WEBVTT - Top 8 BobbyCast Interviews of 2021 (Part 1) 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:05.800 Hello, and welcome to Part one of the Top Eight 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.520 Bobby Cast. I am your host for this episode. I 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.159 am Mike d producer of the Bobby Cast, and we 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.800 have selected the best interviews that we did this year. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.960 Bobby and I came up with a list of our favorites. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.400 We took a look at the most downloaded episodes of 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.279 the year, and we also asked you on Twitter and 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.720 Instagram what you thought were the best episodes. Took all 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.119 that and made two special episodes that we're going to 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.280 share with you this week and next week. If we 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.840 don't follow us online, we are at the Bobby Cast 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.160 on Twitter and Instagram, So I'll be your host this 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.360 week and next week. We took clips of the best 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.120 eight interviews from the entire year, and I'll give you 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.720 some behind the scenes from some of these interviews. As producer, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.400 my job is to book the guests, research the guests, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.400 pull up all the audio clips you here within these episodes, 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:50.400 and then I'm in the room with Bobby while we 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:52.400 do these interviews. So I'll give you a look into 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.319 that process behind each of these interviews. And if you're 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.640 not subscribed to the Bobby Cast, wherever you're listening to 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.840 this right now, hit that followed button, hit that. Subscribe 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.200 to be sure you get brand new episodes starting in 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.959 two And if you're looking for something completely different to 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:07.960 listen to, I also do a podcast on my own 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.440 called Movie Mix Movie Podcast. If you're looking for movie recommendations. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.600 I do spoiler free movie reviews, and I also interview 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.320 actors and directors and talk all things movies every single week. 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:20.520 So that's another podcast I hope you check out. But 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:22.919 here we go. Let's get into the top eight Bobby 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.760 Cast interviews. We'll start right now with number eight with 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.399 Actuley McBride. Now, this was the first time Bobby and 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.160 I had ever met Ashley McBride, and you actually here 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.920 in this full interview, the moment she walks into the 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.200 room is the first time we ever met her. So 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.120 I thought that was kind of a cool moment to capture. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.480 And another part of my job is to produce her 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.440 on this show. I coordinate with them getting over to 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.639 Bobby's house and then I go meet them out front. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:47.720 And this is only hard for me because I am 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:49.880 terrible at small talk. So I kind of have this 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.040 routine in my head that I go through with each guest, 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.080 so I have things to say as we walk all 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.080 the way back to the studio. So here we go 0:01:56.120 --> 0:02:00.640 with number eight. Come on, guys, I'm gonna put this 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.400 monster in some airplane mode. Mom loves to call when 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.000 I'm doing something. It's like a an innate sense that 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.880 she should call you right when something. I wonder what 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.359 actually is doing. How often do you talk to your mom? Um? 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.760 Not quite as often right now, but it's usually I 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.359 don't know, every couple of days, yeah, or anytime I 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.120 try to cook something. And is that often? If I 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.480 are you a good cook? I'm not bad. I think 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.360 what I'm really interested is people who do something really wonderfully, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.520 like you as an artist songwriter, but also are you 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.600 what else are you good at? And does that translate 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.880 like your drive for being an artist and to anything 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.360 else in your life that that that same drive that 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:44.160 I think then drive pops up in um handywork. Really Yeah, 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.520 I would like to fix stuff myself, and when it's 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.320 too much for me to tackle, I'm I'm not afraid 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.839 at all to call in for for the rescue party. Um. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:53.480 But like I had a problem with my air duct, 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.959 my my brand new house. It just kept flooding, the 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.200 downstairs kept flooding, and then that finally results in an 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.280 air duct getting full of water. And I was like, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.160 I can fix that. So did you go? Because what 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.000 we have now is the ability to go to YouTube 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:10.160 for anything, which changes. Before I went to YouTube, though, 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.679 I called so my drummer is also a mechanic and 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.200 an eagle scout and he's awesome. I did not call him. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.880 I called his father, who taught that that boy had 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.200 to be all of those things. So I called um 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.000 George Hill and I was like, here's what I want 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.040 to do, and he was like, okay, here are the 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:26.520 steps you need to make sure you take. So I 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.120 did it. It's also funny too that when you're in 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.760 an artistic business um like you are UM in in 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.680 my different worlds that I'm in, your broke a long 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.080 time and you have to figure out how to do 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.480 other things because since you're so broke, you have to 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.440 learn or you just die as you can't do music 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:47.440 or I can't you know, try to do radio or 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.240 be a comedian because there's no money in it for 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.480 the first forever forever, so you have to fix your 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.040 own crap and cook your own meals and learn to survive, 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.760 and you become a good cook because you get tired 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:57.960 of eating crappy food, and you kind of acquire all 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.520 of these skills. And then then you get it kind 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.320 of all figured out at once and you think you 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:03.720 can have a figured out. Then you realize you have 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:05.600 no idea and you kind of start over again. Yeah, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.120 but I think it just has to do with your 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.320 ability to be miserable and your tolerance for it. I mean, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.840 I know you're kind of joking, but but it was 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:18.000 about going, well, this is uncomfortable. But I've all it's 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.960 always been uncomfortable for me, you know, growing up, you know, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:22.880 a poverty kid. And I was like, what's the worst 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.800 that can happen? I stay the same, Like, right, so 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.279 let's go. My vacuum broke two days ago, just like 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.919 the little spinny thing stopped being a spinny thing, and 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.039 I thought, I can probably get someone to fix it. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.280 I can probably just buy another one. But what I'm 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.400 gonna do now is take it apart entirely. You really 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.080 did that fix it myself? Because um, you know, before 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.120 I live back here, back back in Nashville, I was 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.920 over in Watertown. There was nobody around to help, and 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.200 growing up we didn't have a lot of money, and 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.080 when something broke, my mother would fix it. My father 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.080 would fix and he can fix anything. But my mom 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.240 is not afraid to take something apart and see how 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.640 it works either. So do you feel like a little 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.800 bit of you does that because you feel like that's 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:02.640 where you come from? Because I mean, at this point, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.120 you have plenty of money. I can get another vacuum, right, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.359 And I struggle with this too sometimes, Like you could 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.640 get a vacuum, You could hire somebody to get a vacuum, 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.920 bring it to you in vacuum your floor. You can do, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.000 you could you I didn't think about having someone else 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.760 clean my house. And that's but a bit of that. 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.520 I wonder if that is that instilled in you and 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.680 that's what you just do because of where you come 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.400 from and the people that raised you. Yeah. Absolutely, I 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.240 think our first instinct for for people like you and 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.200 I is to roll up our sleeves and figure it 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.600 out for ourselves. And that's cooking or fixing a vacuum cleaner, 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:37.600 or how do I make a career making stuff up 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.440 and expect to be paid for it? And that's where 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.480 it comes back over to I mean, that's it. You 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.200 had to go. I mean, listen, you you played what 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:52.000 these small biker bars. You know you've been to Cabin, 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.800 Arkansas many times. I mean I know every everywhere that 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.320 your story has gone from Jonesboro, Arkansas stage like that's 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.840 that's my path as well, you know, one way or 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.120 the other. And so you know, when I would know 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:05.760 your story, but then I would kind of reread your 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:07.120 story to make sure that I was still kind of 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:08.320 clued in before I do this, I kind of go 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.479 back over things, and it's just like dang, Like that's 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.640 a that's a different way to go about it as 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.720 someone who wants to be um known as a great 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.640 songwriter and country music artist and a female to go 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.400 into these bars. But there's no other way. That's no 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.080 one told me. Just like you know, I'm left handed, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.960 but I played guitar right handed and um and but 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.040 no one ever told me that was an option to 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.440 restring it or turn it upside down or learn it 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.440 another way. I just thought this was how things were done. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.400 So I, you know, would would play some shows and 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.400 like borrow people's equipment to do that and then save 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.160 up and buy those pieces of equipment and run my 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.840 own sound and um, you know, I didn't need like 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.600 a fog machine or anything, but you know how to 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.200 run monitors and how to how to ring out a 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:54.920 room and all of that. I'm still not a great 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:56.560 sound engineer, but I had to figure out how to 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.599 do it all and how to fund it all. Talk 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.800 to me about when you first started playing shows live, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.400 like before you learn how to play guitar. I want 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:03.640 we'll get to all that early early stuff, but I 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.760 want to know about your live kind of your live 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.200 show experience, like was it out of our or a church, 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:10.840 or like where do you for the first time go 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.040 and ask for the affection of others? You don't know. 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.200 I didn't play like a lot of talent shows and stuff. 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.960 In fact, I was pretty shy, it terrified. Maybe maybe 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.200 just to make me cry for people to so, you mean, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.320 like in high school, to pay me any attention, like 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.400 middle school. Um, but I lived in We lived really 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.320 close to Hardy, you know, Mammoth Spring is really close 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.960 to Hardy, Arkansas. And they have like it's like a 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.280 um canoe rentals and antique shops and they had a 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.880 little place in the gazebo where people would play music, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.160 and I did that and they gave me a hundred 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.560 dollars to stand there and play. Who who gave it? 