Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Joe Leaving. So my guest this time
Speaker 1: out is Luke Combs, who has just released a deluxe
Speaker 1: edition of his second album, What You See Is What
Speaker 1: You Get. In The deluxe edition adds five new songs
Speaker 1: to the one new song six ft apart, it's a
Speaker 1: song about the pandemic that Luke added to the album
Speaker 1: in May. So all in all, that's an impressive one
Speaker 1: hour in twenty one minutes of foot stomping songs about beer,
Speaker 1: good times and broken hearts, as well as slow ones
Speaker 1: about family memories and the kind of love that could
Speaker 1: make a man stop stomping his feet and settle down.
Speaker 1: I caught off with Luke on a day in September
Speaker 1: that was special in two kinds of ways. First, he'd
Speaker 1: been up early that morning to help announce the c
Speaker 1: m A nominations on Good Morning America, and in fact,
Speaker 1: he snagged six nominations himself, including Album of the Year
Speaker 1: and Entertainer of the Year. But second, Luke was celebrating
Speaker 1: his one month anniversary. And it takes a special kind
Speaker 1: of lady to appreciate a man who writes songs, comparing
Speaker 1: their bond to the match made up in Heaven between
Speaker 1: good old Boys and beer, the way Luke does in
Speaker 1: Better Together. But Luke Luke Homs has found her and
Speaker 1: in August he married Nicole Hawking, his girlfriend. Since although
Speaker 1: as he told me, they didn't know exactly where they
Speaker 1: were getting married until the last minute. We had to
Speaker 1: change our venue a week before the wedding, which was
Speaker 1: very interesting, and we actually didn't know we had two
Speaker 1: different venues, and we didn't decide until the morning of
Speaker 1: the wedding which and what what brought the change on,
Speaker 1: what was the reason for the change. Well, so we
Speaker 1: ended up getting We were gonna get married in Key West,
Speaker 1: and the city imposed harsher COVID regulations the week before
Speaker 1: the wedding, and so we were gonna invite it was
Speaker 1: gonna be about a hundred and seventy people at the
Speaker 1: wedding and there they wouldn't allow any gatherings over fifty.
Speaker 1: So we had to cut from one seventy five to
Speaker 1: fifty like the week before the wedding, find a new venue,
Speaker 1: find a new hotels, get everyone that we still needed
Speaker 1: to be there there, and then when we got there,
Speaker 1: there was a hurricane coming to the area, which up
Speaker 1: until the night before, so I guess it was Friday evening.
Speaker 1: It was like fifty fifty chance, like this, herricane's either
Speaker 1: going to come over the right exactly where we're at,
Speaker 1: or it's gonna veer off. And and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think what the right joke is for a guy who
Speaker 1: has a hit song called Hurricane. Actually thought about that
Speaker 1: a lot of times during during that process. But so
Speaker 1: it was we had to make that. It was either
Speaker 1: going to be get married at this outside place or
Speaker 1: get married in the conference room at a hotel, which
Speaker 1: would have been terrible. So luckily it missed us and
Speaker 1: we didn't have to do that about that hurricane, not
Speaker 1: Hurricane is Ais, which caused significant damage when it did
Speaker 1: hit the US in August. But the Luke Comb song
Speaker 1: about a breakup, released independently on Luke's third EP in
Speaker 1: it did so well it it helped lead to his
Speaker 1: signing by Columbia Nashville, which re released the song in ten,
Speaker 1: at which point it became the first of US nine
Speaker 1: number one country singles. You know, like a lot of
Speaker 1: rappers these days. Early on in his career, Luke tapped
Speaker 1: the power of social media to build up a significant
Speaker 1: following as an independent artist before he ever signed to
Speaker 1: a major label. And while that might be a common
Speaker 1: story in hip hop, it's a little bit more unusual
Speaker 1: in Nashville. And Luke Holmbs is thirty now, which makes
Speaker 1: him a solid citizen of gen Y, so when he
Speaker 1: was starting out in his early twenties, it was natural
Speaker 1: for him to use Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter to get
Speaker 1: his music out and connect with people. In fact, he's
Speaker 1: such a solid citizen of gen Y that when I
Speaker 1: interviewed his managers, Chris Cappy and Lynn Oliver Klein for
Speaker 1: Billboard last year, Cappy told me a story about how
Speaker 1: when he first met Luke five years ago and he
Speaker 1: had to convince Luke to use Facebook because Luke thought
Speaker 1: of Facebook as you know. Cool. Anyway, Cappy started a
Speaker 1: Facebook group for Luke's fans. It's called the Bootleggers and things.
Speaker 1: Pretty much it's bloated from there. So when What You
Speaker 1: See Is What You Get came out last November. It
Speaker 1: debuted at number one, and it's set a record for
Speaker 1: the biggest streaming first week for a country album ever,
Speaker 1: seventy four million on demand audio streams, which is on
Speaker 1: top of the two point seven billion sorry, let me
Speaker 1: say that again, two point seven billion on demand streams
Speaker 1: that Luke had racked up since he started releasing music
Speaker 1: in Okay. So Luke Homes is a country superstar with
Speaker 1: a record setting digital approach that's a little bit futuristic
Speaker 1: for Nashville, but his music itself is a throwback. His
Speaker 1: songs are built around solid narratives and super sharp word play.
Speaker 1: These are old school values, and his songs are packed
Speaker 1: with details. There's the guy in a song called when
Speaker 1: It Rains It Pours. It's from his first album, This
Speaker 1: One's for You, and and the guy singing goes from
Speaker 1: a fight with his girlfriend to a three week run
Speaker 1: of good luck that starts with him pulling into a shell.
Speaker 1: On I there are those details, and winning one hundred
Speaker 1: bucks in a scratch off ticket which rhymes with bought
Speaker 1: two twelve packs and a tank of gas with it,
Speaker 1: or on what you See is what You Get. There's
Speaker 1: a song called every Little Bit Helps, which packs a
Speaker 1: lot of detail into just its first line, This futon
Speaker 1: I crashed on in college. Well it ain't our bed,
Speaker 1: but at least it don't smell like you. And right there,
Speaker 1: in twenty words, you get the breakup, the guy moving out.
Speaker 1: He's moving backwards to the futon he slept on in college,
Speaker 1: but he's trying to take a step forward, you know.
