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Pat Green’s success is rooted in failure but the 37-year-old Texas songwriter holds no grudge against his ex boss.
Sitting at a small table on his bus an hour before taking the Tumbleweed stage, Green smiles when he remembers how his father fired him.
“You haven’t made me that much money since you have been working here so you got to go and chase this dream and see what happens,” Green said.
One of the places that chase has taken him is Stillwater. As of Friday night, the number of performances in Stillwater reached 25 and his time in the town dates back to when he was a student at Texas Tech University.
“I used to come up here when I was living in Lubbock and terrorize the locals,” Green said.
An ingenious combination of his name and an obscenity echoes through the dance hall as an eager crowd watches Green’s band began to enter stage right and then the man himself steps toward the microphone. The anticipation is over.
Green has come a long way from his days as a college boy playing the guitar in Lubbock, Texas.
“I definitely feel like starting in Tech where there was a great musical heritage and certainly there wasn’t a whole lot of live music in town so it really made my life easier trying to come up because any kind of a good band could get a great deal of attention,” Green said. “I took so many more chances in college with my music than I would ever take now just because at that time I was bullet proof.”
One of the defining characteristics of his career has not been his mastery of the guitar but of the crowd. This skill is quickly apparent a few songs into the set as the Tumbleweed crowd sings along to every word of “Carry On.”
The only question at this point is not whether the show will be good but which song will captivate the crowd next.
“I like to do the ones that hit the crowd the most,” Green said. “They are the ones that paid to get in so they are going to want to hear at least the songs they heard on the radio a bunch and from that point on it is playing what makes the band happy.”
As Green grabs hold of the microphone stand with his guitar strapped over his shoulder his smile is bright like the neon beer signs that line the walls leading up to the stage. Its obvious he genuinely enjoys the place where he is.
“It is the only moment in the day that doesn’t seem to go by really slowly. That time on stage just seems to go by so fast, I don’t know why,” Green said. “It is the craziest thing to do this for a living – you sit around all day long and don’t do anything and then for an hour and a half you do it all.”
Between songs, he plays to Stillwater’s music ego; crediting the community for the high concentration of Texas country and Red Dirt music.
The cheers from the crowd counter criticism that Green has become nothing more than a commercial commodity at this point in his career. Although he listens to the critical comments, it doesn’t faze him.
“I know the truth is that I haven’t sold out I am just not the same guy I was when I was 19,” Green said. “I still love to go out and have a good time and have a party and watch football games and do all that stuff but I guarantee my favorite thing is hanging out with my six-year-old and my three-year-old and you can’t do that when your drunk.”
For Green it is not that he is changed, it is just a natural evolution of who he is as an artist.
“It feels, I think, to some people that I don’t write a lot of songs about Texas or drinking that much anymore — well hey man I have already done it,” Green said. “It is time for something new for me.”
After an emotional encore consisting of the song Green says occupies every spot on the list of fan requested top ten, “Wave on Wave,” he walks off leaving a promise.
“We’ll come back. We can’t wait to come back.”
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