Speaker 1: Welcome to episode one nine of the Bobby Cast. Here
Speaker 1: with Tanil towns Um And By the way, I know
Speaker 1: you're a big Tom Douglas fan, right I am. Yes,
Speaker 1: he wrote the House That Built Me. That Miranda sang
Speaker 1: one of my favorite songs of all time. He's done
Speaker 1: one of these before for an hour for an hour. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I should go back and check that out. I totally will. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you just just we're not I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess we're kind of promoting a past episode. But what
Speaker 1: did he write? What else did he write? It had
Speaker 1: a really good story about was when Lady and Bell
Speaker 1: and come to his house. Yeah, and they sat around
Speaker 1: the piano and yeah, and how they all just kind
Speaker 1: of It's good. I was thinking about because I know
Speaker 1: you're coming over and I'm a big fan. That's one
Speaker 1: of your favorite songs on the House to Build Me. Yes,
Speaker 1: it really is. I every time I hear it, whether
Speaker 1: it's like the intro coming on the radio or I've
Speaker 1: heard her do it in her show night after night,
Speaker 1: and it's like, every time it takes me back to
Speaker 1: my childhood house and makes me weepy. Isn't it crazy?
Speaker 1: Has some songs you hear and they actually like either
Speaker 1: speak to you or for you yes. And that didn't
Speaker 1: happen to me until probably, you know, my mid twenties,
Speaker 1: where I started to go, oh, these songs are actually
Speaker 1: saying how I feel. It was the first time I've
Speaker 1: ever heard a song. The one for me was John Mayer,
Speaker 1: Stop this Train. I would do that song. I would go, oh,
Speaker 1: he sings for what I'm thinking, And it was the
Speaker 1: first time a songwriter had ever actually said words that
Speaker 1: I felt. And that's when it all started the shifts
Speaker 1: for me going oh, there are not people that kind
Speaker 1: of understand how I feel singing, And for me it
Speaker 1: was it was John Mayer. It's funny that you say
Speaker 1: that you hear that song and you think about, you know,
Speaker 1: going back home, who are the other songwriters that you
Speaker 1: you hear and go oh, man, like, that's that's some
Speaker 1: real stuff. Laura McKenna. I got to see her play
Speaker 1: around at the Bluebird when I first pulled into town
Speaker 1: to move here. Flucally got a seat and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget sitting there watching her. And I had known her
Speaker 1: name and known her songs because I'm kind of like
Speaker 1: a lyric book freak and I had obsessed over all
Speaker 1: my favorites were always hers on these records, and I
Speaker 1: really this that. It really hit me and I went
Speaker 1: home and like completely went through her whole catalog and
Speaker 1: collection and I have still like three of her CDs
Speaker 1: in my six CD truck. So I'm I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1: Patty Griffin is the one that I just absolutely love.
Speaker 1: There's something so raw about her delivery too. It's it
Speaker 1: just feels like she's kind of walking up to the
Speaker 1: mic and saying something. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: truth that fits out from there. Loria was going to
Speaker 1: come to a show here. I know Laurie relatively well,
Speaker 1: and I got sick because Laura doesn't live here, she
Speaker 1: lives in Boston, and she was coming down and we've
Speaker 1: tried like three times, and I talked to Loria tell
Speaker 1: we text back and forth a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: got really sick. And I feel I let a lot
Speaker 1: of people down because they were still excited about her coming.
Speaker 1: I was excited, were you, Yeah, we've been trying so long,
Speaker 1: it'll happen. Yeah, it'll happen to you know. Have you
Speaker 1: been to write with Lorie? So I wrote with Lauria
Speaker 1: here on one of her trips, and I was just
Speaker 1: like shaking, Oh yeah, it's like I think we were
Speaker 1: actually talking a little bit about this um before. But
Speaker 1: it's one thing to meet someone you look up to
Speaker 1: a lot, and then it's a whole other thing when
Speaker 1: they completely exceed all the expectations that you have. And
Speaker 1: she sat down and she was just so cool and
Speaker 1: kind and just like such a sweet mom. She's like
Speaker 1: talking to her son on the phone right before we
Speaker 1: were writing and asking me about my story, and we
Speaker 1: just sat there and got to know one another. I
Speaker 1: love that when a writer really it's like I know
Speaker 1: we're here to like write a song, but like tell
Speaker 1: me about your heart. I love that so much. And
Speaker 1: she was just everything and more I dreamed of that
Speaker 1: session would be. That song is very special to me.
Speaker 1: I like got my vehicle after drove phone parked in
Speaker 1: front of my little place, like called my dad was
Speaker 1: like crying, and we have this thing that we say,
Speaker 1: it's it's a good day to go for ice cream,
Speaker 1: and so he'll go for like ice cream back at home.
Speaker 1: And I definitely had ice cream in the day that
Speaker 1: I wrote with Laurie. My kind of was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And Laurie. If you're not familiar with Laurie, she um
Speaker 1: is one of the love junkies. First of all that
Speaker 1: um she wrote girl Crush and that those three it's Laurie, Hilary,
Speaker 1: Lindsay and Liz Rose. Liz also did one of these
Speaker 1: was fantastic too, so cool. Um they write together. Lorie
Speaker 1: also went humbling kind Laurie's written a bunch of songs, um,
Speaker 1: and she's an artist herself, like it sings. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll get that one soon hopefully so. And you mentioned
Speaker 1: Patty grib I wondered at a Patty and Austin sometimes
Speaker 1: that's so cool. Yeah, you you bet remind me of Patty.
Speaker 1: Like your style. That means a lot. Um, Larry, Let's
Speaker 1: play something here. This is let us do where you are.
Speaker 1: It's quite a litle bit of that outstanding. It's a
Speaker 1: line any MoU just find my way away are. This
Speaker 1: might have been the first song from ever. It's the
Speaker 1: one last thing back to you the most. Yes, I
Speaker 1: love that you do. It's and Neil opened up for
Speaker 1: me uh in my comedy show this past weekend, and
Speaker 1: she was like any request from the crowd, and I
Speaker 1: was just sitting in the crowd, and I was like,
Speaker 1: where you are hard? So she played it? She played it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so what tell me about that song? How long agould
Speaker 1: you write that? Let's see, just over a year ago,
Speaker 1: also still relatively newish, Yeah, I think so. My My
Speaker 1: friends Dan, Daniel Tashan and Keylan Donovan and I were
Speaker 1: sitting at Big Yellow Dog we all right for that
Speaker 1: publishing company, and and Daniel had this really cool little
Speaker 1: kind of electric mandolin and he was playing this beautiful
Speaker 1: little melody and Keelan was saying how true love is
Speaker 1: really represented by how long you'll stand in line for
Speaker 1: someone for anything. Like That's such a good point. We
Speaker 1: just kind of went from there. But I love this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah I did too. It's a good one. It's right
Speaker 1: now you have um, you have that what the living rooms?
Speaker 1: That sessions? Living room work types don't even work types, right,
Speaker 1: and it's all very acoustic stuff. Yes, So how many
Speaker 1: of those songs are on that? I'm okay? So it's
Speaker 1: like where you are, Jersey on the Wall, White Horse,
Speaker 1: Somebody's daughter obviously, um, but somebody's daughter you have up twice.
Speaker 1: It's do you have to you have the acoustic version
Speaker 1: and then the full version. Right, so you have those four.
Speaker 1: But what I was telling you it was like I'm
Speaker 1: so ready for like a bunch of music, like and
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan. I tell you that all the time.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even embarrassed to tell you because I
Speaker 1: think if you enjoy what people do and they create,
Speaker 1: you should tell them. Um. And I remember the first
Speaker 1: time we met. We were in Las Vegas, not together.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you knew who I was. Oh,
Speaker 1: definitely knew who you were. This is probably eight six
Speaker 1: seven months ago. Yeah, man, it's only that. So there
Speaker 1: was a party and I was after an award show.
Speaker 1: Is that what we were there for? Yes? I think so.
