Storme Warren

could be adult content. I am so excited about this episode because I am interviewing Stormy Warren, who is such an incredible host. He is someone I look up to. I learned from him. I've been friends with him for ten years and he goes the face of G A C. He has hosted every event in Nashville. You can imagine. He's all over the radio. He has his own radio show on Sirius XAM. He is such an incredible person, such an incredible heart, and it was just such an

honor to get to interview him. So we talked all about how he got to start, why Charlie Daniels is so important to him, and how he loves the hug trees. Here he is. I love you Stormy. Hello. Hello. Being on this end of this, well, you're quite a star, so you need to be exposed fully all of the details. It really is. It's uncomfortable to be on this side. It is. Yeah. I've probably been on this side of it maybe two or three times in my entire career.

Are you serious? And it's really odd because in the situation, I know where I'm going and I know I'm going to try to lean over, don't look Okay. I have to always check this because I've red two interviews and I didn't record. Yeah. I did that with Jake Oen not too long, one of the best interviews I've ever done with him, and it didn't record me. He was on a time schedule and ran away on me. So wait, wait, he didn't record. The thing didn't record. It was that

did you die? Yeah? And he was like I gotta go, and I'm like bye. Was so devastating. Even in this huge thing with all the microphones, it was just my producer was sitting at this one. We could record from this computer or I could record from that computer. Are you sound good? Sound good? And we both thought the other one was recording. Oh gosh, and so he said,

all right, go ahead and press stop it. She goes, I did, I thought you were uh and Jaco's your kidding, right, And then Jake, three hours later Jake text week goes, Storm, You're not gonna believe this. It happened again to someone else because I don't know what it is. What is he talking about? It's crazy? What kind of secrets he say? I'm going to get out of the squeaky cha, get on the squaky chair. Okay, well we just keep talking on,

just wring to make sure that too. That's better. Oh great, okay, Now I'm where you're hiding anyway. Oh yeah, perfect. I can see you look like a statueous goddess. Now, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, So I want to start off with a little rapid fire. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, I want to say a few words and you just free association. Yes, the first day that comes to mind. Don't overthink it, of course. Okay, happiness, Joy Okay, that's the same word.

Okay you said. Okay, so there's no wrong answers. Okay, all right, let's try that again. Okay, Joy outside, Okay, you're an outdoorsman. Yes, nice. What do you like to do outdoors? Anything? In fact, I had a production company called Surfing Moose because you're a surfer too. I love the beach, Cuba diver, scuba diver, Yeah, anything outside. I gotta go hug a tree every now and then. Already go nuts. Okay, nice, are you a hippie? I'm not a hippie. I'm just really in tune with Mother Earth,

the nature side of things. And when you lose connection with that, you your whole mental focus just goes out of whack. And I totally reconnect when I get back into the woods. And I never realized how much I miss it until I go back. How often do you go into the woods? Not near enough. But I have to make myself do it. And the more I do it, the happier I am. So I guess happiness outside. Love it, okay, dream, who don't overthink it? Dream? These are good words made

specific for you. Dream happiness, just to be happy. He said that quote when he was in the third grade, was it, John Lennon? Yeah? And and she said no. Yeah, he said there was a horrible answer, because no, that's the right answer. So what does happiness look like to you, and it looks like outdoors, looks like outdoors. It has to do with a sense of being called uh. And I don't want to use the word control because that's not it, because no one's ever truly in control of anything.

But it's being adaptable and being able to just roll with the flow and just not fight. UM. My biggest pet peeve in life are unnecessary obstacles in my path and things that are just stupid, like um, an unnecessary argument with a coworker or a spouse, or wasted energy that is just so avoidable, and yet you get stuck in this rut of having to move a boulder that the drains you and it's just you see where you want to get to. You see the goal, You see the end zone, and this stupid thing is in your

way that has no business being in your way. Completely use your energy for only positive positivity. I'm probably the most optimistic person you've ever met. Yeah, and they I belong to the Optimist Club. In all reality, I used to speak at the Optimist Club. And it's real. There's an Optimist Yes. Can I come? Yes? Because you're right there with me. Really trained myself to be optive. But I had to train I wasn't naturally optimists. Really well, no,

I think I had to develop it. Well, what were you? Why? Why were you so negative? I wasn't necessarily negative. I just didn't really as positive as you wanted to be. I didn't realize that it was a total choice, and that like by choosing positivity always it makes for a positive life. I had to develop that. Yeah, and that Um, I guess it probably was instilled to me by my parents. And my mom was the queen of the optimists, and my dad was just queen or king of common sense.

So between the two of them it was a good direction, like a perfect comba. Well, I I didn't say I got at all, but I definitely got the optimist side. The common sense thing goes out the window every now and then I would pick, I would pick optimists comments. I just don't understand why people carry such great clouds over them, and I don't there's we have it enough around us, it's forced upon us enough. I don't know

why people just live in this dark space. And even if, even if that dark space is part of you, there's always ways to bring light into it, and so and so I feel part of my job is to bring that to other people. Story. You're bringing storms of sunshine, storms of sunshine. If I were to put out an album,

that would be the title. But it's it's great And because the most satisfying thing is when you connect with somebody and you see them turn around, you see them have a bad day goes to a better outlook, just even the slightest little twitch. And if you can know that you are a part of that in some way, what better reward is there? So do you use your radio show to spread positivity? Yeah, And it's it's I love I love connecting. Um, it's it's about the audience.

It's about brightening the audience's day because we're all one big, happy family. I never look like we're broadcasting outward to the universe. I feel like everybody's in our studio. It's like one big living room. And it's a subtle difference between a lot of radio shows. A lot of people are really proud of what they have to say and want to project it outward and just hope that something is received. And to me, I get as much coming back as we deliver, and so it's it's it's really

a neat connection. You have always seemed like the happiest guy, and it's just a genuine thing, it is. I mean, we all have bad days. I and I have them too, but I hate being in a bad day. And when you're so aware of being positive, don't you know when you're in a bad day, like, because you can normally turn it around, like yeah, it doesn't take long. But sometimes there's just a day that just sucks. It just sucks,

and you just can't get out of it. Yeah, And I don't like that, but I can count them on about one hand. Yeah, you know, I don't. I don't have a lot of them. And it's just if I'm down for longer than about thirty minutes, I'm I'm pretty pussy. Do you have techniques to turn your day around? Yeah? Absolutely, And it's it's to put whatever it is that's sucking the energy out of you in a place you can deal with it. You're not ignoring it, you're not sweeping. I did do that for a while, and it was

a really bad practice. Yeah that if you or it just overflows and your pressure cooker and you explode worse. And I was very very good at that for a long time and then did you finally just like erupt? Yeah, and you got the eruption. Was there a moment. It's all random people. It's it's just unfortunately for those people or the situation, it comes out at the wrong time and it comes out probably out of ease. It comes

out it's like a safe zone. It's like, Okay, this really is gonna matter if I explode here, so blam and so whatever whatever takes it is really, whether it's an event, a person, whatever it's I felt really bad when that happened. So I worked really hard to deal with stuff and not just shove it under the rug. But part of being positive is to put the negativity somewhere. Okay,

so where do you put it? Well, now I deal with it, and I just kind of crumple it up in little pieces as we go and tribble it out instead of just going deal with you later. And the boiling over there, it's just you're not looking at it, and it's amazing. Talk about wasted energy. I wasted a lot of energy for a lot of my life shoving all this ship in the closet. And then when finally it was overflowing, it was too late. And you had this big pile of it's like a closet full of

