Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host joe Leevie So the guest on this
Speaker 1: episode of the home edition of the show, Jimmy Allen
Speaker 1: says that one of the hardest things about life and
Speaker 1: quarantine is being in the same place for more than
Speaker 1: a couple of days at a time. And I think
Speaker 1: even those of us who are not touring country musicians
Speaker 1: probably know exactly what he means. But Jimmy also says
Speaker 1: there's a sense in which quarantine was a blessing in
Speaker 1: disguise because when things slowed down, he was able to
Speaker 1: land a pretty remarkable set of guests for his new EP,
Speaker 1: which is called Betty James, and those guests include people
Speaker 1: like Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and on a track called
Speaker 1: Why Things Happened, both Darius Rutger and Charlie Pride. We
Speaker 1: started the home edition of the show to let you
Speaker 1: know how these times were impacting the way that artists
Speaker 1: make music and how they're coping with life in lockdown,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy shares some personal lessons that he's learned along
Speaker 1: the way that they are really moving. So if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode, be sure to listen to the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio podcast hosted by our QUARANTINEAM correspondent Jordan run Talk.
Speaker 1: It's called Rivals, Music's Greatest Feuds, and it's available wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, my name is Jordan
Speaker 1: run Talk. But enough about me. My guest today is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite country music success stories. He went
Speaker 1: from working three jobs and sleeping in his car to
Speaker 1: earning a pair of back to back number one's on
Speaker 1: the country airplay charts, Best Shot and Make Me Want To.
Speaker 1: Now He's assembled an artistic dream team for his new EP,
Speaker 1: Betty James. The seven track collaborative collection feature songs with
Speaker 1: Brad Paisley, Tim mcgrawl, Charlie Pride, the oak Ridge Boys,
Speaker 1: Darius Run. The list just goes on and on. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk all about that, his life in Quarantine and uh,
Speaker 1: I'll probably slip at Disney World question in there to
Speaker 1: what the hell? Jimmy Allen, Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: taking the time. It's a real pleasure. Oh man, no problem.
Speaker 1: Thanks for letting me do this. I'm glad, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm worth a little something that people want to spend
Speaker 1: time talking to me. Oh man, absolutely, I got I
Speaker 1: got so many questions for you. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about life and quarantine, probably slip at Disney World question
Speaker 1: in there too, you never know. But but this EP
Speaker 1: is incredible. Betty James, You've got You've got everybody on there.
Speaker 1: You've got Brad Paisley, You've got Tim mcgrawl, You've got
Speaker 1: Charlie Pride, you got the oak Ridge Boys, Darius record,
Speaker 1: the list just goes on and on. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be like a childhood dream for you come true, right man,
Speaker 1: It is a childhood dream. I remember being a kid
Speaker 1: wanting to do a song with Charlie and Darius together,
Speaker 1: you know, because at the time, you know, Darius Darius
Speaker 1: was the lead singer the one of the biggest rap
Speaker 1: bands of all time. But yeah, man, it was it
Speaker 1: was dream come true man. And for me, it was
Speaker 1: just crazy that these artists would even want to, you know,
Speaker 1: waste their time, not waste their time, but take their
Speaker 1: time to do something with me. You know, really you're
Speaker 1: surprised by that, yeah, man, Like I only got two
Speaker 1: singles on out, you know, I had my little project out,
Speaker 1: but these these these artists are legends, you know, and
Speaker 1: oh't no, man, it was just it was It was
Speaker 1: a wild moment for sure. It was a definitely a
Speaker 1: I can't believe this is happening sort of thing. Oh man, Now,
Speaker 1: what was the process like recording this? I imagine they
Speaker 1: did their vocals separately in isolation and then and then
Speaker 1: sent them over or Yeah, so me and uh Nelly
Speaker 1: were acts in the same place because we wrote it
Speaker 1: before quarantine. Uh. And then Mickey Guidon recorded her vocals
Speaker 1: before Quarantine, and then Darius oak Ridge boys, you know, Rita, Wilson,
Speaker 1: turn Wells, Brad m All did their vocals doing Quarantine.
Speaker 1: So Quarantine was kind of like a blessing in disguise,
Speaker 1: because I don't know if I could attract all these
Speaker 1: people down if they were they were still torn. I'm
Speaker 1: bummed for your sake because you're doing an album of
Speaker 1: duets with some of your heroes. I wish you were
Speaker 1: able to like be next to him in the studio
Speaker 1: and no, we want to get some behind the scenes footage.
