Speaker 1: I am going back to the beginning because it's just time.
Speaker 1: I have been podcasting for close to ten years now.
Speaker 1: I cannot even believe it. When I started podcasting, I
Speaker 1: was a nervous wreck. I had no idea how to
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: I was scared to ask people to come on my podcast.
Speaker 2: But my very first guest was Darius Rucker. The Darius Rucker,
Speaker 2: the lead singer of Hoodi and the Blowfush, the huge
Speaker 2: country star, Darius Rucker, the sweetest heart ever.
Speaker 3: And my husband Michael was touring with him and his band.
Speaker 2: Michael's band is a Thousand Horses, and they were opening
Speaker 2: for Darius, and I just got super courageous and I
Speaker 2: asked Darius to come on my podcast.
Speaker 3: And he was the very first episode that I ever had.
Speaker 2: So I am throwing it back to the first episode
Speaker 2: I have ever done for my podcast, and it's with
Speaker 2: the one and only Darius Rucker. So let's go back
Speaker 2: down memory lane and check it out.
Speaker 4: Carl Line, she's a queen of talking.
Speaker 5: Hey with sown you live.
Speaker 6: She's on the inside. She got the snoop on the
Speaker 6: walls to watch on the lawns aside. No one can
Speaker 6: do win, quiet.
Speaker 4: Die cal line, carral Line, no one can do Win
Speaker 4: Quiet Die call Line.
Speaker 7: It's Tiple Caroline.
Speaker 3: Hey, y'all, welcome to Hyper Caroline Hobby.
Speaker 7: I'm your host, Caroline Hobby, and I am so excited
Speaker 7: that you're here with me. This is my first podcast,
Speaker 7: in my first episode, Yay. Before I get into the interview,
Speaker 7: I want to give you a quick background onto who
Speaker 7: I am. I am a Texas native born and raised.
Speaker 7: Moved to Nashville when I was nineteen to become a
Speaker 7: country music star. I got hooked up with two awesome girls,
Speaker 7: Jennifer Wayne and Taylor Lynn, and we formed a trio
Speaker 7: called Stealing Angels. I was in that trio for about
Speaker 7: seven years. We toured the country.
Speaker 3: On a tour bus.
Speaker 7: We had two songs in the top fifty on the
Speaker 7: charts on the Country charts, and we even got to
Speaker 7: play Madison Square Garden open up for Tim McGraw, Rascal Flats,
Speaker 7: Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert.
Speaker 3: It was such a wild ride.
Speaker 7: It eventually fell apart, which was really sad and disheartening
Speaker 7: and kind of broke my heart a little bit. But
Speaker 7: just like when one thing falls apart, another thing comes
Speaker 7: together and Jen and I got asked to do the
Speaker 7: Amazing Race, which is the reality show which takes you
Speaker 7: around the world.
Speaker 3: It was so fun. It's such an incredible experience.
Speaker 7: We got fourth place on season twenty two, and then
Speaker 7: if that wasn't cool enough, just to race once, we
Speaker 7: got asked back to race again on the All Star
Speaker 7: season and we ended up coming in second place. We
Speaker 7: lost the whole race by four seconds. Those were really
Speaker 7: expensive seconds because you win a million dollars if you win,
Speaker 7: but the experience was priceless. Because of Amazing Race. We
Speaker 7: got to go to like twenty different countries, which is
Speaker 7: just crazy. And when I finished that, when I finished
Speaker 7: the second time racing on Amazing Race, I came back
Speaker 7: to Nashville and I was like, what do I really love?
Speaker 7: And I realized I love getting to know people, and
Speaker 7: I love getting to know people's stories and figuring out
Speaker 7: their drive and how people stay inspired. Because this industry,
Speaker 7: this entertainment industry, is crazy and it can break your
Speaker 7: heart and it can tear you down, and you have
Speaker 7: to really have a vision, and you have to have
Speaker 7: a focus, and you have to have a drive. And
Speaker 7: it's not for the week, for sure, It's not for
Speaker 7: the faint of heart, and so I definitely was curious
Speaker 7: about how people stay motivated. And I've collected a ton
Speaker 7: of interesting friends after living in Nashville for over ten years,
Speaker 7: and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to interview
Speaker 7: these people and I'm going to get to know what's
Speaker 7: going on in their brains and see why they wake
Speaker 7: up every morning and get hyper about their career and
Speaker 7: get hyper about their dreams.
Speaker 3: So that is why hyper Caroline Hobby was born.
Speaker 7: And I hope that you enjoy hearing from all these
Speaker 7: incredible people, because it has been a blast so far
Speaker 7: getting to talk to some of the coolest people I
Speaker 7: know in Nashville. The first person that we're interviewing is
Speaker 7: Darius Rucker. What He's from Hooty and the Blowfish. He
Speaker 7: sold thirty million albums with Hooty and the Blowfish. And
Speaker 7: if that wasn't crazy enough and cool enough, he then
Speaker 7: started all the way back over in country music and
Speaker 7: climbed his way back from the just the starting ground
Speaker 7: all the way to the top of the charts and
Speaker 7: country music. He didn't take any freebies. He didn't come
Speaker 7: in as a superstar. He started off like any other
Speaker 7: newbie and country music and worked his way all the
Speaker 7: way up to the top. And his story is incredible,
Speaker 7: It's inspiring. He's probably one of the most hard working,
Speaker 7: driven men I've ever met. He's hilarious and it was
Speaker 7: a super big privilege to get to interview him. So
Speaker 7: please welcome Darius Rucker to Hyper Caroline Hobby.
Speaker 3: Hi, Darius Rucker.
Speaker 6: How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm fabulous? How are you doing?
Speaker 6: Oh good?
Speaker 3: Are you enjoying this snow?
Speaker 6: A big snow guy? But you know it's okay?
Speaker 3: Ah, I know, well you don't. You don't live in Nashville,
Speaker 3: do you No, I don't live in Nashville and Charleston.
Speaker 6: We never get snow.
