Episode 25 - Lee Thomas Miller (11-29-16)

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My mother never ever called me Lee. She called me Lee Thomas one word. So should I call you Lee Thomas? If you had ever met my mother, you would call me Lee Thomas without realizing it because she always does. Oh, I have to see. When I would google Lee Miller, it was always like ancient Civil War heroes or some guy that was in three episodes of Jurassic Park the cartoon. You know it's some famous British photographer. Lady too. I want to play a few just before we get started

so we can have an idea. Here are some of the songs and we'll get to them during the conversation that Lee has written do you know before I say, do you know any number one? You've written? Seven? Okay? Is that true? Mike? Is that the fact check? Seven? Alright? Seven? Okay?

So for example, it's gonna be fact checking. Oh yeaeah, Yeah, we have lots of fact checks, like a couple of gears, Juice in Color by Jamie Johnson, Mother, you should have seen it in color, Southern Girl, Timo Graan, Sweet than to Blue Honey, a little bit crazy like Newly Lifts Blue and Day Jon Sunday, You're gonna miss this, You're gonna missing You're gonna want this fact, You're gonna days had so Fat just a few of the songs that

Lee has written. Also The World by Got Brad Paisleys to Perfect Storm, She It's joys Me and and I'm still a guy but then I'm still alright. So you have quite the library of songs there. I like to start by letting people know the big picture first. So when you first came to Nashville, you came to Nashville, true or Falster because your goal was to play in Alabama. No. I tell this story and they always retail it wrong.

I always say I wanted to be in whatever the next Alabama type thing was, because they were my heroes. What was the Alabama TI thinking made a band? The band and you know they were cool and there was a guy on the end that played a bunch of instruments. I wanted to be the guy in the modern version of Alabama, whatever it was that had all the instruments set up and played a little bit of this and played a little bit of that, and that was that

was the goal. So your goal is never to be the front man of the even the new Alabama, you want to be the utility player. I always want to be the utility player. But I wanted to be in in a you know, in in a traveling signed band like the Eagles or something like that. Whatever. But what you know, whatever it was, I mean in the eighties, the early eighties, you know, I'm I'm just Alabama made me want to be in the business. And so that's

why the Alabama reference keeps pop up. Okay, so you did not want to be in Alabama, but you wanted to be in something like Alabama. Exactly did you try? Did you have a band like Alabama? I mean, did you have a band called? From high school? High school? From the time I was in middle school, there was some incarnation of dudes that could or couldn't play in my parents living room, trying to learn how to be So you moved to Nashville wanting to be the person

on stage? Were you not good enough? Well, you know, back home in Kentucky, I was pretty good, you know. And you grow up in these these bars and and especially when you're young, and you can kind of play different instruments. People say, oh, you're fantastic, and I'm like, yeah, I'm fantastic. But you know, I think in high school, I mean, my first visits in Nashville and uh, and Nashville was a lot different than there weren't near as

many hockey talks as there are now. But there would be kind of local clubs where, you know, the people that have moved to town trying to trying to get heard would go play. And I remember I would go and I would At the time, you know, I went

on to music school. I was classically trained, but through these years while I'm trying to figure out how to be a better musician, I would come here and I would go in these clubs and I would sit there and I would listen to these guys that weren't working, they were trying to get gigs, and I would sit there and go. You know, they were so good. They were so freakishly good on every instrument, whatever it was,

whatever they said and it did. It was just like, h and and this guy is unemployed here back where I'm um, this guy would be you know, the a legend, you know, um. But so you know, I didn't come here with any you know, false hopes. I knew, I knew what I was getting myself into. So you moved to town and you get into kind of a band playing fiddle and they fired you, Is that true? Well? So I look at whatever I played at the time, and I said, okay, certainly guitar players or adama dozen't

in this town. And at that point, piano was my first instrument. But I really felt like, as far as you know, I probably wasn't ever going to be up to par with these guys. So I said, okay, I'll be a fuddle player. So that became my all my focus and uh, and so I moved here, and I moved around June one, and two weeks later, I've already met somebody that got me an audition for Tom Tehall, and so I walked into the audition. Um, Tom wasn't there.

It was a band leader and auditioned for Tom Tehall, and the guy hired me, and uh, there were two fiddle players, and so I get the job. Blame one. He asked me to come back and run through the whole set with the second guy, and so I went back and the other guy have been there for a while, So I in my second audition. I'm now playing all of the music with the second to chair and okay, good,

your good, your heart. We leave Saturday. So July three, I get on the bus as Tom ty hospital player and we did two dates and on July fifth, he fired me. So why did he fire you? What did they say to you? Because that's it. He didn't give you a chance. Like well, so so we get on the bus and we drived a Homestead, Florida. Well, i've never been on the bus, you know, something twenty one, I guess, and might get on the bus and it's

like season musicians. Tom's not there. And Tom was from about seventy miles in Kentucky for a where I'm from. So I'm thinking, first of all, I've got the Kentucky thing in my back pocket. I'm gonna will him. He's gonna love me, you know. So we get on the bus to go to Florida and there's no Tom. It's just the band. And so I meet the band and well, these guys were seasoned road guys and they really weren't all into the new guy, right, So I didn't really

have a friend. And so we drive to the other side of the world and we get there and there's no tim. We do sound check and there's no time, and when I come back, Tom has arrived. And so I introduced myself to Tom. Well, Tom's kind of Tom isn't a real people person. Tom isn't a chatter and I told him I was. I told him where I was from, and he just kind of looked through me, said nothing, and that was that. And okay, So now I'm nervous. And so the band leader started getting anxious

because he realized he had hired me. Nobody else had heard me. What if I mess up? And the Tom to hollagig was pretty fiddle heavy, and so he starts saying, hey man, it's kind of my gig here, you know my butt. Don't don't mess this up. Okay, okay. So this went on kind of for six hours. We do the first gig and I rushed over to him and I'm like, howd to do? And he says, I monitors weren't very good. I couldn't hear you. I'll just listen to Morrow. So we go from there to North Carolina

and and he just wanted to my man. He says, I just you know, you gotta do that man. He could be great man, you gotta be and he just got in my head and we get ready to kick off the show and I'm trembly and I'm nervous. Ladies, gentlemen, Tompty Hall and the worst fiddle player in America shows up. I mean I absolutely and in of fact this thing. The guy that was playing with me is going, what's wrong?

And I'm like, shut up, you know? And uh, and it just it was like a can't fight and it just kept getting worse, and I'm I'm like a little anxiety attack, a little panic attack. And the more I played, the worst I got. Was it? They didn't see enough in you though to try again? Fired me? Fired me. I mean, I had some people come worry for me that I'm like, you know what, You're not that good now, but I see a lot in you did a lot

of potential. Fired me. And it was about five or six years ago before I ever saw Tom T. Hall again. And we were at some function and I went up to him and I said, Mr Hall, I'm Lee Miller. I played fiddle for you for three days in nine and you fired me. And he says, what happened? And I said, I wasn't ready, and he was kind of like, he was kind of like, are you are you mad at me? And I'm like, no, no, No, was the greatest thing that ever happened to change my path. Can

I have a picture? So that's where that was my welcome to Nashville kid. So your path has changed because your confidence is broken. You're now the broken stallion. Sure, and so do you put it in your head? Okay, I'm just gonna write I'm staying in town, but I'm gonna write no, no. I I beared down. I was like, let's let's let's get on with it. So you know, I'm the guy that rehearsed or practiced fifteen hours a day.

I mean I just I played and practiced and practiced and took lessons and practiced and did more auditions and you know, did local gigs, road gigs with touring bands and did whatever. He you stayed on the road and played instruments, not with anybody you would know, just with bar bands but whoever. I mean, I had to pay bills, so so I would do And again I was the utility guys, so I would I would play everything, you know, and I had tons of gear and I would do whatever.