bowling balls. Eventually, when you opened that door, you get this avalanche of bowling balls that you have to deal with. That you could have dealt with one bowling ball at a time, never would have built up. Yeah, are you an organized person? No? Not in the slightest. I am the least organized person you have ever met. But I'm I'm gonna start to finish her. And I think those go hand in hand because I'm not organized. I need to begin a project and end the project. I can't

start multiple projects and then piece me like together. My wife is is a genius at that. She remember, she must have a good memory. She she's a multitask or she could do like nine things at once, and it blows my mind. I'm like, but the dishwasher isn't only half? Have to get in your what's going on over here? Because I'll get back to that. She make list? She does make list? List or key, I don't make list. I have a calendar in my head and I have everything that goes on in my head and it's you

told me something about your calendar too. Yeah, you said that you don't look ahead, like, just wake up because we hosted National Dame. That's right, I guess two years ago. Yeah, and now you're kind of giving tips on hosting, which I have filed a lot of his way and use. Oh god, sorry, no, they're great. But you said that, like you have your calendar, but you just wake up and whatever the day has you just go with it. You don't think too far ahead. No, I don't. I

love the excitement of that. I love that it leads to a great way to avoid boredom and a routine. If you wake up not knowing exactly what the day has in store, then it offers so many blessings that you weren't expecting. So you sit there and go, oh my gosh, that's right, I'm going here today, and then you go whoa, And then you know, people say, so, what are you doing this afternoon? I'm like, I don't know, no idea, and then you put it together and it's

it's a blast that way. So every day is exciting. Every day is now there's no If I have more than like two or three days where it feels like they're almost exactly the same, I start needing to go hug a tree. Totally. I totally relate. Okay, Vice, ah chewing tobacco, You chew tobacco. Do you have really white teeth? Yeah? Well you put those big old dips in there. Do No, you don't spit it out. I do. It's horrible. My

kids are really my kids. Maybe quit once and then I got back into it, and I'm trying again to quit. This feels so good in your mouth, Yeah it is. It's just it's a great it's like a hot tingling feeling. No, it's I mean after I've been doing it in a long time, so it's it's just more habit than anything.

Have you gotten your lips checked up? Okay? Yeah, they're okay? Okay, I mean, but which I hate because I would rather than say, you know, you really need to stop because this has happening now they go, no, look good, I'm great. I'll keep dipping. You know. It's but probably for my kids now because they're really on me. They don't don't like to see me do it. I try to not hide it from them. They know I do it, but rub it in their faces either. So yeah, that's a

pretty good Avice and wine. Oh what kind of white shard. Okay, I might be the only tobacco chewing shardon ay drinker you've That's a great contrast. You got like your redneck gone up and then you gotphisticated classy. You see me with a spit cup and a glass of shardonney. It's a it's very sexy, I'm telling you perfect. Yeah. You walk both lines. Yeah, and I definitely do metaphorically and literally. So if you're going to describe yours, it would be

a mix between chew tobacco and chardonnay. That would be absolutely correct. That hugging in the middle, that's okay, okay. Um music music, Um, I'm a I'm a rainbow. I really. I know that's a cliche, but I do listen to it all. I mean, I started listening to old school country Roy Clark Bucklands. I grew up on Heehaw and so and my parents would drag me to these country variety shows, Glenn Campbell and Jim Stafford and Tammy Winnette yeah and uh Tanny Tucker when she was young. And

it just Roy Clark lived down the street from me Tulsa. Yeah, exactly. So Roy Clark would be every Saturday or whatever. He was in town. He would be out washing his car in his driveway. And he used to ride my bicycle. When I say right down the street, it was probably about twenty minutes away on a bike, but I would go down just to watch him wash his car. Did you say, Hi, I think I got the nerve once,

Mr Cluke, you're just kind of breathing the same. Yeah. Yeah, And I love tehaw And and it's neat and it flashed forward. You know, if you think it and you can believe it, it will come. And I'm a huge believer in that. And that's and there's a lot of there's a lot of proof that that works in my life an example, Okay, but I am obsessed with that belief and I and it works and and and and knowing you for about a decade now, I've seen lots of proof in you that it works. So it's it's

really cool. You're you're a believer in that, and you can see that in people, you can feel the energy. It's it's a very cosmic thing. But an example. So going back to Roy Clark and buck Owens, all I wanted to do was to buck Owens was like my idol. Okay, and Charlie Daniels, you're jumping ahead, So, uh, flash forward. I'm here in Nashville doing my career, and I still had yet to interview Buck Owens. So all I kept thinking about all my whole career, I wanted to meet

and get to know Buck Owens. And then we did a couple of red carpet interviews, but those are quick and it didn't really count. And for years I went out to his Crystal Palace for his birthday bash in Bakersfield just to be there, and you know, I'd call Lorien and Charlie Crook and Chase, we need to go cover Buck Owen's birthday party in Bakersfield, and and and went every year to do that, I know, and I

did every year. And finally, shortly before he died, his um his manager goes, uh, Storey, do you have a camera, And I'm like why, because Buck wants to do that interview. I'm like, what, I'm not ready for this interview, because well you better be, because you got about a half hour. We had your whole life to prepare, so I guess it was spontaneous. It went from a really well prepared, in depth life assessment to a conversation with a guy on towards the end of his life. It was it

was a much better conversation. And my favorite quote from that interview is asked back, I said, are you afraid to die? And he goes, Nope, I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of not being around. And I just thought it was so cool to say that. He's the ultimate fomo. He didn't life, love life, and he didn't want to miss anything, and so he was not afraid of dying. He was fully at peace with dying, and he knew he was dying, but he was really bummed out that

he was going to miss some stuff. How cool though, to give you at the end of your life though, and still be loving it so much. God's and he had some big setbacks and letdowns and all this stuff, but he always found a way to turn it around. And that's the key. All right, you ready for the pendulum theory? Okay, come on, pendulum theory, roll with me. So life is like a ticking clock totally. It only

works when it's swinging back and forth. Right, So if it sticks up here, if everything's good all the time, time doesn't move. And if it sticks over here. Everything's bad, time doesn't move. You gotta swing through both and that's the only way. But the positivity and the outlook on life comes from how you approach the down swing when you know, not to say you expect it or you hope it's coming, it's how you address it when the downside does come, and to know that with it will come.

And so it's just the approach you do. I call it it just swing through it. Just swing through it, and just swing through your arms up there like a roller coaster and just like, oh, this is gonna suck, this is gonna suck, but let's go, you know. And when you get to those like the lowest parts, you can feel it and like I just came out of one, it's like you know you're in it. But then when do you know what's coming? You just gotta you just

gotta swing through it. So many people, though, they get stuck in that first one, because once you start doing it more, it gets a lot easier. And sure, that's it to exercise like anything else, but the first tree is stuck in it. You think your life's over. Oh you can't see you can't see two ft in front of your face. Everything's done right, and you can't get

out of it exactly. So you've got to be able to focus on the horizon when it goes with everything else we're talking about about just believing in seeing stuff that isn't there. Yes, story, you've got it, You've got it. I'm just getting better at it. I turned thirty three this weekend. That was one of my favorite birthdays Evertree

thirty three, thirty three, thirty free. Okay, see this. You can't see the southern camera, but the Batman Building is right over the camera's shoulder and on the thirty third floor, three pm on oh three, oh three, oh three, I turned thirty three. Stop it. Yeah, and I did. And I did three shots at tequila on the So it was the rule of threes. Oh, tell me about your thirty third birthday? That was It was just a real big fun day of just it was thirty free. A

good year. Yeah, it was great year. Odd years are always fan testic years, they are, Yeah, why is that? I don't know. Even ears are odd. Yours are always fantastic, I think so. And odd is odd, Yeah, that's it. And odd is odd. Odd, it's unexpected. But all the good things in my life have happened on odd years. Great and not to say that I've had devastating years on even hears, but the memorable moments of all happened on odd years. Okay, so you're about to have a

great seven. I know it's going to be good. Which you add them together and there ones and ones are really cool. So do you study numbers and stuff? I do. I'm not like a numerologist, but I've seen trends. Okay, so talk to me about that. Just when things are you know, different numbers have different meanings, and not necessarily like in a definition of a numerology book, this means this.

