Key to the Highway: Reverend Peyton

Reverend Peyton photo by Bill Steber

Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series

Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Reverend Peyton.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Reverend Peyton: My favorite is a very strong black cold brew. If it’s really cold outside then I go for a warm coffee, americano, espresso, or plain old drip.

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

RP: We have stayed in every weird hotel from here to Hamburg! Tons of them interesting and tons of them decidedly less so. Mostly it’s the people staying there that make it strange! Some that immediately come to mind are a wonderful floating boat hotel in the Netherlands. In the UK once we were told we were staying at a hotel or hostel, but it ended up being just some old guy’s house. He ate the fish we caught, and he made us watch his favorite British television. The nicest hotel might have been in Bulgaria. It was shocking. They had an Olympic sized infinity pool. The worst one might have been in the Mississippi Delta. Gun shots in parking lot…. All night. Blood on the sheets. We were desperate though, so we slept in our clothes.

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

RP: The answer could definitely vary based on my mood when asked, but Creedence Clearwater Revival is pretty easy to listen to on repeat, and just never gets old.

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

RP: A good pair of sunglasses. I’m obsessed with having a good pair of sunglasses on hand. I usually bring several.

AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?

RP: Early on we ate terribly, but you don’t last long out here doing that. Most figure out fast you’ve got to clean up your diet if you want to stay a touring musician. I eat pretty clean now. My go to is a Caesar salad, no croutons with grilled chicken. It can be found in some of the worst dives and the most high end restaurants too.

AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?

RP: I’d go to Martigues in southern France. It’s a beautiful place on the Mediterranean on the way to Marseilles. I’m somehow drawn to the place. I can’t explain it. I make everyone stop everytime we tour past there. I’ve even made us go out of the way just so I can drink coffee on the water. We’ve only ever been able to spend a couple of hours there at a time, but I have a painting of the place in our living room.

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

RP: Two is one and one is none. If it matters to you or to the show, then you need more than one of them out here. It’s gonna break or get lost or get stolen. The road is tough on everything.

Find more information about their new album, and tour dates for Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band here: https://bigdamnband.com/

See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Todd Park Mohr Jim Lauderdale Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )