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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, episode three seventies seven. John Esposito referred

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Speaker 1: to his es BO. He's the head of Warner Music Nashville.

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Speaker 1: Big record label, cool record label, very successful record label,

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Speaker 1: especially since he took over. You could tell from this, Mike,

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Speaker 1: I have a long relationship with ESPO. With John, however

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Speaker 1: you want to refer to him, he was one of

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Speaker 1: the first people when I moved to town, and that

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Speaker 1: feels like ages ago, but also feels like yesterday to go, oh,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have some trouble here because you're different. But

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Speaker 1: he's also way different too, and that's how he knew that.

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Speaker 1: So I always appreciate him because I didn't know who

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Speaker 1: to trust. I didn't know who liked me, who was

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Speaker 1: trying to get me fire to But I have a

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Speaker 1: long relationship with SPO. It was one of those where

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Speaker 1: there be times wouldn't talk for a year, but then

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Speaker 1: we'd go back and you just feel like you never

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Speaker 1: left off. But he is retiring after a great, great career,

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Speaker 1: so I really enjoyed the talk. But also at the

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Speaker 1: end when he starts to break down each of the

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Speaker 1: artists that he signed, really cool, so many good stories

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Speaker 1: and then he talks about when he was starstruck. That's

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Speaker 1: really cool. Who he went up to a restaurant randomly.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it, mind blown.

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Speaker 1: So it's John Esposito. I think you'll like it. I

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Speaker 1: liked it, but also I like him. This is episode

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Speaker 1: three seventy seven of the Bobby Cast. Thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Here we go. I was talking to Brett, who was

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Speaker 1: one of my dearest, lifelong friends. Now I want to

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Speaker 1: say lifelong, one of my dearest friends in this stage

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Speaker 1: of my life. He feels that, Yeah, that's like he's

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Speaker 1: like my guy, right, he's uh, he's sad. Like as

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Speaker 1: close as Brett and I are. You guys haven't much

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Speaker 1: stronger longer. Uh. Your relationship has been very mentor mentee

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Speaker 1: like you found and made him and he trusted you.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's he's sad. You know I'm sad. Well,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate that. On on you saying that, I'll tell

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Speaker 1: you what it's It's pretty crazy. I've been reflecting a

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Speaker 1: lot because my last day in my office is going

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Speaker 1: to be on Friday, and you've not been to my

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Speaker 1: office us, but you've heard about my office kind of

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Speaker 1: play and it's and it's a museum and it's it's

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Speaker 1: my life. You know. You can see the Sinatra rat

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Speaker 1: pack wall, the Springsteen wall, the wall with all the

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Speaker 1: plaques of what we've accomplished during these thirteen plus years

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Speaker 1: down here, um, and many other things that are very

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Speaker 1: intriguing to me. I kind of wish I had made

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Speaker 1: the decision and announced it a week before I left,

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Speaker 1: because the number of conversations I've had to have has

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Speaker 1: has It's going to be cathartic when it happens, but

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Speaker 1: I needed to happen actually because I got to move on.

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Speaker 1: I made the decision. I have accomplished what I wanted

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Speaker 1: to accomplish. I was asked to come down and fix

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Speaker 1: a record label that was moribund and UM, and I'm

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Speaker 1: very proud of what we've done and part of the

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Speaker 1: emotion that runs through it, and there's there's much, you know.

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Speaker 1: And tonight they're having an for me at the Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame where there will be some speeches and you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to probably h do a lot of crying

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Speaker 1: because I'm an emotional guy. But Blake and and Brett

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Speaker 1: are going to fit to the top of the emotion

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Speaker 1: because there's Blake Shelton, who was getting ready to get

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Speaker 1: dropped at Warner, who you know, life changed for him.

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Speaker 1: And Brett was the first guy I signed. And when

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Speaker 1: I met Brett, I knew there was a brotherhood there that,

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Speaker 1: you know, if I were lucky enough that that bet

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Speaker 1: was right, we could have a long fun ride together.

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Speaker 1: But experienced some things together, and I'm sure he's shared

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Speaker 1: with you. He's come up, stayed at my Nantucket house

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Speaker 1: and gone fishing, and we've we've done many things together.

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Speaker 1: I don't feel I ever have a problem separating work

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Speaker 1: from play. If I have to give him a hard conversation,

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Speaker 1: I can do it because he knows it's all in love,

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Speaker 1: you know. But I also prefer that I play, you know,

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Speaker 1: because he's one of the dearest people to me in

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Speaker 1: the world. He and I both came upon, for instance,

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Speaker 1: meditation at the same time for different reasons, from different motivations. Somebody,

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Speaker 1: a doctor I have tendatus, told me I should meditate.

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking the head of Vanderbilt's tell me I should meditate,

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Speaker 1: and it will help the ringing in my ear that

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Speaker 1: legitimizes it. So let me try. You know, Brent for

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Speaker 1: um the various reasons of helping his mental health, but

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Speaker 1: the number of times we've talked about it and how

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Speaker 1: important it is as part of our life. You know,

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Speaker 1: when you have that kind of loving relationship with an

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Speaker 1: artist and you can dive deep, it makes it far

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Speaker 1: more fulfilling relationships. They're a big part of why people

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Speaker 1: love you. What you've been able to do professionally is

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Speaker 1: why people respect you. In that combination rare you have

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Speaker 1: and I just will tell him the version my story

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Speaker 1: with you. Still after I've been here almost ten years now,

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Speaker 1: I've only ever been to dinner with one executive in

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Speaker 1: the history of my life, and it's you, and we

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Speaker 1: would you know before COVID. We and it's hard, but

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Speaker 1: we tried. We try to go once a year, or

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Speaker 1: we go every ten months or then a year and

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Speaker 1: three months. But and it's hard to see people, especially

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Speaker 1: when you're executive of your stature and I'm traveling a lot.

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Speaker 1: But we we made it a priority. And I didn't

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Speaker 1: get anything from it professionally, and you didn't get anything

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Speaker 1: from it professionally, But there's always an affinity that I

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Speaker 1: had for you because when I moved here. You had

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Speaker 1: a wing, and I wouldn't say you took me under it,

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Speaker 1: because it wasn't only I needed to live under. But

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Speaker 1: you had a wing, and you said, Hey, I know

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Speaker 1: what it's like to come here where people look at

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Speaker 1: you like you're different, and because you are, but also

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Speaker 1: you came here because you know that you could provide value.

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Speaker 1: And I just remember those early talks because your experiences

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Speaker 1: before you came to country, you had done a little

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Speaker 1: to everything. And I'm so grateful for that relationship me too,

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Speaker 1: and I appreciate that, you know. I remember very specifically

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Speaker 1: we were out at the Oklahoma benefit event for raising

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Speaker 1: money for the tornado that it blown through Blake and

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Speaker 1: re but yeah, yeah, and I walked up to you,

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Speaker 1: you know, and it's just kind of how I rolled,

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Speaker 1: and I said, I'm really proud of you, and I'm

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Speaker 1: rooting for you. I want you to know that, you know,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes let's get together. And I'm probably the worst

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Speaker 1: promo person in the world because I never want to

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Speaker 1: ask for the order. I just want to talk to

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Speaker 1: people and talk about music. And so the dinners you

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Speaker 1: and I had um at that special little table at

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Speaker 1: Giovanni's there's a plug for you guys. Um um. We

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Speaker 1: never asked each other for anything. It wasn't work. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't work. We are sharing humanity. Yeah, well, I I

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Speaker 1: value that. I will always value that. And that's why

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Speaker 1: I it's it's a sadness, not that you're or moving away,

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Speaker 1: but that there's not somebody that's running that that I like.

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Speaker 1: I feel like if I need to go, hey, like Tyson,

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Speaker 1: can I tell you something? Can I have this talk

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Speaker 1: with you? This happened to me, this happened to an artist.

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Speaker 1: You know, I don't like this that's leaving. And not

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Speaker 1: that I can't form that eventually, but I felt like

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Speaker 1: we had a really strong bond there and I appreciate

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Speaker 1: and hopefully it continues. I'm not leaving Nashville, and I

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Speaker 1: haven't figured. I'm just saying I'm not. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to get weaky the whole time. God bless you. Why

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Speaker 1: you started in two thousand nine, I think when I

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Speaker 1: look back at it, and yeah, here and their label

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Speaker 1: has grown like four times the size that it was

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Speaker 1: that when when you got here? What do you think?

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Speaker 1: And this is a you question, but it's also a

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Speaker 1: question because we have a lot of new artists, and

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Speaker 1: we have a lot of people in the music business

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Speaker 1: of country country music that are early agents, early record

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Speaker 1: people that listen to this. Why do you think you

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Speaker 1: were able to do the like? What did you bring?

