9-20: Bobby Cast Ep. 9 (Ryan Hurd)

I came when I started writing songs in Nashville was just to be a song So you came just to be a songwriter. Well, I came here to go to college. Okay, So here's all I do. I want to start with today and make a full circle. So that's how we'll do this interview. By the way, Ryan Heard is here, and I hope that you will check out his music because I'm a fan. I was playing him before he

even knew that I was gonna play it. We do us is this song here I'm bad at We do We go together like cheap Champagne and you can pull the baby And now I think that's the jam. And I thought that was a jam before. Ivn't knew that, you know, you would even be in the house because I played it and you had no idea I was gonna play it on the radio. So I woke up and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get these songs ready.

And we do this thing where we mix like cool up tempo music and it's usually like Young MC and a coolio and like some old garth and I was like, man, we gotta throw we do us in there because that's long as like that's the jam, and so we play it and so you know, you have riders hours and artist hours, so listen. I wouldn't wake up and listen to my show if I'd have to wake up three in the morning, Like, ain't no way that be happening. So you weren't awake, I'm assuming when it played. No,

I was telling Mike. I was like, yeah, we I listened to the show when I'm up before ten o'clock or moving before ten o'clock. But so once a month or so, I'm generally an early dude. But just lately we've been back on the road and that's a lot of a lot of a lot of movement. So we've been I've just been tired. But yeah, just my phone started erupting, and that was cool. And then everyone's like,

turn on the radio, turn on the radio. And I've never had I've heard other songs I've written on the radio, but never my song on the radio. So so it really it was the first time to hear your own voice singing a song. Oh yeah, it really was. Day. I didn't know that. That's cool man, thank you very much. So I would have thought if my phone was erupting that I was late to something or there had been some tragedy. Yeah, that was it. So you thought, oh,

something's going on. Yeah, and I don't have a radio in my house. So I ran out to my car and I, um, I just yeah, I got a new place, and I don't even think I had I wouldn't have had a radio and old places either, but uh, just in my car, that's all I listened to. So I ran out there and missed it by like two seconds. So but then I played it like five weeks straight

and then I caught it eventually. I haven't went to my boss and I said, and I said, hey, this Ryan heard guy like, because he's the head of the entire country format him and I maybe for thirteen years, through me doing rock, through me doing pop, through me doing alternative sports country like him and I have been together forever. So we had this this great trust and I don't go down very often and say like this

is for real. And I went to I said, hey, this Ryan heard guy like I don't know if this is a single, I don't know, but like he's for real. And I remember having a talk with him about that day. So I just kept throwing the song in and then I mean, this isn't a single, right, we do us like this is just the person you put out there. Maybe it's a single, Like no, well, here's our plan. This is we're gonna put out one song a month.

For the next we're gonna do it four times. Uh. And just I want to build a story and I want to have music out there to tour on because once you hit that radio button, like that's it. You can't really put anything else out there until that one goes away veils or climbs until a great spot. Yeah.

And so like we're I have a lot of touring commitments over the next six months, and I'm like, I can't go out there and tour on nothing, so we just I don't know what we thought about putting out an EP, and I've already done that and pulled it um and and I love the music we made on that, but it just felt like everyone was doing an EP, and so it felt cool too. I don't know, get to go and do a song a month and see

how each one of them goes. And I love the single mentality though too, like you're doing because you know, in my limited experience putting out a couple of records, we did a comedy record and we did kids record. Like I would rather put out a song every for many weeks or months to of like thirteen at one time, because people don't like consume stuff like that anymore. Yeah, And I think the fun part about doing one at a time is like now the digital stuff, like the

digital platforms just let you do it. You don't have to plan that much in advance. You can just be like, you know what, this is cool, let's put it out if we want to. We can get it out in two days, which is a really really amazing thing about like the like music becoming more of a democracy. That's the good thing. The bad thing is you don't get paid.

That sucks about And I tell people if he's like an artist by the download even though the downloads like download song with such a streaming like really just keeping it real because I'm making a crap off streaming. No, it's hard. That part's hard, and it's hard because it's it's sort of like if you an artist in my position, and just to be completely honest is like you don't want to bite at this level, like bite the hand that feeds you. Well, streaming sucks and but lesson, I'm

an artist has song up there streaming too. But streaming will get fixed. That's the thing. The Internet is a wild, wild West right now, and I'm on the inside watching the legal part of it too. There's just no rules right now, and we're fighting for rules. And you know, you guys as writers, and you're a writer and a performer, so you're on both sides. You get publishing and you're also getting you know, the artist part of it as well. One of our best friends fights for songwriter's name is

Lee Thomas Miller. That's my dude, like my favorite dude, like one of my best friends. So he goes and he fights against me in Congress and then he comes to my house and we write funny songs together. So but the Internet is such the wild wild West right now that it will fix itself. I think it has to if you want to have professional songwriters going forward. They cultivated absolutely right. So you put, oh, here's my very first Ryan heard story. Um, I didn't know Ryan.

And I saw Ryan walking in the back of bridge Stone. Maybe it was c M A No, was it CMR A c M awards? Well maybe seeing so many of these, well, I don't know. We're walking back at Santon I saw right. I was like, oh, I don't. I'm the guy that's awkward and I don't want to approach anybody because I always felt like a bother them. And I saw Ryan walking, I was like, want to tell I'm a fan of him, but I don't want to bother him because he's walking,

he's kind of by himself. And so I am a believer that if you're a fan of someone, you should always tell them. Now it's up to them how they react, and if they're with their kids or they're eating food, don't But other than that, if you're a fan of them, go and tell them. And I walked up to you, and I was nervous and I was like, I don't know if you remember this, even remember the whole, And I was like, hey, dude, I just want you to

know I'm a huge fan of what you do. And the rest was kind of a blur to me, because like when you talk to a pretty girl and you gotta don't remember what they say. Next I remember, you'll be very nice to me, and I'm very appreciative of that because I am a huge fan. And so I want to play a little bit of the new song here. This is the hook of loving a Bar and so anything you want to say about this one before I play it. Man, I could talk about a lot about this.

I mean, I'm making a record right now. And the first two I had so much material and it didn't connect in any way. And then I wrote I got this song back. I wrote it with my friend Jelly Hide, who is an incredible guitar player and artist and writer, and he made me write the song that day. I didn't want to write, and I was like, I want to go home, I want to do something else, and

he's like, no, you gotta sit and finish this today. Buddy, he's like my best friend, and uh, he did the demo and it came back and just made so many songs makes sense. And then the same thing that we do us when we got that back, it made all of the poppy or stuff makes sense. And so that's a cool part about getting to make a record is tying it together. But man, it it's it's a It's

a pretty intimate song to me. It's like those moments that you find yourself like going and like going out of your way to see somebody and and not necessarily consciously doing it. And it just that title was in my head for so long, Loving a Bar, Loving a Bar, and I think it was just from watching a movie

or something, But I love it. Like the melody is powerful and the lyric is really intimate and cool and and honest, and uh yeah, I just it feels like track one, you know what I mean, A bar Thanks. It was that single like s She's smoking Now we can't back was saying town that. Yeah, that dude, I love rock and roll too, And that's part of this getting I feel like not a lot of people are

doing that kind of rock and roll. They're not because they're scared too quite frankly, and rock and roll is awesome and it's part of just the culture of America. It was a sick rolling parts like s smoke. Do you have trouble listening back to yourself? Or do you? Are you cool with it? Uh? If it's good? Yeah? Okay? So you wrote that one after cant your friends like, hey, stick around? Where did you write we do Us? So that's I wrote that with my friend Mikey Reeves and

my friend Laura Belts and Laura wrote yeah. So Laura wrote Drunk last Night for Eli Young band and she wrote uh, Lonely Eyes Chris Young songs. She wrote three songs on Marion's record, and we've always been really close just personally, and we've written a lot of songs together and have a couple of things together, cuts together than whatnot. But it was her title and that's her singing and sing that's Laura singing, that's launching. That's not Marin singing.

