#68 - Kip Moore

So it's that's pretty cool. It was cool man, Um, you know I read in the Chase It's funny. I met him probably a year and a half ago. Drake White and I were playing a show and he was kind of he was announcing both of us, and so we got to hang then. I got to know him then, and I didn't know that, you know, he was a fan of the music back then, so we talked about it back then, and uh, it was neat man, just seeing his whole world, because I can admit that I'm

not like I didn't grow up with NASCAR. Really, I've seen races it like you have, but I don't know the detail of it. So him bringing me, you know, in the garage, showing how they build the cars up, tear him down off after almost every race, all the aerodynamics that go into it. And then and then it was kind of like me picking his brain on the

way he likes to. You know, you would think a NASCAR driver I would want to listen to like really pumped up music, but he's like, I like to get as calm as I possibly can because the race is so long, and it helps me kind of settle in and know and then it's gonna be you know, he likes really chilled out music before he gets in the car. That's an interesting thing. Who who's coming to you before and say hey, Which was surprising to you, is that man,

I really love your music. Where you're like, wow, that's cool, Like you like my music? Um man, I can't think of the top of my head right now. I know there's been a few of those cases where any other artists, even in town, that it will call you be like, dude, I just heard the song yours and it's fantastic. Um. Jared Johnston, I'm such a fan of what the collect three do uh so much, and Jared and I are we've become pretty good buddies. But I can remember when

the first time he heard that was us. He's like, if you don't put this song out, I'm gonna come up with your house and bite you tomorrow. So I mean, he's just he was a big fan of that, and then we ended up touring together after that, so, um, yeah, you know I didn't know that. You know, Jared was around listening to music, So you know, it's it's cool, man, when other people that you respect respect what you do.

You're an interesting guy. And I think in the past six months so we probably got to know each other better than we have in the past three and a half years before that. But we were talking. We're you and I are up in a room at our management office. We're talking about Bob Dylan. Yeah, and you were talking and you were like, you know, I still and I was listening to you because listen. I like to listen.

And you and you were talking and you're talking about Bob Dylan, and you were talking about I used to study Bob Dylan lyrics, and I was like, look at this guy. Another layer of the onion. They kept more onion I did. Man, you know, I feel like, um, I feel like dealing somewhat kind of saved me from myself. I can be um, I feel like I'm I'm really coming out of that, but I UM, I can battle a lot of my own demons pretty heavily. And at the time when I really discovered dealing, I mean, my

dad played him something growing up. But you know, when you're when you're fourteen and fifteen, you can't comprehend what dealing singing about, nor can you relate to it. You can enjoy the music and the melody, which I did kind of the same thing with with Seeger and Springsteen, but I can't relate to but Bob Seeger against the

Wind when I'm fourteen, you know. But um, the more you know, I left home when I was like seventeen, and I went like seven hours away to go play school, but you know, go to basket play basketball away from school, and and then I've been traveling ever since and just living life and diving into stuff wide open, and I've been on my own taking care of myself, and I can remember living and the biggest dump the last time I went recently to dry By the place, and I

had yellow tape around the whole place. I guess, I guess something like that I went down, but man, it was awful. It was It was awful, man. And uh, just that feeling of which I'm sure you've had, that where looking around at all your friends kind of on the hamster wheel of life that sometimes I admire that I wish I could, you know, be that way. The people that just you know, they'll go work for the dad's insturance company or whatever, and you know they'll make

a good living. The you know plant roots, you know plant roots have a wife and kids and and go through that whole kind of structure that we're all kind of programmed to due at a young age. And here I was living in a complete ship hole. Am I allowed to stay there on this just feeling like the biggest low life. But at the same time I had that exciting feeling every morning I woke up that anything could happen, where I felt like everybod else they knew exactly what the day was gonna be and know what

was gonna be like when they came home. There was an excitement of just feeling like and he could light and constrike them aorrow. And I think that when I really dovee into dealing and around seven, I mean I would I would spend I get off work and I'd write from from five to twelve o'clock at night, and then I would lay on the floor. I've always liked to lay on the floor. I don't know why, but I had a record player and I would listen to all the old Dealing records told three or four o'clock

in the morning, and I'd write. I'd write out his lyrics. I try to understand the way he was using his metaphors and everything and the playoff of words. He was the best to playoff of words. And I was just blown away by his music. I was so well. It was such an inspiring time for me. And I felt like I really related to a lot of what Dealing was saying a lot of music, and I feel like I've always had that that passionate spirit about me, and I looked at things in an innocent kind of way,

which a lot of his music was. There was there was such an innocence to it. There's that I have a lot of onion. There's a lot of onion to talk about here. What do you There's also the part that I found it struck me is that you had a couple of hits and you win't got an apartment, your first decently nice place to live. It was my first place. It was decent, but it wasn't good for your soul, so you had to move out. Yeah, I

felt like I found myself all of a sudden. It's kind of like I thrive on miserable misery in a weird way. But I found myself comfortable for the first

time in my life. Where I was coming home, I was watching TV, I was laying on the couch and eating good food and and and all of a sudden, I felt like I was I was losing a little bit of that inspiration in that drive, that kind of so I called Brett, who was my publisher, Brett James, who's written a million hits, and he Brett had bought this old house was building there like mid eighteen hundreds.

