By Chris Avena
Travis Tritt is more than a country music superstar—he is a living legend whose voice, songs, and style have become a defining part of the genre. Over the course of his decades-long career, Tritt has played to sold-out arenas around the world, captivating audiences with his signature blend of Southern rock and heartfelt country storytelling. With two Grammy Awards, four Country Music Association Awards, and seven multi-Platinum albums to his credit, his music has earned him a permanent place in country music history. Add to that over 40 charting singles, and it’s clear that his influence on the industry is as powerful as ever.
But Travis Tritt’s stage isn’t limited to bright lights and roaring crowds—he’s equally at home in the quiet beauty of the outdoors. A dedicated hunter and fisherman, Tritt has long embraced the traditions and values of the outdoor lifestyle, finding the same sense of peace and connection in nature that he finds in music. Whether it’s a day in the deer stand, a fishing trip with friends, or simply enjoying the outdoors with his family, Tritt’s passion for nature is as authentic as the songs he sings.
Now, with the release of his latest album, Tritt shows no signs of slowing down. His enduring talent, velvet-smooth voice, and genuine love for both music and the outdoors continue to inspire fans across generations. For Travis Tritt, the journey has always been about more than just the spotlight—it’s about living life to the fullest, whether that’s on stage, in the studio, or under an open sky.
Chris: Travis, thank you for taking time to speak with us. It is a pleasure to speak to you.
Travis: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Chris: You are currently touring and you came out with a new album. The first time in a while, right?
Travis: Yeah, we released a new album back earlier in the summer. It is the first studio album that I've done in about 14 years. It's called “Set In Stone.”
That all came about through my manager. My manager and I started working together about two and a half years ago. One of the first things that he said to me when we started working together was, “You know, you've had a great career. You have had a lot of success.” But he said, “I still think that you've got a lot of great music left in you. I think you've got songs that you can write, I think you've still got something to say.” And he said, “I would love to see you go in the studio, and do a new album, not only to feed your loyal fans, but also to draw in possibly newer people that are not as familiar with your catalogue.”
So, I thought that was a great idea. Then we hooked up with a guy by the name of Dave Cobb. He produced the album. He produces all the albums of people like Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson, the list goes on and on. He was just absolutely wonderful to work with. After being out of the studio, I was a little bit hesitant about going back in because I know things have changed a lot in the last 14 years with how people record music and how music is produced. But he basically put my mind at ease very quickly. He said,” You know, here's the way I do it. I take the full band in. We all are sitting in the same room when we record and everything is played live. I want you to record as many of your live vocals as possible while we are laying the tracks down.” Well, that was perfect for me because that's the way I've always done it ever since I started recording back in the late 80s. So, it was really a refreshing thing to hear. I could not be more pleased with that whole process. It was just an absolute joy to do this album.
Chris: Did you grow up in Georgia? Did you grow up as an outdoor family?
Travis: My dad didn't hunt as much as some of my uncles and my grandfather did but he hunted occasionally. He liked to hunt small game. He liked to hunt rabbits and squirrels, stuff like that. He enjoyed the outdoors throughout my young life. He enjoyed just being outdoors and he encouraged me and my entire family to do things outdoors as well. My first experience with a real hunt, what I would refer to as a real hunt, was when I was about 12 years old. My uncle took me deer hunting for the very first time with my cousin. Back in those days it was a lot different than it is now.
First of all, in Georgia, you could walk 50 yards into any woods and you would hear the sound of quail, you would stir up a covey of wild quail. Meanwhile, if you saw so much of a deer track, you went back and told everybody in town because there weren't many deer around this area back then. It is funny to me because now, almost 50 years later, it's exactly the opposite of that. We've had so many predators that have been brought in, that wild quail are practically non-existent in this part of the world. But deer are everywhere. And back in those days, there was no such thing as leased land to hunt on. Basically, there were several preserves that were public land that you could hunt deer in Georgia. Obviously, it came to be kind of a dangerous situation in some cases, because you never knew exactly who was in the woods with you.