It sounds just like Maren singing. Everyone thinks that's do you know that everyone thinks that's Marion singing? Do they really? Everyone thinks that's Maren going? Oh, that's Laura. Mike, who do you think everybody I've talked to thinks that's Maren. I mean, I love singing with Maren. I miss it a lot, but I'm away, okay, But think about this though.

So Laura Belts wrote for Maren. With Maren she wrote Rich, which is like I love Rich, and she wrote I could use a love song, and she she wrote, that's two on the man? Are three on that one? One? More? Help me out, Laura, I can't believe that's not Marin. I'm blowing a White's No, she sings on a couple other She'll sing on a couple of other things on my record. But that's crazy, like a little bit of mind blown there. So you wrote you have those two?

So did you write anywhere special in Mikey studio? I think it might be Mikey's first like major cut in country music here in Nashville. He's just really cool, hetty dude who like is really into like the existential quality of every piece of the song. And I just he produced that with my friend Aaron s His who I grew up with and as my producer. But callumas in Michigan, and so you guys really grew up together. Calumazo and he's here and he's you guys are working. We came

here together like ten years ago. Yeah. He went and did audio stuff at Belmont and I went and did my sociology degree. And that's something I wanted to touch on. Like as we go around the circle here, So you came to Nashville to be a sociologist. No, I came to Nashville to not be at home anymore. Fair enough for point one. Then what was the other reason you

came to Nashville. I wanted to. I mean, I just my mom took me to colleges and we came to Belmont, and I love I just loved Nashville and I wanted to be in Nashville. And we went to the school and I was in a band my first year, and I was like, I don't want to do that anymore. Rock and roll band. Yeah, And then I just said I want to do school. And I found the professor that interested me, and like, I loved doing the sociology stuff. I liked the challenge of it, and I liked reading

a lot. I still like to read a lot. And then I did an econ major two at the end because I did so much summer school I had a lot of time, and then I just killed myself to get out, like basically to get done with in time in four years. And then I got out of school. Were you doing music the all time or now? No? I didn't do it for like three years. Wow. Wow. And then I got out of school and I was gonna go to graduate school and I just couldn't pull the trigger. I was like, I just for some reason

can't do it. And I wanted to go to Michigan and it just wasn't the right thing. And I never could. You know when you're like you know what you're supposed to do something when you're not. And I just didn't do it. Did you feel the calling to come to Nashville maybe like in your heart that you didn't know it subconsciously because of the music? Well, I grew up making music with their in Kalamazoo, So yeah, I think

we wanted to be here to be around music. And he went and did became the producer engineer guy, and he's brilliant at it and he's the hardest worker I've ever met. And then I got out of school and it just didn't have anything to do. I like, I had a job I moved to Montgomery, Alabama for six months to drive my friends flatbed truck to pick up used vegetable oil. And then I went and made bio diesel with it and UK. Basically I didn't know it.

I didn't know I was cooking meth. But I went in and like filled up like a huge construction equipment with it, and that was my job. And I was figuring it out, and I just was like, I gotta go back to Nashville, Tennessee. So you came to Nashville. You studied sociology. Do you have a degree in sociology? Did you so you finished? Oh? Yeah, so you could be a teacher. You could you have a college room, you go teach sociology to high school if you wanted to.

I could. I would be terrible at it, but yeah, I try to do that. That's crazy. So you do that. You moved down and you know you're delivering you know, shampoo too. I don't know. So you're down there, you're doing that and you're like, Okay, I can't do this. Did you know you couldn't do it because of music or did you know you just couldn't know? I knew I wanted to write songs, I think at that point, and I knew I wanted to write songs with Aaron,

and I moved back up and I started. I was like, and here's the thing, and this is how everybody gets into country music, I think. And you're like, how hard could that be? Like how hard could it be to write a great country song? And you just start doing it and you start doing it. And I lived in a house with these guys that I went to school with who are not into country music at all, and they just saw me go like I just said, he

wanted to do country music and he's doing it. And they didn't like the music I was writing, but they were really cool about it. Like I'd be in the middle of the day just like plucking away at these songs that weren't very good that I thought were great with Aaron and Joey Hyde and Matt McGinn, and they just were cool with it. And they'd be like, what did you do the damn? I play it for him and that's cool. But we just kind of put our heads down and said, I want to write we want

we want to write country songs. Did you realize it probably is a lot harder than thought it was gonna be. It's impossible. It's it's still impossible. Like you, you don't understand how I say this all the time, Like you never once you get your foot in there, you realize how difficult it is to like it's the loneliest thing ever to try to get your foot in the door here.

And I always tell people to like find your people, like, don't ask, don't find somebody who has a lot of success, and that's them to write, because you're not gonna write their best song, and they're not gonna help you write your best song. It's like you you find people that are like minded, because it's so lonely to like get good at this and to get in a spot where like people notice you that you got to have those people there to like keep you wanting to do it.

And we just kind of put our heads down and wrote songs and then made some demos, some really bad demos, and then came back and wrote some more songs and made some more bad demos and eventually like played some writers rounds and then got a little attention you talking about you know you're so I got a school out of school in two thousand and nine, and I signed my first publishing deal in two thousand and twelve, so he spent a couple two years basically getting good enough

to get my foot in the door. As you were riding in Nashville, did you have any jobs here to eat? Like? Oh, yeah, I worked at eating So I took my degree and I had this contract job. I always remember this. I did it even after I wrote started writing songs at this place on twelveth Avenue called you know, I did Methodist Communications and I did research for them from like eight am until eleven am when I had to go write and research. I wrote surveys and did stats work.

It was so boring. I had a desk. You're working at the desk, probably thinking the whole time, like I can't wait to get here to go actually do the job that's really gonna pay me nothing but hopefully will be my career. And then even after I got my deal, I was so nervous about actually making money like I am at Universal Publishing. But I signed there, I still kept the jobs for like three years. I'd go there

every morning. Yeah, because you're just terrified that as I'm still terrified, Like you still have to be terrified you're still You're like, oh my gosh, in any minute, all the with the creative at any minute, it could all go away. In any minute, it could all come a thousand pounds greatness too, But even that could go away, like I've just seen it happen to. So I've seen much smarter, more talented, funnier people that may not make it, and then I've seen people that have made it so

and then lost it all. And it's just a weird thing to be in a creative industry. But if we didn't love what we did with all of our hearts, and it wasn't our only option to do it, we couldn't when we wouldn't do it. And that's how I tell people all the time, So like, how do I be a comedian? And I'm like, well, that's what I do. I go up there and suck, but I love sucking. Well, let me repace that. I go there and I bomb, but I love bombing to the point where I get good.

