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Jordan McGraw remembers his second concert ever and probably his most influential: Tina Turner. Tagging along with his father, he was fully immersed in the exhilaration of live music. Seas of people screaming lyrics. Everyone getting shoved around. Unmatchable energy. It was from that moment that he knew he belonged on stage.

His newest single “mcconaughey” is about none other than fellow Texan himself, Matthew McConaughey. This single marks a new era in McGraw’s career. After nearly 15 years of creating music, he has finally found the confidence to be 100% himself. No restrictions. No holding back. The catchy tune has become not only his favorite to perform live, but also every crowd’s favorite. Currently on tour with the Jonas Brothers for their Remember This tour, “mcconaughey” gets people out of their seats.

Flaunt caught up with the musician right before a set in North Carolina. Read the conversation about his newest single, fatherhood, finding confidence, and more below!

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Is it weird performing again?

Kind of. There’s weird elements to it. The bubble is way tighter. Last time we would leave the show every night and there would be enough of us to just go take over a bar or hang out and let the adrenaline kind of go down. But now, the bummer of it is we have to kind of go straight back to wherever our safe spots are and keep that bubble tight. But from a performance perspective, it’s the shit. Everybody is so happy to be out of the house and around people that the energy starts at a 10 before they even sit down.

So you’re not sick of traveling? I know touring can be kind of tiring.

No, I love it. I mean, it’s the cheesy answer to that question, but I love performing for people. I love getting in front of people and making them happy for three or four minutes at a time. So the struggle of being away from home is usually outweighed by the rewarding part of getting in front of people and doing what we didn’t get to do for a whole year. Both of us—they wanted to watch shows for a year, we wanted to play shows for a year and neither of us could do it. So it’s just cool to be able to have that fun again.

What are you most excited about doing once the tour is finally over and you can go back home?

I have a seven-month-old baby and a new wife and another baby on the way. I had to FaceTime the 20 weeks sonogram, and I don’t get to be there and watch my daughter haul ass crawling across the living room because she just figured out how to do it. They flew out and spent three weeks with me, but as soon as they leave, it feels they’ve been gone for however long they were already there. So that’s definitely tough. But I get to be out here doing something that hopefully both my kids will be super proud of when they really get to understand what’s going on.

It sounds bittersweet. There’s pros and cons.

Yeah, I think that’s kind of the nature of the beast, no matter what’s going on. You’re always away from home, you’re always a little bit tired. You’re always kind of frazzled, but then that hour that you get to spend on stage—you come offstage and you’re like, that was so fucking worth it. This is why I’m here. This is awesome. And then you go to bed, wake up, and start that whole mental process over again.

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Do you have a favorite location you guys have been to yet or a favorite venue that you’ve played during this tour?

There’s definitely a couple crossed off the bucket list. Red Rocks was unreal. My wife got to be there for that. That was the one venue where you walk out and you just look up and you’re like, holy shit, this is what it is. It’s just naturally beautiful. Everybody there has this different kind of energy because they get it too. It’s just this place. Everybody has been there, everybody’s recorded their show there. It’s unreal. But then coming up, I grew up in Dallas, and I’m playing the venue that I saw the two most influential people for me. I saw their shows there. And to be on that stage, it’s the same place, is mindblowing to me. It is the only thing I’m a little nervous about. I don’t get nervous, but that show I’m definitely going to be... okay, this is the full circle, this is what all this work is for. So I’m pumped for that one.

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Who were those two most influential people that you saw?

The first one is my second concert ever. My dad, he can barely play the radio, but he always introduced me to the bands that he felt like I needed to hear. And that first one was Tina Turner. I saw that show. And my mind was just blown by the amount of energy, the happiness, the upbeat, the just... everybody was kind
of competing with each other for who’s having the most fun. My jaw was on the floor the whole time. My dad was looking at me like, yeah, I know. And then the second one was Blink-182. That was the first concert that I got to go to by myself, just me and a friend. My parents dropped me off and the curtain dropped and there was this big flaming fuck sign in the back of the stage and I was just like, ‘Okay, this is a whole ‘nother level of this.’ If I could draw up what I thought this whole thing would be, I would draw that stage, and show it to young me, and be like, ‘This is what’s going to just drive you and change the world for you.’ It all sounds so cheesy, but it’s true. I was dressed up like a skateboarder, and I couldn’t ride a skateboard. I walked up there, and it was my first time seeing people push each other around. And that dropped, and they just started my favorite song. It was just like one of those A-ha moments where you’re just like, ‘Holy shit, this is everything I need right now.’

Do you think it was at that moment that you knew you wanted to perform like that for the rest of your life?

I think the Tina Turner moment was big for me because I didn’t know what about it that I loved. I just loved the whole energy of the thing. It was something really special. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know what about this I want to do, but I want to do this.’ Then Blink-182 was where I was like, ‘Oh, that’s it. That’s what I want to do. That’s the picture that I want to put myself into.’

I read that you picked up a guitar for the first time at 15. What do you think that 15-year-old version of yourself would think of you now, 20 years later, playing all these crazy venues?

