Speaker 1: All right, welcome to episode twenty six to the Bobby Cast,
Speaker 1: and the big big recliner next to me is Chris Jansen. Chris,
Speaker 1: I'm doing good, brother, Thank you very much. I love
Speaker 1: your intro music. By the way, Yeah, I don't even
Speaker 1: know where this came from, Mike, do you it's a
Speaker 1: game show music. I thought you stole it from Wayne Newton.
Speaker 1: It sounds good. It's not unusual. I was in Vegas
Speaker 1: this last weekend and we ran into your boys low Cash,
Speaker 1: because they have played the same stage the night before, yeah,
Speaker 1: in the National Finals rodeo, and they were playing I
Speaker 1: think six of like eight nights, all in different places,
Speaker 1: and so I saw I saw Preston walking around because
Speaker 1: I mean they were playing every night in Vegas there
Speaker 1: every single They're like everywhere all the time, man, and
Speaker 1: they play inn far every year, and You're exactly right.
Speaker 1: They play like they look a seven day residency in
Speaker 1: different places. It is just wild. I don't know how
Speaker 1: they keep up with it, those guys. Preston came because
Speaker 1: we had pressing up well like four five clods ago
Speaker 1: may more than that. I talked about you a bit.
Speaker 1: You guys are close. He's one of my best friends.
Speaker 1: That's what he said. He said, he said, as far
Speaker 1: as like Nashville goes, like, you guys have been friends
Speaker 1: for like close friends, real buddies. We came up together,
Speaker 1: and there's a difference in real buddies and work friends
Speaker 1: that you get along with and work well with, and
Speaker 1: then just the acquaintances at the people you don't like
Speaker 1: to you know whatever, but you're you're like real friends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're real friends. The weird thing about the Preston when
Speaker 1: he came over because I like those guys a lot,
Speaker 1: and Preston and I had only ever spent time together
Speaker 1: either doing the radio show or we'd we'd be on
Speaker 1: the road and play We played that thing four shows together,
Speaker 1: the Raging Idiots, and we get to hang out there,
Speaker 1: but we never get to hang out like a real
Speaker 1: human setting. So we just said at the house and
Speaker 1: talked for like forty five minutes after after this year,
Speaker 1: and I was like, dang, like I really I used
Speaker 1: to like that dude, Not I really like it because
Speaker 1: he's a long story dude, Like he's a he's got
Speaker 1: a lot of wisdom. There's his stories and their story.
Speaker 1: Because we sat here and do the same thing, and
Speaker 1: they've been around and have been through it all. But
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Speaker 1: All right, Chris, We'll start with today and we'll just
Speaker 1: kind of work our way around your song on the
Speaker 1: radio right now is holding her? Here's so the first
Speaker 1: time I heard the song was on boy Me about
Speaker 1: the record, and I thought it's a good song. It's
Speaker 1: but I wasn't moved by yet. Now no smash cut.
Speaker 1: Three weeks later, maybe around that time, I was watching
Speaker 1: it something called New Faces in Nashville this last year,
Speaker 1: and you played this, And when you get a new album,
Speaker 1: you kind of just popped through every track. When you
Speaker 1: get it, you're like, okay, I like that one like that.
Speaker 1: You really don't spend a lot of time with a
Speaker 1: lot of songs, and so you played a Hole in
Speaker 1: Her and I was like, oh my god, that is
Speaker 1: such a freaking good song. And I was talking to
Speaker 1: your label head, who I really like, to John Esposito,
Speaker 1: and I was like, if that's not the next song
Speaker 1: you put on the radio, like you shouldn't even put
Speaker 1: songs out on the radio, Like just just go ahead
Speaker 1: and Chris back, because that song is so good. And
Speaker 1: as I look today, holding Her is now at twenty
Speaker 1: five and still and climbing. So so talk about this
Speaker 1: song for a second. Well, first of all, thank you
Speaker 1: for the compliments on it and the kind words. It is.
Speaker 1: You know, well, you know my my backstory of my
Speaker 1: wife and I met kids, and um crs. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the country radio seminar show, the New Faces thing where
Speaker 1: they there was like five or six artists. The thing was, Man,
Speaker 1: it was just kind of a no brainer moment. And
Speaker 1: for me it's always been a no brainer moment because
Speaker 1: obviously I'm very married to the song, being the writer
Speaker 1: and singer of it. However, it's such a true it's
Speaker 1: a true life event for me and I live at daily.
Speaker 1: And so the fact that it um that it has
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to come out, the fact that it
Speaker 1: did come out, and the fact that everyone has embraced
Speaker 1: it as they have and by the way, thank you, Um,
Speaker 1: it's just an incredible blessing to me. Man. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's one thing to be said about songs climbing the charts,
Speaker 1: but when it's climbing the charts in a way that
Speaker 1: is a song that means so much to you personally,
Speaker 1: and I mean on a deeper level than just a
Speaker 1: song that you sing live at your shows and people
Speaker 1: stand up for. Okay, okay, talk about that for a
Speaker 1: second in case people don't know, Uh, why does this
Speaker 1: song mean so much to you? You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: the truest out of all the songs I've ever written,
Speaker 1: it's the most it's the truest. Um. I saw my
Speaker 1: wife for the first time in Nashville at the in
Speaker 1: an underground pool hall which is is called Melrose billiards
Speaker 1: years ago, and she was um working a job for
Speaker 1: a record label at the time, scoping out songs and songwriters,
Speaker 1: and I was down there hanging out with friends and
Speaker 1: I just fell in love at first time. I really
Speaker 1: did follow love at first sight. And you know, three
Speaker 1: years later we got married, which was amazing, and it
Speaker 1: was just like God's timing is perfect timing. And um,
Speaker 1: I walked into a house that was already a home
Speaker 1: with the kids in it, two kids, and that I
Speaker 1: started calling my bonus kids. It's like, I don't I
Speaker 1: hate the word step kids. And then we had two
Speaker 1: kids together, and really life just became just unbelievable. I mean,
Speaker 1: my life really changed for the better. It was it.
Speaker 1: We've been married seven years agoing on eight, and it's
Speaker 1: just been one of the most incredible blessings ever, aside
Speaker 1: from anything with business or music or anything for that matter.
Speaker 1: And when I wrote this song, James Otto and I
Speaker 1: were on his back porch and um over in Green
Speaker 1: Hills in Nashville, and we had just had George, our
Speaker 1: youngest daughter together and our third, our third child, and
Speaker 1: he said, man, what do you want to write today?
Speaker 1: And I said, dude, I just want to write about
Speaker 1: my family, and and I just it just came out.
Speaker 1: We wrote in about twenty thirty minutes. And you know,
Speaker 1: that song is the oldest song on the Buying Me
Speaker 1: a Boat record, which is what a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know. It's the is the oldest one on there.
Speaker 1: I wrote it years before Buying Me Vote or anything
Speaker 1: else on the whole album. And um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: finally it finally got to breathe um and live on
Speaker 1: this album. And now that it's living on the radio,
Speaker 1: it's a huge deal for me. And I've been playing
Speaker 1: it around for so many years that now when people
Speaker 1: hear it and then they hear it on the radio,
Speaker 1: it's like they're putting two and two together, going, oh
Speaker 1: my god. You know, it's it's been a lot of
Speaker 1: people's favorite song for a lot of years on the
Speaker 1: you know, from touring and things of that nature. And um,
Speaker 1: since Buying Me a Boat was such a big breakthrough, UM,
Speaker 1: it allowed you know, allowed my audiences to get much bigger, thankfully,
Speaker 1: and now when the year holding there, it's just a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. The cool thing about it is too, it's
Speaker 1: not a traditional radio song, and the fact that it
Speaker 1: is still climbing the chart does speak volumes because one
Speaker 1: it's a valid yes too, it's a very country ballad
Speaker 1: with talking in it and still guitar and still so
Speaker 1: there are all these elements that right now aren't mixed
Speaker 1: together currently moving up the chart right. Well, thank you
Speaker 1: very much, uh, and thanks for making light of that too,
Speaker 1: because I am such a fan of songs man, like
Speaker 1: Sunday Morning coming Down or um. I mean you could
Speaker 1: think of a million songs that have a little any
Speaker 1: kind of Conway song. UM. So many of my favorite
Speaker 1: what you would call now traditional country music, UM has
Speaker 1: has some spoken word in it. Even some George Stray
Speaker 1: records out of the last ten years, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they have some spoken word in it. And holding
Speaker 1: her I didn't, you know, I didn't really mean to
Speaker 1: go for that. I wasn't like shooting for anything. It
Speaker 1: just happened that way. And um, when it when it
Speaker 1: feels right to me in my heart, man, that's just
Speaker 1: how I fault. That's how I e gage everything. That's
Speaker 1: how I That's how I just do anything in my
Speaker 1: whole life. When I get up to put my boots
Speaker 1: on in the morning, if it feels right, I'll put
Speaker 1: on that pair. If it feels wrong, I put on
Speaker 1: another pair. Um too big, I'm getting their shoes that
Speaker 1: eye buddy, that they're feeling all right, I gotta get
Speaker 1: some sneakers, man. Uh. But you know that's how Holding
Speaker 1: There came together. And and um, this is a beautiful thing, dude.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm so I'm so grateful for it and and
Speaker 1: for people to take a chance on it at radio
Speaker 1: and and to be playing it like they are, I mean, um,
Speaker 1: like you said, for it to still be moving up
Speaker 1: the chart and to be such a different kind of
Speaker 1: song as um, it's pretty incredible blessing. So you have
Speaker 1: actually two songs on the radio right now, one that
Speaker 1: you sing on, one that you wrote on, which is
Speaker 1: this one, My girl how Always Be Straight? That's a
Speaker 1: good one, So thanks. Funny When did you write that?
Speaker 1: Was it after the record came out? Was this one
Speaker 1: that you were writing for Tim or writing two pitch
Speaker 1: or for yourself or what what was the process with
Speaker 1: this song. First of all, I love your I love
Speaker 1: these questions, and I really I didn't thank you for
Speaker 1: having me yet the sevening thanks for having me? Probably Hey, Mike,
Speaker 1: you's the first one I ever bring a gift like whoa,
Speaker 1: you can thank my wife. You can thank my wife.
Speaker 1: She had the initial idea, and I said, that's that's
Speaker 1: a great idea because I don't know what to you know,
Speaker 1: you're nothing, there's nothing to get me. You're a man
Speaker 1: of many taste, very peculiar, peculiar taste, just as I am.
Speaker 1: And you know you gotta be you gotta be, you
Speaker 1: gotta be touchy feely with what you get. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm glad you liked it. However, thank you for having me,
Speaker 1: and thank you for these questions, because I rarely, I
Speaker 1: want to say, I rarely get to talk about songs,
Speaker 1: and I rarely get to give the back story on them.
Speaker 1: And to answer your question about that's how I'll always be.
Speaker 1: First of all, when you played that, I just love
Speaker 1: that song. Even if I hadn't written it, I'm so
Speaker 1: proud of it. Say you're sitting in a room, I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you this story man, this isn't this is
Speaker 1: an amazing thing. My my friend Jeremy Stover called me.
Speaker 1: He said, Um, hi, se j, let's write a song.
Speaker 1: So okay, fine, So I want never to write with him.