And how do you know how you could be on the radio? How do you get I love it so much that you know there were there were twenty nine and jobs I did not get in radio before I got my like my first real one and now I have the biggest country show in in the United States. It's not because it's just because I just kept on the key. The keys, just keeping on and keep growing. Here's the song. This is the first one that I

knew from you and it was a monster too. So this is Lonely Tonight and this is Blake Shelton and one of my like I love Ashton Monroe like man like she was just a heart on her. It's so good. I voted for her for Album of the Year last year for CMA is just because whatever the for Blade, Yeah, I just I was like, what's the album of the year. I was like, well, that's the one I listened to

the most, so I'm gonna vote for that one. Music is great, But just as a person, I voted for her a quaint of England actually just a different election. But so Blake and Ashley had the song. But you wrote this with who my friend Brent Anderson two man, right, oh man, you get got got paid like crazy. Okay, here is Lonely Tonight. This is Ryan her uh we like, it's Blake and it's a big name and it's actually here's my story about this because I want to know

how this came together. But I was sitting at dinner and I don't keep a lot of artist friends because I like to be objective and if it's not good, I just can't go on the are and say it's good. And I was sitting with Ashley at dinner and it was just her and I and she was like, I've got this song and she goes, that's not mine, it's Blake's, but I'm gonna be on it. I just they just offered me that the duet to it, and it's called Lonely Tonight. She goes, it's so good, and she goes, man,

I hope that this is a single. She goes, because I feel so strongly about this song. And you know, Ashley is very traditional sounding, and she was like, it's a little not right up my alley, but it feels so good to do. And it was freaking Blake Shelton, like if Lke Sheldon wanted to do a farting duet. So um. She was like, I just feel so good about this song. And this says I don't know how many weeks before it ever came out, but she was telling me about it and then I remember hearing it

the first time, a going wow. So you this song comes and you you and you who wrote it with you? Brent Anderson. Okay, so tell me about where were you when you wrote this? Just wrote it in the writer's room kind of like kind of like this, and we wrote it and we were excited enough to show his publisher Segale, which is Brad Brad Paisley's publishing company, and we walked down and played for him and this is great,

this is great. And it wasn't originally a duet. There was this like weird like echo part which is where she sings now, but it was this really weird thing that we kind of Brent definitely wrote that part and uh we just like everything was cool about it except for that. I'm just kidding. I wrote that part. But there's this weird echo part. And we got to the studio to cut the vocal and I was like, dude, this is a duet. This space maision in the studio

to switch the song to duet. Yeah, Brent and I did, and we called our friend Sarah Hayes, who's an artist in town and a killer songwriter. She wrote She's on that Jennifer Nettles single right now and she wrote Carrie song She's fantastic. But she came in and we wrote that while she was on the way to the studio. We had to write the lyrics for it, which is like the really simple lyrics, and as the whole time we're cutting this vocal, I was like, is that too simple?

Is that too simple? And it turns out it's like the most accessible part of the song. And I'm really glad we made it a duet. So you made it a duet? Okay, So you guys cut the song. Did you know where it was going first? Now? Because uh all it got pitched to Warner over and over for Blake Shelton. I don't know how all this stuff always happens.

It's always in the dark to me. But Rebecca Gordon at Warner Brothers held it twice and showed Scott Hendricks, so they held it like maybe this will be a song. They let it go, then they held it again. They showed his producer Scott Hendricks again. He's like, I don't want that and then he gets empty. He gets directly MP three the song from a publisher like you gotta take a look at this song. If you haven't heard it's like no Scott Hendricks again. He's like, I love this.

How have I not heard this yet? Three times? And maybe it was just a computer he was on. I don't know. I don't know how this stuff works, you know, having like getting a song on a record is like getting like ten coin flips to go your way, and then getting it on the radio is like getting ten more. So that's the next step. Okay, So Blake says it's no longer on because there's the step of writing it. Then there's the step up a getting on a hole,

which means you're not on the record yet. Yeah. Holding a song just means you can't show this to anybody else you're not supposed to. I'm holding it. I got so I've got DIBs until I turn it down exactly. So at that point they had DIBs on it till they turned it down. Sure, But then you hear a lot of noise like we're definitely doing this. Okay, where'd that cover? Where did you hear first? And you know

it was Blake. He was like, I'm in Yeah, just the day that they were we knew the day they're going back into cut and then you know, as my friend Derek Wells plays guitar for all the Blake stuff, plays on almost everybody's stuff, and he, uh, he was texting me from the studio like cutting your song right now. But you knew, So I knew it was happening, like making a murderer. And inside you always have to have

somebody that you know, and at this point you know everybody. Yeah, I mean that's that was I mean, I've had my song cut by a lot of people. But when you have a name like that, that's like a that's no matter if it's on the radio or anyone even ever hears it. That's like you're a little piece of country

music history no matter what. So that and it gives you so much like validation and so much credibility, and you know you can get you can your publisher can go out and say, like Ryan just got a Blake Shelton cut. That's a huge deal, which gets you bigger rights and better rights and more. It's currency. It's exactly what it is. I mean, it's when you get it. So did you know Ashley Monroe was on this song?

And at what point? Actually I knew she was gonna be on it before because she called my publisher and I was like, can I write with the guys that wrote this song? So she ended up writing with me and Aaron, who's my producer, just and she talked about it the entire time. Who wrote a cool song that they too? Uh, But she talked about being on the song over and over and how how much it meant to her because she was just putting the blade out.

She hadn't quite yet and she had. You know, it's hard for someone who's like more of a traditional country music person to get on the radio a whole lot. It's just the way that it is. It always has been that way in the last ten years or whatever. So she was so excited. I don't know, I love Ashley. I've got to know where through it. And she's just a really gentle has like this gentle spirit that so cool, and she's so into what she does so like cuts

great songs. She's a great writer. But yeah, so that was I met her through that, through her hearing the song, I wanted to be on it, and then she we got to be friends through that, so that happens. They cut it. Now it's single time, okay, and everybody who cuts a song on any record they want to be the single. So where how in the world does this song get picked? And where were you they? So they put out Neon Light first, and uh, which is awesome. Did you think maybe it had a chance to be

They kind of whispered at it being a single. And also, if you see a record label a record company put out a duet with both partners on the same label, it means you don't have to go ask for single rights from another label, so it's a little easier for

them to just go put it right out. So because Blake and Ashley are on the same record label, it was kind of like they were setting it up not only as a single for him, but as sort of like a launch pad heard and so we kind of heard whispers the entire time that it would be second And then like three weeks before Neon Light went number one, they told us that it would be the single, and then they told us that like two weeks later, a week that they were dropping the single of the night

of the c m A Awards, and they were performing it on the c m A Awards. So we were all at a party. I remember, it was me a whole bunch of people, just friends that are writers, that are that do this with me, all sitting that it was tin roof across from the arena. There's a big party that some publishers throw and we watched it happened live on the broadcast, and then the next day it

went for ads. Surreal when you watched it. Yeah, I mean i'd I'd seen one time my song on TV before I had the Swan Brothers first single later on and they played it on the voice. I like those guys, but let's be real, that's not Blake. And actually, oh it was the voice, so it kind of was Blake. But no, I mean that's a that's a career highlight. I mean always were always you're sitting in the bar watching like and you know it's about to be the single too. And I had a guy talking to me

through it the entire time. He had no idea, he just was talking like we were having a conversation, and I'm watching the TV and I'm just like, not, I remember this. I remember him being right here. And then like halfway through the solo, he's like, oh, did you write this song? And I looked at it. I was like, yeah, it's like, oh, and he disappears, so then it goes and then it it's not just a hit. I mean it's a smash. Thank you so, and no that's dad.

