WEBVTT - Jessi Alexander 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:17.120 Carala. She's the Queen of talking. He was She's only act. 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.160 She got the scoop on one side. No one can 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:30.480 do with Cli Caralam, Carala. No one can do with 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:38.800 quiet Caral. This tiple, Caroline, this interview is so moving 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.360 to me. Jesse Alexander has the voice of an angel. 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.320 She's one of the most incredible, soulful songwriters of all times. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.760 She wrote The Climb for Miley Cyrus, which was a multiple, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:51.840 multiple number week on all genres. She wrote I Drive 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.160 Your Truck for Lee Bryce. That song moves me to 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.600 tears every time I hear it. She's written so many 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.200 incredible songs and they all come from from such a real, 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.520 truthful place, So get excited. She shares her heart, and 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.080 her heart is so beautiful. And all of these songs 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.679 that she's written, she has on her album of her singing. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.640 It's called down Home. So make sure you pick up 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.480 a copy of down Home. It's a beautiful album of 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.720 her versions of these hit songs. You will not want 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:23.000 to miss that album. Okay, here's Jesse Alexander. Jesse Alexander, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.680 so happy you're here. I'm so glad to be here, 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.560 and I'm so happy We've been sing each other almost 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.760 weekly for the past couple week, which is rare. Great. 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.280 The last place I saw you was a symphony did 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.319 this in nationale to this huge event with the Rose Garden, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.800 and you played your big hits with the symphony behind you, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.240 with the stars under the stars at the Rose Garden. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.880 It was beautiful. That to me shows how cool songs 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.960 are because you write these songs and their hit We're 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:00.919 gonna get into all your hits in your whole story. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.320 But you write these songs and their hits on the 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.120 radio in one form, but then you go hear them 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.160 in a whole another form. That's the power of music, right, 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:10.840 And it's just so funny to get to tell the 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.360 stories behind the songs. And I mean, I love to 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.400 be up on stage with you know, some of my 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.399 favorite songwriters just to hear them tell their stories. And here, 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.840 you know, kind of the song at its core. So 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.240 it's it's it was magical night. It really was. Have 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:31.880 you noticed being a songwriter, like there's this whole other 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.400 world when people hear songs on the radio and they 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.440 hear someone like Lee Rice or Miley Cyrus singing these songs, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.880 you think that a regular listener might think that, oh, 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.520 Miley just wrote that, or it just came out of 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:47.200 the thin air, or where did that song come from? 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.120 No one really knows. But there's this whole songwriter world, 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.200 and it's a very layered world because the songwriters, it's 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.079 I feel like, are the truth tellers and you have 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:02.160 to almost live your song sometimes to get them, which 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.840 is it's kind of the Achilles heel because it's it's 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.040 a blessing and the curse. Right, Yeah, you have to 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.480 kind of go through hell to write a song. As 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.520 certain songs, you know, you have to live them. Um. 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.040 And it is kind of been my whole journey, you know. 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.120 It's like every song that I've had popular has been 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.160 something that was a serious, you know, hurdle that an 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.800 obstacle um, some kind of huge life lesson that I 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.080 had to learn to then put it in a song, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.360 which is can be like you said, like frustrating, daunting. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.680 It's it's like I know that I'm that writer, Like 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.280 it's not gonna just come to me, you know, I 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.680 have to live them. And and so yeah, it has 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.080 been quite a journey with that. I have all your 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:48.720 songs that have made it to the top of the 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.400 charts that have they been a deep They've all been 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.880 honest pretty much. I mean, you know, I got fortunate 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.640 enough to have just a good drinking song, you know, 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.520 with drink on it, which is fun too, because you know, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.040 I don't want to be taken just as the serious 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.480 heavy songwriter. Right these let's just go there. We got 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.000 the Climb by Miley Cyrus I Drive Your Truck, which 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.040 was c M a Song of the Year for Lee Bryce. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:14.720 That story is crazy. We're gonna get into that. Blake Shelton. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.600 Mine would be you Yeah, and drink on it. It's 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.320 just kind of like drink on it. Yeah. So I 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.440 write so many kinds of songs, you know. I write 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.440 honkey TNK songs, drinking songs, cheating songs, grief songs. I mean, 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.840 I try to be very well rounded writer. But for 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.880 some reason that those are the songs that have been popular, 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.919 and so it's it is a blessing. They had a 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.400 heart string on it. Yeah, And I tend to go 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.000 for the jugular, you know, and I have an idea, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.880 like you know, that kind of idea comes along, you know, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.320 I try to go to its depth. And that's just 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.000 always been my personality. So I want to talk a 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.520 little bit about your journey. So you come to Nashville 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.800 and you come here as a recording artist, you come 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.560 when to be an artist? Actually, no, I, UM, I've 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.640 left MPT issue. I was there for four years, and UM, 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.559 I was a social work major, and I really didn't 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.760 know what I was gonna do. I was already playing 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.560 in a lot of bands, and I was like everyone's 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.560 backup singer, frontman. So when I moved to Nashville, I 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.480 really had no other vision but just to make a 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.080 living making music, because I really thought I'd either be 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.160 a backup singer a demo singer. Um. I was never 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.160 someone that wanted to be in the limelight. I could 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:31.960 tell by being in the bands that I was in. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:33.720 Even though everybody try to get me to be the 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.320 front singer. Your voice needs needs to be the front singer, 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.320 That's why. But I was always like, yeah, but can't 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:40.960 you know, why don't you take the second half of 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.040 you know, I'll sing the first half. I really tried 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.679 to pass it off. Yeah, but because of my voice, 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.040 I think people always tried to put me up up 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.719 in the front. And you always know you had this 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.680 talent of a voice. I knew that I had a 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.120 voice that evoked emotion at a very young age. I 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.919 can remember singing in front of people and a me 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.120 feeling something, you know, I felt um something come through me. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.120 But I also could tell that there was something in 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.800 my voice that would emote emotions. We always felt that. Yeah, really, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.640 so you've never just dialed in a performance and like, 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.840 I'm gonna give it my best, meriit cary impersonation. You've 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.640 always felt it. No. I can remember, like maybe ten 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.040 age ten or eleven, like me closing my eyes and 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.200 singing and then opening them and people have tears in 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.320 their eyes. Just do you think that's God? Definitely? I 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.240 mean I think it's God, and I think it's my purpose. 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.560 There was that, even at that young age, there was 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.360 something that needed to be said and come through me. 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.880 But I didn't know what that was. I mean, I 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.600 was just a red knick kid from West Tennessee. I 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.200 didn't know, you know, anything. I didn't know there could 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.520 be a job singing, you know, or definitely not being 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.400 a songwriter. But I can just really remember those early 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.840 times singing me. I was very shy child, and I 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.000 was the only child. I was kind of a lone 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.600 her and so to be in the limelight was not 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.919 comfortable comfortable for me. But when I moved here, the 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:08.880 first thing I did was get a backup singing job, 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.920 which was so much fun. I mean, my third day 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.840 literally living in Nashville, I had boxes all over my apartment. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.160 I got on a bus and headed to Beaumont for 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.880 like a two week run with an artist named Matt King. 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:26.400 So I had kind of that dream Nashville, got a job. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.040 I was a backup singer. I was on tour. You know, 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.680 years old, You're like, this is great, it's crazy. Yeah, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.680 it did it feel easy? It did it kind of 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.760 felt I mean, you know, looking back, I had like 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.080 four years of hard work prep, so it was kind 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.320 of like I prepped myself. By the time I got here, 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.960 I really was engaged in the business. But because of him. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.240 He was a Warner Chapel songwriter as well, and so 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.840 he was like, the songs you're writing, you really should 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.960 get a publishing deal and that would keep you home. 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.640 And you're like, what's the publishing Exactly, what's the publishing? 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.440 Someone will pay you to write songs, and sure enough, 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.600 this's this whole world totally. And so that's how I 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.520 got my first publishing deal through that back like a 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:08.960 Cinderella story. Did he help you get it? He did? 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.679 He um introduced me to his song plugger Kurt Denny 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.160 at the time, and I got my my publishing deal. 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.760 The negative and kind of the story to my whole career. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.720 There's like a certain themes that just keep coming back up, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.400 and this is one of them. It was six months 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.160 into my first deal I lost the guy that signed me. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.199 Oh so you're champion correct leaves correct, and so now 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.800 you're just like orphaned literally and just kind of so 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:37.840 no one's really rooting for you. No one's your advocate. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.720 You know what's so crazy it is you think like 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:42.240 you just get linked up with the company and it's 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.400 just this company runs it. It is all about the 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.680 personal relationships, isn't it. And it's moving parts all the 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.520 time and like parts all the time of something that 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:53.640 I mean, we could we could spend a whole segment 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.000 just on that story. So your people leave you, you 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.439 get them. And so I think that it's kind of 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:05.800 call as me to really um find strength within myself. Now. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.199 I mean, I definitely lean on others, but that dust 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:12.840 yourself off, pick yourself up kind of mentality has just 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.560 been because you just can't give everything to someone because 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.880 they might well miss that whole thing of like sometimes 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:19.839 you just gotta do it yourself, you know. And it's 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.960 caused me to I think it's to endure and I've 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.720 found persistence and that endurance within myself. So I don't, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.000 you know, regret any of that. But yeah, he he 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.880 left and then what happened that's left. That's when I 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.080 just started to find my own people, find my own way, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.280 try to find people. I found some mentors um early on, 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.320 an incredible songwriter, Gary Nicholson was one of the first 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.160 people that said, why are you not an artist? You know? 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.600 And then Al Anderson and a kind of a team 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.920 of writers kind of surrounded me, and I got my 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.920 first deal at m c A with Tony Brown and 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:01.559 Mark Right and Legendary. It wasn't zing Can produced Elvis 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.440 played with Elvis. He produced Emmilu Harris, which you had 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.720 been like you were like the reincarnation of Emmy Lou Harris. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.440 That's that was everyone was gonna say, you were going 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.240 to be the new Emmy Lou. Did that feel like 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.120 a lot of pressure. It did, um, but it also 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.679 felt natural because I'd grown up on that kind of music. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.960 The negative at the time was there wasn't Americana yet really. Um. 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.960 I can remember the early Americana fests, you know, festival 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.080 that was kind of starting to brew, but like the 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.280 true Americana artist wasn't really established. You had two routes 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.680 to go. You could either go down like Shannai Twain, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.439 Um Faith Hill, Martina McBride, or it was more like 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:45.679 Lucinda Williams, Patty Griffin. There wasn't, you know, the Chris 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.440 Stapledon Mini Brown or the Casey Musgraves. That just wasn't there. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.520 And for someone like myself, I really wasn't either, you know. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:55.679 And I tried to make a record that was a 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.240 little bit of both, but I didn't put both feet 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.840 in either areas. You're kind of dancing both lines and so. 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.520 And as the story you know, goes a year into 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.839 my first record deal, the person that signed me leaves. 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.280 Why do you think this is a common theme? I 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.440 don't know. Do you think it's a lesson you needed 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.600 to learn? I guess so, because I keep just learning it. 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:18.880 What do they say the lesson repeats until learn. But 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.760 I mean, that's a big lesson to have to keep 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:25.800 learning on a big scale. And so with that and 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.600 plus the culmination of that and me truly not as 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.720 I became this artist and they were developing me. The 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.640 closer I got to that, the lesson that felt authentic 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.480 to me. Okay, so you felt like maybe you were 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.280 chasing someone else's dream a little bit. Kind of. Yeah, 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.120 it was like I just started to realize that the 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:50.160 radio touring and just touring in general playing music felt 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.520 really natural, but talking about myself in terms of being 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.920 an artist did not feel as natural. I really always 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.280 wanted to hide behind someone else, you know, And and 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.240 at the time I didn't understand why. You know. I 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.880 also had some extreme life things going on. My mom, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.480 who had been battling cancer form probably two years up 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.160 to that point. She was diagnosed again, but we found 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.880 out it was terminal. And so being an only child, 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.640 I mean, here I am, I've got a record deal, 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.280 this is kind of fizzling out, my mom is dying. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.600 It was just a very dramatic, dramatic time for me. 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.520 So it made me put in perspective of this record deal. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.760 It was kind of like what what am I chasing? 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.360 You know, I had to re examine my life at 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.160 three years old? How do you re examine your life? 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.040 Because all of a sudden you have this record deal 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.880 and now it seems like your ada, kids leaving. You know, 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.000 it feels like it's not going exactly how it had 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:53.960 been presented. Your mom's now dying, dying, and what are 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.920 you thinking? Like? How do you process life at that point? 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.320 How do you know? How do you handle it? I 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.280 think that looking back, you don't process that yet, you know. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.720 I mean it was just like plow through. You know, 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.160 there was too much to do. There was just you know, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.680 whether it be planning her funeral or then it was 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.160 you know what is that getting? It's just you just 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.400 do it. There's no there's no one else to do it, 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.240 you know. There You're just I've always had the kind 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.199 of that survivor instinct, um, which I do feel like 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.360 God gave me and that's like one of my tools 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.280 and my tool belt felt But um, I just pushed 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.280 through and I got lost in music. You know, I 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.040 leaned on music. I leaned on songs, you know, I 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:43.040 leaned on songwriting. Um. My husband was also entering my 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.560 life At the same time John Randall, who was a 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:50.720 savior in so many ways, and just by you know, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.120 being that person that I could sit up and drink 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.520 a bottle of wine with and cry to, or you know, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.680 saying let's go here's music tonight, or you know, we 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.400 In the midst of all that, you know, I'm also 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.679 recreating myself as a songwriter and kind of letting go 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.680 of what I wasn't and becoming who I was. Do 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.040 you ever feel crazy in this evolution? During that period, 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.520 I definitely felt crazy, And I think grief will make 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.680 you do crazy things, but I didn't realize. You know, 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.520 I'm sure we'll get to it with that drive your truck, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.160 but all those things I had to feel to write 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:30.440 these songs, Because these songs you're writing are deeply feeling songs. Yes, 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.240 they're like of my core, but at the time, I 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.840 don't know that I'm going to need those feelings. You know, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.320 you had to come out later in song. Yeah, you 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.800 had to live through these things for a song of 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.680 that caliber to have been born. Honestly, totally, and I 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.080 think the hardest, like if I looked at the whole 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.640 my whole career, the hardest obstacle was the one that 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.800 I was just about to face, which was rebranding myself 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.600 as a songwriter. Because once you say you're an artist, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.040 people don't want to take you because there's a songwriter 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.720 and there's an artists, and then there's those like Miranda 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.440 Lambert and it is a divide, isn't it not a divide? 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.480 But it's a difference. Yeah, And so I would walk 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.760 into the co write and they'd be like, what are 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.360 we writing for you? And I had to even as 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.040 a female, is even harder to say, well, I'm not 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.760 writing for you know, Faith Hill. Today I want to 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:21.760 I'm not writing for myself. I want to write for 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:23.600 Faith Hill, or I want to write for Even more 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.080 than that, I had to say things like I want 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.040 to write for you know, Tracey Atkins, I want to 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.680 write for Luke Brian And they're like, wait a minute, 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.800 but you're an artist and people don't necessarily want to 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:35.920 do that because they're like, oh, great, we have an artist, right, 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.360 so we have a chance of getting a song a 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.160 lot quicker on the album because if you're just writing 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:42.720 for someone else and you have to pitch it and 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.040 has to go through a million different processes and finally 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.720 has to get to the artist. So it's a lot 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.160 harder when you're not writing with the artist as a songwriter. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:52.800 So that's why people kind of have you on a 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.440 pedestals and artists are like, great, I could get in. Yeah, 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.480 So I had to just abandon all of about I mean, 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.440 it was a rebranding, if you will, I mean, I 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.120 do a proof that I am a real songwriter. You 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.120 know that I had written all of my record and 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.760 I had many cuts before this, but I think people 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.840 didn't really understand, like how how are you going to 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.440 add into the in this Because you're so beautiful and 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.800 you're so talented, so it's easy to assume, oh, you're 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.880 just writing your beauty and your voice, and yeah, you're 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.400 an artist. So that's why really early on, I am 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.760 decided I have to really show these guys what I 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.760 got and I'm gonna write men's songs. And that was, 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:39.800 um really, that whole frustration, the frustration of being kicked 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.120 around for ten years, having that Cinderella story high and 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.800 then the loads of you know, the record deals, and um, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.680 that time in my life, I was starting to think 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:52.960 about maybe I will get married, you know, maybe me 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.600 and Gera will have kids. One day, I was starting 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.680 to go, you know what, maybe it's been ten years, 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.680 like you know, I've kind of given this town all 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.040 of maybe it's time to let go of all of 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.159 this everything I writing. I mean, I knew I'd always 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.679 sing and write songs, but just the chase, you know, 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.000 the chasing exhausting. And me and j Are both had 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.919 this year of like, let's just have the year of no, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:17.960 we don't want to do anything. We don't want to 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.119 do We're just okay, okay. I like that because I 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.600 have always heard of the year like yes, yes, everything. 