It's one of the last remaining ones down there Music Road where they're building all this stuff around behind Losers. That that one old building with the black iron gate, and it's the spooky, ist erious dark. Everything about that place is not where you want to live. But it's great for writing. And I've written almost the entire up all night record in that house and there were there's a room upstairs. It's just this it's it's awful. Man, that's a really tiny little box. Man, it's a lot

smaller than this room. And I called him and said, hey, man, I want to move into that room and I want to write my next record in there, you know, in the in in the house again, you know. And so I moved all my stuff into that room, was crammed in there, and I was on I slept on a on a twin bed for about for about two years. And the hot water heater didn't work, so I took cold showers every morning and that was like thirty seconds

in and out. So my when I would go on the road, it was like heaven in an arena, like a shower and arena. It was like I got hot water, you know. So but I would I wrote almost the whole Wild One's record for the most part in that house. There was no furniture. There's no um, and there's a there's a couple like random like regular chairs and not chairs like this, and you've got no TVs. It's all

and it's crazy haunted. I got haunted stories that would blow your mind, which finally ran me out and I got a place because it was so scary at night, so you didn't want to be comfortable. What do you think that comes from? What do you think the root of that is? Hey? Do you create better from sadness? I feel like I at that time in my life, and I've learned how to just channel a different side of me where I don't I don't I don't quite

need that as much, but I still I live. I live very very moderate on purpose, like I have a tiny little house on the other side of town, and um, I don't really have any things. Um. I tried, but I felt like for me, it played a trick on my mind where I still felt like I was at the bottom where I feel like I write better out of desperation. So it you know, taking Colchwer was every morning sleeping on that twin bed, which I hated. Man. I had an old junk mattress. It was, it was,

it was awful, man. Uh, But it just it played a trick on me to where I still felt like I was completely broke and trying to go after something. And I kind of learned how that that I don't need that as much now. Um, But I still like when I travel, I like to stay in hostels. Um. We just did that whole backpacking through ice and staying in the the hostels, and um, I do that when I

go to MAUI sometimes Costa Rica. Um. And I'll write a lot of music when I'm out there like that, and I'll meet interesting people, and I don't you know, it's almost get uncomfortable, like I thought I'm around from in the fourth seasons, I'm uncomfortab around those people. They're fine, they're nice, they're get I get uncomfortable around that kind of setting, really fine dining and luxurious rooms. Like it's a weird thing. Man. For me, you talk about the

place being haunted. We've talked about this a bit, but you're convinced, like it's not maybe it was a ghost to you, it's not maybe there's no there's no there's this is I'm probably about to get off on a weird place here. Um. For me, it could have also been I was I was not in a good headspace at all. Um. I wasn't. I wasn't a really weird I've already written like a whole second project that pretty much got shell of the label. They were like, we

don't have radio stuff here. This is too edgy, this is to this, this is too and that's heartbreaking as a writer and artist, and you turn something in and I try to explain that to a lot of people

sometimes too. Where my old jobs there was a beauty and just going to work, doing the job, going home kind of having that mindless feel of Okay, now I can devote this other part of my time to a girlfriend or whatever kind of thing or family, or I was present when I would leave work, and you know, this job, you're even yours, You're you're constantly on judgment for everything. I don't I wouldn't trade my job or anything,

but it's your It's a constant state of judgment. And that was a hard thing to turn in something I was so passionate about, which I hope sees the life of day one day. Um, but I was in a bad, bad place. And I've always, um had a heart for God. And I'll say that openly, like I've always been really connected with God, even even when I'm not reading, even when I don't go to church, I've just always I

know that God's always with me. And I've usually been pretty good about reading scripture, going to church, and you know, I just go by myself a night or going Tuesday nights or whatever. I'm sitting the back and I leave, and I stayed connected. And at that time I was really I wasn't connected at all. And it wasn't that I was out, you know, doing blow all night and stuff like. It was just I was. I was completely separate, and I was in a bad dark place. I compared

to get out of bed. I felt like a lot of mornings. Um. And uh, maybe I was susceptible too, because I believe there's a ball of good and evil all the time going on around and maybe I was at that time of my life really susceptible to that entity tricking with my mind. I don't know, but I can tell you the stuff that went down that house. I mean it would be, you know, clear as day. I go down and get a drink of water, and

and the garbage disposal was underneath the sink. You have to flip a switch, turn it on, and I would be walking off on that thing with bang cut back off. I turned around, I looked and all the hairs be up in my arm and I walked back off and would just go old house. That's what I would say. If I be like old house boy, like I would look up underneath, switch is still off? I can? I can?

I got a million of those. There was a there's a pantry and it used to have a hole in the floor, and I'm the only one there, and I would at night, you know, late at night, you know, I go in, maybe get get a snack out of the pantry, and I look and the basement, the basement was the spooky's basement ever, but the light would be on underneath the pantry footboard, and I'd be like, I know, I cut that off. I know that wasn't on. I was in here last time. Cut it off. I come

back this morning. Thing was on. You have to flip the switch on the turn it off. I mean a short if the if the switch is off, you're not gonna get a short like it's not you know. So. But the kicker was I'd be laid in my bed and this happened about three times, and on the second time I told my manager and said, hey, to me, A favorite look from your place. And this happened as I really settled into the house and was living there, I've been writing songs there for four or five years,

and people have had little stuff happened. But the minute it was like I moved in there at all, kind of started building up and it was almost like they were going like, oh, buddy, you got to dried, you got to get you know so. But I can' remember laying there in bed but for it, and it always would happen close to three o'clock. I remember laying there and that my bed and I don't know what grenades

sound like. I got no clue, but it would be like us being this room and it sounds like somebody is just setting grenades off all through your house, and it would sound like five people decided on the count of three, we're gonna raise as much as hell as we can, and everything it sounded like. And I was in a tiny room and it sounded like there was a fist on every inch of the wall on all

around me, just slamming and banging. And you can imagine waking up to that feeling like the fear of that first of all, feeling like somebody's break into your house. The second of all, this is a whole another bag. To the point where my bed was physically shaken, like

there's like the house the foundation was almost shaken. My bed was moving, and I wake up and I would come to and it would last for three or four seconds as I had woken up, and the fear behind that man was just and I would try to just I pray and be like, I'm not gonna let this bother me. I'm good, and I eventually lay back down.

And it happened about three different times. I had a broom from me to you, sweeping ten solid seconds to where I just sat up, and I mean every hair and I just kind of I know, I'm not hearing a broom beside me right now, and I lay back down. After it would stop, I lay back down and it would start right back up, and I even like sat up in my bed. I cut the lights on and I said at one point, I said, hey, look clean all you want. I said, this place, and he's cleaning.

