WEBVTT - Marcus Hummon 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:14.880 Carola. She's the queen of talking. He was sown your man. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.239 She's only is side. You got the snoop on on 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.360 the ones side. No one can do with clid my 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:36.320 Carala Carola, No one can do within Cli Carali Carola. Hey, y'all, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.800 welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby. I am your host, Caroline Hobby. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.519 I know music, I know people, and I know the 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.440 questions do you want to ask? So let's get hyper 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.479 heads up. These are adults having adult conversations, so there 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.320 could be adult content. I am super pumped that Marcus 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.480 Hammond is joining me today. He grew up as a 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.840 citizen of the World, living in the Philippines, Italy. After 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:05.160 he has written huge hits for Alabama Tim mcgrawl. He 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.440 wrote Born to Fly for Sarah Evans, her breakout hit, 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.040 as well as Dixie Chicks, Cowboy take Me Away, My 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.360 Favorite Song Ever, and Ready to Run. He won a 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.800 Grammy for Best Country Song when he wrote God Bless 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.720 a Broken Road and Roscoe Flats recorded it in two 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.839 thousand five. He's also married to an incredible woman named 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.160 Becca and she started Thistle Farms and their mission is 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.399 to be a sanctuary for healing for women, survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking, 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.240 and prostitution. I'm telling you, Marcus is one of the 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.520 most interesting people I know. I'm so excited forgot to 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.760 hear this interview. His inside on life is just incredible. 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:46.840 So y'all get excited. Here is Marcus Hummond. Hello, Marcus 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:53.560 Hummond friend. Oh yes, oh lookie there, hellove it. You 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.720 and song are just hand in hand. Okay, we gotta 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.720 put this on your mouth, yes, right there, to your lips. Okay, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.000 I know a lot of lips have touched that. William 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.400 Michael Morgan touched it yesterday. I'm gonna stay away from it. 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.359 Did he did he? Really? I bet that was fun. Yeah, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.800 because he was celebrating his number one It was awesome. Yeah, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.640 and they got a lot to celebrate. They do engagements, 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.280 engagement how about that? Which also, let's get right into 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.079 it because I have a few questions. I gonna start 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:26.120 off rapid fire. But speaking of William Michael Morgan being 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.440 engaged to Jennifer Wayne, she's a part of Runaway June. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.560 She's also they're gonna be featured on this podcast soon. Wonderful. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.520 You and I actually had a little bit of a 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:36.920 time had a hand in it too, but it was 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.760 mainly your genius wrote one of their songs. They just 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.440 cut Blue Roses. Yeah, we're both of us are really 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.920 excited because because you were part of the genesis of 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.959 that group. Really you were there at the time and 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.600 we did a demo together, and you're killing it on 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.200 the demo. I gotta tell you, I love I love Hannah, 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.600 I love Hannah so much, but that demo you really 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.160 did a great chow. It was fun to get to 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.200 see that. Even though I can't sing low harmonies. Well 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.160 you say that that's the thing. You're a great when 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.600 you have a great teacher, you can sing what they 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.800 did it at the They did it at the Opry 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.600 and it was particularly beautiful that one night, Oh my gosh, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.399 packed and they got up there, and you know, it's 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.440 such a that particular songs so country, um and kind 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.760 of blue grassy and leaning towards what they do, what 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.440 they're you know, they're like, I guess I was reading 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.600 maybe something you said that it's the first female trio 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:40.920 correct to ten years since the Dixie Chicks, which is unbelievable, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.760 and oh my gosh, talk about the Dixie Chicks. You 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.960 obviously have a thing for female trios who have some 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.720 folk root soul, because you wrote a ton of the 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.480 Dixie Chick songs. Two of my favorites, Ready to Run, 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.920 a bunch of them, but they only cut two, but 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.680 they cut well. They cut two great ones, but ready 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.920 to Run and my favorite song of all times, yeah, 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.560 Cowboy take Me Away? You know that song like imprinted me. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.440 I didn't, but it's you're like a little bird and 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.960 you take it from its mom imprints you, I guess, Yeah, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.400 that's right. Yeah, it literally like imprinted my life. Cowboy 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.880 Take Me Away was my jam when I was in 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.719 high school. It was my favorite song. Dixie Chicks were everywhere. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.760 Yeah they were special, you know, they were. Um they 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.200 were probably as good a group um as I have known. 