Travis Tritt Wants ‘Real Country’ to Bring Back Traditional Country Music

Travis Tritt joins Jake Owen and Shania Twain in serving as a panelist on Real Country, a reality TV talent show on the USA Network, which offers singers the opportunity to perform in front of music industry executives.

For Tritt, the show became a way for him to honor his own roots, and the music that shaped his life and career.

“When this opportunity came to me, the first thing that I latched onto was the opportunity to sort of bring a focus back to the kind of music that I grew up listening to, and grew up loving,” Tritt told PopCulture.com, “and maybe use this show as an opportunity to educate some of the younger fans that might not know about the kind of music that I grew up listening to, and the kind of music that I think a lot of other people would love to see come back to the forefront. That’s traditional sounding country music.”

Tritt’s reasons for wanting to return to the traditional country music sounds are both personal and professional.

“More than any other genre of music, I think that the traditional sounding music that I grew up listening to, it told stories that would just touch your heart,” explained Tritt. “More than any other genre it deals with how you feel about your social status, how you feel about your country, how you feel about a loss of love, or the acquisition of love, falling in love, all of those different things.”

“Those songs, those classic country music songs, encompass all of those emotions,” he continued. “When you can do a song and people think, ‘Oh my God. When you did that song, you must have been reading my mail,’ that’s when you know you’ve done something right.”

Real Country premieres on Tuesday, Nov. 13, with Big & Rich serving as special celebrity guest panelists.

“It was an absolute blast getting to be guest panelists on Real Country and hear some of the most talented people in the USA!” the duo told PopCulture.com. “This show will be a big hit!”

Twain also had her own personal reasons for joining the cast of Real Country, in spite of her busy touring schedule.

“I’m trying to make a difference,” Twain told PopCulture.com. “I’m very passionate about, and concerned about the regression in country music, in the genre, as far as the ratio of women on the radio compared to [men]. I grew up listening to country music that had lots of women in the genre. And all these years later, there’s less women than ever. What is that? That’s called regression.”

“I’m bothered by that,” she continued. “I’ve already had my heyday, I’m not doing it for me. I’m worried about the upcoming girls that are gonna get discouraged and say, ‘You know what? There’s no room for us in this genre. There’s no room for women.’”

Real Country premieres at 10 p.m. ET on the USA Network.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Frederick Breedon IV