1
00:00:01,639 --> 00:00:07,560
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode. Pretty great episode with somebody that I

2
00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:10,680
Speaker 1: love Tracy Lawrence. First of all, he talks about why

3
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:12,680
Speaker 1: radio stations did not want to play one of his

4
00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,800
Speaker 1: biggest hits, which is interesting. Also the story of when

5
00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,840
Speaker 1: he was shot four times, and he celebrates thirty years

6
00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,880
Speaker 1: in country music. So Tracy Lawrence just in a few minutes.

7
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:26,279
Speaker 1: Top five releases This week, Hardy released a new song

8
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,680
Speaker 1: featuring Travis Denning and Josh Thompson. It's called Beer with

9
00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: My Buddies. And here's the clip of that and the

10
00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:39,360
Speaker 1: drinking and the buddies. And put a Christmas song on

11
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,960
Speaker 1: the list here. At number four, Dan and Shape put

12
00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:44,960
Speaker 1: out a new Christmas song called Officially Christmas. It's a

13
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:55,200
Speaker 1: Physic Christ. At number three, Taylor Swift released Red Taylor's version.

14
00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,360
Speaker 1: Here's a new song with Chris Stapleton called I Bet

15
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 1: You Think about Me? Done so that is hot beave

16
00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:19,959
Speaker 1: that I'm harder forget was thinking that me. Combs has

17
00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,000
Speaker 1: a new song out called Doing This, which he performed

18
00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:24,959
Speaker 1: at the c m AS and released right after the

19
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 1: show on Wednesday night. Here's the clip Coud saying a

20
00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:44,000
Speaker 1: band singing the same damn songs like Now and at

21
00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:47,720
Speaker 1: number one. Nirvana released he never Mind thirtieth Anniversary Edition.

22
00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:49,760
Speaker 1: If you're a Nirvana fan like I am or was,

23
00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,560
Speaker 1: the album itself has been remastered, which to me isn't

24
00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,200
Speaker 1: always the coolest. That just means the move some levers

25
00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,160
Speaker 1: up and down. But they've added some stuff to you know,

26
00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: some concerts from the never Mind World tour, I think

27
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,440
Speaker 1: for complete concerts. So that's pretty cool stuff you hadn't

28
00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:16,680
Speaker 1: heard yet. Here's a never before released version of Lithium.

29
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:18,639
Speaker 1: That's awesome. It's cool. Yeah, I love that hearing that

30
00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:23,000
Speaker 1: old school concert footage. That's awesome. That's cool. That's cool.

31
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:24,760
Speaker 1: Al Right, there you go. Those are my favorite releases

32
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,919
Speaker 1: this week as far as albums go. Eric Clapton has

33
00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:33,280
Speaker 1: one rise against Silk Sonic an evening with so sonic Um.

34
00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,240
Speaker 1: Other than that, that's your music, you guys, go check

35
00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:39,640
Speaker 1: it out. Tracy Lawrence coming up in a second. It's funny.

36
00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:42,040
Speaker 1: When I was walking over here, I was I was like,

37
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,120
Speaker 1: got Tracy's over, come over and talk to you. And

38
00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:45,480
Speaker 1: I started in my head as I was walking to

39
00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,840
Speaker 1: the front door, I just started going, pay me, burn me.

40
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,960
Speaker 1: It's like I can think about you and that's the

41
00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,320
Speaker 1: song that comes to my mind when I think about you.

42
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,680
Speaker 1: It's iconic song, wouldn't it was? It was a massive record,

43
00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:00,000
Speaker 1: you know. I've been blessed with a lot of number

44
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,440
Speaker 1: were ones in the business. That one only got top five,

45
00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 1: which we were talking about before you got here, because

46
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,360
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated by songs that become an artist's, you know,

47
00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: one of your career songs. But and it doesn't matter

48
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,320
Speaker 1: if it was number one now because everybody knows it

49
00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 1: and an associated with you. But that wasn't a number

50
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,239
Speaker 1: one song. Do you remember what beat it out? I

51
00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,880
Speaker 1: don't remember, you know it was. Uh. It was the

52
00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:27,600
Speaker 1: first thing that we had released when I moved over

53
00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,120
Speaker 1: to DreamWorks from Warner Brothers, So there was there was

54
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:32,600
Speaker 1: a political shuffle that had happened that whole time frame.

55
00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,840
Speaker 1: That album was actually cut on Warner Brothers and uh uh,

56
00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:39,560
Speaker 1: James Stroud was running DreamWorks at the time. Scott board

57
00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:41,680
Speaker 1: Shadow was the head of promotion. So we had our

58
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,120
Speaker 1: own deal worked out and we couldn't get Warner Broths

59
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:46,320
Speaker 1: and Brothers to release us. They wouldn't get the paperwork done.

60
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,360
Speaker 1: We waited and waited, wait, and we're trying to be patient,

61
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,360
Speaker 1: getting all the tease cross and eyes dotted and all

62
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:52,840
Speaker 1: that stuff, and then low and behold, if Ken Melons

63
00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:56,480
Speaker 1: didn't drop a single the same song and uh, then

64
00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:58,680
Speaker 1: the lawyers got involved, then it's like, okay, we're done.

65
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:00,960
Speaker 1: We've been waiting to release a single. Here here's somebody

66
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,600
Speaker 1: else has got their hands on it. So we we

67
00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,440
Speaker 1: came and got aggressive and it Uh. I think there

68
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,360
Speaker 1: was just some some things going on around DreamWorks at

69
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,720
Speaker 1: the time, and it was probably Toby that was ahead

70
00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:13,800
Speaker 1: of us that kept us from going in. But they

71
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:15,440
Speaker 1: just felt like it was time to let it go

72
00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:17,800
Speaker 1: and move on. But it but it was a massive

73
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,040
Speaker 1: hit man. That thing impacted hard. Yeah, I was gonna

74
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,920
Speaker 1: ask is it massive because it's lasted or was it

75
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:26,320
Speaker 1: massive then? And for some reason You're like, why can't

76
00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:27,920
Speaker 1: we get this the number one? Because I'm feeling it

77
00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,760
Speaker 1: when I'm playing shows. You know, Uh, it was massive

78
00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,200
Speaker 1: because it was massive, it really, and you know all

79
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,440
Speaker 1: number ones aren't aren't that way. I've had a lot

80
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,840
Speaker 1: of them that you know, they they manipulated the numbers.

81
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 1: They went in on a dying breath, some things fell

82
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 1: out at the top. Whatever the reasons were, Uh, I

83
00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,000
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think the longevity of the song

84
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:50,840
Speaker 1: needs to be determined by how far it went up

85
00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:52,920
Speaker 1: on the charts. And there's a there's a there's a

86
00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,480
Speaker 1: you know, a marquee to all that stuff too. But

87
00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,320
Speaker 1: I think the longevity of it speaks for itself. I mean,

88
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:00,880
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those songs that just connected with people.

89
00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:02,800
Speaker 1: You know, Hank. I don't think Hank Jr. Had a

90
00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:04,920
Speaker 1: number one song for years and years all that early

91
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,800
Speaker 1: stuff that was so massive for him. I mean most

92
00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,680
Speaker 1: of those were just top tens, but they impacted, they

93
00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,800
Speaker 1: left up, they left an indelible mark in people's mind.

94
00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:15,920
Speaker 1: I remember, and I didn't know at the time. As

95
00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,040
Speaker 1: a kid listening to that song, I didn't know what

96
00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:19,760
Speaker 1: a key change was. It was only later in my

97
00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,719
Speaker 1: life when I learned a bit about music to understand

98
00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:24,760
Speaker 1: what a key chain watch was and how hard it

99
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:26,360
Speaker 1: was to do. But there's a key change in paying

100
00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:30,120
Speaker 1: me at Birmingham that you do that. When listening back

101
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,200
Speaker 1: to it, I still get chill bumps because it's like

102
00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:34,240
Speaker 1: it goes to the next level when you do stup

103
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,480
Speaker 1: and what we do live. I closed the show with it,

104
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:38,200
Speaker 1: have been closing the show with it for a long time,

105
00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,239
Speaker 1: So we built this big power of pop guitar solo

106
00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: into it that just really elevates it. When you hit

107
00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,280
Speaker 1: that mod, it just who'll, you know. I think one

108
00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:48,120
Speaker 1: of the things that made that record so special too,

109
00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,440
Speaker 1: is nobody really knew what a Birmingham was. They thought,

110
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:53,040
Speaker 1: you know, you had people that thought I was talking

111
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,240
Speaker 1: about the city that I left my love in Birmingham.

112
00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:57,960
Speaker 1: You had people thought about, you know, it's a uh

113
00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:01,640
Speaker 1: whatever the area was. But what I found out later

114
00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:03,480
Speaker 1: on it maybe I didn't really even know what it

115
00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,120
Speaker 1: was until later on, But the song is actually written

116
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 1: about a house called a Birmingham. It's a style of

117
00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,160
Speaker 1: house and we've talked about that in the past before.

118
00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,960
Speaker 1: So I think the being able to interpret that song

119
00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,279
Speaker 1: and be something that anybody wanted it to be made

120
00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:19,040
Speaker 1: was one of the things that made it so special.

121
00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,240
Speaker 1: It wasn't locked into just being what it was. You

122
00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,640
Speaker 1: can interpret it many different ways, which a lot of

123
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,159
Speaker 1: great songs have. That absolutely, because what makes it great

124
00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:30,960
Speaker 1: is so many people can relate and sometimes so many

125
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,840
Speaker 1: people find their own relationship with the song. And I

126
00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:35,840
Speaker 1: think that's what this song does, Like everyone finds in

127
00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,040
Speaker 1: a relationship with this song absolutely and they make it

128
00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:41,560
Speaker 1: fit their own mental picture of what that is. Another

129
00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,440
Speaker 1: song that that was locked that for me was Texas

130
00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,680
Speaker 1: Tornado and all the things that I've had. I think

131
00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,760
Speaker 1: Texas Tornado impacted the young kids more than anything else

132
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,120
Speaker 1: that I ever did. And and the only thing that

133
00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,840
Speaker 1: I can correlate that too is how many times as

134
00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:57,800
Speaker 1: a kid did your mother say your room looks like

135
00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:00,279
Speaker 1: a tornado hit it? So I think that it had

136
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,200
Speaker 1: that perception to young kids, and they were they found

137
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:04,920
Speaker 1: a way to relate to it on a different level

138
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,560
Speaker 1: because I never saw that that that correlation when I

139
00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:10,640
Speaker 1: cut that song either. I mean, I associate you with Arkansas,

140
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:14,800
Speaker 1: but you mentioned Texas. You were born in Texas. I

141
00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:18,560
Speaker 1: was born in Atlanta, Texas, nineteen sixty eight. All my

142
00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:21,480
Speaker 1: Lawrence family lives lived in Texas, lives there. I didn't

143
00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 1: My mother remarried when I was very young, so I

144
00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:25,000
Speaker 1: didn't grow up there. But I spent all of my

145
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,680
Speaker 1: summers in Christmas holidays in Queen City, Atlanta, when I

146
00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,800
Speaker 1: was a kid growing up. Because to me, you're in Arkansas,

147
00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:32,320
Speaker 1: and when I was going back looking at You know,

148
00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:34,240
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like I know people so well that

149
00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,360
Speaker 1: I need to go back and relook at them as

150
00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 1: as a researcher. And it was like, Tracy is born

151
00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,080
Speaker 1: in Texas. I was like, he was, We'll see, I'm

152
00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:43,080
Speaker 1: I could be a little bit of an oaky too,

153
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:45,480
Speaker 1: because where I grew up in that form in Arkansas

154
00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:48,560
Speaker 1: is right in the very last little corner of the

155
00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: state of Arkansas at borders Red River cross Oak Rever River.