Speaker 1: And I walked up to this party because it was
Speaker 1: are you see okay? So am we have so we
Speaker 1: have the same representation? Yeah? Um, and so I go
Speaker 1: to this party where like my agents are TV agents
Speaker 1: or c A, my music agents or CIA, and so I,
Speaker 1: um go up to this party where they were and
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, there's some artists over here. You just
Speaker 1: say how to some people and they were like Danil
Speaker 1: Towns over there. I was like, oh, I'm the biggest
Speaker 1: Danil Towns fan and I walk out and I'm like, hey, Danil,
Speaker 1: and she was like, you don't know who I am?
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, you are from Calgary, Like
Speaker 1: every thinking about like how do you know that? Like hello?
Speaker 1: It was so cool. Thank you for that. It's cool.
Speaker 1: And now I'm gonna play a little bit of somebody's
Speaker 1: daughter here because this is your song right now, this
Speaker 1: is what they call your single. It's this correct? Yeah, boy,
Speaker 1: it was How did they go along with you and
Speaker 1: pick a song and it's gonna be your first song?
Speaker 1: And what's that process? Like are you involved in that?
Speaker 1: Are you sitting in a room thinking about, well, what's
Speaker 1: gonna be the first single? Definitely for me, I'm such
Speaker 1: I love believing in the process of like envisioning what
Speaker 1: you want to happen and focusing on that. And for me,
Speaker 1: looking at the collection of songs, the sage of what
Speaker 1: this stands for and what I kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: walk out with an introduction to people for was represented
Speaker 1: in this song to me, and I'm really grateful to
Speaker 1: the people that I work with really listened to that
Speaker 1: and respected that, and we all bounced around everybody's ideas
Speaker 1: and and I'm grateful. This one kind of stuck out
Speaker 1: for everybody. Is this the one that you wanted? Yes, well,
Speaker 1: rare than a new artist has an idea and everyone
Speaker 1: agrees with it. I really do consider that a really
Speaker 1: cool thing. So you grew up in Canada, I did, so,
Speaker 1: are you from Calgary or from outside Calgary, like where
Speaker 1: I'm from Grand Prairie. Actually, so it's like eight hours
Speaker 1: north of Calgary. You're not even from Calgary. No, that's
Speaker 1: like a whole different state in the in America from Calgary.
Speaker 1: Alberta's close anything in Olvera. I'm like, yeah, that's where
Speaker 1: I'm from, but it's Grand Fairies. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: a fairly small community and the wide open spaces, lots
Speaker 1: of sky, lots of fields for most of the year,
Speaker 1: lots of snow. Yeah. We were in Michigan and there
Speaker 1: was like a little bit of know, it mostly melted.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, look at this, not just a
Speaker 1: little nothing. I mean, that's so cold and snowy it is.
Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, I it's a winter wonderland. I
Speaker 1: was just up there for Christmas and it's beautiful. It
Speaker 1: builds a lot of character for people up there because
Speaker 1: It's not always the most glamorous of circumstances, shoveling and
Speaker 1: working outside in the cold, and I think it brings
Speaker 1: people closer together a lot, because you're stuck in the
Speaker 1: house all the time. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta make
Speaker 1: your own sunshine up there. So why I moved to Nashville.
Speaker 1: Did you think about staying in Canada and doing country
Speaker 1: music in Canada? Like, what was the deal? I did?
Speaker 1: And I definitely got my feet wet putting things out
Speaker 1: in Canada and touring and exploring that there's a really
Speaker 1: awesome community of Canadian country music family up there that
Speaker 1: I love. But for me, it was always sort of
Speaker 1: this crazy dream. I did this song or his workshop
Speaker 1: when I was fourteen, and one of the mentors was
Speaker 1: from Nashville, and I had obviously heard of Nashville. I
Speaker 1: listened to the Grand Operations my grandparents and knew from
Speaker 1: all the liner notes, so this is where all the
Speaker 1: recording happened and the writing, and just dreamed about it.
Speaker 1: And this mentor was like, we should come to Nashville
Speaker 1: and right sometime, and I was like, you can do that,
Speaker 1: Like we could just go there and write, and so
Speaker 1: shortly after that, my mom took me and made my
Speaker 1: first trip, and she rented the car and drove me
Speaker 1: around to these writing sessions, and I fell in love
Speaker 1: four your fourteen and you you came to Nashville and
Speaker 1: drove around with people. Yes, how did you get rights
Speaker 1: of fourteen? From that mentor that you know? Wrote with me?
Speaker 1: He was mostly who I was writing with on that trip.
Speaker 1: But then he set up other sessions for us to
Speaker 1: go go to, So I'll be forever grateful for that.
Speaker 1: And and I went. We went and saw everything. We drove.
Speaker 1: I would make my mom drive up and down, music
Speaker 1: grow and I would just be like reading all the
Speaker 1: signs of these buildings. And we went to the opera
Speaker 1: and walked around the Hall of Fame, and it just
Speaker 1: lit this fire in me. I was like, I can
Speaker 1: all wait to come back years someday. And I kept
Speaker 1: making trips back and forth from that point as much
Speaker 1: as my parents would let me skip school and and
Speaker 1: come and take the time to take me in. And
Speaker 1: I made probably seven or eight trips until I graduated.
Speaker 1: And then before graduation, I sat my parents down. I
Speaker 1: was like, so my dad's a big outliers guy and
Speaker 1: believes in the ten thousand hours thing, and that was
Speaker 1: my pitch. I was like, I can't get my ten
Speaker 1: thousand hours, you know, working at this music thing if
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to university somewhere. So I didn't apply,
Speaker 1: and I came up with this plan where we visited
Speaker 1: junior high in high schools and spent thirty two weeks
Speaker 1: in a motor home driving across Canada and playing for kids.
Speaker 1: And it was like the most awesome experience and made
Speaker 1: me fall in love with the roads so much. I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I'm in. And then when that too
Speaker 1: a wrapped, I decided that Nashville was where I wanted
Speaker 1: to land and go, and so my dad and helped
Speaker 1: me drive. We loaded up my Tacoma and it's forty
Speaker 1: five hour trip from her. I'm fraide to Nashville. What's
Speaker 1: the when you cross Canada into the States that border
Speaker 1: tricky or no? Tricky? Yeah, I mean the press because
Speaker 1: I've done in the Mexico when yes, So I don't
Speaker 1: know what the candidate American border is. You gotta have
Speaker 1: your pay work for sure, but you can also just
Speaker 1: come visit for six months. So initially I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: what it was like to be here and stay so
Speaker 1: that my plan was just to come for six months
Speaker 1: and see And so we crossed the border. That was
Speaker 1: funny that the guard at the border looked at my
Speaker 1: dad and was like, so, let me get this straight.
Speaker 1: You're driving her all the way to Nashville and you're
Speaker 1: dropping her off and you're flying home and you're leaving
Speaker 1: her there. And my Dad's like, yeah, that sounds kind
Speaker 1: of crazy, doesn't it. But that's exactly what happened. So
Speaker 1: I stayed here and just I mean, I loved it
Speaker 1: so much. I learned so much. I would go out
Speaker 1: to writers around every night and just obsess over all
Speaker 1: my heroes and go sitting Guitar Center forever and being
Speaker 1: completely intimidated and overwhelmed by the massive amount of talent
Speaker 1: in this town. And it just made me so hungry
Speaker 1: to go home and write a million more songs. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that going to writer's rounds. Just
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Speaker 1: It's a free and really easy right, so so easy? Uh?
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Speaker 1: go to Warby Parker dot com slash Bobby. That's what
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Speaker 1: pair of glasses. Okay, So you you come to town
Speaker 1: and you're going to writer's rounds, which means you walk
Speaker 1: into a place. It can be like the listening room cafe.
Speaker 1: You can be the bluebird. It's just songwriters playing the
Speaker 1: songs they wrote. Most of the times, it's not the artists.
