#455 - Zach Williams on Being an ‘Overnight Success’ After 20 Years

Still on stage that time at church for the first time singing that song. It was the first time that I ever felt comfortable on stage in my own skin.

Welcome to Episode four fifty five with Zach Williams. My introduction to Zach was somebody going, hey, how long have you known Zach Williams? That this is the opera And I was like, I don't know Zach Williams. Like voice form Mararkansas. So I think people just think we all know each other it's all the time. Yeah, I mean it's not a terribly small state. It's I mean it's I guess smaller, but there's like millions of people that

You know him?

Yeah, so that and I was like, I do not. And then I introduced him at the opera. I was familiar with his music, but really didn't know his story story until he came over, and you know, we'd kind of done some research on him. First of all, he's just an amazing live performer. That's what I knew from watching him perform. And in the intro I had talked about like, but I don't write the intro for the Opry.

Yeah.

He's got an album one hundred Highways now that's been out for about a year and a half or so. He's got Live at the Moody Theater Austin City Limits that's out, but it's songs that are on other records. He's got a children's book that's coming out, which we talked about. But it kind of tricked me because, yeah, you'll hear it. Zach Williams Great. Follow him Zach Williams Music on Instagram. And away we go.

Where to Arkansas? Are you from?

I am from We're rolling.

If you're good, I'm good.

I'm from a town called Mountain Pine that is central. It's about when we would go to town. Town would be Hot Springs, oh yeah. And then from Hot Springs if you were going to go to any sort of touring anything, it was Little Rock, which was an hour away.

So it was.

Town was where Walmart was the edge Hot Springs, and then Little Rock was where the Arkansas travelers they were in Little Rocks then yeah, and then uh, anything coming through you know, it's cool. And you're from near jones.

Boro, I'm from Yeah, a little town called Bono. Actually, it's like twelve hundred people.

So I played a bunch of baseball, so we'd travel around. If you played Legion ball in Arkansas, you pretty much go everywhere.

It was.

Bono. Bono. Bono was the school Bono. There wasn't one time, because I don't remember a Bono school district.

I went to Bono until second grade, and then there was a there was a several schools around that area that consolidated and started a high school called west Side High School.

And that was just in the edge of like Jonesboro. Yeah, what was the Bono What was the Bono mascot chiefs? The Bono Chiefs. Cool, it was like the Bono Sonnies. It was.

It was a yeah, I mean a small old town. Yeah, but I know where you're from. Hello, thank you.

He's the most punct He's awesome. Hey, all right, what do you got here?

Got you my new children's book? In my new book that's passing on over here?

What's up?

That's not the actual book, it's just a cover.

Yeah, so it's not really the book.

It's not. It doesn't come out till August.

I would have given you a pre release. When I first looked at that, I was like, this is not my hold it up here for the camera. Look, this is not the book, but it's going to look something like this. Is this the actual size of the book though, Yeah, it's underneath a little more like Jesus. And then this book though, is that you can stay? Are you staying or going?

Well?

That's quick? All right, Well, good thanks, good to see you appreciate it, made an entrance, made it goodbye, And then this is this is your book?

Yeah?

When did this will come out?

Uh? That came out. I'm trying to think the end of April. It's been out. No, end of February. It's been out for about a month.

Oh, it's still new. It's new. So the weird let me ask you. I want to come back to the the book in a second. But the weird part about Arkansas and growing up is that it's it's odd whenever someone goes, I'm from here and you don't know the mascot. That's why I asked what the mascot was. Usually if someone comes in and there from like, I'm from this, I went to college here. I know them all, but I didn't know Bono, the Bono Chiefs and now the

We did, and I think they did have to stop.

All.

Yeah, it got political there for a little bit. How tall are you? Six six? God?

Dang, I don't realize that you're that big. So we've met, Okay, I'm just making sure.

Yeah, we met at the Yeah.

I was telling them like, I don't know if if you remember meeting me, but I remember meeting you absolutely. And one of the things was our like my buddy, and he was part of my crew Read the first time you were scheduled, his grandma died, so we had to like last minute kind of push everything.

I think I met him at rehearsals if you maybe a month ago before the tour started, and he was.

Like, whenever Zach comes in, I want to be there, and so we rescheduled and then Read's gone again today, so it's really going to drive him crazy. I did not know you were six six, Yeah, I know you played ball.

Did ye played play a year in college basketball? Right? Yeah?

I went to college for to play and I tore my leg up, tore my ankle at my first first season.

