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Speaker 1: Alright, Episode three fifty four, Leslie Simon, the general manager

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Speaker 1: of Garth Brooks and triciyar Wood's record labels. I mean,

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Speaker 1: just a crazy story of how she got to where

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Speaker 1: she yesterday, meaning she and we'll talk about this. She

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Speaker 1: was working with Chingy for a while, which I thought

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Speaker 1: a pretty good story, pretty funny story. Yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 1: she did it all and at one point she moved

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Speaker 1: off and just was like, I'm gonna like being nanny.

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Speaker 1: It was it a nanny, yeah, and then she was

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Speaker 1: like I got to get back. It's crazy, you know,

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Speaker 1: the life of someone in the music industry. And then

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Speaker 1: she talks about how she's been affected by cancer because

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Speaker 1: in seventeen she was diagnosed with breast cancer. So right now,

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Speaker 1: let me say this before this starts, because I hope

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Speaker 1: you listen to the whole thing. It's it's a really

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Speaker 1: fantastic hour here. Leslie's being honored by the American Cancer

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Speaker 1: Society Hope gall in August, and it's currently raising money

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Speaker 1: for cancer research and patient programs. You can find the

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Speaker 1: link in the episode notes of this podcast, So if

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Speaker 1: you hear this and you're so moved, click that to

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Speaker 1: donate in her honor or, an honor or memory of

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Speaker 1: a loved one that is also battled cancer. It's in

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Speaker 1: separate parts, I mean individually, either one of the parts.

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Speaker 1: We call them parts A and B. Although they're together individually,

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Speaker 1: they're both a plus. Together it's just another level. And

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Speaker 1: you know she doesn't have she's not famous, So I

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Speaker 1: hope that doesn't discourage you from listening all the way

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Speaker 1: through because it is great and you're gonna take a

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Speaker 1: lot from this. So that's the deal. This is episode

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Speaker 1: three four, and she does She talks about taking Coldplay

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Speaker 1: to a bar. I just chilling, So it's all there.

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Speaker 1: This is episode Leslie Simon on the Bobby catst As

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Speaker 1: we get into a lot of your career, Leslie, what's

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Speaker 1: interesting to me is that I wonder what you remember

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Speaker 1: from the day Cam came to the studio. People bring

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Speaker 1: that up to me as a part of my career,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I have my story what I tell

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Speaker 1: because it was my version in my life. And you

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Speaker 1: come to the studio with Cam and you guys have

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Speaker 1: a radio single. I don't even know what it was.

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Speaker 1: Thinking back, I gotta be honest, I don't remember what

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Speaker 1: it was. And it was like, hey, we're gonna come.

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Speaker 1: And I liked Camp and so I didn't know where

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Speaker 1: that well then, but I liked her from our limited

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Speaker 1: time together. And Camp came in the studio and she

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Speaker 1: played the song and I was like, man, your song

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Speaker 1: I really like, I said, I just love Burning House

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Speaker 1: as I would would you play it? And so she did?

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Speaker 1: And that's a slow song and she's a new artist,

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Speaker 1: and obviously that's not it wasn't a single. Oh no,

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Speaker 1: I mean we were all so nervous about I loved

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Speaker 1: that song, but I mean it was like, how can

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Speaker 1: you put a four minute slow that? Like the slowest ballot?

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Speaker 1: So slow? And when you were like, hey, I love

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Speaker 1: this song, I was like, cool, let's yeah. So she

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Speaker 1: played it and then I remember playing it all day.

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Speaker 1: I played it every thirty minutes on the air for

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Speaker 1: two reasons. One because I loved it, and too, I

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Speaker 1: was kind of figuring out my place here and what

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Speaker 1: kind of influence I head, Yeah, And it wasn't just play.

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Speaker 1: And so this is download still six or seven years ago.

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Speaker 1: And so you can watch the iTunes chart where now

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Speaker 1: it takes longer because streaming numbers aren't immediate, and and

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Speaker 1: we just skyrocketed and it and I was like, I remember, well,

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Speaker 1: I remember walking out that day and she and I

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Speaker 1: were both like, wow, that was really special. And it

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Speaker 1: was weird because I was like, I didn't focus on

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Speaker 1: the single. It wasn't planned, and we were fine with that.

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Speaker 1: Were I always thought you guys were a little upset

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Speaker 1: because you came in for something and I didn't give

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Speaker 1: it to you. But not on purpose, No, no, no.

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Speaker 1: What was so exciting when we walked out of the

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Speaker 1: door was we felt this energy in that interview. We

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Speaker 1: felt your excitement for the song. We love the song,

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Speaker 1: but it was really everything that you're told you can't

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Speaker 1: take to radio on a new artist. I mean, you're

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Speaker 1: constantly told we want tempo, we want something short that

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Speaker 1: you know it's going to be air candy, and this

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Speaker 1: was slow and had a big, kind of powerful story

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Speaker 1: behind it. So we walked out and we were both like, God,

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Speaker 1: that felt so good, and we kind of went through

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Speaker 1: this what if no, it would just never work. What

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Speaker 1: if no? You know all of the things that were

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Speaker 1: always listening to, which are the formula for what you're

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Speaker 1: supposed to do, It didn't fall into any of those things. Well,

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Speaker 1: and she's also a female artist, which is another layer,

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Speaker 1: and it's still a layer now, but it was like

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Speaker 1: back then, it was it was so hard. It was

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Speaker 1: so hard, so everything was working against it, right, everything

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Speaker 1: new female, slow, no reason that should have been radio

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Speaker 1: song no Reason, and my version of the story from

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Speaker 1: where I lived. I play it to play it. It's crushing,

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Speaker 1: it's crushing. I talked to Rod, who runs the format

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Speaker 1: and is also one of my dearest friends. We've been

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Speaker 1: together for fifteen years, and I'm like, hey, I've only

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Speaker 1: ever seen this, like one or two songs ever that

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Speaker 1: we've done. Ever, I've never seen a reaction like this before.

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Speaker 1: And it's easier to react to a slow song because

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Speaker 1: you can actually hear the words, so I expect reaction

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Speaker 1: from powerful songs. But I said, hey, this is a

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Speaker 1: weird thing where and I thought you guys were upset.

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Speaker 1: I was like, they didn't come in from a song,

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Speaker 1: and I asked him to play it. But Rod wasn't

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Speaker 1: in that role yet. He was partially he was getting involved,

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Speaker 1: but he wasn't in the big role. But I called

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Speaker 1: him because I was fighting for him to get that role.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, hey, we did this and we

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Speaker 1: were also and eventually I get to be on the

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Speaker 1: verge part, but he was very much in that conversation

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Speaker 1: upon the verge, and I was already positioning for it

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Speaker 1: because not that I loved Cam and I later did,

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Speaker 1: and not that I loved you, because I didn't really

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Speaker 1: know you that well yet, but I saw that as

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Speaker 1: if that was a hit and I did it, that

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Speaker 1: people will be like, oh, that guy kind of knows

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Speaker 1: what he's talking about. But I didn't know what I

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Speaker 1: was talking about. But I was just I was just

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Speaker 1: experimenting at the time. And you've always had an ear,

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Speaker 1: and you had you had that ear. Then I remember

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Speaker 1: sitting at my desk after we got back, Um, and

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Speaker 1: you texted me and you texted me a screenshot of

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Speaker 1: the Attunes chart and I was like, oh my gosh.

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Speaker 1: And right within seconds of you texting me, we were

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Speaker 1: at a time that we didn't have a chairman at

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Speaker 1: Sony Nashville. Some dude call me named Dog or something.

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Speaker 1: So Doug Morris, Doug Morris, who was the head of

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Speaker 1: Sony in New York, called me and I answered the

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Speaker 1: phone and I said, somebody from his office called because

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Speaker 1: I guess right when you sent me that text. I

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Speaker 1: sent it to somebody in New York and I'll even

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Speaker 1: remember who. I just remember Dog's office immediately called me

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Speaker 1: and Doug said what happened today? And I said, well,

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Speaker 1: Bobby wanted to and Doug loved Burning House. And Doug

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Speaker 1: was a huge part of signing CAM. I mean he

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Speaker 1: actually I'm pretty sure he signed Camp. That's what he

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Speaker 1: told me. Yes, when I started listened to I didn't

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Speaker 1: really talk much. I listened a lot, That's what he said.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm like, my key, my brain is like

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Speaker 1: and so I have to go back. But he signed Cam.

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Speaker 1: He called me and he said what happened today? And

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Speaker 1: I said, Bobby loves Burning House and wanted to play

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Speaker 1: Burning House. And when he played Burning House, there was

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Speaker 1: this media reaction and this is where it is on iTunes,

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Speaker 1: and so he obviously I saw the iTunes number and

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Speaker 1: he was like, this has to be our single. That

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Speaker 1: quickly made that decision. He was like, I think this

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Speaker 1: has to be the single. And I was like, we're

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Speaker 1: always looking for something that's reacting. We want something that's

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Speaker 1: organic and that's real and that has an instant reaction,

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Speaker 1: and this song is doing that. And from that conversation.

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Speaker 1: I mean, then he and I started talking on a

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Speaker 1: way more regular basis, and then On the Verge came

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Speaker 1: together and that was really what jump started her career.

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Speaker 1: That song. I mean, that was a number one record

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Speaker 1: that had it not been for On the Verge, and

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Speaker 1: the response that happened that day, Um, that instant reaction

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Speaker 1: from fans, we never would have gotten enough exposure to

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Speaker 1: have ever gotten the number one I mean, and then

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Speaker 1: so many things, you know, opened up for her, So

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Speaker 1: many doors opened up for her, and you know, Grammy

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Speaker 1: nominations and performances on television and all of these things

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Speaker 1: opened from the power of that song in that moment,

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Speaker 1: And it was one of the most special things in

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Speaker 1: my career because to have a new artist on a

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Speaker 1: song like that that everybody says it's not gonna work work, Um,

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Speaker 1: it was really really exciting and really one of the

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Speaker 1: things I'm most proud of. But I mean, I still

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Speaker 1: remember it pretty vividly, where she came in, she played it,

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Speaker 1: I kept I played it a few times on the air,

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Speaker 1: just being like, you guys, if you like you gotta

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Speaker 1: do something because and then my goal was like, let's

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Speaker 1: see if I can move a needle more than just downloads.

