Exclusive: Better Than Ezra Talk Pilgrimage Festival Highlights, Their Appreciation for “Good,” and More

The Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival holds a special place in the hearts of the members of Better Than Ezra. The band’s frontman Kevin Griffin co-founded the festival after coming upon The Park at Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin, Tennessee while attempting to jog off his Thanksgiving feast more than a decade ago.

This year marked the tenth annual Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival. Better Than Ezra was there to deliver some classic tunes alongside cuts from their most recent album Super Magick. Griffin and bassist Tom Drummond took some time to catch up with American Songwriter at the George Dickel bar at the festival. They discussed their music, Pilgrimage memories, and more.

For obvious reasons, Better Than Ezra has been a constant presence at the Pilgrimage Festival for the last decade. As a result, we asked them about the most memorable acts they’ve seen over the years. “The Killers were awesome. Beck was awesome. Dave Matthews was awesome. I’m a fan of Dave Matthews but, he played two or three years ago and the show was amazing,” Drummond said.

“Last night, Dave Matthews crushed it,” Griffin said. “The Foo Fighters in 2019. Willie Nelson, year one in 2015. He closed Sunday night and we dealt with a little rain and the sun came out. It was this amazing Tennessee sunset and he played longer than he was supposed to. It was amazing,” he added. “There is a ton of great memories.”

Reflecting on “Good”

Better Than Ezra released “Good” as the lead single from their 1995 album Deluxe. It became a massive hit and remains one of their most popular songs. It currently sits at 89 million streams on Spotify. Griffin and Drummond reflected on the song during our conversation.

“There’s so many songs that get written. If you’ve been in this business a long time and you’re not Paul McCartney where everything you write is amazing, you really, really appreciate those hits when you get them,” Griffin said. “It’s not just a hit song, it’s all these other things that have to line up. It’s happenstance, your label, the program director in Wichita who happened to play your song. So, we’re just so grateful,” he added. “We’re not one of those bands that hates our big hits. We love parading them out.”

“The older I get, I realize that so many of these things are the right place and right time. Be grateful when it happens to you,” Drummond said. “I think that ‘Good’ and just where we were as a band at the time. Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, they came after Nirvana.’ No. We were listening to the same things at the same time. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right song and we were prepared for that song to take off,” he added.

Better Than Ezra Recommend an Underrated Artist

To cap off the conversation, American Songwriter asked Griffin and Drummond to recommend an underrated artist that people should be listening to. “I can think of one that was a late addition. We added Stephen Wilson Jr. to the set,” Griffin said. “His music, his album Son of Dad, is kind of the next level, the next evolution in cool country music,” he added.

“You kind of stole my answer,” Drummond said. “But I was watching CBS Sunday Morning when they featured him about two months ago and I sent it to Kevin and Mike and I said, ‘Hey, this is the perfect Pilgrimage artist,’” he added.

“And then Myles Smith. Myles Smith is the future of music,” Griffin added.

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