And somebody heard me and put me with a a producer was had this duo and made it a trio and they wanted to try to get a record deal and that was Sugarland, and well it wasn't no they it never got to Sugarland level. But what it is, we started writing songs every day, and uh, and writing the project and then auditioning for labels and all that kind of stuff, and and uh, they got me writing a music row and I met more people. And music

in the nineties was huge. Music row was amazing. There was so many record companies and so many records being made, and so many publishers and right, you know, signing lots of writers and and the key was I started writing with music road guys and people were giving me a chance. And in ninety six, guy named Jeff Carlton ran this big independent company and uh, buddy mind, it got me in there righting with some of their guys and he said, he said, I don't think I don't think you can

do any of this other stuff he's about. I think you could be a full time songwriter. That's okay done, And he signed me. So he signed to be a full time song writer. How long from that day until you got your first cut? Um, the first cut was probably, I don't know, within a couple of years. I mean that this company was really great. The people that were mentoring me were really great, and we we the whole key was, first of all, I have to be riding in the ballpark of what's working. You know, this is

what's legitimately commercial music. Then you gotta have somebody that can legitimately get it listened to. And that's where they came in, and they could so so you would get good listens immediately. And you know, there were several cuts that came pretty quick. It took a while to have a hit, but uh, you know, you gotta have the

cut before you can have a hit. First hit was first bona fide hit was The Impossible with Joe Nichols Unsinkable Ship, Unbreakable, Watch Break Sometimes the thing thing never happened happened, just like that unbendable steep. So you write the song, who'd you write it? With? Kelly Lovelace? So you guys, right, this is this one of those where they say, oh, you knew the magic was there as soon as he wrote the song, so Kelly Lovelace. It was a blind date. I didn't know him, he didn't

know me. Publishers put us in the room together and uh, we wrote this song. And I did demo on the song and turned it in, which you sing it, and that the dem no no I heard. I heard. I got to sing it, and uh, we turn it in and everybody just kind of said us nice. And I don't know how much it was pitched. It wasn't pitched much. And so I'd even gone to R. C A because I had a friend that was an A and R

and I took it to him. And the only person I ever knew that loved it was this an Arga and he he held it in for a few weeks and played it for people at the label. And then when day he called me and said, uh, I've played it for everybody here, everybody we have on the roster, everyone's past. So I'm gonna have to let it go. And this song was never mentioned for maybe eight or nine more months, so it is disappears and a song

in purgatory. Well, you know, here's the thing. There's everyone's excited about the new songs, so they love it and they go, you pitched everybody that's looking today, And in a couple of weeks it's a new batch of songs, and the publishers are pitching those songs, and uh, it just kind of got buried. And I mean, honestly, I don't think that the publishers were not excited about it, so that how do they get refound and reused again. Well, this one got lucky because Kelly's publisher was a big

publisher at the time. And uh, people, this this song is meant a lot to a lot of people. And people will say this must have been undeniable, and I say, oh, are you kidding me? It was quite deniable. Um. It was kind of over in this b drawer at their

publishing company. Um to the point that there was a guy named Brent Rowan that was cutting sides on this young guy who had already lost one record deal named Joe Nichols, and he asked somebody at E M I for some songs just so they could maybe do some demos. And this is one of the songs that they let him have, just to cut side IDs on somebody that had already lost one record deal. This was way down the food chain, right and so they went and did a real low budget uh demo and then called hess.

They really liked the song and uh and I'm like, oh, who is it? And so they tell me and it was so far removed from, you know, actually even a record deal. I'm like, okay, well thanks, and then they said, okay, we think there's gonna be a new record label. The guy that that had made Arista Records famous and signed tons of people's tempted boys, responsible for all these major acts, is doing. We think is going to have a new record label with Tony Brown, who's one of the biggest

producers in Nashville history. They're going to be partners. We think they're going to have a label, and if they do, we think they're gonna sign Joe Nichols. And we think they like your song. A lot of things to have to fall. No, you don't even you don't even you know, as somebody said, you know, it's it's a single for an artist that hasn't been signed to a record label that does it exists, So so no, we thought nothing

about this. And then honestly it comes out and you're like, okay, well, right before it comes out, Mark Chestnut cuts it and he was on Sony and it was still Mark Chestnut, you know. And I'm like, whoa this is? This is a big cut. And my publisher said, well, we promised it to Joe Nichols. And I said, Joe Nichols didn't even have a record deal. And it's what's a relationship town and and and and Tim Dubois, who's one of

all of our heroes. He had actually come to a publisher and said, you can't take this song away from me. You promised it to me. And and I'm sitting there going you all have all lost your mind. I said, we don't even know if this this guy has a record deal, you know. And they said, well we we're gonna have to honor it. So then okay, and so we just waited to see, okay, well the word came there is a record label, there is a record deal.

He actually they're going to try to put this out and uh and and there was it was that day that I'm like, you know what, I don't know anything about the music business. And and I remember I had a song on a black Hawk that I really loved called Days of America. I need it gone to thirty three? How do you have that queue up there that good. Don't worry about what we gotta here. That's unbelieving. So as you were saying black Hawk Days of America and and we were so pumped because this was kind of

my tribute to nine eleven. That's what we that's what we wrote after nine eleven. And I love this record. And remember they did it at halftime of the Titans Steelers game in Pittsburgh and uh, and I'd actually gone up there to see this happened. It was a big deal. And then it stopped at thirty three and I'm like, it was disappointing, but it was the biggest record I've ever had, and so impossible comes out and as always

new artists, you know, they climbed slow. And uh. I was sitting in my office and my publisher opened the door. Um and like every Monday, you kind of know what the charts have done for the week. You kind of get through the weekend. The Monday morning they say this is the official New charts and I'll never get She opened the door and she says, you went to nineteen and that was the first time that I went that's a hit because of the top I don't I guess

there was no rule. Just to me, I was like, oh, nineteen, you know, and uh, and it kept climbing and it kept climbing, and it was at five and uh it was the anniversary of nine eleven, whatever anniversary that was, whatever the year it was, nine eleven. It was like one or two two two, I guess, um, and we probably were out of juice. We weren't going to make

it to number one, but we've gone to five. And on the anniversary of nine eleven, his radio does um, they're playing things that are appropriate for the emotion for nine eleven. And the song that was willing to keep us out was ten more Rounds of Jose Quervo, which is the opposite of what radio it was teed up to go number one, and we jumped from five to one because we got enough emotional spins because of the day to put us over the thing. Now, in all fairness,

ten Rounds Quervo went number one the next week. We didn't keep them out, but it allowed us to get number one, a non science artist on a label that didn't exist. It wasn't even gonna be number one. There you go, So that changed it all for you. When you have a number one? Do you have a lot more? Cloud? Is it like everybody wants right with you? Now? Well, I think it makes people take notice, like we all

are aware of what what's number one? And if it's somebody that's never had one before, everybody's like, oh, it's cool. It's like I think everybody loves to see somebody knew when. Um. I think that it makes people pay attention. Um. The most beautiful thing is because as we all do our own self doubting and I'm a one hit wonder, one hit wonder them. A few months later I had a number one one Terry Clark called I just want to

be mad. Never changed continue And what was fun is because for me it was emotional and I'm like, okay, even for me, I'm like, okay, I did it again. You're not chumbawamba at this point. Yeah, well, I it was. It was some confidence, you know, and uh and there was a lot of things going on then. I mean it's like we had, you know, several things that we thought were gonna happen and then didn't. But those two things that did kind of back to back, and uh, yeah,

I think that changed everything. It's certainly it got me in riding rooms that I couldn't get in before. So Joe Nichols, the impossible, the number one, Terry Clark. I just want to be mad now I number one, your fingers through my hair and your listen number one? What's next? Chronological? I think the world would have been next. So the world with Brad, which is a whole sidebar subject. But to you maybe just another girl girl but me baby.

