Speaker 1: When I got dropped from Big Machine, I gave myself
Speaker 1: fourteen days. On the last day, at five pm the ACMs,
Speaker 1: he said, we're not supposed to call you right now,
Speaker 1: but I just felt like you needed to know this today.
Speaker 1: We're not announcing it till like mid January, but you've
Speaker 1: been nominated for an ACM. I saw our massive van
Speaker 1: slash almost tour bus slash. I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: just awesome, Like I need one of these. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. It's like a mini home on wheels. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw it drive into the driveway and I was like,
Speaker 1: who is that? And it turns out it was Sunny Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's got like a big battering ram on the
Speaker 1: front of it, and she talks about kind of why
Speaker 1: but not a real battering ram, but it does have
Speaker 1: a look, you know, something on the front there that
Speaker 1: if anybody messed with her, she can just drive into you.
Speaker 1: But Sunny Sweeney is our guest episode three eighty nine,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot we get into. Really enjoyed
Speaker 1: this and it's rare that I get to talk to
Speaker 1: somebody that back in the day I bought tickets to
Speaker 1: watch and so I guess tickets. I think I just
Speaker 1: paid at the door for her shows. Yeah, whatever it was.
Speaker 1: It was in Austin, and she was in Austin, so
Speaker 1: I would just go pay at the door and we
Speaker 1: went in. So but regardless, I paid money to watch
Speaker 1: her sing. And Sonny Sweeney talks a lot about, you know,
Speaker 1: how her career started in Texas and then she came
Speaker 1: to Nashville, and she talks about getting dropped and how
Speaker 1: hard that was for her, like dropped from a label
Speaker 1: and you know what's happened, Like she got signs that
Speaker 1: you know, she's this person who believes in signs from
Speaker 1: the universe. I don't know that I'm that person. The timing, though,
Speaker 1: is yeah, I agree, yeah, the timing with those and
Speaker 1: they're not just like a leaf blows in front of
Speaker 1: you signs. She's like, give me a sign and that's
Speaker 1: something massive happens. So I really enjoyed this Sonny Sweeney.
Speaker 1: She's at getting sweenered on Instagram. By the way, we
Speaker 1: always linked to socials in those notes where if you
Speaker 1: gets a little drop down you can see it in there.
Speaker 1: But she's got a couple of new songs. There is
Speaker 1: Red Dirt Girl. It's an Emulu Harris cover that we
Speaker 1: talk about here you go. When I say new, I
Speaker 1: mean she put out a record in September last year,
Speaker 1: so newish. But she's also got a whole dealt to
Speaker 1: cut your music Hall of Fame, which we'll talk about.
Speaker 1: So here we go. Also, let me shout out Jamie
Speaker 1: Lyne Wilson because she's also on Red Dirt Girl with
Speaker 1: Sunny Sweeney. There, but let's do it. She's on tour
Speaker 1: right now. Got to Sunny Sweeney dot com. It's episode
Speaker 1: three eighty nine. Here she is, Sonny Sweeney. Sonny, when
Speaker 1: did you live in Austin. That's a funny question. Well,
Speaker 1: my stuff is still in storage there right now. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of not living anywhere. But I moved there in
Speaker 1: ninety six for college, and you were there until kind
Speaker 1: of like the last the last couple of months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about just you. And I've listened to
Speaker 1: your music for years, and I lived in Austub for
Speaker 1: twelve years. I listened to you when I were there,
Speaker 1: and I've been to a couple of your shows, but
Speaker 1: I never met you. So weird. Yeah, And when I
Speaker 1: walked in, you said, and I was thinking the same thing, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever met. I've been to at
Speaker 1: least two of your shows. That's so weird, and so
Speaker 1: until now, I don't think we've ever actually spoken to
Speaker 1: each other. We've been in the same city in the
Speaker 1: same place a couple, and I literally listened to you
Speaker 1: like as a fan. Oh you did in Austin. Well
Speaker 1: that's so at some point this was going to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course it was fine. So the big van out there,
Speaker 1: that's mine, baby, that's a that's a big, awesome van. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's our touring van and UM. In June of
Speaker 1: this past year, we were driving UM from Ohio. We
Speaker 1: were in my car though, thank god, but we were
Speaker 1: coming from Ohio to Nashville and an eight like eighty
Speaker 1: miles an hour driving down the interstate, and this deer
Speaker 1: decides to commit suicide and walked in front of us,
Speaker 1: blew the deer up. It was terrible. It totaled the car.
Speaker 1: It was really bad, really tragic. So my dad and
Speaker 1: my stepdad bought me that big grill guard on the
Speaker 1: front of it for the van. So it looks like
Speaker 1: it's got a like some sort of protection system on it.
Speaker 1: It is, and my dad and my stepdad are like, baby,
Speaker 1: if you're driving down the road, you are protected, not
Speaker 1: just from deer, like I think you can run through
Speaker 1: a building with that thing and of those transformers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you have trouble get that thing in the gate? No? Okay,
Speaker 1: Oh I can park that in a regular spot. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't park my car in a regular spot. I'm terrible. Also,
Speaker 1: here's what I was thinking about you. I went to
Speaker 1: the country He's to Call of Fame four days ago,
Speaker 1: and some of your stuff is there listening. If you
Speaker 1: didn't know this, I'm telling you now, I think you
Speaker 1: do know. But we saw we saw some of your stuff,
Speaker 1: and I knew you were coming in and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I should bring that up. Oh, trust me, I knew
Speaker 1: and had like a shen dig around it. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for a long time, like eighteen years,
Speaker 1: and there's been so many times where I've just been
Speaker 1: like I'm quitting, Like I can't do this anymore. It's
Speaker 1: too hard, which of course is not ever going to
Speaker 1: be the case. Something will always pull me back in
Speaker 1: and I love it. And it's the only job that
Speaker 1: I've ever loved. However, getting validation like that after eighteen
Speaker 1: years and having them just randomly call when it was
Speaker 1: I have a story for you that I'll tell you later,
Speaker 1: but like, this is one of the moments in my
Speaker 1: life where my mom was like, you know, I bounce
Speaker 1: things off her all the time, and I was like, Mama,
Speaker 1: I'm just done. I can't do this anymore. COVID was
Speaker 1: too hard, like all this it just it sucked, Like
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it anymore. She's like, baby,
Speaker 1: please don't don't do this yet. Just you need to
Speaker 1: say a prayer and you need to like beg for
Speaker 1: a sign that you're supposed to keep doing this. This
Speaker 1: is the second major thing that's happened in my life
Speaker 1: when I've done this. They called me. They had already
Speaker 1: mailed me a package with all of the invite and
Speaker 1: everything saying they're going to put my stuff in there,
Speaker 1: but I never got it because I moved. So then
Speaker 1: the guy just randomly calls me one day and says
Speaker 1: the curator or whatever, and he goes, hey, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you ever got this message, but I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't ever get a message. I never got an email,
Speaker 1: I never got anything. Well that's why I was calling you.
Speaker 1: I thought you would be excited about this. But it
Speaker 1: was literally two days after I had told my mom
Speaker 1: I was quitting. And so then I thought, O, well,
Speaker 1: now I've got stuff in the country music Call of Fame.
Speaker 1: Now this was just like last weekend. So my whole
Speaker 1: family came up to Texas. Yeah, there was a sort
Speaker 1: a hat there. There's one of my hats, like a
Speaker 1: cool looking hat. Yeah, standard hat works from Waco, Texas. Um,
Speaker 1: it's my friend Cameron. He makes the best hats. He's
Speaker 1: like the only hat that I'll wear, probably because he
Speaker 1: just he knows how big my like actually circumference, not
Speaker 1: how figuratively big my head is, but like the circumference
Speaker 1: of my head and um, and so he just will
Speaker 1: sometimes just bust out like a really cool hat. And
Speaker 1: he made one for me to wear to that with
Speaker 1: these cactuses on the side. It was really cool. But anyway, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got one in I've got in the display. There's that,
Speaker 1: and then my guitar did I have a bunch of
Speaker 1: signatures on and then um, a piece of woodwork that
Speaker 1: my dad made in reference to one of my songs
Speaker 1: called Poets prayer and then um my, because I'm trashy,
Speaker 1: I guess, but I have like a dream holder that
Speaker 1: goes into my mic stand and I put that in there. Well, congratulations,
Speaker 1: that's super cool. And we were going through my wife's grandpa.
Speaker 1: I had never been to the opera or the country
Speaker 1: means to Call of Fame, so we did all that
Speaker 1: this weekend. I love that, And what's cool is it?
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes myself I take it for granted because
Speaker 1: it's here and I work at the opera and I
Speaker 1: perform at the opera. And then we did the countries
Speaker 1: to Call of Fame and walk through everything, and I
Speaker 1: saw your and I knew you were coming in, and
Speaker 1: I was like, dang, I should remember the teller I saw.
Speaker 1: That makes me so happy. American the American American Currents
Speaker 1: are the really cool new room build out. Yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 1: So was that a sign to you? Was that the
Speaker 1: sign you're absolutely? I mean yes, absolutely. And you know
Speaker 1: the other one that happened so dramatically was I'm a
Speaker 1: very open book with my life and how this whole
Speaker 1: like music thing has transpired over the years. But in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, at the end of We'll get
Speaker 1: into this later, I'm sure, but what I call my
Speaker 1: time on the Artist Protection Program. When I got dropped
Speaker 1: from Big Machine, I was devastated. I was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. I didn't. I was like,
Speaker 1: do I feel like a loser? Do I feel proud
Speaker 1: that they thought I was too country? Like? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are my feelings? You know? And I couldn't never
Speaker 1: get really my head wrapped around anything. I just knew
Speaker 1: that I was super depressed and I couldn't I couldn't
Speaker 1: really figure out what my plan was. And I was like,
Speaker 1: am I Am I gonna need to like get a job, Like,
Speaker 1: am I gonna need to like go I have a
Speaker 1: college degree. I don't know if I can get a
Speaker 1: job doing that. But I mean, what do I do?
Speaker 1: And I was just like panicking. And I told my mom.
