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Speaker 1: When I did this stuff for the National Council for Adoption,

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Speaker 1: I was doing these interviews, and in those interviews, those

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Speaker 1: stories would get out there and people started showing up

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Speaker 1: at my shows with like ziplock baggies with hair. Wanted

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Speaker 1: me to run some kind of CSI analysis to prove

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Speaker 1: they're my cousin, uncle, brother's sister. No way, not crazy,

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Speaker 1: I mean crazy.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to episode five twenty seven with Rodney Atkins. You

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Speaker 2: can follow him at Rodney Atkins on Instagram. He has

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Speaker 2: a new song, Watching You two point zero and it's

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Speaker 2: with his son, Eli Atkins, and that whole song is

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Speaker 2: about his kid when he was way, way, way younger,

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Speaker 2: so kind of a full circle moment we talk about that.

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Speaker 2: You can also go see Rodney on tour. Just go

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Speaker 2: to Rodney atkins dot com. Little Rodney News for you.

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Speaker 2: He's had six number one songs, massive songs too. He

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Speaker 2: has I've Been watching You eight thing, and he has

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Speaker 2: if You're going through ooh hell, maybe I don't think

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Speaker 2: that one as well. He has Cleaning that Gun. Just

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Speaker 2: a crazy cool career. Also, his story of being adopted,

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Speaker 2: which we talk about a lot in this episode, and

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Speaker 2: I felt like he was pretty generous with going to

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Speaker 2: those stories. Didn't you you get emotional? Yeah? Yeah, it

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Speaker 2: was good. So first time I've really spent well this

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Speaker 2: much time with Rodney Atkins. Really liked it. I hope

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Speaker 2: you like it. And again, you can follow us on

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Speaker 2: Instagram the Bobby Cast and you can see all these clips.

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Speaker 2: You can watch the whole video as well. If you

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Speaker 2: just don't want to listen, you can watch the YouTube

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Speaker 2: same thing. Go over and find at Bobby Bone's channel

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Speaker 2: over on YouTube. All right, here he is, Episode five

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Speaker 2: twenty seven. Rodney Atkins, Bridney, how are you man?

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Speaker 1: I'm good man.

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Speaker 2: Good to see Yeah, good to see you too. I

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Speaker 2: feel like I've been in Nashville now twelve thirteen years?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah, how long have you been here? Dude?

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Speaker 1: This is my year that I moved here in ninety five,

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Speaker 1: so this is my thirtieth year. From where from East Well, So,

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Speaker 1: I grew up in East Tennessee, a little town called

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Speaker 1: Cumberland Gap. That's where I grew up kind of started

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Speaker 1: making my way this direction. I went to a junior

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Speaker 1: college in East Tennessee. Then I went to Tennessee Tech.

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Speaker 1: So that's where I moved here from was Cookville.

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Speaker 2: I have friends from Cookville, so I know the area. Yeah, Gator,

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Speaker 2: Gator love Gator, Yeah, Gators from near Cookville.

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Speaker 1: He was one of my first encourager relievers. Yeah, early

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Speaker 1: early on when he was at the Country Giant Man.

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Speaker 1: He rocked that morning show forever while I was going

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Speaker 1: to school at Tennessee Tech.

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Speaker 2: It's weird people have radio names. I say that as

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Speaker 2: somebody with a radio name, like because his name's not Gator.

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Speaker 2: But I remember we were getting married and not you

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Speaker 2: and I Rodny, my wife and I sir, and we

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Speaker 2: were writing down all the names for the guest list,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of my friends are in radio, and

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Speaker 2: so there's like Gator, Harrison, rod Phillips, Charlemagne the God.

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Speaker 2: And she was like, you know, these aren't their real names,

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Speaker 2: Like we need their real names to invite them to

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Speaker 2: the wedding. And funny, I know Gator, I've known him

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Speaker 2: for so long. His name is just Gator, but that's

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Speaker 2: he was part of a morning show and that's how

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Speaker 2: he got his name. That's that's funny think about. So

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Speaker 2: when you were going to college, what were you doing?

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Speaker 1: So I was there, I was majoring in psychology Tech

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Speaker 1: they make you do these these practicums, these these huge

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Speaker 1: paper these thesis papers for an undergraduate degree in that,

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Speaker 1: and it took forever, and I really had no desire.

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Speaker 1: I was just taking classes. I wound up leaving supposedly

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Speaker 1: with one class left that thesis that I was supposed

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Speaker 1: to do, And then years later I qualified for this

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Speaker 1: interdisciplinary studies degree. So I finally got my degree after

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Speaker 1: all that. But I was pretty much trying to write songs.

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Speaker 1: I think the whole time I was there.

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Speaker 2: Why psychology, you know, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: It just seemed like, what are you interested in? And

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Speaker 1: I thought about working with kids. That was kind of

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Speaker 1: my drive at the time, and I wound up doing

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Speaker 1: some I had a job at Woodland Residential Center in Cookeville,

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Speaker 1: and it was just working with I think there were

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Speaker 1: thirteen to eighteen year old males that had gotten a

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Speaker 1: lot of trouble and the spilled to be the worst

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Speaker 1: of the worst in the state of Tennessee. I started

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Speaker 1: working there and that kind of opened the door of, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this could be something that I love to do. That's

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Speaker 1: the only thing I can go back to that I

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Speaker 1: was really interested in psychology.

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Speaker 2: I guess did you get in much trouble as a kid, No, No,

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Speaker 2: not really, nothing more than small town South trouble.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, just normal. Yeah, I might break a window or

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Speaker 1: get caught out too late, but no.

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Speaker 2: Did you play ball?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah.

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Speaker 2: What was your sport?

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Speaker 1: Baseball? Man, I love baseball.

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Speaker 2: Did you play outside of high school at all?

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Speaker 1: I did. I played at that junior college is like

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Speaker 1: the It could be the best baseball school in the

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Speaker 1: whole country. It's called Walter State, and I went there

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Speaker 1: for a couple of years thinking that I had a

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Speaker 1: shot at playing baseball until I got around those guys

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Speaker 1: and they were all like either drafted out of high

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Speaker 1: scho cool and just beast players, had a blast. But man,

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Speaker 1: I realized how good I wasn't around those guys. They

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Speaker 1: were brutes.

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Speaker 2: When did you start doing music?

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Speaker 1: So? My dad played gospel music, He directed choirs, and

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Speaker 1: he was always around music. I was always too shy

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Speaker 1: to actually get up and sing in front of people.

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Speaker 1: Got in high school and I met a girl and

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Speaker 1: her parents played all kinds of instruments. It was that

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Speaker 1: backwood hillbilly family that plays every instrument, and you would

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Speaker 1: literally hear people playing music on a front porch somewhere,

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Speaker 1: show up, they'd hand you a guitar. And so when

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Speaker 1: I went over to her house, they played music. Her

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Speaker 1: little brother was like Roy Clark or something, in the

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Speaker 1: sixth grade, and they taught me my first guitar chords.

