Episode 15 - Eric Paslay (10-17-16)

make crappy food. Also, I'll say that you can fool people with Blue Apron because you're gonna act like you cooked on amazing and they have no idea because it's like home cooked mills with a fresh, high quality ingredients make the difference for less than ten dollars a meal. Blue Apron has seasonal recipes along with preportioned ingredients so

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your accent. And I heard it today, by the way, on the air, I was talking about meals or milk. It sounds like I'm saying mills like my steady work at a sawmill. But it's a meal. I said meal. I want to speech pathology for like four years, I'll and I'll tell you I I lost my I mean I used to say, like if I would go fishing, I go fishing, or I go walking down the road. It's walking, but meals is still the one there. So anyway, you get mills meal, you get meals from Blue Apron. Yes,

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three meals for free and free shipping. It's blue Apron dot com slash Bobby Mules b O B B Y M E A L S. Okay, Bobby Mules. There you go, all right in the house now with Eric Passy who got to watch a few minutes ago me take a needle to the arm. I was taking a food allergy needle. That's whatever you want to call it, Bobby, that's yeah, for you knew it. So let ma explain what happened. Because the nurse was supposed to get here at five, and Eric was early, which is awesome, by the way,

I love I love someone who's early. I'm I've only the early for you. So the nurse, if you want those headphones right there for those on you can want to play some music. In a second, the nurse shows up at five, and Eric shows up at five too, Eric and his wife Natalie, And now it's sitting in the corner with Dusty right now. So Dusty, for once, it's not sleeping on the couch during this. So the nurse starts shooting a needle into my arm. Luckily only

took one time, because I've passed out before. Does it usually take a bunch of times? And sometimes they can't find a vein that s it does and they're like, oh, like, I'm a diabetic and putting a needle in my arm is still not Like that's so unnatural, like that you guard that area for a good reason. I'm gonna get to that. Because you were watching and you didn't care, and she's drawing out blood, but your wife was staring at all of the blood, and then she would cover

her eyes. Then she would stare again. Usually it's you don't look, or you look, you don't stare, and then run away and come back and her eyes with water, and I'm like, stop staring. He's gonna pass out because of the look on your face. I'm doing this because Amy on the show said it told her what food. First of all, you don't know what allergies you have, like in the air, and then what foods irritate your body. So I would have never done this, but Amy made

me spend money on this thing. So, but you're here and you have to shoot yourself with a needle, win Well, I wear an insulin pump, so three well, it's like a little bitty it's basically like having a tiny little like I V and you. I mean it's it's probably like a centameter deep. It just barely goes under your skin. I mean you put it a needle in with it, pull the needle out, and this little just plastic tubing

stays under you. I put it on the butt, so it's right now, it's the right yeah, yeah, I mean it's basically just it's just where I don't have to carry around like a vial of insulin and a syringe. I always have an insulin pump where it's just basically like having an ivy of insulin hooked up to me. And so when I eat, I can say, okay, I eat thirty grams of carbohydrates. I'll give myself this amount of insulin, and it just it frees you up from

having to carry around You're just always connected. Do you have to monitor that too? You show me a watch and you're not wearing it right now, but dude, this as well. So I have it's on my arm right now. It's called x COM like CGM, and it goes straight to my phone. Uh, and it tells you what like your level, right, So you've showed me down at one

sixties seven right now, literally on my phone. It's so much crazier than always having to check it because you can always just tell yeah, when you perform, you keep something on stage with you. Yep. We always have a good old solo cup of like o J out there and do you feel it if you're performing. Well, what happens is my tour manager can watch this thing on his phone and now he can too, which is cool.

But uh, just the other night we were in uh Philadelphia, and he was like, dude, your bloods going just your bloods going down. So he's watching this, he's watching it and then just tells me my inere monitors, like, hey, drink some more orange juice. So the crowd things I'm getting wasted, and they're like yeah, chuck, Chuck. I'm like yeah, that stage and you started to really fill down. Um. I haven't since I've gotten this thing as much, but because we catch it before before I even feel the

symptoms of being low. But um, I've definitely had some Uh I need some orange juice now. I mean I'll like there's been times I think we're at the dusty Armadillo. Once it was like anybody orange juice and uh and kind of stutter a little bit like maybe they just think I'm sort of wasted. Needles aren't a thing for you, Like you don't care, it's nothing to you that I mean, I still don't like my blood being drunk. Let me

tell you so. Eric Pasla decided to hang out with us uh today on episode fifteen of The Bobby Cast, and um, we appreciate that. We a lot to talk about. So I want to start with right now. We like to make a circle and start with exactly what's happening right now, and then kind of back up and they come back to now. So right now you have a song out and you'll talk about it for a second. Yeah, Angels in this Town. Here you go. This is Angels

in this Town right here, this time. So let's talk about the frustration that, first of all, that I have that the song as a right now at this point isn't doing better because it's a wonderful song and I've loved it since you brought it in the first time and I've played it, and I have a frustration. So I can't imagine what your frustration is right now. Um. You know, I was talking to a friend and he was like, you know what all we can do is planting water. I can't make you and you can hire

farmers and hire farmers. Now I know, um, uh what I've been doing from the moment I knew, just from the moment I knew, Hey, this song is gonna be a single. It's like, you know what we could do, Let's do these angel visits. And uh, I didn't call him that that sounds like you're doing angel visits. They just somehow fit on a calendar. Tonight. It's an angel visit in my house right there. We are. My wife's an angel, so they are so but it's just go out and just think people that we think are doing

miracles in people's lives. And that's what we do. We're at children's hospital the other day. Um, almost two to three times a weekend, almost every show day, we go do an angel visit. So tons of Habitat for Humanity builds. Just getting to thank all those people building houses for people just so they can afford a house. And it's just cool seeing the whole community come together, Like I know, you're a good guy, and I'm just frustrated that this song,

like what's the whole? What's what? Why do they tell you this song right now isn't a taught ten song? Like what do they tell you as the artist? Because I'm all the time, I'm just telling you. I'm in like, I'm like, wait, why don't we playing this song? Alive Radio is saying we love it, well, we need to find room because there isn't room right now. There's always room for good stuff. There's always over and you don't have to say anything here. This is what. This is

what it is. So let's talk about like a highway. Okay, you have all these cars on the highway, and this is the analogy of music and artists that I make. You have all you have. You have a highway and there's there's four lanes and they've packed. The cars are just flying through. That's those cars are uh, YouTube, the radio apps everything right, and so they're all out there, and the songs and the artists and unless you're like a nineteen twenties old crazy car or Ferrari, you know,

those are the different platforms, the kinds of cars. And then you have the speeds of the cars. Who gets noticed the cars going really fast or really slow. And so there's so many things out there, but it's all the time. So when someone always says there's no room or something, I never believe. You should never believe that. I don't believe. It's like this is me from the inside thing. Never believe that crap because it's crap. It's

just crap. No. I I believe in great songs. And I've never given radio crappy song, and I've never given my fans a crappy song. I I and you asked frustrations. Frustrations are um that we can't really say a whole lot in songs these days. It's it's like the only way you're allowed to say humble and kind is if you were Tim McGraw, you know, I and it's uh, I try to write. I've always loved songs that have a message, but I also love songs that just have fun,

like high class, you know. And and which was another that yeah, I'm not really sure. I mean I I think I always say it takes a lot more power to roll up to roll an actual stone made out of of of stone as opposed to made out of plastic and I believe I'm made out of something heavier than some other songs. And that's all right. Well, the song is Angels in This Town, which, by the way, you're on the Today Show playing it next week. Yeah, we're rocking with Hoda and Kassie Lee Bunch. By the way,

you're gonna love them. They're so nice. They had no reason to be cool to me, and they were called to me before the show, during the show, and after the show. An hour later I saw hold of eating. She was like, do you want to come to have lunch? And I could it because we were flying. But they were the nicest people. That's cool. Everybody download Angels in This Town. This is uh slate. It should have been the whole songs about like there are people watching over you, right, yeah, man,

