WEBVTT - #496 - Ben Williams on Writing Megan Moroney's First Hit + The 2nd Verse Curse + Having a Panic Attack During a Race & Training for an Iron man 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.400 I was like a communications political science major, but I 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.760 sat down. I was just messing around. College kid played 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.040 three chords in like a whole song, just like blew 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.720 out with a twist and everything. I was like, what 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.279 is that? Why can't I do that? And like all 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:21.560 I want to do is do that again. 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:29.000 Ben Williams Tennessee Orange Jam, I'm Not Pretty jam, Megan 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.040 Maroney Songs, Lucky Jam. He's got a bunch, Riley Green 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.000 turning Dirt. I mean he's got a bunch. We talk 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.360 about a lot of them here. Ben Williams just received 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.680 the ass Caap Award for I'm Not Pretty, which basically 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:43.480 means he made a whole lot of money on that song. Yeah, 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.680 whenever I read those awards, that's what it means. His 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.360 name is Ben Williams. He has been in Nashville for 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.640 just a bit now. He writes for Tape Room Music 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.480 and Warner Chapel and he's kind of crushed it. But 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.960 he's always been crushing it in a way, working hard though, 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.240 Like he ran cross country and college. I got a 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:01.840 whole story about how he got here because of that. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:03.880 He was a d one track athlete. I'm always so 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.319 jealous of guys that can do sports and music at 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.920 a high level. He got his first publishing deal shortly 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.240 after graduation. We talked about that coming up. I really 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.720 liked this guy. He was working as a realtor before 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.679 making it a songwriter. We get to that, you feel 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:17.920 like you tried to bury that a little bit. We 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:19.560 found it. Yeah, we found it. He was surprised we 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.280 found it. Yeah, because we found the description of his work, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.199 like his bio, a little headshot. It's awesome, So let's 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.120 get to it. He was both Megan Maroney and Averyanna's 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:36.000 first Nashville co write, and it's Ben Williams. Again. I 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.200 always remember how somebody made me feel more than all 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.160 the things that we said, because I do a lot 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.880 of these, And after hanging out with Ben and Mike 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.360 and I were just kind of going over some stuff, 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.600 I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember when 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:48.280 he said that, But mostly I was like, man, I 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.600 remember liking the guy a whole lot. So hope you 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.840 enjoy the stories here. He is episode four ninety five 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.920 of The Bobbycast. It is Ben Williams. So I want 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.360 to rewind a couple steps as you drink your prime? 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:06.000 Is that Jake Paul or Ron Paul Senator Ron Paul's 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.639 drink ru Paul. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:10.720 Man. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:12.520 There's a lot of stuff to unpack just from the 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.720 first few minutes of me sitting down. First of all, Read, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.800 who is like my guy who travels with me, shoots edits, 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.760 He's like my creative director. He was talking about how 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.520 insane someone has to be to run in this weather, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.320 and I agree. First of all, I hate running much less. 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.840 It's today's cold, and you may be if you're listening 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:37.640 to us in Boston or Maine or Washington State, like, 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.320 we get it. We don't know cold like you do, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:42.040 right Montana. Where'd you grow up? 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:43.520 By the way, California? 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.320 Yea, what party CANDU for California. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:45.840 Outside of San Francisco. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.560 I got the cold and peace, semi cold, Michael at 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.520 times cold at times cold. Yeah, so save the you 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.280 don't know cold, okay, cold relative not you. I'm talking. 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.720 I'm talking like the people listening right now. Yeah, it's 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.480 cold here for us right now, it's cold. It's sucks. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.120 And so Read was like, you got to be crazy. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.960 But he saw that. We think he saw you running literally, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:12.880 which is hilarious. So why do you run outside when 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.440 it's this cold. Well, because I know you got a 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.200 fancy watch on and you can afford a gym membership, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.640 And I'm saying, so, what's what's to do? 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.400 I love running, Like I ran track and cross for Belmont. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:24.400 I'm still a big runner. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:25.639 But you were a college runner. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:27.120 Yeah, I know, I don't look like. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.239 It's so legit as anything. If you're an athlete, that's 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.280 so legit. I had no idea, that's okay, keep going. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.360 Well this morning. It's funny because I was gonna go 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.640 run on the treadmill, but I have an old car 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.720 and the power steering was leaking this morning, and I 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.200 called the mechanic guy. He's like, I have room in 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.120 the shop if you bring it over this morning. And 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.200 my fiance was already gone, and so I was like, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.280 I don't really feel like ubering back. I could get 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.280 my run in. So I dropped the car off in 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:54.520 East Nashville and ran home. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.840 So he saw, yeah, your run was dropping your car 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.760 off running out. Yeah, by the way, Belmont D one, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:02.480 you're a runner at a D one school. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.320 I was man like I was, and I still am 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.000 a runner. I'm trying to get I broke my foot 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.960 really bad, like five months ago, and I'm just starting 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:10.600 to run again. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:12.200 So like, how'd you break your foot? 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.160 I fell off. I fell off an electric scooter leaving 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.560 the bar in twelve soeuths. No, it was my own 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.200 electric scooter too, which makes it worse. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.680 Oh dang to see. So hold on, there's just such 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.920 an dichotomy of elements here. One you're like my old 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.200 car that's leaking fluid, and again you have a very 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.960 nice watch on, and again you own your own electric scooter. 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:35.880 So why don't you have a nicer car with the 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.640 success that you It just doesn't all miss cars. Okay, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.919 fair enough, fair enough, Okay, we're gonna get there. No, No, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.839 we're gonna get there. Uh so hard having I'm just 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.400 I'm allowing me to be curious about something that maybe 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.320 you don't get asked about a lot. But you ran 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:53.880 in high school, I'm assuming at a high level. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:55.239 Yeah, I ran in high school. 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:55.800 What'd you run? 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.479 I ran the eight hundred and the mile in high school? 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.480 But I played football, so I didn't get to run 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.599 cross country until I got to college, which was really hard. 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.360 So for those that and I wouldn't say I'm a 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.160 big track guy, but we had to run track in 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.600 high school football. Our coach made us. It was kind 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:12.960 of like, if you play for me, I'm also the 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.640 track coach, you gotta go run track. So four eight 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.640 hundred is two laps and a mile is four laps. Yeah, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.520 and it both sucked. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.640 Yeah, they both suck. Yeah, they both running kind of 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:25.039 sucks unless you love it. 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.600 Running sucks. It does. Running. To me, I've had trouble 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:31.400 the most I've ever ran a ten miles at one time. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:32.040 That's pretty good. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.599 Yeah, it's really good. I'm gonna I want to pat 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.280 myself on the back. It's awesome for me because I 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.520 struggle with running because it's it's much. It's physical, absolutely, 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:42.800 but it's it's very mental. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:43.599 It's super mental. 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:44.599 You gotta go somewhere else. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.320 I like one of the reasons that I'm even like, well, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.080 I'm getting back into shape anyways right now. But like 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.640 I have, like I always, I'm such a goal person 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.039 and my like fitness goal like for now is to 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.200 do to do an iron Man, Like I really want 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.360 to do an iron Man, and one of my buddies 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.520 and I are planning to do on April of twenty 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.080 twenty six. And one thing when you were just talking 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.920 about like how hard it is mentally is I was like, Okay, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.400 an iron Man's cool, but like I'll just listen to 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:14.880 podcasts all the time, where I'll listen to music. I 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.160 didn't know that in an iron Man you can't have headphones. 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.480 You can't have phones. It's like you versus the road 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.279 for twelve thirteen hours. It sucks. Oh my, I'm like, h. 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.120 On a micro machine level, I've done a couple Olympic 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.279 traf lines WHOA, which I don't have the balls that 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.320 you have to I'm just not the athlete that you 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.640 naturally are. But I've done two Olympic traf lines and 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.040 to me, that was that. Yeah. They're like, no, you 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.080 can't listen to anything. Yeah, And I'm like, wait, I'm 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.480 not trying to win, like I'm like competing for a scholarship. 