So you and Brad have a relationship where you have written a lot of songs together, and so because and knowing both, to you, guys, I see how you get along because you guys have the same sense of humor. Is that good? Well? I think you and I have the same sense of humor too, and I think that's good. No, it's not. It's not good for anybody except for us. Because nobody else thinks we're funny. And we've seen that in rooms where were the only two in the rooms

think we're funny? But you and Brad? Is that what makes you guys take it first? Because you both have that dry, sarcastic with the plus you're good songwriters. I don't know. You'd have to ask him. I've known him so long um. And then before his first record came out, we wrote the first time back then, and uh, and I didn't that a matter of fact, The World was the first cut that I had on him. UM and I had a couple on that same album. And again,

you know, it's about relationships. I mean, from there we end up spending more time together, and we ended up we've been writing ever since then. But you like each other and you don't know, you don't we spend time together unless you like each other. Um. And again I can't speak for him. I know that there's something familiar about knowing somebody for so long. And you know, I always say the music community is tight. So the people that you're close to, we all do life together, and

we all you know, probably the goods, the bads. You know, he's one of those people that. I mean, Brad's interesting in that Brad. Brad's a talker. Brad likes to sit and talk stuff out and and just hang. More so than anybody any guy in my life. Ad is all about if he's gonna relax, if he's just gonna blow off steam. We're just going somewhere, we're gonna hang. We'll say we're gonna chat, we're gonna laugh, we're gonna listen to music, we're gonna drive around, you know, and just

just hang you know. So yeah, it's like you spend enough time with somebody, you know somebody pretty well. And then he's incredibly loyal to his everyone in his world, I mean, his his crew, you know, the bus drivers, everyone in Brad Paisley Land has been there. Sometimes we say, what do you gotta do to get fired by Brad Paisley. I mean he truly he loves his people and he wants you there. And uh so he doesn't write unless he's working on an album. So we're just hanging unless

it's time to do an album. And its time to do an album, and then we write and it's intense. It's it's all day and all night and all week and all month and and you just slam it out and you spend a lot of time together. And you're right. The world was at the first time track off the record. No, I don't know. It wasn't that. There were several singles in. I mean again, can you pressure a friend to put your track out first? No? No, As a matter of fact, you kinda I think you have to be careful and

there's an art to that. It's like, I'm really bad at self promotion anyway. But if I'm sitting here and there's a conversation about the next single is going to be my song or somebody else's song, I'm going to be thinking, I love you so much, please put mine note. But I'm never, ever, ever, ever probably going to bring it up or ask what he's thinking, because I feel like it puts him in an uncomfortable position. So the world has a number one song at your number three?

What's number four? Um? I guess, I guess still a guy. See this is how you know you're a great writer when you can't remember the order of your number one of the time kind of gets funky and hazy and problems man, Bloomber, I'm still When I hear this song, I think of both of you guys personalities and this song like I hear it and no by knowing you guys like this is the quite essential song where both of you guys, you got to get together and make a bunch of jokes and the song comes out of it. Well.

The common phenomenator, but all all of your first four is Kelly Lovelace. I wrote the first two that you played with just me and him, and then these two brad things are me Brad and Kelly, And uh, yeah, I mean I think again, it's it's also knowing somebody.

You know, we were in this conversation Kelly now about Brad and Kilm and you know, it's it's this perfect, amazing relationship, these two beautiful people with these beautiful lives and he's a country superstar and she's a movie star and they're so happy, and uh and we you start to say and like I said to Kelly, I said, do you think when nobody's around, they just have redneck bites just like everybody else, just ugly, nasty, married fights. And Kelly said, I don't know, they seem pretty stable.

He probably annoys or he's still a guy. And that's where the I did came from. How would you write that? And so we kind of roughed in some thoughts on it and took it to him and he liked it, but it took took a long time to get it. He's kind of gotta finally find an emotional connection to it. And when he finally did, when he finally thought it was funny, he got it to where he thought it was funny. Then the question was how far do we go?

And so then we took it further than we probably should have, and then that's when he decided it was perfect. And we felt like it was uncommercial. We felt like it would scare the label, and and the label felt like it would absolutely reach people. And and they were right, and I'm glad they were. Does that song surprise you most? That's twenty of your number ones? Um, you know, only maybe, But budd, you know, your opinion is kind of influenced by what your peers say. And I felt like that.

Oddly enough, this this song probably from from my friends, my writer friends. They probably gave this song more love than the others because they felt like it was written so well, which is strictly based on a well written song. The thing that is interesting is it's been a while since anything this quote funny was a hit. It's like radio doesn't really do funny lately. So sometimes it shocks me that something this light and is silly in this.

You know, he was a superstar then though, right at this point, so it's it's easier to be a little funny love when you're a superstar and he had been funny enough alcohol was funny celebrity he had he had done this before. It was kind of his thing, you know, and it was it had been a little while, so it was kind of ready for it, um, but like

he would test it. It shows of course, I said, he's been an arena act for a long time and so before anybody had heard it, he would sit on a stool with an acoustic and he would sing it to the minut an arena, which is gutsy and and he was blown away because he said, he said, the entire place just roared and laughed, which he says, that's fantastic because they don't know the song. You're selling it

like that. And then we remember that he started getting nervous right before it came out as a single because the album have been out for a while. This wasn't the first single of several singles in so people his fans had had the album and they knew the music. And I remember one day he had said, they're not really laughing anymore, and then Kelly pointed out, he says, no,

because they're singing. You know, everybody's singing now because they know it, you know, and then he still he still does it, and it's it's fun to watch him do it in concert because the entire place sings it back in. That's break brought to you by a Sleep number. I gotta paid the bill, obviously. Did you see my room? By the way, I get a new place, Persial, I've been to the new place, I haven't seen the sleep Did you give them a tour it all? Michael, you're

walking out. We just came up. Well, so I have a sleep in bed. If you like to take a spin and and take a nap afterward, feel free. It's a very comfortable bed. How long is the buck cast going to be? Well? Am I going home tonight? Well, so listen sleep number. I have one. My sleep number setting is thirty. And they have a comfort fit pillow, which is awesome now. And you don't realize how awesome pillows are until you actually either have a really bad one a really good one, and you have a bad

when you're like, oh that's terrible. If they have a good when you're like, I never even knew I needed a good one. But sleep number has the comfort fit pillow, and it remembers even now your head is shaped and so the comfort fit pillow is comfortable. It's a holiday season time. If you're hearing this right recently, and it's there for you. My Sleep number setting is thirty. My sleep i Q score last night was in the nineties. And there's only one place you'll find the comfort fit

pillow at a Sleep Number store. And right now you can buy only get one and off, and you can check out the great gifts too for greater sleep five hundred Sleep Number stores eight hundred next bed and you can tell them that charted here on the Bobby Cast. That's how you know you start to make it. Whenever

people want to advertise during a show. I'm big Sleep number guy anyway, but whenever we started get people going how and advertise them like dang, people are listening to this thing now, so you you know I'm still a guy that's your fourth number one. At this point, you're rolling the dough. I mean you're walking around fur coats, fur coats, fur coats come early though, I mean you gotta jump on that immediately, gold chains, You're the whole thing.

At this time, they really after four number ones? Are again? Are you a big dog on music? Girl? I don't know you know, here's the problem. Um, you may not know this because there is no bigger dog than you. But in music, it's like, no matter how good you're doing, you've got somebody that's just killing you. You know. So by the time I had four, it's like a couple of my best friends had twelve or something. That's kind of gone, Uh, this is exhausting because here's the thing.

It's it's a numbers game. It's a no game. So so I mean, I'm very blessed, so I can't complain about my success, but understand, but the time you get to the fourth number one, I mean, it's thousands of songs, and and we write every day, and and then inevitably the things that you think are your great stuff nobody

cares about. You know, they've passed on them. Or you get things on the record and you okay, you're gonna be the next single, and then the last minute they changed their mind and you don't get it, or the thing comes out and and this is unbelievable. This is huge, This is gonna be huge, this is gonna be huge. And then the guy loses his record deal. I literally had a single coming out Monday. This is a few years ago. Um, and it was a song that had been cut twice before and had never been a single,

and this guy cuts that. He's on a major label. It was the new single that was in all the trades. They're going for ads on Monday and on Friday, the guy calls me and he's crying and he says, I just got dropped it. You know. So we do lots of heartbreak, you know, along the way. Um and you know, so you're you're You're constantly Uh, is this is this the last one? I drive my wife crazy and all songwriters have just like it's big hit, number one record. I wonder if that's the last one. You know, it

wasn't take me to number five. I guess that was. You're gonna miss this, You're gonna miss this. Trace Atkins, did you write this with Trace? No? I wrote this with Ashley Gorley. So did you write in color with Trace? Did you ever write with Trace? No? You know, I wonder because that would be a weird dynamic. That's why I asked, because I got a chance on the Trace. He's a little difficult to have a conversation with a man a very few words. He's quiet. Yeah, I mean

