Speaker 1: Carolam. She's a queen of talking. He was so your man.
Speaker 1: She's only yes. Actually you got the snoop on on
Speaker 1: the on side. No one can do with Clide Caralam, Carola,
Speaker 1: no one can do within Clid Caralai Carola. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby. I am your host, Caroline Hobby.
Speaker 1: I know music, I know people, and I know the
Speaker 1: questions do you want to ask? So let's get hyper
Speaker 1: heads up. These are adults having adult conversations, so there
Speaker 1: could be adult content. I am so excited about this
Speaker 1: episode because I am interviewing Stormy Warren, who is such
Speaker 1: an incredible host. He is someone I look up to.
Speaker 1: I learned from him. I've been friends with him for
Speaker 1: ten years and he goes the face of G A C.
Speaker 1: He has hosted every event in Nashville. You can imagine.
Speaker 1: He's all over the radio. He has his own radio
Speaker 1: show on Sirius XAM. He is such an incredible person,
Speaker 1: such an incredible heart, and it was just such an
Speaker 1: honor to get to interview him. So we talked all
Speaker 1: about how he got to start, why Charlie Daniels is
Speaker 1: so important to him, and how he loves the hug trees.
Speaker 1: Here he is. I love you Stormy. Hello. Hello. Being
Speaker 1: on this end of this, well, you're quite a star,
Speaker 1: so you need to be exposed fully all of the details.
Speaker 1: It really is. It's uncomfortable to be on this side.
Speaker 1: It is. Yeah. I've probably been on this side of
Speaker 1: it maybe two or three times in my entire career.
Speaker 1: Are you serious? And it's really odd because in the situation,
Speaker 1: I know where I'm going and I know I'm going
Speaker 1: to try to lean over, don't look Okay. I have
Speaker 1: to always check this because I've red two interviews and
Speaker 1: I didn't record. Yeah. I did that with Jake Oen
Speaker 1: not too long, one of the best interviews I've ever
Speaker 1: done with him, and it didn't record me. He was
Speaker 1: on a time schedule and ran away on me. So wait, wait,
Speaker 1: he didn't record. The thing didn't record. It was that
Speaker 1: did you die? Yeah? And he was like I gotta go,
Speaker 1: and I'm like bye. Was so devastating. Even in this
Speaker 1: huge thing with all the microphones, it was just my
Speaker 1: producer was sitting at this one. We could record from
Speaker 1: this computer or I could record from that computer. Are
Speaker 1: you sound good? Sound good? And we both thought the
Speaker 1: other one was recording. Oh gosh, and so he said,
Speaker 1: all right, go ahead and press stop it. She goes,
Speaker 1: I did, I thought you were uh and Jaco's your kidding, right,
Speaker 1: And then Jake, three hours later Jake text week goes, Storm,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna believe this. It happened again to someone
Speaker 1: else because I don't know what it is. What is
Speaker 1: he talking about? It's crazy? What kind of secrets he say?
Speaker 1: I'm going to get out of the squeaky cha, get
Speaker 1: on the squaky chair. Okay, well we just keep talking on,
Speaker 1: just wring to make sure that too. That's better. Oh great, okay,
Speaker 1: Now I'm where you're hiding anyway. Oh yeah, perfect. I
Speaker 1: can see you look like a statueous goddess. Now, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Okay, So I want to start
Speaker 1: off with a little rapid fire. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, I
Speaker 1: want to say a few words and you just free association. Yes,
Speaker 1: the first day that comes to mind. Don't overthink it,
Speaker 1: of course. Okay, happiness, Joy Okay, that's the same word.
Speaker 1: Okay you said. Okay, so there's no wrong answers. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, let's try that again. Okay, Joy outside, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're an outdoorsman. Yes, nice. What do you like to
Speaker 1: do outdoors? Anything? In fact, I had a production company
Speaker 1: called Surfing Moose because you're a surfer too. I love
Speaker 1: the beach, Cuba diver, scuba diver, Yeah, anything outside. I
Speaker 1: gotta go hug a tree every now and then. Already
Speaker 1: go nuts. Okay, nice, are you a hippie? I'm not
Speaker 1: a hippie. I'm just really in tune with Mother Earth,
Speaker 1: the nature side of things. And when you lose connection
Speaker 1: with that, you your whole mental focus just goes out
Speaker 1: of whack. And I totally reconnect when I get back
Speaker 1: into the woods. And I never realized how much I
Speaker 1: miss it until I go back. How often do you
Speaker 1: go into the woods? Not near enough. But I have
Speaker 1: to make myself do it. And the more I do it,
Speaker 1: the happier I am. So I guess happiness outside. Love it, okay, dream,
Speaker 1: who don't overthink it? Dream? These are good words made
Speaker 1: specific for you. Dream happiness, just to be happy. He
Speaker 1: said that quote when he was in the third grade,
Speaker 1: was it, John Lennon? Yeah? And and she said no. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said there was a horrible answer, because no, that's
Speaker 1: the right answer. So what does happiness look like to you,
Speaker 1: and it looks like outdoors, looks like outdoors. It has
Speaker 1: to do with a sense of being called uh. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to use the word control because that's
Speaker 1: not it, because no one's ever truly in control of anything.
Speaker 1: But it's being adaptable and being able to just roll
Speaker 1: with the flow and just not fight. UM. My biggest
Speaker 1: pet peeve in life are unnecessary obstacles in my path
Speaker 1: and things that are just stupid, like um, an unnecessary
Speaker 1: argument with a coworker or a spouse, or wasted energy
Speaker 1: that is just so avoidable, and yet you get stuck
Speaker 1: in this rut of having to move a boulder that
Speaker 1: the drains you and it's just you see where you
Speaker 1: want to get to. You see the goal, You see
Speaker 1: the end zone, and this stupid thing is in your
Speaker 1: way that has no business being in your way. Completely
Speaker 1: use your energy for only positive positivity. I'm probably the
Speaker 1: most optimistic person you've ever met. Yeah, and they I
Speaker 1: belong to the Optimist Club. In all reality, I used
Speaker 1: to speak at the Optimist Club. And it's real. There's
Speaker 1: an Optimist Yes. Can I come? Yes? Because you're right
Speaker 1: there with me. Really trained myself to be optive. But
Speaker 1: I had to train I wasn't naturally optimists. Really well, no,
Speaker 1: I think I had to develop it. Well, what were you? Why?
Speaker 1: Why were you so negative? I wasn't necessarily negative. I
Speaker 1: just didn't really as positive as you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that it was a total choice, and
Speaker 1: that like by choosing positivity always it makes for a
Speaker 1: positive life. I had to develop that. Yeah, and that Um,
Speaker 1: I guess it probably was instilled to me by my parents.
Speaker 1: And my mom was the queen of the optimists, and
Speaker 1: my dad was just queen or king of common sense.
Speaker 1: So between the two of them it was a good direction,
Speaker 1: like a perfect comba. Well, I I didn't say I
Speaker 1: got at all, but I definitely got the optimist side.
Speaker 1: The common sense thing goes out the window every now
Speaker 1: and then I would pick, I would pick optimists comments.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand why people carry such great clouds
Speaker 1: over them, and I don't there's we have it enough
Speaker 1: around us, it's forced upon us enough. I don't know
Speaker 1: why people just live in this dark space. And even if,
Speaker 1: even if that dark space is part of you, there's
Speaker 1: always ways to bring light into it, and so and
Speaker 1: so I feel part of my job is to bring
Speaker 1: that to other people. Story. You're bringing storms of sunshine,
Speaker 1: storms of sunshine. If I were to put out an album,
Speaker 1: that would be the title. But it's it's great And
Speaker 1: because the most satisfying thing is when you connect with
Speaker 1: somebody and you see them turn around, you see them
Speaker 1: have a bad day goes to a better outlook, just
Speaker 1: even the slightest little twitch. And if you can know
Speaker 1: that you are a part of that in some way,
Speaker 1: what better reward is there? So do you use your
Speaker 1: radio show to spread positivity? Yeah, And it's it's I
Speaker 1: love I love connecting. Um, it's it's about the audience.
Speaker 1: It's about brightening the audience's day because we're all one big,
Speaker 1: happy family. I never look like we're broadcasting outward to
Speaker 1: the universe. I feel like everybody's in our studio. It's
Speaker 1: like one big living room. And it's a subtle difference
Speaker 1: between a lot of radio shows. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are really proud of what they have to say and
Speaker 1: want to project it outward and just hope that something
Speaker 1: is received. And to me, I get as much coming
Speaker 1: back as we deliver, and so it's it's it's really
Speaker 1: a neat connection. You have always seemed like the happiest guy,
Speaker 1: and it's just a genuine thing, it is. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all have bad days. I and I have them too,
Speaker 1: but I hate being in a bad day. And when
Speaker 1: you're so aware of being positive, don't you know when
Speaker 1: you're in a bad day, like, because you can normally
Speaker 1: turn it around, like yeah, it doesn't take long. But
Speaker 1: sometimes there's just a day that just sucks. It just sucks,
Speaker 1: and you just can't get out of it. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I don't like that, but I can count them on
Speaker 1: about one hand. Yeah, you know, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of them. And it's just if I'm
Speaker 1: down for longer than about thirty minutes, I'm I'm pretty pussy.
Speaker 1: Do you have techniques to turn your day around? Yeah? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And it's it's to put whatever it is that's sucking
Speaker 1: the energy out of you in a place you can
Speaker 1: deal with it. You're not ignoring it, you're not sweeping.
Speaker 1: I did do that for a while, and it was
Speaker 1: a really bad practice. Yeah that if you or it
Speaker 1: just overflows and your pressure cooker and you explode worse.
Speaker 1: And I was very very good at that for a
Speaker 1: long time and then did you finally just like erupt? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you got the eruption. Was there a moment. It's
Speaker 1: all random people. It's it's just unfortunately for those people
Speaker 1: or the situation, it comes out at the wrong time
Speaker 1: and it comes out probably out of ease. It comes
Speaker 1: out it's like a safe zone. It's like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: really is gonna matter if I explode here, so blam
Speaker 1: and so whatever whatever takes it is really, whether it's
Speaker 1: an event, a person, whatever it's I felt really bad
Speaker 1: when that happened. So I worked really hard to deal
Speaker 1: with stuff and not just shove it under the rug.