Speaker 1: When you would go to the writer's rounds, who did
Speaker 1: you see And you'd go like, it's so freaking cool
Speaker 1: that I can see this person play like in your
Speaker 1: early days of just going in like watching Kalen Smith.
Speaker 1: Caitlin's one of the first ones things we ever did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Caitlin's a friend, She's so cool. And I would hear
Speaker 1: people like Caitlin South, Laura Canada, Tom Douglas, I mean,
Speaker 1: Josh Kere, Gordy Sampson, all these guys like talk about
Speaker 1: what it was like when they first got to town
Speaker 1: and talk about showing up in this town with stars
Speaker 1: in their eyes and just this creative spirit and just
Speaker 1: keep plugging away at it and hear the story of
Speaker 1: how long it takes and you know their process, And
Speaker 1: that was always the most encouraging thing because I was like,
Speaker 1: if they can sit there and play that song. It's
Speaker 1: like a number one on radio that they poured their
Speaker 1: whole heart into and tell me that you stick with
Speaker 1: it and it works. And I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do that. You know. It was really cool to hear
Speaker 1: them tell those stories and so you did that a lot. Huh.
Speaker 1: Who What's funny is people come to town and other
Speaker 1: people come to town around the same time. Because this town,
Speaker 1: there's always a new crew people coming in. It's like classes.
Speaker 1: And I've often talked to artists and songwriters about who
Speaker 1: came in their class, because like in my class around
Speaker 1: the same time was Dan and Shay. They got together,
Speaker 1: I got on the radio. We kind of started at
Speaker 1: the same time. We kind of have that we're going
Speaker 1: through this together. Um, you know, we've even a bit, Darius,
Speaker 1: because we were both doing pop and rocks and we
Speaker 1: both crossed, so we've done a bunch of stuff together.
Speaker 1: That So who moved to town around the time you
Speaker 1: did that you kind of would see and you were
Speaker 1: starting out around the same point. That's a good question.
Speaker 1: There's definitely a crew of Canadians that I would like
Speaker 1: new from back home, but anybody, but I'm like you
Speaker 1: come to town and you saw them starting out around
Speaker 1: the same time. Kaylee hammock Um, Cassie Ashton and let's
Speaker 1: see who else, my friend Madison kozak Um And when
Speaker 1: was that one? Did you come to town? Let's see
Speaker 1: five years ago now, okay, I mean a little after
Speaker 1: when I got here. We're almost in the same were
Speaker 1: also almost almost not fully. So you come to town
Speaker 1: and you start just kind of grabbing friends, right, anybody
Speaker 1: that that will be friends with you. You're just searching
Speaker 1: for people to write with, to hang out with. And
Speaker 1: that's a weird thing. It's almost like going to a
Speaker 1: new school. It is kind of like going to a
Speaker 1: new school. And I think what's interesting about Nashville. A
Speaker 1: lot of people are very out much outside of their
Speaker 1: comfort zones, away from their homes, away from their families,
Speaker 1: and they're like the friends that they grew up with,
Speaker 1: the life they know, and it's like they're coming to
Speaker 1: pour everything they have into this craft. And I think
Speaker 1: that's like such a common ground to really connect with people.
Speaker 1: And it's like you're not alone in that. You told
Speaker 1: a story on my show once about Shania Twain pulling
Speaker 1: you on stage the right. Yes, you're a kid, right,
Speaker 1: So you go to a show? Are you sitting up front?
Speaker 1: So a whole bunch of my family went, but my
Speaker 1: mom and I ended up in the second row. And
Speaker 1: I had made a costume, while my mom actually had
Speaker 1: made a costume right before we drove. It's a five
Speaker 1: hour drive Demonton to go see all these concerts. And
Speaker 1: she like glue gunns this the yellow and red and
Speaker 1: orange stripes, like the Miami Concert DVD that I had
Speaker 1: obsessed a million times over. And I had the little
Speaker 1: yellow ponytail on top of my head and I made
Speaker 1: a sign with glitter on it that said, Shana, I
Speaker 1: can I please sing with you? And so I mean
Speaker 1: I was singing at the top of my lungs to
Speaker 1: the whole show. I knew every word, and she eventually,
Speaker 1: you like came around the security guard let me stand
Speaker 1: right up by the stage. I was like, this is
Speaker 1: the best day of my life. And she like passed
Speaker 1: the mic to this girl few seats down and let
Speaker 1: her sing some lines and then kept walking towards me.
Speaker 1: And I thought, maybe she's going to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: but instead of like reaching out the microphone, she stuck
Speaker 1: her hand out and so I like threw the sign
Speaker 1: behind me and grabbed her hand and we ran around
Speaker 1: her stage. We had like three tiers to it, and
Speaker 1: I remember the floor was like the checker plate pattern,
Speaker 1: and I remember running kind of beside her, holding her
Speaker 1: hand and seeing her feet and I was like, this
Speaker 1: is real, Like this is real. And so we end
Speaker 1: up on this third tier and I'm looking out to
Speaker 1: this like black curtain because the lights are this crazy
Speaker 1: haze in there, and I can't see anybody, but I
Speaker 1: can hear the sound of what eighteen tho people screaming
Speaker 1: feels like. And I was like, this is it. This
Speaker 1: is everything I want to do, and I'm standing here
Speaker 1: next to my hero. And she asked me to sing
Speaker 1: a piece of a song by myself. So I sang
Speaker 1: the chorus upon me, I'm home and really yeah, and
Speaker 1: then luckily it h yeah. And you, just nine years old,
Speaker 1: were so confident that you just do you think you
Speaker 1: were a bit naive at nine. I wasn't thinking about
Speaker 1: any kind of fear at all. It was just straight
Speaker 1: love for it and it. I'm so grateful that happened
Speaker 1: at that point in my life, because that anchor always
Speaker 1: stuck with me, and it's like, no matter what kind
Speaker 1: of insecurities are things that happened as you keep growing
Speaker 1: up and start noticing what other people think or whatever happens,
Speaker 1: is like I had this fire in me and it
Speaker 1: was like no, no, no, I know what that feels like,
Speaker 1: and that's what matters to me. So you sing this song,
Speaker 1: do you remember the crowd cheering? You do you can
Speaker 1: still picture? Oh, yeah, very clearly, because that's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. It is a lot of people. And what
Speaker 1: happens when you're done? So I finished, and she kind
Speaker 1: of smiles at me and shakes her head and uh,
Speaker 1: she said something, and I told her she was beautiful
Speaker 1: and thanked her, and then I think she said something
Speaker 1: like I should probably take you back to your mom
Speaker 1: or dad or something. It doesn't seem like you really
Speaker 1: need one, though, like locked me back to down. And
Speaker 1: every time I'm out a show and I see someone
Speaker 1: like pulls a kid out of the crowd, it like
Speaker 1: brings me right back. It's like that is powerful. You know,
Speaker 1: you just never forget something like that. Have you seen
Speaker 1: her since? Yes? I just got to run into her
Speaker 1: at a billboard event less than a year ago, and
Speaker 1: I walked in the room and she was presenting this
Speaker 1: award and it was like kind of like a small
Speaker 1: It was at a hotel and she got up there
Speaker 1: and I was presenting this award and I was standing
Speaker 1: there and I'm going, I'm in the same room as
Speaker 1: Shania Twin at an industry event in Nashville, Like I
Speaker 1: was there, yes, and she was. She was talking now
Speaker 1: Downtown was that downtown hotel? And it just hit me
Speaker 1: those like, I mean I didn't even sneak in, like
Speaker 1: I was like invited to go. And she finished her
Speaker 1: you know, giving out her award, and everybody was kind
Speaker 1: of mingling, and someone kind of grabbed my arm and
Speaker 1: introduced me, and I mean I could barely speak. Thank goodness.
Speaker 1: The other person was like telling part of the story
Speaker 1: for me because I was yeah, and I was just
Speaker 1: like thank you. And I actually have a picture of ends.