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Speaker 1: And I'm one with Rod because we had just been

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Speaker 1: talking about on the Bridge for another artist who didn't

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Speaker 1: get it, so I don't want to say it is

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Speaker 1: so and on the verge. For those that are listening,

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Speaker 1: it's basically the biggest thing you can get as a

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Speaker 1: new artist with a song, because you just automatically get

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Speaker 1: a ton of play and automatically move up the charts

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Speaker 1: and automatically get a good place to get research in

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Speaker 1: a positive way because you have to have research and

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Speaker 1: has to show up, but you get enough spins that

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Speaker 1: it's real life research well, and most importantly, people hear

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Speaker 1: it because you're getting those spins in the daytime. And

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Speaker 1: the only way fans can react to music is if

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Speaker 1: they can discover it and they have to hear it

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Speaker 1: more than one time, and they have to hear it

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Speaker 1: just over and over again in a in a regular rotation,

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Speaker 1: and you get that and not at two in the morning.

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Speaker 1: That happens a lot of time in new artists, like

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Speaker 1: most of the play is in the overnight spot um

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Speaker 1: and I remember getting home and it was a New

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Speaker 1: York number and I was like, oh, I don't think

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Speaker 1: it's spent. So my answer and he's like, hey, this

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Speaker 1: is Doug some some name. I just am not connected, right,

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Speaker 1: and so he probably has a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: worship a door and respect what he's done. Later I

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Speaker 1: learned it. I learned to, but I was like, what up, Doug.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know who it was, and he's he starts

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Speaker 1: to tell me a story about Cam coming into Sony

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Speaker 1: and him signing her and how big of a deal.

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Speaker 1: So I started to put it all together, like this

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Speaker 1: is the guy that's because you were at Arista, that

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Speaker 1: that that division of Sony. So in my head I'm

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Speaker 1: figuring it out. As I'm talking to I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: so Sony the big boss. He's like over over everything,

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Speaker 1: all formats and so he was super sweet. He's like,

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Speaker 1: I just want to say thanks, because in a way,

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Speaker 1: we were gonna play this as a single because the

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Speaker 1: team in Nashville had felt like we needed to give

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Speaker 1: what radio usually wants. I'm like good, and we hang

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Speaker 1: up and he's like, this is gonna be the song

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Speaker 1: and I appreciate your support. He was also like, can

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Speaker 1: I have your support more so? And I was like,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I was like, yeah, I know, I don't

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Speaker 1: know what to say, and so because it really had

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Speaker 1: happened so quickly. So I'm talking to Rod and I'm like, hey, man,

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Speaker 1: do we want a big win on this or do

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Speaker 1: we want to grab an artist? It's probably gonna do

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Speaker 1: pretty good anyway, because if we want a big win,

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Speaker 1: this is the one because it wasn't single, it's female artist.

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Speaker 1: It's such a good song, it's different. I said, if

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Speaker 1: you want to win, we gotta give it a cam

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Speaker 1: And I don't really get in those conversations a whole lot.

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Speaker 1: I think I've only ever done it twice other when

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Speaker 1: one was Christians and buy me a Boat, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, you gotta do it because they just this

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Speaker 1: was like right after like I'm hot. I'm like, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: let's do it again. That's probably a little bit of

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Speaker 1: why I kept doing the song too, because I was like,

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Speaker 1: let's see if this is I just caught lightning in

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Speaker 1: a bottle um and I did. Because those songs were

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Speaker 1: lightning into bottles. It was just somebody had to put

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Speaker 1: them on a platform, right. I didn't. I didn't do

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Speaker 1: anything except go, hey, I'm my people, listen to this this? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you gave it the exposure that any artist needs. But

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Speaker 1: when you have great songs like that and they get exposure,

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Speaker 1: then they do what they're supposed to do, They do

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Speaker 1: what they're meant to do. They react, and that's what happened.

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Speaker 1: And I mean listen, there were some program directors who

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Speaker 1: were not happy. They did not want to play it,

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Speaker 1: and they were like, you know, why, why does it

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Speaker 1: have to be this song? Why does it have to

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Speaker 1: be a ballad? And we were like, you can't say

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Speaker 1: it's me because other companies, especially then right now, it's

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Speaker 1: a little okay because I've kind of established, but then

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Speaker 1: if you were to say, Bobby did this, they just

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Speaker 1: pe on it. Well, and I think too at the time.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was just there was so much A

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Speaker 1: female cannot come out with a ballad and you need

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Speaker 1: to listen to us. A female can't come out with

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Speaker 1: a ballad. And you know, my thought at that time

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, man, if you don't hear this and

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Speaker 1: you don't want to do it, no worries. Let's see

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Speaker 1: what happens in your market. Let's see what happens with

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Speaker 1: the streaming numbers. Let's see what happens with the download

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Speaker 1: numbers because like you said, I mean we people were

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Speaker 1: still downloading it iTunes, and all of those things came

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Speaker 1: together in such a real and passionate and big way

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Speaker 1: that you really didn't have a choice. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: guess you could be you know, you could have such

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Speaker 1: an ego that you decided not to share it with

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Speaker 1: your audience. But why would you do that, you know,

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Speaker 1: because if the people are telling you they want something,

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Speaker 1: why would anybody have such a big ego that they

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Speaker 1: wouldn't give it to him. It was a great little

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Speaker 1: snapshot of you know, those early years for me and

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Speaker 1: nashvillists seeing that success, because I loved to see a

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Speaker 1: song that was just real good, get it, even though

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Speaker 1: it didn't match what the criteria supposedly was for a

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Speaker 1: song to be real good, whatever that meant. And there

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Speaker 1: have been a few of those, like Eric Passley, he

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Speaker 1: Don't he don't love you, She don't love She don't

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Speaker 1: love you. That was one too where I was like

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Speaker 1: it was slow and like the song is just so good,

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Speaker 1: like guys were, and so we played all the time

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Speaker 1: and it was only like a top ten, but it

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Speaker 1: was like it was nominated for big awards, and I

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Speaker 1: was just so proud of like fighting for that song

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Speaker 1: because it was just about the song and what That's

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Speaker 1: one of the things I love that you did at

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Speaker 1: that time, and you still do, but not not as

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Speaker 1: much now, but yes, but you really at that time said,

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Speaker 1: I don't care if this doesn't follow the formula of

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Speaker 1: what we're supposed to be putting on the radio. This

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Speaker 1: is an amazing song. And I'm seeing I mean, you're

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Speaker 1: on the front lines. A lot of program directors are

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Speaker 1: not on the front lines, but you're on the front

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Speaker 1: lines because you're talking to people, You're connecting with fans,

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Speaker 1: you're you know, you're communicating with listeners every day, and

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Speaker 1: so you really see how they react, whether you're seeing

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Speaker 1: it on socials or I mean, you still have people

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Speaker 1: calling to the studio. I mean a lot of people

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Speaker 1: don't even have phone lines to do that, but you do.

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Speaker 1: And so you had the opportunity to see how the

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Speaker 1: listeners and the fans reacted to Burning House into the

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Speaker 1: other songs that you launched, but you were you were

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Speaker 1: playing songs that no one else would play, and you

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Speaker 1: were giving them exposure and letting the fans and the

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Speaker 1: listeners decide. And at the end of the day. That's

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Speaker 1: what it's all about, right, I mean like that discovery

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Speaker 1: is what it's all about. And we kind of got

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Speaker 1: to a place where we I felt like we were

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Speaker 1: really struggling to get anything that was different, the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to succeed, and you gave it the opportunity, and good gracious.

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Speaker 1: There's a picture in the little waiting room here's Mass

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Speaker 1: It was awesome. It was awesome, and it's an awesome song.

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Speaker 1: There's a picture in the room here when you walk out,

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Speaker 1: like the waiting room for the studio, and it's Cam

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Speaker 1: and Kelsey because Kelsey's first song was going number one

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Speaker 1: and Cam was in because she had just been announced

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Speaker 1: on the Virgin and had him come in at the

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Speaker 1: same time. And they don't I don't remember what they did,

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Speaker 1: but I have a picture of that day because it

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Speaker 1: was awesome to me because I used take Kelsey out

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Speaker 1: on the road and open for us. She didn't have

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Speaker 1: a song or anything yet, and I was so proud

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Speaker 1: of her and she was getting her first number one

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Speaker 1: and I was so pumped for that song and Cam

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Speaker 1: and I didn't have the relationship with Cam, but I

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Speaker 1: just loved this song and the idea of someone doing

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Speaker 1: something that wasn't really being done, which is taking a

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Speaker 1: big by the label had to take a chance money

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Speaker 1: and I was so proud of her in that song.

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Speaker 1: So there's a picture of us, and I was like,

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Speaker 1: this is such an awesome day for all of us,

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Speaker 1: and there's women in country music. It's really cool. And

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Speaker 1: I don't do this. It's funny. I don't do it

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Speaker 1: as much anymore for a couple of reasons. One because

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Speaker 1: you don't really get the instant because it takes a

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Speaker 1: while for streaming to actually show up. Um, three reasons too.

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Speaker 1: I just try to be funny at this point, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't have a lot of time to

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Speaker 1: listen to a bunch of new music. And it got

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Speaker 1: to the point where I was getting people all the

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Speaker 1: time begging me to play new music or listen to

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Speaker 1: new music, and I didn't have time to be fair,

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Speaker 1: and if I couldn't be fair, I didn't really want

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Speaker 1: to do it. And then it got to and you'll

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Speaker 1: know this because you've been in this industry for a while,

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Speaker 1: it got really bad with because I had had a

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Speaker 1: bit of success in a non traditional way of breaking

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Speaker 1: music and artists that other we'll call them gatekeepers or

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Speaker 1: other places started to get competitive with it and then

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Speaker 1: hold people back. That I was like, this is good.

