Edwin McCain performs at Salina’s Stiefel Theatre on Saturday as part of a current co-headlining tour with Five For Fighting.
McCain’s best known songs include “I’ll Be” and “I Could Not Ask For More,” though with nearly a dozen albums to his credit, there are no shortage of songs for newcomers to discover.
He recently spoke about the current tour with Five For Fighting, how he has always hoped for longevity, and some of the music that inspired him.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You started off playing clubs when you pretty young. Did you imagine what you have now back then?
Every night, I remind myself of the 15-year-old I once was, because he would have crawled through a river of fire to live the life that I have now. It’s not lost on me at all. All the people that I looked up to were the touring bands and the jam bands. It was never really about some kind of recognition other than being respected as a road dog and being out here playing the gigs as long as you can.
Careers go one of two ways: You either experience a ton of success early on and it’s a short-lived parabola -- a sharp, steep hill -- or you can see if you can drag it out for decades, and I always wanted to drag it out. Fortunately, I’ve gotten to play with my favorite musicians. Being able to play with the same people for decades is a gift. I don’t know any other life than this. It’s funny, though, people will say, “Do you want to go camping?” I’ll say, “No, I’ve been camping all of my adult life. Parking lot to parking lot.” [Laughs.]
[Laughs.] I think that Five For Fighting has had a similar trajectory.
John [Ondrasik]’s a composer as well as being a great singer. He’s a much more trained musician than I am. I’m kind of the used car salesman out here surrounded by real educated musicians. It works perfectly, because our things are different enough to where it’s not like you’re in the same headspace for the entire time. We were both laughing about that the other night. In my twenties, I would have been angling to figure out how I could close as many of these shows as possible. Now, at 56, I’m angling to see how many of these I could open. [Laughs.]
You cover a lot of terrain in your music, and I think your most recent album, “Lucky,” is a good example of that. There are different types of songs throughout, but it’s still identifiable as you.
That’s the way we always were, and I know the record company didn’t like it. We would turn in these albums that were all over the place. I’m influenced by [a lot of different music]. My biggest influence was Earth, Wind & Fire and then David Wilcox, and in my teen years there was the influence of all these Southern California punk bands, this cacophonic middle finger to everything. That music only existed for itself. It had no illusion of commercial success. It was a voice.
I always admired that ethic, and it infected me with a “Please don’t tell me what to do” gene. We just do whatever we like. It’s hit or miss. I tell people all the time, “Listen. There are 11 albums, there’s bound to be something on one of them that you like.” What’s fun is when people come up to me and tell me what their favorite song is, and it’s one of the deep cuts, something that I thought only I liked. That’s where I want to be.
I’ve always looked up to Bob Mould. Talk about range. His album “Workbook” is a perfect example of someone who is just doing what he does. This is who he is, this is what he does, he’s drawing from his experiences and he’s filtering life through his lens and giving it back to us. That’s really all I’m going for.
I did borrow a song or two for this record, like “Lucky.” I called Matt [Ramsey] from Old Dominion because I realized that the pile of songs I had were all sad, and I don’t mean to just write sad songs, but I had a whole pile of wrist-slitters and I knew I had to do something. I called Matt and said, “Do you have a happy song I can borrow for the album? I can’t just put out this album full of sad songs!” [Laughs.]
He sent over “Lucky,” and I recorded it but it didn’t matter what I did to that song, it sounded like an Old Dominion song. I realized that I needed to put Matt on it and call it good.
I do have to tell you that Bob Mould’s “Workbook” is one of my all-time favorite albums.
It’s a masterpiece. So many people don’t know of that record, but it doesn’t make it any less of a masterpiece. I think there was this weird moment where everybody started judging their art by its earning potential. I never agreed with that. It’s going to outlive us all, and Bob Mould’s “Workbook” will influence songwriters from here until eternity. All the songwriters that know will eventually come across that record. That’s a legacy, right? That’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s way better than money or recognition or any of that stuff. The lasting influence that he’ll have. And put Sugar back together so everybody’s winning right now.
The last thing I’ll say about that record is this: There are a lot of things you need to know in life, and he tells you about many of them on that album.
One hundred percent. His existence, his life has been a testament to an enduring empathy and kindness in the face of a pretty brutal wind recently. I think that’s the point of art.
“I’ll Be” was featured on the TV show “Dawson’s Creek,” and it’s forever connected to that show. It has a meaning beyond maybe what you intended, and it continues to impact people.
The appearance of that song on that show was transformative. Up to that point, we had been running this three-ring circus of a scam, buying our records in the three cities where that song was getting airplay. They had the song going in three different cities. Atlantic Records was just testing to see if the song was going to do anything.
I had friends in those three cities buying up records and mailing them to us. We knew it was our last shot. I knew Atlantic was going to drop me if we didn’t make a blip, and so we made a blip ourselves and then they put the song on the show to see if it would do something. They put it in that scene [at the end of the first season] and sales went from like $2,000 a week to $20,000, and we knew that we had saved ourselves.
Literally, it was down to the wire. I was about to get dropped from Atlantic. It didn’t blow up and go crazy. It just started this slow burn that continues to this day. It’s so rare to have a hit song, but it’s really rare to have one like this. I would never want to interrupt what this song continues to do, which is why I’ve kind of stayed out of the mix with radio, because they’re still playing it.
People will say, “When are you going to put a new song out for radio?” I’m not. Why would you? Like I’m going to go in and talk to a program director and say, “Let’s take this one off, that’s been working continuously for 27 years and try something new.” [Laughs.]
[Laughs.]
It had its first go around in “Dawson’s Creek” and then it had another go around in “A Cinderella Story.” It has these continuous reappearances on “American Idol” and, for a while, so many people were auditioning with it for “American Idol” that they put it on the do-not-sing list. I always know when the song has showed back up because my phone will blow up at 10 p.m. and I’ll know that it must have been on “Dancing With The Stars” again or something. Couldn’t be more grateful to have a song like that.
It’s crossed generations, which not all music does.
I see people and the shows and think, “You might have been conceived to this song.” They’re with their parents and I’m looking at them and thinking, “There’s a pretty good chance. There’s a pretty good chance that that’s what was happening.”
