#242 - Clint Black on His Biggest Hits, Experience Doing ‘The Apprentice’ and New Music

Amy hasn't been and I wouldn't play it. So I haven't really done anything. I just you know, we're gonna go over music here, but I'm just not feeling a lot of music right now, oddly for a music podcast. I don't know if if it's because I'm really not listening to as much music because I'm not commuting ever um, or if nothing's really hitting me right now. And we'll go through some new stuff, maybe some of this stuff

will hit you. But I was more excited talk to Clint Black about the nineties than I have anything new coming out today. You know. Um, I think a lot of people are feeling that way right now. Once we get back to uh what normal, I think some of our normal habits will kind of kicked back in. But have you been listening to new music at all? This week? Is probably like the first week I started listening to some new stuff. What did you listen to that's new? Um?

I listened to like, I've been listening to Machine Gun Kelly a lot. And you put out a new song today and I was checking it out and it's weird because I know him as a rapper, but a lot of the stuff he's putting out is a lot more alternative sounding. Is he's singing, yeah, and he's playing guitar a lot, So I like the sound everybody being post Malone now basically pretty much like he didn't never, He didn't have that sound before. Now it's like he's on

alternative radio. It's weird. I gotta feel like post Malone created that space. Like rapper, but you can also do rock if you're not to play guitar, Yeah, using real instruments. That's all. Yeah, that's all him. Alright, Well, let's start with some new music out this week, and I we'll start with the Dixie Chicks song because you had brought that up to me. The Dixie Chicks were supposed to put a gas lighter the whole album m It was the first record of fourteen years, but it's been has

been pushed back in definitely because of Corona. But they did about this new song, and it is called Julianna. Julianna, Julianna, Julianna. You said Julianna. Somehow you said Julianna. I hear is Julianna. Calm down. I guess this is the time to remind you sometimes what's going through your head. It's just a temperate situation and I would soon be shared. Just put on, put on, put on your best shoes, and stra to

fucking round like you've got nothing to lose. Shoot off, shoot off, shoot off your best moves, and do it with a smile, so then no one knows it's put on, put on, put on vibe. I can't really find the chorus because I'm hearing it from a random time. Is that the chorus? Like that part towards like maybe twenty seconds into the chorus, put on, put on and Katie calm down. You know it sounds like a slightly country Florence in the Machine. Oh yeah, it kind of does.

But I was hearing again and I was going, right, what am I hearing here? Pay play that from the beginning again, just with a clip. Guess this is the time to remind you sometimes what's going through your head. It's just a temperate situation. Do you hear that like the Florence Welch kind of? I mean, yeah, yeah, I'll probably like that. I can't tell from hearing this one clip of a song, but that sounds like like my

kind of vibe. They're oddly hard to get a hold of, meaning they didn't want to be interviewed or they don't want me to interview them. And I think I've been one of the biggest advocates, oddly, but I can't get any of them to talk to me, which is weird because usually that's not the not the case, it's the opposite. People are trying to get on because of, you know,

the platform that we have. So but the Dixie Chick has been weird because I've been like pro Dixie Chick forever and they just have like we're gonna wait from Boby. Weren't talking to him? Uh, I don't know why. Let's go here and Now from Kenny Chesney. This is record nineteen. Is that right? Here's the title track, here and now now, nowhere in this world, and here's a song called Everyone she Knows She's and the medico down mood. She's sick to something love but the letters just too cold. She's

a mar Jeans. I mean it definitely sounds like Kenny. That's crazy. At the nineteen records, I mean, Kenny was out, you know, he started some of those guys that are just called nineties country. We're still around kicking and they're considered nineties country. But Kenny started then as well and has managed to continue. Look out. When his first record came out, I think I think I looked at it earlier. It was like ninety one. I want to say, wow, was it? I was looking to all his albums earlier,

just to make sure. Like Kenny and McGraw are two guys where if they had stopped after a few big records or had kind of petered out, they'd be considered legacy acts. But they have just continued to produce, continue to put out hits. Man, if it was nine one, I'll be shocked and see studio albums even then says early Wow, Wow, good for him. I like Kenny. I got to set with Kenny wants or sit with Kenny on stage and it was just him and I and he played acoustic the whole time and we were talking

to interviews and make jokes and stuff. But he's a just a really good singer. You know, when you think of the big singers, you don't think of Kenny Chessen that you think of a guy Kenn. He just puts out the beach hits and but just sitting there acoustic with the guitar, it was surprisingly good. The k is Silent from Hot Country Nights. This is Dirk Spentley's nineties influenced comedy band. This was always a bit difficult because

the songs are pretty good. They're even good and funny, but it was always weird to talk to them on radio because it's such a visual thing and I would feel like sometimes it wouldn't come across like I wanted it to on radio because unless you could see them, you really weren't getting the joke because it just sounds like Dirk dark manly making jokes, and so that was this was always the thing that we had to juggle on the radio with Dirk's as Doug Douglason because he