I'm going to come back to that. So I want to talk about the book for a second. So a month why this sits with me is a month is when I started to really begin to get feedback about the each of my books I had written. Because books so different than music. Yeah, if you put a song out, people can tell you five minutes later, yeah, love it,

I think I think just an overall general like what I'm getting back, I mean, obviously people. I think people are really liking it. I think the thing that people are getting out of the book is for when they didn't know quite how wild I was, you know, and and the relationship that me and my wife had. There's a pretty funny story in there, say funny my wife. You know, she put up with a lot for me for years, and and there's a story that we talk

Yeah. Yeah.

And so people are like, I can't believe your wife did that. She's a boss, you know. And I was like, yeah, I was like I probably I deserved it.

I know I did. But I think the thing that people are.

Coming back and talking to me about I meet them at shows and stuff, and they're like, man, your parents, Like what an awesome set of parents that you have, you know, just to continually pray for you and love you through this mess that you were going through in

I'm just so interested because you're at that time of your book being out, now that people have had time to read it.

Yeah, what what did you think the.

Through line people were going to take from it would be? And is it exactly what you thought because mine wasn't at all.

I think, for the most part, I think they are. I mean, I think what I tried to lay out in the book was that I'm just normal, Like I'm a normal guy, you know, just because these things have happened to me in my life. And you know, I've been able to have success as a songwriter and a musician, Like it's only because I've been obedient to what you know, I feel like God has called me to do. Because you can look and reading the pages of the book.

And yeah, I think that.

I just think people are, you know, realizing that you you don't have to be perfect and have it all together. Like that was the reason for the Cross, and I'm hoping that's what they're getting from it, because that was why I wrote the book.

You know, do you ever feel, man, I'm being possibly too vulnerable here. Yeah, maybe not too but a little uncomfortable were you had to even push yourself it.

Was, Yeah, I mean it was definitely yeah. I mean I told it all.

You know.

There were some stories in there that obviously I wasn't proud of that my parents didn't even know about. But I was like, if I'm gonna do it as, we'll talk about it all.

Did you run? I was single when I wrote both of my books. Nothing Kid's book, As He Cares, but that it's not even adult book. That sounds weird, it's like porn. But I didn't have anybody that I had to like go through.

Yeah, like my wife.

Now, if I wrote a book and I was gonna write a lot of really personal stuff and I was going to include her, I would have like, I have a comedy special that we're almost done with, and she had a couple of parts in it, but she watched it to make sure that she was cool with. Yeah, not only what I was saying that affected her, but even her little parts. Did you have your wife read it? Your parents read it? Or was it like surprise?

No? No, No, I actually had my wife my parents read the first draft. My wife actually wrote quite a bit in there as well, because there's I think maybe fourth or fifth chapter. She kind of comes in and starts starts telling her side of the stories that I'm telling, because she remembered them a whole lot better than I did, and so it was kind of that, here's my side of the story, and then Krystal would come in and be like, here's here's my side, here's what really happened.

And so it's a great idea. Who had the idea actually.

The guy that helped me write the book, Robert Nolan, thought it would be a really cool idea to get her perspective, and I think I think it was great, you know, and I think out of through the book, like I remember when we sat down and he read the book to us after it was completely finished, and we were just in tears. I was like, man, what a crazy story we have, you know, because I remember when I start to write in the book, thinking I don't have enough to write about.

Nobody wants to hear me blab around share about my life.

And then when we finished it, I was like, wow, you know, this is really really cool to see what God's done in our life, you know. And we come from completely different backgrounds, you know, and but it's it's worked out.

So I remember, because we were with the Opery together and I'm this part's a little blurry, but I think I was on the TV show and I was like, setting you up from the prompter, right, Was I doing an intro for you from the prompter?

You did?

And then and then we came. I came by and spoke to you after my set for a second, so we.

Talked side by side for a second.

We did yeah, because I think Luke Colmbs was coming out after me.

I know you were six six then, Like I purposely didn't stand up when you walked in. I didn't want to feel small, but I remember because I knew that you were from Arkansas, and I knew that you were I and we'll get into this. I know you were a Christian artist, but I didn't know your full story, that you hadn't always been and that and that there was a lot of struggle that got you to where you are now. And my producer was like, hey, like, do you know Zach. I was like, I don't know personally,

I short story was, you know, I didn't I didn't play music at all until college. I went to college, went to little school in northwest Arkansas.

No, your family played music.

My dad was My dad played music. He was a musician.

And you know, you didn't play at all.

I didn't play it all. There was a guitar in our house growing up as a kid. I walked past it every day. Picked up the basketball. That's that was my dream. I wanted to play in the NBA one day. And uh, when I got in trouble my my high school year and got in trouble for drug use my senior year of high.

School and lost a couple of basketball scholarships, they expel you from school.

Yeah, it was kind of a it was. It was a little different than that it was. It was.

It was a big ordeal. You know, there was I guess, I guess you could say because of me and around my area. That was when mandatory drug tests for athletes started happening the next the next year.