Speaker 1: This was in two twelve, and I was like, Mama,
Speaker 1: I just I'm gonna quit, you know whatever. She's like,
Speaker 1: please beg verst sign, Please beg for a sign. She goes,
Speaker 1: give yourself like a date, you know, like give yourself
Speaker 1: fourteen days. And if you don't get that sign, she goes,
Speaker 1: you know that I will stand behind you no matter
Speaker 1: what you do, but please do this for me because
Speaker 1: I know this is what you're supposed to do. It's like, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: you know, roll my eyes. So I gave myself fourteen
Speaker 1: days and um, this was in December, and you know,
Speaker 1: the music business like shuts down. And on the last
Speaker 1: day at five pm, um, the ACMs called me during
Speaker 1: everything being shut down and said that I had a
Speaker 1: They weren't. He said, we're not supposed to call you
Speaker 1: right now, but I just felt like you needed to
Speaker 1: know this today. Um, we're not announcing it till like
Speaker 1: mid January, but you've been nominated for an ACM without
Speaker 1: a label, without a song on the radio. It was
Speaker 1: wild twelve. So for this after you've been dropped the
Speaker 1: two three months after I got that quick wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they called you when they weren't I supposed to
Speaker 1: at a time where you were giving yourself fourteen days
Speaker 1: and it was on the fourteenth day at five pm. Two.
Speaker 1: So what do you do when you hang up that call? Well,
Speaker 1: I was sobbing hysterically first, and I immediately called my
Speaker 1: mom and I was like, well, you're not You're not
Speaker 1: gonna believe this. Actually, you are going to believe this
Speaker 1: and I told her what happened, and she just she
Speaker 1: was so excited and she's like, I told you, And
Speaker 1: for you know, honestly, for for years, that little thing
Speaker 1: carried me through, knowing like all the hard nights and
Speaker 1: all the hard because this is a hard business, like
Speaker 1: I mean, you know as well as I know, like
Speaker 1: it is is not for the faint of heart. And
Speaker 1: I ultimately kind of think maybe I'm like a cockroach
Speaker 1: because I just I keep like people keep trying to exterminate,
Speaker 1: you know, like use different extermination methods and all this.
Speaker 1: But I think my love for music just honestly like
Speaker 1: keeps me going a lot of times. And then those
Speaker 1: two events like the Hall of Fame thing and then
Speaker 1: that ten years apart. By the way, you know, most
Speaker 1: people probably wouldn't admit that they tried to quit. But
Speaker 1: also like it's hard. I don't want people to think
Speaker 1: this is easy. You know. There's too many people that
Speaker 1: are trying to do this that come up and ask
Speaker 1: for advice, and they say, like, what's your advice for
Speaker 1: getting started in the music business. I'm like, well, there's
Speaker 1: two things. Either don't or be prepared to work harder
Speaker 1: than you've ever worked in your life at anything, and
Speaker 1: be prepared to be alone even though you're with people
Speaker 1: all the time. Put your head down and just focus
Speaker 1: on what you want to happen, and then prepare. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like I saw a meme once that said, like
Speaker 1: grind now so that your dog can have a good
Speaker 1: yard later, sort of like that, like grind now, you know,
Speaker 1: and then enjoy the fruits of your labor, like later
Speaker 1: after you have been busting your ass for however long
Speaker 1: you said something, be prepared to be alone even though
Speaker 1: there will be people around you. What do you mean
Speaker 1: by that? I mean like working, Like I have a band,
Speaker 1: I have employees, I have all of that, and my
Speaker 1: partner is actually in my band. He's my guitar player.
Speaker 1: So I'm you know, I'm not alone so to speak.
Speaker 1: But in theory this is the joke. And my band
Speaker 1: is name on the door, so they're like your name's
Speaker 1: on the door, Like if there's like a bad promoter
Speaker 1: or something, you know, and I have to go deal
Speaker 1: with something, it's me that has to go deal with something.
Speaker 1: So like you know, and I still do my own merch,
Speaker 1: I ship my own merch, I store my own merch
Speaker 1: like I do literally everything. I'm back a trailer better
Speaker 1: than anyone ever in the band, and like I want
Speaker 1: to kind of have like a contest. I've thought about
Speaker 1: having a contest because there's all these like men that
Speaker 1: are pretty chauvinistic, not in my band, but where they're like,
Speaker 1: y'all gonna let that little lady drive the band, and
Speaker 1: they're like, letter let her my dad would My dad's
Speaker 1: been teaching me how to drive a band. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, seven, So anyway, like I do, it's on me.
Speaker 1: Your job is on you, no matter who your employees are,
Speaker 1: no matter it's always on you. Your name is the
Speaker 1: one that's on the door. If they mess up, it's
Speaker 1: your responsibility exactly, and if they do something bad, it
Speaker 1: comes back on you, which is why I don't have
Speaker 1: people that party too hard or do weird shit on
Speaker 1: the road or whatever, you know, Like I don't do that.
Speaker 1: This is a business. It's a business like first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and it always has been, and I've always looked at
Speaker 1: it like that, and I just feel like, honestly, I
Speaker 1: mean even this morning I was over there ship and
Speaker 1: March I was just like, I don't want to give
Speaker 1: twelve percent of the merch away just because someone I'm
Speaker 1: capable of doing this, So it's all on me. That's
Speaker 1: what I mean by being alone, like in the sense of,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm doing I'm doing the things that are
Speaker 1: making the thing work, you know, and I've been doing
Speaker 1: it for eighteen years. Yeah, you're the CFO, the CEO.
Speaker 1: You're also the face. You're all I mean. And if
Speaker 1: anybody messes up, it's also on you. You can't really
Speaker 1: blame anybody else either. They don't come to you and
Speaker 1: say if some drunk drummer or whatever is being a
Speaker 1: jerk someone. They don't say the drunk drummer from this band.
Speaker 1: They go, we're not having Sunny Squeeney's band back. That
Speaker 1: guy was an asshole, you know, like or whatever. That
Speaker 1: comes back on me, and that is never going to happen.
Speaker 1: So I choose to put wonderful people around me. And
Speaker 1: the people that I have around me are, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you found a good group. Now. It's everything is so
Speaker 1: good right now. So I let everyone go fifteen months
Speaker 1: ago and started again from the ground up, new, all
Speaker 1: the way across, all the way across. Why do you
Speaker 1: think or what I'm gonna ask you this, and this
Speaker 1: may make you have a little bit of a big head,
Speaker 1: but you really it won't sound like that. But why
Speaker 1: do people believe in you in your band? Um? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I heard I heard Rick
Speaker 1: Rubin do an interview before, and you know, he doesn't
Speaker 1: play in intruments, and people are like, why do you
Speaker 1: think that you are so sought after as a musician
Speaker 1: or as a producer, And He's like, because people believe me,
Speaker 1: they believe in my vision. And I feel like that's
Speaker 1: what it is with me too, because I have been
Speaker 1: doing this for so long and I will give anyone
Speaker 1: advice if they ask for it. I'm not one of
Speaker 1: those people that just like puts it out there, but
Speaker 1: they're Lately, there have been a lot of young women
Speaker 1: that are in this business that have like that I
Speaker 1: don't know, that have reached out to me and asked
Speaker 1: like crazy, like kind of weird, intense questions, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's go. Let's like I want to give you. I
Speaker 1: want a corner cut for you if I can, in
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. And I just feel like,
Speaker 1: you put good out into the world, and you get
Speaker 1: good back. That's what I think it is. Did you
Speaker 1: have anybody that helped you like that? Oh? Absolutely when
Speaker 1: you were young you said, hey, help me out or
Speaker 1: let me know what you know, and that would help
Speaker 1: me out. Who was that for you? I have like
Speaker 1: a couple of them and I call them my corner creditors.
Speaker 1: Red Vulcart, he's a guitar player in Austin Or he
Speaker 1: moved to Virginia now, but he was one of the
Speaker 1: guys that I would share a Tuesday night with him
Speaker 1: at Egos and he taught me guitar a little bit,
Speaker 1: and he was just a really good friend. And he
Speaker 1: was he played with Merle Haggard, which is my hero,
Speaker 1: and so I was kind of like, man, this guy's
Speaker 1: so cool and he's he's willing to help me and
Speaker 1: give me advice, you know, unsolicited sometimes him. And then
Speaker 1: Dallas Wayne, who's a radio DJ now also on series
Speaker 1: Sex in which I do that also. But he was
Speaker 1: actually at my first gig ever, first gig ever, Like
Speaker 1: he randomly showed up at my first gig ever because
Speaker 1: he was old, oh, twenty seven and how does he
Speaker 1: randomly show up? He was playing after me. I was
Speaker 1: like the band that was playing, and he came up
Speaker 1: to me, Dallas did, and he said, he goes, I
Speaker 1: don't know how long you've been doing this, but you
Speaker 1: have really good potential and I'd love to help you
Speaker 1: anyway that I can. And I said, oh, tonight, it's
Speaker 1: my first gig. And he's like, oh, like your first gig.
Speaker 1: I go, no, like really, this is like my first
Speaker 1: gig ever. And it was at the Carousel in um Austin,
Speaker 1: you know, across from that halfway house. And I know
Speaker 1: exactly where Egos is, and I worrying. I'm sure we're
Speaker 1: talking about things that, yeah, Mike and I know really well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I lived there twenty years, so I mean
Speaker 1: or twenty some years, so yeah, yeah. I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't get into music until my first
Speaker 1: gig was two thousand and four, which, yeah, which is
Speaker 1: older than most to do a first gig. YEP. I
Speaker 1: think definitely you had something inside you that made you
Speaker 1: sound really educated quickly music music wise, because when I
Speaker 1: saw you, it wasn't two maybe two years after what
Speaker 1: you just said. I didn't know you don't be doing
Speaker 1: a couple of years and I educated. I mean it
Speaker 1: felt like you had just learned a whole lot in
Speaker 1: a short period of time. Then I feel like when
Speaker 1: you're starting all the way with this song, I feel
Speaker 1: like songs are written with who they're supposed to be
Speaker 1: written with. I feel like, you know, things that you
Speaker 1: learn are learned when they're supposed to be learned. I
Speaker 1: could have learned guitar. When I was twelve. My stepdad
Speaker 1: and you know, begged me to let him teach me guitar,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, it's for old people. It's
Speaker 1: because him and my uncles would sit around and play guitar,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was for old people. So when
Speaker 1: I went to college, I went to Southwest And then
Speaker 1: when I went to college, I graduated and had a
Speaker 1: job for like twenty one day something like this is
Speaker 1: not what I worked at UM. I worked in a
Speaker 1: cubicle at this place called Support Kids, and it's basically
Speaker 1: where you would get deadbeat parents to pay their child support.