I'm I'm good with you. You can clean all your home. And I lay back down. But I was scared of death, but I was trying to get myself calm. But you know, that might have been a whole another thing man that could have been I don't know Bob, I mean to me, it was it ghoest, but it could have also been what I was talking about earlier. I'm not sure. I

still don't know what that was. So you moved, but and that hasn't happened since, no, I mean, I've barely been back in there since I used to write in there every single day, and I wrote this whole new record. I didn't write one song in there, and that's kind of gave me a sense of piece because I feel like it's the best stuff I've done. But I felt like I was confined to I love that wild One's record, and like I said, I wrote almost everything in there.

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or find an office near you. Alright, so here's something I learned from you. I guess probably eight months or so, you and I met for breakfast and you were singing in the morning. I know that was a thing. I was like, why are you singing in the morning. You're like my low end. It's best for my low end.

No idea that was even a thing. So explain that to me and to people who have no idea about the recording process and vocals, you know, And once again that was uh for me, that that's kind of a thing for me is and the first thing in the morning, before I've I've been talking a lot or singing because I sing like all my own harmonies on this record too, so you have to use a whole different You've got

to really stretch that high end. And once you've burned that high end a whole lot, you know, you're singing for an hour straight. That low ends just kind of it's still there. I mean I was just I kind of naturally have a deeper voice, but it's the width and you can feel it on the mic, you can

feel it in the control room. The width that I have in the morning is just different than I have late at night once I burned that out, And it's just that's just me just kind of learning from singing, you know, doing so many demos throughout the years and being like, man, my voice just in the morning it feels like there's a whole different width to it. And maybe that's become a psychological thing too, but I just feel I feel really strong getting the most width out

of my voice in the morning. Do you feel like you sing better in the shower? I wonder if legitimately great singers feel like they even and sound better in the shower. I feel like everybody sounds better, But you do, like you ever seen the shower? Go day? Because I do? And I'm not even a good singer, but you're a really good singer. Do you sing it go? I'm even better in the shower. I think I'm pretty incredible in the show. It's the reverb. Then, it's like it's like

a natural reverb chamber. But then, why don't we create? Why don't I go into the studios? Why am I not like singing? It's some really good studio that never a lot of a lot of recordings nowadays. When you when you hear those old records, you hear Freddie Mercury, and you hear these old guys, um, those Guns and Rosary records, all this stuff. Man, they were all singing in these You listen to Zeppelin records that they're playing drums in this massive like stairwheel where it's all that verb,

like it used to be tracked a lot more that way. Um, Now everybody's trying to compress and get this tight tight, you know, trying to put pads all over these walls to lock everything in where it's just really dry sound. And they like mixing that way. It's just how times have kind of changed. Um. But I like singing in the Verbie room, and I you know, I there was a there was a little bit doing this new record more than I ever have, you know, having a little

bit of that natural verb in the room. And Blackbird has got like the greatest reverb chamber ever over there at that studio. But you don't really want to sing leads in there because it's just too boomy and then it just gets all washy. But backgrounds are amazing in that room. Talking about that for a second. That's interesting.

So you'll sing leads in one place, but backgrounds in another. Yeah, Like if you want to get like a big you know, big gang vocals, all that Deaf Leppard stuff that just sounds so massive on all that like Hysteria record, and you know, I'll guarantee you that was done in a

massive reverb chamber. Um. And I know, like for wild ones with with lipstick and hey, when you're doing that this big haze we got around all got around one mic, all six of us and did the Big Haze just because it just kind of sounds like a swirling all around you. Where you want your that lead vocal to you know, speak right to you kind of thing. I still like having old school verb, want to leave vocal, but for the most part, you want that to be

a little tighter on this new record. I'll talk about that for a second, because I think you went through this process a little different than you have before. You did a lot more of this yourself kind of then I've read the stuff, but I've heard you talk about it too. So why did you approach this record different than the last couple? Um? Because you've recorded somebody with that tell anybody right? Um? First off, you know I did the first two records with Brett James, who, Man,

I I take a bullet for Brett the more. Man. I love that dude with all my heart and and we're like brothers. Um. And he's amazing. Brett's such an incredible songwriter, musician, singer, everything. UM. But I just I felt on this one. I had been writing these songs and I've been living with them so much, and we we were great at co producing records together, but we

were we butt heads a lot. We would and um, you know, I hear one party here another part, and and um I felt like sometimes that took a little bit of a strain on our friendship a little bit. Um Brett was one of the best friends I've ever had. Um, and I just felt like going into this one, as far as that part goes, I've been living with these

songs so much. I've already been you know, I'll lay in my bunk and I'll after I come with the guitar, riffer or whatever that's kind of inspired me on that day, I'll sing all the parts that I'm hearing, like around that, like, I'll just start building the track vocally. Ill build a whole track just singing wise, where I'm singing the beat and then I'm layering like well, okay, this is what

the baseline is gonna do. And I'll do all that, and I'll sing, Okay, this guitar part is gonna do this on the second bar right here on on the four chord, and I'll kind of sing all these different layers and I had it like platonics, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was one of those things where I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly how I wanted to sound. Um So when I went in, I didn't want anybody giving me pushback on I knew what I wanted, and I knew I wanted to go in there and

sing a little bit. Um you know. I wanted to do some funky stuff that I hadn't done before. And I believe so much in the melodies of this record. Um but I did. I kind of why I on't had only been out for a year. It really wasn't time to As far as the country world goes, you know, it's it's still that whole cycle of you make a record every two or three years, which drives me crazy, drives me crazy, drives me crazy. Um so, and I'm always righting. But I kind of gathered this in full

of songs that I believed in a whole lot. I was like, man, this is a really cool thing I've been kind of creating. Um So I went in and uh, I just recorded like four or five of them, and I went in like as a you know, in like a record style, like I'm you know, approaching it like a record. And they came back and I was just I was so happy with him, and I just kind of went to see Brian right now in our red and I said, man, I just I want you to hear what I've been doing. You tell me what you think.