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.160 The city? Yeah, we're just like go catterwaller out, but 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.600 this gazebo for a couple of hours and just played 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.160 you know, bluegrass songs and stuff and that. So that's 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.000 probably the first time. And when you first started playing, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.160 do you feel like I'm pretty good at this or 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:01.480 do you feel like this is something I can do 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.000 while I figure out what I'm good at. I knew 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:05.880 I just I just wanted to do it, and I 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:07.880 didn't know yet at that young age if I was 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:12.000 good enough to do it. Oh man, I was probably 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.600 twelve or thirteen when that happened. I started playing guitar 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.280 when I was nine. But when I was like a 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.960 little little squirt, not any taller than you know, what 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.440 do they say kneehi to a grasshopper? We read a 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.480 blue grass festival and I had a plastic telecaster. Got 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.000 a photo of it and it had like Mickey Mouse 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.360 or Kermit the Frog or something on it, and um, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.840 this this band called the Tennessee Gentleman was on stage 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.160 and they asked my mom, because I'm glued watching these guys, Um, 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:40.800 would she like to come and sit on the edge 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.520 of the stage. So I did, and I didn't take 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.640 my little plastic guitar at first. UM. And I sat 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.240 there on the edge of the stage and I watched 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.920 them play, and then the audience erupted, of course, into applause, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.200 and my mom looked at me and she said, I knew, 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.240 I knew you had it. Then you wanted to be 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.400 on a stage and you wanted people to applaud you. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.000 Okay of music was played around you as a kid. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:07.640 Luckily all kinds um, I mean, like the carpenters love 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:14.800 and spoonful um. And then also my mom she didn't 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:16.880 try to shove classical music down our throats at all, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:18.400 but she would just kind of have it playing in 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.960 the house. It's sort of so I'm that we would 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.480 ask questions, what is this song, and she was like, oh, 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.800 that's on a planet knockm music, Vibe Mozart. There's a 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:28.040 movie about him, if you'd like to watch it. And 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:29.440 they're like, oh, yeah, I want to watch a movie 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.960 about the school guy. So luckily all of that was included. 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.320 And then my dad, Um was more like Christofferson that area. 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:44.120 He really liked those tormented h which version of christoffers, Yeah, 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.000 why me Lord? That version um To this day my favorite, 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:49.959 one of my favorite songs of all time. My favorite 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.800 Christofferson song is to Beat the Devil? Is that because 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:54.760 of your dad? Is there a song that was played 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.160 in your house so much that let's eliminate that one? 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:58.880 But you hear it and it just puts you back, 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.559 like you feel of that, like dang, I remember being Amanda, 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.319 Amanda because we had this UM. I think it was 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:07.960 supposed to be like a family room, but it's where 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.400 my dad kept There was like a gun safe in there, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.800 and like guitars and the kids weren't really supposed to 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:14.520 be in there a whole bunch unless you were going 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.079 to go there and use an instrument. And so that 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.120 is just about half a hallway away from the kitchen 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.720 where my mom is doing dishes, and my dad was 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.840 playing Amanda on the guitar and singing and that high 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.320 part that happens on the end of Uh. My mom 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:31.920 was singing it in the kitchen and here I am 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.400 kind of walking down the hallway and catching both they're 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.719 singing together. They don't know, he doesn't know that she's 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.600 singing with him, and I'm hearing it and just that song, 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.920 you see what it does. I'm like when I think 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.960 about why not me from the Judd's because my mom 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.320 used to sing that and moms you know that's since 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.480 passed away. But it's that you. I mean, you kind 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.280 of feel how you felt then just for a split second. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.320 It's like there's also the intro to an Alison Krause record. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.120 It was Alison Krausing Union Station. It's the one I 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.320 had it on vinyl. She seated like a staircase or 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.559 something with her fiddle in her hand. And I am 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.200 seven ish or nine years old. As soon as I 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.480 hear that guitar riff startup and I get giddy. My 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.240 therapist at one point gave me a book, and I've 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.520 been through a decent amount of therapy UM at this 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.319 point in my life. And that's a superpower. Yeah, it's 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.520 a tool. It's like Batman's superpower, right, Like Batman had 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.280 much cool stuff and so he was a superhero and 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.920 so I feel like, again, I've accumulated coold tools and 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.679 traits and UM. And she gave me a book that 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.800 talked about music, and you know, the book talked about 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.319 how when you hear something, even when you smell something 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.880 very specific for a split second, in your brain, it 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:44.839 reacts the exact same way it did when you were 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.840 what at whatever point. So just for a brief moment, 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.280 you get that feeling again, like in your chest of like, 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.320 oh man, that's that that reminds me of being seven 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.040 or nine or thirteen. Yeah, because our brains really don't 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.480 know the difference between an actual experience and the thought 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.920 of that expins I suppose, right, And you know what 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.199 do they call that? It's like our our dumb lizard brain, 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.680 our caveman brain. They just know that that experience is real, 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.000 So that would make sense. It was actually studying the 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:13.720 three parts of the brain yesterday, which is wild, and 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:15.160 you know, the bottom part of the brain is like 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:20.120 the lizard brain. It's they have two modes. They are attacking, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.120 running or relaxing, you know what those two or they're 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.560 just like there's nothing else right. And I try not 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.640 to live like that, and I really work on trying. 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.240 As I've gotten older, I try not to react as 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.560 much and I try to respond more. I'm trying I'm 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.600 learning because I love my therapist, and I know it 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.839 was like probably trying to put overalls on a cat, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:43.640 trying to get me to go to therapy, and finally 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.640 it did, and I was like, this is awesome. I 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.760 was talking yesterday with my therapist not to go down 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.240 a whole therapy train, but I was. He was like, 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.520 when did you know about therapy? I was like, I didn't. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.160 I'm from the population seven seventy to Arkansas, right that 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:04.160 we were trying to afford, you know, Hamburger helper for dinner. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.559 Not you didn't know about mental health. It wasn't It 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:08.599 wasn't really an option. And everything under the rug is 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.400 an option. Pray about it is an option in which 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.640 that it does work, you know, for for a lot 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.800 of people that simply simply praying about it, but let going, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.000 like god, um, but also let go and let therapist, 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:21.880 let go and let yeah. And for me it was insurance. 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.480 I was like, once I even discover what insurance and 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:26.760 they were like, he was like, oh, that's house. Yeah. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.120 I was like, twenty six, I did insurance for the 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.079 first time. So I started going to therapy and talking 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.240 to somebody who and I mean, this is the best 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.920 way possible, didn't give a crap about me. Yeah, that 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.480 was so freeing because I know that you know, you 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.040 don't have to hang out with me for three days 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:41.560 and deal with me. You're just gonna give me your 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.840 unbiased advice based on what I'm saying and your education. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.400 That's how I feel with them and so but yeah, 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.720 that's been a big tool for me. Um, did you 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.240 do you feel like you've had a whole different set 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.000 of Like I wouldn't. I don't want to sort obstacle. 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.400 But since you've become so popular and famous, like, are 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:02.640 you finding new struggles with fame with notoriety because I 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.760 would assume someone that comes from where you come from again, 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.440 like with experience, like that's just an eye opening world 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.280 where you're like sometimes I love it, but sometimes I 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.680 really hate it. Well, yeah, when you all you know 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.520 is struggle and I have something to prove. I have 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:17.840 something to prove. I have something to prove. But I 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.880 still feel that way. So, like you know, when you 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.600 rescue a dog that's spent it's young life really hungry, 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.080 that dog is always in hunger mode, and so I'm 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.920 kind of that way. There's some things that I'm struggling with. Um, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.520 I mean, I mean I live over in East Nashville, 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.360 where nobody cares, right, Um, it's a very cool part 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:38.400 of it, very cool part of town. Everybody's super cool 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.600 about stuff. And just just recently, as yesterday, I got 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:44.480 stopped a few times, which I think is great. I've 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.040 worked my whole life for someone to ask for a 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.040 photo with me. But then I thought, oh wow, I'm 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.160 not used to that happening. I don't think um my 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.480 address got leaked on the internet that was super cool 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.280 because I don't live behind a gate, you know. Um. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.400 So it's like, as as things get better and you 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.040 feel like a lot of your problem, what I have 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.880 learned is that problem is just pivot, and it's all 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.400 and how, and it's all and how you you you 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.200 accept them and realize that everybody's got them and they've 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.880 Like my life has gotten better in a lot of ways. 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:19.800 But also I've had to take on a lot more 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.960 responsibilities and challenges, and I'm very proud of how I worked. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:24.760 And the same thing. Sometimes I'm so tired, but I 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:26.720 have to remind myself, I'm so grateful that I get 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.600 to be tired doing something I love. Right, I don't 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.200 know how you have time to be sitting across from 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.560 me right now. Well everything, I don't have a talent, 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.640 and now you say that, I'm no. I'm gonna swear 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.000 to you. I'd have to hustle as my talent like 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.720 I have nothing. Hut is a talent. I will agree 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.440 with you there. But if you weren't talented, you wouldn't 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.800 live behind the gate, I promise, true. But they're just crazy. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.840 You're right, I'll let you have that one. I'm not 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.040 even gonna argue that I'll let you have that one. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.360 Um your talent? When did you start to be told 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.840 that you might be great at singing? I think it 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.880 started with not being told to not sing when I 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.200 wasn't great at singing. I was a little kid. Were 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.160 you a good little kid singing? Orre you a passionate 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.640 little kid singing? I both. I was singing, UM somewhere 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.640 out there from an American tale, and oh yeah, where up? 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.800 Oh yeah? And um somewhere over the Rainbow. And then 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:24.680 there was a record. Um, there was a Ricky Skaggs 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.120 record that I loved, was like live in London, and 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.240 um a record by the whites. I'm hanging it around, 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.400 just a little kid. Hope then you'll get lonely. Um, 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.280 and mom never told me not to sing. There's six 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.160 of us kids. So there's three boys, and then a girl, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.640 and then another boy and then me. The boy right 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.640 before me. Daniel used to throw like shoes and stuff 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.120 at me and try to get me to shut up 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.000 when I'm trying to learn to play mandolin, I'm learning 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:49.960 to play guitar and learning to play bass, and I'm 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:51.760 singing all the time. And he was the one that 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.360 was like, but he's also he lives really he doesn't 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.240 live far from me at all. And um, he's one 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.280 of my biggest champions, my biggest cheerleaders. Um. My mom 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.320 was on a bowling league, and like I said, I 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.679 was a really shy kid, but I didn't mind singing 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.160 as my way of communicating. Uh, So I would sing. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.360 I would go to her friends at the bowling alley 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.760 and said, you want to hear me sing something from 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.280 um an American tale? And they were like sure, you know, 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:17.720 And I'd sing a few things and I'd go get 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:19.560 back in my chair and color in my coloring book. 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.840 So I think not being necessarily told that I was great, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.600 but just not being um, not being shamed about it. 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.399 From a really young age. Your dad played music, your 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.000 mom loved music. Did that rub off on any of 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:38.520 the other kids to where they everybody can sing? Everybody 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.080 can sing. My sister has a beautiful voice. My mother 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.679 has a beautiful voice. And in church, you know, we 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:45.840 were required to know all of the parts. Alto Tender's 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.040 a brand obays everything. My grandmother used to um, take 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:50.680 my finger and move it along the page of the 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.280 hymnal to show me what notes we were going to 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.400 be singing, even if it was the base we would 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.159 everybody on on mom's side and Dad's side, everybody can sing. Um. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.600 I'm the only one that just kind of took off 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.200 with it. I even had one of my brother's skin 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.520 was played guitar in our younger years, and I don't 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.520 know why he stopped. Had a brother that played trumpet. 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.600 My sister played flute. Um, So we are a musical family. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.600 I'm just the only one that I guess it kind 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:16.520 of stuck. It's interesting because I'm left handed and I 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.680 played guitar left handed. When I first I went to 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.719 a pawn shop and I was doing comedy, and I thought, okay, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:23.960 I don't want to have to steal other people's music 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.320 to do parodies. I want to actually write original comedy stuff. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.159 So I went to pawn shop for fifty bucks a 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.240 bought a guitar was right handed, and I just switched 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.040 the strings around. But what happened when there's a nut 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.320 in it and it holds different? So I kept busting. 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.600 I was gonna say, busting nut. I kept breaking these nuts. Yea, 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.520 these nuts. The strings kept breaking the nuts at the 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.560 bottom of the guitarist. It like fracture, fracturing it. Oh 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:46.880 my god, yes, I got your back so overpe So 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:48.600 So it took a long time until I actually got 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.000 a left handed guitar. But I did not take to 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.520 it well. I I music for me has been very difficult. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.240 I've put a lot of work into, you know, learning 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.760 chords and bar cole words, and for me, very difficult. 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.440 And I can't sing. I can sing just well enough 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.240 to do comedy that people aren't distracted by my bad singing. Boys, 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:09.879 now I'm pretty funny. You gotta give yourself for credit 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:11.640 that I don't trust me. Okay, I get enough credit, 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:15.760 don't with you? Growing up with a family full of music. 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:17.879 Did you feel like it was kind of intrinsic? I 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:19.600 love the way it sounded when we all sang in 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.239 church together, but yeah, it just kind of just is 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.800 playing guitar. Love it when you started still assuming you 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.879 got bloody fingers and like everything, but like, do you 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.920 feel like you got it? Well? They wouldn't let me 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.000 play guitar at first because I was too small to 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.360 hold it safely, so they let me bang on a mandolin. 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.400 I remember I was probably in kindergartener first, right, going 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.560 outside of the driveway and rubbing my fingers on the 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.840 concrete because I thought that would help me get Callice's. 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.160 I was tired of my fingers being sore. And then 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.159 when I'm nine years old, my dad takes me to 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.080 a music store and there Missouri, which is just right 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.199 across the line from Mammoth Spring, So up until now, 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.040 I've been playing band then and then I was big 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:02.800 enough that I could sort of play with my mom's 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.320 Alvarez um but kind of under supervision. But they were 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:07.800 going to get me a three quarter sized guitar and 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:09.920 I didn't know, So we went into this music store 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:14.920 called Fayer Music cleverly named. And Dad hands me this 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.240 little three quarter sized k guitar and he says, see 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:18.639 if you can play something on that, and then he 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.080 goes and talks to the guy you know. And I 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.639 was sitting there playing like go talent Roadie or something, 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:25.520 and he walked back into where I was he said, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.200 can you play it? I showed him when I figured out. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.520 He said it's time to leave. So I handed the 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.560 guitar back to the guy behind the counter and Dad said, nope, 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:37.359 that's yours. Take it home. And so I wasn't great. 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:39.800 Mom tells the story that it was like three days. 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:41.840 My dad shows me like three chords when we get home, 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.480 and about three days later, I'm bawling in the kitchen 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.440 because I can't play and sing at the same time. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:53.239 So I'm learning Snowbird and by n Murray and I'm 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.720 learning Steel Rails by Alison Krausse in Union Station and 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.760 I'm super upset, and Mom said, give it a we 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:02.000 just just give it a week and see if if 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:05.080 you feel better about it. So I don't know. I 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.840 think I think there wasn't There weren't a lot of 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.760 distractions growing up on a farm and with access to instruments. 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.320 I think that helps everything kind of click. There's nothing 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.600 else to do. That whole situation. If you upset you 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:19.800 can't sing and play. That happened me last week the 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.040 same thing. I was like, Okay, I can't sing a play. 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:23.920 Why can't I do it? There are still certain things 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.320 I can't sing and play. I can't do it. Do 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:30.119 you ever get um? It's just wild that you started 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.679 on the mandolin. I don't hear of many people that, 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.320 because of their size, just start on the mandolin. Mostly 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.640 people learn a string instrument and they go to the mandolin, 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.080 but not because you're literally hands are so My hands 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:42.840 were so tiny. Yeah. Do you feel like that was 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:45.640 a good lead into the guitar? This is really really 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:47.879 different because it is so I feel like it's a 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.120 bit more advanced. It is more advanced, and I think 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:51.960 what it did for me is even though it wasn't 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.360 great at mandolin, I'm still terrible UM, but it did 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.160 teach my right hand a lot about rhythm and making 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.280 it hit the strings of wanted to hit. So I 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.480 didn't have to struggle when it came to guitar with 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.320 how do I strum? And what are the patterns. So 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.000 I think that that was probably beneficial, but I was 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:12.080 just terrible. You guys follow Ashley. She's got her own name, 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:13.919 which sometimes it is weird. People like, Hi, it's me. 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:15.879 I'm Clint Black, but only Clint black one on Twitter, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:17.840 and I'm like, well, you couldn't get just get Clint Black. 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.200 Not that that's the exact case, but at Ashley McBride, 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.240 you guys go follow her, um, you know, go check 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.600 out never will maybe if for some reason you've been 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:28.199 in a cave and you don't know who she is 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:33.239 and you're like, Okay, this is interesting, go go go 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.800 listen to the music. I think you're one of and 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:37.359 I mean this is in a complimentary way. You're one 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:41.600 of the few album artists that that I will invest 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:43.560 I'm so I need a couple of songs. I'm done, 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:48.320 But there were there were a few you Casey Old Dominion, 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:51.239 Brandy's that way. And you know, it's all songwriting. Now 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:53.080 that I start to say this out loud, it's all. 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:55.600 It's songwriting more than it is anything else. But you're 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:57.320 definitely an album artist. And I don't know if that 0:22:57.320 --> 0:22:59.800 means anything that's comment, but but thank you for coming 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:01.240 and I think we'll wrap it up there. All right, 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:10.000 There she is Ashley McBride. Moving on to number seven, 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:13.480 we're gonna get into our conversation with singer songwriter Luke Dick. Now, 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:16.600 I booked this one personally, and I keep this running 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:18.720 list of guests in my phone, just people I find 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.520 interesting when it comes to like sometimes in the radio studio, 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:23.480 people will come in and talk about different songwriters on 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:25.640 their number one songs, and I'll always keep a list 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:27.520 of those. And Luke Dick had been on my list 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.920 for quite a while because he's written so many songs 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:32.480 that I feel like are always a little bit outside 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:35.000 of the box. I follow him on Instagram. Seemed like 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:37.800 a very peculiar dude, so I thought getting him in 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.240 a room with Bobby would be a great conversation. I 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:43.800 actually deemed him on Instagram. He was like, I'm totally down. 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.280 Showed up the next week and we did this episode, 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:48.840 and I can always tell it's a really good Bobby 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:51.840 Cast episode. Whenever we get into like twenty minutes and 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.879 haven't addressed any music whatsoever. Bobby and the guests have 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:57.639 just been kind of talking about things outside of music. 0:23:57.800 --> 0:23:59.679 Those are always the best one. So it happened on 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.760 this episode at number seven. Here's Luke Dick and with 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:08.760 Luke Dick. You know, I've seen many, uh photos of 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:11.040 you have friends who have worked with you. It's just 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.359 random for me to have not have met someone until 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:19.280 this point because you're very established, you know, super well 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:23.080 thought of guy. And our pets have a crossed have they? Um? 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.040 I don't think so. I'm pretty forgettable, though you are 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.600 not a forgettable guy. I'm pretty forgettable. I hide out, 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:33.480 you know. I just got my little studio and come 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:36.399 out when I get eat. I eat now and again, 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:38.159 and then I pick up my kids and then I 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.840 get back to doing whatever it is I'm doing. What 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:45.639 is your studio like? Um, you know, I bought this 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:49.320 house right when I moved to Nashville, um, six or 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:53.400 seven years seven years ago, and there was a garage 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:56.600 in the back, and uh, it was unfinished, and I 0:24:56.640 --> 0:24:59.119 thought that'd be a great place for just have something 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:01.840 close to the house away from the house. And so 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.240 then I put these opaque glass doors so I could 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:06.119 have some light, and put as much of skylights in 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:08.800 and really dressed it up and made it into a thing. 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:11.840 And so that's where I am all the time. I'm 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:13.800 currently looking for another spot. I have too many kids. 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:16.040 They're beating on the door all the time. So are 0:25:16.119 --> 0:25:18.960 you when you are riding in the shore? I assume 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:21.840 you do a lot of writing. Yeah, yeah, and you're producing. 