For thirty five years, Cindy Stumpo has been a female home builder with a passion for design, a mastery of detail, and a commitment to her crack. With daughter Samantha Stumpo by her side, I.
Don't need my whole family on a date with me. That's a good no. It's godemn weird.
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And welcome to Cindy Stumbo Tough his nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and I'm in the studio tonight with Sammy. I gotta really She'll guess so country music started. Drew Baldwich Drew So, Drew.
I'm actually very impressed that she got your name right.
Why is you stuck? Okay? Yeah, I could call you Tim, I could call you Bob, but no, I found Drew. It's kind of funny, you know how social media works. On my Instagram and I played that one song and I started to cry. I had to be. I was one of those emotional moms at the moment, and she's somebody's daughter. Can she's got that lat? And I came on like can she have me for three more? And I was like, oh, I got to watch this whole thing. And then it went out right. I didn't get the
whole song. I'm like pissed. I'm like, all right, let me find it somewhere else. I could at the time. And I reach out to you when you're climbing three in the charts and you're hit number one, buddy crazy, And I come from a generation where like you needed Sony Records and you needed RCA and back and you know, to get you to that level and you did it yourself, man.
Yes, And it has been an absolutely crazy ride for me and from my family. You know, back in fifteen to twenty nineteen, I did have a record deal. It was a small end Pennic company, and we put out some songs and none of them really worked like we want them to. They all kind of died in the forties. And you know, twenty twenty year olls around COVID. I
obviously hits and I lose that record deal. The guy had owned it, he decided to close down their label, and I was like, well, that's that kind of sucks for me. And you know, I never I never got another label. And it's kind of like in Nashville, kind of get one shot. You know, you get a record deal, you put out a couple of songs. If it doesn't work, they kind of move on to the next, which I get. You know, I understand that. And but I had this song that I saw that I really believed in and
it was working. It was blowing up on TikTok and streaming and all that stuff, and I was like, man, I want to just give this a real chance. I'm going to hire my own staff, create my own label, and send this song country radio by myself.
So that's exactly what we did.
And that's it. So what'd you play like? An? What was it call? Back in the day? Ar guy, ar Guy, I forget the name. Give it them me. I'm in a studio at how Hot Media. I should know the spine now, but I think back in my day was called A and R an R. Thank you. We're guys just ran around and said, hey, to play this song. Dude, play this song, Dude, play this song.
Does that mean something else?
Now?
What does that mean?
Yeah?
Those in our plans, I don't know care about that.
It was just like, you know, I knew I had a song that was working. And then the biggest thing is in radio and in the country space is that you've got to have promo reps. So what that means is just like, if you're going to start any business and you want to take it all across the country, you've got to have reps in every market. So let's say if we were, you know, selling shoes, and we we were Nike, we would have a Northeast rep, a Southeast rep, a Midwest rep, and a West Coast rep.
And they would go out to all the stores and say, hey, put my shoes in your store. So what I had to do is I had to hire those people for country radio. So how that works is every label in Nashville all has a Northeast, a Southeast REP, a Midwest REP, and a West Coast rep. And what that does is they go around to radio stations and they say, hey,
play play my boy, play my song. And so what I did is I just had to create my own staff and hire people that was really respected already in the business, that have been doing it for a long time.
And and we went around to Raidio hod On.
Did you forget Boston because I'm the one running running into the bull?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Boston was a big market and we, you know, stopped in up there and they started playing our song. And they've been so good to us. You know, country radio in general, just radio has really latched onto our story, especially us. You know, it's kind of like you said earlier, Cindy, like most of the time you hear this is a Sony artist, or this is a Warner or Universal artist, and it's just it's our own record label. And it's never been done before. For an artist to independently self
fund their first number one, that's never happened. And now the world has really changed, the times have changed, and I just think it really is a big win for artists all across the format, all format of just like, hey, now you can have a real chance in today's modern society if if a song is working and people love it, you can get it played on radio. And that's what we just proved, which is exciting for me.
And what took you there? Was it social media? Completely? Was it Instagram? What was it like? You came on my Instagram like you just popped in? Well, yeah I liked it. I hit follow, and that's it. I was in love, right, That's just how I was.
Yeah, well it was. It's crazy story.
So I put this song out all the way back in twenty nineteen, Cindy, and it kind of just set out. It was on my old record label. We put it out, and then the record label shut down and it just sit there. It did nothing. So then in twenty twenty one, me and my wife were getting married and it was always her favorite song, so I thought, man, I'm going to go in the studio and I'm going to make a wedding version. So it's just me and a piano and a cello and just so she could dance to
it with her dad. So that's what I did. I went in the studio, made a wedding version, and she danced to it with her dad. It was so special. And the next week I got on TikTok. We were on our honeymoon and I just said, hey, if this gets five thousand likes, i'll put it out on Friday. It was a Wednesday night and I posted this TikTok. I fell asleep and I woke up the next morning. I had almost ten million views in four hours, and I was like, man, every record label is going to
be calling, and nobody. I had some LA labels called, but nobody in Nashville. And I couldn't get anybody's excited. But you know, twenty twenty one, from twenty one to twenty three, it was blowing up on TikTok. Everybody was using it in videos, dad's daughters, and then that you know, transformed over to Instagram to Facebook, and you know, I looked up one day and the song had almost a billion plays on TikTok and I was like, oh my goodness, look at all these people were reaching. How do we
not have a record deal? Why is Nashville, not caring about this. I'm watching all the streams happen in real time. I'm playing shows, everybody's singing every word back. And that's when I said, you know what, screw it, I'm just going to do it myself. I'm going to really try this. I know it's going to be expensive, but I don't want to look back in thirty years and say, why did't I freaking try with a song that was reaching so many people and touching so many people's hearts. That's
what we did. And it's crazy to think that we're a year later and sending now. We have a we have a manager, we have a booking agent, I have I'm getting ready to go out on tour with Cody Johnson, who's like one of the biggest artists in country music, and we have other tours lined up for twenty twenty five.
And it's all because we didn't We didn't stop believing, you know, And I think that's just so important for any business that you're in, no matter if it's radio, if it's you know, a job that you love so much, and you believe in yourself, keep going, keep believing, and doors will open. And that's kind of the message that we've been sharing throughout this whole process.
So you've been doing this for how long?
Now?
You're how old?
I'm thirty three? So I moved in there?
Yes, such a big thirty three. Okay, so is so old? So? And you started how long ago?
Yeah?
I moved to Nashville at nineteen. So, uh, Richard, June of next year, I'll be fourteen years. I've lived in Nashville.
And you're originally from where I grew up.
In southern Ellen, a little town called Patoka, town of five hundred people.
And you thought by playing in all the bars in Nashville you get picked up, and you did get picked up by a record label, but it really didn't do much and they probably shelfed you back in those days, right, is that what they did?
Yeah? Yeah, we got picked up.
I was so young. You know when I first moved to town. Everything happened fast. I moved here at nineteen. I end up signing a songwriting deal at twenty one, and then you know, twenty three, I'm signed to a
record deal. You know, just four years in Nashville, four or five years in Nashville, and I'm on tour with some of the biggest artists in the format, playing every live nation festival, all the festivals, everything, and you know, then twenty twenty comes and all that kind of goes away because of COVID, and I had this kind of idea that just kept me going. I was on my last straw and I was just like, you know what,
Nashville's kind of giving up. I'm just gonna post on my social media Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and just say hey, I'll play in anybody's backyard.
Were you went.
Did you have a job at the time, like doing construction or anything, like you just putting all you tough this.
It was just all music. You know.
By this time here it is twenty twenty. I've been to Nashville for nine years. All I've made a living buy is just playing.
Wait, we just hold that thought because we've got to go to break and then we'ld be right back. Okay, all right, I like it. Okay, thank you. I'm Citty Stump. When you're listening to Tough as Nails on w BZ News Radio ten thirty, be right.
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And welcome back to Toughest Nails on w BZ News Radio and I'm Sindy, I'm Samantha and we're here with Drew baldrig.
Hey.
Hey, what's it feel like when you hear that song for the hundred thousand times?
Though?
Oh my goodness, It's never gets old. It never gets old. It's such a blessing. I you know, a lot of people get frustrated. I talk to artists, are like, man, I'm so wore out on the song that, you know, my my first number one song, And I was just so lucky that mine is says a lot about who I am, It's about my wife, and it's just a song that that I'll never get tired of. You know,
I'm very thankful for it. It's a song that, you know, has now allowed me to go on tour and have people sing along and things and do dreams that I thought would never be possible, and so I'm very very.