Speaker 1: So I get some sadness, some anger, some loss, some heartbreak,
Speaker 1: And when I just said it out loud, I noticed
Speaker 1: the internal rhyme of Futon and crashed on, which filled
Speaker 1: me with a new level of respect for the craft
Speaker 1: of songwriting here. But in addition to being well written,
Speaker 1: most of the songs on What You See Is What
Speaker 1: You Get are pretty hard rocking. Has long been true
Speaker 1: that if you were one of the people sitting around
Speaker 1: wondering if rock is dead, you are not spending much
Speaker 1: time listening to country. You're going to see it live
Speaker 1: because country has been the new arena rock for more
Speaker 1: than a minute now. But but what you see is
Speaker 1: what you Get is some very big league southern rock
Speaker 1: again old school. Before the pandemic forced him to postpone
Speaker 1: his tour, Luke was scheduled the headline arenas this year,
Speaker 1: and the dates included some stadium shows, as Luke and
Speaker 1: his co writer Jonathan Singleton and his producer Chip Matthews,
Speaker 1: It's plained to me they wrote songs like Beer Never
Speaker 1: Broke My Heart because they need some music big enough
Speaker 1: to fill those spaces. Luke talked with me about the
Speaker 1: cabin he rents where he will spend two weeks at
Speaker 1: a time writing songs and drinking beers, and it helps
Speaker 1: that there's a TV, but there's no Xbox. And he
Speaker 1: also talked about how he was overseas in March. He
Speaker 1: was scheduled to play the Country to Country festival, which
Speaker 1: brings country music to the u k And too Berlin,
Speaker 1: and he was out during a night of celebration having
Speaker 1: a good time when he got a call saying he
Speaker 1: had to get himself on a plane the very next
Speaker 1: morning because the United States had issued a travel alert
Speaker 1: due to COVID nineteen. Luke talked about his early days
Speaker 1: when he's spending six months straight on the road and
Speaker 1: nothing but a van with his manager Cappy driving, and
Speaker 1: he also talked about his hopes for the future. Here's
Speaker 1: what else he had to say. Luke comps, welcome to
Speaker 1: inside the studio. Uh, you you have some guests with you?
Speaker 1: Would you would you mind introducing them? Yes? Yes, I
Speaker 1: have Chip here and Jonathan. Uh my producers here, very handsome.
Speaker 1: Jonathan's making a white trash spit cup boys. Why don't
Speaker 1: you do you tell them a little bit about yourselves here, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: let's let's do that. Hey, I'm Jonathan Singleton and uh
Speaker 1: I've been a songwriter and uh and a guitar player
Speaker 1: and uh barbecue cooker for a long time. Was kidding
Speaker 1: about the barbecue cooker thing. And uh men friends were
Speaker 1: league for a long time. We've done a lot of
Speaker 1: songwriting together, done a lot of playing together, and I
Speaker 1: was excited to jump in here and do some do
Speaker 1: some production stuff with Chip Matthews. I'm Chip Matthews and
Speaker 1: uh I have been around Nashville for a long long
Speaker 1: time working in the trenches, engineering, producing, and uh I
Speaker 1: met Luke a few years back through Cappy I Believe
Speaker 1: and some Sony stuff, and we got the opportunity to
Speaker 1: together a few times, and then I was lucky enough
Speaker 1: for him to invite me to work with him and
Speaker 1: Jonathan on this record. So that's where we are today. So, uh, Luke,
Speaker 1: I know you've talked a little bit on on live
Speaker 1: streams about what quarantine has been like for you. You.
Speaker 1: You have gotten to enjoy a little bit of time
Speaker 1: off the road, play some call of duty. Yes, do
Speaker 1: a little turkey hunting at your place also, I believe
Speaker 1: you've been raising some chickens. Yes, that has been the
Speaker 1: bulk of my activity over the last six months or so.
Speaker 1: Turkey hunting only for a couple of months, obviously, But yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of some call of duty. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: saying that, and not an ass load of call of duty,
Speaker 1: which is probably more realistic. But no, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I've just been hanging out. You know, I just got
Speaker 1: married a month ago today, which was great, and so
Speaker 1: I've just been spending time with and my wife, which
Speaker 1: is still weird saying that. It's still I'm still not
Speaker 1: used to saying that yet. But yeah, it's been really
Speaker 1: a really weirdly good, strangely great year in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. And you know, it's kind of sucked ass
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways too. I guess. You know
Speaker 1: you've also been doing some writing and recording during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and uh, of course you you've We've heard six ft
Speaker 1: apart and I know the story behind that is you
Speaker 1: had a songwriting session scheduled in April, you didn't want
Speaker 1: to let it go and and tell me how did
Speaker 1: the idea of of writing about what was actually going
Speaker 1: on right then first come up? And then how was
Speaker 1: writing and recording that song different than usual? Well, so
Speaker 1: I had a right scheduled with Brent Cobb and Rob Snyder,
Speaker 1: and I hadn't written with Brent before, and so I
Speaker 1: was really wanting to do that because a really big
Speaker 1: fan of his and and think he's really great at
Speaker 1: what he does. And so Brent lives in Georgia and
Speaker 1: so he was doing it over FaceTime or something, so
Speaker 1: we all do we did like a zoom. I texted
Speaker 1: them the night before and I was like, Hey, should
Speaker 1: we just write, you know, a song about this stuff
Speaker 1: or whatever? And they actually sent me that title and
Speaker 1: they were like, we were actually talking about this before
Speaker 1: U Texas. So we were all kind of on this
Speaker 1: just happened to be on the same page with it,
Speaker 1: and we wrote it the next morning. It was probably
Speaker 1: like hour and a half maybe or something, and we
Speaker 1: were like done with it because it was just kind
Speaker 1: of like it just kind of fell out because it
Speaker 1: was just everything that was because the quarantine was like
Speaker 1: super new and weird at that time, and like things
Speaker 1: were very uncertain. But now realizing that they were less uncertain,
Speaker 1: I guess than they are now even probably, But at
Speaker 1: that time that was like really weird, you know, because
Speaker 1: we and we kind of all like, oh, it'll be
Speaker 1: over in you know, May or whatever. That's kind of
Speaker 1: what we were all thinking. It'll be those happy days
Speaker 1: when we thought this would ever end. Yes, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this will be done in six weeks. It'll be you know,
Speaker 1: we'll be good, Summer will come in and we'll be
Speaker 1: good and everything. And and so then I, you know,
Speaker 1: I hit up Chip here and I was like, man, like,
Speaker 1: let's just go. And because I put the song, I
Speaker 1: played the song I think the next night on Instagram
Speaker 1: or something something like that, and and got a really
Speaker 1: solid response out of it. And so I was like, man,
Speaker 1: we should just record this thing, and you know, nothing
Speaker 1: else going on. Yeah, because there was a recording moratorium
Speaker 1: from sony UM, we weren't supposed to be doing anything,
Speaker 1: and so I had to kind of go through and
Speaker 1: express to A and R what you wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And then I had to find a studio that was
Speaker 1: willing to let us in which was that was like
Speaker 1: really strict at that time. Yeah, it was very insanely strict.
Speaker 1: And um, I think it was really honestly that I
Speaker 1: had been working with those guys and been with him
Speaker 1: in person, and I was like, can I get in
Speaker 1: to do this thing? And when we first started talking
Speaker 1: about it, it it was small and they were like sure.