would come on and be moderately funny, but what he was wearing was hilarious. But people can't see what he's wearing when they're listening to live, so that was always a juggle for me. I would imagine they're kind of done with this project at this point, especially they were gonna go on a little tour, but that got cut, as did everybody else's. But they had songs that were good, that were aside from the funniness of it, had good hooks. Here is Sorry, Hot Country Nights with Travis Tritt a

song called pick Her Up Up, Dance Around. You know what's funny is the three artists we've talked about so far, and then we're gonna get to Clint Black in a second Dixie Chicks nineties two thousand's Kenny Chats and he started in right what he said, And then Derk Spanley's band is that nineties uh pop parody band? I mean that nineties. It's the real retro in vogue thing right now. Either you came from the nineties and you're making a new sound or you're new and you're making a nineties sound.

As long as you've got some feeling of the nineties, people are like, oh, I accept that, that's pretty cool. Do you feel that at all? Why is that though? The nineties? Well, I think that's when country music went massively mainstream, so all the big stars are there. You think it will ever shift to a different decade or is just something about the nineties. I think it's that that was the Garth, Brooks and Done. I mean, I

think for a while it was probably the sixties. I don't know there was ever a seventies and eighties boom maybe you know, but but nineties, and I don't think the two thousands were great just generally speaking. I think it's you know, the most songs. When you think of all those massive songs from the nineties, I mean McGraw, Garth, Dixie Chicks, even you know, Chesney, Joe, Diffy, Clinton Black, We're Gonna I mean, it was just a really good

time for country music. A lot of money was going in to support it because they were seeing that it can make a lot of money. So I can't see the two thousands. Maybe you know, you have like a Luke Combs tribute band, later in like maybe which Luke has a new song out too. That's interesting. Now I'm gonna think about that. Why the nineties A couple of reasons. When I think the age of all the people making decisions were nineties listeners. The adults now we're big nineties kids.

So the people that are making the decision as adults, the music that's getting made, the the artists for a lot of them, or nineties influence. I think that's probably what it is. And then the stars that's the biggest generation of country stars. Luke Hombs has officially released six ft Apart. We played the YouTube version a couple of weeks ago, but this song is up to stream. Mom, Mr Mystery. You know, I saw the title of this, and I think I mentioned this on last week's podcast.

I thought, how in the world is he gonna do a song that's not cheesy about quarantine? Because I've heard a hundred of them and they're almost all cheesy. This is a pretty good one. I mean, everything he writes right now just turns into gold. I played the all right, He played the Opery and I was hosting it last week and it was great. He played this at the Opery last week, kept More put out a new song called Crazy for You Tonight Mama, Yeah, Crazy Crazy. Brett

Young put out a new song called Lady. Here's Brett Young just back your Mama and love can do. You'll see close to perfect patience. If you want your every move, you can always run into daddy. Let gonna see what else we got here? I guess some other stuff. Um, what's your favorite on the list here? I don't want to go through all these what's your favorite on the list that we haven't played? Why do you see your

machine gun? Kelly song? Kelly? We here this one. I don't do freak off, but I'll take song from mute. It does sound like uh, fall out boy. It meets like an angry blank one rock Field. Yeah, it does street this night. That you have any jack that's straight alternative stuff that's not that's crazy. I would never guess that was a machine on Kelly. Huh. I mean that

sounds like your style though, yeah, very much so. It sounds like it sounds like he showed up late for Warp Tour about five years like his style is a little a little beyond that. But he could have fit in Marshmallow and Halsey. I saw them laying on the ground together on Instagram. I guess like a promotion for this song. This is called be Kind alright, alright, alright, um let's see if there's anything else I want it. I'll just mentioned some of this um him him him.

I thought it was Hime, but when I got no reaction back to him him him. The three sisters they have a I know alone. I don't need to play that. Gabby Barrett has a song featuring Shane and Shane. I don't know what Shane and Shane is. I thought it was like a Shane and Shane company, like a jewelry company. Do you ever see that car from It's a Cren duo? Oh it is. Yeah, imagine both our names, Shane, Shane and Shane. All right. Hardy has a new song called Boots.

Let me hear a little bit of Mitchell Tinpennies cover of Someone You Loved by Louis Capaldi. Now the Dedly Far Okay, start, let's start it over and I I like Mitchell. No, Mitchell a little bit? Is he using auto tune on this? Yeah? You can hear it. I thought so too. It's like, man, if you're gonna chase one of these really big vocal songs, and he's a good singer. Let me hear this again, Yeah, you can hear it. Kind of tin odd choice of a song to pick if you have to use auto tune. By

the way, everybody has pitched shifted a little bit. I've only known a couple of artists that go in and go, don't touch it. My vocal that's carries one of them current. They'll maybe they'll put some effect on it. They don't pitch shift her vocal. It's very noticeable. Wow. Um, I mean I would read idiot stuff. I would just put shifted all of it. So like, yeah, we're doing this. If everybody knows like Emoji Love song, I think a