I just know when I recognize numbers in a pattern that it means something, so like ones are always to me say that I'm pointed in the right direction and not necessarily in the way you think. It's just it goes with looking beyond that two feet in front of your face. You think, oh wow, this is exactly where I need to be. And there literally you know there's like seven different other steps you're going to take, but you're still on the right path. So do you trust

in the mystery of it all? Yeah? I got Life's a mystery. Isn't do you set kind of goals but then like you you're working towards something, but then you're kind of expecting whatever exactly exactly. I a very goal oriented person. I think, obviously you've accomplished so much, and I hate when you reach a goal. Okay, tell me that because I don't like reaching goal. Do you like the journey getting it? Reaching a goal has never been satisfying?

Oh my gosh, okay, number one. Because number one, I've enjoyed the journey so much that I immediately am looking to set the new goal because you don't want to stay there. You've got to have something to work and there's nothing. And it's never what you think it's going to feel like when you get there. So what does it normally feel like? It just feels like another day.

It feels like it's okay. It's like if you win an award, or you reach a milestone or a new untracked, or you interview somebody that you've always wanted to interview. By the end of it, you're going, yeah, okay, no, what's next. Yeah, I'm really bad about appreciating now. I'm really bad at that. Okay, Because you're always thinking about the next thing, or looking back, and I've stopped that. Okay, looking back is something that takes a way too much

time too. It's so looking forward is much more beneficial. But I'm getting better. That's what Going out and hugging the tree. Does you appreciate that now you hug the treat? Yes, like you hug it. Absolutely. Do you feel energy from the tree? Oh? My gosh. Yes, there's a there's a tree called the Lodgepole pine out in the Sierras, and it actually smells like maple syrup and so it's got real thick bark and when you actually get real close

to it smells like vanilla maple syrup. And you just sit there and just go It's the greatest thing in the world. You totally connect. Yeah, everybody always thought it was a metaphor. I'm like, no, I go out and hug a freaking Okay, I'm gonna actually try you should you and you're gonna go, wow, that's pretty good. Do you have a certain treat? Uh? Any tree, as long

as it's connected to the ground in the earthen. Okay, Okay, so you started off at sixteen, you move from Tolta to California and you worked at l A. In l A's Pirate Radio. I thought that was just a movie. I didn't realize it was a real thing. The Pirate Radio is based on the old pirate radio stations that were off the FCC grid back in the seventies and they broadcast in the in the shores of New York and off Long Island and some off the coast to California,

but not many phrase radio. And you had a quote though that I have to say, you said this had the biggest impact on your career because you learned how to deal with the egos, liars, corporate bs, and the pitfalls of celebrity. All is a p on who rarely got airtime and it was it was spectacular. So talk to me about that, like, what are the pitfalls the celebrities, What did you learn about egos and how did you

get involved with this details. Along with being a positive person, what goes along with that as a companion is idealism, where I have just have an idealistic view of how things should be and oftentimes it's not that way. So my first experience with radio was with a fantastic program director in Tulsa named mel Myers who gave a thirteen year old kid a shot and he shouldn't have done that, but he did because he saw something. Yeah, because someone gave him a shot at around the same age you

wanted to do it. Took a field trip to a radio station in seventh grade and it was love instantly, like pulling the curtain back on OZ. Did you want to be behind the absolutely, because you did a lot of other things before you got to the microphone, which we were like a broadcast assistant, even a cameraman, stage man, assistant technical director, and a segment producer, all before you

really got your big break behind the microphone and camera. Right. Yeah, that's one of the greatest gifts was having to experience at all, because it gives you appreciation for every part of the business. And from focusing a camera like you're doing it all. I'm not doing a great job with the camera. It's very automatic, but it's it really is. It teaches you to appreciate all aspects of it and because of that, you do your job better behind a

microphone if you know everything that's going into it. So you got your and this guy obviously yeah, he um, he gave me a shot. He would critique my stupid little air checks that I would do. Yeah, but he didn't for weeks and weeks, and I got so depressed. I would make these little practice tapes back on reel to reel, and I would set them on his desk. And when I set him on his desk, I expected a response, and none came. But each week, when I'm going on weekends, I would make a new tape and

put it on his desk. And then finally one came back with a two page handwritten note with critiques, and he ripped me to shreds, just tore me up, basically saying, what the heck do you think you're doing. You're horrible at this, you know, but try again next week and see if you follow these simple tips. And so I did, and the next week another critique came. The next week, another critiquet, and shorter and shorter, and work on this.

You're still doing this. And finally, about six months later, because I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm giving you your own weekend show. Those a fourteen. But he also realized you wanted it, you know. Yeah, one has that kind of initiative. I would go after football practice, still in my pads, and ride my bicycle to the radio station and right after the football practice and just go camp out like a stray dog. You just wanted

to be in there. And when I moved to l A, I went took like ninety steps backwards because my guru and my my guide didn't travel with me. Yeah, And so I was there in Finta, California, going but I had my own show, we Don't Care, We Don't Care. Welcome to the Big Guess what, go back and answer phone phone lines. Age got to start back open. So

you kind of made it. You made your way up in Ventura, and then you moved to Hollywood, and no one gave two rats, no no. So I knocked on the door of Pirate Radio and said, please can I come in. I'm like, yeah, you can answer request lines again, you know. But that's where I learned. Scott Shannon got up sweating. I know exactly. Um So Scott Shannon, who to me is one of the most powerful and greatest examples of hustle in all of radio. He was running

that channel and he was scary. He was intimidating. He was not just no no bs, no fluff, this was corporate, this was high pressure radio, which I'd never see. Yeah, I mean a syllable delivered the wrong way. What? Yes, he critique you're talking everything? Talking voice is important. My voice is too high pitched, but I can't get it lower. It's all right. Didn't embrace what you have? It's great. So how did he do the because people can see

through that. By the way, if you're trying too hard to hide who your real voice is, then people can see right through that. How did he So? How would he critique syllables? Does that take away the heart? Yeah? Yeah? But he also taught you how to be really good and which obviously didn't stick. But um, And I was just kind of a peripheral player at Pirate Radio. I wasn't a Whitney Allen. I mean Whitney Allen whose country DJ. Now she was in the crosshairs of Scott Shannon's focus.

And I watched the DJs go through this, and there was a big WATCHUSI Batman Gomez and Cadillac Jack and all these guys that I just really looked up to and watched how they dealt and sometimes didn't deal real well with the critique and the bulls eye and the focus and the energy, and I learned a lot from that and that's what kind of go with the flow mentality and adapt don't take things too personally, don't it

Never take anything person It's not about you. It's about the product, and it's there just one a better product. So what did you What tips did you take from Mel? And what tips did you take from Shannon? Because it sounds like you have two different two different ones. Mel. Mel taught me to not play by the rules, Scott, Shannon said, but you gotta play by the rules. Okay, that's so interesting Scott. Scott had an illusion and he

wanted from his people too. He goes make it look like it's completely chaotic, but it has behind the scenes, it has to be completely buttoned up. It's gottl to be just perfection chaos. So how do you get perfection? You plan it out so your chaos looks like it's absolutely spontaneous, when actually you've spent a lot of time planning out your chaos. So what would be planned chaos? Just like they launched the whole radio station, like they were on a barge off of the shore of Catalina

Island and they who this is pirate Radio? Is this on? Of course it was on. They were out of the multimillion dollar studio in downtown l A. But they made it appear like they're just this ramshackle group of misfits starting exactly and it was just theater of the mind. So I learned that from Scott. There's a lot of you still apply that into your life now. I do, not, not as much because I'm not one of those guys. I'm not much to the chagrin and my boss and

and bosses over the years. I don't want to be anybody else but me, and I can't be and I'm not comfortable if I'm trying to be someone else, and if it looks planned or faked, I feel it and I don't feel right about it. And it's about I say that I don't appreciate the moment, but I live in the moment as far as what I do for a job, I don't do appreciate the moment when the electricity of it, yes, the electricity of the unknown, until you open up that mic and go, well, this is

going to either hurt or it's going to be really good. Yea. And most of the time it really hurts you. You you probably gravitate more with a yeah, absolutely because it was the first impression. But absolutely totally. And he came by to Nashville not too long ago swinging through, just on a cross country tour and we hadn't seen each other and proud. Yeah, it's like it's close to thirty years, I guess. And he's a huge influence in your life. Massive.

Without him, I would be not doing anything like this. Isn't that crazy how one person and I changed your whole life. You have idols, you have people you look up to um and they're so important to all of us. And I really think that I'm a big believer mentors, and we all are in doing something in our life because someone inspired us to do it. And I've I've talked to some people and I have friends say I don't have those people. I just do my own thing.

I said, well, you're lying to yourself because someone pointed you in that direction. Whether it was your father, whether your mother, whether it was best friend, a teacher, a coach, somebody padded you along the way or affected you in a negative way that you're trying to overcome. Absolutely, some mentor can be a a reverse energy too. That's crazy. Okay, So you go through all of this training camp, you got your first big break when you how did you meet up with Jim Owens and tell me about what

goes back to the country roots. I was in l A. This is interesting. Um, I was in l A working for CNN and Pirate Radio and going to school at the same time. So CNN Entertainment or was it like it was entertainment Showbiz Today Today and which became Showbiz Tonight later, but Showbis Today Belashaw and Lauren Sidney and kind of huge. Great your first one, right, Well, I was working on the technical side at first and then

work way with becoming a segment producer. And the only way I could do that is by going out and doing a story, just like you doing these podcasts. This is actually what they instructed me to do. They said, go find a subject, We'll give you a cameraman and an editor, and if we like the story, we're going to air it and give you a chance to do another one. And if you like that one, we'll do you will work you on a freelance basis. And then that worked so and my first one was the first

album I ever bought was Charlie Daniels. I know, I wanted to talk to you about that because he's like super influential in your life. Yeah. In fact, I gave a speech at a Lifetime Achievement award for him. Um, I was the surprise speaker for Charlie, and which was one of the biggest honors. No, it's so cool, um, But the whole, the whole lying in the speech was throughout my whole life, there's always been Charlie Daniels, from the very first album I bought, to every milestone in

my career, there's always been Charlie Daniel. Which he to your life, Yeah, yeah, I mean stories. He's the ultimate storyteller here, the ultimate host of course, you like he I could lose myself in his music. I was movies would start playing in my head when you'd pop pop on Charlie Daniels record and yeah, so he took me places imagination and everything. It's just always characters that would pop up in his music. And I just thought he

was a character bigger than life. The big hat, the beer, the fiddle, I mean, he was just a it was like a superhero almost, And so I figured if I'm going to get one shot at interviewing somebody. Why not interview my childhood idol? And still was my idol? And so you think that you're gonna be able to walk him down. No, no, In fact, I didn't even know how to reach him. But that was part of the test.

It was like this. There was a phone number on the back of one of his albums to his management company, Is that Easy? In Mount Juliet, Tennessee, And so I called and talked to Paul Zygis, who has been his publicist for forty plus years still, and she goes, oh, CNN, yeah, yeah, we'd love to talk to see it in. Yes i am, why, Yes, I am? I am with sing in thank you for noticing it. Um. So it's about there's funny stories. Um. But it went to the Crazy Horse in Santa Santa Anna, California.

Fred Riser, amazing guy, Great country dance Hall in Santa Anna, and there I interviewed Charlie Daniels for the very first time. I was walked up onto his bus. He wasn't on the bus yet, and then the door opened and I saw the hat come in first, and then the beard, and then he hell Son and just bellowing, and I just would and it was the world's worst interview, Like say, you're Charlie Daniels, Okay, you ready, here's my so Charlie,

you play a really good fiddle, right. But he would answer the questions like Dan rather was asking the most in or like you would be asking these questions very very thoughtful, very thought out. But I was asking the worst questions you could possibly ever asked. And he answered them, giving me what he needed and what I needed, just a pro So he put a smile on his face everything.

So a year later he comes back through l A and I get him back on CNN, and he was appreciative, and this time he goes, son, let's take a walk, right, Okay, okay, So we walked into the break room and he puts his arm around me and he goes looking over the skyline of l A. And he goes, Son, I've seen this town chew people up and spit him out because coming here for forty years, he goes, this town does not need you, he goes, and you don't need this

town because it's unnecessary. Nashville needs you. Come to Nashville. And I said, oh my god, But that's like Oz. I mean, that's like the Emerald City that he could have never said that. And this is this is in the break room of CNN with his arm around over my shoulder and he goes, if you need any help getting to Nashville, let me know, and I' okay. So I took that as a huge sign. And Crook and Chase I watched them after school. I would come after

college classes. I would raise home and watch Ralph Emery and on Nashville Now in the Crook and Chase Show. And I was obsessed because it was country music, it was entertainment news, and it was in this magical town called Nashville, which didn't really even exist in my head, just like so many other things in my life, like just these goals and dreams and magical places that you know, just kind of existed in its own little private universe. So to no, it wasn't. But I packed up my

truck two weeks later and drove out. Did you have a job, called Crook and Chase. I said, I'm coming out. Can you give me in a freelance work? I work at CNN And they went, you didn't know them either. You just call a call is that crazy? And they were stupid enough to give me a freelance job out here. You started working in the Crook and Chase you group, idolizing after Charlie Daniels told you to move to Nashville. After Mel Myers when I was thirteen years old, game

you shot on radio? Can you believe? Yeah, anybody who says they do this on their own is lying. But you also have been brave you do. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that you can do yourself to make it, but you have to see the signs and see the steps. You know, in Indiana Jones when he's walking along the path with the rocks and they fall through, it's knowing which rocks to step on and and to find the right path. Have you learned to really trust your intuition? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I think that's a

huge valuable tool. And the most hysterical thing about life is we all do it even though your intuition and says walk one way, You'll take another turn and then get hit smack in the nose and go you know better than that. It's like you knew better than that? What are you doing? You're an idiot? And but you have only yourself to blame in that because inside you knew the right way. It's true. Sometimes it takes just a little longer for others to learn to trust their intuition. Yeah, yeah,

and it's true, but it's really accurate. Realized now the times I haven't trusted my intuition and things have been so hard. Oh, it wasn't supposed to be. If you do the right thing, good things are going to happen. It's and it's a really hard lesson to learn. And if you follow your passion, it's going to work out because you're put here on earth to do your passion, so you're going to end up somewhere you're supposing. It's