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Speaker 1: They were a singing bunch. They could all sing and play,

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Speaker 1: and I just started playing music. Then I was kind

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Speaker 1: of into writing, Like I remember, like A really loved

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Speaker 1: doing book reports and stuff in school. And then somewhere

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Speaker 1: in there, this girl that gave him my first guitar

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Speaker 1: just broke my heart, just shattered me, and it made

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Speaker 1: me a want of riot songs and be get out

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Speaker 1: of that little town. It was all her, and that's

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Speaker 1: really where I started playing music and writing songs. That's

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Speaker 1: all I wanted to do was write songs. And when

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Speaker 1: I got to Walter State, the junior college, the guys

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Speaker 1: would like, bring your guitar on the bus, and so

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Speaker 1: I would take it. We'd sit around and sing. But

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Speaker 1: it was never me getting up in front of people

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Speaker 1: and singing. It was just around friends. And that's how

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Speaker 1: I kind of started playing.

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Speaker 2: Really, I feel like Roy Clark's one of the greatest

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Speaker 2: players of all time, and he doesn't get lumped in

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Speaker 2: with the greatest of all time, probably because he was

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Speaker 2: in country music, I.

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Speaker 1: Guess, so, yeah, he was just other next level chaed

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Speaker 1: Atkins kind of uppear.

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Speaker 2: I feel like he's one of the greatest of all time,

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Speaker 2: and because country music hadn't spread as much as it

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Speaker 2: has now into popular culture, he's often overlooked.

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Speaker 1: And he was Buck Owen's sidekick. Yeah, so Buck took

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Speaker 1: that buck Owen's world. But yeah, man, I remember just

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Speaker 1: being in awe of that and a lot of pickers.

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Speaker 1: I think guitar players see that.

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Speaker 2: Are you a good guitar player?

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Speaker 1: Oh? No, I can just accompany myself. I just just

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Speaker 1: enough to really play along with this Dwight Yoakham song

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Speaker 1: or what you know, to learn those songs as you

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Speaker 1: hear them on the radio and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Did you play piano? No, did you ever learn to

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Speaker 2: play piano?

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Speaker 1: I did not, wish I would have. I was that

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Speaker 1: kid that my sister took piano. She did all that,

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Speaker 1: But I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm playing sports.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to play music that didn't happen until later.

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Speaker 1: I'd give anything if I would have.

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Speaker 2: Now I feel the same way I wish I would

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Speaker 2: have been a band. Yeah, because I played sports exactly,

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Speaker 2: but I wish I would have just sucked it up

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Speaker 2: and got I wanted to play an instrument. I think

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Speaker 2: a lot of the reason, too, is financial, but still

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Speaker 2: there were ways to make it happen, because there are

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Speaker 2: ways to make other things happen. I wish I would

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Speaker 2: have earned music in high school.

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Speaker 1: My our neighbor, the lady that lived near us, taught

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Speaker 1: my sister piano. I could have just walked over there,

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Speaker 1: but I just I'm not doing that. The band leader,

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Speaker 1: you should join the band. I'm not playing in a band.

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Speaker 1: Play sports, That's what I do.

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Speaker 2: You've talked about being adopted. When you say your dad

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Speaker 2: your adopted father, Yeah yeah, yeah, So when did you

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Speaker 2: first know you were adopted? Were you always?

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Speaker 1: When I was a kid, my sister came up and said,

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Speaker 1: you're not really their kid, You're adopted. And so I

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Speaker 1: went to my parents and asked them. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: was like five, and it's funny now, but they told

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Speaker 1: me the whole story that I was put up for adoption,

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Speaker 1: and then this children's home took me in, and Holston

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Speaker 1: Home for Children still do a lot of stuff with them,

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Speaker 1: and evidently my parents had lost a child that had

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Speaker 1: a respiratory staff infection, I think is what it was

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. Well after they went through that,

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Speaker 1: they applied to adopt, and I was adopted by another couple,

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Speaker 1: and then I was taken back because I had the

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Speaker 1: same thing to just lesser degree of what their child had.

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Speaker 1: So I was adopted like two or three times and

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Speaker 1: returned to the orphanage.

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Speaker 2: Baby. Yeah, so you have no memory of this.

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Speaker 1: Lord, no, no, And so that is kind of how

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Speaker 1: I wound up with them. And so they told me

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Speaker 1: the whole story.

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Speaker 2: And I've had trouble trying to figure out who's like

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Speaker 2: my grandparents are my great grandfathers. So my dad left

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Speaker 2: when I was five or six. I know my mom,

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Speaker 2: but she was an addict. She died in her forties.

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Speaker 2: But my grandmother adopted me for a lot, uh you know,

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Speaker 2: a big part of my life and which I found

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Speaker 2: like I saw security car with a different name on it,

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Speaker 2: Like that's how I found out. And it wasn't the

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Speaker 2: same story because my parents were still alive, they were

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Speaker 2: just not with me. My grandmother had to take over

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Speaker 2: guardianship and I found out because I literally saw I

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Speaker 2: sold security card with a different last name, and I

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Speaker 2: was like, what is this?

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Speaker 1: Wow?

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Speaker 2: And it was like, well, you've been adopt that whole story, right.

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Speaker 2: But because my grandmother's husband that my grandpa died before

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Speaker 2: I was born, and my grandmother on my dad's side,

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Speaker 2: I didn't know my dad, so I didn't know her.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know anything. I don't know any family history

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Speaker 2: of like medical. They're like, hey, what's your family mister?

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Speaker 2: I don't know. Like that's a struggle.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I went down that road for quite a while.

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Speaker 1: And you start thinking about that that kind of stuff,

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Speaker 1: because you just don't know where you come from. My

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Speaker 1: wife actually just so back when I finally met my

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Speaker 1: birth mom, because you don't you met her? Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: close to hers. She's amazing.

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Speaker 2: You have a relationship now with her, Yeah yeah yeah wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. She lives in Knoxville. Sweetheart. Found out I have

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Speaker 1: a little brother. He's down in Texas and it's great. Now.

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Speaker 1: My birth father, I found out who he was, But dude,

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Speaker 1: he had he had a crazy past on him. So

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Speaker 1: I never made that happen. It just didn't seem like

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Speaker 1: the right thing to do.

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Speaker 2: He's still alive. No, did you ever have the opportunity

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Speaker 2: to be done?

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Speaker 1: Probably so I found it. So what the reason I've

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Speaker 1: even found who my birth mom was when I did

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Speaker 1: this stuff for the National Council for Adoption. I was

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Speaker 1: doing these interviews and uh, it was like Godpost and

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Speaker 1: just a lot of stuff talking about adoption. And in

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Speaker 1: those interviews, those stories would get out there and people

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Speaker 1: started showing up at my shows with like ziplock baggies

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Speaker 1: with hair in it. Wanted me to run some kind

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Speaker 1: of CSI analysis to prove they're my cousin, uncle, brothers, sister.

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Speaker 1: No way, not crazy, I mean crazy And uh.

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Speaker 2: Were they being honest with themselves or was they kind

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Speaker 2: of a grift?

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Speaker 1: I have no id. I'm sure both, but a lot

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Speaker 1: of them were convinced man that I'm your cousin uncle.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's just being in the South. To me, like

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Speaker 2: everybody in Arkansas related to it feels like uncle daddy.

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Speaker 1: That's crazy and so in that I got to figure

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Speaker 1: this out. I need to nail down where I'm from.