lot of that. We just were like, instead of having fixed little parts, shift the whole thing so people know. It's very obviously not the live version, but the studio version. By the way, yes, I'm comparing Emoji Love talking about raging idiots too. Let's see and Hardy has any song called boots Um The alt country band American Aquarium. Now, I don't know who they are, but are they good? I kind of like the sound. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought you to put this up if you didn't think

it was cool. Yeah, I heard it. I was like, I could probably see myself listening. Right. Let me hold the country band American Aquarium. All right, I'm into it. They have a new album out called Lamentations. Lamentations. Okay, here's a song called the Luckier You Get. Let me see if I dig it. It's it sounds a little bit like Tom Petty and the and the waff Flowers, The Wallflowers meets the wall Flowers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers meets the wall Flowers. When I'm trying to say,

Tom Petty also as an album called wild Flower. Thank I got all these in my head, but I would say it's like the wall Flowers meets Tom Petty. That's cool, all right, all right, I'm stay hearing. Yeah. Tom Petty's album Wildflower, I can't talk. Wild Flowers is one of my favorite records. I just want to make sure I said that right. Were you ever a Tom Petty fan? Not really? The song you belong the wild Flowers never love the other one, I don't think so that's a

good one. And then you don't know how it feels. No, you don't know how it feels to be me that one. I know that one. Yeah, that's a good one. Let's see what else is on you wreck Me Baby, Doom Doom, you wrecked me into you know that one. Let's see I got that song. It's so it's fine. No, that's her, it's fire, that's her and dead that is not petty you read me? Yeah, that's a jam here this one. I don't know this one. God, this reminds me I'm not even interested in new music. I would sit here

on this record for a long time. That's what we should do. We should break down our favorite albums and all the songs on it. Because I'm looking at this like track five, it's good to be king. It's good to be king, if just for a day. So if you know this one, let's see f I don't think so when your bulldog barks and your canary things now, Yeah, this is a jam jam album. Top twenty album from me here for sure, to be key it just for a while, to be there in velvet. Yeah, to give

him a smile. Nothing nothing, man, you're missing out. Never come down. All right, Well that's it. We want to update your new music and um also we're gonna to play this Clint Black Interview. What can I stun't believe? Today? I was having the sun today for four hours playing golf, and I think the sun is not cooperating on my body at this point because it's been months since I've seen it one day. I think I'm overdosing. I'm vitamin d. Okay,

here we'll take a little break, come back with Clint Black. Enjoy. Hey, Clint's Bobby. How's it going? Hey, Bobby Twill it's going nowhere? Yeah, that I get I felt I saw today it was like day fifty with no boards to day four. I mean it does feel like a big old blurd, doesn't it. Yeah, it starts to just not matter what day of the week it is. Well before we get rolling here, we're

already rolling before we get like moving through. I just want to tell you I'm a and I think I've I've mentioned this to you before, but I'm just a massive fan of yours, so it's it's really exciting for me to get to talk to you. Well. Thanks, you know, I'm a fan of yours, but I really wasn't a massive fan until I saw you dance. Well you probably yeah, that that isn't a good look for me with you, so we'll we'll move away from that. I was asked to do that show a couple of times, and uh,

there's it's just absolutely no way on earth your brave man. Well, you know, obviously you have the chops too. I would have Uh, I only dance the silly dance to make my family laugh. I feel like that's what I should do, just only the silly dance. Well, you know, I'm excited to see that you're putting on a new record. Now, hey tell me about out of saying, because I was thinking about this, is that the is that the opposite

of insane? Out of saying? You know, it's actually uh, they're multiple interpretations of that, and uh, it really comes from a little you know, play online from one of the songs. Uh. Song title is what I knew then, um, and the line is uh a little in and out of saying. So I didn't like any of the song titles. I usually will name an album after one of the song titles that sums it up. I didn't like any of them for that, the same with my last album

on Purpose. So I just scoured the lyrics for something that made sense. And and when I when I thought of that, when I thought, it's just you know, serious, seriously speaking um that you know, the writing of songs, are creating a music is really you know, born out

of out of sanity, and uh. And then you go through the recording process and by the time it's down to all the music's recorded, and now I'm trying to mix it and make sure scientifically everything has its place and it's going to sound good on any system it's played on it, it just becomes a science. And it's just it's really kind of borders on insanity at that point.

It's no longer this art form. It's a science. And and and it's just five hours of sleep at night and working on that, you know, for eighteen hours a day. And by the time I get to the end of making an album, there's a reason I don't only do one about every five years. Now, m I'm getting no sleep. I've wanted to be over and so I start out saying and end up insane. And uh. And I thought

that really it really sums it up. When I always wanted to use that photo for the cover with that American flag guitar of mine, and I thought that that also brings in another interpretation, because it seems our country, you know, is a little in and out of saying and uh, just depending on what cycle we're in. So I thought, this is this is a title that anybody can see any any way they want for their own uses.