I think it’d be a mix of as a teenager rolling my eyes because I think I thought I was cooler than everybody. And then I think I would just have so many questions for myself. Like: How did you get there? How did you do that? What do your parents think of this? What is it really like? And I don’t think I’d tell myself anything. I’d be like, you gotta figure this out. You got to do the whole thing. It’s gonna take you a little while, you know, I’m 35, and I’ve been making music since I was 15 and it’s taken me this long to really finally be myself. I wish I would have had, whether it was the confidence to put my real self out there or just the knowledge of how things work to articulate it the best way and do it a little younger, but at the same time, I don’t care. I’ve had an awesome journey to get here. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. There’s been highs, there’s been lows, but it feels so good to be me now. And I wouldn’t want to shrink that amount of pride for it to have come a few years earlier. And I think a large part of it, it’s like, I just became a dad. So it really is true, you have a kid and you’re like, ‘Holy shit, I need to be something that they can be proud of.’ And so for me to have that motivation to be myself now, it kind of coincides naturally with that new responsibility. I wouldn’t change that kind of perfect timing for anything.

I was gonna ask you what that journey looked like from being 15 to building up your confidence to where you are now. So it was having a kid that made you confident and made you be able to be who you want to be on stage, or just like in any aspect of your life?

I think it’s a little bit of everything. So the last tour that I did with the Brothers, I kind of just started figuring myself out as a singer. I’d always been a guitar player in other bands, and I’d just started to figure that out. I really wasn’t sure how I wanted to present myself in front. I think I went a little too, I don’t want to say to pop, but I went a little too safe. And people liked it. And it was fine. But that’s not what this is about. I don’t want everybody to like me, I want to be me. And if you hate it, that’s as interesting to me as loving me. It took shutting down and the pandemic, and my now wife and I were in a house in Malibu in LA, and I called my manager one day, and we were kind of getting people sending in new songs, and I was just like, ‘Dude, there’s just something that’s just not it. This is not right, it doesn’t feel cool.’ I don’t mean cool in the popular sense. I just mean cool to me, I don’t feel like I would watch me. So he said, Cool, well you’ve got plenty of time to lock yourself in a room and figure it out. So I literally did that. There was an extra bedroom in the house, and I went and I sat in there with an acoustic guitar, and I stared at a wall for days and days and days and days, and then kind of started listening to all my favorite bands and figuring that out and easing my way into just doing whatever the fuck came out. Three weeks into that process, I was like, ‘Oh, okay, now I have an idea’ and I kind of just went down my own rabbit hole and kind of figured it out.

Do you think you could describe your sound?

I mean, it’s such a tough question because there’s simple answers and there’s not simple answers. But I think for me, I really grew up on pop-punk. And what I loved about it was just the immaturity of it, and it’s still what I love about it. I get a lot of comments about people saying your parents must be so disappointed in you the way you speak on stage, and I can’t believe you would say a thing like that, and your music is great, but I don’t know about—it’s just like... that’s the fun part of it for me. You’re up there to not take yourself seriously, like music doesn’t have to be this deep thing, it can just be fun.

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I can sing a song about Matthew McConaughey, and you’re gonna have fun. Is it gonna make you rethink your relationship or hate your dad a little more? No. But you’re gonna have fun, who cares? Why is that any less important than singing about heartbreak?

So do you pull inspiration for your songs from really anything then?

Yeah, I just try to be me now. It sounds like a broken record kind of thing to say. It’s just like, somebody says something funny, okay, make a song about it. Somebody says something interesting. Write it down, alright, make a song about it. If I have a weird dream, make a song about it. I just started kind of not trying to think of clever things and just make songs, and some of them are terrible. And some of them stick around and whatever. That’s the journey. That’s the fun part about it.

Could you tell me what the inspiration behind ‘mcconaughey’ is and what you like about that song?

I mean, it’s Matthew McConaughey. He’s a legend. Everybody knows who he is. I grew up a Texas kid. Until I was 15 I lived in Dallas, and McConaughey is just a staple. People in the UK have a picture of The Queen in their house people, in Texas have a picture of McConaughey at their house. So I don’t know, it’s just kind of a silly thing. The song came around— two of my friends were at the end of the session and they kind of came up with that chorus, and they played it for me, and I was like that speaks to me so, so deeply, we need to get into this. The process of putting it together was just a bunch of laughing, and to me, that’s just like the best sign you could have all while writing a song. Everybody’s smiling in the room. It’s fun.

Have you been playing that song live on this tour?

Oh yeah. It’s my favorite in the set.

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What do you like about performing it?

There’s two songs at the end of the set that kind of just turn the whole show into like a real rock show. That’s just the one that we were gonna play a shorter version of when we were putting the set together originally. Then it just kept feeling better and better the more we rehearsed it, and we were like, fuck it, let’s play the whole thing. The first night, that was the moment where people were like, ‘Oh, shit, I’m having way too much fun, this is amazing figuring it out, singing along.’ And so we’ve kind of turned it into this moment in the set where, we say that you’re not going to get kicked out, come down the aisles, stand in the aisles. Go back to your seats later, but right now let’s make this a really small show. Everybody jump up and down. And it’s just really cool to see people so excited to do that and have that raw energy. And so it’s fun to play. But it’s also like, the reaction has made it this really cool part of the night.