acknowledging what that passion is. Sometimes you have figured it out. Yeah, sometimes you miss it completely. And yeah, sometimes people are too scared to dig it up. That's it. And and or you just think you you've talked yourself into thinking one direction as your passion, when you realize it's always been over here. You always know your passion. I feel

like that is the luckiest thing. I've interviewed a lot of people, because a lot of artists and a lot of creatives, and so many of them have known their passion from the beginning. Yeah, that's such a blessing. I don't know what what comes where that comes from. But I mean I listened to a radio underneath my pillow. Oh I know, I have that quote you said from

an early age. I was a radio junkie. Many long nights as a kid, spent with my head pressed against the speaker of my radio clock, just waiting here at the dud to say, I always love the magic of radio. Yeah, it's absolutely true. Literally with your head against the radio, and I would suffer through the music to get to the guy talking talk. Yeah, I just because whatever was coming out of his mouth meant something important, and so I wanted to hear what it was, whether it was news, weather,

information about the artist. I just heard something about my community. It's something magical was going to be said that I was going to he He was my friend and the speaker, you know, Yes, he was my friend and the speaker. And I learned, you know, great music that way too. I mean I'd stay up to two three in the morning just waiting to hear the Gambler and roll on eighteen wheeler from Alabama and Kenny Rodgerson and then it

was like, Okay, cool. If I heard one of those two songs, I could go to bed and then and listened to the guy in between, you know, kind of just getting through them about that, it's I don't know what it is what it is, but it just has always been there since I was a kid. It's just the magic of music and radio and and and the whole combination of it all, and music really is the root of it. I'm brushing by the music side, but I mean it's I'm such a fan, huge country music fan.

I'm a huge music fan. I'm a songwriters fan. I love the creative process. Um people say, why do you do what you do? I say, this is as close as I can get to music without knowing anything about it, because I can't know everything about it. But I can't write a note, I can't play an instrument, I can't sing a tune. But I am the biggest fan of music, and so I I just love being around it. And that's why being in Nashville, it's just like, I mean,

everywhere you look, there's talented there's energy. I mean, you you feel it. I mean, there's there's an cosmic force in this town. That you're positive here. It is positive, and it's as fast as we're growing, as fast as we're evolving, and everybody's trying to get down on the the sterilization and homogenization of Nashville, and it's losing its identity. You can't rip away its energy, you can't. And it's still here. It's not going anywhere. I agree, And I

think that in Nashville. I've sort of noticed people are competitive, but not with each other. It's more themselves. Like I feel like everyone here is chasing their own personal dream and they're not trying to knock someone else out along the way, not that you know. I mean, maybe people set goals and like, Okay, I want to reach this old but like, I don't think anyone's trying to like sides. It's friendly competition, it's friendly. It's still competition, you know,

don't mistake that. I mean, there's still very much a competitive spirit in this town. But we're you're not trying to shred somebody down to to make it further. You want to us life. No, No, And again it goes back to the negative energy. What I know, too many people in other aspects of the world or just friends or whatever that's been so much time hating on stuff, and that just takes away from them progressing in their own life. They have all that energy that they could use.

You look at Facebook, you look at social media, and you look at too much the amount of time wasted hating people. You don't even know what's the point. I don't understand it. I know it's just draining you from progressing. Yeah, and uh, you know, it's a whole other topic. But while we're on it, It's like I have a producer for the radio show and when she first started, she was getting some not so nice comments and she was like, well, how do you take this? I said, they don't hate you,

they don't even know you. They hate themselves. And it's like they have a big hole in their soul that they're trying to fill up with negative energy going outward. If you're able to put out all that negative energy, you have to be unhappy, and that's it. That's it. You're reaching out for something that it's gonna you're Instead of trying to fill that hole in your own soul, you're depending on other people. Other people see if they can take it away, that's it. But really they're just spreading.

That's it just spreads like wildfire. It's a it's a plague, and it's unnecessary. I mean, you're changing it though, well you know what, and and puts me in the bull's eye at the same time, which I don't care. You know. It's that's like I said, they don't hate me, they don't know me. And if they do hate me, fine, It's like my job is not to please everybody. You know. It's okay, and I like it. I mean, I love the I love just connected with people, good, better, ugly.

I mean I think eventually you you make enough difference along the way that all the negative stuff just slides off. Okay, so you're now you freelance. You're here, you call up Crook and chase me like them come hire me. So now you're working as a freelancer for Crook and chases That lead into hosting at t NN, which later goes to J. A. C. Explained to me that journey because

I had to tell you something. Yes, I grew up watching you on G A C. Not like I was like in high school and college, and when I met you for the first time, I was superstar Chrek y West. I will never forget. You're sitting on the edge of a pool at Key West, Yes, at the Reach Resort. I remember the place. I couldn't remember. I couldn't believe that I met you because, like to me, you like OZ, because you were stormy Warren on. You were very sweet.

But that's how I felt, you know, because was how you got JC and C M T S. How you got your country music videos, and you were the face of G A C like the face of all of j Z. It was a great video. I was like, oh my god, story Warren's talking to me and I somebody asked me the other day, I said, God, what do you think you know? Do you did? You? Are you a star? Here? Are you in the public? I've never ever ever thought that way. That has never been my job. That's another piece of advice you told me.

You said, all always make it about the artist's trying to bring it around you. Always bring it back to them, Always bring it back to the artis never about. That's why this is so awkward for me to be on this side of this, because it's my job is to find out what you makes you take and why you do what you do, and that's and to be that link between the audience and the subject you're talking to or the music you're trying to talk about. It's it's

the connection. And I've always said, I'm just a traffic cop between the between the music and the and whether it's on stage at festivals. You know, also you're a festival m C. I said, no, I'm a traffic cop, just trying to get from point A to point B and fill the audience in on whatever we can in the in the time. There's a definite difference for people who come into this business looking for the fame and the spotlight and those who are looking at it because

they are passionate about You can see it. I think if you look at people who do it, you can see the difference. What does what does it look like? It's a much more of a me attitude instead of a U attitude, And it's and I it makes me bristle sometimes. I mean, to each his own, everybody's in this for the right, for whatever reasons. But I remember Jeffrey Steele, the songwriter. He tells songwriters and anybody who comes to town, because if you're coming to Nashville to

become famous, turn around, pack up and go home. If you're turn if you're coming to Nashville because you're passionate about music and passionate about the art form, welcome to town. And I think that's a really good piece of advice because famous so shallow. And again, um, there's a philosophy

I have called chasing ghosts. And I think anybody who's chasing fame and chasing that dangling carrot out there is either running away from something or running to something, and they're never going to get it or run away from it because they're just they will never be satisfied enough. They will never because it's what goes back to the whole, the hole in this whole, and it's just so many of the most successful people we have in this business

suffer from that. And I believe you could tell that to their face and they would go, yeah, yeah, absolutely, I agree that because they're trying. They're thinking that you get all this validation from people will feel something. Sure, And in a way, I think we all do it. We're not in this business without having a piece of that, of course, so I'm not saying I'm better than ever, but no, we all have some degree. It doesn't but it goes back to not enjoying reaching goals because it's

that whole thing. It's like, I'm never going to get there. You're never going to get there everything. You know, each time you think there's so low, it's a mile ahead again, you know. And then if you go and that's it's funny like when you achieved this goal though, of being a host on Tiana and being the face of g A C. Because that's a huge gig from your four ty year old self. That started it back in venture

wherever was. It went from looking at somebody on television and saying, oh my gosh, I want to do that too, realizing it's not that big of a deal. It's just it's just another gig. You're just happen to do it. I was just again a conduit. It's the artist and the audience. Being on television. I've never really wanted to be on TV. Done, No, I never wanted to be

on TV. And radio was always one thing because you could kind of just slide off into the shadows and just kind of do your job, and and TV was just kind of came by default, almost like Crooked Chase. I just was a segment producer, behind the scenes, and they're like, well we need somebody on air. Okay. Happened accidentally accidentally, and then once um TNN went away because they got bought out and there's a little gap, and we decided to start our own country music news show

called Gosh Rosen's Country Music Across America. At the time when we first started on T A C. And they're like, well, I said, who are we going to get as a host? And they're like, well, why don't you just do it? I'm like, that's cheaper, you know, because we own the production company. But if people are don't know, yeah, right now,

it's absolutely true. I became the host of that show, not out of a desire to be a host of a show, but just because it was by default and you knew what you're doing, you knew what you want to get right. It's Stevie Nicks and Phil Collins. Especially

