Randy Houser Puts Thoughts About His Late Father to Music

Randy Houser's father was a big influence on him musically, even though he passed away when Randy was only 21. In fact, two of the songs on Randy's new album, 'They Call Me Cadillac' -- 'Somewhere South of Memphis' and 'Lead Me Home' -- are steeped with reminisces of his late father.

"My dad wasn't the biggest role model, but he was a great musician and I loved him very much," Randy tells The Boot. "He was a character. I think a lot of the reasons that I write a lot about him because I feel like think there's such a piece missing. He died when I was 21, so I feel like he was such a big part of me musically that there's such a big part of me musically that there's a big piece missing with what I do today. I always feel like he was here to see it, but, obviously, I think he is, but I can't have that immediate interaction with him. That's constantly in my thoughts, and I write about it a lot."

Randy admits his dad, who passed away in 1997 from cirrhosis of the liver, probably would not have won any awards for being 'Father of the Year' or 'Best Dad in the World.' "He was definitely an absentee father. He and my mother divorced when I was seven years old, and we may see him two or three weeks out of a year. He was out playing and all those things. That's one thing that I [learned]. I never felt like I wanted to have kids until I could be home and be a daddy, and those are the things that I didn't have. He basically drank himself to death. I never really had seen him drunk. There were things that aggravated the sh** out of me about him, but he was a complete character. He was like Forrest Gump a little bit -- he did everything. He loved us a lot and made sure we knew it, but he wasn't the type of person to stay. Those things were aggravating, and still are. I feel we would've connected more later on, and we never got to. He moved to Denver from Mississippi, and then I didn't see him for a year-and-a-half, almost two years until he called and said he was dying. So, I had to fly to Denver and put him in the hospital, and so we talked about a lot of those things. We got some closure and all that, but there's still that piece that says, 'Damn!' There's a big piece missing, and just like when you lose anybody that you feel like you hadn't spent the time with that you should have."

Randy's new album, featuring the new single 'A Man Like Me,' hits stores Tuesday, September 21.