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.440 I want to listen to crab Yeah, And they were 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.000 like you could like and They're like, you'd have a 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.120 star next to your name. And at first I was like, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:50.280 what do I have a crap if there's a star 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.280 next to my name? But then it started to weigh 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:53.320 on me. I was like I don't want to start 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.000 next thing convinced me that I didn't want that star 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.440 next to my name. So but yeah, it was. That's 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.160 very difficult. The swimming part. You don't listen and this 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.560 stuff anyway because when you swim and the again, I'm 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.640 not comparing what I did to what you're training. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:08.760 You can't take that away. That's really good. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.640 Because it was a mile swim. Mine was. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.320 It was a mile very far for anybody who doesn't. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.800 Know, Oh dude, it sucked. It's the only panic attack 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.520 I've ever really had because I had only trained because 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.800 I was such a novice at any of the endurance 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:29.200 type sports that I trained in pools with a black 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:29.880 line at the bottle. 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:30.840 That's what I'm gonna do too. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.840 Never got into open water, so my didn't think about it. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:35.920 I was like, if I could swim a mile, I 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.400 swim mile. Got into open water and you're in with 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.240 a bunch of dudes that are your age, dudes that 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:42.920 know what they're doing, and I'm swimming. There's no black 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.680 line to look at and swim and keep me straight, 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:47.600 so I can't. I don't know I'm going I'm off track. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:49.200 They have to bring a little canoe to put you 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.440 back on. Today, yeah, people are swimming over the top 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.760 of me and it's in the water. Like I had 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.320 a panic attack to like, oh my god, I thought 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:57.800 I was gonna have to quit. I don't quit anything. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.400 I thought I was gonna have to quit one of 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.200 the most product because I didn't. I just refocused. But 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:03.840 then once I got out of the water, and you 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.080 have to put your because you're in a wetsuit, you 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:07.520 have to change out of the wet suit and you 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.080 go and the by cycling is now, yes, there's nothing 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:13.960 to listen to. It sucks. No. So when you're gonna 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.480 do that, it's like, how far was your cycle? Like 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.720 twenty twenty six miles? That's still a good It's not 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:21.720 one hundred like yours. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.040 Yeah, that's gonna be insane. 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.120 Like you're if you may help me with the stats 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.120 and what you're training for, but your miles like two 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:27.600 and a half. 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.240 The swim is two point four, cycle is one and 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.600 twelve and then and then marathon, which is. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.080 Why I don't even compare the two. But that's that's 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.360 a that's a cool goal. The hard the hardest thing 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.280 is doing again, are you training four? 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.760 Now? I'm just starting because I have like a year 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:47.360 and a half to do that too. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.360 I got five months. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:50.800 It's so fast. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:52.959 The hardest part was doing the training days where you 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.480 had to do two it once, meaning you had to 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.960 cycle and swim, because it's like, I'm I supposed to 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.120 do that, right, It's not. There's like a course at 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:00.560 the house where you do. So you go to the wine, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:01.880 you swim, and you try to find a place to 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:02.480 ride it by I was. 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.839 Telling read too like I'm I'm not a morning person, 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.280 so like I'm gonna have to like become a morning person. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.240 I'm not a morning person either. I hate morning. 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.840 So hey, if you ever get back into cycling, we 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:12.840 have a I. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.600 Don't even want to hear the answer. No, I will 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:15.920 never get I was never rid of cycling. 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:17.640 No, no, no, no, no. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.319 It's not that I'll never not get back in. I 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.199 will never get it. I hate no. The answer is no, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.280 that's one whatever. I'll never get in running again because 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.160 I just never wanted to begin with too. But there's 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:36.440 something about the mental commitment that mental gymnastics I would 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.600 have to do at times to get through a seven, 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.319 eight ten mile run where I would just have to 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.200 wrote about it in my second book, I would just 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.560 have to run tree to tree because if I started 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.480 going out three more miles, I would start to break down. Yeah, 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.360 so as a runner back to what you did, Yeah, 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.280 so you were a football player, first. 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.199 Football player in high school, and I thought that was 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.400 what I was gonna do, like, and I thought that 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.240 was going to help me get to college. And then 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.720 I broke my coll bone really bad senior year and 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.200 running I was way better at running. I just thought 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:05.920 I was cool because I was like on the football team. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.760 I wanted to play football. But then I broke my 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.440 collarbone and that went out the window senior year and 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.520 then I originally went to Santa Clara University in California 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.480 before Belmont, and that's where I ran. I ran a 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.400 Belmont too, but that's where I went for my first 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.120 year and ran track and cross country there. But that 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.079 was the first place I ever ran cross country. The 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.800 first time I ever went in across country meet was 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.800 literally a Division one cross country meet at Stanford, and 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.720 I was three miles in because in college it's eight k, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.800 so it's five miles versus high school it's five k. 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.920 And so then again because I don't I'm not familiar, so. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.640 In high school across country, the distance is five. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.440 K okay, so like a five K. I've run five 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.840 k's before or whatever it is. 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.800 And in college it's an eight k, so it's a 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.560 five mile race. So my first race at Stanford, I 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:53.920 dropped out like two miles in. I was like, this 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.040 is insane. And at that time we're running like four 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.520 fifty five pace for five miles. And my second race 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:02.400 was like, I'm not dropping out. I'm gonna finish this race. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.520 And I got a half mile away and I passed out. 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:06.920 No way, God dropped you. 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:08.760 I ran until I passed out because I was like, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:10.640 I'm not gonna not All my teammates were like you 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.440 suck like whatever. I was like, I'm gonna finish this race, 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:15.319 and so I was like I might as well try. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:17.920 Okay, let's talk about the first one. When you when 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.679 you when you say you dropped out, you chose I 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:23.680 don't think I'm gonna make it. I'm just gonna pull up. Yeah, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.560 you grab like a hamstring, because I would even if 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:25.959 I would know. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.640 And what's funny too, is like my parents were there 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:30.760 because it was my first cross country race and they 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.720 lived nearby and they were wearing all this Santa Clara stuff, 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.680 and I pulled out like I didn't know where they were, 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:38.960 and I literally stopped like right next to them, and 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:40.880 I could see them like looking for me, and I 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.000 was right next to them, and I was like, hey, guys, 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.480 like what are you doing. I was like, this is 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:46.120 really hard. 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:47.920 I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. I'm 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.480 so curious about you pulling out of the race because 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.559 obviously looking at yours and again this is fast forward, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:12:00.000 looking at your success rate as a creator, which means 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.920 there's a lot of failure to have a success in 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.760 this world, a lot of failure, which means you don't quit. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:05.480 Why'd you quit? 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.439 It was? It was really it's kind of the when 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.320 you were having a panic attack in the water. I 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.319 was in such a new environment that i'd never been in, 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.520 at such a high level that I had never been in, 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.719 surrounded by the best runners in the nation, and we 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.320 were going so fast, and I had just started to 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.000 feel what I had come to learn is a normal 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.800 feeling and across country race of oh, I can't, Oh, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.440 I can't do this, this really hurts, which is what 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.880 I learned. The next three miles of across country race. 