Nothing left ‘Undone’ for Joe Nichols as singer, dad

Yeah, Joe Nichols is genuinely happy, just like the pleasure from any perfect spring or summer day that’s sunny and 75 outside.

Calling May 23, before a concert in Canada’s capital of Ottawa, starting a week of concerts across Ontario, he said his catch phrase of “Freedom, family and fun” applies “absolutely” to his life in Texas.

The married father of three daughters – ages 17, 4 and 2 – said “with every year that goes by” of watching them grow, he sees parts of their lives “that are very special to me,” and “I can’t wait to get home to see them when I’m on the road.”

Having them occasionally on tour always brings a bonus, he said, and “they might be with me in Myrtle Beach.”

Nichols plays on the first full day of the second annual Carolina Country Music Fest, taking his turn on stage Friday among fellow stars as Keith Urban and Jake Owen.

Red Bow Records’ release of his new single, “Undone” – on the only Friday the 13th for 2016 – also has “radiated very well,” Nichols said. He called the song a different direction for him, with its “more serious, more intimate” expression, and the reaction and reception at concerts a nice surprise, even before its reaching the radio this week.

“I loved this song the first time I heard the demo,” he said, “and I thought, ‘That could be a hit,’ if I sing it right.”

Nichols said the number – whose co-writers include Trevor Rosen from the band Old Dominion – just “feels like me, with a little bit of traditional country” balanced with a modern touch, too. He said it’s the first step toward a new CD with which he’s aiming for release “in late November or early December,” in time for the Christmas season.

He’s used to accruing great mileage from albums. “Crickets,” his Red Bow debut from 2013, contained two No. 1 hits: “Sunny and 75” and “Yeah,” each consuming chunks of a year on the charts.

A number near the end of that CD, “Footlights” – written and recorded in the late 1970s by Merle Haggard – continues making footprints for Nichols’ heart and soul. Nichols covered that as a tribute to his own father, Michael Nichols, who lost his life at age 46 to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare, but overpowering, lung disease that’s difficult to diagnose.

Breathing life into IPF awareness

Joe Nichols, an ambassador for the “Breathless” awareness campaign about IPF (www.breathlessipf.com), said singing “Footlights” always gives him “one of those full-circle moments,” even more since the Hag’s death on April 6 on his 79th birthday.

In remembering his father, Nichols said the disease “came out of nowhere, and no one had a cure.”

“It was hopeless,’ Nichols said. “It left a hole of emptiness around his death.”

This new outlet to speak about IPF has turned into “a pretty big deal for me,” Nichols said, letting him fill up some of that blank feeling his dad left this Earth in 2002, that same year his hit parade began, with “The Impossible,” paving the way through the decade with other titles such as “Brokenheartsville,” “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” “Size Matters (Someday),” “I’ll Wait for You,” and “Gimmie That Girl.”

Anyone who might tell Nichols about how hearing one of his songs triggers memories of a certain instance or milestone, he understands why fully.

“Music is for taking you to another place,” he said.

Parenthood, especially with two little girls with wife Heather Nichols, also has doubled down as a purpose Joe Nichols realizes, because “hobbies have turned into ‘How can you make them happy today?’”

That poses no trouble or challenge for him.

“It’s pretty easy to please incredibly outgoing kids,” the happy dad said, cherishing comments made by many people on the obvious joy across the board for his family and feeling “very blessed.”

He said that even changing his children’s diapers between calls for interviews never has broken his stride through the years.

“It’s humbling to look at their faces,” Nichols said, “and know that this ain’t about me.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Nothing left ‘Undone’ for Joe Nichols as singer, dad."