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Speaker 1: What vision did you have to go? I can go

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Speaker 1: do this. I'm not from there exactly, but I can

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Speaker 1: foresee how we can make changes. I do believe that

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Speaker 1: I never came here with the notion that I knew anything,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted people to know that. Obviously, I knew

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Speaker 1: something about how the music business worked. I'd worked at

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Speaker 1: Island def Jam, I'd worked at PolyGram, I had worked

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Speaker 1: running a distribution company. I knew a lot of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But the last thing they needed is the distribution guy

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Speaker 1: from New York City to come down here and pretend

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Speaker 1: he could teach them anything. So I just listened. But

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Speaker 1: the one thing I wanted everyone to be clear on

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Speaker 1: is I'm willing to outwork anybody, and I love music

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Speaker 1: on a level that's almost um unhealthy. What did they

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Speaker 1: see in you just to to want you to do it? Well?

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Speaker 1: There's one thing that I heard a lot um in

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Speaker 1: the beginning, and I hear it occasionally is the town

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Speaker 1: and they kind of referred to it as the town.

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Speaker 1: It is a unique community of music, this Nashville thing

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Speaker 1: that we work in. UM wanted Warner to come back

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Speaker 1: to life. It was not good for the town that

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a strong Warner UM. An artist manager

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Speaker 1: didn't want to have one less door to knock on

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Speaker 1: because it wasn't in good shape. So if I could

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Speaker 1: help be part of bringing Warner UH to a life

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Speaker 1: where we could break artists, it gave optionality to everybody

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Speaker 1: through the ecosystem. The publishers they wanted It's like an economy, right,

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Speaker 1: you bring a big a store, let's say a local store,

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Speaker 1: but then it's a big a lot of jobs, and

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Speaker 1: those jobs people can buy other stuff. So they needed

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Speaker 1: to help that the music economy was. They wanted more

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Speaker 1: fueling and they thought you could do it. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure some of them selfishly thought, well, they'll negotiate better

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Speaker 1: deals because somebody else is hopping in the fray and

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Speaker 1: offering a number or a term or whatever. But at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, I think what happened fairly

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Speaker 1: quickly was people realized, God, this guy is relentless. You know, UM,

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Speaker 1: I gotta hang with him. I gotta learn more about him.

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Speaker 1: And I wasn't trying to do anything but be myself.

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Speaker 1: If if I've had success in forty five years of

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Speaker 1: running businesses, it's because people I want to hop on

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Speaker 1: that train with me, because I'm a I'm a cheerleader

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Speaker 1: on a profound level, you know, and it's it's sincere.

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Speaker 1: And because I could admit to them I couldn't name

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Speaker 1: ten artists on the top fifty chart when I got here.

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Speaker 1: I really, you know, I said to the folks in

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Speaker 1: New York, I know how to run businesses, but I'm

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Speaker 1: going to have to learn all this stuff. You sure

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Speaker 1: that I'm the guy? Yeah, you get down there and

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Speaker 1: do that. Well, yeah, you'd find people. Um, Mike Dungan

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Speaker 1: wanted to help me. Joe competitors wanted to help me.

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Speaker 1: It was uncanny, you know, Ultimately they wanted to be competitors.

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Speaker 1: Troy Tomlinson wanted to help me a publisher. Um, because

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Speaker 1: it my enthusiasm begot their wanting. Man, I want this

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Speaker 1: guy to succeed. And then some stuff happened that you know,

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Speaker 1: ingratiated me to the community. The the head of the

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Speaker 1: c m A was ousted and I was asked to

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Speaker 1: run the what do you call it? The search committee

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Speaker 1: that ultimately led to us bringing in Sarah Trey Hern.

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Speaker 1: And we did such a good job with that. God

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Speaker 1: bless you, Sarah Trey Hearn. That they asked me to

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Speaker 1: be the chairman of the c m A board. And

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Speaker 1: and so I'm kind of pinching myself. A kid from

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Speaker 1: punk Stani, Pennsylvania via New York City who couldn't have

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Speaker 1: named ten artists on the chart is the head of

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Speaker 1: the c m A board five years into coming down here.

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Speaker 1: I think that people know, and this is self aggrandizing,

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Speaker 1: but I think they know. I'm sincere. I just want

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Speaker 1: good ship to happen. We allowed to curse where do

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Speaker 1: you want? Okay, that's the rules. Since the car's words

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Speaker 1: are okay, I'm closing my speech tonight. I'll give you

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Speaker 1: a preview. Is that what you have there? Your speech?

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Speaker 1: You you just know this is just some notes in

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Speaker 1: case I forgot who's signed to my label. That's funny, uh,

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Speaker 1: But by speech tonight to close this Hall of Fame event,

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Speaker 1: says you know. But when all is said and done,

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Speaker 1: you know, while I'd love to give you a great advice,

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Speaker 1: the only right, real advice I can give you is

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Speaker 1: signed great and our people and get the fucking record played. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's a two B. If you can do that,

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Speaker 1: everything else just kind of falls in and solve every

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Speaker 1: problem in the world with three minutes and thirty seconds

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Speaker 1: of magic. Whenever you talk about magic, and I say,

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Speaker 1: what magic comes to mind? And that's such a vague question.

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Speaker 1: But the three minutes and thirty seconds can be any

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Speaker 1: song that you as a head believed in quickly and

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Speaker 1: said that's it. Because again, you're a player. People to

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Speaker 1: know this too. You're when you love music. It's not

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Speaker 1: just listening like you are musical in every way. You're

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Speaker 1: not torious. People come and play with you in your office,

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Speaker 1: like after the CMA. Sorry, what what's the magic for

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Speaker 1: you that when you think that song was magic? Immediately, well,

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Speaker 1: I can tell you a few pop to my head

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Speaker 1: when you say that. And then I want to go

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Speaker 1: back to a little Blake Shelton story. But I remember

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Speaker 1: when Blake was second guessing himself, he already had number

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Speaker 1: one records and thinking, well, maybe they don't care about

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Speaker 1: me anymore. And I went to a dinner with him

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Speaker 1: and Gwen Um and you know. We both were telling him,

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Speaker 1: you know, get over that. You know people want you,

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Speaker 1: and he said, well, I got something booked for the

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Speaker 1: studio on Monday. I don't know. I just don't know,

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Speaker 1: you know anyhow, And on Thursday Walks a song called

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Speaker 1: God's Country. As soon as we heard the demo, Blake

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Speaker 1: sends me the most hilarious texts in the world, many

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Speaker 1: of which I couldn't uh but anybody ever see. Um,

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Speaker 1: But it was you know, I actually wish I could

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Speaker 1: find that one right now and share it with you,

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Speaker 1: but it would be something along the lines of ESPO.

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Speaker 1: I think I just found money, real money. And I said, okay, Scott,

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Speaker 1: send me this song. And I hear the demo of

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Speaker 1: of God's Country. There's an artist on Thursday morning, not

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Speaker 1: sure he wants to go to the studio, who puts

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Speaker 1: out the biggest song of his career that it's recorded

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Speaker 1: three days later, and you knew the magic of that song,

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Speaker 1: and you knew that he was going to deliver it.

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Speaker 1: I felt the same thing, um a lot when I

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Speaker 1: heard a demo which my buddy Dan Smires is still

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Speaker 1: piste off at me about of from the ground up,

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Speaker 1: and it was with a little drum machine and an

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Speaker 1: acoustic guitar, and you just knew that song was gonna

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Speaker 1: change people's lives. It such a resonance, such a um,

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Speaker 1: such a such an amazing message in it. I started

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Speaker 1: playing it for a few people who came in the office,

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Speaker 1: and the word got back to him, and he says,

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Speaker 1: don't you ever do that again? You know, he's he's

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Speaker 1: one of these the finished product only guys. He you know,

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Speaker 1: we're Smiers is a club super close to us, and

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Speaker 1: Caitlin and Abbey are really great friends. And Dan is

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Speaker 1: no c d guying myself everything, it's got to be

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Speaker 1: in the exact order. He's a he's a perfectionist um.

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Speaker 1: And I was telling him that you guys did such

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Speaker 1: a good job yourself, your team, Dan and Shay from

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Speaker 1: that song, because that was a graduation for them, whenever

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Speaker 1: you guys did for the ground up. Because I remember

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Speaker 1: the I still remember the visuals, and I see visuals

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Speaker 1: of everything all the time. I'm constantly inundated with new music,

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Speaker 1: new clips, new content, what about this, what about I

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Speaker 1: remember what you guys did and how you built the

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Speaker 1: that like the church, that all of it, all the

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Speaker 1: aesthetic for that song. You graduated them at that point

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Speaker 1: because you believed in that song so much, and so

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Speaker 1: as you say that, that to me was a big

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Speaker 1: point of Dan and Jay's career because they had they

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Speaker 1: did the work, and you guys believed in it so

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Speaker 1: much that you pushed it and it was massive and

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Speaker 1: it led them to the next graduation step. You've gotta

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Speaker 1: be proud of those guys. I am. I'll tell you

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Speaker 1: if anny story about Dan and Shaye. I was riding

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Speaker 1: to a studio to meet Jay Joyce, a producer of

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Speaker 1: of Very Much Notoriety here in town, and on the

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Speaker 1: way Ben Vaughan, who runs the Warner publishing company Warner Chapel, said,

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Speaker 1: I got this new song from this duo called ragtop Red.

