KGNU’s Dan Willging interviews blues and soul artist ZZ Ward, diving into her career and upcoming tour. Ward discusses releasing her new EP “Mother” through Sun Records, an honor that connects her to the label’s rich legacy (Interview date: 11/1/2024)
Dan Willging: Our long awaited guest is now on the air with us tonight, ZZ Ward.
ZZ Ward: Hi!
Dan Willging: Oh, great! The technology worked once again. First off, thank you for joining us tonight. I’ve been reading about you. How would you say your first name?
ZZ Ward: Zsuzsanna.
Dan Willging: Okay. And that’s why you changed it to ZZ Ward, because it was a little easier to say, huh?
ZZ Ward: Yeah. ZZ has been my nickname since I was a kid. Zsuzsanna was a little hard for people to pronounce.
Dan Willging: Oh, great. I read that you’re famous for wearing all kinds of hats when you perform. Are you wearing a hat right now? And if so, what kind of hat are you wearing?
ZZ Ward: No, I’m not wearing a hat. I’m wearing a mom sloppy bun right now. I have two kids under five and my hair is crazy right now, but I do always wear a hat on stage. I think maybe a couple of times I’ve gone without a hat now, but since I was a kid, I started wearing it to help me find confidence up there on the stage, to be like the blues artists that I grew up listening to. Once I started doing that, I was always wearing hats when I go on stage.
Dan Willging: And it was in the style of the male blues performers that inspired you to take up blues, right?
ZZ Ward: Not necessarily, Big Mama Thornton was wearing a fedora. When I was singing as a little kid on stage, I’d get so nervous. Putting a fedora on for me was like putting on a cape, trying to be a superhero.
Dan Willging: That’s cool. And now you even sell your own hats on your website.
ZZ Ward: Yeah.
Dan Willging: So you come here next week, you’re ready to embark on a tour. I think I counted it up right, maybe 13 dates across the West, in different states. You’ll be here November 9th at the Gothic Theater on Saturday, and in Boulder at the Fox Theater, November 10th on Sunday. Have you been here a lot before?
ZZ Ward: Yeah, Denver’s one of my favorite places to play. I love Denver. I’m really looking forward to it. I always look forward to my shows in Denver and in Boulder, and really all around Colorado. There’s so many beautiful places to play in Colorado. You guys are really lucky. You’ve got a lot of good spots. But yeah, we’ll be through there next weekend.
Dan Willging: Are crowds any different than other crowds that you see in other places?
ZZ Ward: Yeah, I think so. Usually the crowds that come out to my shows that I’ve had in Denver, it’s really wonderful energy. It’s really great crowd participation, and people are really comfortable at live music shows, which isn’t always the case all around the country. Some places it is. New York and LA people are a little bit more reserved. So I love playing in Colorado.
Dan Willging: Oh, thank you very much. Yeah. I guess we are music lovers here. Now how do you manage being a mom and your career? I bet that’s quite a feat.
ZZ Ward: Yeah, it is. It’s definitely a balance. There are times when I work really hard on music and I have people that help me watch the kids. Then there are times that I’m with my kids, and obviously my kids always come first. But I’ve been able to bring them out on the road with me, and my family helps me do that. They’ve been a big inspiration for me too, and my music, and continuing to do it all these years. Especially after having my first child, it’s just like a whole new life for me to try to figure out where music played a part in that. I do it for my sons, in some way to show them to follow your dreams.
Dan Willging: Oh, that’s great. Like you don’t have to put it on the shelf and wait 20 years to resume your career that you had momentum on.
ZZ Ward: Yeah, for sure. I think that it’s one thing to be with your kids and it’s also another thing to show them to go for something that’s not the normal thing to go after. Because for me, pursuing music was like a puzzle. I wasn’t sure how to do it at first. I want to bring them into that life a little bit, just so they can see it. I don’t necessarily want them to do it, but maybe they’ll learn something from it or get to travel from it.
Dan Willging: That’s great. The new EP, you have a song on there called “Mother”. Can you talk about that and how it’s empowering?
ZZ Ward: Yeah, absolutely. There’s been a lot of songs written about motherhood, but not like this one. I wanted to write a blues song about being a mother. If you say that, it’s just a very interesting idea, because I wanted to move further into the blues and soul than I had ever gone before. Back to my roots of where I started in music. I grew up listening to the blues. Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Sunhouse, and so that was the stuff that raised me. And so I wanted to move further into the blues, but I’d just become a new mom. I wanted to talk about the struggle of being a new mother. That to me was my pain and my suffering that I could talk about in that song. So that’s what it is. It’s simply a mother’s cry.
