A simple, catchy, fun country rock song called “I Want To” written by Hawthorne native Paul Justin has just been released on all major streaming services, bringing about waves of nostalgia and pride about growing up in Mineral County.
Justin has written hundreds of songs over the years and has vastly improved his skills at playing guitar. He was in a band called the Rye Brothers that released two records (one of which is still available) before starting out on his own in 2018. He currently lives in Norco, California (near Riverside) and plays shows around that area.
He also plays shows in Hawthorne whenever he goes home; his most recent show played at a house in Hawthorne during this past Armed Forces Day.
“In 2019 I went home for a family reunion, and then when I left my older brother’s house in Burbank to drive back to Norco, this song [about Hawthorne] came to me. I called Danny Moss in Hawthorne to ask him some questions. I remembered growing up, a guy would go around town asking for donations which he used to buy a keg to take out to the desert and have a party. That’s what this song is about- just being a teenager and reminiscing about all the good parts of growing up in Hawthorne. I called it ‘I Want To’ because it ended up being about a guy chasing a girl,” he says.
“I Want To” isn’t necessarily about anyone in particular, but that’s the direction the song ended up going in.
“Guys are always chasing girls…I made the song not so much about drinking but living at that time, things that meant something to us,” he says.
At the 2023 Armed Forces Day, he had his bachelor party at Gil’s Place, and then ended up at Danny Moss’s house and played there.
“There are two Danny Moss’s in town; I played at Big Dan’s house. He inspired me listening to him play when I was growing up, and I always like to go over there and pay it back, play him some songs,” Justin says.
Justin has been playing music since he was 12 years old, strumming guitar and singing. When asked how he got into it, Justin smiles, “It’s in the family”. He explains that his stepfather Jim Howlett was a guitar player and singer, and him and fellow Hawthorne resident Danny Moss used to play guitar when they were out camping.
“All of us kids used to listen to them,” Justin says, who grew up with six siblings between the two families. “The guys would play guitar and the ladies would sing,” he adds.
Justin says that his first memory of being fascinated with the guitar came when he was four years old. As he watched his family members play guitar, he recalls always thinking that he wanted to play. Him and his two brothers eventually started a band in Hawthorne that was first called Lightning and then Excelsior, named after the Mineral County mountain range.
“It was a hard rock, heavy metal band, during the eighties,” he adds. In 2000, he had a major event happen in his personal life that encouraged him to get back into songwriting, and this time he leaned towards country.
“It unleashed something in me that I didn’t know was there. In 2002, I wrote my first country song and never looked back,” he says. The song was called “Aurora” about a gunfighter who returns to the small town to get revenge.
Justin’s biological father Jack Wright had an impact on his musical career, too. Wright toured the country as a musician, playing bars, nightclubs, and special events, but then when deejays came around no one wanted to pay money to see live music anymore. Now Wright is 75 years old and performs a Neil Diamond Tribute show.
“My dad never made it because he sounded exactly like Neil, and you can’t have two Neil Diamond’s, I guess,” Justin says.
Entertainment always ran in his blood, also considering his great-grandfather on his father’s side had one of the first Wright Dissolving Views- a projector that played some of the first motion pictures- that he used to entertain people with during the late 19th century.
Paul Justin is proud of his Hawthorne heritage and is one of the few people born in the rural town in the mid-1970s.
“About 1978 or so, being born in Hawthorne became obsolete. Everyone went to Fallon or bigger hospitals to have their kids. A lot of people I went to school with were not born there. I’m a true blue born and raised Hawthorne boy. My mom and all her siblings were born here, too.”
Justin’s grandfather on his mother’s side even owned Harvey’s Photo, taking the school pictures.
When asked if he has any goals for his music, he replies, “At this point I want to continue recording; I enjoy playing shows. There’s a song by Billy Joe Shaver called ‘I’m Gonna Live Forever’ about being remembered as a songwriter; writing being his legacy”.
He doesn’t know if he’ll ever write another song about Hawthorne because it all depends on how inspiration strikes, but it’s possible. Justin says that the song, “Is It Raining at Your House” originally written by Vern Gosdin, is based off a phone call with that simple question.
“That to me is where inspiration comes from- everyday life,” he says.
Find the “I Want To” single by Paul Justin on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.
