Speaker 1: All right, welcome to episode twenty two of The Bobby
Speaker 1: Cast with Me is my friend and I don't use
Speaker 1: that term loosely. Lauren Lena, Hi, Lauren, Hi, Hey, So
Speaker 1: I was reading you used to work at CCI's Pizza?
Speaker 1: Did the SEC's used to be awesome because you could
Speaker 1: go and get the buffet and play the games. But
Speaker 1: the buffet was like a two nine and you could
Speaker 1: just go crazy. Now, they didn't have the absolute best pizza,
Speaker 1: but that didn't matter because you get to eat so
Speaker 1: much of it. Yes, it was people love CC's, guys.
Speaker 1: You do not understand. I used to going to see
Speaker 1: all the time because I could afford it, Like That's
Speaker 1: why I would go to Cecy's. What did you do
Speaker 1: at Ceci's Pizza? Dropped pizza on the floor every day
Speaker 1: of my life? I was the worst. I don't know
Speaker 1: why they I was just nice to the customers, so
Speaker 1: I think they kept me around because I was friendly.
Speaker 1: Were you a waitress? Sort of? They don't really have waitresses. Um.
Speaker 1: I stuck to the buffet and then when people would
Speaker 1: like make special orders, I would care, I would carry
Speaker 1: them out. I dropped more than I delivered, honestly, how
Speaker 1: long did you work at CC's probably about a year.
Speaker 1: That's a long time. How old were you so, like
Speaker 1: your first paycheck job? Yeah, that's called first page. Jobs
Speaker 1: are awesome. I worked there when I auditioned for American Idol.
Speaker 1: That was my job. So as you were auditioning or
Speaker 1: as you're waiting, or like you work there until American Idol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I've never really quit, so I guess I still
Speaker 1: kind of worked there. Never resigned now if I need
Speaker 1: to go back and learning that. We're just talking about
Speaker 1: our spray tans. You you just got here on my
Speaker 1: I have a spray tan lady who comes every week.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you got upgrade because you go to
Speaker 1: a strip mall plays go away chain, you go to
Speaker 1: it chain. My lady spray the perfectly. She knows like
Speaker 1: my armpits. He it's my contours now if I want them.
Speaker 1: I feel cheating though if I do that, because like
Speaker 1: I go to the gym and I work all and
Speaker 1: I feel like if someone paints abbs on me, why
Speaker 1: should I even work out? I totally just got abbs
Speaker 1: for the first time. Who did it on you? Like
Speaker 1: like I didn't? By doing a lot of working out.
Speaker 1: Oh you mean you literally got a Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they're not like I just have the outer line and
Speaker 1: then like the middle line. I don't really the first
Speaker 1: time in a long time, you can see stelling muscles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exciting. I'm so excited because and you're shrinking like
Speaker 1: you are ever and again, I actually see Lauren more
Speaker 1: than I see most artists because again Laura and I
Speaker 1: want to Lauren's birthday party last week. I don't go
Speaker 1: to parties, I don't go to people. I don't get
Speaker 1: to artist stuff. But like, Lauren's a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and so I've watched you shrink over the best four
Speaker 1: months or so. I thinks I'm trying. I'm almost my
Speaker 1: goal away, eleven pounds away. What's your goal away? Say? Oh,
Speaker 1: you can, but if you can't expect me not to
Speaker 1: follow up, it's every bit of a hunt. Your pounds
Speaker 1: so pounds great. I'm not where I want to be yet,
Speaker 1: but I feel way better than I did. For sure.
Speaker 1: I just, um, I had severe I had an eating
Speaker 1: disorder for a really long time, and I had a
Speaker 1: really bad relationship with food and exercise in any of that.
Speaker 1: Um So I got help about three years ago and
Speaker 1: I gained like so much weight. I mean, I was, um,
Speaker 1: I was pounds underweight. I waged. I'll tell you, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to tell you how much I weighed, but
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that I weighed thirty pounds less than
Speaker 1: I do right now when I was my worst, like
Speaker 1: my sickest, and so I just had to completely give
Speaker 1: up that lifestyle of like dieting or whatever and just
Speaker 1: kind of stripped myself of it. So I gained quite
Speaker 1: a bit of weight. And then I've I've finally got
Speaker 1: into a place where I'm like, I can do this,
Speaker 1: and I work out like six days a week. I
Speaker 1: let myself have one day off and I just eat
Speaker 1: really clean. Like of the time. I did not have
Speaker 1: any cookie cake. And my birthday party, and you know what,
Speaker 1: here's the thing too, it's your birthday party. I was
Speaker 1: waiting for the first person to cut the cookie cakes
Speaker 1: so I can have a being nobody cut it, and
Speaker 1: then we were there and then how to go it?
Speaker 1: Did it work? And I never got cookie cake because
Speaker 1: nobody cut the cookie cake and I couldn't be the
Speaker 1: first one to get into Lawrence. Cookie cake you should have.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say that. So Amy my co host
Speaker 1: on the morning show, and we've talked about this publicly,
Speaker 1: so she wouldn't care me talking about it. Should blieve
Speaker 1: me for a long time, that's what okay. And so
Speaker 1: she would talk about how she actually gained weight while
Speaker 1: she had blimia, which it's all different for every person.
Speaker 1: You know, when you have eating disorder, it's different every person.
Speaker 1: And you know, for her there were emotional reasons that
Speaker 1: she was doing it, and you know, she's spoken about it,
Speaker 1: and it's brave to talk about it eating disorder. But
Speaker 1: it's also something that I've learned that a lot of
Speaker 1: people go through and because people don't talk about it,
Speaker 1: they feel very alone until someone does talk about it.
Speaker 1: Have you felt that since you've talked about it, more
Speaker 1: people have come out and said thank you so much
Speaker 1: for at least shining a light on something that I'm
Speaker 1: going through privately. Yeah, I um, it was really scary
Speaker 1: for me to speak out about it, like i'd never, um,
Speaker 1: I never. My dad didn't know when I spoke out
Speaker 1: about it. My dad did not know that I had
Speaker 1: had him eating this. Did you go to him first
Speaker 1: and say, Hey, I'm about to talk about this no,
Speaker 1: I didn't because and I normally would, but I was
Speaker 1: just in this interview and they were talking to me
Speaker 1: about how I how I seemed so confident and how
Speaker 1: they really admire that and what do I do to
Speaker 1: be confident? And I was literally sitting there thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: my lord, if you only knew, like, I'm an extremely
Speaker 1: insecure person about certain things like when I'm on stage
Speaker 1: or in an interview or in my element, I am
Speaker 1: super confident. But if I'm having to try on dresses
Speaker 1: for the c m as, that's like a nightmare for me. Um,
Speaker 1: so I was. I didn't want to say, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: like super confident, and it just came him out. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I have believe mea for five years,
Speaker 1: and I almost like I was really sick. I got
Speaker 1: really sick, and that's the only reason I got better. Um,
Speaker 1: it's because you said that. And then no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: oh no, I would have never for admitted it when
Speaker 1: I was sick. What was the turning point? My hair
Speaker 1: started falling out because you just were so unhealthy and
Speaker 1: I looked sick, and UM, believe me. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know it's not it's throwing up your face. So it's
Speaker 1: not good for a singer, and it really messed up
Speaker 1: my vocal cords. Um, and I went to the I
Speaker 1: was having severe vocal core problems because of lots of reasons.
Speaker 1: I never took voice lessons or learned how to properly
Speaker 1: warm up my voice or how to take care of it.
Speaker 1: And I was throwing up five times a day or
Speaker 1: whatever I was doing. So it was just And I
Speaker 1: was on American idol where seeing twelve hours a day,
Speaker 1: like they just make you saying all day on every
Speaker 1: single So it's just I was young. I didn't I
Speaker 1: wasn't taking care of myself. And it's a muscle, and
Speaker 1: muscles if you don't rest them, if you don't warm
Speaker 1: them up or take care of them, you know, they
Speaker 1: give up. And so I went to the doctor, the
Speaker 1: vocal court doctor, and I had lost um like forty
Speaker 1: five pounds from the time I was on idol. Wow, Um,
Speaker 1: I lost like forty five pounds and about two months
Speaker 1: because of idol. Do you think and the pressures of idol. Uh,
Speaker 1: I hadn't believe me of before I went on idol.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't an idol, but I had only done
Speaker 1: it a couple of times when I would eat really bad.
Speaker 1: I got to the point where I was eating healthy,
Speaker 1: healthy food and throwing it. I was like, really, it
Speaker 1: was sad, and I had management at the time that
Speaker 1: um put pressure on you that I need to feel
Speaker 1: like at that age. But you're a kid, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're a kid and you don't listen to
Speaker 1: any of the Sometimes I still feel like a kid
Speaker 1: and I'm twenty two. You like, it's so weird, Laren.
Speaker 1: Here's the weird thing about you is that I feel
Speaker 1: like you're me, Like I feel like you and I
Speaker 1: can have a conversation because but you're like kids do
Speaker 1: the darnest things. It's like you're we're holding out Holy crown.
Speaker 1: You're so much older than that, and like conversation and
Speaker 1: like person. You are one of the warmest, nicest people.
Speaker 1: And I don't warm up to people quick at all.
Speaker 1: I have that reputation. I don't know if you know,
Speaker 1: but I have the reputation I'm not warming up to
Speaker 1: anybody ever. But you're so warm and so wonderful. Oh,
Speaker 1: You're just like a pillow of bubble gum. I don't
Speaker 1: want to get in like laying the pillow and into
Speaker 1: it all of Yeah, you haven't called a pillow of
Speaker 1: bubble gum. I've never not the first time. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget it. Let me talk about this for a second.