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Speaker 1: So I was like, they're gonna hold people back, come

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Speaker 1: out because I'm not gonna do anything and have somebody

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Speaker 1: penalize something I think is great because I don't work

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Speaker 1: with that streaming service. I don't work at that, And

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Speaker 1: so that started to happen and I was like, all right,

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Speaker 1: I'm out. I'm gonna be out for a while until

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Speaker 1: it chills. And then so now I do it in

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Speaker 1: a way of I love this artist and if they're

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Speaker 1: coming to town, you should go see them, because that's

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00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 1: how you can directly affect an artist well. And you

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Speaker 1: put the gold stage the other night. Yes, I love

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Speaker 1: and I still love the same thing. It's the same,

358
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Speaker 1: but now if I just find different ways to do it.

359
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Speaker 1: Are a waiter at a place weet all the time?

360
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Speaker 1: Never told me that story. I loved seeing that story,

361
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Speaker 1: and I was like, hey, come on, so I put

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Speaker 1: them up on stage. You played it was awesome. So yes,

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Speaker 1: I just have to have to find a different way

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Speaker 1: to do it. But I love it. I love people

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Speaker 1: that are good and work hard and are trying every

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Speaker 1: way to get some sort of exposure and then if

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Speaker 1: I can, if I have a path for them to

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00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:41,480
Speaker 1: walk down, let's go. I'll take you and we'll go.

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Speaker 1: Using your platform for that is it's exciting that that

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Speaker 1: still can happen different, Yes, in a different way. I

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Speaker 1: mean whatever way you're doing it, you're using your platform

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Speaker 1: to expose music that you think is great, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's really important. I appreciate that. It's a big

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Speaker 1: deal to me. It's a big deal to take somebody's

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Speaker 1: working hard and give a shot. Yeah, and I think

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Speaker 1: that's probably I got a therapy. That's my aunts, all

377
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,399
Speaker 1: that therapy part of stuff. But uh so I was

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Speaker 1: interested to hear your take on that because that was

379
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Speaker 1: a really cool part of my Nashville time. I'm telling you,

380
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Speaker 1: it was one of the most and and then in

381
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Speaker 1: the end when it came full circle and it was

382
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Speaker 1: the number one record it in all of my career,

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Speaker 1: it's one of the most um special moments in time.

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Speaker 1: It is one of the things that I'm most proud

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Speaker 1: to have been a part of. And um, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's just so many great memories that that, Yeah, I

387
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Speaker 1: just not shooting on for Grammy for that song. That's um.

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Speaker 1: So you had Brad Paisley, And I don't remember the

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Speaker 1: first time I met you. It had to be in

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Speaker 1: studio because you you had oh you know, I do.

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Speaker 1: The first time I met you was when we had

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Speaker 1: when y'all were announced here and we had Brad do

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Speaker 1: an interview, and do you remember that? It was right

394
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Speaker 1: when you was like was it the press conference? There

395
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:00,119
Speaker 1: was a there was a really dumb press conference. I'm

396
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Speaker 1: embarrassed that we had. But and I didn't have I

397
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Speaker 1: didn't know what was going on. I was a wide eyed,

398
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:06,639
Speaker 1: like what's happening? But a Brad there for that maybe

399
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:09,000
Speaker 1: or he was the first interview. There was something that

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Speaker 1: Brad did at the very beginning. And you and I

401
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,240
Speaker 1: met right at that time, and um, I mean we

402
00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:18,040
Speaker 1: just didn't we connected. YEA well, because you want like

403
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:23,840
Speaker 1: a car salesman, honestly, I mean, and that's a that's it.

404
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,160
Speaker 1: In this town. It's like trying to figure out who's

405
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:28,800
Speaker 1: a car salesman, who's not or who you like. You know,

406
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:30,960
Speaker 1: you can have a friend's car salesmanvie, but you gotta

407
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:32,760
Speaker 1: be like, hey, you gotta turn that crap off. Around me, right,

408
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:35,480
Speaker 1: And that's cool too, as long as they turn it

409
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Speaker 1: off around you. I've got that relationship with a few

410
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Speaker 1: people now where it's like I get it, but don't

411
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Speaker 1: do that here, don't do that with me. We're all

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Speaker 1: this is life, life, life, um. But you know it's

413
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Speaker 1: interesting with Brad. Early on, I went to Brad. I

414
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Speaker 1: wrote about this my first book. I went to Brad's

415
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Speaker 1: house and he was like, hey, come outside for a minute.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, what are you gonna shoot me?

417
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Speaker 1: What's happening with these country country music people? And so

418
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Speaker 1: I was walking with them and it was cool to

419
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Speaker 1: me because I grew up listening obviously to a lot

420
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Speaker 1: of country music in Arkansas, like it was the central

421
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Speaker 1: part of my music until I got to be a

422
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Speaker 1: teenager and it turned a little more alternative and and

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Speaker 1: hip hop. But I remember Brad because I remember his

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Speaker 1: early early part right before I checked out for a

425
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Speaker 1: little bit, and that that part of country music, and

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Speaker 1: so I thought it was real cool that he was

427
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Speaker 1: walking on and he was like, hey, man, think I

428
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Speaker 1: like you here? And a little bit. I was taken

429
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:30,560
Speaker 1: aback because I thought he was maybe agreeing with them

430
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 1: or maybe secretly like, I don't know, as showing his

431
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,040
Speaker 1: how dominant he was. I don't know, I didn't know,

432
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:40,280
Speaker 1: but it was weird and I was like, what do

433
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 1: you mean and he goes, I'll tell you from experience,

434
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:44,800
Speaker 1: and that's when I knew he was kind of giving

435
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,280
Speaker 1: me some advice. He was like, they didn't like me

436
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,080
Speaker 1: here for a long time because I was a quirky

437
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,320
Speaker 1: and I did some funny stuff and I he goes, listen,

438
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:53,679
Speaker 1: I love country music. Nobody doubts that, but there are

439
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:54,960
Speaker 1: a lot of people here that was like that guy

440
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:56,520
Speaker 1: ain't for here. And he said, you're gonna get that

441
00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:58,600
Speaker 1: a lot. And I remember going and this is before

442
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 1: I really got that. I did. Boy did I for

443
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 1: two or three years and I remember going really but

444
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:08,119
Speaker 1: I always held that like it's very precious to me

445
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: because yeah, people, yeah, he didn't have to do that.

446
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:13,640
Speaker 1: And he was like, they're gonna like you, and it's

447
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 1: gonna stuck for you for a little bit. And he

448
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,159
Speaker 1: was right, Walter. I mean, like, he's one of my

449
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,200
Speaker 1: favorite humans in the world. I mean, he's a dear

450
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 1: friend and I loved working with him. But you know,

451
00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 1: one thing that I always felt about Brad is when

452
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,480
Speaker 1: he wanted to sit down and have a conversation with you,

453
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,239
Speaker 1: it was a person a person conversation. He wasn't there

454
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:36,639
Speaker 1: wasn't some other intention that you didn't know about. I mean,

455
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,320
Speaker 1: he really wanted to have a conversation with you about

456
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:41,920
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it is you were talking about. And

457
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,680
Speaker 1: so him having you out there and having that discussion

458
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,560
Speaker 1: with you was a real moment of connection. And there

459
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,199
Speaker 1: was something that obviously you guys connected on very early,

460
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,640
Speaker 1: that you had a lot in common, and I think

461
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: it was it was really cool to watch relationships. It's

462
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 1: very special in you know, I got really isolated myself

463
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:03,920
Speaker 1: a lot for a few years because I just felt

464
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: like people were just taking their shots. But I always

465
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 1: remember that and really appreciated that from Brad because he superstar.

466
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:12,119
Speaker 1: You have to do that superstar to do anything, and

467
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 1: you know what, people did that for him when he

468
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: started and then he has I watched him do that

469
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: with other artists and other people in this industry, and

470
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 1: it's um, it's really special. I mean, it's one of

471
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 1: the things in this industry that I love so much

472
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:26,960
Speaker 1: is that there are these real people who want to

473
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: connect with real people. And then also want to help

474
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 1: grow these relationships in this industry together. And it's really

475
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:39,520
Speaker 1: fun when it's a partnership and we all work together. Um.

476
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,359
Speaker 1: And I think he really all made that connection early

477
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:51,720
Speaker 1: and and I loved watching that relationship. I was talking

478
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: to Amy today and yeah, I mean we're you know,

479
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,159
Speaker 1: for those if you Leslie and are we're friends like

480
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:03,400
Speaker 1: real life friends. Um. But we met through a professional

481
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 1: environment and we kind of, you know, morphed into that

482
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: and you and Amy your clothes, Amy and I are closed,

483
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:11,399
Speaker 1: So you know, I just gets a love triangle, I'll

484
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 1: say it. Um. So, I mean it was like, she

485
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 1: said something about Cheney this morning, and I was like,

486
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: where did Chinney come from? Because I know Chingie holiday

487
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: in right there all the and she was like, well,

488
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: Leslie Monday night, Yeah, and she said, Leslie's to work

489
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: Cheney Records or something. I was like, what did you

490
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 1: work in hip hopera Pop? I worked in Pop. I

491
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,920
Speaker 1: was at Capital Pop before I came to Aristile what where?

492
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 1: And I was based on Atlanta, so I was at

493
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 1: the time, I was a Southeastern regional. So you know,

494
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 1: back in the day there were ten and twelve fourteen

495
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: locals that worked records across the country for one imprint.

496
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 1: And by that, you mean, if we simplified a little bit,

497
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:55,719
Speaker 1: you had an area and you stayed close with all

498
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,199
Speaker 1: the radio stations in your in your localish area. Correct.

