Brothers Osborne is celebrating their Grammy-nominated album “Skeletons” with a deluxe version of the project that will be available Jan. 21.
The new amped-up version of the album includes three new songs, “Headstone,” “Midnight Rider’s Prayer,” and “Younger Me,” and is available for preorder now.
The duo’s longtime producer Jay Joyce took the reigns on “Headstone,” and Brothers Osborne recorded “Midnight Rider’s Prayer” at John Osborne’s home studio. In the process, with Willie Nelson’s permission, they incorporated parts of the singer’s signature hit “On the Road Again.” “Younger Me,” the Grammy-nominated profoundly personal song that T.J. Osborne used as part of his coming out, is also on “Skeletons Deluxe.”
“I wanted to write about the whole thing, but I didn’t want it to be too on the nose, just for the sake of not being predictable,” T.J. Osborne told “Esquire” of “Younger Me.” “But I did come out, and I did feel compelled to write about it because it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest experience of my life.”
Recording “Younger Me” was a sensitive experience for the singer who cried trying to capture the vocals.
“One of the lines that still wrecks me is, ’Younger me, way too young to pace a bedroom floor,’” he revealed. “When I think of not just 12, 13, 14-year-old T.J., but 12, 13, 14-year-old anybody pacing your bedroom floor at that impressionable age, stuck in your room wishing you could be someone else, being ashamed of yourself … It’s an emotion that’s way too powerful for someone that young to be experiencing in that abundance. I just want to find that kid and say, ’Buddy, you’re awesome, and you have no idea how much of your youth you’re wasting wrapped up in this thing that’s unfair.”
Brothers Osborne, comprised of brothers John and T.J. Osborne, performed “Younger Me” on the 55th CMA Awards in November.
T.J. Osborne told the audience: “For many years I would watch this show, year after year, and I always thought how incredible it’d be, and I’d dream of being here on this stage, and there were so many things that were so many hurdles for me,” he said. “And I always truthfully felt like it would never be possible because of my sexuality to be here.”
Skeletons Deluxe Track List:
1. Lighten Up (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk)
2. All Night (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Andrew DeRoberts)
3. All the Good Ones Are (TJ Osborne, Lee Miller and Craig Wiseman)
4. I’m Not for Everyone (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Luke Dick and Natalie Hemby)
5. Skeletons (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Andrew DeRoberts)
6. Back On The Bottle (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Hayes Carll)
7. High Note (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Casey Beathard and Dustin Christensen)
8. Muskrat Greene (John Osborne)
9. Dead Man’s Curve (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Lee Miller)
10. Make It a Good One (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Stephen Wilson Jr.)
11. Hatin’ Somebody (John Osborne, TJ Osborne and Casey Beathard)
12. Old Man’s Boots (John Osborne)
13. Younger Me (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Kendell Marvel)
14. Headstone (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Kendell Marvel)
15. Midnight Rider’s Prayer (John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Paul Moak, Willie Nelson)