Speaker 1: I showed her. She's like, is that you. It's like yeah,
Speaker 1: so we got a new picture. And it was just
Speaker 1: the craziest full circle moments. Pretty cool. That is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: It's also too, you know, we mentioned at the first
Speaker 1: of the show or or whatever this is the podcast
Speaker 1: that it's always weird to meet people that you really
Speaker 1: look up to or admire their work or you think
Speaker 1: are cool, because they almost can't get cooler. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: so hard for someone. And I've had the struggle with
Speaker 1: wanting to meet my heroes, like David Letterman's been my
Speaker 1: hero forever, like Howard Stern, like these guys. It's like,
Speaker 1: if I meet them, there's almost no way they're gonna
Speaker 1: be cooler than I already feel they are. So I've
Speaker 1: always been like, I probably won't want to meet them
Speaker 1: because if she and I have been terrible, that's very true,
Speaker 1: that were just an off day, or it would probably
Speaker 1: you know, tainted at least your thoughts of her now.
Speaker 1: But I don't think it could ever touch what what happened.
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree with that. I think I would
Speaker 1: just be like, no, that that just stays in this special,
Speaker 1: special glass box or something. You have a picture of
Speaker 1: you on stage with her at all and nine years old.
Speaker 1: You have that picture. Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's cool
Speaker 1: that you can still remember it. You know why we
Speaker 1: have the picture because these ladies who we didn't even
Speaker 1: know that we're sitting beside a snug a disposable camera
Speaker 1: into the concert because you weren't allowed to bring cameras,
Speaker 1: and so they like passed the camera to my mom
Speaker 1: and the fiddle player took it up on stage and
Speaker 1: they were like, we're her aunties and we had like
Speaker 1: just met them an hour ago. And then we got
Speaker 1: their address and they sent us the film role from
Speaker 1: this disposable to the show. Isn't that cool? That's really
Speaker 1: cool that they went through all of that to get
Speaker 1: somebody they didn't know totally. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Let's
Speaker 1: see what else. I'm just trying to think through all
Speaker 1: my fan club stuff I have of you, because i'm
Speaker 1: your basically the president of your fan club. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that so much. Whenever you played the Opery, and it
Speaker 1: was your first time to play the Opery, you basically
Speaker 1: brought your whole town right right like you went to
Speaker 1: because I remember seeing on on maybe the paper did
Speaker 1: something like that, what's it called the National the Tennessee
Speaker 1: And yeah, I remember like ten thousand people all dressed
Speaker 1: exactly the same coming off an escalator and then you
Speaker 1: go into the right So how many people did you
Speaker 1: bring from your hometown to watch you play? There were
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty seats on a seven thirty seven airplane.
Speaker 1: So that's how many people came. Crazy, It's insane, Bobby,
Speaker 1: how many people came? A hundred and forty people. I
Speaker 1: don't know, a hundred and so they all from your
Speaker 1: hometown bought a ticket and came to support you and
Speaker 1: watch you at the opery. Yeah, it's insane. It's so incredible.
Speaker 1: And like they always used to joke, I play songs
Speaker 1: around the campfire. I mean, these people show up to
Speaker 1: all kinds of different local events. These were like people
Speaker 1: I call auntie who are not my auntie. Like these
Speaker 1: are like family friends, super close, just people that have
Speaker 1: been a part of this adventure. From the beginning. I
Speaker 1: used to sing the anthem at our local hockey games
Speaker 1: as this little kid, and these people would be like
Speaker 1: they just started to get to know me from there.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, we do a big
Speaker 1: event in my hometown called Big Hearts for Big Kids,
Speaker 1: and six hundred people show up every year for our
Speaker 1: youth shelter, and it's one of the most incredible things
Speaker 1: I've ever been a part of. And those people are
Speaker 1: all family to me, and that those are the ones
Speaker 1: who came and they just it's who they are. They
Speaker 1: show up, they show up every time, and they have
Speaker 1: my whole life. And seeing them come off that escalator
Speaker 1: was like the most I can't even put it into words,
Speaker 1: but it's like the biggest hometown hug I could have
Speaker 1: ever dreamed of. And standing up there on the Opery
Speaker 1: stage was, I mean, such a legendary moment for me
Speaker 1: that I'll never forget. But sharing that with them and
Speaker 1: being like, hey, we did this together, you know, because
Speaker 1: their belief is a big part of the reason that
Speaker 1: I'm here, and yeah, it means the world to me.
Speaker 1: What are you thinking when you're standing in the circle
Speaker 1: on the Opery and you're about to play and you know,
Speaker 1: they say, because you know I've done it. It's it's
Speaker 1: really great because they go that you walk at there's
Speaker 1: no it's not like a cool intro where they open
Speaker 1: the carpet. It's it's so old school, which was cool
Speaker 1: about it, Like while they're doing a commercial for Cracker Borol.
Speaker 1: You just walk out there. You know, it's not like
Speaker 1: flames and is that like towns And all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you come up from a you know something under
Speaker 1: the stage. He's you know, he's going and don't forget
Speaker 1: four ninety nine cracker Boro get a mean three, and
Speaker 1: you're just walking out while that's happening. And for me,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not talented in the way that you are.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm going, well, I gotta go out and
Speaker 1: you know, do some jokes, play some songs. But for you,
Speaker 1: you're going out there. You're such an emotional performance, such
Speaker 1: an emotional person. I just wonder what's going through your
Speaker 1: head when not only are you playing the opera for
Speaker 1: the first time, my first time, I don't even be there.
Speaker 1: I wonder they don't come. It was like I told
Speaker 1: everybody on the show. You told them not to come.
Speaker 1: Some people still came, but I made everybody not come.
Speaker 1: I'm the opposite of you, and almost every way I
Speaker 1: forgot about. Yeah, I seen the email that I said,
Speaker 1: don't come to my first opera show because I'm scared
Speaker 1: of what's gonna happen. So it was the opposite of you.
Speaker 1: So you get out there and all your people are there.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming there was like this big pop roar, right,
Speaker 1: what are you thinking before it starts? So someone told
Speaker 1: me right before I walked on Sally with the opera.
Speaker 1: She's like, make sure you take one big breath. She's like,
Speaker 1: because you'll remember everything better if you like actually physically
Speaker 1: breathe it in, because you'll never get the first time again.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, got it. So right as
Speaker 1: the band started and I was walking on and I
Speaker 1: stopped before I entered the circle, took a deep breath
Speaker 1: and like saw my hometown. I knew what section they
Speaker 1: were in it. I was like, there they are, and
Speaker 1: I just like walked in that circle. And I actually
Speaker 1: got to walk in the circle before the show, which
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful for because I bawled my face off,
Speaker 1: so if I hadn't have done that, it would have
Speaker 1: been really hard to sing, I think. So I got
Speaker 1: to sort of walk in the circle have my emotional moment,
Speaker 1: and for me, that moment was like spiritual, like there's
Speaker 1: it just feels like there's an angels in that place,
Speaker 1: Like this is the this is the place, the birthplace
Speaker 1: of so much history of country music and so much
Speaker 1: of the foundations that I get to walk on as
Speaker 1: a new artist are because of you know, the hard
Speaker 1: work and the persistence and the creativity and the being
Speaker 1: different that so many people before me have come and
Speaker 1: paved and standing there for me was like just evidence
Speaker 1: of that, did you do good? I was a little
Speaker 1: shaky on the first one, I will admit, but I
Speaker 1: played jersey on the wall second and I feel like
Speaker 1: I got it together at that point. That one felt
Speaker 1: felt stronger, did you Because I didn't see anyone's faces.
Speaker 1: It was blurry to me, yes, And I looked in
Speaker 1: the crowd and I just was like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: and so I just went, yeah, I didn't really what
Speaker 1: did you see out there? Just silhouettes of where people
Speaker 1: were sitting. I couldn't see faces either, and that's probably
Speaker 1: a good thing too, But it's it's big people few
Speaker 1: tho it's tall now, Like I mean, I probably played
Speaker 1: it ten times or so now so cool, But like
Speaker 1: the second time through the tenth time, I can see
Speaker 1: people spaces now, which is yes, because you one, you've
Speaker 1: done the first one, and it's always a building, You're like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness. It then starts to be a you
Speaker 1: just owe it to that institution to do a good job.