Speaker 1: It was, it was rough, and it was it broke
Speaker 1: my heart more than anything, like dealing with some of
Speaker 1: the parents that just wanted nothing to do with their kids.
Speaker 1: And I, I, thank god, have never had to deal
Speaker 1: with that, but I have plenty of friends that you
Speaker 1: know have parents in similar situations, and it just broke
Speaker 1: my heart, like it's really tragic, and so I just
Speaker 1: I just called my stepdad and was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I think I'm ready to learn guitar. Wow. What did
Speaker 1: he say to that? He said, I'm sorry, could you
Speaker 1: repeat yourself? And so he went and bought me a guitar,
Speaker 1: taught me three chords, and we were coincidentally going on
Speaker 1: a family vacation that weekend. So from Austin all the
Speaker 1: way to red River, New Mexico or wherever we were
Speaker 1: going skiing, I played those three chords in the back
Speaker 1: of the suburban, just over and over, and they laughed
Speaker 1: now because they were like, you were literally driving us crazy,
Speaker 1: but we were so happy that you found something that you,
Speaker 1: you know, enjoyed doing. And and I've always sang like
Speaker 1: I would sang in church and you know, choir and
Speaker 1: all that, and then a minor or. I was going
Speaker 1: to minor in musical theater, but then I moved to
Speaker 1: New York for two years tool side note, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a Broadway star. And that's a lot
Speaker 1: harder than seems. Everything is, honestly, of course, especially when
Speaker 1: you have to be a creative yes, consistent, and different,
Speaker 1: because to do all of those to do one of them,
Speaker 1: all right, you can be creative, but how are you
Speaker 1: going to be different? How are you going to be special?
Speaker 1: How are you going to be consistent? And also with
Speaker 1: creative people, it's really hard to find consistency because because
Speaker 1: we're nuts. Absolutely we have. You have to be nuts
Speaker 1: to even get in this business. Yep. And so you're
Speaker 1: already nuts if you've decided I'm in and I'm going
Speaker 1: to keep going, and so those kind of people like myself,
Speaker 1: like you, it's hard to find consistency there, even within ourselves.
Speaker 1: You were talking about just to throw some in there,
Speaker 1: you're you can tell you're an og like me because
Speaker 1: you called a Southwest. It's Texas State, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's Southwest, right, Yeah? That When you said that, I
Speaker 1: was like, dang, that's og. That's like I went the
Speaker 1: last semester before they changed the name, and they asked
Speaker 1: if I wanted a new diploma. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't go to Texas State. I went to Southwest's
Speaker 1: the collector's item too. You grew up and your childhood
Speaker 1: years like five to twelve. What was homelike then? So
Speaker 1: my parents got divorced when I was like four, and
Speaker 1: so then the family unit was different, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And as an adult, it's easier for
Speaker 1: me to see how and I've been divorced twice, so
Speaker 1: like I see now that, like not all marriage is
Speaker 1: meant to be you know, you think it is, you
Speaker 1: have this like whatever. So my parents were not meant
Speaker 1: to be married, and then they got married to other
Speaker 1: people and they're still married to those people a couple
Speaker 1: of years after that. And I've always had four parents,
Speaker 1: you know. And I sometimes feel selfish saying that because
Speaker 1: there's so many people that don't even have like one parent.
Speaker 1: But I feel like each of them gave me something,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like, do you feel
Speaker 1: like your stepmom and your stepdad obviously two from both units,
Speaker 1: do you feel like they both love you? Yes? My
Speaker 1: stepfather is I mean, one of my favorite people in
Speaker 1: this entire universe. He's his artwork is the one that's
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame, Like, he means a lot
Speaker 1: to me, and he's the one that taught me how
Speaker 1: to play guitar. He's the one that you know, the
Speaker 1: family life on my mom and my stepdad's side was
Speaker 1: bluegrass and country and like Kenny Rogers and Conway Twitty
Speaker 1: is my mama's favorite. And then like my dad's house
Speaker 1: was more like Crosby Steels, Nash and Young and Tom
Speaker 1: Petty and Stevie Nicks, and so I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of both households. It's like by osmosis almost like
Speaker 1: when you learn what you like as a child, you
Speaker 1: may not even really like it, you just know what
Speaker 1: you're exposed to, which is how country music is now.
Speaker 1: I feel like people like what they're exposed to. If
Speaker 1: they were exposed to my music, I feel like more
Speaker 1: people would. You know, it's more like Americana, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? But I think is the world country music?
Speaker 1: If we're basing I do too what country music used
Speaker 1: to be. I also believe in fluidity and not really
Speaker 1: a signing. But when people go, oh, it's American, it's
Speaker 1: not country, I'm like, man, it's the countryest thing there is. Well,
Speaker 1: so here's the weird thing, and this is the weird thing?
Speaker 1: Is this? So I used to say I'm a country
Speaker 1: artist and I am. I mean, I'm from East Texas,
Speaker 1: I would agree you're a country artist. Yes, yes, But however, however,
Speaker 1: the country that is current now is not what I do. Correct.
Speaker 1: So when I say I'm a country artist to a
Speaker 1: random person on a plane, when they see me with
Speaker 1: a guitar and they're like, what do you do? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm you know, I'm a secret shopper. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, what do you think? I am? Like,
Speaker 1: I'm just carrying this guitar around for fun. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm a you know, country singer. And I used to
Speaker 1: say that and now I just say, um, I'm a
Speaker 1: singer songwriter because I don't want I am. I have
Speaker 1: so many beliefs about the way that I make music
Speaker 1: and I want people to give it a chance. So like,
Speaker 1: if there's someone that doesn't like current music and they
Speaker 1: only like older music, I don't want them to not
Speaker 1: give me a chance just by putting a label, because
Speaker 1: I'm kind of with you, like, I don't think it
Speaker 1: should have a label necessarily. But but I am country
Speaker 1: and I will always be a country artist. I'll always
Speaker 1: you know, my kind of country at least. So it's
Speaker 1: a really hard I say your country. I think so
Speaker 1: countries could be I think I think so too, But
Speaker 1: then for sure that the popular standard of country is
Speaker 1: based on who the most popular artists are right now exactly.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: This is the Bobby Cast. Your mom. You've mentioned her
Speaker 1: probably four times and we've been talking for twenty three minutes.
Speaker 1: I want to know about your mom because it sounds
Speaker 1: like she's still a great influence in your life. She is,
Speaker 1: She's awesome. Um, she's actually an israel right now. They
Speaker 1: went to Israel to do to go like to the
Speaker 1: Holy Land? Wow? Has she ever been before? Now? And
Speaker 1: what motivated that? They were at church one day and
Speaker 1: their preacher was like, Hey, we're gonna have a trip
Speaker 1: to Israel. Who wants to go? And before they even
Speaker 1: left church, my stepdad told my mom, Hey, I signed
Speaker 1: us up for that. We're going to Israel. My mom
Speaker 1: was like, we are, so I am thrilled for them.
Speaker 1: Like they went to Nazareth today, it's like eight hours ahead.
Speaker 1: I think they went to Nazareth today and then tomorrow
Speaker 1: they're going to see Jesus's tomb and like stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I think that traveling is the reason that I continue
Speaker 1: doing this job. I love traveling. It is my favorite
Speaker 1: thing on this planet. Nothing will ever compare to it,
Speaker 1: no edge process of it. Though you're like getting to
Speaker 1: these places. I don't mind either of it. Really, I'm
Speaker 1: not one of those it's so weird. I know, I
Speaker 1: don't care as long as I'm in motion. I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people that's like a motion person. And like
Speaker 1: today when we leave here, I'm literally getting in the
Speaker 1: van going into hatching the trailer and then we're driving
Speaker 1: a Little Rock and I'm so excited to go to
Speaker 1: Little Rock. Hey, nothing on that route. I do it
Speaker 1: about six times a year. But good luck to you.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean. So they're in they're
Speaker 1: in a Israel and and and my mom is, you know,
Speaker 1: clearly my best friend and time every day, all the time,
Speaker 1: more more than more than every day. What about what
Speaker 1: about her makes her a great friend and a great mom?
Speaker 1: And what are you happy that you got from her?
Speaker 1: I think she's the one that always told me. You know,
Speaker 1: it sounds cliche, but like you can do whatever you
Speaker 1: want to do. As long as you really really want
Speaker 1: to do something, you can figure out a way and
Speaker 1: do not ever let anyone tell you otherwise. So I
Speaker 1: think the persistence aspect of it is what I got
Speaker 1: from her, like just not giving up the cockroach aspect,
Speaker 1: I guess is what we should call it. And you
Speaker 1: know her, her humor is really good and like she
Speaker 1: she can she can get it no matter what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. We can have like a conversation with our
Speaker 1: eyes in a room full of people without even talking.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's a pretty big deal. You know,
Speaker 1: to have that first call if something goes wrong, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like something like real, like like yeah, fundamentally it's something's wrong,
Speaker 1: you call her, absolutely yeah. And is she your first
Speaker 1: call and something goes right? Absolutely? Yeah? Her? And I
Speaker 1: mean my partner, I call him. I call him, you know,
Speaker 1: unless we're together somewhere also with him a lot too,
Speaker 1: right Yeah. So I mean, you know, but if if
Speaker 1: I'm like by myself and I get good news, I'll
Speaker 1: usually text both of them first and be like, can
Speaker 1: y'all call me back? You know, I like Sharon good news. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And does she text? I don't know, Yeah, she text her?
Speaker 1: Oh yeahcause she was a lot of emojis I had
Speaker 1: to have the talk with because I would imagine she's
Speaker 1: over sixty, she's seventy. Okay, now what's her emoji use? Like?
Speaker 1: These are great questions. I love this. I had to
Speaker 1: have a talk with her. I was like, mom, one
Speaker 1: emoji's fun. You don't have to do you don't have
Speaker 1: to do literally seventeen lines of emojis, all different. You know,
Speaker 1: I know you know what I'm talking about, and that's
Speaker 1: why I ask. And I was being sensitive about you know.
Speaker 1: I don't old she was, but I got to the
Speaker 1: text question that I was like, I'm going in for
Speaker 1: the emojis because I feel like anybody over sixty, like
Speaker 1: sixty three, they either don't know how to use somebody
Speaker 1: use way too many, and it's either one of the two.
Speaker 1: So she uses way too many. She did, and then
Speaker 1: I had to have the talk with her because I
Speaker 1: was like, if you're doing this to me, you're probably
Speaker 1: doing this to other people too. So this is annoying,
Speaker 1: So don't do that. And then what do you call it?
