"I want fans to know that there's a different side of me, not just the sex,
drugs, and rock & roll Koe that they may have heard about online. I've
grown up a little bit. I'm no longer the 20-year-old kid that's partying
down and getting thrown in jail all the time."
He is famous in Texas as a muician and songwriter and he is notorious for not mincing words in his lyrics. Although it is primarily foul language that characterizes his songs about relationships, suffering from alcohol and depression. It is probably not without reason that Koe Wetzel called his first independently released album in 2015 "Out On Parole".
His homepage describes him stylistically as a country songwriter with rock, hip-hop and grunge influences. When his third album ("Harold Saul High") landed on number 20 on the Billboard 200 [Pop] album chart in 2019, he put his style on americansongwriter.com as '90s country meets early 2000s punk rock with early '90s grunge and hip-hop music in the background.
Only recently he told the Arizona Republic: "Our records aren't country records. We have stuff that don't sound country. We have stuff that sounds rock. We have stuff that sounds punk. But I think just having that country audience and playing all these country bars and stuff like that, man, it kind of just puts us in that genre. I don't know, man. That's kind of how it's been since the start."
And when he adds: "We're just just a bunch of East Texas drunks that like to play music", his loyal fan base of Koe-Bros will forgive him, even if he cancels a show. "Luckily for us, the fans caught on to that and they enjoyed the music. We've been blessed with a badass fan base, that really doesn't give a shit like we do."
When Columbia signed Koe Wetzel in 2020, he titled his first major label project "Sellout" in order to preempt a possible negative reaction of his fans and their fear of him getting toned down. Concerns that were quite unnecessary, as the songs from that album have by now been streamed almost 300 million times on Spotify.
On July 14, 2024 [Ropyr Madison] Koe Wetzel celebrated his 32nd birthday and with the imminent release (July 19, 2024) of his sixth studio album "9 Lives" he is also announcing a new and more mature chapter in his career. "[The album] reveals a vulnerable side [of me] that people may not be used to hearing", he says at musicrow.com.
By mid-May 2024, three songs from the album have been pre-released and the fourth one followed on June 7, 2024. 'High Road' describes a relationship toxic with jealousy. Unexpectedly, the song was released as a duet and not as a solo version, as previously announced on social media. Which caused some criticism from his fan base. Regardless, after just 4 weeks, the track already holds at 37 million streams on Spotify.
and I ain't half surprised about that.
Since the day that we met,
it's always who cuts first and never who bleeds last.
Rumors always turn into yelling and fighting,
and once it's in your mind, only one way you're driving.
Little known YouTube / TikTok discovery Jessie Murph brings on the female perspective in the second verse of the track, when she sings:
You don't wanna talk about it, boy, that's no surprise,
you comе home smelling like liquor likе every other night.
If I
catch you with her, you gon' catch me with him.
You think I don't hear
about it, you better think again.
You know that rumors always turn into
yelling and fighting,
and once it's in my mind, only one way I'm
driving.
On July 12, 2024, earlier than expected, Koe Wetzel released the solo version of the song requested by his fans. In it, his reply he builds on the expletives expected from him:
Call me son of a bitch
for being honest,
yeah, that’s what I get,
fuck it, I quit.
You keep losing your head
about some girl, I ain’t with.
In the exceptionally catchy chorus however, the male protagonist withdraws from the argument in the hope of cooling tempers. Just like in the original meaning of taking the high road, which refers to a course of action which is the most moral or acceptable and which is least likely to harm or upset other people.
But ultimately the phrase still plays with ambiguity more akin to his image.
have a little too much of something terrible.
I'ma let you cool down while I walk out,
you ain't messing me up like the times before.
I don't need a ticket to your shit show,
knock yourself out and hit a new low.
Named after the first song released from the upcoming album ('Damn Near Normal'), the Damn Near Normal World Tour 2024 will bring Koe Wetzel also to Europe for the first time. He will perform in the UK, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne from late October to early November 2024.
Whether the upcoming album will really take him more into more adult or radio-friendly country rock territory after the catchy 'High Road' remains to be seen with caution. In the Official Album Trailer video for "9 Lives" he personifies 9 different characters in line with the album title. However, his concluding reply to the question of what the new album is all about, sounds way too contrived. But presumably he is trying to stick with his image after all when answering: "If you all want to know what the record really is about, go buy the motherfucker. Fuck you all ..."
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