But we were in our senior year. You know, ebody thought we would win this, you know, the state tournament. It was. It was a big deal.

And uh, we were like eight and one going into Christmas break and I got in trouble. For me and three other guys that were like the standouts on the team got in trouble for drug use. But it was like it was it was more it was it was kind of one of those things where we were just being made an example of because there was a lot.

More people that were doing it.

That's what it feels like.

And so we were kind of run through the office with the sheriff's deputies and everybody there, and you made an example. And and basically when it was all said and done, we were we were expelled from school. Law you reached out because they put our names in the paper and we were all miners and said hey, you know there's a lawsuit here. And we went back, had a big school board thing, and it when it was all said and done, it was like, I don't want

If if you want to try out for the team, I can get you a try out. And he set it up and I went up to North Arkansas College in Harrison, Arkansas and tried out for the team and got a full scholarship, and the next year, pretty much right on track, still with you know, my life.

Moved to play basketball in college. And the day before our senior or the day before my freshman season started, we were just having like a walk through practice and I did lace of my tennis shoes up. We were just running some plays and a buddy of mine jumped up to shoot a layup and I jumped up and

How to play.

And next semester there was a creative writing class that was offered, so I took that, started writing school, though yeah, stayed in school, played basket playing again, like going yeah, yeah. I played the next season it, so uh, basically I just had a lot of free time. And so while that was going on, I threw myself into music and I was like, man, this is this is kind of

What position did you play at six?

Six? In college?

I was I was a two to three guard because we ran an offense in high school where I shot threes at the top of the key.

So I was a three point.

Shooter, so six, So yeah, that's pretty intomazing.

It was, it was, yeah, And so when I moved back to Jonesboro and went to college, I pursued music more than I was pursuing my art degree. And after you know, plenty of people when you should, you should go for this, and you know you're you're a much better musician than you are at school. You know, why don't you try to do this? And so I dropped out with thirty hours left for a bachelor's Yeah, so that's too. So I mean that's a that's a year.

Right, another year.

Yeah, and started playing music and writing songs, and by the into my twenties, I was in a rock band and we were turning all over the country and Europe, and I.

Got a lot of questions. I got a lot of questions listening listening just to that. I got a lot of questions in general, but just to that, where'd you get the chord sheet because I bought the same one from Walmart if it's the same one.

So at the time, it was a it was a poster that I bought. I bought it Hastings. It was a poster that was on the wall. And I had this mel Bay like old like these mel Bay blues books and stuff that would teach you how to play like blues chords and you know, twelve twelve bar blues things like that, and I would just sit there and flip through the pages and you know, do all of that and got good enough. I think the first like tab song I learned how to play was that Blackbird

So hey, mine was like deep purple, Oh yeah, smoke on the water, Smoke on the water, like yours is like Eli.

Well I did that, but I'm saying like the first real like challenging thing was like I want to learn how to play back, you know, Blackbird. But yeah, and then and then when I started trying to sing, it was like knocking on Heaven's Door was like the first song I could actually play and sing and.

At the same time, because there is definitely a coordination and so.

That gave me like I was like, oh I can, I can maybe do this.

When did you do it for the first time for anybody?

So after I moved back from college, or after I moved back from Harrison to Jonesboro, we had like a there's a couple of guys in my art class that were musicians, and there was like this little art show one night, and everybody was doing different things, and you know, Buddy played a couple of songs. It was the first time I'd ever played in front of people other than like in somebody's garage.

How'd you feel about that, even the garage playing, the first time you played publicly, did it come to you somewhat natural? Somewhat Yeah, You're already a perform You're a basketball play right, so you're already a performer in a sense. People are watching what you do. So it wasn't like, oh my god, I gotta do it.

No.

It was a little nerve wrecking, and it still is to this day. I mean I still get a little little nervous every night I go on stage. But it was just it was one of those things where it was like I love doing it so much, you know, it was I loved getting feedback from something that I'd written. And then you know, over the years, you'd write a song and then you'd go to a party and somebody be like, hey, play that song you wrote like and I was like, oh, yeah, I actually like that. You

Because you're working for him, but you go back to school and then do you say I'm going to do music. That's a crazy coming from Arkansas. If you tell somebody you're gonna do a you have a creative job. Yeah, it's not that they don't believe in you, it's just nobody else does that.

So yeah, I mean dad was kind of like, you don't, you know, just pick up a guitar nineteen twenty years old to start playing music. It's kind of one of those things that you've been you know, And so I think he was kind of like, what's going on here? And when I started writing songs and started dem on out little songs and stuff when studios, he was kind of like, Oh, you're actually.

Pretty good at this.

So he could hear you actually being he could hear it talent and work, and he.

Had some friends that he would send him to and be like, hey, what do you guys think about this? I think this is good, but I'm his dad, and so they were like, it's pretty good. So they were, you know, they were behind me for it.