Speaker 1: But part of being positive is to put the negativity somewhere. Okay,
Speaker 1: so where do you put it? Well, now I deal
Speaker 1: with it, and I just kind of crumple it up
Speaker 1: in little pieces as we go and tribble it out
Speaker 1: instead of just going deal with you later. And the
Speaker 1: boiling over there, it's just you're not looking at it,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing. Talk about wasted energy. I wasted a
Speaker 1: lot of energy for a lot of my life shoving
Speaker 1: all this ship in the closet. And then when finally
Speaker 1: it was overflowing, it was too late. And you had
Speaker 1: this big pile of it's like a closet full of
Speaker 1: bowling balls. Eventually, when you opened that door, you get
Speaker 1: this avalanche of bowling balls that you have to deal with.
Speaker 1: That you could have dealt with one bowling ball at
Speaker 1: a time, never would have built up. Yeah, are you
Speaker 1: an organized person? No? Not in the slightest. I am
Speaker 1: the least organized person you have ever met. But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start to finish her. And I think those
Speaker 1: go hand in hand because I'm not organized. I need
Speaker 1: to begin a project and end the project. I can't
Speaker 1: start multiple projects and then piece me like together. My
Speaker 1: wife is is a genius at that. She remember, she
Speaker 1: must have a good memory. She she's a multitask or
Speaker 1: she could do like nine things at once, and it
Speaker 1: blows my mind. I'm like, but the dishwasher isn't only half?
Speaker 1: Have to get in your what's going on over here?
Speaker 1: Because I'll get back to that. She make list? She
Speaker 1: does make list? List or key, I don't make list.
Speaker 1: I have a calendar in my head and I have
Speaker 1: everything that goes on in my head and it's you
Speaker 1: told me something about your calendar too. Yeah, you said
Speaker 1: that you don't look ahead, like, just wake up because
Speaker 1: we hosted National Dame. That's right, I guess two years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now you're kind of giving tips on hosting, which
Speaker 1: I have filed a lot of his way and use.
Speaker 1: Oh god, sorry, no, they're great. But you said that,
Speaker 1: like you have your calendar, but you just wake up
Speaker 1: and whatever the day has you just go with it.
Speaker 1: You don't think too far ahead. No, I don't. I
Speaker 1: love the excitement of that. I love that it leads
Speaker 1: to a great way to avoid boredom and a routine.
Speaker 1: If you wake up not knowing exactly what the day
Speaker 1: has in store, then it offers so many blessings that
Speaker 1: you weren't expecting. So you sit there and go, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, that's right, I'm going here today, and then
Speaker 1: you go whoa, And then you know, people say, so,
Speaker 1: what are you doing this afternoon? I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: no idea, and then you put it together and it's
Speaker 1: it's a blast that way. So every day is exciting.
Speaker 1: Every day is now there's no If I have more
Speaker 1: than like two or three days where it feels like
Speaker 1: they're almost exactly the same, I start needing to go
Speaker 1: hug a tree. Totally. I totally relate. Okay, Vice, ah
Speaker 1: chewing tobacco, You chew tobacco. Do you have really white teeth? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well you put those big old dips in there. Do No,
Speaker 1: you don't spit it out. I do. It's horrible. My
Speaker 1: kids are really my kids. Maybe quit once and then
Speaker 1: I got back into it, and I'm trying again to quit.
Speaker 1: This feels so good in your mouth, Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a great it's like a hot tingling feeling. No,
Speaker 1: it's I mean after I've been doing it in a
Speaker 1: long time, so it's it's just more habit than anything.
Speaker 1: Have you gotten your lips checked up? Okay? Yeah, they're okay? Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, but which I hate because I would rather
Speaker 1: than say, you know, you really need to stop because
Speaker 1: this has happening now they go, no, look good, I'm great.
Speaker 1: I'll keep dipping. You know. It's but probably for my
Speaker 1: kids now because they're really on me. They don't don't
Speaker 1: like to see me do it. I try to not
Speaker 1: hide it from them. They know I do it, but
Speaker 1: rub it in their faces either. So yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: pretty good Avice and wine. Oh what kind of white shard. Okay,
Speaker 1: I might be the only tobacco chewing shardon ay drinker
Speaker 1: you've That's a great contrast. You got like your redneck
Speaker 1: gone up and then you gotphisticated classy. You see me
Speaker 1: with a spit cup and a glass of shardonney. It's
Speaker 1: a it's very sexy, I'm telling you perfect. Yeah. You
Speaker 1: walk both lines. Yeah, and I definitely do metaphorically and literally.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to describe yours, it would be
Speaker 1: a mix between chew tobacco and chardonnay. That would be
Speaker 1: absolutely correct. That hugging in the middle, that's okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Um music music, Um, I'm a I'm a rainbow. I really.
Speaker 1: I know that's a cliche, but I do listen to
Speaker 1: it all. I mean, I started listening to old school
Speaker 1: country Roy Clark Bucklands. I grew up on Heehaw and
Speaker 1: so and my parents would drag me to these country
Speaker 1: variety shows, Glenn Campbell and Jim Stafford and Tammy Winnette
Speaker 1: yeah and uh Tanny Tucker when she was young. And
Speaker 1: it just Roy Clark lived down the street from me Tulsa. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So Roy Clark would be every Saturday or whatever. He
Speaker 1: was in town. He would be out washing his car
Speaker 1: in his driveway. And he used to ride my bicycle.
Speaker 1: When I say right down the street, it was probably
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes away on a bike, but I would
Speaker 1: go down just to watch him wash his car. Did
Speaker 1: you say, Hi, I think I got the nerve once,
Speaker 1: Mr Cluke, you're just kind of breathing the same. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I love tehaw And and it's neat and it
Speaker 1: flashed forward. You know, if you think it and you
Speaker 1: can believe it, it will come. And I'm a huge
Speaker 1: believer in that. And that's and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: there's a lot of proof that that works in my
Speaker 1: life an example, Okay, but I am obsessed with that
Speaker 1: belief and I and it works and and and and
Speaker 1: knowing you for about a decade now, I've seen lots
Speaker 1: of proof in you that it works. So it's it's
Speaker 1: really cool. You're you're a believer in that, and you
Speaker 1: can see that in people, you can feel the energy.
Speaker 1: It's it's a very cosmic thing. But an example. So
Speaker 1: going back to Roy Clark and buck Owens, all I
Speaker 1: wanted to do was to buck Owens was like my idol. Okay,
Speaker 1: and Charlie Daniels, you're jumping ahead, So, uh, flash forward.
Speaker 1: I'm here in Nashville doing my career, and I still
Speaker 1: had yet to interview Buck Owens. So all I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about all my whole career, I wanted to meet
Speaker 1: and get to know Buck Owens. And then we did
Speaker 1: a couple of red carpet interviews, but those are quick
Speaker 1: and it didn't really count. And for years I went
Speaker 1: out to his Crystal Palace for his birthday bash in
Speaker 1: Bakersfield just to be there, and you know, I'd call
Speaker 1: Lorien and Charlie Crook and Chase, we need to go
Speaker 1: cover Buck Owen's birthday party in Bakersfield, and and and
Speaker 1: went every year to do that, I know, and I
Speaker 1: did every year. And finally, shortly before he died, his
Speaker 1: um his manager goes, uh, Storey, do you have a camera,
Speaker 1: And I'm like why, because Buck wants to do that interview.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, I'm not ready for this interview, because
Speaker 1: well you better be, because you got about a half hour.
Speaker 1: We had your whole life to prepare, so I guess
Speaker 1: it was spontaneous. It went from a really well prepared,
Speaker 1: in depth life assessment to a conversation with a guy
Speaker 1: on towards the end of his life. It was it
Speaker 1: was a much better conversation. And my favorite quote from
Speaker 1: that interview is asked back, I said, are you afraid
Speaker 1: to die? And he goes, Nope, I'm not afraid of dying.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of not being around. And I just thought
Speaker 1: it was so cool to say that. He's the ultimate fomo.
Speaker 1: He didn't life, love life, and he didn't want to
Speaker 1: miss anything, and so he was not afraid of dying.
Speaker 1: He was fully at peace with dying, and he knew
Speaker 1: he was dying, but he was really bummed out that
Speaker 1: he was going to miss some stuff. How cool though,
Speaker 1: to give you at the end of your life though,
Speaker 1: and still be loving it so much. God's and he
Speaker 1: had some big setbacks and letdowns and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: but he always found a way to turn it around.
Speaker 1: And that's the key. All right, you ready for the
Speaker 1: pendulum theory? Okay, come on, pendulum theory, roll with me.
Speaker 1: So life is like a ticking clock totally. It only
Speaker 1: works when it's swinging back and forth. Right, So if
Speaker 1: it sticks up here, if everything's good all the time,
Speaker 1: time doesn't move. And if it sticks over here. Everything's bad,
Speaker 1: time doesn't move. You gotta swing through both and that's
Speaker 1: the only way. But the positivity and the outlook on
Speaker 1: life comes from how you approach the down swing when
Speaker 1: you know, not to say you expect it or you
Speaker 1: hope it's coming, it's how you address it when the
Speaker 1: downside does come, and to know that with it will come.
Speaker 1: And so it's just the approach you do. I call
Speaker 1: it it just swing through it. Just swing through it,
Speaker 1: and just swing through your arms up there like a
Speaker 1: roller coaster and just like, oh, this is gonna suck,
Speaker 1: this is gonna suck, but let's go, you know. And
Speaker 1: when you get to those like the lowest parts, you
Speaker 1: can feel it and like I just came out of one,
Speaker 1: it's like you know you're in it. But then when
Speaker 1: do you know what's coming? You just gotta you just
Speaker 1: gotta swing through it. So many people, though, they get
Speaker 1: stuck in that first one, because once you start doing
Speaker 1: it more, it gets a lot easier. And sure, that's
Speaker 1: it to exercise like anything else, but the first tree
Speaker 1: is stuck in it. You think your life's over. Oh
Speaker 1: you can't see you can't see two ft in front
Speaker 1: of your face. Everything's done right, and you can't get
Speaker 1: out of it exactly. So you've got to be able
Speaker 1: to focus on the horizon when it goes with everything
Speaker 1: else we're talking about about just believing in seeing stuff
Speaker 1: that isn't there. Yes, story, you've got it, You've got it.
Speaker 1: I'm just getting better at it. I turned thirty three
Speaker 1: this weekend. That was one of my favorite birthdays Evertree
Speaker 1: thirty three, thirty three, thirty free. Okay, see this. You
Speaker 1: can't see the southern camera, but the Batman Building is
Speaker 1: right over the camera's shoulder and on the thirty third floor,
Speaker 1: three pm on oh three, oh three, oh three, I
Speaker 1: turned thirty three. Stop it. Yeah, and I did. And
Speaker 1: I did three shots at tequila on the So it
Speaker 1: was the rule of threes. Oh, tell me about your
Speaker 1: thirty third birthday? That was It was just a real
Speaker 1: big fun day of just it was thirty free. A
Speaker 1: good year. Yeah, it was great year. Odd years are
Speaker 1: always fan testic years, they are, Yeah, why is that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Even ears are odd. Yours are always fantastic,
Speaker 1: I think so. And odd is odd, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: And odd is odd. Odd, it's unexpected. But all the
Speaker 1: good things in my life have happened on odd years.