But for me, it spoke to the album. It spoke to the process, which you know, it's not iron work, which I've done, uh, but it's uh, but it gets to be grueling at one point just uh need to need to call it finished, but not until it's right well, the full album except for a June nineteenth, really east and you know we're six or so weeks out from that. Do you feel like any of this it's happening now is going to affect that release date or are you

determined that that's the date the projects coming out? Oh, we're firm, We're firm on it. Uh. We've got the video of the the second and third uh instant grat tracks or or lined up and ready to go. It's all in the system. And I've just gotten my little I'm going to call it a broadcast studio, it's my recording studio. But I've finally gotten all the elements. You know, it's hardest. There's a lot of stuff like this is

back ordered. You know. I needed a converter to go from my um uh, you know, my four K camera into the computer to use it, you know, for live streaming, and also wanted to tie that in a pro tools. So it's been this step by step process of getting the point where I can start live streaming and and promoting the album from my studio. I've been watching this

The Last Dance, which is the Bulls documentary. I think they've put out four episodes now, and you know it's about you know, Michael Jordan's his his final season with the Bulls, and they do this really cool thing where they go back in time, current, back in time, current, that kind of thing, and if you'll, um, you know, kind of indulge me a little bit. I like to do that now where I want to talk about new stuff and they kind of do a flashback and then

come back and forth with a new project. Will you indulge me in this this type of all right, perfect, We'll see how it goes. Um. I Like, you had a lot of jobs before I kind of got into what I'm doing now, where I worked, I worked at a marina and did bait work. As what you were? Were you a bait cutter? What was that job about? That was my uh one of the guys that my management company. When he was taking down stuff about me,

you know what I what I done. He was basically putting together a simple bio and uh and he laughed and said, I'm gonna put because I was an iron worker, I worked in security, uh as a consultant salesman and uh sold security services and I actually did and I starved, but uh, um, you know I had uh you know, I was a newspaper solicitor, had a paper route as a kid, you know. And he he laughed and said, I'm gonna put down bake cutter and fishing guide and I laughed and uh and then suddenly it's in a

newspaper and it went everywhere, and so it was. It was not true, and I thought he was kidding. But you know, they had managed rock and roll acts and uh, I was their first country act. And I think maybe you know, they like Kenny Loggins told me once he said, when I'm not doing anything interesting, I'm paraphrasing. He said, I'll make stuff up and say I'm some where I'm not and uh, Steffter, he told me that I was.

I was doing an interview over the phone, and and uh, the interviewer asked me, so where are you calling from. I said, I'm in Barbados. Really, what are you doing in Barbados? And I said, I'm not really in Barbados. I couldn't even do it. That's funny. So you never wear a bait cutter, but now it's it's that's been part of your bio legacy all these years. Yep, yep, people still want to want me to tell them where

the fish are. That's funny because I literally was a bait cutter, and I don't put that in my bio anymore. I was a cricket grabber because I would I would shovel crickets into tubes for people. I would cut bait. I would catch shad and give them out. I was a bit of a small small time fishing guide. And man, maybe I should put that in my bio. People ask me about that because I was really interested to hear that story. You know, you want that word to get around.

So when this job falls a part on you, you know you'll have some her to go, people of demand will be there. I wonder, you know, as you have this new record, we're weeks away from it coming out, and you know you are a guitar player, are you Are you playing lead on the record. I played most of the yeah, most of the electric guitar stuff. I do some slide doough bro and electric slide? Yeah do you.

Finally started that with the Nothing but the tail Ights album when Stroud heard my demos and he said, you should play guitar on this. Well, Haydon Nicholas, my lead guitar player, really got me started when we're writing songs one day and he said, you know, with your fingerpicking style,

you can play licks like this Ray Flack stuff. And I laughed and laughed and uh, he said no really, and he taught me some things to practice, and I went home and got a little, you know, out of a sequencer, call it a metronome, and I started practicing slowly and sped it up until I was convinced I can play stuff like this, And so I played most of the everything but three songs on Nothing but the tail Lights and uh, and then I did the Electrify,

which was all acoustic, and there wasn't much to do there, and then I started doing it again, and on the On Purpose album, I really dug into it and made myself take on a lot of that work. Whereas you know, I might reach out to Hayden to hurry it along, or her, Steve Warner or Brent Mason because they can do it in a flash. And uh, I decided, I'm going to take the time. It takes me longer, but if I can make myself happy as the producer artist,

and I'm gonna do it. And uh so it's it's it's really satisfying and and and it's been a really uh it's been a real you know, i'd like you'd learn to think you're gonna get better with age, right, and the fact that I can play guitar solos on Tuckered Out Now, which is our burn burner, really convinced me that there's still room for growth, but I have to work really hard for it. I'm gonna run some numbers by you here, uh the numbers. You were chosen

