True Blood theme song brought singer's career back from the dead: 'It's a mitzvah'

Nashville-based singer Jace Everett was in a slump. He recorded a country album in 2004, but it failed upon release. By 2006, he had lost his record deal and was in what he refers to as a "tough spot financially." Everett was getting some income from his craft, having written a No. 1-charting song for a different artist, but he was forced to go back to playing bass in various bands to make ends meet.

Then True Blood happened. Everett credits the sexy, sultry HBO vampire drama starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer for revitalizing his career after the network chose his song "Bad Things," off that failed album of his, as its theme song.

"It's a mitzvah," he tells EW over the phone as part of a celebration of the best TV theme songs of the 21st century. "It's further proof that you can't control anything. All you can do is try to do the best you can. I've had plenty of ups and downs since then, but I've got Entertainment Weekly calling me today. That's crazy!"

The success of "Bad Things" still surprises Everett, since he wrote the track in about six minutes to try to seduce a woman. "There's nothing to it," he remarks. "It's a synthesis of, what, maybe 20 other songs? The thing that's unique about is the chord progression because of it being in a minor key. It's just an old swingin' blues-type thing that I put my own spin on. And that tends to be what people like: things they heard before."

Everett's label didn't quite like it at the time. They felt the song was "a little too this, a little too that." But Everett put it on his self-titled album anyway. Then the album bombed. The singer played "Bad Things" one time on The Tonight Show to try to drum up buzz, but that didn't move the needle much.

It wasn't until 2008, at a time when he was playing bass in a cover band, that HBO approached him. He got a call from True Blood's music supervisor Gary Calamar, asking about using "Bad Things" for the opening theme. Calamar sent him a couple episodes, sans music, to see if there was any interest. Everett didn't know how the show would land, but he figured the song was just sitting there — "rotting," as he puts it.

Everett churned out multiple versions of the song as options. One, he remembers, had a Latin groove. Though, the songwriter admits he didn't have the skills as a young producer at the time to fully remix it.

When he finally saw the opening credits sequence, designed by Chicago-based Digital Kitchen, he was "flabbergasted."

"They did such an amazing job of making my song way cooler than it actually was. That [series creator] Alan Ball and Gary Calamar just kind of threw up their hands and said, 'Well, I guess this is it because I don't know how we're going to top this opening sequence' ... it really took a dozen different people to make it what it is. The song was cool. The visuals were cool, but when you put them together it sets up the show. The show could be scary, but also ridiculous and hilarious."

Everett is also credited with C.C. Adcock on the True Blood season 2 soundtrack for the song "Evil (Is Going On)." Adcock, Everett says, had also been in the running for the opening credits song with the tune, "Yall'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me." That track was later repurposed as the first song viewers hear in the True Blood pilot episode.

He and Everett later recorded "Evil (Is Going On)" in New Orleans together for the show. "C.C. was very friendly to me, but I'm not going to say there wasn't just a little bit of resentment, understandably," Everett recalls of landing the theme song credit over Adcock. "He's a sweet guy."

Because of True Blood, Everett would find himself in rooms with people he dreamed of working with, including Questlove — something that didn't seem possible until the show gave "Bad Things" a pop culture boost. He's now working on all different kinds of music these days, his latest being a jazz album. But he considers it almost "contractual" to perform "Bad Things" from time to time.

"I went through that season where it's like, 'Oh God, I'm a one-hit wonder.' But then I realized that it was a pretty chicken s--- attitude to have," he says, "because it's like, this gave you a seat at the table. Be a good guest."

A version of this story appears in the February issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands now and available to order here. Don't forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

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