It's annoying, I'll say it. Thanks, No, it is. You're a little taller than you should be, you're a little more muscular than you should be, and you're just strikingly good looking. Sometimes it pisses me off. Thank you and good night. Yes, I know, I know.
Hey.
Today on the Bobbycast, Morgan Evans is here. You've seen the headlines, I've heard the song. Should probably watch everything unfold in real time. But today, for the first time, Morgan's actually going to talk about his side of the last few years, from a very public divorce to disappearing back home to Australia in therapy and rebuilding his life and making what might be his most personal record ever.
I think it is. Now he's back with the brand new album Steell Talent out March twentieth, a new tour, and yes, a new love. Here he is unfiltered, honest and ready to talk. It is Morgan Evans. I feel like sometimes I want to text you, but then I look and see what time it is where you are at the time, and then it's like two in the morning because you're off in another country, and I don't text you. That's just my confession to you.
As a friend, you should always text me.
I don't like people texting me at one or two am, even though I have to do not disturb. Yeah, because I do wake up at night and check my phone sometimes, which is a bad habit. But I never did quite know where you are. And then you just you left for a while.
Yeah. Well I've been in Australia since Christmas.
No, but you like left it felt like for years.
Oh like left coming in to see you at the radio, sess that kind of thing you.
Mad, Yeah, I just just you were just gone, yeah for a while.
Yeah.
Did you move move away from Nashville?
No? No, we were on the road pretty much flat out. Like I remember.
I think at the end of twenty two, I was like, I want to be so busy next year that I don't have time to think about my own life. And it turns out that people I was working with a really good at the jobs.
So we just went hot.
Ade you busy, You just went hot.
And then I think at the end of that run, I think it was just important to kind of take some time to take stuck of life and actually just sort.
Of take time creatively to make a record.
I think after the first album that I put out here, it was just like on the run and everything was kind of made in between, and I actually didn't put out an album from twenty eighteen to like right now, And so I wanted this next thing to be a body of work that I was proud of and I love so much that I wanted to share with the world and come back and do all this kind of thing, you know.
Okay, I just want to get to that iahwa Ska thing. Can I do that? Yeah? Can I go right to it? I'm just so curious. There you go.
Is that in the press release or something? No? Did we talk about it?
No? Oh, I just know about it.
Oh, okay from Brett.
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how I know.
I talked about it a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm so curious because I would love to do drugs. You know that's not considered like a regular drug. I just want to do any drug. I just okay, I just want to like feel free somehow, Like the closest I gets laughing gas And I had this tooth dentist. Yeah, I have this tooth replaced. Dude, that's a freaking heaven.
Yeah.
Like, sometimes I feel like I want to break my teeth so I can go and get laughing gas.
Yeah, I see, I've never had that. I've never done that before.
Okay, but did you do did you do Ayahuascar?
I did? Yeah?
And do you say do is that the language? Do you do Ayahuascar?
I think so?
Yeah, definitely, it's a it's like a comes in a liquid form. Nothing talk to me like I'm five, Well, I went to this place in Costa Rica and it's a I feel like there's probably more like informed people to.
Talk about exactly what it is.
But basically, it's a it's a liquid that's made from the combination of a couple of plants, and the active ingredient is d M T have you heard have you heard about that? And so the other ingredient in there that sort of makes it kind of like a slow release. And I'm sure people in the comments will correct me here. Effectively, that's kind of the the you know, technical description. But
then yeah, you go along to these ceremonies. It's this sort of place that's made for it, like a retreat center or something, and yeah, every evening you go to this big building and the ceremony is held by a different sort of shaman or woman.
I don't know if that's the term even, but.
Yeah, you should have go up and you you take a shot of this liquid, you drink it, yeah, and then you go and lie down and.
See what happens. That's crazy.
Yeah. I have friends that have used ketamine, okay for a lot of the reasons that I think I should use ketamine, and I I want to do a ketemine ayahuasca like smoothie. I don't know if that's that probably kill me, but I'm just always afraid when I get on something somebody is going to take a picture of
my wiener. That is my that's my fear, Like, how do you seriously like it's like or it's like when I had to go get my head ankle surgery, I was like, I'm going under, but I told my doctor I am petrified someone to take take a picture of my wiener. It's not even a weird wiener. I just think I'm that it's fitting that it's just so vulnerable.
It is very vulnerable.
