{"id":483757,"date":"2019-03-22T10:37:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T16:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=811411"},"modified":"2019-03-22T10:37:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T16:37:13","slug":"song-you-need-to-know-austin-jenckes-fat-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/song-you-need-to-know-austin-jenckes-fat-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Song You Need to Know: Austin Jenckes, \u2018Fat Kid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/AJ_10-29-18_391vBW.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Austin Jenckes knows firsthand what it feels like to be the outcast. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, the reflective country singer was made fun of for his size throughout middle school. \u201cI was 180 pounds in 8th grade,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we picked teams at recess, I wasn\u2019t allowed to be on the boys team. I hated that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jenckes, a fifth-season contestant on <em>The Voice<\/em>, channels that isolation \u2014 and his eventual transformation into a popular high-school football player \u2014 in his vulnerable new ballad, \u201cFat Kid.\u201d Grammy-winning songwriter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/lori-mckenna\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lori-mckenna\" data-tag=\"lori-mckenna\">Lori McKenna<\/a> sings harmony on the track, which she co-wrote with Jenckes\u2019 former roommate Neil Mason of Southern-rock trio the Cadillac Three. It\u2019s the only song on Jenckes\u2019 upcoming album, <em>If You Grew Up Like I Did<\/em>, that Jenckes didn\u2019t write himself, but he found McKenna\u2019s demo too irresistible to ignore.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qyBKDvyTrSQ?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAin\u2019t life just like high school sometimes?\u201d he sings in the rueful chorus. \u201cProbably sitting in the back of a cafeteria by yourself\/Feeling like a fast girl, a math nerd, the fat kid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way Lori was singing the song reminded me of everything that I am,\u201d Jenckes says. \u201cI\u2019ve written a hundred songs about growing up in a small town, but this is the one where I thought, \u2018That\u2019s me.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McKenna and Mason\u2019s lyrics flesh out the song, but it\u2019s Jenckes\u2019 yearning delivery that sells it. A big-voiced singer onstage, he holds back here, favoring restrained emotion over dramatic runs. The track opens with a strummed acoustic guitar before building to a lush, radio-ready production \u2014 although some greasy slide guitar from session pro Rob McNelley saves it from sounding as slick as what\u2019s on the airwaves today.<strong><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFat Kid\u201d is already a hit with country fans. When Jenckes first played it in his home state of Washington, and later at Nashville\u2019s famous proving ground the Bluebird Cafe, the audience clapped and cheered when he got to the line \u201cif you grew up like I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Jenckes, that felt like validation. \u201cAll those insecurities remain,\u201d he says of his childhood, \u201cor you turn them into other things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/austin-jenckes-fat-kid-lori-mckenna-song-you-need-to-know-811411\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Jenckes knows firsthand what it feels like to be the outcast. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, the reflective country singer was made fun of for his size throughout middle school. \u201cI was 180 pounds in 8th grade,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we picked teams at recess, I wasn\u2019t allowed to be on the boys [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-483757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 21:53:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}