I've been recording some sides, and I played him for me. He called me back and he was just kind of flipping over and he was like, I gotta go place for the label right now. I said, all right. So the next thing I know, I'm getting a call a few days later and he's like, you gotta go in and make a record. This is great, we gotta get this stuff now. So for the next eight or nine months, that's all I did. Every time I got the road, I was recording right and trying to finish that record

over the last year. So you do four or five songs, But then when you know you're doing a record, does that change? How are your right adding songs? Because at first it feels like you're writing for you, you're creating for you, you don't know where it's gonna go. Now you have a direction where you know where it's going to go. Does that change the creative process in your head?

I think before it might have um, but I think I was in such a confident headspace where I was going and I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew what I wanted to say that Um yeah, I just I was more just kind of like, all right, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to do this, and and I recorded only thirteen are gonna make the record? And I probably wrote thirty for this project, and uh

recorded twenty one of them. Because you just end up getting so close to the songs and you're like okay, and then a lot of times you're going in to track one and that's when you realize, all right, this song is not quite as good as I thought. And what tracking means is you have a band played this song like yeah, like to come in you made sing

to scratch over the top of it. Um. But I mean like in tracking, a lot of the tracking idea, like a lot of this record was just me and David Garcia in his house and that was a very different process for me too. Well, we just played all the instruments and we just built it from the ground up in his house. Um. I did a track with the band on about sev it um and um, you know I would I would play the instruments on that too, and and you know, get all the music now first,

and then I do the vocals after guitar. Man was the only one where that's the main one. I can't wait through the here. It was all on one take, and it happened really spontaneous where we had the full band playing it, and when the take was over, it never felt right to me. We'd probably played it five or six times as a full band, and I was like, man, something's just not speaking right to me on this song.

And we all took a break to step away from it, and uh, Tom Bukavac and Dave Cohen, we're just kind of sitting there messing with each other, just the organ and one guitar. And I told I told him as I acted like, I was just like, hey, start over, like you're playing that from the top, just kind of mess around with each other. And I hit record without him even really knowing it, and I walked into the vocal booth and singing it from the top down in

one take. And so that whole take that you hear on the record is just all of us in one take. That's so that's gonna be that end up being the song you know, and I think it's you know, I think it's the most powerful track on the record. So um yeah, and so that some really cool organic stuff happened like that on this record. And then that's not gonna make it. You said you gotta cut songs. No, I've already. I've got the records done done, I got thirteen we I just got my master copy yesterday. So

that's exciting, right man. It's do you like hearing? You like hearing yourself back? Yeah, when you've worked that hard. Yeah, I mean you love hearing. Like, Uh, I get weird if I go to a gym or something and they assume just because I played country music, Oh get more than here. Let's put on a country playlist that he's you know what, I feel weird doing that field was are So you say you're going somewhere, sometimes they'll turn you one yea. I guess I kind of feel like

an asshole, you know I do. I'm like, I'm a freaking asshole in the gym right now. The players turn on country music, you know, like I'll get picked up, you know, you get picked up from a venue and they're like, okay, let's turn on the country station. And they turn and I'm like, hey, country music is not the only thing I listened to. I played country music.

But but uh, but yeah, man, I mean like getting back that master copy, um and and riding around and here and what you've worked at so hard and hear it back and it's came out even better than you hope. I mean, it's the and that's the and that's the part where I wouldn't trade this job for nothing. You know. It's like that feeling I'm one of the few people

on this planet. It gets to have that exhilarating feeling man, of just like you, you stepped out, you put yourself for exposure, to be completely bashed, man, and just having that excitement of like this might be this might be amazing, and this might be lightning in a bottle. That's the

cool thing. It might tank. But when when I I was telling some of this other day, like I have such a sense of piece about me now because it's like not that I didn't with what I was because I made the record I wanted to make, but this one, more than any project, I did the exact songs I wanted to There was no outside influence. I recorded them exactly like I wanted to. The sounds were exactly like

I wanted to. I did this record just like I had it in my head, and I followed through with it, and I stuck to my guns, and I'm okay, if it feels like I can lay my head on my pillow at night going, I did it exactly how I wanted to. So if that, if that doesn't work, I can sleep. I can live with that. What I can't

live with is you know. I mean, I even had people when I was I wasn't working at radio, you know, And I understand it from the label side, they won't you know, they've seen this artists that all of a sudden had this break out record that Okay, we're gonna make some money off. It's all it's all about money, you know what I mean. But it's a business like you know, so we want to keep this train going.

And then all of a sudden, you got a couple of slip ups and it was like when they shelf that next record, it was like everybody started singing me songs. And man, I hated him, but I was smart enough to hear him and go, that's a hit song. It's a hit song. I know it's a hit. I could sing this, let's be a hit the more, but I couldn't. First off, I couldn't stand on stage and sing that every night, but I don't believe it. Second of all, if it didn't work, that's when I'm really going to

freaking spiral downward, like I can't. I can't lay my head on my pillow at night. So for me, it was like I politely, you know, and I'm paraphrasing, but I can rememory. I wrote one of the people that labeled I'm really close with, and he just, you know, I don't know what his reaction to it was. I never got a response, but I been sent like seven or eight songs. You know, we all thinking you should cut one of these for your next single, you know whatever.