I it started. We were just talking about those stories that make your hair stand on end, you know, like that that's not true. There's no way that's true. And one of the first stories I ever heard like that, and I've never had anything personally that I know of. Um, that's the thing we probably that that we know of. And this is why you should be kind to people too, for the same things. Act reason you have no idea how many people have been kind to you and you

have no idea they were kind to you. And you should be kind to other people, even if they don't know, because you owe it back the same way. We probably our lives have probably been on the edge ten, twelve, fifteen times. We have no idea. You never even knew it. Like I was wondering, like, you know, I'm not weird about it, but I was wondering my grandma because before she died, I was like, hey, if you're like really

watching over me, like, let me know. And I had this whole thing where her guitar fell in my house and it really remember reading about it in your book. It was so weird and also told you. I was like, man, you shouldn't be freaked out by like people watching me, because if they are, they're they're all good. But then they watched me use the bathroom, and I don't like that they watched me. You know, when I'm alone, they're in such like that's the part of the body. It's

not that they watched me over me. It's like I wonder if they check out while I go number two or while you know, I like make Bobby Happy, They're probably just grinned and go huh. That's the part that freaks me. Angels in this town is the current song. Do you think and this is a real question that I wondered about you because you are one of the most cerebral people that I know period um, do you think you're ahead of it a little much? Because being behind it and being ahead of it are two things

that will keep success from happening. And sometimes we don't evenalize people were ahead of the game until it gets up there. Do you feel like you're ahead of it a bit? I mean, I put she Don't Love You out, and no one had put ballads out, and then everybody put a ballad out. Absolutely, you know, I mean I don't know. Yes, I mean the the honest try this

as long as this is the truth. I've always dreamed of playing the C M A S or the A C M S or the Grammy's cheez Um because I always I always love watching it and being inspired by the songs and the performers, and I've always wanted to

do that. Like, I feel like I'm such a part of the country community now that I like, I just want to play songs like Angels or like less than Whole, Are Deep as is Wide, or songs like that that I've had that I've put out she Don't Love You, where I believe it inspires all of us that create music because it goes like yes, because it's it's those type of songs that are are have so many influences that I think affect all people that create, you know, to where it reminds you of that old mcgrawl song

or George Straight song or Bob Dylan song or a petty song or who knows what. Um. I just have always drilled ahead of thinking, just a little ahead of everybody else, and I'll slow it down. I'll just wait, wait for everybody to catch up. More of this. Thanks for thinking that more of this we need to do. When I grew up and potty party, Yeah so so Eric and I And also like we wrote when I grew up with Phil Barton, And this is the thing

with Eric, this is not an exaggeration at all. He was way too smart to write when I grow up and he came into the house and he's like, Okay, let's get into the minds of these kids, like what would you be thinking? And I was like, come down to my level, the dumb level, like the total dumb guy level. And so it was like, I don't do I think you're like two steps ahead of everybody, like in your brain, like you create these things, not even just music. But we wrote When I Grew Up Right.

It was fun, it was great, and then we wrote Potty Party with Lindsay l I'm like, I actually am just thrilled the death that I just part of children's songs and they don't suck. Just kid a lot. That's my official take on you at this point is that you're a little ahead of everybody else. It's just taking a break for like six months, and you don't need to break people to catch up. There there's a history. I'm gonna go fishing and build more cabinets and stuff.

I'll just build a bunch of lights for all my friends. You do build like crazy. And Eric's like artistic builder too, Like he doesn't just build a deck. He builds a deck with ep on it, Eric pass lay that rotates at night and also throws candy to all the kids as they walk by. Like that's the kind of stuff I actually haven't done. That. That's slightly creepy. It sounds like I should be a clown costume or something. So right now it's angels in this town. I'm rooting for

the song, like crazy, who'd you write this with? I

wrote this with Eric Dylan and Corey Crowder. We were down in gold Shores, Alabama, and uh, I got saying we were sharing those stories that make your hair stand on and I my brother was dating a girl he didn't marry or anything, but um, her story was, she was in this insanely horrific car accident and like to the point where she was going to bleed to death her head like hit a telephone pole or something like her car was spinning out insane like should probably should

have died on contact. Honestly. Um. The first person to the scene was a doctor. Second person to the scene was a volunteer firefighter who had a giant emergency kit in his truck, so like the biggest emergency could you you could possibly have as like just a civilian well as a as a firefighter. I mean, so he brings that over. The doctor bandages her head up and everything so she's not going to bleed to death, and does it so perfectly that when she got meta back to

the hospital. All of the nurses and doctors were like, who did this? This was literally as perfect as you could possibly do it, And how did he even do it in like on a field, on the field beside a highway, like, no clue how this happened. But they never found a doctor. There was no car left, and the volunteer fire fighters stood with all the sheriffs to identify who the complice because he's the first they need

a statement. I mean, he worked on the patient, and he was there first, and never no one recognized him. No one ever saw him again. And and the girl believed it was an angel and sod the like the fight, but hands down, the firefighter and even the sheriff was like, this was a miracle. We never found the guy. No one knows who he is any bandaged you up perfectly. No one ever found the doctor. Never, he didn't that he literally just was there, helped her and just vanished.

So maybe it wasn't even a real doctor. You're saying he was a I mean, could have been an angel, you know, a miracle. That's a crazy story. The other story that we shared the s which was some darkness to this too, but it's it's still just like whoa what like what I was saying earlier, like times that you didn't even know something happened. Um, the story is, and I don't I have seen, I've read, I've checked

up on this. Some people say it is it actually happened, Like there's a police report in everything in a case that this happened, and other people are like, well, I don't know if it happens, but it inspired us to write the song. And Um. The story was that a girl was at like a party that feeblocks from her house. It was at night. Party was done high school girl and she was like, hey, I'm just gonna walk home, and the parents are like, oh, we'll drive you, and

she's like, no, I'm fine, I'll just walk home. It's fine, nice neighborhood, walking and down the alley kind of where all the garages are on both sides, walking down the alley back to her house, and there's a guy leaning there on one of the garages, and she just like freaked out and just says like, lord, police protect me, Police protect She just started praying and praying and just walked right past him, went home, went to bed, and the next morning she woke up and there was like

police everywhere and a girl had been murdered on that street, like in the alleyway that night, and that the guy leaning on the garage was the dude that did it. They caught him and the girls like he totally was back here. I saw him. And the police asked the murderer like, why would you pick the second girl and

not the first girl that walked by you? And he looks at him like, I'm not going to pick a girl with two big guys walking with her, And there were no she's walking alone, but that guy saw two giant guys walking with her. That's what he said. Yeah, that's crazy. So that's where Angels kind of got inspired by. And also there was I remember it, And that's that's

the hard thing about it. It's like you don't know why God sends miracles sometimes and not other times, but the fact that he does at all, if you believe in God is above and beyond anything any love you'll ever know. Do you ever think the struggle though it's put here so when you do finally it, you feel it and respect it? More like, do you feel like

at times absolutely your stuff doesn't work on purpose? Absolutely, because I know, I know that I had nothing to do with it to a point, you know, like like this morning, I did a radio interview and a lot of times I'm asked, God, why do you keep giving

away your hits? You know, as au from the songwriting side, which I write everything and I hope you know, and you want everything to be heard, and that's impossible because there's not I mean, I've written whatever somat songs, which is just wild, but um but I always tell them it's like it's it's not a hit unless it's played a lot. That doesn't mean it was the greatest song ever. Hopefully it hopefully it really connected to people's memories and it's it's a great memory in their life. But if

it gets played a lot, it's a hit. You know, there's a lot of songs that you and I know that might not ever even be heard by the public. And there's no way for him to even tell you if they think it's a hit or not because they never heard it. Yeah, So let me talk about she don't love you for a second, So she don't love she's just slowly she don't know. So while Friday Night was out and as it was climbing up the charts

before it hit number one. I was like, man, you gotta put she I wasn't talking to you, I was telling everyone. I was just screaming at the world like, she don't Love You one of the best songs I've heard in years. Thanks, I was just I was annoying. I was really annoying. Thanks for champion it, man. I mean you love the way with making sure a ballad got hurt by a new guy and I knew and I knew it was tougher ballads, but I was like, the song is so good, so it comes out right

