Trent Willmon

“I’m a Better Person”

Exclusive At-Home Interview: After more than a year of personal ups and downs, Trent Willmon’s back with his excellent new Broken In CD and the attitude of a transformed man.

Trent Willmon has more irons in the fire than a six-armed cowboy at brandin’ time. And the Texas native is lovin’ it. In his recent at-home interview with CW’s David Scarlett, Trent talked about his new music, his newly decorated home [By Wrangler. Check out Wranglerhome.com], his starring role in a new movie and big personal changes made as the result of attending sessions with renowned leadership authority, Brian Klemmer. Here’s some of what Trent had to say:

CW

I know Wrangler recently redid your house from their home collection. How much of the décor did you immediately love . . . or did you have to be talked into anything?

TW

Well, there was a lot of . . . I kinda picked out some of the things I liked. They actually came down to the house and the interior decorator came in and looked at things I already had in my house. Then he just kinda worked around that. So I just had to trust that he knew what he was doin’. ‘Cause some of the pieces he picked out I didn’t really think would work. But when it all came together, it really worked well. I was smart enough to know that I didn’t know anything. So that helped. Basically, I just gave him full rein and told him to get after it.

I had come in off the road from being gone for a week, and they came in before I did. So, basically it was like one of those reality TV shows. I walked in and everything was completely different. It was incredible.

CW

I heard you say everything in here has a story. What’s the story behind the fiddle?

TW

The fiddle still has three strings on it. I’ve written two songs on that fiddle, with those three strings . . . so I’ve just left it like that. My fiddle player, Craig Delphia, found it several years ago. I was lookin’ for a decent fiddle and he said, “Man, I know a man who’s got one that just sounds incredible.” That thing’s older than you and me put together. It’s a couple hundred years old.

CW

What about the back room?

TW

And I’ve still got my first fishin’ pole from when I was a kid. It’s actually from the ‘50s, it was kinda passed down. It was my dad’s. Most of that stuff in there, I’m kind of a packrat so I don’t throw things away. The old trapezoid microphone actually came out of the auction barn—my dad traded cattle when I was growin’ up, and we spent a lot of Wednesday evenin’s at the cow sale—and I’d fall asleep listenin’ to that old auctioneer auction on that microphone. My friend found that. He was at the auction at the cow sale and they were auctionin’ off all the old stuff, remodelin’ the auction house there at Floydada, Texas. And it came out of the Floydada livestock auction. That’s the very microphone that I fell asleep listenin’ to the auctioneer talk on when I was a kid. So, little things like that I can’t really throw away.

[We did the bulk of our interview with Trent before he left to shoot his movie, Palo Pinto Gold in January. Here’s some of what he said before he let to shoot in Texas].

CW

How’d the movie role come about?

TW

They actually approached us on the movie. They’d seen the videos. Then they saw the CMT America’s Top Cowboy show I did. I think initially they approached us just to be in the movie, and they had different parts they wanted me to read for. Then they saw the America’s Top Cowboy thing and they wanted me to play the lead part. I’m not sure that that qualifies me to play the lead part in a movie—we’ll see! It’s funny, once you start thinking about that kind of stuff—acting—you never can look at a movie the same way. The whole time I’m sittin’ here watchin’ Friday Night Lights on TV, and I just see it different. I think about the looks on the actors’ faces and what they’re thinkin’ about when they’re actin’ this part. I have so much more appreciation now for actors—especially in those really serious roles. As just a spectator watchin’ a movie, all my life I experienced it, but never thought about it.

There’s probably a lot to it, and we’re gonna dive into it.

CW

When’s the first day of shooting?

TW

Sunday, January 6.

CW

Have you memorized lines?

TW

I have not memorized lines and, thankfully, it’s gonna be one of those things where I can actually take stuff line by line and we’ll edit it in. And the director says there’s some leniency on the dialogue. Everything I’ve seen is pretty much short, as far as the script goes.

CW

Anything in the script you haven’t done before, in terms of new skills you had to learn? Or mostly ridin’, ropin’and shootin’. . . things you’ve done for years?

TW

Well, I know there’s a lot of ridin’ and there’s some shootin’. I always wanted to do that, be John Wayne and shoot the bad guy. There’s a fisticuff scene in there. It’s a barroom fight. I’m real excited about workin’ with the stunt men and learnin’ how to throw a punch and take a punch and make it look like, from the camera angle, I’m hittin’ somebody and getting’ hit. How to fall without hurtin’ yourself. There’s one scene where I get to pick up a chair and bust it over this big guy’s head.

CW

You’ve done that on the road a lot, right?

TW

All the time [big laugh]. Any time we play in Texas.

CW

Ever done any class plays in school or anything?

