WEBVTT - ROB THOMAS: "something about christmas time" 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:10.080 Merry Christmas, Happy holidays everyone. I hope this holiday season 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.600 has been a season filled with joy for you. I 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.079 hope you have been able to connect heart to heart 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.880 with family, with friends, and I hope you are feeling 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:25.759 all the fields of the holidays. Maybe you've been baking cookies, 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.360 maybe you've done a little holiday crafting. I hope you've 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:34.159 been busy wrapping presents, window shopping. I hope you've driven 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.479 through a neighborhood that's all lit up with Christmas lights 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.480 and the magic of the season. And I hope while 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:48.159 you're busy at all these tasks, you found yourself humming 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:53.320 a familiar Christmas carol or one of your favorite holiday tunes. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:58.240 There are so many, so so many holiday songs and 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.680 holiday traditions that I at absolutely love. Tree hunting with 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.279 my kids and my grandkids, tree trimming, making and eating 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.360 special foods we only have during the holidays, and we 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.600 have a lot more of during the holidays. Wearing our 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:19.160 footing pajamas on Christmas morning, having our annual scavenger hunt 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.120 every year. I say, this is it. I'm not doing 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.080 this much work ever again, but it's something we so 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.200 look forward to. These are some of the things I 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.240 look forward to all year long, but Christmas music probably 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.320 one of the biggest things I cherish. And you know what, 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:41.039 it's also one thing right up there with faith, hope 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.640 and love that can never be taken from us, no 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.560 matter how bad times might get, no matter how dark 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.600 the winter. Maybe there is Christmas music songs to lift 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.480 our spirits. You might have noticed a lot of shortages 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.240 on the store shelves or found something you wanted to 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.720 purchase was on back back, back order, but thankfully music 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.680 is not in those categories. New music and Christmas music 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:14.040 especially as an abundance this year. Many artists say they 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:19.840 were inspired to create new, hopeful holiday music after enduring 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:24.000 the socially distance holiday season last year. Music was one 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.800 thing they could count on to carry them through and 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.160 they wanted to share it. They wanted to make more 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:35.119 good music. We've seen new holiday albums from Kelly Clarkson, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:40.160 Norah Jones, Brett Young, Pentatonics, Darren Chris and there's a 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.600 beautifully remastered album of Nat King Cole songs too. Some 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.760 of these newcomers have been added to the Christmas music 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.680 rotation on My Delilah Radio show, and a lot of 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.240 them have been added to my personal playlist. But wait, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:01.600 there's more. Another beloved artist released his first holiday album 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:07.520 this year, The Oh So Smooth. That's a little hint there, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.360 Mr Smooth. Three time Grammy Award winner Rob Thomas. He 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.760 has given us Something about Christmas Time, a new Christmas 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.840 album with ten tracks and all most of them are 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:24.399 brand new, original summer covers, and some are wonderful duets. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.519 My favorite has to be small Town Christmas. I love 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.080 it because even though I love visiting the Big Apple 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.360 at Christmas time, I am a small town girl through 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.000 and through. We'll have an opportunity to catch up with 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.400 Rob Thomas and get all the details about this new album, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.400 all the wonderful things he's been up to. Let me 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.600 tell you, he and his wife have a heart, such 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.400 a heart for kids and dogs and creatures. Right now, though, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.400 I'm going to sing the praises of a sponsor that 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.560 helps me be able to have these great conversations and 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.280 to be able to share them with you. If you 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.360 have been listening to my voice on the radio four years, 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:06.960 then you know that I have been around on the 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:11.160 radio four years. Off the radio, I'm taking care of 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:15.040 my kids, taking care of my dogs, riding my horses, 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:19.680 growing plants in my gardens. And you know what it hurts. 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.360 It does. My hands hurt, my back hurts, my knees hurt. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:30.000 But when I started taking Omega x L, I noticed 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:34.880 a difference within the first month. Omega x L, when 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.200 taken every day, gives me relief in my hands and 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:42.719 my joints like nothing else. If you suffer from pain 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:49.480 associated with inflammation, I urge you to try Omega x L. 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.719 When you try Omega x L, you will see a 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.280 difference in the quality of your life. You'll see a 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.320 difference in your joints. I even see a difference in 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.320 the way my skin feels and the way my hair grows. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.839 I killed you not. My hair grows more rapidly when 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.800 I take my Omega Excel every day. In fact, if 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.920 I forget to take my Omega XL for a few weeks, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.240 oh boy, do I notice a difference. Omega x L 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.720 dot com forward slash love to place your order and 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:29.640 to discover all the wonderful goodness of Omega XL. Hey, 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.200 how you doing. I'm awesome? How are you robbed? I'm wonderful. 