Thankful for it.
And then I fell in love with the other song Can I Have this Last Dance?
Right?
And that's your can she have? Yeah? Okay, can she have the Last Dance? But the point was I was in like again one of my like you know, Chad and I were fighting my son at the time, like what a beautiful song, right.
Like.
They're just heartfelt, right, They're just the lyrics are just there. The music's just great like it is, and you deserve every bit of success that you're getting right now, and you've worked hard for it.
And this song, you know, it's so funny. Both of these songs were the songs that I I kind of wrote for my wedding. You know, Can She Have This Dance was something I just wrote for my mom so I could dance with her on our wedding night. My wife wanted me to write all the special dance songs, and so I wrote this song.
It's almost have been one wedding that everybody was crying a lot.
Yeah, yeah it was.
And you know it's so funny. It was just me and a guitar that I recorded it really really quick, that can She Have This Dance? And I thought it was special. And then me and my wife we now have a little baby boy, and uh, I listened to this song again, can she have this dance?
Holding?
I was holding my son, my wife was out running errands, and I came across this song. I had studio time the next day. I didn't know what I was going to record.
I mean that, I don't know. That will be my song when my son gets married, for sure. That's how much I love that song. But let's go back a little bit, bringing back to a little bit of your childhood late. What was that like growing up.
Fifty people, Cindy.
I don't know if that's like I think I graduated with a class just about five hundred kids in that class.
Yeah, so I had I graduated twenty two kids in my class. And it was just I grew up on you know, my grandpa had a farm, so we spent a lot of time on tractors and four wheelers and you know, growing up fishing, jumping the fence behind the house and and going over to the farm across the way. And it was, man, it was a really good life. And and a lot of people ask why you why do you sing country? And it's just like, man, it's all I know. It's it's what I grew up doing.
You know, we grew up riding back roads and sitting on tailgates, people drinking cold beer, sitting around fires, and that was our fun.
You know.
Our fun was was being out in the woods, being out in the sticks, and.
We did how any causes you tip, Drew, I just need to know.
We had about a little over one hundred head of beef cows and how the cow calf business Grandpa did and my brother, you know, he still does that my cousins. I was the only one that kind of got a got out and was playing music.
I was the black sheep of the family. You know.
We'd be throwing haybales and I'd be singing by the door and turning the lights down the little and they'd be like shut up, and you just shut your mouth, like you getting on our nerves. And yeah, it was just I just loved music. It was so I grew up singing in church and my dad dad saying, and so we spent a lot of time riding around in the truck with my dad singing, and.
Didn't really figure out at what age that you really could sing just like naturally.
Yeah, I think it was first grade Christmas program when I performed for my first time in front of people, and that was when I really got the bug. When you know, we got done singing and everybody started clapping and screaming. I was like, oh man, we must be pretty good at this. It was just really then after that, you know, we didn't have a music program. We were so small. We didn't have football, we didn't have a music program, nothing like that. Because we're K through twelve school,
all one school. So what the school I started in kindergarten with? That's the same school I graduated with.
Which part did you miss? Sammy? Twenty two people we went to school with us something like that. I had graduating class, I think the whole thing. I think they went from k to senior.
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was twenty two in my class. I think from from kindergarten to senior was about a couple hundred kids, a little under two hundred, one hundred and sixty something like that.
Is your wife from there or did you meet your wife where you are now?
So I met my wife when I was out on the road about eight years ago, seven or eight years ago up. And she's from Illinois too, And I was playing a show up there at at a college town Western Illinois University town called McComb and I was passing through playing a show and I met her out at a bar afterwards and became friends, and she moved here a handful of years later, and we just got together and had dinner the first night we've been together ever since.
It's pretty wild.
It's actually funny because right now we've got you streaming into chatter, which is it's an audio device. I don't know if you've heard a clubhouse ever heard of twitter X, so chatter twitter x where you can actually go into audio and talk to people blah blah blah. So you're actually streaming in there and people saying, oh, well, they've heard your song and that's going to be that song to dance with their Yeah, either or whatever. I ors either way, I guess it can work both ways. Is
it's just a beautiful song. But so you realized you met your wife, Okay, did you know? Did you fall in love with her right away? I?
Did you know?