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:38.440 That's normal. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:40.840 It's emotional and physical at the same time. Yeah, that's 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.200 what happened to me. Yeah, when you said that, that 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:44.120 makes a lot more sense. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:44.360 Yeah. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.120 And you passed out though the second time. 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.840 Oh, that was so funny. You'll actually think this is funny. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.280 I was four and a half miles in and it 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.720 was our it was our home meet at Santa Clara 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.680 called the Bronco Invite, so all the other teams were 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.199 there too, which made it even better. But I was 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.480 four and a half miles and I could just I 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.040 was so close, and I could just feel like my 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:05.760 head starting to go back in my body, and I 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:07.199 was like, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm gonna do this, 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.040 and then all of a sudden, it was just gone, 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:11.360 and I like woke up. I remember I woke up 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:12.720 and there were people right there and they're like, what 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.280 school do you go to? And I was red shirting 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.240 at the time, so I was wearing my high school uniform. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.640 My high school was Burlin Game, and they're like, what 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.320 high school do you go to? And I went burger 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.120 King and they're like, get this guy out of here. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.720 Clear, I get this guy out of here. So you 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.000 could still run red shirting. The would allow you to run. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.319 You just couldn't run officially with the school exactly. 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.120 So you buy another year pretty much. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.679 Yeah, I didn't know they would because you can't. Well, 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:40.600 in football, you can play four weeks in college and 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.280 then still red shirt, but you played more than that. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.840 You can't. But it's not like you can play all 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:45.360 the games. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:50.280 Yeah, you just enter unattached. Yeah, so I could technically, 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:51.080 I think. 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.640 Could you have run every race red shirted just to 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:53.240 see what you do? 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.360 Yeah, my freshman year because they were like, this kid's 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.040 never run cross country before? How is well? Redshirt? 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.040 Why'd you come to bellmin Then? 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.760 So I was at Santa Clara and that was when 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:06.960 I first started writing songs. I didn't grow up musical 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.000 at all. Like my brother plays a guitar, My parents 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:10.280 aren't musical nothing. 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.640 I wondered if part of the reason was because of music. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.040 One hundred because of music. And I grew up on country. 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.000 My mom's from Pegram and so like that was my 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.320 whole life. I was all I'd listened to is country music. 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:22.560 Still that's still all I listened to. 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:23.520 But you didn't play it. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.520 I didn't play it. I had a keyboard in my 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.360 dorm room that my brother taught me like a few 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.000 chords on at Santa Clara, and so I was sitting there. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.000 It was like it was December. I remember, like it 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.080 was right before winter break freshman year, and I sat 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.480 down and like played like CG. E. Minor whatever, the 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.480 simplest thing I knew. And I was like a communications 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.200 political science major, so like music wasn't even a thought. 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.440 But I sat down, I was just messing around college kid, 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.680 played three chords and like a whole song just like 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.440 flew out with a twist and everything, and it was terrible. 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.160 All of our first songs are terrible. But I was like, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.520 what is that? Why can I do that? And like 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:01.320 all all I want to do is do that again? 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.480 And so like literally every day like till today, like 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.960 since then, I just was writing. And at the end 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.040 of that year, so I was on quarters, so I 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.800 guess I finished. Like June. I was just like I 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.120 got it. I don't know what. I didn't even know obviously, 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:19.040 I didn't know that songwriting was a job. I didn't 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.440 know anything. I was just like I have to be 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.120 in Nashville, and Nashville is like home to me too. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.400 So I was like this, that just feels right. And 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.560 so I told my parents and they're like, hmmm, I 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.400 don't know about that. And I was like, okay, well whatever, 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:32.120 I'm going to figure it out kind of on my 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.560 own for a second. And so I went to I 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.000 didn't even really know Belmont was a school. I just 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:39.920 knew Vandy was a school in Nashville. So I like 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.280 went online and I looked up like track team Vanderbilt 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.040 cause I was like, however I was gonna get here 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.800 was going to be through running. And so I found 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.320 out that Vanderbilt doesn't have a men's track team. They 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.920 only have a club cross country team, and I wasn't 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:54.880 very good at cross country, so they weren't gonna want me. 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:56.880 So then I was like other colleges in Nashville, and 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:58.920 I found Belmont and I was like, whoa, this is 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.080 a music school, has all the stuff. Anyways, like this 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:02.800 seems really cool, and I called the track I literally 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.280 called the track coach and he was like uh. He 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:07.760 was like, yeah, I got a locker with your name 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:09.040 on if you want to come here, let me go 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.360 talk to admissions. And I was like right now, and 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:12.760 he's like, yeah, I'll go talk to him right now 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.200 if you want. He literally went and talked to admissions. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.240 I had like a three point one or something. He's like, yeah, 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.080 you're good to come if you want, Like, just let 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.880 me know. So that same day I dropped out of 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.480 Santa Clara and like accepted admittance here. And then two 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.080 months later I was at Belmont. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.040 When you're playing a few chords on a keyboard and 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:31.560 you say just kind of came out of you, and 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.800 not comparing how good the song was or how bad 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:36.560 the song was, because in three years you're gonna look 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:37.800 back the songs you've written now and be like, oh, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.360 that song kind of sucked. Yeah for sure, So we 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.680 won't make those comparisons. But it is kind of weird 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.640 that you felt something come out of you that you 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:47.800 didn't know was there. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.960 Yeah, and then I immediately recognized it and I was like, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.160 that was a thing that was that was the thing 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.240 in your thing? Yeah, And I was like I just 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.920 I was I was fine at running, Like I wasn't 0:16:57.920 --> 0:16:59.200 the good guy on the team. I didn't have the 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.840 scholarship or like anything, but like when that happened, I 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.399 was like, oh, oh, I don't know what this is, 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.560 but maybe I could be good at this. And then 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.840 I was I, thank god, I recognize that. Why do 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:11.520 you think that is? I don't know. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:12.440 What do you think happened? 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.400 I really don't know. I think it was a lot 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.879 of being a freshman in college and looking for identity. 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.480 I think a lot of it too, was like I 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.520 wanted to be I feel like I wanted to be 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.560 cool so bad too, as like as a freshman in 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.800 college and on the cross country team and all your 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.119 best friends are on the baseball team, and like maybe 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.359 that was my own identifying factor. But I really was 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.679 just obsessed with it. Like I was just obsessed with 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.320 the fact that I could have some idea and some twist, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.320 Like I remember at that time, do you remember seth 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.479 Innis's song Woke Up in Nashville? Like I was so 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:51.439 obsessed with that song because I felt that struggle of 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.879 like chasing a dream and missing a girl or missing 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:55.440 your family. 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:56.640 That's before you came here. 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:58.359 That was before I came here, right, And then I 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.360 remember like woke Up in Nashville. Then once I realized, 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.600 oh oh, there's all these twists and turns in country music, 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.439 like oh, he woke up, like he realized in Nashville. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:08.680 He didn't just physically wake up in Nashville. And then 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:10.720 every day I just became more and more and more 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.040 obsessed with Wow, I want to be I want to 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:13.800 be able to do that. 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.240 Anybody in your family musical at all uncle's aunts. And 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.920 I guess I asked that because even if it wasn't 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.120 in your house. And I don't think that you can 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.520 just become a good guitar player genetically, and I'm not 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.760 saying that about you, but but there are traits nurture 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.920 or nature that happened. I just wonder, did anybody. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.200 My grandma like played off key organ in the Pilgrim 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.200 United Methodist Church, So maybe it was that. My brother 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.760 always like fingerstyle guitar playing when I was growing up too. 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.160 He's younger, he played now like, Oh yeah he here, 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:47.439 he's in Dallas. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:48.120 Finance guy. 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:49.600 Anybody's really good. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:51.520 He's really good. Yeah. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.040 I would also recommend stand financial. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:53.840 And he's a really good brother. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:56.760 You made the right decision. It's awesome. 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:58.600 Yeah, I was just faceime me. He just moved into 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.000 this awesome new apartment. He says. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:11.920 Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.520 and we're back on the Bobby Cast. 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:16.119 You ever get envious of. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:22.720 That more structured life, No, not at all. I think 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:28.120 maybe the like security of it maybe, but like we 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.240 were just at home. My mom moved to Georgia and 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.120 we were just there for Thanksgiving, and like I would 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.760 wake up at ten and go to the driving range 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.040 and like you know, hit some balls or whatever on 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.439 a workday, and he'd be, you know, working on an 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.800 Excel sheet, And like, I was not envious at all, 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:44.600 but I'm very supportive. That's awesome for you. 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:46.360 Yeah, and I feel that way too, about eighty eight 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.919 percent of the time. Like, I love that I've been 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.240 able to craft this path. At times it feels like 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:58.240 a machete with metal trees. Yeah, you know, at times 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.639 other things have come bitty year and I would not 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.199 change it, but I definitely would not recommend it to 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.159 anybody ever, for sure, because there is no security. 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.159 There's no security. And like I'm sure, like I know 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:13.840 a bunch of your story too. We'll get into that. 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:16.000 No, we won't. We'll get into what I want to say, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:17.960 we get into Okay, you never. 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.760 I really want to tell you about this this podcast effect, but. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.760 We're just security this world. 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.760 I think that. I think that it's very hard at 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:35.480 the beginning because like for me, the convincing of people 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.000 who didn't even know this world existed, and that's sort 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.560 of like, how does that work? Why are you doing that? 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.040 That doesn't make sense? Do you want to be poor forever? Like, 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.439 don't do that? That sucks? And if you're not willing 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.919 to be like, hey, guys, just I don't know how 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.600 long this is going to take, but just like let 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.640 me do this. I think that's that's the struggle. Really, 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.000 it's not. I don't It was never the personal struggle 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.520 for me. It was all the outside doubt and even 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.399 if you know, like my parents are very supportive, thankfully, 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.359 I've had a lot of support in my life, but 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.080 like everybody's still doubtful until it works, and I think, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.320 and then you keep doubting that, and then doubt is 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.520 contagious and constant. Yeah, And I just try to outweigh 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.000 that out because it out never even goes for it. 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.399 And at this point I've had a relatively good amount 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.520 of success. Yeah that you see, same with you. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.399 I could read every song you've freaking written that I think, 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.840 but you'd be like, well, let me show these two 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.920 hundred that nobody we didn't even demo, you know much. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.679 So you know we're we're aiming for like a one 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.600 to fifty batting average here, and that's wildly successful. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.080 Wildly Yeah. 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.600 The security part is I would never recommend it to anybody, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:49.760 but I love it for me, I guess because and 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:51.960 I think the key for me, and the key for 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:57.120 anybody in this world is to remain, is to continue 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:58.560 to remain to be highly irrational. 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:00.959 Yeah, that you have to be. 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:03.159 You have to be so irrational about what you can do. 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.760 It doesn't mean you can't do it. Being really, I 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:07.439 think I can do anything in the world, and I 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.040 have to think I have to be so irrational about 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:10.879 it for sure even have a shot at doing anything 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:11.560 on a big level. 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:16.320 Yeah. Yeah, I think that too, Like the twelve percent, right, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.520 Like that's not the eighty eight percent, like even with me, 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.160 like like I just sold the only songs that were 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.560 really like paying for my life, right and so your 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.000 catalog Yeah yeah yeah, and so like right now, like 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:28.280 I don't have a draw, I don't have a salary, 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.479 I don't have anything, like I have things and whatever, 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.639 Like I'm fine, but like when I go when I 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.240 look at my asscap statement anymore, like it's not what 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:41.720 it was because I sold sure, and so things like that. Though, 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:44.200 like that twelve percent you're talking about that keeps you 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:45.879 up at night or whatever you'll feel in the morning. 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.760 I actually think that's the reason why we are able 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.200 to do what we do, because that twelve percent makes 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:53.280 us want to work even harder. It makes me want 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.400 to do you know, a nine am and eleven am 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.520 and a three pm tomorrow. Because it's very irrational what's. 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.760 Next, because people look from ten thousand feet up and 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:06.200 be like, bro, you're doing good. Why are you working 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.680 yourself so hard? Why are you putting this pressure on yourself? 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:09.080 Why? 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:14.080 But it's like two layers of being a rational one 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:15.240 for you to feel like you still have to go 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:16.760 so hard, but that's also what got you here. And 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:18.399 that never just leaves, that never just checks it, that 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:20.719 never just checks out of the hotel. Sure, that's what 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:23.080 I talk to friends about. Actually, I'll have friends and 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:27.960 with athletes, and I consider athletes and artists high performing 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.120 this kind of the same mentality, and that if you're 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:33.199 driven and you win a super Bowl or you're great. 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:35.520 It's not like you go, well, I won my Super Bowl, 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:40.840 I'm good now, because what's inside of you is what 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:42.720 got you to that point to be great, and it 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:44.359 doesn't just check out like you leave in a hotel. 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:48.480 It's still the same thing with how you do your career. 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:51.439 You can have fifty You could be Ashley Gorley, who 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:55.119 I know, and he's very he's good. Yeah, but again 0:23:56.720 --> 0:24:00.000 if you ask him, he's probably like, can I stay relevant? 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:03.359 Can I do? And so that that ought. So that's 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:05.440 an irrational part of it. And then also just believing 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:07.359 that you're good enough to keep going on a high level. 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:09.040 That's so irrational. We should not be we should not 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:10.560 think that. But if we don't think that, we can't 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:12.120 do this right right right. 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:15.399 No, And even Ashley like he's my new deal. I 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:19.600 just signed with him. And it's unbelievable to watch, truly 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:21.199 the goat the greatest of all time. I don't think 0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:24.120 anybody will ever taught him, like to watch the pace 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:27.280 he goes and just the amount of love too, like 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:28.960 on top of how much he does for himself that 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:31.240 he shows for our team and just you know, he 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:33.640 had to go to something immediately after the party too, 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.560 and his wife is there, his kids are there. It's unbelievable. 0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:39.680 But never to check out that you know, you don't 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:44.000 check out, and it's awesome and awful and more awesome 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:44.480 than awful. 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:47.040 I think we all kind of want to at some point. 0:24:47.280 --> 0:24:48.800 I think it feels good to think we could. 0:24:49.200 --> 0:24:51.560 Yeah, for sure, I would love. 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:56.600 To be able to not be so neurotic and anxious. 0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:00.359 I don't sleep well, and it's not it's just because 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:04.840 I am concerned about being places on time, getting everything done, 0:25:05.320 --> 0:25:09.040 not letting anybody down. Can I still be creative when 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:11.480 my schedule is packed? So? But then I'm doing that. 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.120 That's energy even just thinking about that, I'd being anxius about. 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:16.840 That's energy that I wish I didn't waste being anxious, 0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:19.320 but I do, and I am. And like, there's a 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:22.040 screw loose. But for me it's been the right screw 0:25:22.640 --> 0:25:24.800 same thing for you, there's really cool. There's a bit 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:26.480 of a screw loose there has to be for even 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:30.280 move here. Yeah, Like that's not who does that? No, 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:33.840 it's crazy to think you can move here and make it. 