Speaker 1: I've been I go Blue Apron, who's a sponsor of
Speaker 1: our podcast here, and so not all ingredients are created equal,
Speaker 1: and high quality ingredients make the best food. So you
Speaker 1: want to know where your food comes from Blue Apron,
Speaker 1: I've used it forever. Males come right to your door
Speaker 1: and they're in a box and their preportion, and you
Speaker 1: cook went home, and you look like a like a chef,
Speaker 1: and if you don't tell anybody, look like any even
Speaker 1: better chef. And so you cook with incredible ingredients. It
Speaker 1: could be you know, Japanese ramen noodles, all right. Where
Speaker 1: I grew up in Arganist, we say Raymond noodles, and
Speaker 1: I would say that all the time, so do I
Speaker 1: and everybody on the show may fun of me. Listen,
Speaker 1: We're from the South, wrong, right, It's not ramen. I
Speaker 1: mean it's not, it's not. I know. And I said
Speaker 1: that one day and people were like, why are you
Speaker 1: saying Raymond? I went to a lot of accent school,
Speaker 1: like I took speech mythology for three years because I
Speaker 1: knew that for me to work in broadcasting, I would
Speaker 1: never lose all of my accent, but I could lose it.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like you have a super strong act
Speaker 1: because you have a super strong accent. That's what I did.
Speaker 1: So do you sound like me? I sound exactly like
Speaker 1: because my eyes were like this and then there's no geese,
Speaker 1: all hunting, fishing and eating. Yes, I sounded like you.
Speaker 1: So I said Raymond noodles on the yar, and they
Speaker 1: gave me the worst time. Anyway, a lot of variety, flexibility.
Speaker 1: It's easy to make. So you can check out and
Speaker 1: get three free meals. And this is something I've had
Speaker 1: trouble with two saying the word meals because I say meal,
Speaker 1: I say meal like I don't. I don't differentiate any
Speaker 1: of those weird they're the same thing too. And with
Speaker 1: this carcial, it's blue Apron dot com slash Bobby Meals
Speaker 1: and you get your first three smales free Bobby meals
Speaker 1: and people would go Bobby m I l s. That's
Speaker 1: not right. It's not Bobby mills like a sawmill. It's
Speaker 1: Bobby mules. Never help you with you blue Apron dot
Speaker 1: com slash Bobby Mills, and so there is that there,
Speaker 1: and so I want to play your song right now, road.
Speaker 1: Let's travel, not the whole song, but some of it.
Speaker 1: Here here we go. This is so just going back
Speaker 1: to a tweet, and it's actually climbed since you tweeted
Speaker 1: this last thing. Did you know where your song is?
Speaker 1: It's the highest ever write a song. But Lauren tweeted
Speaker 1: she was you were playing a show and everybody had
Speaker 1: their phones up and you were like five felt singles
Speaker 1: and hard work and determination and I've hit the top
Speaker 1: twenty five in country radio. And I was like, holy crap,
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of this tweet, and so I retweeted it,
Speaker 1: but I was like, I still remember, I remember it.
Speaker 1: I don't remember tweets. Tweets fly by like a bird
Speaker 1: in the sky. And I was like, I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you. We spent and I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time in my life, either here or on the radio
Speaker 1: show or speaking to people and talking about adversity and
Speaker 1: how you fail. It all depends on what you do next.
Speaker 1: And you wrote it in your tweet, five failed singles,
Speaker 1: and you just kept on and now you have a
Speaker 1: song at twenty one and it's still climbing, and it's
Speaker 1: still climbing. I can't believe it. I'm so proud of
Speaker 1: you and proud for you, and so here you are
Speaker 1: speak on it. Thank you. I think if I hadn't
Speaker 1: had the first five fail, I don't know that there
Speaker 1: would have been that sixth one, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like I um, I feel like until now in
Speaker 1: my career, I've always almost been there, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I got second on Idol, I've been up for a
Speaker 1: few awards. I won one award like on UM one
Speaker 1: of the award shows, but it's not the one. They
Speaker 1: don't have it anymore. So it was just like one
Speaker 1: of that that's not the best of word to win
Speaker 1: on the show that doesn't exist, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like nice just go from Georgia goes to It
Speaker 1: was the A M, A C. A S or something
Speaker 1: and it was in Vegas. They had it for like
Speaker 1: three or four years Best New Artists UM and I
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just feel like I've almost had
Speaker 1: hits and I've almost this, and I almost had that,
Speaker 1: and it's always been kind of like I feel. I
Speaker 1: feel so encouraged that finally after I would I would
Speaker 1: have done another ten years of ten more failed singles
Speaker 1: like it. There was never there was never going to
Speaker 1: be a point where I was like, Okay, well this
Speaker 1: just isn't gonna work. Um, But I just I'm so excited,
Speaker 1: and I would go through all of that a million
Speaker 1: times to have pictures like that picture and to have
Speaker 1: a room full of lots like that and people singing
Speaker 1: it back to me and not having to teach it,
Speaker 1: like they actually, you're okay, this is how but they
Speaker 1: like sing it already. You know, I do this really
Speaker 1: cool broken down part in the middle. I've road. I
Speaker 1: like how you call your own part cool. She's like,
Speaker 1: it is a baller. It is awesome because that's when
Speaker 1: the lights go up, and that's when we have that
Speaker 1: moment of like, oh my gosh, and it's just gotten
Speaker 1: better and better, even in the smallest venues or the
Speaker 1: biggest It's like people singing the verse to your song,
Speaker 1: not just the chorus is like the best thing ever.
Speaker 1: And I just I'm excited. I've had a crazy few years,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of personal battles and a lot
Speaker 1: of things that I had to kind of sort out,
Speaker 1: and I feel like everything happens for a reason. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: how I mean, at one point I was like, what
Speaker 1: is I've just I've got it wrong. I'm not It's
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. And I don't accused just because nothing
Speaker 1: was happening in the right way that you would expected
Speaker 1: it too. Were you just completely confused? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: I hate to say this, but I don't can really
Speaker 1: be confusing? Well, yeah, because when you were on it,
Speaker 1: it was a huge show. Everybody knew the biggest writings
Speaker 1: ever you were. You came off that super famous, and
Speaker 1: as a kid, when you're super famous, I bet it's
Speaker 1: like the world is right here. Yeah, and you're excited
Speaker 1: and then your singles don't work and then things don't
Speaker 1: happen the way that you think they're going to. But
Speaker 1: it was the best thing that ever happened to me,
Speaker 1: I mean, losing those singles and realizing I'm actually not
Speaker 1: like important. We're all important in our own way, but
Speaker 1: it I was not ready as a sixteen year old girl,
Speaker 1: or for what I have now. Were you ready for
Speaker 1: Idle and what happened to Yeah? I mean I didn't.
Speaker 1: I just try it out for my favorite TV show.
Speaker 1: You know, I love to saying I love to write music.
Speaker 1: It was my favorite show. Where did you audition Nashville?
Speaker 1: So you came? You aren't living in Nashville the time. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm from Rossville, Georgia. It's right outside of like Chattanoogas.
Speaker 1: It's about a two and a half hour drive, So
Speaker 1: you drive to Nashville. Did you do the thing where
Speaker 1: you waited for hours? Because the show was huge, the
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours we waited. What was your process?
Speaker 1: Because I've been to auditions and you go up with
Speaker 1: other people and you three or four people and you
Speaker 1: sing in front of the table. Is that how it happened?
Speaker 1: So you horrible and and it's an arena full of
Speaker 1: them and you're hearing a thousand people singing because they
Speaker 1: have booths set up, but all that's separating them is
Speaker 1: like this curtain. And oh my gosh, I was certain
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to make it because in Chattanooga they
Speaker 1: have is like Chattanooga Idol, and if you win it,
Speaker 1: you don't have to wait in line. And the guy
Speaker 1: who I got like fourth place and then yeah, like
Speaker 1: the fourth or fifth place I didn't even make it
Speaker 1: in They're like, isn't that fellars Um? But thanks chattauga
Speaker 1: Um the guy who won. I watched him not make it,
Speaker 1: like I watched him not make it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: that's funny. And I was like, didn't motivate you, no
Speaker 1: at all, not a little bit. I was like crying,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I want to go home. I
Speaker 1: was a kid, how old? Yeah. Mom was like, you're not,
Speaker 1: like this is all you've talked about your whole life.
Speaker 1: You at least have to try. You can't. Your mom
Speaker 1: lived you the whole time. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: because I was a minor, so she stayed with me,
Speaker 1: she loved you, and because she's the best. Yes, I mean,
Speaker 1: it really is like the best moment ever. So you
Speaker 1: sing in front of them and they say immediately you're
Speaker 1: good or do they go no immediately, And no one
Speaker 1: else in my group made it. They called me forward
Speaker 1: and everybody else kept sin away, and I was like,
Speaker 1: so what happens then? So then they take you back
Speaker 1: in this room and get all kinds of information from you,
Speaker 1: and then you have to go through like three more rounds.
Speaker 1: But they just keep like that day it has been.
Speaker 1: It's it's almost been seven years. I think one more
Speaker 1: round that day and then another day. It's like four
Speaker 1: days total before you actually get in front of the judges.
Speaker 1: Whenever you got in front of I'm assuming it was
Speaker 1: Simon Paul and Randy. No, I was the first year
Speaker 1: after them. Uh it was Randy, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, are you on the Jennifer Steven Tyler? Why?
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Okay, so you go up in
Speaker 1: your front of do you even know who Steven Tyler?
Speaker 1: It was who I was most excited about. My dad
Speaker 1: like raised me on all rock music, So that was
Speaker 1: like the I didn't even care about. I mean I did,
Speaker 1: but I was like, and he like, after my audition,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know until I watched it, said that
Speaker 1: I was going to win and I was his favorite
Speaker 1: the whole season, And there was like, no nothing cooler
Speaker 1: than that for me because I loved him so much
Speaker 1: and I got to sing with him in my audition.
Speaker 1: I was dead last. I was the very last contestant
Speaker 1: Nashville to audition, and so I brought my I said,
Speaker 1: since I'm last, can I bring my family? Into me.