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Speaker 1: You've gotta listen to it, and on comes UM nineteen.

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Speaker 1: You and me, I think it's damn near the finished product.

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Speaker 1: We ended up putting out. I said, ragtop Red, what's that?

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Speaker 1: He goes, You just got to meet these guys. So

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Speaker 1: the next day I had Dan and Shay in my

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Speaker 1: office and you know, you you do these auditions and

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Speaker 1: you think they're gonna lie about forty five minutes. There

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Speaker 1: are some you wish were over in ten minutes, but

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Speaker 1: you still have to be courteous, right. I never wanted

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Speaker 1: anybody they got their final moment to get there in

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Speaker 1: front of the head of a label. You know. Well,

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Speaker 1: after about ten songs, I'm looking over at Scott Hendricks,

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Speaker 1: our ahead of eight, R, A and R at the

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Speaker 1: time and ultimately the producer of eighty number one records

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Speaker 1: in this format, and I'm like nodding. He's giving me

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Speaker 1: a little nod, but you know, we've never done this before,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like on my fifth nod, and I finally said,

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Speaker 1: you guys are signing to Warner today. You're not leaving

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Speaker 1: until you're signing to Warner. Okay. I went over and

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Speaker 1: I locked the door, and I said, what do you

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Speaker 1: want to drink? It turned into six hours in my office,

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Speaker 1: them playing one smash after another, and then I realized

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a pot to piston. So I called

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Speaker 1: up my wife and said, Sean, tell but you please

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Speaker 1: cook dinner for them. Cook dinner for them five nights

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Speaker 1: in a row over in that Bell meat house, and

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Speaker 1: just said, I'm telling you I'm not letting you go

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Speaker 1: on too. You become Warner brothers artists here and you

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Speaker 1: know that thankfully it worked out. What about ragtop Red?

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Speaker 1: How did you convince them to lose? Oh yeah, I

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Speaker 1: forgot that part of the Well. Yeah, I mean a

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Speaker 1: very good name, you know. And it also doesn't represent

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Speaker 1: them top Bread, it didn't walot so too funny pieces

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Speaker 1: in this vignette. I have a Steeler's wall in my

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Speaker 1: office because I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and

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Speaker 1: Dan Smiers walks right up to and stairs at it,

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Speaker 1: and I said, you're not from Cleveland, are you? No? No,

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Speaker 1: I'm from Pittsburgh. I'm thinking good, I got one. I

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Speaker 1: got one here. Hey, guys, But about that name? And

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Speaker 1: without mr a beat, they said, oh, we hate that name.

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Speaker 1: We dropped it. We're Dan in Shay And I thought,

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Speaker 1: I don't have to have that. Goddamn but that's funny.

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Speaker 1: So that was it. That was what we already thought it.

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Speaker 1: We're just um. Whenever it came to the branding of

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Speaker 1: those guys, that and that cross, that whatever that is, like,

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Speaker 1: that's what I think of when I think of them.

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Speaker 1: That decision obviously had to be okayed by you as well,

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Speaker 1: because it's Dan and shake. Even that little thing that

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Speaker 1: is so branded, is so important. Do you remember when

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Speaker 1: you get settled on that even well you do. I'm

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Speaker 1: you'll laugh as I say this. We love those guys.

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Speaker 1: There are certain things you just don't argue with. So

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Speaker 1: it was them that was that, Yeah, it's good, it's good,

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Speaker 1: it works if it makes you feel good, you know, um,

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Speaker 1: and you know we It probably created a little confusion

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Speaker 1: in the early days in terms of what is it?

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Speaker 1: Is it Dan plus you know, yeah, you get a

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Speaker 1: couple of hit records, people forget yeah exactly, and they

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Speaker 1: learn it. They forget that they were confused, and they

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Speaker 1: learn it forever. That's right. Um. I remember talking to

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Speaker 1: John Peaks a little bit when I first came to town,

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Speaker 1: who was always super nice to me, who another who

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Speaker 1: was a guy by the way, didn't go to dinner

364
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Speaker 1: with him, and he's not a record executive, but he

365
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Speaker 1: was a guy to whom gonna pull me aside and

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Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you're different like me, and it ain't

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Speaker 1: gonna be easy for people like you. And here's some

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Speaker 1: stuff that I've been through. And again, I was so

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Speaker 1: appreciative to that. And I never listen to music with

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Speaker 1: people because one it's awkward to just nod your head

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Speaker 1: and be like, yeah, I could. You always have to

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Speaker 1: act like you like it even if you don't. But

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Speaker 1: he played me this artist and he said, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're not really doing much with her now, but we

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Speaker 1: really believe in her and there's gonna be some There's

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Speaker 1: gonna be something here when we figure out exactly how

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Speaker 1: to do it, because what it is is awesome. And

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Speaker 1: he played me Ashley McBride because she's from Arkansas like myself,

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Speaker 1: and he kind of used that as a conduit to

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Speaker 1: get to playing the music. And what you guys have

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Speaker 1: been able to do with Ashley it feels very strategically

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Speaker 1: awesomely non traditional. How you made her a star and

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Speaker 1: to see her be a superstar now is her talent,

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Speaker 1: but also you your talent. You guys this talent. To

385
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Speaker 1: sign Ashley McBride and have a vision for her, I

386
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Speaker 1: imagine there was I don't know what were there a

387
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Speaker 1: lot of meetings like what kind of artists do we

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Speaker 1: want her to be even though she already knows who

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Speaker 1: she is. No meetings to have that discussion. Um. I

390
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Speaker 1: saw actually maybe six years before we signed her, and

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Speaker 1: there was no doubt she was incredibly talented, but um

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Speaker 1: M not ready and she admits that too. Why not

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Speaker 1: What does that mean? Not ready? Um? Green The songs

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00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:44,359
Speaker 1: weren't captivating, Um the performance was you could tell, you

395
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Speaker 1: know that she could sing. She might have been over

396
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Speaker 1: singing some of it. You know, you're young, you're trying

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Speaker 1: to impress and and god, I really just can't um.

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Speaker 1: Even though I play guitar and I played drums and

399
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Speaker 1: I play in bands, I haven't had audition to audition

400
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Speaker 1: in in front of a bunch of wankers from this business.

401
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Speaker 1: So I can only imagine how people can exaggerate to

402
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Speaker 1: a point where it's kind of distracting. But then I

403
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Speaker 1: saw her about three months before we signed her, and

404
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Speaker 1: I was like, uh, we we have to do this.

405
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Speaker 1: And Chris Lacy, the now co president of our label

406
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Speaker 1: and the head of A and R, was in agreement.

407
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:35,720
Speaker 1: And then everybody wanted to sign her. And I gotta

408
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Speaker 1: tell you, um, um, I think part of why she

409
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Speaker 1: ended up with us is because she knew we weren't

410
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Speaker 1: going to ask her to do anything but be yourself.

411
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Speaker 1: I think we have a great reputation in that regard. Um.

412
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Speaker 1: I hear, I hear horror stories of people who actually

413
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Speaker 1: go and mix records for artists that they the artists

414
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Speaker 1: didn't even know they were doing. It's like, are you

415
00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 1: kidding me? I'd fire me if if that ever happened,

416
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Speaker 1: but I'll never forget for the rest of my life. Um,

417
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:11,120
Speaker 1: this will be self aggrandizing comment eight. Probably Um, everybody's

418
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Speaker 1: trying to sign her and John Pets, who I really love.