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.360 For sure, for sure, it's weird to even hear you 0:25:36.440 --> 0:25:38.720 right there to say say that as if I have 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:40.800 because it doesn't feel like that, like it feels like 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:43.320 that's that's still to do, that's on the to do list. 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:44.679 You know, a song is you know, a song is 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:47.760 so good that I didn't know that you had written 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:50.399 it until I was just looking up stuff about you. 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:51.840 But my wife and I sink because my wife is 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:53.280 a fan of it a long time. Agoes hair salon. 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:55.159 Oh my dude, it's it's my favorite. It's one of 0:25:55.160 --> 0:26:00.239 my favorite songs. It's such a female song. Yeah, but 0:26:00.320 --> 0:26:02.480 that's like the that is the freaking jam. 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:05.200 Oh thank you. So that was so that was one 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:08.720 of the first songs we wrote when when Meghan moved 0:26:08.720 --> 0:26:09.200 to town. 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:11.040 By the way, Meg and Roney everybody, I mean to 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:16.320 speak and broken like a code language. Meghan Roney hair slon. 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:19.160 This was early early Megan Roney on TikTok. My wife 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:22.320 was like, this girl is so good. Yeah, and I 0:26:22.359 --> 0:26:24.119 was like, yeah, whatever, find and I would be secretly, 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:26.680 I'll be secret listening to it right right. Yeah, that song, 0:26:26.840 --> 0:26:28.160 it's such a great song. 0:26:28.240 --> 0:26:28.920 So thank you. 0:26:28.960 --> 0:26:29.560 Tell me about that. 0:26:29.960 --> 0:26:34.400 So with Meg and she's the best we So when 0:26:34.440 --> 0:26:36.240 I had first sign my publishing deal at Major Bob. 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.680 I interned there for two years, which is like why 0:26:39.960 --> 0:26:41.720 interned there? I filed all the papers in the back. 0:26:41.760 --> 0:26:43.040 I listened to this podcast every day. 0:26:43.080 --> 0:26:44.159 Oh thanks, I appreciate that. 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:47.360 But so I was Meg's first Nashville co write ever 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:49.120 and it was on Zoom before she ever moved here. 0:26:49.440 --> 0:26:51.320 So we wrote a bunch of songs on Zoom together 0:26:51.359 --> 0:26:54.280 when she lived in Georgia before she moved here. And 0:26:55.000 --> 0:26:58.119 I think hair Salon I really think was the first 0:26:58.240 --> 0:27:01.080 rite that we ever wrote. Maybe it wasn't, but it 0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:03.240 was like top five when she moved here. When we 0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:06.240 sat down like in Nashville with Michael Carpenter and Mackenzie Carpenter, 0:27:06.240 --> 0:27:07.800 who we've done a lot of stuff together. We call 0:27:07.840 --> 0:27:11.240 ourselves Jimmy James. And when we wrote hair Salon specifically, 0:27:12.080 --> 0:27:15.520 I was like, I don't know what this is, but 0:27:15.640 --> 0:27:18.760 whatever this sound is, whatever this feel is with Megan 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:22.439 is the thing, and whatever that feeling with this song is, 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:25.720 we need to keep until we are gray, Like this 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:28.320 is the vibe, this is the feeling, this is the 0:27:28.400 --> 0:27:31.320 song that I'm so glad he said that, because I 0:27:31.400 --> 0:27:33.120 truly like people will be like what's your favorite song 0:27:33.119 --> 0:27:34.800 you've ever written. I think it's Harsalon. 0:27:35.920 --> 0:27:39.080 My wife is eleven, almost twelve years younger than I am, 0:27:39.119 --> 0:27:44.600 so she definitely keeps me on the Sabrina Carpenter all 0:27:44.680 --> 0:27:47.400 the new pop stuff, but even some of like the 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:49.720 the because I listened to a fair amount of music, 0:27:49.760 --> 0:27:52.120 but then I don't sure. I mean, I'm creating content 0:27:52.160 --> 0:27:53.680 all day. I don't know. It's not what it used 0:27:53.680 --> 0:27:57.040 to be. But she was like, oh, this is like 0:27:57.040 --> 0:27:58.639 one of the greatest songs And it wasn't even so 0:27:58.800 --> 0:28:02.280 much at the time about Megan Maroney because there wasn't 0:28:02.280 --> 0:28:04.040 a big body of work of hers out right. 0:28:04.119 --> 0:28:05.960 No, it was like this second song, yeah, and. 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:07.280 She was like, this song is so good. And I 0:28:07.280 --> 0:28:09.240 remember listening to it, and first of all, I don't 0:28:09.280 --> 0:28:12.320 acknowledge my wife finds something great at first. It never 0:28:12.440 --> 0:28:14.240 never I don't want ever, because anything I find is 0:28:14.359 --> 0:28:16.040 it's never good. But she can like find TV shows 0:28:16.040 --> 0:28:17.639 and music like she's great at it. So I was 0:28:17.640 --> 0:28:20.119 just like, yeahs fine, it's fine. But I remember thinking 0:28:22.400 --> 0:28:25.560 that is so new and refreshing and classic at the 0:28:25.600 --> 0:28:33.119 same time, and it wasn't. It didn't sound it was 0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:35.560 so specific yeah. Right. It was in that era too, 0:28:35.560 --> 0:28:38.000 when specificity started to be written into songs. 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:38.880 Yeah. 0:28:38.920 --> 0:28:41.320 And it also was like so small town like where 0:28:41.320 --> 0:28:43.240 I was from. It just hit me in like an 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:46.360 odd way that again it's such a female song, right. 0:28:46.240 --> 0:28:49.080 Yeah, but it's fine. My parents were like, how did 0:28:49.080 --> 0:28:52.320 you How did you write that? And I was like, ah, 0:28:52.360 --> 0:28:54.840 I don't mom, We're very close. I was just thinking 0:28:54.880 --> 0:28:57.240 about you. And they were talking about the line. 0:28:57.080 --> 0:28:58.640 Though it's a gem what's the line? What's favorit line 0:28:58.640 --> 0:28:59.200 where you get. 0:29:00.800 --> 0:29:02.800 Who cares? Who's selling weed to the preacher's son in 0:29:02.840 --> 0:29:05.120 the second verse? I remember like the second we wrote that. 0:29:05.400 --> 0:29:07.520 I think a great Megan song and like a great 0:29:07.800 --> 0:29:10.360 country song which is watched. She has so many great songs. 0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:13.080 It make you laugh, it'll make you like cry, it'll 0:29:13.120 --> 0:29:15.440 make you feel all the love all at the same time, 0:29:15.840 --> 0:29:17.960 and like that song makes me laugh and then I'm like, damn, 0:29:17.960 --> 0:29:21.760 but it's really about this this girl who's heartbroken because 0:29:22.080 --> 0:29:24.680 her ex boyfriend just got engaged. But then you laugh 0:29:24.720 --> 0:29:26.000 about a weed line like. 0:29:26.000 --> 0:29:27.640 And then it's like and it also reminds me of 0:29:27.640 --> 0:29:29.840 where I grew up. Yeah, because it's very even if 0:29:29.880 --> 0:29:32.479 you're not talking about a hair salon. It's there are 0:29:32.480 --> 0:29:35.440 eight other places in your small town, right where that 0:29:35.560 --> 0:29:38.400 dynamic is happening between just the random people, the cast 0:29:38.440 --> 0:29:39.400 of characters that lives. 0:29:39.280 --> 0:29:41.480 In a small to anyway, that Bernadette is a real person, 0:29:41.560 --> 0:29:44.480 by the way, too, And that's Megan's dad's hairstylas. And 0:29:44.520 --> 0:29:47.120 when that song came out, before Meg was big or anything, 0:29:47.200 --> 0:29:49.680 she sent us a video and she's like, miss Meghan 0:29:49.720 --> 0:29:52.719 Maroney wrote this song about me, and she walked through 0:29:52.760 --> 0:29:55.360 the salon and with the song in the background. It 0:29:55.400 --> 0:29:55.920 was really cool. 0:29:56.000 --> 0:30:00.840 That's fine. I think she Megan's just a great, great songwriter, unreal, 0:30:01.480 --> 0:30:04.360 and this town is a land of giants and singers 0:30:04.400 --> 0:30:07.080 and songwriters, and it's not even that because there are 0:30:07.080 --> 0:30:09.920 a lot of great songwriters. But again, she's great with 0:30:10.080 --> 0:30:12.800 something to say from a perspective to say it from. 0:30:13.080 --> 0:30:15.280 And you're definitely a part of that journey with her. 0:30:15.640 --> 0:30:18.080 But I've said many times because she's front facing, right, 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:20.160 she's the artist for sure, so she gets the shine. 0:30:20.160 --> 0:30:22.360 I was like, she is what I feel is like 0:30:22.400 --> 0:30:25.120 the new generation of the great songwriter one hundred. When 0:30:25.160 --> 0:30:27.200 you start writing with her, like, yeah, what is it 0:30:27.240 --> 0:30:27.680 about her? 0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:29.240 What her ideas? 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:31.560 I always have. 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:34.479 This is the truth, Like I have a section of 0:30:34.480 --> 0:30:37.240 my notes like ourmegan ideas. But the truth is is 0:30:37.280 --> 0:30:38.800 when we sit down and write, and now it's a 0:30:38.800 --> 0:30:40.600 lot less than before. We used to write all the time. 0:30:40.640 --> 0:30:42.600 Now she's very busy on the road and when we write, 0:30:43.160 --> 0:30:45.520 you know, it's specifically for an album or whatever, which 0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:50.800 is awesome. She has all the ideas and even like 0:30:50.840 --> 0:30:52.920 if we get stuck on something, I'll just be like, hey, 0:30:52.920 --> 0:30:55.640 read me your ideas, and she'll like all of Tennessee Orange, 0:30:55.680 --> 0:30:57.560 I'm not pretty, all those songs, those are her ideas 0:30:57.600 --> 0:31:00.280 and those are her concepts. So she really think, she 0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:04.360 really will think of a concept that everybody's going to 0:31:04.440 --> 0:31:07.960 relate to in a completely different way. And then we 0:31:08.040 --> 0:31:09.600 just got to bring it together, you know how. 0:31:10.280 --> 0:31:12.560 I know that you're legit and I don't. Again, we 0:31:12.560 --> 0:31:15.720 haven't met before. Yeah this, if we had it, it 0:31:15.760 --> 0:31:18.880 had been in superpassing because I only we spend time together. No, Okay, 0:31:19.400 --> 0:31:22.360 this is why I think I respect you already. Is 0:31:22.400 --> 0:31:26.600 that anybody most folks would have said what you said 0:31:26.680 --> 0:31:28.480 kind of about somebody else that they were involved in 0:31:28.480 --> 0:31:30.719 writing with they would have said, yeah, she's great, she 0:31:30.760 --> 0:31:34.040 has great. You were pushing all the credit to her, 0:31:34.080 --> 0:31:36.960 which means you are so secure, You're so secure in 0:31:37.640 --> 0:31:40.080 what you bring and who you are, that you're absolutely 0:31:40.120 --> 0:31:42.080 fine with taking a spotlight and going yeah, I mean 0:31:42.120 --> 0:31:44.480 I was involved in that, but look boom spotlight on her. 0:31:44.520 --> 0:31:48.520 Oh for sure, Like, even you doing that shows me 0:31:48.640 --> 0:31:51.120 the kind of collaborator and person you are to work with. 0:31:51.160 --> 0:31:53.440 So that's a compliment, Oh think, because I again appreciate it. 0:31:53.480 --> 0:31:55.880 I never knew who I mean, I'd read about you, 0:31:56.000 --> 0:31:57.560 I knew I knew your songs, and I was walking 0:31:57.600 --> 0:31:58.800 down until I got down here. I don't know if 0:31:58.800 --> 0:32:01.360 you're gonna be cool or not. He's still not totally convinced. 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:05.680 I mean maybe sometimes run when it's like ten degrees outside, 0:32:06.040 --> 0:32:09.280 I'm not. And then the song just became because hair sline, Like, 0:32:09.400 --> 0:32:12.280 wasn't that was a radio song? No, not at all, 0:32:12.320 --> 0:32:17.280 But then Tennessee orange monster, Yeah I'm not pretty monster. 0:32:17.800 --> 0:32:22.960 Now it's like you write songs that would make other 0:32:23.040 --> 0:32:25.080 people want to write with you, Like you've written such 0:32:25.160 --> 0:32:28.360 big songs that if you just say, oh, yeah, he 0:32:28.400 --> 0:32:32.120 was a writer on this, that alone makes you desirable 0:32:32.160 --> 0:32:35.240 to write with. And that's a change. How did you 0:32:35.360 --> 0:32:37.560 deal with now being the person that everybody wanted to 0:32:37.560 --> 0:32:38.000 work with? 0:32:38.560 --> 0:32:43.920 That's wow. I like him emotional about that, because like 0:32:44.720 --> 0:32:48.200 all I ever wanted to be is that person. And 0:32:48.280 --> 0:32:49.920 I think I talked about like you know, listening to 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:54.720 this podcast, I am such a huge, huge, huge fan 0:32:54.840 --> 0:32:58.440 of songwriters in this town. Like I knew Jesse Fraser's 0:32:58.480 --> 0:33:01.200 story before. Jesse and I are Ever Boys, John I Kopperman, 0:33:01.360 --> 0:33:03.160 all of the guys that have been on this podcast, 0:33:03.600 --> 0:33:06.920 I I idolize. And the fact that now I can 0:33:06.960 --> 0:33:09.200 sit and call them friends and they want to write 0:33:09.200 --> 0:33:11.000 with me because of those songs to me is like 0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:14.480 it truly is I'm living my dream and I'm so 0:33:14.600 --> 0:33:20.200 grateful and humbled, and it's also terrifying because like I'm 0:33:20.200 --> 0:33:23.200 so grateful for those songs and now also too, like 0:33:23.600 --> 0:33:25.800 when I if I now, thankfully, I think that I 0:33:25.840 --> 0:33:28.000 have all. I've gotten all the big, big, big rights 0:33:28.000 --> 0:33:29.880 out of the way, and thankfully I made a lot 0:33:29.920 --> 0:33:32.440 of friends along the way. But during that year, really 0:33:32.520 --> 0:33:34.800 after Tennessee, Orange probably Why I'm Not Pretty was still 0:33:34.840 --> 0:33:37.640 on its way to being a hit. You only get 0:33:37.640 --> 0:33:40.520 one chance to walk in the room with you know, 0:33:40.720 --> 0:33:43.600 abz ex artist X writer and if you to walk 0:33:43.640 --> 0:33:45.040 in and they're like, yeah, you might just be on 0:33:45.080 --> 0:33:46.560 a hit song, but you might not be the reason 0:33:46.600 --> 0:33:49.160 why I was a hit song. You have to prove yourself. 