Speaker 1: Stephen's basically what I said, yeah, and so I brought
Speaker 1: him in and then my parents song was I don't
Speaker 1: want to miss a thing like their love songs there, yeah,
Speaker 1: and so like I sang it with him in front
Speaker 1: of him. But you probably at that point, just from
Speaker 1: knowing you you had again even as a kid, established
Speaker 1: that confidence in those quick, brief moments and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be Lauren. Yeah. If I'm on stage,
Speaker 1: you're like in any situation where I'm performing in any way,
Speaker 1: there are no like, I have no problem. It's that's
Speaker 1: a pretty it. Don't take this the wrong way because
Speaker 1: I'm the same way. Like, I'm completely insecure everywhere I go,
Speaker 1: except for when I'm in front of microphone or on
Speaker 1: stage doing stand up comedy or whatever. That's where that's
Speaker 1: the only place I'm comfortable in my own skin. And
Speaker 1: I'm getting better at being human. Like I went to
Speaker 1: your birthday party. I don't like, I don't do social things,
Speaker 1: thank you. I haven't put on a breaking too too,
Speaker 1: by the way, he looked red too too. It was
Speaker 1: Laurence twenty two birthday to birthday, and I went in
Speaker 1: and I was in the elevator with Lauren's dad and
Speaker 1: he was on a camouflage too too, and we were
Speaker 1: going up and I was like, what are those guys
Speaker 1: on a camouflage that he made it? My dad. I
Speaker 1: watched FaceTime make that too too with a hot glue
Speaker 1: gun and like actual like hunting netting. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know how they My dad is super southern. I
Speaker 1: don't know you, right, You don't say Lauren, I mean you.
Speaker 1: I mean it's you. He's like white works in me,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know where he got that camouflage stuff,
Speaker 1: but he was like cutting up this netting, and I
Speaker 1: mean it was unbelievable. I'm super crafty. And I was like, oh, Dad, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's where I got it. So we're going up
Speaker 1: and this, to me was kind of my favorite part
Speaker 1: of your birthday party. Don't you don't care about talk
Speaker 1: about your birthday party? Right? Was that? Lauren? She you
Speaker 1: have something about you that I don't that I don't
Speaker 1: have about me yet. And it's a struggle for me,
Speaker 1: and it's to feel loved. I have a trouble with
Speaker 1: that because I'm very it's very heart beat, vulnerable. But
Speaker 1: you were like I feel so loved right now because
Speaker 1: there was a room full of people grown ups, yeah
Speaker 1: grown not seven year old that little cousins of yours,
Speaker 1: a bunch of grown up that had on two twos
Speaker 1: because we all cared about you and you were like,
Speaker 1: I feel so and I was just was like it
Speaker 1: was really special for me to see you feel that,
Speaker 1: because I was like, that's awesome. I've actually really struggled
Speaker 1: with that too, feeling left, um, my dad's an alcoholic
Speaker 1: and where it was my whole life and and then
Speaker 1: not that I didn't think he loved me, but I
Speaker 1: think if you grow up in a home where there's um,
Speaker 1: where there are problems, which we all do, but it
Speaker 1: affects how you feel as a grown up. And I've
Speaker 1: I've overcome like not feeling good enough and not and
Speaker 1: like I take the blame for everything, like I usually
Speaker 1: blame myself for everything that happens, um, And I think
Speaker 1: that that's something I really worked on and I like
Speaker 1: always especially now that I do this, you know, am
Speaker 1: I I'm a singer and I'm on the road and
Speaker 1: I'm gone. I always feel like life goes on and
Speaker 1: I'm not there and I'm not a part of it,
Speaker 1: so people don't think about me and people don't miss
Speaker 1: me or you know what I mean, because I'm not
Speaker 1: there to know that. And then I've really, I really
Speaker 1: got super I had some serious, like emotional problems a
Speaker 1: few years ago, right around like that turning point with
Speaker 1: my eating disorder and everything, and I finally had to
Speaker 1: be like people do, like people love me. And that
Speaker 1: was a good night for me to have that reminder
Speaker 1: because I don't. I do miss my nephew's birthday party,
Speaker 1: and I do miss Thanksgiving and I miss all of
Speaker 1: these things. But that doesn't make my family love me less.
Speaker 1: They know that I'm like not doing that out of
Speaker 1: not wanting to be there. And it was just I
Speaker 1: don't get to see a lot of the people that
Speaker 1: were in that room very often. My dad. I never
Speaker 1: see my dad or my aunt came and people drove
Speaker 1: three and a half hours to wear it too too
Speaker 1: to be at that party, you know. So it just
Speaker 1: made me feel really good. And I don't get to
Speaker 1: be home very often, so it's a super special night
Speaker 1: for me. And we just all like sat in that
Speaker 1: room into days and take pictures and dreamed about eating
Speaker 1: cookie cake that got cut way too late, and I
Speaker 1: was there for almost two hours. Never got cut that sucker,
Speaker 1: and I kept walking over to it, Lauren looking at it,
Speaker 1: like has anyone because you can't start the cake cutting.
Speaker 1: You can't. You just can't your birthday and you know
Speaker 1: what the best part is my boyfriend. So this is
Speaker 1: gonna be so surprising. The people who decorated that party
Speaker 1: were my boyfriend and my father, the two men in
Speaker 1: my life decorated. It did not look right. Men decorated it,
Speaker 1: did it? It was like, no, it didn't. And you
Speaker 1: were yelling the whole night. You'll never guess who decorated
Speaker 1: death Row. I was like, my dad's made it too too.
Speaker 1: What is going on here? Your boyfriend had on the
Speaker 1: Captain America like my dad, and it's like weiner was
Speaker 1: like poking out of it, and I was like, not
Speaker 1: not out of it, fully, but it was like so tight.
Speaker 1: It was like tights, you know, people were something on
Speaker 1: trying to take it. I don't know. I was just like, dude,
Speaker 1: he was like, you know what, I'm just here for
Speaker 1: the for the for the birthday party. Well, here's the
Speaker 1: best part of My dad bought that outfit and said
Speaker 1: he had to wear it, and it was like this
Speaker 1: these little bloomers that women get to try to look
Speaker 1: sexy for Halloween, like a sparking too too, So he
Speaker 1: had glitter falling off of him all night. And he
Speaker 1: only were that because my dad was like, are you
Speaker 1: scared of deathing my dad? And You're like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wear this. Oh my dad is scary. Oh, absolutely
Speaker 1: a scary dad. I mean he like prides himself on
Speaker 1: making boyfriend's fear him. Alex has lasted four years, so
Speaker 1: he's obviously not as scared of him. But Alex really
Speaker 1: respects my dad, and my dad wanted him to wear
Speaker 1: that too too, So you saw he was there in
Speaker 1: that tattoo, and it was it was a great night
Speaker 1: for sure. But Alex forgot the candles for the cake.
Speaker 1: For the cake, so they had these like decorative candles,
Speaker 1: battery operated, and I just held one up and pretended
Speaker 1: to boat it out. I wasn't a real candle. That
Speaker 1: was like the part of it. But that's like the
Speaker 1: that's just what it is. It's it's an awesome puzzle
Speaker 1: that happens to somehow fit together. And then it was
Speaker 1: like I had a lot of fun I don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of funny things. I have a lot of
Speaker 1: fun and a little bit I went, you know, I
Speaker 1: went to therapy for a long time. I also come
Speaker 1: from I don't know my real dad. I never knew him.
Speaker 1: He was gone, I was five whatever. My mom died
Speaker 1: of drugs and alcohol um in her forties, and so
Speaker 1: I felt and and have trouble with that too, Like
Speaker 1: I never had a relationship with my parents ever. I
Speaker 1: never had a conversation with my parents, And so I understand,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why it just struck me so
Speaker 1: hard to see you vocally and not like you're just
Speaker 1: someone who feels love all the time. You could tell.
Speaker 1: It was like you're really appreciating the moment. And from
Speaker 1: someone who also struggles with that, I could tell, and
Speaker 1: I was like, this is such a special moment at
Speaker 1: night where I was I'm so happy again. I don't
Speaker 1: know why I get so happy for you. I guess
Speaker 1: because I just genuinely, genuinely enjoy you as as a human.
Speaker 1: Because we've been we've done all I mean, we've done
Speaker 1: a lot of shows. We've done shows, we've written together,
Speaker 1: we've hung out as I'm just happy I'm happy for you.
Speaker 1: I hope you're in a place in your life right now.
Speaker 1: And this is whatever he says to me, and I'm
Speaker 1: said hypocrit for saying this back to you. I hope
Speaker 1: you're in a place right now where you're starting to
Speaker 1: enjoy things. I am trying to let myself. I'm such
Speaker 1: a like a worker, and I get busy, and I
Speaker 1: have goals and I want to meet the goals, and
Speaker 1: I get like so caught up in that it sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't I don't stop to to enjoy it, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's always something else that I'm thinking about that
Speaker 1: I needed doing. And that night I just tried to
Speaker 1: let go of all of that and have a good time.
Speaker 1: And I think that's important because you know, any anything
Speaker 1: you do in life is hard. Any anybody's job is hard.
Speaker 1: No one has like the easiest. Well, some people probably
Speaker 1: have easier jobs that born in the money. We weren't
Speaker 1: that lucky. I worked at the c seas dropping the
Speaker 1: pizza listen. I was hobby lobby bobby for many years.
Speaker 1: So so man, that's cool. So what's the goal? What's
Speaker 1: my Don't say number one yet because I could be
Speaker 1: the big what's the next step? Goal? Because I always
Speaker 1: put goals into what's the matter? Like I was talking
Speaker 1: my last podcast, I think I could be the president
Speaker 1: of the United States. Now I do. I swear to God,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I could be the president United States.
Speaker 1: You can laugh all you want, and that's the best part.
Speaker 1: But whenever I do not want that kind of pressure.