Speaker 1: Great and not to say that I've had devastating years
Speaker 1: on even hears, but the memorable moments of all happened
Speaker 1: on odd years. Okay, so you're about to have a
Speaker 1: great seven. I know it's going to be good. Which
Speaker 1: you add them together and there ones and ones are
Speaker 1: really cool. So do you study numbers and stuff? I do.
Speaker 1: I'm not like a numerologist, but I've seen trends. Okay,
Speaker 1: so talk to me about that. Just when things are
Speaker 1: you know, different numbers have different meanings, and not necessarily
Speaker 1: like in a definition of a numerology book, this means this.
Speaker 1: I just know when I recognize numbers in a pattern
Speaker 1: that it means something, so like ones are always to
Speaker 1: me say that I'm pointed in the right direction and
Speaker 1: not necessarily in the way you think. It's just it
Speaker 1: goes with looking beyond that two feet in front of
Speaker 1: your face. You think, oh wow, this is exactly where
Speaker 1: I need to be. And there literally you know there's
Speaker 1: like seven different other steps you're going to take, but
Speaker 1: you're still on the right path. So do you trust
Speaker 1: in the mystery of it all? Yeah? I got Life's
Speaker 1: a mystery. Isn't do you set kind of goals but
Speaker 1: then like you you're working towards something, but then you're
Speaker 1: kind of expecting whatever exactly exactly. I a very goal
Speaker 1: oriented person. I think, obviously you've accomplished so much, and
Speaker 1: I hate when you reach a goal. Okay, tell me
Speaker 1: that because I don't like reaching goal. Do you like
Speaker 1: the journey getting it? Reaching a goal has never been satisfying?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, okay, number one. Because number one, I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed the journey so much that I immediately am looking
Speaker 1: to set the new goal because you don't want to
Speaker 1: stay there. You've got to have something to work and
Speaker 1: there's nothing. And it's never what you think it's going
Speaker 1: to feel like when you get there. So what does
Speaker 1: it normally feel like? It just feels like another day.
Speaker 1: It feels like it's okay. It's like if you win
Speaker 1: an award, or you reach a milestone or a new untracked,
Speaker 1: or you interview somebody that you've always wanted to interview.
Speaker 1: By the end of it, you're going, yeah, okay, no,
Speaker 1: what's next. Yeah, I'm really bad about appreciating now. I'm
Speaker 1: really bad at that. Okay, Because you're always thinking about
Speaker 1: the next thing, or looking back, and I've stopped that. Okay,
Speaker 1: looking back is something that takes a way too much
Speaker 1: time too. It's so looking forward is much more beneficial.
Speaker 1: But I'm getting better. That's what Going out and hugging
Speaker 1: the tree. Does you appreciate that now you hug the treat? Yes,
Speaker 1: like you hug it. Absolutely. Do you feel energy from
Speaker 1: the tree? Oh? My gosh. Yes, there's a there's a
Speaker 1: tree called the Lodgepole pine out in the Sierras, and
Speaker 1: it actually smells like maple syrup and so it's got
Speaker 1: real thick bark and when you actually get real close
Speaker 1: to it smells like vanilla maple syrup. And you just
Speaker 1: sit there and just go It's the greatest thing in
Speaker 1: the world. You totally connect. Yeah, everybody always thought it
Speaker 1: was a metaphor. I'm like, no, I go out and
Speaker 1: hug a freaking Okay, I'm gonna actually try you should
Speaker 1: you and you're gonna go, wow, that's pretty good. Do
Speaker 1: you have a certain treat? Uh? Any tree, as long
Speaker 1: as it's connected to the ground in the earthen. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: so you started off at sixteen, you move from Tolta
Speaker 1: to California and you worked at l A. In l
Speaker 1: A's Pirate Radio. I thought that was just a movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was a real thing. The Pirate
Speaker 1: Radio is based on the old pirate radio stations that
Speaker 1: were off the FCC grid back in the seventies and
Speaker 1: they broadcast in the in the shores of New York
Speaker 1: and off Long Island and some off the coast to California,
Speaker 1: but not many phrase radio. And you had a quote
Speaker 1: though that I have to say, you said this had
Speaker 1: the biggest impact on your career because you learned how
Speaker 1: to deal with the egos, liars, corporate bs, and the
Speaker 1: pitfalls of celebrity. All is a p on who rarely
Speaker 1: got airtime and it was it was spectacular. So talk
Speaker 1: to me about that, like, what are the pitfalls the celebrities,
Speaker 1: What did you learn about egos and how did you
Speaker 1: get involved with this details. Along with being a positive person,
Speaker 1: what goes along with that as a companion is idealism,
Speaker 1: where I have just have an idealistic view of how
Speaker 1: things should be and oftentimes it's not that way. So
Speaker 1: my first experience with radio was with a fantastic program
Speaker 1: director in Tulsa named mel Myers who gave a thirteen
Speaker 1: year old kid a shot and he shouldn't have done that,
Speaker 1: but he did because he saw something. Yeah, because someone
Speaker 1: gave him a shot at around the same age you
Speaker 1: wanted to do it. Took a field trip to a
Speaker 1: radio station in seventh grade and it was love instantly,
Speaker 1: like pulling the curtain back on OZ. Did you want
Speaker 1: to be behind the absolutely, because you did a lot
Speaker 1: of other things before you got to the microphone, which
Speaker 1: we were like a broadcast assistant, even a cameraman, stage man,
Speaker 1: assistant technical director, and a segment producer, all before you
Speaker 1: really got your big break behind the microphone and camera. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one of the greatest gifts was having to experience
Speaker 1: at all, because it gives you appreciation for every part
Speaker 1: of the business. And from focusing a camera like you're
Speaker 1: doing it all. I'm not doing a great job with
Speaker 1: the camera. It's very automatic, but it's it really is.
Speaker 1: It teaches you to appreciate all aspects of it and
Speaker 1: because of that, you do your job better behind a
Speaker 1: microphone if you know everything that's going into it. So
Speaker 1: you got your and this guy obviously yeah, he um,
Speaker 1: he gave me a shot. He would critique my stupid
Speaker 1: little air checks that I would do. Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: didn't for weeks and weeks, and I got so depressed.
Speaker 1: I would make these little practice tapes back on reel
Speaker 1: to reel, and I would set them on his desk.
Speaker 1: And when I set him on his desk, I expected
Speaker 1: a response, and none came. But each week, when I'm
Speaker 1: going on weekends, I would make a new tape and
Speaker 1: put it on his desk. And then finally one came
Speaker 1: back with a two page handwritten note with critiques, and
Speaker 1: he ripped me to shreds, just tore me up, basically saying,
Speaker 1: what the heck do you think you're doing. You're horrible
Speaker 1: at this, you know, but try again next week and
Speaker 1: see if you follow these simple tips. And so I did,
Speaker 1: and the next week another critique came. The next week,
Speaker 1: another critiquet, and shorter and shorter, and work on this.
Speaker 1: You're still doing this. And finally, about six months later,
Speaker 1: because I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm giving
Speaker 1: you your own weekend show. Those a fourteen. But he
Speaker 1: also realized you wanted it, you know. Yeah, one has
Speaker 1: that kind of initiative. I would go after football practice,
Speaker 1: still in my pads, and ride my bicycle to the
Speaker 1: radio station and right after the football practice and just
Speaker 1: go camp out like a stray dog. You just wanted
Speaker 1: to be in there. And when I moved to l A,
Speaker 1: I went took like ninety steps backwards because my guru
Speaker 1: and my my guide didn't travel with me. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so I was there in Finta, California, going but I
Speaker 1: had my own show, we Don't Care, We Don't Care.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Guess what, go back and answer
Speaker 1: phone phone lines. Age got to start back open. So
Speaker 1: you kind of made it. You made your way up
Speaker 1: in Ventura, and then you moved to Hollywood, and no
Speaker 1: one gave two rats, no no. So I knocked on
Speaker 1: the door of Pirate Radio and said, please can I
Speaker 1: come in. I'm like, yeah, you can answer request lines again,
Speaker 1: you know. But that's where I learned. Scott Shannon got
Speaker 1: up sweating. I know exactly. Um So Scott Shannon, who
Speaker 1: to me is one of the most powerful and greatest
Speaker 1: examples of hustle in all of radio. He was running
Speaker 1: that channel and he was scary. He was intimidating. He
Speaker 1: was not just no no bs, no fluff, this was corporate,
Speaker 1: this was high pressure radio, which I'd never see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean a syllable delivered the wrong way. What? Yes,
Speaker 1: he critique you're talking everything? Talking voice is important. My
Speaker 1: voice is too high pitched, but I can't get it lower.
Speaker 1: It's all right. Didn't embrace what you have? It's great.
Speaker 1: So how did he do the because people can see
Speaker 1: through that. By the way, if you're trying too hard
Speaker 1: to hide who your real voice is, then people can
Speaker 1: see right through that. How did he So? How would
Speaker 1: he critique syllables? Does that take away the heart? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But he also taught you how to be really good
Speaker 1: and which obviously didn't stick. But um, And I was
Speaker 1: just kind of a peripheral player at Pirate Radio. I
Speaker 1: wasn't a Whitney Allen. I mean Whitney Allen whose country DJ.
Speaker 1: Now she was in the crosshairs of Scott Shannon's focus.
Speaker 1: And I watched the DJs go through this, and there
Speaker 1: was a big WATCHUSI Batman Gomez and Cadillac Jack and
Speaker 1: all these guys that I just really looked up to
Speaker 1: and watched how they dealt and sometimes didn't deal real
Speaker 1: well with the critique and the bulls eye and the
Speaker 1: focus and the energy, and I learned a lot from
Speaker 1: that and that's what kind of go with the flow
Speaker 1: mentality and adapt don't take things too personally, don't it
Speaker 1: Never take anything person It's not about you. It's about
Speaker 1: the product, and it's there just one a better product.
Speaker 1: So what did you What tips did you take from Mel?
Speaker 1: And what tips did you take from Shannon? Because it
Speaker 1: sounds like you have two different two different ones. Mel.
