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Speaker 1: Can. He sounds great. I would get a little closer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: right up there all right, Episode one a D eight

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Speaker 1: with Mike Duncan. Who is And I say this in

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Speaker 1: a loving way because forms of this article about me

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Speaker 1: a while ago, and they were like, the most powerful

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Speaker 1: guy in country music. I am not. And I've often

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Speaker 1: said they were wrong about that, that I think you

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Speaker 1: are the most powerful guy in country music. I think

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Speaker 1: the reason they would say that about music because I'm

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Speaker 1: just out there, like my faces out there, But you're

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Speaker 1: the guy that's calling all the shots, making all the careers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so here's your chairman CEO of Universal Music Group. And

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Speaker 1: I kind of divided it up a bit. Uh m

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Speaker 1: C A Mercury capital e M I show dog. Those

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Speaker 1: are kind of the subs underneath the massive umbrella. Is

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Speaker 1: that a show dog? No longer? It's no longer. No,

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Speaker 1: I had. I had a little arrangement with Toby. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: mainly just because I liked him A look closer right

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Speaker 1: there and there there you go. Maybe mainly, but just

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Speaker 1: because I liked him so so show dog no more. No,

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Speaker 1: He's doing that on his own, and that's fine. I'm

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Speaker 1: looking at the artist roster. I just have so much

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Speaker 1: to talk about. I was talking to Rod Phillips, who

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Speaker 1: is the head of my Heart Country today, and he's like,

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Speaker 1: Duncan has the greatest stories. He's like, he's I have

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Speaker 1: him tell you the Sinatra story. I can't. I can

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Speaker 1: tell you that one. Most of my stories, I can't.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know what the Sinatra story is. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's it's It's probably the proudest moment of my life,

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Speaker 1: the funniest moment in my life. I am all of twenty.

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Speaker 1: I have had the hair down to here you can't

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Speaker 1: see down on my nipples. I have a big beard.

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Speaker 1: I looked like I'm in the Grateful Dead. And I

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Speaker 1: was going to college, and I was working in a

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Speaker 1: record store, and I was a buyer for a couple

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Speaker 1: of major lines. Uh and really just a kid. And

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Speaker 1: all of my friends were into I don't know what

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Speaker 1: roxy music, you know all of this, and I was too.

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Speaker 1: But I loved Sinatra, and I especially loved the Sinatra

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Speaker 1: count Basie combination and would talk about it and play

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Speaker 1: it all the time. And my friends will just roll

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Speaker 1: their eyes. So Sinatra comes out of retirement and goes

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Speaker 1: on the road. So he's coming to my hometown since Sinati, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: So I use whatever lever good I have as a

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Speaker 1: twenty year old, you know, part time buyer, and I

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Speaker 1: get the best tickets I can for Sinatra, and no

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Speaker 1: one wants to go with me. So I dragged this guy.

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Speaker 1: I dragged this guy that works with me, and he

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Speaker 1: looks pretty much like I do. And we're sitting like

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Speaker 1: in the fifth row and it's in the round. And

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Speaker 1: to show you how good the seats were, like Johnny

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Speaker 1: Bench was like fifteen rows behind me. Ken Griffy was

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Speaker 1: fifteen rows behind me. Um, I was just primed. He

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Speaker 1: comes out, you know, it's it's the Big Orchestra, Nelson Riddle,

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Speaker 1: I think, and it's you know, he comes out, he

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Speaker 1: rips through force. So right before the show starts, there's

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Speaker 1: one empty seat next to me, and this little bald

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Speaker 1: guy comes in. He says, he sits down, he looks

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Speaker 1: at me, smile, says, how you doing. I said great.

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Speaker 1: He goes it's gonna be a good show. I said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't wait. So Sinatra comes out, he goes right

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Speaker 1: in to come fly with me. He rips through like

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Speaker 1: three more songs and then he starts to talk, and

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Speaker 1: then he says, ladies and gentlemen, I am so honored

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Speaker 1: we have in the crowd tonight one of America's greatest

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Speaker 1: tune smiths, a man who can take a word and

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Speaker 1: change it into a lyric landscape that will melt your heart,

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Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, one of the all time great songwriters,

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Speaker 1: Mr Sammy Khan, And spotlight hits the man next to me.

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Speaker 1: That was the guy. Yeah, he's a little old man,

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Speaker 1: he's he hits it, and Sammy stands up and he

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Speaker 1: turns around and he takes about and Sinatra says, Sammy,

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Speaker 1: I am so honored that you're here. I cannot believe

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Speaker 1: that you're here. I don't know why you came to Cincinnati, Ohio,

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Speaker 1: of all places, but I'm so honored that you're here.

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Speaker 1: And I loved you so much that I wanted to

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Speaker 1: make sure you've got a seat right next to Jesus.

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Speaker 1: Which was you with your long hair. It was. And

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Speaker 1: you have to be like, holy crap, I'm being kind

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Speaker 1: of acknowledged by Frank Sinatra that the chairman of the board.

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Speaker 1: So what does CEO of a record label? Like, what

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Speaker 1: do you do? Because I just picture like Saturday and

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Speaker 1: I have Lauren Michaels. You'll go and watch a comedian

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Speaker 1: and sit back in the back before even an audition,

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Speaker 1: and you you'll just know that he's there. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: he's like it's dark and you're like, oh crap, Lauren

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Speaker 1: Michaels is here's like a big moment. But also you

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Speaker 1: know he doesn't smile or laugh. He's watch what I

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Speaker 1: picture you doing. I go into some of these places

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Speaker 1: in the dark and just kind of watching these acts

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Speaker 1: and they know you're there. Yeah, you know, I used

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Speaker 1: to do that. That used to be how this business worked,

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Speaker 1: and I loved it. I love that you could kind

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Speaker 1: of come in anonymously and you could come to three

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Speaker 1: times before. But I figured out that you were had

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Speaker 1: any part in, you know, signing someone to a major label.

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Speaker 1: But it's that the business has just gotten so crazy now,

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Speaker 1: and these young it is that worked for these publishers

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Speaker 1: in particular, they're on it and if anybody pulls out

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Speaker 1: a guitar, they're like running around behind him. So there's

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Speaker 1: no secrets. There's showcases, and you know, it's so much

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Speaker 1: more formal now. But I used to, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I mean my story about signing Luke Bryan

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Speaker 1: was a pretty good one because I went four times

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Speaker 1: by myself and sat in the back before I pulled

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Speaker 1: the trigger on that, you know, for a lot of reasons,

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Speaker 1: you know. And Carrie Edwards was here and carry Edwards

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Speaker 1: was my intern. Yeah, and she was and she is

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Speaker 1: what led me to go. I just want to talk

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Speaker 1: to Mike too, because car carry was He and Carrie

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Speaker 1: and I worked into American Auto with Luke together, and

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Speaker 1: she was like, man, have you had Mike on? I

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Speaker 1: was like, I haven't, Like I see Mike sometimes, but

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Speaker 1: she talked. And so you tell your version of the

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Speaker 1: Luke story going to and seeing Luke four times, as

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Speaker 1: you say, before you Carrie was students were going to

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Speaker 1: Lipscomb and she interned for me and for us at

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Speaker 1: Ariston Records. I came into town in to be the

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Speaker 1: head of marketing. I was on the pop side working

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Speaker 1: for Clive Davis, and I came down here because I

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Speaker 1: completely fell in love with Tim Dubach and I loved

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Speaker 1: what he was doing. I didn't consider myself a country guy,

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Speaker 1: but I loved just the way Tim duba carried himself.

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Speaker 1: And Carrie was an intern then she went away, I think.

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Speaker 1: Then she came back was an intern in another department,

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Speaker 1: and when she interned for me, I thought her name

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Speaker 1: was Julie, and I called her Julie. Every morning she'd

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Speaker 1: come in, she'd already be there and I'd smile and

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Speaker 1: say morning, Julie, and she just looked at me and

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Speaker 1: say good morning. And finally, six weeks later, she says,

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Speaker 1: you know, my name is Carrie and I said, no,

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Speaker 1: it's not. She said, yeah, it's Carry. I said, why

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Speaker 1: would you not correct me? She said, I was terrified. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: So she comes back. We give her a job as

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Speaker 1: a coordinator in the A and ART department, and you

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Speaker 1: know how that goes. You know, you're you're kind of

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Speaker 1: doing everybody's expenses and you're taking care of the business

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Speaker 1: in the A and R department. But before you know it,

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Speaker 1: at kids also listening to songs, and then they're going

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Speaker 1: to showcases, and then it's like him in the morning,

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Speaker 1: you on radio. You know, it just keeps building and

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Speaker 1: building a building. Well that's what happened with Kerry. Then

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Speaker 1: we had an unpleasant end to all that Arista Records

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Speaker 1: thing when the corporation decided that Clive Davis was too

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Speaker 1: old and was going to push him out, so we

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Speaker 1: all got pushed out and it was folded up into

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Speaker 1: our ce a. So Carrie goes away. She has a

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Speaker 1: couple of kids. She came back and she was working

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Speaker 1: part time at a publishing company that didn't really work

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Speaker 1: out too well, and then she had another kid, and

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Speaker 1: then she came back and she called me one day

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Speaker 1: and she said, I think I got one. And I said,

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Speaker 1: what do you What do you mean? She said, when

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Speaker 1: I was at the publishing company and there was a

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Speaker 1: guy there and I watched him develop, and I think

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Speaker 1: he's an artist, and would you come see him? And

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Speaker 1: I said, anything for you. So I went to this

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Speaker 1: place called the Trap, which is which was owned by

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Speaker 1: HERV Woolsey, who's still George Streit's manager, and as Winners Losers,

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Speaker 1: as Winners Losers, and a whole bunch of other places. Um,

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Speaker 1: and I watched the guy who was incredibly undisciplined, whose

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Speaker 1: songs were okay, the band was sloppy, he was turning

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Speaker 1: his back to the audience. He was having fun with

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Speaker 1: the band more than with the audience. Uh, but you know,

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Speaker 1: and it was nothing professional, but there was something there.

