Music

“There’s a freedom to being in full light and not feeling like you have to hide anything,” says the Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne.

With that spirit of renewal and openness, it feels wholly appropriate that the reigning CMA duo of the year is using a tactic normally employed by acts on their debut album by self-titling their fourth album, Brothers Osborne, out Friday (Sept. 15), as means of introducing a truer version of themselves.

Since the Brothers Osborne’s last album, 2000’s Skeletons, TJ Osborne came out as gay and John revealed his mental health struggles with depression and anxiety. When they returned to the studio, they went back in with a fresh perspective, a new producer and a desire to reveal themselves musically and emotionally as they never had. 

“It’s a new start in that we’re trying new things, trying new sounds — but it’s also a late start that between recording our last album, my brother and I have disclosed a lot of personal things,” John says. “I feel like it gave us the courage to lean further into ourselves and not play it safe.”

TJ wholeheartedly agrees. “We’re making this record, even though there’s not anything that speaks about it directly on the record, in a place where we can be completely ourselves, be open with who we are. Just creating any song and not feeling like we’ve got to steer the ship in a certain way was just incredibly freeing. I think the end result is our music ultimately being better. We just thought it’s time for us to embrace our differences.”

That including shifting from Jay Joyce, who had produced the previous three sets, to Mike Elizondo and letting him steer the project. “We said, ‘Hey Mike, here are the keys,’” John shares of working with Elizondo, who is known for producing a wide variety of major artists including Eminem, Fiona Apple, Carrie Underwood and Ed Sheeran. “We didn’t want to go in with too many preconceived notions. We wanted Mike to drive because we trust that he will take us somewhere we can’t predict.”

While the album undisputedly sounds like Brothers Osborne with their guitar-led country rock, they weren’t afraid to be sonically adventurous, adding strings to one song, recording their first piano ballad and occasionally stripping down to acoustic guitars instead of always relying on John’s striking electric guitar playing skills. 

“My brother and I early on decided maybe we should make an album that’s a bit more narrow focused, and we ended doing just the opposite,” John says. For example, “New Bad Habit,” is a guitar-centric rock song, “and we thought, ‘What the hell,’ and threw really bizarre Prince, Slash [guitars] on it and Parliament Funkadelic harmonies in the middle of it because ‘why the hell not?’”  

Since the release of their gold-certified EMI Nashville debut, 2016’s Pawn Shop, Brothers Osborne have been critical favorites and beloved by their peers—they have won vocal duo of the year at the CMA Awards five of the past seven years and are once again nominated for the Nov. 8 awards—but have struggled to gain a consistent foothold at radio. 

The album’s first single, uplifting, inclusive “Nobody’s Nobody” rose to No. 27 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, making it the duo’s highest charting single since 2020’s “All Night,” but dropped to No. 29 last week. The Brothers have scored 10 Top 40 hits, with their cuts usually rising into the 20s or 30s; 2015’s “Stay a Little Longer” reached No. 2, as their only Top 5 hit. 

“It’s not that we ever felt like we were trying to be rebellious against the radio format, it’s just that we’ve always done what we did and were ourselves come rain or shine,” John says, “but it feels like it’s starting to feel like all the pieces are finally coming together.”

Another album track, “Sun Ain’t Even Gone Down Yet,” is getting visibility through a Ram Truck commercial, the duo’s second association with the brand which also used them in an ad in 2018. Agreeing to license their music comes down to a few elements, TJ says. “Is it a product that we like and want to be involved with is always first. You want to steer clear of things that maybe you don’t align with, but it also comes down to it’s something we’ve worked really hard on, if you’re going to use this, what do we get out it?” In addition to a lucrative fee, Ram also identified the song and the artist in the commercial, giving the new track valuable exposure. 

The sole guest on Brothers Osborne is Miranda Lambert, who provides backing vocals on the atmospheric “We Ain’t Good at Breaking Up,” which she and Jesse Frasure co-wrote with the duo. The title and theme came from a response TJ would jokingly give when friends asked if he and his boyfriend, Abi Ventura, were still together. “There was a time early in our relationship where we felt like it didn’t make a lot of sense, we didn’t live near each other, we were both so busy and other different things, that we tried to call it off, but we would try to break up and we just wouldn’t,” TJ recalls.

He said the line to Frasure, who knew a winner when he heard it. “He said, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to write that song next week in our [writing session] with Miranda,’” TJ says. Lambert’s vocals on the demo were such an enhancement, they decided to add her on the actual track. “It just really makes the song, sends it into a dreamy, almost Fleetwood Mac kind of thing,” TJ says. 

Brothers Osborne will begin rolling the new songs out on the road as they tour throughout the year — but as they have learned to put a premium on self-care, they have found ways to make the road grind manageable. “I spoke with our management (Q Prime South) and was candid about what I needed and wanted, and one of those things was to tour less,” John says. “Taking care of yourself off the road helps you to take care of yourself on the road and part of it is just honestly knowing when I am physically done and I just put my ass to bed. I’ve never struggled with drugs or alcohol, but I have a really bad workaholism.”

Though country music — and its makers — have shown signs of division both politically and culturally lately, John stresses that everyone is welcome to their concerts.

“Our shows are all about inclusion. We don’t care who you are, we don’t care your color, your creed, your sexual orientation, your religion, or anything,” he says. “The only thing you’re not allowed to be in our company is an a–hole. That’s it. That’s how we roll.”