The Sit Down with Kassi Ashton
I first saw Kassi Ashton perform at Spotify House during CMA Fest back in 2018 where I watched her set with her father (and we have always laughed about the story of her dad getting out his driving licence to prove to my Australian friend that he was actually her dad) and I didn’t have to wait too long for the California, Missouri native to make her first trip to the UK later that year as part of the CMA Songwriters Series. Then we had this crazy thing in 2020 that we don’t talk about anymore which beyond a small industry performance prevented a public return on this side of the Atlantic, however with the release of her long awaited debut album “Made From The Dirt” in 2024, Kassi finally was able to return earlier this year and perform at C2C: Country to Country.
There is an old British anecdote about London busses with how you wait a long time for one to turn up but when it finally does arrive, two turn up in quick succession and this is also true with Kassi being in London as following her trip over in March, she returned for a second time this year as she returned to join Old Dominion on their “How good Is That World Tour” and I was able to catchup with this hilarious and sassy lady ahead of the show in Hammersmith.
Welcome back friend!
“Thank you.”
It's nice to say that.
“I know and within like six months.”
It was ages before you came and C2C then here we are again. This must be quite cool as well because when you did the CMA thing, 2020 which we don't talk about and the festival this year, it kind of was quite short and condensed but this is a proper tour. How's it been on the road with OD? What are they like to tour with?
“Oh, they're fabulous. I did it an entire year long tour with them in 2023, so this felt like being back with family. The guys are as kind as you would assume, the whole crew is kind, easy to get along with and fun people. Honestly, they are people that are fun to travel with, they let me ride on their bus this whole time. I'm on the crew bus, so it's been the easiest tour ever, because I just wake up and I'm there. No extra TM or extra hours of driving to the next place. It's been incredible, seriously.”
Have you go to hit up some news spots and new cities?
“Most of the cities have been new, the only ones on this run that I have been to before were obviously London, then Manchester, Glasgow and I had been to Hamburg but everywhere else was new. I played Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Hamburg and then Utrecht.”
That’s very well done in a Dutch accent, I wouldn't know how to pronounce it.
“I asked like, because I go out on stage and say the city so I'm not going to walk on stage and be like An Twerp.”
Have we mastered the Cockney accent yet to say London as Laaandun like we say?
“Steve was doing that today trying to teach me.”
There is an old British anecdote about London busses with how you wait a long time for one to turn up but when it finally does arrive, two turn up in quick succession and this is also true with Kassi being in London as following her trip over in March, she returned for a second time this year as she returned to join Old Dominion on their “How good Is That World Tour” and I was able to catchup with this hilarious and sassy lady ahead of the show in Hammersmith.
Welcome back friend!
“Thank you.”
It's nice to say that.
“I know and within like six months.”
It was ages before you came and C2C then here we are again. This must be quite cool as well because when you did the CMA thing, 2020 which we don't talk about and the festival this year, it kind of was quite short and condensed but this is a proper tour. How's it been on the road with OD? What are they like to tour with?
“Oh, they're fabulous. I did it an entire year long tour with them in 2023, so this felt like being back with family. The guys are as kind as you would assume, the whole crew is kind, easy to get along with and fun people. Honestly, they are people that are fun to travel with, they let me ride on their bus this whole time. I'm on the crew bus, so it's been the easiest tour ever, because I just wake up and I'm there. No extra TM or extra hours of driving to the next place. It's been incredible, seriously.”
Have you go to hit up some news spots and new cities?
“Most of the cities have been new, the only ones on this run that I have been to before were obviously London, then Manchester, Glasgow and I had been to Hamburg but everywhere else was new. I played Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Hamburg and then Utrecht.”
That’s very well done in a Dutch accent, I wouldn't know how to pronounce it.
“I asked like, because I go out on stage and say the city so I'm not going to walk on stage and be like An Twerp.”
Have we mastered the Cockney accent yet to say London as Laaandun like we say?
“Steve was doing that today trying to teach me.”
I saw you were you were trying to split the G in the pub the other night though.
“I was.”
It was a really good effort.
“Thank you. It didn't help that the letters were not on glass because how are you supposed to know?”
You did a lot better than I would have done.
“Thank you, I will try again tonight.”
Guinness is one of the things that I've been conditioned to not enjoying.