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Speaker 1: There was something I couldn't take my eyes off of,

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Speaker 1: and it was that it was that star thing that

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Speaker 1: you can't define, and you know, it was like you

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Speaker 1: were seeing Elvis in the early stages. So I kept

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Speaker 1: going back and I went. He played every Thursday, and

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Speaker 1: I went every Thursday night. And did he know you

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Speaker 1: were there? Yeah? Yeah, because Carrie. Uh And in typical

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Speaker 1: Luke style, I think he was unaffected by It didn't

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Speaker 1: cost him to get his game together anything. He was

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Speaker 1: just as sloppy and just as unpolished and unprofessional as

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Speaker 1: as he was, you know, the first time. And uh.

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Speaker 1: Then the fourth time, I took A and R back

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Speaker 1: and I explained to them what I saw and they said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I feel the same way. And then it wasn't we

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Speaker 1: once went by and I was really depressed. We at

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Speaker 1: this point, you know, I'm running Capitol Records and we

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Speaker 1: hadn't found anyone worthy of signing for a long long time,

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Speaker 1: and I was just depressed. And I was laying on

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Speaker 1: the floor in the A and our department, throwing a

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Speaker 1: tennis ball up in the air, bitching about life in general.

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Speaker 1: And I sat up and I said, here's what we're

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Speaker 1: gonna do. We're gonna find that guy, Luke Brian. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna bring him in here. We're gonna tell him we

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Speaker 1: want to sign him. We're gonna give him the money

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Speaker 1: right now. But he's got to understand that, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're he's not ready and this, he's gonna have to

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Speaker 1: work on this. And he came in. He started crying

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Speaker 1: and everyone started crying and tears of joy and um.

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Speaker 1: You know, of course he made a record too fast

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't I still say we kind of survived

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Speaker 1: that first record had a couple of hits on it.

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Speaker 1: But did you tell him that you didn't think he

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Speaker 1: had a single? Yeah, so you hear the batch of

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Speaker 1: music and you go, I don't know that the song

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Speaker 1: is here. Oh, had a couple of those conversations, and

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Speaker 1: probably if carry told you this, it was probably the

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Speaker 1: infamous second album when that came up, because we had

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Speaker 1: accomplished just enough on the first album, which was driven

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Speaker 1: by his personality. You know, everywhere he went people loved him,

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Speaker 1: and radio people were saying, oh my god, I love

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Speaker 1: this guy. He's so awesome. I just wish you had

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Speaker 1: a song. You don't. But you know, we we pieced

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Speaker 1: it together here and there and we and we you know,

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Speaker 1: we sold just enough to keep going. Then we hit

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Speaker 1: the second one. At this point, Luke had a lot

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Speaker 1: more confidence and under him, and he came to me

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Speaker 1: with six songs and said, I've got it and let's

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Speaker 1: just figure out what the first one is and we'll

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Speaker 1: put it out and then we'll finish the album later. Well,

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Speaker 1: I listened to it, and he didn't have it. That's

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Speaker 1: the worst conversation you can have. And I've had it

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Speaker 1: with pretty much every star artist I have, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: legendary stories where they've hated me and for weeks and

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Speaker 1: weeks at the time, and then something happens and it

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Speaker 1: all gets it back together. But uh, in this case, uh,

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Speaker 1: Carrie was upset with me, Luke was upset with me.

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Speaker 1: Jeff Stevens, who was producing, was upset. They called me

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Speaker 1: back about two or three weeks later and said, can

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Speaker 1: we meet and talk about this again? But we don't

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Speaker 1: want to come in your office, that's how bad it was.

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Speaker 1: So we go to Jeff Stevens office and they had

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Speaker 1: remixed these six songs and I said, guys, it's not

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Speaker 1: it's not the mixes, it's it's the songs. They're just

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Speaker 1: they're not great, and I'm sorry, you know. So Luke's

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Speaker 1: getting angry or by the minute, Carrie's won't look at me.

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Speaker 1: And I said, what else do you have? And so

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Speaker 1: they started pulling out disks and there'd be two songs

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Speaker 1: on each disc and there was really nothing there. And

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Speaker 1: at one point we must have listened to thirty different

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Speaker 1: songs and there was just nothing there. And I kept

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Speaker 1: I was thinking, oh gosh, this is going away. You know,

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Speaker 1: I had such great hopes for this young man, and

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Speaker 1: this is going away. The first what we accomplished on

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Speaker 1: the first go round was was it We peaked? And

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Speaker 1: I said, and then I said, at the what else

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Speaker 1: you got? And Luke, really angry, says and I got nothing.

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Speaker 1: I just got some scratch vocals on on my laptop.

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Speaker 1: I got nothing. I said, bring it out. Let's listen.

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Speaker 1: So we listened and they were like three or four

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Speaker 1: that were nothing. And then and then he plays a

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Speaker 1: song called and this is a scratch vocal. It's just

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Speaker 1: him and a guitar. It's called Brain is a Good Thing.

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Speaker 1: And I looked at him, and at this point everyone

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Speaker 1: was staring at the ground they didn't want to deal

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Speaker 1: with this conversation at all. And I said, guys, what's

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Speaker 1: wrong with this? And Luke turns to me surprised and

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Speaker 1: kind of angry, and he says, you like this? And

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Speaker 1: I said, well, I wouldn't want to make a career

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Speaker 1: out of this, but I'm telling you this can make

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Speaker 1: big dent in things for you. This could really get

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Speaker 1: you in a good space. Trust me. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. And Carrie started to do the yeah,

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Speaker 1: well I always liked it, but Luke didn't bit so

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Speaker 1: so I just said, look, just let's just cut it

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Speaker 1: and if you hate it, we won't put it out.

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Speaker 1: But he's just cut it. I think there's something here. Well,

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Speaker 1: a great thing happened and that was that. A couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks later he hooked up with uh Dave and

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Speaker 1: Charles from Lady Annabellum and they wrote do I, which

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Speaker 1: was one of the great great songs. So we put

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Speaker 1: out do I. It was a massive song, and then

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Speaker 1: we came back with Rain Is a Good Thing, which

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Speaker 1: I believe was a four week number one, by the way,

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, to this day, when I see him,

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Speaker 1: when he when he opens with that guitar part that

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Speaker 1: they aren't being here anything. I kind of rolled my

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Speaker 1: eyes because it's so cheesy, and you know, I had

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Speaker 1: a hand and I had a hand in this cheese.

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Speaker 1: But it made a big difference for him and it

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Speaker 1: made for all of us. I want a great story.

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Speaker 1: And you went through that many songs? Yeah, probably thirty

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Speaker 1: that day. That's hard. That's hard when you're feeling nothing.

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Speaker 1: I've been through that with several You ever ever wrong

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Speaker 1: and go this isn't one and they go I'm going yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm like and they go, no, we really, and you

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Speaker 1: get like, okay, you can hang yourself like you can

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Speaker 1: die on this hill if you want, and then they

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Speaker 1: end up being they were right. Has that happened to you? Not? Not,

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Speaker 1: not that directly. Um. There have been songs that you

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Speaker 1: know you'll get into, like your third single choice and

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Speaker 1: I want something and the band wants something else. I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about Stableton for a second because with

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Speaker 1: Chris I was getting into some trouble back in the

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Speaker 1: early days, because before Traveler came out, I would have

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Speaker 1: Chris on and he'd come on and play, and he

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Speaker 1: mostly would come on and play the songs he'd written

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Speaker 1: for other people and some of the high ups at

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Speaker 1: the company at the time who aren't there anymore. There

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Speaker 1: was I don't know, I don't know what this guy's

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Speaker 1: is not researching? Is that testing? And I would say yeah,

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Speaker 1: but like I can tell, like I think I have

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Speaker 1: probably not as good as you, but I have a

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Speaker 1: talent of knowing what people like sometimes before they like it,

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Speaker 1: and I miss some, but for the most part, I

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Speaker 1: do pretty good at that game. And I'm like, man,

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Speaker 1: there's just something about this guy. And they're like, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't have the mom on that fourth time,

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Speaker 1: and thank god this CMA has happened. Oh we're justin

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Speaker 1: Timberlake everything. I've never seen something change in a night

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Speaker 1: before like that did with the stable, like the whole

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Speaker 1: stable to project and brand and artist. What was that

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Speaker 1: like for you? Well, I I saw it in in

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Speaker 1: in dollars because digital downloads of tracks were still kind

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Speaker 1: of a big thing. They're less of a thing now.