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Speaker 1: So we hired I guess it was an attorney that

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Speaker 1: kind of tracked down people and could get into the

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Speaker 1: records and see so they contacted my birth asked me

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Speaker 1: if I wanted to meet my birth mom. They showed

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Speaker 1: me a picture of her, said yes, we'd love to,

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Speaker 1: and then said, this is your dad and this is

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Speaker 1: his story. And uh. In that I found out that

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Speaker 1: I have a one brother on death row that I

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Speaker 1: never met from my father.

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Speaker 2: So technically a half brother, yes, mom got it.

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Speaker 1: And another one that was just in and out of jail.

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Speaker 1: And I think my dad had been in and out

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Speaker 1: of jail a lot. And it kind of hits you. You just, man,

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Speaker 1: I could have been that. I could have been the

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Speaker 1: road I was on. So I'm very grateful. But so

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Speaker 1: I met my birth mom and we got together and

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Speaker 1: talked and we're very close.

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Speaker 2: Now that's really cool.

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Speaker 1: It is cool.

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Speaker 2: I have the same feeling of, man, what could have

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Speaker 2: been if it wasn't for somebody stepping in? Because my

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Speaker 2: biological dad, I don't really my dad, but he's alive,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of that family has spent time in prison,

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Speaker 2: some of them are two of them still are. My

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Speaker 2: mom and her sister married two brothers, so all my

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Speaker 2: cousins are double cousins. I mean, it's as Arkansas as

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Speaker 2: you could be. You know, yeah, yeah, And I say

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Speaker 2: that not in a way of sure. Find everybody's just

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Speaker 2: close small town like two sisters married, two brothers. But

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Speaker 2: there's a whole part of the family that's been in

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Speaker 2: a lot of trouble, and a lot of that just

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Speaker 2: comes from circumstances right when there aren't a lot of options.

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Speaker 2: It's not bad people per se that's getting in trouble.

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Speaker 2: It's people without a lot of options. And so when

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Speaker 2: there aren't a lot of options presented to you, you

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Speaker 2: pick the one that you think is the best for

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Speaker 2: that time, and a lot of times it ends up

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Speaker 2: in trouble. And for my family sounds like much like

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Speaker 2: yours that I'm not close to. They're in prison like

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Speaker 2: many many first cousins parents. You know, a lot of

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Speaker 2: that for sure happened, and I'm very grateful to my

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Speaker 2: grandmother who did not have to step in and did

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Speaker 2: and raised me and my sister for you know, years

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Speaker 2: and years like a kid like her own kid. And

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Speaker 2: so I'm sure you have that feeling toward your parents now,

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Speaker 2: like had they not taken care of you, that could

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Speaker 2: have been you.

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Speaker 1: For sure. Yeah, the path I could have been on

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Speaker 1: it and we didn't grow up with much, but it

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Speaker 1: was for the most part, very stable and very normal.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I can't imagine what my life would have

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Speaker 1: been like.

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Speaker 2: Consistency is such currency. Yep, that's what I feel now.

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Speaker 2: I didn't have a bunch of it until I made

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Speaker 2: it myself, like made and had the ability to have consistency.

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Speaker 2: Now I live and thrive off of it, probably too much,

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Speaker 2: because nothing feels secure unless it's consistent and constant and safe.

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Speaker 1: I get that. Yeah, And I grew up a lot

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Speaker 1: about with the adoption in the back of my head,

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Speaker 1: still thinking that I was given up and I found

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Speaker 1: out this is a crazy thing to even process. But

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Speaker 1: I was the product of a first date gone wrong.

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Speaker 2: How old were they? Do you know when you were born?

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Speaker 1: Early twenties. I'm pretty sure my mom had a She

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Speaker 1: had a kind of crazy story. She was married before,

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Speaker 1: it was an abusive situation, she got out of it

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Speaker 1: and had a daughter, and then I came along on

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Speaker 1: the bad date, and she wanted to hide me from

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Speaker 1: her parents because she was divorced and.

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Speaker 2: Just yeah, the whole it's all that shame attached to it.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, And so she hid me from her parents, and

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Speaker 1: then I was born, she gave me up, and then

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Speaker 1: she went on and got married had a son. So

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Speaker 1: you struggle with that just self worth and you don't

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Speaker 1: belong anywhere and you don't think much of yourself and

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Speaker 1: you must not be worth much.

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Speaker 2: Yeah I felt that. Yeah, yeah, my mom was fifteen

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Speaker 2: when she got pregnant. Wow, my biological father was seventeen,

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Speaker 2: and so it was he left. So again there's that

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Speaker 2: he just chose to leave when I was like five,

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Speaker 2: So there's that part of it. And I did have that,

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Speaker 2: like like you're talking about, you're kind of challenging your

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Speaker 2: value within yourself, and then it turns into I just

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Speaker 2: had like crazy sympathy for like my mom she was fifteen,

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Speaker 2: and then I just felt terrible for her, and you

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Speaker 2: kind of just process until like a new emotion comes in,

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Speaker 2: like you just I've just sat on one and I

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Speaker 2: think my wife and I wn't have kids yet. Well,

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Speaker 2: I have kids sometime soon, but I would hope. And

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Speaker 2: what makes me so nervous about being a dad eventually

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Speaker 2: is that I hopefully will not be like what I

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Speaker 2: what I had happened to me. Did that happen with

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Speaker 2: you at all? Before you were dad? Did you worry

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Speaker 2: about that, hopefully, I said that clears it makes me

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Speaker 2: nervous because I don't want to be what was to

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Speaker 2: me exactly.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, especially if I found out that these guys

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Speaker 1: they're on death row and stuff. Are you capable of that,

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00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,359
Speaker 1: you know, of not showing up? But I don't think.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Man, It's driven me to not be that,

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Speaker 1: to not even come close to to that. Just to

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Speaker 1: be stable and consistent and to know you come to

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Speaker 1: terms with unconditional love. I think that's what do you mean?

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Speaker 2: Come to terms of that.

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Speaker 1: That you you The best you can do is under

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Speaker 1: is believe it. Believe you are unconditionally loved. And and

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Speaker 1: I don't think I got that until I met my

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Speaker 1: wife Rose, and those voices in my head, I just

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Speaker 1: quit listening to them and said, I'm just gonna believe

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Speaker 1: her what she thinks of me. I'm gonna believe that.

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Speaker 1: And I became closer to God and and really started

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Speaker 1: thinking about if I want my kids to know the Father,

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Speaker 1: I need to represent that in some form until they

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Speaker 1: can figure it out for themselves. Just to be there,

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Speaker 1: consistent and stable and you know, and really care. And

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Speaker 1: by that I mean don't let them just do whatever.

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Speaker 1: You know. When you're trying to raise I say, I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to raise men and not babies, and kind of

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Speaker 1: all those things come into play of what you're representing

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Speaker 1: for your kids, and that's all I think about. That's

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Speaker 1: the main drive for me, period, every single day is that.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's me running away from

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Speaker 1: what I don't want to be. It's just who I

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Speaker 1: want to be really years ago. Man, this is kind

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Speaker 1: of crazy. I don't know why this you made me

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Speaker 1: think of this. I was in Chicago and I forgot

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Speaker 1: about this. This is crazy. I was in Chicago visiting

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Speaker 1: USN station and they said, hey, there's a Chicago Bulls

375
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Speaker 1: player that is a fan. You would you like to

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Speaker 1: meet him. I said, heck yeah. And it was Jimmy Butler,

377
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Speaker 1: and he came to a show to the show that evening.

