- The Greenville native is also riding high on the success of ‘One Mississippi,’ which the state adopted as its official song in 2022.
Steve Azar has scored hit songs, toured the world, and hobnobbed with some of the most recognizable names in music and entertainment. Now, after decades in the music business, he can finally add the word Grammy to his résumé.
While he’s perhaps best known outside of Mississippi for his breakthrough country hit “I Don’t Have to Be Me (‘Til Monday),” which spent more than four months on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 2001 and 2002, an entirely different kind of song landed him this latest honor.
“Our Castle is Your Home,” written and performed by Azar, is the lone ballad on the 2024 album Solid Rock Revival by Rock For Children, which will compete for a Grammy award on Feb. 2 in the Best Children’s Music Album category against artists like John Legend.
“They came to me and said, ‘We want you to be on it,’ and of course I was thrilled,” Azar says during a break from leading a class at Delta State University’s Delta Music Institute in Cleveland. “And I’m the only ballad on the record, so I feel like I’m ‘Beth’ on a KISS record,” he jokes, referencing the masked rock group’s 1976 love song, which became a million-selling hit despite being entirely different from their better-known songs.
Although Azar’s tune originated as a song written years earlier for a South Dakota charity benefiting afterschool programs, he went back to work on it and added parts for its appearance on Solid Rock Revival. Proceeds from the album, which features kids playing and singing alongside rock stars, go toward charities like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis through the Norelli Family Foundation.
Azar was already familiar with many of the artists on the album from music-biz circles as well as celebrity charity golf tournaments where he first became acquainted with Alice Cooper, who features on seven of the album’s 13 songs. The hard-rocking set also features Slash of Guns ‘N Roses, metal screecher Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and hip-hop pioneer Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC.
“We did this for the right reasons, so anything that comes along like a Grammy nomination, that’s obviously a wonderful thing [that could] give it some legs and help us achieve more of what the original plan of the record was in the first place,” he says.
Whether the album wins the coveted award or not, Azar’s career in entertainment will likely continue its upward arc. Since penning and recording the song “One Mississippi” in 2017 for the state’s 200th birthday, the tune has grown in popularity to become the official state song. It also spawned a children’s book of the same name illustrated by Jackson native and author Sarah Frances Hardy.
Azar has also remained active as a musician and songwriter in other ways, whether he’s sharing his knowledge with students at Delta State, mentoring and producing up-and-comers like Drew Pulliam, or taking his “One Mississippi” show on the road to schools around the state.
Some school districts, such as Cleveland, have purchased copies of the book for elementary students as part of their history curriculum. And when Azar and Hardy swing through town to perform, the teachers and students often know the words to the song already, he says.
“The teachers are so involved, and you just feel like everybody in the room is unified,” he says. “It’s amazing what a song can do if given the opportunity.”
The song has even become a tool for teaching tourists about the state — “One Mississippi” anchors a cultural history program Azar helps put on for Viking River Cruises guests at the EE Bass Cultural Arts Center in Greenville.
“Having the state song in Mississippi, I’m more grateful for that than any award, I can promise you,” he says. “When your song is the law of the land, that is way, way bigger of a legacy.”
Jim Beaugez