Speaker 1: When I get to a studio on Berry Hill, which
Speaker 1: is over on the other side of Nashville. A friend
Speaker 1: of ours textas bow at the same time, named Jamie Paul.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, man, all, hey guys, you know, um
Speaker 1: can we can I come over and you either of
Speaker 1: you available to write? And we say, hey, we're actually together.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you knew that, but he didn't. Um,
Speaker 1: once you come join us. He got there. He's kind
Speaker 1: of having a rough day, man. Um. He he got
Speaker 1: there and he started explaining what was going on is
Speaker 1: mom had pretty terminally ill cancer, and um, we it
Speaker 1: just hit everybody pretty hard, to be frankly honest with you,
Speaker 1: and so we just tried to lighten the mood by
Speaker 1: doing something and writing songs is what we do best. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I knew mcgrawl was pretty much done recording at that
Speaker 1: at that point. And UM, thankfully I've been able to
Speaker 1: get to know Tim a little bit and and um,
Speaker 1: here's some inside things. So I thought, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we maybe have missed the record this time, but let's
Speaker 1: just write something. I said, guys, I would like to
Speaker 1: write I'd like to write another side of my story,
Speaker 1: the other side of holding here, like like my backstory
Speaker 1: as a man, you know, and I tell a little
Speaker 1: bit of that. Let's write it in the vein of
Speaker 1: mcgrawl and man, maybe maybe for the next record he
Speaker 1: might like it, you know. And so the song really
Speaker 1: came together and it meant a lot to all three
Speaker 1: of us, but it really meant a lot to me
Speaker 1: personally because Um, all the words in it are my story.
Speaker 1: It's a very true to life song for me, every
Speaker 1: every single little bit of it. And the most important
Speaker 1: part is UM. I sent it to Byron Gallimore like
Speaker 1: three days after we wrote it, and we did a
Speaker 1: little work tape demo of it. He's, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I love this. Yeah. Sorry. So Byron Gallimore produces Tim mcgrawl.
Speaker 1: He produced part of the Buy Me a Boat record.
Speaker 1: Um is a great friend of mine, and UM a
Speaker 1: great friend of ours, and and just just love Byron
Speaker 1: and Um. He and his wife, they both worked with Tim.
Speaker 1: His wife finds, you know, find songs for Tim every
Speaker 1: now and again, and and Byron produces the songs. You know.
Speaker 1: I sent it to Byron to see what he thought.
Speaker 1: He was like, oh my god. So he sent it
Speaker 1: to Tim and immediately I get put on this email chain.
Speaker 1: It's Tim loves that he's gonna cut it just like
Speaker 1: I mean, days hours. I don't know what we're talking here,
Speaker 1: from the minute you sent the work tape or the
Speaker 1: demo to him to the fact that you're on the
Speaker 1: email going, hey, I love this song. Within within I
Speaker 1: mean within the first fifteen minutes, I was. I was
Speaker 1: that quick swear to god, man, I got it from Jeremy.
Speaker 1: I was like, Herry, get it to me, her, he
Speaker 1: gets to me, Her, get to me. You know. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'd like a hurry up and wait kind of guy.
Speaker 1: I just can't stand it. Okay, I just have to
Speaker 1: get going. And I can you please send it to
Speaker 1: please send to me. Yeah, I'm just getting the vocal.
Speaker 1: I forget the vocal. Just send me the track. So
Speaker 1: I sent it to Byron. Oh my god, curious, I
Speaker 1: just love this is what Byron said. And uh, and
Speaker 1: so he talks. He got back and sent it to
Speaker 1: Tim within fifteen minutes I was last never forget. I
Speaker 1: was leaving FedEx in Cool Springs, done in Franklin, and
Speaker 1: I mean it just happened. And I mean you never know.
Speaker 1: I mean some I've had a million artists, Oh we're
Speaker 1: gonna cut Oh my god, we love it, and then
Speaker 1: never cut it. I never even look at it. You know. Dude,
Speaker 1: Tim is a man of his word, and he's very
Speaker 1: he's very good about keeping it too. And he recorded
Speaker 1: the song. He said, and you know one thing that
Speaker 1: I'll never forget my Tim mccrawl telling me was thank
Speaker 1: you for writing me the song I always wanted to record.
Speaker 1: This was really amazing moment for me. And I didn't
Speaker 1: know that I was being a part of the song
Speaker 1: that he always wanted to record. I just knew that
Speaker 1: he likes, you know, he likes Don Williams type things.
Speaker 1: He likes um Guy Clark, he likes you know, old
Speaker 1: stray dogs and guitars play, and he likes Tom t Hall,
Speaker 1: you know, those those sorts of things. And it was
Speaker 1: just a really it was a really gratifying moment for me.
Speaker 1: Now fast forward, the songs on the radio is doing
Speaker 1: good and and and looking like it maybe that's fantastic,
Speaker 1: that's doing great, thank you, but the potential to really
Speaker 1: be a number one hopefully, you know, either either way,
Speaker 1: it's it's already a hit, it's already a big top ten.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, the most part and part of
Speaker 1: this story and the journey is, you know, rewind Up
Speaker 1: told you about Jamie and his mom. Jamie's mom just
Speaker 1: passed away a little a little while back here, right
Speaker 1: about the time how long is he was coming out
Speaker 1: and was about to hit the top twenty, and so
Speaker 1: this is a really trying time for his family. I
Speaker 1: know he's I know, he's you know, been going through
Speaker 1: a little bit personally. He's a great guy. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, Jamie at this point being the third co
Speaker 1: writer man at this point, like Jeremy's had a ton
Speaker 1: of number ones. He just wrote I Love Somebody for
Speaker 1: our Boys low Cash. Like he's he's on fire. He
Speaker 1: produces justin MORI mean, he's like all over the board
Speaker 1: and um and thankfully you know, since boat Man, things
Speaker 1: have really been seeming to go my way and and
Speaker 1: Jamie um has had some good cuts to his name,
Speaker 1: but this is his biggest one yet. And with the
Speaker 1: chain of events that everything's happened in his life. That
Speaker 1: just really makes me smile because I'm I'm proud that
Speaker 1: he got ahold of Us. I'm proud that he's a
Speaker 1: third songwriter on this song and that the story. You know,
Speaker 1: if we if we're fortunate up to have a number
Speaker 1: one with it, man, it's gonna be an awesome, very
Speaker 1: emotional party. I saw speaking of a girl gonna be
Speaker 1: playing with McGraw I think at the end of this
Speaker 1: week or early next week. Yeah, Saturday, Saturday night, we're
Speaker 1: playing in Vegas. Okay. So I just came back from
Speaker 1: Vegas and I saw everywhere Tim McGraw and Chris Jansen,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was a picture of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that's cool, you know, because you're everywhere.
Speaker 1: Like it's obviously a Tim poster, but very prominent Chris
Speaker 1: Jansen on the poster, which doesn't always happen. Because there
Speaker 1: was another one that was like Toby Keys and the
Speaker 1: tiny letters that goes with a big and rich and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, they're bigger than they should have
Speaker 1: just with bigger. But it was really Tim McGraw with
Speaker 1: christ Jansen with you know, you had your picture with
Speaker 1: your trap over and so I'm getting in the elevator.
Speaker 1: I was talking about this on the air this morning
Speaker 1: because they had us in a really fancy party MGM.
Speaker 1: Because when you we played MGM the Raging Idiots did
Speaker 1: they put you in a really nice hotel, put us
Speaker 1: in the suite. You're in the fancy place. And I
Speaker 1: got into this elevator and it's all mirrored out and
Speaker 1: like chandelier on top. And I I'm not exaggerated, I
Speaker 1: swear to you as I'm in and it kind of
Speaker 1: snapchat at it. As I'm in the elevator at this
Speaker 1: fancy hotel, I hear you know there's playing as I'm
Speaker 1: going down kidding. No, that's awesome. And they weren't like
Speaker 1: playing just country. It was all different music and they
Speaker 1: were playing a hold on hers. I was going to
Speaker 1: let's talk about how you got here for a second.
Speaker 1: You are born and raids in Missouri. I was born
Speaker 1: and raised in Missouri, just above Arkansas. Are you from you? So?
Speaker 1: As a kid you were what kind of kid? I
Speaker 1: was a very shy kid um at times. I boy,
Speaker 1: we've never talked about this is gonna be good. I
Speaker 1: I was very shy kid. At times. You know, I
Speaker 1: always was a musician, always a musician. How are you
Speaker 1: a musician at seven? Right? Where were you playing? Man?
Speaker 1: I started when I was eight years old. I got
Speaker 1: my first stratocaster guitar and immediately started playing the blues.
Speaker 1: And I started playing. My first song I ever learned
Speaker 1: was keep your hands at yourself Georgia Satellites. And I
Speaker 1: love the blues, man, I love the blues. I love
Speaker 1: rock and roll. I loved country music. My first album
Speaker 1: I ever got was Garth Brooks, the one where he
Speaker 1: tied his belt sideways with double double sided shirt. And
Speaker 1: my second one was Randy Travisman. And remember my dad
Speaker 1: used to sing digging up Bones around the house all
Speaker 1: the time and stuff. And I've always been a musician
Speaker 1: and I've always been a very musicians at all. And
Speaker 1: the family that kind of maybe say, hey, you should
Speaker 1: pick up a guitar. So my parents are not musicians. Um,
Speaker 1: my dad took a swing at drumming there for a
Speaker 1: while when I was like an early teen. Um, but
Speaker 1: he would tell you like it was just a for fun,
Speaker 1: you know, garage band, drink some beer kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, traditionally, like my My granddad played
Speaker 1: a little guitar, but not much. And his father before
Speaker 1: him was a pentecostal uh a tent revival evangelist, uh
Speaker 1: and he played fiddle and that kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: I guess music probably runs in my in my veins
Speaker 1: at some point, very kind of appellation, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of country bluegrass kind of stuff. But there wasn't any
Speaker 1: one in your life that said, here's the piano or
Speaker 1: a guitar, you should start playing. No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1: It was me. It's totally me. I wanted, man, dude,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be who did you see though at eight?
Speaker 1: That made you want to pick up a guitar? Because
Speaker 1: something had You had to see something with your eyeball
Speaker 1: guns and roses. So that's what I was. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to be Deaf mccagan, and
Speaker 1: I want to be that you picked up and now
Speaker 1: later on you and we'll get the guns and roses
Speaker 1: in a minute, but later on. But yeah, So it
Speaker 1: wasn't Slash, it wasn't Axel, and it was deaf mcgagan.
Speaker 1: I thought, dude, that do with the with the long
Speaker 1: blonde here. It was like just cool looking. I mean,
Speaker 1: and he is cool looking. It's like I want to
Speaker 1: be that. I want to be that right there. And
Speaker 1: I always thought David Lee Murphy was the bomb, Like
Speaker 1: I mean where I come from. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: he is and everybody thinks so. Second of all, where
Speaker 1: I come from in the Midwest. You know, we grew
Speaker 1: up right across the Missisip River from each other. Literally.
Speaker 1: I bought my first car with lawn mowing money out
Speaker 1: of his hometown, two blocks away from the street. He
Speaker 1: grew up on small world. I was a huge David
Speaker 1: Lee Murphy fan as far as country music goes. And
Speaker 1: he was, you know, he's still like, he's kind of
Speaker 1: a rock and roll type, jeans wearing kind of guy.