0:25:22.200 --> 0:25:24.840 Are you doing more than just demos? Like, will you 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:29.280 do any like anything for a record in your spot? Yeah? Um, 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:34.600 I I'm working on the next Miranda Laveryt record right now. 0:25:34.600 --> 0:25:37.280 We're almost done. And um, a lot of this stuff 0:25:37.520 --> 0:25:42.320 were was Um. When I do demos, I don't think 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:44.159 of them as demos. I just I'm trying to make 0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:46.960 something that I love, and so I put more time 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:48.600 and effort into it. And so maybe some of that 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:50.520 stuff makes it onto the record. It may be the 0:25:50.560 --> 0:25:54.720 pre production, um that we just drummed to. Um. There 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:57.520 was a single for Kip More called the Bowl a 0:25:57.560 --> 0:25:59.280 few years ago that was just straight up out of 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:03.360 my studio. So I'll do whatever. How did there? I 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:06.359 was doing a little more research on because my my 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:09.480 vision and version of you has been the last ten 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:12.720 years or so. Um. But it seemed like for a 0:26:12.720 --> 0:26:16.520 while you weren't writing country music for a while. Now 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:20.320 you're back, Like, why why why did you quit? I 0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:21.919 wouldn't say quit. Why did you take a break? And 0:26:21.920 --> 0:26:28.439 what brought you back? Yeah? Um? And um, I'm I 0:26:28.480 --> 0:26:31.200 came to Nashville for a minute and I just didn't 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:33.359 have any luck. You know, I was trying, I was 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:35.879 made a record, I was trying to get a deal. 0:26:36.600 --> 0:26:39.760 There are things stacked against me, just logistically in terms 0:26:39.840 --> 0:26:42.679 of being a single dad and stuff like this, and 0:26:42.720 --> 0:26:47.680 so I didn't And also people weren't responding in a way. 0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:51.960 There were outliers you know that had some clouds or 0:26:52.000 --> 0:26:53.600 something that I really love what you do blah blah 0:26:53.600 --> 0:26:56.440 blah blah. But I was like, this never amounted to anything, 0:26:56.720 --> 0:26:58.959 and it wasn't like people were picking up my songs. 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:00.960 And I'm like, I clear either don't know how to 0:27:01.000 --> 0:27:05.240 do this, I'm not savvy enough or or it's just 0:27:05.280 --> 0:27:07.400 not good enough or something like that. Did you never 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:13.159 think you're ahead of your time? Uh? That's um, I 0:27:13.200 --> 0:27:16.040 think that like looking back and listening to the record 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:18.160 that I made, that's what it sounds like to me. 0:27:18.240 --> 0:27:22.520 But I also don't want to be um, um have 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:25.480 delusions of grandeur or something like that. It's just like 0:27:26.440 --> 0:27:28.720 music is important to me. But it's also just a 0:27:28.760 --> 0:27:32.000 snippet of life and reality, and it's a big part, 0:27:32.080 --> 0:27:33.520 you know, it's a big part. It gives me a 0:27:33.520 --> 0:27:35.919 lot of joy. Um, But I also don't want to 0:27:37.000 --> 0:27:39.160 think in terms like I have a hard time think 0:27:39.600 --> 0:27:41.679 thinking in terms of that that you're ahead of your 0:27:41.680 --> 0:27:44.359 time and that's why it didn't work or whatever. And 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:47.439 but then whatever whatever is and it didn't work, and 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:50.439 so I left. And then my current publisher called me 0:27:50.480 --> 0:27:55.760 when I was in New York and um, he said, hey, 0:27:55.920 --> 0:27:59.359 do you have any songs for Dirk Spentley And I'm 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:03.480 and I just said no, Um. I I mean literally 0:28:03.520 --> 0:28:08.879 everything that I've written has been in falsetto and also 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:13.399 about the afterlife for some sort of afterlife adventure. I 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:16.720 mean it's too fantastical and whimsical for Derek's I just 0:28:16.760 --> 0:28:20.960 don't thank you for calling me. Um, but he will 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:22.320 just look me up if you've ever in town. And 0:28:22.359 --> 0:28:24.520 then one thing led to another in a few years 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:27.480 went by and we met and um for coffee and 0:28:27.480 --> 0:28:30.200 he's like, you need to come right with me and 0:28:30.440 --> 0:28:33.800 at this company, and um, you need to be writing 0:28:33.800 --> 0:28:36.480 with Eric and you don't need to be doing what 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:38.240 you think you should be doing. You should be doing 0:28:38.280 --> 0:28:41.080 what you want to do, and hits will fall out 0:28:41.080 --> 0:28:44.920 of that, I promise you, And and he was he 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:52.040 was right. Um. And so between him and getting in 0:28:52.080 --> 0:28:54.800 the right rooms and having just the opportunity to show 0:28:55.000 --> 0:29:01.040 somebody like Eric Church song or an idea for a song, um, 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:03.040 that led to a lot of things. And Kip was 0:29:03.080 --> 0:29:05.040 a big proponent early on too. It was like I 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:07.000 didn't have any hits and he was coming over because 0:29:07.000 --> 0:29:08.840 he liked the sounds coming out of my studio and 0:29:08.880 --> 0:29:11.520 I would we would work on stuff, and I think 0:29:11.520 --> 0:29:13.360 it was the Wild Ones record. I got a couple 0:29:13.360 --> 0:29:16.760 of songs on there, and we just worked. Um. But 0:29:16.840 --> 0:29:20.400 then Eric and then Natalie him Be and I started 0:29:20.480 --> 0:29:22.480 riding together and it was like almost like we fed 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:24.800 off of each other's creativity, and so we were like 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:26.920 trying to not one up each other. It was like 0:29:27.080 --> 0:29:30.000 us like pushing each other, like trying to make each 0:29:30.000 --> 0:29:33.800 other like smile or get excited about a song. And 0:29:33.800 --> 0:29:35.600 so we'd bring in an idea or a sound or 0:29:35.640 --> 0:29:38.800 something like that, and that was a real joy. And 0:29:38.800 --> 0:29:40.959 then she would also sing my praises. It was like 0:29:41.200 --> 0:29:45.280 I probably owere a hundred grand and pr fees you 0:29:45.320 --> 0:29:49.600 know around town. Brought Miranda into the room, and that 0:29:49.640 --> 0:29:53.360 became a relationship, UM and it's meant a lot of 0:29:53.440 --> 0:29:55.080 joy and a lot of songs with her, But it 0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:57.480 was that was kind of the beginning of it. It 0:29:57.560 --> 0:30:01.520 was running into a publisher, UM who believed in what 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:05.160 I did naturally, instead of trying to curb it um 0:30:05.200 --> 0:30:07.520 to meet a market demand or something like that. And 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:10.480 that's not really where I shine anyway. And I find 0:30:10.480 --> 0:30:12.440 that if I feel like my cat in a corner 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:15.000 when I'm writing a song, then it's usually not gonna 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:17.240 be awesome. It's going to be an average kind of 0:30:17.320 --> 0:30:21.000 thing day or whatever. I've talked to Miranda and Cassie Ashton, 0:30:22.280 --> 0:30:25.520 Natalie him Be, those that you mentioned there, and they 0:30:25.560 --> 0:30:27.640 all say the same thing about you is that you know, 0:30:28.160 --> 0:30:30.200 you're very out of the box and with ideas. I mean, 0:30:30.200 --> 0:30:32.600 that's that's the easy way to describe you to people 0:30:32.640 --> 0:30:35.160 who don't have to write songs. When you started writing 0:30:35.160 --> 0:30:39.440 with Eric, was he already having success or was it 0:30:39.480 --> 0:30:44.240 early on m It was the Mr MS Mr Misunderstood record, 0:30:44.280 --> 0:30:47.840 so he'd had a serious amount of success by the 0:30:47.840 --> 0:30:49.760 time I was writing with him. So you you start 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:52.080 writing with him, I mean to you as a creative, 0:30:52.120 --> 0:30:53.840 is that intimidating to write with him or is it 0:30:53.920 --> 0:30:56.920 kind of refreshing because he also you know, win a 0:30:56.920 --> 0:31:00.840 different angle at his success. Yeah. I was in New 0:31:00.920 --> 0:31:06.320 York and when I was living there, they somebody showed me, 0:31:07.000 --> 0:31:10.720 UM smoke a little smoke and they said, have you 0:31:10.800 --> 0:31:13.000 heard this? And I listened to him like like, is 0:31:13.040 --> 0:31:17.600 this what they're doing in Nashville now? And UM, it 0:31:17.680 --> 0:31:22.200 gave me how you know that that there could be, um, 0:31:22.320 --> 0:31:26.840 something creatively interesting, sonically interesting. Um, And I feel like people, 0:31:27.760 --> 0:31:29.680 I feel like Jay Joey's kind of paved the way 0:31:29.680 --> 0:31:33.240 sonically for somebody like me to be here. UM. I really, 0:31:34.440 --> 0:31:37.920 UM have a lot of gratitude for what they with 0:31:38.040 --> 0:31:41.360 those two have done together. Um it's no small feat 0:31:41.480 --> 0:31:45.240 to break in with a different sound. And but but 0:31:46.440 --> 0:31:49.160 more point at your question a little bit better. UM, 0:31:50.040 --> 0:31:54.000 there's always a bit of intimidation. It doesn't matter how 0:31:54.480 --> 0:31:59.360 how successful or not commercially successful the artist is coming in. 0:31:59.720 --> 0:32:02.200 So but that was you know, the first chance at 0:32:02.200 --> 0:32:06.000 and at an a list situation, UM, for me to 0:32:07.000 --> 0:32:11.040 prove myself for whatever. Um, But I had sent him 0:32:11.240 --> 0:32:16.080 this idea through my publisher that he loved, and you know, 0:32:16.120 --> 0:32:17.680 there was it was already it was killed a word, 0:32:17.760 --> 0:32:20.760 and there was already an idea happening there. And the 0:32:20.840 --> 0:32:22.720 in the first stands and refrained, and he's like, I 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:24.520 love this, Let's finish it. And so he came in 0:32:24.520 --> 0:32:26.960 and we finished that, and then it was like it 0:32:27.000 --> 0:32:28.920 took us like an hour to finish the song. And 0:32:28.960 --> 0:32:31.360 then he it was me and him and Jeff Hyde 0:32:31.360 --> 0:32:33.480 who plays in his band too, who's a great writer. 0:32:34.120 --> 0:32:38.320 And then he had the idea for a round here 0:32:38.360 --> 0:32:41.920 buzz and so he kind of had all around here 0:32:42.040 --> 0:32:46.840 buz buzz and so then we just sort of took 0:32:46.880 --> 0:32:49.000 off on that and it just felt natural. Once you 0:32:49.000 --> 0:32:51.400 get into everybody's a human, you know, it's like, there's 0:32:51.400 --> 0:32:56.959 no I don't know, there's no there's different kinds of magic, 0:32:56.960 --> 0:33:01.520 two different human beings, you know, um and different and 0:33:01.520 --> 0:33:05.600 and Eric is definitely somebody with um a special kind 0:33:05.600 --> 0:33:10.680 of charisma and a special kind of UM creative UM 0:33:10.880 --> 0:33:16.080 capacity and and uh intellect to me UM. But as 0:33:16.120 --> 0:33:18.520 a human being or trying to impress another human or 0:33:18.560 --> 0:33:20.560 something like that, it's like, look, you know, we all 0:33:20.600 --> 0:33:24.080 woke up today, we all needed breakfast and all that stuff. 0:33:24.120 --> 0:33:28.800 So let's just you try to put stardom or something 0:33:28.840 --> 0:33:31.480 like that out of your head. UM. I tried to 0:33:31.960 --> 0:33:37.960 um and not be UM. I guess motivated or or 0:33:38.320 --> 0:33:42.960 dissuaded or felt feel insecure around UM that kind of 0:33:42.960 --> 0:33:45.640 a status. I'm trying to think if there's somebody that 0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:48.160 would be so star struck that it would be difficult 0:33:48.200 --> 0:33:52.080 to write with. UM. Uh, you know Tom Waits. I 0:33:52.120 --> 0:33:54.480 don't know. UM kind of sound like Tom Waits right 0:33:54.480 --> 0:33:58.560 now when you're talking. I'm Bob Dylan. I guess you know, 0:33:58.600 --> 0:34:00.440 if you had to go write a song with Bob Dylan, 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:07.280 that would probably be one of the most intimidating things situation. UM. 0:34:07.400 --> 0:34:11.560 I remember this is not an intimidating person. But this 0:34:11.600 --> 0:34:13.920 guy came over and he was an Englishman and he 0:34:13.960 --> 0:34:16.520 had these hits in the eightieses pop rockets, and they 0:34:16.520 --> 0:34:20.040 were really good, good ones. And I kept playing like 0:34:20.120 --> 0:34:23.759 guitar stuff and he's like, uh, he'd look at me 0:34:23.800 --> 0:34:30.239 and go and that's not very inspiring, is it. What 0:34:30.320 --> 0:34:32.319 do you do to that? You know? I'm just like, 0:34:32.719 --> 0:34:35.000 what do you got? And he's like here's a list 0:34:35.040 --> 0:34:37.719 of I'm more of a lyrics guy. Here's a here's 0:34:37.719 --> 0:34:41.160 a list of titles. And the titles were like all 0:34:41.280 --> 0:34:46.719 night long, all night, all of everything, And I'm just 0:34:46.760 --> 0:34:51.040 like kidding me, what is this? Are you? Are you 0:34:51.080 --> 0:34:53.399 a lyric or melody guy at heart? When you start 0:34:53.440 --> 0:34:59.120 to write, I can't separate them really, you know. Um, 0:34:59.239 --> 0:35:03.239 when Natalie, it's different for different rooms. When I get 0:35:03.280 --> 0:35:06.239 around Natalie and I have a medal melody already with 0:35:06.360 --> 0:35:09.600 something and with the phrasing, and she wants to change 0:35:09.600 --> 0:35:12.360 the melody, I usually defer to her because I really 0:35:12.400 --> 0:35:16.600 believe in her abilities to make a melody. Um. There 0:35:16.640 --> 0:35:18.759 are a few other people like that that I When 0:35:18.760 --> 0:35:20.480 they say, man, I think this melody could be better, 0:35:20.520 --> 0:35:22.719 I'm like, all right, let's check it, let's scrap it, 0:35:22.800 --> 0:35:27.719 let's see what's up. Um. But it all, I really 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:29.640 want to marry it all because you can't just send 0:35:29.680 --> 0:35:31.880 somebody the lyrics to a song and expect it to 0:35:31.960 --> 0:35:33.799 speak to them off of a page. I mean, there's 0:35:33.800 --> 0:35:36.440 a whole thing happening there. It's like, that's the beauty 0:35:36.440 --> 0:35:42.040 of um music or songs in general, is that there's 0:35:42.080 --> 0:35:45.280 a sound, there's a you know, there's a chord progression, 0:35:45.320 --> 0:35:48.400 there's a lyric, and there's a melody on top of it. 0:35:48.480 --> 0:35:51.000 So it's hard for me to say that I'd be 0:35:51.040 --> 0:35:55.840 one thing. Um, when you write, are you writing based 0:35:55.880 --> 0:35:58.920 on will you just chase lyrics or will you sometimes 0:35:58.920 --> 0:36:01.200 just create a melody and then certain lyrics into it later? 0:36:01.840 --> 0:36:05.759 Both um? Both um. Laura Els does this to me. 0:36:05.800 --> 0:36:08.080 I hope she's listening right now, because when we write, 0:36:08.160 --> 0:36:11.840 I'll be I'll turn around and I'll start try to 0:36:11.880 --> 0:36:13.560 get the track going. You know, it's like, okay, we 0:36:13.600 --> 0:36:14.919 got the first first, let me just put a little 0:36:14.920 --> 0:36:17.320 bass part in here. I'll turn around. The Laura is 0:36:17.360 --> 0:36:20.400 such a prolific lyricist that she'll be done with the 0:36:20.440 --> 0:36:22.120 second first. I'm like, wait a minute, I like this song. 0:36:22.160 --> 0:36:26.400 Can I participate please? He was hold on to you know, 0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:29.080 have a have a story, eat some chips or something, 0:36:29.200 --> 0:36:34.080 and let me do this bass part and contribute. Um. 0:36:34.440 --> 0:36:39.680 But there have been times, um that the melody has 0:36:39.760 --> 0:36:42.239 come first. You know it's like you know, you start 0:36:42.320 --> 0:36:46.160 playing um and something will just spill out of you 0:36:46.239 --> 0:36:49.000 and then you just work around the vowels. The vowels 0:36:49.080 --> 0:36:51.279 might lead you to a phrase or something like that. 0:36:51.400 --> 0:36:55.719 You know. Um, I read the Keith Richard's book and 0:36:55.719 --> 0:36:57.319 he talked about the way that they did that, and 0:36:57.320 --> 0:37:00.480 it's I don't think it's uncommon to do that, um life. 0:37:00.719 --> 0:37:03.120 That's the book from Keith Richards, And he said, I 0:37:03.120 --> 0:37:05.160 think I can't He had a name for it, you know, 0:37:05.320 --> 0:37:06.719 the way that they do it. But it's you know, 0:37:06.719 --> 0:37:11.319 you're just playing a chord and you're owow had and 0:37:11.400 --> 0:37:16.240 so then whatever value sing that feels the most natural, 0:37:16.600 --> 0:37:19.280 you might lean toward a word with that vowel sound 0:37:19.640 --> 0:37:22.439 um and then it and then you have to work 0:37:22.480 --> 0:37:24.919 the concept around the vowel sound or something like that. 0:37:25.000 --> 0:37:29.560 You know. It's a really songwriting is really weird. But um, 0:37:29.600 --> 0:37:32.759 I do find that when I listened to songs and 0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:34.360 I feel like that's a good melody, those are the 0:37:34.360 --> 0:37:36.640 wrong vowel sounds or something. You know, I'm like, I 0:37:36.640 --> 0:37:39.200 can't understand the lyric. It's not the lyrics not sticking 0:37:39.239 --> 0:37:42.240 out to me because the it's all mushed in there 0:37:42.280 --> 0:37:45.480 in a way, and the vowels aren't popping in the 0:37:45.480 --> 0:37:48.240 there's too many words or too many, too not enough words, 0:37:48.239 --> 0:37:52.279 so there's like an economy, and that's all subjective to right. 0:37:52.440 --> 0:37:55.040 It's just like, does that sounds too many? Like too 0:37:55.040 --> 0:37:58.040 many words to me? Um? It doesn't sound like too 0:37:58.080 --> 0:38:01.480 many words to that artist or that person singing it. 0:38:01.880 --> 0:38:05.360 I'm gonna compare you as a lyrictist and a songwriter 0:38:05.840 --> 0:38:08.080 to Eminem, which you may have never been compared to. 0:38:08.200 --> 0:38:12.040 But WHOA. When I listened to Eminem, he bends rhymes. 0:38:12.120 --> 0:38:15.439 Sometimes he doesn't rhyme, but still rhymes. And a lot 0:38:15.480 --> 0:38:19.080 of or at least some of your writing. You don't 0:38:19.080 --> 0:38:21.560 even chase a rhyme. There just aren't rhymes where there 0:38:21.560 --> 0:38:24.680 should be where traditionally rhymes are. I shouldn't say should 0:38:24.680 --> 0:38:28.919 be right, Yeah, there aren't rhymes were traditionally rhymes are. 0:38:29.320 --> 0:38:32.560 Yeah yeah. Is that purposeful on your part to not 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:35.160 put rhymes there? Or is it just purposeful to put 0:38:35.200 --> 0:38:37.640 those words there and they just don't happen to rhyme? 