499
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 1: And so I covered the southeast out of Atlanta, UM,

500
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:10,200
Speaker 1: which was basically Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, UM, Louisiana, Mississippi was

501
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: basically my territory. And I mean, when you're in pop,

502
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 1: you work every pop format. So you're working hip hop, alternative, rock,

503
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,919
Speaker 1: pott A C. Pop. I mean, I want to say

504
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: I had seven formats and I mean fifteen records at

505
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,240
Speaker 1: a time, very different than and this is you know,

506
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 1: this is how I kind of was growing up in

507
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: the promotion world before I came back into country. And um,

508
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: my very first artists that ever worked to radio, My

509
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: very first song was Coldplay in My Place. That was

510
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: my first day of work, was the add day for

511
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 1: cold Play in My Place. Um, you know, I didn't

512
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,440
Speaker 1: really know hip hop music, but I lived in Atlanta,

513
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: which is like the center of hip hop music, and

514
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: and I had to represent those artists, and so I

515
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: really started to learn the music. But I mean, I'm

516
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 1: from Montgomery, Alabama, and I'm you know, most of the

517
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: one syllable words I say come out, and especially you

518
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: know twenty years ago, years ago, they came out into

519
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: three four syllables. So, um, I worked Cheney right there.

520
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:22,239
Speaker 1: But obviously there does not even sound normal coming out

521
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: of my mouth. So when I would call my program

522
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: directors to talk to them about this new artist, Cheney

523
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,959
Speaker 1: and y'all, that song was such an infectious record. I mean,

524
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:35,400
Speaker 1: I hear it once, It's in my head all days,

525
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: still still this long. So I would call to work

526
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 1: the record and I'd say, hey, you know, this is

527
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: Leslie with capital calling to talk to you about Cheney

528
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 1: right there. And they were like, Leslie, the song is

529
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: right there. I'm like, I know that the song is

530
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: called right there. But if I said right there, don't

531
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 1: you actually think it's ridiculous and you don't really take

532
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: me seriously? I mean, let me just call it right there.

533
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,119
Speaker 1: And then I'm a huge numbers geek. Um. So I

534
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: always have like the stats and the numbers and all

535
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: the things that were going on with this song. But

536
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: I had it in my Southern accent, in my searsucker pants,

537
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:17,639
Speaker 1: with my bows in my hair, working right there, and

538
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 1: these people thought. They all thought I was hysterical because well,

539
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: the record mass if you did It made it a hit.

540
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: The first time Jenny I took changing to radio, it

541
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: was to the Beat, which was the huge hip hop

542
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: station in Atlanta, And we met outside of the radio

543
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: station and he gets out of the car and he's

544
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 1: got like this posse of like twelve people, and I'm like, Cheney, Like,

545
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: the studio where you're gonna go cut these liners is

546
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,639
Speaker 1: the size of a closet. We cannot take ten people downstairs.

547
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,399
Speaker 1: You get to pick one person to come downstairs with you.

548
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: And he's like, no, they're all coming. I was like,

549
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: they can't fit in the closet. Everybody's gonna sit upstairs.

550
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: We're taking one person. They all thought I was so

551
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: funny because they were not used to having this like

552
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: really southern, strong, Southern woman who you know, if you

553
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: thought that you could tell me how it was going

554
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: to go, then I was going to stand up and

555
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: go hum, and I'd get my little southern accent on

556
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,959
Speaker 1: and kind of slow it down, and um, they all

557
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: thought I was hysterical. And I also wore so Chiney

558
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: gave us all these belts that literally the belt buckle

559
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: was this big and it said Chiney on it. So

560
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:33,879
Speaker 1: when I took him to the radio station, I had

561
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,440
Speaker 1: on my cute little seven jeans with my Serier sucker

562
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: top and my bows and my hair and my chinny

563
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 1: belt and Rich Money, who was one of the guys

564
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: in his group that would was, would be on stage

565
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: with him when he performed. He was like, Cheney, she

566
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: is representing. And I was like, um what. I had

567
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: never heard that word before. I was like, what does

568
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: that mean? And I didn't see him pointing to my belt.

569
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,159
Speaker 1: I was like, and I'm, you know, sitting there and

570
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 1: thinking he's talking about something that I'm wearying or whatever,

571
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: but not thinking it's the belt forgot to have the

572
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: belt on. He's like, look, she's representing. And I was like,

573
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: what does that mean? And they all started laughing and

574
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,880
Speaker 1: they're like, she's representing. And I looked down. I was like, oh,

575
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: my belt, I'm representing you. I'm representing you, and they

576
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 1: were like, oh my gosh. But I loved him and

577
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,640
Speaker 1: that these guys were great, and it was super fun

578
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: to work two songs from a brand new artist that

579
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 1: were so massive. I mean I still like you said

580
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 1: about right there with Holiday Inn. When that's when I

581
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 1: hear the word holiday Inn, I go straight to what

582
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: you're doing nothing chilling at the Holiday Inn. So you

583
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 1: worked in we'll call it pop. There's a lot of

584
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: little formats. How long did you do that in Atlanta?

585
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: I was only in Atlanta for two years, and then

586
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: I came back here to do country again. So I

587
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: started in country. Um actually started as a temp at

588
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: r C, a label group, like a like an administration, yeah,

589
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 1: like an assistant. Were you doing that because you knew

590
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: you wanted to get into it or you're just looking

591
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: for a job. At that time, I knew I wanted

592
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: to get into the music business, So as I started,

593
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: I was living in Nashville and I actually worked for

594
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 1: the temp company doing marketing. And my first year old

595
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: of college. I'll move through this really quickly. It's just

596
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 1: kind of funny. My dad I was like, okay, you

597
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: got four years in a day. Your four years is

598
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: about up, and then that means you have to have

599
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: a job. And I was like, well, okay, and he's like,

600
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: if you don't have a job by the time you graduate,

601
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: you're moving back to Montgomery and I'm gonna help you

602
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: find a job. And all I could think is, I

603
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: don't want to move back to Montgomery, Alabama. I mean

604
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: I want to go spread my wings and figure out

605
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: who I am. And so, um, long story short, ended

606
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: up getting a job as a live in nanny for

607
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: a race car driver. UM, a famous one. He's a

608
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: top fuel driver, great top fuel driver's name was Jim Head.

609
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: So I moved to Columbus, Ohio. Oh he didn't live here. No.

610
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: My dad was like, you're I'm gonna go live with

611
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: some family we don't know. And long story short, his

612
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: uncle happened to live in Montgomery, Alabama and was in

613
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club and did all

614
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: of this philanthropic stuff with my dad, and so my

615
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: dad knew him, and he was like, Okay, well he's

616
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: a great man, and this is his nephew. Then he's

617
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: a great man too, and yes, you can take the job.

618
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 1: I was like, well, and I'm also two years old,

619
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 1: and so I can kind of take the job if

620
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: I want to. So, long story short, I went to

621
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,560
Speaker 1: go live on this racing circuit and living in that

622
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: I mean, so we were racist every weekend. I think

623
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: we had thirty two races in that year. Living in

624
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: that sports world, I kind of knew I wanted to

625
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: be in sports and and or entertainment. Um. I grew

626
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 1: up in Montgomery, but my family is from Nashville. My

627
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: mother grew up in Nashville. I had all these aunts

628
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: and uncles in Nashville. So I called my aunt uncle

629
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: and I was like, can I come live with y'all

630
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 1: and can you help me find a job when I

631
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: finished the year with as an annie and so I

632
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: came here and went to work for a temp agency

633
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: and when they were r C A was one of

634
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: our clients. And so I actually went to the owner

635
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: of the company after you know, six or eight months,

636
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 1: and I said, I really want to work in the

637
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 1: music business, and I just wanted to see if y'all

638
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: would consider placing me if there's an opening at r

639
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: C A. And he was like, of course, and so

640
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 1: you know, you've got to do the work when you

641
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: get in there, but we'll we'll if you want to

642
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: be a temp we'll get you in the door. And

643
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: so I went to be a tempt for the head

644
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: of sales at r C A. And they had had

645
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: a lot of different assistants kind of come through that desk,

646
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: and I was there for two weeks as a temp

647
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: and they hired me full time. And that and Joe

648
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: Belt I was not wearing the changing belt that was

649
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: preaching here yesterday. No, I actually, um, I just had

650
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: coffee with a friend and she was telling me that

651
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: Joe was over here. So I can't wait to hear

652
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: that podcast. He's one of my mentors and one of

653
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 1: my favorite human things um on the planet. And I mean,

654
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: he really taught me so much about this business. UM.

655
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: So did whomever you were with talked to him after

656
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: he was here? I wonder how people feeling, Do you

657
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 1: have good experience here? Do we know? I don't know

658
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:12,800
Speaker 1: if she talked to him after. She just said, oh,

659
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: because I said, I'm I'm headed over to do Bobby's podcast,

660
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: and she goes, oh, my gosh, Joe just did it yesterday.

661
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: And I was like, that's so cool. He's amazing, just

662
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: done everything and he's done. He's been so influential in

663
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 1: country music, I mean, and he really has been so

664
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: important in so many different executives and artist careers. I mean,

665
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 1: he really was is still one of the greatest mentors

666
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: um that that you could have did he move you up? Like?

667
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: How did that? Well? I mean I worked for people

668
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 1: under him who moved me up. But I mean, you know,

669
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 1: I've always had a really strong work ethic, and I'm

670
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: very driven, and I'm also insanely organized and so kind

671
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 1: of don't end my day until everything is done. And

672
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 1: so when I was at it's so at r c A,

673
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: it ended up becoming Sony. But when I was at

674
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: r c A at the time, I worked in the

675
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: sales department and I ran all of the sales reports. Well,

676
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: I mean, y'all, back then, we barely had email. I

677
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: mean we didn't have cell phones really, so I would

678
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: have to get in on Wednesday morning, which was when

679
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: all the sales numbers came out. I would show up

680
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: to the office at like four in the morning because

681
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 1: I'd have to run all these programs out of doss.

682
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: Do you'll even even, y'all, you do not know what DOSses.

