Leah Turner, a sassy blonde with powerhouse vocals, will digitally release her newest single December 18th. “Cowboy’s Love” is a nod to her father and grandfather who were championship rodeo cowboys. Turner told us in an exclusive interview what it was like to grow up around real life cowboys and how she learned a lot about love and how to be treated from these important men in her life. Learn more about the singer below.
Tell us a little about your back story, what lead to you a life as a musician and more specifically a country artist.
I’ve never not been a singer, it’s a gift that the Lord gives you and my mom and dad recognized that so I have always been singing and in the arts. What let me specifically to country music was I was raised by a cowboy – my dad is a championship rider in the rodeo so I live and breathe cowboy and country music.
Where were you the first time you heard your debut single “Take the Keys” on the radio and what was your reaction?
The first time I heard it was in Detroit. I was on my way actually to go do a show with Kenny Chesney and all of the sudden the song came on, so we turned it up and I called my parents and I said to them “Oh my gosh, listen I’m on the radio!!” and we were screaming and he had it on video and then my dad is asking me all of these questions I was like “I AM BUSY, I can not talk right now I AM ON THE RADIO!!” It’s surreal and awesome I am so grateful to Tim Roberts in Detroit who was the first one to play it on terrestrial radio, but also Sirius XM, John Marks when he was there, has been such a huge supporter of mine.
It is such an interesting time in country music right now, especially being a female. What is it like being an up and coming female artist in 2015?
I think it is an opportunity to show what you are made of, there is nothing wrong with being us girls. I think that good songs and good music rise to the top, so I think that if we as women want to get played, let’s make the best music we can, we will be the voice to women and we can pull on those men’s heart strings. If the song is good enough, there are plenty women out there right now, Maddie and Tae, Cam, Raelynn that are connecting and I don’t think it’s because of their gender.
So I read through your musical influences and they were pretty common for country artists until I got to Tupac. Please explain that one to us!
Growing up on the west coast, I have always loved the tone of his voice, I think that he wasn’t so much gangster rap about killing people, it was east coast verses the west coast – he really spoke about life stuff, just like Eminem did. It’s not this gangster sipping on sizzurp its actually really poetic and its a voice to what people are feeling out there. I had a Jeep growing up and it said “Daddy’s Cowgirl” on my license plate and I had Bose system in my Jeep so I would be driving blasting Tupac – that is not an exaggeration.
Your new single, “Cowboy’s Love” was influenced by your father and grandfather, both cowboys. Tell us a little about growing up with real life cowboys in your family.
It’s just everyday life to me– my father and grandfather are from New Mexico, we have a lot of family in Texas, and think’s I think why I wrote this song is because I felt my in original stuff really I lost that cowgirl side of me and that is very the root that is in the ground of me. The dust of the rodeo runs through me and I wanted to get that out there and have a progressive sound but still talk about who I am. I think as a little girl her first love is her father, and I saw how my dad loved me and I saw how he loved my mother and I was taught how to love and how to be loved. It’s really an analogy for a man that stands besides you through the thick the thin, the happy the crazy and the sad. A cowboy is such a pillar for strength I think, they are real men – they ride horses and bulls for God’s sake. There is nothing like a cowboy’s love. I sat down with Niko Moon and Tim Nichols and said, ‘I really need to get this cowgirl side of me out there because that is who I am’ and those poor guys were like, ‘Alright we are writing about a cowboy’s love, here we go.’ It was a lot of fun and interesting and it was a blessing to get to work with them.
Co-writing with Niko Moon, who was partly responsible for Zac Brown Band’s Jekyll and Hyde, had to be an great experience – that record takes huge risks. Is that something you would want to do as a new artist and the direction you would want your debut album to be similar to?
I am about taking risks and I think I will find my own risks to take, but the reason really loved writing and working with Niko is because he is out of the box. I am out of the box, 1. I am from California and 2. I am raised by a cowboy which not a lot of artists can say and 3. nobody has a tone like I do. Putting me with Niko was really cool but he’s also a country boy from Georgia so we were able to mesh those two country southern sounds together and get a progressive sound. As far as going into EDM, that’s him being in the business for 15 years and earning the right to do that, but I am always trying to be outside of the box. I would love to do a duet with Pink and Eric Church and George Strait. I always want to push the limits always reinvent my self but don’t ever compromise the roots that I was raised with. I think we are dong just that with “A Cowboy’s Love;” it doesn’t sound like anything that is out there right now, we are in a different lane but on the same highway. That’s what I always want to be. I am blonde hair, blue eyed half Mexican raised by a cowboy – just different – so I definitely want to explore that and encourage people to be the best them that they can be and being different makes you interesting and really pushes limits and makes really cool things come out that you wouldn’t think would be there.
From what we have heard, Brad Paisley’s tours are quite the prank filled ride. What was it like being on tour with such a huge act in country music and can you tell us any funny stories from the tour?
His entire crew was a class act, so amazing. Brad allowed us to have the whole stage, use the giant monitors, we had a whole team that was his team that was assigned to us. He rented out go carts for us, home movie theaters, and the last day of our tour we were able to take a private tour of Airforce One. He really made it memorable. He didn’t prank me but Randy Houser and his band did. I did a cover of “Cowboy Take Me Away” and during the song the crowd started going crazy and I’m going what is going on and I turn around, and him and his entire band are dressed like rodeo cowboys and they pick me up and carry me off the stage. When I do headline my own tour, Brad taught me how to treat an opening act and to treat your crew and everyone around you with utter respect because you can’t do it without them and that’s how he did it with us. It was a blessing and I am so grateful for it.
What are your future plans for 2016?
Right now we are just getting the rumble going under “Cowboy’s Love.” We have a feature on VEVO and the video is on CMT. The truck I am driving is my daddy’s truck, the saddle that I throw is one of his championship saddles and my mom has a jewelry line called Paloma Designs and I am wearing her jewelry in the video and now the line is featured in Country Weekly. In January my booking agent at William Morris booked some dates and we will continue to be in front of the wonderful fans I have attained. Probably mid year we will release an EP and really just continue writing and keep putting music out there. We are putting everything out there organically, people are reaching out and want to let that organic thing happen where you an show the power of social media and the power of the fans and then have a little more of a leg to stand on.
Follow Leah’s journey on her social media platforms such as instagram, twitter, and facebook.