"Ten years ago I was a scientist in a lab coat and had never sung in front of anybody in my life": From microbiologist to musician - the unlikely rise of Stephen Wilson Jr

Steven Wilson Jr. standing in front of a tree — (Image credit: Tim Cofield)

By any standards, Stephen Wilson Jr’s (no relation) back story is remarkable. “Ten years ago I was a scientist in a lab coat and had never sung in front of anybody in my life,” the singer-songwriter reflects. “So where I am now is all very surreal. In the weirdest way, it’s an answer to a prayer that I wasn’t capable of praying for.”

Wilson is currently touring Søn Of Dad, his formidable 22-song debut that pays tribute to his late father while also mapping a unique journey from rural Indiana to Nashville. Along the way Wilson has been a Golden Gloves boxer, microbiologist, indie guitarist and Music City songwriter-for-hire. He had no intention of being a solo artist at all, but his father’s death, in 2018, unlocked something new. “Right afterwards, for whatever reason, this voice just kind of showed up,” he says. “And I ain’t going to pretend to understand it.”

Grunge, country and hardworn rock all feed into Søn Of Dad. Growing up, Wilson loved the music of Soundgarden and Nirvana every inch as much as that of Willie Nelson. Back then, raised in a deeply Pentecostal community in Seymour, it was the soundtrack to another pursuit.

“My hillbilly father was a boxer, so my earliest memories are in a gym or watching his fights,” he explains. “And my first stage was a boxing ring. I had my first fight aged seven. There’s a lot of rhythm in boxing, and so many stories floating around in gyms everywhere. Fighters almost always have a story, and every songwriter is looking for one.”

The knockdowns also prepared him for the setbacks of the music business. In 2016, when he quit his research science job, Wilson had already spent years playing guitar in dance-rock also-rans AutoVaughn. It only made him double down on his ambition to become a professional songwriter. “You have to be able to take a punch over and over again, literally and figuratively, and be like: ‘Is that all you got?’”

He was taken on by BMG Nashville, where he wrote for the likes of Brothers Osborne, Tim McGraw and Sixpence None The Richer. However, his father had always encouraged him to sing.

“I started keeping a record of what I was going through after he died,” Wilson recalls. “I think the songs on Søn Of Dad were gifts given to help me understand that experience. All I’ve really done is give them away, hoping they might help somebody else. My dad loved helping people so much, and this record is really his spirit.”

The album ends, fittingly, with The Beginning, suggesting a rebirth of sorts. “That song is true in every sense of the word,” Wilson affirms. “Not just in terms of a career, but literally a new life, because Stephen Wilson Jr. died with my dad, and this fellow is here now. This really is just the beginning.”

The deluxe edition of Søn Of Dad is out now via Big Loud Records.

Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.