Speaker 1: Nothing Whenever I said I want to be the biggest
Speaker 1: syndicated country morning stual in the history of radio, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: if I didn't have that goal in mind, I couldn't
Speaker 1: never to this point. But I think I can be
Speaker 1: the president. I want to know your big goal and
Speaker 1: I want to know your next step. Okay, like with
Speaker 1: the single what what's the next time? I love to
Speaker 1: write down my goals because I think there's something about
Speaker 1: like writing them down and looking at them and thinking
Speaker 1: it's spending time thinking about him. And probably a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago, I wrote down thirty goals and
Speaker 1: I have literally reached pretty much every one of them.
Speaker 1: I wanted to lose twenty pounds, I wanted to start acting.
Speaker 1: I just finished a movie I wanted. The only one
Speaker 1: I have not achieved is I wanted to be the
Speaker 1: youngest member ever. Um of the Grand A lotprey that
Speaker 1: age stuff and who's who's the youngest member. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it's not going to be me now because they
Speaker 1: were probably somebody from like the sixties. It was a
Speaker 1: long time. Age stuff. You started signing goals with ages.
Speaker 1: That's where you get into trouble because I used to
Speaker 1: do that too, like I'm gonna be the youngest this
Speaker 1: one because I was always the youngest to do everything.
Speaker 1: And then then you start to get normal and you're like, man,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have signed age to Yeah, I'm gonna stop
Speaker 1: doing that because then i may reach that goal five
Speaker 1: years from now and I'm just gonna be just as
Speaker 1: excited as I would have been at twenty one, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I definitely want to be a member of
Speaker 1: the grandel Opry. I want, I want. I just was
Speaker 1: thinking about it the other day because, like I said,
Speaker 1: I reached a lot of those goals. I just wanted
Speaker 1: a talk. I think thirty hit that's what I wrote
Speaker 1: on that list. Um, I don't really want to put
Speaker 1: a number on where I want them to go on
Speaker 1: the charts, because some of the best songs I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Weren't number one absolutely just not just an example, Girl
Speaker 1: Crush never hit number one. I covered that song almost
Speaker 1: every show. It's one of my favorite songs ever played
Speaker 1: on country radio. But it wasn't a number one year.
Speaker 1: The general public doesn't They don't know, they don't care.
Speaker 1: I really don't know. My Church wasn't a number one.
Speaker 1: Such a great song, she Don't Love You, Eric Passley,
Speaker 1: wasn't a number may ever again like one of the
Speaker 1: best things ever probably. Eric came in and we talked
Speaker 1: talked about that, and Eric said the same chair and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I just love and it's so
Speaker 1: proud of that song that he should be that in
Speaker 1: the end, he was disappointed at first, but it's like
Speaker 1: I put something that I wrote that I felt so
Speaker 1: strongly about and love it, and now I just love
Speaker 1: it. It It doesn't matter where landed on the shot. Well.
Speaker 1: I think my my goal overall moving forward now would
Speaker 1: be in the next like five years, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to headline my own tour, and that does
Speaker 1: not mean but I'd like to be able to do
Speaker 1: probably theaters by myself, and be able to take an
Speaker 1: opener and be able to afford to take an opener,
Speaker 1: and as a woman, I think that there aren't there
Speaker 1: are a few women able to headline and um that
Speaker 1: a rotate background, and you're you're part of that, but
Speaker 1: I don't, so I'm not the same. It's going to
Speaker 1: rotate background. Well, I think, you know, with people like
Speaker 1: Kelsey and Marin and Camp. I mean there are lots
Speaker 1: of women that are now kind of starting to help
Speaker 1: turn that for all of the rest of the women.
Speaker 1: I think if there are a few of us that
Speaker 1: are really doing well, people will be more up into
Speaker 1: it because people think that at some point, I heard
Speaker 1: someone say that country fans or radio listeners don't want
Speaker 1: to hear women. That is so false. It's not there
Speaker 1: was one listen at that time. No, No, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: At that time, this was what the article was. And
Speaker 1: I've always been a huge but what happened was directly
Speaker 1: from a program director. But yes, that at the time.
Speaker 1: What's happened is is that record labels over the past
Speaker 1: five years, they've seen what people have been buying, and
Speaker 1: so because that everyone's copying the same sound and that
Speaker 1: sound has been successful, they're like, we don't need to
Speaker 1: develop a minor league, and that minor league a lot
Speaker 1: of times female and male and different kinds of So
Speaker 1: they just completely neglected anything but the current, the current
Speaker 1: cold sound, and now that sound is dying and everyone's
Speaker 1: trying to transition out of it, even those that created it.
Speaker 1: And at the time when that was said, even when
Speaker 1: and listen, most program director knock weds, they really are
Speaker 1: you don't, don't don't. You're not in this car. This
Speaker 1: is me talking most programmed directors and knock weds um
Speaker 1: and they still hold on to things that it was
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, it was ten years ago. But everything
Speaker 1: is cyclical in life, everything from close to music to
Speaker 1: movies and what they're about. Everything is always changing, I mean,
Speaker 1: and everyone has their different opinion on why it should
Speaker 1: or should it be changing. That's just the way life goes,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like everything no one. Everyone isn't always
Speaker 1: going to be happy, and everyone is always going to
Speaker 1: think the way you think. So that's the hard thing
Speaker 1: about getting music out there is not everyone likes it,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's your art and they just won't.
Speaker 1: It's just I don't like every song I hear. Ever,
Speaker 1: if you do anything creative, great if you do anything creative,
Speaker 1: that's great, you're gonna have some people that hate it.
Speaker 1: Because to be completely loved, you have the people that
Speaker 1: love you so much. They love you for a reason,
Speaker 1: and that same reason, they're gonna be so many people
Speaker 1: that are like, I just can't stand this, and to
Speaker 1: be great, you've got to accept that a large faction
Speaker 1: of people just do not get what you're doing. They
Speaker 1: don't have to get what you're doing. They do not
Speaker 1: like what I struggle with this me too, so bad.
Speaker 1: I want I loved him like. I'm a people pleaser,
Speaker 1: and I don't like when people when people don't like me,
Speaker 1: I can't handle that. I'm not a people pleaser. I
Speaker 1: can't handle people not liking me. You're the one, and
Speaker 1: you're very likable, and thank you. That's not always the case.
Speaker 1: You think that, but some people don't. It's not like
Speaker 1: it really bothers me. Why they don't. I wonder if
Speaker 1: they think you're an act. I don't know. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty straightforward. I don't feel like you ever
Speaker 1: have to get what I'm thinking. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: and I tell you. One of the one of the
Speaker 1: moments when we first started to kind of be friendly was.
Speaker 1: I had you come out and do a show with
Speaker 1: us in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and there are about four
Speaker 1: thousand people that came to our show that night, and
Speaker 1: I didn't really know Lauren that well. Lauren came off
Speaker 1: stage and I don't know if you remember saying this
Speaker 1: and no, no, no at the stage. Listen, you were
Speaker 1: so self defer, also putting me down while no no,
Speaker 1: while being complimentary at both of us at the same time.
Speaker 1: But it was the most honest thing that I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: And that's when I knew that, like, you were for real.
Speaker 1: And you came off stage and you were like because
Speaker 1: we and you say, like, it's crazy because we get
Speaker 1: to go to theaters and and sell at theaters as
Speaker 1: a crazy little band, and it's it's amazing. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: You want to talk about me every single day on
Speaker 1: your show, you can. It's love to do that. So
Speaker 1: we go and we played this big show in Arkansas
Speaker 1: and Lauren opens and she comes off and she goes, Hm,
Speaker 1: I'm a really good singer and I can't sell fifty
Speaker 1: people in a bar, but you can sell this. And
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, She's like, this is so honest.
Speaker 1: She's a really good singer, and she's also being self deprecating.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't sell a room right now, and you,
Speaker 1: who are not a good singer, you can do this.
Speaker 1: I'm so dumb. I can't believe I loved it. And
Speaker 1: that's when I realized, Okay, she's the real deal because
Speaker 1: she just said exactly what was on her mind and
Speaker 1: in her heart right there, and that's all I care about.
Speaker 1: Like I just in this industry, you just you can't
Speaker 1: trust people until you can trust them. The general feeling is,
Speaker 1: don't trust anybody until you can trust them, and then
Speaker 1: you can, then you have to latch onto those people.
Speaker 1: It's like in life. Don't trust people until you know
Speaker 1: you can trust them. That's why I feel now me
Speaker 1: I have again, I don't want I don't warm up quickly.
Speaker 1: I have very few people over to my house. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, at my old place. Until we started doing this,
Speaker 1: you weren't the only people I would have over because
Speaker 1: you would come what we wrote a song for the
Speaker 1: kids album together, Um you know we come over, we
Speaker 1: do slip and slide. That was fine, Uh, there's no
Speaker 1: slip and slide. But I like your honesty, and I
Speaker 1: hope people hear you and realize it's not act. There
Speaker 1: are some people where it's act. I know it, I
Speaker 1: get it, and I'm fine with it because I don't
Speaker 1: have be friends. Everybody just come on the show and
Speaker 1: do a good job and let's entertain and you're and
Speaker 1: you're a lot too. I think that's why people don't
Speaker 1: like me is because I have such a strong person,
Speaker 1: very strong um and I think I'm very opinionated, and
Speaker 1: if I feel strongly about something, I can sometimes be overbearing,
Speaker 1: probably and people that don't have to save opinion don't
Speaker 1: like that. But I think people but I'm understanding that
Speaker 1: people don't have the same views of me. I just
Speaker 1: I don't know. You put me down in that statement.