she don't love She's just slow listen. I thought it was a song of the year. In my mind. We got nominated, man, and that was one of the biggest, you know, tip of the hats of the song was I mean for and I don't know where we got like fifteen or something. It was like top five in most markets, but it was, you know, to go up against where you think about how many forties them on number one that year. To be to be one of the top five showsen for song of the Year, that

just meant the world to us. And um, let me ask you a question here you go, here's the question, because wherever it peaked on the radio chart, which you don't know where it peaked? Do you know where it peaked? So if it, would you rather have had it be at three to one and not be nominated for Song of the year, which it was, or like it happened,

song of the year. Let's not say number on. Let's say at number two, right, okay, so let's take number one out of right the numbers you hate eleven, six and two because they're almost a ten, almost a five, and almost a one. Yeah, So would you rather have been a number two song on the chart and not be nominated or be nominated for Song of the year

and peak at fifteen on the radio chart? I'm I'm fine with how the story went because every night people sing along, the fans sing along, and that's that's the main point. It's it's it's not that it went. I mean it's nice too. It's nice to give your co writers a pad on the back as well and go, here's a plaque for a number one. But it's, uh, it's just it means everything when you're the singer every night and you go out and you sing and people sing along, and you go, wow, this was a hit.

You know it was. It was a hit. It was a moved people hit, Like there are songs that were there have been multi week number one that will never be remembered and thought of again, and she Don't Love You is the opposite of that, like you'll be able to sing this forever and people. I remember when you came and we don't get to go and do stuff on the weekends. We barely get to see each other play because we're both out. I always say, I was like,

I never get to see shows. And so you came and played at our Rhyman show last year and you did she Don't Love You by yourself and it was just really one of the most moving things that I've seen this an artists go up by themselves and play that song. It was very powerful and so to be I congratulated. When I was not every song of you, I was surprised because because I knew it, it didn't make you know, it wasn't in top five songs, but

it was. It was dancing around and Jen Wayan, who you wrote it with, is now part of In Away June, and now you know they're making they're right now so that's she Don't Love You. I love It's just I play this. So we we will do long rides and we'll take a bus, but if it's within like four hours, we'll just drive a van, right, because it's like, why I spend The bus has cast like five grands. They're expensive, man, right, bus for a weekends, so it's like we'll take it.

So justin the suit will drive and he'll drive for like eight hours at a time. And I have a playlist of really slow so I'm just picturing it's crazy that make me sleep pull over for some big Max. Well, I don't need to, you know. I try to stand the health when my results come back from my test, but I have like arium everybody hurts cold play she Don't Love You, and like he wants to go to He's like, dude, you gotta give me something but beat and I'm like, after I fall asleep, you can change it,

like after I passed. So I just I take in my powerful music and fall right to sleep. It's just and drive, I would say every night before just because it's like I don't want people to be depressed after that song. It's I mean, the point of that song was you know, I'm the one that broke her heart that much. But the cool thing is people can hear it with the years they want to, you know, if they're like going through a breakup, like, yeah, she doesn't

love you, that screw her. Speaking of love and how creative you are. So whenever you we're proposing to your current wife now my only wife, Yeah, you're your your wife, your eighth wife, wivers. So when you proposed, you get

in the pretty elaborate right with a book I did. Yeah, um, look at you man, No, no, I want to hear about all this, so let me so it's like it's kind of like a buck of us kind of thing, right, Yeah, Natalie ge So she gave me this uh photo album uh for for one of my birthdays, probably four years ago. We've been married almost two years a year and a half, two years, but um uh and it was just all

these photos. We worked together for five years before we ever, and for a while we would we would sit on a little more whiskey and you know, dance a lot closer, literally, dance a lot closer. You know, it's about as far as it went. But you didn't date a couple of times Okay, so you did. So did you secretly date? Okay, I would not really because I will say that right now. We didn't secretively date. We just always hung out together and I would always find something to fix at our house. Like, hey,

that's hinge. You both stay single because you not say did you both stay in a good place because you knew eventually you would try to be together? Oh no, we had drama. That's fine. Yeah, she's an attractive woman. I'm an attractive man. She's definitely attractive woman. And you're cool. You're definitely cool. Um, so I'm in that situation now. I don't say anything whatever, you know, if you know anything, don't say anything where It's like from just just a bit,

not long. But I had a friend for a long time. I miss the universe chick it had. I've had a friend for a while. We were just friends forever because it was like, you can't, I can't date somebody that I work with. And so what I learned to that is traditions or bs. You know, if you love someone you love. I wouldn't do it. I just wouldn't. And I'm saying things right now that I haven't said yet on the radio. Um, and I just wouldn't do it.

And so we just in the last month and a half, we just had a talk and I was like, Okay, what are we gonna do here, Like we're gonna date or not. And so it looks like we're gonna date. Cool, I think it, man, let's go on, let's go right now. It's kind of secret it but like in two weeks. I think in two weeks it won't be secret anymore.

People are saying you're putting out like like pictures of like who I might be dating, And I to myself, what I was saying was like Bobby's just taking random girls, you know, and just having different part to their body show just to confuse people. Fair, did you fair? But no they didn't. Um. But it was the same thing, like this person was a friend for a long time,

which is good. It's a good set up, the best set up, because I'm terribly afraid of commitment, and so here I am now with someone that I know that like it's just as friends have like seen the ups and the downs in the middles and walked in on peeing that kind of stuff. All that stuff happened, and so now it's like Okay, we're gonna try this thing. Yeah, and she's seen I mean, she's gotten to see your world too, you know. And that's like with Natalie and me.

It's like she's seen me from Hey, I'm done with my record. You know what, who's who's wants some songs, you know? And she went Jason Aldeen and I went and wrote a song that and that's why I never cut it, but he should have. He ended up recording a song that sounded just like it. But it was like, but she didn't. She realized, Wow, he's actually a songwriter. Explain explain her job because you say that, but people her job at a music publishing company. They they sign

like a record deal in a way. They signed songwriters, and we also might want a record deal, you know, be singers too. But her job was to have the songs come from us, and then she would go, Okay, I think so and so would like this or whatever artists, so she would go to the label or the manager or the artist or their public whoever it was. That was the right avenue to get the song to him to see if they want to record it or not.

So she would take your songs because you were signed to where she was working and pitched them to people, and she pitched Barefoot, Blue g Night too. J Cohen renee Renee Bell was at Sonny and she held it for Jake, and Jake ended up loving and recording it. Um Barefoot or even if a break, let's come back. Hold on a second, Let's stop it that for a second. I want to get back to this proposal book. Yeah, okay, because we we we were off track. We'll get back

on that train track in a second. So you make this book of of what? Yeah, so it's it says it's all these pictures from all these years of what I just talked about, of random pictures of us on rider trips or just downtown Nashville or who knows what. And then halfway in the middle is said to be continued. So I was like, I have an idea. Oh, she gave that to you, she gave it to me, said,

but it said to be continued. So what I did was got all the pictures from then on and just started putting them in and had Bible verses and cool justt memories and dates and all kind of cool stuff. She started it. She started putting all that in there.

So I continued it and then went and got some foam and some black, really nice black velvet, you know, so she couldn't see that there was something built up in the back, and uh went up it was it was January December, because I didn't want to be cliche and have it like one New Year's Eve night. But that's fine, two fellas, if you gotta do not, really, don't take a day that somebody else has already created.

But the other thing is, I'm a musician, so we're actually, I act you have time to like put a book together, but find me one of them my wives and mellowed wives. But we uh so I I and actually I ran downstairs because I still had to like officially finish it exactly. And I had taken a picture at a Christmas party. My brother took it for me because he was already in on it. Took a picture of us standing in

front of the Christmas tree. And so when she turned to the last page, there was a Christmas tree there and at the very top was the star was the ring. So I had slid the ring down into that phone to where it fit perfectly so it wouldn't fall out, and she didn't know anything funky was going on in the back of the book. So it actually it took you to see it, right. You didn't know it was the ring immediately a millisecond. But that's longer. That's long

enough for a guy saying. But she said, God, you're such a two arible person. But okay, it was It was awesome process. So you've been married almost two years now, year and a half. Yeah, what's what's the what's the key to it? At a year and a half? Um, loving each other deeply to begin with, and both being understanding and uh and and also knowing what you're getting into. It's like she knew that I'm always on the road. Not always, but it's kind of like two different lives.