What did you do to make money? From twenty three to twenty eight twenty nine?

So I worked full time for my dad who had a Drowtwall company, So he stayed on with him, hung and finished sheet rock, and then played the little side gigs, you know, at bars and whatever. And then when I was in my late twenties, I joined a band and we started playing you know Thursday, Friday, Saturday runs, you know.

All over you know, Arkansas cover band. Original it was original.

Yeah, It's called Zach Williams and the Reformation, and it was a Southern rock, classic rock kind of vibe. We were big Almann Brothers fans and Black Crows and stuff like that, and so it kind of had a lot of that feel. And I wrote two records and recorded two records with that band.

And did you feel any traction?

Yeah?

We I mean we had we played showcases here in Nashville and things like that. And we had signed a little booking deal with the company over in Europe and played too. We played in twenty ten for a month and then went back in twenty twelve and played We probably played twenty five shows a month on those two tours.

And are you guys going so hard?

Yeah?

And we were living hard, and I mean then that was the thing that was that was the thing. You know, my parents, you know, hated to see because they hadn't raised me lived that way. And you know, they were thrilled that I was playing music and so proud that I was writing songs. But I was living a lifestyle that I wouldn't raised to live. And I knew it, and I was you know, I felt a lot of guilt and shame for that, but I'd got myself into a place where I didn't know how to how to

This is this is what you do when you're a rock star.

Do you have any mentor It's a weird question to ask because I didn't, But did you have any mentors? At like twenty eight or so. When you're on the road, anybody could talk to that had done it before to give you advice.

I mean, there were some older guys in our hometown that were musicians that would jump up on stage and play shows.

But not like traveling touring. No, see, I think that's what I think. That's what sucks, you know, in a lot.

Of times too.

I mean I talked with my dad a lot, you know, he was he was, I mean still is like my best friend. We talked a lot on the job site. He knew what I was going through. It wasn't like I wasn't hiding it, you know.

It's like, I guess my point with that is not that you didn't have mentors in your life, but professionally speaking, you were attempting to do something bigger than what anyone in your immediate.

Life.

No, right, yeah, I didn't. I didn't have anybody going, hey, I've I've been there, done that. You showed you this a little different. Yes, No, I had nothing.

And if you're just doing that and you're touringru and again never toured on the level that you have, but even doing stand up, doing country touring Friday Saturdays, come back home, I after touring for I don't know, doing like forty thirty eight shows not I mean you're talking about over a third of weekends. You get so freaking bored on the road. I used to go, why would all these nineties rockers do all these drugs? Yeah? Like I would be like, why why would they do here?

And I think that's what happens with so many people, you know, and it's easy. It happens easily. Like you're you're bored. You party because you're bored, and.

It's such a when you're playing, even if it's just twenty people, even if it's for nobody, you still feel like you're building something that's like the rush, the hour, that's the rush, and you have to meet that with nothing.

And then you step off.

Stage and you're just like empty, you're searching you You're like I want that again, and you don't get it again into you're on stage, or you go out and try to party and make it happen.

And artificially make it.

YEP.

Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Have dealt with a lot of addiction in my family, abuse, lots of dead people.

What for you?

I got two when did you knows? Number one, when did you know you were just gonna do music? You're gonna quit your job and you're just gonna really give it all you have? Because that's vague? And then number two, when did you know that you were going way too hard and you had to make a change.

So the one when I had to make a change came before when I knew I was going to do music for a living. So really yeah.

So in twenty twelve, I was I was getting ready to leave for Europe for a month, and we had about twenty two shows maybe booked in Spain, and we were just focusing on Spain. And around that time, me and my wife had gotten invited to this church in her hometown, and uh, we had gone and started going to this church, and I'd been in I'd just been in a place already where I was like, man, I need to do something where I'm going to lose my family.

Were the changes the traveling, the touring, or what you were doing while you're traveling.

It was what I was doing while I was traveling, while I was touring, It was bringing it home with me. It was just it was just the lifestyle that I was living, and we were we were all sick of it. I was sick of it, but I didn't know how to get out of it. And I knew the only way to get out of it would be to leave the band and just walk away from it. And so I literally left to go on that tour. And my wife tells me this, and I was like just kind

Prove it. And I didn't have any doubt that he was real because I'd grown up at church. I never doubted that. But I was just like, prove it.

If you can prove it and it's clear, I'll walk away. Well, we were two weeks into that tour. We've been partying every night, and we were driving across Spain one day on like an eight hour bus ride, and we were in a sprinter van and I was listening to John Mayer's Born and Raised album had just come out summer of twenty twelve, and I was reading Greg Almond's autobiography Across the Bear, and I was just like reading this musician that's struggling with his identity and success and lifestyle.