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Speaker 1: But um, I had my phone and I had the

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Speaker 1: app for the iTunes store and I'm watching click click,

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Speaker 1: click click, one purchase after another, and then they're rolling

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Speaker 1: just out of control, and we went from I'd say,

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Speaker 1: nine thousand dollars in the hole two in the Black

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Speaker 1: before he finished the song that quick, that quick. Unbelievable,

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Speaker 1: absolutely unbelievable. And so when that was did did Robertin

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Speaker 1: pitch that idea of Stable to timber Lake? Did you

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Speaker 1: guys go after? Like, well, what was that? How had

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Speaker 1: that come together? Um? You know, do you know about

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Speaker 1: this Timberlake thing? This is so such an odd story.

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if this is interesting or not.

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Speaker 1: I think it is okay. Right. First of all, I

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Speaker 1: had tried to sign stapletonant Capital in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: seven something like that, and I ended up chasing him

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Speaker 1: really hard and I couldn't figure out why, and then

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Speaker 1: he was sending all the signals that you know, he

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Speaker 1: was a problem child. So I walked away and didn't

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Speaker 1: do it. And it turns out that he told me

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Speaker 1: later that he didn't want to be an artist. When

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Speaker 1: we offered him the gig, he panicked. He first as

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Speaker 1: ego went off the chart, and then he panicked he

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Speaker 1: didn't want to be an artist, so he was doing

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Speaker 1: everything he could to sink the deal. So right before

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Speaker 1: I came to Universal, Brian Wright signed him at universal.

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Speaker 1: So I sit down with Chris and he said, uh, listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm worried that you don't like me because I put

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Speaker 1: you through a lot. And I said, you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'd like an explanation for what you did. And he

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Speaker 1: told me, said I didn't want to be an artist.

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Speaker 1: And I said, we did a pretty good job thinking

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00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:12,040
Speaker 1: that one. I said, but I like it. I liked

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Speaker 1: you before. I wouldn't make the offer before, so let's

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Speaker 1: just get to business and do it well. He had

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of songs that he had put together

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Speaker 1: that he brought to play for me, and again I

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Speaker 1: didn't I didn't hear anything. Now, it wasn't that they

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00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:34,719
Speaker 1: weren't good, it was that they were in the best way,

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Speaker 1: I could describe it as three chord rock and roll

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Speaker 1: songs from the Mitch Rider era. They didn't have the

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Speaker 1: lyric integrity that I was used to from Chris. They

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Speaker 1: didn't have the structure that I was used to from Chris.

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Speaker 1: And I said, what are you doing here? Where all

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Speaker 1: the great songs that you've written for everybody else? And

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Speaker 1: he said, I write those for everybody else. That's not

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Speaker 1: for me. This is what I am. I said, I'm

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Speaker 1: not telling you this is good or bad. I tried

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Speaker 1: never to use the words good or bad. It's what

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Speaker 1: works in the market or it doesn't work in the market.

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Speaker 1: And I said, but I don't know what to do

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Speaker 1: with this, and I don't want to hurt your feelings. Well,

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00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:13,040
Speaker 1: he's thinking that I'm flashing back to when he burned

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Speaker 1: me years ago, and so I'm getting even I wasn't.

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Speaker 1: I just didn't know what to do with it. So

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00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,880
Speaker 1: we went round and around a little bit, and then

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Speaker 1: he wrote three things that were much more in the

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Speaker 1: groove than um anything we've ever heard from him. And

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Speaker 1: it didn't really work. And I think it was because

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Speaker 1: radio looked at him and said, well, he doesn't look

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Speaker 1: like Luke Bryant. He doesn't look like a male model,

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Speaker 1: he doesn't look like a star whatever that is. And

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Speaker 1: you know, we had twenty five radio people that said

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Speaker 1: this is awesome, and that said, uh, he really he

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Speaker 1: looks like an Almond brother. We don't you know. It's

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Speaker 1: not country music, at least not at the time. So

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Speaker 1: he comes in my office and he says, uh, look,

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Speaker 1: it's painfully obvious. Radio isn't going to deal with me.

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Speaker 1: So just let me make the record I want to make.

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Speaker 1: But I promise you I'm not gonna give you what

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Speaker 1: I gave you the first time. I want to make

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Speaker 1: a real country record. And I said, okay, just do it.

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Speaker 1: So he went away and did it. I would say

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Speaker 1: the record is not really a country record. It's more

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Speaker 1: like a Memphis blues record than anything else. But but

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Speaker 1: it was great. At this point, he was still a

385
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:35,639
Speaker 1: little stun see how this pattern of pissing off my

386
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:39,199
Speaker 1: artists at some point and he with this path, you know,

387
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,040
Speaker 1: he was like, no, he was looking at me as

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Speaker 1: someone that he could never trust. So he delivers the

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00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:48,359
Speaker 1: record and he was dancing around me, dealing with people

390
00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,800
Speaker 1: around me instead. And we had like not quite finished

391
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:56,040
Speaker 1: copies of The Traveler. Uh, you know, they weren't polished

392
00:19:56,119 --> 00:19:58,240
Speaker 1: up all the way, but it was really close. And

393
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:00,199
Speaker 1: a guy named Joe Fisher worked for US and A

394
00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:04,800
Speaker 1: and R. And Joe Fisher had befriended a guy named

395
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:10,200
Speaker 1: Trace Ayala who has been justin Timberlake's best friend from

396
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,120
Speaker 1: Memphis since the third grade. And so they're hanging out

397
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,840
Speaker 1: on the weekend and they're in Joe's car, and uh,

398
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:21,920
Speaker 1: this changer changes from one disc to another, and on

399
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,280
Speaker 1: comes the staple to music and Tray Syala flips out

400
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,959
Speaker 1: and he says, oh my god, what is this? And

401
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,639
Speaker 1: Joe Fisher explains it to him and he said, you

402
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,119
Speaker 1: know who I love? This is Timberlake. He said, can

403
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:36,560
Speaker 1: I can I send this to him? And Joe calls

404
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: me from the car and says, is you know would

405
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 1: you be mad if I gave him this copy so

406
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 1: he could send it to Justin Timberlake? And I said, well,

407
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 1: the worst that can happen if we make a fan

408
00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 1: of Justin Timberlake. No, we'll give it to him. So

409
00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:56,320
Speaker 1: and Timberlake went crazy. So about a month later, phone

410
00:20:56,400 --> 00:21:01,640
Speaker 1: rings in the office, Joe Fishers office, and this woman says,

411
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Speaker 1: you don't know me, but my name is Jessica Beale

412
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Speaker 1: and I'm married to Justin timber Lake and his birthday

413
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 1: is coming up and in a month, and he has everything,

414
00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: so I try to give him experiences. And I wonder,

415
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:14,239
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a party for like forty of our

416
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:18,240
Speaker 1: closest friends at our place in Montana, And I wonder

417
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 1: if this guy, Chris Staple when would consider coming and

418
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 1: singing at the party. So Stapleton calls me and says,

419
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,919
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? And I said, you know, jeez,

420
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,359
Speaker 1: it's nothing else. You can tell your kids and your

421
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: grandkids that you were at this party one time and

422
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 1: Harrison Ford was there and who knows else who was there,

423
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 1: and you know they're gonna fly you on their jet.

424
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: So he goes out there, and the story is that

425
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,919
Speaker 1: Justin was so enamored by him that he was borderline

426
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,000
Speaker 1: rude to the rest of the guests. He didn't even

427
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,720
Speaker 1: talk to them. He just wanted to hang with Chris.