683
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: So I'd have to like run these all of sound

684
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 1: scan out of DOSS and then move it into an

685
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:41,480
Speaker 1: Excel spreadsheet. And literally, I mean it's a lot of

686
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: and I don't want to say labor intensive, but I mean,

687
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: it just takes time. Um, So I did that, and

688
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: I put the reports together for all of the executives,

689
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 1: and so to get everybody's report together for their meeting

690
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: at nine am, I mean I'd get into the office

691
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: at four or four thirty in the morning, so that

692
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: when they all got into the office US at you know,

693
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: eight thirty for their nanny and meeting, all of their reports,

694
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 1: their sales reports were there. And my degree was in accounting,

695
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: so I was always just a numbers person and I

696
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: would dig through all of the numbers because I was

697
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: just interested. I wanted to know what made things sell,

698
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: why did certain things sell when other things weren't selling,

699
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: how was it marketed? And so I just started really

700
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,880
Speaker 1: paying attention to all of the reports. I was focused

701
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,759
Speaker 1: on to try to understand, not just to give them

702
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,359
Speaker 1: the report, to understand the why behind it. So when

703
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: you move from being attempted, what was the job he

704
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,799
Speaker 1: took or they they offered you. I was the assistant

705
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 1: to the head of sales, So what do you Okay,

706
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: that's still a numbers very numbers oriented Yeah, So from that,

707
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: then what did you do? So then I actually ended

708
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: up leaving and I went to work for Mindy McCready,

709
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 1: who was one of our artists, and what did you

710
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: do for her? Um? I started as a personal assistant

711
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 1: and then became her tour manager. You were a tour manager.

712
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: I was like twenty five years old. That's a difficult,

713
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:08,799
Speaker 1: stressful it is, and we were a baby act. We're

714
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:11,879
Speaker 1: we open for at the time. We were going back

715
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: and forth between to mcgrawl, George Straight and Allan Jackson

716
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 1: and I literally like showed up that. I was like,

717
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 1: how did I come this rough? I think the tour

718
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,800
Speaker 1: manager quit and then she was like, oh, Leslie is

719
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,240
Speaker 1: going to be the tour manager. And then her manager

720
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: called and said, this is a terrible idea. You are

721
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: basically a child and you have no idea what you're doing.

722
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,800
Speaker 1: And I was like, I completely agree with you. I

723
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: have no idea what I'm doing. And he was like, well,

724
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out on the road with you for

725
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:40,400
Speaker 1: a weekend and I'm going to teach you and and

726
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: so he, you know, taught me what he could literally

727
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: on the bus, and then I remember getting to UM.

728
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: The first show was Allan Jackson and Tony Stevens was

729
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 1: Allen's tour manager. At the time, and I walked into

730
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: the production office and I was like, Hi, my name

731
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: is Leslie and I'm Mindy's tom manager and I have

732
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 1: absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and so if you

733
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 1: would just teach me, I promise I will make this

734
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: as easy on you as possible. And I did the

735
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 1: same with Tim's t manager, and they were just so

736
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,839
Speaker 1: gracious and wonderful and kind of taught me the road

737
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 1: side of the business and the touring side of the business,

738
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: which is very different than the label side. Yeah, and

739
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: it's interesting. What's really cool is you had I mean

740
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 1: you had to learn a skill and at the time

741
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 1: it's probably difficult and like is this really hard? But

742
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: then you had an element that you knew with your

743
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: artists that other people do in your position. I didn't

744
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 1: know because they hadn't probably been on the ground in

745
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 1: that in that form. I was with, um my booking

746
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 1: agent is Brad Bissel. It's Cia and his wife Sally.

747
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: He's run the opry and I was with them, but

748
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:44,359
Speaker 1: they came out to my show that I did at

749
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: a theater and afterwards, Brad, it was like, it was

750
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 1: really interesting about your career is like you can relate

751
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: to people on so many levels. He said, you know,

752
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:55,640
Speaker 1: you've you tour, you know how hard it is and

753
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 1: how and when you get an artist, it's coming into

754
00:36:58,120 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 1: your show to do an interview, and most people are like,

755
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:04,360
Speaker 1: oh well, it's like you can talk about catering or

756
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 1: what it's like to be in a different hotel and

757
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,800
Speaker 1: wake up and not know what city you're in and what,

758
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,760
Speaker 1: but a promoter is or not getting your merch money

759
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: or you know all this and he's like, that's cool.

760
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 1: And I was like, it was hard. I didn't want

761
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: to do it, Like I had to learn because I

762
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't good at other stuff, so I had

763
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 1: to find a different way to actually get to where

764
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:26,800
Speaker 1: I was, which is doing all these crazy things. But

765
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 1: now it's like a superpower I have. Same for you.

766
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:33,320
Speaker 1: You were a tour manager for an artist, but you

767
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 1: understood how hard it was to travel and we had

768
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: to sleeping always difficult. Comfortablity not a thing, especially the

769
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,480
Speaker 1: baby artists. No money, no money, you're living on. It's

770
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 1: so to have that skill that you earned, I just

771
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: think that would be so valuable. It was like, it

772
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,720
Speaker 1: was a really wonderful experience and it's all very humbling.

773
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: I mean anytime you whatever you start doing in this

774
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: business is humbling because there's so many people who have

775
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 1: come before you that no more than you know. And

776
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: so I just always felt like instead of walking in

777
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: and pretending like I knew something that I didn't. Um.

778
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 1: And and also there are a lot of people like

779
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 1: they need you to be efficient and to not get

780
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 1: in the way of their job. And so what I

781
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 1: wanted to know is how do I come in and

782
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: be the tour manager for the Support Act and do

783
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: what y'all need us to do out here and not

784
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 1: get in your way and also look out for my

785
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,399
Speaker 1: artists at the same time. And so and I was young.

786
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I didn't have a lot of

787
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,600
Speaker 1: world experience, much less working experience. UM. But it was

788
00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:41,800
Speaker 1: a great opportunity. I mean i'd suck. I know what

789
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,040
Speaker 1: suck had to suck. That's a hard, sucky job. And

790
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 1: I mean that it was also fun because I was

791
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: a kid and I was seeing the world. When I

792
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 1: say valuable, I don't mean valuable like it was the

793
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:54,440
Speaker 1: most amazing thing. I feel bad for my tour manager

794
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 1: and you know what, I pay them pretty good and

795
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 1: but I also know they're dealing with me and my

796
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 1: schedule and I might need a lemon before my throat sore.

797
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 1: They not only have to deal with Okay, here's just

798
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: the person doing the merch. Okay, this is the promoter.

799
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:09,120
Speaker 1: We're gonna meet with them after the show to clear this.

800
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 1: I gotta get Bobby a freaking lemon. I gotta make

801
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 1: sure the lights and make sure people don't have their salt.

802
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 1: It's everything, and you've got the band and you've got

803
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,360
Speaker 1: to help. You're you're also representing the band, and so

804
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: they have knees as well. I mean, um it's my

805
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,600
Speaker 1: only point experience. Yes, it's a great experience, but it's

806
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 1: very difficult, and that is like to have empathy, Yeah

807
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: for that, Like that's that's awesome, that's what. So you

808
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: do that? Where do you do you get back in

809
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: the label business after that? Yeah? I ended up getting back.

810
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 1: I mean, it did some other things and kind of

811
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 1: stepped away, and then I came back in it, and

812
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:43,839
Speaker 1: then um I started. So the next thing I did

813
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 1: in the industry was promotion for Capital and um I

814
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: was hired but um our president was in l A,

815
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: so it was hired out of the l A office

816
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: and for the Atlanta job because the regional again where

817
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: you're representing area of stay. Yeah, so that's where I

818
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:05,360
Speaker 1: where I represented Coldplay. And yes, that was my first

819
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,480
Speaker 1: promotion job and I didn't know anything about promotion at

820
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: the time. By the way, I didn't know. I didn't

821
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: even really know that record reps called a radio station

822
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: to ask the program Drift to play the music. And so,

823
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,359
Speaker 1: you know, I believe it or not, there's a lot

824
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 1: of numbers that go into promotion as well. And you're

825
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 1: looking at um, not only we're a song is on

826
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:32,080
Speaker 1: the charts, but you know which markets generate more audience

827
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 1: and how to drive listenership, Um, how to drive people

828
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,279
Speaker 1: to play the song. Laura sat that you have more

829
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: people listening to the song, and then when you're going

830
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 1: into a market, you obviously want that song to be

831
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,920
Speaker 1: really exposed in a in a very strong way so

832
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,360
Speaker 1: that when the artists are on stage, the fans a

833
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: or the round the tickets and then they're singing along.

834
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:56,440
Speaker 1: So UM just really learned that side of the business

835
00:40:56,640 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 1: and it really fit my person aldi. I loved it.

836
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a lot of fun and it

837
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,320
Speaker 1: was fun to work. You know, this variety of artists

838
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:12,839
Speaker 1: and Kylie Minogue, Um, Coldplay adored Coldplay. It was there, really,

839
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 1: I mean, so I worked Russia Blood. Yeah, and in

840
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 1: My Place was the first single off of that, and

841
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:20,719
Speaker 1: then they came in for the tour. It wasn't the

842
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 1: first one yellow that record before that was that was

843
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 1: the album for I didn't work that album. So I

844
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,440
Speaker 1: worked Russia Blood and Um, I mean I feel like

845
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: they started the US tour, I mean pretty close to

846
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 1: the beginning. They did Atlanta and Elton John came out

847
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:38,759
Speaker 1: and played with them in Atlanta, and then they did

848
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,320
Speaker 1: um the Raemen, and so I brought him to the

849
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 1: Raemen and they wanted to go out after y'all and

850
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 1: nobody knew who they were, so well, literally we walked

851
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: across the street from the Raemen to this bar called Rippies,

852
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:54,839
Speaker 1: and the guy that owned the bar shut it down

853
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 1: and let them in. The band. The music was the

854
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:59,800
Speaker 1: opening act. Just play all night long. We had the

855
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: best time, and they love music so much that they

856
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: wanted to stay another night before they went on to

857
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: the next venue. And so they were like, take us

858
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 1: out to hear bluegrass, and so we took him to

859
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:13,919
Speaker 1: the station in and they got to hear Sam Bush play,

860
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 1: and um, the you know, these were just young guys

861
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 1: from them, but knew them to look because you knew

862
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: their music the music, but didn't I mean people, They

863
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:26,280
Speaker 1: weren't as recognizable when they walked off of the stage.

864
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:28,839
Speaker 1: But that I mean now they can't walk outside, but um,

865
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 1: they weren't as recognizable then because Chris Martin was when

866
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 1: you remember the Yellow video. I shook my whole world

867
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:36,400
Speaker 1: when I saw him walking on the beach and I

868
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:37,839
Speaker 1: was like, this is the great song and the video

869
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:38,759
Speaker 1: IVE ever seen. And he's not doing the thing but

870
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 1: walking and being sad, and I was like, this is changing,

871
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 1: this is it, And so I was still. I love

872
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:47,359
Speaker 1: cold Play. I like their piano slow stuff more than

873
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:51,279
Speaker 1: their I like the version of the instrument. Some people

874
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 1: like the new version, but I love cold Play. But

875
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: it's cool that they I just wanted to hang. They

876
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: just wanted to and I mean they were just great people.

877
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 1: They're great guys. I mean, you know the that album.

878
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: I mean, think about the great songs on that album.

879
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:09,279
Speaker 1: Clocks the Scientist, what a brilliant song, I mean, And

880
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 1: then Willie Nelson covers the Scientist and Chris's version of

881
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: the scientists and Willie's version of the scientists are so different,

882
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 1: but bos so poignant. I mean that's just love of music.

883
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 1: So you were I also remembered you with Carrie. Yeah, right,

884
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,120
Speaker 1: you're with Kry right Arista. Is Theresa still a thing?

885
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. Yeah. I have no connection to labels

886
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 1: at all. Yeah, so old dominion is on Arista. Um,

887
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 1: and I gotta be honest, I can't remember. Yeah, I

888
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,120
Speaker 1: mean I don't I don't know who's on labels either.

889
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: I was talking to you before labels will come in

890
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: to the studio anymore. They're in the green room, because

891
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 1: it was just a mess, and I was like, I

892
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: want to do a show and have connection me in

893
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: the artist, and but if the labels in there, it's

894
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: just like it's sometimes yeah, it's a little different. Oh

895
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: you're an Arista. And I remember there was like a

896
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:06,600
Speaker 1: big layoff or something like some people left and so

897
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: I was there for thirteen years. Um, and then one

898
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: time I started as a regional and then you know,

899
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: became the national and then became the baby and um,

900
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: I mean gosh, when I started, I mean it was

901
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 1: head Brooks and Done and Alan Jackson and Brad and

902
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:32,480
Speaker 1: Um Keith Anderson Filvasser then carry um Lanco at the

903
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 1: beginning maybe we had the beginning of Laco and then

904
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: you know, as happens in UM this world when you

905
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: have changes at the top, chairman changes, that's what. It

906
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 1: was a big change, and they brought in their own people.

907
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 1: Remember being like what and I hated her after that,

908
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,279
Speaker 1: I was like, no more. Well, I mean, listen, when

909
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 1: when I left, we were the number two label, the

910
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 1: number two in print and country music. So I mean

911
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: we had a ton of success and it was a

912
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,320
Speaker 1: lot of fun. But then everything in life happens for

913
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 1: a reason. I'm a huge believer in that. And I'm

914
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: also a huge believer in one door closing is just

915
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 1: making room in your life and space for another door opening.

916
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 1: And right when I I so I left Sony in

917
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: Arista in February of two thousand and sixteen, and I mean,

918
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: I want to say it was like either right before

919
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 1: that or right after Garth announced he was staffing the

920
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: imprint and Um said I'm looking for Garth. Yeah. I

921
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 1: was like Brooks, You're like yeah, and so how does

922
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: that happen? You're still with Garth and Tricia. Yeah, so

923
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 1: how does how does that conversation? Does he call you? Does? So?

924
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: Mandy McCormick um was working, was the first person that

925
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: went over to work directly with he and Trisha, and

926
00:45:55,239 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: so she was really helping him staff it. She called

927
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:00,399
Speaker 1: me and we had a couple of conversations and then

928
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:02,720
Speaker 1: she said, Um, he's playing the show with the Rheman

929
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:04,800
Speaker 1: and we want you to come up and see it.

930
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 1: And it was his first time to play the Rahman yall,

931
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:09,800
Speaker 1: which I did not ever. Yeah, however, I thought it

932
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 1: was like a first time to played Ryan and he

933
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 1: gets too big, he quick, I think he did. He

934
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he had not played the Rheman

935
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 1: and then he went out and was playing these huge shows.

936
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 1: And I don't actually remember the exact story of why

937
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,279
Speaker 1: he didn't play it until that moment, but it was

938
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: when I say it was one of the most special

939
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:31,759
Speaker 1: music experiences in my life. My husband came up here

940
00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 1: with me. We went to the show and at one

941
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,680
Speaker 1: point in the show, I had tears coming down my

942
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 1: face and my husband looked at me and he's like,

943
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:44,960
Speaker 1: that's a visceral reaction to music and if you are

944
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:47,799
Speaker 1: emotional in a happy way, not a sad way. I mean,

945
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: it was just so it was such a beautiful performance.

946
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,280
Speaker 1: I mean, here he's playing these covers at the beginning

947
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,759
Speaker 1: with the with the curtains closed on the stage of

948
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: the Rheman and he's playing George Jane and Johnny Cash

949
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 1: and just you're like, oh my gosh. I mean, you're

950
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 1: listening to this amazing music and from him, and then

951
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: he and Trisha come on stage together. It was just

952
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,919
Speaker 1: it was really a powerful night. And Um, the next day,

953
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: I remember my husband looking at Mandy and was like,

954
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 1: she's going to do this. And then he called me

955
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: that night the next night and we just had a

956
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:28,560
Speaker 1: conversation about, you know, kind of where I was in

957
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:30,880
Speaker 1: my life and what I wanted to do and what

958
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 1: he wanted to do with the label and you know

959
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,800
Speaker 1: where he was, and UM, at that point, I was like,

960
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,320
Speaker 1: I'm in It's weird when Garth calls on the phone.

961
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 1: It's weird because you're just like, that's crazy voices coming

962
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:46,400
Speaker 1: out of a little phone right there, and he's just

963
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 1: this kindest that's weird too. He's so kind and he's

964
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 1: so gracious and he's so he listens better than anybody

965
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, like literally listens to the words

966
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 1: coming out of your mouth and what you're saying. And

967
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:06,799
Speaker 1: some people are thinking about what they're going to say

968
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: next when they're talking to somebody. He doesn't agree. It's again,

969
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 1: I keep using the word weird, because you just don't

970
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,359
Speaker 1: expect a massive start, the big star in the world.

971
00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:20,919
Speaker 1: And he all that, he makes the time, and he cares,

972
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:24,400
Speaker 1: he really cares about human beings. And I mean Tricia

973
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,800
Speaker 1: is the same. She's one of my very best friends.

974
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 1: I just absolutely adore them. And I have to say,

975
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,239
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I started in September of two

976
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, and you know, here I was the

977
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:41,360
Speaker 1: GM of their labels and we're launching this new team

978
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 1: and this new music and and six months after I started,

979
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:51,879
Speaker 1: I was diagnosed with cancer. And both of them immediately

980
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:56,680
Speaker 1: went into whatever you need every single time that I

981
00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:58,880
Speaker 1: called him, and I was like, Okay, I want to

982
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:02,200
Speaker 1: really not focus on the answer wonderful normal and focus

983
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,239
Speaker 1: on work. And so you know, after I had the

984
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 1: surgery and and i'd kind of get over the hump

985
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,320
Speaker 1: of chemo, I would call him to talk about work,

986
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:14,160
Speaker 1: and he'd answer the phone and he'd stopped me. I mean,

987
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: I'd go, hey, how you doing. I want to talk

988
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 1: to you about and I'd just like dive in and

989
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:20,879
Speaker 1: he's like, whoa, hey doing and I'm like, I'm good.

990
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: How are you feeling? And he would always stop and

991
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,840
Speaker 1: want to talk about how I was. And I felt

992
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 1: like with both he a tricia my health and where

993
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:36,800
Speaker 1: I was, not just physically, but I mean, you know,

994
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 1: this kind of a disease is it's emotionally trying as well.

995
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: And they were always so concerned about me and my

996
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: family and how we were doing in the juggle and

997
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: I and I remember saying to him, I need to work.

998
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:57,640
Speaker 1: I need to feel normal, and working makes me feel normal.

999
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:01,759
Speaker 1: And he was like, you know, you can work as

1000
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 1: much as you want to, but you also need to

1001
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:11,600
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. You felt supported personally and professionally,

1002
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: which makes you feel even more supported personally exactly, I mean,

1003
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: and I don't I think it's really difficult in a

1004
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:25,600
Speaker 1: corporate environment, even though a lot of corporations are very supportive,

1005
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: especially of people with you know, health situations, but in

1006
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 1: this industry, it's really hard to have that much love

1007
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 1: and support around you. I mean, I remember after we

1008
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,279
Speaker 1: kind of got over the hump, and it was now

1009
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 1: it's two thousand and eighteen, and I was up at

1010
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:44,279
Speaker 1: the house one day and UM, and I said to him,

1011
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,440
Speaker 1: you know, we were just talking about the whole journey.

1012
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:48,440
Speaker 1: And I said, and you know, here him on the

1013
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:51,359
Speaker 1: other side of it, I have no cancer my body. UM,

1014
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:54,800
Speaker 1: my hair's growing back. And and he was like, so,

1015
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:57,880
Speaker 1: how you know, You've have been through a lot, and

1016
00:50:57,960 --> 00:50:59,440
Speaker 1: you've been so strong through all of it. And I

1017
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:04,800
Speaker 1: remember saying to him, as difficult as this diagnosis is

1018
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,400
Speaker 1: and going through all of this, it's the greatest thing

1019
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,879
Speaker 1: that's ever happened in my life. And UM, I thought

1020
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 1: that then in two thousand and eighteen, and then as

1021
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 1: you know, it came back. Um. Actually right after your wedding.

1022
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 1: I remember you told me the wedding was like one

1023
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:23,279
Speaker 1: of the last time you didn't know it was the

1024
00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:27,040
Speaker 1: last celebration I had that I didn't know. UM. I went,

1025
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:29,400
Speaker 1: I had my doctor's wom on Tuesday after your wedding,

1026
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 1: and UM, and we found out that it's metastatic stage four.

