5 Sturgill Simpson Songs You Loved But Might’ve Forgotten About

Sturgill Simpson country music
Semi Song

Sturgill Simpson surprised country fans last week when he popped back up in the music industry under the pseudonym “Johnny Blue Skies” in a collaboration with Diplo and Dove Cameron.

The song, which is titled “Use Me (Brutal Hearts),” is a catchy, stuck-in-your-head, kind of disco beat.

I know it seems like Sturgill Simpson and Diplo don’t belong in the same sentence, but give it a chance (and then give it a few more) and the song might grow on you a bit. If you are a Sturgill fan, you’ll take anything considering the artist has been relatively quiet (and undergoing vocal cord surgery) since his last album release of The Ballad of Dood and Juanita back in 2021.

The techno-pop song featuring “Johnny Blue Skies” can be listened to below, but stick around, because we’ve collected some other Sturgill songs that you might’ve missed and put them all in this article:

Not bad right… sorta?

Sturgill kills it at the very least, so if you are now on board for some obscure Sturgill Simpson projects, we’ve got you covered.

He’s recorded a handful of other one-off songs that you may have forgotten about.

“Sugar Daddy”

The first is a song Simpson wrote and performed for the show VINYL on HBO called “Sugar Daddy.” The tune leans a little more rock (which Sturgill tends to do) and even gives off a sound similar to The Black Keys.

If you like rock-and-roll Sturgill, this one is right up your alley:

“The Dead Don’t Die”

Next, we’ve got another song that Sturgill cooked up for a movie that he also happened to star in. The 2019 film The Dead Don’t Die, which was a dark comedy featuring Bill Murray and Adam Driver, needed a theme song.

Who better to work up a blues-y, country song about zombies (and how they are just like us) than Sturgill Simpson? By the way, his role in the movie is, in fact, a zombie, and he is credited in the movie as playing “Sturgill Zombie.”

Listen to the great, zombie-themed song titled the same as the movie below:

“Resentment”

Moving right along, for some reason Sturgill was included in a Kesha song?

Yes, that Kesha.

Not sure how it came to be, but I’m sure like other artists, Kesha heard the smooth, velvety voice of Simpson and had to have him in their song.

I’m sure it seems weird to read, but check out this Kesha song featuring Sturgill Simpson called “Resentment,” it’s damn good.

“Big Time”

Getting into more recent history, we’ve got a song by Angel Olsen, and this one isn’t too hard to see Sturgill singing on. The pacing of the song and the rhythm of the lyrics match Simpson’s style perfectly, which is why Olsen probably ended up asking him to join her and make the song a duet.

In the official lyric video for “Big Time,” the text that rolls before the song starts says:

“This is a song called ‘Big Time.’

I re-recorded it as a duet with Sturgill Simpson. I love his voice.”

Don’t we all. Take a listen:

“Paradise”

And last but not least, his phenomenal John Prine cover.

Written and recorded by John for his 1971 debut album John Prine, “Paradise” was written for his father, a lament on havoc the coal industry wreaked on his Kentucky home.

It’s only proper that Sturgill, a fellow Kentuckian who has his fair share of songs lambasting the coal industry, would do this one the justice that it deserves.

Sturgill’s cover of “Paradise” also happens to be the last song ever recorded at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, a recording studio owned by John.

Stu’s cover was featured on the John Prine tribute album, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Volume 2, which was released in late 2021.

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