Speaker 1: One day. We'll probably go back in and like fake
Speaker 1: do some stuff, you know, so we could just have it.
Speaker 1: I think it'd be cool. And I got some footage
Speaker 1: of me Brad and Tim and Darius weird Brad's house,
Speaker 1: like just playing around on the guitars and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure we can incorporate that somehow. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I would love to see that. I mean, Nashville is
Speaker 1: such a collaborative place. What made you decide to go
Speaker 1: big and make the whole ep of collaborative effort? So
Speaker 1: I plan a lot of things out and my plan
Speaker 1: from day one was, Okay, I want to get best
Speaker 1: Shot the number one, and then I want to put
Speaker 1: out my first album with no features at all, just
Speaker 1: to there's just something I just wanted to do when
Speaker 1: I said my second and I said, I want to
Speaker 1: do an album EP album EP, and EP could be
Speaker 1: whether it's three songs or five or six or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I wanted my first thing to be a collaborate
Speaker 1: because I actually got a song with Wide Cleft I recorded,
Speaker 1: but there's a bunch of stuff that we couldn't get
Speaker 1: done in time to get on the project. So I'm
Speaker 1: still sitting on that Wild Cleft song. So hopefully one
Speaker 1: day we can we can we can get we can
Speaker 1: get that out there. But it's just something I wanted
Speaker 1: to do because collaboration happens all through the music process,
Speaker 1: and it normally stops when it gets to the artist.
Speaker 1: Because you figured when you write the song, most songs
Speaker 1: are ninety percent of songs are co written. You know,
Speaker 1: you got producers, you got players, You've got so many
Speaker 1: people that collaborate to make the project what it is.
Speaker 1: I said, let's just take it all the way to
Speaker 1: the delivery, to where you have different artists come in
Speaker 1: and and and uh and sing it, to where the
Speaker 1: packets to finished package start to finish. Is just a
Speaker 1: full collaboration with people. Now, when you wrote some of
Speaker 1: these songs, did you have the collaboratives in mind when
Speaker 1: you were working on them or did you kind of
Speaker 1: almost cast it later like you cast a movie. I
Speaker 1: kind of cast it later, you know, like me and
Speaker 1: Nelly and my buddy Zack Cale wrote Good Times Roll Together.
Speaker 1: But the rest of the songs, after I got them,
Speaker 1: there's a few that would pitched to me, and the
Speaker 1: other ones I wrote, I just little it for a while,
Speaker 1: and I started hearing a different artist's voice on the song.
Speaker 1: And I remember the woman Darius and Charlie. I actually
Speaker 1: pitched another song first to Darius and he was like,
Speaker 1: I love this song, but I don't know if our
Speaker 1: first song out should be a drinking song. You know.
Speaker 1: He was like I wanted to, you know, he said,
Speaker 1: because it's a it's a moment in history because I
Speaker 1: think me and Mickey were the first ever recorded country
Speaker 1: duo with two black country artists, and I think me,
Speaker 1: Charlie and Darius were the first ever trio with three
Speaker 1: black country artists. So he was like, we need to
Speaker 1: say something. So I wrote Why Things Happened with my
Speaker 1: bass player Tate, Carrie Barlow and Brandon Day the day
Speaker 1: after Kobe died um And then we we're in Amsterdam
Speaker 1: and March playing a show with Darius and in Berlin,
Speaker 1: and I played on Why Things Happened and he was like,
Speaker 1: that's the song. I mean, it's an incredible So you
Speaker 1: got three generations in there, and it's hard to write
Speaker 1: a song that works for you know, that transcends anything,
Speaker 1: But to work on three different generations of artists, that's
Speaker 1: that's really something special. Man, It's crazy. I still can't
Speaker 1: believe it happened. I can't believe I got all these
Speaker 1: artists to say yes and then do it, you know,
Speaker 1: because getting somebody to say yes and getting them to
Speaker 1: do it are two completely different things, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? How mean how many times you didn't tell
Speaker 1: people yes and you ain't do it? Like, man, you're
Speaker 1: gonna come over with barbecue? Yeah? Man, yeah, man, when
Speaker 1: are you coming about that? I'll be there later, be
Speaker 1: there later. Oh you see me? Oh he stopped. I
Speaker 1: didn't see me, and I stopped by. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what the park and it was crazy, you know what,
Speaker 1: David's crying of dogs and crying. I had to get home.