Speaker 1: It's it's more about that place than it is you. Now, Yes,
Speaker 1: the first switch has happened. Absolutely the first time it
Speaker 1: was just about me. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this. And for me it was the Ray
Speaker 1: Stevens Is, the Jerry Clower's comedy country guys who had
Speaker 1: done that, you know. And even because I like, you
Speaker 1: listen to that with my grandmother. That's that's how I
Speaker 1: was exposed to it. It It wasn't that I was like
Speaker 1: looking for the opera as a eleven year old, but
Speaker 1: she would listen to it. And my grandmother adopted me
Speaker 1: and raised me for a long time, and it was
Speaker 1: cool to me because of her. And then it became
Speaker 1: cool to me because of me. That's so cool. But
Speaker 1: for forever it was just cool to me because of
Speaker 1: her only, and so you know, we would listen to
Speaker 1: and that's why it was cool to me to do it.
Speaker 1: Was because because of my grandmother and so. But then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you it starts to be cool because
Speaker 1: then it's not about you. It's only about it. And
Speaker 1: I see people's faces and you know, for me, as
Speaker 1: a comedian, and I'm a sort of a comedian, Um, yes,
Speaker 1: your comedian, what are you talking about? It's not okay
Speaker 1: for me, as someone who does comedy, will say that, okay,
Speaker 1: the audience of the opera is so diverse. There there
Speaker 1: are some young people, there are also some really old people,
Speaker 1: and it's so hard to play a crowd that you
Speaker 1: really can't pinpoint exactly what they're wanting, right, because it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell jokes to someone who's over eighty because
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff that you would talking about
Speaker 1: like in tech, like Instagram or pop culture, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell jokes to twelve year olds. And so
Speaker 1: you have this because he operates all ages. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: a good point. It's it's a very diverse audience that
Speaker 1: I've ever had to do with the operation. I like
Speaker 1: doing it the most. Last time I went, I bombed out,
Speaker 1: A bombed hard. It was the worst. It was. It
Speaker 1: was my worst because I go up and have my
Speaker 1: guitar and I was gonna do I think I had
Speaker 1: twelve minutes and I was going to do um like
Speaker 1: two partial songs and then we're gonna kind of blend in.
Speaker 1: You've seen my show, so I was kind of blending
Speaker 1: and out of it. My guitar falls a part of
Speaker 1: them walking out there, and I don't know it, but
Speaker 1: my like my nut falls out where you if I
Speaker 1: heard something to go clink clink clink, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what it was. I'll walk out
Speaker 1: there and my guitar is broken and I go to
Speaker 1: like plug it and nothing, and it throws me off completely.
Speaker 1: I'm the only instrument to play is because I'm only
Speaker 1: playing my guitar. My whole set is weaving in and
Speaker 1: out of these songs and I'm like, oh, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, what am I going to do? And
Speaker 1: I look over in Sally's over at the side and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm I kind of bombed it pretty hard.
Speaker 1: It was my sounds like a circumstance more than it
Speaker 1: does for sure. But still we have to control our
Speaker 1: circumstances in our life and our careers. Bad will always come,
Speaker 1: it's not if it's wind and how you adjust to it.
Speaker 1: And I think I did okay, but I left going,
Speaker 1: oh man. You ever have a performance where you go
Speaker 1: out and you off and you're like that was not good? Definitely? Yeah,
Speaker 1: There's lots of those moments, and I think we're harder
Speaker 1: on ourselves than anybody. You know. It's like, but I
Speaker 1: definitely magnify certain things in fact um. At our last show,
Speaker 1: I was like, he introduced me the radio person there,
Speaker 1: and he was like and Saniel Towns. I was like,
Speaker 1: walk out and I'm away. Then I dropped my guitar
Speaker 1: pick like right there, and I was like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bend over and pick. I'm not a guitar figure
Speaker 1: right now. It's not the most graceful entrance, but it's
Speaker 1: all part of it, you know. I guess we just
Speaker 1: learned more. Oh, there's plenty, plenty of other things. There's
Speaker 1: been lots of lyric things, lots of you know what
Speaker 1: I've noticed about messing up, and not just in music
Speaker 1: or radio, but just in life. If you don't acknowledge
Speaker 1: the fact that you're messing up, most people don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well people don't care there. And also it's you know,
Speaker 1: I wrote about this in my last book where I
Speaker 1: would and I kind of made the analogy to hot
Speaker 1: Yogat you ever to yogat all ever a little bit,
Speaker 1: not a lot, where I would go to these classes
Speaker 1: and I would be so worried because I was doing
Speaker 1: everything wrong. Because I was doing everything wrong and I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to do it. I was so new
Speaker 1: to all these moves. They would be like okay, now
Speaker 1: for the blossom, and I'd be like, what is that blossom?
Speaker 1: And posa, and they'd be saying all these things and
Speaker 1: I was doing them wrong, and I was struggling, and
Speaker 1: everybody was staring at me, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm gonna go back a second time.
Speaker 1: But I went back a second time, and I got
Speaker 1: a little better, and then I realized that I got
Speaker 1: to be okay at it. I wasn't looking anybody else.
Speaker 1: No one was ever looking at me. We're not looking
Speaker 1: at people really near as much as we think people
Speaker 1: are looking at us. Such a good point. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think, like, when's the last time I saw somebody
Speaker 1: bought a speech or something at work? And I've seen it,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember it, and it's like, I don't
Speaker 1: even care. You move on. So I try to give
Speaker 1: myself that grace when I screw up that people are
Speaker 1: sticking with it. I think it's the grace that you
Speaker 1: give to other people. Sent those opera goers gave me
Speaker 1: grace at night. Oh, I'm quite certainly love that one.
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Speaker 1: do you read outliers? You mentioned that earlier. Have you
Speaker 1: read the book? Fantastic? Right? It's very very cool. The
Speaker 1: ten thou Hours is one of the think a lot
Speaker 1: of people talk about where it's a Malcolm Gladwell book
Speaker 1: and a lot of my friends have read at this point.
Speaker 1: But if you have to do something for ten thousand
Speaker 1: hours to be proficient at that. There were parts of
Speaker 1: that book though. Two that stuck with me was remember
Speaker 1: the airline part, the pilot part where they talked about
Speaker 1: why airplanes crashed in other countries more than America. Yes,
Speaker 1: so what happens is and you mentioned that in That's
Speaker 1: what happened? And I would recommend that book. Where other
Speaker 1: cultures don't speak to their uh supervisors, they're they're the
Speaker 1: people above them in a disrespectful way, and they talk
Speaker 1: about these pilots and other cultures and uh. In like um,
Speaker 1: like Japan, well you do. For example, if the guy
Speaker 1: in the tower goes, hey, you need to go, you know,
Speaker 1: up ten thousand feet right now, they would just do
Speaker 1: it instead of going no, I don't think that's right.
Speaker 1: And then in America they're like, you're wrong. I don't
Speaker 1: need to do that because I'm in the middle of
Speaker 1: the storm right now. And yeah, okay, this is coming
Speaker 1: back to me that might remember that. I probably Butcher
Speaker 1: because it's been so long since I read it didn't
Speaker 1: have something to do like the tone of voice too,
Speaker 1: or something all of it. And some unchers they were
Speaker 1: you know, if it's a respective position, you respect it
Speaker 1: no matter what, regardless of your second. But in like
Speaker 1: Western culture, if you respect your person unless they're an
Speaker 1: idiot or they don't know and you yeah, then you
Speaker 1: go no, that's not so. Yeah, I should read. You
Speaker 1: ever read a book again and then again all the time.
Speaker 1: What's the book you've read the most over and over?