428
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 1: So they started this close relationship, and Justin said, I

429
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,120
Speaker 1: want to produce you. Me and Tim tim ber Lake

430
00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 1: are gonna take you to New York City and produce

431
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:03,720
Speaker 1: something that, you know, more blues oriented. Well, that never

432
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:09,200
Speaker 1: came together, but you know, we put together a pretty

433
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 1: good campaign to get Chris nominated for CMA, especially for

434
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:14,960
Speaker 1: Album of the Year, because we knew Nashville loved this

435
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 1: record to love this guy, and I think Robert Deaton

436
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: is looking at It's like, Okay, I don't really know

437
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 1: what to do with this because you don't have a hit,

438
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 1: you know, But the guy's got four nominations. So it's

439
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:29,479
Speaker 1: almost guaranteed he's gonna get on the show. What are

440
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,880
Speaker 1: we gonna do? And Cindy May, who's our president, went

441
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:34,840
Speaker 1: to Chris and said, do you think you could call

442
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 1: Timberlake and see if you do this? Chris said, well,

443
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: I'll try. So he called him and he said give

444
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: me the date and he said, I'll be there, and

445
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,679
Speaker 1: the rest of his history. I mean it was just

446
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 1: you know, from huge financial loss too, a massive, massive

447
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: um examination of overnight success. I have never seen anything

448
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,880
Speaker 1: changed like that in a single night than than that

449
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: performance and which really he was and he is who

450
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,119
Speaker 1: he is, but after that it was he was freaking

451
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: Chris Stapleton. Yeah, Like that was the moment. I think

452
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: the biggest moment I've seen since living in Nashville. Like

453
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: a Saint, if had to pick a singular moment, I

454
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 1: think that's the biggest one I've seen. Yeah, And you

455
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: know what, it was culturally a huge moment because we

456
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: don't do things like this in Nashville. You know it

457
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: prior to this, at the risk of now everyone's gonna

458
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: get mad at me, But prior to this, everything was

459
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,120
Speaker 1: more calculated and it was you know, it was put

460
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,679
Speaker 1: together it was marketed pretty well, and this was just

461
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,120
Speaker 1: something that happened totally organically, and I'm sure someone's gonna,

462
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,920
Speaker 1: you know, listen to this and call you and say, oh,

463
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: I was part of one in nine seven and it

464
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 1: was just as big, probably right, But to my eyes

465
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,440
Speaker 1: and ears, it was like, Okay, this change is a game,

466
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: This changes everything for everyone. And you know, the funny

467
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 1: thing was, starting the next week and pretty much every

468
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: day for the next three months, we were auditioning mountain

469
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: men in my office. I mean massive guys that came

470
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: out of the hills of somewhere with long hair and

471
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: scraggly beards, and they all sang like monsters. I mean,

472
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: they were so good, you know, but you know, you

473
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,679
Speaker 1: can't push that too hard. How do you feel about that?

474
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:34,920
Speaker 1: Because you know an artist will come and break through

475
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,439
Speaker 1: and then there are four or five similar sounding and

476
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:40,600
Speaker 1: looking artists. Like, where is the line for you when

477
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,399
Speaker 1: you're running a label of who is going to be

478
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: someone that has some long term to them or who's

479
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: just like the viral thing or the you know, the

480
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,639
Speaker 1: kind of today thing. Well, if if it was just

481
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 1: four or five, it could be tolerable. But honestly, it's

482
00:24:54,560 --> 00:25:00,440
Speaker 1: like more like fifty five. I mean, I have always

483
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: made my way in this business by looking for talent

484
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: that is talent that sounds really like a product, looking

485
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 1: for artists that are you know, they're they're square pegs,

486
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: and you know, there's square pegs that are close enough

487
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: that now we do our job and we cram that

488
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: square peg into a round hole. That's the most gratifying

489
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 1: part of the job. But the problem is, and everyone

490
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 1: after that as a copy And Keith Urban was the

491
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: classic example because I didn't sign Keith Urban. He was

492
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: in a band called The Ranch and they were originally

493
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: at Warner Brothers. Warner was not doing anything with it.

494
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 1: There was a head of business affairs at Capital that

495
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: was a big fan convinced Scott Hendricks, who was then

496
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: the head of Capital, to take over the project for

497
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: like next to no money, uh, in exchange for points.

498
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: And it didn't work. But then another guy came in

499
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: to run the company and Keith announced that he wanted

500
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: to leave the band and have a solo career, and

501
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 1: this guy said, okay, go make a record. So they

502
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: made up their first record and it wasn't happening. Uh.

503
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: I didn't have any real success at radio. The album

504
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 1: was put out prematurely, it wasn't selling anything. It did

505
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:19,879
Speaker 1: not look good for this guy, Keith Urban. And I

506
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: came in and I went to two shows that he

507
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: was doing, and just I had seen the ranch, but

508
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: I was not ready for what I saw with Keith Urban.

509
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 1: And it was like, Holy cow, this is the gift

510
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,640
Speaker 1: from God. This is this is the one that I'm

511
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: just gonna roll the dice on this guy and everything

512
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: we do after this point it's gonna be built around

513
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: Keith Urban. And we did it. And I mean it

514
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:45,959
Speaker 1: was a lot of work from a lot of people.

515
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: We had to sell so much money had been spent

516
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: without any financial reward that we sold about eight hundred

517
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: thousand before we even broke even that's crazy, um. But

518
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,159
Speaker 1: the minute he did break, everyone who came through the

519
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: door was Keith Urban. They had the same little you know,

520
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: he had that rhythmic tick to and that just made

521
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 1: him so unique, and all of a sudden, every kid

522
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 1: in the world was cutting his hair that way and

523
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,439
Speaker 1: was playing everything, came in and went anything anything, you know,

524
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: it was like, oh please, you know, sometimes the market

525
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: can handle one copy, maybe two, but not twenty. And

526
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: you know that's why, that's how we get into trouble

527
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: as music people. Was we allowed this? You know, same old,

528
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: same old. You know, we're just copies out there, and

529
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not real wild about what the music

530
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: sounds like right now and in general. Yeah, And I

531
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 1: think it's because there's there's a lot of sameness out there,

532
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: do you feel like Because I feel the same way,

533
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,919
Speaker 1: and you talk about sameness, I feel like everything is

534
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 1: so everybody's looking at short term lines, like how do

535
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,399
Speaker 1: we hit our quarter? So therefore, if you grab a copy,

536
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: it's gonna make you money today, it may not make

537
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: you money in a year. And people are chasing tomorrow

538
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:03,639
Speaker 1: more than their seeing three years of of of a

539
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 1: substantial project. And I think what happens is the music

540
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 1: all starts to become of the same sounding because all

541
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:14,920
Speaker 1: the acts feel like they've got to be the same,

542
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: and they're chasing other acts so they can get on

543
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 1: the radio. Well, I will tell you it's probably the

544
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: hardest thing to resist is signing these people to come

545
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: in and are really good, but they're derivative of something

546
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: right before them. If it was derivative of something from

547
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,920
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years earlier. That kind of turns me on.

548
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,199
Speaker 1: But the you know, the copy thing does not. But

549
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know why other labels or companies

550
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: do that. I do know why, but I'm not gonna

551
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: say it here. But I've always tried not to because

552
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: you know, it's uh a much rather reload with something

553
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: that's exciting and try to cram that square peg into

554
00:28:52,240 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: another round hole. You know, we talked about moment, it's

555
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: I think another big moment was Casey wanted the Grammy

556
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: for for Album of the Year. Yeah, with Golden Hour,

557
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: Like that's up there with one of the bigger moments

558
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: in the past five or six years. Massive, just just

559
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 1: huge and one of the most, um one of the

560
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: most difficult to figure out scenarios that I've ever been

561
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: involved with, because she consistently makes unbelievable music that doesn't

562
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 1: really fit in anybody's box. It's just great that it

563
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: touches a lot of boxes, and it's so great that

564
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: if you play Casey music for anyone anywhere, they respond positively.

565
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: But as a real challenge for people who market music

566
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 1: to you know, take that we've we haven't gotten Casey

567
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: to where she deserves to be. You know, there's there's

568
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 1: a lot more work that needs to be done, and

569
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: you know, you could argue that, with the exception of

570
00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: some of the instrumentation on the Golden Hour record, it's

571
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: not that country, you know, it's it's it's a much

572
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: more pleasant, pop, universal sounding piece of music, but not

573
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: really doesn't really fit anywhere. It just fits everywhere. That

574
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: makes sense. No, yes, it fits nowhere and everywhere at

575
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 1: the same time. I mean, you know, to some degree,

576
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: Norah Jones was doing that. When she first popped, it

577
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, what is this? Oh, I know this

578
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 1: is great. You know, Nora Jones came from inside em

579
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: I I was running capital. A kid that ran sales

580
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 1: for Blue Note had been somebody that worked for me

581
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: years ago, sent me a CD with roths of Nora

582
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 1: Jones and I just he said, I think you're gonna

583
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: like it because it's kind of country, and I just

584
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: was all over it. And the guy that ran Blue Note,

585
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: Bruce Lundball, who's one of my idols, he like, had

586
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: a famous staff meeting where he said, I want to

587
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 1: know why the Nashville people are more excited it about

588
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: this then we are you know, and it was because

589
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: everyone in my office was seeing it as you know,

590
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: the second coming of something special. Boy when don't know why,

591
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 1: I hit yeah and it. It kind of existed for

592
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: a second until it was a monster. Because and that's

593
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: what happens with things and with Casey too, I would say,

594
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 1: you know, she had created her own lane and then

595
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: her own and then everybody else's kind of fell into

596
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: her lane. Once people start falling into your lane. I

597
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: mean I was on pop radio at the time and

598
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: we were slamming this every hour. Yeah, you know, our

599
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 1: pop labels didn't really want to work the record because

600
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: it didn't fit anywhere. Our company created a promotion department

601
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: just to work Nora Jones. That's the truth. Well what

602
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 1: a financial gamble and what a payoff. Oh yeah, massive.

