M-E-D-L-E-Y Of The Hillbilly Jedi

Album: Hillbilly Jedi (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • It was Jon Bon Jovi who suggested the album title when he was collaborating with the Big & Rich pair on the record. However, when the duo proposed the idea to their label, Warner Bros. Nashville, the suits put a spanner in the works. "They said, 'Oh, we're gonna have to run this by our legal department... because the word Jedi is owned by George Lucas (LucasFilms)'," Rich recalled to Billboard magazine. "We went, 'Oh crap, we didn't even think of that. So sure enough, legal says, 'No, they can't use that.'"

    Rich continued: "Kenny called Jon and told him, and Jon said, 'Hang on a second. I'm gonna call George.' And Kenny says 'George who?' and Jon says, 'George Lucas, dude.' So he picks up his cell and calls George Lucas... at a race car event in Morocco and says 'Hey man, my buddies Big & Rich want to call their record 'Hillbilly Jedis' and the legal department is telling them they can't. Would you do a favor and just be cool about it and let 'em call it that?'"

    Lucas agreed, but with one condition. "He said, 'I have no problem if they want to use the word, but it's not Jedis. There's no 's' in Jedi, ever. Jedi is singular and plural, like deer,'" recalled Rich. "And we're like, 'Fine.' Sure enough, the next day we got paper from New York saying 'You guys can use it.'"

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