1027
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:37,320
Speaker 1: You know, this is the rest of my life and

1028
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 1: it has been the is trying and and difficult as

1029
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 1: it is, it's been the greatest thing to happen in

1030
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:49,759
Speaker 1: my life because of the perspective shift that happens when

1031
00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:54,320
Speaker 1: your mortality is staring you in the face. Um. You

1032
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: just you have a choice to make and you can

1033
00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 1: either be a victim or you can live really intentionally

1034
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:06,720
Speaker 1: and you can really celebrate your life and the people

1035
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:09,800
Speaker 1: in your life, and you can really decide what what

1036
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: matters now, Like what am I going to do that's

1037
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:17,719
Speaker 1: gonna matter because you know, my life expectancy is not

1038
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 1: the same as any of y'alls. And UM, I've come

1039
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: to terms with that. I've processed that, and so what

1040
00:52:26,719 --> 00:52:29,680
Speaker 1: you know what I told my doctors, it's just recently

1041
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 1: we found out a couple of weeks ago that is

1042
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:37,239
Speaker 1: metastasised into my brain, which is the worst possible news

1043
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,359
Speaker 1: that you can get. Um. But at the same time,

1044
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:45,200
Speaker 1: this new drug was just released that is really you know,

1045
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 1: this could be a game changer for me. You could

1046
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:50,840
Speaker 1: take my life expectancy from two years to you know,

1047
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,640
Speaker 1: we don't know how long because it's a new drug. Um.

1048
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 1: So it it makes you look at life in a

1049
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: completely different way. It makes you every decision you make,

1050
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 1: every what you do when you wake up in the morning. Um,

1051
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 1: you know, kindness and love and joy. I've been so

1052
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,800
Speaker 1: overwhelmed with this just gratitude, the number of people that

1053
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 1: have reached out. I mean the first time around, you

1054
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: guys sent me this toll box full of Pimp and

1055
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:21,960
Speaker 1: Joy stuff, and all I wanted to do during the

1056
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 1: first battle was to run this race. That was like

1057
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:26,759
Speaker 1: the one thing that I was like, if I can

1058
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: just run this tin k on Thanksgiving Day, Um, while

1059
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: I'm going through chemo, it's proving to me that I'm

1060
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: still physically able. And so my sister and um, my

1061
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:41,440
Speaker 1: stepchildren's mom, um and her wife, we all went out

1062
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: and ran this together. And we all I've had everybody

1063
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,920
Speaker 1: in Pimp and Joy, So everybody on our career was

1064
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 1: in like a Pimp and Joy shirt or a Pimp

1065
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:51,879
Speaker 1: and Joy sweatshirt, Pimp and Joy hat, and we all

1066
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 1: went out and you know, we were in our Pimp

1067
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,839
Speaker 1: and Joy And so you feel this love and gratitude

1068
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:00,799
Speaker 1: that actually is out there for all of us to feel.

1069
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:02,800
Speaker 1: You don't have to just have a disease to feel that.

1070
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 1: But a lot of times we get caught up in

1071
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:09,520
Speaker 1: negativity and just stuff and worry in the world. And UM,

1072
00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:11,840
Speaker 1: when you kind of let those things go and you

1073
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:17,680
Speaker 1: focus on UM, spending really good quality time with people

1074
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:22,240
Speaker 1: and sharing love and receiving love. And and then also

1075
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 1: you know, right now we're in this phase of bucket

1076
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,320
Speaker 1: list as I told you earlier, and you know, Robert

1077
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 1: and I are let's do everything that that we ever

1078
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: wanted to do, and you know, spend quality time with people.

1079
00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:41,280
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm I'm sitting here with two bosses

1080
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:46,240
Speaker 1: that not only helped me do that, but UM, there's

1081
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:49,359
Speaker 1: not just bosses, they're my friends and they're a real

1082
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:58,680
Speaker 1: part of UM helping me have these experiences that there's

1083
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:03,719
Speaker 1: nothing there's no for me to even you. I don't

1084
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:07,399
Speaker 1: have the words to express the gratitude for that kind

1085
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 1: of love and um compassion. I remember at the wedding

1086
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:21,560
Speaker 1: and you know, things are running ten thousand miles an

1087
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:23,600
Speaker 1: hour to wedding because it's just everybody that you care about,

1088
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:26,279
Speaker 1: and everybody wants to hang out and stay a few things.

1089
00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:29,279
Speaker 1: And remember and I love your husband too, just just

1090
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:32,440
Speaker 1: the best. And you know, one of the only people

1091
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:34,719
Speaker 1: that I've let dominate me in the fight for the check,

1092
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:36,279
Speaker 1: which and something like, all right, you can have it.

1093
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:38,359
Speaker 1: I get it. I mean your hometown, you can pay

1094
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,759
Speaker 1: it for it went with Alabama, we had and so

1095
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:46,400
Speaker 1: I remember spending time there, and um, I guess you

1096
00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:48,839
Speaker 1: had spent some time with Gary the Box of my wedding. Yes,

1097
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:50,520
Speaker 1: oh my god, we had so much fun. We sat

1098
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:52,279
Speaker 1: next to each other at dinner and I remember him

1099
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 1: calling and somehow he had heard your story or I

1100
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:01,080
Speaker 1: don't know how he caught it somewhere us because obviously

1101
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:04,200
Speaker 1: at the wedding you didn't even know the cancer come back.

1102
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:07,360
Speaker 1: And so you're with Gary Gary the Box. I was

1103
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: fleecing a rascal flats and uh, Gary's just lovely and

1104
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:14,080
Speaker 1: it's like a ball of energy and just yes, on,

1105
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 1: He's just on. And it's so. I remember he called

1106
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:20,799
Speaker 1: me and he was like, hey, so your friend lately.

1107
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:22,880
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time we were at the wedding. Um,

1108
00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:25,520
Speaker 1: I don't know if he knew you had cancer. I

1109
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:26,839
Speaker 1: just want to reach out to you. I don't remember

1110
00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:29,000
Speaker 1: what version it was, but I remember reaching out just like, hey,

1111
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,960
Speaker 1: can I give Gary your you know your number? And

1112
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 1: Gary called you and I think you told me that

1113
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: you guys had just prayed just about you know, what

1114
00:56:41,719 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 1: you were going through. And I thought one the fact

1115
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:50,440
Speaker 1: that he had such a a night, you know, this

1116
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 1: this gathering of moments with you through one night, that

1117
00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:54,800
Speaker 1: he was like, I need to get in touch with

1118
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:57,680
Speaker 1: her because that needs to be my friend. First of all,

1119
00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:00,200
Speaker 1: I was like, I get it, like that she's my friend,

1120
00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:04,799
Speaker 1: Like I understand why. And then secondly, because I think

1121
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:06,120
Speaker 1: he said, you care if I call her and just

1122
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,520
Speaker 1: pray with her. Yeah, that's when you when you called me,

1123
00:57:08,600 --> 00:57:09,960
Speaker 1: That's what you said. He just wants to pray with you.

1124
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:13,359
Speaker 1: So he must like, honey, I got I'm taking all

1125
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 1: of the prayers and anybody wants to pray with me.

1126
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:19,240
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm in So he must have known somehow. Yeah,

1127
00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:23,280
Speaker 1: But I I just thought, man, like Gary, that's awesome,

1128
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:24,880
Speaker 1: you know, And you know what I think happened. I

1129
00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:27,400
Speaker 1: think when I started, I'm so you know, I'm like

1130
00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:30,360
Speaker 1: the worst person at social media. Um a, I'm just

1131
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,560
Speaker 1: not good at it and be um pretty private, so

1132
00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:35,720
Speaker 1: I don't share a whole lot. But I had this

1133
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:39,960
Speaker 1: moment sitting in the chemo chair on October one and

1134
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 1: starting this horrific adrianas and which is red Devil Chemo,

1135
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is I have to tell

1136
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 1: people what's happening because people need to be self aware

1137
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 1: and do self checks. There are things that can save

1138
00:57:57,280 --> 00:58:00,480
Speaker 1: your life if you find cancer early. And so I

1139
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:05,920
Speaker 1: just felt really compelled to write my story in a

1140
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:10,040
Speaker 1: social media post which is about is not me is?

1141
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of shocking, and I think

1142
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:16,560
Speaker 1: that somehow he saw that, whether it was through a

1143
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:21,360
Speaker 1: mutual friend or UM, but it was really sweet. I mean,

1144
00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 1: to me, somebody offering to come and pray with you

1145
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:28,000
Speaker 1: and take It's one of the just the most beautiful

1146
00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:31,000
Speaker 1: things that happens when you're going through something traumatic. If

1147
00:58:31,040 --> 00:58:32,920
Speaker 1: you take a step back and you just look at

1148
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:37,400
Speaker 1: what is happening in the moment. People wanting to take

1149
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:41,280
Speaker 1: time out of their schedule to pray for you, to

1150
00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 1: check on you, to um just let you know that

1151
00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 1: they're sending love. I mean, those little things are huge,

1152
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:55,440
Speaker 1: and it's really how we should all try to live

1153
00:58:55,480 --> 00:58:57,320
Speaker 1: our lives. I mean, one thing that I try to

1154
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:00,160
Speaker 1: do now is when somebody comes to my mind's a

1155
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 1: reason that person came to my mind, Send them a

1156
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:06,440
Speaker 1: text or a note and just say you know, I

1157
00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 1: love you, I'm thinking about you. You just came to

1158
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 1: my mind. I just wanted to say hey. And I

1159
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:14,040
Speaker 1: used to like I don't want to bother people. I

1160
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:16,880
Speaker 1: think that now honestly, I mean I don't want somebody,

1161
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 1: but I have this experience has made me go when

1162
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:23,560
Speaker 1: when I feel that way, I look at my phone

1163
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 1: and you know, yesterday, out of the blue, I had

1164
00:59:26,120 --> 00:59:28,240
Speaker 1: six or seven friends just reach out that I'm not

1165
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:30,920
Speaker 1: talking to on a daily basis. Hey, I just want

1166
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:32,840
Speaker 1: you to I'm thinking about you today, how's it going,

1167
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:38,320
Speaker 1: when's your next treatment? And it's just fills you, fills

1168
00:59:38,360 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 1: you with love and joy. And and then, as you

1169
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 1: guys always say, with pimp and joy what joy forces?