603
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: I benefited from it too, because they created this promotion

604
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: department and they were all pros and uh I had

605
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: really good almost pop country stuff over here. So you know,

606
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: while those guys weren't working on Nora Jones, they worked

607
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: on Keith Urban and that developed a whole different career

608
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: for him too. And that probably wouldn't have happened if

609
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 1: I had to jam it through La or New York,

610
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: you know. You know, we talked about some of the

611
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: artists that are are special and are hard to at

612
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 1: times market and Kip, who's yours, kind of falls in

613
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: that like so good, so passionate, such a devoted base.

614
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: But I feel like that would be at times you

615
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: just want to bang your head against the wall, like, look,

616
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: how comes some of the stuff works so quickly and

617
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: then how comes some of it just won't take at

618
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: radio specifically? Like what what do you feel like the

619
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 1: struggle is with Kip at times? Well? I think honestly,

620
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: the first album was loaded with hit songs and the

621
00:32:55,040 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: second album was things that resonated kIPS audience specifically, but

622
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 1: they weren't across the board universal hit songs. And I

623
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: think he's back to I think the new stuff that

624
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: we have that you'll hear very soon. Um, I think

625
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:17,239
Speaker 1: he'll be You'll be surprised. Uh. You know, he's got

626
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: such a unique thing and a lot of artists you

627
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: know have this. Uh, it's got such a unique one

628
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: on one relationship with his audience. He can sell out

629
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 1: anywhere he goes and they love every word of every

630
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: song he's done. But to get past that point, to

631
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: get those people that are more passive. That's where success

632
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 1: comes in, you know, I kind of you know, my

633
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: brother's Osborne not terribly different, completely different kind of artists,

634
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 1: but not you know, you go to their shows, their

635
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: fans are like tearing the place down. It's one of

636
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 1: the best live shows I've ever seen, by the way,

637
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 1: and both those guys are fantastic live. And I've spent

638
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 1: time with Kid personally where you know, I do stand

639
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: up and so we'll talk about because Kip like really

640
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: cares about his audience. Yeah, and he's like, man, if

641
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: I see one sad face, it's like, puts me out

642
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, you gotta stare at foreheads. Yeah,

643
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: that's what I tell Like, they could be sad and

644
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:12,839
Speaker 1: then not be because something you've done, right, I think

645
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:14,399
Speaker 1: it has something sad in their family, or they could

646
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 1: want to feel sad, right like, and you're allowing them

647
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: to fill that. But that guy's past. I say what

648
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: I say, I love Kip because he's so At times

649
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: I want I want to, you know, smack him to

650
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 1: the head and you want to smack me upside the head.

651
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: But most of that's from love, Like I just you know,

652
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 1: I really respect that guy. This uh A e G

653
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:36,240
Speaker 1: Company put together massive concert in England called Country to Country,

654
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: See to See, And when I first heard about this,

655
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,359
Speaker 1: I rolled my eyes and thought, Okay, this isn't gonna work,

656
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 1: because you know, I never used the C word when

657
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:47,160
Speaker 1: I went to Europe, because their idea of country is

658
00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 1: like box Scar Willie. And if you say Keith Urban's

659
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 1: country or Casey's country or Kip country, you're gonna get

660
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,239
Speaker 1: those kind of people. And they're like, well this doesn't

661
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:00,800
Speaker 1: sound like boxcar Willie, you know, and and all the

662
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: regular people go, well, I thought country was box car really,

663
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 1: So I didn't come so anyway, so they have the

664
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 1: first show. I didn't go, but it was pretty successful.

665
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: So the next year I came back and Kip was

666
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: on the bill and he was a nervous wreck and

667
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,839
Speaker 1: he was wrecked because he thought these English people are

668
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: not going to relate to me at all. They're just

669
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:23,480
Speaker 1: not and I'm scared to death. I said, just do

670
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 1: your thing, Just do your thing. I said, I I

671
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 1: don't know that any of these people know who the

672
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 1: artists are. That's my take on this, And I was right.

673
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,719
Speaker 1: They Kip went out and he was as big a

674
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 1: star as the Dixie Chicks because they didn't really know

675
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: any of them, and because he worked so hard and

676
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: because he was so desperate to get their love and attention.

677
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: He killed it. And he's got a really nice career

678
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 1: going on in England, particularly because of that first show,

679
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: and he's continued to go back and you know that.

680
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 1: I go over there now, people say what's going on

681
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:02,280
Speaker 1: with Kip Worn It's like, really, okay, al right, great,

682
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: it's fun to hear a lot of the artists that

683
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: you've helped break. And I'm gonna go back in time

684
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: a little bit to Rick Sprainfield. Yeah, who you know?

685
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 1: Jesse's Girl was the song that women we still play

686
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 1: on the on on my show now. I mean, this

687
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 1: is the song that lives forever, you know. So how

688
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: did you get involved with Race Springfield? Well? I got

689
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:24,320
Speaker 1: fired for that for one day. You got fired. You

690
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 1: got fired. Yes, I was a pop promotion guy in

691
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:33,400
Speaker 1: since my hometown of Cincinnatiohio for our Cia Records, And um,

692
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:35,399
Speaker 1: I was a kid and I didn't get a lot

693
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: of great direction in that job. And I can say

694
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:40,359
Speaker 1: that now because the guy who hired me, who didn't

695
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,839
Speaker 1: direct me really well. Passed away last year, so God

696
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,800
Speaker 1: bless Eddie mask All. But he was not really given

697
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,839
Speaker 1: me the kind of direction I needed. But so in

698
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: that day, singles and albums would just show up at

699
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: my front door and there was no there was there

700
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 1: was no conference call, there was nothing. You know. It

701
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 1: was like, no, we don't really know anything about this artist,

702
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 1: but somebody signed them, so here it is, go see

703
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: what you can do with it. And I get this.

704
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,760
Speaker 1: I get Rick Springfield album and single the same day.

705
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about him. I just put it

706
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: on and Jesse's Girl just killed me. I thought, my god,

707
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 1: this is a huge pop song. And I was going

708
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: on the road to Columbus, Ohio the next day, and

709
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:22,400
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, no one was talking about it.

710
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,280
Speaker 1: I was supposed to get another record play by another

711
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 1: artist who I won't mention here, but it was not

712
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 1: a very good record. And I went up to Columbus

713
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 1: O High and I started playing this song and three

714
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: of the four stations I visited hit the record added it.

715
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 1: And you know, in the Midwest, they don't add records early.

716
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: So I came back so proud of myself that I

717
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 1: was breaking a record, only to find out that I

718
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: was being fired by my boss, who was really angry

719
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: because I did not get anything on the priority record.

720
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:58,840
Speaker 1: And he just called me and said, you know, once again,

721
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: you a and our everything. You can't take direction, you're

722
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 1: not a team player. You're out of here. You're out

723
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 1: of here, You're done. And I had, you know, like

724
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:12,399
Speaker 1: a one year old kid, and I'm terrified that I'm

725
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,720
Speaker 1: out of work. And the next morning, his assistant calls

726
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:18,120
Speaker 1: me and says, uh, John wants to know what you've

727
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 1: got on this or that. And I said, John fired

728
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:23,800
Speaker 1: me yesterday and she said, oh, stop it. She said,

729
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,680
Speaker 1: you know he fires people every day. I said what

730
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: she said, he does and I said I've never been

731
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: fired and she said, well now you have. And uh,

732
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: you know. That record went on to sell I don't

733
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,239
Speaker 1: know how many millions, but it was. It was a

734
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 1: great thing for my ego and my self worth. And

735
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 1: you know, Rick and I were talking my kitchen to

736
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: his kitchen. I didn't have an office, so I worked

737
00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: in my basement, my kitchen to his kitchen every night,

738
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 1: big plans and I did some cool things I did.

739
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: I did a had a radio station, in Columbus where

740
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,840
Speaker 1: we broke the thing that the Erald manager was on

741
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,960
Speaker 1: the boarder director for the Columbus Ohio Zoo and it

742
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 1: was like their second or third year in existence, and

743
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 1: he came to me and said, we've had so much

744
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 1: rain on weekends that our gate sales are awful and

745
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:17,160
Speaker 1: we have no money. There's no there's no uh, you know,

746
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: nothing in reserve here, and we're worried that our zoo

747
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: is gonna go bankrupt. And he said, you got this kid,

748
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:25,239
Speaker 1: Rick Springfield, right, And I said yeah. And he said

749
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 1: and he's on general hospital right and I said yeah.