Speaker 1: Oh man. I mean, I'm so glad for for all
Speaker 1: of our sakes, they all said yes because the results
Speaker 1: are amazing. I mean, I gotta ask Charlie Pride, what
Speaker 1: was it like working with him? And what does he
Speaker 1: mean to you? Just as like as as a when
Speaker 1: you were a younger artist, Like did you look up
Speaker 1: to him in a major way? Yeah? Man, Charlie, did
Speaker 1: you figure out? I remember being a kid with my
Speaker 1: grandmom and my dad listening to Charlie Pride, and you know,
Speaker 1: when he first came out, it was like the sixties
Speaker 1: in seventies, and you know, this guy is a black
Speaker 1: guy getting number ones in country music while black people
Speaker 1: were still getting hosed down in the streets. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Mike, what what this guy did you know?
Speaker 1: For not only for country music, but also artists that
Speaker 1: looks like me. Man, he really showed that if he
Speaker 1: could make this happen, then yes, they're still obstacles and
Speaker 1: stuff that you have to overcome. Uh, but if he
Speaker 1: can do it, man, there's no excuse for us to quit.
Speaker 1: There's no excuse. Man. You mentioned your grandmother and your
Speaker 1: father talk about the the name of the album, Betty James.
Speaker 1: I know it's named for two big influences on your life. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So my grandmom died in thousand fourteen and my dad
Speaker 1: died September of twenty nineteen. And you know, growing up
Speaker 1: with my pops, man all he listens to his country music,
Speaker 1: he was he was a redneck, for sure. I finally
Speaker 1: accepted the fact that my dad was red neck. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know. And my grandmom, you know, quiet church going lady. Um.
Speaker 1: My dad always talking to take risk, to be yourself
Speaker 1: or take risk. My grandma always talking to be patient.
Speaker 1: You know. So I wanted to start to leave a
Speaker 1: trail of their legacy through my music. You know, it's
Speaker 1: super important to me because when I create music, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think in my head this is the
Speaker 1: number one song people are like it. I create for me,
Speaker 1: you know what I love, like what's special to me,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's what makes music special. You know, you create what
Speaker 1: what matters to you, and then along the way you
Speaker 1: find people who are like minded and lighthearted and and
Speaker 1: that's what the connection is, you know. Um So I
Speaker 1: wanted to take risk and do this collaboration project, even
Speaker 1: though it's a bunch of people told me, oh, it's
Speaker 1: too soon, you won't be able to get no artists
Speaker 1: on it and not but I had to take a risk,
Speaker 1: but at the same time still be patient and writing
Speaker 1: the songs and finding the right artists for those songs.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure this EP took care of most
Speaker 1: of your bucket list collaborations, but is there anyone else
Speaker 1: left out there that that you still want to do
Speaker 1: a song with? Me? Know you mentioned Sia Twain in
Speaker 1: the past. Yeah, Snia Twain, Reba, Rob Thomas del Huge,
Speaker 1: Matchbox Twin Fan. I'm actually I'm actually writing Robbing a
Speaker 1: couple of days. Who else Uh, right and tether from
Speaker 1: one Republic. Man, that's a lot. Man. I want to
Speaker 1: do something with Keith uh Love Brother's Osborne. Just there's
Speaker 1: so many, man, so many people that I want to
Speaker 1: work with that I'm gonna try to make it happen.
Speaker 1: I want to do I know this is crazy and
Speaker 1: it might never happen, but I want to get jay
Speaker 1: Z on the song. I want to get Usher on
Speaker 1: the song. You know, just so many people. Oh man,
Speaker 1: you mentioned having a session with Rob Thomas in a
Speaker 1: couple of days. Are you feeling productive in Quarantine? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: I've actually had time to work on a lot of
Speaker 1: my side projects. Like I signed a book deal, working
Speaker 1: on a kid's book right now. Uh. I started publishing company.
