Speaker 1: Car she's a queen and talking, so.
Speaker 2: She's getting really not afraid to feel episode, so just
Speaker 2: let it flow. No one can do a week quiet
Speaker 2: cars time from Caroler.
Speaker 3: We are so excited. Let's have Cameron Marlowe on Get Real.
Speaker 3: So thank you for joining.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Well, you're in the middle of a tornado, so thank
Speaker 3: you for stopping by.
Speaker 1: I thought she met Actually I was like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about?
Speaker 3: You know, you're maybe a rocket ship. You're in the
Speaker 3: middle of a rocket ride.
Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 3: Have you hit moon the moon yet? I don't know,
Speaker 3: Mars milky way.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure it out out see you
Speaker 1: weeks already got me kind of stress.
Speaker 3: God, you're doing this in the middle of CMA week. Yeah, wow, wow,
Speaker 3: thank you for coming.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: What is it like when you jump on the rocket ship?
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've jumped on it yet.
Speaker 3: You're on it. You like exploded to me when someone
Speaker 3: like yourself who has this incredible voice. But then you
Speaker 3: were discovered on the internet, right, you were kind of viral,
Speaker 3: but then they found you and they're like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: he's one of the best country singers of all times.
Speaker 3: Thank god the Internet exists and made him viral.
Speaker 1: No, it's kind of wild. I had like one viral
Speaker 1: moment and I was like after I had been signed
Speaker 1: and everything, and I had no idea what I was doing,
Speaker 1: like trying to post stuff and just see you fe
Speaker 1: with you love social media? No, I hate it so much.
Speaker 3: Your favorite thing. You wake up every day and you're like, okay,
Speaker 3: here I am brushing my teeth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, I get it. I do.
Speaker 3: Get ready with me everything, Get ready with me and
Speaker 3: get unready with me in no way. If you want
Speaker 3: another true just follow Cameron Marlowe. He's going to show
Speaker 3: his routine.
Speaker 1: The hell of skincare?
Speaker 3: Great skincare? Are you on a big diet regime? Only vegetables?
Speaker 1: Definitely not food. I'm not on the Tom Brady die yet.
Speaker 1: What the Tom Brady?
Speaker 3: Oh, he doesn't eat like night.
Speaker 1: I think he just like eats pistachios and like doesn't
Speaker 1: eat tomatoes nights. I don't think he eats fish either,
Speaker 1: I mean like meat or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, night lagoons or something. He doesn't need oak plant
Speaker 3: and tomatoes and things that grow in the night.
Speaker 1: Really, I've never You don't think I can tell you
Speaker 1: what goes.
Speaker 3: I want to get to a point where I'm that healthy. Like,
Speaker 3: I want to get to a point where I have
Speaker 3: the resources, time and like with the desire to get
Speaker 3: that healthy. Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker 1: I don't think I could physically do it. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like steak too much.
Speaker 3: We had that last night.
Speaker 1: There you go so good.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you're a country boy, yes, And did you
Speaker 3: dream of being a star?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say I did. I just come. I come
Speaker 1: from a place called Cannapolis, North Carolina Nnapolis.
Speaker 3: Say that's six times fast. Annapolis canis Cannapolis Cannapolis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of tough.
Speaker 3: That's a great name it is. I love that. That's
Speaker 3: fun to say.
Speaker 1: I know it's a homedel earned heart. That's that's our
Speaker 1: claim to fame there. So uh Cameron Marlowe, Yeah, well
Speaker 1: we'll see. But like when I was growing up there,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of really small feel, and then now
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of started booming. It's like really cool
Speaker 1: to go home. They got like a baseball stadium and
Speaker 1: like where the old cann of meals used to be
Speaker 1: it's it's wild.
Speaker 3: So I really like your album that you just released,
Speaker 3: Keeping the Lights On. Tell me about this, because I
Speaker 3: feel like Keeping the Lights On is like it's encompassing
Speaker 3: your entire upbringing, Like it's kind of describing your entire
Speaker 3: like childhood into coming into a young man and like
Speaker 3: then having this awareness of your parents and your family
Speaker 3: and all of the sacrifices that your parents went through
Speaker 3: to give y'all such a great life that you weren't
Speaker 3: even aware of. Is that right?
Speaker 1: That's definitely right on it. I feel like I grew
Speaker 1: up a lot over the past two years. It's been
Speaker 1: two years since my last project, and not that my
Speaker 1: last project was immature, but I feel like me as
Speaker 1: a person, like I just kind of learned a lot
Speaker 1: about myself. I knew I needed to grow up some,
Speaker 1: you know that being on the road and like having
Speaker 1: a big boy job. I guess I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't need to screw this up, Like this is a
Speaker 1: gift and a blessing that even walk out on stage.
Speaker 3: And so you figure that out real fast.
Speaker 1: I did. I did. I think it was like that
Speaker 1: first tour I realized I was like, hey, this is
Speaker 1: kind of starting to do something, so maybe.
Speaker 3: Your own tour. It was so you were selling out.
Speaker 1: Your own tour, yeah, which was wild.
Speaker 3: Like right away, Yeah, the Stranger Stour, I know.
Speaker 1: It was before that. It was for the last record
Speaker 1: we were Cowboys.
Speaker 3: And that one sold out to right away. And then
Speaker 3: you take out the other hot guy, Tuck her web Moore.
Speaker 3: It's like Cameron Marlowe and Tucker Wetmore, every freaking young
Speaker 3: girl who loves country music's dream come true. Don't have
Speaker 3: tons of girls in the audience.
Speaker 1: Yes, we did, definitely did.
Speaker 3: How does your fiance feel about this?
Speaker 1: She knows I would never do anything like that, so
Speaker 1: she's fine.
Speaker 3: But I see like a panoramic with all the people
Speaker 3: in the audience. I'm like, dang, this is where the
Speaker 3: young country girls are coming.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: It's wild, I know, and everybody knows every word.
Speaker 1: It's been crazy just to see him singing songs back
Speaker 1: that I wrote. That's like, that's a different feeling. It's
Speaker 1: like something that you can't or the it's only obtainable
Speaker 1: on stage, Like to.
Speaker 3: Have that, Okay, explain that because I've heard a lot
Speaker 3: of people say this. Had Lily Rose come on and
Speaker 3: she was like talking about that too, and it's like,
Speaker 3: what is that? What is happening with you in the
Speaker 3: audience when you're on stage?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like a deeper connection to a
Speaker 1: point where you're just like, dang, these people have took
Speaker 1: the time out of their day to listen to a song,
Speaker 1: relate to it so much that they learned the words
Speaker 1: to it, came to a show, bought a ticket to
Speaker 1: come to a.
Speaker 3: Show, which I mean, seriously, that's a lot to like
Speaker 3: put all that energy into coming to your.
Speaker 1: Show without a doubt. And I'm just very blessed that
Speaker 1: people are still showing.
Speaker 3: Up, all the people.
Speaker 1: I know, it's crazy. I'm just trying my best, and
Speaker 1: I enjoy it so much to like make music and
Speaker 1: like write and like just be in this lifestyle because
Speaker 1: I never would have thought that this would ever be
Speaker 1: something for me.
Speaker 3: You know, what did you think was going to be
Speaker 3: for you?
Speaker 1: Well, everybody in my town just stays there until they die.
Speaker 3: Do you have a song called lock Me Up right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And it's about how you would want to stay there.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie some days like Nashville's kind of
Speaker 1: stuffy to me. Tell me why when I moved to Nashville.
Speaker 1: It felt like this place with a lot of opportunities
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, which was very exciting when I
Speaker 1: was a little younger and I was like, man, this
Speaker 1: is killer. I love it. And now I'm like, I
Speaker 1: need to have forty acres big old like fence brickfasts around.
