I Don't Have To Be Me ('Til Monday) - Single Version

Azar is a singer/songwriter from Mississippi with a loyal fan base and a sound that winds through Country, Blues, and Rock (he opened for Bob Seger on his 2006-2007 tour). This was the first single from his breakthrough album Waitin' On Joe. In our 2010 interview with Steve Azar, he explained: "I'd gotten the idea for 'Monday' from a roommate in college, who was my roommate the entire time. He was killin' it in the world. Really hard work. Started a business from scratch out of his garage and became very successful. But he was really stressed. He beat himself to the point of no return. And he comes to Nashville from Chicago on a Thursday night, and he says, 'I just gotta get away.' And we did. We did everything stupid like we did growing up. (laughs) We went bowling, we played golf, we played ping-pong, we played tennis, we played basketball – you name it, we did it. We were very sore, by the way, on Monday. When he had shown up, he looked 10 years older than he was, around his eyes, and everything. I noticed how tired he looked. And then when he left, he looked young again. And he goes, 'Man, it's just great not to have to be myself.' And so that stuck in my head.
There was a handful of songs that I wrote about that sentiment, just getting away and letting yourself get away from who you are. Most of 'em were junk. But I remember we were writing another song, my percussionist, RC Bannon and me, and we were stuck. I started singing, 'I got me a brand new car waitin' in the driveway.' And I didn't even know what it meant, you know? And then Jason (Young) goes, 'That's something.' So I said, 'Okay, we'll chase it.' Well, we originally called it 'I'm Free.' But then we went to eat, and when we came back I was eatin' Tootsie Rolls, and all of the sudden I just screamed out, 'I don't have to be me 'til Monday!' And then they looked at me, and I said, 'I apologize. I don't know what I was thinking.'
And so for about four months nobody got it. Everybody was saying, 'You mean you want to be yourself 'til Monday.' So we went through this whole literal interpretation for a long time. We put the demo down, and then eventually I made the record, but it sat around Nashville with every record label that would listen. Some of them wouldn't even listen. And the interest was, 'This does sound like a hit, but we're not sure.' So I went through that, and like 'Waitin' On Joe,' I was waitin' on these labels, I was waiting on my life, I was waiting on a lot of things. That was borne from that. And it's interesting how one thing will lead to the other, and how they'll pick each other up. If it wasn't for 'Monday,' 'Waitin' On Joe' would have never been released, and you and I wouldn't be talking about it. If it wasn't for 'Waitin' On Joe,' nobody would have ever heard 'Monday.' So it's interesting. I'm giving credit to Tootsie Rolls."