Speaker 1: Probably Burn Brown Daring greatly. Yeah, yeah, I'm reading a
Speaker 1: book from her right now. It is I think her
Speaker 1: work is fascinating, right, and she talks about vulnerability. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's really her thing. Study of vulnerability and that's
Speaker 1: that's shame. That's right now. Yes, I love it, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's the speech about the man in the arena
Speaker 1: and it's not the critic that counts. I love that.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, the man in the arena is there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that will say things to you
Speaker 1: about what you're doing until you're doing good or bad.
Speaker 1: But it's not what they're saying that matters. It's people
Speaker 1: that have also been in the arena and understand it.
Speaker 1: Because I think we're in the business of we have
Speaker 1: a lot of critics telling us a lot of cheap seats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's good, what's not. But and it's funny because you
Speaker 1: and I had this talk as we're flying back from
Speaker 1: from Michigan and it was like, and you just keep
Speaker 1: your head down and keep doing what you do because
Speaker 1: what you do and why I like it so much,
Speaker 1: why I'm drawn to it is it's it's distinct. And
Speaker 1: to be distinct, you're different, and to be different, people
Speaker 1: are going to have different feelings about you, some good,
Speaker 1: some bad, because nothing that comes in it is different,
Speaker 1: is universally loved. At first. People have to be taught
Speaker 1: to love something that's cool. Yeah, that's a good way
Speaker 1: to hit and so. And I think that's what I
Speaker 1: what I really enjoy about yours. It is different. It's
Speaker 1: very different. And I can see you how some people
Speaker 1: will be like, what what's happening here? But people have
Speaker 1: had to go, hey, what's happening here to everything that's
Speaker 1: ever been awesome? Like nothing awesome has ever coming. Everybody
Speaker 1: just goes, oh, this is new and way different. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna accept it and love it. And there are
Speaker 1: things that I have not been like I don't really
Speaker 1: understand that, and then I go, oh, wow, okay, it
Speaker 1: is kind of cool. But I like that about you know,
Speaker 1: about about what you do, even when you play live
Speaker 1: like there's a real you go, this is what happens
Speaker 1: when you play. Like first I'm like, what's she doing?
Speaker 1: She's a little different. It took me a second, but
Speaker 1: then I'm like, okay, I love it. Like let's play
Speaker 1: a little bit of white Horse while I'm talking about
Speaker 1: take me Away on a sunset? Right? Does it ever
Speaker 1: get to you, like, does it everwhere on you that
Speaker 1: you're just a bit different? And sometimes it takes people
Speaker 1: a while to get it. I mean, yes, there are
Speaker 1: moments where get super like zoomed in on something. It's
Speaker 1: like in the leads about it, in my head, about
Speaker 1: thinking about it. But honestly, my love for it is
Speaker 1: outweighs the voices most of the time. And I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for good people around me that keep that perspective in check.
Speaker 1: And I just want to do my thing. I love
Speaker 1: playing for people so much. It's my favorite thing to
Speaker 1: do in the world. And every time I get to
Speaker 1: do that, it's like, Okay, this is what this is for.
Speaker 1: And so no matter what people think or say or
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Because someone came up to me after
Speaker 1: the show and told me about a story in their
Speaker 1: life that connected to one of the songs, and that's
Speaker 1: it for me. If it's one person, one person, that's
Speaker 1: that's what matters. Mm hmm. I believe you is the thing.
Speaker 1: I think you would be okay playing music and getting
Speaker 1: by because just getting by playing music is actually thriving.
Speaker 1: It is thriving to me. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I mean you'll be rich, id loved you, rich big,
Speaker 1: and I love to do all those things. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, that's it. That's that's the
Speaker 1: bottom line for me. I don't think I've heard you
Speaker 1: say a curse words because I don't curse. Do you curse? No,
Speaker 1: not very often? Though you don't say any carse words
Speaker 1: your songs, do you? Is that a thing where you
Speaker 1: don't like purposefully if someone suggested, like, hey, let's let's
Speaker 1: put a M f R in here, I don't think anyone,
Speaker 1: But I feel like it's just not the I guess
Speaker 1: I just wade the way I talk, and that's not
Speaker 1: really things that I say very often. I had to
Speaker 1: change up the way I talked me. I did curse
Speaker 1: a lot, really, and I started to go, I'm creating
Speaker 1: in this years I haven't said a carse winner probably
Speaker 1: three years or so at all. Not now. It's just
Speaker 1: a game, right, But I would just curse. But then
Speaker 1: I would go on the air and I would write
Speaker 1: books and in kids songs and songs, and I didn't
Speaker 1: curse any of that. And at times when i'd be creating,
Speaker 1: I'd all, you know, it fit really well here, uh,
Speaker 1: the word amazing. So I stopped. I just eliminated it
Speaker 1: from my creation. That's cool, because if you're not thinking
Speaker 1: of doing it doesn't even pop up any other part
Speaker 1: of it. So I felt like it was best for
Speaker 1: how I was writing and creating to just never curse ever.
Speaker 1: And now when people now people are cursing around me,
Speaker 1: like oh, I'm sorry, Like I'm a big boy, I've
Speaker 1: heard them before. Yeah, I feel the same, like that's okay.
Speaker 1: People do that to me when they drin because I
Speaker 1: don't drink right, and people will H'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: shouldn't drink around you. I'm like, no, no, please drink
Speaker 1: around me because you're not that fun unless you're drinking,
Speaker 1: you know. So do people know you don't curse? Do
Speaker 1: they do the thing? We're like, oh, I'm sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes they do, and it's like it used to because
Speaker 1: I was maybe the youngster around and they're like they
Speaker 1: would be like, oh sorry, but I don't know. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard that in a while though. I just I
Speaker 1: guess it's like, I just want people to show up
Speaker 1: and be who they are, and if that's part of
Speaker 1: the language and who they are, then I love them
Speaker 1: for it. So there are some people I enjoyed their cursing.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you're way funnier when you curse and drink,
Speaker 1: like please please. The only person drink. We were on
Speaker 1: the plane flying back and to know, out of nowhere
Speaker 1: pulled out this humongous bag of popcorn. It's like we
Speaker 1: she had one backpack and it was completely full, pretty
Speaker 1: much just popcorn. And still she found a big bag
Speaker 1: of popcorn. I guess it was only popcorn or backpack.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, that's what you said, you always have popcorn.
Speaker 1: I do I love white chatter popcorn. I just I
Speaker 1: really like snacks. I like baking things and like bacon
Speaker 1: things are baking things baking? Yeah, like cookies. You're like
Speaker 1: a grandmother ind I actually am. I love cribbage. This
Speaker 1: is my favorite card game to play with my grandfather.
Speaker 1: It's very fun. What is that? It's like a counting
Speaker 1: math card game with a board where you move your
Speaker 1: little pegs all the way around. It's very much a
Speaker 1: grandma game. You're like an old soul. I ever heard
Speaker 1: that before? Yeah? Look at you? Um, when you moved
Speaker 1: to town, whereuld you live? Like? What? Like not your address?
Speaker 1: But what kind of place did you live? In berry Hill? Like?
Speaker 1: Was that? Is that? It? Like a do you have
Speaker 1: a house? Apartment? I was renting a little garage that
Speaker 1: was turned into a Loft of Sorts, and so I
Speaker 1: fell in love with sam Zoe's Coffee shop over there
Speaker 1: and Baja Burrito and and there's a bunch of music
Speaker 1: studios over there, and I got together and got to
Speaker 1: do some demos over there, but mostly about that spot,
Speaker 1: it was really cool to be by myself for the
Speaker 1: first time in my life. And I spent so many hours,
Speaker 1: like I go out to see a show and then
Speaker 1: I come home and write. And I mean when I
Speaker 1: first got here, I wanted to write every single day
Speaker 1: with whoever and anyone that I could write with, but
Speaker 1: it kind of takes a while to build up people
Speaker 1: that you can fill your days with and go write
Speaker 1: songs with. And so a lot of that time I
Speaker 1: was just writing songs by myself. And I feel like
Speaker 1: something happened in that very first place that I lived
Speaker 1: in here, and it was it just like my whole
Speaker 1: voice changed and shifted for the first time, and it
Speaker 1: was like I started to kind of get in step
Speaker 1: with who I was at a different level or something
Speaker 1: and started really writing things. You know, I had been
Speaker 1: writing songs since I was fourteen, but I think at
Speaker 1: nineteen that was sort of like Okay, there was a
Speaker 1: switch that was happening, probably being influenced by this community
Speaker 1: and just learning so much from soaking it in, but
Speaker 1: mostly from just digging in myself. I think, I want
Speaker 1: to play some of Jersey on the wall. And you
Speaker 1: came on the show and you played this, and my
Speaker 1: people were they loved it. I mean it was and
Speaker 1: this story is is like from something that happened and
Speaker 1: you went to the school afterward, right, So what happened?
