Sharleen Spiteri on why the 'colour drained from the record company guy’s face' when Texas made their new album

Virgin Radio

2 Apr 2024, 13:30

Texas have a new record out, featuring stripped back versions of some of their most well-known songs, but one track that might be expected to be there is absent.

Recorded with legendary American musician Spooner Oldham, the record includes beautiful, newly-imagined versions of 12 of the Scottish band’s hits, and two covers.

Texas and Spooner Oldham: The Muscle Shoals Sessions is out now, and while you can hear the likes of Say What You Want and I Don’t Want A Lover on it, hit single Inner Smile is not there.

Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar - and ahead of a Sunday Special on Virgin Radio UK - frontwoman Shaleen Spiteri said: “Inner Smile is not on this album, and Inner Smile is one of our biggest songs. And it was funny because when we came round to doing Inner Smile, Spooner was like, ‘Nah’. And I'm not kidding you, the best bit was that we just saw the colour draining from the record company guy’s face!”

She continued: “And we're like, ‘Why don't you want to do it?’ And [Spooner] went, ‘I don't do that Louie Louie schnizzle’. He went, ‘This song's not for me.’ Which for us meant, ‘Oh my god, he really wants to do everything else,’ but the record company were just like, ‘HE’S NOT DOING INNER SMILE!’

“We thought, ‘He's doing this because he wants to do it, he really wants to be part of it.’ And he sent me and Johnny [McElhone, guitarist] a lovely email the other night just seeing how much he loves the record. He's just a cool dude. He still tours with Neil Young right now!’

Sharleen added: “I just love him. He was just so cool.”

The album was recorded at the renowned Fame Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, during Summer 2022. Sharleen told Chris: “There's been so many great records made there. It's never changed. I mean, it's literally got like a 10 inch shag pile carpet in it. It's all wood, it just smells of music and musicians and great records and people that have been there.” 

And on the outcome of the recordings, she said: “The reaction to this record has been really insane, and I have to be honest, I'm a bit gobsmacked because we wanted it to be more like a thank you. So we're like, these are songs that have been we've done through the years from 89 right through to present day. And we were like, maybe you'll find something different.”

Read all about what Sharleen had to say about how listeners are going to see a “different side of Texas,” here.

To celebrate The Muscle Shoals Sessions, Sharleen also took us through the history of the iconic studios as well as the stories behind their new album recorded there, in a Sunday Special. Listen here.

Texas & Spooner Oldham: The Muscle Shoals Sessions is out now. For tickets to the UK tour In September visit tix.to/Texas.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.