Speaker 1: Like I think I've learned that I'm an introvert in insane.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've always thought I was an extra extrovert.
Speaker 1: And you're doing podcasts. This is like my worst I'm married,
Speaker 1: Like we host at least, No, you.
Speaker 3: Give sermons on stage with your songs every night. I
Speaker 3: mean that's a whole nother fear for everybody else. You know,
Speaker 3: to get up on stage and seeing your soul out
Speaker 3: in front of people that you don't know but are
Speaker 3: connecting with through your music. I mean that is some
Speaker 3: vulnerability right there for sure. And you're telling your story,
Speaker 3: so now everybody knows about you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it is a wild thing. And I've
Speaker 1: I've always lived a super private life like when I
Speaker 1: was growing up.
Speaker 3: Until you released this new album.
Speaker 1: I know, I know everybody knows everything.
Speaker 3: I mean, this first Beyance, I'm mad at her forever.
Speaker 3: I don't even care that we've moved on. She's still
Speaker 3: on my X list. I got a big X. I'm
Speaker 3: just kidding. I'm sure she's great and everything works out.
Speaker 3: You know, you got to break up, but some people
Speaker 3: get you gotta break up. God bless the broken road, right,
Speaker 3: without a doubt, somebody should write that song and let
Speaker 3: it be like Grammy winning and all that. You shoot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's just it's been such a wild ride and
Speaker 1: I'm just very thankful that people are still showing up.
Speaker 1: And this album just means so much to me because
Speaker 1: it's really just like the title track is the one
Speaker 1: that really just means the most. Yeah, that song right
Speaker 1: there is just like it's me like through and through.
Speaker 1: I wrote it with a guy named Kendall Marvel.
Speaker 3: You know, he's one of my favorite people in the world.
Speaker 1: He is the man I love.
Speaker 3: That they don't make him like Kendall Marvel.
Speaker 1: They do not. Kendall is one of the Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have nothing but great things.
Speaker 3: Saying, he's one of the best songwriters and just like
Speaker 3: cowboys and country boys and just like what it means
Speaker 3: to be all things that are great in the country.
Speaker 1: You know, without a doubt.
Speaker 3: That is Kendall Marvel, he like gets it, he understands
Speaker 3: the lessons. The lessons of the land does.
Speaker 1: But when we started writing that, like it was, it
Speaker 1: was like a shift kind of change for me. And
Speaker 1: like I had like some songs picked for the record
Speaker 1: before and I nixed them all immediately. Why I just
Speaker 1: didn't fit it. I was like, this is what we're chasing,
Speaker 1: like the song and the bones of this.
Speaker 3: Song, that's not keeping the lights on. If that was,
Speaker 3: that was keeping the lights on, keeping the lights okay,
Speaker 3: Because then there's another one that you said changed everything
Speaker 3: for you, which was never really no, well.
Speaker 1: Never really no, definitely it pieced some stuff together, but
Speaker 1: keeping the light song was I wrote it first, and
Speaker 1: that was like okay, yeah, And that was the one
Speaker 1: where I was like, Okay, I think I'm going to
Speaker 1: go down this route.
Speaker 3: Version of feel good to tell people who you really were?
Speaker 1: It does? It? Does? It feels good to not put
Speaker 1: songs on a record, just to put songs on a
Speaker 1: record and be selective, you.
Speaker 3: Know, like you're really expressing your journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the journey's been hard.
Speaker 3: What's been the hard parts?
Speaker 1: Not being able to go viral and blow up maddening,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, you can chase it all day.
Speaker 3: Well, it sucks. So it's like artists like you that
Speaker 3: are so great, you know, still have to waste their
Speaker 3: timeguring out how to go viral. In my opinion, it's like,
Speaker 3: can't you just be great and everyone just figure it out?
Speaker 1: Why don't do social media? I'm just wasting on time,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want me to say like that. I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not wasting great things. And we're grateful there he.
Speaker 1: Is, yes, but it's frustrating to like take time out
Speaker 1: of my day when I could be writing songs to
Speaker 1: like put my phone up and play a couple songs
Speaker 1: and hope and pray that and read the comments and
Speaker 1: see how that's reacting and stuff. It's not a normal
Speaker 1: way to Leah, I feel well.
Speaker 3: And also it's like I don't want to have to
Speaker 3: have my phone out every five seconds, like I want
Speaker 3: to actually just live my life. Oh you know, I
Speaker 3: just like, what if you want to just go fishing
Speaker 3: or something and not have to document that you're fishing.
Speaker 3: You know, it's just like you're doing it because you
Speaker 3: want to do.
Speaker 1: It without a doubt, and it's so crazy that I
Speaker 1: feel like every time I'm doing something, I should pick
Speaker 1: my phone up and let everybody know everybody.
Speaker 3: And I'm like that, like why because we need to
Speaker 3: let them know we're so interesting, or we're just letting
Speaker 3: them vicariously escape through our lives, or because we're trying
Speaker 3: to connect as humanity, Like why are we doing this?
Speaker 3: I can't quite figure it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a strange thing, and I don't know.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we shipped away from it one day or.
Speaker 3: Figure out some good boundaries. Yeah, because there is some
Speaker 3: greatness to it, like people can discover things they never
Speaker 3: could have discovered, have businesses, all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1: Doubt.
Speaker 3: Okay, so tell me about your first heartbreak that really
Speaker 3: sent you into it all.
Speaker 1: So I was dating this girl through high school.
Speaker 3: Oh, like long time, because you're not that old. You're
Speaker 3: only six, lived a lot of life to be on.
Speaker 1: Only twentyl I feel like I'm ninety two.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was going to say that, but I didn't
Speaker 3: want to say that. You know.
Speaker 1: So I was dating this girl through high school and.
Speaker 3: See all this is your first love.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, first love like went uh we went up
Speaker 1: together pretty much. Yeah, like I had known her or
Speaker 1: had known her since god I was probably ten twelve
Speaker 1: years old.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, idea of love is her?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So this is a big, big, no wonder. This shook
Speaker 3: you to your core. I mean, this is earth.
Speaker 1: Shattering enough to write a song about it and start
Speaker 1: a hold music.
Speaker 3: Which is WHI You got it out of you though,
Speaker 3: you got to process somehow Well, I'm.
Speaker 1: Such like a well, sorry, I'll tell you the rest
Speaker 1: of the story and I'll explain it to you. But
Speaker 1: basically broke up, like right I left college. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was two weeks away from proposing, so no, I had
Speaker 1: to ring, had to go take it back.
Speaker 3: Did you talk to your parents and stuff? Yeah, and
Speaker 3: they gave you the blessing. They didn't have it. You
Speaker 3: no warning that we're going to get a break up here,
Speaker 3: Not really.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like I might have been trying
Speaker 1: to save it with a ring with a ring, which
Speaker 1: is not a good thing. I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was doing.
Speaker 3: You know what I realized not forty is you can't
Speaker 3: really save anything that doesn't want to be saved.
Speaker 1: No, that's a that's a great freaking quote right there.
Speaker 3: So there you go. That's my contribution for the day exactly.
Speaker 3: So you think you can when you're young, especially because
Speaker 3: you're so in love, because it's all you've ever known,
Speaker 3: without a doubt. So you got to save it because
Speaker 3: you can't lose it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and you you want to save it. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, like it was going to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was the best thing that ever happened to me
Speaker 1: because now I have an amazing in fiance, now we're
Speaker 1: getting married, and.
Speaker 3: A senior love life. It looks really good your aunt
Speaker 3: on social media, your love look life looks thriving.
