Kelley juggles life on road, marriage

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By Stephanie De Pasquale | Wednesday, April 23, 2008 1:36 PM CDT | () comments

(Contributed photo) Singer/songwriter Josh Kelley performs Friday night at St. Ambrose University,

Singer/songwriter Josh Kelley jokes that after he performs Friday night at St. Ambrose University, his managers are going to tell him the Quad-City show isn’t really the last stop on his current tour.

Kelley has been touring or recording for the past four years, but since his December marriage to television and movie actress Katherine Heigl (of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Knocked Up” and “27 Dresses” fame), Kelley has made a point to spend three weeks at home with his wife for every three weeks he’s on the road.

“You make time for the things you want in life and we make time for each other,” he said. “I make sure I fly home every chance that I get a day off.”

The majority of the songs on Kelley’s latest album “Special Company,” which was released in February, are about his new bride. Most of the tunes are love songs, but a few touch on the rough side of relationships.

“That last album, ‘Special Company,’ was basically like free therapy,” he said. “I was embarking on a new journey in my life and that journey was called marriage and I needed to talk about it and I needed to get it off my chest.

“I wrote songs about the pros and cons and it was wonderful. It prepared me a lot for (the wedding) Dec. 23.”

Besides readying Kelley for marriage, “Special Company” is a mix of honest lyrics, soulful melodies, folk guitar music accompanying warm harmonies and danceable beats with jazz influences.

His next single off the album, “My Kind,” is the closest “Special Company” comes to rock.

“It’s one of my favorite songs,” he said. “It’s the biggest chance we’ve ever taken with a single because it’s more of an uptempo rock track, so those are never easy,” he said. “But I’ve always gone with the obvious single choice, and this is the first time that it hasn’t been obvious.”

Despite Kelley’s jokes about his managers hiding tour dates from him, he is scheduled to have a two-month break. He plans to spend the down time working on a new record, though.

“It’s not actually taking real time off because what I do when I go home is I just write songs, and I write for a lot of other artists, so that’s what it will be,” he said. “I’ll just be home and I’ll eat tuna salad sandwiches and make music and play golf.”

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.