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Caroline Jones talked about her thriving career in music — both as a solo artist and as an official member of Zac Brown Band — a bustling touring schedule and the careful timing of her pregnancy as she and her husband start their family. Jones appears on the latest episode of the Biscuits & Jam podcast, catching up with host and Southern Living Editor-in-Chief Sid Evans.
Growing up in New York City, Jones studied classical music and opera, and became passionate about traditional country music by the time she attended high school. Now a professional singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jones is preparing to release her next full-length studio album while balancing her time as the first-ever female member of Zac Brown Band. Jones plans to tour up until she’s 37 weeks pregnant, between shows with the “Same Boat” hitmakers and her own headlining dates.
“I just got a call out of the blue in 2021 asking if I would come out on the road and play in the band like utilities, and I had to clarify. Like, ‘You mean like me on stage with everyone?’ It was like, ‘Does not compute, does not compute.’ You know?” Jones said with a laugh. “And it sounds like a no-brainer now because it's such an organic part of my career, but at the time, I was putting out an album and I was like, ‘Can I do this? Should I do this? How will I balance this with my solo career?’ which is obviously extremely important to me and something I'm always gonna be a hundred miles an hour on, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn from musicians of that caliber…We live in a very electronic world with lots of bells and whistles and there's nothing wrong with that, but as a musician, to be able to sink your teeth in with guys the quality of the Zac Brown Band is just an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.”
Jones teamed up with frontman Zac Brown on “Million Little Bandaids,” a collaboration that’s set to appear on her album Homesite in October. She recently announced details about the project, which will include a few other previously-released tracks like “Keep It Safe” featuring Alyssa Bonagura, “Normal Person” and others. Being at a pivotal point in her career, Jones shared that she was careful about the timing of her decision to start a family.
“Frankly, for anyone with a high pressure job who's trying to do it at the highest level, it's just harder to be a woman,” Jones said on the Biscuits & Jam podcast, also pointing out artists like Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris and Sheryl Crow, who helped inspire her to balance motherhood and music. “And I don't say that for pity. It's a huge investment for us to start a family, much more than being a man and that's just a fact of life and something that you have to navigate if you're a woman which is also an incredible gift as I'm learning now, but it's really scary when you've built your whole life around your career and your dream.
“…it was a big conversation for us and something that I was really nervous would affect my career in the eyes of other people,” she continued. “I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do both well, and so when we decided that we were ready to have kids, then there's the whole thing of like, ‘Well, it's ideal to have a baby in the winter because I'm not touring.’ So I can take the time that I need, or else I'd have to miss a year of touring. I sound like an athlete, but it's true, and I want to take that time. It's such a magical time if you're going to become a parent to take those three or four months or some people have longer, some people have shorter. You're never going to get that back.”