he's uh, he writes, I don't Tracey never. I don't think Tracy ever loved writing you know, I've never written with written with Trace about if you cuts on Trace? Um. Race is such a cartoon character because he's so big and his voice is so deep, and he's he's kind of scary, you know. Yeah, and his stories too, once you learn them, it's scary. Yeah, like he's a bad man. Yeah, yeah, Um, you never stopped thinking about that. You know what's funny is Trace cut in color? That I think that's where

it was. I think in Trace cut in color on the same session as you're going to miss this and uh. And then Jamie got a record deal that we didn't even know that he was trying to get, and we had to call Trace and tell him he couldn't have an and color him. I didn't call him. I made somebody else call him. Both those guys with one of those guys. So you're gonna miss this Coast number one. But this is a monster song. Of all of these songs so far, in my mind, this is the biggest

so far as far as just all encompassing. Everybody knows it. Do you feel that way because he's just my personal feeling him a hard I think so, Um, this this one song of the heard a couple of things. It was nominated for all the big awards and didn't win any of them. We lost to other things. But um, yeah, I think that it's certainly for impact. This one is what is used for graduations, and you know, it's done a lot of things until In Color comes along. It's

is interesting thing. But in Color and Color only went to seven. This wasn't a number one song. It was not you know that's it's not that and I am shocked by it, but I'm not because Girl Crush wasn't a number one song. And there are a lot of huge songs that don't hit number one for whatever political reasons. Radio has and labels. You know, there's a lot of labels going, okay, we'll trade you this for this, and

for some reason it doesn't happen well. And In Color sounded for all of the things that made people loving Color, it hurt it commercially. I can't blame what I ever one song and it took forever to get and you stuck. You can't even get this song number one. You wouldn't have done this if you haven't known, this didn't go number one. That's the only way that I brought it at this listen, This song, though now is the biggest

song of all of them. I would say this one changed my life more than anything else, because you know, the music business is almost is an interesting animal. So you can have you can have a big hit on a big commercial, cool sounding record that people the business just struggles their shoulders say you congratulations, it's a hit. It's another one, another one, this one. I don't know.

I'm not the one to speak on it. I just know that the things that people said to me respect wise craft wise, um, it got a lot of a lot of love. And I had a lot of people say wonderful, a lot of nice things to me about this. This is a song that's people's favorite song. And all the other songs but in the trade song could probably

be a favorite song too. And the other songs that you had Nuver once with those are really fun, good songs, but very few songs and lifetimes our favorite songs of people, because like I have two or their favorite songs in my life, Like that's it, Like what favorite song? I got a couple of favorite songs like I love stop this Train from John Mayer, like I would say I have a couple of favorite songs if tomorrow never comes, like I have a couple of favorite songs. I know.

For example, my manager Mary Forest, this is our favorite song in her life. This is main Grandma. Listen to this summer song Christa. The day we said off, you can't tell it was hot that Jane and roads was red, were blue? Just look at that. I was so from that's the story. And you're telling me Tray Scott this first, and you had to call Trace and go, hey, gota take it back. We did, and nobody was really talking about you're gonna miss this. I don't It wouldn't have

made the record. However, everybody was freaking out about in Color. And I had one of the studio musicians actually called me the day they tracked it, and they tracked both of them and and he says, man, he says, why do you hear in color? It is unbelievable. And and so the producer called me into to play me the cuts and uh, and he played me You're gonna miss this, but I already knew the Trace really didn't like it, like he wasn't really into it, and then he played

me in Color Tracey's cut and it killed me. It was it was big, and it was it sounded expensive. I mean, it would just wow, is this a big record?

And and there's rumblings that might be the title track of the album was gonna be a career record for Trace and and you know, and then he wanted to go do the Celebrity Apprentice, which put the entire album on hold and they're gonna do something else, and that gave them just enough hiccup that Jamie the whole time knew he was going to do another record, and so he turned a group of songs into uh the label, another label, and uh they offered him a record deal

on the spot. And then they turned around and says, but the the easiest thing, we think we can get radio to places in Color and uh so okay. And so then I walked into Publish one day and they said we got a problem and they said their shipping and Color the radio for Jamie and Uh, I said, Jamie has a deal and they said yeah, and I said, but we've already promised Trace and they said, somebody sat

called Trace and I said, called Jamie. Jamie called Trace really and he did, and how I Trace about that? Do you know? So I hadn't talked to Trace, and uh it was at the number one party for You're

Gonna Miss This and we're standing on the platform. We we we've all done our little speech and our thank you and and we're having a picture taken and I'm standing next to Trace, and of course he's nine ft tall, and I said, um, I'm sorry about it in Color, and he goes, yeah, he says, well, he says, if Jamie wouldn't a writer on it, it would have been a different story. But Jamie was a writer. What am I supposed to do? You wrote it with Jamie did.

And so we went to Vegas for the a c M and When in Color was nominated for Song of the Year and we won. And uh so after we go up and we accept our award, we go on the back and we come back out to go back to our seats and commercial break and I come walking out through the crowd and it's fun because it's all music.

Rows out there. Anybody's high five and youn, you know, and somebody screams Miller and everybody stops and turns around and Trace is standing up this much taller than everybody else, right, and says, come here. And so I walk over the to him and I kid you not there. I'm in my suit. We're all looking and he puts me in a headlock and he screams with for garrityes, that's my blanking song. And I remember I'm staying ahead, like looking at kid Rock, who's watching me be beat up by

Trace Atkins? And and then he laughed and he hit me and he said, oh blank blank blank congratulations. So that song also, like you go to the Grammys for that song? Right, he did have I've had three Grammy nominations, which is beautiful. It just gets you so close to make you make you want one. UM was interesting is in Color was up against You're gonna miss this for the Grammy. You had two songs utter the same Grammy and by the time but the time I got there,

because uh, impossible is up for a Grammy. But we knew where were you in the Royal stop starning. We knew that was gonna win, and it did. Um and then we go for miss this and and in Color and it's like, okay, well there's five there's five choices. I have two of them, and a lot of people thought In Color was gonna win. So but the time you get down to the and the winter is I'm pretty pumped, I'm pretty and I'm dying. So I'm thinking, what are we really going to win a Grammy? And

we didn't? Stay sugar Land. Speaking of sugar Land, they won and uh and I'm I'm sitting there with Trace, you know, thinking I'm going to win for it in Color and then we didn't win anything. So stay good. I'm not gone to these days. A good song, dude, that's a favorite song for people, do I know? But you're my friends and we you shouldn't say that out loud. I would have voted Frank Color though that's a life song.

They're both great though, that Stay song. I We're watching a video for that one and being like, oh my god, this get Jennifer was crying during the song. I don't know if she's acting. Probably she's a good actor. But you know what, Actually, at the a c M, s in Color was up against You're gonna miss the Song of the Year at the a c M, and in Color one song of the year, and you're gonna miss this one single of the year, so you want both with both. The single is for the producer and the artist,

but he's still a youth song. And you wrote the song and they didn't get they want to produce it or sing it if you didn't reach pretty fantastic it was. That was a lot of fun. It's like all my worlds are colliding because like, what do I don't know anything of music, right, I mean, I do whatever I do. But we do our little musical thing and write some songs. But really the only two people that I feel compable writing with that are you and Christian Bush. That's it.