TW

I did a one-act play when I was in high school. Actually I was in the all-star cast. I did one-act play three years in high school. And that play that won was Make Mine Vanilla. I played this old man that lived in a garbage can.

CW

Talk a little about your Honky Tonk Tailgate Party ’08 Tour with Ray Scott, Buddy Jewell and Mark Wills.

TW

We’ll have one band, four artists—and I’m the only one without facial hair. I’ve known all these guys before but I’ve never really played with any of ‘em. Two of ‘em don’t drink—Buddy and Mark—so it’s up to me and Ray to take up the slack.

CW

That’s really a pretty acoustic guitar. You made that?

TW

This old guitar I built in college. I went to South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. We had a lutherie program and Harry Bohannon was our instructor. We also had various other instructors, like Mike Stephens who started the Fender Custom shop, Bill Collins who builds Collins guitars in Austin, Texas. So various guys were involved in our education.

That guitar is now 12-13 years old. My name’s inscribed on the inside. The pick guard’s a steer, one of our steers that died, and that’s a piece of steer horn. That’s all that’s left of old Bevo. There’s a rattle snake rattle inside. It took 9 months to make it. It’s my baby.

CW

With a shop and the right tools would you do it again?

TW

Absolutely, it’s the right tools that make it fun to build things. One of my goals one day is to have a really nice metal and wood shop.

CW

I love the single, “There is a God” from your new CD. Was there any risk in putting that out, knowing radio might not embrace it? Was it frustrating that it wasn’t a chart topper?

TW

I knew that I was supposed to cut that song. I didn’t know why. But I think God wanted me to cut this song, I felt . . . the song really moved me. I’ve been goin’ through some things in my life over the last year . . . and that song touched me. I’d heard the song three or four years ago, but the song didn’t hit me the way it had recently. So, that bein’ said, I knew I was supposed to cut the song. And I don’t know the reason . . . I may never see the reason. But I trust there was as reason I was supposed to do it. So, regardless of whether it sells records, that wasn’t the reason I cut the song. It was just something I felt like I needed to say.

CW

What have you gone through recently, if you don’t mind talking about it?

TW

I’ve had friends and family members overcome cancer. I’ve seen things in my life . . . just looking back . . . I know how blessed I’ve been. And looking back on my life and seeing what an idiot I was in not seeing those blessings. It’s just one of those things . . . you want to cry. I wake up in the morning and I see things a lot clearer than I did a year ago. A lot of it is this leadership stuff that I’ve been going through with Brian Klemmer. It was kind of an awakening, the realization that God gives you a life and I’ve wasted so much of it.

I’ve been blessed. I’ve got to be around some wonderful people. One of the people who always inspires me is that little guy, Justin McBride [Two-time world bull riding champion]. I’ve seen him on TV . . . he’s all of 4 foot three and weights a buck-0-five and he’s like the Energizer Bunny. He keeps on tickin’ and I don’t know how. He’s overcome all these obstacles. He spent about a week on the road with us on the bus, and I learned so much from him. He was just being himself. He doesn’t falter, he doesn’t waver. In that tiny little package of a man that he is, he’s got this huge heart, very courageous. That inspires me. He uses words like, “Don’t be a puss.” And I think about him when I’ve been bitchin’ and whinin’ . . . He cut “Tumbleweed Town,” which is on my record.

CW

I know you didn’t write “Broken In,” but did you reach a point when that described you?

TW

That song was pitched to me . . . and it was written with me in mind. It fit me and the things I’ve been goin’ through in my life. And I feel like because of the obstacles I’ve overcome, the things I’ve been through . . . I’m better. I’m a better singer, a better writer, a better person.

CW

Is your involvement with the leadership courses an ongoing thing?

TW

It is an ongoing sort of a deal. I went to the first one back in the summertime [Of ‘07]. My brother and I both attended. I’ve been to one more. Then I’m goin’ to the third course in February. It’s about a week long. It was tough to find the time, but I know I needed it. It’s just been wonderful for me. I love bein’ able to look at a situation and try to figure out, “How can I make this a win/win situation? How can I turn this into a good thing?” As opposed to before when I’d sit back and go, “Woe is me. Damnit. I’ve been mistreated here.” And then continue on that path, with the chip on your shoulder.

It’s like the book The Secret. I believe that you do attract the good things and the bad things that come into your life. You attract those things. Of course, your average Southern Baptist may view that as Satanic, but I don’t believe that. If you believe in and seek good things, good things will come to you. But if you tend to linger on the bad things and wallow in your own self-pity, you’re gonna get more of it. That’s just real.

For more on Trent Willmon, check out his story in the April 21 Country Weekly.

• April 7, 2008
• story by David Scarlett
• PHOTO BY CHRIS HOLLO

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