And I said, look, guys, I appreciate y'all trying to help me. I understand where your heart's at. I know that y'all want the best for this, and I want the best for this whole thing. But if I said I'll quit playing music, I'll never touch a guitar again. If I have to recording of these songs, it's not happening. Sin And that's what I sent and so nobody ever

wrote back to me. And that's and that's when I and after that, you know, I was still in the funk for a while, but it was it was a couple of months after that when I really kind of picked myself back up and started writing Slow Heart. What got you out of that? What made you pick yourself back up? I think there's a lot of things. I think that for me, a big thing kind of coming back. Um, whenever I'm connected to my faith, whenever I'm just spending

time in that, I'm in a lot more peace. And it's the crazy thing about that is I know that about myself, yet I'll still push it aside. I'll push it aside for months sometimes and then I'll get back into it, um, And that's when I'm at the most piece. I think there was a combination of that. I think that a big thing happened to um Dave. You know, and I've already written probably half of it when this happened,

but you know, there's a whole another half. I was Dave Lapsley, who's you know, one of the closest people to me in my life was my guitar player. Since the day that I moved here. I mean, he believed in me from day one, and he was playing with me for twelve or thirteen years, and he was I mean he was. We were. We were thick as thieves, and I just shared everything with Dave and he went on all the radio tour stuff and it was just me and him, and you know the bond you create

doing that, trying to get somewhere together. Um, and even before I had a record deal, me and him, we're touring out of my jeep for like three years. See A believed in me a long time ago, and were getting any gigs every weekend. I was gone opening for Trace or Billy or whatever. But you know the game,

and there was no money in it. So it's just me and him and a jeep not guaranteed a dime and having a hustle, me selling one T shirt and a demo that I wasn't supposed to sail back there and like two or three songs and the people still show up with those old demos and Um and him, you know, I I tell him to go hustle and go make friends and find us a place to crash tonight, and he'd finds he we we crashed on fans floors for two or three years every single show, after every show,

and I'd sell the merch and uh so I say all that because he was like a brother to me. And um, back in like December, you know, at the end of our tour, he said, you know, and he'd been obviously contemplatings for a while, but his wife got offered this really huge job for a for Apple, and um, they had to move to Minneapolis, and he was like, man, she she really wants this job. You know, it's a whole lot of money, and um, you know we're gonna do it. You know. That was like the biggest blow

for me. It was such a blow because when you go through all of that and at the end of the day, it all a lot of times comes down the money. Had we been a big successful band by the end, which we're you know in that stage of we're successful, but you're not making the kind of money where the worries like that go away with family and all that kind of stuff. And he's got a family to take care of. And I felt so like responsible for that, and it was just it was the most

it was. It was heartache for me. I mean, I I shed tears of the whole thing, because I always had this dream of us getting to this mountaintop together and me and him standing on that and just being like, man, look who we did, you know? And that's with all my band, but you know he was with me first. Um,

So that's when I kind of went away. I went out and surf for a month, and and MAUI then surf for a month Coasta Rican and when the Iceland, and during all that time, man, I just I just finally started letting go of all that burden of that man and just kind of I was carrying all that weight even before that, feeling like you gotta keep the

whole train movement, which I'm sure you do. Sometimes you've got people now that are employed because of the success of your show, and you feel that responsibility of and these people are counting on me to keep being creative and keep this thing going, and you feel like a

failure when your songs aren't working. And even though our shows we're doubling and tripling in size, it was like everybody else's viewed it as it was a failure because people in Nashville are in such a bubble where you think it's all about you know, it's just radio, and if you're not working at radio, then well he must not be working. Well, let's push him to the side and let's focus on this guy because he's got some

hits going on over here. And I felt all that, you know, um so I think it was a combination of all that. And then as I I got out there and I spent some time in prayer and I was surfing, I was finding that piece, and I just kind of I just came out on a different side, and I was like, man, if ever supposed to happen, when he's gonna happen, this is all divine playing however

it's supposed to be. And all I can do is wake up and be happy that I've been blessed with this amazing life that I fought so hard to have. And I don't know how long it's gonna last. You don't know how long your thing's gonna last. It was just a sense of peace and that after I really sat down and think about it, it's not my fault, you know that the thing with Dave didn't work out, and letting go of all that garbage, and man, when I came out on the other side, on the other side, man,

that the music I started showing. The music, the melodies started showing in this sense of even the song like Bittersweet Company, that's such a heart wrenching lyric. It was like these amazing happy melodies on top of which was the Jukes of Motown, which was I love about Motown. But um, just when you hear this record, man, you can sense that there's a better place mentally that I got to then. As much as I love while one was up where I was when I created Wild Ones.

You talk about a mountaintop, what is your mountain top? I don't think And that's another thing Bobby. For me, for so long it was happiness was man, when we're finally headlining that big arena and we're finally playing that stadium, and and I just I see it completely different now,

you know. Some other day was asked me, you know, what are your goals for two thou eighteen, And when I said I don't have any, they looked at me like I was crazy, And I was like, doesn't mean that I'm not ambitious, doesn't mean that I don't want to be the you know, be great at what I do. Doesn't mean that I still don't want to sell out

stadiums and do that whole thing. But my my goal is to cantinue to make music and hopefully people show up and want to sing it, you know, and and to be on the stage with my best friends play and just I hope to that's my goal. That's my Now, I'm I find myself being so much more present, living in the moment as far as this year's gone with shows. It's like there's that there's a happiness because I'm I was always thinking about, oh god it, well, this has happening.

I gotta I gotta try to fix this. Now we're not gonna get to this next spot. And I was always thinking ahead, which caused me to be a complete wreck is a human being, um, And now it's and I still have that thing of I'm always strategically, Okay, we gotta focus on this and we gotta you know, I'm I'm still that guy, but I'm letting go of the stuff that I can't control and I'm enjoying the moments that are meant to be enjoyed. So I think that's been the biggest change for me. And I don't

see a mountaintop anymore. It's it's man, that'd be awesome if we were able to play that stadium, But it's a badass if we're headline in the theater tomorrow right too, And we got three thousand people singing along like so um, My mindsets changed in that sense for sure. Talk about your live shows for a second, because you put a lot of work. I mean, you take the lot shows seriously, you pay, have a lot of tension to the crowding,

probably more than you should. Yeah, I mean I think I think to your detriment sometimes for sure, for sure. And that's another thing that I'm learning. I've gotten better at that, man, Like I'm I'm starting to really, you know, even after our conversation, you know, I thought about the Steve Martin thing that you were telling me about last time. You know, I had a couple of shows here recently, man was I mean it was just insanity, insanity the shows.