Speaker 1: But I enjoyed it because it was so honest. Like
Speaker 1: I like honesty more than I like being coddled. I
Speaker 1: like on even with every way that I work, I like,
Speaker 1: let's get a point A to be the fastest. Do
Speaker 1: not codd on me, do not come in and go, hey,
Speaker 1: you're doing great at this, but let's talk about Like
Speaker 1: if we have something bad to talk about, let's get
Speaker 1: right to it. Because I want to be the best,
Speaker 1: the fastest way. Don't come and use little soft gloves
Speaker 1: on me and work. My bosses know this too. If
Speaker 1: there's a problem, come right to me with the problem
Speaker 1: and let's fix it, because I don't need to be
Speaker 1: all you know what. I don't like that either, No, don't.
Speaker 1: You're not the comy get passive. We might not agree,
Speaker 1: but we're going to talk about it. I don't like
Speaker 1: passive aggressive either. I'm not a big fan of that.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I'm aggressive aggressive. You're aggressive aggressive, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you right, man. And I just think some
Speaker 1: people don't operate that way. And those are the people
Speaker 1: who were like, oh, she's too much. Did you and
Speaker 1: Scotty McCoury every day while you're on that show? Do
Speaker 1: you know they made that a whole story, like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, yes, and they taught us to play along.
Speaker 1: Oh they did, No, I know, listen, I know how
Speaker 1: TV works. I produced TV shows myself. Well, they just
Speaker 1: told us to use it to our absolutely because love
Speaker 1: that we they thought we loved each other, and we
Speaker 1: do well. I mean, we're friends, but there's nothing like
Speaker 1: romance now, I don't know, no, not really, hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on WHOA. Maybe did you guys your kids remember
Speaker 1: your kids and if you're together and around another kid
Speaker 1: who's also has the same interest, you probably have like
Speaker 1: minds and you like each other. Was there a time
Speaker 1: where you guys were kind of like boyfriend girlfriend? We
Speaker 1: were never boyfriend and girlfriend, but I think there was
Speaker 1: like this weird moment where I was kind of thinking,
Speaker 1: should I like him? Kissed him? Oh? I kissed him
Speaker 1: at the finale on the cheek and the angle looked
Speaker 1: like I smacked him right on the lips, and like
Speaker 1: that was this whole story. But um no, I mean
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time together, but it was
Speaker 1: never romantic. You know, it's like we're just if you
Speaker 1: know him and you know me, were very different human beings,
Speaker 1: like total I think we're total opposites on a one
Speaker 1: to ten scale. How do you guys ever talk now?
Speaker 1: On one to ten scale? Often we talk? Two? Yeah.
Speaker 1: One that picture that I posted I think might have
Speaker 1: been in a Raleigh and he was his friend there
Speaker 1: and he texted me and said HeLa had a lot
Speaker 1: of friends the show and that that it was a
Speaker 1: great shop. So we I mean, we'd communicate in that way,
Speaker 1: but do I call him once a week and see
Speaker 1: how he's doing. Now, I don't, do you call me
Speaker 1: more than him? Yeah, I definitely talked to you more
Speaker 1: than I talked to you. Yeah. I haven't seen Scotty
Speaker 1: in a while either. Yeah, I haven't seen him. I mean,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't does he didn't live here? Does he?
Speaker 1: He does not lives in North Carolina? He lived here
Speaker 1: for a second, Yeah, I think. And you know what
Speaker 1: that hurts an artist who's new and if you're not
Speaker 1: available all the time, it's definitely to your disadvantage. Well, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's different for everyone. I'm obviously not super
Speaker 1: far away from home, which I never go home, But um,
Speaker 1: I moved out of my parents house age, so you
Speaker 1: moved where. I got an apartment in Chatanooga, and then
Speaker 1: after idle, you didn't move stright to Nashville. So I
Speaker 1: did a six month plan where I lived by myself
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes away from my parents while I figured it out,
Speaker 1: and and I moved right when I right after I
Speaker 1: turned eighteen. When you come to Nashville, what do you
Speaker 1: learn immediately? Um? Gosh, I've learned so much. And the
Speaker 1: first thing that you get to Nashville. You probably top
Speaker 1: of the world, like I'm about to dominate. I just
Speaker 1: come off a huge TV show. But Nashville people just
Speaker 1: as they're ten people around you, just as talented as
Speaker 1: you in any room, at any time, at all times.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, right, Yeah, it's like it's really it really
Speaker 1: makes you step it up and figure out what about
Speaker 1: you is different in what how you need to showcase
Speaker 1: that because we're all different. But there they're talent. They're
Speaker 1: just as talented in a different way. It's crazy. You
Speaker 1: can walk down Broadway, which is the street that the
Speaker 1: tourists come to, and there will be people playing bars
Speaker 1: and they sound so good. Yeah, and you're like, what
Speaker 1: the why are you? Why aren't you in a bar?
Speaker 1: But then you go to the next bar and there's
Speaker 1: somebody that sounds so good. It's a very talented town
Speaker 1: from the bottom to talk. I mean, it's there's no
Speaker 1: lack of talent in this town. It's and it's inspiring. Really.
Speaker 1: It for me made me want to get better because
Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, like for a long time,
Speaker 1: as confident as I am in rights and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: I felt really insecure and like I didn't need to
Speaker 1: speak up because I was working with people who had
Speaker 1: written hits after hits and we're super successful, and people
Speaker 1: that I've just dreamed of being as talented as and
Speaker 1: now I'd go into those rooms with those people and
Speaker 1: I understand that if you're if you don't do your thing,
Speaker 1: you have no voice, you know, and and as talent
Speaker 1: as that, you use their talent to help your talent.
Speaker 1: And look at you being all adult and knowing you've
Speaker 1: been to the struggle. It doesn't matter what age you are.
Speaker 1: After you go to the struggle, the struggles where you
Speaker 1: learn gosh, yeah, I mean, yeah, I had I had
Speaker 1: a lot. I wasn't. I've just recently gotten to this point.
Speaker 1: Um in the last probably a year and a half,
Speaker 1: two years. Uh, you do realize, right, I know. I
Speaker 1: forget that a lot. People tell me all the time,
Speaker 1: like I'll be so frustrated about something, or I'll be
Speaker 1: disappointed in myself because I didn't make the rat choice
Speaker 1: or whatever, and they'll say, you remember that you're twenty two.
Speaker 1: And then when people say that, I really don't, Well,
Speaker 1: you've been at it for a long time. I really
Speaker 1: don't think of myself as people my age, Like when
Speaker 1: I talk to people that are my age that I
Speaker 1: meet that I don't realize in my age, I become
Speaker 1: like a mentor or something where I'm like, well, you
Speaker 1: just have to, but not in not in a way
Speaker 1: of me trying to tell someone what to do, just
Speaker 1: in a way of like, yeah, I started years I
Speaker 1: think it danced. I would yeah, I would think that,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like you're older, like I can have it,
Speaker 1: but I'm I can be super amature, absolutely absolutely two
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. I agree with that in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But I mean I have birthday
Speaker 1: parties where everyone has to wear two tis. So just
Speaker 1: answer quickly with this. I want to. I want to
Speaker 1: an immediate answer. Who do you write with where you're like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this person is fantastic Emily wise band because she's my
Speaker 1: age and she's unbelievably talented, And a lot of people
Speaker 1: that I write with that are as talented as her
Speaker 1: are ten years older than her and have been designing
Speaker 1: that craft and perfecting that craft for ten more years
Speaker 1: since she has. And that's been inspiring to me because
Speaker 1: we are the same age. And if I'm looking at
Speaker 1: someone twenty three, if I'm looking at someone that's that age,
Speaker 1: and she's that talented, and she's able to mold to
Speaker 1: whoever or whatever artist she works with or whatever she's
Speaker 1: doing at the time like that, I want to I
Speaker 1: want people to feel that way about me. You know
Speaker 1: what artists do you look at and it go man,
Speaker 1: that's what I want to be. None, Okay, go ahead. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm inspired by lots of different people, but
Speaker 1: I think we're all unique in our artistry is all different.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to limit myself to what
Speaker 1: someone else has done. I want to be like my
Speaker 1: Now that sounds stupid, but there's no wrong answer, and
Speaker 1: nothing sounds I mean, there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: that I look up to, like Dolly Parton. I love
Speaker 1: that she's gotten her hands on everything she can, I mean,
Speaker 1: and and she is a businesswoman, and she's smart, and
Speaker 1: she's a songwriter and she's written songs for other people,
Speaker 1: and she's just done such a beautiful job with her
Speaker 1: artistry and everything around that. And if I could, like
Speaker 1: really look up to someone, I would never own probably
Speaker 1: an amusement park. But I love how she's done other
Speaker 1: things with her gifts and her talents and and the
Speaker 1: opportunities that she's been given, but I don't. There's not
Speaker 1: one artist that I like desire to be just like,
Speaker 1: because I think that we all have different when you start,
Speaker 1: I think when you start wanting to be like someone else,
Speaker 1: like I've spent a long time wanting to be a
Speaker 1: lot like Carrie. She and I are completely different human
Speaker 1: beings and we have completely different ways we do things.
Speaker 1: And while we're both like really powerful singers and we
Speaker 1: sing songs were similar, our styles aren't the same. But
Speaker 1: people think of us as the same just because because
Speaker 1: you're the A plus vocalist. That's the only reason I
Speaker 1: feel bad to say that. I mean, I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: I'm thank you, but people compare us a lot because
Speaker 1: she's I've been compared to her a lot because she's
Speaker 1: a strong singer, and I used to do that a
Speaker 1: lot to compare myself to her, and it like it
Speaker 1: made me feel like I wasn't good enough, you know.
