Driving down to interview J.P., the sweetheart and lead vocalist of John Patrick & the Outside Voices, I had every intention of doing an interview and heading on home. Little did I know, Kent, the small college town in which I was to meet with J.P., had entirely different plans for me. Thankfully, before the devil that is Jameson reared its ugly face, I got some pretty good information on the up-and-coming artist.

He was born in Kansas City, Kansas, which really isn’t that surprising. He looks like a guy born in Kansas City. I think that’s a compliment? He didn’t get to the O-H-I-O until he was ten years old, and by then, he was two years deep into torturous piano lessons. He was thirteen when he finally picked up a guitar and, I quote, “the rest is history.”

The history, however, is much different than the present. His earliest influences are all very different in style: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, and Butch Walker. It makes perfect sense, then, that his first group was a cover band that only played Blink-182, Weezer, and Green Day songs. Contradictory to the above statement, J.P. says he was actually a big hippie in high school. His dream car is still a VW Bus. Groovy, baby.

J.P. started really writing music when he was eighteen; his first song was about a post-prom breakup. In college, he started playing some solo open mic shows, eventually starting the band Haymaker Heart. Now, I’m not going to include a link to their YouTube channel because I promised not to. However, let it be known that the YouTube channel exists, and I had a good time checking it out. Ahem.

After the Haymaker Heart broke up, J.P. started hitting open mics hard as a solo artist. That’s how he met Johnny Miller and Cory Grinder of Johnny and the Applestompers, who would go on to become two of the original Outside Voices. Jimmy Dykes and Shawn Cline joined in shortly thereafter, and in 2015, John Patrick & the Outside Voices started rockin’ and rollin’.

John Patrick is the main singer-songwriter for the project, and he decided to make the first cross-country tour a solo trip. He started saving at least fifty bucks a paycheck, plus any CD sales or show payments, and by the time his tour came around, he had banked about a grand. In 2015, he released the album ‘Boy in the Water,’ and later that year, went on his merry way across the country from August to October.

He left from Kent, OH, and headed southwest first, stopping by his hometown in Kansas, and then continuing on through Colorado and the Four Corners region, as well as Iowa, Indiana, and, I’m sure, a bunch more places. He made it back to Kansas to finish up his tour. The whole time he talked to me about this trip, I kept thinking about how scary that must have been. Not necessarily being a stranger in a new town, but absolutely baring your soul to strangers. That is fucking terrifying. Luckily, it worked out because absolutely everyone along the way adored him, and it’s hard not to. I first heard him play in Highland Square down in Annabell’s dirty-ass basement that makes everyone sound like a subpar punk band, but I remember being absolutely blown away by his acoustic set.

The most mind-blowing thing he told me about the tour was not the fact that he went alone, and it wasn’t the fact he was once paid in apples (which is pretty fucking neat), it was the fact his car never broke down. Is that even a tour? Does that even qualify? He broke the rules, and I won’t stand for it! My fucking check engine light came on while I was driving back from this interview. It’s bullshit. I’m not even mad, though. I guess the one redeeming factor is he did get his car stuck in the sand on an abandoned road with no cell phone service. I guess that will have to suffice.

I figured the most difficult part of touring would be expenses, but J.P. said people usually took care of him pretty well. That’s one of those beautiful things about the arts community — most everyone looks out for everyone else. There’s the occasional douche, of course, but for the most part, we are all in this together. J.P. said the hardest thing was booking the shows and getting people to let a random guy from Ohio play their venue. After that, he said, it was absolutely great. Since he went alone, he could be whoever the hell he wanted to be. He could go anywhere he wanted to go. There was never any arguing in the car about potty stops or whatever else — he had complete control.

Finally back home, the Outside Voices joined John Patrick once more and now they are focusing on releasing a full-length album.

Their current lineup is as follows:

From Left: John Patrick, Sam, Kevin, Johnny, and Jimmy in back

John Patrick Halling on lead vocals and guitar

Jimmy Dykes on guitar

Johnny Miller on guitar

Kevin McManus on bass

Sam Langstaff on drums

J.P. enjoys the flexibility of being a solo artist, but he says there are plenty of benefits to being in a full band. Obviously, hanging out and jamming with your best friends is a blast, but the more hands you have in the pot, the more challenging it becomes. Fortunately for him, all of the Outside Voices have been incredibly respectful of the direction he’s heading.

His piece of advice to any aspiring musician out there is: Don’t stop. Do whatever it takes and run with it. He would sincerely encourage anyone to lead a life like his. Don’t settle for less just because nothing is guaranteed.