And I saw a couple of despondent faces that usually would have I would have been like, sure, why can't why why are they enjoying themselves? They might be enjoying the seals, they enjoying the selves in a different way, But I was quickly able to be like, let's keep playing like I you know, just and it was it felt good to be that way. Um, but I do man, I take I take it serious. I've never missed the

sound check my whole career. I've never missed a sound check. Um. I'm super I'm I'm super locked in when the show's even going on while I'm entertaining, and the next day I'll be like, hey, you know, brod are you you You didn't? You didn't you didn't play the five chord on the on the fourth bar of the course last night, the second course, you know whatever. You look at me and be like, yeah I did. I'm like, no, you didn't. You missed it. You missed a note and you were

flat on the bend on the opening your lipstick. I wasn't. Yeah you were uh you know, Dusty played the I'll record all the shows and we played the board back and well listen, I'll be right there and I'll go all right, you know, I got you. And then he'll be like were you paying attention to that? And I'm like, so, I'm super hyper focused with stuff like that, because man, I just I think about being a great band. The bands and inspired me. Man, I just how amazingly locked

in they were on stage. And I also think about so many of these people. That's why I never I've seen through strep throat a million times I've gotten early on my career, I was always sick from all the travel, and I wasn't sleeping. I was all is sick. You know. I won't canceled shows. I'm sure I'll probably they will come a time when I just physically can't do them one day. But I try to sing through everything. M I. These people, you know, some of them are making minimum

ways and they've been saving up for this show. They've been saving for months and looking forward to this show. And I can't just go out and go through the motions. Man, I gotta give them everything we got. And that's the only reason that during that law, because radio is so huge for any artists. Any artist's line when they say they don't want to be played on the radio and something all the big guns, Tom Petty Merle Haggard was like, I'm just dying for one more hit, you know, towards anybody.

You know, everybody wants to be heard by the masses, you know what I mean. I mean that's you want your songs to be heard, doesn't mean that you're setting out if you get heard by the masses. That's there's been so many of our favorite songs we've sing along with our whole life. They weren't sell out songs. They

were just amazing songs. And you're always willing to write that amazing song like a song like guitar Man, and you're hoping that it gets heard by your fan base, yes, but you're hoping that it gets heard by millions of others that never had a chance to hear your music. You know, that's a special thing. Righting down the road and hearing your song on the radio. Man's that's a powerful thing. Um. So I can't remember what the hell

we were talking about. Oh yeah. So for me, it's just like, you know, I just look at it like the way we poured ourselves and the way we were so attended to detail and trying to give every ounce of ourselves every night during those you know, up until kind of running for you, but more with this song is kind of this song is kind of the first time that I'm really having some momentum since Pretty Girl. But our fan base is tripled in size through this lull where a lot of people the minute that radio

is gone, artists is dead in the water. And that's just the fact. Um. But we I think because we've prided ourselves so much on that live show and staying authentic to ourselves that we've we've been able to thrive during this downtime. Let me play this new song here, so right now when you hear this, you can hear this in a year from now, and this won't be the new song, but right now more girls like you got mad? And what part of the process did you

record this song? I recorded this, uh back in December, early December. Um, that was that was Josh Miller, um singing a piece of that course a line from that course, Um, he said. Uh. All he had was want to reach for the bright of stuff, set it on a ring, put it on your hand. That was kind of all we had. And then it was like we had the melody,

but that was on the only line. And then I just kind of went straight into that and then I started playing that acoustic riff that you're here in the beginning, and then the melody I immediately was like, you know, I haven't living like go out old Mustang Montana Fields, and I was just kind of singing about my life. And we didn't quite know where the song was going at that time, but I could tell by the line he said, you know I want to read for the

body star and sell in the ring. Well, all right, well we're talking about, you know, finding that right person. So then it was me talking about my life in that opening verse, and uh, I've been living like a wild on the monton. The fields mattered me a bad irritation and never stopped these wheels. And that was just kind of like, you know, I might have heard the grumbles of different things about the way I live or whatever, but it was like, you know, I just keep going

on about it. But I was trying to find a way, in an interesting way to get to what he was saying. And then we just we started flying with that, me and Josh and David Garcia and Steven Lee Olsen. May I listen to that song in the first line again, I've been living like a wild old Mustang out of Montana Fields might earn me a bad reputation. That never stopped these weeks from rolling and going too far, from from going and rolling too far, running and gunning a

little too hard, so unrained, so untamed. I was just picturing and I had the image in my head I was pictured in Montana is one of my favorite places. I just I love the people of Montana so much. I love being out there. And I was just picturing this wide open range in my head that I've seen as we've passed through Montana on the bus, and picture in this wild horse that you can't quite And that was the image. And I'll ride around. Image is a

whole lot. I'll get an image in my head and then I'll ride around how that pertains to my life and that So that was in my head as I sped out that first set of verses. Is that you you feel like that you like that? First? Yeah's man, I mean it's I know that I've been aloof and hard to rain in, and I know it many times. I've I've had a lot of people that I've really you know, you know, not a lot. I don't even

know why. Hell, I just said a lot. I've I've gotten close to a couple of people and in my journey along this whole thing, and I know that I've I've been tough to rainy and like I know that about myself. I've been so just trying to go after this thing so hard and that it's just it's taken up all my attention. Talking about Blue Apron for one second, I love Blue Apron, you know, I do the show from my house and coincidence to Lee, that is where

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Also go over and to make sure you have a Bobby Cast at the end of that Blue Apron dot Com slash Bbby Cast because check out this week's men you get your first three meals for free with free shipping Blue Apron dot Com slash Bobby Cast. And you know, I don't even know how to cook. I don't either. Welcome to the club of not knowing how to cook and so there's a card and that teaches you how to do it. They have all the recipes are preportioned. They show you exactly how to do it. B B B.

