Patterson Hood mined strange childhood memories for his latest solo record

Drive-by Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood has childhood stories, and we don’t mean the kind of stories that you politely nod your head to until the other person is done talking.

Hood’s childhood is filled with beguiling tales, from uncouth family parties to exploding trees and blazing Southern plantations.

Hood, who started writing songs in 1973 as a kid, had lately found himself revisiting his past, so he decided to explore what he says was a “very weird” childhood. The result is Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, his first solo album in 13 years.

Today, Hood unpacks the record, featuring collaborations with Lydia Loveless, Waxahatchee and Wednesday. He also talks about his other creative passion, films, and why he was obsessed with the Disney version of Pinocchio as a child.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.