"I remember thinking it was kind of like being struck by lightning, " songwriter Jaren Johnston says of meeting his wife.
Get ready to see "White Lightning."
The Cadillac Three is unveiling their brand new music video, and only ETonline has your first look. Watch the video for "White Lightning" in full below.
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Singer-songwriter Jaren Johnston wrote the track about his smokin' hot wife Evyn (who also just so happens to play the lead here), and to hear him tell this story is making us swoon.
"I'm a very lucky fella, not many people get to be with a woman like mine," he tells ETonline. "I fell fast and hard. I remember thinking it was kind of like being struck by lightning. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I got the shakes the first time I saw her. When I wrote 'White Lightning,' I sat down and put that experience into this song the best way I could.
"It was so fun getting to reenact the events of that day for the video," he adds. "My wife Evyn and I had a blast -- basically just told the director how it happened and we went step by step. I damn sure hope it's a hit but if nothing else, Ev and I will always have that video for our kids and it will help explain how daddy saw 'white lightning' when he met mama."
Is "White Lightning" stuck in your head yet? Good! Read on for seven more reasons to get on-board with one of country's hottest new bands. (As you'll learn, "new" is a relative term here.)
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1. They're already hitmakers.
Johnston is a country music force to be reckoned with, penning No. 1 hit single after No. 1 hit single. Most recently, Johnston topped the charts with "Raise 'Em Up," performed by Keith Urban and Eric Church. His other hits include Tim McGraw's "Southern Girl," and Frankie Ballard's "Sunshine & Whiskey," among many others.
2. They're backed by Big Machine.
After a brief stint with Warner Bros. Records (as The Cadillac Black) and independently releasing their last album, The Cadillac Three found their label home in none other than Nashville powerhouse Big Machine Records. (Among its acts: Taylor Swift, McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Steven Tyler and more.) "Every artist that Big Machine has is eclectic and different in their own way," says Johnston. "The Cadillac Three is The Cadillac Three. I think Scott [Borchetta, Big Machine founder and CEO] has done really well with letting artists be who they are."
3. They stay true to their roots.
Johnston met bandmates Kelby Ray and Neil Mason back in high school, "smoking funny cigarettes" and taking in local shows at Nashville's "Dancin' in the District." Today, their sound doesn’t stray far from where they began. "There's that middle ground where we shifted and we were getting pulled into certain situations, and now we're back to, we're like, 'Man, let's get back to our roots, '" says Johnston. "It's kinda funny that's what you do, you come back to what was working in the beginning when you didn’t have to answer to anybody. That's kinda where we are now… It took us seven years to figure that s**t out, but we're back. "
4. They're Southern boys with global appeal.
"We haven't played a show in the UK that hasn't sold out," says Johnston. "That tells me that more of these guys need to get their asses over there, because people appreciate whatever it is that we're doing." The band counts Sweden and Ireland among their favorite overseas spots, but still loves playing to their hometown crowd. It helps, of course, when you share a home with the most iconic venue in country music. "We played the Opry last year," says Ray. "That was cool to be able to do that, just being from here."
5. They're channeling some legends.
"I wasn't trying to create something for somebody or write a hit single or whatever it was, " Johnston says of "White Lightning. " "It was just something I was feeling. If you look back at [Johnny] Cash, and Waylon [Jennings], and [Kris] Kristofferson, and all those guys, they were writing real s**t -- for lack of a better way of saying it. They weren't trying to do something. A lot of times, whether we can help it or not, we sit down and try to write a single because we'd got that bug 'cause we're from Nashville. But 'Lightning' came out fresh, it came out real, and that's kind of what we write about. We write from the heart. "
6. They're social media savvy.
Look no further than @TheJaren and @TheCadillac3 for a real, unfiltered (you know what we mean) window into their lives on the road. (And for some serious food porn from Johnston – that guy knows how to eat!)
7. That hair, obviously.
If those long locks don't scream rock 'n' roll, we don't know what does.
Now that we all know about TC3, we're ready to buy their album -- right? Well, no word yet on an official release date, but Johnston assures us that the guys are hard at work in the studio. "We're almost done. We don't have a date yet," he says. "It's right in the middle of the songwriting side of both ends of the spectrum. 'Party Like You' and 'White Lightning' are a good mix of what it's all gonna be."