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.400 And you know, I've been in the business now for 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.280 thirty years. Thirty years, but you're only forty. Yeah, sure, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.760 I'm only forty five. I just like the sound of 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.080 forty five now. That just sounds it's funny because that 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.320 sounds so so young. Now, I know you're looking at 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.000 like forty five, were like, oh man, that'd be like 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.560 I'd be dead. No time flies. I really I can't 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.120 believe in marty three. I remember when I moved to 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.360 town at nineteen. It feels like yesterday, so young. It's 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:03.640 so wonderful and it I'm enjoying it. But forties forties 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.600 are good though. I'll tell you I'm in my fifties now, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.320 but I will say I think the forties were We're 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.400 really great. It's kind of an interesting time in a 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.760 person's life. Here, what is that time? Like I think 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.279 you know you just I think you it's cliche a 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.920 little bit, but like you know, you know yourself better. Um, 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.400 you're aimed at what you're aimed at in life. I 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.440 think if you're not like trying out a million things, 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.800 I don't think you're usually you're not. And if you've 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.320 found your partner in life, um, usually you know, all 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.000 of that has settled and you kind of I think 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:34.840 you're looking more for sort of the richness of that 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.119 experience as opposed to you know, your eyeballs are swinging 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.120 around in your head. You know that's all gone, you know, really, 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.440 I mean that's kind of past and um, and by 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.440 that time, if you if you're in a marriage, um, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.120 if you you know, if you're fortunate enough to have 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.039 a good marriage or whatever. You then you've got kids, 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.320 and then everything takes a different shape anyway, because that's 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:58.560 a time that the kids are growing up. And it's 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:03.560 kind of a wonderful period, you know. It's it's you just, um, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.160 every day is pretty exciting. And the fifties aren't bad. 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.320 It's just that you get in the fifties and the 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.719 kids that you loved so much starting to go to 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.800 school and leave home, and then you're turning into adults. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.000 They're adults. And if your folks are alive, you know, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.360 they're um, you know, they're really old and in some 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:22.880 cases struggling. And that's what that's what I'm going through. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:24.880 And I know, but a lot of us in our fifties, 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:26.599 I mean, that's what it happens for the most part. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.359 That's like my wife lost her tragically, really lost her parents, 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.560 um many years ago, how tragically well an illness and 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.600 was prepared. Yeah, and her dad died in a car 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.039 accent I was killed by drunk drivers. So she uh yeah, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:48.080 so she didn't. Um, she hasn't grown older, you know, 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.280 with parents, you know. But anyway, but I mean, I'm 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.719 very thankful that my folks are still alive. But yeah, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.080 fifties is fifties different, you know, just kind of settle 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.560 in for it. So really enjoy the forties, enjoy everything, 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.919 but just enjoy it all, but enjoy the forties and 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.640 don't be afraid, I guess more to the point, don't 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.760 be afraid of the forties. Forties will be good. I'm 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.160 excited about that. Yeah, okay, so you're talking I want 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.480 to of course go back. But since you mentioned this, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.840 you're talking about having a spouse that you really have 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.040 a beautiful relationship with. You and Becca are amazing. And 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.200 your wife is a preacher is what we call it 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.880 a preacher. She's a she's a priest. She's a episcopal priest, 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.760 but she does preach um. But that she actually that's 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.240 her job. She's the episcopal chaplain at Vanderbilt. That's one 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.240 of her jobs. And then the thing that she's kind 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.600 of in some ways most well known for as she 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.240 started a residential program for women who suffered lives of 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:52.720 trafficking um through the prison system. Initially, and that program, 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.960 called Magdalen, was different because it was the two years 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.480 was different in this sort the idea of radical hospitality 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:01.760 was different. And and now there's many many cities in 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.640 America that are trying to actually bring her in to 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:10.680 consult and figure out why did that? Why has that worked? Well, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.000 a lot of it has to do with it. Ultimately, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:18.240 she created a social entrepreneurial company UM called Thistle Farms 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.080 and is amazing and the reason and now that's the 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.560 largest social entrepreneurial in the country for women with a 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:31.520 history of traffic event traffics products, beautiful product tapsticks and 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.800 all sorts of incredible thing candles, and it gives women 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.320 jobs who have some jobs and a living wage. You know, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:40.240 it's not just about a wage. It's about a roof 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.640 and a car and reconciling with families and and I 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.160 think it it's part of that happened because she was 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.800 building this two year residential program, was had some different 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:55.760 ideas about, UM, how community can help women be released 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.040 from the cycle of sexual abuse as kids. All of 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.839 you know, this is hundred percent the community that that 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.080 she works with. And and then the cycle of being 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:06.719 in prison and being out of the street in the back, 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.720 you know, averaging seventy five arrests, you know, really chronic. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.440 Each person is averaging arrest and she helps with because 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:15.920 I guess once you get in the cycle, it's just 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:17.839 hard to break it. That's right. You know, these are kids, 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.120 I mean, this is you know what it looks like. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:24.080 It looks like abused probably before the age of eight, 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.120 usually by someone close to you. It means you're on 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.480 the street between fourteen and sixteen years old, and then 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.880 you're then you're trafficked, and then you're and and it's 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.760 traffic meaning like you're sold for sex, prostitution. But it 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.160 also there's a there's a wonder one relationship between that 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.880 and addiction, you know, because of course once you get 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.440 in there, I'm sure addictions following right behind or leading 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.720 you there. Sometimes it comes the other way that you know, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.240 it's it's how you that's how the pan is going 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.040 to give you, you know, your crack or whatever it is. 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.760 I mean, it's an awful it's just unbelievable. But it's everywhere. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.079 It's all over the world, but it's also every and 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:00.719 every city in a mar Arca and a lot of 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.240 people don't know that, you know, but it is. And 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.000 so she she leaned into that. How did she decide 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.720 to lean into that? Because that's a big lean you know, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:16.800 She's written several books on the subject, and excuse been 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.160 very public about it, so I you know, I would 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:24.840 not ordinarily say this, but um, she uh suffered abuse 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.280 when her dad died a someone in the church when 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.520 she was very young, and this went on for a while. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.319 But instead of sexual abuse and instead of it kind 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.840 of breaking her or sending her the way of the 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.240 very people that she works with, the Sisterhood, that is Magdalen, 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.600 that is Thistle Farms, um, And it could have And 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.600 I think she's always been real, real clear about that. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.079 You know that there's not a lot of difference. There 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.160 really is no difference. You know, it's just it's just people. 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.480 What was that song, drugs or Jesus? Like Tim McGraw 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.760 said it, kind of there's two roads sometimes when you 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.640 have a hard decision, not drugs. But obviously I don't 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.640 know if that's a comparison. Well, but your point of 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.040 you know that we're all it's on a you know, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.839 it's um, it's fragile. People's lives are fragile, and it 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.040 were easily broken. UM, but you know you can be 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.880 it can come back together, you know. She I think 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:22.280 for her, it led her. UM two be really focused 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.160 on healing herself and others. And as long as I've 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:27.920 known her, I mean I I you know, I met 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.720 her and I'm moonlighted at Divinity School years ago, and 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.480 that's how I met Becca. Um, and she was that way. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.040 I mean she was that way at twenty five years old. 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.880 I'm telling you what. Yeah, I mean the first date 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.120 we had. I remember where I met this girl. Right. 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.240 So I'm in Nashville and I'm trying to get a 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.480 record deal and I have a publishing deal, and I 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.000 I was thinking, you know, I gotta just I need 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:51.480 to meet I need to be with some people that 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.600 kind of come from a little more similar cultural background. 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.160 Because you grew up as a citizen of the world. Well, 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.800 I grew up overseas and my focus million different places, 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.960 the Philippines. Where else would you live, Well, I lived 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:09.079 in Tanzania. Uh So I should backtrack. My dad his 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:13.000 work was in international economic development. So you know, the 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.880 United States has embassies all over the world and in 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.040 what we used to call the third world, now you call, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.400 I think the developing world. But UM, part of our 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:26.040 national interest in relationships with other countries is that we 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.800 want to help and UM to pass back and forth 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:35.839 economic um UM know how and you know we want 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.440 to be involved in development. Uh and and you know 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.400 in other cases there are places where America's seems univery 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.560 concerned to have for example military UM and all of 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.640 all of the places that we UM. You know that 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.760 we're in relationship with diplomatic relations. We have an ambassador. 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.240 So Dad's interest, my dad's interest was economics and economic development. 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.559 You know you wanted to So we lived in Tanzania, 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:04.120 and then we lived in Nigeria, UM, and then the 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:09.000 Philippines right when the Marquesses came in M. Marcos Ferdinand 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.440 and mL de Marcos. Yeah, and then uh we actually 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:18.319 Dad worked was in a political appointment during the Carter administration, 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.040 the Jimmy car administration. That's that's when actually we moved 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.280 to Saudi Arabia. So we lived in Saudi Arabia in 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.079 seventies six and seventy seven and part of seventy eight. 