0:33:49.200 --> 0:33:51.560 And I had to prove myself like not only when 0:33:51.560 --> 0:33:54.400 I just got first got my publishing publishing deal before hits, 0:33:54.440 --> 0:33:56.480 but then after hits to go into the biggest of 0:33:56.480 --> 0:33:58.720 biggest rooms and be like can this guy hang? Do 0:33:58.760 --> 0:34:00.440 we are we gonna turn to this guy I now 0:34:00.440 --> 0:34:04.560 to help with these other artists. That was tough because 0:34:04.600 --> 0:34:07.480 like I know I can, but I had to go 0:34:07.600 --> 0:34:09.920 do it, and that was that was crazy. 0:34:10.160 --> 0:34:13.640 What would your advice be to you seven years ago, 0:34:14.560 --> 0:34:17.120 four years ago a covid messages with my brain. Yeah, 0:34:17.120 --> 0:34:19.960 because again, you're writing with Megan before she was a 0:34:20.040 --> 0:34:22.000 known entity. Yeah, and I'll talk about her as not 0:34:22.040 --> 0:34:23.839 a human but just as like as a data point 0:34:23.880 --> 0:34:27.040 that can generate streams and revenue. You were writing with 0:34:27.080 --> 0:34:31.200 her before she was a thing. What would you tell 0:34:31.320 --> 0:34:35.080 other guys or girls like you that are like I 0:34:35.160 --> 0:34:36.799 just can't get any rights with anybody big, Like, how 0:34:36.800 --> 0:34:37.680 am I supposed to make it? 0:34:37.760 --> 0:34:41.040 Oh? My gosh. That is like if I go get 0:34:41.040 --> 0:34:43.440 coffee with Belmont students or something, that's the number one 0:34:43.480 --> 0:34:44.920 thing I tell them was like when I signed my 0:34:44.920 --> 0:34:47.120 first publisher, Neil, I'm twenty six now, I was twenty two, 0:34:47.920 --> 0:34:51.400 and I just remember that first year being like I 0:34:51.440 --> 0:34:53.680 need a Luke Brian cut, I need a Morgan wall 0:34:53.719 --> 0:34:56.200 And cut. I need these, Like that is how I'm 0:34:56.200 --> 0:34:59.040 going to have success. I'm going to get an outside cut. 0:34:59.600 --> 0:35:02.399 I had no idea that when I was sitting there 0:35:02.400 --> 0:35:04.920 writing all those songs with Meg and I did a 0:35:04.920 --> 0:35:07.799 bunch of Averyanna songs and all those early songs, I 0:35:07.880 --> 0:35:10.200 had no idea that what was going to propel me 0:35:10.280 --> 0:35:12.080 to even have the opportunity to write a Luke Brian 0:35:12.160 --> 0:35:15.120 or Morgan wallensong or whatever was sitting right next to 0:35:15.160 --> 0:35:17.400 me co writing the song I was doing. And so 0:35:17.640 --> 0:35:20.400 that is the number one thing is don't obviously, if 0:35:20.440 --> 0:35:23.759 you get a Blake Shelton single or whatever, that's amazing, 0:35:23.840 --> 0:35:26.040 like go you go you. But I think the way 0:35:26.080 --> 0:35:28.120 to break in as a just a pure writer, which 0:35:28.160 --> 0:35:29.759 I am, is look to your left and your right, 0:35:30.080 --> 0:35:33.319 who do you truly believe out of your friends or 0:35:33.360 --> 0:35:36.360 your circle has a chance to be honest in a stage, 0:35:36.760 --> 0:35:40.040 and whoever that person is, sit next to them, write 0:35:40.080 --> 0:35:42.640 with them every week, write with them every day, write 0:35:42.680 --> 0:35:45.440 their first record before they know that it's their first record. 0:35:45.760 --> 0:35:47.640 And then if you can contribute to their career and 0:35:47.680 --> 0:35:50.360 they blow up, boom. You just did the thing. And 0:35:50.360 --> 0:35:52.239 now you get the opportunity to do the thing that 0:35:52.280 --> 0:35:55.040 was impossible, which was getting an outside Luke Brian's song 0:35:55.040 --> 0:35:56.520 in your first Bubbles you deal pretty much. 0:35:57.080 --> 0:35:57.879 Did you ever want to sing? 0:35:57.960 --> 0:35:59.840 Can you sing? Oh? My gosh. I think about it 0:35:59.840 --> 0:36:01.759 all the time now. I used to never think about 0:36:01.760 --> 0:36:03.600 it because there's so many songs on my phone where 0:36:03.600 --> 0:36:06.640 I'm like that I sing. I sing most demos, and 0:36:06.719 --> 0:36:09.719 I'm like, man, maybe I should put these songs out 0:36:09.719 --> 0:36:12.640 at some point. I don't know. It's nice to not though. 0:36:14.040 --> 0:36:17.480 There are two kind of versions of the situation you're in. 0:36:17.680 --> 0:36:22.960 One would be I am extremely close. You mentioned Ross Kapperman. 0:36:23.520 --> 0:36:25.239 He comes over pick a ball a couple of times 0:36:25.239 --> 0:36:27.600 a week. Our wives are very close. Like that's like 0:36:27.920 --> 0:36:30.400 my guy been friends for the whole time I've been 0:36:30.440 --> 0:36:32.839 in town, just about them. And Ross is really good 0:36:32.880 --> 0:36:35.080 and Ross was like an artist. Yeah, he's an artist, 0:36:35.160 --> 0:36:38.080 and then he started to have success writing, so he'd 0:36:38.120 --> 0:36:40.520 like focused all his talent, so he's like an artist 0:36:41.040 --> 0:36:43.200 and then he gets at a crossroads. What do I do. 0:36:43.239 --> 0:36:45.520 I've got all this success, you know, uh, being a 0:36:45.520 --> 0:36:47.040 producer and art and so it's like I want to 0:36:47.040 --> 0:36:49.319 take Manders you put it here. But he was the 0:36:49.440 --> 0:36:51.839 artist that then. But a lot of those guys right 0:36:51.840 --> 0:36:53.960 are artists and then shift for one reason or the other. 0:36:54.480 --> 0:36:56.840 And then there are guys, my guys. For any of 0:36:56.840 --> 0:36:58.879 it's gonna message me. I mean, got women and men 0:36:59.080 --> 0:37:02.239 guys is universal crue. I agree, thank you, thank you 0:37:02.800 --> 0:37:08.120 like yourself who write and they have the ability to 0:37:08.200 --> 0:37:10.680 learn to be a better writer, so they do, and 0:37:10.719 --> 0:37:13.840 then they kind of find the voice yeah inside of 0:37:13.880 --> 0:37:17.360 them physically and mentally that they now want to write 0:37:17.360 --> 0:37:20.800 and sing songs. And I feel like that second version 0:37:20.840 --> 0:37:22.839 could be a bit of you now I'm not. 0:37:23.480 --> 0:37:25.880 My and the thing is too like if it's coming 0:37:25.880 --> 0:37:30.640 from anywhere, it's not coming from I want. I want 0:37:30.760 --> 0:37:33.319 the spotlight that comes from being the artists. Like that 0:37:33.440 --> 0:37:35.359 is not what I want. What I do want, though, 0:37:35.440 --> 0:37:37.640 is like, man, when I go finish this song, like 0:37:38.000 --> 0:37:39.960 Ross and I wrote a ton of songs, like a 0:37:40.000 --> 0:37:41.680 lot of them are getting cut, but like there's a 0:37:41.719 --> 0:37:43.279 lot of songs that we just wrote for some new 0:37:43.320 --> 0:37:46.000 projects that like aren't getting cut. And I'm like, and 0:37:46.040 --> 0:37:48.200 I sang all the demos and even with other people, 0:37:48.239 --> 0:37:50.719 and I'm like, they're my some of my favorite songs 0:37:50.719 --> 0:37:53.640 I've ever written, and I'm singing them and I'm like, Wow, 0:37:53.719 --> 0:37:56.200 I wish people could just all I'm saying is there 0:37:56.200 --> 0:37:58.239 are so many cool songs that I wish were in 0:37:58.239 --> 0:38:00.239 the world that won't be in the world. And the 0:38:00.280 --> 0:38:01.880 only avenue for them to be in the world is 0:38:01.880 --> 0:38:02.560 if I put them at. 0:38:02.520 --> 0:38:03.080 A mount Yeah. 0:38:03.120 --> 0:38:05.480 And I'm like, I'm just walking that line of Wow, 0:38:05.480 --> 0:38:07.320 it's really nice to wake up on a Saturday and 0:38:07.400 --> 0:38:10.040 go play golf with my friends or if I do it, 0:38:10.120 --> 0:38:12.880 I'm gonna do it, and then I would be in 0:38:13.040 --> 0:38:14.840 you know, Maine on a Saturday. 0:38:14.960 --> 0:38:28.640 Right, the Bobby Cast will be right back. This is 0:38:28.680 --> 0:38:29.560 the Bobby Cast. 0:38:30.160 --> 0:38:32.480 My text rass and to say, tell me one thing. 0:38:33.840 --> 0:38:36.160 See if you've been FACETI will probably pick up well, 0:38:36.239 --> 0:38:37.640 I hate face timing if they're in the middle of 0:38:37.680 --> 0:38:40.759 a right, because I'll do that for the right, I'll 0:38:40.800 --> 0:38:42.719 face time. I mean, I mean, I'm that close with 0:38:42.800 --> 0:38:44.960 I don't care. But let's just see what happens. This 0:38:45.000 --> 0:38:47.280 is well, by the way, Ross has over like forty 0:38:47.320 --> 0:38:48.200 number ones right as. 0:38:48.320 --> 0:38:51.200 The biggest writers in our world, in the world. 0:38:51.560 --> 0:38:55.799 Let's see if he answers here hebby Bobby, Hey man, 0:38:56.440 --> 0:38:59.440 I just got out of a nice back. He's not 0:38:59.480 --> 0:39:03.000 gonna answer, though he may call back. You can't leave 0:39:03.000 --> 0:39:08.799 a video, he is. Hey, So I'm sitting here RaSE. 0:39:13.360 --> 0:39:16.600 So we were just talking about you, Uh what give me? 0:39:16.840 --> 0:39:18.279 Can you give me like a couple of fun facts 0:39:18.280 --> 0:39:20.080 out oh Ben here? Like, oh my god, just some 0:39:20.200 --> 0:39:22.279 for somebody that works because he he loves you and 0:39:22.560 --> 0:39:25.080 talks in such high regard of you. And so I thought, 0:39:25.239 --> 0:39:27.239 if Ross has a couple two to three minutes we're 0:39:27.239 --> 0:39:29.120 recording this right now, could you give me just a 0:39:29.120 --> 0:39:30.360 couple of thoughts on Ben. 0:39:32.000 --> 0:39:32.239 Ben. 0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:35.080 I don't remember what you got into about his athleticism. 0:39:35.680 --> 0:39:37.880 It was the whole first ten minutes of the podcast. 0:39:37.920 --> 0:39:40.920 Yeah, yeah, all right, all right, all right. 0:39:41.880 --> 0:39:46.200 The way Ben writes lyrics is just it's it's pretty incredible. 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:47.279 He he. 0:39:49.320 --> 0:39:51.040 He says the most profound. 0:39:50.600 --> 0:39:55.520 Things and he's he's thoughtful, and he just knows how 0:39:55.560 --> 0:39:56.479 to write a hit song. 0:39:58.280 --> 0:39:59.359 To be so such a. 0:39:59.280 --> 0:40:03.920 Young writer write such incredible rixperient and to know how 0:40:03.960 --> 0:40:06.239 the arc of how to write the second verse, I 0:40:06.320 --> 0:40:08.640 was like, he knows how to write the second verse, 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:13.560 and that's that's like the biggest challenge writing the right 0:40:13.640 --> 0:40:14.239 second verse. 0:40:15.200 --> 0:40:17.200 I'm very annoyed that he's an athlete. I'll be honest 0:40:17.200 --> 0:40:19.960 with you. I kind of hated that he was so athletic, 0:40:20.000 --> 0:40:21.839 because you know, when someone has such success as something 0:40:21.880 --> 0:40:23.279 else and they're young, and they're also like I was 0:40:23.280 --> 0:40:25.239 a d one athlete, I'm like, God, damn, dude, say something, 0:40:25.280 --> 0:40:26.600 save something for us, something, you know. 0:40:27.920 --> 0:40:29.680 Hey, his voice the. 0:40:29.560 --> 0:40:33.160 Best translation to Dirk's balty Ai that exists. 0:40:34.960 --> 0:40:37.759 Okay, there you have it, all right, buddy? Uh hey 0:40:37.920 --> 0:40:39.600 do you play pickleball at all? Do you play pickball? 0:40:40.840 --> 0:40:43.640 Does he get the invite? Does he get the invite? 0:40:44.040 --> 0:40:46.800 He'd be too good, Bobby. 0:40:46.080 --> 0:40:48.200 That's the too good. 0:40:48.440 --> 0:40:50.319 You know, I've got backing down from any but not 0:40:50.360 --> 0:40:50.719 that good. 0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:54.319 You wouldn't really, Yeah, he knocked my position down. 0:40:54.400 --> 0:40:56.600 No, I would not, All right, buddy, Thanks France, are 0:40:56.560 --> 0:40:57.239 and good to see you. 0:40:58.840 --> 0:40:59.960 That's awesome, Like Ross is. 0:40:59.920 --> 0:41:05.000 Like, you're right, Like he upper tier. Yeah, he's done 0:41:05.040 --> 0:41:07.480 it at a high level for so long with many 0:41:07.480 --> 0:41:10.040 different people. Kenny Keith, it doesn't matter. Yeah, And for 0:41:10.080 --> 0:41:12.279 a guy like that, how does that make you feel 0:41:12.280 --> 0:41:14.919 when he says stuff like that, So because he didn't 0:41:14.920 --> 0:41:16.200 have to get uid anything you wanted. 0:41:16.040 --> 0:41:18.160 He's that's the coolest thing to me. 0:41:18.200 --> 0:41:18.399 Ever. 0:41:18.480 --> 0:41:20.400 And like the fact that one of the you know, 0:41:20.520 --> 0:41:22.480 idol of a writer of mine just told me that 0:41:22.680 --> 0:41:24.520 I could I know how to write the second verse, 0:41:24.560 --> 0:41:26.080 which is obviously the hardest part of the song. 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:28.839 Yeah, we expand on that a little bit. Why why 0:41:29.239 --> 0:41:29.920 why is that a thing? 0:41:30.480 --> 0:41:32.520 I think? And the thing with me, I've never really 0:41:32.520 --> 0:41:34.480 believed in it. But I remember when I first started 0:41:34.480 --> 0:41:36.800 writing in town specifically, people are always like the second 0:41:36.880 --> 0:41:39.400 verse curse, And people used to go to lunch when 0:41:39.400 --> 0:41:41.560 they finished the chorus to like kind of like rejuvenate 0:41:41.600 --> 0:41:44.120 for the second verse, because it's easy to get lazy 0:41:44.280 --> 0:41:46.440 because you're tired. You just spend all this effort writing 0:41:46.440 --> 0:41:48.879 the hook and the chorus in the first verse, and 0:41:49.120 --> 0:41:51.239 I feel like all the time people are like, well, 0:41:51.239 --> 0:41:53.400 now there's nothing left to say. I feel like, what 0:41:53.480 --> 0:41:56.239 else people are? What else do we say? And I 0:41:56.360 --> 0:41:57.799 was just like, well, let's say the same thing but 0:41:57.840 --> 0:42:00.919 in a cooler way. And also like second verse wise, 0:42:00.960 --> 0:42:02.640 I don't know on any of the songs Ross and 0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:05.120 I have done together, but I'm never afraid to just 0:42:05.120 --> 0:42:08.520 write a completely different melody and a completely different structure 0:42:08.560 --> 0:42:10.600 for the second verse than from the first verse. Like 0:42:10.640 --> 0:42:12.160 why does the second verse have to be the same 0:42:12.160 --> 0:42:14.440 melody as the first verse? If it sounds good being 0:42:14.440 --> 0:42:16.840 the same great, But like, second verse to me is 0:42:16.880 --> 0:42:21.560 like another opportunity to regain the listener's ear before they 0:42:21.600 --> 0:42:24.480 hit another chorus. So let's say something weird or interesting 0:42:24.560 --> 0:42:26.279 or throw melody that they're not ready for. 0:42:26.480 --> 0:42:28.600 Do you feel like if you're in a room and 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:33.240 with artists who have excuse me, artists or mostly songwriters 0:42:33.280 --> 0:42:39.320 that have traditionally written not that way, you know, melody 0:42:39.320 --> 0:42:41.360 of the first verse, melody the second verse gotta have 0:42:41.480 --> 0:42:44.000 three chorus here, got it? And it has to be done. Yeah, 0:42:44.080 --> 0:42:45.960 that it's hard to kind of break through to them 0:42:46.080 --> 0:42:46.640 what you're. 0:42:46.480 --> 0:42:50.040 Saying sometimes, Yeah, But a lot of the time I 0:42:50.080 --> 0:42:51.960 think if they just see that it's cool or they 0:42:51.960 --> 0:42:54.759 hear that it's cool, the vibe and the feeling. They'll 0:42:54.760 --> 0:42:56.839 just be like, oh, yeah, that is cool, even if 0:42:56.880 --> 0:42:59.319 they think that it has to be exactly this way. 0:42:59.520 --> 0:43:02.759 If something sounds good to somebody and they're if they're 0:43:02.800 --> 0:43:05.840 not willing to adapt, then they probably aren't writing in 0:43:05.840 --> 0:43:08.400 town anymore anyways, you know. So I think it's just 0:43:09.440 --> 0:43:12.520 showing if they don't believe in changing, showing them how 0:43:12.520 --> 0:43:14.560 it could be really cool, and then they'll be like, 0:43:14.600 --> 0:43:15.480 oh that is cool. 0:43:15.680 --> 0:43:18.839 You get a lot of people from non Nashville come 0:43:18.880 --> 0:43:20.160 in and go, hey, I want to write with you, 0:43:20.480 --> 0:43:22.520 Like is that a thing? Are people coming from with me? 0:43:22.600 --> 0:43:24.440 So just yeah, you specifically are Just in general, it 0:43:24.440 --> 0:43:25.759 feels like there's a lot of folks coming from like 0:43:25.840 --> 0:43:28.760 La just to write with like Nashville writers, they write differently, 0:43:29.120 --> 0:43:31.640 like more than ever, more than ever, it's constant. 