LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD ON THE CADILLAC THREE’S LATEST TRACK

Love is a battlefield on the latest track ‘Love Like War’ from Nashville natives The Cadillac Three. Out today via Big Machine Records, the new single was inspired by a late-night argument between frontman Jaren Johnston and his wife.
 
The song serves as an examination of two people who love one another so much that their relationship sometimes feels like an all-out battle. Near its conclusion, the slow-burning track shifts to a gorgeous, crushingly heavy outro that’s a nod to one of Johnston’s favorite bands, Failure.

“I’m a huge Failure fan, which shows up in parts of this song,” Johnston admits. “I started in the rock world as a drummer, and I was obsessed with the grunge era. Failure was one of my favorites — they were supposed to be the next Nirvana, but it never happened. I wrote this in the middle of the night after a fight with my wife.

“We’d had too much to drink and she was like, ‘I hate you,’ and I said, ‘I love you.’ And that’s how we left it. I went downstairs and wrote that song and created the demo. I played it for her the next morning and she was crying. She loved it, because it’s about something real.” 

Sometimes change is so gradual that it barely registers, and sometimes it’s like slamming into a brick wall. Just ask TC3: in 2020 the Nashville trio of Johnston, Neil Mason, and Kelby Ray released a pair of albums in Country Fuzz and Tabasco & Sweet Tea, then entered a season of dramatic upheaval that left them reeling.

“We put out 31 songs in one year. It was like, let’s give people a breather. Let’s give us a breather,” Johnston says. “We were coming off COVID and then my dad passed away. It’s a whole different life now. Talk about having some shit to write about.”

The ACM-nominated group’s sixth studio album, The Years Go Fast, is the product of coming through those trials and emerging on the other side — battle-scarred, a little older, a little wiser, and more willing to be vulnerable. It’s expansive in sound, reflective of the way The Cadillac Three continue to tinker with their swaggering brand of country-rock, but it still sounds like only the three of them can.

“This record does have a lot of growth, a lot of hurt and heartbreak,” says Mason, the group’s drummer. “We are a little more grown up now, but we’re still doing the same thing we were doing in the beginning.”

The Years Go Fast is a statement about big change, but it’s also about the ways friendship, love, and family are anchors when everything starts to fall apart.

While the changes that shaped The Years Go Fast were often sudden and shocking, the group’s sound has shifted in a slightly more subtle fashion. There are still thunderously heavy half-time breakdowns that nod to their roots, but each album offers a new glimpse into what sounds have captured the group’s attention, whether it’s the organic funk of Tabasco & Sweet Tea or the pronounced metal influences on The Years Go Fast. The fans tend to eat it up, but it’s never done in the name of fan service. 

Johnston and Mason frequently write songs for other artists, and Johnson has notched 10 country Number Ones outside the band. He notes that it never works for the band to think about what might work on the radio. “Anytime we’ve tried to chase anything, we have ultimately failed,” he says. “It’s the times when we step out and put our hearts on the road so people can drive over them, that’s where we win.”

And that’s what The Years Go Fast ultimately does. Hearts are on the line, bleeding from loss and beating for connection. It’s a blood-and-guts study of love, friendship, and resilience, but one that didn’t come easy.

The Years Go Fast is available now for pre-order.  For more information visit thecadillacthree.com. 
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