What did they say?

They were not happy? It was not good I mean because we were, you know, we were. We were as good as anybody at that time. We were doing shows of BlackBerry smoking bands like that, and it was like we could have been easily about to sign a record deal, and but I was afraid if I didn't get out of that band.

I was not gonna make it.

And so I came home June tenth, twenty twelve. My wife was getting our kids ready for school. When the house was clear, everybody was gone, I walked into my closet, got the shoes up, cleared them out of the floor, got on my hands and knees, and just said, God, can you save me? And I said, I'm sick and tired of being this guy. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't care if I play music every again. I just want to be a good husband, good father,

And so that was that was where I stopped.

And so we found a church, started going to this church in her hometown, and six months into going to church. There, the worship pastor asked me to lead a song and I sing Redeem for the first time. And I still on stage that first time. Yeah, still on stage that time at church for the first time, singing that song. And it was the first time that I ever felt comfortable on stage in my own skin. There was no performance, there was no look at me, Hey, I can sing good,

How did he find you? How did he know who you were?

And so they come over to visit for Christmas in twenty fifteen and I was singing work, I was singing, I was leading a Christmas service.

They came to visit you or the church.

They came to visit the church because they were Him and his wife were both from Jonesboro. Her dad was a deacon at the church. They were just coming to visit family. They decided to come to the service. They see this big, tall guy on stage singing and they're like, who's that guy? We don't know who that guy is. Jonathan takes me to coffee. He's like, what's your story. He's like, you don't sing like that without a story.

What do you mean they heard it?

Like?

How did they get it? Who?

So I was coming over all the time and they were seeing me in the offices, the studios were there that we were writing in, and eventually somebody's like, who's the Who's the tall guy that's coming over here all the time that's writing with you? And he's like, oh this you know this guy Namsact that I'm writing with. He's the worst leader in Arkansas. You know, just been writing some music and the a our guy at the label,

What I felt like I was supposed to be doing.

That's when it came.

And then it falls in my lap.

And I'm still working part time at the church, still hearing people talk about how great these songs are, and I'm kind of in the back of my mind when I don't know if I can go out and do this again, Like, I don't know if I want to do this.

I just want to be a songwriter.

And so I have a meeting and they're like, man, like, nobody's going to sing these songs the way that you sing them, So you should probably think about this.

I don't want to lose my train of thought. But were you thinking you couldn't do it because or you shouldn't do it because of your past experience of doing it.

Yeah, I was just thinking I didn't know if I

Been ever since.

How you like Chris Tomlin?

He's great. He was a good dude.

He's like a good dude, right, yeah, he is. He's just expectant and I know Chris now, but I just expected him and I mean this in the most complimentary way, to be so much better than he is, not that he's going to be a better dude, but I you know, it's Chris Tomlin. You think he was like better than you, yeah, you know, or that you know, it's like if you're talking to him, are you talking to Jesus?

Yeah, it's like old child.

Yeahh But he's like like he's just a solid guy. Yeah, just a solid guy.

He's a good dude.

How are those crowds?

Fourteen fifteen?

It was like, you know, you get out, you know, most stuff ever played for my life was maybe five six hundred people at a at a club, and then you're standing on stage playing you know, a song that everybody is singing back to you, and it's like, what is going on?

You know?

I was I was traveling at that time when Schaane Breaker went number one. I was on a tour singing two songs and I was an acoustic and that was all I was doing. And and that song went number one, and then my second song went number one, and and uh it was It's pretty surreal because I was like, man, you know, people hear of you for the first time, and they think you're like overnight success and they just don't have any idea of the twenty year grind that

I feel like the book, even your music, I mean, I think it's generally pretty personal. I think a lot of the stuff that you just been pretty personal. Why looking for You? Why you said that was the most personal song that you have on this last record, on.

This last record, it is?

It's this last record is probably one of my It's maybe my favorite record I've ever been a part of writing.

You have to say that, yeah, but I mean that.

I mean, and it's not been my most successful It's it's honestly, you know, it's not been as successful as chain Breaker and Rescue Story.

That's okay, I mean, I feel like you have. But you have to feel like your last record is your favorite because you wrote it the most recent it, Like, is that a better representation of who you are now?

I did, but I think I wrote it this time.

I just wrote the songs I wanted to write, and I said what I wanted to say, and I produced them the way I wanted to produce them. I wasn't trying to make them feel like they had to fit a format for radio or anything, just like, I want this to be what I want it to be.

And so.

But but looking for You is that that song for me that's like it just kind of says it. It's it's you know it it tells the story of the road that I've been on for so many years and in my past and what I've gone through, and you know, I grew up and I kind of said it will

And so.

Yeah, when I played that song for.

Dolly, she was like, I was going there next, Yeah, dude, she was.