Speaker 5: So you know, when I came here yesterday and it
Speaker 5: was crazy, I hadn't stopped as I woke up.
Speaker 3: I think you brought it with you because it started yesterday.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: Oh sorry, you know I got to bring something. How
Speaker 5: come you don't want to come to ashe I'm banded.
Speaker 3: That's very true. Yeah, absolutely, Okay.
Speaker 7: So you started off and I was like, in nineteen
Speaker 7: eighty six is when this whole thing started for you.
Speaker 6: I was a.
Speaker 5: Sophomore in college and met this guy who uh was
Speaker 5: a guitar player. And he asked me if he heard
Speaker 5: me singing in the shower.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you heard me singing a Billy Joel song.
Speaker 3: And you always singing the shower?
Speaker 6: I used to. I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't think I do much anymore, but I used
Speaker 5: to all the time. Yeah, because this was like we
Speaker 5: had community showers, you know. It wasn't like like you
Speaker 5: know now they have all these new, these great showers
Speaker 5: and these dorms, but ours was just four six shower heads.
Speaker 3: In one open room one one open room.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I have a shower in the afternoon and no
Speaker 5: one was in there, and I'm singing and I walk
Speaker 5: out and he goes, man, was that you?
Speaker 6: I was like, yeah, He's like, wow.
Speaker 5: You know I play guitar and that, and I said really,
Speaker 5: I was like, you know, he said, want you come
Speaker 5: out later see we be doing the same song.
Speaker 6: And I did. And butter Man, ever since.
Speaker 3: Did you have intentions to be a singer?
Speaker 5: I always wanted to be. That's all I ever wanted, really,
Speaker 5: since I was four, that's all I ever wanted to be.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, but you get older and you realize
Speaker 5: that's never going to happen and you got to get
Speaker 5: a real job.
Speaker 3: Are you going to do the real job thing?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I want to.
Speaker 5: I wanted to work in sports, something to sports, either
Speaker 5: radio or television or something.
Speaker 3: We have a great voice for it, like a voice.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I still I still want to have a sports
Speaker 6: talk show some day.
Speaker 3: Sports I want to do that someday I retire.
Speaker 6: I like them. I like all, you know, the three
Speaker 6: majors we have here, But football I live for it.
Speaker 5: It's sometimes it's really why I get out of bed
Speaker 5: and in the morning because.
Speaker 6: Football is on that day.
Speaker 3: Were you stoked about the Super Bowl?
Speaker 6: I wis shouldn't have been a better game? I was? Uh,
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 5: I'm always stoked py super Bowl because it's the it's
Speaker 5: the championship of my favorite league. But then around two
Speaker 5: minutes left in the fourth court, I get really sad
Speaker 5: because I realized it's normal football till like September augusta
Speaker 5: and and that's always a sad time for me.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 7: I barely even knew who was playing in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 6: Probably only one team really played.
Speaker 7: Cle's okay, okay, I want to start off with some
Speaker 7: rapid fire.
Speaker 3: Okay, Ready, are your morning or a night person.
Speaker 6: Morning?
Speaker 5: What I've become. I used to be a night person.
Speaker 5: But in my but you can hang, I can hang,
Speaker 5: but I get up. I'm up every morning at six,
Speaker 5: six thirty no matter what I do, and I play
Speaker 5: all four. You don't getting the kids in school or whatever.
Speaker 5: But I'm I'm a morning person.
Speaker 3: So you're just not really a sleep person.
Speaker 6: Not lately. No, I don't. I don't. I don't need
Speaker 6: eight that's for sure.
Speaker 3: You don't need eight. No, what can you function on?
Speaker 5: I'm going on about I'm seriously going on about nine
Speaker 5: hours in the last four days right now.
Speaker 3: So does that make you like irritable?
Speaker 6: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: You're always so pleasant.
Speaker 6: I try to be.
Speaker 3: When I get tired, I get irritable, not you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Now, when I get tired, I just get ain't quiet.
Speaker 6: When I get tired, I think.
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, so morning. If you had to be the
Speaker 7: pet cat to any celebrity, who would it be?
Speaker 3: And why?
Speaker 5: If I have to be a cat for any celebrity,
Speaker 5: I would be a cat for Paula Kartney.
Speaker 6: Okay, So I can hang out with him.
Speaker 3: You're number one.
Speaker 6: Oh, he's my buddy.
Speaker 5: He's one of the few things on my bucket list
Speaker 5: is to sit and have a beer with He's my
Speaker 5: absolutely Al Green's my absolute idol.
Speaker 6: Al Green is the guy who made me want to sing.
Speaker 5: Really, you know, but I've been lucky, fortunate enough to
Speaker 5: actually hang out with a couple of times.
Speaker 6: Great. He's just a great human being.
Speaker 3: And you live up the hope you had.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, he was great to be nice and and it
Speaker 6: was awesome.
Speaker 5: And but you know, Paul's is a close second. I
Speaker 5: just you know, I love Paul mcarty.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, so he'd be his cat sitting.
Speaker 5: It stroked me rubbing up against his leg, absolutely, okay.
Speaker 3: Any tattoos or piercings.
Speaker 6: Three tattoos. Tattoos I got too. I'm getting a third one.
Speaker 3: What are you going to get?
Speaker 6: I want to find.
Speaker 5: Somebody to And I was gonna not cheesy, but in
Speaker 5: Elvis writing is from a from the Lord of the rings.
Speaker 5: I want my three kids names.
Speaker 3: I love that. Where do you want to put it?
Speaker 6: Probably?
Speaker 3: And do you have another one on your own?
Speaker 5: I got a I thought it was a peace flag,
Speaker 5: and uh, this is flag I have my arm. It's red,
Speaker 5: golden green, and uh. And in the corner where the
Speaker 5: stars are. I put a piece sign and one day
Speaker 5: I get out of the shower and my wife goes this, Honey,
Speaker 5: I thought you said you got the peace flag.
Speaker 6: I said this.