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Speaker 1: That guy is the real deal. He's he's the smartest

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Speaker 1: um dude, you know, and creative and and willing to

421
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Speaker 1: go on non traditional paths with all the artists on

422
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Speaker 1: as roster. He calls me up. I'm in Nantucket. He says,

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Speaker 1: I've never done this before, but I want you to

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Speaker 1: agree to something. And I said, what's that. He goes,

425
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 1: Ashley only wants to be with you. Well, you just

426
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 1: promise me you'll give us a fair deal. She doesn't

427
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 1: want to take another meeting with another record label. She's

428
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: found her home and she's sick of this game, and

429
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: can we just shake that. We're going to work out

430
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:53,920
Speaker 1: terms everybody will be happy with. And I said, I've

431
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 1: never done that before either, But yes, I knew she

432
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,399
Speaker 1: would be that important, you know. And I think that

433
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: one of the great things about what we've been able

434
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: to do. Part of it's probably accidental because I didn't

435
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: know about country music. Our roster is very diverse because

436
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: it's filled with people that go from Ingrid Andrew's, which

437
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily think why would you sign her to

438
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: a country label, right, or Dan and Shay. They were

439
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 1: pretty pops out, you know, um were they are, Um

440
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:32,120
Speaker 1: they can be um um. Ashley so traditional and there

441
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:34,960
Speaker 1: was nothing that we had in the twelve songs that

442
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: were album one that we thought no brainer to get

443
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,919
Speaker 1: played on country radio. But boy, once people got to

444
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: hear her and got to experience it live, it was

445
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,719
Speaker 1: going to become a thing. And we have to have

446
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,719
Speaker 1: the patients. Now with that comes you have to have

447
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: Blake Shelton's and Kenny Chesney's and Dan and Shays and

448
00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 1: Brett eld Region others producing millions. For me, the joy

449
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,399
Speaker 1: is the success they can all have. But getting to

450
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: play in sandboxes with people like Abrianna right and know

451
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: that you can be changing lives, you know, by taking

452
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: a risk on somebody who skirts the edge of whatever

453
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 1: people might call country music, but it's important music. We

454
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 1: just signed a new artist named Jordan Shellhart. I can't

455
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: wait for the world to hear her. And you know

456
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 1: it's Joni Mitchell meets uh um Um. I don't know

457
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: who the hell house, but it is so refreshing distinctive.

458
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,119
Speaker 1: It sounds so good when you listen to it, but

459
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: if you dive in the lyrics, you go, oh my god,

460
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: she's talking about subject matters that people you know, they'll

461
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,400
Speaker 1: misinterpret the song and then they'll eventually you know, this

462
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 1: is really odd, but I'm on my fourth Steely Dan book.

463
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,680
Speaker 1: Um book, Yeah, wow, you're that and a Steely Dan

464
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. It started with I wanted to know who

465
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: played guitar on every damn record and their notorious for things.

466
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: This may bore your country listeners completely, but they would

467
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,159
Speaker 1: get the best studio musicians in in the world to

468
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: come in, and the musicians couldn't find out if they

469
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: made the record until the record was released because there

470
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: were twenty five guitars who came in to play the

471
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: solo one peg. You know. Money Out started with that

472
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 1: sort of obsession, but it became they purposely wrote words

473
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: that nobody could ever literally um figure out. It was

474
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: all jokes to them about their neurosis, etcetera. So you

475
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: listen in Their Their their Thing, Donald and Walder talk

476
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 1: about we wanted to be very pleasant sounding music that

477
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:48,880
Speaker 1: you didn't have to scratch the surface to figure out

478
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: what Ricky don't Lose that number actually meant because it

479
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 1: just sounded good and you humme it, you know, and

480
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: there's something very intriguing about that. You know. Jordan's Shellhart

481
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 1: she may she she'd appreciate that reference. I think Arihanna,

482
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 1: if you listen to the lyrics of Arianna as a narcissist,

483
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,119
Speaker 1: how the hell did a seventeen year old come up

484
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: with that lyric? You know? So part of this joy

485
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: of my my tenure down here has been that if

486
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: we had enough people paying the bills, I could play

487
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 1: in some different sandboxes and it will all go back

488
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 1: to Ashley McBride and now here we have Lindyville, which

489
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: is one of the most important and magic records, you know,

490
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 1: And to know I was associated with that. Ashley said

491
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 1: to me once when we were, you know, in the

492
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,160
Speaker 1: signing process. She goes, you know, I like you because

493
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: you're always in the back of the room and your

494
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 1: head's always Bob you're actually paying attention. My wife came

495
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: to me. COVID kind of blurs the years, and there's

496
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: a kid, his man now, but from like two towns

497
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,439
Speaker 1: over from where she grew up, and she's gay. He's like,

498
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: he's awesome. And she would listen to him on her phone,

499
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 1: mostly on her phone, especially at first on TikTok, and

500
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: she'd play songs and we'd be in the car and

501
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 1: we're all bluetoothed up for everything, and she would play him,

502
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: just playing on on TikTok over and over again. And

503
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,120
Speaker 1: she's in a lot of ways, she's become my compass

504
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: on what is happening right this second, because it's a

505
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: few layers to get to me, and I don't like

506
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: that sometimes, but it is the house that's been built

507
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: at this point. But she just gethers. Guys. He's like, yeah,

508
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,120
Speaker 1: she grew up around me. It doesn't live in Nashville.

509
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: It's Zac Brian. And she just she was on and

510
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: on to the point where I was just getting annoyed,

511
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't want to listen to

512
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: Zack Brian because you love him so much you won't

513
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 1: stop playing him all the time. But then I grew

514
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 1: again a real love for stylistically like that's my jam.

515
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: I love slow, emotional and I can hear the lyrics,

516
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: feel my version of what he's singing. And I became

517
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: a massive fan without being very educated on him, just

518
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: because I love the music sonically. I got to the

519
00:28:58,600 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: point where I was like, man, I can't get enough

520
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: now Zach Brian is with you? Guys, when you sign

521
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: somebody that has and they'll last a couple of years,

522
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 1: that has grown so much because of their virility, like TikTok,

523
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: they blow up? Is that a whole different negotiation? How

524
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: did that come together? Are these artists that blow up?

525
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: Or is it different to negotiate with them than someone

526
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 1: who you just know is going to be good playing

527
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: a showcase somewhere? Well? I dare say, um as a

528
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: generalization which I tend to hate. Um. The rules of

529
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: engagement have changed so very much in a very short

530
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 1: period of time. UM, I would say, And they're changing ever,

531
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 1: um right now, right before us, but maybe go back

532
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: two years. Uh it was for the first bunch of

533
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: years before that. Hey, I only want to sign with

534
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: you if you tell me when the radio ad date

535
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 1: is now it is tell me how you're going to

536
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: bring the story of my artist to the world. Um,

537
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 1: you know, I dare say and I tell you, Buddy

538
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 1: Rod Phillips this all the time. Radio, by getting records

539
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: to take a year to get up the chart is

540
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: hurting itself because people need discovery. But it's forced a

541
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: lot of looking at and it's not just streaming, although

542
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 1: streaming is a lot of fun when when you happen

543
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: to get that joy early on, but just ways to

544
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: get a story told through various social media places and

545
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: hopefully the result of getting some streaming um early on

546
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: has has become the day you know, and I swear

547
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: to God, I don't go after that in the name

548
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 1: of being in lieu of radio, because the big win

549
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: is when you get to the top twenty at radio

550
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: and everything's um, you know, it tends to be smoking

551
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: along in terms of how much consumption. There is a

552
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: word that Kenny Chesney hates. I think he's kind of

553
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: come around to understand that that is some weird part

554
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 1: of our vernacular. Now I kind of hate it too.

555
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: I hate product, you know, I never call it a product.

556
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: But anyhow, um, my long winded way of saying so,

557
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: now artists are coming in and with a story like

558
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 1: Zach Bryan, they have negotiating power that's very different than

559
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: the one who's begging you to come see them in

560
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: the club. And they haven't built a following, you know,

561
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: And do I think that will become more mainstay? Yeah?

562
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 1: Do I think it becomes. It goes from probably five

563
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: percent of what gets signed to no, but it's gonna

564
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: be probably closer to thirty or you know, there's still

565
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: going to be things like hey, um Bailey Zimmerman, who

566
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: I loved. When you know, folks, Bobby will just every

567
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 1: once in a while text me and say, hey, I

568
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 1: just met with this artist. I think they're the real deal, right,

569
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 1: question mark? Because I know that you will even if

570
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,240
Speaker 1: they're your person, I know that you'll still be honest

571
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: with me and go like they haven't they have the

572
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: real potential to be the real deal. Or you'll go like, yep,

573
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: they sure are. You know you'll be honest with me,

574
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: And that's what I said, I always will. And I

575
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 1: was thinking to myself, well, here's a guy working on

576
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: a pipeline two years ago, never picked up a guitar

577
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: and sang boy. He has a way of connecting with people. Um.

578
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 1: He was kind of in between the Zach Brian building

579
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: an audience over a period of time and um and

580
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: and the artist who you know as one song and

581
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: you're hoping you you bet on the right song. But

582
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: I do think that we're going to get more and

583
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: more people trying to create a story that becomes compelling.

584
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: It makes it here for the manager and lawyers when

585
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 1: they come knock on our door, you know. And you know,

586
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 1: I have a I don't mind being held up if

587
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: I believe there's a long term there. I was talking

588
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: to Rod. I kind of cornered him on the air.

589
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: I later apologized to him because I didn't mean to

590
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 1: do it, but if we're on and I'm doing the show,

591
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 1: I just follow instinct and then apologize Later's if we're live,

592
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 1: you know that's a deal. And he was walking behind

593
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: and see him and I say, hey, Rod. I talked

594
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 1: to him about a couple of things, and I say, hey,

595
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 1: why what's the deal with Zach Bryan. Why are we

596
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: not playing him more? Like I We can't get enough?