Speaker 1: A y'all? Or is it a gift or a Jeff? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jeff like a j but it's with a g. Okay,
Speaker 1: so a Jeff. She has found the jef. So she
Speaker 1: hits a little little work I were glass. It pulls
Speaker 1: up all the jeffs you could send. Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so she is a Jeff user. And she sent me
Speaker 1: one the other day and it was so she didn't
Speaker 1: watch it all the way through, you know how it's
Speaker 1: tough times has words at the end, like a penis
Speaker 1: comes up from me. You didn't even see. It's because
Speaker 1: I'll do that. I'll send some sometimes too. Well I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is hilarious, and I send it. Then I don't
Speaker 1: watch it. Why did she send you? Um? It was
Speaker 1: it was not good. Um. And I had to call
Speaker 1: her and be like, mom, do you remember when because
Speaker 1: there was this one time, like back when vhs was
Speaker 1: a thing, So she would buy vhs like at garage
Speaker 1: sales because you could tape over them, you know, and
Speaker 1: she would she would tape her shows on them, you know,
Speaker 1: like when you could tape shows before DVR or whatever
Speaker 1: it's called DVR. And um, anyway, so I am not
Speaker 1: kidding when I say this, this is a joke. In
Speaker 1: my family. She was recording stuff and sending it to
Speaker 1: her sister, to me, to whoever. Like, you know, she
Speaker 1: was like so proud that she could record whatever shows
Speaker 1: we wanted, they had porn on them. So oh whoas
Speaker 1: at the end, she just didn't get far. It did
Speaker 1: not get far. She just like hit record. So it's
Speaker 1: a joke in our family now, like she's so like,
Speaker 1: thank god her sisters were the ones that saw it.
Speaker 1: And then my mom called everyone that she had sent
Speaker 1: a thing to and was like, what's in turn it
Speaker 1: off five minutes before it's over. I'll tell you how
Speaker 1: it ends. That's funny. I was going through your music
Speaker 1: a little bit ago and I saw a new song
Speaker 1: I popped up and it was Emily Harris cover. And
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with Jamie Lynn Wilson, but I know
Speaker 1: you guys did that song together? Why that song? What
Speaker 1: about that song stood out? And why her? So Jamie
Speaker 1: and I have been friends a long time and we
Speaker 1: were touring together in Switzerland in twenty sixteen and it
Speaker 1: was just me and her just doing a solo you know,
Speaker 1: song swap thing for two weeks and um, we just
Speaker 1: on trip, did a lot of driving and we would,
Speaker 1: you know, plug the iPod in and just start listening
Speaker 1: to music. And we always were leaning towards Emmy and
Speaker 1: so we realized that we both had this infatuation with
Speaker 1: that record, the Red Dirt Girl record, and it talked
Speaker 1: about procrastinator. It took us like what seven years to
Speaker 1: actually record it, after we had initially decided, let's should
Speaker 1: the song. Sorry, yeah, just the song. No that I'm
Speaker 1: saying that you didn't take seven years to record. It's
Speaker 1: one song you're talking about. We didn't restart recording it
Speaker 1: until about three months ago, So I'm saying it took
Speaker 1: seven years to come to fruition. And so then we
Speaker 1: just put it out and um, and we I threw
Speaker 1: threw it all out there because every answer is going
Speaker 1: to be no unless you ask. And so I contacted
Speaker 1: Buddy Miller, who is, in my opinion, one of the
Speaker 1: greatest musicians and people on this earth. And I was like, hey, Buddy, UM,
Speaker 1: I know this is a shot in the dark and
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna say no, but if you would possibly
Speaker 1: let Emmy hear this, because I know Yellow really close
Speaker 1: and if she's interested, would you ask her if she
Speaker 1: would maybe want to sing harmony? He goes, oh, I'll hey,
Speaker 1: I will get it to her. I will, I will
Speaker 1: definitely get it to her. I will let her hear it.
Speaker 1: But I don't think she's doing much right now other
Speaker 1: than what's kind of on her calendar. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: well if you would just send it to her anyway,
Speaker 1: just see so Emmy Lou Harris is a huge dog person,
Speaker 1: as am I, and so I wrote her a letter
Speaker 1: and I sent her a picture of my dog wearing
Speaker 1: a bow tie and she this. Two days later, Buddy
Speaker 1: called me. He goes here, you're not gonna believe this.
Speaker 1: She's gonna take a swing at it. So and I
Speaker 1: was like what, and he I go win and he
Speaker 1: said tomorrow. I said tomorrow, okay, And he said would
Speaker 1: you like to come over and meet her? And I'd
Speaker 1: met her like backstage, you know, fifteen years ago somewhere,
Speaker 1: but never like really talk to her. And he goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you come over at one, we're going to record it.
Speaker 1: Come over at one and then you know, you can
Speaker 1: meet her. I was like, okay. I went and sat
Speaker 1: in a laundry matt parking lot for two hours before
Speaker 1: the time when he told me to be there in
Speaker 1: case they got finished early, so that I could be there,
Speaker 1: And then when I showed up, I was like, oh hey,
Speaker 1: oh yeah. I was like I know, I had a
Speaker 1: friend that lives near here and me and the laundry
Speaker 1: matter my friend, but I was so excited to meet
Speaker 1: her and she was so gracious and so sweet and um, actually,
Speaker 1: do you know who Radney Foster is? So Radney actually
Speaker 1: texted me yesterday and said that he had run into
Speaker 1: Emmy Lou a couple days ago and that she was
Speaker 1: really really happy with how that turned out. And she came,
Speaker 1: you know, saying on it and she said, I'm just
Speaker 1: so glad that they wanted to cut my song. That's
Speaker 1: just so you know, flattering. And of course my heart's
Speaker 1: exploding while I'm reading that text message because I love her.
Speaker 1: I just she's the coolest. She's like the ultimate cool,
Speaker 1: you know, and it cut me to call a fan.
Speaker 1: The whole thing about her too. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you if you saw it, but just spending time breaking
Speaker 1: down her early life and how different because now we
Speaker 1: just go, oh, the great Emma Lou Harris, but what
Speaker 1: she was doing was kind of radical at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and how she was doing her music and who she
Speaker 1: was doing it with and who and I would encourage
Speaker 1: anybody just to look her up. I mean, she kind
Speaker 1: of at times was like a hippie total like California
Speaker 1: but country, and was taking that there and bringing that here,
Speaker 1: and like working with Doll. I mean she had the
Speaker 1: Albert League guy playing guitar with her too, which was
Speaker 1: a totally like I mean, he has a bad ass
Speaker 1: and he's just like he's guy's such a great guitar player.
Speaker 1: But like that Luxury Liner. Just I mean, if anyone
Speaker 1: is caring at all what I'm saying, you should listen
Speaker 1: to a Luxury Liner because it is it is like
Speaker 1: so radical, like you said, just like it's it's so
Speaker 1: above it's time. Yeah. I can only imagine people were like,
Speaker 1: what is she doing when she first started doing it,
Speaker 1: and then she was so great at combining styles where
Speaker 1: it didn't feel like she was combining styles. I felt
Speaker 1: like she created her own path. Yeah, that she became
Speaker 1: what people tried to be like, and then it just
Speaker 1: became normal because she was so wonderful at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's very true. It's very true. I never thought about that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's I recently, I mean, I just spent
Speaker 1: a bunch of time like I was at the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, and then I went back and kind of
Speaker 1: deep dove a little more. And it's funny you bring
Speaker 1: her up, and I didn't even know that that she
Speaker 1: would that she's saying the harmonies on that. Yeah, she's
Speaker 1: on the end of it. She's on the bridge and
Speaker 1: the last chorus. That's really cool that she agreed to
Speaker 1: do that. And it was a dog with a bow
Speaker 1: tie for sure, because whatever you wanted for me, if
Speaker 1: you had a dog with Boti picture, I was say, yes,
Speaker 1: what do you need to Kidney? Yeah, absolutely sing it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely a dog in bow tie. I'm in the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: You mentioned your very first ever performance. You said you
Speaker 1: were twenty seven. Why did it take until twenty seven
Speaker 1: or maybe twenty four? I don't even four. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: if you were to say nineteen, yeah, for most folks there,
Speaker 1: And I say this working on America, and I hope
Speaker 1: for four years. I'll be like, I've a waiting a
Speaker 1: whole life for this, And I'm like, bro, you're fourteen.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean, your whole life. I got an
Speaker 1: armpit hairs long older than you. So when did the
Speaker 1: music bug bite you? For lack of a better question
Speaker 1: about that. Well, so my performance my first performance I
Speaker 1: mean that with a band, like yeah, but like a
Speaker 1: pay with with a band, where yeah, you're like, this
Speaker 1: is my show. I mean I always have done like stage,
Speaker 1: like stage has always been where I've been most comfortable.
Speaker 1: You know, I did um, you know high school would
Speaker 1: you do? Oh every play that was available and um,
Speaker 1: but even younger than that, like middle school plays. Um,
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted to do musical theater. What was
Speaker 1: the dream then? I didn't really I didn't really have
Speaker 1: a certain dream. I just knew that my hometown wasn't
Speaker 1: where I needed to be to do what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do. Your hometown it wasn't specifically Houston. Did you
Speaker 1: have one of the suburbs? Law View, Texas is where
Speaker 1: I'm from. So Houston's where I was born, and then
Speaker 1: we moved up to northeast Texas like when I was two.
Speaker 1: Got it. So you don't really remember Houston as far
Speaker 1: as like growing up. Yeah, because my whole family still
Speaker 1: lived there, so I went there all the time. Got it.
Speaker 1: But lawn View is very small and and it's very quaint,
Speaker 1: and it's cute, and there's a small little county airport
Speaker 1: and I knew that I needed something bigger than that.
Speaker 1: How did you know that? Why did you know that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's the weird thing. So I have
Speaker 1: a friend actually that passed away last year. His name
Speaker 1: was Heath, and me and him, when we were still
Speaker 1: in high school, we both had this whatever this was
Speaker 1: where we had this like vision of us leaving this town.