Speaker 1: And um, so those two things made me really want
Speaker 1: to play man and funny you should ask. I've never
Speaker 1: got to tell anybody that. So you start playing guitar
Speaker 1: at eight years old, when do you start playing where
Speaker 1: people start watching you? Pretty immediately when I started playing, um,
Speaker 1: you know, that was right at the brink of about
Speaker 1: to go into middle school. So you know, I was
Speaker 1: a skateboarder, and I was also in four h and
Speaker 1: I was riding horses. I did a lot of different things,
Speaker 1: as I could die with a lot of stuff, but
Speaker 1: I loved the skateboarding, the skateboarding community, as most no
Speaker 1: will lead you into, like different kinds of communities will
Speaker 1: lead you, like into the hippie crowd and the cool crowd,
Speaker 1: and you know the maybe the um the misled youth
Speaker 1: crowd who listens to punk rock all the time. And
Speaker 1: I got way into that kind of stuff. And um,
Speaker 1: I started meeting buddies who thought like me, who thought
Speaker 1: outside the box, who grew up in a small town
Speaker 1: and wanted to get out of it, and and um
Speaker 1: found outlets in music, and so we all just started
Speaker 1: skating together and we built like a local skate park
Speaker 1: in in Felts Park in town. And man, we we
Speaker 1: started getting our instruments from Shivelvin's Music, which was a
Speaker 1: town thirty five miles away in Cape Girardo. Was a
Speaker 1: little music store there, and m dude, we we just
Speaker 1: got the cheapest of the cheap guitars and started playing.
Speaker 1: And me and my buddy Kurt Brewer and um uh
Speaker 1: Anthony Lawrencius and all these kids. Man, we just got
Speaker 1: together from all different grades, middle school and high school
Speaker 1: and started playing music and we play anything anybody wanted
Speaker 1: to hear. What were you in that band that was
Speaker 1: the drummer? Wow? Yeah, so you picked up a guitar,
Speaker 1: then you were the drummer in the band. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was like the drummer one week, and then like if
Speaker 1: if we needed a bass player, I would be like
Speaker 1: bass player. I mean, he's whatever. I mean, we all
Speaker 1: kind of alternated, however. Um, you know, my first instrument
Speaker 1: is drums. I learned that very first, and then guitar
Speaker 1: came like the week after. I forgot to tell you that.
Speaker 1: But I'm a drummer first, and I'm still a drummer.
Speaker 1: I played drums every night actively in my live concerts,
Speaker 1: And um, I am the kind of person that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try it really quick, and if i can't get
Speaker 1: it really quick, I'm done. I'm just gonna move on
Speaker 1: to something else. I'm still that way. Your hitching right, small?
Speaker 1: Why both of us are Yeah, we know, we're very like,
Speaker 1: we need it. We gotta figure Okay, the only have
Speaker 1: the same birthday we do. Yeah, so, I mean it's
Speaker 1: a lot of similarities. We addictive personalities, but exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: I'm back on the dude, by the way, so no man,
Speaker 1: so like I wanted to play the drums, right, let
Speaker 1: me just tell you. So I learned to play them.
Speaker 1: I learned to play him in school and I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Then I got the stratocaster guitar. I learned to play
Speaker 1: George Satellite was like, I got that. So I got
Speaker 1: a basic Carl. I'm like, well that's pretty easy, the
Speaker 1: same thing. And I got on piano, and I love
Speaker 1: Jarreley Lewis. I'm like, and I figured that out. Okay.
Speaker 1: I taught myself and m dude, I just started hop
Speaker 1: skipping around and then you meet the right kids. And
Speaker 1: it was usually kids who were like unpopular, kids who
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to hang out with. Kids were like green
Speaker 1: hair and weird ear rings. And I mean, I grew
Speaker 1: up in a pretty like Frankly, a pretty redneck, you know,
Speaker 1: white trash, blue collar town man like you just if
Speaker 1: you're not a farmer, you're not cool, you know that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Like everybody hangs out the m f
Speaker 1: A and city tavern downtown and that's just the way
Speaker 1: it is. And if you don't play football, you're a
Speaker 1: punk and that kind of deal. And I was definitely
Speaker 1: kind of right in the middle. So you're playing music.
Speaker 1: Did you graduate high school? I did? I graduated with
Speaker 1: honors man. I graduated. Um I actually got I was
Speaker 1: actually offered to graduate my junior year. UM, I know,
Speaker 1: you got a scholl. I'm gonna leading to the scholarship
Speaker 1: with college credits and stuff. But I chose to stay
Speaker 1: in school because my senior year they offered a work
Speaker 1: program where it could actually make some a little bit
Speaker 1: of cash and and go to work and try something
Speaker 1: that I thought maybe I would want to do for
Speaker 1: a living. Because when you're a kid, you don't think
Speaker 1: you honestly, where I come from, you don't really think that,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I can be a music singing star
Speaker 1: or anything for that matter. I can't even have a
Speaker 1: job doing this. You know, you know why. And we
Speaker 1: come from a similar background. You don't think that's not
Speaker 1: because people tell us we can, but no one tells
Speaker 1: us we can, because nobody else does around Because that
Speaker 1: you're precisely right, like, nobody tells you you can't, but
Speaker 1: no one tells you can because no one else is
Speaker 1: doing it. And we come from and and you know what,
Speaker 1: it's okay because now as an adult, I come to
Speaker 1: appreciate it. And actually, you know, some things you kind
Speaker 1: of missed sometimes weird. But I grew up in such
Speaker 1: a inside the box kind of mindset I'm sort of
Speaker 1: cursed with. I'm still still that way a little bit.
Speaker 1: The just things you never grow out of. But I
Speaker 1: grew up so much around that that it was just
Speaker 1: kind of unreachable. You know. You know when you say that,
Speaker 1: it resonates with me because I speak at times, and
Speaker 1: i'll speak at graduations or i'll speak to youth and
Speaker 1: and I'll say that a lot, because I'll talk to
Speaker 1: kids who grew up like I did, and I'll say,
Speaker 1: you know, these big dreams, no one tells you you
Speaker 1: really can't do them because they don't seem real. No
Speaker 1: one tells you you can't grow ten feet tall, right
Speaker 1: because everybody knows you're not gonna do it anyway, right,
Speaker 1: But no one. So I would say, listen, this is
Speaker 1: what I've done. No one told me I couldn't, but really,
Speaker 1: no one told me I can. And so I'll talk
Speaker 1: to the say tell them they can, you know, but
Speaker 1: they I mean, look at you, Look at you. You're
Speaker 1: a prime example of nobody telling you you can, but
Speaker 1: you just went and did. Yeah, I I know one
Speaker 1: other kid who did it in my hometown. Man, it
Speaker 1: was the one kid that I consistently stayed in bands with.
Speaker 1: It was also the one kid that I consistently stayed
Speaker 1: in bands and budded heads with because we were both
Speaker 1: a personalities, which now we we even still keep in
Speaker 1: touch via email and phone. Actually two of my friend
Speaker 1: I can't forget the other one one move to one.
Speaker 1: One stayed in the States and went on having a
Speaker 1: great career playing drums for the Aavoite Brothers and Bob
Speaker 1: Dylan and lots of people. Okay, his named Jacob Edwards.
Speaker 1: His dad was our band His dad was our choir teacher.
Speaker 1: We had choir teacher and a band teacher in high school.
Speaker 1: My music teacher band teacher flunked me and did not
Speaker 1: like me at all and treated me very badly as
Speaker 1: a kid, very bad. I think that for many years.
Speaker 1: I don't mean this to sound cocky whatsoever, but I
Speaker 1: was a natural music and people like him aren't. They
Speaker 1: are theoretical. They have to read. They like to be cocky.
Speaker 1: For you to say you're a natural at music, you're
Speaker 1: a freaking number one song, right, but you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But but I don't. I don't mean it pretentious.
Speaker 1: It's not. But nothing about it was pretentious, thank you.
Speaker 1: But but for people who you know, don't know me,
Speaker 1: I'd like to let him know I don't mean that pretentious.
Speaker 1: But but Mr Fisher was not nice to me. He
Speaker 1: was just not He just wasn't nice to me. He
Speaker 1: probably he did, and that's a sad thing. In school, man,
Speaker 1: a lot of teachers, you know, they probably got picked
Speaker 1: on at one point. They're really you know, he's a
Speaker 1: very smart guy. However may be a little bit smarter.
Speaker 1: I don't know. But the thing is is I flunked that,
Speaker 1: but I got an a in chorus which I didn't
Speaker 1: want to take. And it was Mr Edwards. His son,
Speaker 1: Jacob is the one I was in the band with. Man,
Speaker 1: he was a free spirit. He was just about just
Speaker 1: do what you want to do and and we're just
Speaker 1: gonna praise your art no matter how bad or good
Speaker 1: it is, doesn't matter. And believe me, we're pretty bad, okay,
Speaker 1: and um Jacob was one of the kids who who
Speaker 1: came out of school and did something with his life.
Speaker 1: As far as music and became very successful, and I
Speaker 1: think lives in East Nahville now. And another one of
Speaker 1: my friends who grew up two towns away, and he
Speaker 1: grew up in an even smaller, like very Catholic community
Speaker 1: where you were very frowned upon if you did any
Speaker 1: kind of music or rock and roll or anything of
Speaker 1: that nature, uh Ian Fisher. And now he's a very
Speaker 1: critically acclaimed singer songwriter in in Europe and and lives
Speaker 1: in Germany and just in his awesome that's what he does.
Speaker 1: He travels around Europe and place shows and it's just
Speaker 1: a pretty amazing thing. Man. I feel very blessed to
Speaker 1: have the opportunities that I've had. And when you mentioned
Speaker 1: number one songwriter and singer and these things, it still
Speaker 1: doesn't register for me because again, and you know this,
Speaker 1: coming from where we come from, your great successes with
Speaker 1: your career as well, it's just sort of unfathomable. And
Speaker 1: even even now in my hometown, I only have about
Speaker 1: five friends who even recognize what I do for a living,
Speaker 1: or they just don't even you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't It's just a it's a two way
Speaker 1: road and it's very disconnected. So you're in the town. Now,
Speaker 1: you had an interest in animals like veterinary. I did.
Speaker 1: Now I got the interest from animals and veterinary because
Speaker 1: I told you earlier I was. I rode a lot
Speaker 1: of horses as a kid. I did horse showing, a
Speaker 1: whole bunch actually a lot of Middle Tennessee, which is
Speaker 1: a whole other avenue to talk about. But long story short.
Speaker 1: When you get older and you get about seventeen, and
Speaker 1: you know you're pretty poor kid growing up, you gotta
Speaker 1: have a job. I have. I've had jobs since I
Speaker 1: was a young man. My dad said, I don't ever
Speaker 1: want to have to make you work. You know you
Speaker 1: work when you get older. But I always had a
Speaker 1: job because I never like anybody telling me what I
Speaker 1: could do with my money, and I don't like asking
Speaker 1: for money. Is I'd rather make it myself, whether it's
Speaker 1: if it's two bucks. I got two bucks and not
Speaker 1: in that asked Ford. Veterinarian work came pretty easy. There
Speaker 1: was a guy that played softball with my dad on
Speaker 1: the little softball leagues there and and um doc and
Speaker 1: and Doc Freeman. And he always said, man, if you
Speaker 1: ever want to make some extra bank, once you just
Speaker 1: come over and work for me, you know, and just
Speaker 1: do whatever. He's a the only like the town, the
Speaker 1: town main, the main guy, the guy, there's always the
Speaker 1: whatever where we come from, there's one. There's one person
Speaker 1: that does everything. Because we can't handle too. We didn't met.
Speaker 1: We could have two gas stations, and we're gonna have to. Man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be okay. It's like, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: They're both gonna run from mayor to let go bigger anyway.
Speaker 1: So Doc Freeman offered that, and so in my school too,
Speaker 1: even though small town, they had a vocational program because
Speaker 1: against so many kids grew up in the agricultural business
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. And traditionally you either go
Speaker 1: to the military, you become a farmer pretty much it,
Speaker 1: or you work at Walmart. It's one of three things.
Speaker 1: And um, my senior year, I'd already gotten all my
Speaker 1: credits out of the way, so I thought, cool, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a vocational class and I'm gonna take him
Speaker 1: up on it. So I went to work at a
Speaker 1: vet clinic and I've darned near almost became a veterinarian.