750
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 1: He said do you think you can get him to

751
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 1: do anything for this? And I said, like what? And

752
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,360
Speaker 1: we went for some drinks and we concocted this event

753
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 1: and I knew he wouldn't. I couldn't afford to put

754
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 1: him up there and have him perform, and it just

755
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 1: wasn't ready, you know. But we brought him to the

756
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,280
Speaker 1: Columbus oh Zoo and we put up a big stage

757
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: and charged ninety eight cents to get in. It was

758
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: w n c I Cent day had the biggest grossing

759
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 1: day they've ever had. It was miles and miles of

760
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: thirteen and fourteen year old girls. I've never seen anything

761
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 1: like it in my life. I had been around for

762
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,160
Speaker 1: the Beatles, it probably would have been like that. Rick

763
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: goes up on the stage and he's trying to talk

764
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 1: and it just got The screaming was so loud I

765
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:12,800
Speaker 1: couldn't hear him, and I was twenty ft from him,

766
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the barriers, the security barriers

767
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,440
Speaker 1: went down, and then the stage started rock and I

768
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 1: just remember the cops going, that's it, we're shutting it down.

769
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: And they grabbed him and they're dragging him off the

770
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 1: stage and they're saying run, and I'm running, and Rick's

771
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 1: five steps ahead of me, and we're all running for

772
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: this little administrative building, concrete, you know, nothing building, and

773
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: there's a wall of kids running after us, and you know,

774
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 1: this is not particularly proud moment, but um, out of nowhere,

775
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 1: this tiny, little twelve year old girl is a speedster

776
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,359
Speaker 1: and she breaks through the crowd. She's going to catch Rick.

777
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:55,919
Speaker 1: I mean, she's and if she slows him down, we're

778
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 1: all dead. We're dead. So I just I'm running and

779
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 1: I just cold cocked with an elbow right in the

780
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: side of the head. Knocked her down into the mud

781
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:08,560
Speaker 1: and we made it into the building. Well, the interesting

782
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,439
Speaker 1: the zoo director was a guy named Jack Hannah. Wow,

783
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:17,160
Speaker 1: Jack Hanna. He was just Jack Hannah director. So we're

784
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 1: all stuck in this building while these kids are like

785
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: trying to get at us. It was like a zombie

786
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 1: movie or something. And I got to know Jack and

787
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: his wife, and there's a million pictures from that and

788
00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 1: to this stage, Jack and I have a bit of

789
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:34,360
Speaker 1: a relationship and if iver I need anything from Jungle

790
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:36,600
Speaker 1: Jack Hannah, I just pick up the phone and say Jack,

791
00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:38,960
Speaker 1: would you do something for me? He says, anything for you.

792
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,279
Speaker 1: So I've put Jack in the little videos and he's

793
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: been in Luke Brian campaigns, and you know, I run

794
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 1: into him every once in a while. Steve Hodges was

795
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 1: working for me. We were in the airport and all

796
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,439
Speaker 1: Cuddy walks past and he because, Hey, there's that guy

797
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,359
Speaker 1: from TV. I said, that's my friend Jack Hannah. He said,

798
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:58,879
Speaker 1: your friend. I said, hey, Jack, and he came over

799
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 1: and we had breakfast together. You know that's awesome, Yeah,

800
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:04,799
Speaker 1: greats all that. There's like four layers of good story

801
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,840
Speaker 1: in that story. Yeah. So Rick and I, uh we

802
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: fell out over the next two or three years. Um,

803
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 1: I didn't. Let's just say we just fell out. I

804
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,240
Speaker 1: didn't like the way he was handling his business and

805
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,319
Speaker 1: it didn't end well. And I've always felt bad. And

806
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: I've been to see him live a couple of times,

807
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:24,320
Speaker 1: and my friends always go, are you going to go

808
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:28,200
Speaker 1: backstage and say hi? And I'd always say NOA I not, No,

809
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't so uh. Mark Niederhauser and it

810
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:36,680
Speaker 1: works for Warner used to work with me at our

811
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: c A he was in Denver, I think when when

812
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: all this was coming down. And last year at the

813
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 1: country radio seminar, Mark and I went to lunch and

814
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 1: Marks the kind of guy that like stays in touch

815
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 1: with everybody birthday. Every birthday, you get a car to

816
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 1: a call every birthday. Oh yeah. And every artist that

817
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 1: we ever worked with, he talks to him on a

818
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 1: regular basis. I just I don't do that, you know.

819
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:02,640
Speaker 1: And I said, so what about Rick Springfield? You talked

820
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: to him and he goes, yeah, every once in a while,

821
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:06,560
Speaker 1: I said, how's he doing? He goes, he seemed okay.

822
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,399
Speaker 1: I said, well, I read his book. You know, it's

823
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 1: kind of sad and uh. And I told Mark what

824
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: happened between us and he said, well, that's that's really

825
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 1: that's that's not fair. It's really not fair to you.

826
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,920
Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, I know. I said to me

827
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 1: a favorite, if you have information, give it to me.

828
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,319
Speaker 1: So I reached out to him the next day, send

829
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: him along email and he bam came right back to me, said,

830
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 1: oh man, it's so good to hear from you. You

831
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: know everything you said here just you know, I think

832
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:38,560
Speaker 1: about this all the time. And we really did it,

833
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 1: didn't we And it's so great to hear from you.

834
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 1: And you know we we haven't talked since then, but

835
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:46,440
Speaker 1: it was one big email exchange and it was about

836
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 1: a year ago. Wow. Yeah, I had a great story. Yeah,

837
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,359
Speaker 1: Darius and Hoody. I'm a huge Hoodie fan. Yeah, I'm

838
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,359
Speaker 1: a huge Darius. Darius is my first interview every when

839
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:59,160
Speaker 1: I was seventeen. Really I got Hoodie and I got Darius.

840
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: That was a die hard fan. And you know, Darius

841
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:02,759
Speaker 1: and I've done a lot together since then. Kind of

842
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:04,440
Speaker 1: because I wrote about in my first book, I was like,

843
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 1: this is the first guy ever talked and I was

844
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 1: so nervous talking to him. I was shaking. He grabbed

845
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:10,280
Speaker 1: my hand. I was like, I got you. I was seventeen,

846
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,280
Speaker 1: and he led me through this interview. And so Darius

847
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 1: hit me up about a month ago, was like, Hey,

848
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: my wife's writing a book, Um, would you write a

849
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:19,759
Speaker 1: chapter for me? So I wrote wrote a thing for him,

850
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 1: and I was like in exchange, I would like to

851
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,799
Speaker 1: hear some new hoodie music and so and I don't

852
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 1: listen to music earlier ever from anyone, even my friends.

853
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:28,719
Speaker 1: It's get slippery slope for me, So I just stay

854
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:31,560
Speaker 1: away from it. But I'm such a Darius friend and

855
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 1: fan and hoodie fan, and so he sent it. And

856
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: what I wonder is is the hoodie is it country?

857
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:40,399
Speaker 1: Is that you guys gonna try country? I don't think so.

858
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: I think if you based on the fact that if

859
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: you go back, if you took those hoodie records that

860
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,960
Speaker 1: were big and you put them in the market, now

861
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: they would be country wreck absolutely, And so you know,

862
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: that's kind of how we started Darius a solo thing.

863
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,840
Speaker 1: It took a while to get there. And there's a

864
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,320
Speaker 1: somewhat of an interesting story on that too, if you

865
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,560
Speaker 1: want to hear that. Yeah, So it makes it sound

866
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,320
Speaker 1: like I'm a genius again. But you know, it's a true,

867
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,719
Speaker 1: absolutely true story. How did the Darius solo stuff start? Well,

868
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: I never liked the Hoodie and Blowfish records. No. I

869
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:17,959
Speaker 1: moved to Nashville had been on the pop side, and

870
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: I moved here in and immediately fell in love with

871
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 1: the art of the song and the craft and the

872
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:29,279
Speaker 1: way people would lay out a lyrical landscape. And it

873
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: was just like, Wow, this is the way it's supposed

874
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 1: to be. And I was like a song snob. I

875
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: became a song snob real fast. And um. So I

876
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:42,240
Speaker 1: didn't care for those Hoodie records because I thought, lyrically

877
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: they were just pop records, you know. So um. But

878
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 1: years later I'm a capital and I had you know,

879
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 1: I've always had really bad work habits. I'm not the

880
00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 1: earliest guy in the office. I don't come in too late,

881
00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:59,720
Speaker 1: but i'm you know, I'm not there at eight o'clock

882
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:01,879
Speaker 1: and I'm morning, but I'm usually there at nine ten

883
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,319
Speaker 1: o'clock at night. And when I was a capital, I

884
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,759
Speaker 1: had a very prominent spot on the corner of West

885
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 1: End and Murphy Road, and people would go by and go, god,

886
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: I can see your fat your fat ass rolling around

887
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: in your chair up there. You just go home, you know.

888
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:20,239
Speaker 1: So the what what it comes down to is I

889
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:23,319
Speaker 1: would get home and I still pretty much do this.