Speaker 1: I signed my bass player Tate UH. Working on a
Speaker 1: TV show right now, talk show UH with me and
Speaker 1: Kathy Lee Gifford. Uh. Working on a movie uh of
Speaker 1: my life right now. The guy named Brandon Camp who
Speaker 1: did like Love actually and stuff like that I'm working on.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a there's a network slash media outlet
Speaker 1: that's interested in me doing this fifteen part comedy series
Speaker 1: to where that each one is a different subject. And
Speaker 1: I just because I did stand up comedy in college,
Speaker 1: and I just get on each subject and just rant
Speaker 1: and talk jokes. Um, you know, I'm trying to do that,
Speaker 1: trying to start this ac sceptic company, trying to start
Speaker 1: this transportation company, so a bunch of different stuff that
Speaker 1: I've actually had time doing this quarantine to like do.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, let's just do it. That's my my
Speaker 1: mouth is hanging open right now. That is the most
Speaker 1: productive quarantine I've ever heard. That's like several people's lives
Speaker 1: right there. That's I don't even know where to start
Speaker 1: with that. I mean, so the movie of your life
Speaker 1: I mean you you're writing the script for it? Or Yeah.
Speaker 1: This guy named Brandon Camp who did like Love Actually
Speaker 1: and a bunch of other movies. I met him through
Speaker 1: my agent and we just started talking to told him
Speaker 1: about my story and everything, and he was like, houses
Speaker 1: not being captured. I was like, I don't know, let's
Speaker 1: do something with it. Do you want to be you?
Speaker 1: Do you want to cast somebody who if you had
Speaker 1: to cast somebody as you, who would you cast? Well,
Speaker 1: since I want to get into television, I'm going to
Speaker 1: play the older me, like post college on younger me,
Speaker 1: I know, to kid me, I'm gonna have my son
Speaker 1: play it, and then like that middle teenage years. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure yet, and then the plan is to cast
Speaker 1: like one or two A list actors around me. That
Speaker 1: kind of really helped sell the movie. Oh so yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to trying to figure that out. Get
Speaker 1: somebody to play my best friend. I would love if
Speaker 1: I could get Samuel Jackson to like play my dad,
Speaker 1: and that would be amazing because my dad, Loki, looks
Speaker 1: like Samuel Jackson. Oh man, you gotta ask him in
Speaker 1: the same if you ask everybody to be on the EP,
Speaker 1: gotta ask him me old Jackson to be in your movie. Man.
Speaker 1: All they can say is no, yeah, oh that I've
Speaker 1: heard no a lot, a whole lot. I mean, your
Speaker 1: story really is incredible. What you came to Nashville, what seven,
Speaker 1: working three jobs, sleeping in your car for a while,
Speaker 1: and then you got back to back number one songs
Speaker 1: on the country airplay charts, Like that's incredible. Like that
Speaker 1: perseverance is that you don't see that? You know? Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I I am. I don't know. I just tried to
Speaker 1: picture myself not doing music, and even though I'm all
Speaker 1: about when you're chasing a dream, you got a family.
Speaker 1: I had had a son at the time. You know,
Speaker 1: he's six now, but when I was first starting off,
Speaker 1: you know, he was a newborn, and as a parent,
Speaker 1: you chased your dream, but you still have to do
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to provide for your family, because your
Speaker 1: kids shouldn't have to sacrifice, you know, eating or getting
Speaker 1: those are going on vacation just because you got this
Speaker 1: dream you're chasing. And I remember I was a server
Speaker 1: at the time, and I worked at Walmart for a
Speaker 1: little bit, and uh, I would pick up extra jobs
Speaker 1: just to make sure we had enough money to go
Speaker 1: to Disney World two or three times a year because
Speaker 1: that's what he wanted to do, so you know, get
Speaker 1: it done. Was there a moment when you knew, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is actually gonna work out. We're good now. This
Speaker 1: music thing is it's really gonna happen. Yeah. The crazy
Speaker 1: thing is I'm definitely a lunatic to where I've I
Speaker 1: always knew it would happened, you know, I didn't know when,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how, but I knew it would. And
Speaker 1: I was going to this writer's around at Pucket's grocery
Speaker 1: store in Franklin, Tennessee. It's a grocery store, a restaurant,
Speaker 1: and a music venue. Wow. And I got a call
Speaker 1: that's said, hey, I got this opening at this writer's round.
