John Sturgill Simpson (born June 8, 1978) is an American country music and … Read Full Bio ↴John Sturgill Simpson (born June 8, 1978) is an American country music and roots rock singer-songwriter.

Simpson was born in Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, the only child of a secretary and a state policeman who formerly worked undercover narcotics. Due to his father's work, Simpson's family moved to Versailles, outside Lexington, where Simpson graduated from Woodford County High School. Simpson's mother's family were coal miners. Simpson is the first male on his mother's side of the family to not work in a strip mine or deep mine. After three years in the United States Navy, Simpson spent time in Japan, then lived in Everett, Washington, and then moved back home to Lexington, Kentucky.

As of August 2017, he has released three albums as a solo artist. He released two albums independently, High Top Mountain in 2013 and Metamodern Sounds in Country Music in 2014. His second album is notable for being nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, being listed 18th on Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2014," and also being named among "NPR's 50 Favorite Albums of 2014." His third studio album, A Sailor's Guide to Earth, was released on Atlantic Records and was Simpson's first major-label release, later earning him Best Country Album at the 59th Grammy Awards while also being nominated for Album of the Year.

Simpson is often compared to Waylon Jennings and the Outlaw Country genre of country music. Shooter Jennings says, "Sturgill isn't imitating at all, and he sounds like my favorite era of my dad, the Seventies, when he would sing quieter and more conversational. That's what struck me about Sturgill from Day One. And still does." Simpson himself counts Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Keith Whitley, and Marty Robbins as much bigger influences on his sound than Waylon Jennings. Simpson has also stated he tries to base his career around that of Dwight Yoakam. Indeed, Country Music Television noted that Simpson had "a voice that recalls Merle Haggard [and] guitar licks that bring Buck Owens to mind." His overall sound was described by Indiewire as "a mesmerizing and sometimes bewildering mix of traditional country sounds, contemporary philosophy, and psychedelic recording-studio wizardry.

I Don't Mind
Sturgill Simpson Lyrics

There's a lonely feeling I carry
That will follow me all my days
I walked out on the heart you were nursing
Turned my back on a love you saved

Well, just when my clouds were drifting
My plan got rearranged
But there ain't no going back now
And ain't no way that I can change

I believe that I found God
About the same time that I found you
All that stuff about heaven and angels
Well, I know now that it's all true

But you drift in and out of my dreams now
Like a ship out at sea in a storm
And when I wake up every morning
I roll over to find you still gone
Gone

I'm alone in a way that I've never been
Since you left me behind
If you think you can ever love me again
Please go ahead, I don't mind
Oh, no

It feels like you're so far away now
And I'm stuck out here all by myself
All the things I wish I had told you
Still inside my mind bottled and shelved

In my dreams although I can hear you
There's a darkness that hides you from sight
So I search all around trying to feel you
All I find is a world without light

There's a world I want to leave
And a world where I want to stay
There's a dream that I believe
When I wake up it goes away
It goes away

I'm alone in a way that I've never been
Since you left me behind
If you think you can ever love me again
Please go ahead, I don't mind

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing

Written by: John Sturgill Simpson

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS