It is no coincidence that Paul Thorn, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, wrote the title song of his new release, Life is Just a Vapor, inspired by a passage in scripture: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14.) “I’ve heard that all my life,” Thorn explained. “Now that I’ve grown a little bit, it rings so true. That’s not to say, be sad; it’s to say, live life to the fullest and enjoy it. I don’t believe it’s the end when I die. Do I know what’s over there? No, but I don’t think it’s the end. I’m going to enjoy this one until the next one kicks in.”
While Thorn’s storytelling is near genius, perhaps his most remarkable gift is his ability to find common ground with his listeners, meet us where we live, and yet open our minds to new ways of thinking about everyday things. “Shoulda, woulda, coulda, I’ll do it someday. Turns into time just slippin’ away,” he warns us.
During our wide-ranging conversation, we found commonality in simple things such as our shared love for Popeye’s biscuits and Texas Roadhouse rolls. “You can go to the Texas Roadhouse, and all you need is a Coca-Cola and a bowl of rolls. I can eat them until I get sick, man,” he said. We also share the more poignant experience of watching parents fade from dementia, another aspect he addresses in the title song:
I took mama fishin’ put our lunch in a sack
We caught a few bream but we threw them all back
It don’t matter that she don’t know who I am
Life is just a vapor
Let’s live it while we can
We discussed the virtues of dogs, which he far prefers over cats, while my Very Good Dog squeaked every toy in the house so loudly she could be heard over the phone. “Ain’t nobody going to love you like that dog does,” he said, which cued his joke: “Do you know what the difference is between a woman and a dog? Put both of them in the trunk of your car, and when you let them out, one of them will be glad to see you!”
Thorn’s sense of humor is evident in several tracks on his new record in addition to the more profound messages he delivers. He shared some of the songs’ backstories with American Blues Scene.
I think the first song you released from the album was “Tough Times Don’t Last.” There’s a wonderful video of that song with the little boy.
I used to be a boxer, and part of that was you had to train all the time. You had to run, you had to punch the bag, you had to jump rope – and I have a lot of memories of that. I thought it would be a nice way to present the song showing a little boy training for a fight. It’s symbolic; he’s preparing himself for life. That’s the big message in that song.
It’s an old saying, ‘tough times don’t last, but tough people do.’ But I never heard a really simple sing-along song, so I wanted to make it easy to sing along with. It’ll help change your mindset. You’re going to get hit by punches, you might even get knocked down. But the stronger people, when they get knocked down, they find a way to get back up. God knows there’s people who need to find a way to pick themselves back up.
I don’t know if you ever read the comments on your videos, but there was someone who spoke of a brother recently lost to cancer, and your song came along right when it was most needed.
It’s a saying that could fit so many different things. There’s different types of difficulties that we’re facing. You gotta suck it up sometimes, you just do.
When I was first listening to it, I didn’t have the lyrics in front of me. I took that song and the next, “Courage My Love,” as anthems to get me through the next four years, if you know what I mean.
Pretty much everything on this record is either encouraging or warning you about something. There’s a song (‘She Will’): ‘If you let her drive you crazy she will.’ And boy, ain’t that the truth? It’s like my buddy on Tinder in the song ‘Wait.’ He told me that it’s hit and miss when you meet a woman because every once in a while, you’re going to run up on a crazy one. You gotta be careful ‘cause they will sure mess your world up.
When he gets a date – he gets a lot of dates – he takes them to this chicken restaurant called Popeye’s. He takes them to Popeye’s ‘cause he’s got these two-can-eat-for-$20 coupon books. So the song ‘Wait’ is sort of a day in the life of this guy I’m friends with. He goes out on dates, and he’s looking to procreate, you know. That’s just the way it is. It’s biology.
How many second dates does he get with those two-for-$20 meals?
It depends. Sometimes both people on both ends are not necessarily looking for a boyfriend. Maybe they’re just wanting to have a rendezvous or something. You can find somebody that’s trying to start a relationship, or you can find somebody that just wants to hook up behind Walmart by the dumpster.
You, on the other hand, have had this stable domestic life.
I have two daughters: one that’s 20 and one that’s 30. They’re both doing well. And I’ve been married for 25 years, and as far as I can tell, she acts like she likes me most of the time.
I can tell from the tenderness in some of your songs, like “Old Melodies.” I’m assuming that’s homage to your wonderful marriage and partner. It’s a lovely song.
