ACL preview: Rose Hill Drive

Who are those long-haired kids from Boulder, Colorado, gallivanhalening about? Why, it’s Rose Hill Drive! The brothers Sproul, Jake and Daniel, along with their friend Nathan Barnes, seem devoted to bringing back the big sounds of classic rock. So get that oversized Zep T-shirt out of your hamper and start growing your horseshoe, because we talked to bassist and lead singer Jake Sproul about the band’s upcoming performance, Pete Townshend’s personal life, and freaky wooden fish.

That Other Paper What can we expect to see from Rose Hill Drive this year at ACL?

photo / Rich Anderson 

Jake Sproul We’ll be playing rock ’n’ roll. It’s three-piece rock, and there’s wicked guitar solos and power jamming and sweating. We’re playing some new material that we’re really excited about, and we usually will play some other rock bands’ songs. We like to do Hendrix. We’ll probably do a Hendrix song. Sometimes we do Black Sabbath. Sorry, I’m getting out of a parking lot.

TOP Last time you played ACL Fest was three years ago. When you went that year, were there any bands that you really enjoyed seeing?

JS I really liked the Roots. It was my first time to see them.

TOP You’ve been to Austin a few other times. When you come here, what do you like to do?

JS I went to this Mexican restaurant that was really good. I don’t remember the name, but there were these carvings on the walls — they were fish. Fish with crazy colors and kind of cartoon faces. It looked like they were made out of wood. I sound kind of cracked out, huh? It was really good, though. You can get burritos, but you can get them sopapilla style with deep fried tortilla. It was pretty stellar.

TOP Austin’s definitely a good city for Mexican food.

JS It’s also got such a great vibe. It’s pretty liberal, especially compared to the rest of Texas.

TOP Isn’t that how Boulder is, too, for Colorado? How does Austin compare to Boulder?

JS They’re both college towns. I’d say that Austin’s definitely a lot bigger. Boulder’s more of a small-town vibe. Kinda towny, next to the mountains. Austin’s got an interstate running through it. More of a city feel.

TOP Who are you looking forward to seeing this year at ACL?

JS I’m really looking forward to the Queens of the Stone Age. They’re just bad motherfuckers. They’ve got a great live sound going on right now, and the band’s really gelling.

TOP You’ve had some really awesome experiences, touring with The Who. So what I think we really want to know here is — what’s the one thing we don’t know about Pete Townshend?

JS I didn’t know when I met him that he’s a really warm, loving person. He’s a very avid music listener and keeps up on modern music. He just wants to be as involved in the present music as possible, which is really cool because some older groups get stuck in what they’ve done or what’s been. And they can’t really escape themselves. But he still has an active career, and he’s still as on fire as ever about music. He’s just a really aware, incredible person.

photo / Rich Anderson 

TOP So is that Rose Hill Drive in 40 years? What will you be doing?

JS If climate change doesn’t burn us off the map. We really love playing, and we’ve been keeping it going and feel very blessed that we’ve been on the road as long as we have. We look forward to doing that much time times five, 10, as long as we can.

TOP Anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

JS Our vibe is on 10 the whole time. We’re going to give it as much hell as we can.