punch through every damn wall, but that won't bring it back' line comes from."
The singer says he put off writing about Jerry's death for a long time, as he didn't feel he was ready. But once he was ready, he wanted to embrace all aspects of his grief, including difficult moments like crying in the car — an atypical show of emotion in a genre dominated by machismo.
"I knew that when I did want to do that, I needed it to be for the band, because he was kind of a dad to everybody growing up, to me, [bassist] Kelby [Ray] and [drummer] Neil [Mason]," he says. "When me and Ross Copperman were writing it I was like, 'Man, let's forget all the bulls--- of that macho, 'The Cadillac Three is the most badass countrymen there is.' I was like, 'F--- all that, man. Let's show the underbelly a little bit.' It's also a tribute to the way I feel every time I see a f---ing white Ford Ranger on the street in Nashville."
Though Johnston had had the song title bouncing around in his head for some time, it was Copperman who helped push him to craft it into a moving tribute to Jerry. "I'm glad he did, because it was a therapy session, too," he says.
A musician himself, Johnston says it was Jerry's talent that first inspired him to pursue a career in music. Jerry played in the country group Bandana, and was also a staff drummer for the Grand Ole Opry. He says his earliest memories in life are all music-related, whether it was hitting the road with his dad or seeing him play at the Opry.
Jerry bought Johnston an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar at 13, encouraging him to "start messing around." When Johnston realized early into his college career that school wasn't for him, Jerry put $100 in his bank account each week and encouraged his son to chase his dreams.
"He was super proud," he says. "He'd go eat at a restaurant and he'd always introduce himself to the waitress or waiter, and he would say, 'Hey, what's your name?' And let's say her name is Cindy. He'd say, 'Well Cindy, I'm Jerry Ray Johnston. Do you know The Cadillac Three? Well that's my son Jaren.'"
Jerry first tested positive for COVID on Dec. 19, and was hospitalized on Dec. 27, which Johnston recalls learning in a phone call from his mother that he received while out at a local bar.
"I was like, 'S---. Well how's it going?' And she said he's doing OK, blah, blah, blah," he recalls. "And then literally the next day, he was in the hospital and it went downhill from there."
Just two weeks later, Jerry was dead, with his family unable to get to the hospital because of the virus. "It's f---ing brutal, man," he says.
Johnston has been open from the beginning about his frustrations with his father's decision not to get vaccinated against COVID; when Jerry died, Johnston shared a post on Instagram that called the virus "real" and "scary," and encouraged others to get vaccinated.
"It's not politics at this point, it's f---ing life or death. And if somebody's physically incapable of dealing with a virus that you can avoid, get the f---ing shot," he says. "That's all I was saying, because my experience was f---ing awful. I didn't read the comments for the first two months because I didn't want to get into it. Once I finally got around to reading it, I got so mad. I was like, 'You know what, man? If one person got their sick mom or dad to get that shot, that post was 100% worth putting up there.'"
"This Town Is a Ghost" is out everywhere Friday.
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