Yes, and I'm such a control freak, but I think that's why I've always said, and this is me not joking, I would love to do drugs or some sort of drug to get me to do. In the best way that I can explain it is this because I can't do that. My life. I've not been able to really master breathing deep and not being so tightly wound, okay, because of a lot of stuff get trauma, adult anxiety. So whenever it was like, man, I knew you had tried iyahuasca, I was like, I needn't know, Like what
that felt like? How vulnerable that felt?
Well, very vulnerable.
I will say, the way that you just described what you're looking for, I would say, it's probably not.
The best for that.
It's not the best for that.
No, because you do it in a group. There's quite a few people there, at least when I was doing it. Everyone has different experiences, but there was people I feel like I've done you know, I've spent a decent amount of time meditating you know part of this, Like the last few years, I would like try to learn how to do that. I went to this retreat for a weekend to do that as well, and I tried just about everything. We can get into it if you want,
but I did. There was one lady at this Yahuascar retreat that was very tightly wound to the point where she was kind of like, this is the fifth time I've done it. Nothing's working. Nothing's working. And it is definitely one of those things that will work to a degree. But I think if you want to actually have a you know, positive or transformative experience, you need to be able to get into a state of.
What will be will be.
And I found the time that i'd spent meditating really helpful in that way because it was when I was sort of getting into that state that the actual you know, the medicine or the drug or whatever would actually take effect and be helpful.
Drug maybe the wrong thing to call it. And if that's offensive to the Hyahuaska community.
Yeah, I want to be I want to be not offensively that it was.
Yeah. Yeah, Well then what's the goal when you go to a place like that if it's not to just relax?
Yeah, I think just.
Generally speaking, why would you go to Ayahaska?
Well, so one of one of the reasons I went to this particular place is they they do a lot of like throughout the days, you can go to these kind of talks or lectures, and so they'll have like a neurosciences there and they'll explain the benefits of it and what's actually happening, or they'll have a therapist there and they'll talk about, well, hey.
What's your experience.
If you have this experience, maybe like allow this to happen or just go with this, or you know, do.
You see things? Are you and I'm not joking, but are you like talking to things in your mind?
I think everybody's experience is different, and it's a very hard thing to explain, and and it's not something i'd recommend to anybody. I think it's definitely like a last resort moment. And the moment that I went down there, I was in a point in my life where I was just like overwhelmed and confused, and it's like everything I thought was real.
Was like not real, and it was just I was kind of down to find out anything. And I think at the end.
Of it, people are there like for a search for meaning or purpose or to make sense of something. A lot of the conversations I were having with the people down there were around, you know, past traumas that they could go you know, and make sense of. And I think the best way I could describe, at least what happened to me during that was through kind of visual
and like physical experiences. You were told this story or you have this experience of reliving things that have happened from different perspectives, almost like an out of body thing that you get to witness happen and you can kind of just take your person out of it, look at it objectively, and instead of being like, oh my god, that hurts so much, or oh my god, like I'm broken because of this, it's just like, oh no, that's what happened, and that's why, and now you're here and
it's good that you know those things now and you're moving on.
You took something from it.
I think the way that I said it just then sounds really simple, but I think at the end of the day that is like turning pain into wisdom and then getting on with it.
And at the end of that week everything felt lighter. For sure. It's been really helpful, and I have no desire to go do it again.
Really, it was just a which is another thing I think is great about it. You know, I think it's still like unfolds and I kind of go back to the notes. So I would go home each night and like write down my experience, you know, and it's been a really good reset or like kind of I don't know, life navigation tool or something like that.
Yeah, I've really thought about doing the ketamine here.
The ketamine is a kind of you go into a doctor and they like give you.
From my knowledge of it, because I have friends that have done it. Again, you need to be at a place where it's it's an option to hopefully get you to a healthier place. So it's not like I don't know what it's like to do crack, but it's not like doing crack. I don't know it's like to do crack, So I don't even know what it's not like. I don't know what, but it's not it's like a recreational thing. I guess is what I should We should get someone
else into that one. I did have a show idea that I I can't do it because I just wouldn't do it, but I thought it would be the greatest TV show for me to do. A show called Bobby Does Drugs, and it was me trying drugs for the first time, every drug because I've tried nothing ever. I'm not even drinking alcohol. So I like every episode of like me drinking alcohol, me smoking weed. Let's try cocaine. Episode three, number four, we're doing crack and then just
to watch and see what it does to me. Tell me, that wouldn't be I can't do it. I'll die. But wouldn't that be like a really interesting show?
If you ever do this show, please let me do it with you.