Speaker 5: He said, no, you didn't. You get the Mercedes flag.
Speaker 5: And I looked at it and I realized they didn't put
Speaker 5: the line down the middle. So I do have the Mercedes.
Speaker 3: Bens drive a Mercedes. She does, you might want get
Speaker 3: free Mercedes if you put it on your arm.
Speaker 6: Agree.
Speaker 3: I agree, that's amazing. Okay, what do you consider your
Speaker 3: greatest achievement?
Speaker 6: Oh, my grace. Achievements are my kids?
Speaker 3: Really? That's awesome?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's you know Carrie who's in college now.
Speaker 6: I'm so proud of her.
Speaker 5: She struggled through a lot of hard times in school
Speaker 5: and now she's blossoming in such a wonderful, beautiful being
Speaker 5: in college and just enjoying herself. And my other you know,
Speaker 5: Danny and Jack are just such great kids that they're
Speaker 5: definitely my my that's the.
Speaker 6: Best thing I've ever done.
Speaker 3: Awesome. Did you always know you wanted kids too?
Speaker 6: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Was it hard to have kids touring?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 6: It wasn't hard. I mean it wasn't hard.
Speaker 5: It was hard with carry, to be honest with you,
Speaker 5: because who do you be? Toured so different than country
Speaker 5: guys did. Like I'd go for six months and I'd
Speaker 5: go for seriously, I'd go for a month without coming home,
Speaker 5: and then you come home and you know, you're home.
Speaker 6: For three days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then you're back out for three weeks and
Speaker 5: you know, we don't do that in country, thank goodness.
Speaker 6: But uh, it's tough. Then now it's just great.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, I play tour in the summer
Speaker 5: and on the weekends, and you know, if the kids
Speaker 5: want to go, my sons and you know, as you know,
Speaker 5: it was with me the whole time. Yeah, they come
Speaker 5: out and they come out with me. So that's always fun.
Speaker 7: Okay, So country touring is a little more family absolutely oriented.
Speaker 6: Absolutely no doubt about that.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, okay, okay, So you met in the shower,
Speaker 7: but your band were they actually in the shower with you?
Speaker 5: No, I was just meaning to say. I came out
Speaker 5: of the bathroom and he was staying. His door just
Speaker 5: happened to be right by the shower, and I came
Speaker 5: out of the bathroom.
Speaker 6: He was standing in this door, and yeah, that's what
Speaker 6: he said. You know, well you singing man.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so then y'all wrote together all your man y'all
Speaker 7: are like a unit.
Speaker 3: You'll always right together.
Speaker 6: We're man. Yeah, we always uh you know, beat, we
Speaker 6: do pretty much everything.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. And in nineteen it was a
Speaker 7: nice nightey four, Here comes Cracker, are you yeah? Did
Speaker 7: you see that coming?
Speaker 6: No? Still don't believe it.
Speaker 3: Sixteen million albums, Still don't believe it.
Speaker 7: I mean it has to do in the highest selling
Speaker 7: albums of all times.
Speaker 6: It's up there.
Speaker 5: We uh, you know, we had been a band for
Speaker 5: nine years, eight years eight nine years. We've been a
Speaker 5: band before we had a record deal, and we had
Speaker 5: seen it going from being, you know, the biggest band
Speaker 5: in my dorm room, to be in the biggest band
Speaker 5: in our dorm, to be in the biggest band in
Speaker 5: our college, then.
Speaker 3: The biggest play your college.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh, you play frat parties all time in the
Speaker 5: clubs and everything and all that stuff, and then you know,
Speaker 5: then the biggest band in Columbia, then the biggest band
Speaker 5: in South Carolina, and then we were the biggest band
Speaker 5: in the southeast. Didn't have a record deal, and so
Speaker 5: we'd watched our careers climb, so we got a record deal.
Speaker 5: We just thought, you know, okay, this is just another
Speaker 5: step in our career. But then all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: the David Letiman Show happened, and we we went to
Speaker 5: bed that night, we went to bed being hooting the Blowfish,
Speaker 5: and the next day we woke up about to be
Speaker 5: one of the biggest.
Speaker 6: Bands in the world. Was crazy.
Speaker 3: How did that? How do you handle that? Were you
Speaker 3: ready for it?
Speaker 6: Oh? I don't. I don't think we have to be.
Speaker 6: We didn't. We were lucky.
Speaker 5: We had four guys who were so close and so
Speaker 5: on each other, so on top of each other, that
Speaker 5: nobody could get a big at or get you know,
Speaker 5: I mean we we I remember when a Dean put
Speaker 5: on a black T shirt for the first time. I
Speaker 5: think he took five hours of us just killing him.
Speaker 6: Oh you're a rock star now. Oh you know your
Speaker 6: cool black T shirt. You're golf now.
Speaker 5: And so there was no time and and for us,
Speaker 5: we were on the road so much, there was no time.
Speaker 6: We we didn't see the record sales going crazy.
Speaker 5: We saw our record at number one every week in
Speaker 5: the Billboard, but we didn't see it. I mean, the
Speaker 5: money was going in the bank and we were just
Speaker 5: on the road. All we knew was these shows a
Speaker 5: getting bigger and this is aweso. Yeah, that's all we knew.
Speaker 5: And that's that was great.
Speaker 3: So off that record, you had hold my Hand, only
Speaker 3: want to be with You. I got to say that
Speaker 3: was my theme song.
Speaker 7: I loved that song the best, let Her Cry and
Speaker 7: Time were those of four singles off huge songs.
Speaker 5: Yeah records, right, I mean yeah, I mean a couple
Speaker 5: of those songs were probably and you know, there an
Speaker 5: American songbook, you know, to be around for a while,
Speaker 5: and and uh, you know, I was a great feeling
Speaker 5: watching those and we came along in such a perfect time.