That's and you guys are up against well. I don't let people you know me. I'm a very private guy. When I'm not public, I'm not that fun and I'm not that confident. I can remember the first time because we were like, hey, I didn't know how to do a record. I don't think about a record, and it was, hey, I'm gonna a comedy record because we had we'd say goals, and we said, hey, if we make a million buck

for charity, we're gonna do a record. And before we could do a record, we had raised two million and we're like, holy crap, we kind of owe it to ourselves to at least try. I don't any songwriters. I don't anything, right. I know like five chords. Now I know like nine, so it's not even that much that different. And so I'm just writing with a couple of people that I know and by myself and my comedy friend writers where I'm the musical lead, which is not a

good place for me to be. So Nick Autrey, who's a produce who was produced in the record who worked at Black River, was like, listen, I've been trying to get this guy for all right. He will not write with me. He didn't, I swear to God, but I promise, he said, he will not write with me. I can't get on for a right. He said, Can I use and say you're writing and try to get him to come and do a right? And I was like, I don't care what you do. I don't know anybody, Like sure,

whatever you want to do, and he goes okay. And I don't even know what the guy's name was. He told me it was anyway. I get there and it's late, I don't I don't know. I know you're from Jim you know. I was like, because I didn't know, I don't want anybody like I really, people think, oh, you must not, I don't know anybody. When it comes to like the minutia of what's happening underneath the music, I

don't know anybody. I'm starting to meet people now through different processes of touring and riding and not so much radio, but the different parts of it. Like you, now, I have songwriter friends and I have a girlfriend who's so it's but then I knew nothing. So all I know is it's a guy named Lee that the producer of the record is like just giddy that he gets to write with them, And I'm like, well, let's see what happens. I don't even know we wrote the first time we

were together. I like you, I love this. I love fool House about my inner millity to say I love you. It's just concerning that you have them queued up that easily. People think this is like studio tricks where you're doing this later, but you're literally just hitting the button as we talk. Oh yeah, there's no editing. We don't edit this at all. We don't if there's a role, right Mike me, Yeah, he wrote I liked you for the raging Idiots, and then I was like, oh, that lead

was pretty nice. I had no idea what you're listen. I didn't know anything. It wasn't disrespecting at all. It was clueless. And so Lee leaves and he was like he was like freaking out. It's like we just wrote with Lee Miller around like that's amazing. Like I was like, that's cool. You know it's cool. And we look make a Wikipedia and I was like, I can't find a Lee Miller anywhere because I know it's Lee Thomas Miller, right, And I was like, this guy, probably why you want

to write with him? Many have many songs Lee Miller, like Lee is that Arthur Miller's brother from back in the fifties. And I didn't know what the deal was, right, So he was like, no, no, no, I thought you had done the Google before we wrote. Now, I just feel weird why I didn't know anything. It was just ignorance. So the second time I was ready. Though second time he said I'm athlete to write again. I'm like, cool, athlete right again. We I thought we were we were friendly.

We hit it off, which I don't hear it off a lot of people because I'm very reserved and shy to a point where sometimes people think it's I'm rude, but I just I'm very introverted when I'm not extroverted. So I was like, I like leak. I felt like I could make jokes and I thought you were funny, and so I said, yeah, bring it back in, and so we went. We went. We started playing this song and we're like, hey, let's write a song about Starbucks, right, and so stop. This isn't how it started. It started

with two guitars. Oh, it didn't sound anything like this, and it was it was like really it was a country song where we were, you know, singing it and I was like, hey, Ley, play a little faster. Let me try to wrap this thing, and he's like you wrap. I was like, let's just see what happens here, solely like did the boss starts popping it? Like this was

not popping it. Yeah, you're popping it pretty hard. He was hitting was And so it was written on two acoustics and the next thing, you know, we have this ridiculous song that, by the way, it's so weird you have people singing this song back but our band, the Raging Idiots to the song Starbucks and does leave stop buy filling up my cup store, buy jacking me up Stars ten thousand degrees and ye'all take it down the

shiny something to eat. I'm always holding enough to like because I might be a little choosy, and I do appreciate the fact you use a paper CUZI, how's that notin for Graham? That's that's great production. Oh yeah, the one of the most fantastic pieces of writing I've ever heard. And production and vocals. I mean, it's all right there

now you shouldn't be. But here's a funny story. So, uh, we're playing the Rheman last year for the million dollars show, and that this is a show for St. Jude, and I invite a ton of people out there play with us, and so it's our band, the Raging Idiots, but all show long, it's a little big talent, it's Kelsey, It's it's people that I'm friends with that are coming on

to also raise money for St. Jude. But they were easy calls for me because I don't asked people to do stuff, and but when it comes to charity, I'll ask my friends to do stuff. And I'll be like, so, you know, I called a little big town, and I called Kelsey, and I called Carry Carrie who. All these people were just fantastic to show up. And at the end of it we played during this raging idiot show, we play Starbucks and I like you, and and Lee and his wife came and I was like, hey, Lee stay,

you know there's like want but I want to. I want to hang out because I like Lee. I don't know enough, like genuinely, I like like that's it was for the first time. And so I was like, I was being funny. I made a joke. I said, hey, dude, congratulations, you've got two songs played at the rhyme of tonight. He goes, no, no, no, okay, I got three, and I was like, dude, we play something else that you wrote. He's like, no, no, no. Chris Stainpleton had showed up

and we invited them. He was a secret guest and Chris again, I just made a call because with the Chris think like we we had Christ and before that his Traveler came out. I was just a big fan of Chris as a songwriter and as a vocalist. So Chris was just grateful and it's still it's very loyal to this day. And I don't do anything because he's like, I just appreciate you, like being there for me when it wasn't Chris Stapleton. And so Chris comes and at

this time he had blown up. Then he shows up and the crowd is going crazy and he plays whiskey in you right, that's the difference. And then I said, yeah, I wrote whiskey in here. And I was like, God got me. It was supposed for me to say that one. No, I set myself up. I didn't know. I set myself up and got plans right in the NAT. It's like I was like, hey, you gotta feel good, dude. He's like, No. No. Three and the good one. I wrote the good one whiskey. I didn't say that in my heart. You did, So

you're right, this Chris one long gone to him. Um a couple of years ago, I said, because this has been cut several times before. Chris put Traveler out and McGraw cut it, and uh for one, and I think Aaron Lewis has cut it, and and um, I said, I'll tell you what is this line? And this is a drink be goes I'm Lonely and I'm Lonely goes a drink and I said, if it's ever a hit, I will get that tattooed somewhere. And he says, okay, he says, how about this. The higher the hit on

the charts, the more visible the tattoo. So it hasn't it hasn't been on the chart yet. So it's one of those songs that's an album cut. And again you always want the single because that's how a songwriter makes the money. Because but that's that's that's one of the album cuts on records that people know, because most time you don't know album cuts. It's a lot of people know this. Yeah, it's really it's uh, but that whole album is so good from front to back that a

lot of those songs are so well known. So yeah, you're right that with Chris and those other people. Kind of first I had no idea he uh, you know, Chris is incredibly successful as a songwriter and and the whole time, I mean it wasn't like he just all of a sudden become incredible. I mean we've all known it forever. Um, we wrote at the same company for a long time, and I spent a lot of time with Chris, and I wrote every other Wednesday with Chris

for years. And uh so once he got his record deal and you know, immediately and he's had a record deal for a while, it takes a while for things to happen. And uh, you know, I've been telling him now for years, you know, at least three years or something, says he's been out, you know, being an artist and traveling, and about ever two months, I'll just text him and say I miss my every other Wednesday. Because it was

like you just knew. I mean, sometimes we wrote just commercial ditty and sometimes we wrote dark and sad, but whatever it was, it was always so good, like we had me and Chris wrote Thomas Rhet's first single with him, and Thomas was still in the which is something to do with my n sticks, So you would Stapleton righte

this for Thomas and he was still in college. It's funny because the other day I saw Thomas and I said, I need to update my contact because I want to email you something the other day and it's still your college dot ed it whatever it is address. So he would like, you know, come right with us in the morning and then go do afternoon classes. Good dude, like, good dude. Yeah. I like Thomas a lot. Yeah, it's

good dude. He's I mean, he's the next superstar, serious and has earned it, not been thrown up there, like he's taken all the right steps, and I like him a lot. Wonderful thing. So you inn Stableton wrote that

for Thomas. Good. Let me ask you about with more Number one you had here, Uh Tim McGraw's Southern Girl, So you're right, this was here Rodney Clawson and Jared Johnstone Jared by the way, catle like three and also kind of like three, but a very prominent songwright absolutely like maybe even bigger songwriter, but it's kind of like three as good as they are, they ever really cut through commercially yet songwriter like one of the real elite guys.

That band is so good too, they haven't had the right song, right, So you guys write this and so do you pitch to my girl first or does it go around? I think he was the first person that heard it. I think that he was looking, you know, and uh, you know, Tim has been good to all of us, and we sent it over and they loved it and they cut it, and there you go to lady.

