Talking To Elvis & Road Trippin': The US Landmarks That Inspired Pete Cullen's Songs

Pete Cullen is not a musician that does things in halves, averaging around 250 shows per year. During a USA trip in early 2017, Cullen envisioned an album inspired by the sights and sounds of the deep south. Now, to celebrate him coming back to Australia to play these songs, Cullen has shared with us four places in the USA that have inspired his music.

Bet Ya Gonna Cry – New Orleans

"Bet Ya Gonna Cry was inspired by the musical divide between Bourbon St and Frenchman St in New Orleans. Bourbon St. is your classic college or bucks night strip, you can hear Sweet Home Alabama and Proud Mary wafting down the narrow street at about 130db whilst hustlers are propositioning you to enter there seedy establishments. Frenchman St. is all about the roots of New Orleans Jazz. My first night out I watched, in awe, the trumpet player Kermit Ruffins. The tone and vibe of the local New Orleans artists blew my mind. Bet Ya Gonna Cry tells the story of two lovers divided, one strutting on Bourbon the other on Frenchman captured by the Mojo Beat."

Reap What You Sow - Mississippi

"Clarksdale, Mississippi is famed for Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil in exchange for masterful guitar playing. The surrounding areas are also the birth place of great Blues musicians Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf & John Lee Hooker. Standing on the same cotton fields as these legends I had to write a traditional delta guitar blues. I was sitting on a rocking chair on the porch of an old cotton shack, when the lyrics Reap What You Sow drifted into mind through the freezing 3 degree gale."

Memphis - Tennessee

"As I drove into southern Memphis, Tennessee out of the Mississippi delta I had an eerie feeling. Casino after casino all you could smell the grind of burnt money and lives. Walking the streets of Memphis felt dangerous. Visiting the civil rights museum at the Loraine hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated was surreal.  My song Memphis is about trying to find hope out of hopelessness, redemption from a life of mistakes and in the process finding out who you are and what you're on this planet to do."

Elvis talk to Jesus - Graceland 

"On my last day in the USA I visited the King, Elvis Presley, at Graceland. It was on the cheesy bucket list but I found the experience to be the opposite. I didn't know that at the end of the tour that you would be standing at the grave-site of Elvis, his parents and his twin brother who died at birth. You couldn't help but be moved by the experience and the double edged sword that fame and fortune can bring. 

That night I went and had a few drinks in a bar looking over the Mississippi River. I had a dream that I had died and gone to heaven, I saw Jesus on the throne and next to Jesus was Elvis, I said "Elvis talk to Jesus, we need rock'n'roll back on the radio", cue music, it was kind of like the gospel scene from the blues brothers, African American Angel choirs, hands raised were singing "alleluia", the band was ripping it with a walking bass line and a squealing organ. It was the coolest dream ever. I woke up recorded the song into my phone."

Pete Cullen is hitting the road this week for shows in New South Wales. For more details, check theGuide.