597
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 1: I said, And I understand it's different. I want a

598
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:36,959
Speaker 1: national syndicated show. They don't just go Willy nillion throw

599
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: songs into that, but I'm talking about just generally, like

600
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: why aren't we and he goes, listen, I love them too.

601
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: It's doesn't sound like what everything else sounds. So we're

602
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:48,960
Speaker 1: like playing in certain places to make sure. And I'm

603
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 1: just like, can't you just go what's awesome and and

604
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 1: do it? And I kind of got him into trouble

605
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: because the people started attacking him, which I didn't mean

606
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 1: to do, but I was just saying how I felt,

607
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: and he was like, don't apologize. You do what you do.

608
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: That's what you do on the air, and I'll do

609
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,240
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm cool to have to stand by something

610
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: even if I personally don't agree with this is what

611
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,359
Speaker 1: he said. He goes, I love Zach Bryan. I would

612
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:12,319
Speaker 1: play him on every station all the time. But if

613
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 1: I do that, and he went down this executive talk

614
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: that he has to report to his ball right. So

615
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: that being said, did that ever get back to that

616
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 1: I was fighting with Rod about Zach Bryan on their

617
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 1: Uh no, the the that's probably because I'm too distracted

618
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: in life period um um. But I understand the notion.

619
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 1: This is an odd retort or response to your question.

620
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: I was with a radio programmer in Pittsburgh. I happen

621
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,239
Speaker 1: to go to Pittsburgh a lot because I I like

622
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 1: my hometown. And he goes, are you guys releasing Zach

623
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: Brian now to purposely piss all of us people off

624
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: who have been playing him for months? And now we

625
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,759
Speaker 1: played him too many times? And I said, only if

626
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,320
Speaker 1: we were that smart, you know. No, we we didn't

627
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 1: know whether anybody would ever want it. And then we

628
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,399
Speaker 1: kept seeing you all who were playing this in these

629
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: because we were playing in the morning show. I was

630
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: playing them in the morning and you'd get spins in

631
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 1: these I mean streams in these markets that were off

632
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: the hook, and it was like, okay, even us geniuses

633
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: should not overthink this and just put the damn record

634
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 1: out and look what it's doing. It's been the top

635
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: stream song in country music. I think it's in its

636
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 1: twelfth week or something like that, and it's probably in

637
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:35,160
Speaker 1: the radio chart somewhere in the high twenties. I think

638
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: is where we've reached. It's starting to now it starting

639
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,319
Speaker 1: to really have some some balls, you know, and as

640
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,919
Speaker 1: far as people have to pay attention to it, because

641
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: it's climbing so high, that it says, hello, I'm here,

642
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,120
Speaker 1: you'd play me, because if you don't, you're real. You're real, idiot.

643
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 1: What do you do now? Like you finished your last

644
00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 1: day on Friday? Like what? Because I think for the

645
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,360
Speaker 1: first month I would do I say, I don't stop working,

646
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: but I think when I finally stop, I'm not doing

647
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: anything for a month. I'm just gonna lay. I think

648
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 1: that my family's placing bets on my ability to do that.

649
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:18,240
Speaker 1: The advice I'm getting from anybody of you know, deep

650
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: consequence in my life, which is mostly my family and

651
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: um a couple of other people who have been with

652
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: me for this long ride is shutdown. In January. You're

653
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,880
Speaker 1: gonna have so many people asking you to do something.

654
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,240
Speaker 1: The stupidest thing you could do is think you should

655
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: go do something. Find out what it's like to not

656
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: have to make a decision every five minutes. Right, And

657
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: I'm going to try my damnedest, I really am. I

658
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: have a list of things that I'll do, um well,

659
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,959
Speaker 1: that I'm intending to do. The book is turning into

660
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 1: two books. Um Um. Cooking class, I'm want to go

661
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: to the culinary Institute. I'm a really good cook, but

662
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I've been slicing some vegetables incorrectly for all

663
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,439
Speaker 1: my life. Are you going to cooking classical school? Because

664
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: it sounds like that's school school. Um. I'm going to

665
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: pick my guitar up more because boy, when I do

666
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 1: it fulfills me. And then I get busy again and

667
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: I lose my callouses and all that. But I just

668
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: want to see it. For the month of January, I

669
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 1: can sit still. I want to meditate more during the day.

670
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 1: I want to do these sorts of things. I made

671
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: the decision to asked to be relieved with me creating

672
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: the succession plan of I promoted four years ago. The

673
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 1: two people who will be the co presidents of the label,

674
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 1: Ben klined to GM and Chris Lacity in our with

675
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:51,759
Speaker 1: the purpose that it gave me an option. But I

676
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: thought to myself, and this may sound horrible, to screw it,

677
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: you know, I am what I am. I was asked

678
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: to come and take a a label that used to

679
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 1: be called the artist Protection Program by everybody in town

680
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: because if we got signed at Warner, you were never

681
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: seen again. Um to um a very productive label. We've

682
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 1: actually grown almost six times. That's just since I said

683
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: for it's going two more times, you know, and and

684
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 1: and I'm getting to ride out on a nice high.

685
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,280
Speaker 1: But I've been sitting in these marketing meetings on Wednesday

686
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 1: and feeling like it feels like groundhog Day. I'm sorry.

687
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 1: It was one thing when you had to add a

688
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: second artist to the Blake Shelton thing we had going on.

689
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: And this is not an indictment of Warner. This is

690
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,399
Speaker 1: the nature of the music business. Suddenly you find out

691
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: you have thirty five artists. And I'm really good at

692
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 1: hand holding individual artist. It gets harder for me to

693
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: hear the social media stats on the fifth artist on

694
00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: the thing. Let alone get to the twelfth artist and

695
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,440
Speaker 1: all that. So let the kids do that. I'll find

696
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: a way to be involved. My if I have a gift,

697
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 1: I'm an artist whisperer, and I love it. I love

698
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 1: that they trust me. I love that I have some

699
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 1: many years of experience where I can offer sage advice.

700
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 1: And one of them will be with Brett Aldridge, one

701
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 1: of my dearest friends on the planet Earth. You know, um, um,

702
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: you know, and we talk about that openly. I just

703
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for compensation. I'm looking for the joy

704
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 1: of knowing that I could help guide the handful of

705
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 1: people artists along in a meaningful way. And then I

706
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:43,279
Speaker 1: know it's just going to unveil itself to me, that

707
00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna say, what you do this with me or that?

708
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,359
Speaker 1: Because I have to be busy, because I really just

709
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:54,799
Speaker 1: don't sit still well, and that's my entire life. Let's

710
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,399
Speaker 1: do personally and professionally. Personally, the best decision you ever

711
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:03,720
Speaker 1: made marrying Sean Tell, actually, oh my kids they're not whatever.

712
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:08,720
Speaker 1: Um uh, you know, deciding that the first one wasn't working,

713
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,280
Speaker 1: and then being brave enough at the time of forty

714
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 1: nine years old to say, well, whatever, I know, I'm

715
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 1: not happy. I gotta go find some happiness somewhere. And accidentally,

716
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 1: two months later, somebody said, we got a seat filler

717
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,880
Speaker 1: for you at the Grammys, and it was Chantelle Baine,

718
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: who is now eighteen years with me in fifteen years

719
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 1: of marriage. And I've never been fucking happier in my life.

720
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 1: So that was the best personal decision, professionally, best decision

721
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:44,240
Speaker 1: you ever made. Um. Announcing to a group of people

722
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: in a building on twenty Music Square East in Nashville

723
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: that we're going to build the building around Blake Shelton.

724
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 1: And I don't care how bad things are going for

725
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: Blake Shelton. We got to prove to the town that

726
00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: if we could break Blake Shelton to big time, um um,

727
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: people will believe in us, and more managers and artists

728
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: and lawyers will knock on our door. Because nobody was

729
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: coming to the Warner Building. And I looked at Blake

730
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,320
Speaker 1: in the I after he played the Grand Old Opera.

731
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:18,320
Speaker 1: He's told this story a couple of times, and I said, dude,

732
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 1: I'm about to build the building around you. You better

733
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: work as hard as I do. Not that I was

734
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 1: worried about it, but I had to make some sort

735
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 1: of statement. Mind you up, I was looking like this

736
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 1: because he's six five and I'm squeezing out almost six three.

737
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,000
Speaker 1: He looks so much bigger than me. And picture he

738
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,080
Speaker 1: also had big boots. He would like this morning, he's

739
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:39,839
Speaker 1: like up six five, and I'm like, yeah, but you're

740
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:41,560
Speaker 1: like six seven and a half when you were big.