Phil Collins. I identify a lot with him because he was the drummer for a group called Genesis and they were auditioning for lead singers and he kept going up and having to tell the people auditioning how to sing the Genesis music until finally somebody goes, Phil, why didn't you just do it. What I'm not in the rest is history. I believe that's I'm probably wrong on that way,

but I know Phil Collins, Yeah, sort of. But don't you feel like the greatest things in life sort of happened if you allow it, if you allow it and embrace it and don't say no, that's not the direction I was supposed to go. So what take it? Right? What is the worst thing that's going to happen? You end up in a dead end and go oh dan, and then you turn around and go back and try another avenue. It doesn't kill you. And I think once you learn how if something doesn't work out, you have

the inner you know you can do it. You know you can get a new path. Right. It's just knowing that if one thing doesn't work out, it's on the end of the world. No, it's it. We have a new boss here at Series sex M and he came in and he goes, tell me your philosophy. I said, well, I fly without a net. I'm not afraid to hit my face on the ground. And hopefully you don't mind that, because I'll get up, dust off and try something else, and if it doesn't work, we'll try something else. Then

if it works. Wow, that was cool and it's fun, but it's not. It's not killing yourself over the mistakes. The mistakes build us agree every failing. I've made a lot of them, and I don't really view that as failures because I think it's such exactly said a building block. Yeah, and I look back on my twenties and like my mistakes, and I love them. I I embraced every bit of it.

And there's a lot of people looking at my past history will go, really, you have no problem with that, I said, no, I don't, because it was the stuff I learned is going to make for such a better life down the road then had i'd never learned those from those mistakes, and I think everybody has to. The problem is when people don't learn from them right and keep making the same mistakes over and over and over. And I usually have to make the same mistake east

three times before I learned Yeah, okay, that's fair. Three by the third time I've been here before He again familiar. What is it? You fool me once? Shame on you, foil be twice, shame on me. Just don't go go fooling yourself again. Yeah, it's really an interesting way to go. But I don't mind it. I love every aspect of life in that sense. So do you prefer hosting on

camera hosting on radio? Because now you're hosting on the Highway series X is Highway Serious and you have the Stormy Warrant Show, the Morning Showing and you interview everyone under the sun. So tell me the difference between hosting on TV and hosting on radio and what you prefer. Television unfortunately creates a wall that is really hard to

get past, especially in an interview situation. Um, there's always a little bit of you or of your subject that is thinking about that third eye that's watching you, okay, And you know it's not just the connection between you and I. There's other thing that is. It takes some of the energy away from the from the conversation. And that's why I think radio it breaks down that wall and you can actually have just a wide open yeah. Yeah,

I forget other people are listening. It's direct eye contact without thinking we'll be back after this, yeah, right, and always having to have that in the back of your head. But I love it so much more. Radio, so much more. Really, it's your heart and and The thing I like probably as much as radio is live event hosting, like like on the big stage in front of a ton of people. And that's to me, like, Okay, can I ask you

a question about that? How do you kill time? Like when you have when you're hosting a live event and you have space out there, you're supposed to like talk to the audience for all? What do you talk about? Whatever comes to mind? Okay, Yeah, and it's it's the audience will give it to you. Really, Yeah, my my biggest This to me kills a connection between an audience

and a crowd. And we've talked about this, yeah, and it's like if you can, if you can put those note cards away and just know enough about what you need to get to and share, the connection between you and the audience is so much better because you're actually looking in the eyes of them. You're not worried about the wording and what else do I have to get to? And and you have already lost that connection with the people.

They don't care if you don't care, because because if you're looking at the cards, you don't know the stuff well enough to why should I be listening to you? If if totally totally. And if you when you're alive, you use no card? Do you ever use cards? Oh gosh, my memory is so bad. No, you could do it. I think I could do it. I mean I haven't really needed it, but I don't like it. You've looked at this once and that was just to do a direct quote. You could do the rest of this interview

without that, all right? You can't mean, I'm sure I could. It's more fun, trust me. So when you're going out there, you you'll just kind of talk. What do you have to remember certain things? Like? Well, I mean, if you have a list of sponsors, there's no way around that because you have to be respectful of the sponsors. You don't want to leave one out. You have to make sure. And I hate that because it's like a crutch. It's

like I wish I could memorize them. But other than that, it's you try to avoid any notes at all, and then the most spontaneous things happen. It goes back to opening up and embracing the unknown, and someone could look at you and mouse something to you in that crowd. That creates a whole dialogue, which creates a whole thing that takes over that break that you need to fill, which you were going to fill up just by reading

mindless stuff on notes cards totally. Instead, you have this connection with an audience that's not just this one person, but now the entire whether it's twenty people or a hundred thousand people, are invested in what's going on between you and some people all the time, all the time. Okay, what if they just don't get What if they give you a short thing but it doesn't carry on into like a conversation, just move on someone else, Like do

you have any go to questions? You might ask someone There might be a few little things, you know, but it's not even asking. It's just about soaking in like a sponge. What the energy is of the room? What is what are people fast? If somebody's throwing a beach ball around that looks like, you know, a character from a cartoon or something, that could be the stimulus that takes you to a different direction. We did a thing at a festival where I took a football and I

had about a minute gap to fill. It's a long time, and they wanted just constant stuff, and I'm like, I'm not a stand up comic. I'm not funny. Yeah, I'm really not funny. And that's the other thing. I'm like, well, you must be really funny if you're. No, I'm not funny at all. Trust me, if you listen to the show, I'm not funny. But what I am is just a just open and and and to the connection to people. And so I said, well, and so here's a football.