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.719 It's nice to see you. I wish we could do 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.919 these somehow, like put them on our website and actually 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.160 use the video because you're so dank cute. Oh, I'll 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.200 listen to you. Please tell me more. Is that your house? 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.960 Are you in your home? Yeah? This is my studio, 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.000 so like everything here on this side is all uh 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.880 like the living portion of the studio and the hanging portion, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.360 and then everything that you don't see is the working portion, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.960 is the equipment? Yeah? Same here? Do you notice mine 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.240 is a little more um, how do we say this nicely? Uh? 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.120 Cluttered and disorganized than yours? That's okay. You know they 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.560 say that geniuses are cluttered and disorganized, Well then I 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:19.760 am pretty damn smart I am, because cluttered and disorganized 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.240 only for me, Like I know where stuff is, and 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.920 when somebody tries to organize me, unless it's my engineer Ryan, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.960 who's here in the studio with me, When somebody tries 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.120 to organize me, I get so flustered because I'm like 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.520 I always keep my extra pins piled up in that 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.520 coffee cup. My mother had O c D. Right, and 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.560 she was very meticulous about everything, and a lot of 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.440 that rubbed off on me in this senseance like I 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.840 was the only kid that you know that would spend 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.719 early Saturday afternoons cleaning his room and rearranging it and 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.359 getting excited by it. But I will say, hold on, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.600 like if you look over there, like see the way, 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.719 like all that mess over there. Huh yeah, Okay, I 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.599 do have some schedule old chaos in my life. Now 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.960 I feel now I can breathe, though, since you showed 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.880 me that my wife hates that part of my of 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.240 my life every time. You know, the studio is the 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.640 area where like anything that we get that she doesn't 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.520 want in our home, it's like, oh, that would be 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:19.120 great for your studio. That would look nice down there, 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.000 relegated to the studio? Are we talking like the coffee 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.240 table made out of antique ship wheel? If I had 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.840 one of those, that's where we go. Yeah. So, Rob Thomas, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.400 let's just talk for a moment about your wife, because 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:37.600 who she's a smoke show, right, She's beautiful. You've done good. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:45.960 A We just celebrated twenty two years married on October Wow. Wow, second, congratulations. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.160 My anniversary is at the end of the month. We've 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.320 been together sixteen years but married since ian. We we 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.400 got married the year after we met we jumped right in, 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.200 and you were young and you married like a rock 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.800 star supermodel, and she married a rock star. So I'm 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.280 sure everybody was thinking, Ah, these two, they're never gonna 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.360 make it. Yeah, I mean everything about it, you know. 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.000 I mean, like you meet somebody and then a couple 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.000 of months later you're telling everybody that you're gonna get married. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.600 Because I told her on our first date the song 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.000 that she was going to walk down the aisle to 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.080 when we got married. What what song had you picked 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.920 out for your wedding on your first date to Marrison? 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.840 It was the Nearness of You? But the version by 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.240 Keith Richards And did you actually use that in your wedding? 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.240 Let me tell you a little story. Yes we did, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.280 but not only did we, We didn't think that version 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.160 of the time because remember there was no YouTube, there 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.680 was no that stuff. You couldn't find it right it was, 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.160 it didn't exist. It only existed with Keith Richards and 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:45.840 he was holding onto it because he had done it 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.439 in a film bas Yacht and he and so we 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.560 were going to use the Shirley Bassie version. And we 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.880 didn't know. I didn't know. She didn't know until she 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.520 stood up and started to walk down the aisle that 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.440 a friend of ours that works with the Stones got 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.120 a cassette tape of the Keith Richard's version from Keith Richards, 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.199 but he had to bring it to the wedding, play it, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.800 and then take it back to Keith. But I didn't 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:12.800 know until I saw her walk down the island that 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:14.960 version started playing. So then we both started We just 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.480 both started crying immediately. That might be one of the 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:24.280 sweetest wedding stories I've ever heard of my life. It 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.520 was so it was so amazing because when I met her, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:28.920 we had met for like five minutes, and I got 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.160 her phone number, and then I went to Europe for 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:32.880 like a month and a half and we just talked 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.240 on the phone every night. She was in college. Now, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.240 was that back when you were like rock Star and 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:39.959 with Matchbox Twnny, Well, yeah, I mean, I mean I'm 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:41.720 still with Matchbox twenty, but this was like, you know, 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.120 the early days. Like I like to think at that time, 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:47.240 I was more famous than she thought that I was, 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.680 but I was less famous than I thought that I was. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:56.200 That makes sense, and so I like that. I like 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.240 that I thought I was like, I've got a giant 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.400 hit song on MTV right now, and she's like, you've 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.920 got one song out, you know, like it was, She's like, 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.959 come on, and so uh when But when I met her, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.040 we talked for a month and a half and so 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:09.800 we really got to know each other before we had 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.600 like a date. And so when we had our first date, 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:15.520 it was, I was a cheap day. It was. It 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.280 was cheap too, because I brought her to a festival 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.959 that I was playing in Boston, and so at the 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.400 end we she she flew out and she was going 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.240 to take the bus back with us to go back 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.839 to New York. And uh, we were sitting on the 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.120 bus watching Basque Yacht, the movie Basquiat that that song 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:31.520 came on, and I said, this is gonna be the 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.840 song that you walked down the aisle at our wedding too, 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.120 on your first date. Yeah, and she didn't run, so 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:39.880 I knew that she was a keeper. That's because you're 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.240 pretty damn cute. I was really cute then, you're really 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.280 cute now. But yeah, we were. We were all crushing 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.160 on you back then. We were all so cute when 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.760 we were young. All you want to hear a really 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:59.120 horrible wedding story. Yeah, yeah, it's very funny now. But 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.720 my first husband married him, you know, when you were 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.080 probably not even a twinkle in your mom's I uh, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.199 I met my first husband, who got has since called home. 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.120 But I met him at the Kingdom when the Kingdome 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.400 existed and we were there for a radio event. We 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.960 both were in radio, and unbeknownst to either one of us, 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.760 when we met, I had been following him for like 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.800 ten years of my career, like I was a kid. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.040 I was twenty one years old, and I had been 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.839 listening to him on the radio since I was a teenager, 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.040 since I was like thirteen years old. He was ten 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:38.719 years older than me, and kind of like with with 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.800 you guys, it was, you know, love at first sight, 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.920 and we fell in love. And two months into our relationship, 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.680 we decided to Elope and we got to Marino, Nevada, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.080 and I chickened out. I was like, no, I want 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:52.520 to have a real wedding. I want to wear a 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.280 wedding dress, and so we came back. So you didn't, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:58.760 Like some people would do the wedding and then do 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:00.920 the ceremony anyway, but you just didn't. You didn't want 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.480 to get married until you were married, right right, And 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.439 so we came back and I made a wedding dress, 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.760 and I made my bridesmaid stresses and we had a 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.079 little wedding. Um only had eighteen people there at a 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:15.000 park in Seattle, and his brother was in charge of 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.920 the music. So I had given him a mix tape 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:24.480 that had the song was always in't Forever by heat Wave, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.280 So that was going to be what what I was 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.440 going to walk into. And my older brother was the 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.720 only member of my family to come. My family was 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.440 not happy that I was getting married to this person. 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.400 And we're outside the little park waiting for the music 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.480 to start, and Matt's like, come on, let's just walk in. 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.280 Because my husband's brother was messing with the music player. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.800 We had two little speakers set up, and then he 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.720 hits play and instead of heat Wave always in Forever, 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.400 he had put the song get down on It, And 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.640 and that is awesome to be fairly, let me get 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.320 down on It's a really good song. Yeah, yeah, nothing 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:11.440 says romance like getting down on it. How long about 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.280 before you lost your How long were you guys married? 