Speaker 1: And then when we showed up that day, the owner
Speaker 1: came down and he's like, this is a lot more
Speaker 1: than I thought you were bringing in. How many how
Speaker 1: many folks were you bringing in? Well, you know, we
Speaker 1: still cut lean. We we cut with UM. I think
Speaker 1: we cut four piece UM light and then I only
Speaker 1: had it was me you you were there, Massey was there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: second engineer. We had a fery lean crew, and we
Speaker 1: were never in the same room with the with the musicians.
Speaker 1: We never even entered the same room as them either. No,
Speaker 1: we had we had a set, we we we got
Speaker 1: a separate space for Luke that was not even part
Speaker 1: of the main studio. And then um, we had to
Speaker 1: submit protocols to the label into the studio and then
Speaker 1: really kind of had to go on the download because
Speaker 1: I think people were still kind of coming to terms
Speaker 1: with that that we shouldn't be doing that. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, all it took was somebody getting infected in
Speaker 1: that window for sure, so it was really getting in fast.
Speaker 1: And then we got the song and overdubbed it and
Speaker 1: one gut by one guy's just peeled off and left
Speaker 1: and never even came in the control room. They just
Speaker 1: came into their booth recorded and then left kind of
Speaker 1: waved on the way out. So that was really weird. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, we tried to keep it simple so
Speaker 1: that we could get what we needed and move on.
Speaker 1: And then um, and then I guess you sang right. Then, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got the final we we kind of just put
Speaker 1: a mic in that room right there, yeah, where all
Speaker 1: the musician guys were, and just cut like three passes
Speaker 1: and that was it and we were out of there.
Speaker 1: And then it was like what three hours, four hours
Speaker 1: about four hours probably, and then and it was mastered
Speaker 1: two days later, two days later. Yeah, I mean, the
Speaker 1: results are great and and it it is such a
Speaker 1: a moving song, especially you know from from my perspective
Speaker 1: because I care so much about music that that the
Speaker 1: whole part about. You know, it's a mystery how long
Speaker 1: this thing goes. But there'll be crowds and they'll be shows,
Speaker 1: which is something we're all looking forward to. And we're
Speaker 1: still in that mystery moment. So there are six new
Speaker 1: tracks on this deluxe version of the record, and uh,
Speaker 1: six ft apart newly written, newly recorded. I know some
Speaker 1: of these other songs have been around for a little while.
Speaker 1: Um or were any of them, uh, newly written written
Speaker 1: under these quarantine times? These were some that we've been
Speaker 1: holding onto for a while. Uh, some of them were
Speaker 1: probably around. I know two of them were around when
Speaker 1: I recorded this album that's out now, and so one
Speaker 1: of them was the other guy that's been around for
Speaker 1: long down three years, probably to three years. I know
Speaker 1: I've seen I've seen a version of it floating around
Speaker 1: with your co writer on YouTube. I think, uh yeah, Joe, yeah,
Speaker 1: Rob maybe me and Rob Brandon, Kenny Rose road on
Speaker 1: that with me, Brandy Kenny. Yeah, you're right, Brandy Kenny
Speaker 1: and and Wilford. Yeah. I had some a buddy of
Speaker 1: mine that was gonna cut it, so you may have
Speaker 1: seen him do it. He ended up so yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So that one and Cold as You were both breakup songs. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the other guy is uh we're saying a couple
Speaker 1: of years old. How about Cold as You? When when
Speaker 1: was that written and recorded? January was the name? Was
Speaker 1: it January? Yeah? It was right before. Yeah, so right
Speaker 1: after kind of I did a two week kind of
Speaker 1: like writing retreat deal down and down in Florida, and
Speaker 1: I wrote that with Jonathan, Randy and Shane Minor. You
Speaker 1: and Shane started that right Yeah. Shane had the Shane
Speaker 1: had the idea, I think, yeah, and so we kind
Speaker 1: of worked used on it a little bit, and then
Speaker 1: we had Randy on that riding trip, so we were like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's just this thing. And it seemed pretty to fall out,
Speaker 1: pretty pretty easy. Yeah, that was a quick one. I
Speaker 1: remember we wrote a bunch of those couple of days
Speaker 1: because Nicole was somewhere else. I know, she was down
Speaker 1: there for the trip, but when y'all were there, she
Speaker 1: like went and visited her parents. So we just kind
Speaker 1: of wrote. We wrote the whole time, just the whole time,
Speaker 1: and and so it sounds like songwriting is just a
Speaker 1: continual process for you guys. I mean, in that case,
Speaker 1: you were you were on a retreat of some sort.
Speaker 1: But I know Jonathan you worked with with with Luke
Speaker 1: on your Never Broke My Heart and I think that
Speaker 1: was was that written while you were you were on tour? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That was one of Luke's early tours. What tour that
Speaker 1: was a club tour that was that was the Don't
Speaker 1: Tap Me with a Good Time tour, I think, and
Speaker 1: I think we were in Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, I think
Speaker 1: is where we were on the bus because we started
Speaker 1: that thing. I had that idea, we started working on it,
Speaker 1: and then I'm talking like I came in from like
Speaker 1: we started it, maybe got a verse idea going line
Speaker 1: of the chorus. I come back to the bus and
Speaker 1: these guys are drinking beers and they're not like rioting,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what's going on? And They're like, oh, dude,
Speaker 1: here's the demo of this thing. Okay, well sweet? Then
Speaker 1: you know, so they just kind of, you know, they
Speaker 1: just kind of took the reins on that one, and
Speaker 1: I just kind of got lucky. And he was on
Speaker 1: that song too, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of the same we've you know, and Luke at that
Speaker 1: point to on beer Never Brought My Heart I remember
Speaker 1: because he was playing that was probably a five S
Speaker 1: club that night, and Luke was saying, you know, I
Speaker 1: need I need I'm gonna play I'm gonna be playing
Speaker 1: you know, stadiums next year, and I need something that
Speaker 1: will rock like this. And we were kind of laughing
Speaker 1: at him when his back turned, you know, and then
Speaker 1: and then come to find out he was telling the truth,
Speaker 1: but he was he had the foresight to know he
Speaker 1: needed a song like that, you know. And and Cold
Speaker 1: as You was in the same vange, that same kind
Speaker 1: of it scratches the same che scratches the same way
Speaker 1: to say, yeah, So we were kind of heading down
Speaker 1: that road. We kind of knew with Cold as YouTube,
Speaker 1: you know, that we were gonna end up being in
Speaker 1: that direction and uh and have a closer and and
Speaker 1: opener hopefully. And and Luke, when you say those songs
Speaker 1: scratched the same itch, are you talking about like the
Speaker 1: big riffs behind them or they they're both they're both
Speaker 1: breakup songs in a way. I think it's the field thing,
Speaker 1: like a combination of both, you know, Like the lyrical
Speaker 1: content is is similar, you know, and it's going in
Speaker 1: the same direction, but it's also that like heavy riff thing.