It was Uh, you know, it was kind of a long process. We met and uh I had a girlfriend at the time and I was out on the road, so you know, we just said hello that first night. I think how it happened was we were at a bar and there was some guy really hitting on her and bothering her, and she just leaned down.
She's like, can you just talk to me until he goes away. I was like, sure, yeah, I'll talk.
To you, and so we talked and became friends that night, and I came back the next year to that same venue. We were playing and I was single, and so I hit her up. I think it was probably on Facebook. I slid into her DMS and I was like, hey, I'm playing a show tonight, like you should come out, blah blah blah. And she hit me right back and is like I can't. I got to work tomorrow. And she never came.
How that works.
Yeah, so she blew me off, and I was like, dang, it only always works and girls always came out, and.
So she was just this one didn't.
This one didn't.
There was something special about her, and so we just became friends and talked a lot, and you know, she said she always wanted to live in Nashville. She moved down here a couple of years later, and yeah, we got dinner one night. And when she moved down here. We've been together ever since, pretty crazy.
And then how long before you married her?
It took me five years?
I think.
I think I proposed at four years, and then we ended up getting married and right at our five year mark.
And then let me just get married, have the baby, and have the hip music at the same time.
Hey, that's what I'm talking about. And she's been such a big supporter of this, you know, Cindy. It was not having a record label. It was just kind of me and her, you know. And this was the song started streaming. She somebody's daughter started streaming like crazy, and that was the first time we were really making money, you know, we started seeing money come in from this. And then I look at her and say, hey, so it's.
Been that money.
I'm still on the iTunes and I'll pay and that one of those songs is at the highest number still, okay. So that's how you know when the songs are hit, because you ain't paying nine nine cents anymore. Okay, you're in the dollar what is it? Dull ninety nine? Right? So my kids go time, mom, why you still buy music on iTunes?
Oh?
Leave me alone. I don't care. They're like just one one yearly fee. Yeah, it's just easy dull nine nine, click right and it comes on. So do they take care of you guys on those iTunes? And they really pay what they're supposed to pay. Because a friend of mine, I don't know if you know the name Wendy Stalin. I don't so Wendy, And actually I should hook you up with Wendy. She's got a new app coming out
and she was the she found Lady Gaga. Okay, and so all these musicians are not getting their fair share of the money and that's the problem, and that's what she's doing right now. But she's she's a big player in that space. Lady Gaga obviously was a big home run for her. But that's an introduction I'll make for you as time goes on here. All that thought, Oh no, I don't have to all that thought. I know, don't you stick that? They stick that thing in my face
like my clock is running out? All right, go ahead, I'll make I'll make Ross happy. We'll go to break and be right back. I'm city stuff who listens to his nails, and we'll be right back.
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So City Cake became fat the world manner of fat.
She's more than just a briefect in a lay night ball, more than just a paratig sitting in you.
And welcome back to Tough his Nails on WBC, And I'm Cindy Stumpo and I'm here with.
And Drew Balders, you buddy.
Both those songs just kill it. I mean they just kill it. It is what it is. I can't take it away. I listen to them. I swear to God it every They're in my car, there, they're home on so no nos, I'm blasting that all over the place.
Looking back, you happy how it happened versus how you thought it was going to go.
Well, the record label taking half his money got.
More well, I think too, Like.
Sometimes sometimes in life we feel like, you know, in moments when things are going bad, you're like, this is the worst thing that can.
Possibly happen to me.
And I remember losing the record deal, losing the manager, losing all of it, and thinking like, wow, this is as low as it gets, you know, and then just learning from all those all those loads, and you know, without without all those learning curves and curveballs throwing my way. I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have a numb one by myself. I wouldn't have been the first artist to ever do this. And sometimes I feel like God, you know, prepares you for those moments and you don't even recognize it.
And for me, you know, without all those trials, without all those errors, I'm not where I'm at right now.
So my daughter's got something to say to you, since she's missed astrology, right She's going to tell you why it didn't work out, Because why, Sam.
So, I was doing the math backwards for your age now and when this happened in twenty nineteen brings you back roughly five years through around twenty eight twenty nine.
Correct.