See that's the that's the opposite of the impossible, Like that story is the polar opposite of the impositive is And you know what's funny that people love this song. It's like you can kind of gauge at Writer's Nights when I do them, you know the popularity of things and how much how much people love them. I'm just the sing and you're so good at Writer's Nights. It it's it's really bad. I played Mike, I played one

with the Lee want. It was awful. It wasn't really a lot of the worst performing experience in my life. And I've had a couple of really bad ones. But Lee says, hey, will you play tin Pan South right? Maybe the first time I got it right? And and I not that I don't, I just I'm not in the writer world. You had no idea, No, I know it was I was like Tampan's out, Sure, what is that? Like? Everybody brings bands understand playing the kitchen. Bobby famously says,

I don't know people. I don't know people I don't know you know, and and somebody it's the Nashville song or Association who puts on Tin Pans South is their big fundraisers said do you think Bobby would play Tin Pans South with you? And I said, so they came to you, which it was just kind of a candid thing.

Do you think Bobby would do it? And I said no, and okay, wells let ask And so then I stood there and I was like wow, I said that would be a really good one because people people would like to seem I said, okay, oh, ask, but there's no way. And so I just text him and I just said, hey, would you do? Would you do? Tim been South? And I gave him a date or the dates the week and he writes right back, sure, And I said, wait, I didn't know what it was. All I do was

my friend. And again, maybe three people could have asked me that question, and two of them might have said maybe two and one of them I would have said yes too. And he asked, was leave I know what it was? I thought it was like a but you said yes immediately, so I knew you didn't know what what it was. I no idea, But you were asking me the same way that I will make the call to close friends and they say yes before I can really explain what it is. Like, I was like, yes,

but ye sure what. Well, immediately there was pressure because I'm like, okay, wait is he just doing this? Because I asked, because I don't know that we're close enough that heat would he do that? Because so I said, wait, I don't think you know what this is. And he says, I'll do it if you want me to. And I said, okay, it's going to be me and you and two other guys were gonna sit on stools, we're gonna take turns and for two hours, we're gonna lay songs and tell

the story behind the song. And it's light and it's loose, but there'll be a big crowd and it's a songwriter's night. And his quote was, I literally bring nothing to the table, but I will if you want me to. And so now I'm like, I'm flattered, and I'm terrified because that's a lot of pressure in case he hates this. Right on the opposite, I'm terrified, and then I'm flattered in the opposite order. Well, you did it, and it was amazing.

This this is the awful thing. So Lee's first, and usually I'm the funny guy, and then I do the bad music stuff. Lee's also the funny guy, and he does a great he is nail and all these number one songs, and then I have to go and I'm not even the funny guy, nor am I the music guy, and so I'm like, oh great, I have to follow freakingly again, and so all night long, I'm falling Lee.

But the two guys that he mentioned are two of the bigger songwriters in all the country music right now, Ashley Gorley and Christa Stephano, who have numb one number one number one like crazy. And so it's me and three humongous songwriters and they're up there just blasting out their hits and I'm like, star but spilling up my cup it really, I was just like what And this is what I was told to He was like, well,

you know, play four or five songs, that's it. I was like, great, So I prepared four or five songs and it we ended up going sevn D. We went way deep, and I was like at one point, I was like, I don't know, I don't have more, I don't know what I was gonna play, Like, I don't know that any songs, Like I know parts of the songs. I know how to sing songs, but you're I'm supposed to do them all? But yes, I that was just you're asking, yes, I will do it, and I figured

it out and I'm much better. I learned a lot from that experience, really, like what how to handle that situation and how to get to that level where I can do it again and not feel so foolish. I'm never going to be good. I know my limitations in life, but it's where can you find things that take those limitations and kind of rise above. And first of all, I'll know more songs. Secondly, I know my role. I'm gonna playing with you. First of all, I'm not playing

beside you. I'm gonna play in front of you, or I'm gonna play like three people down. I'm not playing beside you. So I also learned how to do a writer. I've never done a writer drown before before that. So you want to do them again? So just and if I want to, but if you need me, I would

do it in a second. But to go from not doing one to doing that one would be comparable to moving to Nashville just learning how to play the guitar and me going hey, come play on our radio show for for five million people, Like that was kind of and it was really weird and it's fool I felt foolish after it was over. But everybody was happy, right, I think all the people came to see they did not Christina Stephano sings as good as any artists out there,

just about and he's just like nailing. He was doing Carrie something in the water, which he wrote, and it's just like he's singing it as loud and as pure as it can possibly be, saying and I'm just like and to Stefano finishes stepping in the water and the people go crazy, and then the crowd notes down. Bobby says, how much money do you have in your wallet right now? That's but that's what they wanted to know, Like people

always want to know that stuff. And so I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna be me and I'm gonna ask questions that are coming to my head because I got a note you wrote that song. How much as your wallet right this second? Like how much cash you holding? And he kind of dnanswered on the question. He didn't answer. That's okay, and you don't always have to answer, but I have to ask. So, yeah, that was the fun night. You are writing and you haven't writing with some of

my friends. Brother's Osborne. Those are my dudes. They're they're so they're so far my dudes. That John's wife is like Lucy Sella's is like one of my favorite artists in the world. Who, So your brother's Osborne. I haven't ain't my fault up here. So you guys wrote this together? Yeah, I love had a little fall wrong. Wait you think of those guys, well, in my head, I thing like him. They're wonderful, They're so fun to work with, They're so fun to write with. I mean, I can't I think that.

You know, one of the next big things that was so exciting, Um, they want Song of the Year at ASCAP, which I knew it was gonna happen, and I've been sworn to secrecy and uh and they announced it and they just lost their minds in this beautiful emotional maybe it hippened, look no, and they were very emotional about it because they really were, like they were moved very many.

Everything they said was so pure. And then at the c m as they won duo and and I mean, you know, we're sitting where we were there, me and my wife and and you know, you're all dressed up and you're sitting at bridge Stone, you're watching it, and you know it's we we you know, probably not gonna be shocked by a whole lot, so you're just gonna

and all of a sudden they win. And I was like, I'm throwing popcorn and I'm screaming and I'm dancing and I'm flailing, and and everybody was It's one of those names. Was like these such good guys. It was such a great moment. Everyone expected Florida Georgia Linea went again and they didn't. And it was a double shock. One that Florida George line didn't win to that Brother's Osborne and one and not the Brothers Aldborne to deserve it, but

nobody was predicting that well. And yeah, and and understand that this wasn't anything against Florida Georgia Lyne's just it. You know, they're at their peak. I mean clearly, you know they're they're they're killing it and and any anyone else would have been an underdog. And for Brother's Osborne to win, um, it was exciting. But but also because everyone that has experienced these guys just loved them. They're

they're they're wonderful musicians and they're just sweethearts. Yeah, John plays the guitar like I'm uh, it's amazing, maniac and I see great guitar players, and he played like a maniac. I'll disagree with you a bit. I think they're very deserving. I think a part of it was anti Florida Georgia Line. I do um not that they're not. And I say that as like I know brothers, other one's parents, Like that's how like I these are. They're like, I was so happy for them. I think a little bit of

that sentiment wasn't even about Floria Georgia Line. It was that type of music. It was like, we want there to be a slight change, and they've also wanted X not of years in a row, who is awesome, and we want to kind of make a slight change. And I think that was a part of it. I don't think it was the majority of it. But if I didn't say that some of that was anti Florida Georgia Line, I would be lying. But that's my just my opinion. So I was pumped for him, like I was going

crazy and I was watching the Cubs play. I didn't go. I didn't even go to the c m A. Like, screwed c m AS. First of all, screwed to CIMA anyway, but then that's that's me saying that, not you. But then that's yeah, it's for sure. Yeah, screwed the c m A. But I didn't go to the c m AS. I went. I came home to watch the Cubs play, and I flipped over for that, because when your friends play, you want to watch. And because Lindsay played too. She played with Carey that night, um, and so there were