I mean you're welcome. But I mean people loved it, and I mean it was you know, it was the country booty call song, like it really was. But I think it's something everybody like and people and people love Blake and it was one of his and he had so many number ones in a row. I'll ask you this person was the pressure there was gonna be? Maybe it is not first number one, even though it was a great song. You didn't you didn't want to run

the streak, you know, Yeah, I thought about that. And you don't realize how bad you want it until you're right there and you're like, man, when you have a song. And hopefully I'm old enough now to know, like not to live and die by this. But you're watching it and it gets up to three, and it gets up to two, and I remember talking to some people at Big Machine and they're like, we're going for a second week at Thomas Rhett and I forget which one it was.

It was the Ah, I can't remember. I'm blanking on two songs. I usually don't do that, but I remember being there, like, I can't believe they're going for a second week on this. No one ever does that. Nobody does it. It's always cleared and they're not fighting someone for a number one spot, right, and and so I just remember being like, how can you do that? This is my first one? Like like Scott boys Shadow would like that's goes into his thinking. It's like Ryan really

wants the number one. So but I remember watching it, and I remember they told me, like, we'll know what twelve sitting at too. He's at one. And you can kind of watch the media base. You can watch the charts in real time on the internet. In five minutes. I can watch them. Yeah, And so you watch it and you're like, I think we're gonna get it. I

think we're gonna get it. And then like the radio people call and they're like, we're calling this number one, we're calling this number one, and we'll know officially at midnight. And so I'm sitting there at midnight like cool, we'll no officially at midnight. And at midnight comes and I call my publisher and he doesn't pick up, and I call my other publisher and they don't pick up, and I call everybody and they're like, oh, yeah, we don't know until like five am. Just wake up in the morning,

we'll tell you coast. Yeah. So I was like I kind of was like losing my mind a little bit. It was crazy. And but you know, when you wake up and you do have a number one song, and so you and you go, but like you move here to get that's what you do, is you move here to have to be a hit songwriter and to have number one songs. And you know, I've been fortunate to have like everything that you could possibly have happened to you as a songwriter already happened to me. Like I've

had songs get old and let go. I've had songs, I've had songs get cut by great artists. I've had songs get on the radio and Diet fifty three. I've had songs get a top twenty, top fifteen, top ten, and then I have want to actually ring the bell is a miracle all it is. It's very cool. That's cool. Yeah, it's cool that he had to wait now it's cold, he had to wait like right then. Yeah, it makes you want another wing you know, and it's a better

story and it makes you appreciate it. That's awesome, man, I love that. Thanks, so I knew you've written that one. I'm gonna tell you the first time. Like I talked about friends, Dirks is a friend of mine. If I needed cash or a ride from six hours while, he would drive and pick me up and I would do the same for him. Like he's that good of a dude.

We're both low awkward, so we worked well together. So um, he was like, hey, I want to send you Black the album, and it's probably three months or so before it was out, and he's like, give me your honest feedback.

And I'm like, dude, if you say that, I'm going to because it's better to be honest than it is to be nice, because you know, with honesty you can always just trust with you if if I say something bad, I'm not bad for something like that's not positive about something, you can trust that when I say something good, I mean it. In my opinion isn't always right, and I always say that to like, an opinion is just what

it is. And with things in the creative world, if anyone says their opinion is right, then They're absolutely wrong. There is no universal right in anything creative. So I said, sure, send me black Love to hear it. Let's see what happens. He sends me right, D this I'll be the Moon song. Best song on the record, like does it? Like I know it will be the first single because it's uh to do it. But this is the best song on the record. But and I started thinking, like, whoever this song?

Where in the world is it? Because I wonder where people's minds are when they write songs like this, um and so this is a U. This is so I wrote I'll be the Moon. Uh, man, this song, this is the best song I think I've ever written. Would you say that? You would say that? Yeah? I mean, I don't know. That's just the one's I don't know, man, I can talk about it for a day. That's why it's hard to say one thing about it. Like, uh, I just first of all, this song we wrote in

like less than an hour. I wrote it with Heather Morgan and Matt drags drum like great throws out things she says songs, and I'm like, I would she says things in her songs that has I watched comedians. I would, I'm like, oh, I just thinking that I just couldn't say that, you know, things like that. Yeah, And so I don't know. I'm in the middle of I'm always thinking about like why we do this? Like wow, when we wake up in the morning, I'm like, is this

where I'm supposed to be? Is this like what I'm supposed to be doing? If it's writing songs, are cutting whatever, I don't know. And this song was like you have to write nine songs to get to this one, if that makes sense. And I sat down and Heather was late because she was doing traffic school on the internet. Yeah, and uh, Matt just sits down. He had that shuffle beat thing like like that I can't beat box, but it's like the sixth eight time thing. And I just

started playing this acoustic guitar. He's got this really cool like ringy acoustic like Gibson acoustic guitar, and his in his office. And Matt and I went to school together and we've been to Mexico to write songs and we're really close. And uh, I just started playing this finger picky thing and that's not usually what I do. And I just remember, that's that idea popped. That title popped in my head and it was like I'll be the moon.

And I don't know where it came from. People say like they fall out of the sky, and that was a moment where it did. So as you wrote this, it wasn't like you having a story of you being the other dude, or you being the dude with another dude or I don't know, man, no it's not I think, yeah, and that's there's a lot of music that I've written it is so dark. I think there's a difference between real songs and true songs, like it might not be all the way true, but it also is so real.

And that's a story that people have, and it's a story that I don't know. It's like the thing where you want what you can't have, and that's a really difficult thing. And man, a lot of that stuff is just I mean, like loving a bar and all this other stuff like yeah, that's my life, like like that's how Mary and I got to know each other. We've known each other for three years writing songs, but you know, like we you know, when we're starting to see each other.

It was like it was in a bar and it was I know, the bar and oh yeah, that was a that was a pretty that's a pretty true story. Word for word. It that I heard the first time I heard I'll be the Moon, like I don't again, like you said, I don't know that feeling, but there are certain songs that go deeper than just like the epidermis of the same and it's just like, oh, man, like it's a dude, and he's like, I know that I can't be your main one, but I love you

so much that i'll be. I'm okay with being your second one because I have that much for you, and I hurt for him and I don't even know who he is. It's like I'll take everything that you can give me, even if it's not everything. And I just remember, like Heather are shaping the second verse and it's it's you know, it's like when she has to leave the bar and it's like phone lights up in the dark, gotta go, I know, but it's still ain't easy. And

that's when I wrote it. It It wasn't a duet. That was definitely not a duet, and I cut it for my record and then you know, if it wasn't Dirk Spentley, it wouldn't come out on anybody else. It just I didn't have a deal at the time for the song right for Heather and Matt's sake too, especially, It's like you cannot turn down Dirk s Bentley, and I don't think there's an artist artistically that I would have wanted to do that song other than him, just because that'll