Speaker 1: We were going over a mixed thing. Maybe a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago and me and Chip talked on the phone
Speaker 1: and we had gone through a couple of different mixes
Speaker 1: of it, and I was like, man, I'm just missing
Speaker 1: those big like riff fills in the verses like that,
Speaker 1: like this chunky thing just wasn't in there. And it
Speaker 1: was there, it just wasn't as up as I thought
Speaker 1: it needed to be to match the like intensity of
Speaker 1: the song. You know, you had to pour some sugar
Speaker 1: on it as it was. Yes, absolutely absolutely, Tip does that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think Luke two is is looking for in those
Speaker 1: songs like it's you're you know, you want to just
Speaker 1: ride a fun, uplifting beer drinking song, but Luke always
Speaker 1: kind of wants a little more than that, and I didn't.
Speaker 1: I've never thought about them both men breakup songs, but
Speaker 1: it would make sense they were trying to find some
Speaker 1: story to go along with the thing. Yeah, to go
Speaker 1: along with the song. That feels great. It's a beer
Speaker 1: drinking song, but it's like also like a breakup song
Speaker 1: at the same time. Tempo negative. I think it's tempo negative.
Speaker 1: I like that that's a term that is that's uh.
Speaker 1: I think that's how you get there. Though I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I think that's
Speaker 1: how you get there is you're looking You're looking at
Speaker 1: he wants that other next step of substance, meat on
Speaker 1: the bone and the song. How did you learn and
Speaker 1: develop as a songwriter your instinct is that you you
Speaker 1: want that little more there and and where where does
Speaker 1: that come from? Was there a point just as a
Speaker 1: listener when you were even before you were writing songs,
Speaker 1: where you were just listening to music and thinking, how's
Speaker 1: that work? I like the way at that line that
Speaker 1: I like the way that sounds, or how do they develop? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think what it was is, you know, I
Speaker 1: listened to country music when I was younger, when I
Speaker 1: was living in Charlotte and on the radio with my
Speaker 1: with my mom, that's all we listened to was country radios.
Speaker 1: I listened to Vince Gill and Brooks and Dunn and
Speaker 1: Clint Black and Garth and Alan Jackson, like those were
Speaker 1: the guys that were on the radio when I was
Speaker 1: listening to the radio. And that's when I kind of remembered,
Speaker 1: you know, and this is maybe subconsciously, those songs always
Speaker 1: had more of kind of a story and so once
Speaker 1: we moved to Asheville when I was eight or nine,
Speaker 1: I kind of just stopped listening to country music because
Speaker 1: when you're eight or nine, you just kind of listen
Speaker 1: to what your parents listened to, and so you don't
Speaker 1: have your own musical taste when you're eight years old,
Speaker 1: you're just listening to whatever mom and dad listened to.
Speaker 1: And so my parents, my mom and my dad was
Speaker 1: never really into country music. He's from Ohio, and you know,
Speaker 1: his first concert was it was We Had To I
Speaker 1: think it was The Who, and it was The Night
Speaker 1: We Landed on the Moon. Was that was my dad's
Speaker 1: first concert, and so he kind of was Zeppelin, Pink Floyd,
Speaker 1: The Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Like my dad's not.
Speaker 1: He wasn't listening to Merle Haggard, you know, like I'd
Speaker 1: be lying if I was in an interview saying Diddy
Speaker 1: was spitting beach nut and listening to Whiteland Junny, you know,
Speaker 1: like he just wasn't doing that, And so I was
Speaker 1: listening to. My mom really was more of who I
Speaker 1: listened to music with, because as an only child, I
Speaker 1: spent the majority of time with my mother because my
Speaker 1: dad worked full time, and so did my mom. But
Speaker 1: she was the one that was kind of you know,
Speaker 1: she got home first and we rode in the car
Speaker 1: to go get school clothes. Like I wasn't doing that
Speaker 1: stuff with dad, you know, he was mowing the yard
Speaker 1: and fixing ship at the house and stuff. So she
Speaker 1: was listening to like Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews,
Speaker 1: like that was the kind of stuff Mom was listening
Speaker 1: to at that time, Like the satellite album Dave Matthews
Speaker 1: was on in our house a lot um And so
Speaker 1: I was is out like it, you know, not my choice,
Speaker 1: because I love Vince Gill was my favorite ever when
Speaker 1: I was I mean that was my first concert when
Speaker 1: I was six years old. That was my birthday present
Speaker 1: was to go see Vince Gill at the Charlotte Knights
Speaker 1: Baseball Stadium and my grandma and my mom took me,
Speaker 1: and I mean it was awesome, you know, And and
Speaker 1: so I loved that stuff, but I just kind of
Speaker 1: it just kind of fell out of my life for
Speaker 1: some reason. And so once I got back into country music,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I was probably eighteen or nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: and so I had missed a decade's worth of music.
Speaker 1: So when I rediscovered it, I rediscovered it because of
Speaker 1: Eric Church. He went to the same college that I
Speaker 1: went to, and a friend of mine handed me his
Speaker 1: album or whatever. Little did I know that he was
Speaker 1: on tour with Jonathan Singleton. Jonathan was opening for him
Speaker 1: at that at that time, Uh, you know, same manager
Speaker 1: and and stuff like that, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: really really it. I mean really his songwriting was something
Speaker 1: that because I went back and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I would hear little bits and pieces of country music
Speaker 1: through high school and stuff, and I'm like, man, that's
Speaker 1: really not for me, because it's it just didn't have
Speaker 1: that thing that I thought Brooks and Dunn had, or
Speaker 1: that I thought Vince Gill had, you know, like there
Speaker 1: was always something to be somewhat emotionally invested in. As
Speaker 1: a listener. It was like, oh, this guy's like getting
Speaker 1: his heart broken or he's you know, there's a story
Speaker 1: about something going on, and that that just wasn't there
Speaker 1: in those ten years that I missed a lot, Right,
Speaker 1: You listen, you listen to a Garth Brooks, you listen
Speaker 1: to the thunder Rolls, You that that's like a whole movie.
Speaker 1: There's a whole movie in that there's something going on.
