Groove Podcast: Will Turpin on Collective Soul’s Legacy, Staying Creative, and Crafting Basslines That Last

Will Turpin grew up in a studio…..literally. His dad opened Real 2 Reel Studios in Georgia in 1976, and that became Will’s childhood playground. Not the metaphorical kind you see in bios, but a real studio: tape decks, Trident boards, singer-songwriters rolling in with demos, and a young Will riding his bike over to lay down drum parts before he hit his teens.

Will is best known as the bassist of Collective Soul, but his path there was anything but typical. In this conversation, we get into how piano, drums, orchestration, and a deep love for REM, Sting, and McCartney shaped a melodic, expressive approach to bass that works just as well in arenas as it does behind the board in a world-class studio.

We talk about what it means to grow up surrounded by the DNA of music, why Collective Soul is selling more tickets now than in the 90s, how a band from a small Georgia town created something timeless, and what it feels like to still genuinely enjoy your bandmates 30 years in.

Will opens up about his solo work, writing from the piano instead of the bass, and running one of Georgia’s most iconic studios in the era of bedroom producers and TikTok trends.

If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll love the stories like how he became the bassist simply because no one else was cutting it. If you’re a bassist, this one’s a gem. Will breaks down how he built his sound from his hands, not his gear, and how orchestration helps him write bass lines that serve the song without sounding stale or formulaic.

And if you’re just a music fan, you’ll leave with a deeper appreciation for how bass makes a band feel big, bold, and unforgettable. Will’s reflections on tone, legacy, and playing live for three generations of fans are a reminder that rock and roll still matters.

Enjoy the conversation.