Josh Gallagher To Release "Junkie" and It's Not What You Think

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CMA Fest 2019 with Missy: Josh Gallagher

Josh Gallagher became a household name during season 11 of NBC’s The Voice. As a member of Team Adam (Levine), he finished in fourth place, the first country artist on Adam’s team to ever reach the finale. That was 2016, but this is a full decade later, so what’s Gallagher been up to lately? A lot. Since then he’s released a respectable catalog of his own music, become the father of two children and done a great deal of touring, even performed as a supporting act for some of country music’s heavy hitters. 

He’s been on a wild ride so far, but that journey is actually just entering a new beginning of sorts. After more or less stepping away from music for a few years to play dad to his young kids, he’s made his way back and will release his latest single, “Junkie,” on Friday, July 24th. I know. You’re wondering the same thing as I was when I first heard the title. Did Josh have a substance abuse problem? Is that where he really was during his absence? Hold on, it’s nothing like that at all. I was able to speak with him about the song and some other cool stuff, and he cleared up all the details about “Junkie.” It’s one of those “not what you think” kind of things. It’s time to get your country-rock on with Pennsylvania native Josh Gallagher. Ready? Let’s go.

I’ve been fortunate to know Josh Gallagher for quite a while now, having met him before the world stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those ridiculously authentic people you wish you knew more of, Gallagher is a self-professed lover of country music, especially when it’s laced with hard-driving guitars and scathing rock and roll characteristics. He often prefers his own music to share those sounds as well. While “Junkie” might not be a complete barn burner of a country song, it still possesses some of the elements he’s most interested in and once you hear it, you’ll understand. 

One of the first things Gallagher explained to me was how “Junkie” got its title. He said, “You can be addicted to a substance or something that isn’t good for you, but you can also become addicted to something positive. ‘Junkie’ is very much a love story. It’s been several years since I wrote the song, probably around the pandemic, or maybe after it, you know, when they let us all come out of our houses. After two years.” We had a laugh about it, even though at the time most of us weren’t laughing very much. I just said, “Yeah, it was horrible.” He agreed. “It was terrible. Everybody was having Zoom parties and drinkin’ with their friends, and then TikTok came along and now we’re all here.” An excellent synopsis of COVID days in the music industry, all in under 10 seconds. 

Gallagher continued, “The word ‘junkie’ has a little bit of a negative aura, but I think it can be misconstrued. If you look at it as a positive word, then it’s positive, right? Think of it like this. Are you so infatuated with somebody that anytime you don’t see them or hear them or have them around you, you don’t know how to function right? You aren’t exactly yourself? If you’re so enthralled and in love with this person, that it is the drug. then.love makes you a junkie. It’s when you crave it like an actual needle in your arm.”

Of course, Gallagher is speaking of his wife and the song is highly personal for him. He spilled all the tea about “Junkie” and its concept. “We’ve been together for 14 years.” He paused for a moment and said, “You’ve got me talkin’ about my wife already and I might start cryin’.” Yes, this guy is quite obviously madly in love and isn’t afraid to say it. A trait I find so admirable, especially among men, who sometimes don’t care to share how devoted they are. You won’t find that in Josh Gallagher. He’s an open book. He went on, “If we start talkin’ about my kids, I might really start waterworkin’ here.” Again, more than acceptable. He quickly got himself together and said, “Yeah, 14 years with my wife Lindsey. There isn’t a day that goes by where I’m like, ‘I want her. I need her here.’ I love being on the road, but I hate it at the same time. A lot of times she can’t come with me on the road because we leave on a Wednesday or Thursday and she’s still workin’. I wrote that song before we had kids and now it’s taken on a much bigger meaning. I had taken a little break and stepped back from music to raise my kids, to make sure I didn’t miss anything. They’re only four and two right now, and only little for so long. Once they’re not little anymore, you don’t get that back.” I could relate heavily, he was speaking the truth.