Speaker 1: So I was touring a bunch of schools and I
Speaker 1: visited this little community was like on an island. We
Speaker 1: had to take a two and a half hour ferry
Speaker 1: to get there, like four thousand people, super small town.
Speaker 1: And I show up to play the school and it's
Speaker 1: like you can tell that the oldest kids are looking
Speaker 1: out for the youngest kids, that everybody's grown up together,
Speaker 1: you know, small group of kids, and there was something
Speaker 1: different about this school, and I had seen a lot
Speaker 1: of them up to this point, and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is pretty amazing and it's stuck with me. And
Speaker 1: I played a community show that night and then the
Speaker 1: teacher brings me back to the little inn that I
Speaker 1: was staying at and sits me down and tells me
Speaker 1: that there had been a car accident a few months
Speaker 1: prior with five kids from the high school, four of
Speaker 1: which I had been hanging out with all day, had
Speaker 1: had no idea what they had just been through a
Speaker 1: few months before UM. And one of them, her name
Speaker 1: was Danielle. She was the star basketball player, valedictorian, had
Speaker 1: just graduated with a full ride scholarship, and she was
Speaker 1: killed in this flute wreck. And so I sat there
Speaker 1: and like wept with this teacher even more so moved
Speaker 1: by this community and everything they've been through, and kept
Speaker 1: in touch really closely with them. And miss Ward was
Speaker 1: a teacher's name, and her and her and I worked
Speaker 1: it out that I got to go back to the
Speaker 1: school for their graduation the following spring. And there's like
Speaker 1: twenty of them graduating, the whole town piled in the gym,
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting at the back and graduation ceremonies happening,
Speaker 1: and Danielle's parents get up there and they give their
Speaker 1: daughters honorarium scholarship to Zoe, who was also in the car,
Speaker 1: And so there's not a dry eye in the gym.
Speaker 1: And I sat there as this kind of removed person
Speaker 1: from the situation looking around and on the wall was
Speaker 1: Danielle's jersey and I looked at the numbers and I
Speaker 1: was like, these are the things I have a lot
Speaker 1: of questions forgot about. And in that moment, it was
Speaker 1: kind of like, I think it's okay to have those questions,
Speaker 1: and I think there's healing in the conversation itself, whatever
Speaker 1: that means. And that moment in that gym stuck with me,
Speaker 1: and I came back to Nashville, and shortly after that trip,
Speaker 1: one of my best friends from home lost her little
Speaker 1: brother and it put me back in that same place.
Speaker 1: And so I showed up in this writing room with
Speaker 1: Gordy Sampson Tina Parole told them this whole story and
Speaker 1: like unloaded this concept and the song just kind of
Speaker 1: found its way to us in a really crazy way
Speaker 1: that day, and we looked at each other when it
Speaker 1: was finished, I was like, Okay, this is the song
Speaker 1: that was meant to be here today. So I'm very
Speaker 1: grateful for this song. Here's some of a jersey on
Speaker 1: the wall from two if five gets to Heaven. You know,
Speaker 1: I got along this questions I can't do you make
Speaker 1: a snowflake? Are you angry when the earthquakes? How does
Speaker 1: the scout change in a minute? How do you keep
Speaker 1: this big rocks spending whack? Can't you stop car from question?
Speaker 1: Forgive me? I'm just as skin so good? Yeah? Thanks?
Speaker 1: Do you tell that story every time you play this
Speaker 1: like an acoustic show? Yeah? Sometimes there isn't time for it,
Speaker 1: or it's not the right atmosphere for it. But if
Speaker 1: there is, it's always an honor to get to tell
Speaker 1: you're going out with Dirks and you're gonna do a
Speaker 1: full band. I haven't seen you play the full band
Speaker 1: played by yourself, and it's always awesome. Thank you? All right,
Speaker 1: So you're going out with Dirks. You're gonna open up
Speaker 1: that whole thing. Huh yeah, I'm freaking out. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: How many songs do you play? You know? Six and so?
Speaker 1: Do you have it down? Because you haven't? You have minutes?
Speaker 1: Pretty good? Pretty good? Yeah, that's actually pretty good. No,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking the same thing. I was going twenty like maybe,
Speaker 1: but not so have you timed it? I mean something
Speaker 1: was the last run through, so we gotta we're going
Speaker 1: to tighten it a little bit more so we got
Speaker 1: some freedom room. You can't go over. I can't go
Speaker 1: over like ten seconds. Don't go because it's bad form
Speaker 1: with Dirks brothers get mad at you. Probably not if
Speaker 1: you go over like a minute, but you don't like that.
Speaker 1: I do not want to go over room once. The
Speaker 1: guys from Rascal Flats, I think the last time they
Speaker 1: came in the show. They came in and I asked
Speaker 1: him about the Eric Church urban legend that he would
Speaker 1: play over his shows and they end up kick him
Speaker 1: off tour, and it's true. Really, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So he would come and you take the whole stage
Speaker 1: even when they came, and as an opener, you only
Speaker 1: get part of the stage, and he would go over
Speaker 1: and he would go out, and yeah, so he ended
Speaker 1: up and then he they would go to cities on
Speaker 1: that tour. I think maybe they ended up putting Taylor
Speaker 1: on there too afterwards, like some other artists came in
Speaker 1: after him. Maybe was it. And so um Flats would
Speaker 1: go in two cities on the tour and he would
Speaker 1: go to the same cities and play it at a
Speaker 1: bar beside them. That's so you know what he ended up. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he certainly did five minutes to go and play and
Speaker 1: the Darks the Dirks, not the crew. I mean, Dark
Speaker 1: is a friend of mine, but um like the people
Speaker 1: that go to Dirk shows. That's a good it's a
Speaker 1: good crew of people because there it's a good fun crew.
Speaker 1: But it's not like I've been to some artist shows
Speaker 1: where they're just they go to get wasted and just white.
Speaker 1: I mean the Something shows you go to it like
Speaker 1: people just go to get hammered. But the Derks to
Speaker 1: get a good crowd of the Dirk show. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy for you. It means a lot. I'm so so
Speaker 1: excited to get out there and we get to start
Speaker 1: back up in Canada. So that's going to be pretty
Speaker 1: cool playing these you know, Figure City arenas that I
Speaker 1: used to drive to as a kid and watch a
Speaker 1: bunch of shows. So I can't wait for that. And
Speaker 1: it's going to be a pretty awesome rest of the year.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to get to know those get to know
Speaker 1: Dirk's career. I've heard so much about them, Excited to
Speaker 1: learn from all of that. The you're gonna go play
Speaker 1: these shows. I was gonna get advice, but you know,
Speaker 1: what do you got? I don't. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: something opening act device, I'll take it. No, I just
Speaker 1: don't go over you know, don't. How was opening for
Speaker 1: Miranda and a Little Big Town pretty cool? A dream? Yes?
