Rocking for 35 years, but, every night he tries ‘to play like it’s my last show.’

For over three decades, Kevn Kinney has been the frontman, vocalist, co-guitarist and principal songwriter for Drivin’ N’ Cryin’.

So it’s only natural that he feels some sense of admiration for the Georgia band born out of alternative, post-punk and roots-savvy rock ’n’ roll inspirations. But ask Kinney today and he will happily tell you that, along with all of his connections to Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, he counts himself as a fan.

“The other night, as I was in the Kroger checkout, a guy came up to me and was like, ‘Man, your show the other night was amazing.’ I was just like, ‘Yeah. I wish I was there.’ I have to play the role of the singer, I know. But I’m a fan of the band myself, and as a fan, I’m always thinking, ‘What do I want to see?’ and ‘What would I like the songs to say?’”

Reared on punk rock in his native Milwaukee, Kinney moved to Georgia in 1982 in search of offstage work. But clocking industrial plant hours didn’t stop his fascination with a thriving underground rock scene in Atlanta and the indie music boom roaring a little more than an hour away in Athens.

“I didn’t move to Georgia to start a band,” he said. “I moved to Georgia from Milwaukee, from a hard rock/punk rock world, to work. When I moved here, everything was about how these scenes were growing. On my way to work, I listened to a cassette of a local band called R.E.M. that I had never heard of before moving.

“It dawned on me that things were just different here. Bands would play and actually make money. There was a network that they shared from all the colleges — in Clemson, Baton Rouge, North Carolina, South Carolina. With all those colleges came this really great touring structure that was being used by R.E.M., The B-52s and all these cool bands. I loved the energy of those scenes.”

The debut Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ record, “Scarred But Smarter,” arrived in 1986. But it was with 1989’s “Mystery Road” that the band’s sound, a mixture of folk intent and arena rock expansiveness, began to catch on. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck was set to produce the record. Although Island Records replaced Buck with Scott McPherson, initial acoustic sessions for the record formed the basis of Kinney’s debut solo album, 1990’s “MacDougal Blues.” This fall, “Mystery Road” was reissued with several of the Buck-assisted demos that linked the album with “MacDougal Blues.”

‘I like that the reissue included the demos. It’s now complete. If you take ‘MacDougal Blues,’ ‘Mystery Road’ and the demos, you have a trilogy. When you listen to the demos, you hear songs as they’re being built. You hear ‘Honeysuckle Blue’ (one of the most enduring tunes on ‘Mystery Road’) with no words. You hear the beginnings of ‘MacDougal Blues’ and how the record was shaping up. You hear how Peter Buck was helping make it sound really fresh and raw. As a fan, I think that’s pretty great.”

As “Mystery Road” gets new life, so does its biggest hit, a country-fused parable called “Straight to Hell.” In October, pop-turned-country star Darius Rucker released a new version of the tune with Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley on Rucker’s new album, “When Was the Last Time.”

“To me, ‘Straight to Hell’ is a love song,” Kinney said. “It’s Romeo and Juliet in blue-collar America. So one day I was on my way to the airport and I got a text from Darius. It said, ‘I just recorded ‘Straight to Hell’ with Luke Bryan, Jason Alden and Charles Kelley. I hope you don’t mind.’ I was just like, ‘Thank you.’ It’s such a simple song. Everybody can do their own version.”

At the beginning of 2018, however, Kinney’s attention will turn to new music as the current Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ lineup — completed by bassist/band co-founder Tim Nielsen, drummer Dave V. Johnson and newly recruited Estonian-born guitarist Laur Joamets (last seen in Lexington in Sturgill Simpson’s band during a two night Opera House engagement) — hits the studio.

Whether they record a brief EP disc (such as the four released between 2012 and 2014) or a full-length album will be determined as the sessions progress. For Kinney, what will matter most is maintaining the same level of performance excitement he sensed when Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ first roared out of Georgia.

“I’m 56 years old and have been doing this for 35 years, which comes out to about 4,000 shows. It sounds a little bit cheesy, but I feel like every night is my first show. Then I try to play like it’s my last show.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Rocking for 35 years, but, every night he tries ‘to play like it’s my last show.’."