741
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: That's fair enough. But I think that you know that

742
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: that was probably it. Although I will tell you this

743
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:51,600
Speaker 1: not that you need me to talk anymore, but what

744
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:54,360
Speaker 1: led to me coming down here I was running. I

745
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,800
Speaker 1: was the president of WE, a distribution company for Warner

746
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 1: The letters stood for Warner Elector A good Warner Electra Atlantic,

747
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 1: and I had helped take it out of the ashes

748
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 1: into a phoenix rising, and about seven and a half

749
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:13,879
Speaker 1: years into it, I swear to God this is true.

750
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,040
Speaker 1: I went down to my boss Lee or Cohen were

751
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:18,759
Speaker 1: the characters of all characters and the history of the

752
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:23,000
Speaker 1: music business, and I said, I've succession planned. I'm bored shitless,

753
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 1: promote me or fire me. I can't do this anymore.

754
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 1: He started smiling, told me to walk down the hall

755
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:32,880
Speaker 1: to Edgar Brafman's office. Edgar was the chairman. He's smiling.

756
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 1: I'm thinking I just got set up for something. The

757
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 1: next day they asked me to move to Nashville and

758
00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: run this. That's how it happened. Yeah I did. I mean,

759
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 1: truth be told. I had just signed a new three

760
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 1: year deal, so if they fired me, I was going

761
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 1: to have a little money to figure it out. But

762
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:53,799
Speaker 1: I just knew when I was bored, I couldn't do

763
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: it anymore. You know. It's kind of like what I'm

764
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: going through now. I need a new chapter. Boy. In

765
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: the hindsight, it still was pretty silly of me to

766
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 1: just I feel like any advice I ever give anybody,

767
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:09,480
Speaker 1: if it's a good advice, it's because I've done it

768
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:11,520
Speaker 1: and messed up. I've done it and had to struggle.

769
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 1: That's where I have gained my knowledge because it just

770
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 1: comes to me easy, which is very few things. I

771
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:18,880
Speaker 1: don't if I can pass anything along because it was

772
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,400
Speaker 1: just natural. So a lot of anything that I can

773
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: share to people is through hard work or sacrifice or

774
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: doing it wrong. So I say that in the vein

775
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 1: of what professionally was your worst decision, where it was

776
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,280
Speaker 1: a bad decision, but you know now because it happened

777
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:35,880
Speaker 1: to you, it made you smarter or you're able to

778
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: help others because of what happened. That's a great one

779
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 1: right there. I've made a couple of I have a thing.

780
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 1: There's probably a better one than this, but sitting on

781
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:51,799
Speaker 1: my emporium shelf of shelf, one of my shelves of

782
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 1: all this junk in my office is this thing called

783
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 1: Furry Creatures. And it's a um um probably eight or

784
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:05,880
Speaker 1: nine inch hall um clay model of something where somebody

785
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,440
Speaker 1: came to me in my old job and said we

786
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:11,279
Speaker 1: can bring you two million dollars a year in um

787
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,440
Speaker 1: new revenue, and it can build to this. All you

788
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:16,879
Speaker 1: have to do is make this investment. And I went

789
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:18,959
Speaker 1: to the chairman of the company and I said, listen,

790
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:23,040
Speaker 1: I know this is not um my purview, but should

791
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:26,239
Speaker 1: I take a chance. And he goes, listen, you've been

792
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 1: good so far. Why don't you take a chance? While

793
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: we lost about four million dollars in the process. And

794
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:33,440
Speaker 1: I leave that thing sitting on my shelf to remind

795
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 1: myself that I was in the music business. What did

796
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 1: I think I needed to be in some weird video

797
00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 1: game that I do nothing about business? But I'm sure,

798
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:49,279
Speaker 1: I'm sure I've done stupider things than that. Smash that thing. Oh,

799
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 1: good for you for keeping it and letting that be

800
00:44:52,520 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 1: a reminder of your growth. That's funny. Bad When you

801
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 1: were a kid, who was your hero? Dean Martin was

802
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 1: probably one of my real heroes because he had such

803
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: a swagger about him, and he had that TV show

804
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: with the gold Diggers, which you know, politically correct wouldn't

805
00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:20,320
Speaker 1: be allowed today, but he'd sit there on a stool.

806
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:26,359
Speaker 1: Everybody loves some of us sometime, Well, these blondes are

807
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 1: walking around in skimpy dressed and I thought, God, someday

808
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 1: I just want to sing and have them love me

809
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:37,319
Speaker 1: like that, you know. Uh. My dad though, really, when

810
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: all of a sudden done my you know, I'm I

811
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 1: think it's the Martin or Mark Twain line that the

812
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 1: older I got, the smarter my father got. My father

813
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: and I. I was one of six, I was the

814
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: black sheep, always in trouble, always in trouble, always stretching

815
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 1: the boundaries. I've broken nearly every bone in my body.

816
00:45:56,040 --> 00:46:00,160
Speaker 1: I have stitches everywhere in this body of mine, just

817
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 1: from falling again, beat up or what No, just climbing

818
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: a tree and the tree broke and I fell out

819
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,359
Speaker 1: and there's a compound fracture of that leg, you know,

820
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: and just just doing ship. And my father was always

821
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: you know, grumpy, mad at me, But ultimately we became

822
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: best friends when I was about twenty because he realized

823
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 1: I just wanted to adventure and that it was going

824
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:27,400
Speaker 1: to serve me well. And you know, all my siblings

825
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:31,480
Speaker 1: that just fine. I ended up having the closest relationship

826
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 1: with my dad because we would end up getting involved

827
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: in conversations about pretty heavy things, you know, and my

828
00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:42,320
Speaker 1: dad was typical World War Two veteran and orphan who

829
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:44,760
Speaker 1: you know, had to make his own way in life.

830
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 1: And he's my hero. My leadership style is one my

831
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 1: father's influence. I could watch him walk into a room

832
00:46:54,400 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 1: of angry people and diffuse it by asking the unquestioned

833
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:03,400
Speaker 1: that made them all have to shut up because they

834
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 1: didn't even know what they were fighting about. You know,

835
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 1: people get all rebbed up. And I thought, man, that

836
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 1: guy just listens, He lets everybody spew. And then you

837
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: asked the one, you know, checkmate. Thing. You know, I

838
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:22,760
Speaker 1: was talking with somebody yesterday about um, and it's probably

839
00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:27,960
Speaker 1: all the emotional stuff related to this h cathartic moment

840
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 1: that that is going on to be moving on to

841
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:36,279
Speaker 1: some next stage. When my father died, Um, there was

842
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:39,200
Speaker 1: a road between Princeton, New Jersey, and where I had

843
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 1: a farmhouse out in the country. I used to commute

844
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 1: into New York on the train that I called my

845
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 1: father every day on this one road, and it was

846
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,279
Speaker 1: about a three mile stretch of road and just so

847
00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: we could say hey, you know, and ask each other

848
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,400
Speaker 1: a couple of questions. When he died, I could not

849
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:57,360
Speaker 1: ride on that road anymore. Because all I would do

850
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:01,040
Speaker 1: is ball every time I was on that route. I've

851
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,239
Speaker 1: gone back since just to see if I still have

852
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: and I do the emotion. You know, I don't live

853
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: there now twenty years, but god, it just affected me

854
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:15,440
Speaker 1: because that memory is so locked in, and you know,

855
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 1: I was happy, and in so far as when my

856
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:22,239
Speaker 1: dad died, I didn't end up being one of those

857
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:25,839
Speaker 1: guys going I wish I had had a relationship. You know,

858
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: there was there was no no time lost or whatever

859
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 1: the right expression is. Thanks for sharing that story. That

860
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:39,799
Speaker 1: is like, I'm jealous of that story in a lot

861
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:41,759
Speaker 1: of ways. And it sounds like a dad was a

862
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 1: important part of who you are and even who you

863
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 1: who you are and who you are even today, because

864
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: you say your managerial, your leadership style comes directly from him. Um.

865
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: When did you notice your your dad's son early in

866
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: your career or did it take a while before you

867
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:01,200
Speaker 1: started to go, oh, I am kind of inadvertently my

868
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 1: dad as I'm managing folks. That's a great question. If

869
00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:11,279
Speaker 1: I don't romanticize it, it probably was sometime in my

870
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 1: my twenties. Um, Um, just because I found myself in

871
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: a room full of people saying something that could you know,

872
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,399
Speaker 1: shut the room down. Not with the intention of shut up,

873
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 1: but like, that's crazy that you did that. And then

874
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 1: I go, God, that's what he used to do. That's

875
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: what I used to as a kid watch him do

876
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,319
Speaker 1: with people. And you know, there's this other part. My

877
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 1: father would never let my head get big. He he

878
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:42,280
Speaker 1: loved my success, but he would just make sure. You know,

879
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: I remember every once in a while I would try

880
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: to explain why I was doing well. He says, stop

881
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:53,000
Speaker 1: the ship. You start explaining why you're doing well, you're

882
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:57,759
Speaker 1: going to ruin it. Just be yourself, It'll it'll be okay.