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.199 And I UM I couldn't go to school in the 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:35.600 kingdom because they didn't allow after ninth grade. Expatriate kids 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.040 were not allowed to go to school in Saudi Arabia 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:42.680 unless you went to a um a school in Islamic 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.280 school and so I had a choice to either take 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.080 correspondence courses at home, which I tried for a little bit, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.760 but that was kind of goofy. And then the only 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.400 other choice was I had to leave home, so I went. 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:58.840 I was sixteen, I turned seventeen in Italy UM and 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:00.600 you got to remember those of the days. It wasn't 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.000 like it was no cell phone or I remember when 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.160 I got to Rome, I went to I did I 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.240 went to I actually went to Notre Dame International, which 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.280 is a high school UM that is run by the 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.000 same brothers, the Holy Cross that run Notre Dame University, 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.320 even though I happened to not be Roman Catholic. But 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.920 I uh, that was a fantastic school. And it's one 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.800 of these schools, international schools that of course, I grew 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.640 up in international schools where you'll have American curriculum and 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.400 you'll have like half the kids at the school will 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.800 be whatever the the country is, so they're half the 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.480 kids are Retalian and the other half our kids from 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.240 all literally all over the world. You know, who are 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.000 looking for a great school. Many Americans, folks with Exxon 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.640 and you know, it might be with Lockheed, might be 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.000 State Department people, all kinds of people. But um, it's 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.920 really it's kind of a crazy thing. It's when I 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.440 went there for a year. Uh, and then my dad 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.920 was restationed back to the United States and so we 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.120 went back and I actually never I never lived abroad again. 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.080 My parents lived in Botswana for many years so that 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.680 they love Africa. They love Africa, and I traveled to 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.720 Botswana a fair amount. And I'm still through our church. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.360 I am still in relationship with a um an organization 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.880 actually a hospice in Botswana that um and we raise 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:24.440 money for them. We have a thing called the Greatest 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.760 Show Ever we do every year, which is a night 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:33.080 of impersonations I hosted. It's for dead artists and dead careers. Yeah, 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.320 so we have Sadly, we have a lot of new, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.360 new new folks who got it to the lineup. I 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.320 know I'm going to do Leonard Cohen though, Yeah, I gotta, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.040 I gotta do Leonard. I just need to like backtrack, 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:48.160 just what did you gather from living in all of 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.360 these different countries, with all of these different cultures and 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.920 such a pivotal point of your life when you're developing, 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.640 like obviously you're preteen, teen and teen and you're living 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.240 in all of these different cultures. What is that and 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.040 what did that do to your thought process? I don't know. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.440 I mean that's big. Those are big. Those are good questions, 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:11.840 are big questions. I mean, um, probably uh well, probably 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:16.560 an appreciation of diversity. You know, um, when you have 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.600 a lot of friends who are you have friends who 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:24.840 are Muslims, and you have friends who are you know, Buddhists, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.560 you have friends who are you know, can it can 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.520 break along nationalities, it can break along race. You know, 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.960 you have friends of your Italian you have friends are Africans, 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.320 you have friends you know, you just sort of that's 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:37.840 the world that actually is there and so you live 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.360 in that and you and you're proud of your country. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.880 You're proud to represent your country, because my folks used 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.600 to say that, used to say, you know, remember you're 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.640 representing your country. But like to give you an example, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.560 like when we lived in Saudi Arabia. I mean, my 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.880 mom's just like from a small town in Michigan, and 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.400 you know she was studying Arabic you know, in a 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:59.440 country that uh in the seventies and now that has 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:04.520 by Western standards. You know, they there are laws towards women. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.840 You know, we're not That wasn't a pretty sot. You know. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.720 She wasn't allowed to drive, she couldn't know, she couldn't 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.800 wear she had her skirts, had to have long, her 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.200 dresses had to be long sleeved, had to be down 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.600 to her ankles. Did she wear something of her head? Um? 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.440 I did. She had scarfs, but you know she didn't 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:29.160 have to do like heyja or whatever. By Yeah, basically 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:34.199 just Westerners, you know. Um. But what that tells you 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.439 is that, you know, um, my folks really gave me 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.080 a sense that you know, we were guests in host 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.800 countries and that we should be respectful as we could, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.080 you know, of other people's traditions and their cultures. And 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.840 so I guess that, I mean, that's certainly one thing, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:58.919 and that, you know, affected me. I think musically, I 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:02.280 already had parents who are kind of um, you know, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.720 I grew up My parents listened to oh god, I 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:07.679 mean they had so much folk music. I mean it 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.639 was all like, you know, Bob Dylan and I don't know, 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.520 Pete Seeger and Joan Bias and all this stuff. And 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.600 then they listened to classical music. They were way you know, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.159 they had met in choir, so they listened a lot 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.680 to choral music and then they were they were bonkers 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.560 over Broadway music. So you've also written six Broadway musicals, 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:28.639 which is I haven't been on Broadway, but I've been. 