Speaker 1: It made me feel like I'm never gonna be carry
Speaker 1: Underwood and I'm not. I don't. I'm gonna be Lauren
Speaker 1: Elena and what I do is not gonna be what
Speaker 1: Carrie did and not gonna be what Dolly did, or
Speaker 1: anyone that I adore and love, and I think they've
Speaker 1: done a great job. It just inspires me too. I
Speaker 1: don't want to do exactly what they did. I just
Speaker 1: want to look and see if you work hard and
Speaker 1: you're talented enough, and you believe it, and you try
Speaker 1: as hard as you can and sacrifice what you have
Speaker 1: to sacrifice and still take care of yourself along the way,
Speaker 1: you can have what you want. You just have to
Speaker 1: stick it out. You know who in the industry do
Speaker 1: you go to for advice? Oh, Tricia McClanahan. She's my
Speaker 1: manager and she managed her but for a really long time,
Speaker 1: like twenty years with her husband. She managed. She actually
Speaker 1: managed Kelly Clarkson for a while, and she I mean,
Speaker 1: she's just been a manager for a really long time.
Speaker 1: But she is the most connected human being. I mean
Speaker 1: anywhere we go. We can go to the Kroger on
Speaker 1: Eighth Avenue and Trisia will run into fifteen people in
Speaker 1: town that I know who she is because she cares
Speaker 1: about what she does. She knows how important it is
Speaker 1: to maintain relationships in Nashville and to be a good
Speaker 1: person and to care about what you do and be
Speaker 1: passionate and she took me on when I had nothing
Speaker 1: to offer her. When when Tricia decided to work with
Speaker 1: me we started working together two years ago, people probably
Speaker 1: thought she was dumb. I hadn't had a record out
Speaker 1: in four years, three years, whatever it was. Then I
Speaker 1: just had vocal cord surgery. I could not sing. When
Speaker 1: she started working with me, I was not singing yet.
Speaker 1: But we just clicked and I told her my goals
Speaker 1: and she understood them and has helped me achieve every
Speaker 1: We sat down and made that list together, and she
Speaker 1: has helped me achieve every goal on that list and
Speaker 1: now wants me to make a new list. And so
Speaker 1: she's just that person that has like really she I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, lots of things have changed in
Speaker 1: my career in the past two years that I've started
Speaker 1: helping me to be in this different position that I'm
Speaker 1: working on now, and I think that a lot of
Speaker 1: it has to do with her, Like I owe her
Speaker 1: so much because she on days when I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't do this anymore, this isn't gonna work, she believed,
Speaker 1: And days when I was like I can't, I can't
Speaker 1: do another free show and pay for my rent. I
Speaker 1: can't because people think you're like rich if you if
Speaker 1: you're an American, people think you're rich. You're not rich.
Speaker 1: Did you make money off at all? Very little? Really?
Speaker 1: And I mean yeah, well I made more money than
Speaker 1: I thought. I was mega rich, but I didn't have
Speaker 1: any good spending habits. I grew up super poor. So
Speaker 1: when I first got money, I spent all of it.
Speaker 1: I gave it all away. I gave it. I would
Speaker 1: go to dinner with my family and buy thirty people's dinner.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just like and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden have anymore. And I had a manager still
Speaker 1: a lot of money from me. Um, which I I've
Speaker 1: never spoken out about. But how do you find that out? Though? Well?
Speaker 1: When I had vocal coret surgery, I had to clear
Speaker 1: my schedule for six months. And I have never talked
Speaker 1: about this before. Do you want to not? UM? I
Speaker 1: can tell you it's fine. UM, I probably want talk
Speaker 1: in detail. But UM, anyway, I'd scared. I'd cleared my
Speaker 1: schedule and this person had an American Express card in
Speaker 1: my name under my business and would use it to
Speaker 1: book travel or whatever needed to be booked. And I
Speaker 1: got a call about two weeks after surgery, I had
Speaker 1: been in bed, I had not left the house. I
Speaker 1: wasn't able to speak for an entire month. That is
Speaker 1: torture for me. So I was not going to go
Speaker 1: out into the world and try to do that. And
Speaker 1: I got a call from my business manager and said, hey,
Speaker 1: we've had to clear the schedule for six months. I
Speaker 1: just want you to be mindful of that. You don't
Speaker 1: need to be spending a ton of money. We just
Speaker 1: got a statement for this month, and and I was like,
Speaker 1: I haven't spent any money. I've been home and my
Speaker 1: mom was taking care of me and bought everything for
Speaker 1: me at that time. And so I looked into it
Speaker 1: and it was four years worth of charges. And I
Speaker 1: was a kid. You didn't notice it until you were
Speaker 1: a kid. Yeah, I was a sixteen year old girl,
Speaker 1: and so it was like three years of charges. I
Speaker 1: guess because I worked with that person for three years.
Speaker 1: That happens to a lot of kids, kids who come
Speaker 1: from a background where they even their parents don't know
Speaker 1: to watch because I, like, you had no idea what
Speaker 1: to do with money. Yeah, I mean, I have great
Speaker 1: spending habits now, but it's because I've learned it as
Speaker 1: an adult on my own, like, there are two kinds
Speaker 1: of people that and I now am able to have money.
Speaker 1: I've worked hard, and when I first started, I remember
Speaker 1: the first time I was making fifty dollars a year.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I'm so rich because
Speaker 1: when where I grew up, we were food stamp and
Speaker 1: welfare and lucky to have it. We didn't need three meals.
Speaker 1: We had too. We get to pick with two of
Speaker 1: the three most of the time, so it was you
Speaker 1: pick the I was in the school program, and so
Speaker 1: it was I wanted it, and I still have a
Speaker 1: bit of this in me now, and I shouldn't. I
Speaker 1: felt I felt guilty. So and then you're either really
Speaker 1: generous when you come from that and you get money,
Speaker 1: or you're really stingy because of how you grew up.
Speaker 1: And so I was generous because I was like, man,
Speaker 1: people took care of me. I definitely get on a
Speaker 1: Christmas tree and let everybody just come and pull out.
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, my mom was like, Lauren, you have
Speaker 1: got to stop giving your money away. I would take
Speaker 1: all of my friends to the movie and just pay
Speaker 1: for because I felt bad that I had money. And
Speaker 1: they didn't. It's a guilt thing. Yeah, it is. And
Speaker 1: whenever I got a business manager, which is someone who
Speaker 1: manages the money, and because I have like five or
Speaker 1: six different businesses from like books and music and touring,
Speaker 1: and she was like, listen, we had to talk because
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about money. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about money. I just hire great people. And she
Speaker 1: was like, listen, here's the thing that you do. And
Speaker 1: she told me, you have to stop overpaying your bills
Speaker 1: because what scares me is I think any day I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be fired and lose all my money. And I
Speaker 1: can over my bills like ten bucks a month. I'll
Speaker 1: have a buffer for a couple of minds that I
Speaker 1: can use God for me. It won't be a problem
Speaker 1: in poor Agan because I know how to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like that's what I'm actually good at. Like I'm good
Speaker 1: at Hamburger helper with no Hamburger. Like I'm I'm good
Speaker 1: at man with a light spaghetti with catch up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good instealing the packets from Burger king to put
Speaker 1: the spaghetti on the catchup. So I man, it's like
Speaker 1: I'm talking like a mirror. I'm listening to you, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, man, I feel it. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why whenever we were together and you said that,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, it was like I just felt
Speaker 1: all those emotions and understood and not sympathize, because I
Speaker 1: do not feel sorry for you, but I empathized. I
Speaker 1: understood even the love thing you should feel serve me.
Speaker 1: I do for you period, because I think through all
Speaker 1: of this adversity, it makes you stronger, you know more,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, you can help other people. That's been
Speaker 1: the best hard about this new music. It's when I
Speaker 1: mean my parents, my dad's an alcoholic and you went
Speaker 1: to rehab, and then my parents got divorced and my
Speaker 1: mom married a family friend, and like, my dad married
Speaker 1: someone that's eight years older than me. And it was
Speaker 1: just like all of these things. At Vocal Court Surgery,
Speaker 1: my manager stole that's money from me. I was super
Speaker 1: famous and then I wasn't. I mean, I just had
Speaker 1: all of these things that made me go, what are
Speaker 1: you doing with your life? And I wrote gosh, two
Speaker 1: d songs for this album and really decided what I
Speaker 1: wanted to say and what parts of my life I
Speaker 1: wanted to share and what parts I wanted to keep
Speaker 1: to myself and what I thought could be helpful and
Speaker 1: what couldn't. And Um, I spoke out about my bolimia
Speaker 1: and my dad and that was scary too, because that's
Speaker 1: not my story. It's part of my store, but it's
Speaker 1: also his. So I'd have like all these conversations with
Speaker 1: my family and say, as a songwriter, I've got to
Speaker 1: be honest and can you guys let me do that?
Speaker 1: And it's been a process, but I have songs about
Speaker 1: my parents divorced. I have this song called doing Fine
Speaker 1: that I opened the record with that is super like.
Speaker 1: The first lines of the song are, um, daddy at
Speaker 1: sober Mom, I got his best friend. And that's my story.
Speaker 1: And it's really cool because I do. I do those
Speaker 1: songs live and I do. I sing road Less Traveled
Speaker 1: about my eating disorder and about overcoming that and ignoring
Speaker 1: people who don't get it and ignoring the people who
Speaker 1: are like, you can't do this, you can't do that. Um,
Speaker 1: you need to be smaller, you need to be prettier,
Speaker 1: you need to be smarter, you need to be this,
Speaker 1: you need to be that. Those people don't matter because
Speaker 1: they don't already get it. You're already there. And that's
Speaker 1: been the coolest thing with this new music. And I
Speaker 1: feel like maybe that's why it's doing better than anything
Speaker 1: I've ever had, is because I was finally honest. I
Speaker 1: was finally telling the truth and people. It makes a difference,
Speaker 1: and it makes me better. It makes me a better person.
Speaker 1: When I'm singing these things and I'm singing about my problems,
Speaker 1: it makes me want to fix my problems more. When
Speaker 1: I realized that other people have these problems and we're
Speaker 1: all kind of we all have our own thing going on,
Speaker 1: you know. I learned that too when I shared my problems.
