‘I am a rocker’ - Puddle of Mudd co-founder Jimmy Allen continues to embrace songwriting, producing

A native of Southeast Kansas, Jimmy Allen moved to Kansas City in 1990. He later became the co-founder of Puddle of Mudd and in addition to writing many of their hit songs, continues his solo career as a songwriter and helping produce emerging bands. Courtesy of Jimmy Allen

Jimmy Allen gained significant recognition beyond the Kansas City region as a member of the rock band Puddle of Mudd. But his journey into music, he explained, was one that began on the brink of adulthood and revealed an aptitude not only for playing guitar, but also for writing songs that have been embraced by a large fan base.
 
Born in 1972 and raised in Chanute, Kansas, his father established a successful company, Jim Allen Packaging, in the years after his service with the Marine Corps. The young Allen and his two older sisters would go on to attend the local high school, where he soon acquired an interest in rock music.
 
“A friend of mine, Troy McCoy, took me to a concert in Kansas City to see Motley Crue and I just loved the sound,” Allen said. “I then got into other acts like Ratt and Ozzy Osbourne, and decided to begin learning to play the guitar,” he added.
 
He developed an interest in songwriting, taking the time to dissect and analyze popular rock songs being played on MTV. During his high school years, he performed briefly in the local band Kidd Punch, doing covers of such bands as Metallica, while also refining his songwriting skills.
         
He recalled, “When I graduated from Chanute High School in 1990, I went to school at Wichita State University for about a year. I played some with a band called Gypsy Blue and we opened for Foghat and Quiet Riot at local shows, but the music scene really wasn’t happening there.”
 
Allen continued, “I left school in 1992 and moved to Kansas City. My dad had a printing factory in North Kansas City with an apartment above it that I lived in. I was basically poor and would walk to the local music store down the street to play guitars and noticed an advertisement on a bulletin board searching for musicians.
 
The ad had been posted by Kenny Burkitt, a local drummer seeking to start a rock band. Allen and Burkitt then paid for a practice space in a building along the Kansas City River Bottoms and started auditioning musicians. The building where their practice space was located was also being used by other aspiring bands and musicians. Wes Scantlin showed up to practice with another band in the area and was invited by Burkitt and Allen to come practice with them.
 
“Wes screamed into the mic on a couple of songs and sounded great,” Allen recalled. “We soon had our band formed but didn’t have a good name yet, but a couple of weeks later, the flood of ’93 occurred and covered our practice area in mud and water.” He added, “I said that it looked like a puddle of mud, and that’s how we got our name, but I added a second ‘d’, and it became Puddle of Mudd.”
 
At the time, Allen was barely 21 years old, but they practiced regularly while he continued to write songs for the band. The following year, in 1994, they recorded the “Stuck” album at the Red House in Lawrence, Kansas. The popularity of the band quickly exploded and was followed by a busy tour schedule and subsequent recordings.
 
“I was chosen as songwriter of the year by ASCAP twice—once for my song ‘Blurry’ and the other for ‘She Hates Me,’” Allen explained. “But things began to get a little crazy in the band because of addictions and I left in 1996 to go do my own thing. I had the opportunity to write songs for bands like Buckcherry and Bif Naked.”
 
“She Hates Me” peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2002 while “Blurry” became a number five hit for Puddle of Mudd.
 
Throughout the next few years, he remained a ghostwriter on several of the Puddle of Mudd albums while the band continued touring with a new mix of musicians. In 2001, he moved to Los Angeles and remained focused on songwriting while also learning the production end of music working for a studio.
         
Allen shared that he grew disenfranchised with living on the West Coast and returned to Kansas City around 2011. Since then, he has been a member of the band Against All Will and helped produce local talent at the studio he maintains. He remarked that he has essentially been “out of the mainstream music scene” since his departure from the West Coast but finds motivation and satisfaction helping write and produce new and emerging artists in the Kansas City area.
 
“Music is and has always been an important part of my life and I enjoy collecting and building guitars in my spare time,” he said. “My girlfriend and I have also helped rescue neglected animals that are now our pets.”
 
The structure of the music industry has changed significantly since Puddle of Mudd was founded in the early 1990s. Music is now being released digitally, Allen remarked, and there seems to be little impetus for listeners to seek out full album releases.
 
“With everything being digital now, you miss the experience of holding the actual album in your hand … enjoying the cover art and reading the inserts about the band,” Allen said. “It all seems really stale now since people might release an album, but you don’t really anticipate or look forward to it like we did years ago.”
         
He added, “But I am a rocker and a music purist, and in this world where so much music sounds computerized and soulless, I still find pleasure in enjoying my music through listening to vinyl and compact discs.” 
                     
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the upcoming biography of the band Shooting Star. 

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