0:43:31.680 --> 0:43:35.080 Now, it's like, listen, the fact that country's cool and 0:43:35.120 --> 0:43:37.759 everybody wants to be a part of country. Ashley said 0:43:37.800 --> 0:43:39.920 it the best. It's like this is the more the 0:43:39.920 --> 0:43:43.120 merrier come. We have open arms. Hopefully that'll go both ways, 0:43:43.600 --> 0:43:45.520 but I think they want to come see what we've 0:43:45.520 --> 0:43:48.279 been doing and that's really changing the world. I mean 0:43:48.320 --> 0:43:50.799 country to me hopefully, I don't know stats, but like 0:43:51.040 --> 0:43:53.120 it sure seems like it's the coolest format right now. 0:43:53.320 --> 0:43:55.600 Oh yeah, by far. Yeah, I mean just the format 0:43:55.680 --> 0:43:57.919 exploding as it has has helped me in other ways 0:43:57.960 --> 0:44:01.200 professionally because people will be like, oh, you're the most 0:44:01.440 --> 0:44:04.239 listened to, yeah, and the most listened to for it. 0:44:04.360 --> 0:44:07.000 You must be cool without it. So there's just credibility 0:44:07.239 --> 0:44:10.279 with country now that there hadn't been before a few 0:44:10.360 --> 0:44:11.480 years ago. And you know a lot of that is 0:44:11.520 --> 0:44:18.239 credited to the Wallins and Comb's and Zach Bryan being 0:44:18.239 --> 0:44:21.160 able to go stadium for sure, right, for sure, because 0:44:21.160 --> 0:44:22.800 a lot of people can do arena and that's amazing, 0:44:22.840 --> 0:44:25.160 for sure, but when you can go stadium, that's that's 0:44:25.239 --> 0:44:26.880 next level. And you have three young guys doing it 0:44:26.920 --> 0:44:28.880 at once. And I'm not talking abou Kenny, because Kenny's 0:44:28.880 --> 0:44:31.000 been able to do it in Garth, but it took 0:44:31.040 --> 0:44:33.520 those guys a long time. But you're talking about a 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:37.600 sound that got so popular so quick. Yeah, and these 0:44:37.600 --> 0:44:38.920 guys are your age. 0:44:39.040 --> 0:44:41.400 I'll be super honest too, Like the one thing that 0:44:41.520 --> 0:44:44.799 is a little frustrating about it, And again I'm as 0:44:44.800 --> 0:44:47.960 open arms as it gets when I also can't wait 0:44:48.000 --> 0:44:49.920 to go to I haven't been on an LA trip yet, 0:44:50.000 --> 0:44:52.040 and so like, I know that I want to write 0:44:52.040 --> 0:44:53.879 some pop stuff at some point, and like I'm gonna 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:56.400 get over there and be super green. And I'm not 0:44:56.440 --> 0:44:58.359 saying that people who come here are super green, because 0:44:58.360 --> 0:45:01.759 they're all amazing. Like when you come and I haven't 0:45:01.760 --> 0:45:04.440 written with a ton of LA people, I'm like writing 0:45:04.480 --> 0:45:08.080 with a couple, But it's like, unless you've written a 0:45:08.080 --> 0:45:10.040 lot of country before, which some of them have and 0:45:10.080 --> 0:45:12.480 they're amazing country writers, if you're just coming here for 0:45:12.520 --> 0:45:15.560 the first time to start dabble in country, the sessions 0:45:15.560 --> 0:45:18.680 are very much like, this is how we do it. 0:45:18.680 --> 0:45:21.280 It's sort of this way. Lyrics are like this. It's 0:45:21.360 --> 0:45:24.560 it's like, let me show you a sort of sort 0:45:24.600 --> 0:45:27.560 of vibe. And that's a little tough at the beginning, 0:45:27.640 --> 0:45:29.440 just to be like, come, let's I'm gonna show you 0:45:29.480 --> 0:45:30.840 how to This is how we kind of do it 0:45:30.840 --> 0:45:32.840 here versus them just getting here and we're just on 0:45:32.920 --> 0:45:35.479 the same page crushing. But that will come with time, 0:45:35.560 --> 0:45:37.040 and then the more that they come here, the more 0:45:37.040 --> 0:45:39.160 that we get to share in their world too. So 0:45:39.200 --> 0:45:40.520 I look at it as a positive thing. 0:45:40.880 --> 0:45:46.640 The creators writers that I know from California be the 0:45:46.800 --> 0:45:49.760 many more creators writers that I know in Nashville. Yeah, 0:45:49.800 --> 0:45:53.640 whenever those two mix, especially for the first time, well 0:45:53.680 --> 0:45:55.719 both sides. Often if they go into the land where 0:45:55.719 --> 0:45:57.400 they're going, they want to prove themselves. And I have 0:45:57.440 --> 0:45:59.000 done this in many situations where I'm like over the 0:45:59.040 --> 0:46:00.719 top a little bit because I want to myself so much. 0:46:01.200 --> 0:46:03.440 But it seems to me like the dynamic has been 0:46:04.320 --> 0:46:07.600 if people come, well, to say, from California here when 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:10.120 they work there, it could be one in the morning, 0:46:10.200 --> 0:46:13.000 it could be in a studio, it could be you know, 0:46:13.120 --> 0:46:15.719 they're getting high in recording while they're riding. Totally, it 0:46:15.719 --> 0:46:19.440 could it very much and all the time, very much. 0:46:19.480 --> 0:46:24.320 It's melody. First will fully flesh out of a freaking awesome 0:46:24.360 --> 0:46:26.839 melody and then assign some words to it. And again 0:46:27.120 --> 0:46:29.359 all of that happens here a little bit, but mostly here, 0:46:29.400 --> 0:46:33.080 like it's a it's a job for sure, like nine 0:46:33.120 --> 0:46:37.920 to three, Yep, we're riding this and it can be concept, 0:46:38.000 --> 0:46:40.839 it can be melody, it can be but yeah, it's 0:46:40.840 --> 0:46:44.560 it's definitely they're just created differently. And I could understand 0:46:44.600 --> 0:46:47.000 how that oil and water meat and it will be 0:46:47.000 --> 0:46:47.719 difficult to learn. 0:46:47.760 --> 0:46:50.120 Sometimes it's like a lot of the time it's amazing too. 0:46:50.160 --> 0:46:53.160 Like there's a song on Meg's last last record called 0:46:53.200 --> 0:46:54.840 I Know You and I wrote it with Jay Cash. 0:46:55.000 --> 0:46:57.399 We read it with Jay Cash and Jake I Love 0:46:57.680 --> 0:46:59.719 I Don't Know jacsh So. J Cash wrote like a 0:46:59.719 --> 0:47:01.799 lot of the early one Direction songs he wrote last 0:47:01.880 --> 0:47:04.880 night with Ashley Morgan's song He's just He's just an 0:47:04.920 --> 0:47:07.719 amazing guy. But he came and like just some of 0:47:07.760 --> 0:47:09.600 the melodies he would throw out that sort of hit 0:47:09.719 --> 0:47:12.600 factory thing and pop that we don't have as much 0:47:12.600 --> 0:47:15.440 in country really helps. That was really cool. I enjoy it. 0:47:15.440 --> 0:47:17.080 But you're right, I mean the times that we start 0:47:17.120 --> 0:47:20.160 I think they start at one there versus eleven here 0:47:20.239 --> 0:47:22.480 and stay up all night. I'm not in up all 0:47:22.560 --> 0:47:27.160 night writer, like I'm if I'm not done by three, Yeah, 0:47:27.560 --> 0:47:28.640 I'm like, oh my god. 0:47:28.719 --> 0:47:31.520 But it's the culture here right for sure. It's Yeah. 0:47:31.680 --> 0:47:34.040 I'm not a I said, I'm not a morning person 0:47:34.080 --> 0:47:35.319 at all. I hate it. 0:47:35.400 --> 0:47:38.520 I like nine ams like I love a nine Am. 0:47:39.560 --> 0:47:42.440 I would wake up at noon. I literally wake up 0:47:42.440 --> 0:47:44.400 at noon every day. Or later if I could, and 0:47:44.440 --> 0:47:45.879 I don't. I wake up before thirty in the morning, 0:47:46.160 --> 0:47:46.680 and it sucks. 0:47:46.800 --> 0:47:48.760 You wake up before thirty every day every day. 0:47:48.719 --> 0:47:53.080 If not before, like my my alarm, Yeah, because the 0:47:53.080 --> 0:47:55.720 show starts at five, but we're not we can record 0:47:55.760 --> 0:47:58.759 stuff early early on because we're on East coast six am, right, 0:47:58.840 --> 0:48:01.600 we can record stuff early early on. COVID kind of 0:48:01.640 --> 0:48:06.400 allowed that. But my alarm is set for four thirty, 0:48:06.840 --> 0:48:08.399 and I don't know that. My alarm has gone off 0:48:08.400 --> 0:48:12.040 three times this year, meaning I'm so neurotic that I 0:48:12.080 --> 0:48:18.520 wake up three twenty three fifty four to ten take 0:48:18.560 --> 0:48:22.560 a gasp because I do. It sucks. I hate it. 0:48:23.040 --> 0:48:24.520 And people will be like, what time do you start working? 0:48:24.520 --> 0:48:26.160 And I'm like, as soon as my eyes open, sure, 0:48:26.320 --> 0:48:28.239 or I would or I wouldn't wake up right, But 0:48:28.320 --> 0:48:30.080 what wakes me up is me going, oh my god, 0:48:30.080 --> 0:48:33.560 I got so much to do. And Mike, who produces this, 0:48:33.680 --> 0:48:37.520 but it's also like been my vertebrae for ten years 0:48:37.520 --> 0:48:39.799 at this point, he knows if he's getting emails, even 0:48:39.800 --> 0:48:41.320 if he's on a wake at two thirty in the morning, 0:48:41.600 --> 0:48:43.279 it's about to be a rough day because that means 0:48:43.320 --> 0:48:45.600 I haven't slept at all. I can't sleep. I'm up, 0:48:45.600 --> 0:48:48.480 I'm writing, I'm sending notes for the show. But again, 0:48:48.600 --> 0:48:50.680 that is also and I say that, don't not the 0:48:50.840 --> 0:48:54.480 wa but like that's also what built the studio in 0:48:54.560 --> 0:48:58.040 here for sure. For sure, it's also what allows me 0:48:58.120 --> 0:49:00.239 to travel around the country doing a sports show that's 0:49:00.239 --> 0:49:03.000 opened all these doors for television. So you know, with 0:49:03.680 --> 0:49:06.480 all of that, hate mornings and I don't sleep a 0:49:06.520 --> 0:49:09.520 little bit, not a time that would be suitable to 0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:14.120 wake up that early, like eleven. Sure, before I got married, 0:49:15.040 --> 0:49:16.839 I could go to bed at seven thirty or eight 0:49:16.880 --> 0:49:21.080 pm because who cares. Yeah, But now that I have 0:49:21.200 --> 0:49:24.120 like a wife and like I try to not be 0:49:24.200 --> 0:49:26.160 lame and we like watch it's have a life. 0:49:26.200 --> 0:49:27.240 I'm getting married in July. 0:49:27.480 --> 0:49:28.560 Yeah, and that's awesome. 0:49:28.719 --> 0:49:31.200 Oh it's we've been together since like Belmont, like the 0:49:31.239 --> 0:49:31.840 whole ride. 0:49:32.160 --> 0:49:33.839 Yeah, but you say that like that's one hundred years ago, 0:49:34.080 --> 0:49:35.680 you're like twelve. Yeah, it was, like, I mean, it 0:49:35.719 --> 0:49:37.839 was my adult life, like kids do the darnedest thing, 0:49:37.960 --> 0:49:39.440 Like it's my way to seven years. 0:49:39.560 --> 0:49:41.399 Really, yeah, it is a long time. 0:49:41.640 --> 0:49:43.960 Nineteen Dang, Why she cool? What's cool about her? 0:49:44.080 --> 0:49:46.279 She's so cool. She puts up with me. She's just 0:49:46.360 --> 0:49:49.200 so easy and so amazing and smart talented. 0:49:49.280 --> 0:49:50.600 How'd you propose? When you propose? 0:49:50.760 --> 0:49:53.279 I proposed almost two years ago. We were doing a 0:49:53.280 --> 0:49:55.840 long engagement. But so her birthday is May sixteenth, mine's 0:49:55.840 --> 0:49:58.640 May eighteenth. So I proposed on the seventeenth. Her parents 0:49:58.719 --> 0:50:01.440 have a place down in Florida, and I had my 0:50:01.480 --> 0:50:03.319 whole family come down and we did one of those 0:50:03.880 --> 0:50:05.960 Hey we're gonna do a family picture on the beach. 0:50:06.280 --> 0:50:08.759 And then I actually was so funny. We hired this 0:50:08.880 --> 0:50:13.279 photographer lady to take pictures, obviously, and we were I 0:50:13.360 --> 0:50:15.800 was standing there with with Bella her name is Bella, 0:50:15.840 --> 0:50:18.120 with Bella, her dad, her mom, and her sister, and 0:50:18.120 --> 0:50:20.480 we were doing like one family photo, like right before 0:50:20.640 --> 0:50:22.680 they were gonna like Bella's dad was like, hey, let's 0:50:22.719 --> 0:50:24.680 do pictures with Ben and Bella. That's what I was 0:50:24.719 --> 0:50:27.080 gonna do it. And I had the ring like in 0:50:27.120 --> 0:50:29.360 my pocket right here, the big box, and I'm on 0:50:29.400 --> 0:50:33.160 the right side of this family photo and the photographer, 0:50:33.160 --> 0:50:37.720 whose only job was to be there to take engagement pictures. 0:50:37.760 --> 0:50:40.640 These family photos are whatever, They're not part of the 0:50:40.680 --> 0:50:44.400 thing goes you have something sticking out of your pot. 0:50:44.840 --> 0:50:49.120 And I literally Bella's dad looks at her AND's like what, 0:50:50.000 --> 0:50:51.879 and I'm like, I just joked. I was like, that's 0:50:51.920 --> 0:50:54.399 my butt. I got a big butt, and she was like, 0:50:55.080 --> 0:50:56.600 I was like, what do you do? And so just 0:50:56.680 --> 0:50:59.239 immediately after that, her family got out and you had 0:50:59.280 --> 0:51:01.120 to go down. No one knew anyways, did she? 0:51:01.440 --> 0:51:03.800 Oh, when I bought the ring, but let's not hold on, 0:51:03.920 --> 0:51:07.080 let's not okay, okay, that's still the photographer. Regardless if 0:51:07.200 --> 0:51:09.440 Bella knew anyways, I don't want to take off the 0:51:09.520 --> 0:51:11.600 dad's a bad movie. That photographer needs to be focused, 0:51:12.200 --> 0:51:16.040 be focused, because you should know why you're there. Yes, now, yeah, 0:51:16.320 --> 0:51:16.960 but she didn't know. 0:51:17.480 --> 0:51:20.279 Oh yeah, she's like FBI agent. Like when I when 0:51:20.280 --> 0:51:23.320 I bought her an engagement ring, we were in Colorado 0:51:23.520 --> 0:51:27.640 and her mom booked her a massage, and Bella was like, 0:51:27.640 --> 0:51:29.720 why why did my mom booked me a massage? 0:51:29.719 --> 0:51:31.600 Something's up today because it was so uncharacteristic. 