by People magazine. It's one of the fifty most beautiful people in the entire world. How vivid is that memory when you got that call? You know, what I just slashed on all the makeup and wardrobe it took to earn that title. You know, It's funny. I can't even remember, you know, I can't even remember that so much was happening to me, coming at me, uh, happening for me. Um. I remember now that you say it, that that I

was given that, But no, I can't remember that feeling. Um. You know, I I imagine I'm on the bus with the band and and and they're all mocking me. That's probably what we were doing. Whenever something like that that's outside of the country genre happens, because that's very mainstream, do you start to hear from other people that you thought you would never hear from that, to go, hey I saw you and People Magazine. I also like what you're doing. I just haven't reached out yet. No, not

in not really in that way I would. I would meet people outside my genre. I assume you're talking about other artists, yeah, artists and actors, anyone that was like, hey I saw you People Magazine. Yeah. Yeah, But it was never it was never clear to me that one thing was happening because of the other. I would meet people like Gary Shandling at when he was hosting the Grammys, and he said, hey, you should do my show. You

should come on and let's goop around. And so I did his show and and UH ended up going and playing basketball over his house every Sunday for you know, quite a while, and mean a lot of people over there.

I think that's how Kevin Nealon and I became friends. Um, I'm you know, I've met Eric Idol because uh Lisa worked with a fitness trainer who trained Eric's wife and UH, and so I said, Uh, I said, hey, would you give this phone number two uh to Tanya and uh and see if I'm gonna record a Monty Python song, see if if he would be willing to do something

on it. And so that led to working with him, uh and becoming friends with him, and then meeting people through him, other comedians and actors and and and it just never it never, I never, I never really knew. Okay, well, this is because of my music or it's just because I reached out or met someone through someone else. You have twenty two number one singles. What's the when you play the first look of what song? Do people react a loud as to uh? Well that killing time lick

on the intro is pretty definitive. Better man is really recognizable. And those were you know, those were huge for me, Like The Rain. Of course, I don't do the intro lick in concert. From Like the Rain, I wrote another little uh acoustic guitar piece that I do on the front end of that, and then when I start singing it,

they know and nothing but the tails that licks really recognizable. Um. With some of these songs that you play, and you have played for you know this at this point for thirty years, do you ever go, man, I want to switch up this arrangement because I'm I'm kind of bored with playing the same song over and over and over again, Like you want to play it for the fans, but you want to switch it up a little bites. Has that happen at all? Yeah, I'm really careful about that.

I I keep in mind that they have some ownership in it and uh an attachment and and so you know, I'm a music fan. When I see someone in concert, I've seen that happen and not liked it. I've also seen it and liked it. Um. I've done that on records where I did a version of put Yourself in my shoes, a real slow blues version with a twelve piece horn section instead of harmonica, and uh, I did that for the second Greatest Hits Extra Tracks. And I did a version of No Time to Kill with Bruce Hornsby.

That was a real funky version, and I played around with a bad goodbye and I felt, uh, I felt some liberties with that because I wasn't doing it with Whinnona, so the song wasn't gonna be what it was anyway. I messed around with a a different arrangement, but I'm careful. I try to be careful about it. The new song that I was listening to before I called you is America Still in Love with You. I want to play a little bit of that real quick, and I'm gonna

ask a couple of thoughts about it. Here's a clip of America I Still in love with You. I'm still in love with you in spite of all arabs and down we've done a separate ways, we've come back around. So even when you wrote that with Steve Warnery, yep, So tell me about that day when you guys go into the room to do this, well, Steve had been coming over. We've been doing stuff together, just hanging out. He would come by for one reason or another and uh, and and every time I say you, you didn't bring

your new Steve Warner gretch. I ordered one and it was taken a while to get it, and I hadn't seen his and oh, I forgot. And so one day I said, well, you just have to come over with the intent of bringing that guitar so you won't forget it. So he came over one day just to show me that, and we were playing around with it. And after we had after we've played around for a while, I said, Uh. I said, oh, I had this uh new song idea. I've got it and I told it to him and

it was kind of the basics of the chorus. Uh, sounds like a love song, you know, to a to a woman, and you get to the end of the chorus and America is the lady. And he just reacted perfectly. Just couldn't. I didn't see that coming, And yeah, we gotta write that and uh and I just launched into it. I said, what what could we do musically? And we

started playing around on it. We just go right in literally standing around the kitchen of the then off the kitchen, and once I saw that we had a structure and a direction on the versus, I started texting musicians to see who was available, and within about four days we were all in the studio recording it. And I knew I had to hurry in order to make the deadline for this album. And I wanted it to be on the album. Uh my love of the song and the message, but also it just went so well with the cover

and uh, it just has to be on there. Literally made it about the same day as my deadline's got the master delivered. Well, the videos out too now, so people can check out in all of the song. But America, I still in Love with You. The music video is out, so man still making the videos. Are they harder to make now or easier? They're harder to make? In Quarantine, Um, I was uh again just ordering pieces and they would