It's like you go out on the road, hang out with all those crazy girls, and then you come back to your what And I'm kidding, do make the heart grow fonder or does it make the heart grow sad? I think it's you know, it's it is weird because it's like I'm on the road and I'm busy all day, so like for for her to know exactly what's going on, and I'm terrible at like communicating details. I'm like, so we went to here, then we went to there. Oh yeah, and and and I also met Garth Brooks or what

you know or whatever. But it's, uh, I think it's I always love going home. And I think when we when we get to finally hang out for two or three days a week, it's it's really sweet and we just project. We make all kinds of things together. This today we were building cabinets. Are just kind. He's a rock star at it. No, you like it. You're like a person. My sister came to tell him last week and she and I feel like a gigante. The linen chest or cabinet into the eaves of the wall while

he was on the roads. Are like perfect for each other, and I get to come back and finish up with the details. Yeah, you're just a creator. I mean you create a lot of things, you know. Yeah, go back to music, and you're talking about songs, and so I don't think of it as look at all the songs that you've given away, because you write songs at different

times for different reasons. Absolutely, there are sometimes when it's time to write for yourself and when it's your project time, and there are sometimes where you just are writing because you you're a songwriter as well. You gotta write. You gotta swing the baseball bat. So let's talk about and stuff. So you mentioned Barefoot Blue Gene Nights, So never could you write this with wrote this with Terry Sock Chuck and Dylan Altman. So when you wrote this, it wasn't

written with Jake and mind. We just wrote it. Yeah, where were you at Calfour where I used to write and the upstairs it's like they finished out the attic area, so I'd go up there. Made me look like a giant, complete giant person. You are a complete but no, no, you are a complete giant person. Nothing needs to make Everyone's like you're so tall. I'm like, well, I'm only like four inches tall. I CD cover. You know, at least you don't have to take arm pits. And that

was a conversation that you don't have to take arm pits. Yeah, so you write this song Barefoot Blue gen Night. What did it sound like on the recording? Like if you guys like recorded the demo, pretty close to that, Pretty close to that. I'll tell you a story on that. Jake is stand up awesome dude. We actually he actually changed a couple of lines, a couple of words kind of more a couple of words in the song. Never asked us to be a rider on it, which you know,

it's it's you. Guys also have to say yes to that too. A lot of times people well I don't, I haven't had this happen yet. But in theory sometimes and make believe land not called Nashville. Sometimes you know, people will be like, you know what, I think I need to change your word there can we have the song and you're like, this is in l A man with the grap you it's just not cool. I would never do that. You mentioned l A. Here's the difference.

So what's songwriting? The good people are moving here from l That's true, there are a lot of this is where to move to to write. But so if three people write a song, it's thirty three. But if it costs like two million dollars to buy like a five d square foot house, you probably just have to rip off all your friends. Yes, it's less expensive here in l A. You can write part of a song and get ten percent of a song. Right. There are two different kind of song writing rules. There are national rules.

If there are three people in the room, everybody gets a third of the song. Right if you're in l A if you contribute ten percent, and that's what's negotiated, you get ten of the song. And that's the difference. And the two were uh in this theoretical world. Have you heard of stories where people just go sit in a room and don't really add much, but they're in the room and they get writing credit. And this is

this is the universal. Just one thing I will say, there are some just really good vibe people that somehow when they step in the room, great songs are written, even if they only said like two words like I'm totally moving to Nashville. I got good vibes. Everyone knows I got good No. But I mean that's usually just the off day where it's like you're a great writer and you're you know, you're just staring at me the whole time. But now it's uh songs. It's just a

wild process. I mean, we all have our on days and off days. Um, but it is. But but to get back to it, props to Jake. I mean the like he changed what was it the I'm never gonna uh it was a second verse. It was down blue

eyes Auburn. Here is sitting looking pretty on the deck by my cousin in a launcher, and it was like, by your cousin, like we like now we changed that, Natalie, it was like, what the crap, Like, we're not like twelve or in Sesstuary cousin, but by the deck by that it was originally on the deck in a launcher, and Jake was like, by the final launcher, dude, with the crap, that's just better looking. And there it is,

did the town new to me? Ruby red lips sitting on sweet Teo that was originally shot me a look like a shooting staring grabbed the bar of my ogata, so that originally was I grabbed the keys to my daddy's car. We wrote around underneath the stars, Allen to singing our favor was on. I mean he he basically he made it totally fit everyone's scene. And he didn't. He didn't come back and go, hey, I'll take a quarter.

He didn't, you know, and uh, I mean props to him, I mean, with with that amount changed, he just didn't. He's a songwriter. He was like, you know what, y'all wrote a great song. Here's a cool thing, and he knows. On the artist end, he's gonna be fine because he's gonna get to play the show every night. That's the biggest as long as he wants. So you have Jake Owen's the biggest song, Well, Jake, Jake, Jake was the messenger, so I think perfectly. It's like you wrote the song

for Jake. Is weird? Did you? Natalie did good job, babe. I pitched the fire out of that song, and they're some artists in town. He would probably be pretty badders response. Oh so, I like it will turn the song down. Yeah, it's so crazy that Jake got it because that's such a Jake song. It worked great, you know, knows something wild. Jake and Jared Neeman originally did it as a dude as like they both sang on it together, and then somehow,

I don't know what happened. I actually heard it. It It was fun and it was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna keep this for myself. I'm not sure I said this is a Jake song. Yeah, Jared, you are dude, but this is not the time for you to be on a song. That's what I was told by one of the parties involved. And so they did record it as a yeah that and that was the first recording I heard of it, and I was like, this is fun, sounds cool. Who's Frankie? Huh, who's Frankie?

Who knows? I just said, okay, but the the I will say the lighters in the dark in the middle of a rock show. Before we started writing the song, Dylan Altman, who I loved as a brother, We've written together a ton of times, tons of songs together. He uh, he was telling us about seeing you two on the Joshua Tree tour like in eighties six, eighties seven at jfk Uh. He's like from Jersey. I was like, man, you turn around, it's like lights in the dock, you know.

And uh, it was awesome and all these lighters and you know, you two concerts. So we were just that's kind of where that line came from, shining like lighters in the arc in the middle of a rock show. Day. I'll never listened that song the same, Like, I just learned all of it. It's like I know how to put a car together now, Like I don't know anything about cars, but I wanted to get taken apart so

I can kind of put it back together. But it was but this is my first hit as a writer, you know, this is the first time, and it was I had signed my record deal, uh, and then the song came out and and it was like, you know that I put out a song and it didn't work, and put out another song. But it was just it was like perfectly a line, like God just said, all right, here you go. Here's confidence to know that you still

that you are supposed to be in Nashville. You're supposed to be doing this and uh, even though the artist thing hadn't quite taken off, and but guess what, You're writing songs that people want to record and want to hear and want to sing along too, and radio wants to play. And it's just it was a really really cool just I'll forever be grateful because it changed my course. Um. I never doubted that I could do this, but sometimes

you're like, wow, it's nothing's working right now. You know, I've been writing songs for four or five years straight and no one's like had had success with it yet on radio. Okay, so that song happens when you get your first check. Is it's small? Yeah, I mean it's the early it's the early one, so it was like the you know, the fifties and forties, so like you

get like two do you know? That's pretty exciting though, right, Like it's amazing check for a song, like wow, I just got I just got paid and my song was on the radio. It's only amazing the first time you get that small check, but it's cool for that first time, it's amazing and it's uh actually the first time I ever got to check from ASCAP, I think it was like for like fifty eight cents and I'm not even sure. I was like, wow, yeah, I think it did. It

did and I did. I don't. I never even cast it because like, why that's it's worth more to have it? You know? What was your next songwritering hit? So this is while the next one was even If It Breaks Your Heart that same year, So just been in. I had been in town five or six years at that point. Uh, just getting to know a ton of people and writing and writing and writing, hoping to get a record deal. Um wrote this with Will Hoag. He put it on

his album and all his fans loved it. It was kind of like triple A rock Um, which is very much country now but um uh. And then Eli young Van got to hear it to Cliff Aldridge, which Natalie pitched the song of Cliff Um. You can pitch a song even though a nartist has already cut it. Absolutely, Okay, it happened all the time. Man, I'm gonna cut for girls Friday Night. Lady and a Bellum recorded that on on the Night album and then and okay, that's true

about Friday Night. So this is your this is the number one for you recorded now if they hadn't went one more single, this was the next single, but they decided not to go anymore sings. So because they didn't put it out of a single, you get to take it back and you got to put it out like that's like some angels in this town kind of stuffs. That's some miracle right there, you know. And it allowed my my first album to come out and allows me to sit here and you don't even know about me.