Speaker 1: And then so then when I heard Eric Church, it
Speaker 1: was like the missing link of like modern my era
Speaker 1: quote unquote of country music meeting back up with the
Speaker 1: stuff that I fell in love with. And so then
Speaker 1: when I picked the guitar up three years later, that
Speaker 1: was what I gravitated towards was Eric's stuff, which I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, and I still think, is you know, on
Speaker 1: a different level than anyone else's really And then I
Speaker 1: got into looking at well, then I wanted to get
Speaker 1: into like who actually wrote these songs was the thing
Speaker 1: that I became obsessed with. So then I became a
Speaker 1: fan of Jonathan Singleton and Casey Bethard and all these guys,
Speaker 1: and I was like, those are the guys that I
Speaker 1: want to hang out with and do stuff with, you know,
Speaker 1: like because they're bringing something to the table, you know,
Speaker 1: there helping they can help me become better at something
Speaker 1: that I want to get better at that I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do better at it. And that was a long process,
Speaker 1: but I think that's, you know, that's the short, long
Speaker 1: version of how I got it here. I guess you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you were you were just talking about your mom and
Speaker 1: what you see. There was a dad song on what
Speaker 1: you See even though I'm leaving. And then in these
Speaker 1: additional tracks that are on the deluxe version, uh, there's
Speaker 1: a mom song that's added without you. Yeah. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: the way that kind of song played out was, you know,
Speaker 1: the first verses about my parents, second verse is about
Speaker 1: my fiance, third verses about the fans. I wanted it
Speaker 1: to be kind of a an ode to like the
Speaker 1: main kind of you know, things that kind of keep me,
Speaker 1: I guess grounded a bit. And you know it's because
Speaker 1: I sometimes I feel really guilty about being the guy
Speaker 1: that's always everybody wants to talk to me, and everybody
Speaker 1: wants to say what did you do to do this?
Speaker 1: And why is it you that does this? And everything,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, I'm very flattered by that, you know,
Speaker 1: and I've definitely worked hard to be where I am,
Speaker 1: but it's a definitely a massive team effort that nobody sees.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's Chip and Jonathan and Massey and
Speaker 1: my managers and you know, my parents and my fiance
Speaker 1: or my wife now and you know, so it's it's
Speaker 1: there's all these people that I feel like, don't get
Speaker 1: the credit, you know, the fans, if they weren't there,
Speaker 1: then they're just none of it would work anyway. So
Speaker 1: it's just get a key lyric in that in that
Speaker 1: track is, uh, it's it's me they give the credit to.
Speaker 1: But I think I have this right. But me don't
Speaker 1: mean a thing without you, right, yeah, yeah, And so
Speaker 1: that was kind of a hook that, honestly me and
Speaker 1: I wrote that with Dan Izble and whyite Dirett in
Speaker 1: Boone up in one of those Boon trips. You've been
Speaker 1: up there, and uh, we ran a little cabin up
Speaker 1: up in Boone and sometimes we'll go up there for
Speaker 1: two weeks and just I'll have writers up for two
Speaker 1: weeks and and uh, I learned that from church. You
Speaker 1: told me about those kind of things that he does.
Speaker 1: And it's a good way to like lock in to
Speaker 1: just writing. It's better than like going, oh, I've got
Speaker 1: to ride in three weeks and it's just on a
Speaker 1: random Tuesday. I can't really get in prepared for that.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like, but if you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: be up here for two weeks and you're gonna be
Speaker 1: trying to write two songs a day for two weeks,
Speaker 1: and like you kind of gotta buckle up. There's no
Speaker 1: and you know, I rent this cabin, there's like no
Speaker 1: service almost it does have TV at least, but it's
Speaker 1: like there's not you're not playing an Xbox, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's just kind of you sit out on the porch
Speaker 1: and just kind of write songs and and drink beer
Speaker 1: and stuff all day, which is really awesome. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we were writing that we didn't have a hook. I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole song was pretty much done, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of sat there and you know, I literally just
Speaker 1: came up like pulled that hook out of the thin
Speaker 1: air pretty much. And it was like, I mean, it
Speaker 1: wasn't like we were just righteting those things like oh well,
Speaker 1: let's just talk about your parents, you know, and then
Speaker 1: let's talk about the all the stuff they do for you.
Speaker 1: And and so we had almost everything except the hook,
Speaker 1: which it usually never happens like that, usually kind of
Speaker 1: right around the hook a bit, and so that was different.
Speaker 1: You know, just kind of sat there for two hours,
Speaker 1: just beat my head into a wall, while Dan and
Speaker 1: Why probably didn't think I was doing anything. They were probably, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're up here stuck in his cabin with this fat
Speaker 1: idiot of her writing these songs, you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: but I mean sometimes I have something to add, you know,
Speaker 1: when Jonathan doesn't have the demo done while I'm taking
Speaker 1: a ship, you know, it's that song is super interesting
Speaker 1: to me because it's it's without you, you know, it
Speaker 1: is what you could the time, you know, and how
Speaker 1: many without you songs you know, so I can see
Speaker 1: where you would avoid that. But I loved how it
Speaker 1: was me don't mean a thing without you totally that's
Speaker 1: hasn't been that way. And heard that version of that song,
Speaker 1: which I thought was really really cool, and I guess again, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: you were talking about, you know, the negative and the
Speaker 1: positive and then those other songs we were talking about
Speaker 1: without you. Just as a title does sound like a
Speaker 1: song about losing someone, it does, yeah, yeah, and it
Speaker 1: kind of it kind of tricksy. It's not what you
Speaker 1: expect to hear. And without you, I mean it feels
Speaker 1: like the Motley Crue song or the other eighteen versions,
Speaker 1: you know, but it does. It moves on it, and
Speaker 1: that's what Luke spend so much. We spend more time
Speaker 1: on that in a songwriting room on the line before
Speaker 1: the hook. If we get the hook, then we got
Speaker 1: to make the line before the hook pop and and
Speaker 1: if it doesn't pomp or really not moving until it does,
Speaker 1: give me how do you mean, give me an example
Speaker 1: of the line before the hook and how it pops.
Speaker 1: It's just like I would compare it to you can't
Speaker 1: hit a home run without a good based bos swing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And like the line, like
Speaker 1: that set up line to me, is the Senate sell it?
Speaker 1: That's the hook can be great. You can have a
Speaker 1: great song title, but if the line before it doesn't
Speaker 1: set it up to you know, hit it out of
Speaker 1: the park. You know, if you don't throw the right pitch,
Speaker 1: you're not going to hit it out of the park,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like it's kind of something
Speaker 1: along those lines. You know, it still feels good, but
Speaker 1: you still Luke always wants to be like, oh man,
Speaker 1: after that, you want to say that yeah, you know
Speaker 1: he still wants that to happen, which is great. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not spend a lot of time banging her head
Speaker 1: against the wall trying to figure out what it is.
Speaker 1: That song in particular felt like it did it too.
Speaker 1: I was that because when I saw the title, I
Speaker 1: was that guy, greatest hits are here but me, I
Speaker 1: mean a thing without you? It's like, oh, I get it.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, So we're talking about a song where
Speaker 1: you bang your head against the wall for two hours
Speaker 1: to come them up with the hook. But you're still
Speaker 1: in a situation where you're writing a song or two
Speaker 1: a day. Are there are there any times? I mean, what,
Speaker 1: what's a song that that just lingered for weeks, if
Speaker 1: not months or years? There anything that that you you
Speaker 1: had even more trouble catching. The hardest, the longest one
Speaker 1: I've ever done was there was a song on What
Speaker 1: You See Is What You Get? Called Oh God. The
Speaker 1: title will live to me right now? Um, I had
Speaker 1: I wrote it with Drew Parker and Rob Wilford and
Speaker 1: it was seven it was seven rights over two years
Speaker 1: to get it. It was is that is that? Is that?
