Collective Soul’s bass participant, Will Turpin, whose band’s new documentary, Give Me A Phrase: The Collective Soul Story, hits the 2025 film schedule on video-on-demand and Blu-Ray on July eighth, has some ideas on bands that get irritated with enjoying their hits. If any band would perceive this, it’s Collective Soul, who had a slew of large hits within the Nineteen Nineties that followers of the band nonetheless love listening to the band play in live performance. I had an opportunity to talk with Turpin concerning the documentary, the band’s lengthy historical past, and simply what it is prefer to play hits like “December” and “Shine” all these years later.
Collective Soul Actually Cranked Out The Hits In The ‘90s
Even for Gen Xers like me, it’s simple to neglect simply how big Collective Soul was within the Nineteen Nineties. Their first two albums, Hints Allegations and Issues Left Unsaid and Collective Soul bought tens of millions and tens of millions of copies worldwide. Each spent months on the charts, and three a long time later, the band nonetheless sells out concert events throughout.
Bands which have so many big hits early of their careers usually type a love/hate relationship with these songs. Understandably, as lead singer Ed Roland says within the rock documentary, normally artists wish to preserve trying ahead with their life’s work. Trying again, and enjoying the “previous songs” turns into a grind for artists, and sadly, meaning typically bands come to resent these hits, regardless of the fervour followers nonetheless really feel for them.
Will Turpin’s Take On Collective Soul’s Hits Is Refreshing
Once I requested Turpin about his relationship with songs like “Shine” and “The World I Know,” and whether or not he ever received sick of enjoying them in live performance, he actually opened up about how he felt about bands that resent their hits, saying,
I do not actually purchase into the entire, ‘if I’ve to play this track another time,’ angle. I do know another artists who purchase into that type of angle, and I at all times thought that was extraordinarily immature, possibly crass.
Turpin sees the songs via the followers’ eyes, it appears. He understands why these followers are nonetheless coming to see their favourite artists, and it’s as a result of these hits are vital to them. Turpin says,
I simply assume that is the incorrect perspective to have when folks permit these songs to be such part of their lives. All they’re asking you to do is have enjoyable on stage whereas they pay you to play that track.
Along with calling the concept crass, which I agree with, Turpin goes on to say that it’s actually about ego,
A few of these individuals are simply, you recognize, misplaced in [their] personal ego, [and they’re] lacking the massive image right here.
And for me, he’s proper. He goes on to focus on simply how cool it may be, and the way Collective Soul feels once they play their greatest songs,
If we won’t have enjoyable collectively on stage, have a look at one another and play ‘Shine’ and take heed to all these folks sing that track, watch their hearts into the track, watch them undergo the recollections typically…It is about like, dude, you simply want to choose one thing else to do, actually.
All This Reveals In The Documentary
Give Me A Phrase: The Collective Soul Story exhibits either side of this dialogue. A lot of the movie is framed across the recording of Collective Soul’s 2024 album, Right here to Eternity, however it tells the definitive historical past of the band with enter from members, each previous and current.
The ultimate scene of this glorious documentary options the band stay in live performance as 1000’s of followers sing together with each phrase on all of the previous hits, and everybody’s pleasure, from the band to the followers within the final row, is palpable, like a fantastic live performance movie. That’s simply the way it needs to be.