Dan Willging: I love that. I love the whole EP. It’s just great. I’m amazed that you got Sun Records to take it after you have your own label, Dirty Shine. How did that work out? Why Sun Records?
ZZ Ward: I was with Hollywood Records for a long time and then suddenly I found myself independent. I was like, what do I do from here? And I was like, all right, I’m going to start my own label.
And I still have Dirty Shine Records and the music that I’m putting out now is with Sun Records, but it’s also Dirty Shine Records. But for me putting this new music out with Sun Records is such an honor. Sun has such a legacy. I used to go into thrift stores with my dad, and he would show me the Sun label on vinyl and tell me all about Sun Records, and it was just really special. I had started making this new music, and I got wind that Sun had heard it and they were really interested in me being a part of them launching the label again. I wanted to talk to the whole bunch of them and make sure it was good people and people that I really felt were passionate about the music and they are. But it was a no brainer for me. It just made sense with the new kind of music that I was working on.
Dan Willging: Oh, wow. I didn’t know that they’re launching the label again. Wow, that’s big news.
ZZ Ward: Yeah, the label’s been around for a really long time. That’s why when I first heard about it I was like, Sun Records is still around? And then it was like, oh, wow, they’re doing a whole new relaunch of the label. To be a part of that new face of such a legendary record label with such profound artists that are amazing, just real deal artists that make real music and play live and just be incredible.
Dan Willging: Is this the inaugural release of Sun Records coming back?
ZZ Ward: Yeah, it was. I went down to Nashville and we had a little performance down there and they announced it. So yeah, I’m putting out a vinyl for Record Store Day. It’s got the Sun logo on it. It’s pretty dope.
Dan Willging: That’s awesome. And they recorded a group that Ike Turner was in before they ever started recording Jerry Lee and Elvis and all that, you know.
ZZ Ward: I know, it’s crazy. There’s so much history there. It’s weird because if you want to look up Sun history, there hasn’t been like a lot of documentaries on it, which is really interesting. I think they’re making one right now, which I can’t wait to see and will probably be a part of in some way, but there’s so much history there, it’s incredible.
Dan Willging: Oh yeah. And they had a show that I could see on PBS back when there was the pandemic and we were all home on Saturday nights. But late, like 10: 30, somebody would go in the sun and they would play music. One time it was Dale Watson and a lot of cool groups that just wanted to do a show at Sun Records. I don’t know what ever happened to that TV series, but it was awesome. Do you know anything about that or did you ever catch those episodes?
ZZ Ward: I don’t know anything about that. It sounds really cool, but I do know that there is someone that works on the label now that literally just goes through like the back catalog. It’s the guy that tests the water who’s down in the oil tanker. He’s just constantly there finding new music and new recordings. It’s insane, the amount of stuff that was recorded there. It’s crazy.
Dan Willging: Oh, that’s awesome. How do you manage to record so many albums? Mother is your second EP of the year. You did one earlier this year called Where Did All The Love Go? So how do you find time to do all these records?
ZZ Ward: Like I said, it’s a balance. The most important thing for me is being there for my kids, especially now. My almost four year old really needs my attention. But I just try to talk to him about stuff and include him in stuff, include him in the music and he loves music. But yeah, there’s just been different times when I have to work on music. It fulfills a part of me that I have to have in my life.
Dan Willging: That’s wonderful. What do you have planned for 2025? Do you have some ideas of what’s going to happen in 2025?
ZZ Ward: There is a lot of stuff that is going to happen in 2025. The thing I can talk about is, we just announced more dates on the Dirty Sun Tour. Obviously we’re coming to Denver on the Dirty Sun Tour next weekend, but after that we just announced more dates on the East Coast that I think people are really happy to hear about. Because we had only announced the first leg, so people were like, what about us? We’ve got that planned, and I’ve got a lot more plans I can’t talk about right now, but I’m very excited. I’m very excited about next year.
Dan Willging: We’re excited to have you tonight, and I better let you get back to your evening, but I want to thank you for calling in. ZZ will be at the Gothic Theater with her band next Saturday night November 9th at the Gothic Theater, and then Sunday at the Fox Theater up on the hill in Boulder. Thank you for joining me tonight, ZZ, it’s been a pleasure to have you.
ZZ Ward: My pleasure. Thanks so much. Alright, have a good night.
Dan Willging: Yeah, same to you. Bye bye.