Speaker 1: Mel taught me to not play by the rules, Scott,
Speaker 1: Shannon said, but you gotta play by the rules. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting Scott. Scott had an illusion and he
Speaker 1: wanted from his people too. He goes make it look
Speaker 1: like it's completely chaotic, but it has behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: it has to be completely buttoned up. It's gottl to
Speaker 1: be just perfection chaos. So how do you get perfection?
Speaker 1: You plan it out so your chaos looks like it's
Speaker 1: absolutely spontaneous, when actually you've spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: planning out your chaos. So what would be planned chaos?
Speaker 1: Just like they launched the whole radio station, like they
Speaker 1: were on a barge off of the shore of Catalina
Speaker 1: Island and they who this is pirate Radio? Is this on?
Speaker 1: Of course it was on. They were out of the
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar studio in downtown l A. But they made
Speaker 1: it appear like they're just this ramshackle group of misfits
Speaker 1: starting exactly and it was just theater of the mind.
Speaker 1: So I learned that from Scott. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: you still apply that into your life now. I do, not,
Speaker 1: not as much because I'm not one of those guys.
Speaker 1: I'm not much to the chagrin and my boss and
Speaker 1: and bosses over the years. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: anybody else but me, and I can't be and I'm
Speaker 1: not comfortable if I'm trying to be someone else, and
Speaker 1: if it looks planned or faked, I feel it and
Speaker 1: I don't feel right about it. And it's about I
Speaker 1: say that I don't appreciate the moment, but I live
Speaker 1: in the moment as far as what I do for
Speaker 1: a job, I don't do appreciate the moment when the
Speaker 1: electricity of it, yes, the electricity of the unknown, until
Speaker 1: you open up that mic and go, well, this is
Speaker 1: going to either hurt or it's going to be really good. Yea.
Speaker 1: And most of the time it really hurts you. You
Speaker 1: you probably gravitate more with a yeah, absolutely because it
Speaker 1: was the first impression. But absolutely totally. And he came
Speaker 1: by to Nashville not too long ago swinging through, just
Speaker 1: on a cross country tour and we hadn't seen each
Speaker 1: other and proud. Yeah, it's like it's close to thirty years,
Speaker 1: I guess. And he's a huge influence in your life. Massive.
Speaker 1: Without him, I would be not doing anything like this.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy how one person and I changed your
Speaker 1: whole life. You have idols, you have people you look
Speaker 1: up to um and they're so important to all of us.
Speaker 1: And I really think that I'm a big believer mentors,
Speaker 1: and we all are in doing something in our life
Speaker 1: because someone inspired us to do it. And I've I've
Speaker 1: talked to some people and I have friends say I
Speaker 1: don't have those people. I just do my own thing.
Speaker 1: I said, well, you're lying to yourself because someone pointed
Speaker 1: you in that direction. Whether it was your father, whether
Speaker 1: your mother, whether it was best friend, a teacher, a coach,
Speaker 1: somebody padded you along the way or affected you in
Speaker 1: a negative way that you're trying to overcome. Absolutely, some
Speaker 1: mentor can be a a reverse energy too. That's crazy. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you go through all of this training camp, you
Speaker 1: got your first big break when you how did you
Speaker 1: meet up with Jim Owens and tell me about what
Speaker 1: goes back to the country roots. I was in l A.
Speaker 1: This is interesting. Um, I was in l A working
Speaker 1: for CNN and Pirate Radio and going to school at
Speaker 1: the same time. So CNN Entertainment or was it like
Speaker 1: it was entertainment Showbiz Today Today and which became Showbiz
Speaker 1: Tonight later, but Showbis Today Belashaw and Lauren Sidney and
Speaker 1: kind of huge. Great your first one, right, Well, I
Speaker 1: was working on the technical side at first and then
Speaker 1: work way with becoming a segment producer. And the only
Speaker 1: way I could do that is by going out and
Speaker 1: doing a story, just like you doing these podcasts. This
Speaker 1: is actually what they instructed me to do. They said,
Speaker 1: go find a subject, We'll give you a cameraman and
Speaker 1: an editor, and if we like the story, we're going
Speaker 1: to air it and give you a chance to do
Speaker 1: another one. And if you like that one, we'll do
Speaker 1: you will work you on a freelance basis. And then
Speaker 1: that worked so and my first one was the first
Speaker 1: album I ever bought was Charlie Daniels. I know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you about that because he's like
Speaker 1: super influential in your life. Yeah. In fact, I gave
Speaker 1: a speech at a Lifetime Achievement award for him. Um,
Speaker 1: I was the surprise speaker for Charlie, and which was
Speaker 1: one of the biggest honors. No, it's so cool, um,
Speaker 1: But the whole, the whole lying in the speech was
Speaker 1: throughout my whole life, there's always been Charlie Daniels, from
Speaker 1: the very first album I bought, to every milestone in
Speaker 1: my career, there's always been Charlie Daniel. Which he to
Speaker 1: your life, Yeah, yeah, I mean stories. He's the ultimate
Speaker 1: storyteller here, the ultimate host of course, you like he
Speaker 1: I could lose myself in his music. I was movies
Speaker 1: would start playing in my head when you'd pop pop
Speaker 1: on Charlie Daniels record and yeah, so he took me
Speaker 1: places imagination and everything. It's just always characters that would
Speaker 1: pop up in his music. And I just thought he
Speaker 1: was a character bigger than life. The big hat, the beer,
Speaker 1: the fiddle, I mean, he was just a it was
Speaker 1: like a superhero almost, And so I figured if I'm
Speaker 1: going to get one shot at interviewing somebody. Why not
Speaker 1: interview my childhood idol? And still was my idol? And
Speaker 1: so you think that you're gonna be able to walk
Speaker 1: him down. No, no, In fact, I didn't even know
Speaker 1: how to reach him. But that was part of the test.
Speaker 1: It was like this. There was a phone number on
Speaker 1: the back of one of his albums to his management company,
Speaker 1: Is that Easy? In Mount Juliet, Tennessee, And so I
Speaker 1: called and talked to Paul Zygis, who has been his
Speaker 1: publicist for forty plus years still, and she goes, oh, CNN, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'd love to talk to see it in. Yes i am, why, Yes,
Speaker 1: I am? I am with sing in thank you for
Speaker 1: noticing it. Um. So it's about there's funny stories. Um.
Speaker 1: But it went to the Crazy Horse in Santa Santa Anna, California.
Speaker 1: Fred Riser, amazing guy, Great country dance Hall in Santa Anna,
Speaker 1: and there I interviewed Charlie Daniels for the very first time.
Speaker 1: I was walked up onto his bus. He wasn't on
Speaker 1: the bus yet, and then the door opened and I
Speaker 1: saw the hat come in first, and then the beard,
Speaker 1: and then he hell Son and just bellowing, and I
Speaker 1: just would and it was the world's worst interview, Like say,
Speaker 1: you're Charlie Daniels, Okay, you ready, here's my so Charlie,
Speaker 1: you play a really good fiddle, right. But he would
Speaker 1: answer the questions like Dan rather was asking the most
Speaker 1: in or like you would be asking these questions very
Speaker 1: very thoughtful, very thought out. But I was asking the
Speaker 1: worst questions you could possibly ever asked. And he answered them,
Speaker 1: giving me what he needed and what I needed, just
Speaker 1: a pro So he put a smile on his face everything.
Speaker 1: So a year later he comes back through l A
Speaker 1: and I get him back on CNN, and he was appreciative,
Speaker 1: and this time he goes, son, let's take a walk, right, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So we walked into the break room and he puts
Speaker 1: his arm around me and he goes looking over the
Speaker 1: skyline of l A. And he goes, Son, I've seen
Speaker 1: this town chew people up and spit him out because
Speaker 1: coming here for forty years, he goes, this town does
Speaker 1: not need you, he goes, and you don't need this
Speaker 1: town because it's unnecessary. Nashville needs you. Come to Nashville.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh my god, But that's like Oz.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's like the Emerald City that he could
Speaker 1: have never said that. And this is this is in
Speaker 1: the break room of CNN with his arm around over
Speaker 1: my shoulder and he goes, if you need any help
Speaker 1: getting to Nashville, let me know, and I' okay. So
Speaker 1: I took that as a huge sign. And Crook and
Speaker 1: Chase I watched them after school. I would come after
Speaker 1: college classes. I would raise home and watch Ralph Emery
Speaker 1: and on Nashville Now in the Crook and Chase Show.
Speaker 1: And I was obsessed because it was country music, it
Speaker 1: was entertainment news, and it was in this magical town
Speaker 1: called Nashville, which didn't really even exist in my head,
Speaker 1: just like so many other things in my life, like
Speaker 1: just these goals and dreams and magical places that you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of existed in its own little private universe.
Speaker 1: So to no, it wasn't. But I packed up my
Speaker 1: truck two weeks later and drove out. Did you have
Speaker 1: a job, called Crook and Chase. I said, I'm coming out.
Speaker 1: Can you give me in a freelance work? I work
Speaker 1: at CNN And they went, you didn't know them either.
Speaker 1: You just call a call is that crazy? And they
Speaker 1: were stupid enough to give me a freelance job out here.
Speaker 1: You started working in the Crook and Chase you group,
Speaker 1: idolizing after Charlie Daniels told you to move to Nashville.
Speaker 1: After Mel Myers when I was thirteen years old, game
Speaker 1: you shot on radio? Can you believe? Yeah, anybody who
Speaker 1: says they do this on their own is lying. But
Speaker 1: you also have been brave you do. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that you can do yourself to
Speaker 1: make it, but you have to see the signs and
Speaker 1: see the steps. You know, in Indiana Jones when he's
Speaker 1: walking along the path with the rocks and they fall through,
Speaker 1: it's knowing which rocks to step on and and to
Speaker 1: find the right path. Have you learned to really trust
Speaker 1: your intuition? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I think that's a
Speaker 1: huge valuable tool. And the most hysterical thing about life
Speaker 1: is we all do it even though your intuition and
Speaker 1: says walk one way, You'll take another turn and then
Speaker 1: get hit smack in the nose and go you know
Speaker 1: better than that. It's like you knew better than that?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? You're an idiot? And but you
Speaker 1: have only yourself to blame in that because inside you
Speaker 1: knew the right way. It's true. Sometimes it takes just
Speaker 1: a little longer for others to learn to trust their intuition. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's true, but it's really accurate. Realized now the
Speaker 1: times I haven't trusted my intuition and things have been
Speaker 1: so hard. Oh, it wasn't supposed to be. If you
Speaker 1: do the right thing, good things are going to happen.