So there's this thing called you're sat in return where satin is roughly between twenty eight and thirty years where it was when you were born. And life like throws things at you, whether you pick the right path of the wrong path. Now, you kept getting hit with things over and over again that you had never experienced before, and it could have brought you down a really bad path, and it didn't. It brought you to a better situation than you could have thought of. But it doesn't always
work that way for everybody. Because you made the right choices, follow me.
Man, I mean, that's that's pretty powerful. I think. I don't know if they.
Were the right choices or they were just the ballsy ones, you know at the time.
He is a good thing, buddy. I live with them all day long. Okay, I got about four of them. Okay, most men have two. I got four.
I love it.
And it was just like, Hey, this is my dream, this is what I want to do. I'm gonna chase it, and I'm I'm gonna do it till the wheels fall off. You know, this is all I want to do in my life. And you know, if that means I fall flat on my face, try and I'm gonna go down swinging. And I just really believed, like I said, believed in this song, believed in the message of it.
And that's what was so cool.
Was like the song that ends up being our biggest song that gets over a billion plays, billions, you know, views or whatever, talking about treating women right and knowing they're worth and I just think that's.
Such a powerful.
Yeah, excuse me, gentlemen, did you hear that. You just said something that's very resonating, that it's teaching men how to treat women. Yeah, now I don't know. I mean you might be a closet case. He's feed her. I don't know. But you don't come off that way. So I'm not going to take you as that person. So you should be that face is kind. He's always seeming like Sharaija, goat kind dice. Okay, now we're going by kind ice. What's what you said?
What?
What? What? What's the sign? I don't know what's your sign?
My sign's a LEO?
Was right by leos and tourists lately.
Little fire sign out there?
What's your wife?
She's she's a leo too, So we got a lot of fire going.
On fish family too. I'm a kid, sir, I'm the double side, oh double sage.
The fire, I'm aris fire.
So that morning when you woke up and you saw all those views, were you jumping around the house or wherever you were?
Oh my gosh. Yeah. So we were on our honeymoon.
We were in our little condo and me and my wife were jumping around, crying all sorts of things, Like.
Every record label is going to call us we got to hit blah blah blah.
And that just didn't happen. You know, I went, I remember, I'll never forget. We were on our honeymoon. I've made the post already about playing people's back I booked a bunch of people's backyards. And when we land from our honeymoon, my tour manager comes in in the van, picks me up from the airport, and we go out and we played twenty shows in nineteen days in people's backyards, back to back to back to back, just going around the country. And that turns into playing over three hundred shows in
a couple of years in people's backyards. And I just that's what I thought my life was going to be for a long time, is just being the guy that's sang in people's backyards. But I'll tell you this, Cindy, when I was in when I was in folks back backyards, it really just changed everything for me because I was so caught in this Nashville system, and I think artists we moved to Nashville, LA, New York or whatever, and you get so caught up and thinking I got to
make music for all these label heads. I gotta make music that sounds like the radio or it sounds like this, and at the end of the day, you just got to make music for people. And I didn't realize that until I was in their backyards and they were telling me, Man, this song means so much to me because of this, or this song so much to me because of that, and you know, and now I wrote it turned it
into me writing my brand new single. It's called Tough People, and it's a really really special song just about how tough times can sure make some tough people. When you're at your lowest loves, you really figure out who you are.
I don't you know. Look at I'm watching you, like I said, and I've been following you on Instagram, and you're more impressive being right in my face right now. And I didn't think that was gonna be possible. You hit the but something about morals and values, like big Time Samuel will tell you, like, I either love you or I don't even like you. How's that right? You're either evil or you're a good human being, right, And I just like the human beings, and that's what you are,
and you deserve so much good success. And I can see the way that you treat your wife. And I think any mother should be so proud to have you as a son in law because and I'm sure your wife's a wonderful woman too. To take me, it takes two people to I'm gonna meet it, trust me. I'm gonna meet both. You trust me, okay, And but at the end, it's just this is there's just this gleam. And Sim'll tell you, like I'll stroll through things on Instagram and you see my follows, and you see are
you following Sidney Stomp? I'm not sure, but my content has got a lot of back and forth, back and forth, and I'm way over my algorithm of what I should have. But there's tons of everybody's got something to say. Right, you're gonna love that about people. Right, you're gonna get your hits, You're gonna get you knocks, she's gonna get your likes. And me on the other side, every time I get a guy and that comes in and knocks me after thirty eight years an ultra ultra high end construction. Right,
and dude, you got a bathroom from home? Deepo, Like you're seriously gonna come at me. I will just emasculate them, right. So one guy writes back, He's like, do you really answer these? I thought you didn't read these? Like, oh nobody. This is a sport for me. You just you just hit up a Boston broad like, buddy, what do you think was gonna happen here?