We were in Dollywood working on her Christmas Christmas thing, and she asked me what I was working on, and I told her that I told her this record, and I said, I actually got the title from it from this song called looking for You. I said, there's a lyric that says, down one hundred highways of empty pursuit and a thousand foolish things I went through. Didn't know it back then, but now I do. I was looking for You and she's like playing the song, and so I play it for and she's.

I mean, is there a little bit of pressure again? You know, you're good? There was, but it's Dolly.

It was Dolly, but she was Dolly has a way of like making you feel like you're the only person in the room. And she she is so down to earth and so humble and just so so much fun. She's like the I've told people she's like the the fun ant at Christmas that everybody wants to see and hang out with.

You know.

It's like she's very warm and you always feel valued.

Yeah, And just to even make it even better, that day while all this was going on, were I was on a keto diet. A couple of her guys on crew were on a keto die and she's like, she's like, you know what we do? She was like, it's really good. She's like, they got these poor crowns here at Dollywood. She was like, and I make this blue cheese dip and we eat poor crands and blue cheese when.

We're on Keto.

And I was like, oh yeah, and she's like, yeah, I'm gonna send somebody out to get the stuff and i'll make it for you. So she sends somebody out to get all this stuff and we're sitting there eating poor grinds and blue cheese dip that she just made, and and I'm about to play my song. And so I played the song and she's like coming along harmony parts and I was like, oh, that's really cool. And then as the song's finished, and she's like wiping tears out of her eyes and she slaps me on the

Yeah, it's a weird thing to follow through. Yeah, like follow up on it because you're like, yeah, I didn't know said but again it's you're in like the moment.

Yeah, and I did.

We we we reached out to her on like a Thursday Friday. She said, yeah, send it over Monday. She sent it back and it was done with her vocals, like over the weekends.

She did it.

What's really cool, first of all is that and that you have and have have had a relationship with Dollie. But secondly, you've want a Grammy with Dolly? Yeah, like that kind of trumps everybody that kind of Trump's stories of like doing charity work with Dollar, Like you want a Grammy? Like that's awesome.

Yeah, it's man, I know it was.

Does the Grammy have your names on it?

Yeah?

So you on your Grammy. It's like in the car. It has pretty cool man.

Yeah.

What was wild though, is that day you know that we that was nearing COVID. So the Grammys were a lot different that year, and we had a little Grammy party at my house and we were supposed to supposed to have like found out like late in the afternoon when the when it was going to be announced, and I had all these people coming over to my house and we were all gonna be sitting there watching it at the same time. And then they were like, no,

And I was like, oh, man, if we lose this, this party's gonna say like this is good to be bad. All these people showing up.

And when they announced it, they announced Casey Bethard's name first, and I thought, oh, we freaking lost.

And now I was like, wait a minute. He wrote the song with me.

I was like, we won, like and it was just like and so I call Casey, Me and Jonathan call Casey and he's like he's in Florida on the beach making a sandwich in his beach house and I'm like, hey, dude, we just want to Grammy and he was like, are you kidding me? He wasn't even watching it. I was just like, yeah, that's that sounds a bit like him. Dang, that's it was really cool.

It's really cool. It's it's super cool that again, I would just be my neurosis would go. I know Dolly said that, but did she really mean it? That's exactly what I don't want to like bother her because I already have a good relationship.

Yeah, I was.

Yeah, she's been so she's been so sweet to us, like we we go down and rehearsing her place down in Lavern, Like it's just she's been like, hey, if you guys want to come down and use it for rehearsals, Like, are you serious?

She's like yeah, wow, she just sent So I have the these little funkos, which I've only been introduced lately to the funko culture. Are you familiar with the funko? I don't know what that is, Mike, will you hand me the Dollie funk so I have? Again, I didn't know what they were, but that as like something my kids might probably athletes have them, celebrities have them. And so I bought a few Dolli ones and so this is a Dolly one and I sent them over to her and she signed them for me, and then I

I mean, that's great.

It's crazy.

She was telling me she's got a she was telling me she's got a Broadway musical coming out in twenty twenty five.

I'm sure to be a massive success and it deserves to be.

Yeah, the Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast.

You have a bunch of land.

We've got almost twenty five acres.

What do you do with it? And is it all liveable or is it some of it just like no, So I.

Guess from the road to our house is about a quarter mile, and then from our house to the back of the property is about a quarter mile. And coming up the road, it's it's been cleared out and it looks, you know, it looks nice coming up and then there's about five acres around the.

House that we have woods woods around, and then behind it is it's thick.

I had a guy come in with the excavator and just cut me a trail all the way around where we could ride side by side of the four wheaders and then our property backs up to this creek that is great for like small mouth bass fishing.