Speaker 1: It's and it's a really hard lesson to learn. And
Speaker 1: if you follow your passion, it's going to work out
Speaker 1: because you're put here on earth to do your passion,
Speaker 1: so you're going to end up somewhere you're supposing. It's
Speaker 1: acknowledging what that passion is. Sometimes you have figured it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes you miss it completely. And yeah, sometimes people are
Speaker 1: too scared to dig it up. That's it. And and
Speaker 1: or you just think you you've talked yourself into thinking
Speaker 1: one direction as your passion, when you realize it's always
Speaker 1: been over here. You always know your passion. I feel
Speaker 1: like that is the luckiest thing. I've interviewed a lot
Speaker 1: of people, because a lot of artists and a lot
Speaker 1: of creatives, and so many of them have known their
Speaker 1: passion from the beginning. Yeah, that's such a blessing. I
Speaker 1: don't know what what comes where that comes from. But
Speaker 1: I mean I listened to a radio underneath my pillow.
Speaker 1: Oh I know, I have that quote you said from
Speaker 1: an early age. I was a radio junkie. Many long
Speaker 1: nights as a kid, spent with my head pressed against
Speaker 1: the speaker of my radio clock, just waiting here at
Speaker 1: the dud to say, I always love the magic of radio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely true. Literally with your head against the radio,
Speaker 1: and I would suffer through the music to get to
Speaker 1: the guy talking talk. Yeah, I just because whatever was
Speaker 1: coming out of his mouth meant something important, and so
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear what it was, whether it was news, weather,
Speaker 1: information about the artist. I just heard something about my community.
Speaker 1: It's something magical was going to be said that I
Speaker 1: was going to he He was my friend and the speaker,
Speaker 1: you know, Yes, he was my friend and the speaker.
Speaker 1: And I learned, you know, great music that way too.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd stay up to two three in the
Speaker 1: morning just waiting to hear the Gambler and roll on
Speaker 1: eighteen wheeler from Alabama and Kenny Rodgerson and then it
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, cool. If I heard one of those
Speaker 1: two songs, I could go to bed and then and
Speaker 1: listened to the guy in between, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: just getting through them about that, it's I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is what it is, but it just has
Speaker 1: always been there since I was a kid. It's just
Speaker 1: the magic of music and radio and and and the
Speaker 1: whole combination of it all, and music really is the
Speaker 1: root of it. I'm brushing by the music side, but
Speaker 1: I mean it's I'm such a fan, huge country music fan.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge music fan. I'm a songwriters fan. I
Speaker 1: love the creative process. Um people say, why do you
Speaker 1: do what you do? I say, this is as close
Speaker 1: as I can get to music without knowing anything about it,
Speaker 1: because I can't know everything about it. But I can't
Speaker 1: write a note, I can't play an instrument, I can't
Speaker 1: sing a tune. But I am the biggest fan of music,
Speaker 1: and so I I just love being around it. And
Speaker 1: that's why being in Nashville, it's just like, I mean,
Speaker 1: everywhere you look, there's talented there's energy. I mean, you
Speaker 1: you feel it. I mean, there's there's an cosmic force
Speaker 1: in this town. That you're positive here. It is positive,
Speaker 1: and it's as fast as we're growing, as fast as
Speaker 1: we're evolving, and everybody's trying to get down on the
Speaker 1: the sterilization and homogenization of Nashville, and it's losing its identity.
Speaker 1: You can't rip away its energy, you can't. And it's
Speaker 1: still here. It's not going anywhere. I agree, And I
Speaker 1: think that in Nashville. I've sort of noticed people are competitive,
Speaker 1: but not with each other. It's more themselves. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like everyone here is chasing their own personal dream
Speaker 1: and they're not trying to knock someone else out along
Speaker 1: the way, not that you know. I mean, maybe people
Speaker 1: set goals and like, Okay, I want to reach this
Speaker 1: old but like, I don't think anyone's trying to like sides.
Speaker 1: It's friendly competition, it's friendly. It's still competition, you know,
Speaker 1: don't mistake that. I mean, there's still very much a
Speaker 1: competitive spirit in this town. But we're you're not trying
Speaker 1: to shred somebody down to to make it further. You
Speaker 1: want to us life. No, No, And again it goes
Speaker 1: back to the negative energy. What I know, too many
Speaker 1: people in other aspects of the world or just friends
Speaker 1: or whatever that's been so much time hating on stuff,
Speaker 1: and that just takes away from them progressing in their
Speaker 1: own life. They have all that energy that they could use.
Speaker 1: You look at Facebook, you look at social media, and
Speaker 1: you look at too much the amount of time wasted
Speaker 1: hating people. You don't even know what's the point. I
Speaker 1: don't understand it. I know it's just draining you from progressing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's a whole other topic. But
Speaker 1: while we're on it, It's like I have a producer
Speaker 1: for the radio show and when she first started, she
Speaker 1: was getting some not so nice comments and she was like, well,
Speaker 1: how do you take this? I said, they don't hate you,
Speaker 1: they don't even know you. They hate themselves. And it's
Speaker 1: like they have a big hole in their soul that
Speaker 1: they're trying to fill up with negative energy going outward.
Speaker 1: If you're able to put out all that negative energy,
Speaker 1: you have to be unhappy, and that's it. That's it.
Speaker 1: You're reaching out for something that it's gonna you're Instead
Speaker 1: of trying to fill that hole in your own soul,
Speaker 1: you're depending on other people. Other people see if they
Speaker 1: can take it away, that's it. But really they're just spreading.
Speaker 1: That's it just spreads like wildfire. It's a it's a plague,
Speaker 1: and it's unnecessary. I mean, you're changing it though, well
Speaker 1: you know what, and and puts me in the bull's
Speaker 1: eye at the same time, which I don't care. You know.
Speaker 1: It's that's like I said, they don't hate me, they
Speaker 1: don't know me. And if they do hate me, fine,
Speaker 1: It's like my job is not to please everybody. You know.
Speaker 1: It's okay, and I like it. I mean, I love
Speaker 1: the I love just connected with people, good, better, ugly.
Speaker 1: I mean I think eventually you you make enough difference
Speaker 1: along the way that all the negative stuff just slides off. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're now you freelance. You're here, you call up
Speaker 1: Crook and chase me like them come hire me. So
Speaker 1: now you're working as a freelancer for Crook and chases
Speaker 1: That lead into hosting at t NN, which later goes
Speaker 1: to J. A. C. Explained to me that journey because
Speaker 1: I had to tell you something. Yes, I grew up
Speaker 1: watching you on G A C. Not like I was
Speaker 1: like in high school and college, and when I met
Speaker 1: you for the first time, I was superstar Chrek y West.
Speaker 1: I will never forget. You're sitting on the edge of
Speaker 1: a pool at Key West, Yes, at the Reach Resort.
Speaker 1: I remember the place. I couldn't remember. I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: that I met you because, like to me, you like OZ,
Speaker 1: because you were stormy Warren on. You were very sweet.
Speaker 1: But that's how I felt, you know, because was how
Speaker 1: you got JC and C M T S. How you
Speaker 1: got your country music videos, and you were the face
Speaker 1: of G A C like the face of all of
Speaker 1: j Z. It was a great video. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, story Warren's talking to me and I
Speaker 1: somebody asked me the other day, I said, God, what
Speaker 1: do you think you know? Do you did? You? Are
Speaker 1: you a star? Here? Are you in the public? I've
Speaker 1: never ever ever thought that way. That has never been
Speaker 1: my job. That's another piece of advice you told me.
Speaker 1: You said, all always make it about the artist's trying
Speaker 1: to bring it around you. Always bring it back to them,
Speaker 1: Always bring it back to the artis never about. That's
Speaker 1: why this is so awkward for me to be on
Speaker 1: this side of this, because it's my job is to
Speaker 1: find out what you makes you take and why you
Speaker 1: do what you do, and that's and to be that
Speaker 1: link between the audience and the subject you're talking to
Speaker 1: or the music you're trying to talk about. It's it's
Speaker 1: the connection. And I've always said, I'm just a traffic
Speaker 1: cop between the between the music and the and whether
Speaker 1: it's on stage at festivals. You know, also you're a
Speaker 1: festival m C. I said, no, I'm a traffic cop,
Speaker 1: just trying to get from point A to point B
Speaker 1: and fill the audience in on whatever we can in
Speaker 1: the in the time. There's a definite difference for people
Speaker 1: who come into this business looking for the fame and
Speaker 1: the spotlight and those who are looking at it because
Speaker 1: they are passionate about You can see it. I think
Speaker 1: if you look at people who do it, you can
Speaker 1: see the difference. What does what does it look like?
Speaker 1: It's a much more of a me attitude instead of
Speaker 1: a U attitude, And it's and I it makes me
Speaker 1: bristle sometimes. I mean, to each his own, everybody's in
Speaker 1: this for the right, for whatever reasons. But I remember
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Steele, the songwriter. He tells songwriters and anybody who
Speaker 1: comes to town, because if you're coming to Nashville to
Speaker 1: become famous, turn around, pack up and go home. If
Speaker 1: you're turn if you're coming to Nashville because you're passionate
Speaker 1: about music and passionate about the art form, welcome to town.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really good piece of advice
Speaker 1: because famous so shallow. And again, um, there's a philosophy
Speaker 1: I have called chasing ghosts. And I think anybody who's
Speaker 1: chasing fame and chasing that dangling carrot out there is
Speaker 1: either running away from something or running to something, and
Speaker 1: they're never going to get it or run away from
Speaker 1: it because they're just they will never be satisfied enough.
Speaker 1: They will never because it's what goes back to the whole,
Speaker 1: the hole in this whole, and it's just so many
Speaker 1: of the most successful people we have in this business
Speaker 1: suffer from that. And I believe you could tell that
Speaker 1: to their face and they would go, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I agree that because they're trying. They're thinking that you
Speaker 1: get all this validation from people will feel something. Sure,
Speaker 1: And in a way, I think we all do it.
Speaker 1: We're not in this business without having a piece of that,
Speaker 1: of course, so I'm not saying I'm better than ever,
Speaker 1: but no, we all have some degree. It doesn't but
Speaker 1: it goes back to not enjoying reaching goals because it's
Speaker 1: that whole thing. It's like, I'm never going to get there.
Speaker 1: You're never going to get there everything. You know, each
Speaker 1: time you think there's so low, it's a mile ahead again,
Speaker 1: you know. And then if you go and that's it's
Speaker 1: funny like when you achieved this goal though, of being
Speaker 1: a host on Tiana and being the face of g
Speaker 1: A C. Because that's a huge gig from your four
Speaker 1: ty year old self. That started it back in venture
Speaker 1: wherever was. It went from looking at somebody on television
Speaker 1: and saying, oh my gosh, I want to do that too,
Speaker 1: realizing it's not that big of a deal. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just another gig. You're just happen to do it.