come and it was the wrong piece. Uh, you know, I would order a lens I thought I needed and turned out, you know, it just wasn't gonna wasn't gonna work for the for the framing, and uh, you know back in the day, you know, making them for our c A. Of course, I had these great budgets about eighty five dollars. And uh I worked with a video producer, Brent Hedgecock, who really enabled me to be a director when I wasn't really a director, but I got to

write the treatments. I would write out a treatment for the video, and he would budget it out and he would come back and he'd say, that's that's about a three and the thousand dollar video. You've got to cut more than two thousand, two thousand dollars worth of ideas of this video. And that what happened every time. And uh so we'ld finally get it, uh, get it down to where it fit the budget, and we would go

shoot it. And he was so much fun to work with, such a creative guy that when he no longer produced videos, UM, I really lost my enthusiasm for it for a while,

and uh I really just kind of stopped. And then, uh, you know when I started putting out these uh these records on purpose and uh and this one, you know, the management company the first video I didn't know while I was this old house, which is an homage to the Grand Ole Operty, and they Opery gave me access to all or archival footage and so I went through everything, and I put together a really nice piece that I spoke to the opry in that old house and that

that family you know, you know, uh what a hundred years and uh and I sent a copy to the management company and uh. Now they came back and said, this is great, this is really great. I love it and uh and and they said, but we really think you should be in it. I wasn't in it, and uh and I was disappointed and just you know, a big sigh. I said, no, really, I don't need to be in it. And we went back and forth that way for a while, and they finally convinced me that

I needed to be in it. And part of it was I really didn't feel like I needed to be in it. This was going to move people just by watching all of these great, you know, opry moments. And then the other part was I didn't know how I was going to do it, How how was I going

to fit into this? And uh And so when I agreed I was going to put myself in the video, I started thinking and and at one moment I had the idea that I could be the backstage guide and uh and once that happened, the ideas started coming and the Harry Potter you know, picture frames come to life idea hit me and I called my editor, said, okay, we have to do this. How easy is it going to be? You know, what do we have to do

on the front end. So once once that happened, then the creative juices were flowing, and I uh managed to get it done. You know, I was looking back and you can tell me if I'm wrong here. I'm going from memory, but I look back because I had, like everybody else, I had to kill in time tape and so from the record Killing Time. But I don't think that was was better Man. My recollection, it was better Man.

A single before Killing Time was Yeah. Actually, you know, the first single was set to be straight from the factory and uh, and I was worried about it in cities. I knew it would go over in Texas and Oklahoma and I was just kind of worried about it. And we got to k z l A and Los Angeles and Bob Gara was a program director and we're sitting in his office and uh and and playing that song and he stops the tape and he says, well, he said I could add that if you get it into

the top twenty. So I knew what that meant. I didn't I know a lot about the business yet, but I also didn't know if it would be okay for me to pull this tape I had in my pocket it out and play him something from it. Um Carson Schreiber was the promotion guy there, and I kind of looked over at him and decided, I'm just gonna do it. And I pulled out the tape and I said, uh, I said, Bob popped us in and play the first song,

and it was a better Man. And that's what I was thinking, you know, it would be a better first single, but I just I let him play it. And at the end of the first course, he stopped the tape and said, I'll add that out of the box. So we got out of there and called the head of our c A and said, you know, here's what just happened. And the decision was made on the spot to switch to a Better Man. And how fast did that song make you feel like you were firmly in the country

music community. It took a while, you know. I was still traveling around in a twelve seater van pulling a U haul trailer four or five hundred miles a day a night, and uh and and so it was about a seventeen week climb to number one. So we started promoting it and I think late February and it peaked in mid June. I think that's seventeen weeks. Uh. Anyway, it uh it really it really seemed to be going fast to me. But that was not a quick climb back then. But it was rare for a debut single

to go to number one. And so I'm hearing all these things, and you know, getting perspective by the time that hit. I think I was. By the time it really uh you know started a peak. I think I was getting some slots opening for the juds and and acts like that. So it started to feel more like this is gonna work. I'm gonna make it. When you guys decided to put out Killing Time second and the song again, looking back at as my history, I feel like Killing Time was even bigger than a Better Man.

Well it had, it had a step up on Better Man, and uh, I think it was more of a honky talk song and uh, you know, but again I'm I'm stepping off of debut number one releasing that so, uh, that song getting in and I think the promotion team had a little easier time pushing that one out, so it had a little bit of an advantage. But it's it's also you know, it's a it's a different feel and flavor and texture. Better man was kind of haggard, asked,

and killing time wasn't. I don't know what i'd call it, but um, it form for me for my sensibilities. It really it really felt like this is this is going to You're going to get different things from me. It was important to me that I had diversity, uh and my body of work, and I felt like that song really spoke to that. What was it like plotting a tour back in the late eighties early nineties? Would you have to use a phone book to call places? Like? What on the bus? Would you have a phone book

to pull over in call places? Well? I had nothing to do with that part of it. I had to I just did interviews and showed up at radio stations and and uh, you know, targets, etcetera. And uh, but yeah, back then, you know we'd have to get to a hotel room, get in there and and get on the phone them and uh, you know, it was a while before you know, I got that fifteen pounds cellular phone. Did you ever do when you talk about targets and Walmart?