156
00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,080
Speaker 1: Going to Texas, Oklahoma's like seven minutes away because that's

157
00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:56,440
Speaker 1: where the beer joint was. I know it well. Uh,

158
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,840
Speaker 1: And so that architects area is what we called it.

159
00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,480
Speaker 1: So I got influences from Arkansas and Texas and Louisiana

160
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,160
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma and all that stuff r out there. So

161
00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:05,720
Speaker 1: it had its kind of own unique vibe. As a kid.

162
00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,440
Speaker 1: What were you listening to? Man, I listened to everything.

163
00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,280
Speaker 1: I remember his early back three or four years old.

164
00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:14,520
Speaker 1: You know, Glenn Campbell Variety Show was owned, So I remember,

165
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,720
Speaker 1: you know a lot of Glen Campbell stuff, a lot

166
00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,680
Speaker 1: of early Charlie Pride stuff. But I also remember listening

167
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:22,280
Speaker 1: to some pop stuff when I was a kid growing

168
00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:24,040
Speaker 1: up to just whatever things were on the radio, but

169
00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:26,680
Speaker 1: country was always Country was a foundation for me. I

170
00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,080
Speaker 1: was talking to somebody recently, and for me, you know,

171
00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:33,719
Speaker 1: being my formidable years were the nineties and so I

172
00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,800
Speaker 1: mean I turned ten and country music was the first

173
00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:38,439
Speaker 1: music to me growing up in a rural town in

174
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,959
Speaker 1: Arkansas that talked about where I was from, because no

175
00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:44,240
Speaker 1: nothing else talked about rural towns, what it was like

176
00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:48,000
Speaker 1: growing up in the South, and so I had country

177
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,360
Speaker 1: music as my base. But alternative music in the nineties

178
00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,599
Speaker 1: to me was talking about how I felt, and so

179
00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,400
Speaker 1: it was those were the two types of music that

180
00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,360
Speaker 1: you know, I listened to Kissing ninety six and let

181
00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,360
Speaker 1: Rock Bob Robbins in the morning, and then I would wish,

182
00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:04,040
Speaker 1: I want I'm not station now, so it's super cool

183
00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:05,360
Speaker 1: to be on the stage now. But then I would

184
00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,520
Speaker 1: listen to alternative music to go, okay, I have like

185
00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,120
Speaker 1: angst and country music wasn't the angst music then. But

186
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,280
Speaker 1: what was great about country music back then was you

187
00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:15,600
Speaker 1: could actually have adults sing adults songs, and so we're

188
00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:17,200
Speaker 1: now you got you know, you'd be ten and listen

189
00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:18,880
Speaker 1: to country music and relations you know, you were probably

190
00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:22,160
Speaker 1: like me even even when I was a kid, when

191
00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:26,040
Speaker 1: I would hear really sad heartbreak songs, they would they

192
00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,600
Speaker 1: would move me. I'd get emotional about it love songs

193
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:30,719
Speaker 1: and about love going wrong and your woman cheated on

194
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:32,599
Speaker 1: you and all that stuff. I've never experienced any of it,

195
00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:35,880
Speaker 1: but there was something about it that moved me inside. Now.

196
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:38,880
Speaker 1: The other really style of music that really grabbed a

197
00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:40,719
Speaker 1: hold of me that I wish that I would have

198
00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:42,679
Speaker 1: had the voice range to do that was a C

199
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,280
Speaker 1: d C and this easy top and the really early

200
00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,920
Speaker 1: trashing guitar stuff. I really got into that stuff a

201
00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:49,960
Speaker 1: lot in the mid eighties when I was in high school.

202
00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: I mean, I loved all that. That was the cruising

203
00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:55,240
Speaker 1: around music that we listened to a whole lot, Uh,

204
00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:57,319
Speaker 1: mixed in with a lot of the George Strait and

205
00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,200
Speaker 1: Bo SFAs and all that kind of stuff too. Those

206
00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,480
Speaker 1: were my two goats. What about in your house growing up?

207
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,599
Speaker 1: What was kind of put on to you that that

208
00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,440
Speaker 1: that influenced you nothing? You know, Um, my mom had

209
00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,319
Speaker 1: a record player and it had Jim Reeves stuff and

210
00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,000
Speaker 1: a little bit of old Elvis. But I didn't grow

211
00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,440
Speaker 1: up in a musical household. Uh, Daddy was just never

212
00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:19,480
Speaker 1: into it there. I remember times riding in the car

213
00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:21,480
Speaker 1: and never even listening to the radio. I mean there

214
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:22,880
Speaker 1: were times he had turned it off. He just didn't

215
00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,959
Speaker 1: want to hear it was noise to him. So I

216
00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:27,679
Speaker 1: was kind of on an island by myself as a

217
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:30,200
Speaker 1: kid growing up, just really hungry I for your music

218
00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,280
Speaker 1: and soaking it in any place that I could get it,

219
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,520
Speaker 1: and really didn't grow up around very many musicians. There

220
00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,760
Speaker 1: weren't a lot of people that played instruments around me.

221
00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:40,480
Speaker 1: Got in the band and junior high school, played trumpet

222
00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:43,240
Speaker 1: in the marching band for many years, but really just

223
00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:45,959
Speaker 1: started gravitating more guitar, country music and that kind of

224
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,319
Speaker 1: stuff as I kind of grew. But you say gravitating,

225
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:51,839
Speaker 1: like for the gravity to pull you, there has to

226
00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:54,680
Speaker 1: be some sort of influence that makes you think there's

227
00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,360
Speaker 1: a chance even the two the two for that man,

228
00:10:57,440 --> 00:10:59,440
Speaker 1: it was. It was a defining moment. Twelve years old.

229
00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,679
Speaker 1: Uh uh. I was already getting into Merle Haggard. Uh

230
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:04,599
Speaker 1: and I was starting to learn to play guitar. I

231
00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:06,400
Speaker 1: mean a lot of that early stuff, the Haggard stuff.

232
00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:08,679
Speaker 1: I had a natural voice to sing Merrole Haggard when

233
00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:10,920
Speaker 1: I was young, and and most of the songs were,

234
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:12,679
Speaker 1: you know, three or four chord things that were pretty

235
00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:14,000
Speaker 1: easy to learn to play as you were learning to

236
00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,120
Speaker 1: play guitar. And then and then George straight hit. So

237
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:21,079
Speaker 1: when George Strait came out that that Texas Hockey talk

238
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:23,600
Speaker 1: a little bit of Bob Will's influence with the twin

239
00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,199
Speaker 1: fiddle sounds, man, I fell in love with it. I

240
00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,880
Speaker 1: was done then. And really that was the time that

241
00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 1: you had the Fireman that came out. You had unwound

242
00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,040
Speaker 1: those early records. Uh, and then then the Chair came out,

243
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,400
Speaker 1: you know, and and it was so cool. When I

244
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:39,640
Speaker 1: came to Nashville, I got to write with Dean Dillon,

245
00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 1: and I got to write with Hank Cocker, and I

246
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:43,280
Speaker 1: got to spend time with those guys. So that's those

247
00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,199
Speaker 1: are pretty cool things for me as I as I

248
00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,040
Speaker 1: evolved into this place and became successful in the business,

249
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:49,280
Speaker 1: to be able to meet some of those guys that

250
00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:52,199
Speaker 1: that had such an impact on my life. Were you

251
00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:54,880
Speaker 1: a decent horn player? You know? I was first year

252
00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:57,640
Speaker 1: for a long time, awful sight reader. I didn't like

253
00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:00,040
Speaker 1: to read the music. I had a guy named a

254
00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:01,920
Speaker 1: Smith is sat next to me, so the first of

255
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,600
Speaker 1: every year. J J. Was a great reader of music,

256
00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:06,240
Speaker 1: so he would he would learn how to play it,

257
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,520
Speaker 1: and I'd figured it out and I'd smoke him bore.

258
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,840
Speaker 1: And you learned of your love, not of listening to music,

259
00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:18,560
Speaker 1: but playing music in the band. Uh. Yeah, really, but man,

260
00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:22,559
Speaker 1: country music was always there. I mean I I my

261
00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:24,839
Speaker 1: mother's told me the story. Obviously I don't remember it,

262
00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:26,839
Speaker 1: but she would tell me when I was, when I

263
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:28,520
Speaker 1: was three and four years old, that I said, I

264
00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,680
Speaker 1: look like Glenn Campbell and I sang like Charlie Bryant

265
00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:34,920
Speaker 1: to them. Were you a performer in the house at

266
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,719
Speaker 1: six seven years old? I was. It was just it

267
00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:40,319
Speaker 1: was just there. It was part of my identity, you know.

268
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 1: When I was born, Uh, my mother had uh. I

269
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 1: have an older brother and an older sister by by

270
00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:50,320
Speaker 1: our biological parents, and they divorced, and then my mother

271
00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:54,240
Speaker 1: remarried our father and UH had me. So she says

272
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:55,920
Speaker 1: that it was like the happiest time in her life,

273
00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:57,760
Speaker 1: and she spent a lot of time listening to the radio.

274
00:12:58,160 --> 00:12:59,840
Speaker 1: If I would have been born a girl, my name

275
00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,000
Speaker 1: was gonna be little readily in So I was. I

276
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,640
Speaker 1: was indoctrinated before I even hit the ground. At what

277
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:08,079
Speaker 1: age did you move to Nashville? Uh? I moved to

278
00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,320
Speaker 1: Nashville and nineteen ninety twenty three came in September of ninety.

279
00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:13,800
Speaker 1: So what did you do from high school? When you

280
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,160
Speaker 1: finished high school? Up until twenty three years old? College

281
00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:17,559
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, went to s A. U.