883
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:01,359
Speaker 1: Stop talking about yourself. You know I haven't done an

884
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:05,680
Speaker 1: effective job of that. Yeah, listen, the job is to

885
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 1: talk about you. I'm very interested in you. Um, the

886
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 1: first time because and we have like five minutes left.

887
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:12,759
Speaker 1: I want to get to a few other quick things,

888
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:14,480
Speaker 1: but I want to do first and last, the first

889
00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: time that you were genuinely starstruck, where you're like, wow,

890
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:20,360
Speaker 1: I can not believe I'm that close to this person.

891
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:26,640
Speaker 1: Um Uh, I'm sorry. There's always more than one. The

892
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 1: first one was when I was sitting in Chason's restaurant,

893
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:34,360
Speaker 1: famous in U l A. Johnny Carson always used to

894
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:37,320
Speaker 1: talk about going to Chasen's, and I was there because

895
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 1: I was a buyer at Macy's and the Fisher I'll

896
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 1: never forget it was Fisher Electronics had us out for

897
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 1: dinner and Chasen's and the cast of Dynasty was over

898
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:50,200
Speaker 1: here and blah blah blah blah blah, and two tables

899
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:56,320
Speaker 1: over Frank Sinatra sitting there having dinner with the Princess Caroline.

900
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:59,839
Speaker 1: I think her name is Grace's daughter, and I don't know.

901
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 1: I just decided to walk over and introduce myself. And

902
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: he was gracious and I didn't take up more than

903
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds of his time. But I couldn't be that

904
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:13,319
Speaker 1: close to somebody who was such a hero. But I

905
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:18,160
Speaker 1: remember my knees were shaking. You know. That's a cool story.

906
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:23,240
Speaker 1: And the second one, I'm highly involved in environmental things,

907
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,759
Speaker 1: and so I I'm on the Global Leadership Council of

908
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 1: the Natural Resources Defense Counsel in r DC. I go

909
00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:34,400
Speaker 1: to Washington and lobby senators and congressmen to get environmental

910
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,480
Speaker 1: laws stiffened, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

911
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: and I go to an event and my daughter's working

912
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 1: for the organization. She accidentally gets put at the front

913
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:47,239
Speaker 1: of the ballroom and I'm at a table Warner Bot

914
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:51,040
Speaker 1: a table where fifty ft back, and I noticed she's

915
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:55,320
Speaker 1: sitting with Paul McCartney, and I'm thinking, that little bitch,

916
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 1: what what is going on? So at the end of

917
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 1: the night and the reason Paul McCartney was there is

918
00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:11,200
Speaker 1: Stella was the honoree, you know, because of her environmental

919
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:17,879
Speaker 1: orientation and you know, not eating um meat or any

920
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:21,480
Speaker 1: living thing. Anyhow, cutting to the chase we're in at

921
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:24,640
Speaker 1: the meeting ends and there my phone's ringing and Jessica,

922
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:27,000
Speaker 1: my daughter, Paul wants to meet you. And I said,

923
00:52:27,239 --> 00:52:29,919
Speaker 1: Paul doesn't want to meet me. No, no, no, Paul

924
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 1: wants to meet you. And I said, don't know, it's cool,

925
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 1: so we're good. Say hi to Paul for me. You know,

926
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:38,080
Speaker 1: all I could imagine is walking up and being one

927
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:42,160
Speaker 1: of the five germs on Paul McCartney. Five minutes later,

928
00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:45,800
Speaker 1: Paul wants to meet you. I said, Jessica, it's cool.

929
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:53,800
Speaker 1: I'm good. Well, Linda Eastman's sister came back, Linden. Linda

930
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:56,760
Speaker 1: was was Paul's wife many years who passed from cancer,

931
00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 1: and said, are you coming up to meet Paul or not?

932
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:04,239
Speaker 1: Now this is relative. I'm okay, this is serious. So

933
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 1: I go up and there's Paul McCartney standing nearer the exit,

934
00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:13,080
Speaker 1: but he's waiting for me, and um, he goes, hello,

935
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 1: John Esposito, and I said, well, hello, Paul McCartney. You

936
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,319
Speaker 1: don't know anything about me, but I know a lot

937
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:22,120
Speaker 1: about you. He goes, I know everything about you, and

938
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,840
Speaker 1: he starts rattling off a bunch of ship that apparently

939
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 1: my daughter told him. And I'm sitting there thinking a

940
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:30,759
Speaker 1: beatle has just talked to me, you know, not just

941
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:33,960
Speaker 1: a beatle, it's Paul McCartney. And we probably talked for

942
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,240
Speaker 1: a good two minutes and then I felt like, whoa,

943
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:41,719
Speaker 1: that's royalty. Yeah that's one. Uh final three questions. Um,

944
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:48,920
Speaker 1: the last time your star struck? M hmm, right, now

945
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 1: come on as well. You can see me anytime any day.

946
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,680
Speaker 1: That ain't the same, Um, the last time I was

947
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 1: star struck. And this is years I've been around famous people,

948
00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:04,759
Speaker 1: becoming jaded in ways, and you still it could be

949
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:07,600
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I don't know, And that's probably what

950
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:12,480
Speaker 1: it is, um jay Z. So I'm an Island def Jam.

951
00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:15,400
Speaker 1: I'm called by Lear Cohen, I'm the GM of Island

952
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 1: def Jam. He tells me I need to get on

953
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 1: a helicopter and fly with jay Z to Albany, New York.

954
00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:23,240
Speaker 1: We're gonna help launch his new record. And I said,

955
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:26,440
Speaker 1: why am I going to fly in a helicopter? The

956
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,319
Speaker 1: president of def Jam, Kevin Lyles, is sick, so we

957
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:32,200
Speaker 1: want you to do it. And I knew j had,

958
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 1: you know, been in some meetings with him. But I'm

959
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 1: gonna write a helicopter with jay Z the whole way

960
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:41,640
Speaker 1: to Albany from there, and and it I was. I

961
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 1: was genuinely gob smacks, starstruck, thrilled, nicest damn guy, smart

962
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,799
Speaker 1: as all get out. And there's a real quick story,

963
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:53,480
Speaker 1: and I know we're running out of the time. Um,

964
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,959
Speaker 1: we get done with surprising this room full of people

965
00:54:57,000 --> 00:55:00,319
Speaker 1: who are about to launch a new album. It was

966
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:04,040
Speaker 1: a big record retailer that we needed their full support,

967
00:55:04,040 --> 00:55:05,920
Speaker 1: but they didn't know jay Z was walking into their

968
00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:07,920
Speaker 1: marketing meeting. We get done. We get in the car

969
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:10,920
Speaker 1: to head back to the airport and Jay says, I'm hungry,

970
00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: sees a burger King, and the he said, okay, we'll

971
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 1: stop at the burger King. We walk in and there's

972
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:22,359
Speaker 1: this lovely, probably in her fifties, um African American woman

973
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:26,480
Speaker 1: behind the counter, her back turned to us, and you

974
00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 1: know she's filling other people's order. She turns around and

975
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:31,960
Speaker 1: she says, what can I get? I am not seeing

976
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,600
Speaker 1: jay Z. I am not seeing jay Z right now. No,

977
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:39,319
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing jay Z. Pretty soon, the whole restaurants over.

978
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:43,920
Speaker 1: Everybody's taking pictures, and he was so gracious. Okay, I'm

979
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 1: taking up all the time. But yeah, I still got

980
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,319
Speaker 1: two things left and the site. This next one is

981
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:50,160
Speaker 1: going to be a little quick series, so I I

982
00:55:50,200 --> 00:55:52,200
Speaker 1: went quick ones here because I have a few. But

983
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 1: I want to give you an artist that you have

984
00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:57,279
Speaker 1: on your label. You may have a personal relationship with me,

985
00:55:57,480 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 1: but the only I just want you to tell me

986
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:00,759
Speaker 1: a line about them when I say her name, like

987
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 1: what comes up about them? For example, Charlie Worsam genius.

988
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:09,360
Speaker 1: I feel you only want one word, well a sentence,

989
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:15,520
Speaker 1: a genius that I wish the world would hear more from.

990
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:18,600
Speaker 1: I agree with that wholeheartedly. In the world deserves to

991
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 1: want to hear more from they should yea, they should. Um.

992
00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:29,600
Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney man, he is a soul brother. Um. He

993
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 1: he rescued me from a an island and didn't even

994
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:36,480
Speaker 1: know who the hell I was twenty years ago. I

995
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:40,480
Speaker 1: don't understand. I'm at an island belong before I'm running

996
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 1: this record label tortola Um. The house of the people

997
00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:48,959
Speaker 1: I'm staying with was busted into by a guy out

998
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:53,040
Speaker 1: of his mind on drugs. Um. Big Kenny, which is

999
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,399
Speaker 1: who I was with, calls a Kenny on the phone

1000
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,160
Speaker 1: and said, Kenny, can you come over and get us?