You wouldn't want to do it with me. You wouldn't let me do it. You would honestly, it's a funny idea. You you would pull me aside and go, don't do this show. As a friend, you would go, don't do it. But isn't that not a great concept? I love it? Yeah? Bus Yes episode six, uh funnels cracked through his butt? Yeah well yeah, then we get harder jackass doing drugs.
Yeah.
Well, my friends that do have that have tried ketamine have done it for actual therapeutic reasons.
Yeah.
They would go to their psychiatrist. Their doctor would recommend they would go. I have two very close friends that have done it to a house. They like, take an uber to this house. I don't even drive. They are in a room. I don't know how the ketamine is done. If it's maybe yeah, lost los ange, I think is what it is. And the experience that they say is so macrom that they are able to see a little, like you said, themselves so much bigger than they are.
But they're also going to places that are happy and sad, and they can look in the mirror and still tell it's like real life, like not Alice in Wonderland type stuff. But at the same time, they're able to have these crazy, crazy therapeutic trips, like I think that would be so great. I'm just such a control freak.
Yeah, that's a I would say that that.
Element of yourself that you're describing may impede experiences with psychedelic drugs or I don't know anything about ketamine, so maybe that too, maybe ketamine, because it's it's actually like drugs, drugs.
Right, I'm we're gonna say again to the cameras, we don't know what we're clinically, we don't know what we're talking about. So allow us to have this conversation without being in the comments or anywhere saying we know, we don't know we're talking about. I don't I don't know.
Yeah, okay, well yeah, I'm not quick to speak on that, but I will say of all the people that I met at this retreat, I went by myself, which I all also I think is important.
Yeah, flew down, stayed by yourself, the whole thing.
Yeah. Yeah. It was like it was the end of the road thing.
Man. It was like like I needed something, like I was desperately just looking for something to just like find some grounding. And I met all kinds of people there, like the lady that I mentioned who was like, why is in this working?
Why is in this working?
And then her actually her partner was a surgeon, and he was kind of, you.
Know, she's dragged me down here, We'll see what happens.
And then a couple of days later he was like, wow, this is like a really kind of amazing transformative experience to people like me that had you know, really really great experiences.
And then there was people that are like this is my sixth time I come every year or what you know.
So there's all kinds of people that do it, and they're all looking for different things. But I think I essentially from my experience, it was a really positive one. But again, like I would never I didn't come back going like hey man, everyone should go do this, like it's a very intense, not an enjoyable experience, but the outcome is enjoyable.
Really.
I did an intensive once, a five day intensive where I was I felt like I was at the end of my rope, where I think it had just been so many holidays in a row that I didn't have. I don't have family, really, and so all my friends then go to their families and I dedicated all my life to work, and that only goes so far. You reach a point eventually where you're like, what am I even doing if I can't have anyone to do it with?
Right?
And so I went to place for five maybe six days they take your phone. I was staying in a cabin. There was no electricity in the cabin. There wasn't like the food hall, and much like you're saying, it sucked until it was over, and you're like, I just gained so much from that because I would be in therapy, a therapy part of it eight hours a day. Wow, so be four hours of break four hours one on one intense therapy where I don't I'm not a crier, and it's not because I'm not. It's not because I'm
scared of like lack of masculinity. It's because I'm scared of vulnerability, weakness, right, I think that's why I don't cry, because I've always been I can't show people I'm weak because I'm weak, I'm a loser, and I can't. And I went to that. It just reminds me of what
you're saying. It was very difficult. It was not fun, but it was really I remember driving home going I think it just gained more in that than I've gained in the last fifteen years of because I was at the end of my rope too, in a different way. And so I understand that because I would not do it again, but I'm glad I did. It was a lot of yours rooted in how public your divorce, even just like breakup slash divorce was. Is that where that root was rooted in?
Yeah, it was that and the personal side of it as well.
And it would also stuck to be so far away from home and then something so personal is also happening to you. You can't even like reach out and touch your close family.
Right all right, Yeah, for sure, I know that was definitely hard for my for my family too, but yeah, it was.
It was It was a tough.
Time, man, and that whole that whole time was really tough, and I think that sort of bled into the public side, as you mentioned, but also like the business side of things and then the personal side of things. And then it sort of got, you know, to the end of that year where I didn't have time to think about my life. I was got to the end of it, and I was like, what is the purpose of all this? And what's real and what's not? And what the hell
am I doing in the middle of it? And I think that was kind of the that was the end of the road kind of feeling.
I hated this city for a couple of years whenever I had this stalker issue that was happening, like I wanted to leave the city, and I hated everything about it because it was like, what's even happening here? Who are my real friends? None of this matters? Like I had that relationship with the city. I don't anymore. I'm good again, right, But I hated it for a while. Did you ever hate this city?