Like?
Did you think I was gonna come in?
Like?
Can be kind? It's actually funny. But what's been most of your feedback on your social media besides the hate is.
It's all been very positive? You know, I think social media can be what you make it.
You know.
Obviously for me, that's what changed my life with social media was daughter blowing She's somebody's daughter blowing up? Can she have this dance? Just like you said, Cindy, you found us and discovered us because of social media, and you know, it's all. What I love about social media is what you put out there is who follows you. And that's something that I've really noticed. By playing people's backyards, everybody's like, man, did you run into some weird people
out there playing people's backyards? And you just showed up and you didn't know them? And I was like, man, to be honest, there are mostly people that I would hang out with. There are people that have the same morals that I do, the same you know, kind of vibe on life. And it's all because what you put out into the world is what is it the people that follow you? And I never really put that all together, but it's all been really great.
You know.
Obviously, you always have some people on there that are that are haters, and you know, I might post a picture of my wife and and me, and there's been times where you know, she's in her bikini or whatever and we're out on the boat and people come at her and say hateful things to her, and that really bothers me more than anything, I think is when people
come at my family, you know. I remember we posted a picture this past Christmas of me, her, Santa Claus, and our son, and my wife had a little red dress on. It was the first time she felt pretty since we've had our son, and she was going out dressed up and people started attacking to her, calling all sorts of names because she had a you know, a
pretty looking dress on. And so it can definitely be you know, social media can be tough and rude and hateful, but for the most part, a lot of people on our socials are really kind and if I if I don't think so, I just block them. I just delete them and block them.
That's now, that's the same. It does what I do. I wait for you to come back again, and I go after your throw it again. Okay, well, yell at them for you and then they eventually like they just they just like go away like little bugs, right because they're not ready for that.
Right.
So that's right there.
That's total Boston. But you know, look at I realized that I wasn't made for HGTV. I wasn't made for TV because I could take the hits. But when they were coming after my kids, oh yeah, watch out, it was just I decided, like, you know, what can your son do more than golf? He's a he's an amateur pro golfer. Like, what else should you do? Well, maybe you should be sitting on a street corner shooting drugs and his arm. I don't know. So you weren't supposed to go on the HGTV website. I did it, and
then I got yelled at. I'm like fighting me, HGTV. They're like, we can't fight you, Cindy. I'm like, well, then then leave me alone, right, So yeah, I mean, something's a hurtful and we have to learn to accept the good with the bat hold that thought we're going to break. I'm Sidy stumbling. Listen, top his nails on WBZ and We'll be right back.
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She somebody's do she, somebody's everything, ge, somebody's fattal girly on it.
She's grown up.
And welcome back to tap his nails on WBZ. And I'm Sindy and I'm here with Samantha, and now we see each other. Buddy, this is better. You know we look like here. That's good. We've been watching you. So, I mean, I got so many questions. See him go ahead, she went on, So as your career was going, and where you stand right now?
Right?
So it was at one point with somebody saying, hey, buddy, you need to get a real job, like you better go cut some lumber, you better stop building houses, how to be a mechanic, Like anybody tort you that way or they were just had your back.
It was I think whenever I first moved here, you know, my My mama was worried about that. You know, I think there were some people in my life worried about that. But I was always just so lucky. I found a way to make a living playing bars. And when I first moved here, I'll never forget I made a I had this envelope and I sat in my computer and I had my guitar and I sang like forty songs into my old MacBook, and I had had the CDs, and I made cards that said my name and my
phone number on them. And I walked down all of Broadway in Nashville and I took these envelopes into every bar and I was like, Hey, my name's Drew Baldridge. Is your music director here? And they'd be like, nah, just put it on the desk. I'd be like, oh cool. So I'd set it on the desk and I'd leave. And then I walked into Tutsies one night one day and I was like, hey, is your music director? They're like, yeah, he's actually upstairs, and it was like something out of a movie.
I actually called yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was st and this guy's counting hundreds on his desk and I walked in. I was like, hey, I'm Drew, you know, and he's like, you want to play our bar?
