Sturgill may have had the title for his latest concept album, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, in his head for years, but he reportedly kept hitting a wall when it came to actually bringing the idea to fruition. Simpson stumbled upon inspiration during his recent drive home from Oklahoma after wrapping up filming for Sorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, in which Simpson co-stars. According to Simpson, the drive proved fateful when he found himself in the clutches of Willie’s 1975 conceptual masterpiece Red Headed Stranger. After listening to the album 7 or 8 times on repeat, he mentally blended the album’s style and purpose with a picture his wife had recently sent him of two antique Kentucky long rifles and his long-held notions of a tribute album for his grandfather Dood, whom fans met in Panbowl and came to know better in Hero. Sturgill says it took two days for the entire album to culminate lyrically, with Sturgill’s grandfather Dood stepping into somewhat of a historical fiction protagonist role and each supporting character, Sham, Sam, and Juanita, being paid homage with their own individual tune. With the writing done, Sturgill called upon the talented musicians who helped him create his last two bluegrass albums to help give his bird of a story a song in its throat. Willie even lent ol’ Dood a hand, cranking out a signature Spanish guitar solo on Trigger that deftly gives structure to our meeting with Juanita during the tune by that name. The entire process “from coming into [Sturgill’s] head and out of the speakers” took a mere five days.