890
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 1: I get home and my wife has either gone to

891
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: bed or going to bed. She's eaten by herself. Again,

892
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, and I haven't eaten anything, and I'm gonna

893
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:34,400
Speaker 1: go to bed though, because I'm going to get up

894
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: in the morning and go back to work. So I

895
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:38,479
Speaker 1: would sit in front of the TV with a bowl

896
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: of cheerios and I did I did it last night,

897
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:43,879
Speaker 1: and you know, bowl of cheerios, and then I turned

898
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:46,320
Speaker 1: on the TV. But I can't commit to anything because

899
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,640
Speaker 1: I'm only gonna spend fifteen or twenty minutes in front

900
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 1: of it. So I would just slip through the channel.

901
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 1: So I don't know what here. This was, so five

902
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,239
Speaker 1: two thousand five something like that. I would slip through

903
00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:00,080
Speaker 1: the channel and there was a high definition concert it

904
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 1: on one of the channels, and it was all the

905
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,320
Speaker 1: same ones all the time. It was Dave Thomas, it

906
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: was Peter Frampton, it was Mickey Thomas, uh and it

907
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: was Hoodie and a Blowfish and there were others, but

908
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: those are the ones that I remember seeing all the

909
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 1: time Dave Matthews band, and every time I see the

910
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 1: hoodie and the Blowfish things, I would think, oh, I'd

911
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 1: never liked this band, But you know what, that guy,

912
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:26,920
Speaker 1: this is inappropriate. But I think to myself, that black guy.

913
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:31,440
Speaker 1: He phrases like a country singer. And so, you know,

914
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:33,839
Speaker 1: two weeks later I'd be flipping through again, there would

915
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,359
Speaker 1: be same show, it's different song. I think, oh, man,

916
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 1: he phrases like a country singer. So I had this

917
00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 1: weird idea that I was gonna, you know, nobody had

918
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:42,879
Speaker 1: heard from these guys forever as far as I knew.

919
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: I was gonna try to find Darius Rucker and see

920
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 1: what he was all about. But I never did it

921
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 1: because I was busy and it was you know, it

922
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,719
Speaker 1: was a pipe dream. It didn't really make sense. End

923
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:56,279
Speaker 1: up going to dinner with Doc McGee, the famous manager

924
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: who managed one of my artists at the time, and

925
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 1: when he sit down, Doc starts bragging about in a

926
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: Blowfish tour tickets and I said, what do you have

927
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: to do with him? He said, I manage them. And

928
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: I said, I didn't know this, And I tell the

929
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:12,879
Speaker 1: story about the cheerios about and he says he says,

930
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:15,319
Speaker 1: you should make a country record with him, and I said, no,

931
00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: that's why I'm telling you this. And Doc's looking at me.

932
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, yeah, he'd love that. But I

933
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 1: could tell his eyes that Doc dot no, he's just

934
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 1: kidding me. So we get our cars out of l

935
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: A and I said, Doc, don't forget about Darius. He goes, no,

936
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,560
Speaker 1: I'll call him. Well months go by, nothing and every

937
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:33,839
Speaker 1: I talked to Doc every every week and I'd say, Doc,

938
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:36,440
Speaker 1: what about Darius. He goes, oh, I just got off

939
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:39,959
Speaker 1: the phone them. I forgot. It's like you forgot. So

940
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: weeks later, I get a call from Doc and he says, hey,

941
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 1: you got somebody wants to talk to you. And it's

942
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 1: Darius and he goes, hey, man, I hear you're trying

943
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 1: to get ahold of me. And I said, yeah, I'd

944
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 1: very much like to meet with you. I'll come to you.

945
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: Just tell me. When he said no, I'll come to

946
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,760
Speaker 1: you tomorrow tomorrow, Okay, can we go to dinner tomorrow?

947
00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,320
Speaker 1: So he flies to Nashville from Charleston and we go

948
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:03,319
Speaker 1: to dinner at Risk Chriss and I loved him. I

949
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:05,280
Speaker 1: just fell in love with him. I had no idea

950
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,720
Speaker 1: what his song, what his sensibilities were. But we started

951
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: talking about country music and he started telling me about

952
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 1: his experience with it. And Darius didn't know his father,

953
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:19,680
Speaker 1: uh and you know, he has a single mom and

954
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: some brothers and sisters. And there was an older gentleman

955
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:25,719
Speaker 1: across the street that kind of you know, took a

956
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 1: special role in darius life and in his heart. He

957
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 1: called him Uncle Charlie, I think. And he would listen

958
00:49:32,560 --> 00:49:34,239
Speaker 1: to the country and he'd listen to the opery on

959
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:36,480
Speaker 1: the radio on the front porch. Darius would go over

960
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:39,239
Speaker 1: there as a little kid and he'd get up on

961
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 1: Uncle Charlie's lap and they listened to the opery. So

962
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,720
Speaker 1: Darius had a sense of this that surprised me to death.

963
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 1: Let me talk about more and more and more, and

964
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: he said, oh man, my brothers and sisters they used

965
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:52,239
Speaker 1: to make fun of me because I would go around

966
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: the house singing, you know, Web Pierce songs, and my

967
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,120
Speaker 1: friends would make fun of me because you know, I

968
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 1: knew mel Tillis songs. And I said, that is wild.

969
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:04,920
Speaker 1: And so we started talking about making this record, and

970
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 1: he came in. He had been thinking about this for

971
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 1: so long. He had a paper bag full of cassettes

972
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: and on there were scratch demos of these country songs

973
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 1: that he had been writing inspired by the experience with

974
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: Uncle Charlie and the opry, and he planned for me

975
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 1: and they were they were one of two things. They

976
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: were either cochonk chonka Chong Texas two Steps songs yea,

977
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 1: or they were tearing my beer vern gosd in ballads.

978
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 1: And I just kept saying there that this this won't work,

979
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:39,240
Speaker 1: and he went, what do you mean, man, it's country music.

980
00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:41,839
Speaker 1: I said, it's not really. If I mean, it's not

981
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:43,959
Speaker 1: what's on the radio, and if that's what we're trying

982
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:48,320
Speaker 1: to do, it's really So we went round around we

983
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:50,799
Speaker 1: you know, it was I didn't have any answers. I

984
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 1: was just in love with this guy, and you know,

985
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 1: I will admit that the fact that he was an

986
00:50:56,480 --> 00:51:00,080
Speaker 1: African American was more than a little bit interesting to me.

987
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:04,640
Speaker 1: But as I got to know him, I pushed back

988
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,759
Speaker 1: on that really hard because the press when when we

989
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:09,799
Speaker 1: broke him, the press we're saying, how does it feel

990
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 1: to be the first guy to break an African American

991
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,400
Speaker 1: in country I say, you know what I mean, the

992
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 1: fact that he's an African American is pretty self evident,

993
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:21,880
Speaker 1: but it really diminishes his talent. And I hate to

994
00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 1: even talk about this now. I was aware of it

995
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:26,920
Speaker 1: when I started this, but it's not about that for

996
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:29,400
Speaker 1: me anymore. It's about this guy with the most unique

997
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 1: voice and this great phrasing and a big laugh and

998
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:37,040
Speaker 1: a big smile and a warm heart and you know. Uh. Anyway,

999
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:39,280
Speaker 1: so we got to the point, and along the way

1000
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,560
Speaker 1: we talked to a bunch of producers and then he

1001
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 1: fell in with Frank Rogers and he kind of fell

1002
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 1: in love with Frank. In between Frank and Darius and I,

1003
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:51,640
Speaker 1: we just sort of talked this through and what we

1004
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:55,759
Speaker 1: came to was the music shouldn't be that different than

1005
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,880
Speaker 1: Hoodie and the Blowfish, but it needs to say something.

1006
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: You can't just hold my hand, hold my hand, hold

1007
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,759
Speaker 1: my hand. You gotta lay out some kind of a

1008
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:08,360
Speaker 1: lyrical landscape, at least in the verses. And you know it.

1009
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 1: It took a while for Darius to get that, but

1010
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:13,400
Speaker 1: with Frank's guidance, and Frank was you know, also a

1011
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:18,319
Speaker 1: successful songwriter, pretty quickly came together and uh, you know,

1012
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:21,319
Speaker 1: we had four number ones off that first record. That's

1013
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: pretty big. Yeah. When he I did this little thing

1014
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:27,799
Speaker 1: with my staff every year where the artists come and

1015
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:31,160
Speaker 1: they just play for us, and it's very inside. There's

1016
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,600
Speaker 1: no plus ones. My wife's never been. It really bothers

1017
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:36,200
Speaker 1: her that she's never seen this special thing. But Darius

1018
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 1: came for the first time. He was new to us,

1019
00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: and he got up and did this song called Don't Think,

1020
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:45,120
Speaker 1: I Don't Think about It, and the room was in tears.