Speaker 1: Like I was pretty serious about it. And the fact
Speaker 1: that like I was pulling scholarships to almost go to
Speaker 1: do it, and uh, I just kept you from it.
Speaker 1: I never had it in my heart. Man, I was
Speaker 1: just doing it too to make some money, and I
Speaker 1: knew that it would probably pay good at some point.
Speaker 1: You know, if you become a doctor or a tarium,
Speaker 1: obviously it pays okay, Um, dude, I played music. I've
Speaker 1: always played music, no matter what I mean. On the weekends,
Speaker 1: I was playing on hay wagons in in on eighty
Speaker 1: Acres down and on the East End, and for you know, um,
Speaker 1: just a bunch of beer drinking hank junior songs and
Speaker 1: skinnered covers and those kind of things, and I just
Speaker 1: had music in my heart. I've never written a song
Speaker 1: at that point, but I loved playing and whatever band
Speaker 1: I was in at the time. So when it got
Speaker 1: right down to it, about a week before I was
Speaker 1: going to go off to college, I decided, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do that, So I'm just gonna go to
Speaker 1: the closest place that has music. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: get away from you know, you always want to get
Speaker 1: away from where you come from, and then when you
Speaker 1: get out, you want to have some of that back,
Speaker 1: which is interesting because I'd love I love small town lifestyles.
Speaker 1: My wife from a small town. I you know, I
Speaker 1: love it, um, But Nashville was the closest. So I
Speaker 1: packed up on I decided on a Thursday, and packed
Speaker 1: up on Thursday afternoon, and I moved never came back.
Speaker 1: So you moved to Nashville. You're out old, I was.
Speaker 1: I just turned nineteen, So you move here at nineteen?
Speaker 1: And where do you move? I'm moving a two door
Speaker 1: Monty Carlo that you can um the folks can see.
Speaker 1: You know that that We talked about that country radio
Speaker 1: seminar show that I did. We did the video for it,
Speaker 1: and I put the Green Money Carlo in my video,
Speaker 1: like kind of a lifestyle. Lived in the car. I
Speaker 1: lived in the back seat of a car with the
Speaker 1: back seats would fold down, you know in those cars.
Speaker 1: They don't make cars like that anymore. It's really cool
Speaker 1: thing because safe, because I'm glad they don't make They
Speaker 1: made sense back then there's more room. But we used
Speaker 1: to stand in the seat. I have written on so
Speaker 1: many consoles of bills with my head sticking out the
Speaker 1: old school sun roof. You know what I'm talking about
Speaker 1: we'd run the back of the truck like you can't.
Speaker 1: All that's gone, dude, lay in the ever lay in
Speaker 1: the back of the ever lay to get to get
Speaker 1: warm in the back window of like a cutlass. Yes,
Speaker 1: and on the on the like the reverse console because
Speaker 1: that's where the heat comes that when the window comes
Speaker 1: down in that spot. Yeah. You ever travel like nine
Speaker 1: hours on the camper shell on the back of the
Speaker 1: truck because with blankets. Yeah, yeah, that was a road trip.
Speaker 1: It was getting the truck and they're like five of
Speaker 1: us getting the campers shell in the back of the
Speaker 1: truck with blankets, with the grandpa who's like um, kind
Speaker 1: of mean and and only makes sweet hands to ham
Speaker 1: sandwiches and will not pull over at Cracker Borow. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that in a very nice way. By the way, say,
Speaker 1: moved in Nashville. You're living in your car. I'm living
Speaker 1: in the tudor money Carlo. How do you find a
Speaker 1: place the park? I mean, like, what do you park
Speaker 1: to live? Okay, here's a good one for you. So
Speaker 1: I pulled downtown and I pulled what's now Hockeytunk Central
Speaker 1: on Lower Broadway in Nashville. Used to be Shaunicky as
Speaker 1: Irish Pub, which was before my time here. I pulled
Speaker 1: into the parking lot back there, and this is still
Speaker 1: when Lower Broadway is kind of like undeveloped. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's still kind of dangerous at night, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And um, so those listening. Lower Broadway is the main
Speaker 1: like tourists place in Nashville work. All the cars are
Speaker 1: where people come and they go to see all the
Speaker 1: music and where a lot of people go frankly to
Speaker 1: to try and quote make it, you know, and so
Speaker 1: um it's just the bright lights and big city kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I pulled there. I got a boot
Speaker 1: on my car the first night because I had never
Speaker 1: paid a meter. I have never paid a machine to
Speaker 1: get a ticket out. I know, I mean, who would
Speaker 1: know coming from I wrote a boy that in my
Speaker 1: book that I was like when I moved to Little
Speaker 1: Rock and need to pay for parking, he was blown away,
Speaker 1: blown You had to pay to put your car. It
Speaker 1: was a shot. It was a shock that I had
Speaker 1: to pay to put my car somewhere. Believe me, I know,
Speaker 1: I got a boot the first night, So I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is awesome. So but anyway, dude, I'm I'm sleeping
Speaker 1: in the fold down so half in the trunk, half
Speaker 1: in the car kind of thing. And uh, I literally
Speaker 1: moved to her quintessential story with the back a physical
Speaker 1: backpack full of CDs homemade, you know, just basically what
Speaker 1: you would call now garage band demos, UM that were
Speaker 1: really made in a garage on a two track dub
Speaker 1: recorder and UM transferred over to CD with a sticky
Speaker 1: on top, you know. And so I came there and
Speaker 1: I was just basically busting up down Lower Broadway with
Speaker 1: a guitar case totally Abacrombie to out Birkenstocks, the whole deal,
Speaker 1: and UM asking for gigs. And I'll never forget I
Speaker 1: walked into I walked into Twosies, like at ten o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning, and UM, the bartender was like. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I'm here for a gig. I thought
Speaker 1: they were going to hand him out. Like I could
Speaker 1: go to my hometown somewhere and just find a gig
Speaker 1: at a local pub or restaurant, you know which would
Speaker 1: you could do pretty easy? And UM, I'll never forget
Speaker 1: this bartender named Susan. I'll never forget it. She look
Speaker 1: me around the eyes, laughed in my face, and because
Speaker 1: used to get the hell out of here. You're never
Speaker 1: gonna make it here ever, never gonna make it. Just
Speaker 1: get out of here because of how you look, I
Speaker 1: think because of how I looked. I was so young.
Speaker 1: I mean, and believe me, a nineteen, I looked like
Speaker 1: I was twelve. So it was like you put two
Speaker 1: and two together. It was a weird thing. So I left,
Speaker 1: and I'm going up down the street and I'm asking
Speaker 1: dog on stage, and nobody let me on stage. Did
Speaker 1: you ever play on the street? No, I was. I
Speaker 1: just never wanted to go there. Man, I never wanted
Speaker 1: to go there. I I just figured this, if I
Speaker 1: if I'm not good enough to get into the bar,
Speaker 1: if I can't get in there to sing, which at
Speaker 1: that point to me was like, holy cow, I'm making it.
Speaker 1: You're singing in Nashville. I mean, people are in Nashville
Speaker 1: watching I'm famous, like it's happening. It's like that's the feeling.
Speaker 1: You get your right. So I go back that night
Speaker 1: and I finally get I begged doorman to get me
Speaker 1: on stage. It puts me on stage was so nice.
Speaker 1: It was like midnight, puts me on stage and do
Speaker 1: you wanna hear something crazy? If I moved here? CRS week.
Speaker 1: So CRS is when all country radio comes to town
Speaker 1: and the artists are in town and there every labels.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a really busy radio. E we yeah.
Speaker 1: So when a long story short, he puts me on stage.
Speaker 1: I played fulsome Prison Johnny Cash and I started the
Speaker 1: song out. In the course of the band, I was
Speaker 1: wondering where they were looking at me and rolling rasgun,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, because they've already played it twenty times
Speaker 1: that day, starting at ten o'clock in the morning. It's
Speaker 1: about midnight, it's two hours left play the song. Crowd
Speaker 1: goes wild, the owners in the bar. Dude re leads
Speaker 1: over the countercats, can you finish two more hours? I
Speaker 1: said that night right then I said yes I can.
Speaker 1: So he looks at the other dude I swear to
Speaker 1: this is swear to God, looks at the other dude
Speaker 1: who was singing. I just let me up on stage.
Speaker 1: He goes, you're fired, go ahead, and I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: So I played two more hours worth of just anything
Speaker 1: I could think of. Hank Williams just call him out.
Speaker 1: To the bantelm like key, I mean literally just start
Speaker 1: songs and they would just do it, you know. And
Speaker 1: so that was my intro to Nashville. And I got
Speaker 1: done about two thirty in the morning. The next morning,
Speaker 1: I had a gig. They asked me, right or I
Speaker 1: got done? Said can you be here in the morning
Speaker 1: to play? You want a gig? You want a gig?
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, ten o'clock in the morning, said ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: Who plays at ten o'clock in the morning. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. Well, there's like They're like, well,
Speaker 1: that's what time the honky Talk's open down here, and
Speaker 1: if you want a gig, yes or no? I said absolutely.
Speaker 1: So I came in, I played acoustic, and then I
Speaker 1: got done with that one. It was a four hour show.
Speaker 1: I got done with that one. The same thing. Dude
Speaker 1: was like, hey man, we had a two o'clock actually
Speaker 1: cancel you want to play the two six? Go put
Speaker 1: a band together. So I go on. By the way,
Speaker 1: my car is still booted sitting in the parking lot. Okay,
Speaker 1: never moved. I never really left. Okay, And plus I
Speaker 1: don't know what to do with the boot And plus
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get a gig, and he's just trying
Speaker 1: to make it go put a band together, had like
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, so I just started gathering people off the street,
Speaker 1: just people walking down with amps and guitars, asking, Hey,
Speaker 1: what do you play? I swear to there's so many
Speaker 1: musicians down there anyway, still are I mean, there's you
Speaker 1: go down there right now in Nashville. There'll be fifty
Speaker 1: guys walking into different bars and coming out of bars
Speaker 1: with pedal carts full of nice instruments and things. Okay,
Speaker 1: drums or whatever. So I put a little band together
Speaker 1: and I played the two to six, same thing for
Speaker 1: the six to ten. They go want to go to
Speaker 1: the back room with toot season and play the sixth tons? Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: Now keep in mind I started at ten o'clock that morning,
Speaker 1: so then I played the six to ten, and then
Speaker 1: I got the ten to two that night. So I
Speaker 1: played sixteen hours in one day and never left the bar.
Speaker 1: And I did that continuously for three sixty four more
Speaker 1: days and until I got discovered for the first time.
Speaker 1: So he played a whole year. Yeah, I did sixteen
Speaker 1: hours a day. Now, what did you finally get a roof? Though, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I got a roof. Um, I was crashing in
Speaker 1: the car man for pretty good little bit there, and
Speaker 1: and of course what's a little bit three or four
Speaker 1: weeks and you know, almost a solid month living in
Speaker 1: your car. Yeah, but you know you meet people too,
Speaker 1: and you know I'm talking about from bar backs, you know,
Speaker 1: just some nice dude slinging slinging cases of beer or
Speaker 1: doormantor just whoever. H Tyler Farr Um, the the the
Speaker 1: guy who owned the bar's son, you know, who was
Speaker 1: a college kid at the time, you know, and you
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta have showers and stuff, of course,
Speaker 1: So I mean you crash the couch two or three
Speaker 1: times a week, maybe here and there, but most of
Speaker 1: the time, I mean I'm living very much living out
Speaker 1: of the car. And then about a month into it,
Speaker 1: I was able to, you know, get my own apartment,
Speaker 1: which I shared with uh a doorman actually, the guy
Speaker 1: who first put me up on stage. Um Tyler farr
Speaker 1: was also crashing couches and doing that kind of thing
Speaker 1: and kind of jumping from apartment department, so he would
Speaker 1: sleep at our place a lot. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: pay a little rent every now and again. That kind
Speaker 1: of thing and just you just make it. And I
Speaker 1: my first place was over in Antioch. Did you ever
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it's you. Did you ever sleep on
Speaker 1: the lower level on the floor of Eric Passley's wife's house.