0:51:31.840 --> 0:51:34.839 Yeah, I guess, but it's not. She gets massages all 0:51:34.840 --> 0:51:38.279 the time. Anyways, it was snowing outside in Colorado. I 0:51:38.320 --> 0:51:40.359 went and bought the ring. We got back and she 0:51:40.440 --> 0:51:43.360 was like they're acting all weird. She went in the garage, 0:51:43.719 --> 0:51:47.319 looked at her mom's tires of her car, felt them 0:51:47.360 --> 0:51:49.239 that they were wet, and knew that we must have 0:51:49.280 --> 0:51:51.239 left the house so and she knew I wouldn't bought 0:51:51.239 --> 0:51:52.879 the ring because we had left our phones at home, 0:51:52.920 --> 0:51:55.520 so our locations looked. She's like FBI agent. 0:51:56.120 --> 0:51:58.120 That's a little bit on you, guys. I too. If 0:51:58.160 --> 0:51:59.839 you know she's like FBI agent, then you gotta make 0:51:59.840 --> 0:52:02.960 sure tires aren't warm. You get an uber could have ubered, 0:52:03.040 --> 0:52:05.319 oh my god, I've never thought about that. I can't 0:52:05.320 --> 0:52:06.480 believe the photography did that though. 0:52:07.960 --> 0:52:19.040 Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow, 0:52:19.440 --> 0:52:21.680 and we're back on the Bobby cast. 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:25.399 Your realtor, you were home? How do you know that 0:52:25.560 --> 0:52:28.239 you were really that? How long? How long did you 0:52:28.280 --> 0:52:28.480 do that? 0:52:29.080 --> 0:52:35.239 So during my first publishing deal, my first year, I 0:52:35.280 --> 0:52:37.839 wasn't making very much money, and I was like, I 0:52:37.920 --> 0:52:40.360 just wanted to have a little bit of money to 0:52:40.400 --> 0:52:42.080 go to dinner or something, and so I got my 0:52:42.120 --> 0:52:43.520 real estate license. I love real estate. 0:52:43.560 --> 0:52:44.720 How hard was it to get that license? 0:52:44.760 --> 0:52:46.840 Not hard, You just have to You just have to 0:52:46.840 --> 0:52:50.640 do it. And I got my real estate license because 0:52:50.680 --> 0:52:52.080 I just wanted one. I wanted to see if I 0:52:52.080 --> 0:52:53.360 could do it when I wanted to learn about it 0:52:53.400 --> 0:52:55.480 because at one point, hopefully if I was successful, I 0:52:55.520 --> 0:52:58.040 wanted to learn about real estate like a lot of 0:52:58.040 --> 0:53:00.279 people have been very successful in real estate, especial with 0:53:00.320 --> 0:53:02.920 investing and whatever. I don't have my license anymore, by 0:53:02.960 --> 0:53:05.120 the way, but I got my license and I sold 0:53:05.160 --> 0:53:07.560 one house. You still I sold one house in the 0:53:07.719 --> 0:53:09.919 in the Sylvan Park. Was your picture on the front 0:53:09.920 --> 0:53:10.279 of the thing? 0:53:10.320 --> 0:53:11.080 Do you have it like a thing? 0:53:11.160 --> 0:53:11.200 No? 0:53:11.480 --> 0:53:11.840 I didn't. 0:53:11.880 --> 0:53:13.959 I was too cheap. I didn't even buy I din't. 0:53:13.960 --> 0:53:15.759 I don't even know if I bought real estate agent 0:53:15.880 --> 0:53:16.920 like business cards. 0:53:16.960 --> 0:53:18.640 Can I read your zelobio? 0:53:19.200 --> 0:53:20.520 Do I have a zilobio? 0:53:21.040 --> 0:53:22.160 I don't know. You tell me of this? You or 0:53:22.200 --> 0:53:25.439 not enthusiastic and motivated to create a seamless real estate 0:53:25.480 --> 0:53:29.880 experience for you? Please allow me to introduce myself. Originally 0:53:29.880 --> 0:53:32.839 from the Bay Area, with generational ties to the greater 0:53:32.960 --> 0:53:34.920 Nashville area. I've been a resident of Tennessee for the 0:53:35.000 --> 0:53:37.080 last five years, and I loved every minute of it. 0:53:37.480 --> 0:53:37.680 Wow. 0:53:37.880 --> 0:53:41.960 I graduate. I graduated from Belmont University with a music 0:53:42.040 --> 0:53:44.520 business degree, and along with furthering my exciting career in 0:53:44.560 --> 0:53:48.160 real estate, I've been a professional songwriter in Nashville since graduation. Wow. 0:53:48.560 --> 0:53:50.560 I've come from a family of real estate investors who 0:53:50.680 --> 0:53:53.200 taught me the importance of investing wisely and using the 0:53:53.239 --> 0:53:56.239 power of real estate to create an abundance of benefits 0:53:56.680 --> 0:54:01.160 in life, both financially and practically. I pride myself if 0:54:01.200 --> 0:54:02.560 you put a melody behind it, Did I think you 0:54:02.560 --> 0:54:03.000 got to hit here? 0:54:03.080 --> 0:54:03.279 Yeah? 0:54:03.400 --> 0:54:05.759 I pride myself on my ability to communicate thoroughly, my 0:54:05.760 --> 0:54:07.520 passion for helping others, and my drive to use real 0:54:07.600 --> 0:54:11.120 estate to excel in a volatile society. Only one more sentence. 0:54:11.280 --> 0:54:13.560 There's nothing like finding a house that feels like home, 0:54:13.680 --> 0:54:16.360 or letting go of one to move on to greener pastures. 0:54:17.120 --> 0:54:18.120 All that for one sale. 0:54:18.960 --> 0:54:19.600 Did you write that? 0:54:20.080 --> 0:54:20.160 Oh? 0:54:20.280 --> 0:54:21.200 Yeah, you wrote that yourself. 0:54:21.239 --> 0:54:24.759 You know what it's crazy too, is what was I 0:54:24.760 --> 0:54:27.160 just gonna talk about? Oh? I just bought my house 0:54:27.280 --> 0:54:30.319 in twel South like three months ago. My real estate 0:54:30.360 --> 0:54:33.520 license expired like two months ago, So I could have 0:54:33.560 --> 0:54:34.600 saved You. 0:54:34.520 --> 0:54:36.080 Could have got part of the feet. 0:54:36.120 --> 0:54:38.960 Yeah, but I didn't let again. So now one of 0:54:39.000 --> 0:54:41.040 the i've met. I met a friend who was my 0:54:41.080 --> 0:54:42.600 real estate agent. Isn't that crazy? 0:54:43.120 --> 0:54:45.080 It sold two houses. What would have been fun was 0:54:45.080 --> 0:54:46.840 if like you're like, I need to find a realtor 0:54:46.840 --> 0:54:48.200 and you're like, let me just type in some keywords 0:54:48.239 --> 0:54:49.560 of like a good realtor that pops up and you 0:54:49.600 --> 0:54:51.040 type in some words than you pop up for yourself. 0:54:51.080 --> 0:54:52.680 Where did you find that? Don't worry about what we 0:54:52.800 --> 0:54:53.640 what I do and what we do. 0:54:53.920 --> 0:54:56.240 Okay, I didn't even know that existed. 0:54:56.320 --> 0:54:57.719 I was the one that bought the house for you before. 0:54:57.760 --> 0:55:00.399 You just didn't realize that was me. Uh you guys, 0:55:00.440 --> 0:55:02.480 you can follow Ben at Ben We already said all 0:55:02.520 --> 0:55:05.759 this but Ben dot Williams dot music too many dots 0:55:05.800 --> 0:55:10.000 for me. But you know og Yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah, 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:17.120 congratulations mans like pretty cool, so happy. Yeah. Sometimes it's like, man, 0:55:17.120 --> 0:55:20.480 somebody's had some success. You're a young guy, like a 0:55:20.520 --> 0:55:23.920 wonder No, I like you. Oh yeah, it's good and 0:55:23.960 --> 0:55:27.680 I appreciate that the compliments about this, and man, I 0:55:27.840 --> 0:55:30.839 just hair salon is like that, like that's one of 0:55:30.880 --> 0:55:32.160 the song. If you were to go like of the 0:55:32.160 --> 0:55:33.759 past like five to seven years, like, what's a song 0:55:33.800 --> 0:55:36.080 that hits you sideways and you're like, oh, that's it, 0:55:36.239 --> 0:55:38.200 that's it, whatever, that that's one of those songs. 0:55:38.600 --> 0:55:40.279 So I had no idea I'd be talking about that 0:55:40.280 --> 0:55:42.279 song today, which is so cool. And by the way, 0:55:42.320 --> 0:55:46.200 like I didn't even I literally Major Bob was my 0:55:46.239 --> 0:55:48.560 first publishing deal. I love them, We have a great relationship. 0:55:49.440 --> 0:55:51.920 I for two years, I filed all the papers in 0:55:51.960 --> 0:55:54.000 the back and I would go back and forth between 0:55:54.040 --> 0:55:56.400 Bobbycasts and the writer is. I mean, I probably listened 0:55:56.400 --> 0:56:00.160 to all of the first three hundred episodes, and I 0:56:00.320 --> 0:56:02.399 even remember being at Belmont like on the track team 0:56:02.440 --> 0:56:05.799 and listening to Gorley's episode and just like all and 0:56:05.960 --> 0:56:08.319 just being in awe. I think I stayed up until 0:56:08.320 --> 0:56:10.440 like one am listening to that podcast before it tracked me. 0:56:10.719 --> 0:56:13.080 This podcast really changed my life, no thanks, and got 0:56:13.080 --> 0:56:15.319 me so inspired, And it's crazy to me that in 0:56:15.440 --> 0:56:17.480 so full circle and so cool that I'm even here 0:56:17.520 --> 0:56:19.440 looking at that really cool picture of me behind you. 0:56:19.480 --> 0:56:21.320 Oh, we're not recording this. This was just it's to 0:56:21.360 --> 0:56:23.440 make a wish. Yeah, yeah, you don't know yet, but 0:56:23.440 --> 0:56:26.439 you're gonna be giving us some bad news. So yeah, 0:56:26.480 --> 0:56:29.600 this is just it was about to come in Uh 0:56:29.640 --> 0:56:31.480 you guys followed Ben. Been good to see you, buddy, 0:56:31.760 --> 0:56:33.640 h This was awesome and once it gets a little 0:56:33.760 --> 0:56:36.560 we played pickleball a lot. Yeah, I woop pross butt. 0:56:37.040 --> 0:56:38.240 I believe I woop pross. 0:56:38.280 --> 0:56:39.280 But have you played with Ashley? 0:56:39.360 --> 0:56:42.239 He's really no, But but so Gator. You know Gator here. 0:56:42.640 --> 0:56:43.799 I just met Gator. 0:56:43.840 --> 0:56:45.360 So he plays over at Ashley. They played basketball a 0:56:45.360 --> 0:56:46.960 lot too. But the basketball games are albably so late. 0:56:47.040 --> 0:56:48.799 I can never go because they're like, we're playing at 0:56:48.840 --> 0:56:50.799 a forty five PM and I'm like, guys, i gotta 0:56:50.800 --> 0:56:52.960 get up in two hours, right, But Getter's like he's 0:56:52.960 --> 0:56:56.720 got courts, but my schedule is so weird with the hours. 0:56:57.080 --> 0:56:59.600 But I think that's a place, and I'm just gonna 0:56:59.600 --> 0:57:01.480 divite ash over here too. But yeah, yeah Gators, like 0:57:01.520 --> 0:57:03.000 they're playing like costumes and crap over there. 0:57:03.000 --> 0:57:05.319 Oh yeah, Mandy Ashley's wife like they have like a 0:57:05.320 --> 0:57:08.719 women's league and everything. Your wife should play too, she wants. 0:57:08.840 --> 0:57:12.319 My wife is such an annoyingly good athlete, but like 0:57:12.520 --> 0:57:15.279 is it's so annoying. She's such a good athlete and 0:57:15.360 --> 0:57:15.919 does not care. 0:57:16.280 --> 0:57:19.520 Wow, that's like my Bella is so good. I love golf. 0:57:20.040 --> 0:57:22.080 Bella is she was on the high school golf team, 0:57:22.120 --> 0:57:23.880 and she's so good at golf. I can't even convince 0:57:23.920 --> 0:57:24.439 her to come plain. 0:57:24.720 --> 0:57:26.960 Really. Every once in a while, I get Caitlyn to 0:57:27.000 --> 0:57:31.040 play pickleball. Read Yeah, she's good, Say it's good, Say 0:57:31.320 --> 0:57:32.080 say more. 0:57:32.160 --> 0:57:32.960 She whooped us. 0:57:32.800 --> 0:57:36.240 And he whooped us as the team, and read's gotten 0:57:36.240 --> 0:57:40.560 pretty good, and she like she is, but she just 0:57:40.600 --> 0:57:44.040 has she's yeah, you know, she got stuff to do. 0:57:44.240 --> 0:57:45.680 You gotta read a book or something. And I'm like, 0:57:45.760 --> 0:57:47.320 I would never read a single day thing if I 0:57:47.360 --> 0:57:48.280 was reading. 0:57:48.080 --> 0:57:51.439 Because Bella she loves, she loves yeah, and. 0:57:51.360 --> 0:57:53.600 If she can't for some reason, it's dead. Uh, she'll 0:57:53.640 --> 0:57:54.920 get it up, put on her phone too, and read 0:57:54.920 --> 0:57:57.040 it on her phone like she loves. She read like 0:57:58.360 --> 0:57:59.840 there's a lot of sex stuff. No, no, it's not. I'm 0:57:59.840 --> 0:58:06.120 just I was going it's not. She it's pretty diverse. 0:58:06.400 --> 0:58:08.200 And sometimes I don't even ask because it moves from 0:58:08.200 --> 0:58:10.160 one book to the other. And then sometimes if I ask, 0:58:10.160 --> 0:58:11.480 I really don't want to hear about it. I'll be 0:58:11.520 --> 0:58:15.880 honest with you. I don't like, and then I don't 0:58:15.880 --> 0:58:17.680 want to get lectured about how much because there's I 0:58:17.760 --> 0:58:19.640 will check out for a couple of months of time 0:58:19.680 --> 0:58:21.240 of reading at all, because I'm just like I get 0:58:21.240 --> 0:58:23.400 in seasons of book reading, like I'll kill a book 0:58:23.440 --> 0:58:25.800 and I'm done. And sometimes you'll be like, maybe you 0:58:25.800 --> 0:58:27.640 should read more, And I also don't want to have 0:58:27.680 --> 0:58:29.600 that lecture. Some might can even. 0:58:29.520 --> 0:58:31.720 Acquire Yeah, that's a really good reason not to ask. 0:58:32.880 --> 0:58:34.600 Yeah, or she'll be like, while you're over there swiping 0:58:34.600 --> 0:58:36.960 on TikTok, I'm over here reading about you know, are 0:58:37.000 --> 0:58:41.680 you a tiktokst It's the greatest, It's the it's what 0:58:41.880 --> 0:58:50.120 the iPhone, penicillin, TikTok, the carriage built onto the horse, 0:58:50.160 --> 0:58:54.560 maybe the four greatest dintions ever, and a pencil not adventure, 0:58:54.600 --> 0:58:55.880 but I guess like a discovery. 0:58:55.920 --> 0:58:57.880 So it was TikTok actually getting banned in January. 0:58:58.080 --> 0:58:59.080 No, that'll never happen. 0:58:59.160 --> 0:59:00.720 Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'll never happened. I 0:59:00.840 --> 0:59:02.040 never go on it, but maybe I should. 0:59:02.080 --> 0:59:04.480 Why TikTok is great is because it doesn't matter what 0:59:04.520 --> 0:59:06.520 your thing is. There's a corner of the universe that 0:59:06.560 --> 0:59:10.280 is built specifically for you and for me. It happens 0:59:10.280 --> 0:59:14.240 to be a lot of sports stuff, but like nineties wrestling, 0:59:14.760 --> 0:59:19.600 you know old it like old like a bunch of 0:59:19.640 --> 0:59:22.840 like early two thousands nineties music like alternative. So there's 0:59:22.880 --> 0:59:26.600 just whatever like your thing is, it's it's unlimited. 0:59:26.760 --> 0:59:30.200 I'm a YouTube guy, like I've been watching YouTube for it, 0:59:30.320 --> 0:59:31.840 like I watch YouTube shorts. 0:59:32.160 --> 0:59:35.240 Oh so you're a TikTok guy. Then just a different format, yeah, 0:59:35.320 --> 0:59:37.320 a different name. My problem is just cooking stuff like 0:59:37.600 --> 0:59:38.000 you like it. 0:59:38.040 --> 0:59:40.840 Like there's this guy, La Try guy, and he just 0:59:40.880 --> 0:59:43.240 goes to all the different like worst places, like the 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:45.480 best worst food for you places you can and I 0:59:45.600 --> 0:59:47.680 just watch. I just get hungry. That's all I do. 0:59:48.080 --> 0:59:50.400 It's really my That would be like my A perfect 0:59:50.400 --> 0:59:53.160 Friday night is I throw on like Diners, Drivens and dives. 0:59:53.560 --> 0:59:55.160 I have the fire pit and I go on door 0:59:55.240 --> 0:59:58.560 Dash and I'll get like two vastly different cuisines like 0:59:58.680 --> 1:00:02.280 Indian and Mexican, and I'll watch food videos and chill. 1:00:02.880 --> 1:00:03.920 That's like heaven. 1:00:05.400 --> 1:00:07.840 That's even more ludicrous than me saying penicillin and talking 1:00:07.840 --> 1:00:11.080 about the greatest. Uh. Been good to talk to you, Bunny. 1:00:11.120 --> 1:00:14.720 Thank you so much, thanks for listening to a Bobby 1:00:14.760 --> 1:00:15.560 Cast production