James Otto Thankful For The Second Chance

Country Music artist James Otto last week released his Warner Bros. Records debut, Sunset Man, featuring the fast-rising single “Just Got Started Lovin’ You”. After James’ first release, on a different label, bombed; it was unclear where his second label deal would come from.

 

It was a particularly strange time for James, a member of the MuzikMafia group of artists that includes Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and others. He had been the first in the group to get a record deal, but at that point in 2004 when his Mercury Records deal collapsed, he was the only one without a deal.

 

In an interview with The Tennessean, Otto credits time spent with his friends in the MuzikMafia for getting him back on his creative feet. Otto said he played many nights on stage with Mafia members such as Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson after he parted ways with Mercury, and that he's grateful to the Mafia for giving him a place to perform when he needed it most.

 

"The best thing was all of those guys gave me a platform to play," he said. "They all took me out, and as they blew up they put me on their stages and they put me on a pedestal. Having great friends like that certainly changed the outcome of what my career would have done."

 

About his new release, James told The Tennessean, "Obviously, I'm nervous, I want people to love the record. When my last record dropped, I got the feeling it was dropping into a hole. I think we sold 10,000 copies of (it), and we already have pre-orders that show this one is going to be all right. I can exhale now. It's been five years of working on this record and praying it's going to work, and getting to the end process and being proud of the product we made."

 

His new release is produced by Otto's Mafia buddy John Rich and his brother-in-law Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts, Otto wrote nine of the 11 songs on the album, which he said is "a pretty good representation of me as a man."

 

But Otto isn't bitter about his previous failed label deal, his take on it to The Tennessean is this, "Things happen for a reason, I landed in a good spot and my life is as good as it's ever been. I don't have any grudges for them at all. I'm just happy."