Speaker 5: It was timing more than do you think that's yeah,
Speaker 5: the record was good, but it wasn't sixty and and
Speaker 5: uh and you know, grunge was big, and you know,
Speaker 5: record sales were dipping and nobody was you know, and
Speaker 5: grunge was out and everybody was tired of being sad
Speaker 5: and pissed off.
Speaker 6: And we came out and said hold my Hand, and yeah,
Speaker 6: the world said.
Speaker 3: Okay, weldn So what inspired you to write that?
Speaker 5: Sony, our drummer, actually brought that one. He wrote that one.
Speaker 5: That's that's a good story. He uh he uh. We
Speaker 5: were we our first drummer was leaving and we were
Speaker 5: auditioning drummers and Sony came by the house and uh
Speaker 5: he played with us, auditioned and then he said, I
Speaker 5: got the song on what you guys did because I
Speaker 5: want to start doing the mid original music and he
Speaker 5: played old my hand.
Speaker 6: We were like, you're the drummer.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. Okay, So you guys going to do five albums.
Speaker 6: I don't know how you did, but five sounds about right.
Speaker 3: I really don't amazing. Okay.
Speaker 7: After that happens, you guys going to tour forever. Then
Speaker 7: you're like, I'm gonna just pull a Hoodini and go
Speaker 7: country because I'm such a badass, Like why not just
Speaker 7: start from the bottom again.
Speaker 5: In nineteen eighty nine, Radney Foster came In nineteen ninety,
Speaker 5: Radney Foster came out with his first soulo record called
Speaker 5: Del Rio Texas nineteen fifty nine amazing and I'll never
Speaker 5: forget the first time I heard that record. The first
Speaker 5: time I heard that record, I said, Man, I want
Speaker 5: sing cunty someday because I thought the record was so great,
Speaker 5: and I mean I had been a fan growing up.
Speaker 6: I was a big Kenny Rogers guy.
Speaker 5: And you know, the opry was all you know, we
Speaker 5: listened to it on the week, you know, because it
Speaker 5: was for me. It was a lot of music and
Speaker 5: I always wanted to hear a love music and you
Speaker 5: could find you know, it was AM radio guy.
Speaker 6: That's how old I am. I was an AM radio guy.
Speaker 6: Just love it.
Speaker 3: And you I know all the history of Offrey too.
Speaker 6: Yeah I do. I know, I try to study some
Speaker 6: of that stuff. But uh, then I just.
Speaker 5: And then we toured every year and one day Sony,
Speaker 5: our drummer, said, I just don't want to tour ever.
Speaker 5: You I don't want to be a touring band like
Speaker 5: that anymore. And yeah, he got tired of it. And
Speaker 5: so for us, I was like, Okay, I guess I'm
Speaker 5: gonna try to make a record country record.
Speaker 3: What's the rest of the band fine with it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we weren't gonna play okay, well we
Speaker 5: were taking time off.
Speaker 6: So yeah, everybody go do whatever you want to do.
Speaker 3: And you're like, I'm still ready to do this.
Speaker 6: Yeah I was.
Speaker 5: I had always felt and like I'd even said it
Speaker 5: to my account a few times. I'd always said, I
Speaker 5: don't think my career is over. You know, I don't
Speaker 5: think we're done. I don't think I'm done. And and uh,
Speaker 5: you know McGhee, being the great manager they are, they
Speaker 5: got me a record deal with Capitol. Because I say
Speaker 5: it all the time, I wouldn't give me a record
Speaker 5: deal because who's going to give the black lead singer
Speaker 5: of a once huge band who's now they're still doing great.
Speaker 6: You know, they're still doing great touring business. But you know,
Speaker 6: nobody's putting.
Speaker 5: Their records on the radio anymore, any new records on
Speaker 5: the radio anymore. You know, they they've had that run.
Speaker 5: And why would you give the black lead singer of
Speaker 5: that band of dealing country music when there hasn't been
Speaker 5: a black man with a hitting country music in twenty
Speaker 5: five years.
Speaker 3: But you said, this is in my heart of doing it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I said, but they gave me a deal.
Speaker 5: I still and I still say thank you to Mike
Speaker 5: Dungon all the time, because he he said he went
Speaker 5: into UH the day the night he decided to give
Speaker 5: me a deal, he went into his offices and he
Speaker 5: pulled his all his VPS and his main staff and
Speaker 5: and he they all sat in the room and he said,
Speaker 5: I want you guys to know that I think I
Speaker 5: want to sign it there ex Trucker and one of
Speaker 5: the guys said, Hudie and everybody in that room told
Speaker 5: him it was the worst idea.
Speaker 3: You'd ever had, But it feels like a great idea.
Speaker 6: It wasn't the end, but I think on this and
Speaker 6: I understood why this.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's amazing because even when I started a
Speaker 5: radio tour and stuff, I had guys who are now
Speaker 5: my friends really say I thought I'd never play you
Speaker 5: because I just didn't think my audience would accept an
Speaker 5: African American country singer.
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
Speaker 7: So had you written country songs before you started the
Speaker 7: country process?
Speaker 5: This is some of the Hootie records, and all those
Speaker 5: country songs are mine. I brought all those songs in,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So when you started the country process, had you
Speaker 7: started the songwriting process for the album?
Speaker 3: No, So this was just like I.
Speaker 6: Came in and just let's start writing. Yeah.
Speaker 7: And did you get hooked up in the community with
Speaker 7: the writers or have you found people you loved right with?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: I love writing with so many other guys, you know Rivers, Ruther,
Speaker 5: Tim James, actually Gorley, you know, Kristi Bogg. I'm leaving
Speaker 5: session to start the name of names because there's there's
Speaker 5: probably thirty guys in town that could call me anytime
Speaker 5: and say let's write, and I will make I'll clear
Speaker 5: my schedule to go work with them because they say
Speaker 5: it's great guys and great writers.
Speaker 3: So you agreed to start back at the bottom.
Speaker 6: That was actually that was my idea.
Speaker 7: How are you just like the biggest star on earth
Speaker 7: alsold sixteen million records and now you're going to start
Speaker 7: back at the bottom in country music and had to
Speaker 7: prove yourself.
