Their heart is on the road

The Randy Rogers Band has been playing together since the early 2000s, but they still consider themselves to be journeyman musicians. They’ve had a handful of successful albums – their last two LPs were Top 10 hits – and have amassed a sizable audience over the years, but most of their time has been (and likely always will be) devoted to the road.

“We’ve been on the road 15 years now, and we make our living playing shows,” frontman Randy Rogers said. “We call it the never-ending tour. … We’re a big family, and it’s a way of life.”

It’s not unusual for touring bands to always be in the process of reshuffling their lineups, but the members of Rogers’ band have remained the same since day one. Rogers started the group by assembling experienced Texas musicians and giving everyone the same amount of artistic and financial sway, and their all-for-one approach to music hasn’t changed.

“I was writing songs and I decided to start a band, and I gave everyone an equal part of the band,” Rogers said. “Everybody’s equal, everybody has a vote, everybody has a say-so. … I wanted something where everyone was involved. It’s as democratic as a creative process can be.”

Now with six albums under his belt, Rogers says that the band is finally starting to come into its own in the studio: Playing live has always come naturally to them, but the creative process in a studio setting is a completely different beast, he says.

“I think we’ve tried to grow, which is really key to being in a band,” he said. “Everybody’s been open to learning. We’ve grown in the studio. Knowing how to be studio musicians is completely different than being a live band. We’re still in that process.”

Following an old school country blueprint and injecting it with some modern rock sensibilities, the band’s latest album “Trouble” plays out like a compendium of the genre’s most reliable tropes: There are stories of desperadoes and outlaws, goofy songs chronicling drunken nights out, and pained, lovelorn ballads.

The album’s most notable track is “Trouble Knows My Name,” a collaboration with Willie Nelson that Rogers defines as one of the highlights of his career. Rogers wrote the tune, about a traveling musician plagued by bad luck everywhere he goes, with Nelson in mind, and he was surprised and humbled that the country great agreed to perform it.

“He fills up the room with his personality,” Rogers said of Nelson. “He’s so famous, but he knows how to make people feel comfortable. One of the greatest qualities a human being can have is making someone at ease, and Willie has that. A lot of people don’t know that about him.”

While working on future collaborations with other legendary artists would be an ideal scenario – he says working with Merle Haggard would be “monumental” – it’s the relationship between Rogers and his bandmates that’s most important to their livelihood.

“There’s no escape plan; there’s no plan B,” Rogers said.

“If you’re a young musician, that’s something you should really think about – surround yourself with people that believe the same things you believe, which is make it work no matter what. And that’s how we got to where we’re at. It’s a gift to be able to do this. And everybody has that same opinion about it – this is like a golden ticket.”