I was like yeah.
He's like, you know about forty songs Old country and New Country. And I was like, yeah, I sure do. He's like, I tell you what I like the way you look. You go up tomorrow. And I was like, oh okay. So I went, you know, started playing at Tutsies, and that allowed me to make a living and all at this time. You know, where I'm from is only
four hours from Nashville. So I would go up every Friday and Saturday and play bars in my hometown area where I came from, and then I would play Tuesday Thursdays in downtown Nashville.
And that's the name Tutsy is like I think a roadhouse when I hear Tutsies, Rightidaville, you think of wild Listen. Boston is so different, right, Like it's so different from where you grew up. And you know where you live now, tell me something your roots home? Right? So how far away from your mom? Know you that you live?
We're four hours you know, I live in Nashville. They still live up in Illinois. All my family does they still, like I said, my brother still works on the farm and my cousins still do.
And that's really fun.
Tomorrow we're actually having our number one party in Nashville tomorrow for She's somebody's daughter. It's our first ever number one party, and so all of my family is coming down to go to it, so my brother and you know, my mom and having what's that, No, it's gonna be a it's gonna be at a rooftop in downtown Nashville, which would be super cool. And we actually today we craned in ash like turf, so the whole rooftop it
looks like a big backyard. So we can kind of say we went from backyards to having a number one song in country music, which is pretty special.
So they're only a four hour drive from you.
Yeah, only four hours there in southern Illinois.
How proud?
Oh well, it was fun this this last weekend. Every year, I do a festival in my hometown. I called the I called the tour the Baldridge and Bonfire Tour, And so I thought, when I was riding around playing backyards, I thought, ma'am, how cool would be if I did a big one called up the Big Baldridge and Bonfire And so this is my third year. Last weekend we did it and all my hometown people came and big festival,
you know, a thousand people come out. And then I actually do one in my wife's hometown too that we just started. And so that was the past two weekends. We were up in Illinois visiting them, playing festival, and it was it just that's a special event. We get to raise money for charity and I just always really really love helping out our small town area.
Country fest' Let's stadium? Yeah, oh, oh, you haven't played je Lette Stadium yet country Fest? Have you?
I haven't yet. No.
I have played a bar outside of Gillette Stadium. What's that bar there called? There's a bar club, dance club outside of Jillette Stadium across the street, maybe something strings.
I don't know.
She's at every game. How you should know the semi.
I don't hang out around there.
Well, it doesn't matter. We gotta get when's country Fest. That's when it already happened. It's a spring though, right August August it's Country Fest.
Well, we gotta we're gonna come back up bear Sandy.
Oh, it doesn't matter. I have my pull on that one. I like it, Come on, I have on that one. So I start on your schedule of what you've got coming up. Boston's not on there. Where's the closest run new hem? Sure do you do Maine? Do you do any of those areas?
Or so this summer we're not allowed to announce it yet. We're gonna go out on tour with another artist this summer and we're going to be close to y'all, so you know.
Everybody out there.
If you just follow Drew Baldridge Music, which is my Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, it's all the same thing. We post all our tour dates all the time where we're playing, when we're playing, and you can follow along and we'll be announcing more dates. Right at the start of the year. We just announced that Cody Johnson tour and we're gonna have more with some other artists coming up really soon.
So when do you go back on tour?
So I'm on tour pretty much all of the time. So so like this weekend, we're playing in Indiana next weekend. Cool, we are, Like if you go to Drew Baldridge music dot com, you can see all the tour dates. But we're officially doing our own headlining tour this November. Going out for November in a couple of dates in December. It's just called Drew Baldridge Live. It's celebrating cheet somebody's daughter going number one. We're gonna be in Pittsburgh.
We're gonna be.
In Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlanta, not Boston. I really wish we were coming to Boston, but there's a lot Florida. We're gonna be playing a town called Niceville.
Is that right?
Niceville, Florida, something like that, I think coming up in November.
I don't know. I'm a city slicker. I go back to I go to Florida. I'm still around pavement. We got part of Florida. It's actually funny. And I'll tell you a little story. Charlie Walks a really good friend of mine. He was the VP of Sony Records. And when I first found you, I shared you with Charlie because he's got his own label. Right, I go, Charlie, just listen to him. Just listen to him. Ah, Sidney
Country is not okay, Charlie. And then like Millie, months later, when Charlie is not at number three, and then you went to number one. I go, you just lost out, buddy, right, like I just I just love sticking it up. That's going, Okay, you just lost out, buddy.