So, once we started seeing more deer and also having more leased land come available to us where you could go in and go on a lease with a small group of hunters, all people that you knew and trusted in the woods, that became really kind of an eye-opening experience for me as far as deer hunting was concerned. It changed the whole face of it and it made it a lot more enjoyable. Plus, back in those days, there was no such thing as pre-built deer stands. Most of those stands that we used back in the day were those old climbing stands that I've nearly fallen out of, many times over the years.
Chris: Yeah, those climbers scared the hell out of me.
Travis: Absolutely. Plus, I’ve frozen my ass off on numerous deer stands. So, there came a point 20-25 years ago, where I just basically just lost interest in deer hunting at that particular time. Of course, I loved anything outdoors, hunting, fishing, any of that kind of stuff. I still wanted to do it, but I just wanted to find something that was a little bit more enjoyable to me. I was introduced by my father-in-law to upland bird hunting, quail mostly. He actually ran a quail plantation down in Central Florida for years. He invited me to come along and go on quail hunts with him and my brothers in law and I have to say that I enjoyed everything about it. I enjoyed the hunting but more than anything else I loved watching really good trained dogs work in the field. That was just a thrill for me. So, it was my father- in- law that introduced me to upland bird hunting.
Not long after that Hank Williams Jr. took me on my first turkey hunt many years ago. I was hooked immediately on turkey hunting. I love to turkey hunt. Shortly thereafter, a good friend of mine who is an avid hunter, took me on my first duck hunt up in Missouri. Very close to the Mississippi River. I was hooked on that as well. I went on pheasant hunts with him in South Dakota every single year for probably the last 10 or 12 years. I've been in South Dakota for opening day of pheasant season. It's just something that I really enjoy. So, all of those different types of hunting. Of course, I do wild boar hunting and I have had the privilege a few years ago to go to South Africa and hunt plains game there with my wife. Yeah, my wife was actually born in Nairobi. Her father was ex-Green Beret. When he left the Armed Forces after Vietnam, he and my wife's uncle moved to Africa to pour concrete for all of the airport runways all over South Africa, Botswana and Nairobi. Everywhere that you can think of across the continent of Africa. They would pour cement during the week and then on weekends, most of the people that were working with them were also skinners and trackers for various outfitters. So, they would take all of them out hunting on the weekend. They would go on safari for the weekend. I've been married almost 25 years. Every time I would be around her father or her uncle at Christmas time and other holidays, they would talk about those experiences in Africa and how they would like to go back one more time before they died. So, in 2006 my wife and I put together a trip that included she and I and her uncle and her father, and we went over to Africa and stayed for about two weeks and just had a wonderful, wonderful time hunting.
Chris: Africa is like a sportsman's paradise. I saw that you took a gorgeous Sable while you were there.
Travis: It really is a hunter’s paradise. It was just absolutely a wonderful trip. Yes, I did take a Sable. As a matter of fact, that particular hunt I was with a dear friend of mine. He and I were the only two that wanted to go after a sable. So, we had to leave the rest of our party behind. We had to travel as far north as you could go and still be in South Africa. We were right up on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We were less than 100 miles from where John Wayne filmed “Hatari” back in the 60s. That some of the greatest memories that I have ever had in my life on that hunt. That was just an absolute blast for me.
Chris: I think every hunter should experience hunting in Africa at least one time in their life. It's an amazing experience.
There is this perception of big game hunting in Africa. People see hunting elephants as cruel but it is not the hunters that are the problem. It is the poachers.
Travis: It is the poachers. Absolutely, that is the biggest threat. Obviously, in any economy, the amount of money that hunters put into the economy to go over there and be able to hunt these animals helps with the conservation. The fact that they are very limited on the number of animals that they are able to harvest. It's done in a very conservative way. So, the biggest threat is not from the hunters, the hunting society. The biggest threat is from poachers because poachers come in and they don't care. They don't have a bag limit on how many animals they kill. They kill indiscriminately.
Chris: The poachers are not worried about a license. They just come in and kill and take the tusks and leave the rest of the animal. It is funny because people don't realize that one elephant will feed hundreds of people. When there's a confirmed kill, the villagers come from everywhere and they use every part of that animal. They butcher all of the meat on the spot. There is just a blood spot on the floor when they are finished. They take the bones and all.