Speaker 1: And there was a booking agent over on Gilmour Road,
Speaker 1: a booking agent in my hometown. Like, we don't even
Speaker 1: know really what she booked, like we laughed about it
Speaker 1: as adults, but anyway, he and I went there, I
Speaker 1: think our junior year of high school, and we just
Speaker 1: sat in her office and it was like Joey from Friends,
Speaker 1: you know, with the agent smoking the cigarettes. She was
Speaker 1: literally smoking cigarettes talking to me in Heath and she's like, so,
Speaker 1: do you have a resume, and we're like a resume?
Speaker 1: We don't know. So that was our first experience. We
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to her about booking us in movies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what was she booking? We don't know. I still know,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, like what was I don't know that either,
Speaker 1: And he's not with us anymore, so we can't even
Speaker 1: really honestly figure it out. But um, she was this.
Speaker 1: It probably was like a casting agency for who knows
Speaker 1: what really, But I mean I remember where it was,
Speaker 1: and it was in this like strip center and we
Speaker 1: go in there and and Heath and I laughed about
Speaker 1: it until you know, the last time I saw him
Speaker 1: was twenty nineteen. We laughed about it then because he
Speaker 1: is he was an actor, and all of his friends
Speaker 1: or actors out in LA and so he was like, hey, yo,
Speaker 1: we're the ones that actually left. We're following our dreams.
Speaker 1: And so he was kind of like my first person
Speaker 1: that gave me the courage to figure out what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: So then when I went to college, I did entertainment
Speaker 1: pr because I thought, well, I'll be a publicist. That'd
Speaker 1: be a great job for me. I'd be great at this.
Speaker 1: But then that didn't work out because I got bit
Speaker 1: by the wanting to do the performance part of it.
Speaker 1: And did you do that at Southwest? No? But productions
Speaker 1: there no, because I was just there to finish school,
Speaker 1: like my parents really wanted me to finish school, and
Speaker 1: I did not want to be there. But I had
Speaker 1: an internship at Lone Star Music and the guy that
Speaker 1: owned the company's name is Chad, and he's in a
Speaker 1: wheelchair and he's a paraplegic, and so he would have
Speaker 1: me go out to the venues to find people to
Speaker 1: put their merchandise on our website to sell artist. So
Speaker 1: I went to this club one night and I called
Speaker 1: Chad and I was like, hey man, this guy, Like
Speaker 1: I could do what this guy is doing. I just
Speaker 1: have to learn to play guitar. Chack goes do it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, I mean, like, I have
Speaker 1: to learn to play guitar. He goes do it. So
Speaker 1: that's you know, I just kind of got really interested in, like, oh,
Speaker 1: all these people are they're they're writing songs, they're writing
Speaker 1: stories and then they're putting them to music. And I
Speaker 1: already wrote stories because I'm an English miner in college,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I've written stories, you know for however
Speaker 1: long I've been in college six years. If I can
Speaker 1: just play guitar, I ben I can figure this out.
Speaker 1: So that's when I called my dad, like after I graduated,
Speaker 1: and was like, I can I know I can do this,
Speaker 1: and Paul, my stepdad, that's his name. He was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you can do it. It's like
Speaker 1: no question in my mind. Well how long did it
Speaker 1: take you to find it? And obviously your voice and
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your physical voice, but your your voice,
Speaker 1: who you are, what you say, what you stand for musically?
Speaker 1: How long until you kind of found what that was? Initially?
Speaker 1: Pretty much since I started, because I know what I like.
Speaker 1: I've always known what I like, which is classic country music,
Speaker 1: Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. I love that stuff. Now that
Speaker 1: being said, I really love Tom Petty. I think he
Speaker 1: was the everything. There is a Tom Petty song for
Speaker 1: every situation. And Stevie Nicks. I just feel like it
Speaker 1: is the biggest style icon that's ever walked on the planet.
Speaker 1: And so kind of Lauretta Lens talking about she was
Speaker 1: so ahead of her time. Even now, if her songs
Speaker 1: came out they came out in the sixties, even if
Speaker 1: they came out now, people would still be show I
Speaker 1: mean the pill look, dude, I can't imagine that. Then,
Speaker 1: I know, you know what kind of uproar that calls no?
Speaker 1: I yes, but no, it's I think in my head,
Speaker 1: I do I know but I can't imagine we're in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. You're talking about the sixties, I know.
Speaker 1: Putting that out, I know, I would imagine every super
Speaker 1: conservative and you're talking about a time when everybody's can servative,
Speaker 1: just generally because it was the sixties. Yeah, that they
Speaker 1: had to be shutting doors and no where you're not
Speaker 1: listening to that, yeah, breaking it, turning the radio. That's culture.
Speaker 1: That's as punk as you could possibly be, I know.
Speaker 1: And she was. She she's the one that that spoke
Speaker 1: for all of us. And she's the she's the reason
Speaker 1: that I will write about stuff that's that's taboo. Sure,
Speaker 1: she's the one that told me to write about stuff
Speaker 1: that's taboo. Well, you know, it was not comfortable for her,
Speaker 1: and she kicked down so many kicked up at so
Speaker 1: many doors and down so many walls for other female artists.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, because of what she put herself through
Speaker 1: doing that. She's literally the queen for any woman that
Speaker 1: walked behind her. Now that being said, she'll tell you
Speaker 1: that Kitty Wells was the queen that kicked every you know,
Speaker 1: door down for her. And it just shows me that,
Speaker 1: like it's always been a thing with women. It's always
Speaker 1: been a thing. It still is. Oh yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: in twenty years it still will be and there'll be
Speaker 1: people like yourself. Like in Katy Walls, you have the
Speaker 1: first number one song as a female artist ever. Is that?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but yes, it wasn't Guy Too Made
Speaker 1: Honky tonk Angels was her big and I think that
Speaker 1: was the first. I'd be interested to know that. I
Speaker 1: actually don't know that if I know that, Mike, because
Speaker 1: we were listening to Jake Ohen and I are big
Speaker 1: classic classic. There's classic country, and there's like classic classic
Speaker 1: where sometime people forget Kitty Walls is in that and
Speaker 1: we we were just listening to that song a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Is that the first it is? I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find the exact song, but she was Katy Walls
Speaker 1: was first woman to have a number one. Well, so
Speaker 1: whenever Luretta died, um, you know, it was hard for
Speaker 1: me to not say, you know the queen, But I
Speaker 1: mean for me, she's my queen um and she will
Speaker 1: always be and I had the pleasure of meeting her
Speaker 1: and she she's the one that gave me so much
Speaker 1: advice about writing and like write what you know, right,
Speaker 1: what you know? It's that simple, right what you know? Really? Yeah? Right?
Speaker 1: What you know? Because if if you know it, then
Speaker 1: there's other women that know it. Sure, So why would
Speaker 1: you hesitate what's saying calling her the queen? Oh? Because
Speaker 1: because she would. She would probably laugh at that and
Speaker 1: be like and say somebody else's She was like, oh, baby, now,
Speaker 1: Keaty Whales is the queen, you know, But like, Lauretta
Speaker 1: is my queen, hands down, She's she She kicked down
Speaker 1: every door. Um that I could have ever wanted kicked down,
Speaker 1: because I don't think that there should be any I
Speaker 1: think just because I'm female, maybe it is considered crass
Speaker 1: if I sing about some of the things I sing about,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's considered taboo or maybe like I remember,
Speaker 1: I had a song UM on my label when I
Speaker 1: had a label, UM, Big Machine was my record label. UM.
Speaker 1: I remember the the A and R person When we
Speaker 1: were discussing songs to go on my record. She said
Speaker 1: to me, Um, nobody wants to hear from the other woman.
Speaker 1: Someone just want a Grammy. Yeah, Carly and Nashley mcbrian
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, So I feel like it was just a
Speaker 1: little early, you know, and that's fine, Like I am
Speaker 1: so excited for them like to win that. But I
Speaker 1: mean there's been many songs about that, but I remember
Speaker 1: ply on the same label. Yeah, no, no, no, that's ironic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I remember her saying that, and I remember saying,
Speaker 1: like it's country music, like you think that? Do you
Speaker 1: do you think that just because I'm a female, that
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna want to hear me talk about that, because
Speaker 1: there are plenty of women over the last ten years
Speaker 1: that have come up to me saying, you know, oh,
Speaker 1: thank you for that song. You know, so it kind
Speaker 1: of does sting a little bit. But also I'm so
Speaker 1: excited that there is a time now where there are
Speaker 1: women speaking like that, you know, and saying things that
Speaker 1: I feel like to be said, you know, And I mean,
Speaker 1: we go out, girls go out, girls party. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like tell me more, do you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like, it's it's um, especially in this business,
Speaker 1: like you kind of have to adapt and it's a
Speaker 1: it's a male dominated business and you have to kind
Speaker 1: of adapt as a woman in this business. And um,
Speaker 1: A couple of my friends say that when they go
Speaker 1: home to their families that they their their husband will
Speaker 1: be like, oh, I see that you've got road mouth, because, like,
Speaker 1: you know, girl, it's like you're in a different world
Speaker 1: when you're on the road and then you go home.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't have a family at home, so
Speaker 1: like my life kind of just stays pretty consistent. But um,
Speaker 1: that's the joke with them. And but I mean, girls,
Speaker 1: girls have we have things to say, we have things
Speaker 1: to talk about. I know, I do, you know, and
Speaker 1: I don't hold back on those things. And if if
Speaker 1: it's uncomfortable for you, I'm very sorry, not you, but
Speaker 1: whoever's listening. That's what music is supposed to do, is
Speaker 1: bring up emotions. Right, So if I have a song
Speaker 1: about one of my friends committing suicide, it's uncomfortable for
Speaker 1: me to sing it. It was uncomfortable for me to
Speaker 1: write it. But there have been people that have tattooed
Speaker 1: these lyrics on their body, you know. So it's just
Speaker 1: a very it's a weird dynamic being a woman in
Speaker 1: this business, it really is. It's very interesting to navigate.
Speaker 1: Hank Tye, the Bobby Cast will be right back. Wow,
Speaker 1: and we're back on the Bobby Cast. You signed a
Speaker 1: record deal with Big Machine in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: six six, So did you develop a base through the Texas, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: Arkansas kind of area, touring around and that's why they
Speaker 1: found you? Or did somebody hear you and go we
Speaker 1: should sign you. This is the weirdest story and you
Speaker 1: probably won't believe me, but so I was doing music
Speaker 1: down at played at the Poodle Dog Lounge every Sunday night,
Speaker 1: you know where that is Jenny's little Longhorn, all the
Speaker 1: little dives in Austin, played at Central Market, played at
Speaker 1: the grocery store, played anywhere they would let me set
Speaker 1: up my pa and um. Then my fans that would
Speaker 1: come come to these shows, what they would say, like,
Speaker 1: you need to make a CD. I was like, came
Speaker 1: a CD. Like They're like, no, really, you need to
Speaker 1: make a CD. I had no intentions. I wanted free
Speaker 1: beer and burgers, you know, like, and that's I was.