Speaker 1: Was it that Jansen? Who wasn't the just staying in past?
Speaker 1: Yeah it was Natalie, but it wasn't. It wasn't Jansen,
Speaker 1: not this guy. Maybe it was still it was one
Speaker 1: of the stow man because there are a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys you just hused to migrate around. Oh dude, I
Speaker 1: lived in Antioch over off of Levin And Road, and um,
Speaker 1: right on the back of the roadroad tracks, pretty shady,
Speaker 1: pretty shady. Appreciate you set. I'm not gonna lie shady
Speaker 1: means though, Uh yeah, it was pretty awesome. But I
Speaker 1: was like, there's a lot of money and you know
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But hey, you know the deal is, man,
Speaker 1: you just do what you can. And and before I
Speaker 1: moved to Nashville, Um, I saved every penny I could
Speaker 1: to mowing lawns, selling snowk on that little snow cone
Speaker 1: business going on. That was a pretty entrepreneurial guy. And um,
Speaker 1: you know one thing and the other in gigs and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. And I'm not talking like big money.
Speaker 1: I'm talking like maybe twenty five bucks a show kind
Speaker 1: of deal, or you know, twenty bucks a night on snowcones.
Speaker 1: But I moved here with a little bit of cash
Speaker 1: in my pocket and uh and that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and just made it from the made it from nothing.
Speaker 1: He started from the bottom. We're gonna play a spot
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Speaker 1: in the search bar, add the Family Gift Pack to
Speaker 1: your card and get a seventies seven percent savings. It's
Speaker 1: the gift guaranteed to be a hit. All right, we
Speaker 1: are back. All right. So you played at toties for
Speaker 1: how long a year? So it's solid to when you
Speaker 1: say being you you were discovered? Who who saw you?
Speaker 1: And and what did they discover you for? So I
Speaker 1: would say about three quarters the way through the year. Um,
Speaker 1: First of all, I was packing it out like like
Speaker 1: like they say, nobody else ever has was the fire
Speaker 1: marshal shut us down all through the year, all the
Speaker 1: time when I would play that kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: and it's you know, certain times more than others. But um,
Speaker 1: music business is what I mean by being discovered. People
Speaker 1: from the industry, you know, A and R executives, label presidents, publishers,
Speaker 1: booking agents, those kind of things. Um, My first real
Speaker 1: break came from a movie director named Jonathan Demi, who
Speaker 1: um you know, did hard of Gold for Neil Young
Speaker 1: and UM stopped making sense. I think he just did
Speaker 1: the timber Lake thing too. Um, But anyway, he came
Speaker 1: in and was spot checking the rhyman until he'son just
Speaker 1: kind of downtown just Nashville as a total vibe for
Speaker 1: the Heart of Gold documentary on Neil Young and saw
Speaker 1: me playing and um and was like, Okay, I think
Speaker 1: you might be great for this documentary, you know, and
Speaker 1: wanted to cast me in it. And that was kind
Speaker 1: of my intro to um a little bit of success
Speaker 1: and maybe perhaps my first paycheck, which ended up being
Speaker 1: my first paycheck. Neil Young caught his attention and they
Speaker 1: put me in the documentary a small part, but a
Speaker 1: part nonetheless. And after that that really, you know, really
Speaker 1: sparked a lot of talk because I was just some
Speaker 1: kid in Laura Broadway and not at the time nineteen
Speaker 1: my first year. Yeah, and um, not to mention. Then
Speaker 1: you know, then everybody started flooding in from the industry.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just fans and things like that. They were
Speaker 1: coming amongst the fans and I'm talking about, um, just
Speaker 1: anybody who's anybody man and you being scotted by the
Speaker 1: whole town yeah, I didn't know it though I would
Speaker 1: had no clue. I had no I would. I would
Speaker 1: have no problem sending a tip jar around to whoever
Speaker 1: might have been at the time. So you say you
Speaker 1: didn't get a pay cheke, you were getting paid in tips,
Speaker 1: tips only only tips, And so you'd play. If someone
Speaker 1: gave you a twenty, that was a big one huge.
Speaker 1: You play whatever they want? Do you play anything for
Speaker 1: I played something for a dollar. Gives you a twenty?
Speaker 1: They jumped the line, it's a big deal. May give
Speaker 1: you a hundred. Dude. People used to flood my I
Speaker 1: mean we made like bucks one night, one night, okay,
Speaker 1: So how do you split that up? If you're the
Speaker 1: main guy, and really the main guy not coming to
Speaker 1: watch the basis although he is doing his work, I'm
Speaker 1: the dude, right, okay, or whoever, for that matter, is
Speaker 1: the dude or the chick. Okay. When it's lower Broadway style, bro,
Speaker 1: it's mono, I mono. It is. Every man is equal,
Speaker 1: no matter what. That's just how they look at it
Speaker 1: down there, and it's just it's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: So when you're tip jarring it, you just split it.
Speaker 1: You know, if there's four people there, so you made night?
Speaker 1: Was there a super corporate vend or something they happened
Speaker 1: at night? Like? No, No, do you think special about
Speaker 1: who it was? Did it know? I just used to hustle, man,
Speaker 1: I used to hustle. I still hustle. I am a hustler.
Speaker 1: Like I know that sounds so good over I am Like,
Speaker 1: I am a hustler, dude. I don't come from anything.
Speaker 1: I come from like I come from parents who worked
Speaker 1: really hard and and did ok care for themselves. But um,
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, man, I just never
Speaker 1: forget being told one time, son, I don't have it
Speaker 1: to give to you. And I said, from that moment on,
Speaker 1: I will never live like this. I just I won't.
Speaker 1: And that's not meaning I'm not meaning dirt floor is
Speaker 1: a poor by any means. I'm just saying not extra
Speaker 1: to go around. And uh, I just said right then,
Speaker 1: I'm just not gonna live this way. I'm gonna hustle
Speaker 1: and do whatever I have to do to make money.
Speaker 1: And when you're playing out of a tip jar, you
Speaker 1: damn sure have to hustle. You have to learn to
Speaker 1: make it because, believe me, if you have five people
Speaker 1: in there, from ten o'clock in the morning to ten
Speaker 1: o'clock at night. You know, any people, that is five people.
Speaker 1: And then by the way, you got to give a
Speaker 1: tip share to bartenders, tips shared a doorman and you're
Speaker 1: not making much money, so you have to be good
Speaker 1: number one. You have to know your repertoire. Number two
Speaker 1: and you have to be able to sing anything, and
Speaker 1: I mean anything, because if you don't, they'll go right
Speaker 1: next door to the next bar and find some other
Speaker 1: guy who is as you're doing this, and you're playing
Speaker 1: tutsis for a year and listen, I waited tables for
Speaker 1: a year, so I know. And it's definitely not the same.
Speaker 1: But there's a culture, there's a night there's a nighttime culture,
Speaker 1: and it's a different lifestyle. Yes, Now, were you ever
Speaker 1: caught up in that lifestyle with any of the alcohol
Speaker 1: the drug use, because it's it's crazy. I mean I
Speaker 1: watched I had to stay away from it because I
Speaker 1: knew what I would do. I'd go right into it
Speaker 1: and I would kill myself. Yeah, well, thanks for asking. Um.
Speaker 1: I never had a drink until it's twenty two and
Speaker 1: I've never done a drug in my life ever, not
Speaker 1: not ever, once never even smoked the pot. The pot.
Speaker 1: That's funny we have because I haven't. We have so
Speaker 1: much in comment. You know, it's okay, I haven't drinking
Speaker 1: eight years. I'm thirty now twenty two. So did you
Speaker 1: just drink for a minute. I did, And that's how
Speaker 1: I see you doing Like I don't see you doing
Speaker 1: anything happen No, no, no, no, no no. The last
Speaker 1: date we had, but by the way, my wife and
Speaker 1: I still did. We're gonna date tonight. Here's the thing
Speaker 1: before we're married. The last day we had official one.
Speaker 1: I'm like sixteen long necks in I mean, like, I
Speaker 1: go hard when I drink. Man, it's like, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna drink, dude, get drunk. If not, just what is
Speaker 1: the point? Okay? So I've never had a drink and
Speaker 1: it's and it feels like it tastes it smells like
Speaker 1: just piss. Oh god, I just hate Like, why would
Speaker 1: I drink if I didn't just want to get hammered? Honestly?
Speaker 1: Why would I? Honestly, dude, I never had a drink.
Speaker 1: I was twenty two, you believe that. And when I did,
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I let me get it so much.
Speaker 1: I stopped because I met the love of my life
Speaker 1: that I wanted to be completely committed to and um,
Speaker 1: she had kids. Did you do as I do and
Speaker 1: just go okay at the stop right now? Full? But
Speaker 1: don dun, don't. I haven't had a drink since crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty years old. Crazy done. I try. I I
Speaker 1: take that back. I'm not. I don't want to lie.
Speaker 1: I forgot this though. I did drink one time, one
Speaker 1: time in the last what is eight or nine years? Okay,
Speaker 1: what was the occasion. The occasion was I was opening
Speaker 1: up for Darryl Singletary in the middle of nowhere in
Speaker 1: upstate New York and there was nothing else to do
Speaker 1: than just get hammered. And my wife was like, it's
Speaker 1: okay to have like a glass of wine. I'm like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: just keep on straight now. She's like, no, that's cool,
Speaker 1: it's cool. And then my guitar player at the time,
Speaker 1: it's a great guy with a bad influence, he goes, h,
Speaker 1: I dare you drink or try to out drink me?
Speaker 1: And I was like, it's on, that's all. I tas
Speaker 1: my feet right now, my feet right now. Actually, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're hurting men or whatever. I look, look, look,
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable moan skin. But here's the deal. But dudes,
Speaker 1: but I'm not that way anymore. But um, that's what
Speaker 1: I wrote. You know, we wrote better. I don't about
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But the long story short, man, I
Speaker 1: was getting so hammered. I mean I was so hammered.
Speaker 1: And I was like, away from Kelly, I was playing
Speaker 1: horse shoes and corn hole in the back. And if
Speaker 1: you know, Darrel Singletary first of all, great guy and
Speaker 1: had had big hits, you know, and one of his
Speaker 1: sounds was I ain't never had too much fun. And
Speaker 1: I was thinking these corn holes and I was like,
Speaker 1: you never had that much fun? Happy Darrel? Whoa? I mean,
Speaker 1: I was turning into like such a smarty pants. So
Speaker 1: it's a good thing that i don't drink, man. But
Speaker 1: other than that, I'm completely sober, and I've never touched
Speaker 1: a drug. Man I would. I'm just not that guy.
Speaker 1: I love cigars. I smoked cigars all the time. I
Speaker 1: had two cigars for it before we got on this podcast.
Speaker 1: But I just I don't. I don't smoke cigarettes. I'm
Speaker 1: allergic to him. Actually, Um, whatever is in a cigarette
Speaker 1: I'm allergic to not a cigar, though I can smoke
Speaker 1: them all day and I'm fine, I guess because you
Speaker 1: don't inhale them. But I've never never touched a drug.