0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:41.480 I feel like, Um, when you get down to it, 0:38:41.480 --> 0:38:44.120 it's like, especially if you're chasing a lyric, and it's 0:38:44.160 --> 0:38:47.520 like is this lyric working? Is this idea working? You 0:38:47.719 --> 0:38:52.000 just run with it? Um, And then I don't want 0:38:52.000 --> 0:38:55.120 to say it's not intentional. Um, Like the way to say. 0:38:55.520 --> 0:38:58.520 It's not it's not my intention to say every song 0:38:58.600 --> 0:39:02.680 needs to rhyme like this, or let's try some rhymes 0:39:02.719 --> 0:39:04.799 in the middle of this of this phrase is rather 0:39:04.880 --> 0:39:08.120 than at the end of the phrases, which is typical. UM. 0:39:08.160 --> 0:39:12.040 I feel like you just all you're left with in 0:39:12.160 --> 0:39:17.120 any creative endeavor is your own esthetic intuition, and you 0:39:17.239 --> 0:39:20.759 have to go with what moves you. And when any time, 0:39:20.880 --> 0:39:23.319 I mean, there's been a countless artist that come in 0:39:23.800 --> 0:39:25.720 and we end up with a song that I don't 0:39:25.800 --> 0:39:29.600 care about. Um, and that's okay because they were saying, no, 0:39:29.640 --> 0:39:30.920 I don't want to do this because I want to 0:39:30.920 --> 0:39:32.600 do that, and I'm like, well, that does nothing in 0:39:32.640 --> 0:39:34.560 my head, you know, or heart or whatever. I'm like, 0:39:34.680 --> 0:39:37.000 that doesn't do anything for me. But it's your career, 0:39:37.280 --> 0:39:41.399 you know, it's your artistic impulse that you're chasing, So 0:39:41.719 --> 0:39:44.879 chase it then, UM, and I hope that. I hope 0:39:44.880 --> 0:39:50.880 it works if I like you and the demo to 0:39:50.960 --> 0:39:53.960 kill a word yeah, which is you singing, which we 0:39:53.960 --> 0:39:55.600 have it right here, well, like play a little bit 0:39:55.640 --> 0:39:59.759 out of here, I sit down in its place as 0:40:00.040 --> 0:40:03.799 we used to laugh out of disgrace, lay over under 0:40:03.960 --> 0:40:17.120 six cold dirt. Yeah yeah, yeah killer, So that you 0:40:17.120 --> 0:40:19.799 steal that we were at your house last night, so 0:40:19.840 --> 0:40:25.560 much about your studio broken last night? So change the code? 0:40:27.040 --> 0:40:30.839 Is it a How prevalent is it that if you're 0:40:30.840 --> 0:40:34.760 writing with or for, like an Eric, that that person 0:40:34.880 --> 0:40:38.319 doesn't sing the demo? And is that purposeful? So the 0:40:38.360 --> 0:40:41.040 demo doesn't get out with his voice on it. It 0:40:41.120 --> 0:40:43.360 wasn't purposeful. He just said, put your put your vocal on. 0:40:43.440 --> 0:40:46.560 I like what you're doing. I'm out, um, do do 0:40:46.600 --> 0:40:49.760 your thing. I want to hear what you do. Um. 0:40:49.840 --> 0:40:54.400 And then there's sometimes where, especially if it's a female artist, 0:40:54.560 --> 0:40:58.880 where where I'm less inclined to go do a vocal 0:40:59.000 --> 0:41:04.399 on it. Um. And for a couple of reasons. One 0:41:04.480 --> 0:41:07.279 is is shrewd. You know. It's like if they just 0:41:07.360 --> 0:41:09.160 hear a dude on there, then it sounds like a 0:41:09.239 --> 0:41:12.160 dude song, you know. But if you write it with 0:41:12.560 --> 0:41:15.799 the artist whose female, and then another female artist the 0:41:15.840 --> 0:41:18.160 other the other excuse me, the other female writer. If 0:41:18.200 --> 0:41:21.359 the other female writer sings it, it makes more sense 0:41:21.400 --> 0:41:24.200 to me. But I don't like, really if I feel 0:41:24.200 --> 0:41:26.160 like it shoots you in the foot a little bit, 0:41:26.640 --> 0:41:28.919 unless it's somebody like Miranda that we know each other 0:41:28.960 --> 0:41:31.120 well enough to where it's like not like she's like, oh, 0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:33.480 this sounds like she can hear through that stuff. I 0:41:33.640 --> 0:41:36.560 trust her to hear through that stuff. But generally, if 0:41:36.600 --> 0:41:39.759 an artist is there, um and especially if it's an 0:41:39.840 --> 0:41:42.600 artist that I don't work with that often I'm gonna 0:41:42.640 --> 0:41:44.160 try to get them to sing it because I want 0:41:44.160 --> 0:41:46.000 to hear what they sound like on it too. If 0:41:46.040 --> 0:41:48.279 I and also see if you face if you did 0:41:48.320 --> 0:41:50.759 okay or you didn't. What I mean by that is 0:41:51.520 --> 0:41:53.880 sometimes you write all these melodies, You write the song 0:41:54.040 --> 0:41:56.879 and somebody sings on it just doesn't sound good, you know. 0:41:57.080 --> 0:41:59.400 And so if you're off the mark in terms of 0:41:59.640 --> 0:42:01.960 a lot of structure or something like that, you'll be 0:42:02.000 --> 0:42:03.600 able to hear it. When they get on the microphone 0:42:03.640 --> 0:42:05.840 it's like they're not really capable of singing that, or 0:42:05.880 --> 0:42:08.040 they were really great at it, or it's kind of 0:42:08.040 --> 0:42:09.759 in the middle. Maybe we shouldn't have gone that high 0:42:09.760 --> 0:42:13.239 and you change the key, those kind of technical decisions 0:42:13.280 --> 0:42:16.960 like that. So it's if it's a if there, if 0:42:16.960 --> 0:42:19.120 we're the only writers in the room, often times I 0:42:19.120 --> 0:42:22.200 get tasked with singing the singing the demo on it, 0:42:22.280 --> 0:42:25.879 and I'm generally I'm happy to do that. It's fun 0:42:25.920 --> 0:42:27.920 to me. It's a creative endeavor, especially if I love 0:42:27.960 --> 0:42:31.800 the song. When Bluebird comes out and it's a massive 0:42:31.880 --> 0:42:34.080 radio success, and I think it was the first massive 0:42:34.200 --> 0:42:37.000 radio song from Randon a long time. I remember saying that, like, 0:42:37.360 --> 0:42:39.839 you know, she'd just had a record, that that double 0:42:39.880 --> 0:42:42.520 album I had done so wonderful, but it didn't translate 0:42:42.560 --> 0:42:47.560 into singles. But Bluebird comes and just crushes. It's the 0:42:47.640 --> 0:42:52.880 number one and was one two Grammys. Um no, we 0:42:53.200 --> 0:42:57.239 nominated for two Grammys? Did you go? That was when 0:42:57.280 --> 0:43:00.560 the COVID was happening. So I bought a suit and 0:43:00.800 --> 0:43:03.120 in my closet it sits so you didn't even put 0:43:03.160 --> 0:43:06.480 it on for the night of it on the internet 0:43:06.520 --> 0:43:10.080 on no. So is that cool to you to be 0:43:10.120 --> 0:43:11.759 nominated for a Grammy? Or is it to you? Is 0:43:11.800 --> 0:43:14.640 that just a piece of metal that represents and what 0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:17.520 does representation? Even me? I would I would really be 0:43:17.640 --> 0:43:20.520 lying if I didn't say that I would not want 0:43:20.520 --> 0:43:22.520 to win a Grammy. I mean I would love to 0:43:22.560 --> 0:43:27.760 say that I want a Grammy. Um. Sometimes I catch myself, 0:43:27.800 --> 0:43:29.600 you know, when you win something and it's like, I'm 0:43:29.640 --> 0:43:34.160 always thankful to win something. Um, there is a truth 0:43:34.680 --> 0:43:37.799 for me to the the fact that when you write 0:43:37.840 --> 0:43:40.080 a song like that that was really meaningful to you, 0:43:40.480 --> 0:43:43.480 that nothing compares to the day that you wrote it 0:43:43.520 --> 0:43:45.359 with your friends and then you heard the and then 0:43:45.400 --> 0:43:47.480 you played it back and you heard and you sang 0:43:47.520 --> 0:43:49.520 on it, you listen to demo and you get excited 0:43:49.560 --> 0:43:54.359 about it. Nothing compares to that joy. Winning awards is um, 0:43:54.400 --> 0:43:57.680 it's another like just kind of hurrah at the end. 0:43:57.880 --> 0:43:59.960 You know that you're the hard work in the view 0:44:00.080 --> 0:44:03.480 to the beautiful work is already done. And Amy Taylor 0:44:03.560 --> 0:44:05.640 calls it the pudding. You know, you've already eaten the 0:44:05.680 --> 0:44:08.160 meat and all that stuff, and pudding is nice, you know, 0:44:08.280 --> 0:44:10.680 but you don't need it. You're already full. Kind of 0:44:10.800 --> 0:44:15.520 um of everything that said. If the Grammy, any Grammy 0:44:15.600 --> 0:44:19.160 voters are out there, if I have for anything next year, 0:44:19.239 --> 0:44:22.040 please vote for me. At Luke Dick Luke, thanks man, 0:44:22.160 --> 0:44:30.960 Thank you. At number six is Parker McCullum, who is 0:44:31.000 --> 0:44:34.359 one of Bobby's favorite new artists, and we recorded this 0:44:34.400 --> 0:44:36.920 episode earlier in the year when he was really starting 0:44:36.920 --> 0:44:39.120 to blow up, had just moved to Nashville. He's such 0:44:39.160 --> 0:44:41.360 a nice guy. He pulled up in his really big truck, 0:44:41.480 --> 0:44:43.399 and the thing I found interesting is that he called 0:44:43.440 --> 0:44:45.760 Bobby sir. It seemed like one of the most genuine 0:44:45.800 --> 0:44:48.680 dudes and country music and really cool to see him 0:44:48.680 --> 0:44:51.360 blow up this year even after we did this episode. 0:44:51.360 --> 0:44:55.400 So at number six, here is Parker McCullum. Here with 0:44:55.680 --> 0:44:58.960 Parker McCallum. Talk to me about the beginning of music 0:44:59.000 --> 0:45:02.200 for you. When did you aren't playing I won't say bars, 0:45:02.239 --> 0:45:04.440 but maybe that's where he started. How old were you 0:45:04.440 --> 0:45:08.480 a teenager trying to play places? And what were those places? Yeah? 0:45:08.480 --> 0:45:09.719 And I grew up in a town just north the 0:45:09.719 --> 0:45:11.800 Houston called Conrow. I went to high school in a 0:45:11.840 --> 0:45:13.840 town called the Woodlands, which is like five miles from it. 0:45:13.920 --> 0:45:16.640 I made a bunch of shows at the Yeah, we 0:45:16.760 --> 0:45:18.600 were headlined for I graduate high school on the stage 0:45:18.600 --> 0:45:23.360 and we're headlined in October. I'm like, that's pretty cool, um, 0:45:23.400 --> 0:45:25.480 But there wasn't much of a music scene down there, 0:45:25.800 --> 0:45:27.840 especially for there wasn't any countrym Every kid in my 0:45:27.880 --> 0:45:29.520 high school wanted to be a rapper, like I was 0:45:29.560 --> 0:45:32.160 listening to Old Crow and Robert O'Keene and Randy Rogers 0:45:32.160 --> 0:45:34.680 Band and nobody at my nobody. I grew up with 0:45:34.719 --> 0:45:37.239 listening that stuff my older brother and stuff. But so 0:45:37.600 --> 0:45:38.920 that's what kind of made me go to Austin. I 0:45:38.960 --> 0:45:40.799 wanted to go find a bunch of people who are 0:45:40.960 --> 0:45:43.520 kind of like minded, into the same stuff. But I 0:45:43.520 --> 0:45:45.680 think I had my first paying gig played on a 0:45:45.719 --> 0:45:49.840 flatbed trailer in Gettings, Texas the hay Seed Festival. Maybe, 0:45:50.560 --> 0:45:53.560 um how old I was? Sixteen? My mom let me 0:45:53.640 --> 0:45:55.920 drive myself and then she showed up to make sure 0:45:55.920 --> 0:45:59.239 I got there safely. That's pretty cool. I mean, I 0:45:59.280 --> 0:46:00.759 guess now school, But at the time, I was like, 0:46:00.760 --> 0:46:03.319 what are you doing? That's it's cool that she Here's 0:46:03.320 --> 0:46:06.040 what was cool. She'd let you drive by yourself and 0:46:06.080 --> 0:46:09.120 then trailed you. She didn't go, I'll drive you. Yeah, 0:46:09.120 --> 0:46:12.560 I mean, she's it was. Looking back, it's super cool 0:46:12.600 --> 0:46:14.480 that she was there. Because that guy ended up paying 0:46:14.480 --> 0:46:18.840 me like nine months later, I think like seventy bucks. 0:46:19.080 --> 0:46:21.279 He waited that he probably trying to get away with 0:46:21.320 --> 0:46:24.200 not pacing me a check. So you you play this 0:46:24.280 --> 0:46:26.799 at sixteen? Where you going? This would be fun because 0:46:26.800 --> 0:46:28.319 I like to play a little guitar or were you going, heck, 0:46:28.320 --> 0:46:30.320 I'm sixteen. I think I'm gonna do this for my career. 0:46:30.560 --> 0:46:32.160 I knew when I was like a junior in high 0:46:32.160 --> 0:46:34.480 school is when I really started. My brother and say 0:46:34.480 --> 0:46:36.359 she were older. They were both in college at the time, 0:46:36.400 --> 0:46:38.000 so I was like the baby. I was last one. 0:46:38.520 --> 0:46:40.439 Kind of the reins were kind of looser on me. 0:46:41.560 --> 0:46:43.000 My mom was not near at strict on me my 0:46:43.080 --> 0:46:45.759 last years of high school. She was my siblings. So 0:46:45.800 --> 0:46:48.000 I was sneaking out on my bedroom window on the roof, 0:46:48.480 --> 0:46:51.640 you know, every night, coming back in and waging out, 0:46:51.719 --> 0:46:54.400 trying to write songs. And that's really when and I 0:46:54.480 --> 0:46:56.400 was like, all right, I know, like I don't stand 0:46:56.400 --> 0:47:00.040 out at sports. That was okay, wasn't anything special, But 0:47:00.080 --> 0:47:01.879 I could play guitar and write songs and sing lay 0:47:01.880 --> 0:47:04.040 better than any of my friends. And that's when I 0:47:04.080 --> 0:47:06.759 was kind of like, alright, this is it for me. 0:47:06.920 --> 0:47:09.960 Were you the music kid? Maybe not the band kid, 0:47:09.960 --> 0:47:11.960 but were you the kid who played music and they 0:47:12.040 --> 0:47:14.959 know you as that? If there was a party, would 0:47:14.960 --> 0:47:16.640 you have you ever have your guitar to play every 0:47:16.640 --> 0:47:18.040 now and then they'd get me to do it. But 0:47:18.440 --> 0:47:21.239 I mean again I was playing like, you know, Randy 0:47:21.320 --> 0:47:23.520 Rogers songs and Pat Green songs and stuff like they 0:47:23.520 --> 0:47:27.400 weren't Those kids were like who so? And did you 0:47:27.440 --> 0:47:28.960 decide were gonna wait till you guys got a high 0:47:28.960 --> 0:47:32.440 school to move off? Um? Well I had to. You know. 0:47:32.719 --> 0:47:34.279 It's not that I didn't get the into college. I 0:47:34.320 --> 0:47:38.080 didn't exactly apply. Um. I felt up my name for 0:47:38.120 --> 0:47:40.160 a couple of schools on the forum, and then once 0:47:40.160 --> 0:47:45.040 they sent back insufficient application letters, UM, I was like, Mom, 0:47:45.040 --> 0:47:47.799 I'm just gonna go to Oscar Community College. And just 0:47:47.840 --> 0:47:50.120 like I moved to Austin and really I knew I 0:47:50.160 --> 0:47:51.680 wasn't going there to go to school, so I enrolled. 0:47:51.680 --> 0:47:54.160 I was enrolled for a year. Did you go to 0:47:54.160 --> 0:47:56.719 class at all? A couple of times I actually ended 0:47:56.800 --> 0:47:58.880 up not going to class. But my business professor I 0:47:58.880 --> 0:48:00.520 had met on like the first day ended up becoming 0:48:00.520 --> 0:48:02.240 good buddies and we would hang out outside of class 0:48:02.280 --> 0:48:05.160 all the time. But I never went to his class. Um, 0:48:05.200 --> 0:48:08.000 he's super cool guy, and uh, but I was just 0:48:08.120 --> 0:48:09.800 it was really just a means to get to Austin. 0:48:10.080 --> 0:48:13.279 And man, I'm at Corby Shaw at the Saxon Pub 0:48:13.320 --> 0:48:15.399 on South Lamar who had just quit Ryan being him 0:48:15.400 --> 0:48:17.160 and the Dead Horses, who are my favorite band in 0:48:17.200 --> 0:48:18.879 the world at the time, I thought they walked on water. 0:48:19.000 --> 0:48:21.120 When you say met him though, were you both hanging out? 0:48:21.160 --> 0:48:22.759 Were you trying to play? Were you asking if you 0:48:22.760 --> 0:48:25.799 could play? I was not playing there yet. Um. In fact, 0:48:25.920 --> 0:48:28.400 it might have been the exact next day that David Cotton, 0:48:28.400 --> 0:48:30.080 who used to book those clubs down there, called me 0:48:30.080 --> 0:48:32.200 and was like, can you play tomorrow night at the 0:48:32.239 --> 0:48:33.840 Saccent And I was like, dude, I only got like 0:48:33.840 --> 0:48:36.280 five songs and he's like, we'll play them all three times? 0:48:36.840 --> 0:48:39.360 And um, how did he know you played? Um? A 0:48:39.400 --> 0:48:41.640 girl named Ashley Monicle was there that night, who had 0:48:41.719 --> 0:48:43.279 I had kind of she was she thought I was 0:48:43.280 --> 0:48:44.880 good and was trying to get me to meet some 0:48:44.920 --> 0:48:46.839 people and she was like, you need to hear this kid. 0:48:47.040 --> 0:48:49.080 And he didn't even listen. He was just like, all right, cool, 0:48:49.080 --> 0:48:51.400 you can play here tomorrow night. So you met the 0:48:51.440 --> 0:48:54.279 guy before you even played there, and what did that 0:48:54.360 --> 0:48:57.080 relationship turn into? He ended up producing The Limestone Kid, 0:48:57.120 --> 0:48:59.760 my first record, because he had he was an original 0:48:59.840 --> 0:49:02.360 Day Horses. Ryan Bingham like through mess leader on Roadhouse 0:49:02.360 --> 0:49:06.000 son to my favorite records of all time. Um. And 0:49:06.040 --> 0:49:07.920 so when I was in the bar that night, and 0:49:07.920 --> 0:49:09.400 I was only twenty at the time, I was in 0:49:09.440 --> 0:49:11.160 there with a fake idea. They ended up finding out 0:49:11.760 --> 0:49:13.040 I'd played there a couple of times, and then they 0:49:13.040 --> 0:49:14.719 made me stop playing there until I was twenty one 0:49:14.719 --> 0:49:17.640 and I was allowed to come back. Um. But I 0:49:17.680 --> 0:49:20.040 met him, and I just remember that night. I was like, dude, 0:49:20.040 --> 0:49:21.680 you do you play guitar for Ryan Bingham? And he 0:49:21.719 --> 0:49:23.680 was like no, I did play guys like I just 0:49:23.800 --> 0:49:26.040 quit the band like the week before, and I was 0:49:26.040 --> 0:49:29.520 just crushed. And then, uh, like two weeks later, that 0:49:29.560 --> 0:49:31.839 same girl was like, Hey, come over to my house. 0:49:31.920 --> 0:49:34.840 Corby's over here doing some demos for me. And I 0:49:34.840 --> 0:49:36.560 had just written two of those songs on that first 0:49:36.600 --> 0:49:38.719 record like the day before and played him for him 0:49:38.719 --> 0:49:40.160 and he was like, man, let me produce your record. 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:42.960 So I don't think he had ever produced a record before. 