He added, “It’s been about four years since I’ve really done anything that I’ve taken seriously, but having them, the song means so much more. I’m so addicted to my kids and my family. When you’re about to have children for the first time, it’s incredible. Something you hear people say a lot is that they don’t believe in love at first sight, but I do. I tell ‘em, ‘Have kids.’ Even in the 4D sonograms, and we did them with both kids, as soon as you can see their little squished up face in there, they look like little squishy faced aliens, you just love ‘em already. Then you hold ‘em for the first time and you hear them cry. Then they open their eyes and they look at you… see I’m gonna start cryin’.”

“Junkie” was co-written by Gallagher, Mark Addison Chandler and Taylor Goyette and produced by John Caldwell. Happy to share the details about the making of the song, Gallagher began, “Mark has a pretty good ear and has been on a lot of my stuff vocally. He’ll often pop his head in and say, ‘Hey man, I’m hearin’ this’ or “Why don’t you try this?’ So if I didn’t think of it, we’ll try it. For example, on my song ‘Bright Side’ (2021), there’s a really high vocal that’s ominous and distant, but we had this solo section in the song and we weren’t sure where to go with it production-wise. Did we want a big, giant guitar solo in there because I’m a guitar-driven guy? Or did we wanna keep it more open and airy, ambient and creepy? ‘Bright Side’ is kinda creepy anyway.” I mentioned to him that he’s really skilled at coming up with cryptic song titles, or at least titles that send your mind in one direction, requiring a quick mental U-turn once you get into the thick of the number.

Continuing he said, “There’s this big, open vocal that’s in there, it sounds like a guitar just doin’ a big squeal or a scream. It’s actually Mark and my buddy John Caldwell who produced that record. They both went in the studio and put that in there while I was, I think, out of town. They sent it to me and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome, that’s the solo section.’ Now for ‘Junkie,’ Taylor Goyette is the other writer and he’s a great artist and songwriter. He’s startin’ to blow up on social media and the interwebs quite a bit. His wife is Kelsey Lamb and she’s doin’ great as well. Really good people.”

I learned from the “Junkie” press release that Josh Gallagher played every instrument on the single, with the exception of drums. So who was the mystery drummer? Gallagher revealed, “Andrew Bone, he’s my drummer. He played drums on ‘Junkie.’ It occurred to me that this project had Gallagher throwing himself all in. The writing, the instruments, the heartfelt idea, he was there for everything. He agreed and elaborated, “Oh yeah, and there was a section of my career where I don’t wanna say things were slowing down a little bit, but everybody’s career is different. The end goal is always the same, it’s just that everybody’s journey looks different. For me, I was kind of in a place where I couldn't necessarily afford to go into the ‘big boy’ studios in Nashville and throw thousands of dollars at four or five songs." 

“So, I got together with my buddy John Caldwell, who is the producer on ‘Junkie,’ a very good dude and another great writer friend of mine. He was producing some stuff for Taylor Goyette and I really liked what they were doing. He and I would go in the studio and take our time, not be rushed and cut everything how we wanted. ‘Junkie’ was one of the songs and a couple others that will be comin’ out that he’s a writer and producer on. He also produced ‘Country Money’ (2023) and ‘Drink Along’ (2024). The way we go in and cut is very non-traditional from the big studios like Sony or Sound Emporium. I like what I’ve done in the past, but I was at a point where I wanted to experiment a little more.” 

I suspected he was having fun with this new method of recording. When asked, he said he loves it. “It’s not all big and corporate. You can take your time and work out individual parts. You can do it in pre-production or on the fly, which is how we did ‘Junkie,’ on the fly. I can’t tell you how many guitar takes were in there, or how many bass passes we did. We had figured out a little drum loop that John Caldwell made and we built the track after that. The only part on the song that isn’t a string part is the piano, which is in the beginning of the song.” I couldn’t help but comment that anytime I hear piano in a song, the chances of me liking the whole thing go up. Piano always adds a significant punch to a tune, and double that for a country song. 

