Brothers Osborne on Their Style and Song Inspirations

How amazing would it be, to be able to sit at your favorite bar in your hometown and interview Brothers Osborne about their style and music? I sat down with Tj and John Osborne at Juana’s Pagoda in Navarre, Florida before they did a performance that was hosted by one of Juana’s partnerships Cat Country. The brothers were humorous with their answers and set the tone of the interview, much like their style: laid back and relaxed.

How would you define your style?

Tj: I have several different styles, my style is unpredictable (laughs) no, not really. I wear a lot of black, dark colors. I like clothes that my armpit sweat doesn’t show through. But if it’s an award show it’s different, my style is whatever I can look the best in, that costs the least. John: Mine would be casual, comfy and slightly dapper.

What is something in your wardrobe you can’t live without?

John: It would be a good pair of boots that you’ve worn in and taken the time to actually wear them in to the shape of your feet. You can not live without a good pair of boots. My favorite pair of boots are the Wolverine 1000 mile boots.

Tj: About 5 years ago, my dad got me this (pointing to his wrist) for Christmas, and inside a box was a celtic bracelet, and I thought, “I don’t know if I’m into that” but I’ve worn it everyday since.

How would you say your style reflects through your music?

Tj: Is this GQ magazine? (laughing) We wear different clothes throughout the day, but when we perform, we spiff it up a bit, and honestly it helps me, because it turns on a switch, and I’m in a different mindset, I zone into the show. A lot of times, it gets tough when you get a stylist because it starts looking really feminine. I think our music is a little more masculine. I’d wear something that if I went back to a bar in our hometown, that it would be something I would wear. Me: So if I ever see you guys on stage wearing glitter, I’ll know you got a stylist!

John: No, they prefer that at bars at home! (just kidding). Our music that we make is quite different, left of the center, unlike anybody. The way we dress is a little left of the center, not quirky but a little left of the center, unlike anybody. I guess that that way, it certainly reflects in our music.

What was your inspiration for your latest single?

Tj: John and I, we always like to do something a little off, something that maybe hasn’t been said or done. In country music, there’s a lot of song about having your heart broken, and a lot of songs about falling in love or being in love but there’s not anything that’s said about that in between phase; whether you’re not sure if you’re falling in love with someone, or breaking up with someone but you’re still kind of hooking up, the weirdness where you’re not sure where it’s going. The inspiration for that was something we’ve all gone through. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’ve gone through that at some point in time. We just started writing the song that day with Shane Mcanally, and that topic (at least to us) was so famished, not done often where it just started coming out of us, we had all these ideas. It was really easy emotionally get attached to it and start writing from the heart. It was something we hadn’t talked about before. John: It initially came from a musical standpoint as well. It began with more of an atmospheric, musical idea that led to it being about a relationship in the beginning or starting, but that’s something that’s not talked a lot about, the middle part and sometimes that’s the hardest part of the relationship, the limbo stage where you’re not sure where it’s going or where it’ll end up.