be such incredible, man. I hope so if it's not who I mean, and I say this for me is not my money, but people are people that that is probably the most powerful song on that record, and I hope he finds some sort of like awesomeness inside of that. Oh I do, And I hope. I don't sound like I'm like upset about that. I'm thrilled we were. That's a that's my I texted Dirks about it. I was like, dude, this is gonna get a lot of love album wise, like and he is. He's nominated Album of the Year

for CMAS. But do you wish you would have kept it? Uh No, I don't feel like that. I don't feel like I wish it was different. I feel like it's I'll tell you the story. So I cut it for my record. I put out a five song EP in town. I never put it on the internet. I put it out as a fourth song EP because Dirk's recorded it, and when I record are recording, I'm not I'm not

trying to sound at all. It's great, literally, I know, I just it's it's so hard because you talk about it's a it's a. It's literally the best recording of that Aaron and I've ever made, and we love it so much. And Marion sings on that one too. She sang on my whole thing on the original. Yes, so she's singing on the original master that I don't think Dirk's a Ross ever heard. They heard the demo of it. We're Heather singing on it, which is its own, it's

its own thing. It's it's beautiful, it's so cool. But our version that we cut was like this thing that was so has so many swells, and Marion singing on it with me, And then when Dirk's cut it, and then I remember Marion had just started getting she got to deal with Sony and she's getting moving and everything is happening for her and she's getting a lot of really great attention, and all of a sudden we were sitting at a bar in February Melrose on Eighth Avenue

and we had a beer and both of us had like a dark day. I don't remember what it was, but we were sitting there and we were talking and she had a beer and I had a beer, and her phone was in between us. And this is kind of funny too, but it it's up and it's just a number that she doesn't know, and it it says, Hey, Marion, this is Dirk Spentley. I got your number from Corn cap Shaw all all of your managers because I have this song that i'd love for you to consider singing

with me as a duet. It's on my new record. Would you mind if I said no? She didn't know. She had no idea that it was already like you and her, she'd already sang it. He had no idea that she knew the song, or that she her and I had started seeing each other, and we're sitting there and she we looked at each other. It was like right in between us is obviously I read it. And uh so she looks at me and she goes, I bet that's your song, and I was like, I bet

that is my song? And two seconds later, an email comes up and it's just says it says Dirk Spentley at the top and just says, I'll be the moon. Crazy dude, universe. Dude, that's the universe. And so she like, I don't know, she gets asked every day to do stuff like that, but that's the first person that asked her to do I think the first person that asked her to do something, and she immediately was like, of course I'll do it. She turned me down to do

Ony record. She was one of the only she turned me and I was cool with the two, but she turned me down sounds like, um oh, because I'm a huge fan, Like I was like, Maridolyn do whatever. The only people that turned it down with my ex girlfriend and that was her personal reasons, and Carrie Underwood filled her spot. And then Marion turned me down for a song and I'm still that was, yeah, I'm still sure

you'll have your chance. I'm a huge I'm gonna call Dark by the way, let's see if he even answers, because that was that's such a cool story, myself, phone out. Let's see the darks answers here. Um, let's know that we got it. Hey, maybe with the kids hate calling this late? Doesn't he number one right now? Yeah? Girls, he's probably probably telling them that's ways he thinks you're calling.

But that's crazy that you were with her when you get the Texas and hey, Marina, you should sing this song and those songs she already knew and it was her, dude, and she'd already sung the Master with me the first time. It's you know, the cool part is that, like we've her and I have made music together for the last two years. We were friends. We had other people that week. You guys were way friends before you did it. Like you guys, we're songwriters and just and we wrote. You

have cuts with other people together. And she's got have a song on her record and she has one on my song on her record. I wish I was, Oh dude, that's a jam. Yeah, And it's the first song that she held as an artist. We wrote it, which is to me, I don't know, I love being a part of it. Let me ask you about that song because watch in my head, illsto actually driving back down here. So that song to me, I wish I was because

you know, I'm a huge mari and fan too. Yeah, of course okay um and so I wish I was. It was like a song about someone who wishes they could be with the other person wants them to be, but they can't. Yeah, it's like I wish that I could still love you, but I can't, and I kind of feel bad about the fact that I can't still love you, but I just can't do exactly. I relate to that song because I've had some I've had that awesome girl. That's one of those songs that I like.

A few songs speak to me, am I life seven right, songs really speak to me. John Mayer stopped this train speaks to me. You know, there are songs. Walker Hayes has a new song called The Comedian. Yeah, that sounds so good talking about Walker forever. Walker is like my I mean again, you like your girlfriend does. It's oh dude, but your girlfriend does. Yeah, that's my that's one right. I was trying to Damn. I was trying to write

that song like two weeks ago. I was like, man, I was like, we should get This is a terrible idea. And I told mar and she's like, that's the stupidest idea. It's like we should get uh t shirts that say your girlfriend loves we do us and that's a terrible idea. But like the next week he came out with that that song, which is perfect exactly. I could never grace project both the EPs, and you know, I played them on the air and I'm like, you, guys, this is

the next level. Okay, every program director can be mad at me for playing it, but you know I started out with where my Shade Dead? That was part of the first track, and then now you know, Break the Internet fits in well with a lot of the stuff that we do. But the comedians about and again I talked about songs that speak to me. And the thing of the song is, you know, the people that make people laugh the most usually the most sad inside. And

I fought that for a lot of my life. I fought being the guy that really tries to entertain because I have a lot of insecurities and a lot of sadness um inside, and so I try to be that. When you wrote that song, and I text him immediately and I was like, dude, like I almost cried because of a song that I heard. I've never this Like you spoke to me and you had no idea that you were speaking to me by writing a song at

Walker Hays was next level. It's brilliant. That's not not a word you should throw around too much, but it's brilliant. It's and and people don't even realize it yet, and then the year people will be like, why didn't not? Why do we not get on this Walker Hayst thing? And so um that song speaks to me in the back of the one I would the song that you That song speaks to me because I'm such a jackass and I say it, I've had had the ask girlfriends and I'm I'm a polo crap. I don't treat them

like crap. I really try to treat humans the best that I can treat them. But there's become a point with my past girlfriends where I just know I wasn't good enough for them, and then I couldn't give them what they needed as far as love because I'm broken. I know I'm broken. I gotta find I've got to fix myself, and so I wish that I could have given them what they deserved. And that song, like you

know you wrote that song. That's crazy because now I'm like like my therapist right now, I hear that song and I'm like, god, dude, that that's just me talking to like my last three or four girlfriends that were so great. So as you write that song, like, what are you guys talking about as it's coming together? I mean, I think we're both going through breakup. So she was definitely and uh, it was the last song we wrote. Uh yeah, and the hook is I'm not the one,

but I wish. I was like, I'm not your person anymore. I wish I could be, but I just can't. Uh. And you know that we wrote with Natalie Hemby and just that Marion does that soul thing so well that just that sixties oh this sound apparently listen to some live South By South with Spotify session. All right, go ahead, keep going. Uh yeah, it's she's so good at that sixties and the seventies like motown thing, and that's just

kind of where it started. And she had just kind of decided, like I'm tired of people telling me like that they can't sing my song, like they're like I love this, I just can't physically sing it. That that happened to her a lot, and she was like, I just I want to start playing again. I wanted. I don't want to be just a writer, and that was a cool moment for her and a cool moment for me to watch happened. And we were just a creative partnership at that point. And then I don't know. This