“Why”
I have two things I avoid, red wine and Guinness but for different reasons.
“Like you had too much of it at one time?”
Red wine, I have never been able to drink in my entire life and I never will do, because when I was eleven years old and it was the first time I'd properly seen someone drunk and it was just before we were moving house. My parents had a house party and one of their friends was sick where it was pretty much just an entire bottle of red wine over a white leather sofa and I'm like, I don't want to do that shit. Then Guinness, I played field hockey in college and when you did initiations, they poured Baileys into a pint of it and it curdled so it was horrible.
“Yeah, that would turn me off too, but that sucks. Thos are two of the best drinks you can have at a bar.”
No. Tequila is the best drink!
“Oh, yeah, true. I would say that's my three.”
What do you normally drink at home then? Guinness can't be that easy to get in the States.
“It's not very good either. I would have a margarita, of course, who wouldn’t, then red wine, or if I really, really want to get into trouble and remember eighteen year old Kassi, I drink Jack and coke.”
This is very on-brand interview content from me but in terms of where we are music wise, when we spoke earlier this year, the deluxe was just about to come out, so in the cycle of things, what's the plan going forward? Have we got things in the pipeline? Who are you working with? What's the plan?
“Luke Laird is still doing it, then Oscar Charles produces the vocals and mixes plus he's also kind of stepping in for some of the production type things just because of the world that he brings to me and Luke’s, is just the cherry on top. I've been writing like a mother, this tour is basically the end of the year for me, you know we'll have the awards but I go into the studio.”
Nashville sort of shuts down in mid-November.
“Oh, yeah. The awards happen sometimes like the second and third week in November and then we just stop working. No one works in December.”
“I was.”
It was a really good effort.
“Thank you. It didn't help that the letters were not on glass because how are you supposed to know?”
You did a lot better than I would have done.
“Thank you, I will try again tonight.”
Guinness is one of the things that I've been conditioned to not enjoying.
“Why”
I have two things I avoid, red wine and Guinness but for different reasons.
“Like you had too much of it at one time?”
Red wine, I have never been able to drink in my entire life and I never will do, because when I was eleven years old and it was the first time I'd properly seen someone drunk and it was just before we were moving house. My parents had a house party and one of their friends was sick where it was pretty much just an entire bottle of red wine over a white leather sofa and I'm like, I don't want to do that shit. Then Guinness, I played field hockey in college and when you did initiations, they poured Baileys into a pint of it and it curdled so it was horrible.
“Yeah, that would turn me off too, but that sucks. Thos are two of the best drinks you can have at a bar.”
No. Tequila is the best drink!
“Oh, yeah, true. I would say that's my three.”
What do you normally drink at home then? Guinness can't be that easy to get in the States.
“It's not very good either. I would have a margarita, of course, who wouldn’t, then red wine, or if I really, really want to get into trouble and remember eighteen year old Kassi, I drink Jack and coke.”
This is very on-brand interview content from me but in terms of where we are music wise, when we spoke earlier this year, the deluxe was just about to come out, so in the cycle of things, what's the plan going forward? Have we got things in the pipeline? Who are you working with? What's the plan?
“Luke Laird is still doing it, then Oscar Charles produces the vocals and mixes plus he's also kind of stepping in for some of the production type things just because of the world that he brings to me and Luke’s, is just the cherry on top. I've been writing like a mother, this tour is basically the end of the year for me, you know we'll have the awards but I go into the studio.”
Nashville sort of shuts down in mid-November.
“Oh, yeah. The awards happen sometimes like the second and third week in November and then we just stop working. No one works in December.”
Before that though, you've got you're doing Drake's benefit show at The Ryman. That looks really fun.
“It’s going to be fabulous and they're all people that I get along with. Jon Pardi is on that show and I was on tour with him all year so he's a great friend of mine. Drake is amazing, we met on the Jamey Johnson tour and then I run into Riley all the time at the festivals, to fill in singing, “you look like you love me” if I'm on the same lineup. One of Drake's managers is like my best friend, so when he asked me to do it, I was like, yeah, of course I'm going to do it.”
One of my best friend, Brendan, works on Drake’s team over here.
“Yeah, know Irish Brendan, I love Brendan.”
Drake is so cool and I always love talking to him plus the show is for a great cause too so that will be awesome. In terms of these shows, from what I've seen from socials, it's a similar acoustic setup to what we had before, so killer question is when are you going to bring a band over?