I don't know if I hated Nashville, but I definitely think I saw way far farther behind the curtain, if that makes sense. And I think I realized that I'd been pretty naive to.
Maybe the.
You know how, in our business there's so like maybe more than any other business, friendship and real life and business and art and all that sort of just melds into one, and so I was probably pretty naive to the boundaries on that kind of those kind of things. And I also think that I realized in a town like Nashville, which is maybe like one of the things that you could hate about Nashville or whatever, it's like similar to maybe La or New York, A lot of
people come here with big dreams. They come here with dreams to do whatever it is, work in the music business or be a songwriter or a singer or recording whatever. And I think those dreams are so big that they got them out of their hometown or their country they come here, and those dreams are also big that like, there's times where like a moral compass can get clouded by the big dream and the desperation that can sometimes
come along with that. And so you see all these people that aren't necessarily like bad people, just kind of ignoring maybe the right thing to do, or not being as genuine as they could be or should be or ordinarily would be. And I think that was just like a bit of a reckoning for me. I think maybe when anyone goes through a divorce or you know, you leave a management company, or I'm sure you've had this experience where you stop working with someone and then all of a sudden.
All these people are like, well, hey, actually did you hear about this? You know?
And so there was a lot of that going on, and I'd say the reason I didn't hate Nashville is because I think when that happens, you also find out who the real ones are, and so that was something to really kind of lean on and appreciate at that time as well.
Yeah, I was going to ask if it proved to you who you're and I don't throw the word friend around loosely, if you if you found out really who your friends were.
Yeah, absolutely, And I've got to say on air two man, during that time, you were such a legend for me, like personally going through divorces horrendous and I had no.
I had no reference for it.
Like my grandparents have been married seventy years, my parents have been married forty five years.
My brother and sister are still together.
None of my mate a divorce, so I was learning about that in real time, like you know, the nitty gritty of how all.
That goes down.
And then the public thing happened as well, and I think you reached out to me and you're like, hey, dude, if you need anything, just just let me know.
Well maybe I reached out to you. I can't remember. Whatever way it happened. We ended up going to play pickleball one day.
And you were just like, it was just so helpful to talk to someone that had been through public controversy before. And I still remember the advice you gave me, and it kept me going through that time because you said, there's only two ways you can deal with this. You need to go and say everything as loudly as you can and be as honest as you can, or you just need to go away, don't say anything and live
your best life. And I got that same advice from my therapist and some rock star friends and country friends, but you were the first guy that gave it to me, and I just appreciated that so much because during that time, I had like a record label management team that were like, you need to go do a tell all interview and like or like do a podcast or like whatever it was at the time. And so, yeah, that gave me a really good grounding. I feel like you reaching out as a mate without a vested interest.
I knew you weren't.
Trying to like make money from me or anything like that, and so I thank you for that.
True.
Well, I hope you also know that I and this business is weird because everybody travels. Yeah, but like you'd be one of the people if you were like, hey, can you see if you match for a kidney, I would give you a kidney, Like I really would. Like, there's like seven it's hard in this town to have other creatives that you feel like you trust, even though you don't get to see them as much because this industry is I won't say nomadic because we don't move, but we're gone a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah, that if I don't see it for nine months and you came back and you're like, hey, yeah, whatever you need. Yeah, I got like seven people on this sound you're one of them. And going through anything, and I've had it happen to me anything extremely public where you are highly criticized, Especially the first couple of times, it just feels it's so foreign and it's foreignly hurtful. All you see and feel is all the negative, and
that's I didn't feel bad for you. I empathize with you because I remember, I remember reaching out and I never tell anybody, Hey, if you need anybody, hit me up and don't mean it, because I don't say that very often. Yeah, but I'm like I can shed some advice based on the poor experiences that I've had. We built a little pickaball net out there on that court.
We played. It's awesome. We went to Kansas, Iowa to a basketball game in the ice and snow, and it was just like, there are times where you really need community. There are times where I really need a community, and I hated to see that for you. I talk about perspective a lot, and you only get perspective if you've been through some crap. Like, perspective is never free. Nobody gets to have the benefit of a ton of perspective
unless they've actually been through it. I think now you're back with a lot of perspective.
Yeah, that is one hundred percent sure, one hundred cent.
Sure, it's funny you see everything a little little more differently now, But yeah, that meant a lot man, I don't want to don't want to let that slide.