378
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Speaker 1: He said, can I talk to you? I said absolutely.

379
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Speaker 1: He said, I just want to tell you something and

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Speaker 1: I want you to sit there and listen to me

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Speaker 1: until I'm done, all right, And he said, your song

382
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:27,160
Speaker 1: watching You. I grew up without a dad and when

383
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Speaker 1: I heard that song, it really pissed me off. That

384
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Speaker 1: that's what it's supposed to be like, and I didn't

385
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: have it, he said. But that song got inside of

386
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Speaker 1: me and made me realize what I would never be

387
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,080
Speaker 1: because I want to be like that song. And that

388
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,080
Speaker 1: song changed my life. It made me want to do

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Speaker 1: better in school, It made me get my grades, It

390
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,600
Speaker 1: made me work harder at basketball. It shaped me by

391
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Speaker 1: trying to not be who I was afraid I would be,

392
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Speaker 1: which is my dad that he didn't know.

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Speaker 2: And when Jimmy Butler's I sit and listen, I imagine

394
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Speaker 2: you just said and listen.

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Speaker 1: To absolutely, Oh he killed me. I was crying.

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Speaker 3: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,

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Speaker 3: and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

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Speaker 2: I imagine that song resonates with a lot of people,

399
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 2: and you probably feel it, like if you're doing any

400
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 2: sort of meet and greet, because that's when the fan

401
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:29,119
Speaker 2: has the opportunity to talk. Does that come up a

402
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:30,879
Speaker 2: lot like that? That song is affected me, Like, what

403
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:32,800
Speaker 2: are the common themes of how it's affected people?

404
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:38,920
Speaker 1: Mostly it's that's me and my dad, or recently it's

405
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:43,960
Speaker 1: been several stories of my dad has passed and we

406
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 1: played that song at his funeral. And it was just

407
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,879
Speaker 1: in it an important part of our life. It's me

408
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,800
Speaker 1: and my mom. I get it's it's me and my dad,

409
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,880
Speaker 1: just over and over. It's that's the coolest thing where

410
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,880
Speaker 1: space is one of your tunes is their song when

411
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:06,840
Speaker 1: they take ownership of it. That's mostly what I get

412
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,879
Speaker 1: is just say that's our song. It's our song. If

413
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 1: we hear it, we stop, we sing it.

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Speaker 2: Whenever you did two point zero, yeah, a lot of

415
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,280
Speaker 2: people message me, going, you got to talk to him

416
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 2: about this song? Why did you choose now to do

417
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 2: two point zero version of that song?

418
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Speaker 1: For years, I didn't think Elijah my son was interested

419
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Speaker 1: in singing it all again. He was shy like me.

420
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: And then he had started. Through the years, he would say, Dad,

421
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,280
Speaker 1: you should sing this song or check this song out,

422
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: and he would send me songs or play something for me.

423
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 1: And then, oh, a year and a half ago or something,

424
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Speaker 1: he sent me a tune and I'm like, this is cool, man.

425
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Speaker 1: I can't sing like that. I stay in my lane,

426
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 1: but this is great. I've never I don't recognize the voice.

427
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:05,720
Speaker 1: She said, that's me, Dad, And I was just blown away.

428
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: He had started writing songs, and I think he had

429
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,959
Speaker 1: a girl that broke his heart, the whole thing. And

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00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 1: then for Father's Day last year, my wife said, we

431
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 1: need to do a duet for watching you. And I

432
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Speaker 1: didn't even know what that was at the time on

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Speaker 1: TikTok Sorry TikTok yet, and so she said, and I've

434
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Speaker 1: got an idea. I don't know if we can pull

435
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,879
Speaker 1: it off, but just sing and then we're going to

436
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,399
Speaker 1: have people jump in and sing with you. And she

437
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: turned around there. Within about three days, Eli had come

438
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:47,280
Speaker 1: in and she said, Eli, you have to do this.

439
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: The number one comment that we're getting on TikTok from

440
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 1: this is you need to do it with your son.

441
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,320
Speaker 1: So she sweet talked him. She made him chicken cass

442
00:22:57,359 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 1: or role just she just cap on only got him

443
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: to just sing a chorus of it. And it was

444
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,720
Speaker 1: the craziest thing. I mean, it was like twelve million views.

445
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,440
Speaker 1: And so from that moment on, it was her again saying,

446
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 1: you guys got to do the whole version. You gotta

447
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: make it happen, the whole thing. And so just convincing

448
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 1: Eli to take a chance and do it.

449
00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:17,959
Speaker 2: How's he felt about it?

450
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 1: Since, Yeah, I think he just said fun with it.

451
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: It's been amazing. He's only performed twice in his life,

452
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 1: and one was his debut was at the Rhymen here

453
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: when I played the show, we came out, and then

454
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: at CMA Fest at the Stadium, he came out and

455
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 1: sang it with me. So he's just kind of rolling

456
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:42,280
Speaker 1: with it. He's having fun.

457
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,159
Speaker 2: And those are not traditional debuts.

458
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: No, no, and they're almost so big you can't take

459
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,920
Speaker 1: in what's happening around you. The Rhyman just the thought

460
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 1: of that place makes me nervous more than probably anywhere else.

461
00:23:57,800 --> 00:23:59,720
Speaker 2: Do you remember the first time he played the Rhymen.

462
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the Opry and uh, they asked me

463
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: to sing a cover song. And I'll never forget asking

464
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: my mom pick a cover song, name something you want

465
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:12,680
Speaker 1: me to sing.

466
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 2: Oh, they just said sing a cover.

467
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

468
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:16,479
Speaker 2: I was just like randomly sing.

469
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 1: I don't know if I had a single out. It

470
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:20,200
Speaker 1: was like the first time I got to play there,

471
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: just something to play with the band. And she told me, uh,

472
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 1: behind closed doors Charlie Rich And I'm like, really, so

473
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 1: my mom is like a sweet pure and she's want

474
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 1: me to sing that. It was pretty funny. So my

475
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: first time I sang behind closed doors at the Raymen,

476
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 1: and they got to come and see that show.

477
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 2: In your first opry performance was at the Ryman as well. Yeah, yeah,

478
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 2: both of you got you and your son.

479
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:50,639
Speaker 1: True, that's true.

480
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.

481
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's awesome.

482
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:54,400
Speaker 2: You still play the operat all?

483
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'll jump in and play with them from

484
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: time to time. And h aways makes you nervous always.

485
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: It's an honor. It's not lost on me.

486
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:06,479
Speaker 2: How many times have you played it? You know?

487
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 1: Oh?

488
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 2: Man, I got my tin cup? You know, I don't

489
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 2: know if they do they give you a Do they

490
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 2: give you a cup after you played ten? Was that

491
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 2: a thing even five years ago?

492
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 1: Not that I'm aware of.

493
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 2: I walked off stage after my tenth opera performance and

494
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 2: they gave me a cup with a number ten on it,

495
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 2: and I thought it was a joker. I didn't know

496
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 2: that they gave people a ten a number ten cup

497
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 2: on it, and so yeah, I mean I have it.