1001
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:00,120
Speaker 1: We take us over to ghost van Dyke. We how

1002
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:02,399
Speaker 1: to get out of here. I have no idea who

1003
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,440
Speaker 1: the Kenny is. We go down to the dock and

1004
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 1: it's pouring rain, and up comes a boat and then

1005
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:11,440
Speaker 1: comes the dinghy. I guess you call it piloted by

1006
00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney who's carrying the bags and the pouring rain

1007
00:57:14,239 --> 00:57:17,720
Speaker 1: onto that boat. And I said, Kenny, you don't need

1008
00:57:17,760 --> 00:57:20,240
Speaker 1: to do that, go come on man. And then we

1009
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:23,280
Speaker 1: went over to this other island and sat and just

1010
00:57:24,480 --> 00:57:27,280
Speaker 1: talk music for two or three hours. And I'm thinking,

1011
00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:31,360
Speaker 1: he really is he really is special, you know, And

1012
00:57:32,120 --> 00:57:37,080
Speaker 1: it started a level of intense friendship that you can't

1013
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:41,360
Speaker 1: make up. You know, I'm so proud of that boy

1014
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:45,600
Speaker 1: that that what is it called a single Saturday Night

1015
00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:49,560
Speaker 1: cut through the chase, despite how hard radio made it

1016
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 1: for us, and who later came back and said, you

1017
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 1: were right now. Yeah, you added thirty years or thirty

1018
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:59,440
Speaker 1: weeks to his life with that, bought him another twenty

1019
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 1: years and put him in position to have that massive

1020
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: duet and and then the one he has now. Um,

1021
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: that's way more than a word or a sentence. But

1022
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:14,680
Speaker 1: I think Cole is the one who's next, poised for superstardom,

1023
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:18,640
Speaker 1: playing in in stadiums and able to command it one more.

1024
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 1: And I love her Madeline Edwards, Yeah, man, you know

1025
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:26,160
Speaker 1: you feel it when you're in the room with her

1026
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:29,680
Speaker 1: period and you know I love her music, but I

1027
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:34,320
Speaker 1: love her spirit so much in her where she's coming from.

1028
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:39,120
Speaker 1: And we've had some you know, tearful moments. Um. Some

1029
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 1: people know that I like scotch. I've shared some scotch

1030
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:44,920
Speaker 1: with her just because she said, how am I going

1031
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 1: to be at this label and miss you having a

1032
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 1: hand in all of this? And I said, I'm always available.

1033
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:54,400
Speaker 1: We'll go to dinner in January. You deserve it. You're special.

1034
00:58:54,680 --> 00:58:59,960
Speaker 1: You're special, and you know I'll be a big cheer

1035
00:59:00,160 --> 00:59:04,000
Speaker 1: leader for that gal. She deserved it. Final question, what

1036
00:59:04,040 --> 00:59:11,480
Speaker 1: are you gonna miss the most? You know, I am.

1037
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 1: I was asked a question, So I'm going to try

1038
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 1: to reproduce the answer. What will you miss the least

1039
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:23,360
Speaker 1: and what will you miss the most? And I said, oddly,

1040
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:27,560
Speaker 1: the answer is the same. I will not miss going

1041
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 1: to CRS and having lecturous old men with some hot

1042
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 1: young girl on their arms and hand me a CD

1043
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:37,920
Speaker 1: and say this is my new star, you know, and thinking,

1044
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,440
Speaker 1: oh man, can they just leave me alone? But I'm

1045
00:59:40,440 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 1: gonna miss walking around the streets and people looking at

1046
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 1: me going like you could change my life. You signed

1047
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:48,400
Speaker 1: me to a record deal. You know, that's a big

1048
00:59:48,440 --> 00:59:52,360
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. That was that was that was

1049
00:59:52,680 --> 00:59:56,000
Speaker 1: food for the soul for all you know. I hope

1050
00:59:56,040 --> 00:59:57,360
Speaker 1: I didn't let it go to my head, but I

1051
00:59:57,360 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 1: sure like being able to do that and have a

1052
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:02,240
Speaker 1: number of them turn out That's what I'm going to

1053
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:09,080
Speaker 1: miss the most. Well, I respect you so much professionally, However,

1054
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:14,840
Speaker 1: that pells in comparison to the feelings that I have

1055
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:21,120
Speaker 1: accumulated for you personally. I just even if we didn't

1056
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 1: talk for nine months, I always knew it didn't matter.

1057
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:26,480
Speaker 1: We hadn't talked for nine months. I mean, that's that's

1058
01:00:26,480 --> 01:00:29,240
Speaker 1: the end of that. And it didn't It just didn't

1059
01:00:29,280 --> 01:00:31,760
Speaker 1: matter what it was. I knew if I needed it,

1060
01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:34,439
Speaker 1: I could call you and sometimes to be two years,

1061
01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: but it's it was just that I just just new,

1062
01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:40,760
Speaker 1: you know, and and it's not leaving and you're not

1063
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:43,000
Speaker 1: dying and you're not moving. But I just want to

1064
01:00:43,040 --> 01:00:45,439
Speaker 1: tell you this because we're kind of celebrating you. Is

1065
01:00:45,920 --> 01:00:49,440
Speaker 1: I didn't have a relationship with because I purposefully fought

1066
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:51,760
Speaker 1: the idea of even knowing any executive because I just

1067
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:53,760
Speaker 1: wanted to be the guy who did my own crap.

1068
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear from people giving me. I

1069
01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:59,800
Speaker 1: was just anti everything, um probably ignorantly a little bit,

1070
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:03,200
Speaker 1: but that's how I came into this place. And I

1071
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:06,320
Speaker 1: think it was you who kind of show me, hey,

1072
01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:08,360
Speaker 1: don't be idiot, open your eyes and ears a little bit,

1073
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: and you can have good people in your life. And

1074
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,920
Speaker 1: so that is that. That is my feeling about you personally.

1075
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:18,560
Speaker 1: It's way more personal than professional although this town is

1076
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:21,040
Speaker 1: it's gonna be different without you running that label that

1077
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:23,520
Speaker 1: I only know as a massive label. You you flipped

1078
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:25,720
Speaker 1: it by the time I got here. But I just

1079
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:29,600
Speaker 1: I just respect you, but like a value you personally.

1080
01:01:30,160 --> 01:01:33,640
Speaker 1: I will treasure those words forever. I mean it, I am.

1081
01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:37,320
Speaker 1: I'm insanely proud of you. I know you weren't soliciting

1082
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 1: a compliment back but it was so fun to watch

1083
01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 1: you plow through those early days and get to the

1084
01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:50,479
Speaker 1: place where you got not just respect, but you've got

1085
01:01:50,520 --> 01:01:53,320
Speaker 1: all sorts of opportunities. And I just hope for you

1086
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:58,160
Speaker 1: that you can stop and smell the roses. Everyone. That's

1087
01:01:58,160 --> 01:02:00,600
Speaker 1: a that's a challenge for hard chargers like us, and

1088
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:05,600
Speaker 1: you you take it to a new level. But you know, yeah,

1089
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:09,640
Speaker 1: I'll end with this. When somebody is dear to me,

1090
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:13,720
Speaker 1: as Brett Aldridge tells me how important you are to him,

1091
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:16,919
Speaker 1: you know that's vouching in a way that because he's

1092
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:18,960
Speaker 1: got a hell of a meter and I didn't need

1093
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:21,000
Speaker 1: him to do that, but boy do I love that

1094
01:02:21,160 --> 01:02:25,400
Speaker 1: somebody that discerning would say you mean so much in

1095
01:02:25,440 --> 01:02:29,800
Speaker 1: your relationship and that and and so I'm happy about that.

1096
01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:33,240
Speaker 1: But I'm happy you came over, um and we're done.

1097
01:02:33,240 --> 01:02:35,680
Speaker 1: But did you ever I'm sure there have been different times.

1098
01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:37,520
Speaker 1: Did you get really pissed at me for saying something

1099
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:42,600
Speaker 1: or like just really no? Actually, if we are done,

1100
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:45,920
Speaker 1: I was so proud of you sing Oh, I've got

1101
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:48,240
Speaker 1: so much trouble for that. The people publicly that we're

1102
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:54,400
Speaker 1: ripping me, we're also privately going sorry many Yeah, it's tough,

1103
01:02:54,840 --> 01:02:58,439
Speaker 1: but that's tough. Well nothing you ever did buck me out,

1104
01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:00,480
Speaker 1: buddy'll take it. Hey, you man,