Yeah, so you stalked upon No, it's.

It's it's like literally, it's it's wide enough. It looks like a river where we're at, so you can get into kayak and fish it, or you can just go down and fish. It's like, what's this one horse? It's the creek's called Rutherford Creek, and I'm not sure what it runs off of.

You don't have to stock it because it's just no and it I mean it runs for miles through So that's basically a river.

No, it's it's basically like a river, but they call it Rutherford Creek.

How old your oldest kid?

Our oldest is twenty five, twenty fourteen and eleven. They read the book, I don't know if they've read it or not.

They lived it. Yeah, yeah, I mean my I think my youngest.

I don't know if my wife has or not, but we we've talked about playing the audio book for him, just to let them know we haven't kept secrets. I mean, our kids know our stories in our lives. So but the biggest reason why I wanted because I almost didn't do the audio version.

I was just so nervous about it. You know, I'm like, I don't like.

I'm for one, I don't like to read a lot unless it's like an article that I'm interested in. Books typically not, I just don't finish them, do to see the movie. And then I'm like, reading out loud is a totally different thing than reading to yourself. And I was just like, man, I don't want to do this,

I good for you. It was really cool.

Yeah, I'm glad. It's hard.

It's tough, man.

I mean, you have to get this stumbled on words that you say every day, and you're just like, why can't I say this right now?

It's the weirdest thing.

And also it's like sometimes you'll say a word so much and like if you just said the word blooney over and over again, then blowney doesn't feel like a real word. You like baloonney. But then you come with all the words while you're reading a book and no word feels real because you've just been reading. And I talked for a living, and reading the book was the weirdest thing because you're also trying to read it like a human.

Yeah. I did it every the two nights, the two days that I read. I would set up every night and read it to my wife in bed, the chapters that I was going to read the next day, just so I would kind of have it fresh.

Then I would go in and do it, and it just felt so weird. And then you got this lady in your ear going try it this way read it, and.

They would do that to me. I'll be like, but I don't say it like that.

There's one part of the book that I tell a story about me and my dad and it was a lunch break and I was eating the can of Viiny sausages and I call him VIENI. A lot of people say Vienna, and the lady stops me and she's like, hey, it's Vienna, and I'm like, not where I was, not where I come from. I was like, I call it Vienie. I was like, and I'm going to leave it that way in the book. And so everybody gives no hard time, but but it was it was a yeah, that's good.

What about the kid's book? A little more like Jesus?

So that's that's a that's a book based off of the Fruits of the Spirit. It's a book that kind of kind of came out of my song less like Me. I have a song called uh and that's it's a little more log Jesus. That's a little less like Me.

And so this idea for a children's book kind of came up because I just remember being, you know, in church as a kid and and reading the Fruits of the Spirit. So it was kind of one of those little I think it's from like maybe from four to eight year olds.

Did you have to look at a bunch of illustrators and pick the and and like to pick the style.

The Yeah, we went through all of that went through.

I had I pulled a bunch of books from like the books that we had at home from our kids that I always remembered like reading them to my kids, And I sent the screenshots of them in and who the illustrators were, and then they they were like, Okay, here's some that kind of resemble that, or here's some people that we work with. What do you think And we near down like four people before we went and found them on we like And then that to me was kind of cool to'll seend myself as the cartoons.

Did you have any notes on yourself?

No, I just I just sent a couple of pictures over and they came up with that.

So yeah, I feel like they always air on the positives I don't have. I don't have your whole books. I don't know what you look like all your pictures. But for me, I feel like they gave me some liberty, some like yeah nice fun they made they feel good, Yeah liberty. I feel like that's generally what they do. They don't want to make you feel worse about yourself.

Now they did a good job. I feel good about it.

So four to eight is where you put this? I don't I don't this book. It's not even the real book. I'm over here.

Just guessing it's not a real book. That's just the cover. You have.

You seen the fully finished, so you don't even have it.

No, I don't even have it. Like all we have right now is the cover. I've seen the pages. I've seen the pages, you know, in like PDF form. But the book comes out the end of August. Hop on board for a rolic in journey of sharing and love.

We're all called to be more like Jesus, but it can be hard to understand exactly what that means. In this picture book from acclaimed Christian music artist Zach Williams, kids joined an exciting bus trip to discover the fruits of the spirit and learn how showing a little more love, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control can make a big difference for those around them and help them live a little more like Jesus. With rhymes, It's cool, it turned it turned it really good.

I'm proud of it.

I had goals in making mine rymen. I quit, I quit the Rymen, and I was like, I stopped it. With rhyming text based on Zach's hit song A Little Less Like Me and vibrant, engaging illustrations, young readers will be inspired to connect deeper with God and begin to grow into the person God created them to be. I'm excited for the first time you see the full book together. It's a really it'd be a really cool moment.