one was the first song. It's so good. This is the first song that she held as an artist, which means for ever, I know I'm breaking your heart, so sitting what you want to, I'm not gonna stop you. You can blame it all on me. I got to sing the harmonism. I'm got the hero and the staring. I'm not the girl that gets the glove because I can't up and I'm not, but I wish, but I wish. It's such a weird relationship just in the song because she's the villain, but she's actually the good guy at

the same time. Yeah, she can't give it to you. Sorry, but I'm gonna be honest about it. And I wish I was me, but it's not. Yeah, and it's the title of the record too, I mean her records hero and she's I don't know. She describes it is really cool. She's like, I'm not the hero in this story, but I am the hero in mine, And it's just really like self empowering thought to to to like know yourself enough to say, like, I can't be with you anymore. You have to be like your own be she talks

about all the time, like be your own hero. I can't be yours. I'm sorry. It's it's I'm really proud of that song. I'm proud to be on that record. It's obviously got a lot of attention and a lot of you know, critical acclaim and nominations and stuff like that, and that's like me as a writer, like, man, I'm on, I think four or five number one records this year. I never thought that would happen. And I'm on, you know, two of the five ce may nominated records of the

year with like relatively like get the record. Yeah, I'm on Maron's record record, and then the other three I'm not on, and so you should be. I'm talk with them for the next year. So I want to play a couple. All the tricks come on, So I need to cut Rascal flats payback, could pay back to help me? Your was this the same as Lonely Tonight? So two thousand fourteen, I don't know, man, they're running together. Did they come to you and say, hey, we're holding it

quick and it's gonna be the radical flats. It was a drug out song. Oh, they drug it out for like well, I don't want to say it like that. They held it at the beginning of the process for their record and a year later you can call it whatever you want, mom, and they they it came out a little different than what we had originally done, but I mean just to be tracked one and that was Aaron and I wrote that song together with Neil Mason from the Cadillac Three, who's the drummer and uh Man.

That song made us, Like sometimes songs just because they don't go all the way to number one doesn't mean they didn't do a whole lot for like for me, that song made us like music Row famous, Like every publisher and every songwriter knew that song on Music Row because the demo was cool and it was like something people hadn't heard before. And I don't know, I'm really proud of this. I played this live up until like this summer. Yeah, all right, that Tim McGraw. This is

called Last Turn Home. Yeah. I wrote this with Maren and uh This her first cut ever, And is that right? This is her first cut. This is the one you as Tim cut her cut her first song. I cut this song from my record, so like we were really hoping it would go on the radio, and you hear whispers here and there, and that happens all the time. You're like, this will be a single. It will be Sometimes it's just not a single. Miller tells me. He goes, if they started saying it's a single real early, it

probably gonna be a thing. That's that's a hard thing, but that's like what you sign up for. I actually hadn't listened to this version a long time. Well let's listen. There's a lot of cool things. This harmony yea one place I cut this on my record actually, and uh, hell, I mean this one just really from the time moment we got it back, we were all just so excited it about it and at the time you're like, man, I really want you to put this on the radio.

And then it seems to be like the biggest blessing that it never actually did, because it's I don't know, we'll talk about I'll be the Moon being like the best song maybe I've ever written that co written with those guys, but this one is my favorite song I've

ever written, just what it says. And like you know when you like really connect on an idea and you write songs you know about it, like when you but I have this idea and then you're just like, I think it's that feeling about like you know, like you

don't live at in your hometown anymore. I don't live in my hometown anymore, but I just know the feeling of what I get to forty two Street now, like in Michigan, and I take that right and you're like, oh my god, I'm home, and like that feeling is very similar to a feeling you find in a person, and I it's like a weight is lifted off your shoulders on the same like when I fly home and I landed at the airport. It's just like it's like this weird release of oxygen, this weird weight that comes

off where this comfortability comes over you. And sometimes it's not fun to be home, but it's feel comfortable to be home. And it's a person too. That's the thing about it. Is like that when you can take a feeling and you can put it on the end of your finger, and you can be like you feel like this, and somebody hears it and they internalize that that's what this is all about, and that's what music is about. We can run songs up the radio and get mad over and over about like I wish I deserve this,

or I wish that this had happened to me. I wish this song had been a single, or this had been on the radio, or I wish I could get a record deal or a published man. At the end of the day, it's just music and if the only thing that matters. It doesn't matter if it's a party song or or a ballot or this kind of love song. The only thing that matters with music is doesn't make you feel something. And I think when you absolutely nail

it that that's payment enough that you don't need anything else. Well, you gotta pay the bills, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm good. But when you do get you don't do this for the money. I don't do this for money. You do it because this is we wouldn't do it. There's no money in it when you start forever and that's why.

And you know, I got kicked out of college one time for speaking, I got banned from the university because I went into the university and I just like to be honest all the time, and it gets me in trouble a lot. And so I went to the university and they're pit three hundred kids there, and they said, hey, come speak to them about doing radio television. And I said, um, okay, I said, hey, so, um, I'm Bobby. I do it.

At the time, I was living in Austin. I built my own syndication company, UM from with my own money, from scratch, and it was in the hole for a long time. And I knew what I wanted to do. But I also knew that if you weren't absolutely set and dedicated with your entire life to doing it making no money, that it wasn't for you. And I was happy with my heart with doing what I was doing my whole life, struggling one. I grew up poor. It was easy to me to be poor. It's easier to

be poor if you know how to be poor. But I knew if I was poured the rest of my life doing what I loved, I wasn't poor. Like maybe I don't have so much money, but I wasn't poor in my heart. I wasn't poor. I wasn't. I was fulfilled. And I told him that. I said, if I were you and you're studying radio right now, get out stop

because the noise in the study. Go do it. Go in turn, go get your foot in the door somewhere, study something else given, But you're wasting based in the letters that I'm never invited back to the college I was. I was banned from the school for for four years. Maybe model I didn't know. No, I did not fit the business model. I'm pretty good speaker, but I did not, so I was banned from the school. Um. But you're right there. If you're doing it to pay the bills,

don't do it. If you find something you love. This is what I heard and I felt, and I've grown into you. You find something you love, you work harder at it. You work harder at it, you get better at it. You get better at it, you'll start to read those rewards that you didn't really plan on getting at the beginning, but they just kind of come with sticking with it, loving and improving and taking coaching and

surrounding yourself with better people. Very few people I know, they're just so good to walk out and go, I'll take it all right, it's all mine. It's always the iceberg of there's so many nose and awful things and you suck and anger and jealousy and the very tip of it's like, oh, you made it overnight success. And it's like, man, if you had any idea that of everybody I know listening to you here, like people may just know us, and we're gonna get back to your

new the new Ryan Herd stuff in a second. They're like, oh, there's this new guy named Ryan Herd that just bopped in the Nashville scene. I got news for you. You've been around your busting his butt for a long time. And so that's kind of the theme when people come in and we talk. That's like, man, you just kill it and kill and kill it, and you're okay with killing yourself over it because you love it. And then when it hits your like, it's amazing. I get to do what I love and I've gotta get to pay

a car payment because of what I love. Here is the Swan Brothers later on, Yeah, this is the first time we ever had go on the radio that I did. It grew with Joey Hide justin Wilson and they plays on TV this one. Yeah, and we had a party and it was so fun. I'm a voice. Why this one gets on the charts? Remember, like back Door Levin Like, yeah, it's staffed it for a long time. It was, I'm not it was awesome later it's a good dude too good right there? Right? And one more cut. This is