Speaker 1: Oh we really are, Galla, she is the best person
Speaker 1: I've ever met.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. I know it all works out okay, But
Speaker 3: so how did the first girl break up with you?
Speaker 3: Like you're about to propose in two weeks? How did
Speaker 3: the breakup happen?
Speaker 1: So she was in or she was in college and Charlotte.
Speaker 1: I went to drive over there to kind of talk
Speaker 1: to her, and I thought we were going to hang out,
Speaker 1: and she got in the truck and she was like,
Speaker 1: we don't think this is over. And at the time,
Speaker 1: it like wrecked my world because I didn't know anything else.
Speaker 1: I thought I was doing everything right. Because I was
Speaker 1: at this point where like my family had like they
Speaker 1: were married at nineteen, so I was like I was
Speaker 1: kind of following in footsteps. I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was doing, so I basically just kind of went home
Speaker 1: and picked up my guitar and just had to get
Speaker 1: some things off my chest. And that's when I wrote
Speaker 1: Giving You Up.
Speaker 3: And that happened like right after she broke up with you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're as you're vibrating.
Speaker 1: It is. I'm so sorry. I'm trying to ignore his
Speaker 1: books that I canna, Karen, listen.
Speaker 3: His is paging of everyone. It's probably his beautiful It
Speaker 3: probably is. She wanted to remind you that she just
Speaker 3: wanted to give you a little high. Okay, So immediately
Speaker 3: after you got dumped, you went home and wrote a
Speaker 3: song about it, and it poured out.
Speaker 1: It was probably a week later after I had kind
Speaker 1: of processed everything.
Speaker 3: And had you been performing and writing songs before then
Speaker 3: or is this your big moment.
Speaker 1: I hadn't been writing really. I had wrote like a
Speaker 1: couple of songs that were terrible, didn't Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to craft a song about it at that point.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that I had crafted a song
Speaker 1: with giving you up. It was more just like words
Speaker 1: on a page.
Speaker 3: For me, you were like flowing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that whole second verse is like a train of fault.
Speaker 3: It's like you're just like getting your feelings out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much the best stuff though.
Speaker 3: I know that's why people connect with you.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think I think it's hard for
Speaker 1: some people to be like super vulnerable when they're writing songs.
Speaker 3: But I just you don't even know any different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know any different. But I love like
Speaker 1: getting that deep in songwriting and like really going down
Speaker 1: the rabbit hole that.
Speaker 3: Why do you love that? What does that do for you?
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of therapy for me.
Speaker 3: That's your therapy, I think.
Speaker 1: So. Yeah, that and fishing. But I would say writing
Speaker 1: songs is something that nobody can take away from me.
Speaker 1: I can write it and nobody ever has to see it,
Speaker 1: but I can get it out without having to go
Speaker 1: talk to a therapist.
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, yes, it does it. So how does
Speaker 3: that feel? So you have your therapy moment? You write
Speaker 3: this big song about your ex and now everyone's singing
Speaker 3: it back to you. What does that do to the
Speaker 3: process of this broken heart? So tell me the transition
Speaker 3: of the broken heart, like your she breaks up with
Speaker 3: you and your boss propose. That's really as bad as
Speaker 3: it can get when you're nineteen, when you're in love,
Speaker 3: and then you write this song to free yourself of
Speaker 3: this pain, and somehow it goes viral, right, so you
Speaker 3: have gone viral?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, but it was that was like the
Speaker 1: early days of viral.
Speaker 3: Yeah, did you go viral on TikTok?
Speaker 1: No, it was TikTok wasn't even around yet.
Speaker 3: Oh you're preteck.
Speaker 1: I was pre I was Instagram.
Speaker 3: Our Instagram viral. Gosh, you never met one of the
Speaker 3: Instagram viral ones before. That's exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I guess that was just kind of a
Speaker 1: moment where I was like, man.
Speaker 3: Were you just singing it with a guitar?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I was playing it at random bars like That's
Speaker 1: kind of where I started. Was like just random bars
Speaker 1: around Cannapolis and Concord, which is like the neighboring.
Speaker 3: Little town, and people would film it. And that's what
Speaker 3: my viral or your post on viral.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I don't know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it ever went viral. It just kind of went on
Speaker 1: and caught on. Okay, and uh, I hadn't really thought
Speaker 1: about doing any music or anything like that, and somebody
Speaker 1: had saw a video that I had posted of I
Speaker 1: think Tennessee Whiskey and the voice Rey shout and I
Speaker 1: kind of went on the voice.
Speaker 3: Oh kind of, or you did I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, went on the voice, just went on the voice
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I did that?
Speaker 3: Did you go on the voice? Did you make it far?
Speaker 1: I made it top twenty four?
Speaker 3: You didn't win?
Speaker 1: Who won? I think it was a girl named Schevel?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, did you have fun on the voice?
Speaker 1: Had a ball. But it kind of taught me a
Speaker 1: lot because I found out like music was actually a
Speaker 1: job because I met so many people out there that
Speaker 1: were like, hey, I'm doing this like as a job,
Speaker 1: and I was like, how do you do that? Like
Speaker 1: I only know nine to five selling car parks, which
Speaker 1: is what I was doing. So I wanted a taste
Speaker 1: of that life. And they were like, well, come to Nashville.
Speaker 1: Start meeting people. So that's when I started coming to Nashville.
Speaker 1: I went out and I recorded like I had a
Speaker 1: session and finally got to record giving you Up And
Speaker 1: didn't know if it would ever do anything, had no
Speaker 1: idea how to put it out, had somebody helped me
Speaker 1: put it out, and then that's kind of when everything started.
Speaker 3: And then it just like it really did just start,
Speaker 3: like people just found it.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's kind of it's wild. I owe a
Speaker 1: lot to John Marks. I think he heard it randomly.
Speaker 1: He was used to be he was serious.
Speaker 3: Did you do serious?
Speaker 1: It used to be he used to be at Spotify.
Speaker 3: Spotify and put you on a playlist And yeah.
Speaker 1: He put me on a playlist when I had like
Speaker 1: maybe thirty thousand streams on a song.
Speaker 3: But do you have like a billion? I don't know
Speaker 3: how we do nine hundred million or a billion? I
Speaker 3: don't know how do you even count that?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: That's a ton?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 3: It's awesome. So people just love you, I guess.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Is it so good to be this loved?
Speaker 1: It does. Yeah, it's fulfilling. It's stressful as can be,
Speaker 1: like because I feel like you have to like keep
Speaker 1: up with the like you got to keep up with
Speaker 1: what you did last Oh right, it's like a constant,
Speaker 1: like Chase.
Speaker 3: Are you feeling that pressure all the time? Because you
Speaker 3: started off hot? Like real hot. You haven't You didn't
Speaker 3: start off with like a you haven't had a lag yet, right,
Speaker 3: you've come in you have had a lot.
Speaker 1: I started, and I had all this momentum. My first
Speaker 1: song was giving You Up, which was doing crazy numbers.
Speaker 1: I put Burn Them All Out next, and it was
Speaker 1: doing crazy numbers, and then COVID hit and then it
Speaker 1: was radio silence. I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Like we were starting to get
Speaker 1: offers to go on the road with people and things
Speaker 1: like that. I was like, man, this is.
Speaker 3: Going too Yeah, I feel like some good people want
Speaker 3: to take you up exactly.
Speaker 1: And I was so excited. And we had one that
Speaker 1: I was like I was dreaming of because I'm a
Speaker 1: big Leonard Skinner fan. And they asked me to come
Speaker 1: open in California. And we were celebrating up me and
Speaker 1: the band down at Del Frisco's and we were just
Speaker 1: sitting down there in my book. An agent comes downstairs
Speaker 1: from w ME and it was like the shows off.