Speaker 1: You don't help. I don't know about the Guards. You
Speaker 1: don't have a healthigars? Well, I mean, I guess some
Speaker 1: people do with the real hardcore, But I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's not the thing that I just thought it
Speaker 1: was a bigger I go, what do I know about
Speaker 1: the Guards? That was a bigger cigarette? No? No, I
Speaker 1: think it's just for me. I mean from what I
Speaker 1: know and the people I know who've smoked them, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of a conversation piece and you just kind
Speaker 1: of puff on them a little bit, enjoy the aroma.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I That's the only thing
Speaker 1: I do with them. Dude, you sort a cigar? Right?
Speaker 1: I haven't eye that. Yeah, I thought they were just
Speaker 1: like big what do I I don't know anybody. Do
Speaker 1: you know? The first thing that the song I've heard
Speaker 1: from you was better I Don't move to Town? And
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this song better? I don't
Speaker 1: what's funny? I heard the song, and so I come
Speaker 1: to down and it's a whole to do because for me,
Speaker 1: I was the first ever nationally syndicated country morning show,
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, just crazy from the people
Speaker 1: that were excited to people that weren't excited, all of
Speaker 1: these mixed basket of emotions. And I hear the song
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, this guy's nuts. Like I
Speaker 1: just love that. I was like, this guy's this. So
Speaker 1: I met Chris. Chris was the first ever guest we
Speaker 1: had on our show period, Like we were on the
Speaker 1: air in just Nashville for a week before we went
Speaker 1: on the year nationally, and I was like, hey, you
Speaker 1: sound crazy and good and that's what I like you,
Speaker 1: So why don't you come do the show? So Chris
Speaker 1: showed up and played the song as our first ever
Speaker 1: guest on on a show that no one thought was
Speaker 1: gonna last more than a year, like really so far,
Speaker 1: we'll see And Chris came in and just and and
Speaker 1: played this so well. Now, but I do think I
Speaker 1: look back at that first time and it was just like, man,
Speaker 1: it's so good. And then from that time, you know,
Speaker 1: all the way until now deal or no deal or
Speaker 1: whatever the occasion, it was just like, let's just call Chris,
Speaker 1: thank you, charity event, non jaredy event, single, no sing.
Speaker 1: What was like, let's just call Chris. Let's just call
Speaker 1: it Chris. And that's just kind of how it's been
Speaker 1: for three and a half years now. First freaking guest
Speaker 1: on a show that wasn't gonna make it to a
Speaker 1: guy that they also told, Hey, you're not gonna make it,
Speaker 1: and hey we're gonna drop you, and hey we're many
Speaker 1: of times. Dude, I wrote that song with Kelly, my wife.
Speaker 1: Really that's a true story, as you well know. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you this, So your wife also your manager? Okay,
Speaker 1: how does that work for you? Is the only way
Speaker 1: I would do it? So does that mean a hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the money just goes into the money? Good questions?
Speaker 1: I have a manager two and I know she get
Speaker 1: and so you guys are married. I mean, how's that working?
Speaker 1: You know what? Um? She has a co manager that
Speaker 1: she has, um that she teamed with, UH that actually
Speaker 1: teamed with her. Rephrase that team with her? UM. First
Speaker 1: of all, let me say, without Kelly, I wouldn't do
Speaker 1: anything um in this business. I had already decided that
Speaker 1: red red for by the boat happened. Um, I was
Speaker 1: very happy and very content, and once it did, I said,
Speaker 1: the only the only way that I will go forward
Speaker 1: with this song and and thanks to you for making
Speaker 1: a hit that very first moment um. The only way
Speaker 1: I'll do it is if you manage me this go around,
Speaker 1: and I won't do it any other way. I just so,
Speaker 1: she wasn't your manager before. Absolutely, so this round now
Speaker 1: that you the new Jansen, the new label of the
Speaker 1: news that the star now, it has been with her.
Speaker 1: Absolutely And I will tell you and not just because
Speaker 1: not just because she's my wife, and not just because
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pat her on the back, but she
Speaker 1: is the brains behind the operation. Okay, I write the
Speaker 1: songs and I sing that, yes, but without her just
Speaker 1: sense of the world, I probably be a train wreck.
Speaker 1: So you wrote this with her? Yard If you're not
Speaker 1: going to be an artist anymore and you're writing song
Speaker 1: because I assume you saw had a publishing deal, a
Speaker 1: decent one, could you still writing songs? You just decided
Speaker 1: to doing me a songwriter? Was that it? You're just
Speaker 1: gonna be at the same time be a songwriter. I
Speaker 1: was gonna be a songwriter and an independent artist and
Speaker 1: just be happy and content with that and just tour
Speaker 1: because I've always had a fan base, thankfully, because I've
Speaker 1: all I've ever known is playing live. You know, It's
Speaker 1: just what I do. So we've been touring forever, whether
Speaker 1: it be in my truck, I mean, we shoid we
Speaker 1: should get in my truck. Man on Craig's. I'm a
Speaker 1: Craigslist junkie, right, So I've had a million trucks off Craiglist,
Speaker 1: cars or whatever and flip them and sell them just
Speaker 1: like people do houses. And man, we get at Craigslist
Speaker 1: truck and drive eleven hours on a Friday night to
Speaker 1: West Virginia. I get up and play for an hour
Speaker 1: for five dollars, drive back the same night. I mean,
Speaker 1: we would just do anything we could to make ends
Speaker 1: meet and support a family. And and we've Man, I
Speaker 1: remember just feeling so rich. I mean literally, like I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was. We were like ky, we
Speaker 1: are like doing We're making it like this is awesome,
Speaker 1: and we don't have a there's no record, do We're
Speaker 1: not to answer anybody. It's amaze thing. And I mean
Speaker 1: just nothing, you know, just nothing. And but do we
Speaker 1: got to the point we're like rolling in a bus
Speaker 1: and stuff independent like just a full blown prevot tour
Speaker 1: bus and playing show. Has got a great agent. I
Speaker 1: have the best agent in the world, like a guy,
Speaker 1: a guy who didn't care if I had a record
Speaker 1: doing or not, Like just didn't care and just believed
Speaker 1: in what I did talent wise, and for whatever reason, man,
Speaker 1: I didn't have to give a sales pitch and he
Speaker 1: just he didn't have to sell it, and he just
Speaker 1: joined with us and took it in stride, just like
Speaker 1: we do. So you're writing buy me a Boat. Did
Speaker 1: you write that for you or were you just writing
Speaker 1: it to write it? I just writing it to ride
Speaker 1: At that point, um, brother, I I was listening to
Speaker 1: Hank Junior Records all morning. Came in Christo Ball and
Speaker 1: my co writer was like, what you want to write today?
Speaker 1: And uh, at that point I had already liked pre
Speaker 1: I'd already prefaced him in the in like we had
Speaker 1: like one co right before that. I did prefaced him
Speaker 1: like I don't want to be an artist. But but
Speaker 1: he's like, dude, what are you talking to me? You
Speaker 1: don't want to be an artist? Like you You're an
Speaker 1: Artist's what you do, it's what you do. We went
Speaker 1: in and, um, I wrote the biggest song of my career.
Speaker 1: When you finished this song where you're like, ah, this
Speaker 1: is a good one, because you write a lot of songs, yes,
Speaker 1: I will say that. I was like, that's a good
Speaker 1: that is awesome. I love I actually love that. And
Speaker 1: I remember telling Kelly about it before we got the
Speaker 1: demo and stuff. I remember like, I love the song.
Speaker 1: Then we got the demo played for Kelly again, the
Speaker 1: brands of the operations said, that's a huge hit. We're
Speaker 1: gonna put that out. We gotta keep your touring going.
Speaker 1: So you put up on iTunes? Yes, no label? Nope? Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is did you? I mean you're running your own
Speaker 1: literally just run them on a little operation. I mean
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about it, you know, I'm just
Speaker 1: like whatever. I signed up on tune Core with my
Speaker 1: with my like personal email and everything else. I mean,
Speaker 1: just whatever. It's I was like, god, you can you
Speaker 1: can go on like twenty different Now I'm going on
Speaker 1: all these. Man, I won't gonna sell five of these things,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be awesome. Five between five hundred. So, um,
Speaker 1: the quick version of this you emailed me the song
Speaker 1: I play it. It's skyrockets. Okay, all that happens. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want to know is that period between that
Speaker 1: happening in the song blowing up and the period you
Speaker 1: signed a record deal. So I play it like five
Speaker 1: times in one morning, and it's obviously a hit because
Speaker 1: the people listening to the radio made it a hit.
Speaker 1: They download it like crazy. They loved so fast forward
Speaker 1: past that day and want me through the next couple
Speaker 1: of months. As you were trying to find a record
Speaker 1: that were they coming at you from different directions, different labels,
Speaker 1: like what happens. Then whenever there's a song that's huge
Speaker 1: from an unsigned artist, this is the fun part. So
Speaker 1: that happened. And by the way, thank you, you know
Speaker 1: what to say. That's why I glossed over it. You're
Speaker 1: welcome moving on. I know, I know that, but I'm
Speaker 1: I'm just you know what kind of person I am,
Speaker 1: And I'm just I'm always gonna praise you for it. Man,
Speaker 1: you change your life. It's you change my kid's life.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. I really do appreciate it. Whether you can
Speaker 1: take it or not, I appreciate it. I'm the same way.
Speaker 1: I can't take compliments, but I mean that. Um so,
Speaker 1: here's what happened. You played the song. I wasn't even
Speaker 1: awake yet, as you well know. I know we woke
Speaker 1: you up. You gotta understand. We just got back from
Speaker 1: the beach. Okay, I had that song Trucky al McGraw,
Speaker 1: and and we we spent every little penny we made
Speaker 1: off that to buy an investment property, a little little
Speaker 1: eaty bitty beach condo. Right, we're down there, we're like
Speaker 1: redoing it. We're like, oh my god, we're making it
Speaker 1: so awesome making it. And uh. In the meanwhile, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh crap, i' man, I got to I got tun
Speaker 1: Quarter tomorrow, killers you get town Quarter tomorrow. And we're
Speaker 1: on the way back, and well, you know, we got
Speaker 1: in it. Like why when did you made you that?
Speaker 1: Like two o'clock in the morning. Okay, it was we
Speaker 1: got it like two o'clock in the morning. And I
Speaker 1: remember being on for Joy Week three weeks prior to that,
Speaker 1: and you said, if you've got anything, just send it
Speaker 1: to me as my buddy. And I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: And I because people send me music and when I
Speaker 1: don't ask, I don't listen to it, right, But I
Speaker 1: asked you. I was like, dude, whatever you have, send
Speaker 1: it and you know, and you know me, I'm just
Speaker 1: and for people listening to there, I'm just not that
Speaker 1: kind of guy. Like I'm just I'm just not that guy.
Speaker 1: I don't want it to come off like, oh man,
Speaker 1: and maybe he'll play my song, maybe right, or maybe
Speaker 1: not even whoever would play myself. I'm just not that
Speaker 1: kind of guy. And you gotta understand the day before
Speaker 1: you played it, I'm sitting there telling Luke Brian at
Speaker 1: a table in Deston, Florida. He's like, my on, what
Speaker 1: you guy going on? And I said, oh man, just nothing,
Speaker 1: just touring right, and saw you know, Bubba, we're down
Speaker 1: here remodeling this name. He's like, oh man, that's cool.
Speaker 1: And then the next morning you played it, and I
Speaker 1: saw him three weeks later, he's like, what the hell
Speaker 1: I mean are you kidding? So anyway, you played the song,
Speaker 1: I wasn't even up yet. I get up. I'm doing
Speaker 1: the dad thing. I mean like Kelly is going to start,
Speaker 1: but we're just doing the normal deal, right. She's like, um,
Speaker 1: oh my god, U turn the radio. Go to your
Speaker 1: truck turning radio. Um my phone's blown up like, probably
Speaker 1: won'ta s playing your song? Like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what do you what I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I forgot I sent it to you. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how nonchalant it was, you know. And so I
Speaker 1: get in the truck and then we talked on the phone.