282
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:22,200
Speaker 1: Mual Writer's Baby, South Arkansas, went into Mascom study radio

283
00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 1: television production. Uh was there on a choir scholarship, saying

284
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,559
Speaker 1: in the coral ensemble with the blue tuch seedles and

285
00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,280
Speaker 1: smoke gets in your eyes all that stuff. Hated it,

286
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:35,119
Speaker 1: but you know, I didn't really I didn't know anybody,

287
00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,480
Speaker 1: and the smartest path to me was to at least

288
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:41,280
Speaker 1: go to college and check it out and see if

289
00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:42,920
Speaker 1: the radio was the avenue to get in because I

290
00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:45,520
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. Uh, And and I knew

291
00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:48,040
Speaker 1: that just sitting around playing vfws and stove was not

292
00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:50,240
Speaker 1: the answer. So I was just searching for a path.

293
00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:52,080
Speaker 1: Were you doing that where you're going around playing all

294
00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,839
Speaker 1: the b fws? Yeah? Uh? I started off when I

295
00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,000
Speaker 1: was fourteen. I had a sheriff's deputy that that I met.

296
00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,200
Speaker 1: I was playing a talent show at a county fair

297
00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:03,400
Speaker 1: and when I was about fourteen, and he kind of

298
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:05,200
Speaker 1: took me under his wing. He played Jerry Lee Louis

299
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:07,600
Speaker 1: style piano and his wife had seen the Patchy cline stuff.

300
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 1: And we had a jamboree hall and Derek's Arkansas. There

301
00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,040
Speaker 1: was a jamboree hall and ashdown where they had converted

302
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:17,240
Speaker 1: an old theater. There was one a guy named Buster

303
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,160
Speaker 1: Doss had one called Buster DOSses Frontier Jamboree and Mount Pleasant, Texas.

304
00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:23,520
Speaker 1: So there were there were several of them around and

305
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,040
Speaker 1: they would bring it in kind of like the with

306
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,000
Speaker 1: a the Opery type situation where you would have a

307
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,440
Speaker 1: house band, you would have the young acts that would

308
00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:30,720
Speaker 1: do a couple of songs, and then you would have

309
00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 1: a headliner that would come in and play the back

310
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 1: half of the night. And so UH that my buddy

311
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:36,480
Speaker 1: would he would come in with him and his wife

312
00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:37,800
Speaker 1: and play the show and that would go. And so

313
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:39,920
Speaker 1: that was my introduction to getting on stage playing with

314
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:44,080
Speaker 1: a band. Wound up with my first band, UH that

315
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:46,400
Speaker 1: was based out of the Light, Arkansas, which is the

316
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,560
Speaker 1: home of Glen Campbell. A lot of got guys that

317
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:50,680
Speaker 1: they were in their late thirties, early forties and stuff,

318
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:52,240
Speaker 1: and here I'm a sixteen year old kid and I'm

319
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:53,560
Speaker 1: starting to play at the v of WS and the

320
00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:55,360
Speaker 1: Elks lodges and all that kind of stuff. So that

321
00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:57,760
Speaker 1: was that was a big growth period for me where

322
00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:01,240
Speaker 1: I really started going and playing, you know, four sets

323
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:03,480
Speaker 1: a night and really having to learn to grind things

324
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,240
Speaker 1: out and finding my voice, and uh, learning which things

325
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,400
Speaker 1: which artists I could emulate. You know, there was you

326
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:12,200
Speaker 1: HADJERICKI Van Shelton's and your Head your you know, you're

327
00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,240
Speaker 1: Dwight Yoakum was and all those things were big, and

328
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,560
Speaker 1: Randy Travis was out. So a lot of those baritone

329
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,600
Speaker 1: singers were people that I really I would really try

330
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 1: to emulate everything down to the way they breathed them

331
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,320
Speaker 1: between phrases and all that stuff. And and it took

332
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 1: me getting to Nashville to really find out what my

333
00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,360
Speaker 1: true voice was. So but but that was the foundation

334
00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:32,000
Speaker 1: for all of that for me. When you're playing a

335
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,360
Speaker 1: band in your sixteen and there thirty to forty, what

336
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:37,080
Speaker 1: are you? Are you the lead singer? Are you playing

337
00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,120
Speaker 1: rhythm guitar? I was the lead singer. I sang the

338
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,880
Speaker 1: whole night. It was all me. I was an awful

339
00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:44,880
Speaker 1: guitar player, so I don't think they ever put me

340
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:46,240
Speaker 1: in the mix. But I would stand up there with

341
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,640
Speaker 1: my bangor hat on. It was about that, bigg around

342
00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,080
Speaker 1: like a broom mantle and sing all the George Straight

343
00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:52,960
Speaker 1: songs I could work up. You know, So you go

344
00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,720
Speaker 1: to college, did you did you graduate college? Or later?

345
00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,680
Speaker 1: So when you leave, did you, well, what did you pursue?

346
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:01,920
Speaker 1: Because there's still a gap between Before you moved to Nashville.

347
00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:04,560
Speaker 1: I went back to Texakana for a little bit more

348
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,160
Speaker 1: construction for a while. Uh, still playing with the same

349
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,680
Speaker 1: little band that I played with through high school musician

350
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,000
Speaker 1: changes and stuff, and I played with them through the

351
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,640
Speaker 1: first two years of college, where I'd go play on

352
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,760
Speaker 1: the weekends and stuff. To come back I was. I

353
00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:19,680
Speaker 1: had got a strange call from a band out of Louisiana.

354
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:23,160
Speaker 1: The band was called Phoenix and Uh. They invited me

355
00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,160
Speaker 1: to come start singing with them, and they were playing

356
00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,680
Speaker 1: a pretty a little bit better circuit with some bigger

357
00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,480
Speaker 1: knoightclubs and things. So I wound up moving to a

358
00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,280
Speaker 1: spring Hill, Louisiana. Lived there for a little bit from there.

359
00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:35,840
Speaker 1: I lived in Rustin for a little bit. Uh, and

360
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,880
Speaker 1: was living in Ruston in nineteen ninety prior to when

361
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,360
Speaker 1: I moved to Nashville, and I had I had re

362
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:43,840
Speaker 1: enrolled in Louisiana. I had enrolled in Louisiana Tech. I

363
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:46,440
Speaker 1: was gonna go back and finish my degree. And uh,

364
00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:48,600
Speaker 1: I was getting close to the time where I had

365
00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:50,480
Speaker 1: to make some decisions. And I and it just dawned

366
00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:52,360
Speaker 1: on me. If I if I start classes here, I'm

367
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,920
Speaker 1: gonna wind up getting married and had some kids. If

368
00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:56,800
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go, I need to go down. And I

369
00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,560
Speaker 1: packed up everything and and said, I sign arc inter Nashville.

370
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:02,680
Speaker 1: So when you get to Nashville, was it to be

371
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,680
Speaker 1: a singer? Be a songwriter? Like? What was up first

372
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,600
Speaker 1: in your your plan? Uh? You know what I did? First?

373
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,280
Speaker 1: I started hanging out at all the clubs that I

374
00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:15,160
Speaker 1: could find, where the local uh, where the songwriters hung

375
00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,080
Speaker 1: out and the road musicians played. Uh. And UH I

376
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:20,840
Speaker 1: started writing a ton of songs. That was really the

377
00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:23,560
Speaker 1: very foundation for me. But it might have happened a

378
00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:28,280
Speaker 1: really fast man. So from September of ninety I started. Uh.

379
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:31,119
Speaker 1: There were places back then were like Gabes. There was

380
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,480
Speaker 1: two clubs on Trinity Lane, Gabes in the Broken Spoke.

381
00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:35,159
Speaker 1: The Broken Spoke was in the hotel right there. I

382
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:37,680
Speaker 1: think it was Remodi in back then Gabs was a

383
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,119
Speaker 1: little center block building that was right behind it. You

384
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,400
Speaker 1: had the Rose Room that was out on Stewart's Ferry Pike,

385
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:45,520
Speaker 1: and there was another one that changed name several times

386
00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 1: that was out on Murpha'sboro Road. But I would go

387
00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:49,600
Speaker 1: hit all those places, any place that they would let

388
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:51,920
Speaker 1: me get on stage and sing, and I did that

389
00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:54,800
Speaker 1: for a few months. That led me to getting me

390
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:57,680
Speaker 1: getting invited up to play at a jamboree style place

391
00:17:57,760 --> 00:17:59,480
Speaker 1: called Live at Livy's that was all the weather and

392
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:02,960
Speaker 1: days We'll Kentucky and every Saturday night from in like

393
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,040
Speaker 1: the middle of December, and I started going up there

394
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,480
Speaker 1: and it was the same top opery situation that I

395
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:09,920
Speaker 1: started off doing, where they have you know, young kids

396
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 1: opening up to a couple of songs and then they

397
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:14,440
Speaker 1: have a headlighter. So they had there. They had the

398
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,959
Speaker 1: George Jones impersonator and the Johnny cast impersonator and all

399
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,200
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So I started going up to

400
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,639
Speaker 1: to Day's Well singing it live at Libby's on Saturday night.

401
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:26,240
Speaker 1: We'll radio station called can I say? They called it

402
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,479
Speaker 1: w b VR broadcast back in the Nashville every Saturday night,

403
00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,880
Speaker 1: So people started hearing me on the radio. Uh. There

404
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,080
Speaker 1: was a young lady that was performing on the show,

405
00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:37,600
Speaker 1: and she was working with the management group, and they

406
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:40,320
Speaker 1: had brought some executives from Atlantic Records over to see

407
00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,320
Speaker 1: her before Christmas and nineteen nine, and they liked me

408
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,040
Speaker 1: better than they liked her. The wheels started turning. In

409
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,320
Speaker 1: January of ninety one, I did a showcase of the

410
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,760
Speaker 1: Bluebird Cafe where Rick Blackburn from Atlantic Records agreed to

411
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,000
Speaker 1: sign me. In May of ninety one, the third week

412
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:55,800
Speaker 1: of May ninety one, I walked in the studio, I

413
00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,480
Speaker 1: signed my contract and I cut sticks and Stones. That's quick.

414
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,119
Speaker 1: Seven months, that's way. I mean, that's one of the quicker.

415
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,840
Speaker 1: That's as fast as I've ever heard anybody, no management,

416
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:07,399
Speaker 1: no relations. I never knocked on the door and never

417
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,399
Speaker 1: did any of it. I walked in the studio and

418
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:13,440
Speaker 1: cut ten songs, your first number one, Sticks and Stones.