Speaker 1: Nothing like you? Nothing like? Yeah? And we had really
Speaker 1: loved that song and we had kind of got the
Speaker 1: hook and had some verse stuff and I mean we
Speaker 1: had Yeah. It was over the course of like two
Speaker 1: and a half years. It was seven different right like
Speaker 1: moving lines around and then decide we didn't like it
Speaker 1: and then bringing stuff back, and you know, sometimes it's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the only song I've ever had that's
Speaker 1: been even remotely close to that long. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: had some that were like maybe three rights over the
Speaker 1: course of two or three months, but that one was
Speaker 1: just like we knew, we liked it a lot, and
Speaker 1: we wanted it to get it right. But that was
Speaker 1: the point where I was getting like super busy with touring,
Speaker 1: and so it ended up just getting spread out over
Speaker 1: this like immense amount of time, you know, because we
Speaker 1: thought the song was strong enough to to like, you know,
Speaker 1: sacrifice that amount of time to do it. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the new tracks we haven't talked about is
Speaker 1: My Kind of Folk, which is a real party track.
Speaker 1: My kind of rhymes with fire up a little smoke, yeah, um,
Speaker 1: and it it does end with some truly rocking instrumentals,
Speaker 1: and your guitarists and your organists are trading solos. Tell
Speaker 1: me about recording that one, Chip, go ahead on that one.
Speaker 1: You give us a little Well, Jonathan and I had
Speaker 1: kind of talked about, you know, when we were looking
Speaker 1: at all the songs and the range of the things
Speaker 1: we were gonna do that we knew that one was
Speaker 1: the one that guys were gonna sling it and stretch
Speaker 1: on a little bit, even though cold as you, we
Speaker 1: knew needed to be just burning the edge. But this
Speaker 1: was the one that we wanted the guys to step
Speaker 1: out a little bit and sling on. And the feel
Speaker 1: of it, the swing in it, you know, it just
Speaker 1: it was kind of loose and groovy in a way.
Speaker 1: And um, so the guys caught onto that pretty quick,
Speaker 1: and in rundowns we would just let them run a
Speaker 1: little bit. Sometimes when your band's going, you you want
Speaker 1: to let them you you're kind of like working them
Speaker 1: a little bit into to the range that you want
Speaker 1: them to play in and the things you want them
Speaker 1: to do, but at the same time you want them
Speaker 1: to feel it and run a little bit and and
Speaker 1: and sometimes that brings stuff to the surface that you go, okay, wait,
Speaker 1: we need that, we need that in there. And so
Speaker 1: what you hear on the outro um on the back
Speaker 1: side of the song is when those guys sort of
Speaker 1: knew what we were already doing and what we wanted.
Speaker 1: But then we just let them go and they came
Speaker 1: in on the back side, and then it was just
Speaker 1: too many cool little things that happened in there, And
Speaker 1: that happens a lot on recording sessions where you kind
Speaker 1: of get your verses ironed out. That's where everybody has
Speaker 1: to be so regimented, and then when the when the
Speaker 1: tape machine stops or it's in the fade and everybody
Speaker 1: loosens up, then some really cool stuff happens. So it
Speaker 1: made sense to just let that, let that go for
Speaker 1: a little bit and and let them play. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: it's a ton of fun and and and so are
Speaker 1: you cutting that live at the at that point mostly yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we we grab a rundown, we play it
Speaker 1: down several times to get we're looking at little pieces
Speaker 1: each time, and then we sort of get the whole
Speaker 1: thing pulled together where we go, Okay, everybody sort of
Speaker 1: knows a roadmap and they know what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan, I are still trying to look at all
Speaker 1: the pieces like puzzle pieces, and they all have to
Speaker 1: fit together in a way that you still need to
Speaker 1: mold them. But you're trying to get it as much
Speaker 1: of it live as you can. You're trying to get it,
Speaker 1: and you know you have a little bit limit about
Speaker 1: a time, but you're still going, let's let's do it again,
Speaker 1: and and then you get I don't know, we get
Speaker 1: maybe in there, and then after after that we have
Speaker 1: to come back and start looking at each part and
Speaker 1: maybe trim up some things. But you try to, particularly
Speaker 1: in Nashville where we've got such amazing players, the best
Speaker 1: player the best players players in the world, and of them,
Speaker 1: not to mention, guys who had played on Luke's earlier records,
Speaker 1: so you know, and here we are, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to fill up slot and and make it, you know,
Speaker 1: upgrade it and make it feel great, but still make
Speaker 1: it feel like Luke and and so Jerry row And
Speaker 1: and John and Saul and those guys who had played
Speaker 1: on those earlier records. Sometimes it was like, well, hey man,
Speaker 1: well what should we be doing. And there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. We do it all time. They're great players,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, So that's one that uh really would
Speaker 1: have been a lot of fun to see you play,
Speaker 1: uh in a big space. Talk to me a little bit.
Speaker 1: You were, you had stadium shows booked, you were, you're
Speaker 1: doing a headlining arena tour. And in fact, if I've
Speaker 1: got this right, you were overseas and playing a little
Speaker 1: bit when we went into lockdown and you came came
Speaker 1: home right before the CDC festival, Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We so we were there. We were there for probably
Speaker 1: a week before we had and I left. I think
Speaker 1: I left a day before the first arena show. So
Speaker 1: they've for the because I've played C two see that,
Speaker 1: I guess technically twice one time all the way through.
Speaker 1: But I was I was gonna headline this year, um,
Speaker 1: and so it's like O two in in Dublin, O
Speaker 1: two in Glasgow, O two in London. Those are the
Speaker 1: big arenas that you headline the one night and it's
Speaker 1: three different headliners, and then we all swapped cities every night,
Speaker 1: so there's three shows in a row in the same city,
Speaker 1: but it's three different headliners each night, and so we
Speaker 1: all swap out. But what they do is they've they're
Speaker 1: trying to expand the scope of that festival, and so
Speaker 1: they adage a show this year in Berlin and a
Speaker 1: show in Amsterdam, and those are smaller, like two to
Speaker 1: four thousand seat venues because they're just trying to establish
Speaker 1: like a country music base there, like it's such a
Speaker 1: new they call it American music by the way, Okay,
Speaker 1: they called American music, which is pretty interesting. And and
Speaker 1: then and the headliners you would have been trading places
Speaker 1: with where Darius Rucker and Eric Church. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: we went. Eric didn't play the two smaller shows, so
Speaker 1: he actually never came over. He was like the day
Speaker 1: we had to leave was the day he was supposed
Speaker 1: to leave. And so me and him were texting back
Speaker 1: and forth, like what's going on, Like I'm texting him like,
Speaker 1: don't get on the plane. You're like, you know, like
Speaker 1: everything people were there, His people were there, He wasn't
Speaker 1: him and the band weren't there yet. His guys had
Speaker 1: flown over with the gear and stuff like the day
Speaker 1: before or something, um, which you know, that's unfortunate. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we were all there and luckily we all got back.
