Rocker Rhett Miller Talks New Music and Starting a Newsletter

The latest "You Know" segment features the Old 97's frontman.

Hey all. Parker here.

Today’s newsletter is another edition of “You Know,” the regular feature I do where I interview the voices behind new newsletters by people you may already know. Today’s guest is musician, author, and singer-songwriter Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s.

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Here’s the part of the newsletter where I say The Present Age is reader-supported. Please consider subscribing to the free or paid versions. Thanks!

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Rhett and I had a chance to chat about his new Substack newsletter, Time & Temperature, his upcoming posts, and a bit about his appearance in the MCU.

On who he is and where you know him from:

So, my name is Rhett Miller. I sing in the band Old 97’s and have for 30 years now. Yes, I'm a seventh-generation Texan. I grew up in Dallas, but I've lived now for 20 years, which seems unlikely in itself, in the Hudson Valley, just north of Manhattan. I've got these three acres and these two kids and this one dog, and it's been a pretty sweet life.

I've been able to eke out a living, sort of month-to-month, being a musician with occasional writing gigs. I've got a couple of children's books, No More Poems! and The Baby Changing Station, out via Little Brown Young Readers. And I've recently started a Substack that I really love because it gives me a reason to write consistently, and I'm very excited about that.

Both of my kids are going off to college, so I'm trying to figure out ways to fill my time when I'm not on tour, which is a little rare, and also try and figure out ways to add to the hustle. And the Old 97’s have a new record coming out in April, a record called American Primitive that is pretty fantastic.

On Time & Temperature:

The title comes from a song called “Big Brown Eyes.” That's a fan favorite. One of the handful of songs that I have to put on every set list or I'll get in trouble. There's a line in Big Brown Eyes, well, a box of red and a pill or three. Golly, it's funny, it's hard to do it without a guitar.

Well, a box of red and a pill or three
And I'm calling time and temperature just for some company

I don't know if anybody remembers, but back when I was a kid, there would be a bank-sponsored phone number that you could call. And, of course, it was pre-10-digit dialing. So you would use the rotary phone and dial and listen to the numbers go click, click on their way back around the circle. But you dialed seven numbers, and then you would have a voice tell you, “Hello, you've reached City National Bank, time and temperature, the current time is…” And it was crazy. It wasn't even a robot voice, but it was obviously a prerecorded voice that was triggered by whatever pre-computer situation they had going on. I remember I was very lonely, and I was thinking about different people I could call at 4 a.m. when I was writing that song.

I thought that Time & Temperature could be more than just a fan website or a... I do remember when people would just have an email list and blast out an email randomly to fans, but it was almost always just a dates update. And so when I first heard about Substack, I thought it was just some version of that, and I'm really glad it isn't because to me that always felt kind of impersonal and grabby, and my impression of the Substacks that I've found and loved myself is that it's the opposite; it's very kind of giving, and I really love that. I love the idea that there's a place to share that isn't driven by the commerce that drives the social media platforms.

Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images

On his first entry on Time & Temperature, which included analysis and alternative lyrics to of one of his new songs:

It seems like such a perfect fit for Substack to do that kind of thing. And I do feel like there's a handful of people that will inevitably wind up following and subscribing to my Substack without being super familiar with my music beforehand. And I don't ever want to forget about that, but I think that the core is going to be the people that immediately signed up because they're deep-cut specialists, and so I want to give them super service as well. I think there's a way to do both. I do think there's a way for me to talk about the songs on the new record and let it be a universal thing too about writing and the process. I do think there's interesting stories behind probably all songs, but for me on this record, there's a lot of funny stuff.

"Where The Road Goes"

There was one other big lyric change. The opening track on the album is a track called “Falling Down Around You,” and it had a giant f-bomb in the chorus. It was so fun to sing it. It was just such a stomp-your-foot kind of statement of having entered a room in a very loud way. But I realized like “Where the Road Goes,” where I took out the word “bullshit,” I realized, “Man, it's too much. It's just too much.” So I tapped the brakes a little and I rewrote that one and I found a way to make it effective without having to rely on — I didn't have to work blue, Parker. You don't gotta work blue!