Speaker 1: Would you want to fill in? And I say yeah,
Speaker 1: because my dad always told me always make yourself available.
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, I'll at least get
Speaker 1: to play some songs. I make two hundred dollars and
Speaker 1: I get a free meal. Let's do it. And that's
Speaker 1: where I met Ashbowers, the guy that signed me to
Speaker 1: a publishing deal. Now he's my he's my he's my manager. Now,
Speaker 1: so many great messages in your life and in your music.
Speaker 1: I one of the tracks on your EP. Uh, when
Speaker 1: this is over, I thought I just had a really
Speaker 1: beautiful message, I mean the lines. When this is over,
Speaker 1: I hope I take a little less for granted. I
Speaker 1: hope I'm a little more understanding when some things don't
Speaker 1: make sense. What are some big lessons you've learned throughout
Speaker 1: quarantine and the pandemic. I know it's been troubling for
Speaker 1: many reasons. I've learned life is short. Do what you love,
Speaker 1: love who you love, and do not listen to the
Speaker 1: opinions of other people. Never let someone else's opinion stop
Speaker 1: you from being the person you want to be, because
Speaker 1: at in the day, the only pinion that matters is
Speaker 1: your own. It's it, you know. I've seen so many
Speaker 1: people make career changes during quarantine and everything because you
Speaker 1: realize life is short, man, Like, why are you just
Speaker 1: waiting around, uh for other people to tell you what's
Speaker 1: okay for you to do instead of you just chasing it?
Speaker 1: What's been the hardest thing about quarantine for you? Being
Speaker 1: in one place longer than four days, because I'm used
Speaker 1: to every two days going somewhere else. So we've actually
Speaker 1: been taking the tour bus back and forth from Delaware
Speaker 1: to Nashville to Florida so I can go fish. Oh man,
Speaker 1: are yeah? We uh we went to Delaware. We're actually
Speaker 1: going to Della in a couple of days again so
Speaker 1: I can go fishing. And then we go to Florida.
Speaker 1: A lot we go to a lot of people go
Speaker 1: to like you know, thirty A and stuff. We go
Speaker 1: to We go to real Florida. We go like Orlando,
Speaker 1: Tampa in real Florida. And to me, that to pay handle,
Speaker 1: that's Alabama. That's Alabama, And of course you got Disney
Speaker 1: down there too. That's that's But talk to me about
Speaker 1: Disney a minute. How many times have you been there?
Speaker 1: I know it's pushing fifty. Man. I've been to Disney
Speaker 1: at least seven times a year every year for since
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen and two thousand thirteen, two thousand, fourteen,
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve, I went about four times. Is this
Speaker 1: for your son or for you or for both? For me,
Speaker 1: it's for me. I love it. Luckily, my son loves it.
Speaker 1: My fiance likes it. I think she tolerates it more
Speaker 1: because I love it, But we start going so much,
Speaker 1: I think she's starting to like love it now too.
Speaker 1: I love that place, man. It's because for me it
Speaker 1: represents more than the mouse. It represents perseverance. You know,
Speaker 1: when you think of Walt and how he could have
Speaker 1: just quit after his first character, Oswald, got stolen, he
Speaker 1: kept going. You know, this guy had nothing. He literally
Speaker 1: betted all himself and it worked out, you know, um.
Speaker 1: And it's just that's why I go to think. Man,
Speaker 1: there's there's no other place to think and just feel
Speaker 1: pure innocence and the future impossibility, and then just surrounding yourself.
Speaker 1: When I go there with my son and you see
Speaker 1: all these other kids and they're happy and they have
Speaker 1: no care in the world. Like once you enter those
Speaker 1: gates of Disney, everything else, all the nonsense in your
Speaker 1: life doesn't matter, man, it just disappears, you know. And
Speaker 1: for me, that's where I go to think and plan
Speaker 1: and just enjoy life, you know, with you know people
Speaker 1: I care about when you're when you're not thinking. You
Speaker 1: have a favorite ride there? Oh yeah, I'm a classic
Speaker 1: I'm a classic Disney fan. So my favorite attraction is
Speaker 1: actually Caresel of Progress. It's that Magic Kingdom in in
Speaker 1: Tomorrowland over by buzz light Year. The thing you sit
Speaker 1: around and go there is a great big due to
Speaker 1: fol Tomorrow Row shining as. I love that. I love
Speaker 1: uh to Marline Speedway, Uh Epcot, I love Test Track
Speaker 1: and uh what else do I love? Man Figments imagination
Speaker 1: thing is cool as cheesy is I don't know what,
Speaker 1: but I love it. Purple Dragon at Animal Kingdom. I
Speaker 1: love when I got Avatar there now, which is Monday.