419
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:15,199
Speaker 1: And I want to get to that in a second. Um,

420
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 1: when we start talking about music, but when you say

421
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 1: you moved here in ninety and so many of my friends,

422
00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,159
Speaker 1: we we kind of have like a class. Like when

423
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: I moved to town, it was all its people like

424
00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:26,720
Speaker 1: Dan and Shade, they had moved to town, and like

425
00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,320
Speaker 1: We're all new at the same time, and so I'm

426
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 1: in and I'm becoming friends with them, and none of

427
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:33,200
Speaker 1: I don't really have much going on. They don't have

428
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 1: much going on. So you kind of have all these

429
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:36,959
Speaker 1: folks that are are getting their feet wet in Nashville

430
00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,879
Speaker 1: at the same time when you moved to Nahville. Can

431
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,320
Speaker 1: you think of anyone back that was around, you know,

432
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 1: new class. There was two of them, Uh, the two

433
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,920
Speaker 1: that I was friends with actually did pretty well for themselves.

434
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,520
Speaker 1: There were quite a few of them that running the

435
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,680
Speaker 1: bars that that kind of fell off the tracks there

436
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:57,119
Speaker 1: never but Tim mcgrawl and Kenny Chesney. They did all right.

437
00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:00,199
Speaker 1: They did, Yeah, they did all right. And man, men,

438
00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,160
Speaker 1: timor still close. You know. I hadn't talked to Kenny

439
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:03,680
Speaker 1: in a while, but we were all really good friends.

440
00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 1: We ran around together a lot. Tim was already already

441
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 1: had a couple of songs out um, but they really

442
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 1: didn't have any impact. And then I got my deal.

443
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,240
Speaker 1: Sticks and Stones, Pop and Tim came out with Indian Outlaw,

444
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 1: and it was still a couple of years before before

445
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 1: Kenny hit hard. Here is Sticks and Stones. So when

446
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,120
Speaker 1: this song starts to get some traction, you're a brand

447
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:35,320
Speaker 1: new artist. I mean, is the record label like we

448
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:37,840
Speaker 1: knew it? We knew you are a guy? Like are

449
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,680
Speaker 1: you treated differently? Rick Blackburn didn't believe in that song.

450
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,600
Speaker 1: Elroy Kahanak who found me up in Days will Kentucky,

451
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:45,680
Speaker 1: believe in that song. He literally got in his car.

452
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:47,960
Speaker 1: He was the head of promotions in Atlantic and he

453
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,600
Speaker 1: would drive all over the place and bring p d's

454
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:52,080
Speaker 1: out and stick him in the car in the parking

455
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:54,400
Speaker 1: lot and make him listen to it. El Rakhne made

456
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,240
Speaker 1: that a hit. He shived it down everybody's throat. But

457
00:20:57,359 --> 00:20:59,000
Speaker 1: it was so different when it came on the radio.

458
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 1: There was nothing else it was like it. And that

459
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,760
Speaker 1: was the thing that that change in musical style when

460
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:07,680
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out and the summer of

461
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,080
Speaker 1: ninety when I was living in Louisiana, what do I

462
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: need to do? Because you got to think about all

463
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,040
Speaker 1: the stuff that would happen had that happened in eighty nine,

464
00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,960
Speaker 1: you had Alan Jackson that came out, Mark Chestnut, Vince

465
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,080
Speaker 1: gil Uh, Garth Brooks as all this new music, this

466
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,960
Speaker 1: new sound that was happening, and it was exciting back then,

467
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:25,639
Speaker 1: and I was like, I've got to go be a

468
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:27,320
Speaker 1: part of that. I've got to go be a part

469
00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 1: of it now. So when I got the shot to

470
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 1: cut my record and James Stroud and I were put

471
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,439
Speaker 1: together and all the wheel started turning on that kind

472
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:36,400
Speaker 1: of stuff. I mean, James had cut that first record

473
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 1: on Clinton Black, so I was with part of that

474
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: new sound that was making that change in country music.

475
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,399
Speaker 1: That's when the young country slogan, that whole thing just

476
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,160
Speaker 1: exploded out of Nashville. It was it was awesome time.

477
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 1: Did you get any pushback? Since your sound was different

478
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,240
Speaker 1: and every kind of different generation gets a pushback, was

479
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,160
Speaker 1: there any there? You know? I never felt it personally

480
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 1: towards me, and I know a lot of the older guys.

481
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:04,479
Speaker 1: I heard the Whalens and the Haggard grumbling underneath the surface,

482
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 1: you know that they weren't getting their played on the

483
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,960
Speaker 1: radio anymore. And there was there was not It was

484
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 1: not a there's not a love A lot of love

485
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: toward us from those guys early on. I think it

486
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,119
Speaker 1: kind of eased up as time went on. But the

487
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: one person that I never felt that from was George Jones.

488
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 1: Never uh. And you know, George and Nancy they found

489
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,359
Speaker 1: a way to embrace that change, and so they just

490
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: they gathered us all up and made us part of

491
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 1: I don't need no rocking chair and all that stuff.

492
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: And me I went on tour with Jones, so it

493
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 1: was it was. It was a great time. But George,

494
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,120
Speaker 1: they just approached it from a different perspective. But yeah,

495
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,040
Speaker 1: there was there was some pushback. But you know, these

496
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,120
Speaker 1: guys have been getting there and played for thirty plus years,

497
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, all these young kids

498
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: are coming in town. The music change and taking over,

499
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 1: and they're not getting air played anymore. They're they're a

500
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:55,879
Speaker 1: little bit better at times. It's funny you bring up

501
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: I don't need your rocking ship. I mean that to me.

502
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: I can remember singing that, and I George Jones was

503
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: a bit before me. As I got older, I started

504
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: to listen to more George Jones because I love the format.

505
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: I want to learn as much about country music as

506
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: I could. But when that song came out. I remember

507
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:12,119
Speaker 1: all you guys being on that song. I mean it

508
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: was every country superstar I could have ever imagined on

509
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 1: that song with him and and the ones of us

510
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:17,560
Speaker 1: that weren't on it. I didn't get to sing on

511
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:18,919
Speaker 1: the record, but I got to do it every now

512
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: at the conference, there were so many I was looking

513
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: at the c m as are recording this and they're

514
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,639
Speaker 1: actually tonight, But that song was nominated for a c

515
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 1: M A and it was just like seventeen people on

516
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,360
Speaker 1: that song. It was I thought it was so cool

517
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,640
Speaker 1: because every all those people love George Jones, respected George Jones.

518
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: They did, But do you know what, how could you

519
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:42,399
Speaker 1: not respect George Look at look at what he had

520
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:46,959
Speaker 1: been through. He lived alive. I mean he survived himself

521
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: and uh and and lived to a place where he

522
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: was able to still be relevant in a time where

523
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,160
Speaker 1: the music business was changing all around. And you gotta

524
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: have a lot of respect for that. That first number

525
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: one was Now were their singles that happened after that

526
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: that did not hit his heart? Six and Stones hit hard, Uh,

527
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: the couple of big ones off that record, So Sticks

528
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: and Stones, the four off that album were Sticks and Stones,

529
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: Today's Lonely Fool running behind that were number ones, and

530
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:14,960
Speaker 1: then Somebody Paints the Wall was a top five, so

531
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 1: we had three number ones on the top five. And

532
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:19,959
Speaker 1: now as we progressed into Alibis, which was my second release,

533
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,199
Speaker 1: we had four number ones off of it. But there

534
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:24,120
Speaker 1: was some friction there because I was wanting to grow.

535
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: By this time, Indian Outlaw had popped and I was

536
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,119
Speaker 1: wanting to do a heavier guitar sound, and James and

537
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 1: I were on board that. James Stroud who produced the album,

538
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,920
Speaker 1: so we were we were pushing things. Alibis was a

539
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,440
Speaker 1: massive hit. When I remember being in the studio, we

540
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,920
Speaker 1: cut Can't Break It to My Heart, which was a single,

541
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: and uh, that track was originally cut with a screaming

542
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: rock and roll guitar on it, and I thought the

543
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 1: head of the label was gonna blow us top and

544
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: he lost his mind, made us go back in and

545
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:50,439
Speaker 1: put a fiddle solo on it. There's too much rock

546
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: and roll guitar that couldn't stand it. Another song that

547
00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: was the number two air placed song of the year

548
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: called Can't Break It to My Heart, that I was

549
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: a co writer on. I thought he's gonna drop me

550
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 1: off the label because he told me not to cut it,

551
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: not cut it anyway. It's wild to hear those stories

552
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: about songs that I just associate being so freaking country.

553
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,920
Speaker 1: I mean, now I look at those and I'll play

554
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: some allibies. Here's alibis and here is Can't Break It

555
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: to My Heart. Where this is as country as I

556
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 1: could as the country of a song can be. Absolutely,

557
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: he hated this song, hated it, hated everything about it.

558
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 1: Why I have no idea because he told me not

559
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 1: to do it, and I did it, and that's why

560
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: didn't really like it. But you know, there's you know,

561
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: I always say, people ask how you know when you're

562
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 1: get in the music business, when can you push? How

563
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: do you know when to push? When you get momentum,

564
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 1: you better push because if you don't, you'll never get it.

565
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: When you get an opportunity to take advantage of a situation,

566
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: or you will never have any creative control your whole life.

567
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 1: And I took advantage of the opportunity and I pushed

568
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:53,440
Speaker 1: back a little bit, and I don't think they knew

569
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 1: quite what to do with that. And I had managers

570
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 1: that stood behind me to I wasn't out there by myself.

571
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: My manager faultify it for me. What was your reputation

572
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 1: after that? Those first two albums with College Wow? Where yeah?

573
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: You so you yeah, you're hitting it yeah. I mean

574
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 1: it's not like you came from from much so I

575
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,399
Speaker 1: mean what what what does everybody back home? Think? You know,

576
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 1: I never thought about the impact that it would have

577
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,359
Speaker 1: on my whole family, but it changed everybody. You know. Uh,

578
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 1: I'm a kid that grew up in a town of

579
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,959
Speaker 1: eleven people. I graduated in the largest class that ever

580
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: came out of the school. I think there was fifty

581
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: two of us and forty nine graduated. I mean that's

582
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: almost exactly my town people. And then and then to

583
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 1: come to Nashville and and do all the things when

584
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: nobody knew anybody here, I mean, to be able to

585
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,200
Speaker 1: do all that it affected my family, and and some

586
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: of it was you know, there's a lot of jealousy,

587
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 1: you know, all that stuff that goes on. It's it

588
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: affected their lives. It affected my brothers and sisters in

589
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But we survived it all. You know,

590
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,960
Speaker 1: did they treat you differently? Did you become I guess, celebrity?

591
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: To them. It's kind of hard not to. We grew

592
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 1: past it, but I think there's a lot of excitement

593
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: around it early on um. But you do have to

594
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 1: adapt to it, and you do have to find a

595
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: new normal, you know what I'm talking about. You have

596
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: to make it as normal as you possibly can and

597
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: push all the background noise out of the way, because

598
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: if you don't, you can't deal with your stuff, stuff

599
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: in your own mind. And you've got you've got to

600
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: get back to just being normal you and doing your

601
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: work and doing your thing and let people say what

602
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 1: they want to say. It's easier for you to do

603
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: it when you're getting on the stage and you're getting

604
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: that release and stuff at now than it is for

605
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: the people that are still living there in the same

606
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: house and the same things. To that one. I gave

607
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,200
Speaker 1: a lot of cars away, I'll say. I'll say that

608
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: I bought a lot of cars for family members. You know,

609
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 1: anything that I could do to to to there's guilt

610
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,160
Speaker 1: attached to it, you know. I struggle with that so much.

