Colt Ford
Country music star Colt Ford, who performs at Minglewood Hall tonight, returned to his roots this week.
On Tuesday, Ford, aka., former professional golfer Jason Farris Brown, participated in a celebrity tournament in Palm Springs, Calif., teaming up with John Daly and Boo Weekley to take on a foursome that included drummer Adrian Young from the band No Doubt, Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and PGA tour regulars Mike Perez and Scott McCarron.
Colt Ford
“We ended up losing by one,” says Ford. “It hurt a little, but the guy filling in for Darius Rucker wasn’t very good, so we kind of got the short end of the stick.”
If Ford’s golf game has slipped a little, it’s because the 39-year-old has been hitting the road instead of the fairway. Last year, he played 210 shows, following the release of his debut album, Ride Through the Country.
“I didn’t get to play very much golf, but I’m definitely going to play some more this year,” he says.
Growing up in Athens, Ga., Ford’s twin passions were always music and golf. He was raised on a mix of classic country (his first concert was Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton) and old school hip-hop. And as a teenager, between golf practices, he would write raps for friends.
“I was always kind of a different kid, always doing my own thing,” he says. “I’m lucky that my parents have always been supportive of pretty much everything I’ve done.”
Music took a back seat to golf when Ford went pro in his 20s.
“It was really hard to try and do both,” he says. “As a general rule, I’m going to bed for music when I should be getting up for golf.”
Ford played golf professionally for about six years before becoming a club pro. As his dreams of a sports career began to fade, however, he started to turn his attention back to music. A gifted wordsmith, Ford has co-written tracks for artists as diverse as country acts Jamey Johnson, Montgomery Gentry, rapper Bone Crusher, and R&B mega-producer Jermaine Dupri.
All the while, though, Ford was developing his country rapper alter ego. In 2006, Ford made his recording debut with “Buck ’Em,” a song he wrote for the Professional Bull Riders organization. His full-length debut came two years later, with guest appearances by Johnson, golf buddy Young, and John Michael Montgomery.
While successful by indie standards, Ford’s debut, part of a growing trend of country rap records by artists like Bubba Sparxxx and Cowboy Troy, drew criticism from tradition-bound Nashville circles that questioned whether his music could rightly be called country.
There is some backlash, and I get some of that,” says Ford. “I have fiddle and steel on almost every song on my record. There’s a lot of acts in Nashville that don’t have any of that and have never been in the woods or been in a four-wheel drive in their life. I’m not here to say what is or is not country. I just know what I am.”
The complaint is about to become moot, however, as Ford, whose follow-up LP, Chicken & Biscuits, is due for release in April, prepares to receive his country music bona fides — debuting at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday, a day after his show here.
“If people who say that stuff about me knew how much respect and love I have for country music and the Opry, they wouldn’t say it,” says Ford, who plans to perform his hit single “Cold Beer” and a cover of Charlie Daniel’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” “I’d always hoped that one day I might get the chance to play there, but in the back of your mind you never know whether you will or won’t. There’s people who played for a real long time and never got that call, so I’m just completely humbled.”
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