“When I can afford to bring a band, it’s expensive so it's not really an aesthetic or a sonic choice. I love what we're doing tonight and we're doing the same thing as we did in March with me and my two guitar players. It works really well, especially in some of the venues that we were on in this tour but yeah, the price of bringing a full band is hefty. I would love too though because you guys have never seen me with a band before.”
I’m the lucky one, because even though it was a long time ago in America, I have seen the full Kassi Ashton experience. As much as people here will see your personality in this setup where you give them a glimpse of your little world and you do strut around a bit, they don’t get the full grasp of what you do.
“Exactly, they're like, you're so energetic in this setup, I'm like, you should see when I have a drummer and a bass player.”
Go really hard anyway as always tonight.
“Thank you, for thirty minutes, I’m gonna give them hell.”
How many songs?
“Seven, I'm give them hell, we’ve been kind of changing it every night.”
Is that quite nice where you're probably not as restricted in terms of what you do in the States so you can do different songs.
“Yeah, I think for sure. We do have flexibility with full band just because of my band, I've been lucky enough to have them all for so long, that they have my whole diskography. We're doing a cover tonight that we decided to do last night and that couldn't happen with full band because we wouldn't have the tracks, do you know what I'm saying? That would be a lot harder than with two guitar players where I can just go in my dressing room and we can practice really fast. When it's full band, we have all those tracks, all those queues and it's a lot more intricate, whereas this way we can just kind of fuck around and find out.”
Exactly and we’re looking forward to seeing you fuck around, I always have THE BEST TIME catching up with you!
“Thank you so much, I really, really appreciate it.”
“It’s going to be fabulous and they're all people that I get along with. Jon Pardi is on that show and I was on tour with him all year so he's a great friend of mine. Drake is amazing, we met on the Jamey Johnson tour and then I run into Riley all the time at the festivals, to fill in singing, “you look like you love me” if I'm on the same lineup. One of Drake's managers is like my best friend, so when he asked me to do it, I was like, yeah, of course I'm going to do it.”
One of my best friend, Brendan, works on Drake’s team over here.
“Yeah, know Irish Brendan, I love Brendan.”
Drake is so cool and I always love talking to him plus the show is for a great cause too so that will be awesome. In terms of these shows, from what I've seen from socials, it's a similar acoustic setup to what we had before, so killer question is when are you going to bring a band over?
“When I can afford to bring a band, it’s expensive so it's not really an aesthetic or a sonic choice. I love what we're doing tonight and we're doing the same thing as we did in March with me and my two guitar players. It works really well, especially in some of the venues that we were on in this tour but yeah, the price of bringing a full band is hefty. I would love too though because you guys have never seen me with a band before.”
I’m the lucky one, because even though it was a long time ago in America, I have seen the full Kassi Ashton experience. As much as people here will see your personality in this setup where you give them a glimpse of your little world and you do strut around a bit, they don’t get the full grasp of what you do.
“Exactly, they're like, you're so energetic in this setup, I'm like, you should see when I have a drummer and a bass player.”
Go really hard anyway as always tonight.
“Thank you, for thirty minutes, I’m gonna give them hell.”
How many songs?
“Seven, I'm give them hell, we’ve been kind of changing it every night.”
Is that quite nice where you're probably not as restricted in terms of what you do in the States so you can do different songs.
“Yeah, I think for sure. We do have flexibility with full band just because of my band, I've been lucky enough to have them all for so long, that they have my whole diskography. We're doing a cover tonight that we decided to do last night and that couldn't happen with full band because we wouldn't have the tracks, do you know what I'm saying? That would be a lot harder than with two guitar players where I can just go in my dressing room and we can practice really fast. When it's full band, we have all those tracks, all those queues and it's a lot more intricate, whereas this way we can just kind of fuck around and find out.”
Exactly and we’re looking forward to seeing you fuck around, I always have THE BEST TIME catching up with you!
“Thank you so much, I really, really appreciate it.”
The deluxe album “Made From The dirt: The Blooms” from Kassi Ashton is out now via MCA Nashville / Snakefarm in the UK and is available HERE. For more information on Kassi including any upcoming tour dates in North America you can check out her WEBSITE and you can keep up to date with all that Kassi is up to socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