Speaker 1: And in the middle after I got off the phone
Speaker 1: with you and and Eddie and the and the crew there.
Speaker 1: I never forget that when I was talking to ed
Speaker 1: and he was remember he was saying, it's going to
Speaker 1: the right. I was talking to him. I never forget
Speaker 1: then when you hung up the phone and I got
Speaker 1: my first phone call from a record label, and it
Speaker 1: was Chris Lacey at Warner Brothers. And she was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, um, what's going on. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: haven't heard from you, and like I never hear from you,
Speaker 1: you know that kind of thing. I mean what I
Speaker 1: mean at this point, I'm just whatever, you know, and
Speaker 1: she goes, do you want to record it? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you even want to record it? I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know, do you I don't know what's up? Oh
Speaker 1: my god, what's going on? I mean I'm crying. I mean,
Speaker 1: my Dad's crying. I mean, what's going on? I mean,
Speaker 1: That's exactly how the conversation went. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: even know call call my wife. She's like, UM, can
Speaker 1: I call Johnasposito at Warner Brothers, just the president of
Speaker 1: the label, you know? Can I call him? And can
Speaker 1: we can we just get a meeting with you? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm thinking, boy, how the tables have turned
Speaker 1: and you have lebage, you have a you have you
Speaker 1: have what they want? What to the hit? Well, it's
Speaker 1: so that happens. And in the meantime. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: phone calls are swarming Kelly's phone, like how did you
Speaker 1: get my wife's phone number? I'm talking like people we
Speaker 1: don't even know, people from like out of state, people
Speaker 1: from out of the country. Literally record labels by one
Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon thirteen thirteen, solid real record deal
Speaker 1: offers like big ones, the biggest, the biggest you could get.
Speaker 1: I liked Johneseposito and Chris Lacey Scott Andris Peter Strickland.
Speaker 1: I like the team. It was really good sign with them.
Speaker 1: By the way, thank you listen to this so I
Speaker 1: get in there. The Vestage had to come. There's a
Speaker 1: very special lady that works to the label, and she
Speaker 1: would be embarrassing if we even mentioned her. Probably she's
Speaker 1: like not that kind of personal to credit take credit
Speaker 1: for things. Her name is Lisa Ray. We love her
Speaker 1: very much, my brand manager. She pulled over her car.
Speaker 1: She was the first person. I didn't know this. She
Speaker 1: was the first person before Chris Lacey, before anybody knew
Speaker 1: or even heard on the radio, who just happened to
Speaker 1: be listening to your show. I had no idea who
Speaker 1: I was pulled over a car and goes, oh my god,
Speaker 1: started calling everybody Warner Brothers. You have to get ahold
Speaker 1: of it. Do you know who christ Jansen is? Chris
Speaker 1: Lis like, of course the dude and turn it on.
Speaker 1: That's how the whole thing started. Without lista ray Man
Speaker 1: like for real, and she's one of our she's she's
Speaker 1: our tightest compadre at the label. Um, but without starting
Speaker 1: with you bro like it just I just can't even
Speaker 1: imagine where we would be. It's unbelievable. We got offered
Speaker 1: so many record deals. John Asposito was on vacation, flew in.
Speaker 1: We had a special meeting. Um, I didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: need to take anymore in person meetings. And that see
Speaker 1: you signed with Warner Brothers, which, by the way, John
Speaker 1: Eado also in his death, but was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite people in town. Like just a great dude. And
Speaker 1: also you know, ran hey hip hop label for a while.
Speaker 1: That was what I love about it. Bro. I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, I never told you this because you'll get
Speaker 1: a kick out of this. And I'm not gonna mention
Speaker 1: names because it it doesn't matter. And and and I'm
Speaker 1: still actually you know, acquainted friends with these people. Um,
Speaker 1: we've had great successes together actually on other other projects. However,
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you that two weeks before you
Speaker 1: played my song, I was in a label meeting trying
Speaker 1: to get signed off of not I was trying to
Speaker 1: get signed up, buying me a boat and those kind
Speaker 1: of things. Okay, um off my tune Core project was
Speaker 1: about to come out, and they were Um, I just
Speaker 1: never forget a very very influential executive in town going
Speaker 1: that is not a hit. That will never work. Country
Speaker 1: music is not going in that direction. And um kind
Speaker 1: of liked my other stuff, but basically, just in a
Speaker 1: very rude way, wasted my time showed up in sweatpants,
Speaker 1: like I didn't want to be at the meeting kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and um it really it really got me
Speaker 1: in a pretty big funk. I'm not gonna lie, and
Speaker 1: so that was when you played it. It was a
Speaker 1: big deal and it was a big deal for my family,
Speaker 1: and it was it came at a time where I
Speaker 1: and you know this, I say this with a lot
Speaker 1: of pride. And now it's funny. I didn't really want
Speaker 1: a record deal. I wasn't really looking for one. Isn't
Speaker 1: it funny how life works. That's how a lot of
Speaker 1: life works. Yeah, it's like we were not looking for
Speaker 1: one man. We were not looking at all for one. Okay,
Speaker 1: we've been burnt. We've been burnt once before. I had
Speaker 1: one before that one that we got burnt that we
Speaker 1: didn't get burnt. I just like the label fell apart.
Speaker 1: It was just like, yeah, I just didn't have a
Speaker 1: very good, awesome upbringing as far as record labels were concerned.
Speaker 1: And now I finally feel like we have a home.
Speaker 1: It's really cool because they really respect my artistry. And
Speaker 1: it was more than just buy me a boat. They
Speaker 1: they let me make the records. I want to make
Speaker 1: and they respect my songwriting, which really matters to me.
Speaker 1: It really matters to me big time. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: we just would love Warner Brothers. And by the way,
Speaker 1: there was a guy um named Clay honeycut Um who
Speaker 1: was with my Heart Media at the time, and um,
Speaker 1: you know before I signed my deal, before I signed
Speaker 1: my deal, after you played it, before I signed the deal, Um,
Speaker 1: he picked me as the first independent artist for the
Speaker 1: on the Verge program would buy me a boat, which
Speaker 1: is an unbelievable blessing and something that was huge and
Speaker 1: very um humbling for me. Also before I signed the deal,
Speaker 1: cmt Leslie fram Um came to Kelly. We want to
Speaker 1: we my my my bosses and and all of my
Speaker 1: cohorts and everybody. We want to come together. We want
Speaker 1: to make a music video independent for buying me a boat.
Speaker 1: And uh they funded the video. It was really an
Speaker 1: amazing thing and they did. And then then the Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers steal uh came in and took effect. After the
Speaker 1: you know, I had a meeting and everything was just
Speaker 1: such on the fast track, and um, then it all
Speaker 1: just happened and we're still we're like we're riding this
Speaker 1: huge wave and we we we don't want to get
Speaker 1: off of it. We really enjoy it it. But we're
Speaker 1: very thankful. We very notice that the Grindstone we're still
Speaker 1: the same people. And um, we just we've learned a lot.
Speaker 1: We've learned what it's like to have the great successes
Speaker 1: of the music business now, and um, the upsides and
Speaker 1: the downsides and all the in betweens, and um, we're
Speaker 1: enjoy it. So as you talk about songwriting, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go through and I'll play a song that you wrote
Speaker 1: on Get me about a fifteen second story about each
Speaker 1: of the songs. Alright, you ready we did how I'll
Speaker 1: Always Be? Why don't we do Truck Yeah, truck yeah? Dude? Um,
Speaker 1: I got in there with my boys low Cash and
Speaker 1: another cat named Danny Merick. Danny's a great guitar player
Speaker 1: and a great guy on a beat box kind of things.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, Uh, I said, Uh, I said,
Speaker 1: well if yeah, you know, talking like dudes due in
Speaker 1: the locker room, and uh, Preston goes, whooo, what about
Speaker 1: truck yeah? Man? And I was like, yeah, that would
Speaker 1: never work. And that's how the song came about. In
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes later we had a song and that
Speaker 1: was my first ever cut recording major artist cut period. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ended up being a single in the number one song.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of things recorded that like didn't
Speaker 1: mean anything. My first cut on a major artist was
Speaker 1: Tim McGraw truck. Yeah. We were pushing Georgia, our youngest
Speaker 1: daught her around in the stroller. We just had her.
Speaker 1: That's how God works. How about this one? I Love
Speaker 1: this Life with Lok freaking Okay, same cruise truck, Yeah,
Speaker 1: same exact writers, all three entities. What's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: is how you tell the story because I heard we
Speaker 1: heard this story from Preston, but I want to hear
Speaker 1: how you tell it because everybody's perspective is always different
Speaker 1: because you come from different sizes. Yeah, no, Worris so well,
Speaker 1: it will probably be pretty similar because we're we're very
Speaker 1: much on the same page. We all showed up at
Speaker 1: Danny's house and I was wired like on fourteen Mountain
Speaker 1: Dews or something, and I go in and um, I'm
Speaker 1: just like you can can can just playing guitar, and
Speaker 1: Danny's playing guitars, great guitar player, great melody guy, and
Speaker 1: we all just started rapping off words. Okay, and I
Speaker 1: have to tell you, I have to give a lot
Speaker 1: of credit to low Cash on a lot of these
Speaker 1: lyrics because they were feeling a low Cash song and
Speaker 1: I was feeling it for him. Now, I will say,
Speaker 1: when Boys of Summer comes on, you asked Preston, you
Speaker 1: asked Chris, It's totally my line. I love that line, right.
Speaker 1: But man, we just started thinking about happy things, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't naturally wake up and write
Speaker 1: these kind of songs. I naturally wake up and write
Speaker 1: like Dean Dylan, George Strait kind of songs. Okay, naturally
Speaker 1: when I wake up. I had to work at this one,
Speaker 1: and I'm proud to be a part of it. How
Speaker 1: about and this is the title track from Justin Moore
Speaker 1: from his record Off the Beaten Path number one record, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Off the Beaten Path. This is my dude here, love him,
Speaker 1: like him and I have a relationship outside of anything worthwise,
Speaker 1: like when I need tickets. I mean, this is like solid, dude,
Speaker 1: he is so solid. Um story behind the song fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds Jeremy Stover, the same guy wrote how will Always
Speaker 1: Be with Um? Who also produces Justin, which by the
Speaker 1: way doesn't mean you're gonna get a Justin Moore cut.
Speaker 1: It just happens to be um. I sang this demo actually,
Speaker 1: and it was a very much I don't mean to
Speaker 1: talk in third person here, but it was very much
Speaker 1: a Jansen song. It was gonna be on me as
Speaker 1: an artist, but I didn't have a record deal at
Speaker 1: the time, so what did that matter? Justin was cutting,
Speaker 1: loved the song. Record to the song ended up being
Speaker 1: the title track to his number one record Off the
Speaker 1: Beaten Path. What's it like when Hank Junior cuts one
Speaker 1: of your songs? I mean, that's gotta I mean you
Speaker 1: mentioned you just go play Hank buddy, And then when
Speaker 1: he cuts one, thank you Julian Raymond, who has uh
Speaker 1: produced that record and works at Big Machine. What a
Speaker 1: great guy. If you don't know him, you need to.