It sort of is, but it’s an homage to anybody who’s been in a long relationship with somebody that they love — especially when you go into the fourth quarter of life, man, life hits you hard. Life throws you curveballs. That’s why I say the theme of the whole record is, every day’s a gift. ‘Old Melodies’ kind of summed it all up. It’s a song about loving someone with a struggle.
As the world has turned, there’s many things we’ve learned
Life is good but it’s not always fair
Whatever we’re goin’ thru
Someone else is struggling too
Every living soul has a cross to bear
On a happier note, I watched videos of the real Geraldine and her puppet last night when I saw that the song “Geraldine and Ricky” was based on true people.
Geraldine Ragan and Ricky were a real traveling evangelist duo. Geraldine passed away last year. She had a ministry all her life, and when I was a kid, I would hear about her. I got inspired by Geraldine. My momma got me a ventriloquist doll for Christmas, and I did little shows when I was a kid. I knew who Geraldine and Ricky were; I just never got to see them in real life. We had a record, Geraldine and Ricky, and I would just stare at the cover with that dummy in her lap. I was mesmerized by the routine she did.
I had forgotten about her, and then, a year or so back, I was in a thrift store, and I found a Geraldine and Ricky album. It reminded me of how much I liked them. I never knew what their personal life was like. I’m not trying to be funny when I say what I’m about to say. I want to reach out to her family. I want to find out, where is Ricky? Where’s he at now? Have they got him in a place of honor, or is he in a carboard box in the closet? God forbid, if they don’t want him, I’ll adopt Ricky and he can live with me.
I wanted to write a song about a toxic relationship where the woman pulls all the strings, and the man’s just a sucker and takes whatever abuse she dishes out. So when I looked at that album cover, I thought Geraldine and Ricky was the perfect vehicle to write a song about a toxic relationship. It’s tongue-in-cheek, and it’s humorous in a way, but it’s about this woman who is an opportunist, and she’s constantly looking to move up. She married a rich dying man. Isn’t that what every woman wants? You don’t want a rich man; you want an old one that’s dying so that he can leave you all his stuff, you know?
In the song, that’s what Geraldine the character does. But let me say, that’s not the real Geraldine’s story. I used them as a vehicle, but in real life, Geraldine was a sweet lady that did a lot of good things. I have an autographed album; I got it on eBay. It’s signed by not only Geraldine, but Ricky signed it, too.
How did he do that?
It was a miracle. They are working for the Lord, you know. I guess God took ahold of Ricky’s hand and held the pencil for him. That song is getting a really good response ‘cause I think as oddball as it is, everybody knows exactly what’s happening in that song.
And the video is wonderful, the animation.
Yeah, thank you. I hired Duncan Hatch to do that. I came up with the storyline, but he did the video for me.
I love how you compared them to Bobby and Whitney.
You can’t think of a more toxic relationship than Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston. They killed each other, basically by substance abuse. It was a good rhyme, too. “Geraldine and Ricky went together like Bobby and Whitney,” it’s such a beautiful rhyme.
I wanted to be sure to ask about the cover art because there’s so much to see like Lassie and Timmy and the Jerry Lewis telethon
That’s a piece of my art. That’s actually the top of a card table. I decorate card tables. All that stuff on the cover is little knick-knacks I’ve found at yard sales. I get enough of them, and I just glue them onto card tables. I take the legs off the card tables, and they become pictures you can put on a wall.
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about “Life is Like a Vapor.” You’ve mentioned that sometimes life on the road is fun and sometimes it isn’t, but the night you ate ice cream with John Prine must’ve been fun.
I got to open up for John Prine, and he became somewhat of a friend, I guess. He invited me and a few other people to come to his room after a show and have some ice cream. So I went and had ice cream with John. The next morning I posted on Facebook about my experience. His manager called my manager to say, take the post down immediately because John’s a diabetic, and his wife Fiona is going to kill him for eating ice cream. That’s where that first verse came from; the rest kind of wrote itself about the dementia thing.
When will you be releasing the next videos of songs from the album?
I’ve got two videos in the can that were recorded at Knuckleheads in Kansas City, but I don’t know exactly. “Tough Times Don’t Last” is doing really well. It got added to the Jimmy Buffet station, Margaritaville. This week it’s #6 on the Americana charts. It seems like that song is getting a lot of fans because I think people need to hear it. It’s a mentality that we all need to incorporate in our lives. This too shall pass, and there will be a brighter day.