611
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: There's so much guilt, and you feel bad about being

612
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: successful and and but you you have to you have

613
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,200
Speaker 1: to make it as normal as possible. Yeah, that's that's

614
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: been a constant struggle for me. Again. I grew up

615
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: in poverty, and so you know, I go back home

616
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 1: and my talent is still impoverished, absolutely, and I try

617
00:27:58,160 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: to do as much as I can. No matter how

618
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: I do, I feel like I think I should be

619
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: doing more. I have more, why don't I keep doing?

620
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 1: And so I can never meet that. You know. What

621
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,920
Speaker 1: I did is is there came a point, uh, And

622
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: I did it for fifteen years while I would go

623
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: back home and I did a charity concert there and uh,

624
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,680
Speaker 1: in doubt, two different scholarship funds. One was for s

625
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: A U and one one of H Junior College in

626
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,400
Speaker 1: Texas County. But we put money back. We gave money

627
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: to the police department, the fire department, the town beautification committee.

628
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 1: We we've put stuff back in the town, you know,

629
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: waits in the locker room, and all the stuff for

630
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,920
Speaker 1: the football team. We did all that stuff until the

631
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: point that it just got, you know where people didn't

632
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,479
Speaker 1: want to buy tickets anymore, you know, and I had

633
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: used up all the freebees and swapouts with every friend

634
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: I had the music business. After fifteen years, and nobody

635
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: everybody wanted a free ticket. Nobody wanted to come and

636
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,480
Speaker 1: contribute back into their town anymore. It's like, you know,

637
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: I'm done here, and it comes a point in time

638
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 1: when you gotta walk away. Alabama did it from June

639
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: jam to that comes the point this time I'm done.

640
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,239
Speaker 1: I don't feel guilt anymore. It's okay. If a new

641
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: artist called you today, we'll just call him Mike Smith.

642
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: He's like, I got my first number one hit. Yeah,

643
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 1: it's like you've been through this, Tracy, Like, what would

644
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: you tell a new artist who's just starting to get

645
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:06,959
Speaker 1: some of that heat they got the first number one hit.

646
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: Everyone's like, oh, you're the guy now, Like, what what

647
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: are the the pitfalls? Did you see? Given too much

648
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: money away, you never know what tomorrow is gonna hold it.

649
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: It's not just in the music business and in the

650
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: sporting warning everything else. The best advice is get a

651
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: really good, licensed, bonded financial planner and business manager that

652
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 1: will take care of your money. Don't trust your managers,

653
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: don't trust nobody else. I agree in the world of separation,

654
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: this person does this job, this does it. You have

655
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: somebody that takes care of your money. Everybody gets paid accordingly.

656
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 1: Everybody agrees to what they're getting, but don't leave anything

657
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: out there to be taken advantage of because they will.

658
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 1: It's it's too easy to do. Um and and somebody

659
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the voice of reason to you, that

660
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 1: will make you understand it's okay to do nice things

661
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: for people, but you create figure out what you're disposable

662
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: income is and secure the rest of it because there's

663
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: no guarantees you're gonna have a tent to your career.

664
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: There's no guarantees to that for anybody. My second home

665
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: I'll ever died now the second has become. I mean

666
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: this one put a smile on my face. You know,

667
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: this is one of those songs that was not an

668
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 1: impact record. So my my manager, Wayne Edwards at the time, Uh,

669
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: Wayne was a salty old dog. Now Wayne had he

670
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: had been a fighter pilot. Supposedly, I had heard a

671
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: lot of stories. Who knows Wayne, Uh, I do know

672
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: that Wayne was a pretty heavy hitter promotion guy for

673
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: r c A. He was one of the holy people

674
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: that Elvis trusted, so he was very knowledgeable. He knew

675
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: everybody in radio. Uh. When I when he came on

676
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: board with my management team, he was working an independent

677
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: promotion account. He had an independent promotion company, so he

678
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: was doing stuff on the side. Wayne knew how to

679
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: make magic happen on the charts. I saw him take

680
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: that record from seven to one on a dying breath.

681
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 1: It was gonna die and he up. He didn't jump everything,

682
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: he killed everything in front of it, because you could

683
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: manipulate things a little bit different back then than you

684
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: do nowadays. It's not it's not easy to do that anymore.

685
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: But he knew how to make that stuff happen. You

686
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: talked about how that song wasn't one of your impact records,

687
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: but if the good die young, that's got to be one. Absolutely.

688
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: I mean a year later, I want to roll through

689
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: a couple of these here, but Texas Tornado, what your

690
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: referenced a second ago and then pays my favorite and

691
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:33,080
Speaker 1: what I think of with you most. But I think,

692
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: and I could be wrong, but I would think time

693
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: marches on, you know, Time to me artistically is the

694
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: best lyric that I ever recorded. Uh, And Bobby Braddock

695
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: is an absolute genius, and I gotta do some clarifications.

696
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: So Bobby, Bobby text me the other day and I

697
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 1: had said something you know, over the years, there's I

698
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: have a few blank spots along the way. So sometimes

699
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 1: my memory is not a accurate there's things that maybe

700
00:31:57,520 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: have evolved a little bit through the course of time.

701
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: And and I swear to God in my mind, I

702
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: remember sitting at the at the desk with Don Cook

703
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: and uh I I, for the life of me, I

704
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 1: really believe that Ronnie Dunne got his hands on this

705
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: right after I didn't try to put it on hold. Well,

706
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 1: Bobby sent me a text and he was pretty upset

707
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: about it, and he said, no, it wasn't Brooks and Dunn.

708
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: Brooks and Dunne kicks didn't like the song at all,

709
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 1: and Ronnie never heard it and it didn't get try

710
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 1: to put on hold by them. He said it was

711
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: it was uh Tim du Bois over at Arista that

712
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: had put it on for Diamond Rio and for Alan Jackson.

713
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 1: This is who it was put on hold for. So

714
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: my memory wasn't a So apologize to Bobby Braddick. This

715
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: is the first time I've had a chance to do that.

716
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 1: So I hope it goes everywhere and you hear this, Bobby,

717
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: I love you, brother, So you cut time. March or

718
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 1: as you call it, time time marches on. Well that's

719
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 1: what's on the scene, right. Um. Was that a for

720
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: sure single? You know it was for me? Um, So

721
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: that there were some things that happened through that progression

722
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: rout there. James Stroud had done the first three albums

723
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 1: that I had done, and that was Uh, Sticks and Stones,

724
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: Alibis and I sit now uh and James and I

725
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:08,400
Speaker 1: sat down and had a conversation. I said, James, I'm

726
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: here in the same musicians on everybody that you're working with.

727
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 1: He's doing mcgrawl, now, he's doing John Anderson, he's doing

728
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: you know, Clint Black and and it's like, I gotta

729
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: make a change. So we had a little bit of

730
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 1: an issue there, and I went with Don Cook. Really

731
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: like the sound and what he was cutting on Brooks

732
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: and done at the time. Uh, huge completely different section

733
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 1: of players, just really a really dug the groove he had.

734
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: And so that song came to me just because of

735
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,960
Speaker 1: that new relationship with Don, and it was really fresh

736
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: from me. I remember the thing that drove me. See

737
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 1: at that time, as as we had evolve passed Alibis

738
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: and a little friction with the label and all these

739
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: things that I really had had some strong legs underneath

740
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: me where I had control of my career. The thing

741
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: that made me cut that song specifically, the one thing

742
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: that did was Smokes a Lot of Dope because I

743
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: knew it would shock people. I knew it had shock

744
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: factor to it, and and everybody it was terrified of it.

745
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: I knew it would either be the biggest record that

746
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 1: I've ever had or kill my career. But there was

747
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 1: no in between. Were people saying, don't cut that line,

748
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: change the word? There was no. It was like we

749
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: I swung for the fence. Absolutely, And and the weird

750
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: thing about it, so if the world had a front

751
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 1: porch was on the album previous to that, and there's

752
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: a song a line in there. Uh, Granddaddy taught me

753
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 1: how to cussom how to pray. I had a couple

754
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: of radio stations that wouldn't play it because it said

755
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: the word cuss in it, not even you're not cussing. Yeah,

756
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 1: absolutely so were there stations that wouldn't play Smokes a

757
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:36,960
Speaker 1: lot of Dope? Did anyone come to you and go,

758
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: we can't do it? It was so big that couldn't

759
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: stop it. That song was That's great problem to have,

760
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: and you bet on you. Yeah, like you said, I

761
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:47,920
Speaker 1: believe in this. We're gonna take it. We're gonna just

762
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: kill swing for the fans. Man, that's awesome. Where do

763
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: you put that in your set list? Uh? It is

764
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 1: right before paint. I would think it's got to be.

765
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: It's that escalation where you're just speaking out at the

766
00:34:58,080 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: end of the night. Man, you brought hold the mic

767
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:09,839
Speaker 1: at the whole crowd. Time marches on, Yeah, marches ten

768
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 1: years later. And I get to this because you mentioned

769
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: my girl and Chesney around the same time that you

770
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,319
Speaker 1: got here. You do find out who your friends are

771
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: two thousand six. Now was this kind of a hey

772
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,839
Speaker 1: I'm back boys, bad baby. The three of us had

773
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: talked about doing something together for a long time. Um,

774
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:31,400
Speaker 1: we were just waiting for the right song to come along.

775
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:35,440
Speaker 1: And when I when I got this song from Casey Bethard,

776
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: I really hadn't thought about this being a duel or

777
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: a trio and we had to finished the song. I

778
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 1: had a finished vocal on it. I was done, and

779
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what, this lyric screams to me

780
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: that this is what we've been looking for as friends,

781
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 1: old friends, that have been talking about doing something like

782
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: this for a long time. So I just picked up

783
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: the phone, called them and send him a copy of it,

784
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:58,759
Speaker 1: and they were both like, let's do it, man, and

785
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: we got in the studio knocked it out. There was

786
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:06,560
Speaker 1: no labels involved, there was no conversation. They they really

787
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: wanted us too, But by the time anybody found out

788
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: about it was done. That's awesome. You know. As we

789
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,399
Speaker 1: talked about impact songs, I pulled a few of these

790
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 1: that if you just would have quizzed me, I would

791
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: have said, oh, yeah, these are the biggest songs ever

792
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:19,399
Speaker 1: because these are the songs that I love the most.