If I can do it, you can do it. So Blue Apron, you love how good it feels, and I get a taste create incredible home cooked meals. Blue Apron dot com slash Bobby cast Blue Apron is a better way to cook. All right, So I want to talk about give me one second, Bobby's bathroom. All right, Ki is gonna go to the bathroom, go to my bathroom. Yeah, we're gonna keep it. We're gonna keep rolling. So you just go for it. The rule of this is we

don't stop the tape and we don't edit. So I believe this is the first time ever that anyone has had to go to the bathroom. I think Jaco and had to go, but he didn't say they held it the whole time. That's funny. So he happens in my bathroom minute ago, and he walked and he was like, I also a single man, because there's just it's just so I like temporary glasses in there because I have a bunch of um different kind of glasses, and he

was like, yeah, I get it. I get it. And I was like, you're the actually the first person that's ever because I didn't mean my bathroom door with Cole here the other day my bedroom door. And my bedroom is right next to this studio, and we have a bathroom that's actually in the studio. But it's like a toilet and there's no soap, and there's like boxes of books. It's kind of a storage room with a toilet. And so anyway, keeps in my bathroom right now. And here,

let's hear that little something from kit Moore. Here, let's see how about something by a truck? Here we goundress and there you go. So he's coming back. It's beautiful. Did they come out you guys? Yeah? Like that bathroom? Huh it is? I told you I'm a single dude, and it looks like mine. I can't I can't hate on you that. But you got a record player just like mind and there, man, I love that freaking thing. I got two of those in my house, like one

upstairs and one down. What's uh? What do you let's say you go home tonight, what are you gonna put on? Right now? I have I got a Dan Vogelberg album on there right now, But I had a James Taylor on the night before. UM had an old deal dealing record. Um. Yeah, A tough day. You tell me what song you put on? Yeah, A tough day. It's a tough day. Uh, Stolen Car Bruce Springsteen. Man, because that song just rips your heart out,

That's what it does. Song just completely And I like to a lot of people it's funny, man, Like I'll meet people who like, you know, whenever they're broken hearted or wherever they're going through a bad time. I don't want to listen to anything, you know, sad like I just I want to get my you know, I like tapping into that part of my soul. I don't. I don't try to run from it. Like I like tapping into it and getting it out there from the river swowing near the little bod. It's so honest. The song

is so honest, man. It's we got married and we swore we never part, but a little by little, you know, it's it's he's singing sorrows him and any Lennox and and uh, I think he sings sorrow better than anybody than me. It's I love tapping into that. Man. That's interesting to say singing sorrow because when I think of singing sorrow, I think of Michael Stipe. Do you think of who Michael Stype from? R m oh Man, I think I think about sorrow singers. That's that's an interesting concept. Sorry,

like who're the best sings sorrow? So well, man, um uh, what's the song I'm thinking about? Man? That's um oh gosh. In that movie Love actually um when she finds out finally finds out that he's that that he's having an affair with the young girl at the office, and there's that song that's I know the artist and I'm all of a sudden, I'm I have the soundtrack up Dido Johnie Mitchell, that's who sings that. Yeah, I mean both

sides now? Is this song incredible? Lyric If this song doesn't move you, then there's something wrong, like with your soul. There's something missing. And rowls of Angela, the nice cream castle and feathered canyons everywhere looked with clouds that wind, but now the only block the sun. It's just about you can hear emotion. She's talking about she used to look at clouds being these beautiful things, and now how I look at him after heartbreak. They only block the sun,

you know, they bring the rain. It's like, what a amazing way to write about that topic. And that's how she does the whole song. Man. I just I like to tap in then that stuff when I'm feeling that way. I mean, she sings sorrow the best, simply the best. You're interesting guy to me because you've done a lot of different things. And you mentioned earlier you had scolar ship. You're a good athlete as a kid, So you want to play ball. I'm assuming you play golf. You're guard? Yeah, man,

I was. I was a point guard and yeah, man, I still have that trash talking to me when I go play. Did love it? Yeah? I loved it. I didn't love golf. I played golf because I looked up to my dad so much. Um. He was an amazing man that he was tough. He was really tough growing up. Um. I have so much appreciation for him in so many unique ways now. And as he got older, he softened, and as we got older we learned how to handle him too. But growing up as a kid, he was

the single most blunt human being ever met. He's a dying breed. I mean he would shoot you so straight. And he would talk to a six year old the same way he would a thirty year old. There was no difference. And he didn't know how to sugarcoat stuff. Um, so that was really tough as a kid. I could score thirty five in a game and come home and I would only hear about the mistakes that I made. And he was an incredible athlete. He was a three sport,

you know, college athlete. He was pro golfer. My granddad was a pro golfer. My great granddad was a pro golfer. I never played golf. I never had any desire to, and he never pushed me to play. He never tried to put a club in my hand. My middle brother was an All American at golf um and I had only like, you know, dabbled in it when I was

a kid. If I went out there to beat the golf course with him, and you know, the little you know, it's a little, tiny little club in our little hometown, and and uh, you know, I might go out there and ride at three withow with him, and while he picked up balls, I might hit a couple but I never actually played until I quit baseball in my junior year and I was just waiting on basketball season, so it was my junior kind of going into my junior summer.