And I went and two guys on a college football team. We're backstage. So I had him sign it, and it was like, all right, let's go out. And it was in Missouri. It was the show me Fest, and I went, all right, let's go h let's see a football, all right, who wants a football? Everybody screaming down cheap trick, throwing stuff out into the crowd. Everybody likes free stuff. So you throw the football in the crowd. And then it's like,

all right, there's a catch. And this stuff just come came to me while I was thinking about it, was like, I'm gonna be back here in about you know, after the next act, probably an hour or so. I want to see that football, but it better not look like a football. And they're like what. Everybody's like, what do you mean? Whatever? You do. That's your only rule. I want to see that football, but I don't want it to look like that football. And this is the beginning

of a four day festival. By the end of day four we had a six and a half foot tall man sitting in a chair, all put together by pieces and parts of trash that people have made this character and the head was the football, you know, and people would take it to their campsites and then bring it back to the festival the next day, and it became it came our guy. It was Wilson. He's actually in a glass box like a museum piece, in the office of the promoter of the festival, and we knew it. Yeah,

it wasn't me. They can but it wasn't I didn't create it. But then these people got invested and they got the connection. It became a big came a craft project for an entire and those things were fun to come up with. And there's like weird stuff that you can just not all of it works. Sometimes you walk up the stage going on but you don't yeah exactly, but you don't know until you try. Awesome, So you just love to go creative. His name was Wilson. By

the way. Well, that's only fitting. And we knew he had built something great when the promoter was driving around backstage in a golf cart and in the passenger seat was Wilson sitting. Stop. It's a great picture. It's running around somewhere. Yeah, that's a great picture. Okay. So also talking about things that you love and treasure. You have this wall here that is like full of badges. Yeah, it's happening over there. It's a great example for what

we love to do. UM, the whole connection thing. Celebrating life, Celebrating people who are living life on a day to day basis, just making things work, paying bills, taking care of their family, you know, playing music, UM, doing whatever people do to keep this country grow going, keep their lives going. And a lot of those are first responders and members of our military. And I'm a huge fan. I do a lot of trips of the U. S

O and go overseas uh with Kelly Pickler. We did it with Ruddy Atkins, the Swan Brothers and numerous other acts that we've just taken over. We did that with Kelly in two thousand and seven and just fell in love with everybody. I mean, my dad was an Air Force pilot and the police and firefighters, and especially right now, I mean, everybody's under the gun so much that you just got to celebrate these people that really they are underpaid, overworked,

and underappreciated. And so we had a family come in right after Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey and said, hey, thank you all for all your support of our first responders. We hear you talking about it and and helping to rebuild Jersey. We thought this Jersey Strong Magnet would have a good place on on this wall, which was blank at the time. There was nothing on that wall. And then we had more visitors come to the studio who are from New York and said, oh, yeah, I worked

in rebuilding too. I'm with this firefighter company, I'm with this New Jersey Police Department. And so organically, without us, really it just grew and there's hundreds there. Yeah, and they we probably get about twenty a week now people to send them in. Yeah, they send it, they send him in, they bring him in it. Yeah, and it's it's our Wally heroes. And I have more pride of that Wally Heroes. I mean, there's two Navy seals up there.

There's Jeffrey in their quotes. I'm a quote junkie. By the way, character is the place inside you where the things you say, the things you do, the decisions you make come from discipline, regret. The choice is yours. That's my favorite. Yeah. The guy on the right set the world record for the longest squirrel suit flight eighteen miles. Wow. Yeah.

And these guys just come in and I mean, that's a that's a Navy seal trident on that one piece of white paper up there, you got And they don't hand those out, no, but they know they know it's not mine. I'm not taking these home, but they know this is a sacred place. This is a sacred place. It's like these coins. Very easily somebody could come in here and these coins off the wall or patch off the wall. But it's kind of an unset thing. You

don't touch the wall. Don't touch the wall. There's a two patches up there that are there's a South Carolina patch with the big tea up there right below Andy Stumps thing. Um. That's a husband and a wife and the husband was killed while the wife was also serving overseas. And she her name is April, and we met her in um, South Carolina, and she told us the story about how she was racing home to meet the remains of her husband and she was in Kuwait and she goes,

come on, get this plane off the ground. I don't want to be there. My husband makes it finally home and they said, ma'am, you're gonna have to wait about another half hour, so we have another passenger. Fine, okay. The back of the plane opens up and the flag draped casket comes in and she flew home with her husband. And she that that was not planned. It just happened to all the transportation going around all over this war. She just happened to be taking the same flight home

as her husband. Really had no idea. Now and to hear her tell the story, and we were all in tears. And then a couple of weeks later she sent us those two patches and she goes, can you make sure they stay together? I'm like, yes, that's what I mean.

So every time I gets to be choked up to so when you turn around your chair around in the middle of a shell and there's a little downtime, I always try to pick out a patch and remember the story that went with it, because it's it's a wall of heroes that and every one of those patch has a sense of pride. There's a grandparents patches from the fifties. There's some guy who just said I couldn't just quit the police force. Here's my actual badge and it's yeah.

And it's just I'm fascinated by people in in in all aspects of life. It's love talking to celebrities, sure, but they're honestly not the most interesting people I come across. It's anybody you meet on the side of the street. Um. A friend of mine says, it goes you are so much fun to go to a bar with because you're you become everybody's best friend in the first to minute's interested. What wasted opportunity is it to sit at a bar

and not open your mouth and connect. You have no idea it may not work, but at least but it may open the connection. And just who who could you meet? Who knows you will see a story unfold if you allow it to. And that's the way everything should in life should be embraced. It's just why closed doors when so many doors could be just opened up with just the story when it should be sunshine I'm changing it. Maybe that's why, maybe subconsciously, I'm overcoming the stigma of

being named Stormy. You're so bright. That's such a great way of your life. It's it's a blast and it makes it fun. Huh, Yeah it does. Um. I think if I left to stew alone for a long time, I could probably find some dark places. So I think that's why I like people so much, because you could. It's it's much more fun. I totally agree with. Yeah, okay, So who just on the celebrity side, who are of

your most favorite interviews ever? Um Garth Brooks Is was one of my favorite because he too is very unpredictable. He's the biggest challenge for an interviewer anybody. Um. I've said it to his face, We've said it on the air. He came in not too long ago to our studio and he is famous for leaving a bone for you to pick up. And if you don't pick it up, he's not gonna help you. Give me an example, like he said, I said, what are you working on now? He goes, Oh, man, I'm just good hanging out with

some old friends and some nuance. We'll see what happens. It seems quite familiar though, and then moved on. I'm like, oh wow, that sounds great, and just let that those words just go over my head. And at the time he was rerecording friends in Low Places, and that was his hint if I were to pick up on it. And I've gone back and listened and watched so many of my Garth Brooks interviews over the past quarter of

a century, and every single interview I've missed something. I have thrown things at the television, thrown things at the speakers after hearing it, after he's already left the room and gone. So he's tiny, tiny, and if you're smart enough to pick up on it, but you have to know him, you have to know his work, and you also have to just be listening. If you listen, he wants you to work as hard as he's working. And and I just think it's to me, it's almost like a game, and I love it and I lose all

the time, but but I love it. Um there's one time he had a I had notes, was back in my note days, and actually this one lesson taught me to throw the notes away. Like if you sit right here with your notes like this, you're interview with me, I'm spending a lot of time looking now at your notes, wondering what's on there, trying and and Garth admitted one time because I could read upside down, and so I often know it's so. And he knew what questions were

coming before I did. And so I put the notes away and he goes, now this makes me uncomfortable, and he goes, but this is this is a great conversation, now, isn't it. And I and from that point forward he taught me to throw the notes away. And Larry King too. I was a stage manager for a while, see Ann, and I had to run his earpiece wire up his back, which is a little uncomfortable. A little uncomfortable. So you're very familiar with the city, I know, very moisturized. I

still feel it right now, not well enough. Yeah, a little thank you for bringing me back there. Yeah. Thanks. But he never his number one rule, And this seems so counterintuitive to being an interview But because never know more about your subject than your audience. Okay, that doesn't encounter. Because if you spend your entire time regurgitating to the audience everything about your subject that you know, that's time you've taken away from that subject actually communicating their own story.