Travis: Absolutely. They do that with everything. The plains games that we killed, which was fabulous meat. We ate it every night while we were there. A large portion of everything that we took while we were in Africa was donated to the local folks there. The locals were extremely appreciative because Africa is a very poor continent. The people appreciated not only the financial assistance that hunting provides for them, but also the meat that it provides, it feeds a lot of people.
Chris: You know what bothered me? About a year or so ago, they confiscated a large amount of ivory and they burned thousands of pounds of elephant ivory. Why not put it out into the marketplace. If they flood the marketplace with the confiscated ivory that would bring the pricing way down because the demand would be satisfied and that'll take care of the poaching.
Travis: It just seems like a huge waste to me. I've always believed in eating what I kill. I've always believed in trying to do everything in my power to make sure that not only that we're able to go in and pay for our licenses and pay for all the different things to help build up the environment for these animals to thrive but also to give us an opportunity to teach people about the conservation of the land so that these animals can thrive. So, there will be hunting for generations to come. Hunters are some of the best environmentalists in the world, because they love the land. They love the experience of teaching their children and the grandchildren how to go out and hunt and fish. But also, they realize that in order for that to continue on, we have to really be stewards of the land. We are all very, very conscious of that. I think that's one of the things that's probably the most misunderstood about hunters in general.
Chris: That is all a part of the Pittman Robertson Act. It is a self-imposed tax. Every gun, every license, every round of ammunition that is sold, there was a self-imposed tax that goes directly towards conservation
Travis: 100%. That's one of the reasons why I have never begrudged a single dollar that I've spent for a hunting license in my entire life. Because I know where that money is going. It is going back into the environment. It's going back into conservation. It's going back into making sure that we are protecting the land so that we can pass this wonderful experience of hunting down to our kids and our grandchildren for generations to come.
Chris: At what age did you introduce your kids to the outdoors and hunting?
Travis: From the very beginning. I live on a 75-acre farm in Georgia. I bought it in 1992 and my wife and I met in 1995. Our first child was born in 1997. I wanted to make sure that all of the things that I loved that I could do on my own property without ever having to leave. When I first bought the property there was a small little pond about an acre and a half. It was about six inches deep. It was full of water moccasins and turtles. We came in and we dredged it out, and we stocked it and we made it bigger. We made it about three and a half acres, and we stocked it with largemouth bass, channel catfish and bluegill. Now, anytime I wanted to, I could go out and cast a line and go fishing. I basically started teaching my children, all three of them, how to do that and teaching them a love for that from the time that they were just toddlers. They have all grown up enjoying that. We would go out and do some clay shooting in our back pasture. But getting them to love the land and to love the outdoors as much as I do, the love for all shooting sports, all hunting, all fishing, all those different things. They have been around all of that from a very early age. But it wasn't just me. My wife obviously, growing up as her father being an avid hunter, avid fisherman. So, she grew up in that same type of environment. All her family did as well.
Chris: Does your wife hunt as well?
Travis: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I hate to even talk about it, because I think she might be a better shot than me. When we went to Africa together, she was unbelievable, just a fantastic shot.
Chris: I think inherently women are better shots. Because they have more focus than we do. They are more teachable. They will sit and listen to instructions. Guys have an ego. Men think that we cannot learn anything from someone who might know more because we know better. I've been hunting with a lot of women, and they outshot me and I'm not embarrassed to admit that.
Travis: Absolutely. Me either. You know, the fact is that guys have a serious problem sometimes taking instructions. That's why we tear up the instructions up on anything we're trying to put together. Whether it be a new outdoor grill or whatever it may be. We don’t need instructions, man. Throw those away. I got this.
Chris: That is a true fact!
Chris: Do you train your own hunting dogs or do you just use the Outfitters dogs.
Travis: We use the Outfitters dogs. My oldest son got a chocolate lab puppy about three years ago. He has been doing a little bit of training with that dog. My youngest son who will be 18 next month, has a bulldog that he has worked with a little bit but most of the time when we go on these quail hunts, they have such fantastic dogs at most of these plantations where we hunt that we just use those dogs and they are absolutely wonderful to watch.
Chris: It is a lot of work to train these hunting dogs. It takes time and a lot of money.