Speaker 1: I was eating for free and drinking for free, and
Speaker 1: like I was living the high life and um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so I ended up making a CD and somehow, and
Speaker 1: I to this day do not know how this happened
Speaker 1: because I did not even know this guy. My CD
Speaker 1: ended up on Scott Borshat's desk. No clue. How still
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't like, had not been to Nashville,
Speaker 1: and um, so he sends me a message on my Space.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, I own a record label. And I
Speaker 1: was like, this sounds creepy. Sound creepy. Totally sounds creepy.
Speaker 1: It didn't have a picture. It was just like the
Speaker 1: Little Gray Head and I was like, this sounds super creepy,
Speaker 1: but um wow. So I looked up the record label
Speaker 1: he was talking about and I saw that Jack Ingram
Speaker 1: was on that record label. And I've known Jack since
Speaker 1: I was fifteen. So I called Jack and I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: this dude just sends me a message. He's like, Sonny,
Speaker 1: call him back. He's like what are you crazy. He's
Speaker 1: like yeah, that's the head of my record label. Call
Speaker 1: him back. And I was like, okay, this is kind
Speaker 1: of weird. So I called him and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's sunny. And he's like, hey, um, could you send
Speaker 1: me another copy of this? Um My wife won't let
Speaker 1: me have this one back, but we would really love
Speaker 1: to see you play. Are you ever going to play
Speaker 1: in Nashville? And I was like, Oh, it's funny that
Speaker 1: you mentioned that I'm going to play there in like November,
Speaker 1: and this was like July. He goes, we're coming. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay. He goes, can you put us on
Speaker 1: the list? And I was like, which is Billy Block lit?
Speaker 1: It was the Billy Block Show. Do you remember Billy Block?
Speaker 1: He did like A. It was like A, I don't
Speaker 1: even know what. So you did have a plan to
Speaker 1: be here in November though, you didn't make that part up? No, No,
Speaker 1: it was already planned. Yeah, I was coming to the
Speaker 1: Billy Block Show. It was like a showcase. So I
Speaker 1: come to this gig, they come and this was one
Speaker 1: month before I turned thirty years old. And because I
Speaker 1: was born in nineteen seventy six, so two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: And at that gig he said, I'd like you signed
Speaker 1: to my record label. At that time, it was Jack
Speaker 1: and Justin Moore and Taylor and like one or two
Speaker 1: other people. And and I said, oh, okay, I mean cool.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what I was doing. You have
Speaker 1: no like Bobby, I really did not know what I
Speaker 1: was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. I
Speaker 1: really didn't know what I was doing. That all being said,
Speaker 1: he did everything he said he was going to do.
Speaker 1: He re released my album that I had already put out.
Speaker 1: He didn't change anything on it, he rereleased it regionally.
Speaker 1: I continued touring around Texas and that I jokingly call
Speaker 1: that time because I was there for six years and
Speaker 1: only put out one record, So I call it my
Speaker 1: time on the artist Protection program. Why do you feel
Speaker 1: like that happened? I don't know. I wish that someone
Speaker 1: could explain it to me. He gave me opportunities that
Speaker 1: I never would have had otherwise. He did everything he
Speaker 1: said he was going to do. He he moved I
Speaker 1: think the tragic mistake that happened because I know Scott
Speaker 1: believed in me one hundred percent. He was like, I
Speaker 1: really believe in my heart that he believed in me.
Speaker 1: He moved me over to Republic and the new guy
Speaker 1: did not like anything about me, and you weren't his
Speaker 1: find exactly, which happens all the time, all the time,
Speaker 1: and not just in music but anything creative. Yea, even
Speaker 1: in sports it happens like a new general manager goes
Speaker 1: in well gate my quarterback. I'm gonna go get my
Speaker 1: own guys to get an allogy. Wow, So you get
Speaker 1: it was that? Yeah, so so I was there from
Speaker 1: two thousand and six to two thousand ten or nine
Speaker 1: on Big Machine, and then Scott called me into his
Speaker 1: office when Dan said, oh, there's this new sister label
Speaker 1: we're opening, and I'm gonna move you over there. It's
Speaker 1: going to be great for you. And I remember the
Speaker 1: sinking feeling in my stomach going like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I've already put in time with you. I want you
Speaker 1: to believe in me. And then, as I predicted from
Speaker 1: minute one of meaning the person that was the head
Speaker 1: of the other label, he didn't like anything about me.
Speaker 1: He didn't like my look, he didn't like my voice,
Speaker 1: he didn't like like my actual voice, he didn't like
Speaker 1: my songs. I wonder why you get put over there
Speaker 1: if I don't. It wasn't a conversation, and whomever was
Speaker 1: running it, I was hoping you would be able to
Speaker 1: tell me, Yeah, it's weird to me that that would happen,
Speaker 1: because there had to be a conversation between whomever the
Speaker 1: governing bodies of those labels are a lot of times,
Speaker 1: you know, things just happen, you know, like choices just
Speaker 1: get made, and it was made for you obviously, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and you know Um, I'm a big girl. I'm I'm okay.
Speaker 1: Like I survived, I continue to survive. That's my whole
Speaker 1: thing is survival. What was wrong? What was what was
Speaker 1: wrong with you? Um? I didn't sell enough because I
Speaker 1: was country. That's why I got drowned. So your style
Speaker 1: then was, in my opinion, ahead of its time. I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope that I would take that as a compliment honestly.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. You know, people that are so early
Speaker 1: are often penalized when they're so right and so progressive
Speaker 1: at the time. But it literally is what's about to
Speaker 1: be the biggest thing. God, You're you're so spot on.
Speaker 1: They're often penalized and treated like they're just garbage being
Speaker 1: thrown out because people don't get it yet. It actually
Speaker 1: takes other people consuming it over a period of time
Speaker 1: to go we like it, we get it for even
Speaker 1: them to go, Oh, I mean, Bobby, I feel like,
Speaker 1: tell me if you think I'm wrong. People like what
Speaker 1: they're exposed to for sure, Like it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: it's what or what it's like. If you listen to
Speaker 1: something enough times, it's going to get in your brain right, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: with the caveat of it just it just can't be bad.
Speaker 1: Well sure, but yes, anything that is in that upper
Speaker 1: I've had the conversation with my bosses and I don't
Speaker 1: program music anymore. I just go. I just try to
Speaker 1: do compelling content, right, I tried it funny. I try
Speaker 1: to be compelling in many ways. But I've had the
Speaker 1: argument with them, like, if you really believe in a song,
Speaker 1: you just played enough time, it's going to be a hit.
Speaker 1: That's what I think to you. If you believe in
Speaker 1: it and and you literally just play it enough times, yep,
Speaker 1: you can pound it into people's head. So I agree
Speaker 1: with you in that way. Yes, okay, so that all happens.
Speaker 1: So this is when Concrete, my album was out with
Speaker 1: it had like from a table away on there. There
Speaker 1: was stains worse than Leaving, which I was also told
Speaker 1: was needing to be pitched to a man, that no
Speaker 1: one would want to hear a woman sing about leaving.
Speaker 1: I've made a career on that. Um and then um.
Speaker 1: The next one that was on the radio was Drink
Speaker 1: Myself single, which is a bar like honky Tonk super
Speaker 1: country song. Even for my standards, it's country. So those
Speaker 1: are my three singles that were out and um, I
Speaker 1: did not. I didn't. I learn as I go with
Speaker 1: pretty much everything, and um, in two thousand and twelve, also,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole New Faces showcase or whatever. So
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is. I have no clue
Speaker 1: what that is at this point. And I know that
Speaker 1: the labels, the label that I was with, were pushing
Speaker 1: other artists. I guess the labels kind of barter or
Speaker 1: not barter, but like guard for a jockey, for a position,
Speaker 1: they'll put more of their promotion time, money and right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So they did that with a couple of artists that
Speaker 1: were on Big Machine and public and not me. And
Speaker 1: I had radio people that I had met over the
Speaker 1: you know year that i'd been on the road promoting
Speaker 1: my single that I had kind of really liked and
Speaker 1: like stayed in touch with. And I think I'm pretty
Speaker 1: easy to get along with and I love meeting people
Speaker 1: and making friends, and so I had stayed in touch
Speaker 1: with some of these people. Well, some of these people
Speaker 1: were calling me, going, why is your label not putting
Speaker 1: you up for these things? And I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what you're talking about, but I mean, whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, it happens. I'm not gonna be mad about it,
Speaker 1: like my time will come. That's always think that. And
Speaker 1: so the nomen or whatever it's called come out and
Speaker 1: I'm on the showcase without anything nothing, no help, no bartering,
Speaker 1: no nothing, and whatever it's called. And so I remember
Speaker 1: at that showcase that was when does that happened in
Speaker 1: the spring? Happens now it's like in two days here
Speaker 1: or now. Okay, so it's spring. So I remember we
Speaker 1: did this showcase. It was awesome, and I remember I
Speaker 1: had already put three songs out and I knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't doing what they wanted it to do. And Scott
Speaker 1: came backstage like, you know, oh my god, this was
Speaker 1: the greatest show I've ever seen. If you play, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put another single out, And I said, really, like,
Speaker 1: because I thought I had already kind of felt that,
Speaker 1: like I have a little bit of discernment where I
Speaker 1: can kind of read people and feel the next move
Speaker 1: sort of, and I kind of felt that they weren't
Speaker 1: feeling it anymore. And so when he said that, it
Speaker 1: kind of gave me a second burst of energy where
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, maybe this is gonna work, you know,
Speaker 1: And I got really excited about it, and then he
Speaker 1: didn't never do it, and I'd asked. I asked about it,
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, we decided not too cool, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, and then kind of back to square one.
