DENTON COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — Bowling For Soup frontman Jaret Ray Reddick has been finding success with his solo country project, and for the first time, he’s performing his newest music in his hometown.

On Saturday, August 19, 2023, everything will come full circle for Reddick, when he performs in Wichita Falls for the first time in years, making good on a guarantee he made in October 2022 when he spoke with KFDX Digital Reporter Josh Hoggard.

The full interview with Jaret Ray Reddick can be found below:

“I’m glad to be back in one capacity or another,” Reddick said. “It’s been a long time. think we only played there six or seven years ago on a St. Patrick’s Day thing. Super glad to be back in, you know, in my hometown, Wichita Falls.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Reddick has gone country, and since his first solo album “Just Woke Up” came out last year, he’s been busier than ever.

“If I’m not if I’m not on tour Bowling for Soup, I’m out on weekends playing country,” Reddick said. “I had a feeling when we talked last time that, the country thing, it’d be taking off.”

Reddick was featured in Texas Country Music Magazine as an Artist To Watch in 2023. In addition, he was recently nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year at the Texas Country Music Awards.

“It’s been so amazing… how this whole community has embraced me,” Reddick said.

And this weekend, he’ll be welcomed by longtime friends and fans alike when he brings his solo country act to the two cities closest to his heart, Friday night in Denton, then Saturday night in Wichita Falls.

“You know, Wichita Falls raised us,” Reddick said. “And then when we moved to Denton musically, it just embraced us. And, you know, it just both these cities have been so important in the development of me as a person and Bowling For Soup as a band.”

The issue of Bowling For Soup’s hometown has always been a sore spot for citizens of Wichita Falls.

“When people say, where are you guys from? We say we grew up, in Wichita Falls,” Reddick said. “But you know, we still called Denton home. That’s the home of the band. A lot of people probably don’t realize that we were only in Wichita Falls as a band for two years.”

Bowling For Soup moved to Denton in 1996, and it wasn’t until eight years later, in 2004, that “Girl All The Bad Guys Want” made them a household name.

But, there is that one song that’s supposedly anti-Wichita Falls.

“I wrote that song My Hometown and what we didn’t even realize at the time… That whole like, let’s get out of our hometown was such a recurrent theme,” Reddick said. “The song in particular was really just a thing about go out and see the world. But we never expressed any hatred towards Wichita Falls.”

Even still, the controversy comes up every time Bowling For Soup is mentioned, especially on social media.

“I’m okay with people in the comments, you know, saying what they feel and all of that,” Reddick said. “And that’s fine. But we never expressed any hatred towards Wichita Falls.”

In fact, Reddick said he wouldn’t be who he is today without his hometown.

“You know, Wichita Falls raised us,” Reddick said. “Man, I had the best childhood. Our playground was a drainage ditch off of Kell. That’s where we rode bikes, we played on those railroad tracks, we threw rocks.”

Wichita Falls is, after all, where Bowling For Soup originated, and none of the members have negative feelings toward their hometown.

“Our very first practice place from over on 9th and Beverly,” Reddick said. “Birthplace of Bowling For Soup? Wichita Falls, Texas. I’m really glad I grew up in Wichita Falls.”

And, just in case anyone is still on the fence, Reddick said to show up to the Iron Horse Pub on Saturday night and let him prove them wrong.

“If someone has any doubt, I would love for someone to come to the show at the Iron Horse and maybe we can bury the hatchet,” Reddick said.

Jaret Ray Reddick’s hometown show is Saturday, August 19, 2023, at the Iron Horse Pub, located at the corner of 8th Street and Indiana Avenue in Downtown Wichita Falls.

The show is for ages 18 and up, and the doors open at 8:30 p.m. Advanced tickets in the music room are sold out, but very limited tickets are still available in the side room.