Travis: Exactly. Exactly.
Chris: So, basically, for you “If it's flying, it's dying.”
Travis: Well, yeah, that is pretty much the way it goes. Like I said, we love bird hunting. Bacon wrapped quail down on a smoker is probably one of the things that we love the most. They obviously love pheasants. They eat all kinds of wild game. They love it. Deer. They love venison.
Chris: Bacon makes everything taste better.
Travis: Absolutely, man. You can wrap shoe leather in bacon and it would taste good.
Chris: We have a cooking section in the magazine. So, if you or your boys want to send over a recipe, our readers would love to hear about it.
Travis: You bet. Absolutely. I'll be glad to do that.
Chris: I had heard that you owned a haunted hunting cabin?
Travis: Yes, that cabin was actually up in North Georgia on a lake up there. It was about eight years old when I bought it. It wasn't a hunting cabin; it was basically a recreational cabin. This particular lake up in North Georgia, most of the people that go up there, have like second homes all around the lake. It's not a huge lake, but it's got about 300 miles of shoreline. Most of the people that go up there that have those houses are cabins or log homes primarily for recreation during the summertime. So yeah, but it was definitely haunted. Definitely haunted. I was one of those that really didn't believe in that sort of thing too much. But that particular cabin made a believer out of me.
Chris: My cousin bought a plantation in Alabama and same thing. He swears it’s haunted. He's had a medium on the property. As it turns out, one of the ghosts, I guess, you call him. Was a former slave from the plantation and a young girl who lived on the plantation. So yeah, he would tell me some amazing stories. I know that I don't want to live there.
Travis: Yeah. I've had people that have asked me about it. I sold that log home a few years ago. But people asked me, “Did you sell it because of the haunted?” And actually no, because for the last few years, just prior to selling it, the paranormal activity had really almost stopped completely. But it was one of those things where I stay on the road so much, and so busy, and obviously, the summer months are the busiest time for me. So, we were basically finding out that I was only available to go up there like four or five days a year. So, it wasn't something that we did get a chance to use very often. So, we ended up letting it go. But, the more I think about it, maybe someday, who knows, maybe someday I may buy another place up there.
Chris: There's something about the tranquility of being out in the woods.
Travis: 100%.
Chris: But I have a gun question for you. What does the Second Amendment mean to you?
Travis: The Second Amendment - First of all, we are able to own the guns that we use for all of the hunting that we do. But above and beyond that, I think everybody should have the God given right to be able to protect themselves, defend themselves against any kind of intruder or anyone that would be a threat to possibly do harm to you or your family. It will also protect us against tyranny. I look at what is going on in Australia right now. I seriously doubt that any of the experiences that they are having there with the government are basically just overreaching and all these government, draconian rules that basically keeping people locked up in their houses and people don't have the opportunity to fight back anymore because years ago, they gave up their guns in Australia. I think that's one of the biggest reasons why they're seeing their country being overrun. The general public is defenseless against that.
So, the Second Amendment was put in place to protect people against a tyrannical government, and give them the opportunity to be able to fight back. That is how this country was founded. It is something that we absolutely have to preserve in order to protect our freedom and our way of life and our families.
Chris: Well, this administration is coming after our Second Amendment right pretty hard. But in my opinion, Joe Biden forfeited that right when he equipped the Taliban with over 600,000 small arms, armored vehicles, Blackhawk helicopters and planes. He fully equipped the Taliban’s army. So, to me, he forfeited that right to try and question our right to bear arms.
Travis: Well, think about this, this administration has basically said by their actions, that it's okay for the Taliban to have all of these armored vehicles and all of these guns. But your local police departments cannot have them. That is absolutely, completely backwards. I just don't understand the mentality behind it. But once again, if we're going to continue to have a country, the United States has got to preserve our freedoms. All of the freedoms that were not given to us by the government, but they were given to us by God. They are documented in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We have to stand strong, and we have to fight back any kind of tyranny that would take those rights and those freedoms away from us.