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.160 We were not married very long long enough to create 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:21.720 a beautiful life. We had a gorgeous son. Our son 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.200 is thirties seven now I just turned thirty seven. I 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.720 have a three year old from right before I met 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:32.559 my wife, So my oldest biological he's my oldest biological 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.760 My oldest child because I have many adopted children, is 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.480 um just a little north of the big four. Oh 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.800 and my youngest child, who is in the other room 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.679 watching Veggie Tales, is five. That's a gap. That's a gap, 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.319 but there's actually never been a gap. Like if there 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.160 had ever been a gap, I couldn't do this, but 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.920 I just kept adopting. I think a lot of people 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:58.080 who have kids and then get custody of their grandkids 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.800 or have a second family, it's kind of awkward if 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.520 they've gotten like ten years or more without changing. Yeah, Well, 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.120 because you get you get used to kind of being alone, 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:07.680 you know, like you get used to a rhythm, you 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:09.360 get That's why I think it's harder. You know, like 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.280 for guys that are there, they're like in the mid forties, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.400 they've never gotten married, and then you know they might 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.200 just stay that way because you get kind of set 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:20.760 in your ways. Yeah, and and stubborn. Once you get 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.840 used to that freedom it's hard to wrap your mind 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.560 around going to cub scout meetings or sleeping, you know, 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.480 in a tent with twelve others small children. Well that's like, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.320 so my wife and I, like, we don't have any kids. 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.520 We that was you know, when I first met her, 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:36.880 that was kind of that was a big deal, was 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.360 the you know, oh my god, we're in love. We've 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.119 never felt like this before. By the way, full disclosure, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:43.840 I do have a baby on the way, you know, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:45.760 Like that was that was a hard thing for her 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:47.560 to get over because that was that wasn't the way 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.560 that she saw her life. I mean, she was this 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:51.600 model who was going to college. She didn't see herself 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.840 living on the road. She didn't see herself with some money, 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:55.120 who already had a kid, you know what I mean, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.560 Like none of those things. I mean now, twenty three 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.640 years later, we're like the most stable relationship he's ever known, 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:02.960 you know, and we're all you know, we're all a family. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.440 But yeah, he just graduated from college. So co parenting 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:12.320 worked out well. There wasn't like drama. Yeah, there there 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.800 was some There was some drama obviously, But how did 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.280 how did baby Mama take to finding out you were 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:22.280 in love and marrying. Well we worked together that you know, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.960 like we that was that was a short lived. Um. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.200 You don't have to explain, Delilah. There's just there's a 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:33.920 lot of nice people on the road. When you were young, 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.240 there was just a lot of nice people who were 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.280 generous with their time. So let's talk Rob Thomas about 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:43.479 your music and about the Christmas album that Oh my gosh, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.400 nobody warned me some of its sad. It's just like 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:52.320 an emotional roller coaster. You got joy, you got real, 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.160 you got love, you got family, but then you got 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.640 like you got really real. I mean, I think that's 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.000 what the holidays make you feel, you know. I mean, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.200 like all of those emotions they come around it. It's 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.680 a you're an easy laugh and an easy cry during 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:07.840 the holidays and and at any given moment you don't 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.280 know which one you're gonna which one you're gonna run to. Well, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.720 I loved it because you know, my show is a 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:17.200 request and dedication show. That's what I do right all night. 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.960 I play songs that lyrically fit with your situation. And 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.640 the truth of the matter is when you're alone at 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.320 Christmas or when your son is in the military and 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.800 you don't get to Sam, or your daughter is or 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:31.760 they're away at college and right now you can't afford 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:36.600 to fly them home. There's not really a standard Christmas 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.320 song outside of you know, I'll have a blue Christmas 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.840 without you that I can play, or yeah, you're tired. 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.800 You get tired of all of these people telling you 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.080 to be happy, you know, like are even worse telling 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.480 you that you're supposed to be happy, Like somehow there's 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.920 a deficit in your part because what you're going through 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.000 doesn't fit with, you know, with the idea of what's 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.040 supposed to be happening in the holidays. You know, yeah, 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.320 I know when you're grieving for me anyway, Man, it 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.200 hits hard, But do you feel it? Do you find 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.400 that that like the first you know, it's still raw 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.280 and numb the first time, and it feels like your 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.920 heart is getting filaid, And then maybe the second time 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.439 and the third time, and then little by little it 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.159 starts to feel like a connection to them, opposed to 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:22.640 making you think about their absence and makes you think 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.840 about their when they were present. Very much so. The 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.879 best illustration I saw was you know, a hole in 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.680 your heart and people used to think that as time 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.880 went on that whole shrinks. It doesn't. Your heart grows 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.760 around it, you know, your heart enlarges around it. And 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.399 what you just spoke of those traditions that the first 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:48.639 or second year, those traditions definitely just had me on 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.440 the floor, slayed me. But now they are such a connection. 