Speaker 1: I mean I was, I mean, I was, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, and I was crushed the night that
Speaker 1: we found I mean, I was absolutely trashed drunk the
Speaker 1: night I found out, Not like embarrassingly drunk, you know,
Speaker 1: but like fun like having a great time. Because we
Speaker 1: had played the two shows we played Amsterdam in Berlin,
Speaker 1: and we had two days off to just kind of
Speaker 1: do whatever. And so we were me and Nicole, We're
Speaker 1: at somebody's how else, and we you know, had some
Speaker 1: drinks and I gotta call it, like, I mean one
Speaker 1: am or something that was like hey, and I had
Speaker 1: some big rights lined up over there the next day
Speaker 1: and ended up having to get on a plane at
Speaker 1: like eight or nine in the morning and just go
Speaker 1: straight back home, dude. And then it just stopped. Everything
Speaker 1: just stopped at that And and did you have to
Speaker 1: get on a plane right away, because that was when
Speaker 1: they issued the travel advisory recommending everybody come home now
Speaker 1: or you may not be able to do it. Yes.
Speaker 1: So we got the call for management at one am
Speaker 1: because my manager was over there, but obviously he was awake,
Speaker 1: and we had seen that things were getting more It
Speaker 1: was already kind of on the line of like, you
Speaker 1: know what we're going because Old Dominion they backed out
Speaker 1: before the thing started, and so we were all kind
Speaker 1: of like, man, what if that, like it doesn't get
Speaker 1: canceled and they back out with that, look bad on them,
Speaker 1: you know, And I mean they ended up making a
Speaker 1: would call. And I mean, I'm glad that we went
Speaker 1: and played those shows because I had a great time,
Speaker 1: you know, and um had still had some great experiences
Speaker 1: even though the circumstances were different. But there was no
Speaker 1: meet and greets. There was no interviews or signings, like
Speaker 1: they were already doing preventative measures at that time because
Speaker 1: it was starting to become well, people are starting to
Speaker 1: get it in other places other than China at that time.
Speaker 1: And so then it was like I got the call
Speaker 1: and literally I went to bed and they're like, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a car to get you at seven, because
Speaker 1: I was two hours outside of London at that time,
Speaker 1: and so we had to come get a car, come
Speaker 1: get me into coal and we went straight to the
Speaker 1: airport from where we were straight to the airport and
Speaker 1: then straight home and straight into quarantine. Yeah, yep. So
Speaker 1: I mean for a lot of us, it's been weird.
Speaker 1: But for me it's weird because I'm not seeing you know,
Speaker 1: ten or twenty people at the office, but you're you're
Speaker 1: not getting a chance to see twenty people in an arena.
Speaker 1: That that that that's a big difference. What what does
Speaker 1: that feel like? Oh, I mean it sucks to be frank,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean this was gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: I think this was gonna be kind of a career
Speaker 1: defining year for me as far as touring goes. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously it was a massive honor getting the
Speaker 1: Entertainer Nod today. But but you know, I would have
Speaker 1: loved to been able to be out there and really
Speaker 1: put a stamp on it with my touring numbers and
Speaker 1: and try to try to use that to kind of
Speaker 1: petition for you know, to make my case for maybe
Speaker 1: winning that thing, you know. And so it's kind of
Speaker 1: it's weird in that sense because, like you said, at
Speaker 1: my first stadium show was gonna be this year back
Speaker 1: where I went to college, and you know, that was
Speaker 1: a huge deal to me, and and in that town
Speaker 1: it's a really small town, so it's a big deal
Speaker 1: for them, tourism dollars wise. And um, so it was
Speaker 1: just you know, two nights a matter a Square garden,
Speaker 1: two nights at Boston Garden. I mean every show on
Speaker 1: the tour was sold out. I mean I think we
Speaker 1: you know, sold however, half a million tickets or something.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like insane, you know the amount
Speaker 1: of people that were not getting to play for it
Speaker 1: this year, you know. And so and obviously we were
Speaker 1: hoping to use that success from this year to you know,
Speaker 1: transition into potentially you know, garth level shows next you know,
Speaker 1: next year was kind of the hope. So now that's
Speaker 1: just kind of all been paused. I think, you know, sure,
Speaker 1: because if you're gonna mount that big a production, you've
Speaker 1: got to start thinking if you're going to go into stadiums. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's two years to to plan that. It's not just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's do that next month, you know,
Speaker 1: it's I mean it's a year, year and a half
Speaker 1: of planning in the production and you're gathering the trucks
Speaker 1: and the buses and and adding the staff and you know.
Speaker 1: So it's and that's all stuff that I, I guess
Speaker 1: I don't have to be involved in, but I'm like
Speaker 1: pretty heavily involved in like making sure that all that
Speaker 1: stuff happens, you know, I like to I'm not a
Speaker 1: control free because I'm not the guy that necessarily knows
Speaker 1: what should or shouldn't happen, but I do like to
Speaker 1: know what's going on and be involved in those decisions.
Speaker 1: So it's not like I'm just going, let's do stadiums.
Speaker 1: Call me when we're going, like I'm not that guy either.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Right, you do more than
Speaker 1: wait for the wait for the car to pick you up. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know you mentioned your managers a couple of times.
Speaker 1: I I had the the the uh pleasure speaking with
Speaker 1: the Lynn Lynn Oliver Klin and Chris Cappy, your managers
Speaker 1: for Billboard. And I remember something. People always talk about
Speaker 1: how quickly things happened for you, but I remembered something
Speaker 1: that Cappy told me, and I went and looked it up.
Speaker 1: He was talking about how the when he first joined
Speaker 1: up with you, that you guys were in a van,
Speaker 1: I even a trailer. It was an extended fifteen passenger van.
Speaker 1: The last two rows pulled out for the gear and
Speaker 1: we toured in that for five months. So and he
Speaker 1: was driving, yes, he was driving. So that that's six
Speaker 1: guys and their gears stuffed together in a van for
Speaker 1: for five months. That that sounds like some pretty hard work.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was. And we were playing about four shows
Speaker 1: of four shows a week then that time. And you know,
Speaker 1: me and Cappy might as well be two guys a
Speaker 1: pop at that time. I mean, he's he's recently dropped
Speaker 1: about a hundred fifty bills Um, but you know, me
Speaker 1: and him were rotting shotgun just out of necessity really
Speaker 1: at that point. Um so he was driving, I mean
Speaker 1: and he drew. It wasn't like, oh we'll trade off.