Speaker 1: Well then two months later he drops me after I've
Speaker 1: been on the news and the two months later, Yeah,
Speaker 1: new Faces means that radio label promote that they believe
Speaker 1: in you and they've kind of annointed you as one
Speaker 1: of the big new faces, like together that I've never
Speaker 1: heard of that happening, and then do that show. And
Speaker 1: then three months after that is or four months after
Speaker 1: that is when I got the ACM nomination without a label,
Speaker 1: without a song on the radio. Yeah, that is a weird,
Speaker 1: like CRS New Faces, big deal, huge deal. Usually people go,
Speaker 1: we need to invest more in that person because obviously
Speaker 1: people believe in them. We drop you two months after
Speaker 1: that ACMs we shall lift you up again. That's a
Speaker 1: pretty up and down a little span of months there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was pretty heavy on my heart. I get it,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was pretty like if I can
Speaker 1: survive that, that's why I laugh now. When you know,
Speaker 1: people try to like, um, give you the lowdown on
Speaker 1: something that's about you know this person you're about to meet.
Speaker 1: Blah blah. I'm like, I got it. Please, I'm good.
Speaker 1: I have handled so much worse than this, Like, you
Speaker 1: have no idea. Do you enjoy playing shows? Now? It
Speaker 1: is my favorite thing on this earth. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's almost like when you talk about certain things, your
Speaker 1: eyes light up, and when you talk about playing now,
Speaker 1: it's almost like you've been reintroduced to how awesome it is.
Speaker 1: It is the only thing on this planet. Okay, I
Speaker 1: play guitar and I write songs. If my entire world
Speaker 1: is taken away from me tomorrow, my band, my house,
Speaker 1: my car, you know, my friends, my family. I still
Speaker 1: have a guitar and I still have a brain, so
Speaker 1: I can literally do this for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: As long as my fingers work and my brain works,
Speaker 1: I can travel the world and play music. Now that
Speaker 1: being said, I would much prefer to do that with
Speaker 1: my friends. You know, we have a great time together.
Speaker 1: And I'm one of those people that I don't really
Speaker 1: care if I mean, I do care if it's not
Speaker 1: a great like crowd, but I I will do the
Speaker 1: same show whether you're the only person there or if
Speaker 1: you brought three thousand friends with you. I love my job.
Speaker 1: I like six friends, but if I had three thousand,
Speaker 1: we would come. I just don't want you to get confused.
Speaker 1: I don't have that many friends, have like six friends too.
Speaker 1: So I was just in theory saying that if there's
Speaker 1: three thousand people there or three people there, I think
Speaker 1: starting out in bars with drunks, and you know, I
Speaker 1: never assumed that. I when I started, I never assumed
Speaker 1: that would have different kinds of fans. I thought it
Speaker 1: would be like the one lonely guy in the back
Speaker 1: and his drunk girlfriend screaming Tanya Tucker songs at me
Speaker 1: from across the bar, or you know. I thought it
Speaker 1: would be like the random kind of hipsters that would
Speaker 1: show up at the carousel. I never imagined that fans
Speaker 1: would become so instrumental in my life, especially during COVID.
Speaker 1: These people kept us on our they kept a roof
Speaker 1: over my head. I am not exaggerating, like I am
Speaker 1: really not exaggerating. We did they I sold more merch
Speaker 1: Darren COVID then I probably sold the year before that.
Speaker 1: People got you, we got you, you know, And I
Speaker 1: just never figured that. I always knew that fans were
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the only reason that any of us
Speaker 1: do our job, because if you don't have people listening
Speaker 1: to you, what happens you don't I don't get to
Speaker 1: talk anymore. So I'm saying, if I don't have people,
Speaker 1: you know, listening to me, buying things, whatever, it makes
Speaker 1: it really hard to do things. So I know how
Speaker 1: important they are. I never knew how important they are,
Speaker 1: and COVID really made me see that and made me
Speaker 1: feel it more than anything, and it is. It is
Speaker 1: the best feeling on this planet, knowing that there's random
Speaker 1: people in this world that I've never met, that somehow
Speaker 1: maybe have been touched by anything that I've done, even
Speaker 1: if it's just one thing. Right, I used to have
Speaker 1: guilt about that. Where why Well, and here's the reason why.
Speaker 1: But here's how I figured out that I shouldn't have guilt.
Speaker 1: But I used to have guilt because, like the listeners
Speaker 1: of the show, people who read my books or whatever
Speaker 1: the case is, they've been so generous with lots of
Speaker 1: stuff over my career. And again, I'm just a trailer
Speaker 1: for our kid. I grew up in a really ruled town,
Speaker 1: didn't have anything, and they would always come to shows
Speaker 1: or donate to causes that I believed in and using
Speaker 1: their own time and their own money, and I would
Speaker 1: feel really guilty for the same reason, going, man, they
Speaker 1: don't even know me and they're doing this, but they
Speaker 1: know parts of me that I put out there, and
Speaker 1: I would go mad, just feel bad that they're doing anything. However,
Speaker 1: then I started to go, Okay, well, let me just
Speaker 1: flip the perspective. Here are there people in my life
Speaker 1: that I don't really know that if they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: of course, yeah, there are people that have been an
Speaker 1: influence in my life that I've never met, and if
Speaker 1: they were having a difficult time or a different time,
Speaker 1: and then yeah, and I saw it coming from a
Speaker 1: really authentic place, heck yeah I would have. I would
Speaker 1: have done that for them. So I think that's that
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with heart, your heart too, like,
Speaker 1: because I have a sensitive heart and I feel that
Speaker 1: way too. I feel I think that may be actually
Speaker 1: nail on the head for me. Why I feel that
Speaker 1: way because it's like I wish that I knew them
Speaker 1: all by names so that I could do something for them.
Speaker 1: I struggle with accepting it for a long time. Oh God,
Speaker 1: even accepting accepting them giving to things I cared about
Speaker 1: that were like charities. I still was like, that's your money.
Speaker 1: I can't believe. I couldn't believe I feel guilty or
Speaker 1: even doing it now until I said, well, what I
Speaker 1: do this for people that have been instrumental to me
Speaker 1: and I would if I had it. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: I don't know. Sometimes I think will have a black heart,
Speaker 1: like a deadheart, like there's just a just been through,
Speaker 1: been through some crap and it's all numb at this point.
Speaker 1: But that to me was what made me feel like
Speaker 1: it's okay. I can one hundred percent get behind that
Speaker 1: because I think that's what it is for me, and
Speaker 1: like you know, I did. I've done fundraisers before for
Speaker 1: I'm a huge animal person. I mean, oh god, um,
Speaker 1: we worked with the Austin Pets Alive on a lee
Speaker 1: me too, Bobby. I mean years and years and years
Speaker 1: and years and years. So good. Yeah, it's an animal
Speaker 1: is like a baby and like it's the most helpless
Speaker 1: thing on this earth. And they don't have a mouth,
Speaker 1: so they don't have words, so they can't tell you
Speaker 1: what's wrong. And it's our job as humans, I think,
Speaker 1: And that's why I feel like I was put on
Speaker 1: this earth is to figure out a way to help animals,
Speaker 1: like I just love animals. And I saw this little
Speaker 1: kittie in Baton Rouge one time and it had been
Speaker 1: hit back car. Its leg was all mingled, Oh oh no,
Speaker 1: this is the best story ever. Okay, and my band
Speaker 1: Sarah McGlocklin starts playing in the background. Go ahead, so um,
Speaker 1: my band goes. I said, y'all, this cat screaming at me.
Speaker 1: It's only looking at me. They were all standing there
Speaker 1: and it's this big, it's like five pounds and it
Speaker 1: was screaming. And I have video of it that I
Speaker 1: will not show you. And and I said, if it's
Speaker 1: alive in the morning, we're doing something. This is on
Speaker 1: its deathbed. And so these two girls pull up and
Speaker 1: we don't have any food in our car. We're in
Speaker 1: the middle of like somewhere, no no gas station, nothing,
Speaker 1: there's no food. None of us had food ad granola bar,
Speaker 1: which wouldn't eat. So I asked these girls panicky. I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, do you have any food for this
Speaker 1: little cat? I think it's about to die. And they
Speaker 1: gave me a waffle, so I got it some water,
Speaker 1: gave it a little waffle, broke it up in little pieces,
Speaker 1: and my drummer called me the next morning at like
Speaker 1: seven o'clock. He goes, yo, your little friend is still outside,
Speaker 1: and I was like, damn, so all right? So I
Speaker 1: got up and I put on Facebook. Hey y'all, there's
Speaker 1: this cat. Here's a picture of it. Do what you do?
Speaker 1: I need. I need a cat rescue in Baton Rouge,
Speaker 1: you know. So within ten minutes this guy has written
Speaker 1: me back. He said, oh, I'm a cat rescue comes
Speaker 1: and gets it. He goes, man, this cat's on its
Speaker 1: last leg literally, and I go, yeah, I know, but
Speaker 1: I can't leave it here to die. It cannot happen.
Speaker 1: I can't do anything with it. Can you just take it?
Speaker 1: And he goes, you know what, I'm gonna call Angel
Speaker 1: Rescue and see if they'll take it. So they take
Speaker 1: this cat. They called me two hours later and like
Speaker 1: the cat needs its leg amputated, and I think will
Speaker 1: be good to go. So I go on Facebook and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, all aren't gonna believe this. Wow,
Speaker 1: the cat's gonna be fine as long as they get
Speaker 1: its leg amputated. I was ready to put it on
Speaker 1: my credit card. Someone started a fun thing for it.
Speaker 1: Within minutes, I had six thousand dollars for this cat.
Speaker 1: Long story, short cat is now living the high life.
Speaker 1: It is named Sunny Sweeners and it is living with
Speaker 1: my friend John, who we flew it to DC to
Speaker 1: live with him. He's now moved to Nashville as of
Speaker 1: like two weeks ago, but the cat now lives in Nashville.
Speaker 1: It is the man of the house. It is the
Speaker 1: most gorgeous cat. It has three legs. It walks on
Speaker 1: a leash outside. It is the most gorgeous story. And
Speaker 1: we made T shirts that were you know, I have
Speaker 1: a fan page called the Trophy Room because one of
Speaker 1: my records it is called Trophy And anyway, we made
Speaker 1: these little trophy t shirts for the cat and we
Speaker 1: sold those to give the Animal Rescue that did all
Speaker 1: the work the profits from that and anyway, it's a
Speaker 1: totally story. That's a great story. That's what I needed
Speaker 1: to hear. Yeah, I don't need a mangle cat legged
Speaker 1: in like that. Well, last we saw of it mangle
Speaker 1: then we drove off. Wait what we left it hungry?