Speaker 1: I realized I wasn't the only one that had them,
Speaker 1: because I don't want people to know, because then you're
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the weirdo that has the problems,
Speaker 1: you know, but everyone has problems, everyone like. And that's
Speaker 1: what doing fun is about. The chorus of that song
Speaker 1: is super universal, versus are specific, very specific to my story,
Speaker 1: and I just think that's the truth. I mean, no
Speaker 1: one's perfect. There's only been one perfect person, so the
Speaker 1: rest of us aren't going to be that. You know.
Speaker 1: We paused to talk about sleep number beds. I love sleep.
Speaker 1: I don't get very much of it. Then you should
Speaker 1: get a sleep number bed. I have two of them.
Speaker 1: You've heard me talk about my sleep number bed and
Speaker 1: how it's changed my life. And my sleep number setting
Speaker 1: us thirty. My sleep I could score last night was
Speaker 1: I don't know, eight or something. You check your phone.
Speaker 1: You're good. I'm gonna do a commercial. Check your phone?
Speaker 1: So texted? You? Are? You obsessed with your text methages? What?
Speaker 1: How may do you have? Like five? You're so You're
Speaker 1: so cool, You're so cool. Listen, my friends that sleep
Speaker 1: number have created a sleep number pillo. It's a comfort
Speaker 1: fit pillow. I have two of them. It's the perfect
Speaker 1: combination of comfort and support. And it stays the same
Speaker 1: way whenever you go to sleep. You like your pillow
Speaker 1: a certain way, it stays that way. It is super comfortable.
Speaker 1: It's a comfort fit pillow. My sleep number setting is thirty,
Speaker 1: and my IQ score I don't even know. I think
Speaker 1: it was the Hyades. But listen the comfort fi pillar.
Speaker 1: You get a sleep number store and get one by
Speaker 1: one off eight D next bed to find the store
Speaker 1: nearest to wait a second? What it tells you how
Speaker 1: well you slept? Oh, this is not part of the commercial.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about sleep in bed. First of all,
Speaker 1: you go into the store, right, and you lay on
Speaker 1: the bed and I'm like, okay, come on, I I've
Speaker 1: had decent bed, but come on an hotel on the road.
Speaker 1: So I go into the store and you lay in
Speaker 1: this bed and it's a computer screen on top and
Speaker 1: it shows you your body laying on the bed. I'm like, kay,
Speaker 1: this is not a lie. And it's a computer screen
Speaker 1: at the side, depending on the store, and it shows
Speaker 1: your back in your neck and your head and where
Speaker 1: it's and they're like, oh, here's why when you lay
Speaker 1: you're not getting your full support. So they adjust the
Speaker 1: bed your your sleep number, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: is crazy. And so I got one of the first
Speaker 1: one like five years ago, and so I got to
Speaker 1: sleep number. And then now they have sleep by a que.
Speaker 1: So it's like you eat at seven pm and you
Speaker 1: don't sleep as well, You'll see your number and you
Speaker 1: can kind of figure out like when I eat, like
Speaker 1: my number is not as good when I work. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, expence, it's not that crazy, considering we have
Speaker 1: computers and know what we're doing, and but you just
Speaker 1: don't ever think about your bed. But think about your bed.
Speaker 1: It's where you spend the most time. Like for me,
Speaker 1: time the most time at work in the bed. Could
Speaker 1: you sleep? And even if I'm not sleeping, I'm in
Speaker 1: bed and I have crazy anxiety, So I just lay
Speaker 1: in bed a lot and just stare at the two too.
Speaker 1: But like, I'm trying to come off a medication and
Speaker 1: I'm having with draws a bit, like and I had
Speaker 1: um I talked to us in the last podcast, Like
Speaker 1: I was on sleeping pills for a long time. And
Speaker 1: I've never had a drink of our care done a
Speaker 1: drug because my mom died of it. So it's my
Speaker 1: whole life. I just decided never gonna do it. Nothing moral.
Speaker 1: One day, I'm gonna drink and I'm gonna go crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna love it. I know it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna love it. You're waiting for your moment, but I
Speaker 1: just haven't. Right now. You know, I can't take it.
Speaker 1: I can't take it. I don't don't admire it because
Speaker 1: I it's not an admirable thing. It's I can't control it.
Speaker 1: I just know that if I start, you would drink
Speaker 1: one would be the best part is you would have
Speaker 1: no tolerance anything you ever really clean last style as well,
Speaker 1: and you work out so like your body would be
Speaker 1: like what, I go to the dentist and get laughing gas.
Speaker 1: I have to said the thing for an hour because
Speaker 1: I can't stay. It doesn't clear out of me. I
Speaker 1: just sit there. So I get on sleeping pills because
Speaker 1: my anxiety is crazy. My heartbeats through my neck right,
Speaker 1: it's like hard and they can't control it. So I
Speaker 1: got off of them and I just stopped called turkey
Speaker 1: and I went to convulsions and vomiting for days, and
Speaker 1: like it was the first time I understood what my
Speaker 1: mom couldn't get through and she was on harder drugs.
Speaker 1: I was like, for the first time in my life,
Speaker 1: I get why she couldn't get off the meth. She
Speaker 1: couldn't stop being an alcoholic. And so I'm coming off
Speaker 1: anxiety medicine now and I take it and it's not
Speaker 1: near what the slap pill was, no near what the
Speaker 1: hard drugs is, but it's it sucks because I always
Speaker 1: got like a little headache, my hand shake a little bit.
Speaker 1: Are you just trying to like remove that from your
Speaker 1: life where you're going to get trying to try out
Speaker 1: a new one. I'm trying to remove it right now.
Speaker 1: And I have no problem with people using I'm not
Speaker 1: don't use medication, guy, because I tried for me, I
Speaker 1: tried zoloft, I tried dent deepressants didn't do anything for me.
Speaker 1: So I just stopped taking like it did nothing to me.
Speaker 1: So I believe that, you know, we all have issues
Speaker 1: and we all get fixed in different ways. And for me,
Speaker 1: I am going to try different methods at this point
Speaker 1: to try to lose my anxiety. I'm gonna start seeing
Speaker 1: someone more and finding coping Technique's all tools, lots tools,
Speaker 1: you know, you find the tools I have. I have
Speaker 1: been on all kinds of medication, and some of them
Speaker 1: made me crazier, some of them made me non existent,
Speaker 1: I mean, and then I finally, I'm finally in a
Speaker 1: place where I don't have to rely on that anymore. Um,
Speaker 1: I would get so bills and get so messed up
Speaker 1: the next day that I wouldn't I would remember the
Speaker 1: day I would part. You have many time I drop
Speaker 1: off with the gas thing in my car because I
Speaker 1: just didn't remember a pump gas and drive off and
Speaker 1: I was like, this is it. I have to stop.
Speaker 1: I've never taking sleeping pills, but I've taken like they're awesome.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure that's what people say about any of
Speaker 1: that stuff. Like I was just like, I've never done coke,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. There's I've never like I have another people
Speaker 1: say it's awesome, and I just know I can't. I
Speaker 1: know I have actually said I'm not a drug person,
Speaker 1: just not into it either because of my day add
Speaker 1: I have had alcohol, but it's it's not my thing.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine you drunk. I hope it takes you
Speaker 1: down a bit, not up. Um. It is something I
Speaker 1: like to cry and it makes me emotional. Um. I
Speaker 1: just try to limit it because it ruined my dad's life,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it's genetic because I saw my
Speaker 1: I went to a family when my dad was in rehab.
Speaker 1: I went to a family counseling where they all these
Speaker 1: different families were in this room, and everybody's family member
Speaker 1: had something else wrong with him, but you know, wrong
Speaker 1: wrong with them. Had another yea, that's you. That's a
Speaker 1: good point, had a different substance problem, had a difficulty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because just because you're an alcoholic. You're not. My dad's
Speaker 1: a great person, any less of a person. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just you're a broken person. We're all broken people. We
Speaker 1: just deal with it differently ways. And I learned so
Speaker 1: much in that about myself. Like if I m AM
Speaker 1: really close with you and I talked to you regularly,
Speaker 1: like every day. Like my boyfriend, for example, if I
Speaker 1: can't get in touch with him and I know he's
Speaker 1: supposed to be somewhere where I can get in touch
Speaker 1: with him, I panic because I think something's wrong with him. Instantly.
Speaker 1: I think he's hurt or not, that he's doing something
Speaker 1: he shouldn't be doing that he's not. Okay, I'm not jealous,
Speaker 1: So you're worried. I'm aware. I mean, like, if he's
Speaker 1: driving to Chattanooga, he's from Chattanooga as well, he's driving
Speaker 1: home and I can't talk to him, at some point,
Speaker 1: I think the worse. And I learned that from my mother,
Speaker 1: and they told me that in this because if my
Speaker 1: dad had been out drinking and we hadn't heard from
Speaker 1: him in a while, we would go looking for him,
Speaker 1: or you know what I mean. So I like learned
Speaker 1: these behaviors and I didn't know that I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I learned that until this like canceling things. So it's crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have had I've really done anxiety medication. I mean
Speaker 1: don't unless you felt like like I used to have
Speaker 1: panic attacked to the point where I thought I was dying,
Speaker 1: Like I thought I was having a Harvard heart attack.
Speaker 1: It's the scariest thing that when my parents went through
Speaker 1: the divorce, I had them daily, but I was it
Speaker 1: was like right after my dad had gone through Reyah,
Speaker 1: and I was so scared because typically they'll give you
Speaker 1: like xan X or something along those lines, and you
Speaker 1: can get addicted to them. So I was like so
Speaker 1: scared to go get medication. And I finally got through that,
Speaker 1: but it was a dark, dark time in my life.
Speaker 1: And I just think, yeah, I get that standpoint of
Speaker 1: like not wanting to do those things. I want to
Speaker 1: do them. No, no, no, lauren A, I want to
Speaker 1: do everything. It's not that fun, like that can't be true.