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.680 I've done off Broadway six musicals I've written three have 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.119 been on off Broadway, right, Yeah, And I've written an opera, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.040 an opera for Nashville Opera Company. And you also wrote 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.640 a children's book, and you've also done a documentary. I mean, 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:48.919 your creativity is overflowing from you. Yeah, well, you know, 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.800 you having fun. You know, it's you're just a very 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.439 creative person. And you're very smart too. Like that's the 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.040 thing about you. I've gotten a chance to write songs 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.119 with you and like be around you're not for years. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.959 Something about the way that you were raised, Like like 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.000 maybe what you said, like you understand diversity and you 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.040 appreciate it, mixed with how smart you are, mixed with 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.639 your love of folk and very good lyric lyrical music 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.360 with great melodies. The way you write songs is literally 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.280 unlike anything I've ever experienced. Really sweet of you to 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.560 say that. And we've and you and I we've we've 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.360 had some we've done some music together too, That's one 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.080 I love. I'm not you know, I don't know your 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.480 how your fans, you know, but I'm sure they know 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.119 this about you're a very very good musician. That's not true. 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.440 That is true. You have a beautiful voice, and you 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.879 have a great sense of music. Well, when I'm with 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.280 a great teacher, you said you struggle with you know, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.159 harmony is a funny thing, you know, because I'm kind 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.920 of a I'm a harmony I'm just nutso about harmonies. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.520 But you can hear like seventeen different harmony parts. I 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:55.840 don't know I hear, you know. I started writing choral 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:00.159 stuff um one of the latest projects. Uh. I was 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.399 commissioned a couple of years ago to write a cantata, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.760 so a passion cantata for the church. So the Episcopal 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.600 Cathedral said, you know, we'll give you a few some bucks. 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.640 And I started working over at Belmont with this group 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.119 called the Chamber Singers and Dr Dean and Sminger and 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.400 and I don't really read music except Nashville style numbers 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.480 and and I'm an ear player on piano and different instruments. 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.960 You play a lot of instruments, A few instruments. But 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.280 I also got into this process because I was writing 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.919 theater through the years. I started to get this idea 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.280 that I wanted to do my own harmonies, my own 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.159 and then begin to think of it in terms of 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.520 choral music. And so got into this process and built 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.119 some relationships at a couple of conservatories where I could 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.280 send files where I would duplicate. I might sing four 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.360 part you know s a TV, and then I would 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:53.600 send I would triple or quadruple. You know I should 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.480 say this. And I know this because right now I've 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.560 been working with a hundred person choir at Belmont, and 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.720 I work people at one time. Last week we recorded 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.600 something and then Friday we're gonna finish. We're putting the 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.920 other fifty kids in the room because we couldn't get 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.280 all hundred in. And I'm working with the the the 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.000 conductor arranger, Professor Dr Jane Warren on this one, and 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.280 she she's actually taken my uh choral arrangement which was 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.399 transcribed at the Heart Conservatory that's how I do it, um. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:29.040 And then she has actually added some parts so that 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:32.840 we could have true you know, um, true soprano parts. 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.640 So for example, I mean yeah, I can do sa 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.800 TV falsetto and then early in the morning I sing 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.960 bass and I'm a natural tenor. And uh but that actually, 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.520 you know, there is a range of singing that is 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.680 I can't do it. And because my my painting, you know, 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:51.960 my color is my paint brush is just my voice. 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.320 That's how I write, you know, I write by singing everything. 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:57.840 And I spent a lot of time on it, you know, 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.280 but it's a it's a super fun thing. And this 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.680 just now this year we published the National Church. Episcopal 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:07.560 Church has just released a book actually called The Passion. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:09.560 I called it The Passion and Beck and I, my 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.560 wife and I wrote um a little book about each 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.119 of the six movements within the cantata, and then it 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.360 attached to it is the the the CD itself called 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.440