0:49:43.360 --> 0:49:44.840 So what does that mean? Do you let me produce 0:49:44.840 --> 0:49:46.799 your record? How many songs did you have or did 0:49:46.800 --> 0:49:48.719 you go out? I'm not there yet. Let me write 0:49:48.719 --> 0:49:51.120 some more of what was that? I actually the songs 0:49:51.160 --> 0:49:53.160 I had there was the money problem that and I 0:49:53.200 --> 0:49:55.520 had my and my dad's very successful guy. He had 0:49:55.560 --> 0:49:57.600 offered to pay for all of that, and I just 0:49:58.400 --> 0:50:01.080 respectfully declined because I wanted to do it on my own. 0:50:01.120 --> 0:50:03.719 So I actually went and took out a loan and uh, 0:50:03.800 --> 0:50:05.719 that took. That was quite a process to not I 0:50:05.760 --> 0:50:07.879 had no credit or anything, had my granddad co sign 0:50:07.920 --> 0:50:10.920 on it. Once I got the money, it was like okay. 0:50:10.960 --> 0:50:13.520 And then I didn't take out enough. He was like, right, well, 0:50:13.520 --> 0:50:15.080 we have enough for four songs. So we did a 0:50:15.080 --> 0:50:18.359 four song EP, which was called a Redtown View. Um, 0:50:18.400 --> 0:50:20.040 and he's like, when you get some more money, we're 0:50:20.080 --> 0:50:21.759 going to do the full album. And so I went 0:50:21.760 --> 0:50:24.239 and took out another loan and those four songs kind 0:50:24.239 --> 0:50:27.040 of compiled with the other six to make or seven 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:29.520 to make an eleven song album. Were you playing a 0:50:29.560 --> 0:50:31.680 bunch as you're making this record, because it sounds like 0:50:31.680 --> 0:50:33.799 when you met him you weren't playing. You were not 0:50:33.800 --> 0:50:36.359 playing it often a little bit, but that was Um. 0:50:36.400 --> 0:50:38.360 I was living my brother, my older cousin, in his 0:50:38.480 --> 0:50:40.960 house in South Austin, man check and Slaughter. If you 0:50:41.000 --> 0:50:43.239 know I live right there, I still live Brodian Slaughter. Yeah, 0:50:43.320 --> 0:50:45.880 so you're talking about one road difference. Yes, and I was. 0:50:46.280 --> 0:50:48.080 I was living there, I was enrolled in school, and man, 0:50:48.120 --> 0:50:50.560 I just I was unmotivated. I didn't know what I 0:50:50.600 --> 0:50:52.399 was doing. I had no idea how to go get 0:50:52.400 --> 0:50:56.200 a gig um that someone hadn't just handed me. And 0:50:56.239 --> 0:50:58.440 so my brother actually one day was like I think 0:50:58.520 --> 0:51:00.839 he was. He's six years older than I am, so 0:51:01.800 --> 0:51:04.120 I think he kind of saw me just sort of 0:51:04.600 --> 0:51:06.719 not doing anything. But if I think he thought I 0:51:06.760 --> 0:51:09.400 was talented, and he's my brother's a phenomenal songwriter, so 0:51:09.440 --> 0:51:11.920 he's he's a very good judge of that and UM, 0:51:12.560 --> 0:51:14.719 and he remember him saying to me one night, He's like, dude, 0:51:14.760 --> 0:51:17.080 just go book thirty shows and thirty days and see 0:51:17.080 --> 0:51:19.239 if you can ever quit. He's like, play those and 0:51:19.239 --> 0:51:21.719 see if you ever stop. I didn't get thirty and 0:51:21.800 --> 0:51:24.200 thirty days, but I ended up playing like twelve shows 0:51:24.280 --> 0:51:27.759 that month, and I've been playing every since. So, as 0:51:27.760 --> 0:51:30.680 you're performing and you have this record, are you selling 0:51:30.680 --> 0:51:33.120 it at the table? How are you? How are you? 0:51:33.120 --> 0:51:36.160 What are you doing with that record? I had? UM, 0:51:36.200 --> 0:51:39.239 I had paid a guy to print I want to 0:51:39.239 --> 0:51:42.840 say like two and fifty copies, maybe three copies and 0:51:42.880 --> 0:51:44.200 I just always kept with me and I would just 0:51:44.239 --> 0:51:45.759 hand him out every where I went, Like, do you 0:51:45.800 --> 0:51:48.680 know Steamboat Music Festival. I used to go up there 0:51:48.680 --> 0:51:51.640 and and as a fan, and my buddy's parents would 0:51:51.640 --> 0:51:53.480 actually take him and eye. They're big music fans, and 0:51:54.160 --> 0:51:55.360 they paid for me to go when year and I 0:51:55.360 --> 0:51:57.120 walked around the lobby handing out that even so you're 0:51:57.160 --> 0:51:58.960 just handing them out, you're selling them. You were like, 0:51:59.040 --> 0:52:01.760 anybody listening to this, just take a listen and uh. 0:52:01.960 --> 0:52:04.880 And then right before COVID we headlined the whole festival 0:52:04.960 --> 0:52:07.160 closed it out. So it's kind of a cool little story, 0:52:07.239 --> 0:52:10.720 but it was very I was I'm the luckiest human 0:52:10.800 --> 0:52:12.719 in my mind to ever live. Like I mean, it's 0:52:12.800 --> 0:52:15.600 exactly how I thought and dreamed about it happening when 0:52:15.600 --> 0:52:19.680 I was seventeen. Is besides COVID clearly, which is probably 0:52:19.680 --> 0:52:22.680 for everybody. Exactly how I dreamed about it and thought 0:52:22.719 --> 0:52:24.400 it and hoped it would happened and wanted it to 0:52:24.400 --> 0:52:27.359 happen when I was seventeen is exactly how it's gone. 0:52:28.360 --> 0:52:33.600 So who I saw you and said, dang, I would 0:52:33.600 --> 0:52:36.440 like to invest my brain power, where my money, my 0:52:36.560 --> 0:52:39.239 time into making this person a better artist like it 0:52:39.360 --> 0:52:40.680 was the first person to take a chance on you. 0:52:41.520 --> 0:52:43.320 Corby Shaw was really the first person to take a 0:52:43.400 --> 0:52:45.359 chance saw me. But I mean I went and took 0:52:45.360 --> 0:52:47.080 out the money. He just thought I was good, want 0:52:47.080 --> 0:52:49.000 to produce my record, thought it was worth his time. 0:52:49.600 --> 0:52:52.880 The first person to really go you got it, I 0:52:52.920 --> 0:52:55.960 can help you was Randy Rogers from the Randy Rogers 0:52:55.960 --> 0:52:58.560 Man And where did you meet Randy? I was first 0:52:58.560 --> 0:53:02.040 of four open in for him and two other bands. 0:53:02.360 --> 0:53:04.799 Uh in Corpus Christie. One day. We had a van. 0:53:05.040 --> 0:53:06.360 We didna have a trailer. Then we took out the 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:07.840 backseat and all the gear was in the back of 0:53:07.880 --> 0:53:11.280 the van. Um and I listened. I had been obsessed 0:53:11.320 --> 0:53:12.400 with them a whole life, you know. He was like 0:53:12.560 --> 0:53:16.520 royalty down there to me, and uh, we're opening for him. 0:53:16.520 --> 0:53:17.880 We just pulled up. I really we pulled up in 0:53:17.920 --> 0:53:20.319 the van and look at my tour manager at the time, 0:53:20.400 --> 0:53:22.719 Jake Murphy, and I was like, all right, let's getut 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:24.560 and go talk. We've been playing quite a few shows 0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:28.520 at that point, just nothing, I mean nothing, no GHO shows, 0:53:28.600 --> 0:53:31.360 terrible stuff and um. But we were touring a lot. 0:53:31.360 --> 0:53:32.520 I remember looking at him, and I was like, let's 0:53:32.520 --> 0:53:33.680 go talk to a bunch of people who don't want 0:53:33.680 --> 0:53:36.200 to talk to us. We opened the van, Randy Rogers 0:53:36.239 --> 0:53:41.480 comes walking up. He's got on Gucci shades hat um, 0:53:41.520 --> 0:53:46.440 you know, van shoes, Jeorge's gold chain rolling on his wrist. 0:53:46.520 --> 0:53:48.880 Like not what you think Randy Rogers is gonna walk 0:53:48.960 --> 0:53:51.520 up and he looks so g um. I remember he 0:53:51.560 --> 0:53:53.480 walked up and he was like, do you guys have anything? 0:53:53.560 --> 0:53:55.920 Let me know. I was like, that's cool. He's a 0:53:55.920 --> 0:53:58.600 headliner to come in, you know, at least holler at us, 0:53:58.680 --> 0:54:00.640 and then he said I So we went and played 0:54:00.680 --> 0:54:03.040 our show like three thirty in the afternoon. I looked 0:54:03.080 --> 0:54:04.360 over on the side of the stage and he was 0:54:04.440 --> 0:54:09.120 he watched our whole set. Um. And then five hours 0:54:09.200 --> 0:54:11.359 later he plays his show at ten o'clock at night, 0:54:11.400 --> 0:54:13.560 and I was staying inside stage for his show and 0:54:13.560 --> 0:54:15.319 he walked off and I've never been on the tour bus, 0:54:15.360 --> 0:54:17.040 and he's like, let's go to bus. But as he 0:54:17.080 --> 0:54:20.200 walked off stage, um, and we went to the bus 0:54:20.239 --> 0:54:22.000 and went to the back lound and he just lounge 0:54:22.040 --> 0:54:24.799 and he sat down and he was like, look, I've 0:54:24.800 --> 0:54:27.040 been doing some research on you. I'd only had that 0:54:27.080 --> 0:54:28.759 one record, the Limestone Kid out and he's like, this 0:54:28.800 --> 0:54:32.040 record is phenomenal. Um, He's like, you can be a star. 0:54:32.360 --> 0:54:34.400 That night he was like you could you have star power, 0:54:34.440 --> 0:54:36.239 you could be a star. I just want to help 0:54:36.239 --> 0:54:38.440 you avoid some of the mistakes I made. I would 0:54:38.440 --> 0:54:39.920 love to help you get there. I don't want anything 0:54:39.960 --> 0:54:42.799 from you. I just want to help. Um, So I'll 0:54:42.840 --> 0:54:44.359 go home and think about it. That's something you want 0:54:44.360 --> 0:54:47.320 to do. And uh, I actually ended up. I was 0:54:47.360 --> 0:54:48.879 trying to call my mom, trying to call my dad, 0:54:48.920 --> 0:54:50.800 trying to call my brother. Everybody was asleep, and I 0:54:50.840 --> 0:54:52.560 was freaking out, and I was like ready Rogers once 0:54:52.560 --> 0:54:55.759 he had just started management company and um, he didn't 0:54:55.760 --> 0:54:57.040 really have any but I think he had. He was 0:54:57.120 --> 0:54:59.160 running doing some stuff with Bruce Robinson at the time, 0:54:59.200 --> 0:55:03.680 and maybe someone else. UM what they needed like a 0:55:03.760 --> 0:55:07.120 kind of a main focus and right place, right time 0:55:07.200 --> 0:55:09.960 kind of thing. I guess what he uh man, he 0:55:10.560 --> 0:55:12.760 took time out of his life to come to Nashville 0:55:12.760 --> 0:55:16.400 and go into Universal Records and Big Machine and so 0:55:16.480 --> 0:55:18.600 he came and did with you, and he had a 0:55:18.640 --> 0:55:20.520 condo up here still and he let me come up 0:55:20.520 --> 0:55:22.200 here and stay in his condo for free and write 0:55:22.200 --> 0:55:25.239 and got me a publishing deal, walked into every major 0:55:25.320 --> 0:55:27.480 label in town and said, if you pass on this kid, 0:55:27.520 --> 0:55:31.080 you're passing on the next George Strait, which over hyping it, 0:55:31.160 --> 0:55:34.160 I would say, quite quite a bit. He's setting me 0:55:34.239 --> 0:55:37.160 up to fail. But um, just for he's a family man. 0:55:37.160 --> 0:55:38.400 He has a wife and kids, and he's got a 0:55:38.400 --> 0:55:40.120 whole life outside of touring, and he plays a hundred 0:55:40.120 --> 0:55:42.520 fifty shows a year and he would take time to 0:55:42.600 --> 0:55:45.040 fly up here on a weekly basis with me and 0:55:45.040 --> 0:55:47.680 write and get me in rooms and go in there 0:55:47.680 --> 0:55:51.480 and say crazy outlandish things like that to major labels, 0:55:51.520 --> 0:55:57.160 and um, got me a record deal, publishing deal. Um, 0:55:57.239 --> 0:55:59.080 and they just I call him Dad for a reason. 0:55:59.080 --> 0:56:01.959 People always ask why I call him Dad. So when 0:56:02.000 --> 0:56:04.920 you started to do the tour of Aam Parker and 0:56:04.920 --> 0:56:07.040 then you have a record, you're a big fancy record label, 0:56:07.200 --> 0:56:09.120 how did that go for you? Was the first one 0:56:09.120 --> 0:56:11.880 easy or was it weird? How many did you go 0:56:11.880 --> 0:56:14.960 through until you settled on where you are now? Um, 0:56:15.040 --> 0:56:16.719 we met with all the majors and then I think 0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:19.600 we met with Big Big Loud as well. UM and 0:56:19.760 --> 0:56:21.719 kind of Before that, a lot of smaller labels had 0:56:21.760 --> 0:56:24.319 been kind of coming to Austin wine and dine and 0:56:24.320 --> 0:56:25.839 doing that kind of thing where they take you out 0:56:25.880 --> 0:56:27.560 and they do the whole thing, which was really cool, 0:56:27.600 --> 0:56:29.399 and it's on I read. I had never had any 0:56:29.440 --> 0:56:34.320 record label, you know, kind of holler at at any capacity. Um. 0:56:34.400 --> 0:56:38.000 And so once the majors really came out and we're 0:56:38.040 --> 0:56:39.880 like and once one of them does, it's kind of 0:56:39.880 --> 0:56:41.520 like they all come calling. It's kind of like a 0:56:41.520 --> 0:56:43.239 bidding war. Even if they like you or not. I 0:56:43.239 --> 0:56:44.920 think they just don't want to miss out more and 0:56:44.960 --> 0:56:46.800 they don't want to be told no, which I completely 0:56:46.840 --> 0:56:50.000 understand that. UM. But I remember sitting there in Zo 0:56:50.120 --> 0:56:52.279 members of it too. I mean, I just, you know, 0:56:52.320 --> 0:56:54.719 you have every major label and country music sitting there 0:56:54.760 --> 0:56:58.000 going you know what. And we already had a huge 0:56:58.000 --> 0:57:00.080 touring base and and generated quite a bit of a 0:57:00.120 --> 0:57:03.280 new touring so I kind of had all the leverage 0:57:03.360 --> 0:57:04.640 was on our side. We kind of had were in 0:57:04.640 --> 0:57:07.480 the driver's seat. Um. And they offered a bunch of 0:57:07.480 --> 0:57:09.120 money up front and all this stuff, and I said, look, 0:57:09.440 --> 0:57:11.520 I don't want your money. I said, I want creative 0:57:11.520 --> 0:57:14.480 control and I was like, I just want to be able. 0:57:14.600 --> 0:57:16.200 My whole dream was to be on a major label 0:57:16.240 --> 0:57:18.320 with creative control and be able to do what I 0:57:18.320 --> 0:57:21.200 want to do. If it doesn't work, cool, that's it. 0:57:21.320 --> 0:57:22.640 You know. I don't think you'll ever lose money. We 0:57:22.640 --> 0:57:26.160 already make you enough money as we tour. Um. But 0:57:26.280 --> 0:57:28.120 I mean I bet on me because I'll bet on 0:57:28.160 --> 0:57:31.800 myself for sure, and you know it probably I don't 0:57:31.800 --> 0:57:33.080 know how it came off at the time, but I 0:57:33.080 --> 0:57:36.280 guess it worked because they all made great offers and 0:57:36.280 --> 0:57:38.600 and I was able to counter and get the deal 0:57:38.640 --> 0:57:42.320 that I wanted. So you get to the side. So 0:57:42.640 --> 0:57:46.479 at what point do you start preparing your major we'll 0:57:46.520 --> 0:57:49.240 call it major label debut? Like do you start immediately? 0:57:49.280 --> 0:57:52.480 Did you already have that the song that you led with? 0:57:52.520 --> 0:57:55.000 Like I did not? I had, Um, Well, I guess 0:57:55.160 --> 0:57:58.040 Randy Randy Montana was like my first co write in town, 0:57:58.120 --> 0:58:02.560 first real co righte and um, and I wanted to 0:58:02.560 --> 0:58:05.640 go in. I'd never really co written before besides with 0:58:05.640 --> 0:58:08.080 my older brother, and so I wanted to come in 0:58:08.160 --> 0:58:09.880 and have like a good idea. So I had found 0:58:09.920 --> 0:58:13.080 this video of me like singing this song. It is 0:58:13.160 --> 0:58:14.840 what does that say about me? I could love somebody 0:58:14.840 --> 0:58:17.320 like you was the original line, and it was the 0:58:17.320 --> 0:58:19.360 melody that pretty Hard is. And I was like, man, 0:58:19.360 --> 0:58:21.360 I don't forget about that. I'm gonna take that in tomorrow. 0:58:21.720 --> 0:58:23.160 And so we ended up wrighting that song and I 0:58:23.160 --> 0:58:27.040 think I signed my deal not just a few months 0:58:27.040 --> 0:58:32.000 after that. Um, I think that's the right timeline and um, 0:58:32.080 --> 0:58:33.560 and so I signed a deal and I was like, 0:58:34.000 --> 0:58:35.480 these are the songs I have and they were like, 0:58:36.400 --> 0:58:38.760 that's the one. So it was immediate they knew you 0:58:38.840 --> 0:58:41.040 knew all good, but it didn't. We were cut it 0:58:41.080 --> 0:58:43.720 and then it didn't. I don't know if it can 0:58:43.840 --> 0:58:46.840 probably didn't come out for close to a year. Yeah, 0:58:46.880 --> 0:58:48.760 we were just kind of sitting. Did that process feel 0:58:48.760 --> 0:58:52.440 like I was taking forever? Yeah? I was really um, 0:58:52.440 --> 0:58:54.200 which I mean I told myself from the beginning. I 0:58:54.240 --> 0:58:56.400 was like, don't go in here, and and it's really 0:58:56.440 --> 0:58:59.720 easy to Yeah, you know, anything that's worth working really 0:58:59.720 --> 0:59:02.920 hard for, I mean, you know it probably just as 0:59:02.920 --> 0:59:05.600 well as anybody, like as soon as it's it starts, 0:59:05.600 --> 0:59:08.280 something's gonna go wrong, something aren't gonna be what someone promised. Whatever. 0:59:08.360 --> 0:59:10.200 So I just kind of kept that in mind, and 0:59:10.240 --> 0:59:12.160 I was like, man, just you signed a deal. I 0:59:12.200 --> 0:59:13.720 was like, just trust the process. It was like, these 0:59:13.760 --> 0:59:16.440 people have done it. You know, you're the one millionth 0:59:16.520 --> 0:59:19.600 artists that they've promoted him put on the big stage. 0:59:19.600 --> 0:59:22.240 And I was like, and he was. He talked me 0:59:22.240 --> 0:59:23.560 through a lot of that. You know, he's done. He's 0:59:23.560 --> 0:59:25.120 been through it a hundred times. What you do during 0:59:25.160 --> 0:59:27.600 the whole time that we're waiting, we're just writing, writing, 0:59:27.720 --> 0:59:29.000 And I was coming up here and writing. I'd have 0:59:29.040 --> 0:59:30.800 my publishing deal for a year at that point, so 0:59:30.880 --> 0:59:33.200 I was writing a lot um. But I was torn. 0:59:33.240 --> 0:59:36.280 We're still playing a hundred fifty shows a year, um. 0:59:36.320 --> 0:59:38.720 So I was as busy as I could be. I 0:59:38.720 --> 0:59:41.400 mean when I say I wasn't home more than two 0:59:41.440 --> 0:59:46.240 days at a time for four years, that's has no exaggeration. 0:59:46.800 --> 0:59:48.520 I would literally would get off the bus and Austin 0:59:48.560 --> 0:59:52.040 on Sunday, take the last Southwest flight out on Sunday 0:59:52.040 --> 0:59:55.280 evening to Austin. I mean to Nashville right and go 0:59:55.320 --> 0:59:57.680 to meetings Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and fly right back Wednesday 0:59:57.760 --> 1:00:02.520 night for like years. Any of your music friends in 1:00:02.560 --> 1:00:06.160 Texas for moving to Nashville everybody loves it. Is that 1:00:06.200 --> 1:00:08.200 because I feel like that stage is kind of over 1:00:08.280 --> 1:00:12.640 as well. I mean, Dodd I said, I made it 1:00:12.760 --> 1:00:14.600 very clear from the start, and I was like, I 1:00:14.880 --> 1:00:18.640 grew up idolizing George straight. You know, he has sixteen 1:00:18.680 --> 1:00:20.720 number one, probably I think two or three more than that, 1:00:20.720 --> 1:00:23.280 maybe six two, six three something like that. Now he's 1:00:23.280 --> 1:00:27.560 the epitome of of what I think anybody should aspire 1:00:27.600 --> 1:00:30.720 to be in country music. Um. And he sold out 1:00:30.720 --> 1:00:33.000 a T and T Stadium back to back nights residency 1:00:33.040 --> 1:00:35.840 in Vegas, Madison Square, Go, you name it, you're not. 1:00:35.920 --> 1:00:39.320 He's just there's nothing he hasn't done in the business. Um, 1:00:39.320 --> 1:00:42.280 he's a king. And so that was always I was like, man, 1:00:42.320 --> 1:00:44.680 just you're never gonna get I'll never get to that level, 1:00:45.520 --> 1:00:48.480 but try to, you know, and maybe you get halfway there. 1:00:48.520 --> 1:00:51.320 That's pretty damn good. Um. And so I always made 1:00:51.320 --> 1:00:53.880 it really clear that was my goal. Um, But it 1:00:53.920 --> 1:00:56.880 was always my goal to do it on really I 1:00:56.920 --> 1:01:02.360 was raised on songwriters, um, really really talented, you know, 1:01:02.720 --> 1:01:06.760 honest songwriting, and so the goal was always to go 1:01:06.880 --> 1:01:11.040 to that level and beyond country radio without sounding like 1:01:12.000 --> 1:01:14.560 you know, everything else that is coming out on country radio, 1:01:14.600 --> 1:01:16.400 and there's a dude. I say that all the time, 1:01:16.440 --> 1:01:19.680 people are like, WHOA, we'll be careful. Majority of that 1:01:19.680 --> 1:01:21.760 stuff I really enjoy. I really like it do no 1:01:21.880 --> 1:01:25.240 matter what genre is their songs. I don't like um, 1:01:25.360 --> 1:01:27.760 but I like the majority of stuff on country radio. 1:01:27.960 --> 1:01:30.360 I just think that there's like a there's a there's 1:01:30.400 --> 1:01:33.600 a gap in a space for someone that's younger, like 1:01:33.640 --> 1:01:36.680 Chris Stapleton's phenomenal. He's an anomaly, right, like as talented 1:01:36.680 --> 1:01:39.360 as a human being could be, but he's a little older. 1:01:39.960 --> 1:01:44.280 There's no like young kids younger generation that are super 1:01:44.360 --> 1:01:47.760 like hung up on songwriting that are on commercial radio 1:01:48.200 --> 1:01:51.439 country radio. And I just was like, maybe I could 1:01:51.440 --> 1:01:52.840 do that. I want to play a little bit of 1:01:53.000 --> 1:01:55.280 to Be Loved by You? Is that the current single? 1:02:00.560 --> 1:02:10.160 It's quiet, What Sleep Long? When you maybe you're mad 1:02:10.200 --> 1:02:17.200 at me? The kid tell me the truth? What there's 1:02:17.240 --> 1:02:29.440 a man? So he wrote that with Red red Akins. 1:02:30.040 --> 1:02:32.320 That's pretty cool. Thank you, man. I mean, I love Ratt. 1:02:32.520 --> 1:02:36.560 Oh dude, he's a g just as a kid. You're 1:02:37.280 --> 1:02:39.160 you know, obviously younger than I am. But as a kid, 1:02:39.160 --> 1:02:40.400 WT was on the radio all the time when I 1:02:40.440 --> 1:02:41.680 was a kid, like I was a fan of him 1:02:41.680 --> 1:02:43.640 as an artist, and now you know, getting to know 1:02:43.720 --> 1:02:47.160 him personally, and I just htt I think he was playing. 