You know that's not true. We met before I knew it yourself to be fair fair German out of the fourth Theater at the Hall Hall of Fame's Bobby Bones is moving in Nashville, and it was like it's like, hey, get when I'm from and I was like, where are you from? And it was like from Temple, yeah. And I was like like, oh, you're Jewish because you lived right because northeast of aust Yeah, right where we were basically, And so yeah, like our first price conference, which was

so weird, it seems like ten years ago. Like it really it's like two and a half years ago, three years ago, three years. How long have we been? How long have we been? Three years? Three years? It feels like it feels like ten years ago. Oh my goodness. It feels like all those all those beautiful nights, all these all these wrinkles I have, and great heres from from this from this city. You dang, they look good on here. Thank you appreciate that a cyber like, look

at my cyber? Is that gray in there? It's cool man, from all the political crab in this town. You're fine. Whatever I know yet, tell me about this song right here? Angel, Yeah, Angels. I seriously just saw Eric Gunderson at the airport yesterday morning. Good eight six of them. I don't even know when we land at seven am. Wrote this with him and Jeff Copeland, and yeah, I mean, what are the odds of that two giant guys named Eric, who both have

juvenile diabetes, wrote a number one song together. Eric is a good dude, and Eric spent through a lot and Eric now is like focused and straight up and he had a rough time for a bit. And we got got to spend a lot of time with them on the road because we took him out with this for like eight shows or so and they opened forth. Um,

I really like him good. Yeah, they're grinders and they had their up and their way down another work the way back up in your root for people like that absolutely, So okay, so you have that all right, So let's let's talk about all those hit in one year. Like I actually I got a CMA Triple Play Award. That means you had three number ones in one year. So I didn't have any hits as a writer or a singer and had a record deal and had, you know, everyone rooting for me, and then all of a sudden,

the damn broke. You know, all these songs and all these songs that Natalie had pitched and just hopefully people would latch onto And did you put you angel life that a lot of other people or was it pick up immediately? Actually? I set up a cor with Eric and Jeff, and Jeff brought Eric Anderson and in the last second, and let me tell the story, I was like. He was like, I mean, it's a cool song, but

it's not true. There's no devil and an angels at And I was like, but maybe dark angels, but she's not she's a good I mean, I was just getting all like spiritual, like it's fine. So he didn't love it at first. That's so funny. Well, you know it's the number one song. Now you have to play it the rest of your life. Yeah, and here we are. I love the song to death. So you wrote it before the other side, but it hit. They all hit

at the same time, but it took you. Yeah, but they always I was always told, and I always tell people now it's like, don't write what's on the radio because it's probably at least two years old. Like it was written two years ago. It takes about that much time for it to get demo and then pitched like this. That's so funny that he didn't like this song. I was. I mean that at the time though, I was writing like one to three songs a day, so I'm like, I don't know anymore. You know, as sucks. How many

songs do you have on hold right now? I have no If you had to guess more than ten, I don't know. Sure, I don't know. Well, this is the wild thing. I'm on the road so much now, um singing what I've always what I've wanted to do, and also wanting to write. But it's like it takes so much to carry one song, you know, as as a as an artist and uh as a singer, and so I don't get to write as much now. When I get to write it it is with like Lady Anna Bellamore or whoever it is. It's hard. You don't let

anybody right with them right, you block everybody? Block a lot of days because Aaron needs sometime haul not so much I'm trying to block people. But we definitely he has such little time to write that we definitely try to put him in rooms where he'll be successful and I'll be tired. So why would you send him over to do potty party? And when I grow up? Because it's fun, because because it's renovating. Man, I just wrote

a song about not pissing your pants. It's so fun to play live you realize how many band members members need to have that song. I mean, there's some wild people on the road. Adults. Adults love that song. So okay, let's talk about right to you. But it depends you're on the song with Charles Kelly. But you also wrote this right wrote Yeah, I wrote the Driver with him and uh, insta class and you got a Grammy nomination the right We totally got Anomie nomination for I can't

even talk. I just made it up. It really was. And this was the first time as an artist I've been nominated as a Grammy. We we got a Nami, got Anomie for a gram Yeah, you got three nous tell you, but the first one for even to preak your heart for Song of the Year Country Song. You've got two Grammy nominations. Crazy man, I've been nominated for a few things. It's cool, um dream there is some

good song. Proud of this song. It's uh, it's it's just it's a it's a just a tip of the hat too to all the people, the crew, the bus drivers, to everybody that gets us there, everyone that you don't see. I I call those people behind the walls of OZ. It's like everyone just wants to pretend that that Oz just appears this giant emerald city and to fill the poppies. And you don't realize how much work and how many

people are there day in and day out building a career. Um, and then you show up and for forty five minutes or an hour, hour and a half, two hours, four hours if you go to see Springsteen, you know that that how much effort it goes into it. Like what you I mean you should just like with your role in sharing music you love, you know, with with people

so they know to come see the show. And it's Uh, this song is just a shout out to all those people that build it, all of us on the stage, just all of all the singers that we you know, pour our whole lives into this, and then the fans that pour their lives into it, you know, like coming five hours earlier just to stay on the front road to wait, yeah, to see it. It's pretty amazing how important in your life it's faith to you. It's everything

to me. Um, I'm smart enough to know I could just stay at home and and uh, that being said, you still have to be blessed and lucky enough to get songs recorded. But I love writing songs, but I love sharing songs with people that I don't think others would necessarily share. And I don't make it easy on myself in that way. But um, I don't know. I've I've never doubted that I was on the wrong path that God had sent me on to go like all right, Uh,

this is what's wild. I've gotten to hang out with so many juvenile diabetics lately, Um, just doing these angel visits, going to hospitals and and go like, hey, there's this kid just got diagnosed. We just go get encourage them, you know, and uh, just get to meet all these juvenile diabetics and we get to do all this fundraising

for j d r F and all that. And up until I was eighteen, I thought I was going to be a doctor for that, to be a dibet doctor and an inner chronologist and specifically pediatrical and chronologist for kids that have that are being diagnosed with diabetes. And it's wild how God is taking that career that never happened. And now with music, it's like merging it all together

right before my eyes. It's like I'm getting to raise money for what I you know, something I believe in to help kids with diabetes, and you know I have it too, So it's it's relatable to when I see them and go, hey, man, you know, take care of yourself, don't Don't you feel better when you test your blood and you know where you're at? You know? And and I also tell everybody it's like we could have been born a hundred years ago and died from this, you know.