Speaker 1: I was just again a conduit. It's the artist and
Speaker 1: the audience. Being on television. I've never really wanted to
Speaker 1: be on TV. Done, No, I never wanted to be
Speaker 1: on TV. And radio was always one thing because you
Speaker 1: could kind of just slide off into the shadows and
Speaker 1: just kind of do your job, and and TV was
Speaker 1: just kind of came by default, almost like Crooked Chase.
Speaker 1: I just was a segment producer, behind the scenes, and
Speaker 1: they're like, well we need somebody on air. Okay. Happened
Speaker 1: accidentally accidentally, and then once um TNN went away because
Speaker 1: they got bought out and there's a little gap, and
Speaker 1: we decided to start our own country music news show
Speaker 1: called Gosh Rosen's Country Music Across America. At the time
Speaker 1: when we first started on T A C. And they're like, well,
Speaker 1: I said, who are we going to get as a host?
Speaker 1: And they're like, well, why don't you just do it?
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's cheaper, you know, because we own the
Speaker 1: production company. But if people are don't know, yeah, right now,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely true. I became the host of that show,
Speaker 1: not out of a desire to be a host of
Speaker 1: a show, but just because it was by default and
Speaker 1: you knew what you're doing, you knew what you want
Speaker 1: to get right. It's Stevie Nicks and Phil Collins. Especially
Speaker 1: Phil Collins. I identify a lot with him because he
Speaker 1: was the drummer for a group called Genesis and they
Speaker 1: were auditioning for lead singers and he kept going up
Speaker 1: and having to tell the people auditioning how to sing
Speaker 1: the Genesis music until finally somebody goes, Phil, why didn't
Speaker 1: you just do it. What I'm not in the rest
Speaker 1: is history. I believe that's I'm probably wrong on that way,
Speaker 1: but I know Phil Collins, Yeah, sort of. But don't
Speaker 1: you feel like the greatest things in life sort of
Speaker 1: happened if you allow it, if you allow it and
Speaker 1: embrace it and don't say no, that's not the direction
Speaker 1: I was supposed to go. So what take it? Right?
Speaker 1: What is the worst thing that's going to happen? You
Speaker 1: end up in a dead end and go oh dan,
Speaker 1: and then you turn around and go back and try
Speaker 1: another avenue. It doesn't kill you. And I think once
Speaker 1: you learn how if something doesn't work out, you have
Speaker 1: the inner you know you can do it. You know
Speaker 1: you can get a new path. Right. It's just knowing
Speaker 1: that if one thing doesn't work out, it's on the
Speaker 1: end of the world. No, it's it. We have a
Speaker 1: new boss here at Series sex M and he came
Speaker 1: in and he goes, tell me your philosophy. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I fly without a net. I'm not afraid to hit
Speaker 1: my face on the ground. And hopefully you don't mind that,
Speaker 1: because I'll get up, dust off and try something else,
Speaker 1: and if it doesn't work, we'll try something else. Then
Speaker 1: if it works. Wow, that was cool and it's fun,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's not killing yourself over the mistakes.
Speaker 1: The mistakes build us agree every failing. I've made a
Speaker 1: lot of them, and I don't really view that as
Speaker 1: failures because I think it's such exactly said a building block. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I look back on my twenties and like my mistakes,
Speaker 1: and I love them. I I embraced every bit of it.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of people looking at my past
Speaker 1: history will go, really, you have no problem with that,
Speaker 1: I said, no, I don't, because it was the stuff
Speaker 1: I learned is going to make for such a better
Speaker 1: life down the road then had i'd never learned those
Speaker 1: from those mistakes, and I think everybody has to. The
Speaker 1: problem is when people don't learn from them right and
Speaker 1: keep making the same mistakes over and over and over.
Speaker 1: And I usually have to make the same mistake east
Speaker 1: three times before I learned Yeah, okay, that's fair. Three
Speaker 1: by the third time I've been here before He again familiar.
Speaker 1: What is it? You fool me once? Shame on you,
Speaker 1: foil be twice, shame on me. Just don't go go
Speaker 1: fooling yourself again. Yeah, it's really an interesting way to go.
Speaker 1: But I don't mind it. I love every aspect of
Speaker 1: life in that sense. So do you prefer hosting on
Speaker 1: camera hosting on radio? Because now you're hosting on the
Speaker 1: Highway series X is Highway Serious and you have the
Speaker 1: Stormy Warrant Show, the Morning Showing and you interview everyone
Speaker 1: under the sun. So tell me the difference between hosting
Speaker 1: on TV and hosting on radio and what you prefer.
Speaker 1: Television unfortunately creates a wall that is really hard to
Speaker 1: get past, especially in an interview situation. Um, there's always
Speaker 1: a little bit of you or of your subject that
Speaker 1: is thinking about that third eye that's watching you, okay,
Speaker 1: And you know it's not just the connection between you
Speaker 1: and I. There's other thing that is. It takes some
Speaker 1: of the energy away from the from the conversation. And
Speaker 1: that's why I think radio it breaks down that wall
Speaker 1: and you can actually have just a wide open yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I forget other people are listening. It's direct eye contact
Speaker 1: without thinking we'll be back after this, yeah, right, and
Speaker 1: always having to have that in the back of your head.
Speaker 1: But I love it so much more. Radio, so much more. Really,
Speaker 1: it's your heart and and The thing I like probably
Speaker 1: as much as radio is live event hosting, like like
Speaker 1: on the big stage in front of a ton of people.
Speaker 1: And that's to me, like, Okay, can I ask you
Speaker 1: a question about that? How do you kill time? Like
Speaker 1: when you have when you're hosting a live event and
Speaker 1: you have space out there, you're supposed to like talk
Speaker 1: to the audience for all? What do you talk about?
Speaker 1: Whatever comes to mind? Okay, Yeah, and it's it's the
Speaker 1: audience will give it to you. Really, Yeah, my my
Speaker 1: biggest This to me kills a connection between an audience
Speaker 1: and a crowd. And we've talked about this, yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's like if you can, if you can put those
Speaker 1: note cards away and just know enough about what you
Speaker 1: need to get to and share, the connection between you
Speaker 1: and the audience is so much better because you're actually
Speaker 1: looking in the eyes of them. You're not worried about
Speaker 1: the wording and what else do I have to get to?
Speaker 1: And and you have already lost that connection with the people.
Speaker 1: They don't care if you don't care, because because if
Speaker 1: you're looking at the cards, you don't know the stuff
Speaker 1: well enough to why should I be listening to you?
Speaker 1: If if totally totally. And if you when you're alive,
Speaker 1: you use no card? Do you ever use cards? Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: my memory is so bad. No, you could do it.
Speaker 1: I think I could do it. I mean I haven't
Speaker 1: really needed it, but I don't like it. You've looked
Speaker 1: at this once and that was just to do a
Speaker 1: direct quote. You could do the rest of this interview
Speaker 1: without that, all right? You can't mean, I'm sure I could.
Speaker 1: It's more fun, trust me. So when you're going out there,
Speaker 1: you you'll just kind of talk. What do you have
Speaker 1: to remember certain things? Like? Well, I mean, if you
Speaker 1: have a list of sponsors, there's no way around that
Speaker 1: because you have to be respectful of the sponsors. You
Speaker 1: don't want to leave one out. You have to make sure.
Speaker 1: And I hate that because it's like a crutch. It's
Speaker 1: like I wish I could memorize them. But other than that,
Speaker 1: it's you try to avoid any notes at all, and
Speaker 1: then the most spontaneous things happen. It goes back to
Speaker 1: opening up and embracing the unknown, and someone could look
Speaker 1: at you and mouse something to you in that crowd.
Speaker 1: That creates a whole dialogue, which creates a whole thing
Speaker 1: that takes over that break that you need to fill,
Speaker 1: which you were going to fill up just by reading
Speaker 1: mindless stuff on notes cards totally. Instead, you have this
Speaker 1: connection with an audience that's not just this one person,
Speaker 1: but now the entire whether it's twenty people or a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people, are invested in what's going on between
Speaker 1: you and some people all the time, all the time. Okay,
Speaker 1: what if they just don't get What if they give
Speaker 1: you a short thing but it doesn't carry on into
Speaker 1: like a conversation, just move on someone else, Like do
Speaker 1: you have any go to questions? You might ask someone
Speaker 1: There might be a few little things, you know, but
Speaker 1: it's not even asking. It's just about soaking in like
Speaker 1: a sponge. What the energy is of the room? What
Speaker 1: is what are people fast? If somebody's throwing a beach
Speaker 1: ball around that looks like, you know, a character from
Speaker 1: a cartoon or something, that could be the stimulus that
Speaker 1: takes you to a different direction. We did a thing
Speaker 1: at a festival where I took a football and I
Speaker 1: had about a minute gap to fill. It's a long time,
Speaker 1: and they wanted just constant stuff, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not a stand up comic. I'm not funny. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: really not funny. And that's the other thing. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you must be really funny if you're. No, I'm not
Speaker 1: funny at all. Trust me, if you listen to the show,
Speaker 1: I'm not funny. But what I am is just a
Speaker 1: just open and and and to the connection to people.
Speaker 1: And so I said, well, and so here's a football.
Speaker 1: And I went and two guys on a college football team.