Speaker 1: He's top notch. And thanks Hank Williams. I'm an old
Speaker 1: I'm an old friend of Hank. Hank's an old friend
Speaker 1: of mine. We go way back. Hank actually gave me
Speaker 1: my first opportunity to have a major tour. Hank and
Speaker 1: Leonard skinnerd and Larawty friends tour two years in a
Speaker 1: row and uh Ken Levitan also his manager, which was
Speaker 1: an amazing thing. Man, I got to Hank Junior cuts,
Speaker 1: and they are my greatest musical achievements as far as
Speaker 1: songwritings in certain period, because when you grew up listening
Speaker 1: to Whiskey Bent and hell Bound and Hank and and
Speaker 1: Hank Senior music a lie. And then Hank Jr. Sends
Speaker 1: word through the grape vine to brother Jansen that he
Speaker 1: wants something that kind of sounds Whiskey Bent Hell Bonnest,
Speaker 1: but not Whiskey Bent Hell Bond, just updated. And you
Speaker 1: send him those days are gone and he cuts it
Speaker 1: right off the bat. What was the other one you cut?
Speaker 1: God fearing man, It's gonna be cool to have when
Speaker 1: your hero thinks something you wrote. Bro. Honestly, my here.
Speaker 1: First of all, let me say my hero is Jesus,
Speaker 1: and my other hero is It's might surprise you, but
Speaker 1: my other hero, um, whom you will meet at some
Speaker 1: point is my father in law. It's great man, great man.
Speaker 1: We're like two piece in a freaking pod. Honestly, just
Speaker 1: different ages. Hank Junior though, is a musical definitely a
Speaker 1: musical influence. And I would guess you would say country
Speaker 1: music hero of mine. To have him record those songs
Speaker 1: do it was like, I'm telling you, my greatest musical
Speaker 1: achievement as a songwriter ever it will always be because
Speaker 1: when you come from where I come, where you come
Speaker 1: for where we come from, born to boogie? Is it all?
Speaker 1: My righty friends are coming over tonight. That is the deal.
Speaker 1: And dude, not one, but two, it was. That was
Speaker 1: my great, great honor. You played at the Republican National
Speaker 1: Convention instead of truck Yeah, you played Trump? Yeah? Whose
Speaker 1: idea wasn't the change of the word. Honestly, man, I
Speaker 1: got kind of backed into a corner that night. It
Speaker 1: was the networks, So you're gonna play truck yeah. I
Speaker 1: was gonna play truck yeah. Absolutely, just truck yeah. And
Speaker 1: um they were like, hey man, how would you feel
Speaker 1: about doing Trump yet? And I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: no if I feel so good about that? Uh, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's not not because I like or dislike Trumps,
Speaker 1: just I don't know if I feel good about doing that.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't the song in your mind. That's it.
Speaker 1: The song is what it is, right, and so it
Speaker 1: is what it is, a big hit. Everybody knows it
Speaker 1: I've been warming up all days singing and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. If I was like cool truck, yeah, whoa
Speaker 1: right party song. It was their idea. But when in Rome,
Speaker 1: do as the Romans do, and you know what, it
Speaker 1: kind of worked out because Cruise is getting booed off stage.
Speaker 1: I started singing it and Trump walks out and goes
Speaker 1: he gives me that trump thumbs and I'm like the
Speaker 1: mouth out. Yeah, it's so good. It was the song. Actually,
Speaker 1: excuse me, excuse me. It made me so happy when
Speaker 1: you did it. Okay, thank you, thank you. I win
Speaker 1: the debate. It's over. I won. You lost. That's a
Speaker 1: good oppression. Dude. Hey man, hey, you know what to
Speaker 1: answer your question, It is true. Um, I've only ever
Speaker 1: played music to play music, that's the bottom line. And
Speaker 1: it was a gig, and it was a big gig.
Speaker 1: And you know what, no matter if it's for the
Speaker 1: left side of the road or the right side of
Speaker 1: the road, A gigs and gigs and gigs a gig.
Speaker 1: And at the bottom line, is they pay you for that?
Speaker 1: Of course, absolutely no, it was a paid gig. I
Speaker 1: looked at it as a tour show, which is exactly
Speaker 1: what it was. It just happened to get a little
Speaker 1: blown out of proportion because it's a big deal here
Speaker 1: this hold on, this is the place. Let me here
Speaker 1: get let's I've never talked to you about this, And
Speaker 1: I wondered whose idea wasn't to go Trump? Yeah, because
Speaker 1: they didn't make your boves change their songs right. Well,
Speaker 1: you know they were big fans of mine, I guess,
Speaker 1: and they thought I was a rowdy guy. Like you said,
Speaker 1: this guy is a little bit wild and crazy. Um,
Speaker 1: you know what, looking back, to be frankly honest with you,
Speaker 1: looking back, probably wouldn't have done it. Um. You know
Speaker 1: it's not my song. First of all, it's Tim mcgrawls song.
Speaker 1: And out of respect to Tim, um, it's a mcgrawl song. However,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. You do things along your
Speaker 1: along your career path. You just kind of shoot from
Speaker 1: the hip and you go with it and you do
Speaker 1: what the situation calls for when it calls for it.
Speaker 1: And I didn't want to get stopped, you know, I
Speaker 1: was in the moment. It just happened. They're commercial this
Speaker 1: out now where they're seeing I don't know who's singing it.
Speaker 1: I don't either, it's weird. There's something to the truck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: commercial for a tripper is it Dodge or it's forward
Speaker 1: and they're singing truck Yeah. Yeah, it's not you, it's
Speaker 1: not Tim, it's not low cash, it's not low cash,
Speaker 1: but it's truck. Yeah. They come, they come to you
Speaker 1: and say we're gonna do a Ford commercial. Quenus your song.
Speaker 1: They didn't. I was just as surprised you or when
Speaker 1: it came on, and just as surprises you just saw
Speaker 1: it on TV. You were just where to god, I
Speaker 1: saw it on TV. It's a long story and I
Speaker 1: unfortunately can't get into all the details. Even though we're
Speaker 1: getting praised. Um, well you know, we'll get residuals off
Speaker 1: of because we're sorry that you get paid when you're
Speaker 1: a songwriter. Um. For those who don't know, it's it
Speaker 1: is a job. I mean, it's you know, it's just
Speaker 1: like any other job, though you have to work really
Speaker 1: hard and hopefully you win. Um. But long story short,
Speaker 1: that didn't go all down as we all wanted it
Speaker 1: to collectively. However, again, some things just happen, and some
Speaker 1: things have to happen sporadically and very quick and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it just is what it is.
Speaker 1: The commercial is what it is. I would have preferred
Speaker 1: McGraw's version be out there again out of respect for
Speaker 1: my buddy, my friend Tim McGraw, who made a giant
Speaker 1: hit out of our song and gave us all a
Speaker 1: job as songwriters. So before we wrap, let's do a
Speaker 1: quick highlow of your career. Yes, hi, hi, not hello,
Speaker 1: the highest point of your career, just kidding, the highest
Speaker 1: point of my career. One moment in your career that's
Speaker 1: like the highlight for you here in that here and
Speaker 1: buy me a boat on the radio for the first
Speaker 1: time that morning. The low, the low, um, I honestly
Speaker 1: the lower. I try not to pay attention too much
Speaker 1: to the low parts, but I guess, I guess if
Speaker 1: I had to pick one. Um, when uh, when your
Speaker 1: record label just falls apart and you don't know what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen, I want to take you to another play
Speaker 1: in your personal life. Bring it you're high. My wife
Speaker 1: well part of a meeting her, marrying her. Um everything, Man,
Speaker 1: I really found true love, and that's hard to find.
Speaker 1: I'm still one of the old time thinkers, I guess,
Speaker 1: classic thinkers. I still believe in real love and when
Speaker 1: you find it, you have to take care of it.
Speaker 1: And I really love my wife through I mean, I
Speaker 1: just love her the low the low in my personal life. UM,
Speaker 1: I would say probably any time before, any time before
Speaker 1: I give my heart to the Lord. When when was that?
Speaker 1: A two thousand and one? That's the day it became saved?
Speaker 1: Day became a Christian? Where were you Shelbyville, Tennessee First
Speaker 1: Baptist Church. Did you have a plan You're gonna raise
Speaker 1: your hand? Actually, I said, I'm absolutely not doing that.
Speaker 1: I was at a Ken Freeman revival. Ken Freeman is
Speaker 1: a great UM motivational speaker and pastor and evangelist. UM
Speaker 1: at least he was. I don't know what he's doing now,
Speaker 1: but never forget it. He uh was talking and it
Speaker 1: just hit me at my heart. And there I went,
Speaker 1: and I was the only person who went to the altar.
Speaker 1: So he walked up as you're walking freaking out, hearts racing, hearts,
Speaker 1: unbelievably racing. And I at that point had never been
Speaker 1: told about the word, or at least in a way
Speaker 1: that I felt comfortable with it. That makes sense, And
Speaker 1: so I went up there by myself and that was it,
Speaker 1: just just like that. I appreciate the talk. Man, It's
Speaker 1: been good, dude. This has been my honor. And I
Speaker 1: hope everybody listening downloads the crap out of hold in
Speaker 1: her thank you, and I hope and I say it
Speaker 1: not just to your face. Lets say it when you're
Speaker 1: not around, I tweeted, I say that anybody will listen,
Speaker 1: like I think propounding, you're the best live performer I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Thank you. Is it unfair to compare you
Speaker 1: and people with a huge pirate. Yeah, if you put
Speaker 1: two guys up on stage and you just say perform,
Speaker 1: I don't know it's better than you. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that. I don't eve ever told
Speaker 1: him Bills that in this podcast because it would be alive.
Speaker 1: I did go check the day of everybody. But if
Speaker 1: you get a chance to see Chris out, go see
Speaker 1: him like he if he's playing with an encoustic guitar,
Speaker 1: he's got a full band whatever. I do think you
Speaker 1: are the but and I think it comes from having
Speaker 1: to grind for so long. Like you, you just didn't
Speaker 1: grow up with those skills put on too you. You
Speaker 1: worked for those skills because you can get to hustle
Speaker 1: still grinding, baby, and you're still hustling. You gotta always hustle, man.
Speaker 1: The minute you quit hustling, you lost. Chris Jansen download
Speaker 1: Holding Her you know, or if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: any year whatever his song is now on the radio,
Speaker 1: don't load that one, yea, I love it. If you're
Speaker 1: hearing that's a year from now. His new single that
Speaker 1: just came out. I love that one too. On it
Speaker 1: it's amazing. I trust me. These things last a long time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, whatever song is, that's my favorite song on
Speaker 1: the radio, whatever it is right now, I love that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, alright, Chris,
Speaker 1: Thanks Buddy point episode is this? Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: Episode twenties six of the Bobby Cast. Download the record,
Speaker 1: buy me about, check out all those songs, and thanks
Speaker 1: for the songs behind the songs. Thank you for rusting
Speaker 1: the artists that you aren't that you wrote for. Who's
Speaker 1: the guy behind the guy? Who's the big winner? Tonight? Mike?
Speaker 1: He's the big winner? That's who Mike? Follow him on
Speaker 1: Snapchatty I wonderful produced. Anything to ask before we go?
Speaker 1: You always have a great question or two anything. You said,
Speaker 1: you're back on the do how many of you drinking
Speaker 1: mountain dew mountain dew one and a half today? Not so,
Speaker 1: I'm not really back on it. And you're the worst
Speaker 1: in mountain due time. What were you drinking? Oh, easily
Speaker 1: close to two twelve packs a day. Yeah, I had
Speaker 1: to drink it three later to day, and I would
Speaker 1: work out and drink it three later. I'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: feel good, guy, let's get another one. All right? All right,
Speaker 1: thank you guys. We'll see you next time here on
Speaker 1: the Bobby Cast.