And uh, but it's my faith tells me that what I believe in is true because God's just somehow brought music and another calling that I thought I was gonna do, and now it is is you know, juvenile diabetes, Uh together somehow and and uh and even so much more getting to just help a lot of people and let kids know it's okay to do good stuff. You don't just have to be ridiculous online to be famous. Do you you feel like God put you on earth for a reason. I think you put all of us on

earth for a reason. Why did I put you on earth? Hopefully to glorify Him and let people look up towards him, not be uh, not be misled about who he really is or jaded to to his love. Because someone used his name not for the right reason, you know. And uh, you know, I think I hope that whenever the time comes when I'm not here anymore, people go, you know what,

God used him to bring me closer to God. I was talking to Garth, not in like that's just what I believe, not not for me, and that's totally not looking at me. I um no, I I wonder And I know you're such faith based. And I met your parents who were awesome, by the way. They're fun people and they were missionaries Nomad's right now. They freaking sold their house there in an RV just cruising around him. They are yeah, damn But for them though, like they've

lived in some pretty cool places, right, Yeah. Well, my dad was telephone man, like for thirty years. He worked with South Southwestern Bell so he's a manager. And we were the first to have Caller I d in all of Bell County. Was crazy. When it came out, they call me, I'd be like, hey, Carson's the first one to have Colorady in your talent totally and the whole count You had to be the coolest because when it came out, we were maybe even the first in Austin area.

It was so cool. If you're below like twenty five right now, you have no idea how color I d changed our lives. Yeah. Used to you had to answer every call and really answer this is what I hate to. You had to answer it with the question hello, Hello. People still do that now and I'm like, you know, it's it's just say hate strange person. Yes, but yeah. So he worked with Southwestern Bell worked their thirty years.

He was in the Navy electricians, so it fed into being ah in the telephone company with all those wires running everywhere, it all makes sense to me and like your creation, Yeah, he's I guess he showed me. I mean, he showed me how to wire up stuff. So that's why I'm not afraid to do electrical work or built things he built. We built a lot of stuff together, the create the creative part of you, the faith based

part of you. Like it all kind of makes sense, all the puzzle that's slowly going together, getting put together. So when did they decide to be missionaries? So we had a neighbor that was from Thailand across the street and my mom and her were good friends. And then we had a lady named on Sinakim over from she was a I thought she was like like, they're like, oh, she's a teacher in Bangkok. Turns out she's like the head honcho principal at like the best school in Bangkok.

So she came and lived with us for two or three months. She was studying out of college there. Um, and so I knew this sweet little woman that would like make the most incredible tie food I've ever had in our kitchen. I was probably a senior in high school then. And uh so my dad retired and it was like, hey, we know people in Thailand and let's go. And they went for six months and it ended up being like six years. They speak fluent Thaie. It's pretty amazing.

And the coolest thing is are for me, the coolest thing about that was is I got I got to get out of American bubble. I like got to go all around the world and go that's this really, isn't that, fay? You know, like the world is pretty small. Yeah, and the whole scheme of things now and to go. I don't know what that guy just said to me, but I know he's my friend. It's crazy that you say that because I've only just discovered that, like the last

two to three years, I never went anywhere. You've been traveling a bunch of cool places, man, Yeah, in the last two years. Because again I grew up in Arkansas. We do. I don't love a kid any money. Yeah, we had to eat. We want a vacation. Why to get school closed? Same here as a kid. We well we hopefully got like one vacation here. So I got spoiled with that. I remember, you got to go with your buddies. I went to call rot. I want my buddies.

Parents paid for it, and so very cool. Now I've never been at the country, but I went to London a year and a half ago and about myself just to see over a couple of days right now. And so I go and I'm like, okay, this is it's it's really not that far away. And then I went to Japan and that's the other side of the world. And even as I'm there and we speak nothing the same, the people part of it is still the same. If not,

they're kinder than us. Like I was just like wow, like they're actually more loving than like it was yes, even though it's the other side of the world. It was like we're all just still kind of the same kind of thing. I went to Iceland. It was amazing. The nicest people, Like, everybody's nicer than That's kind of what I've determined. Everywhere ever you go, they're nicer than we are. In the States, well they're just you know,

just afraid of you. Because I got on the subway and I felt like in Japan I was a giant. I was to you. Here I got to feel I was like, man, I'm like Eric Pasley because I was taller than everybody. Started singing sound great, Yeah, I sund it great. I mentioned Garth a minute ago because he said before he died, the last thing you wanted to hear was a dance. That's what he said. And he

didn't cut almost didn't cut the dance. And I was talking to him about it and I said, hey, so tell me about the dance and you He's like, listen. I was then the guy that wasn't country. I was then the guy that this isn't shouldn't be on the radio because this is not what country is that I'm

swinging him from the ropes on his stage. He said that that that he was not going to cut the dance at all because it wasn't country enough, like that song was not country and had Steve Reynolds not come to him and said, dude, if you don't cut this song, you will regret it, and he said it was that's the only reason he cut the dance incredible song. We'll think about that. They're just a piano part at the beginning. They want. Nobody was doing that, you know, And it's

just it's what's happening now too. And Michael, what tol me about? Because Johnny Cash from Arkansas, From Arkansas, you look up to everybody from Arkansas that's made. She would say. People would protest Johnny Cash concerts because he was a country he was rock and roll right, And how do people not see the cycle that happens over and over and over and over and over over and over and over again. It's happened eighty times, yet everyone thinks this

time is the wrong time. Right now. I always say, uh, you know, Hank, Hank, Hank Junior in country as Daddy was, you know, and Willie's just some hippie from Texas, you know, God forbid and I and I know that when Kenny Rogers and Dollies sang Islands in the Stream like Hell Froze over, and it's like then you go back and you go, oh, you know what. You know, It's like you listen to crews like Floor George, You're like that pretty Dann Good song. That's that's as country as it

can be right now now. And it was like and that was only like three or four years ago. So it really is. I mean, people are afraid to change and and and music has always changed because if it didn't, we get really be bored with it. You know, it's it would die. And if you never wanted something new, it would there'd only be the one song ever. I mean, it's it's it's a bummer that people do. I mean,

it's it's just it's scary when things change. I'm not here, but if if it stayed the same, it would die with the people who loved it, it would and the newer generations that's being influenced by ninety different things would not attach themselves to it and it would just go away. I don't think people understand. It frustrates me. I mean that really gets under way. But the wild thing that is, like what's what's new was what was old? You know, and it's just it's all close music everything. I was

just thinking, like adele Amy Winehouse. I mean, it's British chicks singing what Aretha Franklin did, and yeah with current lyrics and incredible voices. You know, but it's a um. We started covering a dull song on the road snatchat it's fun, it's it's really freaking people out, man, not really, what's uh set Fire to the Rain? Uh? Yeah, how's that starting on the road now? Yeah, you're Angels in This Town Tour. I love the song so much we just decided to call it call the whole tour Angels

in This Town Tour. All right, let's talk about this song. I love this song. A song about a girl. Yeah, Natalie was in this video, wasn't. Yeah that's right. We weren't even engaged yet, so you were just dating. Were you secretly dating or were you dating? People knew we were dating? Okay, so then you were dating. There was a time that we people couldn't know you were dating. We pretty much just the Yeah, I mean we would secretively hang out ish, so you secretly dated. It was bizarre. Yeah,

I know, I get it. Song about a girl talk about it for a second. It's strange and it's perfect coming by this song. So yeah, you're you're saying sometimes on ahead of I the thought was, you know, the original thought was everybody's seeing about tailgates like they're not sexy. It's only the chicks sitting in it that's sexy, you know. And like the water tower. The water tower is the most boring, ugly thing in our town. But if my girlfriend's name is on it, that now that's a song

about a girl. You know, you're not drown the bottle of jack unless you're getting over, you know, or finding the guests to ask route. So we were, you know, we were slightly being smart, going like it's not about a tailgate or a bonfire. It's about the girl though, you know, and that's what this song is about. And I just thought this is the coolest. I think this is the coolest sounding track on my first album, you know, as far as just attitude and cool, which, by the way,