Speaker 1: We're backstage. So I had him sign it, and it
Speaker 1: was like, all right, let's go out. And it was
Speaker 1: in Missouri. It was the show me Fest, and I went,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go h let's see a football, all right,
Speaker 1: who wants a football? Everybody screaming down cheap trick, throwing
Speaker 1: stuff out into the crowd. Everybody likes free stuff. So
Speaker 1: you throw the football in the crowd. And then it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, there's a catch. And this stuff just come
Speaker 1: came to me while I was thinking about it, was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be back here in about you know, after
Speaker 1: the next act, probably an hour or so. I want
Speaker 1: to see that football, but it better not look like
Speaker 1: a football. And they're like what. Everybody's like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean? Whatever? You do. That's your only rule. I
Speaker 1: want to see that football, but I don't want it
Speaker 1: to look like that football. And this is the beginning
Speaker 1: of a four day festival. By the end of day
Speaker 1: four we had a six and a half foot tall
Speaker 1: man sitting in a chair, all put together by pieces
Speaker 1: and parts of trash that people have made this character
Speaker 1: and the head was the football, you know, and people
Speaker 1: would take it to their campsites and then bring it
Speaker 1: back to the festival the next day, and it became
Speaker 1: it came our guy. It was Wilson. He's actually in
Speaker 1: a glass box like a museum piece, in the office
Speaker 1: of the promoter of the festival, and we knew it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't me. They can but it wasn't I didn't
Speaker 1: create it. But then these people got invested and they
Speaker 1: got the connection. It became a big came a craft
Speaker 1: project for an entire and those things were fun to
Speaker 1: come up with. And there's like weird stuff that you
Speaker 1: can just not all of it works. Sometimes you walk
Speaker 1: up the stage going on but you don't yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: but you don't know until you try. Awesome, So you
Speaker 1: just love to go creative. His name was Wilson. By
Speaker 1: the way. Well, that's only fitting. And we knew he
Speaker 1: had built something great when the promoter was driving around
Speaker 1: backstage in a golf cart and in the passenger seat
Speaker 1: was Wilson sitting. Stop. It's a great picture. It's running
Speaker 1: around somewhere. Yeah, that's a great picture. Okay. So also
Speaker 1: talking about things that you love and treasure. You have
Speaker 1: this wall here that is like full of badges. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's happening over there. It's a great example for what
Speaker 1: we love to do. UM, the whole connection thing. Celebrating life,
Speaker 1: Celebrating people who are living life on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis, just making things work, paying bills, taking care
Speaker 1: of their family, you know, playing music, UM, doing whatever
Speaker 1: people do to keep this country grow going, keep their
Speaker 1: lives going. And a lot of those are first responders
Speaker 1: and members of our military. And I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 1: I do a lot of trips of the U. S
Speaker 1: O and go overseas uh with Kelly Pickler. We did
Speaker 1: it with Ruddy Atkins, the Swan Brothers and numerous other
Speaker 1: acts that we've just taken over. We did that with
Speaker 1: Kelly in two thousand and seven and just fell in
Speaker 1: love with everybody. I mean, my dad was an Air
Speaker 1: Force pilot and the police and firefighters, and especially right now,
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's under the gun so much that you
Speaker 1: just got to celebrate these people that really they are underpaid, overworked,
Speaker 1: and underappreciated. And so we had a family come in
Speaker 1: right after Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey and said, hey,
Speaker 1: thank you all for all your support of our first responders.
Speaker 1: We hear you talking about it and and helping to
Speaker 1: rebuild Jersey. We thought this Jersey Strong Magnet would have
Speaker 1: a good place on on this wall, which was blank
Speaker 1: at the time. There was nothing on that wall. And
Speaker 1: then we had more visitors come to the studio who
Speaker 1: are from New York and said, oh, yeah, I worked
Speaker 1: in rebuilding too. I'm with this firefighter company, I'm with
Speaker 1: this New Jersey Police Department. And so organically, without us,
Speaker 1: really it just grew and there's hundreds there. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they we probably get about twenty a week now people
Speaker 1: to send them in. Yeah, they send it, they send
Speaker 1: him in, they bring him in it. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: it's our Wally heroes. And I have more pride of
Speaker 1: that Wally Heroes. I mean, there's two Navy seals up there.
Speaker 1: There's Jeffrey in their quotes. I'm a quote junkie. By
Speaker 1: the way, character is the place inside you where the
Speaker 1: things you say, the things you do, the decisions you
Speaker 1: make come from discipline, regret. The choice is yours. That's
Speaker 1: my favorite. Yeah. The guy on the right set the
Speaker 1: world record for the longest squirrel suit flight eighteen miles. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And these guys just come in and I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a Navy seal trident on that one piece
Speaker 1: of white paper up there, you got And they don't
Speaker 1: hand those out, no, but they know they know it's
Speaker 1: not mine. I'm not taking these home, but they know
Speaker 1: this is a sacred place. This is a sacred place.
Speaker 1: It's like these coins. Very easily somebody could come in
Speaker 1: here and these coins off the wall or patch off
Speaker 1: the wall. But it's kind of an unset thing. You
Speaker 1: don't touch the wall. Don't touch the wall. There's a
Speaker 1: two patches up there that are there's a South Carolina
Speaker 1: patch with the big tea up there right below Andy
Speaker 1: Stumps thing. Um. That's a husband and a wife and
Speaker 1: the husband was killed while the wife was also serving overseas.
Speaker 1: And she her name is April, and we met her
Speaker 1: in um, South Carolina, and she told us the story
Speaker 1: about how she was racing home to meet the remains
Speaker 1: of her husband and she was in Kuwait and she goes,
Speaker 1: come on, get this plane off the ground. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be there. My husband makes it finally home
Speaker 1: and they said, ma'am, you're gonna have to wait about
Speaker 1: another half hour, so we have another passenger. Fine, okay.
Speaker 1: The back of the plane opens up and the flag
Speaker 1: draped casket comes in and she flew home with her husband.
Speaker 1: And she that that was not planned. It just happened
Speaker 1: to all the transportation going around all over this war.
Speaker 1: She just happened to be taking the same flight home
Speaker 1: as her husband. Really had no idea. Now and to
Speaker 1: hear her tell the story, and we were all in tears.
Speaker 1: And then a couple of weeks later she sent us
Speaker 1: those two patches and she goes, can you make sure
Speaker 1: they stay together? I'm like, yes, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: So every time I gets to be choked up to
Speaker 1: so when you turn around your chair around in the
Speaker 1: middle of a shell and there's a little downtime, I
Speaker 1: always try to pick out a patch and remember the
Speaker 1: story that went with it, because it's it's a wall
Speaker 1: of heroes that and every one of those patch has
Speaker 1: a sense of pride. There's a grandparents patches from the fifties.
Speaker 1: There's some guy who just said I couldn't just quit
Speaker 1: the police force. Here's my actual badge and it's yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's just I'm fascinated by people in in in
Speaker 1: all aspects of life. It's love talking to celebrities, sure,
Speaker 1: but they're honestly not the most interesting people I come across.
Speaker 1: It's anybody you meet on the side of the street. Um.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine says, it goes you are so
Speaker 1: much fun to go to a bar with because you're
Speaker 1: you become everybody's best friend in the first to minute's interested.
Speaker 1: What wasted opportunity is it to sit at a bar
Speaker 1: and not open your mouth and connect. You have no
Speaker 1: idea it may not work, but at least but it
Speaker 1: may open the connection. And just who who could you meet?
Speaker 1: Who knows you will see a story unfold if you
Speaker 1: allow it to. And that's the way everything should in
Speaker 1: life should be embraced. It's just why closed doors when
Speaker 1: so many doors could be just opened up with just
Speaker 1: the story when it should be sunshine I'm changing it.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why, maybe subconsciously, I'm overcoming the stigma of
Speaker 1: being named Stormy. You're so bright. That's such a great
Speaker 1: way of your life. It's it's a blast and it
Speaker 1: makes it fun. Huh, Yeah it does. Um. I think
Speaker 1: if I left to stew alone for a long time,
Speaker 1: I could probably find some dark places. So I think
Speaker 1: that's why I like people so much, because you could.
Speaker 1: It's it's much more fun. I totally agree with. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So who just on the celebrity side, who are of
Speaker 1: your most favorite interviews ever? Um Garth Brooks Is was
Speaker 1: one of my favorite because he too is very unpredictable.
Speaker 1: He's the biggest challenge for an interviewer anybody. Um. I've
Speaker 1: said it to his face, We've said it on the air.
Speaker 1: He came in not too long ago to our studio
Speaker 1: and he is famous for leaving a bone for you
Speaker 1: to pick up. And if you don't pick it up,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna help you. Give me an example, like
Speaker 1: he said, I said, what are you working on now?
Speaker 1: He goes, Oh, man, I'm just good hanging out with
Speaker 1: some old friends and some nuance. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: It seems quite familiar though, and then moved on. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, that sounds great, and just let that those
Speaker 1: words just go over my head. And at the time
Speaker 1: he was rerecording friends in Low Places, and that was
Speaker 1: his hint if I were to pick up on it.
Speaker 1: And I've gone back and listened and watched so many
Speaker 1: of my Garth Brooks interviews over the past quarter of
Speaker 1: a century, and every single interview I've missed something. I
Speaker 1: have thrown things at the television, thrown things at the
Speaker 1: speakers after hearing it, after he's already left the room
Speaker 1: and gone. So he's tiny, tiny, and if you're smart
Speaker 1: enough to pick up on it, but you have to
Speaker 1: know him, you have to know his work, and you
Speaker 1: also have to just be listening. If you listen, he
Speaker 1: wants you to work as hard as he's working. And
Speaker 1: and I just think it's to me, it's almost like
Speaker 1: a game, and I love it and I lose all
Speaker 1: the time, but but I love it. Um there's one
Speaker 1: time he had a I had notes, was back in
Speaker 1: my note days, and actually this one lesson taught me
Speaker 1: to throw the notes away. Like if you sit right
Speaker 1: here with your notes like this, you're interview with me,
Speaker 1: I'm spending a lot of time looking now at your notes,
Speaker 1: wondering what's on there, trying and and Garth admitted one
Speaker 1: time because I could read upside down, and so I
Speaker 1: often know it's so. And he knew what questions were
Speaker 1: coming before I did. And so I put the notes
Speaker 1: away and he goes, now this makes me uncomfortable, and
Speaker 1: he goes, but this is this is a great conversation, now,
Speaker 1: isn't it. And I and from that point forward he
Speaker 1: taught me to throw the notes away. And Larry King too.
Speaker 1: I was a stage manager for a while, see Ann,
Speaker 1: and I had to run his earpiece wire up his back,
Speaker 1: which is a little uncomfortable. A little uncomfortable. So you're
Speaker 1: very familiar with the city, I know, very moisturized. I
Speaker 1: still feel it right now, not well enough. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: little thank you for bringing me back there. Yeah. Thanks.
Speaker 1: But he never his number one rule, And this seems
Speaker 1: so counterintuitive to being an interview But because never know
Speaker 1: more about your subject than your audience. Okay, that doesn't encounter.
Speaker 1: Because if you spend your entire time regurgitating to the
Speaker 1: audience everything about your subject that you know, that's time
Speaker 1: you've taken away from that subject actually communicating their own story.