Jaco and sure Fire Feelings my first cut. This is it. Yeah, And Jake's really always been such a great dude to me and we're kind of buddies now. I went surfing on his boat a couple of times over Labor Day and I don't know, I've always been He's always taking me out to write. And this is Steve Mokler, Oh yeah, and Matt McGain Steve's wife Gracie is best friends of Amy and my co host. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a

small world, right, it's small town. And so sure if I feeling this is your first one, we ever say, hey, this is going on a record. Yeah, it was happened quick to like I signed a universal and kind of this song came in and I didn't think anything of it, and like, I think this is like three or four months into my deal and you know that that getting that it went on his EP summary repeat and then

on his days of Gold record Who's All Sides? You know that's a huge to get that big of a cut right out of the gate, I mean, and that relationship has been amazing. Jake's always I think Jake's a fantastic artist. I love the songs he's chosen. I love, always have loved his production and just he's always been He sent me left me a message recently and just like, hey man, I'm really proud of you for putting we

do us out. I'm jamming it right now. I don't know, just a little stuff like that, like you don't have to do that, And that means a lot to me. He's always just supported me in a huge way. Jake was like the first guy new here for for many reasons. Mutual friends. Let's see if you'll answer. We'll called Jake and see if he'll get his take. Hey, I'm with Ryan heard right now we're doing an interview at my house. Uh, and we're talking about you do you have anything you want?

By the way, is Jay go on here on on this show? Um, we're talking about his first ever cut Surefire Feeling, which you cut and he said he's been surfing on your boat. I just kind of wondering your thoughts to our listeners here, just in general about this dude Ryan heard. Ah. Well, first off, man, I'm glad you called um. And secondly, uh, I love Ryan, you know that? And um, I think you know obviously like you said, that song' Surefire Feeling that he wrote that

was on the Endless Summer EP that I did. I just the minute I heard that song, I loved it. And then obviously one of the reasons I think all artists sometimes love songs when they hear them, is you hear the guys singing it that wrote it. And uh, Ryan just got such a cool, unique voice. Um, I couldn't understand why, you know the person was singing at that time, why that guy wasn't you know, on the radio. But soon enough everybody's canna hear Mr Ryan heard on

the radio. And uh, and I'm happy for I couldn't be happy for the guy. Well, appreciate how you good? Yeah, I actually tell you one on vacation. Yeah yeah, Oh dude, it was awesome because Rigez was amazing. But I'm not here in l a. I gotta git me Kimmel tomorrow night. So I gotta dude, come on you. I shouldn't say that I'm lucky to do that is what I'm saying. Yeah, you get a crowd for that one too, right, Yeah, you must be pretty. You must be a pretty special, right.

I mean, I never got the invite every Bobby's House for the for the Bobby's House radio show. I think maybe you're just too busy for I got nothing going on you you got a record stuff? Dude. I love to you know, we just saw each other. I'll tell you what. When you get home, let me know you come over to the Bobby Cast. Alright, alright, talk to you. Jake. So, Jake is really good friends with so one of my best friends and like literal best friends. Like do you

know you have your your top achillant friends. Uh is Andy Roddick and so as he plays tennis, and okay, of course, so Andy rot to grew up and play tennis under the guy, and they grew up together, and Jake was in his wedding and so Andy was like, hey moved Nashville. You got another Jake and so him and he called Jake and Jake was totally cool and like before I knew anybody. Jake was like, dude, come on, let's go. I'll show some places of around I know

much Jake. I was like, all right, there's the long errands only around nag Bro. He's the same way with me, just like, hey, you want to come write some songs on my bus? Like yeah, yeah, and I've been on a bus like once or twice before, but yeah, just his bus, not his crew bus, not his band bus, his bus. It was awesome. And then Jay got really drunk, wanted a bar and I'm listening I come to the Dallas was like, hey, how's your bob? Jake like bib on. So I was like that guy and I was like, Jake,

what are you talking trash for? So we didn't talk for like a month, but now we're like best buzz again. It's like friends. You can get into a fight. That's how you know you get a friend when you can get to a fight and then not and then be over with again. I was like, dude, what I guess that sucks. I was drunk, dude, my bad like that, Like I feel for him on that one. I was a way I was way drunk. Are you like the universe as a place for you kind of guy? I

don't know about that. Yeah, probably, I don't know. I could get pretty fluffy on you about stuff that I believe, but man, I think that the Yeah, there's something about being exactly where you're supposed to be, something about being like I don't know, there's hard days where you're just like, man, what am I doing in Iowa again? I've played Iowa five times this year, and you're just like, man, this

is exactly where I'm supposed to be. And it just gives you this calming feeling about it, Like especially with like relationships and you know, music and art, It's like, man, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. And so yeah, I guess I am. Can you find it annoying that I texture? No, not at all, because because sometimes like, oh I'm annoying him because I'm like I don't wan't bother him. But I'm like, I got to start this feeling right now. I want to drind this feeling. I did.

I see that article the other day too, because we talked. When we talked, I talked to that on my last really with Chip Ester from Nashville. I was like, got the article by John because and he didn't quit it, and yeah, yeah, what was that he talked about? His mom said leave, but not not to leave. He was in Lead, New York. He said his mom made him.

He said, you know, if you his mom said she would never tell him to quit his dream, but he had to promise if he didn't have anything going on in two years that he would do something else because she wanted to. She said, I'm not going to be the one who's gonna tell you to stop your dream. You need to be the one to know when to stop. But I love that article because it made me feel like I related to it where he's like, man, I live a lottery ticket life, and I feel like that

like getting to do creative work for a living. I don't have another job anymore. This is it getting to make music in Nashville, Tennessee. That's a lottery ticket life. I don't care if you make two thousand dollars a month on your drawer, if you make if you just sold your catalog for four million bucks, Like that's a special thing. That's what like I think about people who make just billionaires who wish that they were musicians, you

know what I mean, Like, it's crazy to me. To make it in Nashville is almost like making it as a first basement of the Yankees or a supermodel. It's that people. It looks easy because there either there are a few of them out there, but this town is littered with excellence. It's weird, it's um so yeah, it's

just what. People come into town and they just walk down through Broadway and like, wow, this guy can really sing, Like yeah, are nothing Like I get just in the studio and the greatest get to come through and I get to watch them three feet from me, and I'm just like blown away. And at times you get jaded by stuff, and I get jaded, and we all get

jaded if we're around a while. But then Garth comes in and resets to you and then you know, and even with Marion you know which by the way, I wasn't gonna bring up shoot your girlfriend like I was. I wouldn't talk about that at all, but you brought

it up. So even with her, I was like, the first time I heard was her EP, I was I was like, holy crap, Like there's just something about this that's not like anything else, and so I remember having her in before she had a song on radio, and I was like, hey, I know, did you think this is weird? But would you come on the show? And now it's just been awesome to see her pop. What would she say about you as a songwriter? What would you say about me a songwriter? I don't know, I

have you don't know. I can call her please don't really, Uh, I don't know. As a writer, we I'm really good at like letting her role and like no one when she's on something, so like when we're writing together, like I'm as a songwriter, I like to take the steering wheel and I'm like, I have never written for other people. And that's a weird thing about being a professional songwriters,