1:02:47.160 --> 1:02:48.880 We're playing the operat together and I was doing comedy 1:02:48.920 --> 1:02:50.760 after he was playing. But right before he went out there, 1:02:50.760 --> 1:02:53.840 he pulled the biggest dip out of his mouth, through 1:02:53.840 --> 1:02:55.240 it in the cup and walked right on stage. I 1:02:55.280 --> 1:02:56.919 was like, that's disgusting. It awesome, and that's the most 1:02:56.920 --> 1:02:58.800 red Akins thing I've ever seen in my life. Red 1:02:58.800 --> 1:03:03.040 Man Silver Label. Yeah, every time we write together, we 1:03:03.080 --> 1:03:06.120 didn't mind me saying this. Sorry, if you do, he 1:03:06.160 --> 1:03:08.240 will choot and entire I've seen him go through more 1:03:08.280 --> 1:03:11.640 than one an entire bag of red Man Silver Label 1:03:12.720 --> 1:03:15.200 and we're there for three hours. You seem how big 1:03:15.240 --> 1:03:20.920 a bat it's. It's disgusting And I was like, that's disgusting, 1:03:20.960 --> 1:03:21.960 but I'm glad I got to see it. Like I 1:03:21.960 --> 1:03:24.840 would expect nothing less from rhet when you write this 1:03:24.880 --> 1:03:28.080 song with him, who, by the way, as an artist, fantastic, 1:03:28.080 --> 1:03:30.680 but as a songwriter even better, like throughout his career, 1:03:30.960 --> 1:03:34.160 who he gets both sides of it whenever you write 1:03:34.200 --> 1:03:35.919 this song. Was this one of those who you're like, yeah, 1:03:35.920 --> 1:03:38.840 this is special, or what did it become special after 1:03:39.240 --> 1:03:41.440 you know you cut it? Or like what process was 1:03:41.480 --> 1:03:43.840 this song special? Man? None of them are really special 1:03:43.880 --> 1:03:45.640 to me when I write them. And I think it's 1:03:45.640 --> 1:03:47.120 because I get so like when I come up with 1:03:47.120 --> 1:03:51.520 this melody that I'm obsessed with or this idea or whatever. Um, 1:03:51.560 --> 1:03:53.840 I get so excited then and then I write it 1:03:53.840 --> 1:03:55.280 and I'm like, oh, it's super cool, and then I 1:03:55.320 --> 1:03:57.640 just forget about it, like I don't even think twice 1:03:57.640 --> 1:04:00.880 about it. Um. But this I retually written the first 1:04:00.960 --> 1:04:04.200 verse in a chorus on the back of the bus. Um, 1:04:04.320 --> 1:04:05.920 at like eleven o'clock in the morning. We were going 1:04:05.920 --> 1:04:08.720 on the road. We've just gotten on the bus, excuse me, 1:04:09.560 --> 1:04:10.680 and that we just got on the bus and I 1:04:10.720 --> 1:04:13.800 was in the back lounge and and uh, I wrote 1:04:13.800 --> 1:04:15.320 it down. I had actually sat out loud. Me and 1:04:15.360 --> 1:04:18.560 Hallie Ray were arguing at the time, having a little 1:04:18.560 --> 1:04:21.840 whatever and um, and I set out loud. I was like, man, 1:04:21.880 --> 1:04:22.960 what does it mean have to do to be loved 1:04:22.960 --> 1:04:25.520 by that girl? And he kind of perked up. He's like, hey, 1:04:25.520 --> 1:04:27.200 you might want to write that down, And so I 1:04:27.240 --> 1:04:29.560 just I mean in fifteen minutes. I went back and 1:04:29.560 --> 1:04:31.480 I wrote the first first in the chorus, and then 1:04:31.760 --> 1:04:35.160 the same thing. I just forgot about it. I didn't 1:04:35.200 --> 1:04:36.720 even think about it. And then I had to write 1:04:36.720 --> 1:04:38.400 with Rhet and when me and when when Rehet and 1:04:38.400 --> 1:04:41.520 I write, it's not like any other code, right, Like 1:04:41.640 --> 1:04:44.640 we'll go sit for the first hour. You know, he's 1:04:45.240 --> 1:04:47.280 having a chew. I'll probably bump some off him a 1:04:47.320 --> 1:04:49.000 lot of the time, and we just talked about like 1:04:49.040 --> 1:04:51.240 turkey hunting or deer hunting for an hour, or like 1:04:51.520 --> 1:04:53.400 he's so many pictures all the deery shot or out 1:04:53.480 --> 1:04:56.120 is one of his farms here in Nashville. And then 1:04:56.160 --> 1:04:59.200 he'll be like, hey, so do you have anything. And 1:04:59.320 --> 1:05:00.760 that day I had it was like a few days 1:05:00.760 --> 1:05:02.680 after I had written that, and uh, or maybe a 1:05:02.720 --> 1:05:04.880 couple of weeks and and I was like, dude, I 1:05:04.920 --> 1:05:06.760 have this. And he was just like all right, we'll 1:05:06.760 --> 1:05:09.800 finish it. And I was like, okay, whatever. And he 1:05:09.840 --> 1:05:10.920 was on his phone and I could be like what 1:05:11.000 --> 1:05:12.240 do you think about this? And he was like, yeah, 1:05:12.280 --> 1:05:15.320 that's how about this? All right? What about this? How 1:05:15.360 --> 1:05:19.160 about this? For the second verse? And uh? And it 1:05:19.200 --> 1:05:21.760 was really slow. It was not like this big rock 1:05:21.800 --> 1:05:24.240 and roll kind of rolling Stones feel thing that it 1:05:24.320 --> 1:05:27.480 is now um, and we did a little work tape 1:05:27.520 --> 1:05:30.360 and I left and then we went going to the 1:05:30.360 --> 1:05:33.320 studio like three months later, and I was like, man, 1:05:33.360 --> 1:05:35.440 I remember talking to my producer John Randall. I was like, 1:05:36.360 --> 1:05:38.919 this song could be this and most of the time 1:05:38.960 --> 1:05:41.200 I'm wrong in the studio, I've learned that. I learned 1:05:41.240 --> 1:05:43.080 that very early on. Most of the time I'm wrong, 1:05:44.000 --> 1:05:45.560 and but every now and then I'm like, dude, just 1:05:45.960 --> 1:05:48.560 give this a shot. And uh. We recorded it and 1:05:48.560 --> 1:05:50.720 then Rhet called me like probably two months after that. 1:05:50.760 --> 1:05:52.680 Someone had sent him a rough mix and he was like, 1:05:53.520 --> 1:05:55.800 did we write that together? And I was like, yeah, 1:05:55.840 --> 1:05:58.240 even we finished it that day at your management or 1:05:58.240 --> 1:06:00.880 his thing is his publishing office that he has, and 1:06:01.120 --> 1:06:03.680 he was like, dude, that's insane. And I was like, dude, 1:06:03.720 --> 1:06:06.120 the songs, I was like, and I'm never hyped on 1:06:06.200 --> 1:06:08.240 my own stuff. I never think very much of it. 1:06:08.280 --> 1:06:11.160 I get over it very quickly. I'm onto the next 1:06:11.200 --> 1:06:14.440 thing very quickly. And that was like probably one of 1:06:14.520 --> 1:06:17.960 two ever that I've been like, Yeah, this is dope 1:06:18.600 --> 1:06:21.200 for sure, and probably more so because he thought so. 1:06:22.240 --> 1:06:24.960 Your EP six songs. It's out now, six songs, right, 1:06:25.040 --> 1:06:26.920 Hollywood Gold, and five of them you wrote. One of 1:06:26.920 --> 1:06:29.400 them is a Stapleton cut. Um, how did you get 1:06:29.440 --> 1:06:32.080 that song? Man? I that was my first outside cut 1:06:32.120 --> 1:06:34.600 on Universal. Um, that's the only song I've ever cut 1:06:34.640 --> 1:06:38.480 that I didn't write on Universal. And Uh. I was 1:06:38.560 --> 1:06:41.320 driving to the ranch one day. I was in my truck, UM, 1:06:41.360 --> 1:06:43.360 and I got a text message from Brian Wright at 1:06:43.360 --> 1:06:46.640 the label and it was just a UM, you know, 1:06:46.720 --> 1:06:50.160 like an audio clip on a text and uh, they 1:06:50.200 --> 1:06:53.960 just said Stapleton slash Anderson. And I'm like, he's on 1:06:54.560 --> 1:06:57.080 He's on Universal as well, Stapleton. So I was like, oh, 1:06:57.120 --> 1:06:59.240 maybe this is one of the perks of like being 1:06:59.240 --> 1:07:00.800 on the same label. You get to listen to his 1:07:01.360 --> 1:07:04.160 record before it comes out. Well, listen to the song. 1:07:04.160 --> 1:07:06.600 And I called Brian. I'm like, Yo, that's insane, Like 1:07:06.680 --> 1:07:08.600 what an incredible song. And he's like, yeah, it's able 1:07:08.640 --> 1:07:11.600 to never cut it. I was like, what do he means? Like, hey, 1:07:11.640 --> 1:07:13.240 he wrote it was like two thousand six or something 1:07:13.320 --> 1:07:16.520 or whenever he wrote a long time ago, and and 1:07:16.560 --> 1:07:18.160 I was like, he's like, do you think you would 1:07:18.200 --> 1:07:19.840 want to cut it? And I was like, dude, I 1:07:20.240 --> 1:07:21.520 sent it to my dad and he was like, that's 1:07:21.560 --> 1:07:22.760 the best song you've ever written. And I was like, 1:07:23.360 --> 1:07:25.040 I didn't write that. I was like, I was like, 1:07:25.120 --> 1:07:27.440 but I am going to sing it, and uh, I 1:07:27.480 --> 1:07:30.360 just I was like instantly, I just connected. They sent 1:07:30.440 --> 1:07:32.080 me out. They send me outside songs all the time, 1:07:32.080 --> 1:07:34.560 and that's the only one I've ever been like, I'm 1:07:34.560 --> 1:07:43.320 cutting that song all right. There is Parker McCallum at 1:07:43.400 --> 1:07:47.480 number five. We're going with Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion 1:07:47.520 --> 1:07:49.600 and I really love the episodes when we just get 1:07:49.600 --> 1:07:51.920 a member of a group because I think that's when 1:07:51.960 --> 1:07:54.600 you get the best stories. And Old Dominion is always 1:07:54.640 --> 1:07:56.840 one of the hardest interviews we have to prepare for 1:07:56.960 --> 1:07:59.000 when they come on the Bobby Bones Show because there 1:07:59.120 --> 1:08:01.560 is so many members of the group, it's hard to 1:08:01.560 --> 1:08:04.280 focus your time on every single member. So I love 1:08:04.280 --> 1:08:06.240 it when we're able to do these Bobby casts and 1:08:06.280 --> 1:08:08.160 get just one of the members of the group to 1:08:08.240 --> 1:08:10.840 talk about their path, get their side of how the 1:08:10.880 --> 1:08:13.600 group started. And when it comes to Matthew Ramsey's case, 1:08:13.680 --> 1:08:16.160 all the number one songs he's written outside of Old 1:08:16.160 --> 1:08:18.479 Dominion and we had had Trevor rosen On from the 1:08:18.479 --> 1:08:21.559 group before, so I always wanted to get Matthew Ramsey 1:08:21.560 --> 1:08:23.720 into do an episode and it happened this year. We 1:08:23.840 --> 1:08:25.920 learned so much about him that we didn't know. So 1:08:26.000 --> 1:08:31.000 at number five, here's Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion. Alright 1:08:31.000 --> 1:08:33.760 with with Matthew Ramsey from Old Dominion in your band 1:08:33.760 --> 1:08:36.000 because everybody kind of has roles in Old Dominion, Like, 1:08:36.439 --> 1:08:40.479 what is your role creatively in that group? Creatively, I 1:08:40.520 --> 1:08:43.680 mean it's tough because we are That's what makes it 1:08:43.720 --> 1:08:46.600 really hard to be in this band sometimes, is is 1:08:46.640 --> 1:08:51.559 everyone is extremely creative. So um, you know anymore, I 1:08:51.560 --> 1:08:54.920 would say that it's kind of evolved. And I've I've 1:08:55.720 --> 1:08:59.000 recently learned, especially in this last album in the process 1:08:59.000 --> 1:09:04.600 of making it, that my role is not necessarily in 1:09:04.640 --> 1:09:08.040 the tracking room while we're recording. It's it's in the 1:09:08.040 --> 1:09:11.080 control room with our producer Shane. And I'm I'm a 1:09:11.080 --> 1:09:15.120 better guide in that way. And uh and and I'm 1:09:15.200 --> 1:09:17.479 I'm a strong writer, I think too. So I think 1:09:17.479 --> 1:09:19.719 I have a strong voice in the writing of our songs, 1:09:20.280 --> 1:09:23.080 but everyone does. Everyone is so talented. Do you have 1:09:23.120 --> 1:09:26.720 to submit it? Isn't you use or frustrating. You have 1:09:26.760 --> 1:09:29.080 to submit yourself a bit when you go to record 1:09:29.120 --> 1:09:31.800 an album, because when you write it and you make 1:09:32.360 --> 1:09:34.280 you know your work tape or your demo and you 1:09:34.320 --> 1:09:36.479 have you can get demo itis and wanted to sound 1:09:36.520 --> 1:09:40.000 like there. But then Shane comes in, Um, Shane mcinally, 1:09:40.040 --> 1:09:42.519 who obviously is is the best at what he does. 1:09:43.439 --> 1:09:45.559 I mean, I don't I don't think you would have 1:09:45.560 --> 1:09:47.320 a problem with saying he's better at being a producer 1:09:47.320 --> 1:09:49.439 than you are. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. It's gonna 1:09:49.439 --> 1:09:52.919 make sure we're cool there. And if he's like, hey, 1:09:53.280 --> 1:09:55.000 this is how I see it, Like I really am 1:09:55.000 --> 1:09:56.680 passionate about this. Do you ever have to submit and 1:09:56.720 --> 1:09:58.639 go like you know what you know what you're doing 1:09:59.040 --> 1:10:00.280 and I only kind of know what I do much 1:10:00.320 --> 1:10:02.800 I'm gonna do that. Yeah, definitely. But we have a 1:10:02.800 --> 1:10:07.519 close enough of relationship that, um, if if we still 1:10:07.680 --> 1:10:09.800 will go down that road, if we if we're not 1:10:09.920 --> 1:10:12.120 fully believing in it, and I'm not fully believing in it, 1:10:12.439 --> 1:10:14.560 but he strongly is, we'll go down that road for 1:10:14.600 --> 1:10:17.600 however long it takes until it until we see it 1:10:17.760 --> 1:10:20.800 or we go you're wrong. And and he's great at 1:10:20.840 --> 1:10:23.559 going Okay, thanks for trying, and we do the same thing. 1:10:23.600 --> 1:10:26.200 He'll he'll listen to us and our ideas, and you know, 1:10:26.240 --> 1:10:29.080 if we are feeling it one way, he'll say, I 1:10:29.120 --> 1:10:31.200 trust you guys, let's let's go down that road. Until 1:10:31.240 --> 1:10:33.880 he either sees it or doesn't. It seems this is 1:10:33.920 --> 1:10:38.000 just my memory years later that he was involved really 1:10:38.000 --> 1:10:41.240 early with you guys. Yeah he was. You know, we 1:10:41.240 --> 1:10:45.960 were writing music with him, songs um before he had 1:10:46.000 --> 1:10:49.320 any success. So I think when I met him he 1:10:49.400 --> 1:10:53.479 had one he had just gotten um Leanne Walmack song 1:10:53.600 --> 1:10:57.360 recorded this first one, and you know we were all 1:10:57.400 --> 1:10:59.880 just broke, you know. He I think he had just 1:11:00.200 --> 1:11:05.599 like moved out of his car into a house, you know. So, yeah, 1:11:05.640 --> 1:11:08.479 he's been around for us for since the beginning. I 1:11:08.560 --> 1:11:11.120 want to go back to in Virginia. The first instrument 1:11:11.160 --> 1:11:13.479 you pick up, is it the drums? It was the drums? 1:11:13.840 --> 1:11:16.760 Why the drums? Uh? You know when I was I 1:11:16.800 --> 1:11:19.760 had an older brother and um, he's he's four years 1:11:19.760 --> 1:11:21.479 older than me, and he had a friend who was 1:11:21.520 --> 1:11:24.800 a drummer, and it just enamored me just to that 1:11:24.920 --> 1:11:26.760 he would come over to our house and set his 1:11:27.040 --> 1:11:28.960 drum kid up and I would sneak down there and 1:11:29.000 --> 1:11:31.920 look at it. And then he played like a drum 1:11:31.960 --> 1:11:34.479 solo at the middle school talent show or whatever, blew 1:11:34.720 --> 1:11:36.639 the whole place is mind. And I just saw how 1:11:36.680 --> 1:11:40.679 that affected everyone, and um so I just was drawn 1:11:40.800 --> 1:11:45.960 to banging on stuff for their bands that you listen 1:11:46.040 --> 1:11:48.320 to and drummed along with, and you liked the most 1:11:48.400 --> 1:11:50.240 as a fourteen fifteen year old kid, where you thought, 1:11:50.240 --> 1:11:53.040 all right, if I'm gonna do this, yeah, I mean 1:11:53.040 --> 1:11:57.800 at that point it was starting to get into um 1:11:58.040 --> 1:12:01.840 is starting to get into a lot of grunge. I mean, 1:12:01.880 --> 1:12:04.200 for me, when I learned to play guitar with Chili Peppers, 1:12:04.600 --> 1:12:07.720 it was metallic because it's some really easy intros. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, 1:12:07.760 --> 1:12:10.160 So I had at that point, once I started really 1:12:10.200 --> 1:12:13.559 digging in and playing along to music, UM I had. 1:12:13.800 --> 1:12:15.720 I was my parents had a basement and I had 1:12:15.720 --> 1:12:17.799 a drum kit down there, and I had guitar amps 1:12:17.840 --> 1:12:20.400 and guitars, and I just and it was kind of 1:12:20.400 --> 1:12:23.240 like split even then. I had half of the basement 1:12:23.720 --> 1:12:26.840 was art supplies and canvases and things, and half of 1:12:26.880 --> 1:12:28.680 it was musical instruments. So I would just kind of 1:12:28.720 --> 1:12:31.439 live down in the basement and play along too, mostly 1:12:31.600 --> 1:12:35.000 things like Pearl Jam and Nirvana and smashing pumpkins and 1:12:35.000 --> 1:12:37.080 stuff like that. And I asked this question, and I'm 1:12:37.120 --> 1:12:39.200 being as respectful and I possibly can with this question 1:12:39.200 --> 1:12:42.360 because what happened to me may have happened to you. 1:12:42.439 --> 1:12:44.120 But being an art kid and a music kid, did 1:12:44.160 --> 1:12:46.240 you get beat up a lot? I never got beat up, 1:12:46.240 --> 1:12:49.720 but I definitely, um, I mean I got tugged on 1:12:49.960 --> 1:12:53.000 a little bit, you know, um actually ended up. I've 1:12:53.000 --> 1:12:56.360 never really talked about this ever, but uh, I actually 1:12:56.479 --> 1:13:00.200 ended up getting plastic surgery on my ears because is 1:13:01.360 --> 1:13:04.360 uh they were yanked on quite a bit, and they 1:13:04.479 --> 1:13:07.240 kind of they were like, you know, I always think 1:13:07.240 --> 1:13:09.800 about this. It must have been really bad because I 1:13:09.880 --> 1:13:11.760 kind of don't think about it that much, but it 1:13:11.840 --> 1:13:14.200 must have been really bad for me to beg my 1:13:14.280 --> 1:13:17.800 parents to fix this problem and for them to go 1:13:17.840 --> 1:13:19.360 through with it, because you know, I have kids, and 1:13:19.680 --> 1:13:22.200 I know if if they if a kid and my 1:13:22.320 --> 1:13:25.760 kid in the sixth grade was begging, you know, me 1:13:25.880 --> 1:13:29.479 to physically change them because of what people were doing, 1:13:29.680 --> 1:13:32.200 it must have been heartbreaking for my parents, and I 1:13:32.200 --> 1:13:34.680 know what stuff for me. So they did so for 1:13:34.720 --> 1:13:37.559 a while there, Yes, I went through some you know, 1:13:37.680 --> 1:13:44.040 some harder you know punishments there. I suffered similar you know, 1:13:44.320 --> 1:13:48.720 consequences for not being a you know, finger quotes normal kid. 1:13:49.640 --> 1:13:51.200 But you're a like cooler than I am. That's why 1:13:51.200 --> 1:13:54.920 I asked. I mean, you're like cooler and talented, something 1:13:54.960 --> 1:13:56.720 like did you like break the mold or you're They're like, 1:13:56.760 --> 1:13:58.960 he's so dowented, let's just celebrate him. I mean I 1:13:59.000 --> 1:14:02.920 did wind up once I got into high school. I 1:14:02.960 --> 1:14:05.559 was kind of friends with everybody, you know, I was 1:14:05.640 --> 1:14:09.200 friends with the athletes, and I was also in the 1:14:09.200 --> 1:14:14.000 marching band, so you know, I kind of made peace 1:14:14.080 --> 1:14:16.800 with with everyone. So when did you transition from being 1:14:16.800 --> 1:14:18.960 the percussion guy to kind of go on, all I 1:14:19.000 --> 1:14:20.680 don't even really want to do that much anymore, Like 1:14:20.680 --> 1:14:23.080 I want to play guitar. I want to what My 1:14:23.120 --> 1:14:26.160 first band was born out of the marching band because 1:14:26.200 --> 1:14:29.240 the whole drum line we were such good friends, uh, 1:14:29.280 --> 1:14:31.040 and we all wanted to be in a band, but 1:14:31.040 --> 1:14:34.519 we were all drummers, and so it was, you know, 1:14:34.640 --> 1:14:36.920 one guy going, well I have I have a guitar, 1:14:37.160 --> 1:14:40.320 and another guy saying, well, i'll have the drum kit, 1:14:40.439 --> 1:14:42.880 and I was like, well, I can find a basse. 1:14:43.200 --> 1:14:45.360 I'll borrow a base. I borrowed a basse from somebody. 