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Kristian Bush knows firsthand that Sugarland fans physically transform when they hear the duo’s music.
“I watched people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s while we’re playing the music to them. I can tell that they are at the age they are right now, but their body completely changes to when they first heard our music,” Bush told PEOPLE in conversation while attending the Your Roots Are Showing conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Bush, 55, continued, “So they move differently, they sing differently, their eyes sparkle at a different age. To see that, I realized, ‘Oh, this mattered.’ ” For the BMI Award winner, these reactions prove the lasting power of the music that he and Jennifer Nettles created together.
Speaking to the timeless quality that Sugarland’s music possesses, Bush noted, “We didn’t really use instruments that were time-specific. The music itself wasn’t referencing things of time. And I didn’t realize that was that important until now … that, ‘Wow, that stuff will outlast you,’ ” he explained. To the star, the combined simplicity of his and Nettles’ melody, rhythm and guitar is precisely what has made the music they have released together stand the test of time.
“If you keep reducing the sauce down until it’s just its ingredients, which is rhythm, melody and maybe a guitar, it’s unbelievably repeatable whenever it happens,” he explained.
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Though Bush’s discography is expansive, and includes credits with the likes of Megan Moroney, as well as his own projects, Billy Pilgrim and Dark Water, he is acutely aware of the special formula that Sugarland possesses — and the sometimes rocky road it took to get where he is today.
“There is a risk-reward moment when you are completely left on your own to create and when you increase the pressure, especially commercial pressure…” he explained of Sugarland’s early days. He also recalled playing now-classic Sugarland songs for executives for the first time.
“I remember playing ‘All I Want to Do’ for them, and I remember playing ‘Stuck Like Glue’ for them… Both those songs scared them, and within a number of days they came around to ‘That’s the thing that will probably grab a stranger and make them sing,’ ” Bush shared.
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The situation taught the artist a very clear message about the future of his success, which he recounted as “no matter how much risk you feel like you’re taking, it’s all in your head compared to the amount of joy that you’re getting at singing it.”
For Bush, authenticity is the name of the game with everything that he pursues creatively, Sugarland and beyond. “Some people, I think the through line… I was always fitting my own self through it, not somebody else’s version of me.” Ultimately, he described the experiences he has had with Sugarland as “amazing” and “the truth” among the hectic nature of the industry.
“And what was also great is I could feel the music underneath me and it feels as authentic right now as it did,” Bush added about his and Nettles’ enduring legacy via Sugarland, in country music and beyond.