Now.

Just getting this is super cool.

Yeah.

And I got it and my manager hands it to me and I started flipping through it and I was like, dude, they messed this up. This is not my book. And he said, oh, no, that's not your book. He's like, I just they just put it on a thing so you can see what it looks like.

Dude, they printed the wrong like they printed it wrong.

Listen. I'm a big fan. I was a big fan of just your music before I even knew your story. You know, I think, how long have you lived here now in Nashville.

Oh, we move tier in two thousand and seventeen, so a.

Year are we four?

War?

So?

Like what years?

Even?

Six?

Seven years?

Seven years? Yeah?

You get here. This is my short version of living in Nashville. You get here and you're like, wow, this is Nashville. Our dreams are made. And then you get really jaded, and then you start to realize, why am I letting myself be so jaded on stuff. And I'm getting to the point now where I'm reaching that I don't need me to be that jaded on stuff anymore. What I care about I care about, and what I don't, I just kind of let it do its thing. And so the version of your story that I knew was

I knew we were always headed in if I had and that was my that was kind of my It was tough, trust me, man.

It was splitting up that band was was awful. Like I just you know, you've been in a band with five guys for several years. It was like a it was like a divorce.

They still resent you or do they understand?

I think they are both. I think they there's a little of both.

I think they understand obviously when I had to make those decisions, we're all in a different place in our lives now.

I think it still hurts. I mean, it's still it still hurts me sometimes to think about.

You know, you just understand why they can be upset though, Yeah.

Absolutely absolutely, But I mean at the time I walked away and I was like, I'm not gonna explain why. I'm just this is for myself and my family and I need to do this. And I literally put music down for like six or seven months after I quit. I was just like, I don't even know if I want to play music anymore. And then it was when we were going to the church and that the guy was like, hey, once you sing a song, and I was like, it's almost.

Like you started over. I mean, it is like you started over, but it's okay, you're done, except we're gonna kind of put you on level one again. But you're not doing it for the same reason, but you're doing it again, you know.

No, I'm thankful that it didn't happen, you know then, because like I said, I probably wouldn't be here. But I do feel like I feel like God allowed me to live through that and and have that life so that I could stand on stages now and talk about what he's done in my life.

You feel the pressure to sing though, at church every time now, because if I had your talent and skill and I was knowing, it would be like being a singer and being at a wedding. They'd be like, you, I get up and do a song.

No, hot, don't man.

I'm like if I'm like, I just want to be at church and my family. I don't want to sing. I don't want to do anything.

But I'll be looking at you like, are you not gonna get out there?

You're not gonna sing?

What's crazy too, though, is this is a town where a lot of people are really good. It's a town where a lot of people are actually great. But still you can go to church and it's it's almost like the people singing at church are as good or better than this. Yeah, it's if you were just to go to church and go some of these churches here, this

Everywhere I remember Eastern Sunday. I was still my wife. I was like, those girls are really good, like elite level. They were great. Yeah, man, sound as good as a lot of the people play here on the radio.

Yeah no, I mean seriously, like the biggest of the bacomen. But then you can go down. We'll go down to you know, church down the road, and they'll and I tell my wife, this is unbelievable how good they are, not just like somebody's really good at a bar, but like elite level stuff. I'm happy for you, man, It's it's a great story. You make really good music, and those two have happened to combine to have a like a really solid career, completely unorthodox way to have it

It did. Yeah, I'm glad it did too. Man.

What do you do for fun?

I love to cook, That's my second passion. We do a thing on our tours called it eating or eat, So I do a VIP dinner before every concert. I got a shift that travels with me from Napa that cooks the really nice dinner for everybody every night.

And so you've heard of Eating View. What is it eating? Eating View just made it up. When you do an interview, you cook for people like we not eat while.

That'd be fun.

That's what we should have done. Mike should have set up and Eating View and I eat while I interview him and he cooks real quick. Yeah.

I love. I love to cook. I love to do stuff like that. I like to get out and getting you know, the Woods, read four Withers and stuff like that.

So all right, here's IM gonna say you guys, rescue story from Zach. The Kid's book comes out in August. And in the pre before you got here, we you know, talked about the music. But your last record, record came out in the fall last year, right yet like last like studio record?

Yeah, it came out September of twenty three.

Yeah, last year. Yeah, My years are all messed up.

Too, mine are I can't remember, honestly, I'm trying to think. I'm on the third tour of this record.

So yeah, it was so, I guess my last last question is are you working on new studio music? I am with any indication of.

When it's coming out.

I mean I'm going to ask that directly because I hate.

I'm trying to get stuff ready for the Fully Cool. That's the plan.

I've actually have a meeting after this song meetings, all right, go do it picking songs.

Thanks for coming by, really appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production