Speaker 5: Actually went into the office for my first meeting and
Speaker 5: I told them I want to do a radio tour,
Speaker 5: which shocked them. They didn't think I would because it
Speaker 5: was you know, because you know, you just said. I
Speaker 5: didn't think I would get.
Speaker 6: In a car and drive around the four radio stations
Speaker 6: a day'rontwork.
Speaker 5: And I said I want to be And I even
Speaker 5: told the guys that booked me, and I said, look,
Speaker 5: I want to be a babyman. I don't want you
Speaker 5: guys to go out and say, you know, he should
Speaker 5: headline or where he's be in the middle because of
Speaker 5: who you both said.
Speaker 6: No, I said, I'll take baby ban money and first,
Speaker 6: and my first tour was first. My first tour was
Speaker 6: I was first. It was Dirks, then Brad that.
Speaker 3: Was my first You were first.
Speaker 6: Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. Absolutely, But I wanted to do that.
Speaker 5: I wanted to do I wanted Nashville to see that
Speaker 5: I wasn't coming in here as a star. I was
Speaker 5: coming in here as the new guy, and I was
Speaker 5: going to work my way up. I wasn't expecting them
Speaker 5: to give me anything. I was going to earn everything
Speaker 5: I got.
Speaker 3: And where does that mentality come from?
Speaker 6: Growing up where I did? Did?
Speaker 5: I grew up with nothing, you know, and I don't
Speaker 5: want anybody to give me anything because when you work
Speaker 5: for it, it's.
Speaker 6: It's not better.
Speaker 3: So you wanted to prove it.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I want to touch me to know that first.
Speaker 6: I want to know this wasn't a one off and.
Speaker 5: I wasn't coming in just a carpet bag and have
Speaker 5: a couple and go back to the pop. And you know,
Speaker 5: I wanted to come here and be part of country music.
Speaker 5: And so I felt the way to do that was
Speaker 5: to start from the bottom. I mean, go in the
Speaker 5: bottom and humble yourself and then lose money. Because I
Speaker 5: wasn't gonna fire fire my crew. I was gonna keep
Speaker 5: the same creuse. So I was gonna have to lose
Speaker 5: money to do this. But it was like, let's work
Speaker 5: at us, work from the bottom up, and in the
Speaker 5: long run, I think it'll be better.
Speaker 3: And you, like I said earlier, you know the grand
Speaker 3: old operas. So you got accepted. How is that one
Speaker 3: of the.
Speaker 5: Things when I got here, I told I told my management,
Speaker 5: I said, I really want to play the opera as
Speaker 5: much I can't, cassuo do. We tried to play operate,
Speaker 5: We asked several times, and I said no because we
Speaker 5: were rock bad and we understood that, and but we
Speaker 5: really want and we never got to play it. And
Speaker 5: so I really told him I want to play the
Speaker 5: opery as much as I can. And that day I'll
Speaker 5: never forget that day. I was, you know, you go
Speaker 5: just another day at the opera for me, which I love.
Speaker 5: It's always real out there and.
Speaker 6: I love it.
Speaker 5: And you know, they before I walked out, they said,
Speaker 5: we're gonna have a question and answer period. After you,
Speaker 5: you know, in the middle of your set. And I thought, so,
Speaker 5: I've never seen that, that's never happened. Yeah, I was like,
Speaker 5: that's never had a number. But if you guys want
Speaker 5: to do it, cool, Okay. So I get out there
Speaker 5: and the lady gets up and ask me a question
Speaker 5: and ask it, and then another lady asked me a
Speaker 5: question to answer, and then Brad Paisley stands up and
Speaker 5: I thought I thought it was a practical joke because
Speaker 5: I thought, I was like, it does he old me?
Speaker 5: Because I think I might be one up on him?
Speaker 5: And I think you and I'm really said, I'm thinking
Speaker 5: this is gonna be funny. I'm about to get got
Speaker 5: And when he said, uh.
Speaker 6: Emotional right now, when he said do you want to
Speaker 6: be a part of the Grand o Arpery? That was huge.
Speaker 3: So what were the waves of emotions?
Speaker 6: It was?
Speaker 3: It was like and how crazy because you to with him?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and and and he he at the time and
Speaker 5: so now he was probably my best friend in the
Speaker 5: business really yeah, you know, and we talk all the
Speaker 5: time and text all time. And it was one of
Speaker 5: those things where if they had asked me why I
Speaker 5: wanted to do that, it would have been Brad Paisley
Speaker 5: and for him to be doing that and for me
Speaker 5: to becoming a member of the opera, that was just
Speaker 5: huge for me.
Speaker 6: That was huge. It was such a there.
Speaker 7: Could you believe at that moment what you had accomplished
Speaker 7: your work ethic and your determination.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you started over.
Speaker 7: In a genre, you conquered rock, you started over in
Speaker 7: a genre, and now you're accepted into the most prestigious
Speaker 7: club and country music.
Speaker 6: Yeah, pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: That's unbelievable.
Speaker 5: It was, it was and it still is, and it's
Speaker 5: it's one of those things where you know, as I
Speaker 5: always tell my kids, you know, you got to work
Speaker 5: for it, and and that's that's That's just a great
Speaker 5: example of it, because I think some people if they'd
Speaker 5: come if they were me and they'd come over the country,
Speaker 5: they would come over with a different attitude, like, you know,
Speaker 5: I've already proved myself. I sold thirty minion records. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, come on, you know, you guys just need
Speaker 5: to let me in play, you know. But that wasn't
Speaker 5: who I was because these people didn't have to play me.
Speaker 5: I mean, I could have come and put out two
Speaker 5: records and not had a top twenty.
Speaker 3: You had three number ones right off there.
Speaker 5: The number ones off the first record that was crazy
Speaker 5: number one, uh, let me see, one was un thing,
Speaker 5: I don't think about it.
Speaker 6: It was it won't be just for long. And the
Speaker 6: other one was all right yeah.
Speaker 3: And then you also a History of the.
Speaker 6: History that was on there too, and that was the
Speaker 6: top five number three.
Speaker 7: So you've basically had four number ones. You came in,
Speaker 7: started at the bottom, got four number ones.
Speaker 3: Were you like, holy shit?
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm still like holy shit, you know, I mean seriously,
Speaker 5: for me, it's when don't think I went to number one.
Speaker 5: It was like, are you because that's just not what
Speaker 5: I just didn't That wasn't what my thinking.
Speaker 6: I was thinking. I was really thinking, you know, let's
Speaker 6: get this.
Speaker 5: If we can get this in the top twenty, maybe
Speaker 5: in the top ten, don't let me make another record.
Speaker 5: And you know, that's great. I got somebody paying for
Speaker 5: my records. I don't have to make it myself. That's
Speaker 5: that's awesome, And that's what I'm thinking. And then all
Speaker 5: of a sudden gets the number one, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: you know, you're you're freaking out. And then it's the
Speaker 5: two week number one your Oh my goodness, and then
Speaker 5: you know, then the other songs keep going up the
Speaker 5: charts and all everything starts happening, and then you know,
Speaker 5: I get the get the Rascal Flats Tour and there
Speaker 5: and going out and doing that and yeah, it was,
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 6: It was a fun run.
Speaker 7: So you had three number ones? What drives you? What
Speaker 7: is your motto? Where does this come from? Like you said,
Speaker 7: where you're from? Hard work? But like what is your do?
Speaker 7: You just have like a vision board and you're like,
Speaker 7: I'm going to accomplish this.
Speaker 6: I don't not a vision board.
Speaker 5: It's more like it's more like, once I decide I'm
Speaker 5: gonna do it, you're going to I'm gonna If I
Speaker 5: don't stock because I didn't work for it, Okay, you know,
Speaker 5: if I don't get something, if it's not gonna because
Speaker 5: I didn't work as hard as I could to get it,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be just because I couldn't get it.
Speaker 3: But you gave everything.
Speaker 6: I get everything. I U.
Speaker 5: It took a toll on my life, took a toll
Speaker 5: on the home life because I was I was working
Speaker 5: so much and we don't live here, but I have
Speaker 5: to be here all the time. You know, always coming
Speaker 5: to Nashville, always doing this, and it was it was
Speaker 5: hard work, but you know now it's so worth it.
Speaker 3: Do you have to do music?
Speaker 6: I don't think so anymore.
Speaker 5: I did for a long time in my life, but uh,
Speaker 5: you know, I'm getting up there now. You know it's
Speaker 5: Charles Kelly said the most perfect thing.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 5: It was years ago, a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 5: when George straight announced that he was going to retire,
Speaker 5: and Charles and I were sitting around having a beer
Speaker 5: and he says, Darris, you're the oldest guy in the format.
Speaker 3: You're not.
Speaker 6: I am.
Speaker 3: I don't think I am, can't be.
Speaker 6: I am. I'm older Tim McGraw, I'm old.
Speaker 3: All we look younger than he's got in the format.
Speaker 6: And that was funny. That was funny.
Speaker 3: That's kind of nice. You're the patriarchic country music.
Speaker 6: I don't know what. I'm the granddad. I'm the old
Speaker 6: dude in the corner in the real tair.
Speaker 3: So after you after you just hit you in the making,
Speaker 3: now you've done.
Speaker 7: Is this your fourth year on the fourth country, So
Speaker 7: you've almost had as long of a country career as
Speaker 7: you have of a rocker.
Speaker 3: Did you ever think that would happen.
Speaker 5: No, No, I My goal was to get to let
Speaker 5: me make two the second record after after I got
Speaker 5: my record deal.
Speaker 6: That's really what I told myself.
Speaker 5: Let's go work up on off and let me make
Speaker 5: another record because I loved it.
Speaker 6: It was fun.
Speaker 5: I met Frank Rogers, I loved working with him. Things
Speaker 5: were great, you know, And and so it was. It
Speaker 5: was when it all started, when when I told myself
Speaker 5: earlier and I wasn't going to get into the number.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to get into the number this game
Speaker 5: because when you're when you're watching charts and everything that sucks,
Speaker 5: it's because it moved.
Speaker 6: They moved so slow and you're watching the charts. So
Speaker 6: I told myselone to get into that and didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 5: And and so when I mean people that you could
Speaker 5: have to come up with me and go, you know,
Speaker 5: you've got a top ten record again, I was like, cool,
Speaker 5: I didn't know, you know, And I don't think I
Speaker 5: ever saw a number one.
Speaker 6: It was always somebody called me going number one this week? Cool?
Speaker 7: Do you set your expectations at zero? You work hard,
Speaker 7: but do you have or do you set your expectations?
Speaker 5: I think something if it's a different situation. I think
Speaker 5: in this situation, I set my expect expectations so low
Speaker 5: because if you looked at the picture, it just seemed
Speaker 5: like to want seven eight number ones and say I'm
Speaker 5: going to do this and have four number one records
Speaker 5: that would have that just didn't seem to be really feasible. Yeah,
Speaker 5: the way this landscape of the whole the whole play was,
Speaker 5: it just doesn't seem like feasible. So I just wanted
Speaker 5: to be a small part of the community. Like you said,
Speaker 5: get somebody to pay.
Speaker 6: For my records.
Speaker 3: That's all I wanted on a team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, I want somebody to pay for my records.
Speaker 5: And you know it turned into more than that.
Speaker 3: So what's the difference between rock, the rock genre and
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 5: What's the one thing about when rock do you can
Speaker 5: you can say anything you know? Rock and pop you
Speaker 5: can say anything you want. Doesn't have to make sense.
Speaker 5: What do you mean, who let dogs out?
Speaker 3: What does that even mean?
Speaker 6: My point exactly, huge song?
Speaker 3: Who let the Dogs out?