498
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 2: I guess I didn't. I don't know the symbolism of

499
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 2: a cup, or maybe I think it's just.

500
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: That it's the Opry, it's the ram and it's it's

501
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: being a part of that historical.

502
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:44,680
Speaker 2: And That's why I don't use the cup. I just

503
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 2: let it sit. You just let us sit and make history.

504
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 2: I don't even drink coffee.

505
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: That's funny. Do you drink coffee occasionally? Not a lot?

506
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: Did you caffeine? I used to do energy drinks like crazy,

507
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is gonna kill me. So I

508
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:00,719
Speaker 1: just kind of shut all that down and just occasionally

509
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 1: of a cup of coffee if what uh, if I

510
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 1: get up and I'm still sleepy. Sometimes if I have

511
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: a late show, I might have a cup of coffee

512
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: at four or five, just to kind of ramp up.

513
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:23,120
Speaker 2: What made you move to Nashville music?

514
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: I just I wanted to be a songwriter. Man.

515
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 2: Did you have confidence to quote move to Nashville? Or

516
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 2: was it I got nothing else? Right now, let's just

517
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 2: give it a run.

518
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: I never looked at it like that there was a

519
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 1: backup plan. It's just I wanted to write songs, just

520
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: write songs. And so I was at Tennessee Tech in Cookville,

521
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: and I met some other dudes that wrote songs, and

522
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: they said, you got to come play a writer's not

523
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: with us, And I really didn't want to go up

524
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,199
Speaker 1: and get up and sing in front of people, but

525
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: they said, you can do it, let's go.

526
00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 2: So you had no intention really to be an artist.

527
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 2: You wanted to write songs, that was it.

528
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: Wow, I had yet my deal when I prayed my prayer.

529
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 1: I just want to make music that can touch people's

530
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: lives and that's I just want to write songs. That's it.

531
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: Not get up and sing at all.

532
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 2: See you play the writers around?

533
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 1: Played the writers around. That next day was kind of

534
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: a crazy story too. Uh played the Courtyard Cafe down

535
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: south of town. And so my first night that I played,

536
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 1: they put me up there with one other guy. It

537
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: was just us playing songs back and forth, and he

538
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: was just killing me. I'm like, oh my god, if

539
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,119
Speaker 1: this is what Nashville songwriters are, I'm I'm screwed because

540
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: this guy's he's out of control. And uh, we exchanged

541
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: numbers and it was you know, Casey Bethard. So Casey

542
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: became Songwriter of the decade, you know, and we became friends.

543
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 1: So that night, and I think it was because he

544
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 1: was so great that I was just wrapped up in that.

545
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: I got an opportunity to come take a meeting on

546
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: music row with a publisher.

547
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 2: You think that they invited you, or that they thought you.

548
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be putting words in your mouth here just

549
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 2: by what you just said. Do you think they thought

550
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 2: you were better than you were because you were next

551
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:20,640
Speaker 2: to somebody who was really great?

552
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: I don't think. Maybe. I mean he made because he

553
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:31,199
Speaker 1: was so great, he made me seem better than I

554
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: probably was, I'm sure. And we just got along. We

555
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: had fun up there talking and just kind of being silly.

556
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: So yeah, I definitely think that had a lot to

557
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: do with people coming up giving me cards to have

558
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: a meeting.

559
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 2: They were so moved by the night.

560
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 1: I think.

561
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 3: So.

562
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what Nash.

563
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 2: Himself a little bit because you've done that a few

564
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 2: times already during the interview.

565
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 1: I don't know.

566
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 2: Okay, So tell me about the next day then, and

567
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 2: so you go, you have a you go to Music

568
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 2: Row publish a meeting.

569
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went to uh do you remember the Artist

570
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 1: the UA Artist Tower that used to be there, kind

571
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: of the round building there's loud studios. Was there?

572
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 2: I don't.

573
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: It's next door to actually one of Curb Records buildings.

574
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 1: And so the first time you're in Music Row, if

575
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: you can go back to that, it is an insane

576
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: place to go because of the one way streets and

577
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: then the two way alleys. And so I was trying

578
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: to figure out how to get to this UA Artist

579
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 1: Tower and had a guitar and a backpack, and I'm

580
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: walking across one of those alleys in a car came

581
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: flying up and just just bowed up, stopped about three

582
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: inches from me. And I looked up and it was

583
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks. I'm like, that guy almost killed me. And

584
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: then I went it's Garth Brooks. What planet him I on?

585
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,480
Speaker 1: And he was like, hey, buddy, sorry about that. Man.

586
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: All good? And so I walked across the street, across

587
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 1: that alley and went to the UA Tower. And because

588
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 1: I was just a clobberhead carrying a guitar case backpack,

589
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: I went up to get the door, set my guitar

590
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 1: case down, my backpack falls over, and a hand comes

591
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 1: across me. So let me get that door for you.

592
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 2: So let me guess that. Let me guess by the impression.

593
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 2: Trace ackins, No, okay, cause that does guess? I like, Trace, No,

594
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 2: are you doing an impression of him?

595
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: I don't think I can do impression?

596
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:27,960
Speaker 2: Okay, they never mind? Go ahead?

597
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: Who is it, but it was Merle Haggard.

598
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 2: Oh, that's probably pretty good Haggard impressions.

599
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: And so he said, let me get that door for you.

600
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: And I'm like, so Merle Haggard opened my first door.

601
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 2: Almost died, Garth almost kills you, and Merle Haggard opens

602
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 2: the door for you.

603
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was just what planet am I on?

604
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like a movie of what country music

605
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 2: is like in the perfect fictional universe.

606
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: Exactly, and which that deal turned into kind of nothing,

607
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 1: but it opened up this possibility of what it feels

608
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: like to go take meetings and you know the again

609
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: like that and yeah, and plus that's the other thing

610
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,959
Speaker 1: Nashville is so incredibly great about because I met Casey

611
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 1: Bethard and we became buddies after all that time, and

612
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: that's I kind of fell in love with that about Nashville,

613
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: or playing the Roters' Knots, and it's the songwriter, just

614
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: camaraderie that that happens. It's an amazing thing.

615
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 3: The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the

616
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 3: Bobby Cast.

617
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 2: When did you start to have confidence in singing publicly

618
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 2: or doing anything publicly considering you're a pretty shy person.

619
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:55,720
Speaker 1: You know what, I think it clicked. It's still the

620
00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: same way now. I was asked to if I would

621
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 1: be willing to play some songs for tips at a

622
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: bar in Cookville, and they like, you can play original

623
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: songs and doesn't have to be great, it'll be quiet,

624
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 1: just something over here in the corner. I'm like, Okay,

625
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: I'll give it a shot. Why not. I want to

626
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: write songs, That's what I want to do. I can

627
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: try songs out. And as I was doing that, a

628
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: couple of songs that I've written and I can't remember

629
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 1: them now were kind of that sing along thing, and

630
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: the people would sing along with me after they heard

631
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: it the first time there, and I'm like, wait a minute,

632
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna be the guy that y'all sit

633
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: there and I'm gonna sing at you and you're just

634
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: gonna love this. It's let's do this together. If I

635
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: can have songs that people sing along with me, then

636
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: it's not on me anymore and we're all in this together.