Speaker 1: There's something called COVID and that's and that After that,
Speaker 1: like it stopped, like we had no idea what was
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 3: What happened to you?
Speaker 1: During COVID Way Home I left Nashville.
Speaker 3: So you had this big burst of a dream happening.
Speaker 3: Everything was blowing up. You're the hottest thing. People love you,
Speaker 3: they found your song. You're going on tour. Its selling out,
Speaker 3: You're getting You're going to tour with Leonard Skinner, go
Speaker 3: play some shows. Like right before that, you were working
Speaker 3: nine to five at an auto shop and now you're
Speaker 3: in this fantasy world. And then it just stops again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you.
Speaker 3: Got like a tiny, tiny.
Speaker 1: Tiny taste of it, which get which is good taste
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got like the best bite.
Speaker 1: Which was awesome. But when it stops, like you kind
Speaker 1: of look around and you're like, oh, well see I
Speaker 1: knew it was kind of just like a fake dream.
Speaker 1: You know you did?
Speaker 3: Were you down? Okay? So what's the lie you tell yourself?
Speaker 3: Did you tell yourself that this wasn't gonna work out?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I still tell myself that.
Speaker 3: Is that what you're do you because I think of
Speaker 3: myself talk all the time. Is that what your self talked? Dost?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh this isn't gonna work out.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm still waiting for somebody to say, hey, this
Speaker 1: is all a lie like they're gonna pull the curtain
Speaker 1: back and be like, ah, we've been filming you for
Speaker 1: a while kind of deal.
Speaker 3: Like this is the Truman Show.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. I don't know it think that it feels
Speaker 1: weird to like, I don't know, nobody from my town
Speaker 1: really does anything, And it feels weird to like have
Speaker 1: the pressure of like keeping up with something that was
Speaker 1: like a dream when I was a kid and trying
Speaker 1: to like move like I don't know how to say this,
Speaker 1: like move the needle and keep pursuing it. And like,
Speaker 1: I guess that's why this record means so much, because
Speaker 1: I feel like I've kind of stopped worrying in a
Speaker 1: way to a point where I'm just like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is just me. I'm gonna put these songs out
Speaker 1: because I love them, not because I'm chasing.
Speaker 3: Anything when you because this is for me. I have
Speaker 3: a panel in my head of people, and they're from
Speaker 3: all different walks of life. Someone from childhood, some are
Speaker 3: like family members, some are people I look up to
Speaker 3: in career. Some are celebrities who don't know exist, you know.
Speaker 3: But I have like this panel of people that I
Speaker 3: kind of like think are cool.
Speaker 1: I don't know who the celebrity is.
Speaker 3: Let's talking to you, Okay, I mean, but when I
Speaker 3: think about like things that are happening with me or
Speaker 3: what I'm doing, I kind of like run it by
Speaker 3: my panel, like to see if they would approve in
Speaker 3: my mental world. Do you have a panel or something
Speaker 3: like that? Do you like run through whatever something's happening.
Speaker 3: Are there people that you think of immediately in their
Speaker 3: response to it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I'm very big on my family. Like my
Speaker 1: family had They've been the best support system. So I
Speaker 1: always feel like I'm hearing from my grandma if it's
Speaker 1: a bad decision or a good decision to tell oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I know when it's a bad decision.
Speaker 3: Do you know what does grandma say.
Speaker 1: Son, don't do that with a couple of extra exceltives.
Speaker 3: So and you can feel it in your bones, and
Speaker 3: Grandma would disapprove.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, without a doubt.
Speaker 3: So you listen to that.
Speaker 1: I do. Yeah. I try to listen to my gut
Speaker 1: as much as I can. It hadn't led me too
Speaker 1: wrong yet, I don't feel like.
Speaker 3: So your dad, there's a part in your story that
Speaker 3: you talk about when your dad came to you and
Speaker 3: said he didn't know if he could keep the lights on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was a moment because it was at the moment
Speaker 3: that you realized your dad also struggled, even though he's
Speaker 3: like your hero and your father and all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a tough day, my pops. He lost
Speaker 1: his job after like twenty seven years at the same factor.
Speaker 3: He'd showed up and worked hard for twenty years and
Speaker 3: then overnight just lost it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just goes to shut it down.
Speaker 3: But nothing certain, even when you show up and work
Speaker 3: hard and do the right thing.
Speaker 1: Every day without a doubt.
Speaker 3: That's hard pill to swallow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially for him, Like you've worked that long and
Speaker 1: you've you've cared about this thing for so long and
Speaker 1: worked up the ranks. He didn't. He didn't go to college,
Speaker 1: so like he had had to work up the ranks
Speaker 1: there and came like it's hard to find a job
Speaker 1: without college nowadays in the same field and make the
Speaker 1: same kind of money and stuff like that. So when
Speaker 1: that happened to him and it was a it was
Speaker 1: a big hit. And I went home because they weren't
Speaker 1: doing too good and out on the back porch and
Speaker 1: drank a bourbon together and that's when he told me, son,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm to be able to keep
Speaker 1: the lights on. And like they have done everything my
Speaker 1: whole life to make sure that we didn't know we
Speaker 1: were poor, Like we grew up poor, but we didn't
Speaker 1: know we were poor. We were just happy.
Speaker 3: You know, what did they do to make sure you
Speaker 3: didn't know you're poor?
Speaker 1: I think looking back now, seeing they wouldn't stress in
Speaker 1: front of us, Wow, but we could. I could. I
Speaker 1: could tell. I feel like when when I.
Speaker 3: Was young, they controlled I'm really on nervous system right now,
Speaker 3: they controlled their nervous system, like if they were stressed
Speaker 3: and if they were like having issues, they didn't let
Speaker 3: that get them so worked up that they transferred it
Speaker 3: to you. That's big. Your parents are like wise amazing.
Speaker 3: That's huge to do.
Speaker 1: Now. It eats me up because I know, like all
Speaker 1: the times I asked for new cleats or something like
Speaker 1: that and they were like, oh, trying to figure it out,
Speaker 1: and they would like figure out a way to do
Speaker 1: it every time. But yes, I'm very very blessed have
Speaker 1: a family. I do.
Speaker 3: So when your dad said he didn't know if he
Speaker 3: could keep the lights on, what did that do to you?
Speaker 3: What did that? What light did that turn on inside
Speaker 3: of you?
Speaker 1: Well? It wrecked me because like you see your superhero
Speaker 1: of a father kind of be humbled for once, and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, like this is kind of a
Speaker 1: this is a real situation here and I'm over here
Speaker 1: living my dream and it makes you kind of feel
Speaker 1: bad in a way because you're like I'm doing I'm
Speaker 1: doing my way And now all of a sudden this
Speaker 1: hits how old were you? This was last year? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Last year?
Speaker 3: Did that make you want to burn it up even more?
Speaker 1: And you're without a doubt that sparks the fire? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sparked a fire for sure. Yeah, because like ultimate
Speaker 1: goal is like you want to be able to provide
Speaker 1: for your family the way that they provided for you,
Speaker 1: at least I do anyway.
Speaker 3: So that's sweet. So I guess do you think that?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 3: Have you always just had a strong motivation, Like you've
Speaker 3: just always been motivated in your career? That's what's given
Speaker 3: you this passion Because like it started with huge motivation
Speaker 3: to like heal your heart for sure. Then your dad
Speaker 3: tells you his story and you get more motivation to
Speaker 3: take here of your family. So there's so much like
Speaker 3: real fire in you to do this. You're not just
Speaker 3: chasing it for fame or no.