I love it.
It's now at a point that those labels aren't going to come screaming out because it's what part of Florida Dustin? What the heck is that?
I don't know?
Panhandle, Hanhandle?
Okay, probably down there like Branton, we rather went to school. Yeah, probably how we on the hills Brayton. But what was I just went, what was this thing?
Charlie Walk?
Oh?
Yeah, so I was like, Charlie, well hit number one. Now he doesn't need you anymore? Right? So do you think now because of this, artists will realize if just keep pushing the rock up the mountain, you don't need these labels to make you feel bad.
Yeah, you know, I think too, like.
Because there was a time you had depend on the labels.
Yeah, you know, I think for like award shows and things like that, you do need help. You know, you do need votes, you need all this stuff. And so we're very open to a partnership. I always think I'm going to own at least half of what I'm doing, you know, because I've worked so hard for it and pushed so hard for it. But if we could find like a real partner, a major label that wants to come alongside of my label and be a partner.
And I'll be calling Charlie back tonight.
Yeah, and.
You know, directly to Charlie too, go ahead.
Over the next little bit. I really believe that we will find a partner, somebody that believes in our music as much as ours.
Who is it that you'd love, who would be your first choice to partner up with.
There's this record there's this record label in Nashville called b MG, and they are just really really good. They have people like Laney Wilson, Jelly Roll, Jason al Dean. They know what they're doing, They've been doing it forever.
I'm going to tell you something. I love Jaysontine. You know why when he came up with that, because because Christy Nome's a friend of mine. Number one, okay, and number two when she go out behind him.
On small town Oh yeah, small Town USA.
Yeah, and she you know, she stood right behind him and said, look, he wasn't doing trying to put any points across that he you know, wasn't what people wanted to read into it and so on, and I thought it was a great song. I know I'm a Boston broad that las country, right, you can't make but actually is a lot of it is a lot of us. That's why we have the Bull here because.
Yeah, and Boston is massive, massive country fans. You know.
I know Kenny Chesney loves coming up there. He's got a song called Boston. And I actually came up to Boston. I did this tour. Right before I played the Backyards, I had this song called Senior Year and it was talking about how the hook of the song said, never thought it would disappear senior year. And I put this song out in twenty nineteen, just mean, live it up, kids, It's going to go by fast. On twenty twenty, all
these kids in senior year did disappear. And I remember sending this song around to radio stations and just saying, hey, I'm doing zoom concerts for the class of twenty twenty since school shut down. One of the very first stations I sent it to was up there in y'all's area, and I ended up coming in and playing a graduation a drive in graduation in debt Ham Debtham.
Yeah, it's down the street from us.
Yeah.
So we've been up there a couple of times and played for the seniors and did a big senior send off for all the graduations. When twenty twenty hit, we was on a big flatbed trailer, had all the kids pull up in their cars and I was on on this big trailer by myself, just kind of giving a commencement speech right there and little deadhim Dedham.
Massachusets, Massachusetts. It's actually a big get him that's so small, you know, all that thought we're going to break. I'm Sinny Stumbley. He looks tough his nails on WBZ with Radio at Temper. Can't you steal me the next one? And welcome back to Cindy Stumpo tough his nails on WBZ And I'm here with Sammy, I'm here with Drew Joe. The song just makes me cry every time I hear it. I'm sorry, but it's just so beautiful, so beautiful.
Appreciate y'all having me on here, and I appreciate y'all letting me let me talk about my music. And we're so excited to be out on the road this fall and you can check out all our tour dates at Drew balderge music dot com.
And at the start of the year, we're gonna be.
Going out on tour Cody Johnson, our first ever arena tour, which is crazy to think. We're to be playing for like fourteen or fifteen thousand people a night, and we're hoping to come up y'all's area really really soon. And we've got a brand new song and it's called Tough People. You on my socials which is just Drew Baldridge Music, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
And please tag me in all of it, okay, because I got a lot of follow us, Okay, so please, okay, everybody, have a great, safe weekend. This is Cindy Stump and we'll see you next day.
Night,