637
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,840
Speaker 1: And I was just always drawn to more we songs

638
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 1: instead of us against them kind of songs.

639
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 2: What about when you got to town because you came

640
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 2: as a writer, you did a writer's night. When did

641
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 2: you think I think I'll be an artist now as well?

642
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: Man?

643
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 2: Because there's an intention.

644
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: It is so the way that I got signed to

645
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: my deal. A buddy of mine that we've written some

646
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 1: songs together, named Ted Eweitt. Ted was offered a publishing

647
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: deal with Curb and he wanted me to go and

648
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: play for the guy that he was working with named

649
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 1: Chuck Howard, and Ted said, I want you to check

650
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: my buddy out. Man, he's got some great songs. You

651
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 1: just got to hear it. And he's like, Curb does

652
00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,720
Speaker 1: not need any more acts. They don't need need Maile

653
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: acts at all. They had Tim McGraw and Jeff Carson

654
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: and I can't remember who else. Maybe a band, if

655
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 1: you can put a band together. And Ted said, just

656
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: let him play a song for you. So I did,

657
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: and he stopped me halfway through and said, I don't

658
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: want to sign you.

659
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 2: What'd you play?

660
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: Just some tune we'd written. I think it was something

661
00:33:55,200 --> 00:34:01,360
Speaker 1: called God Only Knows or something, and I'm like, okay, cool,

662
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: I got a publishing deal. He said, no, I want to.

663
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: We want to sign you to the label. And I

664
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,160
Speaker 1: don't even know how that twisted around like that. Wow,

665
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: And the next day. Now, my publishing deal took about

666
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 1: sixteen months. My record deal was done. The next day

667
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: he recorded me in his little studio there. He took

668
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,839
Speaker 1: it to Mock Curb. Mock Curb called the next day

669
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: of my deal was done.

670
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 2: Why do you think that pace was different? Because they

671
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 2: you were assigned artists. They wanted you scigence, They could

672
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 2: get you working immediately. Like why did one takes a

673
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 2: long on one?

674
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: You know? Oh, the publishing deal, I don't That's not

675
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 1: a question for me. Publishing deals just take forever. I

676
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,000
Speaker 1: don't know why the record deal was I think just

677
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: pretty cut and dry. But that was ninety six. So

678
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 1: I moved here in ninety five and then that deal

679
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 1: was done. Then then God blessed Curb Records. But it

680
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:57,799
Speaker 1: was ten years later before ever had a hit.

681
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: Did you feel like they show you out of a

682
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 2: cannon in ninety five As far as like traveling around

683
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 2: doing the hey I'm a new artist, Like the radio

684
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 2: tour that used to happen type thing.

685
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did a lot of radio tours. It was

686
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: really uh so what happened? I recorded some stuff with

687
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,239
Speaker 1: other producers there and I was talking to that's the

688
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: crazy thing. I'm talking to mock Kurb weekly through all this,

689
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:29,760
Speaker 1: and he said, how you feel about this music you record?

690
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 1: And I recorded a whole album, and I said, I

691
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 1: don't feel close to it. I feel like I'm just

692
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,479
Speaker 1: kind of grasping at something. I don't you would say that, yeah, yeah,

693
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 1: I said, it just doesn't seem there yet. And he said, well,

694
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: they had me with some other producers, some rock guys,

695
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 1: some different people, and then finally I got named Phil

696
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: Gernhard stepped in way back then and he said, I'm

697
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 1: going to do with you what to do with Tim McGraw.

698
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. And he seemed like

699
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 1: a like a not real person. I just heard his

700
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:10,319
Speaker 1: name around there. And so he said, when Tim came here,

701
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 1: he signed his first record deal. And explained to me

702
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: how he saw Tim at a showcase maybe New Faces,

703
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: CRS or something, and Tim just shined. He just came out.

704
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:25,800
Speaker 1: He sang Indian Outlaw and he had done his first

705
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,319
Speaker 1: album that sold. I don't think it did much at all,

706
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 1: And he said, but I took Tim in right then

707
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 1: told him to forget everything. I'm gonna teach you, how

708
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 1: to record yourself, how to find your own sound, how

709
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,319
Speaker 1: to do every single thing. If you'll do it, it's

710
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,080
Speaker 1: gonna be boot camp. And I don't know how long

711
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:46,319
Speaker 1: it's gonna take. I'm like, well, if you're willing to

712
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: to dig into it. And talking with Mike Curb too,

713
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:53,000
Speaker 1: and it was Mike's right hand guy, So all that

714
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:57,800
Speaker 1: time you're asking me was really boot camp. Of he

715
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 1: would tell me stuff sucked. He like, why did you

716
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 1: send me this? This obviously is a scratch vocal, this brutal.

717
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:09,280
Speaker 1: But man, when it when he finally started tapping into

718
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 1: something with the the Going Through Hell album, He's like,

719
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,680
Speaker 1: this is it, This is this is different. This is

720
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:19,879
Speaker 1: not what I thought you would do because these are

721
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,839
Speaker 1: live songs, these aren't love songs. But if you can

722
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: have a hit with this sound like if you're going

723
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 1: through Hell, that'll be around forever. And so the whole

724
00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: time was do a lot of encouraging and sit and

725
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 1: wait and believe. But I started recording at home back

726
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: then too, and people didn't do that. But it was

727
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: a lot of pick you up, knock you down for

728
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,880
Speaker 1: all those years and for working on songwriting and figuring out.

729
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 2: Literally boot camp. It was like, knock you down, rebuild

730
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:49,799
Speaker 2: you back up.

731
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,279
Speaker 1: I guess it's artist development, that's what you would call that.

732
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that happens a lot.

733
00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 2: Like that now, No, that's go to HR you get

734
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 2: in trouble with you true do that knock you down? Yeah?

735
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:01,319
Speaker 1: It was. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Man. He

736
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: was a true mentor. Myt curve was. He was right

737
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: in the middle of that. Man. What a great man

738
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:07,719
Speaker 1: he is.

739
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 2: How many songs did you put out as singles before

740
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 2: going through Hell?

741
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 1: I think we put a couple of singles out and

742
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:19,840
Speaker 1: in between. I did this album beforehand that we talked about,

743
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,759
Speaker 1: and it had I think we released a couple of

744
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: singles maybe on it. I'm not even sure because they're

745
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 1: just constantly trying stuff. It was probably two or three

746
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:32,440
Speaker 1: singles at least.

747
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 2: Did you start to lose hope that your artist career

748
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 2: would thrive?

749
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: That's the crazy thing, man. I don't think I did.

750
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 1: I think I just this is what I'm doing. And

751
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:49,560
Speaker 1: I was working odd jobs, man, I was I'd work

752
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,240
Speaker 1: three and four jobs.

753
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,759
Speaker 2: What kind of jobs? One of them?