Speaker 1: I can care less about the fame. That's OK. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the fame is as such a secondary thing to me.
Speaker 1: I think that's why I don't think about it. I'm
Speaker 1: not even famous. Like I can go into stores and
Speaker 1: I'll be bothered, really like I might have one person
Speaker 1: come up to me or something like that. But I
Speaker 1: just feel like it's not who I am, Like I
Speaker 1: like I told you, I'd rather have a forty acres
Speaker 1: walls up and live my life with a couple of
Speaker 1: dogs and my wife, you know. So it's just something
Speaker 1: that's weird and different. Like it's weird to drive down
Speaker 1: Music Road right now and see my signs and stuff everywhere.
Speaker 3: What do you do when you drive on and you see
Speaker 3: yourself everywhere?
Speaker 1: And I had somebody point at me, point at the
Speaker 1: sign and then wave at me when I'm on the
Speaker 1: boy here.
Speaker 3: This morning, which everyone listening on Music Road. It's these
Speaker 3: two strips in Nashville, and it's like we're all the
Speaker 3: management labels, record labels, publishing companies are and like when
Speaker 3: you have success going on, you get banners and all
Speaker 3: the yards that are connected to you, so like this
Speaker 3: is basically a shrine. Do you go in music Road
Speaker 3: right now? You walk up and down? I just Camon Marlowe.
Speaker 3: Is that weird?
Speaker 1: It's so weird? Like do you like it? I think
Speaker 1: there's a part of me that does. But I guess
Speaker 1: the it's okay to like it. I mean, definitely it is.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like awesome to see that it's all connecting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I've always just kind of flew low,
Speaker 1: like low profile, always been kind of soft spoken, not
Speaker 1: really trying to stir up anything. And then now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I have my face everywhere, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I feel about this.
Speaker 3: Why do you think you've always been low profile?
Speaker 1: I think it's just the way I grew up. I
Speaker 1: don't know, just my like I don't know trying to
Speaker 1: think to give you like a real scenario. We've always
Speaker 1: just been such a good family and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, I had a lot of friends, so
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but like I wasn't like ever really
Speaker 1: getting into any trouble or making myself known or anything
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 3: So you just were you just a good kid.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know. I mean, I never got
Speaker 1: I never went to jail, so I don't need to
Speaker 1: start that now.
Speaker 3: I never went to jail, Okay, But I always wonder, though,
Speaker 3: when you get the dream, you know, like once you
Speaker 3: get the dream and you had the dream and then
Speaker 3: you get it, what what is the difference like? Because
Speaker 3: it's never what you think it's going to.
Speaker 1: Be, you know, Sorry, explain yourself a little bit better, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you don't mean that in a mean way.
Speaker 3: I like to operate in the galaxies and the clouds.
Speaker 3: I was trying to tell Morgan earlier that my last
Speaker 3: podcast we talked about how there's life and other planets
Speaker 3: and maybe they're on this Earth as well. I know,
Speaker 3: can't We're.
Speaker 1: Going to go down that rabbit hole too.
Speaker 3: Oh you a little far out?
Speaker 1: I am? Oh yeah, without a doubt.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, we're gonna come back to what I'm trying
Speaker 3: to say about the dream. But I'd rather talk about
Speaker 3: your far out in this How are you far out?
Speaker 1: I would say, I definitely think there's stuff going on.
Speaker 1: I think there's something on Mars. There's something on Mars
Speaker 1: that they don't want us to know. I'm down to
Speaker 1: go down that rabbit hole? Do you think? So?
Speaker 3: What do you think is happening on Mars? Morgan's over
Speaker 3: there googling out and the president of the last work.
Speaker 1: No, I don't know. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: there's got to be some life. They found life out
Speaker 1: there already, but it's like small forms. I think that
Speaker 1: that world or Mars used to be a like habitable.
Speaker 3: Planet, and then maybe they just like self destructed it.
Speaker 3: I think so because they.
Speaker 1: I feel like there's got to be other planets out
Speaker 1: there that's done the same thing, because we're looking at
Speaker 1: the trajectory now of this one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I know. Isn't the whole life thing
Speaker 3: just weird? It's like a game, Like you're just born
Speaker 3: into a family. You get these passions in these dreams
Speaker 3: inside of you, and then you have to go figure
Speaker 3: out how to like live a life, and like what
Speaker 3: do you even do with your life? You know, how
Speaker 3: do you even know what you're supposed to do? There's
Speaker 3: so many options?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, that's completely right. And I didn't even
Speaker 1: graduate college, so like I didn't even know what I
Speaker 1: was doing.
Speaker 3: Did you just start on this whirlwind I did.
Speaker 1: I mean I found a job and then worked it.
Speaker 1: But that's when the voice called, and kind of my
Speaker 1: whole life switch.
Speaker 3: The voice just called you out.
Speaker 1: One day, I thought I could pick up girls by
Speaker 1: having my phone number in the in the caption of
Speaker 1: my like Instagram, So they called me from the of
Speaker 1: my Instagram.
Speaker 3: You just put your regular phone number and in the
Speaker 3: caption of Instagram, did girls call?
Speaker 1: Was a nineteen year old camera for you.
Speaker 3: Do you girls call you? What was the what was
Speaker 3: the heading above the phone number call for a good time?
Speaker 1: No, No, I didn't. I just add it in the bio.
Speaker 1: Then no, Yeah, they didn't know who they were calling.
Speaker 1: It could have been somebody randoms numb, just.
Speaker 3: There in case somebody wants to try to say.
Speaker 1: Somebody needed to contact me.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess the voice is it?
Speaker 1: You were wrong about.
Speaker 3: Tang a care right, That's the best thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3: You're just available, ready, I was you know what you're
Speaker 3: just saying, I'm here. Anybody needs me to give me
Speaker 3: a call?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 3: I got you, truck stop stuck, I got you.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 3: You probably a list of skills? Did you have some
Speaker 3: lists of skills? You're available, great, great part that give
Speaker 3: me a great partner dancing do your dance partner? It's
Speaker 3: your car taking on a date?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I should be a song like I needed some
Speaker 1: help with that. I don't know. I didn't have an
Speaker 1: I didn't have anything else to say up there.
Speaker 3: I just put my number and the voice called yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: so and then you just got to sit on a
Speaker 3: new wild Yeah. What was it like behind the scenes
Speaker 3: of the voice, Like, who were the coaches?
Speaker 1: I had? Blake Jay Hood?
Speaker 3: Was he your guy?
Speaker 1: Blake?
Speaker 3: Was you love Blake?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 3: It's like yaould be.
Speaker 1: Such a good guy. And then Kelly and Adam Lane okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Adam stole me in the middle and got
Speaker 1: to hang out with him a little bit. He's a
Speaker 1: cool guy.
Speaker 3: You prefer Adam or Blake Blake.
Speaker 1: I think me and Blake have a lot more similarities
Speaker 1: than me and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally get that, just like country boy, good guy.
Speaker 3: Not that Adam's not a good guy, except I was
Speaker 3: not stoked about the situation that happened when he was
Speaker 3: pregnant with a third child and there was a model
Speaker 3: But we won't get into that. It's fine, he can live
Speaker 3: his own life, you know, it's whatever. Yeah, but I know, Okay,
Speaker 3: So then the voice happens. What happens with a voice,
Speaker 3: then you just do all the songs and that's when
Speaker 3: you start putting out music.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just kind of way through that you had
Speaker 1: not put.
Speaker 3: Out giving up you before you want?