Chris: I agree 100%. Well, in closing, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart…. for bringing The Eagles back together. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Travis: I have had a lot of people try to give me credit for that. I have never really taken credit for it, simply because of the fact that the way that came about in the mid-90s. One of the record labels came up with the idea of doing a tribute album to The Eagles. They wanted all of the current hitmakers in country music to each do a cover of an Eagle song. I think I was one of the last ones that was invited to do it. The record company asked me, “Well, what song do you want to do?” Well, I'd like to do Desperado. Well, no, Clint Black’s already doing that. Well, I'd like to do this song. Well, no, somebody else is already doing it. So, I was kind of running out of options. My attorney at the time, suggested to me that I do “Take it Easy” because that was their first number one hit for The Eagles. So, I asked, “Is that song taken?” And they said “No, it's not taken.” I said, “Well, great.” So, I went in and recorded it.
A few months later, they sent me the entire album. I sat and listened to it and just thought, man, everybody's performance on this album was just so great. The thing that was special to me about it was the fact that The Eagles had become the soundtrack of my life. The first time I did a lot of things in my life. The first time I ever drove my father's car without him being with me, the first time that I ever went on a date, first time ever kissed a girl, there was Eagles music playing in the background. So, it literally became the soundtrack of my life. After we completed the album, I got a call one day from The Eagles management office. They said, “Hey, we're gonna make your single to be the first single off of this album.” I was honored. I was shocked, you know, I was like, man, there's so many great performances, and they said, “We want you to be the first and to promote it, we want you to do a video.” I thought, “Man, that's gonna have to be a heck of a video to stand up to how good this album really is.” And they said, “Well, what do you have in mind?” Just off the top of my head, I said something like, “I don't know, maybe we should get The Eagles back together.” And I just kind of laughed. And there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.
Apparently, somebody took me seriously, because they called back and said, “Look, I'm going to give you Don Henley's phone number, and I'm going to give you Glenn Frey's phone number. If you can get them to agree to be a part of this video, then we'll do it.” So, we called both of them and both of them said the same thing. They said, “Well, if the other one does it, I'll do it.” We knew that once we had Don and Glen that the rest of The Eagles would probably come in as well. And they all did. We ended up just shooting that video in a little Cantina restaurant in Los Angeles in December of that year. At the end of the video, they said they had a little bandstand set up in the corner. And they had all the amps and a drum kit and everything they said, “We just want you guys to just act like you're playing along with the song.” So, I picked up a guitar and plugged in. All the guys plugged in their instruments, and Don sat behind the drum kit. I just started playing the beginning of Rocky Mountain Way-- bump ta bump, bah bah, and the band joined in. I'm sharing a microphone, I'm this close to Joe Walsh singing Rocky Mountain Way. That was the first song that The Eagles had played together in over 15 years. I got to be an Eagle for a day. So, it was just one of those things that just kind of happened by accident. But everything happens for a reason. The timing of that was just perfect. So, I don't take a lot of credit for getting them back together. I was just glad to be a part of it and glad to be involved. That was kind of the beginning of the Hell Freezes Over tour. So yeah, it was a great experience for me and I managed to maintain a really good friendship with both Glen Frey right up until he passed away. And also, with Don Henley as well. So, I'm just honored that I had that opportunity to work with those guys because they meant so much to me, musically.
Chris: That’s awesome. They had a huge impact on everybody's life because they were always on the radio. They were always around.
Travis: Yeah, absolutely. Every song they did was just fabulous. Their music spanned all different genres. Their early stuff had a very country influence. I think one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life was Hotel California, and it's still one of my all-time favorites.
Chris: That was gold. Well technically it was platinum. But all right, I appreciate you taking the time to speak to us today. Where can we find your new album “Set in Stone?”
Travis: Oh, it's available pretty much everywhere. All the streaming services are carrying it, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, all of those. You can find the album there. It's called “Set In Stone.” You can also find it in Walmart, Amazon, all those places carry it as well. We are just now coming out with Vinyl. We're going to do a limited-edition Vinyl album. So, I'm very excited about that. You can find out all of my updated tour information at www.Travistritt.com . And I encourage people to go there because we are constantly adding more and more dates to our schedule, not only for 2021, but also into 2022 and beyond. So go check it out.
Chris: Great. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
Travis: Thank you so much for having me.