754
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: Back then? So I was living in Cookville and Baxter,

755
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 1: a little town outside there. And in between I would

756
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: cut firewood for example, or mow yards or do farmwork

757
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: or whatever I could do. And so I was cutting

758
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: firewood and I was asked to deliver it to some

759
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 1: people in Nashville. So I would load my trailer, drive

760
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: to Nashville, to music Row or to the Nashville area,

761
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,920
Speaker 1: deliver the firewood, go put my trailer somewhere, go rite songs,

762
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: go back and do it again. And one of my

763
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:33,400
Speaker 1: customers back then, I was asked to deliver firewood to

764
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: Alan Jackson, and that was like in two thousand and five,

765
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 1: but Going through Hell came out in two thousand and six,

766
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget delivering that firewood to his big

767
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:48,160
Speaker 1: place out there. And then three months after going through Hell,

768
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: three months after I delivered firewood to him, he asked

769
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 1: me to open some shows for him. It still kills me.

770
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: He invited me on his bus to say hello, how

771
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: much he loved what I was doing. And I got

772
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: to thank him because we needed the money so bad.

773
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:27,799
Speaker 1: And it was just like, this is not real, this

774
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:37,760
Speaker 1: is like a movie. Because it was. It was so hard.

775
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 1: But occasionally people would pop up like that and things

776
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: would happen, or luck with Phil Gernhardt in A and

777
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,359
Speaker 1: R just encouraging me. Little things would come up. So

778
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,439
Speaker 1: I never really quit believing that just do the right thing.

779
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 2: So others belief in you at times kept your belief

780
00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 2: in you strong. Yeah, that's crazy about the Alan Jackson story.

781
00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,160
Speaker 1: And I think all that goes back to being a

782
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:08,359
Speaker 1: little adopted kid, you know, and learning to trust what

783
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 1: other people think of you a lot that people that

784
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 1: believe in you. I think beyond that, it kind of

785
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what people think of you. But fortunately people

786
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 1: that came in my path just encourage me. And when

787
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 1: myk Curb's telling you that, it's like, Okay, we can

788
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 1: do this. If you think we can do it, we

789
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: can do it.

790
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,879
Speaker 2: When Going through Hell comes out, you put it out

791
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:34,080
Speaker 2: a lot of traction quickly or was it a slow burner?

792
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,239
Speaker 1: No, I think it was a pretty slow burn It

793
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: took a long time. I think it even on the

794
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,879
Speaker 1: charts would go up and die wow, no way, lose

795
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 1: go backwards, move forward again. I think the label did

796
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,759
Speaker 1: a whole lot of shifting stuff around or I don't

797
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 1: know what they did, but yeah, it was a long, long, long,

798
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 1: I want to. I'm pretty sure it was like a

799
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 1: fifty week kind of thing. It was.

800
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 2: That's crazy looking back because now that everybody knows that song,

801
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 2: and to think of the struggle that even that song had,

802
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 2: that now is I think a song that people identify

803
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,399
Speaker 2: with it was so big as a part of their life,

804
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 2: like a time. There are certain songs I think of

805
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 2: and reminds me of a time in my life, like

806
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 2: that's one of those songs for a lot of people.

807
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:25,759
Speaker 2: When that song hits top ten or so, when did

808
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,200
Speaker 2: it kind of shift for you to where now you're

809
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 2: that guy?

810
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 1: Man? I don't know if ever thought it was that guy.

811
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 1: I just I was I was getting to do that.

812
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 1: It shifted pretty early when the demands and shop at

813
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 1: radio tours and I did so many of them, and

814
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: I've heard people complain about that. I don't really get that.

815
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 1: It was always I don't have to do this, I

816
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: get to do this. And I started hearing stories about

817
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 1: going through hell. You're asking me about stories earlier about

818
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 1: watching you. I'll never forget when the song was in

819
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: the top ten and would that be my space or

820
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: an email or something that I got back then? And

821
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 1: the person said they were they wanted to thank me

822
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:21,839
Speaker 1: for the song that they were just they I don't

823
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:24,840
Speaker 1: know if their wife left, they lost their job. They

824
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: were at the bottom. They were in their pickup truck

825
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 1: and the song came on the radio and they had

826
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:33,879
Speaker 1: a pistol in their hand and they said, your song

827
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: came on the radio and I heard it and it

828
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 1: stopped me. And that pistol is at the bottom of

829
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,839
Speaker 1: the river now. And I started getting these messages about

830
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:50,239
Speaker 1: how that song was really touching people's lives. And with

831
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 1: Phil Gernhard, he's telling me this is working, this is connecting,

832
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 1: it's doing what you wanted it to do. That after

833
00:43:57,680 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: the crazy thing after that, as Phil even came to me.

834
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: He didn't have kids, and he said, all right, so

835
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 1: I think the second sing we're gonna come with watching you,

836
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:06,439
Speaker 1: he said. And I gotta tell you, I don't really

837
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: get it. It's just it's not I don't have kids.

838
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:15,359
Speaker 1: I can't relate. But my curb is afraid somebody's gonna

839
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 1: hear that song, rewrite it some way and beat us

840
00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 1: being able to get it out, because he said, I

841
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 1: can't believe no one else has written that. And uh

842
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 1: so that was just because of Mick didn't want to

843
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 1: get get beat, so it came out next.

844
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 2: I thought Cleaning this Gun was are you talking about

845
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:39,800
Speaker 2: a life song? I mean, that's a live song that parents, kids, daughter's,

846
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 2: girlfriend's boyfriends, like everybody kind of has a version of

847
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:44,720
Speaker 2: living that story.

848
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,719
Speaker 1: And that song. Man, I went out the cleaning is

849
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:52,319
Speaker 1: God just loved the song. It's Casey Bethard's song and

850
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: Marla Cannon. But so that song the demo. His workday

851
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:05,080
Speaker 1: was pretty dark, it was slower, and I left town

852
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:09,240
Speaker 1: and just tried the song out in some little places.

853
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 1: I mean I played. I played grocery stores, at elks, lodges,

854
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,759
Speaker 1: little bars, flea markets, anywhere I could just try and

855
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: those songs out with the going through Hell. And one

856
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:25,279
Speaker 1: time I was down in Texas and a guy had

857
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 1: just had a baby daughter and now some I won't

858
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 1: to play a song for you, and I played it

859
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,839
Speaker 1: too fast, but he loved the song and it kind

860
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,319
Speaker 1: of clicked that that's how it should be. And it's

861
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 1: been amazing people that have come up through the years

862
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: with Clean this Gun and talk about hell. That's an

863
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: intell that's a very smart song. That's that's an intelligent,

864
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,400
Speaker 1: redneck kind of song. But I was told too at

865
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: the beginning that that wouldn't work because it's kids and

866
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:53,760
Speaker 1: guns and people won't get that. It'll never work.

867
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 2: What's the story about These are My People?

868
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:02,399
Speaker 1: These are my People? Man? So I did not write

869
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: These are My People. Dave Berg, Rivers, Rutherford and I

870
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 1: heard the song, loved it, and they said Steve Azar

871
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:16,080
Speaker 1: was cutting the song. And I'm like, oh, man, well

872
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 1: let me know if I can get it. And so

873
00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:21,919
Speaker 1: I'd got with Dave Berg to write, to get together

874
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,239
Speaker 1: to write songs. And I said, you what you got, man?

875
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 1: You got anything for me that any new songs? He said,

876
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 1: I got one. Check this out and he started playing

877
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: These Are My People. Well wait a minute, no, that's

878
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 1: getting cut. I love that song, but it can't happen.