Speaker 5: Number one song? Huge song meant nothing? Didn't no meaning?
Speaker 5: In country music, that'un. In country music, you always have
Speaker 5: to have your song has to have a story.
Speaker 6: It has to mean something.
Speaker 5: I mean, I listened to even the songs that you
Speaker 5: think are just you know, throw away songs or songs
Speaker 5: that are or nothing because they're they're so popular whatever,
Speaker 5: if you listen to the words, the words are so
Speaker 5: great and the story is so great, and they're talking
Speaker 5: about something and I love that. And and you always
Speaker 5: hear about the fan loyalty, and I'll tell you that's true.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's it's it's it's unbelievable. Country music. I always say,
Speaker 6: pop and rock is always.
Speaker 5: Looking for the big the the next big thing, and
Speaker 5: country music wants the next big thing, but they also
Speaker 5: want that blanket that's on their bed that's been keeping
Speaker 5: them warm for three years.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know I love that.
Speaker 3: Who are your greatest? Who do you admire?
Speaker 5: And country the biggest idol? Every time I opened my mouth,
Speaker 5: I'm trying to be Radney Foster. No, you haven't written
Speaker 5: a few songs together. We've done some shows together. He's
Speaker 5: a friend, and he's that, he's a he's such, he's
Speaker 5: when you talk about meeting the guy.
Speaker 6: Him being the way you wanted to be. Radney Foster
Speaker 6: was the.
Speaker 5: Way I wanted to be he was the nicest human being,
Speaker 5: so so humble, and the first time we met, I
Speaker 5: told the story. I told him the story, and uh
Speaker 5: he I want to see him play when he was
Speaker 5: in Foster and Lloyd in this club and I showed
Speaker 5: up Blate because I was working selling records and I
Speaker 5: had to close the store down. I showed up and
Speaker 5: I missed by three songs, three four songs.
Speaker 6: And I get there.
Speaker 5: And of course, you know, bars packed. I'm the only
Speaker 5: black at the bar, and you know, make my way
Speaker 5: up to the front. I mean, I get there late,
Speaker 5: and I make my way up to the front because
Speaker 5: it's Foster and Lloyd night, missing it and I'm up
Speaker 5: there and it's about after about ten songs. I'm starting
Speaker 5: to get little buzz, you know, and I'm start yelling,
Speaker 5: you know, play you can come crying to me. You know,
Speaker 5: they're not you know, they're ignoring me. And so they
Speaker 5: go away, and they do, they do. They're coming back
Speaker 5: for the encore. And when I come back to the encore,
Speaker 5: sure there's that jerk again in the front row. You know,
Speaker 5: play you can come crying to me. So Radney being
Speaker 5: a nice guy who has looked over at me, and said,
Speaker 5: hey man, I think you came in kind of late,
Speaker 5: because you know, we played that early in the show.
Speaker 5: And I looked at him and say, hey man, I'm
Speaker 5: the only black dude in this place, and you mean
Speaker 5: to tell me you can't play the one song I'm
Speaker 5: asking you to play. And Bill looked at him, goes
Speaker 5: he is and they played it again. They did yeah,
Speaker 5: and uh I told him that story and he couldn't
Speaker 5: He couldn't believe that was me.
Speaker 6: He's like, that was you. So he said, I told
Speaker 6: that story a million times. I didn't know that was your. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that was me.
Speaker 5: No, we had met, I had made it. I mean
Speaker 5: who he had me at this time. We were still
Speaker 5: a club band at the time. Yeah, we were clubbing
Speaker 5: it when when all that went down, and so he
Speaker 5: was like, wow, I can't believe that was you.
Speaker 6: I told that story a million times. It was like, dude,
Speaker 6: that was me.
Speaker 3: Full circle, full circle. I mean that comes back around absolutely.
Speaker 7: And that's kind of interesting that Radney Foster is the
Speaker 7: one you pick because he's more obscure.
Speaker 3: He's not like mainstream country. Do you like that kind
Speaker 3: of Yeah?
Speaker 6: I think the people I love I don't mind. I
Speaker 6: like me not.
Speaker 5: I don't mind that I like mainstream country. But the
Speaker 5: guys that I love, I love. I love it Nancy Griffith,
Speaker 5: I love Dwight Yoakum, I love Radney Foster and Lloyd
Speaker 5: you know those Doc Watson country records, like the Portrait
Speaker 5: and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: Those are the records that I love.
Speaker 5: I just when I was just engulfed in that stuff,
Speaker 5: I wasn't listening.
Speaker 6: To a lot of country because I was listening to
Speaker 6: all those records.
Speaker 3: You're a lyric, yeah, always. What do you like to
Speaker 3: write about?
Speaker 6: Oh? I like to write about everything. You know.
Speaker 5: It seems like in the first records, I was always
Speaker 5: writing about life, you know, my life and what was
Speaker 5: going on. And you know, later on you start think
Speaker 5: he's write about stuff that happen before or where you
Speaker 5: are now.
Speaker 6: But I just I'm just like to write a long
Speaker 6: the lyric is good. I like to write it.
Speaker 7: And then you cut an outside song that was yeah,
Speaker 7: which I had always loved.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I had too, but I never thought about cutting it.
Speaker 6: How did you?
Speaker 3: How did that come about?
Speaker 5: Oh, this is a cool story. I was my oldest daughter, Carrie.
Speaker 5: She was in a high school talent show, and so
Speaker 5: I went to see it. And I was in the
Speaker 5: middle of making my record and I went to see it,
Speaker 5: and I'm sitting there and, uh, the faculty band I'm
Speaker 5: talking about two janitors and like four teachers get up
Speaker 5: their band and they and they start playing wagon Wheel
Speaker 5: and they playing it really country with drums and everything.
Speaker 5: And I'm sitting there going, I never heard wagon witheel
Speaker 5: like that. I always thot it was such a bluegrass song.