Speaker 1: I'm feel sad after the Sunny interview. Mike, you're headed
Speaker 1: to Little Rock because you have a show there. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just read off some of the cities you're gonna
Speaker 1: be in, Um, Little Rock, Stonewall, Texas, Albany, Fort Worth,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Houston, Galveston. We're doing a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot down there. Huh. Just actually that's weird this
Speaker 1: month we're in Texas. We're usually not but Galveston though. Oh,
Speaker 1: we're doing a cruise. That's why so many days in
Speaker 1: a row. I was like thank four night, or in Galveston, Austin,
Speaker 1: San Antonio. Listen, you're all over the place. And we
Speaker 1: had talked about the record and the song with Vince
Speaker 1: Gill married alone before you came in. And I love
Speaker 1: Vince Doo. He's the greatest. He's the best singer on
Speaker 1: the planet. Yeah, he's just in just his presence soft
Speaker 1: and also not like reading, not a skin presence. It's
Speaker 1: also like strong and like comforting, and you just know
Speaker 1: he's seen it all. I mean, he plays his was
Speaker 1: the Eagles and then he goes to them. I saw
Speaker 1: him with the Eagles at the Irwin Center. I saw
Speaker 1: him with the Eagles at Bridge. It blew my freaking mind.
Speaker 1: I know. So you guys check out Married Alone. We
Speaker 1: talked about it earlier before you were here. But those
Speaker 1: are a lot of those, if not all of them
Speaker 1: were unreleased songs that you had had Is that is
Speaker 1: that right? Or some of them were what do you
Speaker 1: mean on my album? Yeah? On that married was it
Speaker 1: all new stuff? That Married Alone? Um? It was all
Speaker 1: new songs? But had you had any of them written
Speaker 1: for a long time? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I Um, I
Speaker 1: have a running list of in my phone of songs
Speaker 1: that just some of them are fifteen years old. That's
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like you had him for a long time,
Speaker 1: you just hadn't cut them yet. Yeah. But Mary the
Speaker 1: oldest song you had on there? Um, like that you
Speaker 1: held for so long because it meant so much to you.
Speaker 1: You just could easy. Someday you'll call my name. And
Speaker 1: when do you think you wrote that? I know when
Speaker 1: we wrote it, Me and my friend Brittan wrote that
Speaker 1: in like two thousand and eight. And why did it
Speaker 1: take so long to cut? Because it wasn't good and
Speaker 1: so we rewrote it during COVID. We literally took the
Speaker 1: title and rewrote it during COVID. Well, there was something
Speaker 1: about it that just the chorus was there and we
Speaker 1: knew the chorus was good. Um, but I wanted it
Speaker 1: to be about something else. It was about something and
Speaker 1: we wanted to change the topic of it and so um,
Speaker 1: so we rewrote it over zoomed during COVID and the
Speaker 1: day we wrote it, I was like, cool, that's going
Speaker 1: on our record, Like, it's so weird how that happens?
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just know. And then um, before it even
Speaker 1: came out, that was in that. Do you remember the
Speaker 1: movie that came out over the summer called Vengeance with
Speaker 1: bj Novak? Yes, he's a posts a podcast. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: didn't watch it, but right, yeah, me too, So it
Speaker 1: was in that. They put it in that movie. Well,
Speaker 1: I have to for sure what Mike keep telling me.
Speaker 1: The movie is really good. It's great. And my dad
Speaker 1: and I went for Father's Day last year to New
Speaker 1: York to try back a film festival to see it
Speaker 1: for the first time. That was like the premiere of it. Huh,
Speaker 1: how how do you get in that movie? Who pitches that?
Speaker 1: How's that happened? Um? Somebody hear it. I honestly, it
Speaker 1: was one of those things where I was like, what's
Speaker 1: not even out like how yeah on Earth? How on Earth?
Speaker 1: But yeah, it just got pitched and the music supervisor
Speaker 1: liked it and put it in the rodeo scene. So
Speaker 1: it's pretty wild. That's super cool. How I was really excited.
Speaker 1: That's what I would love to get into, is you
Speaker 1: know that kind of stuff, like get into you know,
Speaker 1: SYNC and like do um TV and film. I have
Speaker 1: a friend who is a songwriter in town and he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just gonna take this year and dedicate
Speaker 1: it to SYNC. And I was like, so what does
Speaker 1: that mean. He goes, well, I'll started to create these
Speaker 1: relationships with these and so he he kills it. Now
Speaker 1: he writes songs for cruise commercials or movies or whoa, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. He was like, you know, I was writing
Speaker 1: a lot of songs and some of them would get
Speaker 1: on hold, maybe one would get cut. Yeah, I'm in
Speaker 1: a pub deal. And he's like, I'm just gonna write
Speaker 1: for SYNC for a year. And now it's like five
Speaker 1: times when he was making and he's also still getting
Speaker 1: control of his life. Yes he does, and he's got
Speaker 1: good joal. Yeah, but if you come off the road,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be the same, you want us down
Speaker 1: the road. Oh, look, I do everything on the road.
Speaker 1: Everyone's always like, for since day one, people have always
Speaker 1: you know, I do, you know, writing appointments when I'm
Speaker 1: in Nashville or in Austin or whatever. And people are like,
Speaker 1: when you're off the road or when you're on the road,
Speaker 1: do you need to like, you know, just be on
Speaker 1: the road. I was like, no, I do a radio
Speaker 1: show every morning from the road. I write songs on
Speaker 1: the road. I've when I'm under pressure, I am a
Speaker 1: much more like productive person. So the more that I
Speaker 1: can do. That's why I think I don't mind honestly
Speaker 1: doing all of the things because freak though I mean
Speaker 1: probably I am because I'm scared if I don't do
Speaker 1: it won't get done, and if it doesn't get done,
Speaker 1: I'll fail. I'll be a failure again. Do you want
Speaker 1: me to tell you one thing? Though, I definitely am
Speaker 1: a control freak in it's because it's my name. I
Speaker 1: want it done right, and I know if I do
Speaker 1: it, it it will be done right. I have found there
Speaker 1: is my tour manager now is the first person that
Speaker 1: I have ever trust did to do certain things. And
Speaker 1: not only does she do them, she kicks their butt.
Speaker 1: She is It is like having another brain and two
Speaker 1: more sets of hand, you know, like she is a machine.
Speaker 1: She has changed my life so and just so dramatically.
Speaker 1: And her name is Elisa. If you're listening to Lisa,
Speaker 1: she is the best thing that's happened to me as
Speaker 1: far as like being able to delegate something and I
Speaker 1: know with no question in my mind that it will
Speaker 1: get done properly. And if she has a question, she'll
Speaker 1: call me and be like, is this how you want
Speaker 1: it done? Like, actually, no, could you try this? And
Speaker 1: she'd be like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's perfect. It
Speaker 1: is awesome. I feel the same way about Mike, except
Speaker 1: he doesn't ask me if that's how I want it done.
Speaker 1: He just does it better than I would have done
Speaker 1: at the beginning. But I never trusted anybody with anything
Speaker 1: with shows or anything. I was doing that weird ever,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, I'm finally gonna give this
Speaker 1: baby bird to Mike and say yes, but you but
Speaker 1: you then you see it surviving and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, not only driving, it's flying around and beating
Speaker 1: people over the head with its wings. Hey I'm here,
Speaker 1: And then I feel less end because Mike's better than
Speaker 1: I am. And he's like, well I would do I dodd. Well, look,
Speaker 1: we've we've been here for hour fifteen minutes. I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: this so much too. You're just a jar of fun.
Speaker 1: You just it's so your spirits just there. Thanks, you know.
Speaker 1: So here's what I'm gonna say. You guys, go follow Sonny.
Speaker 1: She's you know, getting sweenered on Instagram, but you're your
Speaker 1: own name on TikTok, right, yeah, and Facebook, and getting
Speaker 1: sweenered is Twitter and Instagram. Yeah, I'm confused, but I
Speaker 1: got you. It's all on my website. If it's all,
Speaker 1: it's linked on my website, just because I didn't realize
Speaker 1: when I made those names that those would be like,
Speaker 1: I know, so stupid. I wish I could change it now,
Speaker 1: I know. But it's been years in the making that
Speaker 1: we finally met. I know the two of your shows,
Speaker 1: and I've listened to you way before you ever did this.
Speaker 1: When you're back in Austin and mikel was like, hey,
Speaker 1: Sonny's gonna be and I was like, really that, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy, super cool. And then when I saw your
Speaker 1: stuff with the country to call of fame. I was
Speaker 1: going to remember to say it, and then I forgot
Speaker 1: and then we start of talk and then I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, and then it got us on to Dami
Speaker 1: Lou Harris. This is all kind of happened organically, which
Speaker 1: is super cool. Yeah, so thank you. You ask really
Speaker 1: good questions too. I don't know that asks anything. I
Speaker 1: just kind of live. But I mean, like you, you
Speaker 1: don't you do ask like the Actually you ask the
Speaker 1: right things. You ask things that make people want to talk. Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate That's what I When I listened to you,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, oh, that question is going to make
Speaker 1: this person say this. You know, like it's it's good.
Speaker 1: You're really good at your job. I know you know that,
Speaker 1: but like it's really fun. Same to you, You're really
Speaker 1: good at your job. Thank you. So, Mike, anything you
Speaker 1: want to say, could you teach me how to back
Speaker 1: up a trailer? Yes, I want to do it. I
Speaker 1: want to do it on a live feed. I want
Speaker 1: to do that. I mean I have troubled my forward focus,
Speaker 1: so I oh no, it's much easier to back a
Speaker 1: trailer into back a regular car. Yeah, I don't think so,
Speaker 1: because i'd had I'd pull trailers, boats, mowers, and I sucked.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, yeah, I messed up a couple of them.
Speaker 1: I think I could give you some pointers. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you could watch me and like hit your gate on
Speaker 1: the way. Hilarious, hilarious. All right, you guys go follow Sonny.
Speaker 1: Go to Sunny tweeney dot com. The song they just
Speaker 1: went up, Red Door a Girl. It's in Immlu Harris cover.
Speaker 1: And then also her album which we just talked about,
Speaker 1: which came out Middlelisi end of last year September. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm Middleshi end of last year. They kind of last
Speaker 1: that term lash end. Yeah, married alone, and that song
Speaker 1: also has Vince Gill on it and is not only
Speaker 1: just the name of the album. Sonny, thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Thanks for listening to the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
Speaker 1: to advertise us.