things I was flipping over for to catch. But yeah, that was cool. I wasn't like all of those guys. She was part of the whole wild girl rock band part of the evening Your girlfriend was yeah, yeah, I'm proud of her. I've tried to get you to come to a cocktail party during Awards week two and you you wouldn't come clause of the cups. Yeah, and it was a cocktail party more because it was the Cubs. And I don't do week nights at all, like zero week nights. Altho. The last time I's got a Crackerbowl

commercial till probably eleven o'clock. You have dinner at my house on a week I did, and it was really late, and I was not like you wanted I felt like you wanted us to leave because you're your unbutton, your top button, and you started to look a little disheveled. See you keep telling that, and and at some point I'm gonna be like slumped over in a chair. The farther the story goes, I have had zero dinners with people. They think I really can think of none. That's just

not my thing. Zero dinners. And Lee was like, come down for day and I was like, I'm coming down for dinner. He invited me first I have. I was by myself. I was like, hey, come down because my wife asked you. My wife at Tin Pan South says, I want you to come to my house for dinner like normal people. And I said I'm not a normal person. But you said yes. We just had never scheduled it. You had never committed, and I didn't want to be

the third will husband, wife and me. When I got a girlfriend, I was like, I'm in for dinner early. And so then we couldn't find a day and I was like, okay, we'll just figure it out some other time, and I was like, no, no, no. So we negotiated for about twenty minutes on dates and then went down and we had dinner until like ten o'clock. It was really a wonderful time, and my my girlfriend really liked

you guys. So I did not get tired, I said, I said, okay, we stood up, we walked down the house, and we come back and the girls sat back down and continue talking. So I sit down, and you took that to me, and I was tired. I never remember touching my button. Yeah, okay, listen, in my mind things happen, but that we have the only dinner I think I've ever my gear thing me go to dinner on a

weeknight ever. Yeah, I mean either man, he said, at a table with children and we all just we talked about live and part of that A girlfriend too, Like she's a great girlfriend too. She's she's a good hang. She makes me a normal human a little more than I am, because she's oddly she feels in your awkward silences, which is all it's all one big awkward violence, which means she talks and you're just kind of sitting Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, so that was that was good. Frankie Baalodro al Camino.

Who so you're a crestword Alchemino too. This is the title track to write of that record. In that record Comino or it's called like You'll pass over. No, it's called No, it's not the title is. It's something we're shorting out over here, dude. Yeah, there's like whatever the name of it is. It's something. It's it's like a name of a Texas town. It's okay, that maybe why I think it's ALcom Rio or something. So you guys write the alchemyo it just you two? Hey, I think

you don't. And I don't want to say any names. But what I want to get into once, I'm just asking his favorite. We ask favorites of each other. Whenever you get like a really powerful right, I want to send in the room and that like a couple of words and let me get a third of that, right you do? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it'll legitimate if nobody's ever thought about that before that happens. Right, does that happen? Um? I hear that it does. See, I would be so

upset like that. I wouldn't be able to handle that. It's funny. I remember when I started, it was kind of a three way was kind of taboo. You needed it to be no more than two. Really, Yeah, I remember that. I remember there were people that wouldn't do a three way. That's crazy now because I know most rights are three people, or at least a lot of them are now. But that's all. That's also less money

if it hits. That's dividing in three simple maths. So you're christ right every other Wednesday and in these you wrote those, all these songs like whiskey and you on these every other Wednesday. I probably had more cuts with Chris than I have had with anybody. And he's a good dude. Huh, wonderful I what I know of him, and I and I feel like I know him relatively well for how that time we sat together, just because he's been great to me and I was such a as a robber, just a fan of him as a writer.

And I've been lucky enough to do on the radio. Should be fans of writers and talk about writers and bring writers in. And Chris was one of those guys. Um, Chris is quiet, and I think that before we get married, I felt like he. I think he's kind of got a dark side. I feel like that when he married Morgan, I think that that rounded him out and I think that I think that took the I think that took the dark way. I think he's I think he's a

happy person. Um, he's a wonderful father. Uh. You know, as I've very said, I've been in this town a long time and know a lot of musicians. Chris Stapleton is the most talented person I've ever worked with and always and that was before the world ever knew about it. He's the second next to Bobby Bones. He's the most on my throat. And I was just I am so embarrassed as a writer that you wrote today right before you came over here. I did, okay? Is that every idea?

Do you drive someone right every day? Every day? Drive downtown? Because I love Music Row. I love driving into Music Row and drives my wife crazy. She says, you have a great space at home. Why don't you right here? And I was because I like to go to Music Row and work every day every sec it would be exhausting. Who do you like now? And not who do you

not like it? But give me a couple people that you hear now that you're you're on the radio, maybe you have any relationship with them at all, and you're like, that's cool. I like that, Like uh like that. You don't have a personal relationship with Like you can't say about this Osborne. We both enjoyed them as humans, can't mention them. But you hear something on the radio and you're like, that's pretty cool. We know what. I have never had a Kidney Jesney cut, and I am a

Kidney Jesney fan. I love sitting the world. As I was talking to Kenny, we were man, I didn't know. He didn't tell me. See here's thinking about if he's every make you say you never make Kenny. I've met him, but you haven't. I don't know him. I've never hung I' gonna give you a couple of Kenny stories. So I

have hung with him a few times. My work. It creates that atmosphere, and then if you actually get along with someone, you can still sit in the same room, and if you don't go back to your own rooms, and sometimes there artist and we just go back your own rooms. It's like humans not all humans mesh right. Kenny and I, for some reason get along. But Kenny has no filter, and I wouldn't have no filter around someone that had a big microphone. But I keep a

lot of secrets too. I'm good like I know the difference. Why I can. I can't say it just I wouldn't trust me until I was able to trust me. He's always trusting me for some reason. So Kenny and I

just the last time we were together. We're up, we're on stage, and we've had three or four instance where we've been together for over an hour and a half or so, so we're comfortable with each other, and we're playing songs from his record, and there's a crowd watching and he that song that you like, and then I like to is it's an amazing song with Pink, and what a great person to pick for that song Set in the World on Fire. Healans over and he goes,

this was never gonna be a single ever. And I was like, why would you know, why would you cut up with a pop artist? You know why? He's like, I wanted it to be, but had she not gotten pregnant, this would never been a single because she was doing her own thing. And then we're gonna let us put it out because she had her songs out. You can't put a song out. I didn't know she had an announced that she was pregnant. He told me this O

this like a month before. She hadn't she because she just announced was pregnant like a week or so ago. As we're taping this right now. She just said she's pregnant, and I was like, oh my god. He never said, don't say anything about it. I never did, but it could have been a mess because he just threw it out there, like, oh, yeah, she was pregnant, and had she not gotten pregnant, we'd never got to cut this song.

And I'm like, oh, that's cool. Had it come up in conversation and may have said something about it, because he didn't say, hey, don't off the record, hey don't say this, so that song would have never been on the radio. It was never when they cut it, it was never going to be on the radio. But because she got pregnant, was like, I'm gonna pull myself off. They got to put it out as a single, So I thought that was pretty cool. There was another one because he just says stuff and you're like, did you

say that? And like that I have another good game. What's my other trusting? But why, man, I don't know, why would trust me though of all people? Because I'm known because I don't have a big mouth, but I say my feelings and those two things kind of get mixed up. Yeah, I mean, I think that was dice. So you could have messed up because you could have just assumed that everybody knew. I did assume that. It just didn't come up in a conversation because I would

have got lucky on that. I would have said something. Um Man had another good kidney story too from that night. Better. I don't know, forgot who knows. I've been talking on today for like eleven hours. I dig Aaron Morris. Yeah it's awesome. Huh Yeah, I think she's very real. I met her again before before Chris blew up. I was on the road riding with him and she opened a show for him with this little this little bar in Atlanta and for some of my for seen her and

she just was so amazing. She was so sweet. And then, uh, it's funny, last summer vacation, family vacation. Um, I'd taken my oldest just meet him to the rock and roll Museum in Cleveland and we're sitting in the in the cafe eating a sandwich in the at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, random and Marion Morris walks in the system and eats a salad and I said, what are you doing? And she was in town with the Keith Urban Concert and she was just going through the

Hall of Fame. And it's funny now, she probably couldn't have walked through the Everybody go crazy. But you know, I think the weird thing about Marion, and I know I've the same way. You know, Marion and I were cool before Marion blew up and I had her on the show before she hadn't be download. I thought, man, she's really good. And so she still goes to Walmart and stuff like she that's part Nashville too. I think you can get away with stuff in Nashville that maybe

you can't some places. And I think if people go this is Mary Morris, everybody freaks out. But yeah, she's and Marin's real deal. Yah, she's gonna be pretty recognizable though. I mean, she she's gonna be hard. You know, Yeah, you're a fan, you're gonna, oh that's her. She's also going to be the new and she already kind of is because our record was so critically acclaimed because it was so good. Sometimes records get big because they're just big.

