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From the moment you start The Kid from Jack Henry, you know you’ve missed out on something special.

“Trust Fund Zandt” has an introspective feel, and truly captures Henry’s unique take on songwriting.

“It’s kind of an overture, if you’re familiar with opera,” Henry said with a laugh, “a song that kind of delineates all the themes right at the outset.”

Growing Up

Henry grew up in the Texas Hill Country with music as a constant in his life from an early age. Raised in Austin, Henry is the son of one of the most prominent music journalists in town. 

He spent the last decade in San Marcos, where he was crowned KZSM’s “Songwriter of the Year.” 

“I moved here in 2012 for college and I stuck around,” Henry said. “That’s how that goes.” 

The Kid is Henry’s second full-length album, one that holds a special meaning for him as an artist. As his first album was released, tragedy struck. Henry’s greatest supporter, his Father Michael, passed away from a sudden heart attack, leaving little motivation to promote his first work.

“I was really excited to tour with it and everything, but then my father died about a month after it came out,” Henry said. “I had to cancel that. When your Father dies, that’s a big deal, and so I wrote all these songs about it and made this record. My Dad’s dream for me was to make something of myself with music, so I’m just trying to make him proud.” 

Henry stopped everything to set up a memorial with many of the local artists that knew him throughout the years. 

“He became the scene reporter for the Chronicle and started reviewing shows,” Henry said. “Before that he was the country music critic for the Dallas Morning News, very much a staple of the community. This album is not just about a Father dying, but about… it’s kind of a thing when your Dad’s a music critic as you can kind of imagine. I’m pretty well educated in what mistakes to make, or what mistakes can be made, and I tried to make all of them. My Dad hated certain things, and I decided to make all of those choices on the record.”

Henry spoke about how his lyrically based songs were something that he differed on with his Father, that he would always say “don’t bore us, get to the chorus.”

He said “you should make more songs like ‘Beautiful People,’” and I said “‘In what way?’ And he said ‘I don’t know.’ So this whole record is kind of a bunch of different ways of trying to interpret that,” Henry said. “All the influences on the record musically are like Austin artists that my Dad loved. It’s a love letter to Austin in a lot of ways.”

Henry said “he couldn’t play music, but he could tell people what the (expletive) was wrong what they… and he would tell you himself that ‘music critic is a stupid job, and no one should listen to what I have to say. I can tell you what I like.’”

Henry said the extent of his father’s stage time was playing “Louie, Louie” with the Conquistadors in Austin. When his Father passed, Henry took to drugs and alcohol to try and cope with the situation. 

“Everything in my life was falling apart,” Henry said. “My Grandfather died from the broken heart of his son dying, and I was just ready to throw in the towel.”

The Kid

Henry is now reaching a year of sobriety, having time to focus on his art and heal from the loss. He spoke about a vivid dream of speaking with his late father while using substances.

“I got to talk to the ghost of my Dad,” Henry said. “I just sat in my car drinking and (using drugs) and my Dad was there all of a sudden and we started talking. He asked me about the drugs, trying to live vicariously through me… I don’t want to say that his ghost told me to make an album, but based on the experience of talking to him, I wrote a few songs.” 

Henry said that when he was scheduled to record the songs, he was too inebriated to attend the session. That was his rock bottom moment that led to sobriety.

“The album got me sober,” Henry said. “It kind of became a concept album about grief. A lot of the songs are like a conversation between the two of us.”

Henry went on a nationwide tour to promote The Kid, heading out in his car and visiting radio stations around the northeast. He told us that his Father lived in a small side-house on the outskirts of town in a single bed that was too small for his large frame. Henry assumed he would need to take care of his lease after his passing. 

“It turns out my Dad left me some money,” Henry said. “So that’s how I’ve been funding this whole record. I’m taking this year to be an earnest push towards making a career out of singer-songwriting like my Dad always wanted me to do.”

Henry said that he always focused on being an artist first and foremost, as opposed to promoting his art and looking for a space in the industry, but this experience has given him a different motivation to push past those thoughts.

“I’ve got this kind of fire in my gut now,” Henry said. “It really feels like I’m on a mission from my Father. This is the way I have chosen to grieve I guess. It’s not about what I want. My Dad was like my best friend, and he always saw something in me. I’m just trying to respect that.”

Support the Artist

More information about Jack Henry can be found here.

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