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.560 Well yeah, because you know, grief isn't something that that 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.440 that wanes and goes away over time. It's just something 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.960 that becomes a part of you. And so that's that's different. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:03.479 It becomes a part of your d n A as 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.439 opposed to something that you're just waiting to go away, 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.280 you know, like that it doesn't really do that. You're 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.960 you're You're forever a different person. Every loss it is, 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:12.920 it's definitely, you know, is a part of you. There's 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.720 my wife and our favorite poet is uh and the 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.600 Saint Vincent Malay and Uh, she you know, she has 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.600 it that you know, like this poetus is. I think 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.040 we're like where you where you left. There's a hole 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.160 that I spend all my days walking around and trying 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.840 not to fall into. I'm paraphrasing it badly, but it's 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:32.320 but it's like that's that's just kind of what it 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.879 feels like. That's exactly what it feels like. So one 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.159 of the songs that makes me so happy, that doesn't 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.800 file at me but me but makes me smile. And 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.560 I you know, I hit replay like three times. I 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:46.959 listened to it while I was here in the studio 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.879 when I was going through through the whole album is 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.879 the song the small Town Christmas. Oh thanks? So where 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:55.800 did did you grow up in a small town? Where 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.680 did that come from? Well, you know, it's funny because 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.119 I did, Like I grew up in South Carolina in 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:05.120 Lake City, which is a really small tobacco town. Uh, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.200 even on a good map it's hard to find. But 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.080 but I spent the last fifteen years here in Westchester 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.119 in New York, and that to me is like with 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.040 like if if you you know, west Such is about 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.320 forty five minutes north of the city, but once you 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:20.880 get up here, it looks like a postcard. And especially 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.359 at Christmas, it's all rolling hills and orchards and horse 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:26.919 farms and you know, lots of land and so the 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.199 snow is just like blankets of snow for you know, 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.199 acres and acres. So for me, it's really it's really 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.720 about about Westchester. Up here in New York. A lot 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.679 of people think of New York just as the big Apple. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.000 You know, people who have never lived on the East 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.160 Coast or in Westchester or been to upstate New York. 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.159 And and even me, I mean, I'm from the West Coast, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.000 but I was on the East Coast for many, many years, 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.520 and I thought of New York as the Big Apple. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.120 And then I moved to Rochester, right and I went 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.560 whoa even well even more so people think of like 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.240 when I tell people Westchester, they think upstate. But in truth, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.119 Westchester is is literally it's called down state. That's what 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:13.240 it's called. It's there's downstate, which is where the northern suburbs. 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:14.920 So like you know, like like if you go off 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.200 to the you know, to one side, you've got New Jersey, 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:18.920 if you got to the east, you've got Long Island, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.840 which is you know, one suburb, and then you've got Westchester. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.520 So we're you know, people that work in the city 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.680 live up here, so we're just a commute. But it 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.600 feels like it's so different, like like you know, Rochester, Albany, 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.840 that's that's upstate. Is it's a bigger state than that's Canada. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:40.119 That's Canada. That's Canada. But my point is there's mountains, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.560 there's horse farms, there's cattle farms, there's uh, you know, 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.240 like you said, the burbs. But it doesn't feel or 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.080 look like a metropolitan area. It's just like you said, 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.320 a postcard. It's beautiful. It's beautiful up here. And I 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.040 mean we we were in the city for while my 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:57.840 wife was born and race she was a queen's girl 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.520 and uh we but we we came up here and 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:03.000 just fell in love with it, you know, and we 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:04.760 like the proximity to the city, and I think that's 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:06.520 that's important for us to be able to, you know, 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.000 to get in and out of it. But we found ourselves, 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.800 you know, year after year going in less and less 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.240 and being you know, up here people a lot more 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.840 than we were in the city. People. Well, I could 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.160 use the pandemic is the reason. But I'm kind of enjoying. 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.679 I gotta be honest, Rob, I'm kind of enjoying just 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.399 being shut in with my family. I don't mind it, 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:31.560 you know. I mean there's a there's a part of 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.879 me that's like that that they but it used to 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.320 be that I could get both of those itches scratched, right, 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:38.080 because I could go on the road and it was 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.399 every day is new and there's always new people. And 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.480 I like new people. I like meeting people, I like 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.879