Like I always wrote for myself. Threw it all up against the wall and said, if anybody wants to record these, have at it, which is sort of like I should have been an artist a long time ago. Maybe if that's if I've only written in that way. But I love watching like as a songwriter, especially with Marion. You know, she hears on demos and stuff and she tells me which one she loves, and she would say, you don't

like one of them. I sent one the other day and she goes, that's cool, not my favorite out of all. I think that's what she said. It was like the k of the text message. Okay, but she listens to it all and she's really she's seriously my heat, my biggest fan musically, I think because just we've always had like a really close creative partnership. But I'm really good at letting her run with stuff and like no one when she's in the head space that she's like doing

brilliant stuff. So with her opening for Stableton at the Rhyman, Dude, that's stage. That's a that's a moment right there, isn't it? Just to be able to be on that stage and to sing a song we sang Last Turn Home, So that's yeah. She that was really cool. I was cool for her asking me to do that. It's weird. I'm gonna say this too, but yeah, I played the Rhyman

and it's crazy. It's crazy sheet this feeling. I only did one song and you just get this feeling like I the whole show out but no, no, it's like yes, it's like have you played the opera yet? No? Okay, you will like no down Navy Jason, like, you will play the opera um and people say this, And the thing is, so I played the Opery and you stand on the circle and you go, wow, this is really cool the circle because you know the history about it. And I grew up in Arkansas. So my grandma is

a huge Johnny Cash fan. Anybody from Arkansas, you just automatically a door because nobody gets out of Arkansas. That's kind of the rule. So Johnny Cash from Arkansas. So my grandma and I because my grandma adopted me for a while as a kid, and so I listened to her music that Andy Griffith and Johnny Carson, even the Ray Charles and so when I played it, it it was just like I felt like I was kind of doing

something she wanted me to do. But even then I felt like I really couldn't conceptualize what was really happening, Like as much as I could read about it, I don't know what it was like to be like back and they listen to the people would gather around the radio and listen to stuff at the Ryman. I go to church at the Rheman like they would go to church at the Ryeman. They would stand in the circle and at the opery, we have no idea. We it

feels like you're like connecting. I don't, I haven't played the opera, but it feels like you're connecting with this. Like I say, it's called like the collective unconscious of tream music. Like you're connecting into something that's like so much bigger than any song you could ever write yourself. It's like you're you're a part of this really incredible collection of ideas and thoughts and melodies, and it's so much bigger than you can understand. Like you can read

all you want, learn all you want to be. I felt like, and I like to consider myself a scholar of music period, all formats, all kinds, especially country and classic rock. Um, and it's like I can read all I want, I just still don't understand as much as I can try. I feel like that's like the world with me and what happens after the world. And I can learn and try to study and read, and I just I don't know. And so what I have to

realize is I don't know. So I've got to be okay with that and just realize that I'm just gonna do the best I can. Dude, I love that because I'm that's I'm very similar to that too. I mean, you have to you have to be okay with not knowing. You have to figure out that you just don't know. You just and so since you don't know, don't get angry with it. Understand that you don't know, and try to learn as much as you can, and you can

learn everything, and there you still learn anything. It's like the old Socrates story went all the way around the world trying to find that the smartest guy in the world, and went to all the great scholars and and and price spoke to a thousand who claimed they were the smartest man in the world, and all of them were like, I'm the smartest man in the world. Here's where's wires wye And Socrates came back and he said, I found the smartest man in the world. And they said, you

found the smartest man in the world. Well, what town is he and where is he goes? It's me And they were like, how is it you? He says, because I don't know crap. And that's why the smartest man of the world, because I'm the only one that gets it. I know nothing like, as much as I can learn, my capacity is not to know. I can't know. Anyway, We're on a whole different deep level here and keep going. We can keep going there. That's fun for me. So

Ryan heard is here. Now We do Us was the first song that you can download it now Apple Music get you can go in it, you can stream it anyone you can have on music. And I wish you could download it because I'm telling you when I played it, people were it it would have been a download at least the top five. I can. I can just I'm not lying to you. People were going, you answered the phones, Yeah, my answer the phones. People were like, what is the song? And I was like, dude, I just wish you were

able to download it because it have been crazy. Here we go and I'm bad baby, and I'm bad at we do we go to get on that moviez Chief Champagne. You can and I'm bad. So that's what you do. That was the first one. And this one just came out.

Depending when you're listening to this, sometimes in a month from now, someone's gonna go, hey just heard your podcast, so but um right now, Loving a Bar just came out was like to sing now he was saying, Yeah, more songs to come out, and as soon as you decide whatever radio single you're going with, you let me know and you're up on the show. I told you I'm gonna have you on the I'm blindly having you on the show. I don't even know what the song is. I don't know what it is. I hope we find

out soon. Whenever you decide what it is, I appreciate you just text me and go, hey, this is a song. Yeah, I mean, let's get you have a plan until you don't have one, So all right, whatever you never planned for people like you don't to to you know, to like it, you know what I mean. I'd never plan to see walking in the hallway and go, oh my good. I'm kind of nervous to go tell the dude I'm a fan. But my rule is that I tell my listeners and and people. If you're a fan of somebody,

just go tell them. You tell them. If someone doesn't like the fact that you tell them you're a fan, and they're not worthy of of having fans, um unless they have kids or if they're eating. But other than those two things, like I was like, I have to live by my own rule, and I always wanted if you're weird of that by another man coming up going, dude,

it doesn't bother me. It doesn't happen very much. I'm usually the one like next to the person who like has people come up, and I get to be anonymous. So it makes you feel good when people I mean, that happens a little more now than it used to do do, but it never is annoying. Well when you when you sharpened my left butt cheek, I was like, I think, okay, Ryan heard. Uh, you're gonna put out depending on when you listen this every month something new, then we'll get

a record. You're going out with Chase rise this summer. Wait, what what month to win? This is like this fall? Dude, I don't know. Just every day's ground Hog Day. Ye, that too is fun, man. People are wild and I love Chase. You're out now with him? Man? Yeah, Yeah, we've been as of now done two weekends. It's fun. The crowds are great. He's a great live performer. I really love his new single two It's I think it's cool. Jeremy Bussy wrote it. He's playing with us in November

in Austin. Yeah, I think I'll I think we're flying back after. I think if you come out to that, if you happen to be in that show, and you may not, you may be flying back. He's gonna he's gonna come out and play with this. But um, you gotta come out there. We have we's all four thousand tickets of the Ragingidas in Austin. So you gotta come out and do something if you're there. If I'm not, of course it's not. Don't worry about it. But Ryan heard. I hope you had fun. Man. I hope it's cool

for you. It's cool for me. I had a blast. I love talking. So this is that's all this is. That's that's all it is. And I hey, Jake, appreciate your buddy, Derek. She sucked for not answering. Uh. We will catch you guys next time. This episode nine Mike all right, thanks check out Ryan heard Twitter at Ryan heard it it r y A and h U R D. Thanks for our producer, Mike d stro M, I K E D E E S t r oh, I'm Bobby Bones.

Episode nine. The Bobby Cast is over, thanks again to Ryan heard and our sponsor is nobody right, now but hopefully that will change that. All right, guys, have a good day, unless it's not daytime. If it's a nighttime, have a great night. By ready