Speaker 1: The voice giving you up was not out yet that
Speaker 1: I had put that out. You're fine, I put that
Speaker 1: out like almost eight or nine months after I think
Speaker 1: I got off because I started driving. Like after I
Speaker 1: got off the Voice, I came back to Kannapolis and
Speaker 1: worked my regular job, which is a big nut kick,
Speaker 1: you know, like when you go back. Sorry a weird
Speaker 1: way to.
Speaker 3: Say that, but I mean that's probably exactly how it.
Speaker 1: Felt, yeah, because you're like, oh man, I got a
Speaker 1: taste of this like cool lifestyle that I wanted, and
Speaker 1: then now I got back to real life, and so
Speaker 1: you're like, what do I do now? So I just
Speaker 1: started driving and your job.
Speaker 3: Was when you worked the auto shop, and you just
Speaker 3: went back to your same job. So that was not
Speaker 3: a good homecoming.
Speaker 1: I hated that job so much, oh man. But then
Speaker 1: I would just drive, like on Fridays, my boss would
Speaker 1: let me off early and I'd drive up in Nashville
Speaker 1: and I'd stay till Sunday come back. You didn't give up, no, No,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to just want to find a place
Speaker 1: out here. I met a couple of guys and at
Speaker 1: Red Door Always Read and they were like, we're getting
Speaker 1: the house, and I was like, sign me up. Did
Speaker 1: not think they would call me? Found a number on
Speaker 1: my Instagram, called me. No, they ended up hit me
Speaker 1: up and try a song number Instagram.
Speaker 3: I mean, oh my god, Okay, that's just the best
Speaker 3: thing I've ever heard in my life. I love that.
Speaker 3: That just shows how genuinely like sweet.
Speaker 1: And like just I'm clueless now. Yeah, no, I'm clueless.
Speaker 1: Yeahs I embrace it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But I think that's what makes you so endearing is
Speaker 3: you're just truly just like putting your heart out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I guess so, Yeah, you're just letting people.
Speaker 1: Know I'm just a regular old dude. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just what's the crazy thing this happened to you?
Speaker 1: Now? Craziest thing? Yeah, I got to play a stadium
Speaker 1: show with Luke Colms and Zach Bryan, which was nuts.
Speaker 3: Are you friends with them now?
Speaker 1: I know Luke. I don't know Zach that well. I've
Speaker 1: met him a couple of times, but I don't know
Speaker 1: him too well. But he's always been nice to me.
Speaker 3: So what was that. That's a good stadium show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, kid, it was at Ohio State, which was awesome.
Speaker 1: I think it was thirty thousand when we went out
Speaker 1: and played. So that was the biggest show I think
Speaker 1: I've ever done.
Speaker 3: Did you get nervous? You forget words? Do you? How
Speaker 3: do you feel that first moment?
Speaker 1: Because I was nervous as can be.
Speaker 3: I was more nervous shake your body shape?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah I was. But like as soon as I
Speaker 1: walked out on the stage, I was like, it's just
Speaker 1: another show. I don't know how I could kick that
Speaker 1: on the audience. It does in a way. It's definitely bigger,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't know, you're not really prepared to
Speaker 1: see that many people and that far away. But I
Speaker 1: feel like it was just like, all right, this is
Speaker 1: your job. You know what you're doing when you come
Speaker 1: up here, go do it again.
Speaker 3: When you have those kind of feelings, do you think
Speaker 3: to yourself like WHOA, this is a lot? Or like
Speaker 3: WHOA this is where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 1: I definitely think it's this is a lot. I definitely
Speaker 1: feel like I'm supposed to be there too, Like I
Speaker 1: know I earned my spot on that, but it was
Speaker 1: definitely something that was it was kind of crazy to
Speaker 1: like take all in, like when you walk out, because
Speaker 1: like I had walked on the stage and looked out
Speaker 1: without the people, like when we were sound checking, and
Speaker 1: then when you put the people in the seats, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, And isn't it crazy that you for that
Speaker 3: moment when you're on stage, you are controlling the entire audience. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like your one human vibe is controlling all those thousands
Speaker 3: of people's vibe.
Speaker 1: That is a yeah, that's a wild, wild thing. And
Speaker 1: like you want to make sure that they're having the
Speaker 1: absolute best time in the world, and you don't want
Speaker 1: them to even like get up and go get another beer,
Speaker 1: Like you want to keep them that encapsulated. And that's
Speaker 1: a hard thing to do. I have so much respect
Speaker 1: for Luke who does it every night.
Speaker 3: Good Lord, what do you think the secret is for
Speaker 3: making people encapsulated? I like that word.
Speaker 1: I would say, putting now great songs, creating a fan
Speaker 1: base that is that loyal to you. You find those
Speaker 1: people that just eat, breathe and sleep your music, I guess,
Speaker 1: and be a real person. I think being a real
Speaker 1: person is very very much so not having an ego.
Speaker 3: That's kind of tricky. Yeah, does your ego over flare up?
Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah it did not too long ago. No flare
Speaker 1: it flared because we were going to Australia to play
Speaker 1: okay and I would not ride code. I would not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would not. It was a long freaking flight. I
Speaker 1: did not want to sit on a plane for twenty
Speaker 1: two hours and not be able to lay down. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: my ego flare up a little bit there?
Speaker 3: What is your ego like? How does it show up?
Speaker 3: What does it for? How does it present itself?
Speaker 1: Oh? My manager probably can take no more.
Speaker 3: She's like, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I can be. I can be kind of stubborn. I
Speaker 1: think my stubbornness is my ego coming out. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of an asshole sometimes.
Speaker 3: Well you're not. I can be, you can't.
Speaker 1: I can be. Yeah, I don't mean to be, but.
Speaker 3: Like when you're kind of done or cranky or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I'm stressed out, maxed out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're not going to be like sugarcoating it warms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, definitely not. That's when I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: like very straight. But other than that, like I don't
Speaker 1: I don't feel like i'm too better straightforward? Yeah definitely right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'll shoot you straight.
Speaker 3: People aren't wondering what you're thinking. No, that's good. I
Speaker 3: mean it's better to know what someone is feeling than
Speaker 3: have to guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: Is it interesting being like a CEO now in charge
Speaker 3: of a business and running operation?
Speaker 1: That is, without a doubt, that is the weirdest. And
Speaker 1: if I could tell twenty one year old me, who
Speaker 1: hadn't figured this thing out yet, which I still got
Speaker 1: to figure it out, but who hadn't even didn't know
Speaker 1: what a publisher was when he started coming to Nashville
Speaker 1: that you have to be a CEO of a business
Speaker 1: at twenty six and you have all these people that
Speaker 1: are relying on you to make sure their paychecks get paid,
Speaker 1: and they have families and stuff like that they have
Speaker 1: to worry about, Like, it is a lot of pressure,
Speaker 1: and it it's a big stress for me because I
Speaker 1: want to take care of my guys, like my band
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. They've been with me since day one,
Speaker 1: like they started with me back home in Kannapolis, And
Speaker 1: I have a lot that I owe them just because
Speaker 1: they've stuck by me for this long. And it's a
Speaker 1: hard it's a hard, weird like life that we live
Speaker 1: because we live together on a bus for one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty shows a year, so it's crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're all walking around your underwear, you know, you
Speaker 3: know what, everybody has to go to the bathroom. It's
Speaker 3: like you're so close on a bus. Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: there is most did you could ever be?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is no like escaping.
Speaker 3: How do y'all make that work? Because that's like a
Speaker 3: lot of energy in one spot.
Speaker 1: Good thing that we're all pretty close, Like we've been
Speaker 1: close forever, so we've we've gotten to the point now
Speaker 1: where if we're just like brothers, so we fight like brothers,
Speaker 1: love black brothers.
