Country music duo, brothers John and TJ Osborne have been busy the last few years and their hard work has finally paid off. I got to talk with John of Brothers Osborne to discuss their upcoming new album “Port Saint Joe” and what’s next for these talented brothers.

John said growing up he listened to a lot of classic rock and that two of his biggest musical influences growing up were The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He said, “I learned their music at a very young age and I was obsessed with those bands. Then I got into Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, all the big guitar players and blues players. That’s where it started for me. I was obsessed with the guitar at a very early age, that was the catalyst for what I do now.”

Their single, “It Ain’t My Fault” has been a huge success for the brothers. I asked John if he thought that single would do that well. He responded, “You never know whether songs are going to be big or not. I mean, the truth of the matter, no one really admits this but as songwriters, especially in Nashville, we write every day, sometimes multiple times a day. So even the biggest songwriter, the majority of your songs are not successful. It’s just kinda the law of averages. It works out that way. So you don’t really know, early on and say, ‘Wow, I really wrote a great song’ or ‘This is gonna be a huge song.’ But when we wrote that song, we knew we loved it, we knew it was fun and we knew it was different. It sounded very unique, it sounded like us and when we recorded it in the studio the first time, when the engineer mixed it, and we played it back we thought to ourselves, ‘Wow, we have something really special!’ Now did we know it would be a big song or if people will like it? It’s hard to tell until you put it out there, but we knew that we had something that we were really, really proud of and that stood out. And fortunately it’s a song that’s really helped kinda push us over the edge.”

The process for the brothers to write songs is a little different when they are writing for themselves. John say’s, “When we write for Brothers Osborne, it’s easier if we’re both in there because the sound is the two of us, so it’s both of our inputs, coming together to make one sound. But there is one song, ‘Pawn Shop’ that TJ wrote outside the band, but every other song we wrote together and every song on ‘Port Saint Joe’ we have written together. We try to stay focused and just write as many songs together as possible and just create music that’s inherently us.” “Port Saint Joe,” which is their new album, will be released April 20th. This album has Florida ties since the brother’s recorded in Florida at Jay Joyce’s beach house. John said, “It was a lot more work just because they recorded in a house that was not made for the production of an album. But in a way, it made it a lot less pressure because it never felt like we were in a studio. It just felt like we were hanging out at a beach house, drinking beers and playing songs. Just like what we did growing up, so it certainly took a lot of pressure off. There were less distractions because when you’re back in Nashville, it’s easy to leave the studio and go right back to your routine and take care of life stuff. It kinda takes you out of the moment, but the fact that we were down there and just stayed there and didn’t go anywhere. We were just able to kinda relax and live in the creative process for a couple weeks.”

Although they love all their songs, John says,”From a performance standpoint, I love playing ‘Shooting Straight,’ just because it’s a really a fun groove. It’s a really fun jam and at the end of the song, there’s a really great guitar solo that I get to play. At the end of the day, I’m just a guitar player. But from a songwriter’s perspective, the last song on the record is called ‘While You Still Can.’ It’s about loving the people and doing all the things in life that you wanted to do while you still can. And that’s the song from a lyrical perspective that I happen to be most proud of.” John states, “That if your not a fan of guitar solos, than either don’t come to our show or during my guitar solo. Go to the bathroom or go get a beer, because it’s gonna take a while!” John also says, “A guitar player wouldn’t be any good if he didn’t have a good drummer and bass player, and that’s the truth. You gotta have the whole band together, because if you just one good person, it’s not gonna work. It’s gotta run like a well-oiled machine.”

Now the brothers have recently picked up an ACM Award for Local Duo and Music Video of the year, I asked John how was that experience and he said, “There are not words that even begin to describe that type of feeling. Our first CMA was such a long-shot victory that no one expected us to win. We didn’t know anyone had voted for us, and the only thing I can equate that to is, winning a gold medal in the Olympics, but you were ranked in 20th place. It’s just unbelievable and every time we win something, we’re so grateful. We’ve always been the underdogs our whole life and we got into country music about the same time as Florida Georgia Line, and they have been absolutely killing it from day one. They’ve had such a huge career and are still having huge careers. And for us to be presented with an award like that, we’re so grateful because we’re still trying to make every day count. There are times where we might not think that we’re doing it right and then when we’re given and award like that, a recognition like that, it reminds us that we’re doing okay. Everyone in that category has done so well, but if we don’t, it’s okay. There are some great artists in that category that certainly have earned it and deserve it. So for us to win, it’s just a feeling of gratitude and emotion, and appreciation that we have so much love and support in our industry.”

When I asked John what he considers their greatest musical accomplishment to date, he says, “It’s really hard to say since ‘Stay a Little Longer’ and ‘Pawn Shop’ went gold and we’ve had multiple Grammy nominations. But I would say the one that sticks out to me is winning our first CMA, because it was so out of the blue and so unexpected. We were at a time in our career where we were just beat up and tired, and not really sure if we were making any progress. Winning that award, it put a huge amount of wind in our sail and allowed us to get to where we are today.”

John has a message to their fans, he says, “From my brother and I, we appreciate you all more than you would ever know. Every person that comes to a show, buys a T-shirt, buys our music or requests our music on the radio, they make our dreams come true every day. It doesn’t go unnoticed, and we appreciate and love every one of them for the gifts that they continue to give us!”

Don’t miss Brothers Osborne at the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale on April 8th and follow them on Facebook or Twitter for updates!