Marty Roe
(Q)- How does a guy who drives a Porsche race car around Nashville wind up singing a song like “Stuff”?
Marty Roe (MR)- I never really got into the toy thing. I have a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo and I’ve had it because my wife bought it for me and it’s a fun little car and I don’t plan to get rid of it. I don’t need a brand new one, it’s a fun little car and I have a lot of fun maintaining it. It’s got it’s own fun little personality.
(Q)- Do you collect and accumulate any “Stuff”?
(MR) Yeah. Golf stuff. Clubs and stuff like that. As a golfer, they (the golf equipment industry and marketing) really prey on you as a golfer. The new technology, that you’ve just got to have it or else you won’t be able to compete (On the links.)
(Q)- There is a message in the lyrics to “Stuff” it’s one of affluent babyboomers who acclimate too many worldly possessions.
(MR)- There wasn’t anything all that deep involved in the process of choosing “Stuff” for our next single. When we heard it and we played it for several of our friends it was like, ‘Well, that’s me and that’s you and, that’s a lot of folks in this country, you know?’ We live in a very prosperous country and we’re fortunate for that and we tend to have a lot of “stuff’ that we don’t really know where to put it (he laughs). You’ve got a house full of “Stuff” and we might go into the attic or wherever and say to ourselves, ‘Now what is that? Where did that come from? What’s that doing in my house?’ there’s no doubt that in the at seven or eight years for our country, the economy has been very good to most of us.
Evidently, most everybody for the most part who wants a job can find one and make a good income and when you got money, like my dad said, it just burns a hole in your pocket. And, in a lot of cases you end up buying “Stuff”. I do think there’s definitely a trend in our country that if you don’t have anything to do then it’s a situation of,’Let’s just go out and buy something, anything.’ So need is a word that’s not used accurately anymore. My daughter,I have had to teach them that fact of life. They’d say,’Oh daddy, I need that!’ And I’d tell them,’No, no, you don’t need that. You want this.’
(Q)- Is teaching them that lesson important to you?
(MR)- You’d better believe that. It absolutely is. I want them to understand that there’s not a whole lot of things that we really need.
(Q)- Is this a lesson which you’ve come to realize over the past couple of years?
(MR)- Yes. The older you get, you hope that you progress into knowing what’s important and what isn’t. I would hope that I continue to learn and get wiser as I go on (in life).
(Q)- Hopefully Diamond Rio has been a twelve-year work in progress. Looking back, does it look like that and more importantly, is Diamond Rio a continuous work in progress?
(MR)- Yeah, no doubt. As artists, to be honest with you, there have been songs that when we first put them on tape, we didn’t really like. But as we listened to the songs and we performed those songs night after night, we tended to not want everything to change everyone’s life. The reality is, while we’d like every song we record to change lives, this is entertainment, it’s not medicine, so we want it to be fun. We’ve got a lot of things that are light-hearted and also we’ve recorded songs that are poignant and serious. There’s also a few songs we’ve recorded that are commercial in their appeal. Every now and then, we do have a ver commercial and a strong comforting lyric and that’s the art of doing this.
(Q)- Diamond Rio has always kept bluegrass elements which has set you guys apart from many of the other acts landing hits on the charts.
(MR)- Yeah we have always wanted that front and center. Keeping bluegrass front and center ha made us feel good.
(Q)- Is pursuing Alabama’s successes and their achievements still a goal for you? (Q)- What don’t you like about the business?
(MR)- The traveling is tough. It’s tough. Especially as your children start to get older and you don’t want to miss things. My oldest daughter is a very talented swimmer and she’s really starting to bloom in that are and I don’t want to miss that. But I’ve had to miss some of them. It doesn’t get any easier, the only thing that gets easier is that hopefully we will get to work a little more when we want to. Hopefully we can base when we work and when we will not work on family.
(Q)- Where does hope in your heart lie?
(MR)- I feel very blessed to be a part of this industry and to do what it is I love to do, for so long. And hopefully to continue to do that. But the things that really matter….I mean this is what I do for a living. It’s not necessarily what I as an individual am all about. My family and my spiritually are aspects which are very important to me. I believe that this is where God’s put me and we’re having a great time doing it. God puts us all in different places and this is where He’s put me and I just hope that we can put out a positive message while we’re here.