In my senior year is about to start, and I was like, you know, I had a couple of fans on the golf team. I mean, I'm just gonna go hang out with the end the day I hit a few ball, I was gonna see my dad out there, and I was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna see if I can play this game kind of thing when I'm waiting on basketball season to start. And I remember being on the range and hitting and he came up behind me, and he always made me nervous because I was always

trying to make him be proud. And that still translate that translator over the music big time. Um. But I can remember him standing beside me, behind me. He didn't say a word like five minutes, and I was like, what is the thing was he doing making me nervous? And I was kept hitting balls and he finally kind of walked up beside me and looked at me. And he was an intimidating guy too. He's a big just stack dude, and he he looked at me and he so, I'll be damn. He said, your swing was ship when

you were a little kid. I don't know what's happened, but you have one of the you know, the most perfect plane and swings that I've seen. And it was I couldn't believe I was getting a compliment like that from me. So I became a maniac all of a sudden. That's all I did. Next morning, I was out there at seven am, and I was there until dark, hitting balls all day. And in one summer, you know, I basically was playing for four months and by the end of that summer, I was shooting the sixties. This was

a maniac with it. And he was just always like he'd come out there when I was hitting. He was like, man, you keep doing this, You're gonna be something in this game, like you can play. So it just was all of a sudden, I wasn't even think about that. But I never loved the game. It was just I could play. I could really play. So it's a horrible putter. But uh, and he would boy, he would shoot you straight with

that um but um. But I still took my basketball shop ship and I wanted to do that for a while, and then I eventually just I wanted to see what I could do in that game. And I wanted to do it because he was always talking about when I go home many if you you know, and you know, if you're going out and play with the golf team, and if you're going to any balls. He was excited

about how good I was. So I found myself being like a psychopath with practice, and I quit basketball and I put all my focus on that for like two or three years, and then when that was done, I'm just completely quit. I never really played anymore. I just kind of stopped. Every now and then, like you know, I'll talk a little trash to Jaco or somebody and be like, man, you can't play. I got here and play. Yeah, he's good, you know. I don't know. I've never played

with Jake, but I teased with him. I went and did this thing for Lady a couple of years ago, and he was he was chipping around. You know, Jake's just dressed at the dime, you know, he he looks the fart out there and I saw him chipping and I was just trying to mess him. I was like, man, you got a little hitch in your back swing right there. You're not quite on plane either, really, you know, am I not taking it back far? I could get this guy's head quick right here. Man, I get destroying just

in the middle game. But he had a good swing. Jake had a good swing. I've heard, I hold, I've heard Coults a real baller, and I could, you know, And me and Colt were actually we both we love Jake and we we were both kind of teasing with Jake, you know. Colt was kind of, you know, being like, oh, man, I'll take Jake's money. Man, when it comes out of money. He can't, he can't get it done. So but I've heard, you know, coult played on nationwide tour, and that's you

gotta be a player to play on that. I mean, there's some really good players out there. What are you trying to stay with your music? Now? Like, what are you trying to say with your music? I don't have like a you know, people ask me what is your sound and what are you like? I don't have a specific thing that I'm trying to say. I'm just always trying to be authentic in my emotions and transparent with the the place that I'm at at that time of

my life, and we get pressed all the time. We gotta send you, gotta sing to the younger females as want to buy other records, and I've always just been like, man, horseship man, I'm not doing that. I can get up there and try to make the same record over and over just so i can. Man, I've seen what we've been building in an authentic fashion, and I believe it's because I have stayed true to myself and I think

that people are smart enough to see that. And I'll never make the same record twice like I'll keep I want to. I want this record to be a stage of where I'm at my life right now, and you'll see that in the songs. You know. Um, And I'm not gonna try to stay relevant just by reaching that younger demographic like I'm gonna. I want my audience to grow with me in life as I'm growing. And there's

not a specific thing I'm trying to say. It's just happening to certain things, like you know, like like more girls like you. That was a very honest depiction of where I was at kind of in that week in my my my thought process, you know, with just I'm him er. I was watching a dad with his daughter out in the ocean, like a three weeks before I wrote that song, and and um trying to teach her how to surf, and he couldn't serve himself and he

was probably not teaching the right things. And she's been trying for two hours and couldn't get up, And so I paddled over to her, and she was probably nine ten years old, and uh, and I just sat out there with her for like forty five minutes and taught her how to surf. And with within this forty five minutes, she was getting up every time she was riding at great and she was so excited. And it just it just where that door has always been shut, I find myself.

And it's not a maturing thing. It's just that my life has changed. I'm seeing things differently now. So it was just kind of I felt myself internally a lot more open to that balance in my life. And I don't need to be such a maniac with just the music because there's so much more. And I look forward.

I look forward to that. I look forward to having a little girl and having you know, a wife and I'm crazy about, you know, one day and and have a place here I write song, but also have that place over there now and when we can go hang out and stay and I can teach them both how to surf and hang out, like I look forward to that. So, I mean, that's just where my head was at day.

So that's what I wrote about. If my head is there in that place, I ain't gonna write about some bullshit about you know, just going party and or whatever. You know that I'm not. I'm not, you know, gonna do that just to hopefully have a a radio hit that relates to these people over here. Like I'm gonna write what's what I'm feeling at that time. I feel like, yeah, a lot to say. I feel like we can talk like three hours here too. We already talked for over hours.

It feel like that we really, oh yeah, over our I thought we've been here for like tyty minutes. I didn't. You don't even realize that I'll be charge you for the therapy bill. You're you're good at it, man, Like you know, a lot of times we have to do interviews where it's, first of all, it's not even conversation doesn't my just reading cute cards and points and it's yeah, man, I mean like this is I can do this. Man. To be fair, I have the benefit of one knowing

you better. Now. I don't need any pint, any paper. I have nothing under in front of me. Um. It's easier. It's easier when you know what's going and I don't even know, like I don't even I feel like I learned a lot about you in the Lives album. So I appreciate the time, and I can't wait. I can wait with the record to come out, like there as long as I've never ever heard before you're talking about like, let me take that car coming I went right the

other day. Man, I've been talking about that. Man, I just I've never felt anything like that. Dude, that was insane. I just didn't know what car could do that. Yeah, my car goes fast, think fast. I appreciate that. White episode is my So record comes out because there was a debate every there were two dates when up September September eight, record comes out because past Ittember as you

can check it out. Guitar man is I'm looking forward to hearing I'm not even gonna hear it till the record comes out, Like, I don't listen to music early because I like to listen to a lot people here for the most time, So I'll be waiting for September eight. Unless that's one of the bonus tracks. They'll be vinyl, so you'll have to like spend take a night, man, and pop it on your vinyl player. I appreciate the talk, A good one, all right, gip more episode six eight sixty.

That's Bobby Cats. Thank you very much, and we'll see you next time.