BONUS EPISODE: Ryan Hurd Interview

there there for you. So it's just a different a little bit of a different mindset. But there's also like no pressure. I don't get nervous. It's the shorter set. It's usually forty five minutes, so that's like by the time I'm kind of bored, it's like all right, it's over and you go hang out. And Sam has always been cool at US I toured with We toured with him on the fifteen and a thirty tour and Marin was on it, and uh so we know the camp.

And the next night I went and we did Summer Fest in Milwaukee for the first time and tr was the headliner that night, so I got to see Sam and Thomas this last week Kins, so that was really cool. Um, But it's just a little bit of a different mindset. But there's also less pressure and I don't get very nervous at all or anything. So you're in a cool place where you can absolutely go headline your own shows and you have a ton of songs and people are

very passionate about you. But you're also you can make pretty decent chunk of change being main support for another artist and like you said, play. I was talking to Dan and shakes it open for Kenny right now, and they're like, it's awesome. Yeah, like we we could go out. We have to, you know, take all our equipment, go

out and just have fun. Yeah, it's it's a different It's nice to switch it up, like switch your days up too, because at some point you want to headline all the time and you want to play late in the day at festivals. But it's also nice to be done at like eight thirty and you don't have anything else to do, like all right, I'll just like watch the show or drink a beer or go to bed. So uh, I think everybody enjoys the change of pace.

When do you get tired? Meaning in a year, is there a season and you start to go because for me, you know, we start in January doing the radio show, and if I take out all the other stuff to TV, the traveling, but just the radio show alone, about June, I start to get fatigued for the first time. Is there a touring fatigue? And when does it usually hit? So I'll preface the answer by saying, we basically took

two years off like we did. We did shows during COVID times, but not like a tour um so those were pretty easy to just kind of come in and out of. But so we started second week of January this year, and I think that once you start, you're just going to be tired the whole year. I mean, you you do shows and you ride busses and you get it like it's it's it's really fun, but there's

not a whole lot of rest in it. So the way that I kind of manage my time is if I touch an airplane or a bus, that's a work day. Even if it's like I'm leaving at nine o'clock at night or getting home at like seven am on the bus drops off drops me off at my house, that's a workday. So Sunday to me is not a day off. I usually have to take another day off in the week just so I can have like some time to my to just be a human, hang out with my

kid or whatever. So but usually Sundays we're just worthless people Like we both get home, get dropped off, and then you just kind of like look at look, I look at Mary and she listen to me, like let's take a nap, because you just no matter how you do it, it's exhausting. The travel just wears you out. Josh Thompson used to say this thing, and I'm sure he didn't come up with it, but he said, you don't pay me for the show. The show is free. You pay me for getting there and getting back, Like

that's the part that's work. So um, we really are blessed to both get to do it. Um we have like this weird uh like I don't know, we just have an understanding about where we both need to be and uh, we're really blessed to be making a living on the road. But it is exhausting no matter how you do it, it's it's it'll wear you out all year. I think there's a romantic thought of being on a bus and listen, I try. I've you know, done a little tours and cars and vans and that really stinks

and a bus is much better than that. But even when you're sleeping on a bus, you're driving overnight, and I never because I'm I and we have a big what they called the star bunk in the back, like you know, I have my own little room, but you're never really comfortable because the bus is always moving or hitting the thing on the side of the road, or you're just never you're never just totally safe feeling. You're always like knock on wood, let's let's make it yeah

at night. So I sleep better in a bunk, I don't know. I mean, we have every kind of bus you can imagine out between the two of us, and I still I sleep in a bunk because I like to be confined like that. Is that more comfortable? Whatever reason? I just those those crew busses ride smoother to me, and I for I just that's what I like. So the we have on you know, Marin's bus has a star coach in the back, and we have our own

apartment back there. But I it just feels like we bounced more on it, So I like, I like the bunk from when I'm just out with myself. So um, but hey, that bus. I'll never ever speak poorly of of touring on a bus because it saves you. It

really does. Like getting home at seven am, getting to have a whole day with your kid, have like half a weekend almost on Sunday for us is usually what it is is pretty special and important, and uh, you know, I do remember the one time where I was like, I can make a lot more money if I just like suck it up and drive the van and there's like no more van, Like we you need to be home. Yeah,

your quality alife is terrible. So that was like five years ago, and I just remember her being the one that made that decision, and it was a good decision. It was like a family decision, like whatever, even if you like don't make as much money we we, it's good to get home. So the thing about the bus

and we'll get off this. But I think that that I learned early on was first of all we had run on was like five grand a weekend, and I was like I was like what, Yeah, you cannot get in that deal anymore either, because are so hard to get now, so before pandemic, I pay like five grand a weekend and you know that comes out of the money that you're making, and you're like wow, And then you gotta pay. If you drive over eight hours, you

gotta take an extra bus driver. And most of the trips will eight hours, so we have to put two drivers, and that takes an extra bunk and you're trying to fit everybody in. And what also is you don't really drive in the daytime because you don't want to be awake while you're moving. You know, for the most part, you know, if the bus would leave, we leave at eleven midnight, one o'clock. Your goal is to get on the bus and sleep. That's the when the bus is moving,

you want to be asleep exactly. And so when you see people on tour, be like, man, it must be so cool. The goal is to be asleep on the tour bus. It's good to have when you're awake, but it's to be asleep on the bus. It's definitely a tool, and it's part of it, and it's really important, and it is fun. Don't don'tlet anybody tell you that being on the bus isn't fun. It's blast, but it's what you dream about when you're fourteen years old. Is like