Were you expecting that type of reaction whenever you were writing it?

Yeah, I think I keep in mind every song for live, which I think maybe is a good thing and a bad thing at times. But it goes back to that whole not needing to be a serious thing. You know, I would rather write a song to a tempo that I feel like people can jump up and down to than just really get into the lyrics and tear
it apart, break it down like that. To me, it’s more important to have that mental picture of being on stage when you’re putting it together.

Do you have any songs that you really like, but maybe you don’t like performing live?

I’m super stubborn, so if I don’t like a song, I just won’t play it. There’s one song in the set right now that I’m like, I’m just waiting to swap it out with something else. But I don’t hate that one. It’s just... it’s close to getting the boot.

Can you tell me what it is?

Yeah, it’s called ‘Shadow.’ It’s not out. I probably won’t ever put it out. But you know, it’s a cool song, and people like it, it’s just not quite there. I’m just not quite into it. So I think it’ll get the boot.

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If somebody hasn’t listened to your music yet, but they want to be introduced to you, is there a song that you recommend for them to listen to first?

I think ‘mcconaughey’ would be the one that I think would paint that picture the best which is like, it’s silly. It’s fun, but it’s a good song. And it kind of just sums up the whole energy and sense of humor about the whole thing.

Can you tell me what your favorite memory from this tour has been so far?

Man, somebody asked me this earlier today actually, it’s so hard. I think my wife— we got married in December and she had only seen me play a handful of times, I think maybe twice since I was really doing me. And so her being able to be out here in a few cities and coming and watching her just kind of have that same little party over on the side of the stage and be smiling and have fun and actually really enjoy it like, ‘Oh shit, you’re good at this. Okay, cool. Thank God, I don’t have to tell you that was terrible.’ But having that kind of experience and getting able to show her that extra side of what I do has been the coolest thing.

The first time she ever heard you perform live, was that nerve-wracking for you? Or were you just more so excited?
I say I don’t get nervous and part of the reason I always say it is because the way that I convince myself to not be nervous is just telling myself that being nervous is not an option. But playing for her or my parents is the only time where I’m like, ‘Okay, I have to talk to you guys afterward.’ It’s like the only thing that kind of makes me a little nervous. I’ll be terrified when my kids can watch me.

Are you gonna wait until they’re a certain age where they can watch you?

I think it’s funny because a couple of our crew members have been like, I don’t think I’m gonna let my kids come watch you. You’re a little too inappropriate. But I just don’t have that same fear. Like people send me that message all the time that’s like, I can’t believe you would say this or how dare you make that joke. We were playing a Jiffy Lube amphitheater and I made a lube joke and somebody said, I don’t like hearing about your weird sex on stage, your dad must be so disappointed in you. And I’m like if you knew the shit that my dad said you would be... I think you wouldn’t handle that well either. Everybody thinks I’m my dad’s bastard son, that is the black sheep, that everybody in my family must be so bummed on and whatever. But the fact of the matter is like he taught me how to swear. Like where do you think that came from? So I think that I have the same approach with my kids. As soon as they can come, I’ll be like, ‘Hey, dad, he’s gonna say some shit on stage that you can’t repeat, but laugh at it and when I tell everybody to yell their favorite swear word, you get a pass, do your thing. The point of the whole thing is just escape. There’s no rules during the set, have fun.’

Were your parents always really supportive of your career then?

Yeah. I moved to LA when I was 15. I didn’t have any friends. Not in a sad way, I just moved in the middle of summer. I saved up my money, and I had my dad take me to Guitar Center and I bought the Tom DeLonge edition stat, took it home, and started figuring it out. I later found out that when I first went to put my first bands together, we would lock ourselves in my room for hours and play our terrible, terrible songs and he told me years later that he used to put a chair outside of the door and listen. His favorite thing was hearing how our songs went from just like noise to kind of noise in unison to Oh my god, you guys are figuring out that there’s more than two notes to Oh my God, I can sing along to that one. He was the first one to come in and be like, I think you guys could probably put together a show, why don’t you and kind of pushed me into figuring out how to book my own show and sell my own tickets and all of that. Then, my mom, I could just turn the guitar on as loud as possible and throw it against the wall and she would tell me it sounds beautiful. She’s like my biggest fan no matter what. So they’ve always been super cool about it.

Are you kind of just living in the present or do you have any long-term goals for the future?

I have this new energy. I feel like I’m in my first band again. And so to me the goals are very, in that world. I
want to write the next song. I think ‘mcconaughey’ will do very well and hopefully, it’s the biggest song in the world. But I just want it to do as well as it’s supposed to do, and then build that block, and build the next one, and build the next one. The more ambitious answer is that my next big checkmark is Pyro. As soon as we can have fire on stage like that means that something is working, that means that something is growing and being bigger. I want my own tour, and I want my own light show. I want to really create the vibe from the start of the night to the end of the night.