Did you ever go to one of these signings and it got to the point where it was so crazy because you had so many hits in a row. It was crazy, It was you know, I've I've said recently, you know that back then I was pretty level headed. I I feel like I never got the big head um and I treated everyone well. But I don't know, because it was so crazy and I wasn't nearly as

comfortable with it as I am now. It took me a long time to get used to being famous and uh the center of attention and uh, you know, being in the middle of chaos. Uh, it was it was really hard to adapt to. So I would I felt like I went from one chaotic moment to another. And there were times where, uh, you know, we're doing nine shows in a row, one day off, eight shows in a row, one day off. I mean, they had me really going and I was reaching the point of uh

really just the point of breaking. And uh, I told my manager, I said, I'm not gonna last like this. And you know, we have to have some spacing in there. So you know, it ended up getting two days off. But I've been that doing interviews and stuff, you know, so, uh, it was really taking a toll on my vocal cords. And I tried to tell him, you know, listen to my listen to my melodies, and listen to my songs.

You know, I'm not Joe Cocker. I can't. I can't sing these things with a raspy voice, and I can't hit those high notes. Uh, if I'm worn out. You know, you were talking talking about Dancing with the Stars earlier. I was I didn't know that you were on the second season of The Apprentice back in the day. What was that like two thousand four during the Apprentice, it was it was really I didn't know what I was getting into. I saw a clipper two um, and you know,

to me it was going to be going on. Some people were gonna be jerks, you know, but we're going to go on and do these tasks. And I like those kinds of challenges. So so I agreed to do it. And uh it was eighteen and a half hours a day every day but Sunday for five and a half weeks. Um, and some of the people were really hard to be around.

Others were great to be around and uh and so I quickly realized that I don't really have I don't have a strong enough desire to win this thing to compromise who I am, and I would have had to do that. I Uh, I felt like, you know, uh calling up people I know and and and asking them for money. I didn't like. I didn't feel like it was great for the charity. I didn't win a lot of money for my charity. You know, I made more for my charity in two days after that than I

did in five and a half weeks. And uh and so I changed. I decided that my goal was gonna be to to to keep my behavior and check and to maintain my standard of character and uh not let anyone draw me into bad behavior. That was my goal. That became right. I'm gonna do my best with the tasks I'm gonna I'm gonna really limit you know, calling up people and asking them for money. Uh and uh and I'm just going to try to get through this without letting someone uh bring out the worst in me.

And I ended up. You know, I was this place, I was there right through the end, and uh, yeah, proud of the way I handled it, but it was it was it was disgusting. You know, there was some some behavior and that that that was just really hard to watch. Well. On on a lighter note, we're gonna do one old and one new, and I want to start with I want to run a few things, a few song titles that I love by you, and just a quick sentence or two about you know what that

song at that time kind of reminds you of. We'll start with when my Ship comes in. Mm hmmm. Uh. The first thing I thought of was shooting the video for that and uh, you know the the T shirt on the sailboat and uh it was it was forty degrees and they had a hurricane fan on the so so it's so it's it's kind of apropos since the song is about you know, being in Colorado, uh and

waiting for your ship to come in. The whole reason that song came about was because of a skip viewing song called the Coast of Colorado and Hayden and I said, you know, let's let's let's jump off from there. And the other part of it was I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan and and I wanted, uh, you know, Gulf of Mexico came out of that, you know, love for his music, and uh and the style, the feeling a shift came out of that too. How about a good run of bad Luck? Haydon and I were We're in

a hotel in Toronto. It was it was crazy snow blizzard. Uh, we had a little time, so we decided to try to write a couple of songs. We wrote Tuckered Out and good Run of bad Luck and uh, good Run of bad Luck. We knew what we wanted to say, but we wanted to make sure we had some good lingo. And I played Caesar's Palace a lot, so I thought,

you know, they'll know me there if I called. And I called and and got him to put me through to one of the pit bosses and at the blackjack tables, and I got him on the phone and uh, and so I started, uh, you know, just trying to get slang out of him, and uh, you know, I'd say like, you know, what do you guys, what do you guys call the high rollers? And he said rollers. Okay, I got that one, and I asked him another question and

it would be kind of the same thing. So it got us pretty much nothing, but we we started writing down all of the gambling stuff we could think of and just launched into writing one more from back in the day, like the rain. Sitting in UH. I had had a house. My first house here in Nashville was way up north of town, and I needed to get into town because it was just too much driving. So

I found some uh condo. I was in a high rise condo and in Nashville, and Lisa and I were sitting looking out the window at Highway seventy and it was just poor in rain and she loved it, and uh, I really have had enough for rain in Houston. So UH Now I started playing, thinking, you know, what's what's rain music sound like? And I started playing that chord progression of the verse and came up with the first verse.