living on a tour bus. I'm serious. I every day I get up on that thing, I'm like, gosh, I really wish I was home, but this is pretty sweet. Yes, but you're right. It's like there's little things about it that I think and it's really fun showing people like whenever you go, I go. Everywhere I go. My day starts at three o'clock when I go to eleven in my own like sound checks at three, and then I'm on we have radio, and then we have friends and we have meet and greet and we have but every

day someone's like, hey, can you meet my friend? And I love doing that stuff, so you and then like whoever you got there too, Like I'll always have guests out too, and I love having them up on the bus because they're just like looking around and everybody wants to know, like what's on the inside of it, and most it's bananas and protein bars for us, and we got like you know, if everyone wants a beer, you can have a beer, but but don't get out of hand, yes,

because we're all working, so keep it between the navigational beacons, as Alan Jackson would stay. I have a question, because you know, you come to Nashville and you have always been an artist, but you're at started as far as your commercial success as a songwriter. So it's a very interesting journey from a songwriter to a performer. What's it like looking back at that career journey now? I still think of myself as a writer, and I know Randy

Goodman hates it when I say that. At my record label president, he hates when I say I think of myself as a writer. But that's where everything starts for me. So I love getting to do both things. I talk about my career as a pair of shoes, like I have a right foot writing songs for myself and other people, and then the left foot is being an artist and singing them and traveling and touring. And I can't really imagine doing this without both. And someday I'll probably have

to back one of them down. But while they're both working, it's really fun to get an opportunity to just still write for people like Jordan Davis and Marin and Lady A, like those people are my friends and and it's so natural to write songs with them still and I still have that opportunity to get on their records. I feel like I still have a lot to offer as a

songwriter for other people. And then at the other we just talked about it, like and then I get to get on a tour bus on Wednesday night and go play my songs for a bunch of people who know them, and that's a dream come true. So um, you know, I I do both things and I still get to and I don't really I don't have to make a choice yet and maybe someday I will. But for me, it's like that journey is it is sort of like I've gotten to do everything and I still get to

do everything, and I'm really enjoying that. And the great thing about a bus is you can actually ride on a bus if you want to. Yeah, I was out with Thomas this weekend. We played Summer Fest on the same night and so we wrote a song. It was great, so we It's always fun to see your buddies on the road and it's always you know, I've also as an artist, like my music has been the best marketing tool for me. So I put out an album and

like you know, Cole Swindell. I became buddies because he liked to a T and I liked break up in the end, and we talked about it on Twitter, and then all of a sudden we were writing songs together. And I don't think I've ever had a cold cut. Maybe someday, but that's about a few cold cuts. Pet. That's a that's a good example of like cold cut, cold cut, cold cuts. I'm gonna have some cold cut, uh. But that's a good example of, like my artist thing,

opening doors. As a writer, do you ever think about what would be like if you went down a different road in your life, as in maybe not an artist or a musician or were you ever close to that? I as soon as like halfway through college, I was.

So I went to Belmont, and everyone who goes to Belmont A lot of most people who moved to Nashville to go to Belmont and do music some one way or another music business or but I went and saw everybody doing these music programs, either the business side or the performance side or something that had to do with music, and I was like, they're all gonna zig. I'm gonna zag.

So I went and did sociology and e con and got a degree and was going to go to grad school, and then about halfway through as kind of I kind of like made it, like found out what a songwriter in Nashville was, so I kind of put all of my eggs in that basket and started writing country songs. And so I guess like I would have gone to graduate school and maybe done something else, but I've never really had to. I think the cool part about music is like most of us don't have a plan B,

and so I don't. I don't know. I always say, like what you say, like I would be the left fielder for the Cubs. No, I wouldn't, But like I like sports growing up and I liked music growing up, and but this is the only job I've ever wanted since I was eleven years old. So I don't know. Man.

Maybe when I was a kid, my dad used to work in advertising, and I always thought, like, if nothing else, I can go do something with my dad, either at the company's working for and at one time he had he had an advertising agency, and like, maybe I'll go do something like that, But it never really came to that. So it's mostly like thinking about what I'm gonna do after all this is over because your window doesn't last forever.

I mean for some people it does. But like being realistic about my own life, like unless like I I hope that we have a whole lot more success, but at the end of the day, like you're only given what you're given, and so I'm trying to really enjoy this part of my life. And then you also in the back of your mind, are like, Okay, what happens when I'm old and nobody cares about my songs anymore? Happens to everybody? It doesn't. It happens to everybody. So

what I think about, we're all gonna die. Oh man, Yeah, but you can be you can do this till you're done. Like for me, it's like what happens when I'm forty, And like only if I get higher ratings me too. Your road to Vegas and the I Heartready and Music Festival has been a unique one. How does it feel playing this awesome festival? I'm just thrilled to be invited. I looked at the bill the other day and I

just couldn't believe that my name was next to everybody else's. Uh. I mean, obviously it's been a dream come true to have my songs on the radio. That's every single time somebody plays your song, whether I wrote it or whether I sing it, that's a every time. It's a dream come true because I grew up listening into country radio. So to get an opportunity to like go to a festival like this for the people that have supported you and made your dreams come true as a massive a

massive deal for me. And uh, to get to play it on the same day as Marin is really fun. We always love doing that and uh, it's a it's a busy day, but it's gonna be a lot of fun. There. He is Ryan Hard. Ryan could have talked to you, buddy,