Meet Cordell Winter

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cordell Winter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cordell below.

Hi Cordell, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

In regard to performing alongside legends like Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins or being called back for a second year to Sturgis Buffalo Chip to share the stage with The Stone Temple Pilots…

For me, it’s never been about the accolades. It’s the journey as a whole.

I’ve always believed, like Arthur Rimbaud once wrote, that “one must be born a poet first.” The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses — through every form of love, suffering, and madness. He consumes all the poisons in him and keeps only their quintessences.

From a young age, I’ve felt called — not just as a musician, but as a conduit. A vessel trying to help humanity reach a place beyond mental slavery, beyond the invisible prisons society creates. I believe life is an act of breaking through. And when fear becomes the key to freedom, you realize the soul is eternal — that life and death are the same, and our purpose is to test the limits of the human spirit while doing good for others in this very short time we’re given.

“The great search.” The moments that bare the soul naked — that’s what we’re alive for.

Resilience, for me, became less of a choice and more of a necessity. I’ve suffered. I’ve frozen through bitter winter nights in a van in Nashville. I’ve burned through summers so hot they felt volcanic. But I kept going. Because I believed in something greater than myself. I wanted to love the world — to give it the love that I feel is being stolen from it.

Every time I wanted to quit, I realized the dream and the resilience were the same thing. Without music, I’m nameless and faceless. One day, you wake up and realize that the pain, the poetry, and the pursuit — they are who you are. They are inseparable.

I’ll be doing this until the day I die — and then onward.

Because the human experience is built on suffering — and whether you suffer rich or poor, you have to decide what in your soul is worth suffering for.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Cordell Winter is a raw, soul-baring force in modern music—blending poetic grit, explosive energy, and genre-bending soundscapes that channel the urgency of Turnstile, the coastal warmth of Arcy Drive, and the emotional lift of Flipturn. With roots in rock ‘n’ roll and folk, his sound fuses punk attitude, surf-toned shimmer, and introspective storytelling into something both timeless and vividly present.

Having performed over 1,000 shows and shared stages with icons like Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Jelly Roll, and even seen with cultural figures like Theo Von and Loretta Lynn, Winter’s journey is one of resilience, rebellion, and unwavering authenticity. From the roar of Sturgis Buffalo Chip to the pulse of Milwaukee Summerfest, his performances radiate a sense of purpose—electrifying yet intimate, fiery yet human.

Winter’s story is forged in struggle. From van life and near starvation to dodging the vultures of the industry, he’s walked through chaos to craft something beautiful. His songs don’t just play—they speak, pulling listeners into moments of love, loss, awakening, and unshakable belief. His lyrics carry weight. His presence carries truth.

His track “No Pain” was hand-picked by Conor McGregor for the official Bareknuckle debut after-movie by Sturgis—an electrifying nod to the song’s raw power and emotional punch.

His new anticipated album “Leave This World Alive” produced by Cage the Elephant’s Lincoln Parish, shows that Winter is diving deeper into the sound that defines this era of indie rebellion—punchy rhythms, melodic haze, and soul-shaking honesty. He’s also preparing to publish his first books, expanding his voice beyond the stage and into the poetic terrain that shaped him.

For Cordell Winter, music isn’t just art—it’s survival, it’s connection, it’s protest, it’s prayer. In a world of smoke and mirrors, he shows up real. And that’s why his movement is just beginning.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe the three qualities or skills that were most impactful would be: not to have a plan B.
Be every single fiber of your craft, and know it will be the makeup of your mark on this earth you’ll leave behind.

I think next, off the top of my head, would be: to not be afraid to be an anti-conformist.
As much as the industry will push you into a box, be fearless in the fact that you are the reality you wish to give to the world. Authenticity will be more moving in the end for others than being a part of what everyone else is doing.

Third, I would say: live for something beyond glorifying yourself. Don’t do anything to be a “rockstar.” Do it because you have something deeper within that’s tied to the dream.

The advice I would give people in their journey is to realize it is a life’s work.
So, find the moments along that journey that are the most human, and revel in that serene, still moment—to realize you’re alive and living with other humans on this earth, all striving for the same eternal. Hold on to something higher than yourself, and you’ll always find the resonance and strength to make it into the next day.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Oh wow… aha, loaded question. There are so many, but off the top of my head, I’d say books from:

James Douglas Morrison, William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Kerouac, the Beatnik poets, Black Elk Speaks, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Friedrich Nietzsche, esoteric reads, Magick, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Charles Baudelaire, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, The Golden Bough, Aldous Huxley…
Philosophy, psychology, poetry, mysticism—those are some of the wells I draw from.

Many authors and texts have been an inspiration to how I see the world and am able to feel a connection and relate.

⸻

Nuggets of wisdom that stay with me:

• “When the doors of perception are cleansed, everything appears to man as it is: infinite.”
— William Blake (via Aldous Huxley referencing him)

• “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time—the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars… and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop, and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”
— Jack Kerouac

• “The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, and keeps only their quintessences.”
— Arthur Rimbaud

Charles Boudlaire’s poetry theory ….

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Cordell Winter

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