Gallagher said, “The piano adds that little extra, but without too much. I’m all about having dirty, heavy, distortion-driven guitars, but this song needed that. I didn’t want it to be like a metal soft rock song, it had to be country, heavy, guitar-driven, but that piano? When it bangs in the beginning of the song, it really fills it up.” This led to a quick detour discussion about Lynyrd Skynyrd, a band known for capitalizing on well-placed piano riffs. We were both fans and Gallagher added a fact that not everyone knows about Lynyrd Skynyrd. “They didn’t always have piano in their music. They never had it and then they added it. They were skeptical about it, then they put it in and game over, Lynyrd Skynyrd was born.” Click this link to listen to "Junkie" https://onerpm.link/Junkie.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is one of the most beloved country rock bands and it goes without saying that they’ve been a huge name for decades. That prompted me to mention some newer big names in the music industry, Nate Smith and Bailey Zimmerman. These two artists have exploded in the last few years and Josh Gallagher has opened for both recently. He lit up and explained, “They were awesome, great people. On June 26th it was the Hoofbeat Festival (formerly known as Country Fest) in Cadott, Wisconsin. We were one of the very first acts, one of the ‘baby acts,’ which was fine. We were on the main stage and opened for Nate and Bailey, and then they took all of our gear on the back of side-by-sides and Gators and drove it over to the B stage. That was right after playing the main stage. So we got to play two sets at that festival, which was awesome. Nate, he’s amazing. I love his music. He’s so raw and edgy. He’s way more rock than country. To me, he’s like when Jason Aldean first came out, but heavier with the rock side.”

Moving forward in the Nashville music machine relies heavily on connections. It turns out Josh Gallagher found himself a golden one. This came up while we talked about Nate Smith and Bailey Zimmerman and added a nice sprinkle of what Music City is all about, so I decided to include it here. Gallagher enthusiastically related, “Andrew Bone, our drummer, knows most of the guys in Nate’s camp, so when we pulled into the festival, we parked right next to them. Andrew introduced me to Nate and we hung out on the bus with them. We hit it off right away. I think Nate even offered me a beer before we shook hands, which was cool. Bailey Zimmerman’s an awesome dude too. Andrew knows a lot of people in his camp as well. Let me give Andrew Bone a shout out. He is one of the best dudes I’ve ever met and have had the privilege to know in this town. He somehow knows everybody. He’s a great drummer. He’s been on so many gigs that have led him to know these people, who at any time, he feels comfortable to call, or to say, ‘Hey, why don’t we try this?’ or ‘Can I introduce you to so-and-so?’ He’s been very crucial to my career. I can’t do any of this crap without him.”

As I glanced at the clock, I realized I would be chopping out a good chunk of my questions, as we only had five minutes left. So we moved on to something from my favorite little box of random question cards. The one I picked read, “What is the most beautiful drive you have ever taken? Be as descriptive as possible.” Gallagher was fast. He immediately thought of two and managed to get them both in quickly. “Glacier National Park in Montana, one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen. I was on a writer’s retreat back in 2018 or 2019. There were about 10 writers. We were staying in a cabin right at the base of the mountains that were all snowcapped. We got to Glacier National Park the one day and I had never seen anything like it in my life at that point. It was something out of a movie. It looked like a painting. It was incredible. I would put that at number two. Last year I played a festival in Stord Island, Norway. They invited me back to the same festival this year and we played two days. I can’t tell you how beautiful that country is. You think of glaciers out west or in Yosemite or Yellowstone, they’re beautiful I’ve heard, but Norway, it’s exactly like you see in the movies. The villages and little houses are literally built into the hillsides and they don’t block everything off. They literally build everything flowing with the landscape. It’s insane. We went to Bergen for my last day and it was incredible. That’s my number one.”

Finally, because we’re Center Stage Magazine, what, so far, has been Josh Gallagher’s most memorable “Center Stage” moment? He replied, “Personally, for me, it’s my kids. I thought that I loved music, and I still do, but now that I have children, I truly believe I was meant to be their dad. Something just hits you so hard when you have kids, especially your first one, it's a complete culture shock, it completely changes your life forever. It doesn’t change in a negative way either, it’s the best. You have a little ‘you’ running around and you yell at them because they’re exactly like you. It’s like, ‘Shit’ because you can only blame yourself. My Center Stage moment is my kids and they’ve just taken over my life in the best way possible. I’m a 'junkie' for them.”

I encourage everyone to connect with Josh Gallagher on social media and check him out on your favorite music platform. He’s one of the good ones. If you drop him a line on socials, be sure to tell him Center Stage Magazine sent you!