793
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: Stars over Texas as one of those that I'm assuming

794
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 1: when you sing this people sing it top of their lungs.

795
00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: You know. Um, this song is kind of an anomaly

796
00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 1: in my set list because it's really one of the

797
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 1: very few positive lyrics that I've ever recorded. I don't

798
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 1: do these very much. Most of my stuff is crowning

799
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,360
Speaker 1: your beer, it's cheat and love gone wrong, all that

800
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. That's the stuff I think my teeth into.

801
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: So this is a very rare thing. You know. I

802
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: never did that I swear things or any of that stuff.

803
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 1: This is the only one that I've ever done like this.

804
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: I'd imagine this was a big wedding song for a

805
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: long time, probably still is, but I would imagine like

806
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 1: this was just such a love wedding because it was

807
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 1: so lift of center for me. This is not this

808
00:36:58,239 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: is not my bread and butter. Well, why did you

809
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 1: cut it? Because I wrote it? Okay, yeah, and I

810
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:04,719
Speaker 1: and it was one of those things that it was

811
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 1: just so good you could not cut it. It was

812
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,399
Speaker 1: just a really man Paul Nelson and Larry Boone wrote

813
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,600
Speaker 1: that song I'll be a better man Better I mean,

814
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:16,040
Speaker 1: also another one, not a number one, but if you go,

815
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: let's Tracy's top ten. And I'm like, oh, for sure,

816
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,680
Speaker 1: this is an OnCore song. This this was a big one, um,

817
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,160
Speaker 1: you know. And this is a continued part of the

818
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: musical growth through that period of time. This is this

819
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 1: is my free bird man, This is the guitar playoff

820
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 1: of the m this is this is what that was

821
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,319
Speaker 1: for me, And I thought sonically it was really one

822
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: of the best sounding records I ever cut. Are you

823
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 1: now feeling an appreciation for you, your music, your style

824
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 1: unlike any other time in your life? Because people, And

825
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: I'll just use me as an example. Now I'm starting

826
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: to in this industry get some prominence, and I look

827
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 1: at what was the best, what affected me the most

828
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: to get me here, and it's people like you and

829
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,839
Speaker 1: music from you. Are you feeling this more than ever before?

830
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: You know? What really brought that into focus for me

831
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 1: is when we did an album three or three years

832
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: ago called Good Old Days, and I took a lot

833
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 1: of those hits and when the studio and Chris Young

834
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: sang on it, the good guy Young, Dustin Lynch did

835
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: Time March his own, uh, Justin Moore did Alibis with me,

836
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 1: So there was there was a lot of people that

837
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,279
Speaker 1: were on that record, and I, you know, I never

838
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 1: had really sit down and realized what an impact I'd

839
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:26,960
Speaker 1: had on a lot of the younger artists that were

840
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,359
Speaker 1: coming into town, but across the board, all of them

841
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 1: when they came in the studio and sat down, and

842
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 1: it was pretty overwhelming for me to realize that I'd

843
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 1: had that kind of impact on those kids. And since

844
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 1: that moment, I really felt an embraced from the younger

845
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: generation that's coming in. I feel it when I walk

846
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 1: in the room and I can't say that I felt

847
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: that for a long time. Do you feel it out

848
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 1: your shows too, because not only do you have your fans,

849
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,279
Speaker 1: but like the kids of your fans who now have

850
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,840
Speaker 1: an appreciation not because of their parents, but because that

851
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,840
Speaker 1: sound from the nineties early two thousands is like the

852
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,759
Speaker 1: sound again. I feel like it is. I feel like

853
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: people are they're rediscovering it again, and it's it's I've

854
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 1: said this for a long time that I felt like

855
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 1: the bulk of the music from the nineties and from

856
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,360
Speaker 1: that era that was gonna be our classic rock that

857
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: gets replayed for a long, long, long, long, long long time. Uh.

858
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:22,800
Speaker 1: And a lot of it is because the sonic sonically,

859
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 1: the way that it sounds when it's played on the radio.

860
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 1: But I do, I do feel that from a lot

861
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 1: of younger people, and they have access to so much stuff,

862
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 1: you know, because if they if if they grew up

863
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: love and haint me of Birmingham and they really didn't

864
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,719
Speaker 1: hear any other stuff from me through that period of time,

865
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,760
Speaker 1: they all they got just go on Spotify or Pandora

866
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:42,239
Speaker 1: or whatever, and that's all right there and go to

867
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 1: YouTube and you can find at all. And I think

868
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: being able to have that instant access to not only

869
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:49,320
Speaker 1: know what the hits were, but be able to go

870
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: through and find the stuff that you like that maybe

871
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 1: you never found its way to radio. And I mean

872
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: I get requests for things that I've never even worked

873
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,279
Speaker 1: up with the band before. So there's stuff that people

874
00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:01,720
Speaker 1: are funding and and I think that's pretty cool. Spotify

875
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,160
Speaker 1: had put out some data showing what people listen to

876
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: most when they listen to country. In nineties, country was

877
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: their biggest absolutely, I believe you know. The other thing

878
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 1: that I've noticed from our production standpoint too, and you

879
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:14,880
Speaker 1: you probably know this too being in radio, because you

880
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 1: can hear how things line up. It's like sonically things

881
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 1: things work contin your groupings. So you'd go through the

882
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: early eighties all the way through about eighty eight, and

883
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: then you had your Garth Brooks era that kind of

884
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 1: changed everything, and that went through about right in through there.

885
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,919
Speaker 1: And what happened as the recording techniques changed. The first

886
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,319
Speaker 1: album that I recorded was recorded on a twenty four

887
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 1: track analog machine, the next one was on forty eight

888
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 1: did and then we started moving into pro tools and

889
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 1: hard drives and all that kind of stuff. So as

890
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: we phase tape out. You're able to sonically push those

891
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: sounds up if you listen to how much verb and

892
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: how much looser things are miked with the recording recording process.

893
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 1: Every ten years, it gets a little tighter, it gets

894
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 1: a little more compressed, it gets shoved up in your

895
00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 1: face a little bit. That's why the stuff from right now,

896
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,319
Speaker 1: if you're all contemporary music on a format right now,

897
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 1: it's really hard to go back and play an oldmoral

898
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: song because sonically it doesn't fit. Even if you love

899
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 1: the song and it's got its time and place, you

900
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:11,279
Speaker 1: just can't get it loud enough to sit in the

901
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:12,800
Speaker 1: pocket in the right place. You know what. I do

902
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about, because there are times and

903
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 1: don't even playing because I have pretty much freedom to

904
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:18,839
Speaker 1: do what I want at this point, and I'll play

905
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: some old Johnny Cash stuff on the air, even like

906
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 1: get rhythm right, good rhythm. And as much as I

907
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:25,839
Speaker 1: love the song, if I'm playing it up against other

908
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 1: songs every it doesn't. It lacks the it does like

909
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,239
Speaker 1: the sound, then it almost diminishes the record. And then

910
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 1: if you overcompress it then it loses something too, because

911
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:39,719
Speaker 1: it's it's not it's not the way that it was

912
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 1: meant to be played. But that's why, that's why I

913
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:46,760
Speaker 1: really have pondered on how music evolves and the stages

914
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 1: that it takes, as as some artists get phased out,

915
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:51,440
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a natural,

916
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,359
Speaker 1: natural part of the evolution of music getting phased out

917
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: the gold things that sonically stay in play. Sometimes a

918
00:41:57,160 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: gold song stays there because it just sounds better though

919
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 1: the cat rest the catalog. We all we understand that.

920
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: But it's it's a fascinating thing to ponder on watching

921
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 1: the musical evolution of the industry. Who did you see

922
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 1: come in after you? Because you know when you and

923
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: you you mentioned the young guns of country come in

924
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 1: and the older guys went, oh, man, this is not

925
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 1: what we're doing. It's it's a bit different. Who did

926
00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: you see come in as an artist after you? And

927
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 1: you went, Wow, that's not what we're doing. It's a

928
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 1: bit different, and they just they really killed it. Freaking

929
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,440
Speaker 1: Urban man. Keith Urban was the bomb. And still like

930
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 1: him a lot man, but he was I remember that

931
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: first record on the Ranch that came out. I just

932
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 1: I thought he was bad at the bottle man and

933
00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 1: I really dug his sound, and I really enjoyed watching

934
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 1: his evolution and uh Alden too. All Dan has got

935
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 1: a great sound. I really like Michael Knox's productions and

936
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 1: what he's done with them, but there's been a handful

937
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,640
Speaker 1: of them. Uh. It's but I tend to lean into

938
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 1: the wind a little bit. I like the more aggressive stuff,

939
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,040
Speaker 1: not the sappy pop stuff, the more heavy rock and

940
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: real guitar stuff that's just in your face hindsight. Volume

941
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,280
Speaker 1: to Price of Fame out now, it's been out since August.

942
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:09,040
Speaker 1: What month we I don't know a month right now,

943
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: we're in November. So I want to play a couple

944
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:17,800
Speaker 1: of clips here. So let's do from Volume to a

945
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: Price of Fame with Eddie Montgomery. Expensive. You're gonna play

946
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:39,879
Speaker 1: this game everything? How do you and Eddie get together

947
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 1: for this song? You know? I I co wrote that

948
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:48,320
Speaker 1: song and about uh two thousand thirteen something like that.

949
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 1: It was before I changed management companies. So I wrote

950
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:53,560
Speaker 1: that with Rick Huckaby, who I've been working with off

951
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,279
Speaker 1: and over years, and Brad Arnold from Three Doors Down.

952
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: I love Brad, He's my buddy mane uh and uh

953
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 1: we had had that same setting in the can for

954
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 1: a while. And and uh uh. When we got done

955
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: with the Volume one, which was all new stuff, and

956
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,120
Speaker 1: we were kind of figuring out what the next stage

957
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 1: of the whole trilogy was that we were working on,

958
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 1: we decided we were gonna do five old remakes and

959
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: then five new songs. Uh And as I was looking

960
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: at what I had, stuff that I had written, and

961
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 1: where we wanted to take it, Eddie and I've been

962
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 1: friends a long time and and this song is about

963
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,320
Speaker 1: sacrifice and things that we lose in the business. Not

964
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:29,400
Speaker 1: whining about that kind of stuff, but we all do

965
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,080
Speaker 1: make some sacrifices. You give, you give a PC stuff

966
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:33,640
Speaker 1: along the way. With some of this you have to

967
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: make sacrifices, um and some of them are pretty painful,

968
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 1: you know. And and knowing that you just the personal

969
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: loss that he's been through. I mean, when Troy died,

970
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 1: it it jerked the rug guy from under him. And

971
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:47,400
Speaker 1: you know, I know a lot of his personal issues too,

972
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 1: And I just didn't think there was anybody that could

973
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 1: sink his teeth into that song with Eddie. Could Another

974
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: song I liked from from this project was Tracy Bird

975
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: Holes in the Wall. I pulled this one. Yeah, they're

976
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,839
Speaker 1: all gone. There have only been a couple of songs

977
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,719
Speaker 1: that you've like, like, smiled right when I when I

978
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 1: mentioned this is one of them, lit up a little bit.