1021
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:48,760
Speaker 1: It was just in tears, and it was like, holy cow,

1022
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:51,880
Speaker 1: this is gonna be massive. And then you know, I

1023
00:52:52,680 --> 00:52:55,919
Speaker 1: did the I don't think it's strong enough. I love

1024
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:58,200
Speaker 1: that song, but I don't think it's strong enough for

1025
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 1: for a new guy who forget the fact that you're

1026
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:04,440
Speaker 1: African American. The biggest thing we're gonna have problems with

1027
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:06,799
Speaker 1: is you were the lead singer band that was so

1028
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:10,400
Speaker 1: big that you're a joke, and we've got to overcome

1029
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:12,640
Speaker 1: the joke part of it. And I don't know that

1030
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 1: this song is going to be strong enough to do that.

1031
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:17,520
Speaker 1: And he went, okay, man, and then we cut a

1032
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:20,239
Speaker 1: whole bunch more and then we came back six months

1033
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:22,080
Speaker 1: later and I said, don't kill me, but I think

1034
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:25,399
Speaker 1: we should leave with don't don't think. And he said,

1035
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:28,400
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not mad at all because because

1036
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 1: of that extra effort and that extra pressure, we made

1037
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:34,520
Speaker 1: this record so much better. We wouldn't have had these

1038
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:37,320
Speaker 1: other four songs if you didn't make me go back.

1039
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 1: So I feel less guilty about it. We have about

1040
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: five minutes left on a run through. Its something because

1041
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 1: I mean we could do this for three hours. I

1042
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:49,279
Speaker 1: feel like, Um, Eric Church, how does he not get

1043
00:53:49,320 --> 00:53:51,960
Speaker 1: nominated for Entertainer of the Year? You know, I don't know.

1044
00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:54,040
Speaker 1: I mean he doesn't does not win it. I mean,

1045
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:56,319
Speaker 1: it's all it's the same thing back. Yeah, I don't know.

1046
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:59,200
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the Entertainer of the Year at

1047
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:02,799
Speaker 1: least the TMA so Nashville centric and a c M

1048
00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,879
Speaker 1: is becoming that way too. Um. And Eric has never

1049
00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:08,440
Speaker 1: been one to play the game. He doesn't really go

1050
00:54:08,520 --> 00:54:12,719
Speaker 1: out and uh show his face and hang out at events.

1051
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:15,240
Speaker 1: And you know, he does the t J. Martell Wine

1052
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:17,920
Speaker 1: dinner because he's in the wine and he has a

1053
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 1: golf tournament on his own, but he doesn't you know, Eric,

1054
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: Eric is Eric, He's He's an artist, and he he

1055
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 1: only does what he wants to do and what he

1056
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 1: wants to respect. He and Case you're very similar in

1057
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:34,960
Speaker 1: that there's no there's no pretense whatsoever. There's no compromise

1058
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:37,479
Speaker 1: between either one of them. And I think that hurts

1059
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,759
Speaker 1: him in that sense, and he knows it. We've talked

1060
00:54:39,800 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 1: about it, and you know, he looks at me like, yeah, well,

1061
00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 1: you need to market me, you need to market me

1062
00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: around me. So but you're right, it's unbelievable, four hours

1063
00:54:51,680 --> 00:55:01,200
Speaker 1: of just killer stuff, night after night after night. Sam Hunt. Yeah,

1064
00:55:01,239 --> 00:55:07,000
Speaker 1: you know, he he's threatening to deliver new music in

1065
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:10,799
Speaker 1: two weeks. Threatening. Well, I said this because I've been

1066
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:14,600
Speaker 1: through this so many times. And you know, the truth is,

1067
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:17,719
Speaker 1: Sam had turned out to be much more of an

1068
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:22,160
Speaker 1: artist than I ever anticipated when we signed him based

1069
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:25,080
Speaker 1: on what he was doing, which was very pop and

1070
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 1: contemporary pop music influence. I thought, all right, you know,

1071
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 1: he's he's one of those guys. He's really good at it,

1072
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 1: but he's one of those guys. And but the truth is,

1073
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:37,760
Speaker 1: once he had that big success with that first record,

1074
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 1: he said several times quietly, I don't want to repeat myself.

1075
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:45,480
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the same thing again. And

1076
00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:47,960
Speaker 1: if I think that if he could make a really

1077
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,120
Speaker 1: really country record, he would do it. But I think

1078
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:54,239
Speaker 1: he's afraid to do that too, And so we'll see.

1079
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:57,960
Speaker 1: I don't know he heard he loves. I've heard a

1080
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:00,920
Speaker 1: little bit of two songs just and they're really not finished.

1081
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:04,440
Speaker 1: They're just like choruses that he's written. Um, but you know,

1082
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:07,239
Speaker 1: this is a guy who loves Diamond Rio. There's a

1083
00:56:07,239 --> 00:56:12,000
Speaker 1: guy who loves John Michael Montgomery. He knows this stuff inside. Now.

1084
00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:17,360
Speaker 1: He's not a pop music carpet bagger. He's the real deal.

1085
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:20,719
Speaker 1: He just like a lot of young people, he grew

1086
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:22,880
Speaker 1: up with a lot of influences and they they're coming

1087
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,439
Speaker 1: through And that isn't that wonderful? Isn't that what makes

1088
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:27,839
Speaker 1: this go around? And you know, I have a bunch

1089
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:29,360
Speaker 1: of friends I've been writing with him over the past

1090
00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:33,239
Speaker 1: few months. Well that's good to hear alone, you know

1091
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:35,800
Speaker 1: that's good to hear. I kind of a plane. I

1092
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:39,320
Speaker 1: went to the Grammys and I came back and I

1093
00:56:39,360 --> 00:56:41,359
Speaker 1: got on his plane and he and his wife got

1094
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:43,239
Speaker 1: on there sitting right across from me. I'm thinking, oh

1095
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:45,200
Speaker 1: my gosh, this is perfect. Would be a chance for

1096
00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:49,279
Speaker 1: me to talk to him. Immediately he falls asleep, and

1097
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:53,279
Speaker 1: then we get off the plane and we are legitimately

1098
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,400
Speaker 1: standing trying to talk to each other right off in

1099
00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:01,120
Speaker 1: the gate, and I got overrun by people, people that

1100
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 1: you know, I just didn't seen a long time. And

1101
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I'll see you downstairs by baggage,

1102
00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:11,080
Speaker 1: and we just never know. I'll end on this one.

1103
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:13,960
Speaker 1: I'm I'm doing um celebrity family food. And I took

1104
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:19,240
Speaker 1: Lauren and John party with me, so it's me. Hear

1105
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 1: a little bit about that both dear friends of mine,

1106
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 1: aren't they awesome? And we go, but John's about to

1107
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:26,600
Speaker 1: have new music finally, Yeah, and it's it's awesome. Yeah,

1108
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 1: And you talk about a guy that you know. He

1109
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:31,720
Speaker 1: he didn't want to repeat himself either, and he kept

1110
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:34,439
Speaker 1: saying all along, it's gonna be real country. I hope

1111
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:36,760
Speaker 1: you still like me. It's gonna be real country. And

1112
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 1: it is. And you know, when when when we signed him,

1113
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:42,040
Speaker 1: a lot of people in town and a lot of

1114
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:44,320
Speaker 1: people on my own staff rolled their eyes and said,

1115
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're doing here. He's so country,

1116
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:48,600
Speaker 1: it's so traditional. I don't know what you're doing and

1117
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 1: I would just smile and say that's why I did it.

1118
00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 1: And you know, I had one major radio consultants say

1119
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:56,880
Speaker 1: to me when I played him in the demos. He said,

1120
00:57:57,000 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're doing here in that guy's

1121
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 1: voice is annoying and I he said, you know it

1122
00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:04,040
Speaker 1: sounds it sounds terrible, and I said, his voice is

1123
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,000
Speaker 1: bictreason why I said, you do because you know you'll

1124
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:09,840
Speaker 1: hear him. You'll know bright away who he is. Stink. Yeah,

1125
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 1: I listen. We're out of time. I want to say thanks.

1126
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:14,280
Speaker 1: I know you got a lot of things. I tried

1127
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:16,000
Speaker 1: to google you net worth to see if I pop up,

1128
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:17,520
Speaker 1: just see how rich. If you're the richest person to

1129
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:20,280
Speaker 1: come in here, it doesn't show up. That's because I

1130
00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:25,760
Speaker 1: have no money, but the most influential person we've had

1131
00:58:25,800 --> 00:58:27,520
Speaker 1: in here. So hey, thanks for I really appreciate you

1132
00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:29,080
Speaker 1: making time to come over and do this. And we've

1133
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: threatened to get together and we still need to do that.

1134
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:33,800
Speaker 1: But you know, you're just you're too big time now.

1135
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:35,880
Speaker 1: It's hard to you get overrun anytime we go anywhere.

1136
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:38,240
Speaker 1: I'm a guy from Ohio, that is all I am.

1137
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: Episode one eight eight when Mike Dungan. Thanks Mike, you

1138
00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 1: have a D. Seven people more important than me, less important,