Speaker 1: So it's yeah, and that one really stuck. And so
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I know, Um, there's a person
Speaker 1: in town that I respect so much for being the
Speaker 1: most prepared interviewer I've ever met. This person will study
Speaker 1: for weeks and know every single detail. And it's just
Speaker 1: a different style. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's
Speaker 1: just different philosophies on how you do it. But I
Speaker 1: learned that from Larry and that two things no notes
Speaker 1: and don't know more than you're and you're doing a
Speaker 1: great job with it, I mean, because this turns into
Speaker 1: a conversation and not an interview, And then a conversation
Speaker 1: is much more entertaining for people to listen to than
Speaker 1: it is an interview question answer. I mean, you've heard
Speaker 1: people when they go, so, tell me about your new
Speaker 1: book and then blah blah blah blah blah book. Yeah. Um, so, uh,
Speaker 1: it says here that you went to such and such school,
Speaker 1: and that's a that's an interview instead of just going, God,
Speaker 1: where did you get your start? You know, like and boom,
Speaker 1: it takes you places if you are willing to take
Speaker 1: those roads. And it's like the Buck Owens interview we
Speaker 1: were talking about a while ago. I was scared to
Speaker 1: death because I brought not thing. And that's one that
Speaker 1: I really did actually want to be prepared for because
Speaker 1: it was the interview that I'd waited my entire life for,
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be the best blessing that
Speaker 1: I had trained to that point of just having the conversation,
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be a really really big
Speaker 1: blessing in disguise. It's almost like all those tips led
Speaker 1: me to be able to do that interview. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: holy Grail did the interview started talking about pooping your pants.
Speaker 1: The interview started goes, I hope you've got some good questions.
Speaker 1: I'm like why. I like why? And he goes, because,
Speaker 1: is the last one of these fuckers I'm ever going
Speaker 1: to do? You did his last interview? Is that not awesome?
Speaker 1: It was crazy and my heart just sank and great,
Speaker 1: thanks Buck. Well, the good news is you were totally
Speaker 1: prepared and it's just but my head just went all right,
Speaker 1: here we go and and and then just go and
Speaker 1: it's it was really one of the most fun things,
Speaker 1: and we turned it into a whole hour long special
Speaker 1: on g see start to finish. We didn't cut anything.
Speaker 1: It was just it's called the Final conversation. Holy cow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: moments you've had in your life. And I'm sure we're
Speaker 1: just scratching the surface. It's fun. Yeah, I know. But
Speaker 1: I like interviewing the new artists as much as I'm
Speaker 1: the new artist. And then I have to wrap up
Speaker 1: because it's already been an hour. How did that happen?
Speaker 1: Because you're awesome. No, you're awesome. See see what you
Speaker 1: did there, You're you're you're doing it, You're and you're
Speaker 1: really good. By the way, I've got some great tips
Speaker 1: from me today to shut up. You're an idiot. You're
Speaker 1: you're better at this than I am. Um, gosh, who
Speaker 1: am I looking forward to right now? I am fascinated
Speaker 1: by Marion Morris. She's such a bad because I love
Speaker 1: personalities and I love I love the psychology of what
Speaker 1: a creative person goes through and and digging in and finding.
Speaker 1: And she is such an open book and such a
Speaker 1: great She's a real good spirit, and so I love
Speaker 1: I love sitting down and talking with her. I love
Speaker 1: t J and John Sports. I love the brothers. They're
Speaker 1: so hold on. I okay, So you love Mary Morris
Speaker 1: and you love the Osborne brothers. Brothers Osborne, I am
Speaker 1: obsessed with them. They're still authentic. They are They sit
Speaker 1: here in these two chairs and just like this, we're
Speaker 1: an hour disappeared. We could do four hours and and
Speaker 1: what we love is just what we've just spent this
Speaker 1: hour talking about. And we are very similar in our
Speaker 1: beliefs of just opening up to life and letting life
Speaker 1: deliver the gifts that you're opened up to. And so
Speaker 1: they'll come in about anything, anything. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: moments with them, uh I was like, God, you know
Speaker 1: what just happened? Don't you hate it when somebody texts
Speaker 1: you and they just assumed that you know who they
Speaker 1: are and don't sign their name. They're like, so, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up? And you have no idea what the number?
Speaker 1: And it leaves the most uncomfortable situation. We have to go,
Speaker 1: who's this and it's just and it's and you look
Speaker 1: like the dou fist because because they were, because they
Speaker 1: were impolite and didn't address the fact that you might
Speaker 1: not have saved their number. So that just opened up
Speaker 1: into a whole thing. And then it happened to t
Speaker 1: J as we were sitting here, because oh my god,
Speaker 1: it just happened, and so we called the person on
Speaker 1: the air and and did the whole and it just
Speaker 1: was this great moment and there's no telling what's going
Speaker 1: to happen with them. And that's and we could go
Speaker 1: in with a master plan for an interview of where
Speaker 1: we need to go, and it never goes there, and
Speaker 1: it goes a complete left handed to a whole new direction.
Speaker 1: And those are the best. That's when you feel like
Speaker 1: you are on the edge of your seat and it's
Speaker 1: you're holding on, you're you're not quite in charge, but
Speaker 1: you're but you're okay, and it's um. A manager once
Speaker 1: told me that the most exciting place for an artist
Speaker 1: to be, or a creative person or anybody in this
Speaker 1: business to be is when you're leaning back in a
Speaker 1: chair and you're leaning back in a chair and you're
Speaker 1: leaning back and just before it falls over, you catch yourself.
Speaker 1: You've done that on two legs on a chair, you know,
Speaker 1: in school or whatever, and you go because that's that
Speaker 1: edge you want to be on at all times. And
Speaker 1: it's it's the most creative, the most electric and it's
Speaker 1: where you gonna do your best work. So that's why
Speaker 1: I don't like recording shows. I love live, live anything
Speaker 1: because on the spot and once it's done, it's done.
Speaker 1: There's no going back and fixing. I like that. I
Speaker 1: don't like editing. No, I couldn't be a recording artist
Speaker 1: if a singer and sit there and go fix everything? Right,
Speaker 1: do you like the human element happen and just go
Speaker 1: and go do it and then whatever happens happens. I
Speaker 1: love that. Yeah, it's great. Well, we posted a bunch
Speaker 1: of live events together when I That was one of
Speaker 1: the first ones I ever did was National Dancing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you won't next time. I'm not going to have So
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean you don't study it. I mean, like
Speaker 1: the night before the morning of, you go through and
Speaker 1: make sure you know in your mind, you know where
Speaker 1: you want to go, but don't be afraid of where
Speaker 1: you don't think you're going to have a terrible memory.
Speaker 1: You don't know, I really do. You can ask anyone
Speaker 1: in my life that I have a horrible memory. I
Speaker 1: cannot remember any your dory. Yes. Basically, it's like when
Speaker 1: I wasn't stealing angels the band like we go do stuff,
Speaker 1: and Jan and Taylor would tell me we did it,
Speaker 1: and I would just have to believe him because I
Speaker 1: wouldn't remember, Like I literally have gaping holes in my
Speaker 1: mind and I can't remember and retain. That's okay. Short
Speaker 1: term memory is fine though, Okay, yeah, you probably have
Speaker 1: a good short term memory. Yeah. I mean I think
Speaker 1: it's just out of side, out of mine, but it works.
Speaker 1: This has been a great conversation. So loved it, so
Speaker 1: it's it's awesome. Thanks. Okay, Well we have to wrap
Speaker 1: up because when we're at Winton and I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you forever. But I like to end. We'll
Speaker 1: part two, Part two, Okay. I like to end with
Speaker 1: leave your light, So leave me some inspiration or how
Speaker 1: you want to inspire the world, or how you've been inspired. Um.
Speaker 1: I think the only way to avoid failure in life
Speaker 1: it's never quitting. And that's it's a sure far away.
Speaker 1: It's a guarantee you will never fail if you never quit.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you could look at setbacks, but that's
Speaker 1: not failing as long as you're still moving, as long
Speaker 1: as you're still getting up every morning and fighting towards
Speaker 1: the goal. There is no failure. So the only time
Speaker 1: you fail is when you walk away from it. And
Speaker 1: if you just go, oh, well, screw that, and then
Speaker 1: that's when you fail. And not in life, but just
Speaker 1: in that particular aspect. But if you really want to
Speaker 1: come to town to be a recording artist, then don't quit.
Speaker 1: Keep going. Keep going. You'll learn along the way, and
Speaker 1: you'll learn and and it may not take you to
Speaker 1: the place that you thought you were going, right, it
Speaker 1: might take you to a new door. But that's not failing.
Speaker 1: It's just redirecting. It's redirecting so that I live by
Speaker 1: that one a lot, and that's it's fun. And the
Speaker 1: other one, which is very apropos I think that I
Speaker 1: lived by two. I saw told you I'm a quote junkie.
Speaker 1: Let's see. I love you just can't remember. It's uh.
Speaker 1: If you find yourself whining about the times your time
Speaker 1: has passed. Wow, if you're one of those oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this town I remember when it used to be this
Speaker 1: or that. God, this isn't country music, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what country music was. And if you find yourself anything
Speaker 1: in life, it's just like there's kids what they're wearing
Speaker 1: right now? Can you believe the clothes that they're wearing.
Speaker 1: Oh why gosh, what is this on television? So if
Speaker 1: you find yourself whining about the times, your time has past,
Speaker 1: and you have to be okay with that, you know,
Speaker 1: if you if you if you're okay with that being
Speaker 1: your stamp that you you have stopped existing at a
Speaker 1: certain time frame in your life and are refusing to
Speaker 1: adapt or grow, revolve, or to keep those doors open
Speaker 1: to embrace new parts of life. That's your choice, and
Speaker 1: it's it's but it's just just know that you have
Speaker 1: closed that door and you're you need to open up.
Speaker 1: And it's hard. It's hard. We do get set in
Speaker 1: our ways, and technology and everything advances so fast and
Speaker 1: everything it's hard to sit. They're going to can't learn
Speaker 1: what's going on and with all these young kids, what
Speaker 1: they're doing and all this kind of stuff. But then fine,
Speaker 1: don't just don't whine about it because it's happening, right,
Speaker 1: It's not gonna wait for you. So that there you go.
Speaker 1: Story Warren, that was the best interview. You're the best
Speaker 1: things for the tips too. I'm totally applying Caral Love.
Speaker 1: She's a queen of talking. She's got the scoop on No. One.
Speaker 1: Caral Love Carala. I hope that you loved hearing from
Speaker 1: Stormy Warren. He is so freaking fantastic. I love him.
Speaker 1: Next week, I am really excited because I have Kelly
Speaker 1: Pickler joining me and we are going to be going
Speaker 1: through the first few episodes of everything That's Happened on
Speaker 1: I Love Kelly Pickler, which is on CMT right now
Speaker 1: on Thursday nights, and I am on the cast with her.
Speaker 1: We have so much fun and we've done about three
Speaker 1: episodes so far, so we're gonna be breaking down what's
Speaker 1: going on and what to look forward to and what's
Speaker 1: up in Kelly's world. So y'all tune in next week
Speaker 1: for Kelly Pickler See you. Then that is the Bes