They're big on the radio. But her record was critically acclaimed because it was so good. And like my Church wasn't a number one song, and AI's Mercedes probably thinking be number one song, but the record is so good, like it doesn't matter. It's like when we go back to you know, talking about in color, like you don't even know remember what was number one? My daughter is no ever song on that record, ever word of ever song. Yeah, me too, And I don't listen records. I'm they I

just don't know what I mean. Really, nobody does anymore unless it's your favorite artist. Yeah. But it's also that it's a generational thing because we're able to get music one at a time. When I was young, young, you didn't get music one of a time when you went to the storm and bought the single on tape and there was another side of it too, and that was when I was young. But if you give someone the option to not buy thirteen songs, we're not We're gonna buy them one at a time. Of what we like

that would we like the next one? It would we like the next one? Oh, we like the next one? And so you end up not buying every song unless it's your favorite artist. But Marin's record, yeah, I know all the songs too. It's fantastic. She also is one of those artists too. We have a pretty good text relationships. I just have textual That's what I talked I talked to about the text. I don't like talking on the phone, don't. I mean, I an't talked about Lindsay on the phone.

It's spacetime or it's I'll see you you know, wherever. But Marin's so cool, like a appreciate you're not coddling me ever, appreciate you like because she's real, Like it's real as she's seems. That's her. Did I see there's anything else up here? How about a little with his hands Ken Melon's build man, Well you know about that, right, definitely. That's one of my first cuts up or that's like, yeah, he'll never be a lawyer college. I think that might

have been my first cut. Ever, he'll never be a lawyer. Be star, but he'll never be a lawyer. College game passive bar, Come on, is that coming back? That sound coming back? That's funny for some. My theory is, and what's happening with the format musically is country, first of all, is getting so big that it's going to turn into what Top forty is. Not not a style because Top forty is always evolving, but what it's going to happen

is country. As Top forty has done, Top forty has a couple of best pop songs, while the couple best hip hop song is a couple of best rock songs. And that's the the mesh that is Top forty. Country is gonna be the same way. You're gonna have a couple of the best guys that sound classic, the classic country sound. You can have a couple of the guys that sound way progressive like the Sam's of the world.

You're gonna have a couple of the females and it's they're gonna be all these little lanes and it's gonna be the top couple to three of each lane is gonna be what makes it onto the country radio. No, no, but it's happening. Well, they're not gonna split it right now that they've split it into two in the last few years of older. With the Legends and Icon brand, they have older stations, and what's funny is older tations are awesome, Like it's like the good stuff, you know,

the nineties stuff. It's not even like the fifties stuff because they had classic country stations. But now these older stations are nineties and some eighties and a little early two thousands, and those are like my favorite of the thing. You have a Randy Travis cutt on that Yeah, here is hold on, here's leaves, Randy Travis cut you want to set it up. It's just it's one of the only ones that ever heard that. When they called me into the label to play it for me, stop but

I was gonna say it made me cry. You know what, you stomped spy Family Bible and the Farmer's alving that I don't have that one, only Randy Travis Cut, but I got one. My was my grandma's favorite artist, Randy Travis Johnny Cash because it was from Arkansas. So this is what rubbed alph on me. You know what your parents listened to. And I have a strong parental system, so my grandma did a lot of the raising of me. And so my grandma with my mom basically even adopt

me for a while as a kid. But she it was Johnny Cash. Here is from Arkansas, and if you're from Arkansas, people from marketsall that make it, they're your heroes. So it was Johnny and she would tell me stories about how people would protest Johnny Cash because that's not country, that's rock and roll, and people would be out just furious.

It just reminds me of what people are doing on blogs now about what's happening at country music, everything sexical, every constantly that Randy Travis, Ray Charles and Andy Griffith gospel albums. I mean as I wasn't to do all. I mean all that, I hear it and it makes me a lot of my grandma so much. But then I remember being so just annoyed, like can we place us into something else on records? But yet now I appreciate it. Then I was like, is this all we got?

You know? I was a teenager through all the great eighties music, all the great eighties pop music, and uh I was listening to Gene Watson and Alabama and even now we'll be somewhere and some you know, amazing song from five will come on somewhere and some print song or some band that I've never even heard of. There was a huge hit. My wife on aever word and

she'll say, do you seriously not know this song? It's just it's just this was probably the theme to your prom and I'm like, I was listening to Gene Watson, babe. I'm sorry. So just to recap, we have lots of good songs, and you're pretty funny. You did a lot of show prep too. I'm impressed. Yeah, yeah, I mean this is the thing I do. This is like my profession. You know how you write songs today? That's what you do. That's what I do. You look tired when I came out.

I'm tired, all done? What if I ever not looked tired? Are you tired all the time? But you never sleep? Is there any way? That's why I'm always tired. You'll text me at ten o'clock and I'm like, You've got to get up like now. But if I didn't do I loved, I wouldn't be able to do it like this. I love what I do because like you love what you do. Why were you dressed like an elf? Last week? I wasn't Was that what it like Elf. Last week for something you were somewhere doing it was like a

brad Pitt. I was weekly cover or something. It was either you're Brad Pitt dressed like an ELF doing something in somewhere because you're gone all the time. You were because you sent me back something funny about being and Elf. I don't know. There's a lot of days ago. Well, I appreciate you coming in and sharing your stories. Are good ones? Are They're good? Yeah, they're good. My favorite

one you didn't tell. I want to tell this one and if a normal story, tell this that ad because running out of time, you go up, let me tell it fast. Now it's I don't even want to give any sort of spoiler here, but tell the story about how the soup. I'll just say the soup and let you tell the story the soup. Yeah, the TV show the soup. That'd be fun of you. Oh. So, I we get to our seats at the a c M Awards. I was still thinking we might win for uh because again I had two two songs up the Song of

the Year they c MS in Vegas. And I get to my seat and we're on the twentie row in the middle right and talk soup. That's what you're saying. And um oh yeah, to not call the sup you should be all talking. So m I'm like, we're not gonna win. There's what we're gonna win because there's no way they would put the winner here because terrible seats right. And I'm bommed, and I'm like, this is so depressing

and and and uh. I kind of worked through my mind because I always like to be prepared if I if I don't want to, I'm not afraid to do public speaking, but I need to know what I'm gonna say and just in case I win. So so then Jennifer Lovewett is giving the award away and she calls her name and we want in color one song or the year, and she calls my name and I run, you know. I go down there and I'm so pumped. I'm so excited, and I'm so nervous, and I'm on stage.

I'm standing next to Jennifer love You and Jamie Johnson does this little spiel and usually they don't give you much time, but they let Jamie speak, and then they let James speak, and so then I step up and in front of all the world, and National Television. I said, I want to thank my wife. I want to thank my kids. Levi Noah, Levi, No that's not right. Everybody laughs. So then I continued my speech. I walk off stage.

I'm nervous, I'm freaking out. In the next morning, um, the soup people were doing the the Yahoo Entertainment clip of the week and it was like eight thirty the next morning, gets everywhere right. Country Music Awards were held last night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Check this guy out. It's me. I wanna I want to thank my wife. I want to thank my kids. Levi no, Levi, No, that's not right. This guy is so country. He has not one but two kids named Levi. Hey, here my

gay question before we jump. You're good. All of it squeezed out. Lee Thomas Miller, that's his name, I just call him. Hey, dude. Well, thank you for having me. Thanks man, I appreciate it. Thanks for the stories. All right. So that's episode twenty five. Thanks for hanging out here on the Bobby Cast. I hope you'll learn a little something and we'll see you guys next night. Thanks guys,