Speaker 1: They got Star Wars Land there now at Hollywood Studios.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm all about my Disney bron and there's
Speaker 1: so much other stuff to do that like you can.
Speaker 1: They got fishing guys there will take your out bass fishing.
Speaker 1: You used to be able to pay shell go horseback riding.
Speaker 1: It's a bunch of stuff to do. Wow, I haven't
Speaker 1: been since I was a kid. I definitely gotta gotta
Speaker 1: see it with with a doll eyes now. Oh, you
Speaker 1: gotta go back there as an adult, especially Epcot. You
Speaker 1: can get your drink on all around the world, man,
Speaker 1: I mean. And what I love is they actually have
Speaker 1: people from those actual countries working there. I didn't realize that,
Speaker 1: Like when you go to Germany, those are people from
Speaker 1: Germany work because they I think they come over like
Speaker 1: six months at a time. I know, you became a
Speaker 1: father again in March. I guess probably even had a
Speaker 1: chance to take your your your new daughter down there. Yet. Man,
Speaker 1: what the crazy thing is when quarantine started, we went
Speaker 1: to my daughters born the first the same day. Uh
Speaker 1: make me want to with number one? Uh. Two days
Speaker 1: later there was tornadoes in Nashville, so I had to
Speaker 1: leave to go to Germany, and so my tour bus
Speaker 1: driver took um. If y'all say, my daughter and my
Speaker 1: uhay's mom in Florida because her parents have a house
Speaker 1: in Florida. So when I came back in March, they
Speaker 1: were still in Florida. So we went to Disney a
Speaker 1: couple of days. We just didn't post any pictures on
Speaker 1: social media because we want to look like bad parents.
Speaker 1: Because I got back on like the thirteenth, and Disney
Speaker 1: was open to the twenties. That's all we're going. So
Speaker 1: we went. But we got one those v IP tour
Speaker 1: guys to where you know, we didn't wait in lines
Speaker 1: when kind of went around the back and they drove
Speaker 1: us from park to park. So, oh man, so she's been.
Speaker 1: She went to Disney at three weeks old, first of many,
Speaker 1: first of minute. She's already got a bunch of Disney
Speaker 1: princess dresses and everything. Oh man, I know you had
Speaker 1: a wedding on the books for this summer too, right,
Speaker 1: what's the latest with that? How's the planning for that?
Speaker 1: Pushed it to next year? Push it to next year,
Speaker 1: like we I think I proposed at Disney World. We
Speaker 1: had the baby reveal at disney World, the gender revealed
Speaker 1: thing at Disney World. Everybody's like, you get married at
Speaker 1: Disney World. No, but I thought about it. I thought
Speaker 1: about it, are you are you gonna sing at the wedding?
Speaker 1: And thinking of writing any songs the wedding. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna sing at the wedding. I just wanted to.
Speaker 1: I don't know. To me, I just think it's cheesy
Speaker 1: when the groom sings, especially. It's just I'm a singer. Now.
Speaker 1: If I didn't sing for a living, I charge people tickets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to be different and special, you know.
Speaker 1: And I could write her a song sing it then,
Speaker 1: but I just don't want that day to be like
Speaker 1: any other day. I meant to mention this earlier, a
Speaker 1: really cool thing I thought on social media, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, the quarantine and the pandemic has been tough
Speaker 1: on everybody, but especially for people who struggle with mental illness.
Speaker 1: And you shared a song that touched on your own battle.
Speaker 1: I thought that was really amazing. What words do you
Speaker 1: have for those right now who are struggling internally with
Speaker 1: sort of their own inner demons and inner battle right now?
Speaker 1: Find your center, you know, find what it is in
Speaker 1: life that motivates, find your reason why, whether it's someone
Speaker 1: in your family, ah, dream your check and find whatever
Speaker 1: it is and really focus on that. That's what helped me.