Speaker 3: How do you take care of your mental health? Because
Speaker 3: I know on this album you talk about a lot
Speaker 3: of things like loss. Oh you talk about losing a
Speaker 3: friend too. You've got through some stuff and you talked
Speaker 3: about how you've worked on your mental health a lot.
Speaker 3: How have you worked on that? Cause I think that's
Speaker 3: so awesome someone young and a man especially that is
Speaker 3: willing to say this is important.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did porters call for a little while. Still,
Speaker 1: I got to porters call all the time.
Speaker 3: I have for like ten years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're freaking great.
Speaker 3: Or just call for everyone listening. If you're an artist
Speaker 3: or the spouse of an artist. It is free therapy
Speaker 3: for artists because it is such a trying job on
Speaker 3: your mind, in your life and everything in your existence.
Speaker 3: You don't know what is happening. Importers call will like
Speaker 3: take artists in, don't doesn't charge them anything, get some therapy,
Speaker 3: get you in groups with other artists who are going
Speaker 3: through the same thing. It's phenomenal. Oh absolutely, I'm so
Speaker 3: glad you did that. I found it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was like, because I'm gone so much,
Speaker 1: I feel like I missed so much at home, which
Speaker 1: I don't want to miss at home because like my fiance,
Speaker 1: my doll now is at home and I miss them
Speaker 1: so much when I'm on the road.
Speaker 3: Can she come with you?
Speaker 1: She can't. Yeah.
Speaker 3: She works. She's like a badass.
Speaker 1: Yeah she's a badass. Yeah, she works her tail off.
Speaker 3: Yeah she works, like Spotify or something.
Speaker 1: Right, she sure does. Yeah, she's worked there for I
Speaker 1: think a year. But she is a very headstrong and
Speaker 1: very driven person, like which she knows what she wants
Speaker 1: and she goes and gets it.
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm proud of her. So, like I just it
Speaker 1: was like tough for me to be on the road
Speaker 1: and miss home as much as I do. But I
Speaker 1: also am antsy when I'm home, Like I've I've been
Speaker 1: home for like two weeks and I'm getting like a
Speaker 1: little antsy. I'm like, I need to.
Speaker 3: Get back on such a weird thing because it's like
Speaker 3: you don't you can't say it either. One too long.
Speaker 3: It's like a perfect dance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I'm not working when i'm home, Okay,
Speaker 1: even if I'm responding to people and like doing all
Speaker 1: the things that I have to do for their like
Speaker 1: a job. I guess it doesn't feel like a job,
Speaker 1: but it's a job. I feel like I'm not doing
Speaker 1: what I'm supposed to when I'm home.
Speaker 3: So you feel guilty, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I feel guilty being home.
Speaker 3: You don't allow yourself to relax.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I will allow myself to relax. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong. I love delay on the couch. That's a
Speaker 1: that's a big like, that's where I can turn my
Speaker 1: mind off and just like chill out. I love watching movies.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of song titles and stuff from movies.
Speaker 3: What are you kind of a chick flick kind of guy?
Speaker 1: Definitely not no action hero. I love action movies. I'd
Speaker 1: say I love war movies.
Speaker 3: You do, Yeah, Is that like calming for you?
Speaker 1: No? I don't think it's.
Speaker 3: Some people watch reality TV like that's your Housewives or
Speaker 3: the Housewives and be like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 3: so calming to see people in such chaos. Like I'm
Speaker 3: wondering if seeing people at war makes you feel like
Speaker 3: your life is calm, you know, because it's so wild
Speaker 3: up there.
Speaker 1: I've never thought about it like that.
Speaker 3: Why do you like war movies? Like just the whole Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had family members that were that served, so it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like, I don't know. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you really. I just enjoy them that And I love
Speaker 1: like true crime stuff like podcasts and things like that.
Speaker 1: I have to figure I'd like to solve things, so
Speaker 1: I like really really dive into those and like think
Speaker 1: I'm a detective. If in another life.
Speaker 3: I think I was a detective, get it right.
Speaker 1: No, I think I was a bad detective. I get
Speaker 1: something right, I'd say, but I like to I like
Speaker 1: to have something to like keep my mind busy.
Speaker 3: When did you know you needed to like start taking
Speaker 3: care of your mind?
Speaker 1: In probably two years ago, I started getting going down
Speaker 1: the rabbit hole of like what like comparisons. Comparisons is
Speaker 1: like the biggest thief of joy, is what I've learned.
Speaker 1: And I think the comparison thing just started coming up.
Speaker 1: And I was looking a lot on Instagram and social
Speaker 1: media and when I shouldn't have been, and seeing other
Speaker 1: people get things that I wish I was getting, and
Speaker 1: it would frustrate me. Not that they did. I deserve
Speaker 1: what they were getting, but it was frustrating because I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I want to get there, And uh,
Speaker 1: that just sent me down this rabbit hole of where
Speaker 1: I was just mad all the time and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to let my anger show, but like deep down,
Speaker 1: I was just bottling it all up and it wasn't good.
Speaker 3: How did you? And then that's when you went to
Speaker 3: Forrest call Yeah, and it's like I need to talk
Speaker 3: this out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I wrote quite a few songs. I wrote
Speaker 1: one called take Me Home, which is about the music
Speaker 1: business and got to let a lot of people have
Speaker 1: it in that song.
Speaker 3: Was your big message from that song, get me the.
Speaker 1: Health out of Nashville. I'm tired of this business. I
Speaker 1: want to go back home to Carolina.
Speaker 3: It's hard. It's not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 1: No, it's definitely not. It's a weird job. Like it's
Speaker 1: super weird, like sitting here doing a podcast, like, I'm
Speaker 1: not the person like I told you earlier. I am
Speaker 1: very soft spoken. I don't really talk too much.
Speaker 3: And I feel like you're like a pro. I feel
Speaker 3: like this is your really fifteen thousand podcasts. You're so natural.
Speaker 1: Oh I appreciate that drama best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're just like you said, you're just a real person.
Speaker 1: I try well.
Speaker 3: And you've got a story people are interested in, like
Speaker 3: they really are, and you're got a heart to share it.
Speaker 3: I think that must be the match of it. You've
Speaker 3: got a heart to share a story that a lot
Speaker 3: of people relate to, and you're talking about things that
Speaker 3: people are going through, like the one about your friend.
Speaker 3: Was it your friend that said smaller that made me cry?
Speaker 1: I didn't actually write smaller. But it came to me
Speaker 1: at a time when a family friend had passed and
Speaker 1: it it just it wrecked me. And so it was
Speaker 1: kind of a song for them.
Speaker 3: And is that the first person close to you that
Speaker 3: have passed?
Speaker 1: No, I have. I've lost quite a few people in
Speaker 1: my life. I lost my best friend when I was
Speaker 1: like ten years old, which was terrible. Magically, yeah, in
Speaker 1: a car accident. Oh man, I'm really just bringing the
Speaker 1: mood right up on this podcast.
Speaker 3: Well you've taken this everhere. You took us to the
Speaker 3: number on your Instagram, and now we're going to swing
Speaker 3: the pendulum both ways, you know. Yeah, But I mean
Speaker 3: loss is a real part of life, you know, doubt
Speaker 3: without you learn that young. Okay, but that I said
Speaker 3: it so perfectly, like this town just got smaller. It's
Speaker 3: like in that the truth.
Speaker 1: So when I when we lost this one, that song
Speaker 1: just kind of came at the perfect moment. I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to put this on the record because I
Speaker 1: want to I want songs. Like anytime I put a
Speaker 1: song on a record now, I feel like I want
Speaker 1: someone to be able to relate to it and like
Speaker 1: be able to have some kind of healing from it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like music is healing. It is to me,
Speaker 1: and if I can help somebody through music, then that's
Speaker 1: what I'll do.