Speaker 5: I'd never heard the country and they're playing it in
Speaker 5: the middle of the second verse. I'm texting my texting
Speaker 5: Frank Rogers, my producer, going, dude, you remember that wagon
Speaker 5: Wheel song. I was like, yeah, you know, I don't
Speaker 5: think we should cut. A lot of people cut it,
Speaker 5: I said, dude, it all the way ISA were cutting it,
Speaker 5: and we cut it, and that that thing took when
Speaker 5: we put lady A on it is when I when
Speaker 5: we first kind of I went cool, great last song
Speaker 5: on the record, it would be awesome, never thought it'd
Speaker 5: be a single, and then we put lady A on
Speaker 5: it and they just went.
Speaker 6: To a new level.
Speaker 3: Okay, So was that one of your biggest songs?
Speaker 6: That was a big song? I hadn't cut your music.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, okay, what else have you've been married to
Speaker 7: the same woman, Bethy, she's beautiful. You have given me
Speaker 7: some marriage advice. Do you have any marriage advice? Like?
Speaker 3: How? Because she's been through the whole hooting the.
Speaker 6: Book, she's been we've been together seventeen years.
Speaker 3: How what is the secret?
Speaker 6: You can't.
Speaker 5: First, of course, love is a secret, is one of
Speaker 5: the secrets. But you have to make time for each other.
Speaker 5: And I mean from us, so you know it is.
Speaker 5: And we're on the road so much. And now when
Speaker 5: you have a kid, it's not like she can just
Speaker 5: pack us on the road with me when the kids
Speaker 5: got school and everything. So we gotta make time for
Speaker 5: each other. I think our secret is we've both just
Speaker 5: decided that we're gonna say together.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm sure if you asked both of us,
Speaker 5: we could say, yeah. We've both given each other reasons
Speaker 5: we could leave. Well, we can, you know, but we've
Speaker 5: decided to stay together. And and it's come in and
Speaker 5: we work. We work on our marriage. It's not easy
Speaker 5: by any stretched imagination.
Speaker 3: People who don't work on the dage. You have to
Speaker 3: work on yourriage like anything else.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, And I think that's and then and
Speaker 5: I think for me, it took me a while to
Speaker 5: get that becoming dude, you know, and I thought, I'm
Speaker 5: providing everything's good.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: We have a great life, you know, and and no,
Speaker 5: we had to make it a great life. Les would
Speaker 5: be great just because we can live where everyone go
Speaker 5: where it was got to be great because I want
Speaker 5: to talk to you, you know a little sit on
Speaker 5: the beach and have a conversation. I want to settle
Speaker 5: the back porch and have a conversation. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 5: those are the things that are that.
Speaker 6: That keep it together.
Speaker 3: I love that. So I'm looking at your watch.
Speaker 7: You get my husband and a thousand horses first off, Graham,
Speaker 7: and you have a little gras.
Speaker 5: My bro's the most important member of the band.
Speaker 7: Yes, Like the last night of tour when they tore
Speaker 7: to all last year, Darius is like.
Speaker 3: Here's the band, a thousand horses, and here's great feat
Speaker 3: the only one that matters. You actually have such a bruman.
Speaker 3: You bought him some shoes.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: He wears those things with so much pride. Yeah, because
Speaker 3: they're they're beautiful.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I have this great company called Old Old Star out
Speaker 5: in California that makes a handmakes these And I remember
Speaker 5: we were hanging out with the horses just when they
Speaker 5: just got.
Speaker 3: The love you so much.
Speaker 6: I know I love them too.
Speaker 3: Isn't a beautful love?
Speaker 6: Absolutely?
Speaker 5: That's why I was so disappointed when they end the
Speaker 5: last year, because I knew we had been on tour
Speaker 5: for almost two years together. Yeah, and you know there
Speaker 5: were boys, yeah, and you know, and I'm so proud,
Speaker 5: so proud of so proud of me doing great.
Speaker 7: I love those guys they are Yeah, so you got Yeah,
Speaker 7: And it was.
Speaker 5: This thing where I started, and I started with I
Speaker 5: started it with Graham, the first guy in the band
Speaker 5: who mentioned my boots.
Speaker 6: I gave a pair.
Speaker 5: And so Graham was the first guy who said, uh,
Speaker 5: hey man, I love your boots.
Speaker 6: You are what size you wear?
Speaker 5: And he told me and I don't think you thought
Speaker 5: I was serious. And then the next my song, I
Speaker 5: wanted up there, man, there's your boots. And that's now
Speaker 5: a ritual with me, like really, with Dan and Jay,
Speaker 5: the first one of those guys that go, hey, man,
Speaker 5: I love your boots.
Speaker 6: They're gonna get a pair of boots.
Speaker 3: That's awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 7: Okay, I'm gonna wrap it up because I know you
Speaker 7: got to go do the grand off. Yes, but I
Speaker 7: like to end each episode with a little segment called
Speaker 7: leave your Light.
Speaker 3: Okay, so like, leave me some inspiration, leave.
Speaker 5: You some uh. You know, I'm looking looking around at
Speaker 5: the world and everything has happened. I was talking about
Speaker 5: this last night. So many, so many disasters and so
Speaker 5: many bad things happen, and you know, I just I
Speaker 5: think the more you can be nice it would be
Speaker 5: good to one person at a time, the better the
Speaker 5: world is going to be. There's so many people go
Speaker 5: through life, go through a day not once doing something
Speaker 5: nice for somebody else. And I think every day, try
Speaker 5: to do one good thing. If it's just you know,
Speaker 5: if it's just shake off somebody's hand, or pat some
Speaker 5: one in the back, or you know that's somebody you
Speaker 5: know you have a good day today, Do something nice
Speaker 5: for somebody every day at least once.
Speaker 3: I love that. Will you actually have ruputation to be
Speaker 3: one of the nicest men in country music? Oh, thank you, yeah, thank.
Speaker 7: You, thank you, Darius, thank you, thank.
Speaker 6: You, Carl.
Speaker 4: She's the Queen of talking.
Speaker 6: He was sown