JOSH TURNER
Blue-Eyed Country Soul
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Photo: George Holz
country Barry White’ wrote Blender magazine about country music star Josh Turner, which has to be one of the most eye-catching phrases ever One of the things about used to describe the vocal style success is that if (you) of a country music singer, much don’t keep that ball rollin’ less, when the country singer’s once you get it started physical description is: white, in sometimes, it’s hard to get it started again if it shape, blue-eyed, toothpaste-ad- ever stops rollin’. Because I want to have one long perfect smile and commercial continuous career, I keep -leading-man good looks. a decent pace throughout the year of concert dates, So memorable is the ‘Barry publicity, and whatever White’ remark in fact, that else is required of me as an artist; although always when I reach Turner by phone finding time to do family during a Meadville, Pa. tour things. stop, the first thing we talk — country music star Josh Turner about is the comparison to the late singer. “Wellllll,” Turner begins slowly in his charming baritone North Carolina accent, “the way I’ve always thought about it is, as long as I’m bein’ compared to somebody who’s talented and a legitimate artist (laughs), then I’m okay with that. When I heard about the Barry White comparison, I was actually thrilled, because it made me realize that I was finally accomplishin’ something I’d been wantin’ to accomplish, which was the fact that I didn’t want (people) to think I was just one kind of artist. I wanted to be thought of as someone who could sing a lot of different forms of melodies and different types of songs and still make it my own brand of traditional country music,” he explains. “And that’s been really challengin’,” he admits, “as prior to the Barry White remark, I’d only been compared to my music hero, Randy Travis.” Turner mentions that when he first heard about the comparison to White, he said to himself, “huh...I never saw that one comin!’” To date, the Hannah, North Carolina native has sold more than 4 million albums, and garnered two multi-week #1’s: Your Man and Would You Go With Me?, off his 2006 sophomore album Your Man. At the time of Turner’s interview with Today’s Woman, the single, Why Don’t We Just Dance?, off the singer/songwriter’s current CD Haywire (MCA Nashville), had just spent four weeks at #1. “I got some valuable advice from country music legend, Eddy Arnold, before I’d even made my first record,” reveals Turner, t o d a y ’ s
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