979
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:15,880
Speaker 1: I'm doing this in the show Man. I love the

980
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,680
Speaker 1: hockey talk stuff. Man, It's uh, I've always liked it

981
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,600
Speaker 1: since I was a kid. It just it makes me happy,

982
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:25,520
Speaker 1: even if even and that's what people don't understand about

983
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: country people that really don't get into it. Just because

984
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,279
Speaker 1: it's a sad lyric and it's talking about bad things

985
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,000
Speaker 1: that go into your life doesn't doesn't mean it's not

986
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: supposed to make you happy. Because it does. That song

987
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,279
Speaker 1: brings a smile to my face. I was reading too

988
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:40,839
Speaker 1: that in January you have more music coming out Volume three.

989
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 1: So the whole premise of this thing, with the headlines

990
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 1: Hindsight Collection, this is my This year is my thirtieth anniversary.

991
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 1: In May of this year, it would have been thirty

992
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,720
Speaker 1: years since I cut Sticks and Stones. So we decided

993
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: that to commemorate that, we wanted to do three albums,

994
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: ten songs a piece, three volumes to commemorate the whole thing.

995
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 1: Volume three would have been out the first of this month.

996
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 1: But we had some COVID issues back in September and

997
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: I could get in the studio to finish vocals, and

998
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 1: then we got kicked out of the distribution release cycle.

999
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,400
Speaker 1: So now I think the official release date is now

1000
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:13,120
Speaker 1: the twenty eighth of January for the third album. Whenever,

1001
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 1: I was just kind of looking at some of the

1002
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,240
Speaker 1: stuff that we had done on uh, like my National

1003
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 1: Countdown back from Volume one. We had Lonely one on one, right,

1004
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: we played this, so yeah, we did yeah, yeah, But

1005
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 1: I was thinking, I was like, I know, I played

1006
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:29,359
Speaker 1: something from Volume one on like the National Countdown show.

1007
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:30,640
Speaker 1: Let me shut up and play a little bit of

1008
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 1: this for for people that slow. I mean, you still

1009
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:37,560
Speaker 1: got it. It's a good record, but you still got

1010
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 1: that voice like that, that same Tracy Lawrence like like texture,

1011
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 1: like you haven't still I feel like you haven't lost it.

1012
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: I still love it. How is how is your like

1013
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,680
Speaker 1: physical voice these right now? My physical voice is struggling.

1014
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,120
Speaker 1: And we we went from doing nothing last year to

1015
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 1: doing you know, instead of going back and doing a

1016
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,799
Speaker 1: couple of days, normal normal work days, normal work weeks,

1017
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:02,240
Speaker 1: I went to doing three and full. I had thirteen

1018
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:05,840
Speaker 1: shows in October two golf tournaments that I had to

1019
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:10,280
Speaker 1: sing at, a UH television special with Lee Greenwood and Huntsville,

1020
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:12,919
Speaker 1: and a political rally for a senator here in the state.

1021
00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:16,239
Speaker 1: At seventeen events, and I was cried and I'm saying

1022
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 1: it every one of them, and uh, I saw him.

1023
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:20,399
Speaker 1: I'm kind of the place where I feel like I'm

1024
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,200
Speaker 1: just going to hold you know, I'm just trying to

1025
00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:23,440
Speaker 1: get through the end of the year. Right now, I'm

1026
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:25,719
Speaker 1: pretty burnt. You get a little breakdown, thanks you hav

1027
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: Christmas or now. Uh, the week I'm taking after I'd

1028
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 1: get done with my charity event at the Nastural Rescue

1029
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 1: Mission the week of Thanksgiving, I'm taking the weekend off

1030
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: and do some stuff with the family. And uh then

1031
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,200
Speaker 1: I only had like five days in jail. Taking the

1032
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:39,839
Speaker 1: weekend off. He's like, I have no voice, but I'm

1033
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:43,880
Speaker 1: gonna take two whole days. A couple of you mentioned

1034
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 1: with the Nashville Rescue, which is something that people just

1035
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:48,800
Speaker 1: beloved drown here because of of what you do with

1036
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:51,000
Speaker 1: the you know, with with feed and folks. How did

1037
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:54,000
Speaker 1: how did that start with you? That started with me

1038
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,400
Speaker 1: and a few buddies frying turkeys in the parking lot

1039
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: of the house. Uh and UH and offering that service

1040
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 1: up to old people of the church or people that

1041
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,480
Speaker 1: were scared of frying and everything. Sometimes we get up Thanksgiving,

1042
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: we might cook twenty turkeys and wrap them up and

1043
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:10,839
Speaker 1: and go deliver them and do that kind of thing,

1044
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, this would be a great

1045
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: thing to do with the Mission. I've always wanted to

1046
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 1: do something for them. I've always felt a connection. And

1047
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:18,920
Speaker 1: after that year, I think, I think this is our

1048
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: sixteenth year. So I reached out to the people at

1049
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 1: the Rescue Mission. I said, I've got this idea. We'd

1050
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:26,680
Speaker 1: like to try this, and they said, sure, come on.

1051
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:28,440
Speaker 1: So I the first year that we did it, we

1052
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:31,320
Speaker 1: buried propane tanks from the folks at church I was

1053
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:34,720
Speaker 1: going to at the time, and everybody brought their own friars,

1054
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 1: and we we got people to donate as many turkeys

1055
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 1: as we could not I think we cooked a hundred

1056
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: turkeys or something like that. And then the next year

1057
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 1: we started picking up sponsorship, and then we got friars donated,

1058
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:45,880
Speaker 1: and then all this stuff kind of ballooned into this

1059
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:49,640
Speaker 1: thing that we do now. It is UH and Uh,

1060
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:53,680
Speaker 1: So it's uh. We we cook all that they can store,

1061
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 1: and so we could cook a lot more, but usually

1062
00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 1: we get to about five hundreds or so, and they

1063
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,200
Speaker 1: don't have the refrigeration capacity to keep more than that,

1064
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 1: so they'll deemon everything and feed it throughout the week.

1065
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 1: But we've we've got got some plans to grow a

1066
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:08,400
Speaker 1: little bit more locally next year. I want to do

1067
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:10,799
Speaker 1: more stuff with more outreach programs locally and be able

1068
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 1: to affect more people. I was talking with a friend.

1069
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 1: I said, Hey, Tracy Lawrence coming over, and he was like,

1070
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:19,640
Speaker 1: ask him about the time he was shot. Now, some

1071
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:21,759
Speaker 1: people in my life that have been shot don't like

1072
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:25,000
Speaker 1: talking about when they were shot. It's uh, it was

1073
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:27,719
Speaker 1: a tough time in my life that happened. The uh

1074
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: may have not even one. I just finished the background

1075
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:32,680
Speaker 1: vocals on the last track on the album, and I

1076
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 1: had a friend of mine that came in town that

1077
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: I'd grown up with a young lady that I graduated

1078
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 1: high school with a completely platonic relationship, and she was

1079
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 1: excited she was coming through to go see some other

1080
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:44,440
Speaker 1: folks who graduated with that lived in Indiana, and so

1081
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:46,320
Speaker 1: she stayed a couple of Nights came to the studio.

1082
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:47,839
Speaker 1: We went out. I took her some of the bars

1083
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 1: and stuff that I liked a frequent when we had

1084
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:50,879
Speaker 1: a couple of beers and I was taking her back

1085
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,439
Speaker 1: to drop her off her a hotel opened the door

1086
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: and had a pistol stuck in my face and uh,

1087
00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: they were trying to force us up to her room.

1088
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:01,759
Speaker 1: They were going to do and imagine what And I

1089
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:03,840
Speaker 1: was able to fight him off, and she ran to

1090
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:05,720
Speaker 1: the front of the hotel and an empty two pistols

1091
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: on me. I've had a gun into my head. I

1092
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 1: wasn't literal you were shot. I thank god I wasn't shot.

1093
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:14,800
Speaker 1: I remember that I got pistol with I didn't feel it.

1094
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 1: You know, they had a gun to my head and

1095
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: they're like I couldn't rember pen number, like I blanked

1096
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 1: out where I was like, I don't know my pen

1097
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:23,320
Speaker 1: number to get in the A T M. And so

1098
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:24,960
Speaker 1: they pistol at me, and I was like, I don't

1099
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,239
Speaker 1: feel that, and I was just praying, like please don't

1100
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,279
Speaker 1: pull the trigger. But because I don't remember it or

1101
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 1: didn't feel it, did you feel when you got shot.

1102
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 1: I didn't feel the initial impact but what I do

1103
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,359
Speaker 1: remember is that they shot the worst of it. I got.

1104
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 1: I grabbed the pistol with my left hand. The guy

1105
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 1: was right behind me, and I grabbed the gun and

1106
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:47,000
Speaker 1: it went off and shot my finger and then uh

1107
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:49,560
Speaker 1: so I hit him in the mouth. The other people

1108
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 1: came back on me. She took off run to the front,

1109
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,200
Speaker 1: and they got hit in the hip, which I still

1110
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:55,839
Speaker 1: carry a bullet there. I got hit in the upper

1111
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,160
Speaker 1: right arm and they shot me right through the left knee,

1112
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:00,920
Speaker 1: right through the joint went from the outside of the

1113
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,919
Speaker 1: leg all the way through. So I had three three

1114
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,719
Speaker 1: surgeries and wound up having to have a totally replacement

1115
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:09,160
Speaker 1: in two thousand sixteen. So this is one though this

1116
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:13,920
Speaker 1: was May of ninety one. This happened before you. I

1117
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 1: mean it was it was a random thing. But I know,

1118
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: but I'm saying you went through. You then got to

1119
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 1: have major success after you were shot multiple times, like

1120
00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:25,400
Speaker 1: you toured after you had to go through all of this.

1121
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:27,880
Speaker 1: And the bad thing about it, you know what, uh

1122
00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:31,920
Speaker 1: you know how how fragile a launch is, and and

1123
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:34,359
Speaker 1: if you've got the priority of anybody at a record

1124
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 1: label or the powers that be, you better capitalize on

1125
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 1: your opportunity while you have that moment, because they're gonna

1126
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:40,760
Speaker 1: move on to the next flavor of the month pretty

1127
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:42,800
Speaker 1: quick if you don't hit or get something rolling. So

1128
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:45,840
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm getting ready and dropped my first record.