Speaker 3: So when you're just like sitting on the road in
Speaker 3: the bus by yourself and your thoughts, what are you
Speaker 3: thinking about?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm probably trying to I don't know what am
Speaker 1: I just thinking about. I'm usually thinking about what am
Speaker 1: I missing at home if I'm on the bus, and
Speaker 1: then when I'm on when i'm a home, I'm probably like,
Speaker 1: what am I missing on the road?
Speaker 3: So you just need to combine the chip, Yeah, exactly, Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes, I need just need to buy a second one
Speaker 1: and just live on it. Yes, I don't know about that.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know it is. It's a weird. It's a
Speaker 3: weird struggle to get that balance right because I feel
Speaker 3: like once you do get the road in your system,
Speaker 3: you can never just fully be content at home, and
Speaker 3: then when you're at home it's just such a fine
Speaker 3: little dance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's what's that Parker song park mccollumn on the
Speaker 1: road missing home? This is the road home or something
Speaker 1: like that, And I think that was a line, But
Speaker 1: that's it's a real thing. We sing it all the
Speaker 1: time on.
Speaker 3: The bus because everybody feels that way.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, we all feel like we're not working
Speaker 1: if we're not out there.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot So you have a lot of
Speaker 3: pressure on yourself.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's probably not a good thing.
Speaker 3: But do you feel like if you're not like constantly
Speaker 3: just like in the thought either carrying your career and
Speaker 3: your thoughts or carrying it by being on the road,
Speaker 3: that you just have to have the intensity of thinking
Speaker 3: about it all the time and like making sure you're key.
Speaker 3: I guess because there's so you have so much going on,
Speaker 3: you got to keep that energy up. Yeah, and if
Speaker 3: you ever let yourself down, maybe feel like you're letting
Speaker 3: it all go or something. I wonder what that is.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's probably got to keep going.
Speaker 3: This is why it's so hard to be an artist
Speaker 3: and it's hard to be married in our just been
Speaker 3: the most beautiful thing ever. Tell me about your fiance.
Speaker 3: Why is she the one? What happened? And how did
Speaker 3: you know that you're going to find love again? That
Speaker 3: you bounce?
Speaker 1: I remember it so vividly. I had met her. She
Speaker 1: used used to be She's Kaitlin, my manager's best friend.
Speaker 3: Hey, I love that. That's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she introduced us, and uh, I remember it was
Speaker 1: like the third time that I had hung out with her.
Speaker 1: I called my mom. I was getting gassed and I
Speaker 1: was like, Mom, I think I just met my wife,
Speaker 1: And sure enough, it happened that way. She's I'm telling
Speaker 1: you the most amazing thing. She's the most selfless person
Speaker 1: that I've ever met in my life. She wants to
Speaker 1: do so much for others, and it inspires me, it
Speaker 1: really does.
Speaker 3: How did you know? What was it?
Speaker 1: I know? Shoot, it's just the way that she talks
Speaker 1: to me. She kind of keeps me grounded in a
Speaker 1: sense of like not being too hard on myself, or
Speaker 1: if I'm doing too lee or to too less. Yeah,
Speaker 1: too little there, that's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 1: Too little, or if I'm too much Like she she
Speaker 1: keeps me centered, and I feel like I need that
Speaker 1: and I do that. I feel like I do the
Speaker 1: same for her because she's always grinded and stuff.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful. I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy
Speaker 3: for you. You have a you have a lot going on.
Speaker 3: There's a lot in your world, a lot of feelings
Speaker 3: that you're managing a lot of responsibilities, a lot of love,
Speaker 3: a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry. I feel like I just made you
Speaker 1: put me through a therapy.
Speaker 3: So I'm married to an artist. His name is Michael.
Speaker 3: He's in a Thousand Horses and he we have therapy
Speaker 3: sessions every night, and he's always like, can you please
Speaker 3: just like not have to have a therapy session. I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: you must have needed it because you married me, And
Speaker 3: this is what our conversations are. I need to know
Speaker 3: what you're feeling, why you're feeling, and what happened. Where
Speaker 3: was your trauma? Did we heal from it? Is there
Speaker 3: anything going on? We need to clear the air, just like.
Speaker 1: Make sure that's a real thing. I feel like gets
Speaker 1: stored in.
Speaker 3: Your body if you don't get this stuff out. And
Speaker 3: then I think it's so cool when you're an artist
Speaker 3: like yourself who's writing these really personal songs that you
Speaker 3: have gone through and things that have happened to you,
Speaker 3: then you share them and that it helps other people
Speaker 3: heal without.
Speaker 1: A doubt, And that's that's the goal to me. Like,
Speaker 1: like I told you earlier, the fame and the money
Speaker 1: and all that can go with the wayside, but being
Speaker 1: able to help somebody through a song and being able
Speaker 1: to connect Like I have those songs for myself that
Speaker 1: are like when I hear them, like they take me
Speaker 1: to a certain time and a certain spot that I
Speaker 1: just can latch onto, And I want to be able
Speaker 1: to be that kind of artist for somebody else.
Speaker 3: I love that. What's your ultimate goal? Where do you
Speaker 3: see the thing going? Where do you want it to go?
Speaker 1: I think my goal was shifted lately. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3: I love a good shift.
Speaker 1: I wanted to sell out stadiums and I still do,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, Like that was like my ultimate goal,
Speaker 1: But now I'm kind of I'm I think I'm finding
Speaker 1: my artistry more and I think I want to be
Speaker 1: an artist that other artists can look up to in
Speaker 1: a sense of like musically. I don't know that sounds
Speaker 1: very egotistical.
Speaker 3: Maybe you just want to have something really important to say,
Speaker 3: like when you put something.
Speaker 1: Out from me, there's like the Chris Stapleton's Eric church
Speaker 1: Is Jason Isabel, Like those are the guys that I'm like, man, these.
Speaker 3: Are they're really crafted?
Speaker 1: Yeah they're crafted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, they're not just chasing a quick hit. They're
Speaker 3: really like crafting their art exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of the goal for me.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to have something to say.
Speaker 1: I want to be a true artist and really being
Speaker 1: meticulous about the songs on my record, the people that
Speaker 1: I bring out on the road. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel that. I really. When I was listening to
Speaker 3: your stuff, I was like, man, you are so good,
Speaker 3: and like people are calling you like the best country
Speaker 3: voice of this generation or something. That's a big title.
Speaker 1: That is a very big title, I know, but.
Speaker 3: I mean, you really do have that kind of voice.
Speaker 3: It is so good.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for coming on. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: wrap up with one question. Will you stick around for
Speaker 3: a few burning questions? Yeah, okay, great. I always wrap
Speaker 3: and leave your light and it's open ended. What do
Speaker 3: you want people to know?
Speaker 1: What do I want people to know?
Speaker 3: Just opening Yeah, just a little inspiration maybe, Oh, let's.
Speaker 1: See a little inspiration. I'm not good to give an
Speaker 1: inspiration first day.
Speaker 3: That not the first day that comes to mind.
Speaker 1: Not. Uh, you don't need hatty bees today, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm telling myself. So I guess that's.
Speaker 3: There is It will make you feel so good. Maybe
Speaker 3: burn your mouth, but but besides that, it'll be great.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy for you, and I'm so happy just
Speaker 3: to see what a great artist you are. Like, you
Speaker 3: really are contributing in such a powerful positive way and
Speaker 3: it's so genuine and I could feel that, and it's
Speaker 3: so exciting to watch you appreciate it. Thanks so good
Speaker 3: luck with everything. It's gonna be awesome.