So it's yeah, and that one really stuck. And so I don't know, and I know, Um, there's a person in town that I respect so much for being the most prepared interviewer I've ever met. This person will study for weeks and know every single detail. And it's just a different style. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's

just different philosophies on how you do it. But I learned that from Larry and that two things no notes and don't know more than you're and you're doing a great job with it, I mean, because this turns into a conversation and not an interview, And then a conversation is much more entertaining for people to listen to than it is an interview question answer. I mean, you've heard people when they go, so, tell me about your new

book and then blah blah blah blah blah book. Yeah. Um, so, uh, it says here that you went to such and such school, and that's a that's an interview instead of just going, God, where did you get your start? You know, like and boom, it takes you places if you are willing to take those roads. And it's like the Buck Owens interview we were talking about a while ago. I was scared to

death because I brought not thing. And that's one that I really did actually want to be prepared for because it was the interview that I'd waited my entire life for, and it turned out to be the best blessing that I had trained to that point of just having the conversation, and it turned out to be a really really big blessing in disguise. It's almost like all those tips led me to be able to do that interview. Yeah, the holy Grail did the interview started talking about pooping your pants.

The interview started goes, I hope you've got some good questions. I'm like why. I like why? And he goes, because, is the last one of these fuckers I'm ever going to do? You did his last interview? Is that not awesome? It was crazy and my heart just sank and great,

thanks Buck. Well, the good news is you were totally prepared and it's just but my head just went all right, here we go and and and then just go and it's it was really one of the most fun things, and we turned it into a whole hour long special on g see start to finish. We didn't cut anything. It was just it's called the Final conversation. Holy cow. Yeah, moments you've had in your life. And I'm sure we're

just scratching the surface. It's fun. Yeah, I know. But I like interviewing the new artists as much as I'm the new artist. And then I have to wrap up because it's already been an hour. How did that happen? Because you're awesome. No, you're awesome. See see what you did there, You're you're you're doing it, You're and you're really good. By the way, I've got some great tips from me today to shut up. You're an idiot. You're you're better at this than I am. Um, gosh, who

am I looking forward to right now? I am fascinated by Marion Morris. She's such a bad because I love personalities and I love I love the psychology of what a creative person goes through and and digging in and finding. And she is such an open book and such a great She's a real good spirit, and so I love I love sitting down and talking with her. I love t J and John Sports. I love the brothers. They're so hold on. I okay, So you love Mary Morris

and you love the Osborne brothers. Brothers Osborne, I am obsessed with them. They're still authentic. They are They sit here in these two chairs and just like this, we're an hour disappeared. We could do four hours and and what we love is just what we've just spent this hour talking about. And we are very similar in our beliefs of just opening up to life and letting life deliver the gifts that you're opened up to. And so

they'll come in about anything, anything. One of my favorite moments with them, uh I was like, God, you know what just happened? Don't you hate it when somebody texts you and they just assumed that you know who they are and don't sign their name. They're like, so, hey, what's up? And you have no idea what the number?

And it leaves the most uncomfortable situation. We have to go, who's this and it's just and it's and you look like the dou fist because because they were, because they were impolite and didn't address the fact that you might not have saved their number. So that just opened up

into a whole thing. And then it happened to t J as we were sitting here, because oh my god, it just happened, and so we called the person on the air and and did the whole and it just was this great moment and there's no telling what's going to happen with them. And that's and we could go in with a master plan for an interview of where we need to go, and it never goes there, and it goes a complete left handed to a whole new direction.

And those are the best. That's when you feel like you are on the edge of your seat and it's you're holding on, you're you're not quite in charge, but you're but you're okay, and it's um. A manager once told me that the most exciting place for an artist to be, or a creative person or anybody in this business to be is when you're leaning back in a chair and you're leaning back in a chair and you're leaning back and just before it falls over, you catch yourself.

You've done that on two legs on a chair, you know, in school or whatever, and you go because that's that edge you want to be on at all times. And it's it's the most creative, the most electric and it's where you gonna do your best work. So that's why I don't like recording shows. I love live, live anything because on the spot and once it's done, it's done. There's no going back and fixing. I like that. I don't like editing. No, I couldn't be a recording artist

if a singer and sit there and go fix everything? Right, do you like the human element happen and just go and go do it and then whatever happens happens. I love that. Yeah, it's great. Well, we posted a bunch of live events together when I That was one of the first ones I ever did was National Dancing. Yeah, you won't next time. I'm not going to have So

it doesn't mean you don't study it. I mean, like the night before the morning of, you go through and make sure you know in your mind, you know where you want to go, but don't be afraid of where you don't think you're going to have a terrible memory. You don't know, I really do. You can ask anyone in my life that I have a horrible memory. I

cannot remember any your dory. Yes. Basically, it's like when I wasn't stealing angels the band like we go do stuff, and Jan and Taylor would tell me we did it, and I would just have to believe him because I wouldn't remember, Like I literally have gaping holes in my mind and I can't remember and retain. That's okay. Short term memory is fine though, Okay, yeah, you probably have a good short term memory. Yeah. I mean I think it's just out of side, out of mine, but it works.

This has been a great conversation. So loved it, so it's it's awesome. Thanks. Okay, Well we have to wrap up because when we're at Winton and I want to talk to you forever. But I like to end. We'll part two, Part two, Okay. I like to end with leave your light, So leave me some inspiration or how you want to inspire the world, or how you've been inspired. Um. I think the only way to avoid failure in life it's never quitting. And that's it's a sure far away.

It's a guarantee you will never fail if you never quit. So I mean, you could look at setbacks, but that's not failing as long as you're still moving, as long as you're still getting up every morning and fighting towards the goal. There is no failure. So the only time you fail is when you walk away from it. And if you just go, oh, well, screw that, and then that's when you fail. And not in life, but just

in that particular aspect. But if you really want to come to town to be a recording artist, then don't quit. Keep going. Keep going. You'll learn along the way, and you'll learn and and it may not take you to the place that you thought you were going, right, it might take you to a new door. But that's not failing. It's just redirecting. It's redirecting so that I live by that one a lot, and that's it's fun. And the other one, which is very apropos I think that I

lived by two. I saw told you I'm a quote junkie. Let's see. I love you just can't remember. It's uh. If you find yourself whining about the times your time has passed. Wow, if you're one of those oh my gosh, this town I remember when it used to be this or that. God, this isn't country music, I'll tell you what country music was. And if you find yourself anything in life, it's just like there's kids what they're wearing right now? Can you believe the clothes that they're wearing.

Oh why gosh, what is this on television? So if you find yourself whining about the times, your time has past, and you have to be okay with that, you know, if you if you if you're okay with that being your stamp that you you have stopped existing at a certain time frame in your life and are refusing to adapt or grow, revolve, or to keep those doors open

to embrace new parts of life. That's your choice, and it's it's but it's just just know that you have closed that door and you're you need to open up. And it's hard. It's hard. We do get set in our ways, and technology and everything advances so fast and everything it's hard to sit. They're going to can't learn what's going on and with all these young kids, what they're doing and all this kind of stuff. But then fine, don't just don't whine about it because it's happening, right,

It's not gonna wait for you. So that there you go. Story Warren, that was the best interview. You're the best things for the tips too. I'm totally applying Caral Love. She's a queen of talking. She's got the scoop on No. One. Caral Love Carala. I hope that you loved hearing from Stormy Warren. He is so freaking fantastic. I love him.

Next week, I am really excited because I have Kelly Pickler joining me and we are going to be going through the first few episodes of everything That's Happened on I Love Kelly Pickler, which is on CMT right now on Thursday nights, and I am on the cast with her. We have so much fun and we've done about three episodes so far, so we're gonna be breaking down what's going on and what to look forward to and what's up in Kelly's world. So y'all tune in next week

for Kelly Pickler See you. Then that is the Bes