Rodney Crowell Told It Like It Was — On Cash, Guy Clark & Townes
I got to work with Rodney about 23 years ago and had a great phone call with him after an interview. I said, “Man, you did what no one usually does, you told it like it was.” He then yelled to the people in the room with him, “THEY SAY I TOLD IT LIKE IT WAS!”
I knew about Rodney long before that, and really enjoyed seeing him in Heartworn Highways. I knew he’d never watched the documentary, but never knew why until this interview, and it filled in a lot of gaps for me. He was a young Texas songwriter standing next to Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, and eventually Johnny Cash himself. Those are times I wish I’d been around for, and that’s exactly why I love this interview.
In this Drifting Cowboy Podcast conversation, Crowell talks about what it was actually like, the songwriting, the loyalty, the wild Nashville years, and the gap between the public image and the private truth. If you care about where these songs came from, this one is worth the full hour.
About GI — GuitarIntel’s gear desk. Decades of guitars in hand, vintage and new, electrics built from scratch, amps modded, pedals stomped. The first thing I ever wanted, as a kid, was a guitar. Everything since has been in service of that. GuitarIntel exists because gear deserves straight talk from someone who loves guitars and gear and might be a little obsessed.
Published July 12, 2026 — GuitarIntel