Speaker 1: It was like, I mean, I love their music so much,
Speaker 1: and getting to know them as people and seeing how
Speaker 1: authentic that music is to them as people was like
Speaker 1: the coolest thing. And watching how people believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: like it, it's like powerful. I stood in different spots
Speaker 1: and watched the show every single night. It's like if
Speaker 1: I had got to be it was like I was
Speaker 1: a little kid all summer long. Because as a kid,
Speaker 1: if you could have said you could pick your dream
Speaker 1: tour and go follow every single show and Paca Big,
Speaker 1: I would have just died. And so I had so
Speaker 1: much fun. I've loved it so much. They're just the
Speaker 1: sweetest people. I learned a lot. Yeah, there's a Kimberly
Speaker 1: Flatman one of these. I've listened to that, Karen Both. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess we don't care about the guys. You want
Speaker 1: to get the guys up here. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Okay, let's do around it this or
Speaker 1: that way. Stay with her before we before we jump
Speaker 1: out of here. Uh, this or that Tim Horton's or
Speaker 1: Starbucks sim horns. You know, it's very very Canadian. Thank you?
Speaker 1: What do you call? Because I have two options here,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to give them. But do you
Speaker 1: call the thing you put on your head that keeps
Speaker 1: you warm? To you? Called it too? Oh? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say bean ear too, but I call
Speaker 1: it a toboggan? See that one? Strange to me? That's
Speaker 1: what you like? Roll down the hill on? Okay, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to only assign words to one thing.
Speaker 1: I guess that's true, but but yeah, to it? Really?
Speaker 1: In Arkansas? A toboggan? Huh? Hoodie? Or a bunny hug?
Speaker 1: A bunny hugs of thing? Yeah? I did, I've never
Speaker 1: heard about a bunny hug of definitely hoodie? What's a
Speaker 1: bunny hug? Really? How about in Canada? Was it your
Speaker 1: electric bill or your hydro bill? M electric bill US
Speaker 1: or metric system metric? My GPS still speaks in kilometers here,
Speaker 1: I can't. You don't want to go to miles. Everything
Speaker 1: makes so much more sense. It's like the metric system
Speaker 1: is the real way to do it. But but now
Speaker 1: you you're in Rome went in Rome Switch. Now I
Speaker 1: know I'm stuck. I can't um. You say, what do
Speaker 1: you say for the carbonated beverage as a bunch of
Speaker 1: sugar in it? Pop? Okay, so soda popera coke? And
Speaker 1: you say pop hockey or football hockey? Yeah? Did you?
Speaker 1: I don't play no, but I say in the anthem,
Speaker 1: so I always got to go to the games. What
Speaker 1: do you put on when you go to sleep? Like?
Speaker 1: What are the things called you put on when you
Speaker 1: go to sleep? Okay, that's not one of the options here,
Speaker 1: but pajamas or pajamas? Pajamas speak jamas? Pajamas? Yeah, do
Speaker 1: you say pajamas? What do you say? I don't know
Speaker 1: that I ever say that word unless I'm playing this game.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I ever just talked about when
Speaker 1: I was doing Dancing with the Stars, we that was
Speaker 1: a big hot topic. And everyone is from everywhere on
Speaker 1: that show, right, and not just America. You know my
Speaker 1: partners from Australia. We have people from all of the
Speaker 1: continents that are dancing, and um, it was yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you have a bunch of people. I think. One
Speaker 1: of the coolest things for me about doing stuff like
Speaker 1: that and a lot of the other stuff that I
Speaker 1: could do outside of country music is meeting all the people.
Speaker 1: It's like touring. When you go on the road, you're
Speaker 1: not just in your little circle of like minded even
Speaker 1: like cultured people, and it really it really opens you up.
Speaker 1: It does. It's like there's just so much of the
Speaker 1: world out there, and so much that I didn't know
Speaker 1: about people that I didn't know, and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: I just wasn't right about a lot of things. Wow.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that. That's cool. That's what really opened
Speaker 1: me up. Because you only know what you know, and
Speaker 1: you only know either what you have been taught or
Speaker 1: what you chase. And sometimes you don't even know what
Speaker 1: to chase because you haven't been taught to chase the
Speaker 1: right things. And so the exposure to things has been
Speaker 1: the greatest teacher for me, and the exposure makes me
Speaker 1: then chase things. And so, you know, as you talk
Speaker 1: about touring and being in front of people, I feel
Speaker 1: that way too. And that's one of the reasons I
Speaker 1: like going on the road is because I go to Michigan.
Speaker 1: We went to Michigan together. I go to Michigan, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's I talk to people who they live
Speaker 1: in snow half the year and their accents are different,
Speaker 1: but yet what we have in common is still like
Speaker 1: this humanity and you go okay and admits you it's
Speaker 1: not so different. There are times where I go two
Speaker 1: El Paso to Boston too, and everybody's a little bit different,
Speaker 1: but the thing in common, there's always this this humanity
Speaker 1: that everyone has in common. Yeah, it's so true, and
Speaker 1: we're more like than we think we are. And then
Speaker 1: when I go and I hang out with people from
Speaker 1: other countries again, and I wouldn't do that in the
Speaker 1: country music world. I only do that because I'm off
Speaker 1: doing these television shows and I'm like, oh, like, they
Speaker 1: haveferent completely different belief systems. However, the humanity part of
Speaker 1: it's always the same thread, and you go, oh, we're
Speaker 1: so alike. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, And when you're
Speaker 1: talking about that kind of stuff and that, that's kind
Speaker 1: of what strikes me. So listen, I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you came up. Thank you. I'm such a
Speaker 1: big fan of yours and it really means a lot
Speaker 1: to have you. I mean that seriously, Bobby, thank you.
Speaker 1: She'll be out with Dirks on the Burning Man tour
Speaker 1: starts January sevent When you hear this, it could be
Speaker 1: a year from now. I don't know, but she may
Speaker 1: be off the door, gonna be headlining your ONN arena
Speaker 1: by the time you do this. But you start in Ontario,
Speaker 1: which is like a state. It is, Ontario will be
Speaker 1: compared to like Texas. Correct. Yeah, I know that because
Speaker 1: I'm a day to Canadians. Um you are. I've been
Speaker 1: put on the Opery next stage nineteen. I was having
Speaker 1: dinner with Sally from the Operty like six months ago.
Speaker 1: We were talking about you, yeah, and she was like,
Speaker 1: we're doing this thing. I think, did I ever tell
Speaker 1: you that we're IL was like, finally with announced, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that you know, I didn't know you knew.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. It's t Nil
Speaker 1: and Travis Danning, Riley Green and Tiguan Marie and so
Speaker 1: that's a cool thing where you're doing a bunch stuff
Speaker 1: with the Opery and they're doing like a disposure program. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like they're supporting a lot of the adventures of
Speaker 1: this year, and I think that means I get to
Speaker 1: play the opera bunch, So I'm really excited. Well, your
Speaker 1: your family all the hundred forty then me to come
Speaker 1: back every time, going to be the same if they're
Speaker 1: not here every time. Let me also say this that
Speaker 1: you can buy the when you're gonna put up music
Speaker 1: like a record, you know yet really soon hopefully nineteen
Speaker 1: possibly possibly, I'm we're still out sure on that part. Soon, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm freaking out. I can't wait for you to hear more.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, and I don't take music ever
Speaker 1: that's not out, so I would never listen like, so
Speaker 1: I put it out so we can all have it together.
Speaker 1: Let me recommend the Velvet's Edge podcast with Kelly Henderson.
Speaker 1: She talks about style and fashion and a lot of
Speaker 1: women things don't understand, right might yeah yeah. Also Amy
Speaker 1: Amy Brown has a podcast called four Things with Amy
Speaker 1: Brown where if you like Amy from the show, you'll
Speaker 1: love even more because of this podcast. So that's up
Speaker 1: to let me check that out. So there you go,
Speaker 1: and I think we're gonna wrap it up to Neil.
Speaker 1: Always great to see you, so good to see Bobby.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me check her on social media
Speaker 1: at t nil Towns t E n i l l
Speaker 1: E t O w n e s T nil Towns.
Speaker 1: Thanks for our sponsors, Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club.
Speaker 1: And that would be a episode one forty nine of
Speaker 1: the Bobby Cast. Thank you, M nine