I just moved into a new house. I have a new studio set up. There are people in my Oh man, so long three years that I've been your holy crap, it's been a long three years. But there are people that I've attached to as people and in my business. And what I do. You get a lot of stuff thrown at you from me, and like people like hey, my best friend, Hey, let me here's some pretty stuff. Hey, here's the plaque. No, no no, I don't want it that. I don't want it at all, Like that's the opposite

of what I want. But I only keep like this is a room. I only have six things up in this room. And it's because of Kelsey Ballerinia have her first number one plaque, because I mean, she's she's killing it now. But I remember Kelsey before she had a record deal. I knew Kelsey when she was just signed as a writer. I knew Kelsey the Christmas party when she got offered a record deal. And then you can't even like I'm going on a radio tour, what I'll

do for advice? And then we took her out on our first tour and she cried and I went back and I was like, listen, Kelsey, you're gonna screw up in a much bigger places than this, Like you you're gonna screw up in such big places. Don't worry about Kansas and Raging Idiot Show like, that's the Kelsey that I started with. So I have a plaque of Kelsey's

first number one. Awesome. Girl Crushed from a Little Big Town was just a song on the record that should have never been played ever, and it should have never been played. I got so much trouble. Natalie played me that song the second the day after it was written, morning after. Who's sang the like the demo? Hillary, Lindsay, Laurie McKenna. Yeah, they love jockeys, They've told a story. Yeah. I had them on the show as writers and I don't have writers in their office. I love Laura McKenna

so much. She's she's awesome. Yeah, can you tell me go to Boston? Yeah, whoever's like in the band, like Natalie stove Ball or Lindsay l They'll go. They'll go right with her Boston. So I have a Little Big Town from their kids. Girl carst sold. But that was a song that I heard on the record while they were still uh drink um drinking was trying to be number one. I was like, you have to your girl. I told Natalie that, I said, this is the only time and at the time, Note radio was not playing

girls at all. It was before the tomatoes thing that led girls in it was that's a whole other story, you know. But um but I said, this is the only time I wish I was a girl in the country radio right now, because I totally cut this. But the thing was, it was so awful for so long, because first of all, I played it, and I got in trouble because I had station managers yelling at me because I was playing a lesbian song, and so I put but it went to number one on iTunes, and

so I could at least show them data. And I guess, if you want to, it could be fun, I guess, but it's not really And if you have data, you can always point to it. I'm like, people are spending their all money on this song. So what they did is they tested it. My company spent money testing me talking about it to see if our listeners were turned off and changed the channel by it. I got so

much trouble over it. I had a friend that works with Washington Post articles written whatever history happens Boom that songs like the biggest song of blows up. So I keep a plaque up of that. And then I have four records by four different friends and their their vinyl records. Chris Jansen, who is just a solid dude, Like you talk about a guy that has been through some rough times and come out to the other side of it. Like if that dude in my pinky, I would cut

it off and say here's the pinky. I know you need one. So I got Jansen and a record Urban who's always been so kind like things don't even talk about, Like he's so kind. He played he played on Dressed in Black, the title truck track on the album that's waiting to come out someday. Really yeah, that's cool, and you know what that sounds like. He's just like, what what do you want to do? I'll do whatever you want.

I'm in town, Hey, well are you send me? Like He's been probably the most secretive friend that I had, because I'm like, he never asks for anything. He just cool. I have a Marin Marin record and who was also this Sonice, like she's like the kids and I listened to you every morning that we're in town and I'm like, is this for real? Gold Camp? But stop talking to me? It was weird. So and then I have a Marin

because we would old music off the internet. For a Mirror and played on the radio before she before she was five times CMA nominated Mirror and then Avaneric Passley. There I am, there he is, there's are Those are the six things that I have up on the wall in this room. Six people that I'm like, you know, people including any buddy. Well you you probably the first one. You and Kelsey are like the first. Here we go, so chronologically, that's why I'm at the bottom. Not really,

I'm not at the bottom. Let's talk about this one here. Never really wanted my very first single, and uh, I just thought it sounded cool, you know, and I was like, maybe ticks will be intrigued by this. You don't want me? Oh now you do? Yeah you do. Did you get into music for girls? Absolutely? Yeah, yeah you do. I mean I always thought about I was like, do you think the coolest kid in school? This is what I always think it's like. And this is for the coolest

kid in school also to remember to keep reaching. It's it's like, if you're the coolest kid in school, you don't have time to go to your bedroom and pick up a guitar by yourself and write a really slow love song and hope your parents don't hear you write in a song, you know, or figuring out how to play guitar and uh, and it's uh, you know, I think you know, like Steven Tyler you talking, he just

always got made fun of. He's like everybody always made fun of my lips, you know, and all this and that, and I got made fun of in school and I mean make jaggers. I mean he probably got made. You just think, Tom Petty, I don't. I don't really see those as being like the you're you're the homecoming king. But that being said, if you are, don't forget to keep reaching. But it's yes, but we all did it for girls. Absolutely, we're all low life. We just we

just never got girls. We never get. We never get girls made us drove us to do what we do and that you'll get there, buddy, be fine by this. The first second. I haven't played this one yet. This is Rewind. Yeah. UM wrote it with Ashley Gorley and Krista Stephano and they didn't do one thing on the recording. That took me in like thirty minutes to finally do. So I sang rewind and uh, and then we reversed it and it was like near We're or something, just ridiculous.

So I sang it backwards and then we flipped it back so it sounded like it was like rewind, so where it was it was just ridiculous. So basically, basically I wanted to sing it backwards. We flipped it over so it was literally me singing it in rewind, but then it sounded like rewind and and the guy's the look on your face is the exact look Gary Lavox gave me, like you did what and why don't you have just saying read wind? You know? And they didn't do what you I don't think they even realized that.

They're like, oh, that was a weird. He was really ring there, stepping on some who thinks of that to actually go, I'm gonna sing it backwards so I can play it. I had next minutes before my next code, right, and they're like, oh, let's try it. Actually left long before He's like, I gotta go, and Chris was like fine, but now I love writing with those guys. We we just wrote another hit. Who knows it'll find its home somewhere. I just saw and talked to Stefanough for right like

forty five minutes other night. Like, I don't know a lot of people that aren't that on the surface, you know, but I've gotten to know a few because I'm like one of my dearest friends, Lee Miller, Lee Thomas Miller as a writer, like one of my he cares go to I'll go to like go to his house and have dinner. Friend Like, he's like such a and he wrote for those that are listening, and we're gonna have him in here sometime soon. But he wrote um in

color from Jamie Johnson. He wrote like a ton of Brad Paisley stuff, like he wrote, you know, big songwriter, but even better human in better dude. So Lee was like, Hey, come play a songwriter around with me. And I'm like, okay, I'll play a couple of funny songs whatever. So I get up. I don't know what I'm doing right, and it's during what's a song writter first called Tin South. Okay, I don't even know what it is, right. This is how clueless I am. He's like, Hey, we're doing this

thing at tip Pan South. Are you in town? And I happen to be in town. I was like one of the Thursday, Friday Saturdays I was in town. I was like, hey, I can't play with you. I'll play like He's like, just you play like four songs. And I'm like, okay, that's not really my thing to get up by myself and do music. Music. I do see up comedy and I add music to it, or I get a big band and we play our songs. So I get up and he's like, hey, a couple of

the guys gonna show up and play whatever. I'm like, cool, whatever. So I get up and it's Lee to the left, and it's me and sitting beside me, it's christ As Stephano, who has written a hundred like all right, like he did Carrie Underwood Something in the Water him and he sang it, and he sang it as good as Carrie Underwood can sing. It's pretty good. He's very pretty good singer. And next to Chris was Ashley Gourley. So it's a

fourth person. And actually Go has written just recently, he wrote with Dan and Jay and he wrote from the ground up. He wrote Cole Swindell, you should be here with Cole like these guys are. And so it's Lee, Chris, Stephano, Ashley Gorley and me now, which one doesn't belong of that four Noah, the fact, So he was so Chris

was so kind to me, and I saw him. I went to Kelsey's I've been to two number one parties in my life, Kelsey's the first number one song and Kelsey's last number one song, and Christmas they're wearing a pim and Joy head and I was like, dude, did you know it was coming? And he was like, no, I had no idea. And so, by the way, I see pim and Joy hats in the crowds all the time. I'm like, that's cool, that's all, but good dude. Chris Stephan was a good dude. And you wrote that with

him and Ashley and my my co players. Yeah, that's the only song. We've only written two songs together, the one I was just talking about in this one. So I was like, hey, we just wrote another really good song. As we wrote about Amounts, goes like, well, maybe we'll keep batting a thousand. We'll see that means you're hitting the baseball perfectly. What, Yeah, I think most people in case, um, so this album that that you talked about, what's again

take for like this thing to happen faith. Yeah, okay, fair enough. I gotta have faith in listeners and faith in radio to play man, never have faith in radio. Oh, I still gotta have faith in them. I know that they want to play great music. They will whatever I mean. I guess I can be frustrated for you. I'm frustrated, but I but I understand that that energy is worth not not worth. It's not good for business to be if you want to get uninspired. We were my good friend,

we were talking about it. I said, at the beginning, it's like you got a plant in water. The moment you try to start making something grow that you literally don't have the power to do is when you get jaded. So I don't want to start trying to like push push greenly was out of the ground that I'm not capable of doing. I can. I mean, I could fabricate it, but that's not the person that I am, you know, And that's uh. If you'd like to fabricate it'd be grateful.