1129
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 1: I got all this momentum, all this belief around me,

1130
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 1: and here I am. I can't even freaking walk. That's

1131
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 1: my point. And I'm and I'm like, I'm mad. I'm

1132
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:54,680
Speaker 1: mad that that I'm about to lose my slot and

1133
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 1: if I don't come back quick. So I never took

1134
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:00,719
Speaker 1: care of my mental health. I didn't rehab properly. I

1135
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 1: had a lot of physical issues with it that have

1136
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:05,239
Speaker 1: that have plagued me for years and years and years

1137
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: that I still struggle with this day. But I knew

1138
00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:09,319
Speaker 1: that if I didn't get out of that hospital bed

1139
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:10,880
Speaker 1: and get back on the bus as fast as I

1140
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,000
Speaker 1: couldn't start working that first album, that I'd lose my

1141
00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: shot and I probably wouldn't get another shot. And that

1142
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:17,920
Speaker 1: was my point with you toward like you had success,

1143
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: you probably went back too early. If you pull up

1144
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 1: the Sticks and Stones album cover, I don't know if

1145
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:24,520
Speaker 1: y'all have, but if you look at the back shot.

1146
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:27,840
Speaker 1: I'm in a pair of red acid wash jeans, and

1147
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: you can tell how skinny I am. I lost so

1148
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:32,400
Speaker 1: much weight through that because I was in hospital bit

1149
00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:35,080
Speaker 1: for a while. Uh. And they literally we we did

1150
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:36,920
Speaker 1: a photo shoot for that album, part of what was

1151
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:39,759
Speaker 1: done out at Percy Priests, and I'm I'm actually bent

1152
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:42,239
Speaker 1: down on a rock and they had to carry me

1153
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: out there because I couldn't walk on that left legs,

1154
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:46,319
Speaker 1: so they literally I literally got on the guy's back

1155
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:47,680
Speaker 1: and he carried me out there and set me on

1156
00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 1: that rock. And I can't bend my knees. So you

1157
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: can tell by the way I'm sitting that that that

1158
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 1: knee is. I mean, it's it's probably as big as

1159
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:56,839
Speaker 1: a candle opened that photo too. But I had lost

1160
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,319
Speaker 1: so much weight through that period. I really I really

1161
00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 1: needed to take six months before I got out there

1162
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 1: and started doing what I did. And how much you take?

1163
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:07,160
Speaker 1: Oh so uh that would have happened in May. I

1164
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: think I was probably on the road July August, wild stupid,

1165
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:15,919
Speaker 1: but but I didn't have a choice, you know here,

1166
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:19,839
Speaker 1: I mean I had to just wild it too much

1167
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:22,600
Speaker 1: because it's not like you can go half throttle either. No,

1168
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 1: that single dropped in August six and Stones dropped in August,

1169
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:29,960
Speaker 1: so I had to was that a big story? Then

1170
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: they used it, the label used it for everything that

1171
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:36,000
Speaker 1: could squeeze out of it because it it just gave

1172
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:38,239
Speaker 1: us something to talk about. I didn't want to do it,

1173
00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:40,880
Speaker 1: but I didn't have any control over it. Uh. But

1174
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: you know, who who's to say? Would would they have

1175
00:53:43,719 --> 00:53:46,960
Speaker 1: been able to launch my career without that nugget? I

1176
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:51,400
Speaker 1: would have preferred not to get shot. But I got

1177
00:53:51,480 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 1: to take advantage of the opportunities you've given thirty there's

1178
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 1: volume one, two and three ten tracks per volume. What

1179
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:10,839
Speaker 1: is the key to longevity and country music? For me? Uh?

1180
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:14,600
Speaker 1: It continues to be passion because if I didn't still

1181
00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:16,520
Speaker 1: care about it, I don't. I don't think I could

1182
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 1: deal with the grind of it because it older, you

1183
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 1: get the herders and and uh and somewhere in the

1184
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,120
Speaker 1: very near feature, I'm gonna have to start slowing down

1185
00:54:24,160 --> 00:54:25,920
Speaker 1: to some degree because I've been grinding it out for

1186
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:28,560
Speaker 1: a long time. Back in the day when you were

1187
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 1: doing interviews, did you have to pull over to a

1188
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:32,280
Speaker 1: pay phone to do an interview with the radio station?

1189
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:36,200
Speaker 1: You know? Back then we went to the stations. When

1190
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:38,759
Speaker 1: we did showcases back then, they weren't like what they

1191
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 1: are now. We would actually before Elliott Spitzer stuck his

1192
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: nose in it, we we would actually build I did

1193
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: four showcases that launched my career. I did one in Atlanta,

1194
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 1: I did one in Marina del Rey, I didn't want

1195
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:52,200
Speaker 1: in Dallas, and I did one in New York City.

1196
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:55,240
Speaker 1: And so you would do those regional things where each person,

1197
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:58,000
Speaker 1: each each reasonal promotion person would set that up and

1198
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:00,120
Speaker 1: you would deal banquet hall or whatever. The in the

1199
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,160
Speaker 1: New York was at Radio City Music Hall, so they

1200
00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 1: would fly all the radio people in, put them up

1201
00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:08,719
Speaker 1: at a hotel, feed them, drink them. You do a showcase,

1202
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:10,840
Speaker 1: they're usually at least two acts from the label on

1203
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:12,600
Speaker 1: the bill, and they would come out and they would

1204
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:14,439
Speaker 1: work those folks to get them to the p ds

1205
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 1: and and all these So you worked a region at

1206
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:18,920
Speaker 1: a time instead of having to go to every individual

1207
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 1: station like we do now. So radio tour back then

1208
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,359
Speaker 1: was you go to the hubs and the station's come

1209
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 1: to you because they made it appealing to the stations

1210
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,400
Speaker 1: because it's like, hey, we're gonna be a vacation basically absolutely,

1211
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 1: and then you would do follow ups. You would go

1212
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: do some station visits and stuff. But you were able

1213
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,840
Speaker 1: to get everybody together and create that festive atmosphere and

1214
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:40,239
Speaker 1: and you do your show and they you liked here

1215
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:41,759
Speaker 1: or they didn't. You ever go back to the Blue

1216
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 1: Burning play. Uh. You know, it's been a while, but

1217
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,840
Speaker 1: the last thing I did there, Uh, I've done some

1218
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 1: acoustic shows there. We were talking about doing um uh

1219
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,800
Speaker 1: the Price of Fame, a video for the Price of

1220
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 1: Fame there with me and Eddie doing it, and we

1221
00:55:56,560 --> 00:55:58,360
Speaker 1: just couldn't get the time frame worked out. We just

1222
00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:00,400
Speaker 1: couldn't get it all squeezed in. But I thought it

1223
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 1: would have been real cool to do part of this,

1224
00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:06,160
Speaker 1: this this memory collection of all that in that place.

1225
00:56:06,520 --> 00:56:08,320
Speaker 1: How hard has it been to start your own label

1226
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: and manage that? You know? Friends was on my own label.

1227
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:20,759
Speaker 1: That was after after DreamWorks merged with Universal. I had

1228
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:23,239
Speaker 1: a couple of records there and then I got off

1229
00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:26,160
Speaker 1: of that. So when I got Friends to number one,

1230
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:27,800
Speaker 1: that was that was on my own label. That was

1231
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:30,680
Speaker 1: the first single on my own imprint. Uh. And it

1232
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:33,799
Speaker 1: was what I thought was very expensive at that time. Uh.

1233
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:35,880
Speaker 1: Now it's about three times the cost to work a

1234
00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:39,640
Speaker 1: single radio and it's almost impossible as an independent label

1235
00:56:39,680 --> 00:56:42,400
Speaker 1: without an in house promotion staff. And I know that's

1236
00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:44,799
Speaker 1: hard to explain to people, but just trying to hire

1237
00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:47,799
Speaker 1: a staff to do it and outside promotion staff it's

1238
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 1: very expensive. Uh. Radio stations really want you to have

1239
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 1: an in house promotion staff, but to do that, you

1240
00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 1: gotta have three or four acts because you gotta spread

1241
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:58,160
Speaker 1: that recruitment around a little bit or financially absolutely impossible

1242
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 1: to make it work. And I never did the resources

1243
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:02,880
Speaker 1: to put that whole kind of thing together. So you know,

1244
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:05,360
Speaker 1: but we have tools out there now. We've got a

1245
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:07,120
Speaker 1: lot of great streaming platforms and get a lot of

1246
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:09,239
Speaker 1: love from YouTube and all the all the things that

1247
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,800
Speaker 1: we're able to do without working mainstream ready or have

1248
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 1: been very useful tools for me. You know. I said, hey,

1249
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:16,840
Speaker 1: we should say his voice and I keep it for

1250
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 1: an hour. We notice how this man I just can't.

1251
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: I just have so much. Okay, here's what I'm gonna say.

1252
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:25,800
Speaker 1: Volume one and two are out now. Volume three is

1253
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:29,080
Speaker 1: that January, we know for sure, Jane, and the title

1254
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:32,080
Speaker 1: of it is called Angelina and why uh it was

1255
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:34,320
Speaker 1: one of the coolest things I found. It's a the

1256
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 1: The opening line is our mama was a Mississippi roller

1257
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:39,800
Speaker 1: Debbie Queen and her daddy learned to hustle down in

1258
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,320
Speaker 1: New Orleans. So it's a it's just a straight ahead

1259
00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 1: hockey talk song. Pretty cool track. Volume one, Volume two

1260
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 1: are out, Volume three out January. You can follow the

1261
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:52,560
Speaker 1: real Tracy Lawrence. I was following the fake Tased Lawrence

1262
00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:55,160
Speaker 1: for a while, just not the same. Guy's a real tool,

1263
00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 1: you know, man, I get it seems like every week

1264
00:57:57,640 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: somebody that I know send to me this is this.

1265
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:01,919
Speaker 1: Really you gotta stop these people, man. They're they're they're

1266
00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:03,880
Speaker 1: cutting thirty heads a week trying to get these people.

1267
00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 1: But you can't stop him. Man, It's just constant. The

1268
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:09,600
Speaker 1: real Tracy Lawrence. Uh, he's busy. He's only got a

1269
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:12,000
Speaker 1: weekend off. Basically, he's got a hit completely hill on

1270
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:14,280
Speaker 1: a weekend. But he's done. He's done bigger than he's

1271
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: done bigger. He got shot and he was on the

1272
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 1: road a day later. Tracy, good to talk to you, man.

1273
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:21,800
Speaker 1: Just keep killing it. You know, so much respect from

1274
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 1: me to you. And if it wasn't for guys like

1275
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:26,560
Speaker 1: you guys like me wouldn't be in this business. Now

1276
00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 1: I appreciate. So yeah, just a massive fan there is.

1277
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,080
Speaker 1: You guys go follow at the real Tracy Lawrence. Volume

1278
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: one and two are out now, Volume three comes out January.

1279
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:35,800
Speaker 1: All right, there we go,