Speaker 1: Like that guy drove every mile for six months and
Speaker 1: I mean four nights away. He quit, uh you know,
Speaker 1: six figure job and blew through his entire life savings
Speaker 1: to come here and drive a shitty old van with
Speaker 1: some kid in it and a couple guys he met
Speaker 1: at the Tin Roof and you go play shows, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean like, so that level of dedication to me
Speaker 1: is like what sold me, you know on Cappy as
Speaker 1: a manager. Like you know, you don't you can't question
Speaker 1: the guy's commitment at that point, you know. But but
Speaker 1: you have this effect on people because if I remember right,
Speaker 1: Cappy told me that he saw you play a show
Speaker 1: and then almost immediately started pitching you on being your manager.
Speaker 1: And Jonathan, do I remember right that you also you
Speaker 1: saw Luke at a songwriting on a day Yeah it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was on a Tuesday, that Tin Roof revival that
Speaker 1: Rob and Channing and those guys put on and me
Speaker 1: and Randy Montana was standing in the back drinking a beer.
Speaker 1: I think it was the And so we're always like
Speaker 1: the old eyes were like, hey man, we'll play the anniverse.
Speaker 1: We just put us on it like eight o'clock, you know,
Speaker 1: so we can go home early. And so we had
Speaker 1: played and we got done. We're standing at the bar
Speaker 1: drinking beer right before we walk out the door, and
Speaker 1: we hear this guy started singing and we kind of
Speaker 1: jog back, you know, to the back and just sitting
Speaker 1: there playing and yeah, we're so as Google searching him
Speaker 1: and the because we were the only ones that didn't
Speaker 1: know like the people in town, like the people who
Speaker 1: were in the business who were there, were the people
Speaker 1: who didn't know who he was. Everybody else was there
Speaker 1: to see him, and we're singing all the songs and
Speaker 1: we were like who he was? Like everyone else was
Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah. So all the silly music road people
Speaker 1: were standing there trying to figure out how they could
Speaker 1: how they could talk to this guy. And I figured
Speaker 1: it out real quick. It was turkey hunting and deer
Speaker 1: hunting went pretty well after that. It was I remember
Speaker 1: when I so Jonathan, I've probably told him the story before,
Speaker 1: but so me and Rob, one of the guys in
Speaker 1: my band Wilfred are with and stuff. We were like,
Speaker 1: we're like, still you know, super Jonathan Singleton fans, you know,
Speaker 1: like we're listening to the grove like we're in deep
Speaker 1: We're in the worm Hall of John and Singleton, you know.
Speaker 1: And so the year before that, like one year to
Speaker 1: the day was the anniversary before that, me and Rob
Speaker 1: went to watch you play at this thing and you
Speaker 1: were at the bar getting a beer and we were
Speaker 1: just kind of sitting there, like no one was around you,
Speaker 1: and and we were just kind of like we were
Speaker 1: just kind of looking over him, like dude, that's that's him,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of thing, like that's the guy, you know.
Speaker 1: And we just went over there and we're like Jonathan Singleton.
Speaker 1: He was like yeah, man, yeah, We're like, dude, you're great,
Speaker 1: you know, like he's great. He was like cool, man, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, because I just meet you guys, you know
Speaker 1: kind of thing, you know, And um, I remember that,
Speaker 1: you know. The year later when you saw me and stuff,
Speaker 1: you had guests got in touch with Channing to get
Speaker 1: a right with me, and I was like so excited
Speaker 1: about that. And I had I had been driving my
Speaker 1: two thousand Dodge Neon, which I had had since I
Speaker 1: was sixteen at that time, and I just bought a
Speaker 1: used Ford Fusion Fusion. I always called it a probe,
Speaker 1: a used Ford Fusion, which I thought was like a
Speaker 1: you know, the sickest car ever due at that time.
Speaker 1: You know, it was for me at that time. And
Speaker 1: so it was my first car that had the little
Speaker 1: car phone in it where you could answer a call
Speaker 1: and it was like in the speakers. And so I
Speaker 1: was big time dude at that time. And so it
Speaker 1: was a couple months out, you know. And and so
Speaker 1: the day before the Right, I hadn't communicated with Singleton
Speaker 1: at all. I just knew like, hopefully this right still
Speaker 1: happening because it's tomorrow, you know, and Channing is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're good. I'm driving down. Yeah. So the day before
Speaker 1: I'm driving into my ride or whatever, and I get
Speaker 1: a call on my car phone thing, which I'm already
Speaker 1: excited to answer because I just have a car phone.
Speaker 1: So I'm like hit the call button, you know, And
Speaker 1: it was Jonathan and he was just like smega casual.
Speaker 1: He's like hey man, uh, you know, pumped the right
Speaker 1: and so like what's your deal? And but I was
Speaker 1: kind of like like do you want to fight like that?
Speaker 1: Be like what's your deal? Like did I do something wrong?
Speaker 1: And I'm like what do you mean? He's like like,
Speaker 1: you're publishing deal, you know, like what's your thing? And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I just don't. I don't have
Speaker 1: a publishing deal. And he was like, well do you
Speaker 1: want one? And I was like yeah. He's like alright, cool,
Speaker 1: We'll just do one and we just I'll see you more.
Speaker 1: And I was like all right, cool, and then that
Speaker 1: was just kind of what happened to kind of and
Speaker 1: and up and real fast after that. It was actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: well you know that was that was a good deal
Speaker 1: to make for it. It was it was well so
Speaker 1: um of course six ft Apart talks about what you're
Speaker 1: looking forward to when all of this is over, and uh,
Speaker 1: just in terms of getting back out and playing live,
Speaker 1: um talk talk to me a little about that. If
Speaker 1: you thought about the first show you're you're gonna play
Speaker 1: when you can play, I mean, I think you know
Speaker 1: right now there is no plan. I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: the hope is that we can do the shows that
Speaker 1: we left last year is literally where we'll pick up. Mhm.
Speaker 1: So the hope. The tentative plan as of this very
Speaker 1: second is that we will do those headlining shows at
Speaker 1: sea to see next year. That going the planned at
Speaker 1: this exact moment. Whether that happens or not, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I hope that that happens obviously, and maybe it will,
Speaker 1: maybe it won't, But as of now, that's the plan,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I'm pretty stoked about that because
Speaker 1: you know, I left a bad taste in my mouth
Speaker 1: not getting to play for those people, and they were
Speaker 1: those people only get a country show once a year,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of that week. What's there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of acts doing headlining going to Europe and playing
Speaker 1: club shows. You know, you just can't afford to do that,
Speaker 1: so um that you know, there's definitely a huge base
Speaker 1: for it over there, that's that's heavily underserved, and so
Speaker 1: you know, i'd love for that to be the first
Speaker 1: show back. Well, I mean, fingers crossed, and we're all
Speaker 1: hoping that that that we're out of this by then,
Speaker 1: and uh and we're all looking forward to seeing some
Speaker 1: of the music live. Luke, thank you for being here,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for joining us. Of course, man,
Speaker 1: thanks for having us, Yeah, it's a pleasure. M Inside
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