“We had the baby. Her name’s Rayni Bell. She’s beautiful, healthy and happy, and she’s about to be crawling any day. She is doing good and she has her own Instagram page already, just like her brother Jett,” he said, about his baby daughter. “She’s so cute and she’s so chill. Even more chill than Jett, so we got lucky.”
Stephen also opened up about the success of the rally for his mother, entitled “Shine for Susie ALS Benefit Concert” who has been diagnosed with ALS. “It is really awful. We are doing all we can,” he said. “We raised a lot of money that night. It was really nice that people reached out to raise awareness for a nasty disease for a good cause.”
On his plans for 2018, Stephen said, “New year. New fun. We are going to write a lot. We already finished our album, so we are looking to go on a radio tour in February, March and April, and hopefully, put out a new song in April with Curb Records. We also hope to go on a fall tour.”
Each day, Stephen is motivated by his passion to create music, as well as his family. “I want to keep playing music for a living, and to take it to a new level, and to always grow,” he said. “We are very blessed. Our fans care for us and love us and what we do. We appreciate our relationship with them!”
He also had kind remarks in memory of the late Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band. “Gregg Allman is a legend. We actually cover his song ‘Midnight Rider.’ We play that song every night in our set. It’s an honor to cover a vocal group that has similar influences like us. The Allman Brothers Band has incredible singers and harmonies. That’s why music is so cool. You want to leave something behind. We like playing that song ‘Midnight Rider’ since the older generation likes it, and we are introducing this amazing song to a new generation of fans that may have not heard it. We are honored to get to play that song. The song will live on through bands like us and just over time.”
Digital transformation of country music
Regarding the impact of technology on the country music scene, he said, “You’ve got to just roll with it. There is no other way around it. There are some good people in Washington, D.C. fighting for the songwriters, the publishers and the artists to actually get paid better on the streaming platform, which is really important because right now a lot of good artists are getting dropped from their labels, and a lot of artists can’t really support themselves from touring. Streaming doesn’t pay what it should pay. It is really hard. If we can get that all leveled out, and the artists are getting paid what they deserve, then, I think it will be a huge thing. For us, we also appreciate the exposure from the streaming platforms. If you have a good song, people are going to try to find it, and people are still buying music on iTunes, so that’s encouraging.”
Stephen revealed that he loves vinyl and he still collects them. “I am one of those people that collects vinyl. It has a natural sound to it. Vinyl is warm, and you can listen to the whole album again, like back in the day. We will probably have our new album available on vinyl. It will be cool,” he admitted.
To learn more about country duo Love and Theft, check out their official website.