I said, Okay, that's that's enough. I'm gonna I'll get with Hayden next chance we'll get and we're right that. I want to ask you about the new record, and we'll end with this. By the way, if you're listening right now, Clint's web store brand new album focused merchandise that pre sell autographed copies of the album, pre sell c ds vinyl, go to Clinton Black dot com slash store, and I guess about the new record. I wonder, you know, just as as someone who creates myself, like you don't

have to produce the whole thing. You don't have to play get you don't have to do all of the intricate things that you're doing. Why do you keep doing it to save money? H Uh? It's uh, you know. I I from the first demos Hayden and I made where uh you know, he showed me how he used an eight track tape recorder to get as many tracks

on there as possible. I became interested in that when about six or seven, I looked into meeting the guys with Digit Design, who created pro Tools, and they set me up in our place in l A down in the basement with the pro tools gear and baby sat me through. I made a test it for them. I'd find problems they had come to fix them. And so I was using pro Tools and learning more and more about engineering. So when we got this new place in Nashville, I built a studio and uh and really started becoming

more and more a student of engineering. So I can sit and work by myself and do a lot of it, and uh, and I enjoy it. It's uh, it's a challenge, but it's a creative outlet. And the result is there's just it's just more of me going into my music

as much of an expression of myself as I can make. Um. You know, I feel it'll be a better end result, or at least it will be more me, as much of my taste in music, my sentiments, my Uh, you know what, I would like to hear the songs when I'm writing them, you know, they they're talking to me already, telling me what they want and uh. And then when I create the cut the basic track with a band, they're really talking then. And so uh, it's more satisfying to give the song it wants or needs myself and

to hire someone to do it. Well. I really appreciate the time. Good luck with the new record, and it will be your twenty three album, wow, except for at least June nine, And Clint promises it will be out June nineteenth, So we're not moving it. It's gonna be out June nineteenth, dang it. So it is. It's great talking to you. This was this is interesting. Um, I never know what that means. When someone says this is interesting, you're like interesting good or interesting bad? Or what? Well,

I'm saying interesting good. You know. I knew I could give you the long answers and ramble around to find the point I was making because it's a podcast. But you're also asking different questions that make me think more and go in depth to things, and uh uh you know. I mean I remember joking in the old days about um, you know, some questions are how did you and Mark O'Connor do that harmonica fiddle swap and live and learn and and how did that come together? And then there

were the other questions, which were why the hat? Is that what you wanted? Clint? Why the hat? Yeah? Why that? Well? I finally came up with the answer to that question, why do you wear a black hat? And it hit me. I know now, it's because it makes my head look thinner. I need to wear a black hat. I've had a big head in my whole life when I was a kid. When I was a young kid, my mom would have to cut slits into the sides of my t shirts to get my head to go through because it was

abnormally large. Oh man, I just had to make room for all those brains. Yeah, I guess. I guess. Also one of my best friends. And because we're gonna play some of this on my my radio show too, because I'm such a big fan and I'm gonna, you know, do radio and podcasts. This is gonna be used everywhere and even the Countdown. So um. But one of my dearest friends named Eddie, and he was just recently asked on the National Show if he could quarantine with one artist,

who would it be? And he picked you, Clint Black. And I saw that, I saw your tweet that I was just curious what it's like saying, you know, Clint and I have nothing in common? And I'm thinking, yeah, we do. And then I went, no, wait a minute. I wasn't even my first concert. We have nothing in common? What what do you do during quarantine? Like? What are you doing all? What are you watching? Like? What can I give to him to show him that you guys

probably do have some stuff in common? Uh? Well, I'm uh, I've watched everything on Netflix. We watched Ozark, me too, every movie, um, you know love, Uh you know, I've watched the uh documentaries that uh, Ray Romano made on building a stand up act, and that Jerry Seinfeld did on or he took you all the way back to his first joke at the place he told it and went through all of his old material, and then his documentary on uh on building his new material. So I

love to follow that stuff. Um, you know, I'm I'm betting he's an Andy Griffiths fan. Of course we all are, but uh, you know, for for the oh, Bosh, Bosch on Amazon Prime is the best detective show ever. If you want to watch a show where the guy's not uh you know, you know, swinging off the side of a train, throwing grenades inside to kill the bad guys,

you know, a real detective show. Um, bosh, I'm gonna pass all that to Eddie and tell him this what you two would be doing watching Bosch and Ray Romano right for his first joke. That's it, Clint, then we were we were made for each other for Quarantine. All right, I'll let you get back to your life, but I'm again I'm a massive fan. Thank you for your time and good luck with the record, and man, just uh just keep being awesome. Hey, thanks you too. A big fan,

big fan of yours and uh I really enjoyed this. Thanks, thanks, talk Hopefully I'll talked to you and let's get out there and work again soon alright, hopefully ill see you soon, hope. So ay by bye, thank you, bye,