1170
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:51,160
Speaker 1: Joy enforces joy enforces joy. And the more that we

1171
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:56,280
Speaker 1: spread that, um, I mean, listen, there's enough bad news

1172
00:59:56,440 --> 00:59:59,400
Speaker 1: on the television and then the news that if we

1173
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:02,320
Speaker 1: just started all trying to do our little part to

1174
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:07,080
Speaker 1: spread kind of joy love, UM, it's really life changing.

1175
01:00:07,760 --> 01:00:09,600
Speaker 1: The last thing I want to ask you about is

1176
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 1: bay Laura later Ray Ray, my producer, my friend's wife.

1177
01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:20,320
Speaker 1: How because she got diagnosed breast cancers were as well,

1178
01:00:21,280 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 1: and obviously she loves you. But you guys, I don't

1179
01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:26,520
Speaker 1: know if you knew each other before. We did not.

1180
01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:30,480
Speaker 1: So Tricia called me and said, I have a friend

1181
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:35,200
Speaker 1: who was just diagnosed and she's really young, and she said,

1182
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:38,760
Speaker 1: would you talk to her? And I was like, absolutely, Well,

1183
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:42,680
Speaker 1: I had my wig made at this fabulous place here

1184
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:46,080
Speaker 1: because the first time I went through it, losing my

1185
01:00:46,240 --> 01:00:50,720
Speaker 1: hair was incredibly traumatic. And so Tricia introduced me to

1186
01:00:51,320 --> 01:00:54,120
Speaker 1: this company here who made wigs, and and Tricia found

1187
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:56,240
Speaker 1: them when they made her mom's wig when her mom

1188
01:00:56,760 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 1: had had cancer. So I had gone there and they

1189
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:03,400
Speaker 1: made the score just wait from me, and so um,

1190
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 1: they was going to have an appointment at this place,

1191
01:01:05,440 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 1: and so I flew up here and met her and

1192
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:10,320
Speaker 1: went to her appointment with her, and then we just

1193
01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:13,880
Speaker 1: sat down afterwards and I talked to her about my

1194
01:01:14,040 --> 01:01:17,160
Speaker 1: experience and all the things that I've been through, the good,

1195
01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:21,000
Speaker 1: the bad, the ugly, but really the good and the

1196
01:01:21,160 --> 01:01:24,560
Speaker 1: love and the joy that you have to keep going

1197
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 1: while you're going, you have to keep perpetuating while you're

1198
01:01:27,280 --> 01:01:30,560
Speaker 1: in this process. And we instantly connected and then she

1199
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:36,240
Speaker 1: what a rock star, I mean, she shared her journey

1200
01:01:36,600 --> 01:01:39,200
Speaker 1: to so many people and has had such a great

1201
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:42,120
Speaker 1: impact on the women who are going through this. So

1202
01:01:42,840 --> 01:01:45,400
Speaker 1: it started, you know, with her sharing on social media,

1203
01:01:45,960 --> 01:01:48,680
Speaker 1: and then she started a blog and she really has

1204
01:01:48,800 --> 01:01:53,160
Speaker 1: been so impactful and so many women's treatment and discovery

1205
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 1: of the disease. And then she actually asked me to

1206
01:01:57,640 --> 01:02:00,840
Speaker 1: write my story UM in her blog, and I was like,

1207
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like I don't really do this. I'm

1208
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:06,120
Speaker 1: super private, and then I was like, no, I need

1209
01:02:06,200 --> 01:02:08,439
Speaker 1: to do this. So this was before mine came back,

1210
01:02:08,680 --> 01:02:12,800
Speaker 1: and so UM I wrote for her for her blog.

1211
01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 1: She's the only person I think that at the time

1212
01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:18,200
Speaker 1: could have gotten me to do that. UM. And you know,

1213
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:20,960
Speaker 1: we've just been friends ever since since she's followed my

1214
01:02:21,080 --> 01:02:24,640
Speaker 1: journey and I've followed hers, and we're you know, we've

1215
01:02:24,720 --> 01:02:27,800
Speaker 1: just been friends. There's It's a really interesting thing was

1216
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,120
Speaker 1: when this happens, there's a lot of women who have

1217
01:02:30,240 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: been through it. There's a lot of people that have cancer.

1218
01:02:32,200 --> 01:02:34,120
Speaker 1: But you all of a sudden, you're in the club

1219
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:36,960
Speaker 1: that nobody wants to be in. And when you get

1220
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:39,120
Speaker 1: invited into this club that nobody wants to be in,

1221
01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 1: you really want to help love and nurture the other

1222
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 1: people in it um. And so I mean, right now,

1223
01:02:45,160 --> 01:02:48,640
Speaker 1: I have my friend Clea from the Home Edit. She's

1224
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:51,840
Speaker 1: going through it as well. And you know, we have

1225
01:02:52,040 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 1: houses in Florida that in the same community. And we're

1226
01:02:55,800 --> 01:02:59,240
Speaker 1: sitting at the pool one day and she's sitting next

1227
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:01,320
Speaker 1: to me and I was like, I'm Leslie, I'm going

1228
01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:03,760
Speaker 1: through the same thing you're going through. And we sat

1229
01:03:03,880 --> 01:03:08,120
Speaker 1: and talked for you three hours, and we just you

1230
01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:11,720
Speaker 1: really try to love and support people through it and

1231
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:16,560
Speaker 1: be there because there's, like anything, you can't really understand

1232
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 1: what it's like. As much as I mean, my husband

1233
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:22,840
Speaker 1: is my rock, my family, my friends, you know, there's

1234
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:24,960
Speaker 1: so many people that are here to support me. But

1235
01:03:25,600 --> 01:03:28,760
Speaker 1: the women who are going through it, there's just a

1236
01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:32,640
Speaker 1: different reality that we know that you can't know unless

1237
01:03:32,640 --> 01:03:35,320
Speaker 1: you're going through it. And so there's something super special

1238
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:38,440
Speaker 1: about the relationships that form because of this, and it's

1239
01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: one of the things that I'm forever grateful for. And

1240
01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:43,400
Speaker 1: Bay and I have that, and I'm really grateful for it.

1241
01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:47,240
Speaker 1: And she is just y'all know, this ball of energy

1242
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:52,320
Speaker 1: and light and fun and funny, and I'm super grateful

1243
01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:56,720
Speaker 1: for her and just so much, you know, just well,

1244
01:03:57,520 --> 01:04:00,040
Speaker 1: I'm glad you stop lying. And I was gonna to

1245
01:04:00,120 --> 01:04:02,320
Speaker 1: you anyway because you text your like ham in town

1246
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:04,840
Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, I'm going to the aiming

1247
01:04:04,880 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 1: one days. You're aiming the girls and I was like, well,

1248
01:04:06,840 --> 01:04:09,160
Speaker 1: I can't do that on Tuesday, I'm here. I was like,

1249
01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:11,600
Speaker 1: it's so last minute, but I gotta find some space.

1250
01:04:12,280 --> 01:04:16,000
Speaker 1: And so I literally had two hours to open this afternoon,

1251
01:04:17,240 --> 01:04:18,720
Speaker 1: and I was like, I was like, can't you come there?

1252
01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:21,400
Speaker 1: It's all I got and said, obviously I want to

1253
01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:22,520
Speaker 1: see her, talk to her, but I also want to

1254
01:04:22,600 --> 01:04:26,320
Speaker 1: talk with her because I think your career itself is

1255
01:04:26,440 --> 01:04:30,000
Speaker 1: very interesting. I think your story and your journey through

1256
01:04:30,080 --> 01:04:36,120
Speaker 1: cancer is um extremely compelling, but it's also encouragement to

1257
01:04:36,160 --> 01:04:39,720
Speaker 1: others and the fact that you remain this positive force

1258
01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:42,360
Speaker 1: and it's not always positive, honestly, nothing right, but you

1259
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: still remain you know this, but then your overall story

1260
01:04:46,440 --> 01:04:47,800
Speaker 1: of all of it, Like, I just think people are

1261
01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:49,600
Speaker 1: gonna take so much from this in so many ways.

1262
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:53,600
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that you did it, and you did this.

1263
01:04:53,760 --> 01:04:55,320
Speaker 1: I'm just so thankful, and you know, I love you,

1264
01:04:55,400 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 1: and and same with Robert AND's awesome has been Uh,

1265
01:05:01,240 --> 01:05:03,400
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't used to talk about this stuff

1266
01:05:03,440 --> 01:05:05,440
Speaker 1: so openly, but I think it's important, and I think

1267
01:05:05,520 --> 01:05:10,080
Speaker 1: it's important, especially in the world and all the craziness

1268
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:13,360
Speaker 1: that's happening in our world, you know, to use whatever

1269
01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:17,440
Speaker 1: platform we have to share love and joy and commis

1270
01:05:17,560 --> 01:05:21,360
Speaker 1: and compassion and um. Everybody's going through something and they

1271
01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:25,560
Speaker 1: just need there's a little kindness. Well, thank you for

1272
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:28,000
Speaker 1: your time. It's been awesome. All right, there she is

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Speaker 1: Leslie Simon. Everybody, thank you to Leslie for coming by.

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Speaker 1: That was an amazing episode. Again, let me remind you

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Speaker 1: Leslie's being an honored by the American Cancer Society Hope

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Speaker 1: Gala in August and she's currently writing money for cancer

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Speaker 1: research and patient programs. You can find that link in

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Speaker 1: the episode notes of this podcast. Five bucks, tin bucks,

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Speaker 1: whatever you can that would be awesome. Hopefully you removed

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Speaker 1: by this click that to donate her honor or an

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Speaker 1: honor or memory of a loved one that is also

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Speaker 1: a battle cancer. Thank you, guys. The student Active pol