Speaker 1: That can't be true. It's fun during it, Like I've
Speaker 1: I've never really been blackout drunk. People get black out,
Speaker 1: and that's not been something that's happened to me. I
Speaker 1: would like that. I think would like that, but I've
Speaker 1: definitely drank probably more alcohol than I should. Like it's
Speaker 1: just not drinking it responsible. Who cares. It's like I
Speaker 1: don't smoke weed, but I have no It should be
Speaker 1: legal in my mind, Like how can something gross from
Speaker 1: the earth not be legal? People would cancer symptoms and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you bring that up, this is this
Speaker 1: is a crazy because first of all, I think I'm
Speaker 1: the person that can go, person can go, and I've
Speaker 1: never touched it, but I think it should be legal.
Speaker 1: Now that being said, I'll give you an example. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go back to Amy, who's one of my best friends,
Speaker 1: and her mom Dotty cancer a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: maybe and she just celebrating any but maybe it's a year.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Two years ago sounds right, so um,
Speaker 1: But what happened was Amy is super to the right,
Speaker 1: super conservative about everything, and her mom got real sick
Speaker 1: with cancer, and I mean, we all cared about Judy
Speaker 1: Amy's mom so much and she was in pain, and
Speaker 1: they started using medical marijuana and Amy was so against it,
Speaker 1: and then she was like, for the first time, I
Speaker 1: get it. She was like, it's the only thing that
Speaker 1: makes my mom's life tolerable to her the only thing,
Speaker 1: and Amy went, I'm completely on board now because I
Speaker 1: see firsthand what this medically can do well medically, I
Speaker 1: think definitely should be Listen whatever makeup, I don't care,
Speaker 1: make everything legal. Who knows what's gonna happen with Donald Trump?
Speaker 1: Who knows down the street by some crack called the Day,
Speaker 1: I Kid, I I Kid Lauren Lena. Um, So if
Speaker 1: people want to download your music, they can everywhere. Everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's all download stores. There's a big L and A
Speaker 1: and a heart painted on a wall. That's the picture, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just picked out the artwork for the album, but
Speaker 1: that's not that's not out yet. But I'm saying that
Speaker 1: they can't get up now. They can't get that now.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying, what are you thinking about that? When
Speaker 1: does that in your mind? What do you think of?
Speaker 1: The album comes out like a time in the monst
Speaker 1: three months of the year, the first quarter. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1: So you have an album. Um, they can get your
Speaker 1: stuff now. And road Less traveled as a single, that's
Speaker 1: by the way, twenty one. What was your highest song
Speaker 1: before this one? Do you know? Yeah? Ro ro Let's travel.
Speaker 1: Here's a little Georgia peaches for you. Here's the song.
Speaker 1: It was also my nickname in college. Eighteen inches. Here
Speaker 1: you go. What's it right? That's such a good song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that song. We were in Oh Preston, I'm
Speaker 1: loksh were playing some of their older stuff and it
Speaker 1: was like, God, the song is so good and I
Speaker 1: was like, and it's you know, there are great songs
Speaker 1: that sometimes the time just isn't right and if it
Speaker 1: were to come out at a different time, it would
Speaker 1: be a complete I Next Boyfriend was a great song
Speaker 1: and like out streamed out. I mean it was like
Speaker 1: anything I'd ever done. Here's the thing about streaming, though,
Speaker 1: if that's pretty political with playlists, they put them on playlists.
Speaker 1: Everything's political, radio political, streaming political. Well, you can go
Speaker 1: in and look at how you get the numbers there.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's a good thing is from an artist,
Speaker 1: like as an artist on Spotify, are these different places
Speaker 1: I can go in and see which ones are kind
Speaker 1: of manufactured and which ones are legitimate and where their legitimate.
Speaker 1: So that does help. But it outperformed most of my stuff.
Speaker 1: Ever Where did that one? Did that one chart? It
Speaker 1: went to like, no, it did chart, but it went
Speaker 1: to like forty eight or something. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: just think it was the wrong time. It's the wrong time.
Speaker 1: Now is the right time. Like I'll take it. Listen,
Speaker 1: look how you go. I do say all the time.
Speaker 1: You one of the best vocalists in town. And this
Speaker 1: is a town with freaking fantastic singers. And I get
Speaker 1: to be around all of them. I get to be
Speaker 1: around you guys. And now you know, there's Carrie Who've
Speaker 1: got to sing with before on stage, which are crazy.
Speaker 1: She's like alien what she sings. There's Chris Stapleton who
Speaker 1: sits sit beside me and say, and you're just like,
Speaker 1: what the You're in that category. You're in that category
Speaker 1: of of that and with the bread's the bread Eldridge
Speaker 1: is there. There's a level of of pure vocalists and
Speaker 1: you're in that A plus vocalist category. And now it's
Speaker 1: just finding. You're you're just finding your spot. Now, like
Speaker 1: where are you in that? In that spot? And you're
Speaker 1: you're finding it. And I think it's honesty. You're find
Speaker 1: you're finding the honesty is just the way to go.
Speaker 1: And you know what, here's the thing about honestly. If
Speaker 1: you lose on honestly, at least you're honest. That's and
Speaker 1: if you lose on not when you're just putting out crap,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, I should have been honest. If
Speaker 1: you lose on honesty what I've discovered in my life,
Speaker 1: you're you're going okay with that because you've done the
Speaker 1: best you can do well. I will say that when
Speaker 1: Next Boyfriend didn't work, it hurt me more than the
Speaker 1: other ones because I didn't write them. But I was
Speaker 1: also way more proud of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And this whole record is that way. If if you
Speaker 1: read this, Troubled does Tomorrow. It's my highest charting ever
Speaker 1: and it's one of my favorites ever, and I'm so
Speaker 1: proud of it. And you've taken a forward step. That's
Speaker 1: always important. You've taken another forward step. My favorite song
Speaker 1: that you've ever written was a song called Recess on
Speaker 1: the Raging Kiddiets records. Yeah, now Lauren didn't sing it
Speaker 1: on the record, but we set on my couch and
Speaker 1: wrote this song called Recess but try one of the
Speaker 1: Raging Kiddiets record and Lauren was singing. I was like,
Speaker 1: you can't sing it. The High God. I can never
Speaker 1: sing this, Lauren, so we had to change it. I
Speaker 1: can I'm staring at o'clock. It's a way too slow. Yeah, swings,
Speaker 1: gonna drop the rings, gonna clown them all, Cindy marking
Speaker 1: back the tatters, what we like. I can't wait for it.
Speaker 1: I remember studying on the couch and I was like,
Speaker 1: here's I want to ride. We're talking about all these ideas.
Speaker 1: Recess went back and forth forth, and Lauren starts to go,
Speaker 1: I can't wait for I'm like, Lan, I could never
Speaker 1: do that. I can't wait for vs. Hey. I was like,
Speaker 1: screw this, and not only can I not do it?
Speaker 1: I got some we no when we pull it back,
Speaker 1: and then when and got Nikeya to sing it because
Speaker 1: I still cann't do it. You're possible, Lauren, Lena, You're
Speaker 1: dear to me. You're dear to me. Thank you for
Speaker 1: being and I hope you know that is very sincere.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and I appreciate you've been always been super supportive,
Speaker 1: and you're super supportive of so many people that need it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's wonderful because you have a platform
Speaker 1: to help and you do so I appreciate that. Well
Speaker 1: tickled me. Pink can call me Willie? How about that?
Speaker 1: All right, we're Lauren Lena is awesome film. Listen to
Speaker 1: Laurence dot You' like what a were gonna do? We
Speaker 1: We're gonna just talk. I was like, yeah, I SA,
Speaker 1: it's about hour and you just things just come out.
Speaker 1: You don't expect him too because you're just comfortable. We're
Speaker 1: just chatting, feel good. What would you do if you're
Speaker 1: they're like not really your friend and some some aren't
Speaker 1: my friends, but you know what, we get to know
Speaker 1: each other through it. I didn't know Ryan Hurt until
Speaker 1: he came to the house, and I was a fan
Speaker 1: of Ryan. Yeah he's awesome. Yeah he's awesome. And that's
Speaker 1: why I was like, dude, come to the house. And
Speaker 1: Ryan's a very spirit guy, like he the earth is
Speaker 1: that you know everything in it. And so we would
Speaker 1: text all the time, just back and forth, and so
Speaker 1: I was like, you gotta come in because I just
Speaker 1: want to like get in your brain. We weren't we
Speaker 1: never met. And he came in and we sat and
Speaker 1: there's one of these of Ryan and I just talking
Speaker 1: about music, and he left. I was like, man, that's
Speaker 1: like I don't like, I don't know him there today,
Speaker 1: but that talk I was just like that, like I
Speaker 1: feel I felt connected and so I don't know I've
Speaker 1: ever had one that we walked out and when it
Speaker 1: was like I just think you can find that part
Speaker 1: of a human where you're like, well this is a
Speaker 1: really cool. I mean we're in the most comfortable chairs,
Speaker 1: which they don't think that's not on purpose, of course,
Speaker 1: I'm like going to rock myself. You relax and you
Speaker 1: hang out and there's a dog running around these like Lauren,
Speaker 1: You're awesome too. Many many more successes and many of
Speaker 1: more days of friendship between us. Yes, alright, download Rod
Speaker 1: left travel please and if Lauren's out, she by the way,
Speaker 1: she will be at with Martina McBride. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a big announcement that you and Martina are going next year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: first quarter. So look for Lauren out with Martina and
Speaker 1: soon enough you'll be headlining. I got no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: All you need that one song, Like look at Cam
Speaker 1: she has one song and it was so big though
Speaker 1: she gets to go and she she's headlining her own
Speaker 1: tour right now. It's amazing. And so you got it.
Speaker 1: You're ready, just get pissing this one going, Lauren Anna,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening to episode twenty two of The
Speaker 1: Bobby Cast, and that's all we got. See you next time, guys,