Punch a horse in the face, right, I shouldn't do that. No, he stole a horse. He didn't punch a horse at he's still a cops horse. Course, yeah, he's still Well, it's a whole long story. He he was actually apparently flirting with the sheriff's daughter who had the horse, and said, yeah, sure you can ride it. So he got on it and then the other sheriff saw, like, get off, and they pulled him down, and then Tom or Tim mcgrawl saw it. I'm probably making all that, but basically, yeah

it was. It was a big ordeal. But yes, I need to go steal a horse. I shouldn't punch a horse, Okay, fair enough, just punch anybody. Yeah, it accidentally steal a horse quote unquote, No, I mean it really is funny. I need to go do something ridiculous but not bad. I'd be like, hey, no, not bad. But you know, it's weird entertaining people. Here's a weird thing. Like for me. You have to do your philanthropic stuff for yourself. It has to like fill your own heart because people don't

really people don't care like I do it. I do it because it makes me feel good because if it wasn't for other people helping me growing up, I want to be in this spot right now. So I feel like it's my job to give back what was given

to me. I just would not be here without the help of my youth director at church, my head football coach, these people in my life that came out out of nowhere and help me get from point A to wherever I am now might be point L. Maybe this is point Z. I don't know where I all my life. But that's why I give back for no other reason, And if it was for any other reason, then it just isn't effective. Your hearts really not into it in the right way. But here's the thing people don't care

about that. People care about tabloid covers. So that's why people are like, hey, I want to I'm like, you do philanthropic stuff for your own like other I will be on the curve of Playgirl coming up. Did you see that? That doesn't I don't think they existed. I don't think so. But you can bring it back. You can. You can have say you were hacked and put a picture of your you know, and then that would make I was hacked. That would make the news. Yeah, nobody

would believe. But it's you know, you do so much and you do it for you and that's what's great. The weird thing is, unless you're again punching a horse or cheating on your wife or nobody cares about that stuff. That's what's weird. That's what's weird about an icelander Japan or I think the people that speak up don't care about it. The people that enjoy it are just people living their lives and working hard most of the time.

But we still all want to be entertained. Um. But I still believe that people don't always want to hear bad news. People like good news now because there's so much bad news. Yeah, it's like over consuming of bad news. Our strongest segment is tell me something good every day. People don't even people don't even know that too, totally a song, and people like I heard your jingle at the grocer's. I'm like, no, no, no, that's a real song.

We've been doing that, that that segment for twelve years, right, and we do it every dayb and no no, no, no, not good Jobay. Some days I'm like, I'm so tired of this, But then I remember what it brings to people, Like everybody doesn't do it every day here every time, like me, I heard every single time, I recorded every single time. Sometimes I'm like on a Tuesday, I'm like,

I gotta help more good. How about telling me something funny, tell me something bad, but but I gotta remember something bad. Keep putting it out there, and it really is a good thing. It really, it really is a good thing. You're a good dude. I appreciate you. You're just kind of sharing your your life story. Man. It's crazy like you have you have a book in you. Yeah, it's written every day and you have a book in you.

You have a book in you. We'll get there. I still got a lot more songs to put out there before I start, you know, showing people behind the curtain too far. Here's the Lady a version of Friday Night that they didn't put it as a single. Crazy crazy, pretty wild, pretty wild. Yeah, thank goodness, they didn't put that out of a single. I'm you know, and that's that's the wild thing. It's like plant and water out like I couldn't. I mean, that wasn't up to me

that they didn't put it out. I wanted them to put it out. I was like, please put out the single. And I was bummed about it, you know, I was like, it's a bummer. They put out like all ballads and I was the only up tempo on the whole album and they didn't put it out. And there you go Number one. Ever know you never you never know. That's the great thing. You wake up every day. There are a million possibilities. I've been finding million dollars. I've won

a c M awards. I've been had both spectrums and both those days I didn't know other one was gonna happen. And tomorrow I get fired. Tomorrow I get a TV show. You're getting fired. I could very easily. I want to fire. When I got find a million dollars like that was a that was some intense stuff. Man, I got find seven. There's only been a few of us have been like there's a club of people who have been fine over a million dollars by the FCC. Yeah, I'm in the club. No no, no, no, no to be And I mean

you got to, you know, punch something of it. It made me reappreciate every single thing, and it reset me because I was out of control a little bit and it was like back. I almost think it was on purpose, like some weird things said okay McGrady by the caller, and I'll make you understand and appreciate where you who you are and where you came from boom, set me right back back in the chair, and it was like, okay, it just re reset my life and it was like, okay,

I can't beat this what I was starting to be. Yeah, so yeah, it's crazy, I think even musically right now. Um, I remember when I recorded Friday Night, I was at a place I never really wanted. Didn't work. Fish don't by, It didn't work. That whole them that we had really was four or five years old at the time that they were promoting the Mine, and I was like, you know what, and there's pictures of me, this big old beard. I just grew it out because I didn't care anymore.

I was like, it doesn't matter what I looked like like right now, I'm just gonna make some music that I love and and all that, and uh, I think I'm I'm definitely back in that spot. It's like, you don't people always tell you what they think of it is, but ultimately they just want the side effect of a hit. It's up to us to just create great music, fun music, and and you to play thank you. It's all on me, only on you. I hear the ultra music as it wrapped this up when you moved to Nashville and you

went to college. I'd like to thank the academy. You moved to Nashville to study music what what what goal in mind? I went to school to study music business with the goal of getting a stick around and doing what I do. Now, what jobs did you have to get by just so you could eat? I valet I worked at Starbucks and that I parked almost every car and make almost every latte. Again, would you ever park a car of any country music superstar and be like, oh, man, I want to be this. I totally want to leave

a cassette in their car. Man, Now I part. I parked a bunch of big songwriters that I get to write with now. And I'm right. You were really nice. You actually take me like a doll's Eric pass Lay, thank you very much, appreciate your time. Thanks Bobby. I hope you've enjoyed this much. I've had a good time. I hope everybody had a good time listening to us talk about ourselves. It's good. Good thing about a podcast is I can stop it and started stop back. You

can listen to all the good parts. Do you get to do an hour straight interview and talk about everything and fully get the whole story out there. If only we had five hours Eric pass like, Hey, download Angels in This Town. If Eric's out, go see him live. He's on the Angels in This Town tour right now. How long is that gonna lie? So to the middle of December and then we'll see we might care it in the next year. Go see him. He's a good dude.

And thank you for being here, Thanks for having the episode. What Episodes? Episode fifteen is over. Thank you to everyone, and thanks to our sponsor, Blue Apron. By the way, you bay Blue Apron. I have not Oh it's fantastic basic, Yes, I have no, I have no. No, don't they send you a whole boxes down and you wouldn't do it? You brobably cook like crazy and it's all all the steps in they're already in perfect portions and you look like a master chef. We kind of have that. Well,

it's really good. Well and you go to blue Apron dot com slash Bobby Meals and get a deal. Do you know that he did? You go after this is over. I'm hungry, all right, all right, gotta go, Thank you guys, to see you next night. By