879
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: He said, it just came off old. If you wanted

880
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,359
Speaker 1: it's yours. I'm like, all right, let's go. I just

881
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: I believed in that song, just that it was a

882
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: special WE song.

883
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one feels like a WE song that you

884
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:55,279
Speaker 2: were talking about earlier. Of all those songs, which one

885
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 2: almost didn't make it, and which one happened the fastest

886
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:04,799
Speaker 2: happened the fastest where it just wasn't a struggle, not

887
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,440
Speaker 2: that it was easy, but great song.

888
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:12,399
Speaker 1: I feel like watching you, probably because I didn't write it.

889
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,760
Speaker 1: I just wrote it because my kid got in trouble

890
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 1: for singing if You're going through Hell in pre k.

891
00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:22,160
Speaker 1: One day he got in trouble. He heard me working

892
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 1: on the songs at home trying to record, and he

893
00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 1: would just stay in the room with me, being quiet.

894
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:28,960
Speaker 1: I think he's paying attention. The next day I went

895
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:32,200
Speaker 1: to pick him up from pre k and his teacher said,

896
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: I got to talk to you about your boy, and said,

897
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: what happened? She said, We got this routine. I turned

898
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,879
Speaker 1: the lights on and off every day and that's their

899
00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 1: signal to get in line and get quiet. Then we

900
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: go to lunch and today started to walk and then

901
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: I heard it, your boy singing some song I've never

902
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:49,719
Speaker 1: heard before. So he's in the lunch line. If you're

903
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: going through Hell, keep on going, And uh, she just

904
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: laughed about it. I just thought my four year old's

905
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:00,680
Speaker 1: had a four letter word and that was it. I didn't.

906
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: I got with a couple of guys. Uh, Steve Deana

907
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:08,960
Speaker 1: brown White told him about it. Had a chorus made up,

908
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:15,240
Speaker 1: and uh, I didn't think it was gonna go anywhere.

909
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:18,719
Speaker 1: It was just a cute song for my kid, and

910
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 1: so at one point it wasn't we It kind of

911
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: got no bounce back to even get to record it.

912
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:28,399
Speaker 1: The whole recording process, I think I recorded it two

913
00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: or three times because it just seemed too slow and

914
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:34,560
Speaker 1: I'd almost given up on it. Then with radio it

915
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: very was very slow, but uh, once it once it

916
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:42,960
Speaker 1: kicked in. Man, that was a that was an awesome ride.

917
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 2: It was a real life experience.

918
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 1: So that.

919
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:47,880
Speaker 2: Triggered that thought to write that song.

920
00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:50,799
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. My four year old said a four

921
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: letter word, I wonder if there's a song in that.

922
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking, And it was a It

923
00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 1: was amazing when that when people first time I was

924
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 1: out playing and people knew some of the words that

925
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: if you're going through hell, but that song and it's

926
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 1: still the same exact way today, I don't have to

927
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: sing it. That's the dream is for me to go

928
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,360
Speaker 1: on stage and just I'm gonna be the house band

929
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: for all you guys to sing. And still today hearing

930
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:21,720
Speaker 1: people sing I've been watching you that that's the coolest

931
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 1: thing in the world.

932
00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 2: Did people, and they probably still do a bit. Get

933
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:30,960
Speaker 2: you Rodney and Rhett because your last names are very

934
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:34,360
Speaker 2: similar to confused all the time for sure.

935
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:41,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Ret, even with Trace, people get that confused. Yeah.

936
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: And that's the crazy thing. When I've my crab was

937
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 1: I had I talked to other publishers and somewhere there

938
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: was other labels, and and what I kept hearing was

939
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 1: I had to change my name even to be a songwriter.

940
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 1: You got to change your name because it's Rhett over

941
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 1: here and Trace over here. And my Curve asked me,

942
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: what do you think about changing your name? It happens

943
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 1: all the time in music business. And I said, man,

944
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,400
Speaker 1: I just don't think I can. I'm lucky to have

945
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,279
Speaker 1: this last name. I shouldn't have this last name. I

946
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:17,520
Speaker 1: didn't have it when I was born. But I can't.

947
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:21,279
Speaker 1: I don't think I can do that. And he said, well,

948
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,439
Speaker 1: that's a good enough reason for me. And he said,

949
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 1: and Curve Records is on ched Atkins whatever Avenue or

950
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:30,359
Speaker 1: whatever ITSBC said, I think it's meant to be. We're

951
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,600
Speaker 1: not changing your name. And years later people thought I

952
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:34,719
Speaker 1: did change my name, that I.

953
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,960
Speaker 2: Made it up because it was similar. They thought you

954
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 2: chase them.

955
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

956
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: That's a really great reason to not change your name.

957
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:43,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I couldn't.

958
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:46,239
Speaker 2: You could have been Gaiter. I could have been Gator,

959
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 2: could have been Gater Bones. I an't my real name.

960
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,879
Speaker 2: Stuck with bones. You know, it's like a pirate. It's

961
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:54,320
Speaker 2: awesome if she sounds like a human.

962
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:59,879
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, it is crazy that the turn

963
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:04,840
Speaker 1: you take and what brought you here, stuff that you

964
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,520
Speaker 1: don't think matters, but it all kind of matters. I

965
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:08,160
Speaker 1: guess we.

966
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:10,319
Speaker 2: I hope everybody checks out watching you two point zero

967
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:12,440
Speaker 2: and visually check it out to I would encourage that.

968
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:17,640
Speaker 2: I think hearing it's cool, but seeing that's really cool cool.

969
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,239
Speaker 2: I think the visuals, all the content you guys did

970
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 2: that it's like next level sets it apart. So yeah, congratulations,

971
00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:28,520
Speaker 2: it's been fun. Your wife excellent, excellent writer like she

972
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:31,920
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, she's great, She's.

973
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:33,920
Speaker 1: On another level. Some people get in a room and

974
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:36,799
Speaker 1: you write songs with Casey Bethword was one of those

975
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:40,680
Speaker 1: guys they see around corners and like anything that I do,

976
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 1: she's putting it together and we're writing those songs, and

977
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 1: she writes with all these new guys, she prefers being

978
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:51,520
Speaker 1: around dudes, and I think she doesn't write with many girls.

979
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:55,120
Speaker 1: And the stuff that she writes is like, I don't

980
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:56,719
Speaker 1: know how you get your hit around that. She is

981
00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:59,680
Speaker 1: a creative force. I think she's putting out some music

982
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 1: on her own.

983
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 2: Tell her. I said, hello, I'm a fan and thanks

984
00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:07,080
Speaker 2: for coming by. This has been awesome. This has been

985
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:10,320
Speaker 2: super cool. Again you guys, check out Rodney and Rodney

986
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 2: Atkins on Instagram. It's just his name and watching you

987
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:14,640
Speaker 2: two point zero. If you go listen to the song,

988
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 2: I encourage you to check out the visuals on it.

989
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,240
Speaker 2: Check out the video, especially Rodney. Thanks man, and hopefully

990
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:20,000
Speaker 2: we'll see you again soon.

991
00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:20,799
Speaker 1: This is an honor man.

992
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:24,800
Speaker 3: Thanks, thanks, thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production