1:14:45.439 --> 1:14:47.240 So it was just we wanted to play music, but 1:14:47.280 --> 1:14:49.000 we only thing we knew how to play with drums, 1:14:49.880 --> 1:14:52.920 So we just kind of learned together and you know, 1:14:53.040 --> 1:14:55.600 just my ear figuring out that. So then once I 1:14:55.640 --> 1:14:58.400 started figuring out things on the base, and I had 1:14:58.400 --> 1:15:00.599 a piano that I would, you know, kind of mess 1:15:00.640 --> 1:15:03.200 around with, and and and a guitar that my uncle 1:15:03.240 --> 1:15:05.960 had given me. My dad was like, you're really good 1:15:05.960 --> 1:15:08.040 at figuring things out. You should pick up the guitar 1:15:08.120 --> 1:15:11.120 and try that. So so then once I picked that up, 1:15:11.439 --> 1:15:13.680 I didn't know how to play it. So that's when 1:15:13.720 --> 1:15:16.439 I immediately started writing stuff so that I could play 1:15:16.479 --> 1:15:19.680 what I was writing that it was music natural to you, 1:15:20.040 --> 1:15:22.320 even though it was hard. It was, yes, it was 1:15:22.439 --> 1:15:24.960 natural to me. It was wild for you to be 1:15:25.000 --> 1:15:29.519 able to play a E. G C. E minor, you know, 1:15:29.600 --> 1:15:31.720 all the ones that you can let me be, all 1:15:31.720 --> 1:15:36.439 the ones I play for you to play, Like, how 1:15:36.560 --> 1:15:39.040 quickly were we able to adapt and actually play you 1:15:39.080 --> 1:15:42.720 know those main chords with your guys? I mean, pretty 1:15:42.760 --> 1:15:45.519 pretty quickly. You know, it didn't take very long before 1:15:45.520 --> 1:15:49.840 we were all writing songs together as a band. You know, 1:15:49.960 --> 1:15:52.680 they all sounded like Pearl Jam ripoffs, but you know, 1:15:52.960 --> 1:15:56.000 but didn't everyone. But yeah, it wasn't at that point. Yeah, okay, 1:15:56.000 --> 1:15:58.280 so you you you go to school, You're gonna do 1:15:58.360 --> 1:16:04.719 graphic art illustration. I'm messing that episode. You're also playing music. 1:16:05.960 --> 1:16:09.160 I again, I would understand that nine, nine people out 1:16:09.160 --> 1:16:10.920 of a hundred are going to make more money doing 1:16:10.960 --> 1:16:15.240 that graphic art job because they could probably get work. Maybe, 1:16:15.800 --> 1:16:19.519 I think it depends on not not necessarily in the 1:16:19.640 --> 1:16:21.519 in the field that I was headed towards. It was 1:16:21.560 --> 1:16:24.439 kind of equal to music, I think, because I wasn't 1:16:24.520 --> 1:16:27.920 interested in sitting at a computer and coming up with 1:16:27.960 --> 1:16:32.479 like graphic design. I wasn't. I was more tactile and 1:16:32.520 --> 1:16:35.400 would rather get my hands in paint or sculpt or, 1:16:35.680 --> 1:16:37.360 you know. So, and at that point, I have a 1:16:37.360 --> 1:16:41.839 couple of friends that are classmates that are successful artists 1:16:41.880 --> 1:16:44.720 now and it's been the same road. You know, it's 1:16:44.720 --> 1:16:47.759 just been grinding it out and keeping you know, keeping 1:16:47.760 --> 1:16:49.840 their head down and painting and painting and painting and 1:16:49.880 --> 1:16:53.360 painting until they finally we all at the same age. 1:16:53.439 --> 1:16:57.000 They're they're having success as artists and I'm having success 1:16:57.000 --> 1:17:00.760 in music. What was the first writer I won't even 1:17:01.080 --> 1:17:03.680 we'll say break that you earned. What what was your 1:17:03.680 --> 1:17:05.960 first break there? Where you go, Okay, I'm not just 1:17:06.080 --> 1:17:08.200 now treading water like I might be able to have 1:17:08.240 --> 1:17:12.240 some real success at this Yeah. Um, the first sign 1:17:12.280 --> 1:17:17.400 of hope was a guy named Steve Holly recorded a 1:17:17.479 --> 1:17:22.160 song that Trevor and I wrote with our friend Matt Jenkins, 1:17:22.439 --> 1:17:28.240 and then, um, really was watching my friends have some 1:17:28.320 --> 1:17:31.320 success was really what gave you the real hope was 1:17:31.520 --> 1:17:33.360 is that because you knew that you could do what 1:17:33.400 --> 1:17:35.840 they do well, I was doing what they were doing. 1:17:36.080 --> 1:17:38.040 I mean we were doing it all together. So it 1:17:38.120 --> 1:17:40.880 was like it's like Shane, for instance, he came in 1:17:41.880 --> 1:17:46.360 and played um I remember he played us the demo 1:17:46.560 --> 1:17:52.960 for Somewhere with You and U NYA, and we were 1:17:53.000 --> 1:17:58.800 just like, damn, like that's different, that whatever that is 1:17:58.800 --> 1:18:02.160 is the next step. And we even though we weren't 1:18:02.240 --> 1:18:05.360 writers on it, we knew that that was going to 1:18:05.520 --> 1:18:08.240 change the game for all for all of us. And 1:18:08.280 --> 1:18:11.599 even now when we watched Kenny play it, like we 1:18:11.640 --> 1:18:13.880 sit there and go we none of us would be 1:18:13.920 --> 1:18:17.880 here without that song because he wrote that, Kenny cut it. 1:18:17.880 --> 1:18:21.760 It changed Kenny's career and because of that, me and 1:18:21.840 --> 1:18:25.640 Josh Osborne and Trevor Rosen, Matt Jenkins, Brandy Clark and 1:18:26.040 --> 1:18:28.960 you know, we're all in that rider circle and we 1:18:29.000 --> 1:18:32.200 get we get to reap the benefits really of of 1:18:32.240 --> 1:18:37.400 that exposure. So watching our our each other succeed was 1:18:37.439 --> 1:18:40.439 really what kept us going. We were like, it's not 1:18:40.520 --> 1:18:42.920 like I'm doing it, but it's weird doing it. You 1:18:42.960 --> 1:18:45.479 know what about first success for you were a song 1:18:45.520 --> 1:18:49.160 actually good, a single like a real life it's got 1:18:49.160 --> 1:18:52.639 a chance single. That was wake Up Loving You by 1:18:52.680 --> 1:18:55.559 Craig Morgan. So that was the first one. I can't remember. 1:18:56.479 --> 1:18:58.800 I can't remember hot went on the chart if it 1:18:58.840 --> 1:19:01.920 was top ten or not, but um, but it was close, 1:19:02.680 --> 1:19:05.840 which was you know that's back then that's all you want, 1:19:06.040 --> 1:19:08.720 is like you want top twenty and then you get 1:19:08.720 --> 1:19:10.600 that and you're like, can you watch that? It was 1:19:10.640 --> 1:19:12.639 your first you are you watching the charts everything back then? 1:19:12.760 --> 1:19:15.400 For sure? Watching it all the time. I don't watch anymore. 1:19:15.520 --> 1:19:20.120 But when you hear that at the beginning, the first 1:19:20.160 --> 1:19:22.960 time you hear it actually cut. Are you like I 1:19:23.080 --> 1:19:24.560 like what they did with that production? Or that was 1:19:24.600 --> 1:19:27.599 my alarm clock? Actually it really was, Yeah, yeah I did. 1:19:28.160 --> 1:19:30.360 I did that on the demo. I made a little 1:19:30.360 --> 1:19:34.600 home demo of it with that alarm clock, and and 1:19:34.680 --> 1:19:38.280 they Meredith and then everyone who cut it after that, 1:19:38.439 --> 1:19:42.839 A couple of artists cut it. Everyone used that alarm oclock. 1:19:43.040 --> 1:19:45.519 Then it's just my alarm o'clock. A couple cut it, 1:19:45.520 --> 1:19:48.000 but they didn't put on a record. Um, I think 1:19:48.120 --> 1:19:53.800 Keith Keith Anderson cut it, and I think it made 1:19:53.800 --> 1:19:56.040 a record for him, but it wasn't a single, So 1:19:56.080 --> 1:20:01.000 then what's the rule there? Because Eric passed who embuddies with? 1:20:01.720 --> 1:20:04.599 He wrote Friday Night? I think Friday Nights sung. I'm 1:20:04.600 --> 1:20:07.280 thinking of lady A cut it but on record. He 1:20:07.360 --> 1:20:09.320 then said, well he didn't use this single. I want 1:20:09.320 --> 1:20:11.720 to use this single one number one for him. I 1:20:11.760 --> 1:20:15.840 want to be Oh friend, is there a rule that 1:20:15.880 --> 1:20:18.599 if it doesn't go as a single, you can still 1:20:18.600 --> 1:20:22.240 probably cut it somewhere else? Sure? I mean it, you know, 1:20:23.400 --> 1:20:26.200 once it is out, once somebody cuts it, anybody can 1:20:26.200 --> 1:20:28.800 cut it. So so you can put it out as 1:20:28.840 --> 1:20:31.200 a single anytime? Do you have to ask for single 1:20:31.320 --> 1:20:34.400 rites though, no, only one. I don't think so. No. 1:20:34.720 --> 1:20:37.240 I mean you do that one time, you give you 1:20:37.280 --> 1:20:42.200 give the license out one time, and once you approve it, 1:20:42.200 --> 1:20:45.479 it's it's a fair game. So you're telling me I 1:20:45.479 --> 1:20:48.160 could cut I was on a boat, Yeah, put it 1:20:48.200 --> 1:20:51.320 out as a single, and then once it beat you guys, 1:20:51.439 --> 1:20:54.680 is the best streaming song. That's just life. Yeah, but 1:20:54.720 --> 1:20:58.840 we reaped the benefits of that. So why good? Good 1:20:58.880 --> 1:21:03.799 for us? All? Like we all one? Okay? Nice first 1:21:03.960 --> 1:21:08.519 number one song he wrote, say You Do for Dirk Spanley, 1:21:08.760 --> 1:21:11.600 And was that a rocket ship number one or was 1:21:11.680 --> 1:21:13.479 that a we don't know if he's gonna cut it. 1:21:13.520 --> 1:21:14.800 He did cut it, We don't know if it's gonna 1:21:14.800 --> 1:21:16.840 be on the record. We don't know it. All of 1:21:16.880 --> 1:21:19.720 them are like that. I feel like, um, that one 1:21:19.880 --> 1:21:23.479 was you know, talking about breakthroughs and stuff that as 1:21:23.560 --> 1:21:26.599 far as writing that song, that was one that I 1:21:26.640 --> 1:21:31.920 was sure it was something special. Really you knew when 1:21:31.920 --> 1:21:33.720 you wrote it. Yeah, So was there any chance you 1:21:33.720 --> 1:21:36.519 were keeping these songs? Because old dominion was maybe if 1:21:36.520 --> 1:21:40.120 we were a band at that point he signed no. 1:21:41.240 --> 1:21:43.360 So even like wake Up Loving You was our like 1:21:43.600 --> 1:21:46.240 show closer man like to let Craig Morgan have that 1:21:46.280 --> 1:21:49.280 song was a really tough decision because at that point 1:21:49.320 --> 1:21:51.760 it started to feel like maybe we were gonna We 1:21:51.760 --> 1:21:54.000 were so far away from getting signed, but it felt 1:21:54.040 --> 1:21:57.120 like maybe we were going to. Um So it was 1:21:57.160 --> 1:21:58.760 tough to kind of let that one go. Say you 1:21:58.800 --> 1:22:01.840 do wasn't tough for for us, because we we did 1:22:01.880 --> 1:22:05.080 play that song and every show and um but at 1:22:05.080 --> 1:22:06.720 that point, man, you know, we're just trying to pay 1:22:06.720 --> 1:22:09.519 the bills and and we moved here to be songwriters anyway, 1:22:09.560 --> 1:22:12.120 that's what we wanted, so um So it was awesome 1:22:12.160 --> 1:22:14.960 and and he did an incredible job. There was a 1:22:15.000 --> 1:22:17.880 moment where I was going to sing background vocals on it, 1:22:17.920 --> 1:22:21.599 but it didn't pan out. Um Man, it was just 1:22:21.800 --> 1:22:25.120 an exhilarating feeling to hear that song and watch that 1:22:25.160 --> 1:22:28.519 song climb to get your first number one. Amazing. This 1:22:29.000 --> 1:22:32.760 chainsaw from the Bam Perry wrote this one. Here's the 1:22:35.320 --> 1:22:40.200 was it written as aggressive. It's way more aggressive. Our 1:22:40.280 --> 1:22:43.920 version is way more aggressive. This one is the light 1:22:44.080 --> 1:22:47.759 version of it. So my dad, actually, my dad actually 1:22:47.880 --> 1:22:49.760 made a comment one time about he was like, man, 1:22:49.800 --> 1:22:51.400 your version is like, you know, I can kind of 1:22:51.400 --> 1:22:54.320 picture you out in the woods like with like frozen 1:22:54.360 --> 1:22:59.080 snot in your beard, cutting Downvagory. It's definitely a lot 1:22:59.080 --> 1:23:01.559 more aggressive our version before we get over to the 1:23:01.640 --> 1:23:04.880 old dominion stuff. Ecstasy from Sam Hunt is probably, in 1:23:04.920 --> 1:23:08.160 my opinion, his biggest non single song. It wasn't a single, 1:23:08.200 --> 1:23:12.080 but everybody knows it. Um, I wish that was a single. 1:23:13.280 --> 1:23:14.880 To me, I kind of had to be reminded it 1:23:14.920 --> 1:23:17.280 wasn't a single. I'm a big Sam guy. I like 1:23:17.360 --> 1:23:21.280 Sam away from work, you know, yeah, I love Sam 1:23:21.840 --> 1:23:24.719 at work, you know so, But I love this song. 1:23:25.920 --> 1:23:28.479 When he cuts it again, he kind of sol if 1:23:28.479 --> 1:23:31.880 I'm not mistaken this was on the pre Yeah I 1:23:31.880 --> 1:23:35.840 think so. Yeah. Um, and Sam wasn't Sam Hunt. But 1:23:35.920 --> 1:23:38.320 did you when you guys wrote it wasn't written like Wow, 1:23:38.400 --> 1:23:41.120 this is different, Like this is something like New Territory 1:23:41.160 --> 1:23:44.639 type stuff. I mean, we knew before everyone knew that 1:23:44.680 --> 1:23:47.599 it was you know, Sam Hunt. Like writing with that guy, 1:23:48.640 --> 1:23:53.040 you're like, damn, this guy is something entirely different, friend. 1:23:53.080 --> 1:23:58.200 And what means like just his creative mind is he 1:23:59.080 --> 1:24:02.960 attacks things that different angles. So the things that come 1:24:02.960 --> 1:24:05.320 out of his mouth, You're like, I don't know how 1:24:05.360 --> 1:24:08.600 you thought of that. But you know, even like with 1:24:08.720 --> 1:24:10.200 make You Missed Me, he throws out a line like 1:24:10.240 --> 1:24:12.240 to keep a slip knot and the strings you attached 1:24:12.320 --> 1:24:15.479 like something some obscure thought like that. He can make 1:24:15.600 --> 1:24:21.160 seem very palatable. So just writing with him, that was 1:24:21.520 --> 1:24:24.120 a moment where you knew something was big was gonna happen. 1:24:24.200 --> 1:24:28.120 So that song, it's funny like he he overthinks a 1:24:28.120 --> 1:24:32.360 lot of things and to you know, to his credit, 1:24:32.400 --> 1:24:34.800 it works, you know, but he, like most people, you 1:24:34.840 --> 1:24:36.680 sit in the room and you write, and at the 1:24:36.760 --> 1:24:38.479 end of the day you got the song. You can 1:24:38.520 --> 1:24:40.599 write for weeks and weeks and weeks on the same 1:24:40.680 --> 1:24:43.200 song with Sam. So that's what happened. I never really 1:24:43.360 --> 1:24:47.320 knew the final version of Ecstasy until it came out, 1:24:47.800 --> 1:24:49.519 Like I knew what I thought it was gonna the 1:24:49.560 --> 1:24:51.400 other little changes that you heard in it that you're like, well, 1:24:51.400 --> 1:24:53.160 I don't remember that at all. Oh yeah, that all 1:24:53.200 --> 1:24:55.200 like talking part at the end that there's like a 1:24:55.240 --> 1:24:59.080 whole like kind of down bridge where he's kind of 1:24:59.080 --> 1:25:01.320 talking and you look kind of cute and all this stuff. 1:25:01.320 --> 1:25:04.400 I didn't remember any of that stuff, But I mean, 1:25:04.439 --> 1:25:09.360 it's amazing were you surprised to see the explosion of him. Yeah, No, 1:25:10.760 --> 1:25:12.680 I mean I'm excited. I mean I I'm supposed to 1:25:12.680 --> 1:25:14.559 be an explosion of anybody, right because it's always so 1:25:14.600 --> 1:25:16.519 unpredictable of who it's gonna be, when it's gonna be, on, 1:25:16.560 --> 1:25:20.479 why it's gonna be yea, And with Sam, it hits 1:25:20.560 --> 1:25:23.680 so hard, so fast, and I feel like Sam is 1:25:23.720 --> 1:25:28.280 the most reluctant superstar that I know, And when people 1:25:28.320 --> 1:25:29.840 are kind of bagging on him, I'm like, well, first 1:25:29.840 --> 1:25:32.080 of all, he's way smarter, way more talented than you, 1:25:32.120 --> 1:25:33.920 and he doesn't because he loves to be an artist, 1:25:33.920 --> 1:25:35.680 but he didn't want to be the guy out and 1:25:36.160 --> 1:25:39.960 people forget because everything now sounds like Sam Hunt, so 1:25:40.080 --> 1:25:44.120 it didn't. Then he changed it and everything on country 1:25:44.200 --> 1:25:46.800 radio half of it is just watered down Sam Hunts 1:25:48.040 --> 1:25:50.760 Kenny save it for Rainy Day. I have this hook 1:25:50.800 --> 1:25:54.720 up here. When you write a song like this, how 1:25:54.800 --> 1:25:58.800 quickly do you send it to Kenney? This one you never, like, 1:25:58.880 --> 1:26:02.320 I didn't know Kenny at that point point, and you 1:26:02.439 --> 1:26:07.599 never ever right aiming at a certain artist. But this 1:26:07.640 --> 1:26:12.759 song has the like quickest journey ever but a huge journey. 1:26:12.800 --> 1:26:15.800 But we used to write. Brad and I and our 1:26:16.080 --> 1:26:19.360 late friend Andrew Dorff used to write every morning at 1:26:19.479 --> 1:26:21.920 nine in the not every morning every week at nine 1:26:21.960 --> 1:26:24.679 in the morning, so we would have double booked ourselves. 1:26:24.760 --> 1:26:27.439 We would write from nine to eleven and then we 1:26:27.479 --> 1:26:31.439 would go to our normal right, So that morning I 1:26:31.439 --> 1:26:35.000 didn't have any ideas, but in the shower on the 1:26:35.000 --> 1:26:37.479 way or getting ready to go there, that kind of 1:26:37.520 --> 1:26:40.200 course popped into my head. So I showed up and 1:26:40.240 --> 1:26:41.920 I was like, Hey, what about this? And they were 1:26:41.960 --> 1:26:44.080 like yeah, And we wrote that song in forty five minutes. 1:26:44.760 --> 1:26:48.839 And at that time, Brad was making little home demos 1:26:49.439 --> 1:26:52.439 and I kept kind of egging him on, like dude, 1:26:52.439 --> 1:26:54.880 you gotta make a demo, and I was joking. I 1:26:54.880 --> 1:26:56.519 was like, man, you want to Kenny Tesney Cutter, not 1:26:56.760 --> 1:26:59.720 like make the demo. So he's like, okay, okay, and 1:26:59.720 --> 1:27:03.240 he made the demo and um, sure enough, like we 1:27:03.280 --> 1:27:05.599 got it right to him and he picked it up 1:27:05.640 --> 1:27:09.840 like it was it never happens like that, but that's 1:27:09.880 --> 1:27:12.680 the only time that's ever happened is And then he 1:27:12.680 --> 1:27:15.080 went and recorded it and the studio musicians told us 1:27:15.200 --> 1:27:17.800 they only did one take of it. They played it 1:27:18.240 --> 1:27:21.080 and they were moved on. So they thought, no way 1:27:21.080 --> 1:27:22.840 that's ever making it. So we wrote it in forty 1:27:22.880 --> 1:27:25.439 five minutes. They did one take of the recording session 1:27:26.240 --> 1:27:28.599 and then it becomes a three week number one songs. 1:27:29.439 --> 1:27:32.000 Pretty crazy. Thank you very much. I appreciated coming vibe. 1:27:32.080 --> 1:27:34.400 I know, Um you're doing a lot so to spend 1:27:34.400 --> 1:27:35.960 a little time here, We appreciate it. You guys can 1:27:35.960 --> 1:27:40.040 follow Old Dominion Music on Instagram or empt Ramsey. Um. 1:27:40.360 --> 1:27:43.240 That's that's that's Matt's private account, all right, I guess 1:27:43.240 --> 1:27:46.720 not private public but solo. Yeah yeah, which every one? 1:27:46.840 --> 1:27:49.840 Yeah yeah, the private private account the only I have. 1:27:50.040 --> 1:27:55.519 That's the other matter, all right, Thanks Matt. So that 1:27:55.640 --> 1:27:58.719 was part one of the Top eight Bobby Cast interviews 1:27:58.760 --> 1:28:01.680 of back next week to find out who makes the 1:28:01.720 --> 1:28:03.519 top four. And you can go back and check out 1:28:03.560 --> 1:28:05.920 those full episodes on the same feed. Just scroll back 1:28:05.920 --> 1:28:08.599 through there and you'll see all the episodes from this year. 1:28:08.760 --> 1:28:10.759 And if you're looking for something else to listen to 1:28:10.840 --> 1:28:13.200 this holiday break, you can check out my podcast, Movie 1:28:13.200 --> 1:28:16.800 Mix Movie Podcast. If you love movies, just need some recommendations, 1:28:16.880 --> 1:28:19.280 or you want to hear some interviews with actors and directors. 1:28:19.360 --> 1:28:21.720 I also do spoiler free movie reviews, so you don't 1:28:21.760 --> 1:28:25.000 have to worry about anything getting ruined. Just search movie Mix, 1:28:25.080 --> 1:28:28.240 movie podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and my name 1:28:28.280 --> 1:28:30.519 is Mike d. You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, 1:28:30.640 --> 1:28:34.200 TikTok at Mike de Stro That's Mike D. E E 1:28:34.400 --> 1:28:36.160 S t r oh and I'll talk to you next 1:28:36.200 --> 1:28:37.080 week on Part two.