Speaker 1: I took medication when I was younger for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but it kind of killed my creative vibe. So I
Speaker 1: touring helped me a lot. Uh, just being out meeting
Speaker 1: people touring. But then when this whole quarantine stopped and
Speaker 1: that was taken away, like my medication, I had to
Speaker 1: find other stuff. So I dived, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I got to be around my Beyonce and my son
Speaker 1: and my daughter helped a lot. But also just the
Speaker 1: other side projects I'm doing really helped as well. What
Speaker 1: do you do when when the when the music is
Speaker 1: not coming, when you sit down and write a song
Speaker 1: and it's just it's not happening for some reason. You
Speaker 1: have a way to reset or do you just plow
Speaker 1: through it? I just don't work. I just don't write
Speaker 1: that day. I just don't. I'm not the type to
Speaker 1: like when creative isn't coming. I don't force it, you know,
Speaker 1: I just say, hey, this ain't the day, fellas. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let y'all stick to it, but I'm out
Speaker 1: because I don't want to waste their time or mine,
Speaker 1: you know. So you know, I've had plenty of rights
Speaker 1: like that, where I had nothing, just wasn't in the mood.
Speaker 1: So I'll show up, I'll try. There's nothing now, I'll leave,
Speaker 1: go home, hanging my family, play PlayStation, watch TV, and
Speaker 1: just reset. That's kind of how I said, I just
Speaker 1: step away from it. Every day is another day. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: You mentioned so many projects. Is there anything that you're
Speaker 1: working on now musically that you're the most excited about. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I started working, started writing and choosing songs from my
Speaker 1: next album, hopefully we'll put out next year. Um, I
Speaker 1: just just thinking about that. Songs for it kind of
Speaker 1: the direction I want to go because I like, I
Speaker 1: know there's some people that want their album to be
Speaker 1: sonically cohesive, where it kind of sounds the same. But me,
Speaker 1: I like when songs sound completely different. I don't want
Speaker 1: to track to the sound part two of track one
Speaker 1: unless it's intentional, you know, I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I want every song to be a different moment, you know,
Speaker 1: a different feeling, a different vibe. Um yeah, uh any uh?
Speaker 1: Do you think the White Cleft song will end up
Speaker 1: on that or I hope? So I'm a push for
Speaker 1: it and see we can see we can make that happen.
Speaker 1: You gotta ask jay Z and Shanaya and all those
Speaker 1: people too. You gotta um no, man oh man. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to take up too much more your time.
Speaker 1: But my my, my final question. And I always asked this,
Speaker 1: and I'm always so fascinated by everyone's answers. Though. I
Speaker 1: think I have a good idea what yours might be.
Speaker 1: If you could snap your fingers and have the pandemic
Speaker 1: be over, everything goes back to normal. What's the first
Speaker 1: thing you do? Trips? You take people, You hug, restaurants
Speaker 1: to go eat at. I do a meet and greet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love meeting people. I do. Uh. And that's been
Speaker 1: the hardest thing for me, ah when I first started.
Speaker 1: Even now you know, ah, when I see people and
Speaker 1: I want to say hello, you know, uh, somebody wants
Speaker 1: to take a picture. You know, it's the hardest because
Speaker 1: for me, I would do it, but I think about,
Speaker 1: you know, my fiance, and I don't want to get
Speaker 1: her sick or my grandfather and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: that's the first thing I'll do. Go do a meat greek,
Speaker 1: a long one at Disney World. I was thinking, you
Speaker 1: gonna say, Disney world do the Disney. Oh Man, I'm
Speaker 1: going to Disney first week August. Yeah. I have friends
Speaker 1: over there yesterday they said that. They said, Jimmy, you'll
Speaker 1: love it now too. It's like not a lot of people,
Speaker 1: they're super so. And I'm like with Disney, if anybody's
Speaker 1: gonna do social distancing, right, it's going to be there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. You're right, it's gonna it's gonna be there.
Speaker 1: So people in the parks they got their mask on.
Speaker 1: People are more than twenty feet away from each other.
Speaker 1: So I was like, you run into more people at
Speaker 1: Kroger at the grocery store than you do it Disney.
Speaker 1: Oh Man to me, O, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time today and your music. So appreciate it. No problem,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. We hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio Home Edition, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio and
Speaker 1: other shows from I Heart Radio, check out the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.