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.560 But we were saying like, no, we don't want to 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.159 sing on that demo, We're not right with that person. 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.320 Where we kind of were like, well, let's just go 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.959 all in and like who knows what happens, Just do 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.639 what you want to do exactly, and that's risky. It 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.320 was very especially in a time like this. Everyone's always worried, 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:42.360 oh shoot, I gotta get that opportunity, like I don't 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:43.840 want to miss this one. If there's a new artist, 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:45.240 I should jump on board and right. And then there's 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.360 always a million things like that you should be chasing 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.359 like you were saying earlier. So a year of we did, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.000 and we were like, we're going to write songs we like, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.760 we're gonna write with people we like. You're not gonna like, 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.159 yeah do, We're gonna do what we love. And that 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.879 one of those during that period was the morning that 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:07.119 I was driving into the office, Um, and I heard 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.800 a melody coming to my head that felt the word 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.280 that I kept thinking was classic so much that I 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.640 kept thinking, am I on something? Is this love? Lift 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.440 us up where we belong? I kept but which song 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.320 is this? And um, I remember my phone ringing and Nope, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.920 I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna remember and 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.400 and remember you know a d D like we all 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:29.520 do as creative as I'm wanting to turn the radio on, 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:31.760 I was no. I remember God whispering in my ear. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.520 Just listen. And by the time I got to music Row, 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.760 the melody was really loud in my head so much 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.240 that I needed to get my hands on the guitar. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.080 And I was walking in the door to write with 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.440 a new writer to me, John Maybe, and I just said, 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.840 can I have your guitar? Roal fast? And I sang 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:52.160 this melody and it was the climb. Okay, wait, first off, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.840 I just have I want to cry because I I 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.880 really do. I'm sorry. I can't believe how on tune 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:05.159 you are with God. But also you're making me prime this. Also, 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.119 you had to wait for ten years for the climb, 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.520 and the climb to me is so crazy that that 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:14.840 is your debut into the world because you were having 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.600 to climb and like struggle and feel and why do 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.359 you think you had to go through the climb yourself 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.359 in order to get the climb of the song? Because 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.560 you had ten years of struggle for losing your mom, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.360 losing record deal A million dollar question. Girl, You know, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.200 I don't know what does it teach us? Do you 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.560 think we all have to go through that? I feel 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.320 like I've been around now on Nashville long enough to 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.680 see there's usually a struggle. Like those people that came 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.640 and got it all right away, what happens there's usually 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.840 like at some point there's going to be a hard 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.399 spot for you. But for me, I felt like I 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:56.199 had to just kind of live the hard part in 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.439 the front half. And maybe that's what gives me the 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.479 raw on this and that I'm in tune with so 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.240 much more when I right now, hard part in the front, yeah, 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.800 And I mean there will be hard parts stick, but 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.520 really I had to live that to write a song 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.040 like the cop you can't just create that on You 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.040 can't write that out of air. I mean I try 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.679 every day to to write songs like that, but you 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.480 know those are the ones that you know, I have 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.800 to live. And it was so bizarre because I didn't 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.280 think anything about that song. I was so sad and 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.560 damaged and over the Nashville and is this your year 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:34.080 of no? Right now? This is still the year no? 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.520 And you're just like thinking I'm about to get married 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.400 and maybe just like general, yeah, exactly. And so when 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.280 we wrote the climb Um, I knew it was special 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.000 because of that melody driving in, but I didn't. I 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.960 was so burned and like, Nashville kind of kick my 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.200 ass so much that I didn't think anything would ever 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.840 come of it. Yeah, did you think nothing's ever come before? Right? 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:58.680 Why would this? The song is just as good as 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.240 these others had ten years nothing? So why would this 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:03.760 be anything? Yes? Man, I thought that so many times, 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.000 like I just keep you keep trying and keep trying, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.040