On why he started with that post and what he’s looking forward to doing with his newsletter:

One thing I really love that George Saunders does, who was the very first Substack I ever followed and subscribed to, George Saunders takes questions as if we were auditing his MFA writing class. And the interactivity offered by Substack is something that really appeals to me.

My next one I've got lined up to go out later this week is a guitar lesson.

Singer-songwriter Rhett Miller of the Old 97's performs in concert at Stubb's Bar-B-Q on June 8, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images)

So again, it's because the new song, “Where the Road Goes,” is the one that's just out. It's also really easy to play. As much as any song on guitar is easy to play, there's a lot of callous building that goes into it, and remembering shapes with your fingers and all that. But so I'm doing a guitar lesson video as my next song.

After that, I'm opening up a discussion thread that I'm really excited about. Because I feel like to me, the opportunity to talk to fans and even just friends and, you know, fellow lovers of words is really amazing. And I almost only ever get it at like a merch table after a solo gig. I don't after the band gigs, but after a solo gig, I'll go sign, and I think that this would give me a lot more time to get in-depth with people.

On the band’s appearance in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special:

It was amazing. The makeup process was long. It was about three hours every morning. What I didn't realize was that they create a fresh — it's not just one mask, it's like a three-part silicone head structure that goes on from the middle of your chest all the way up. But they create a new one of those each day and then they have to throw away, at the end of each day, they throw away this multi-thousand dollar item. There's reasons that those budgets are in the hundreds of millions.

That was one of the coolest things we've ever done. James Gunn and I met at an industry event years and years ago when he had just made or he was about to make Slither which was a low-budget horror movie. And he used that song, “Big Brown Eyes,” I think, is the closing credit song in the movie. And James and I have stayed friends over the years, and to watch his rise has been so gratifying because it's built on hard work and it's built on somebody who's really coming from a good place and, you know, seems to be doing it the right way.

A few years ago, I had stopped by the set because I was playing Atlanta. He was in Peachtree, Georgia, filming Suicide Squad. And I went by this — they built a rainforest, first of all, inside a massive warehouse on this studio lot. And I went in and watched it, you know, the little video village where the director watches. I watched them filming this scene and it was all the stars, which is a very star-studded movie. And when they all came out of the rainforest, covered in mud and after having worked all day and he's introducing me to John Cena and Idris Elba and all these amazing actors and to every one of them, he would say, “This is my buddy Rhett Miller. He sings in the world's greatest rock band.” And I was like, you know what? He really does think that. It’s very sweet. He's a big shot. He didn't have to think stuff like that. I only tell the story because I feel like there's a really good lesson in it.

At the end of that day, I told him, “Look, I really admire what you do. I always have, but just seeing you do it on such a large scale today really drives it home. If there's ever a way that I could be a part of this, if you ever need me, I would love to — I'll give myself to you in any capacity, to acting or singing, whatever.” I felt stupid saying it, is my point. I put myself out there. I didn't want to — I feel like I had known him long enough that I didn't feel like I was imposing on him and putting him in a weird position. But I was also putting myself out there in a way that I'm loath to do normally.

It was about two months later that he called me and he said, I've got this idea for a holiday special. Do you think your band would be willing to go in full alien makeup? I couldn't say yes quickly enough. Then he wanted to write a song together, and we wrote about eight versions, Parker, of this song, “I Don't Know What Christmas Is,” And each one, actually, each one was less messed up and disgusting than the one before it because Disney was giving us notes, and the notes were like, “Yeah, gee, you know, Santa Claus can't be wearing a suit covered in children's blood.” I was like, but it's so funny! And so the one we wound up with is a little bit subversive, but it was a hard one, and that was a super fun thing to do.

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That’s it for me today. A special thanks to Rhett Miller for taking the time to chat with me! Please be sure to go subscribe to

Time & Temperature with Rhett Miller

if you haven’t already!

Parker