So it didn't slide, and I know it. And I don't even mind sharing this. I there's a text message that means a lot to me that I get to share now with people because sometimes I'll just say what happened. I was talking to Granger Smith on a podcast and I know Granger, no Grangeer for a long time, and his kid tragically died in a poll accident, and so Grangeer and I were talking about it, and Granger had set with this person who's had a similar thing, and I was like, I talk Granger, I so I can.
I don't know how you did that that you sit there for hours and you listen to this person. I said, I don't know that I'm that good of a person to be and you message me You're like, dude, I was listening to that, like you are that good a person because you did that with me, and like I was like, dang, Like that made me actually like myself a little bit when I struggle with liking myself a little bit. So I appreciate that. But I know you meant it, and I hope you know that I meant well.
I mean not even meant. It's not past tense, like cats out of the bag. We love each other. Now this is not just a normal interview, but like, yeah, I hated to see that for you, and I got really defensive for you. You didn't ask me to it all.
No, that was hard. That was hard.
It was really hard for you.
Yeah.
And let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow, and we're back on the Bobby Cast. I'm glad you're back too. You made music about it, yeah, yeah, but you have decisions to make, like what are you gonna put in the music?
Because you just I'm in it. This is my opinion you had that you had things unfairly said about you. You're not saying this, I'm saying this, in my opinion, you have things unfairly said about you. Yeah, piss me off.
Pissed me off.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah, it's a whole You go through all the stages of grief with her, right like oh my god, and then you kind of get angry and like whatever, and then I don't know, like we've probably talked about this that day, but you know that that day was more about like your experience of how to best navigate personally, you know, making decisions, but dealing with an online kind of that kind of online vitriol is almost a skill you have to learn too, or I don't know, some
techniques you have to learn for that, And what have you found that's the most the most helpful.
So it never doesn't hurt. But if I'm ever in a bad place or I'm mentally slightly unwell placed, it hurts way worse. So I stay out of that area in times where I know that if for some reason there's some vulnerability in me, for whatever reason, something didn't go right at home, at work, maybe I didn't get to sleep like I think my education in that is unless I'm ready to battle, don't go into battle. And by battling, that's just reading it, that's just going into it.
And with me, another thing is I always feel like everybody hates me. If I spend any time online or in DMS or just generally, I feel like everybody hates me. But I have to use the rational part of my brain to note that's not true. So I think I've developed that skill to go that can't be true realistically, Let's look at data. Because I always feel like I'm hated by everybody.
It's funny how it's funny how you can have ten or a thousand or two thousand comments and then like one percent of them would be negative, and that like you almost like look forward to something like you'll ignore the non positives.
How did you deal with things being said about you that you didn't feel were fair?
I mean, like I said, there's some stages of it, Like I didn't come to this realization quickly or immediately, but.
In my case, it didn't feel like it necessarily had a lot to do with me, but.
It was presented as it was exactly you.
It was, yeah, And I think I think maybe I was presented or made out to be or became an archetype for any guy that had done any woman wrong during that period of time. And like some of the stuff was just like what is that didn't even make sense? I can't think of anything off the top of my head right now, But I would read stuff like what like what are you talking about?
You know?
And and like you say, it doesn't not hurt, But I found that the sooner I could catch myself before I felt the hurt, like I could read it and then maybe sometimes, like you say, like if you're jet lagged or something like that, you're more susceptible to it. But I don't know anyone that writes negative comments.
I don't either.
I've never I can't imagine you're doing it. I've never done it, And I can't imagine what kind of a space you'd have to be and to get online and want to write something about somebody like that. And so
I guess the thought process kind of started there. And then every now and then I would see one, like especially if it was real vicious or something, you know, and then i'd click on the whoever said it, you know, and just have a look and just be like, oh, yeah, it's okay, Yeah, that looks like somebody going through a tough time.
When the divorce was finalized. How did that feel when.
It was finalized?
Ah ah, dude, it's like pretty it's pretty surreal. Heyh Like it all happens super quick, Like what do you mean, I mean from finding out that like that was what Kelsey wanted to do, to like getting a lawyer and having a pre nump and having three calls or four calls or something with the lawyer and signing the documents in the parking lot of the rhymen in the rain to like going home, you know, like that all.
Happened in three and a half four months or something like that.
How did you find out she wanted a divorce?
She told me.
Sit down, let's have a talk.
Yeah, yeah, were.
You expecting that conversation?
I was not expecting that conversation though, And maybe that was me being naive, I don't know, but I definitely wasn't and.
Took me by surprise.
But yeah, that whole time is such a blur, hey, Like it almost feels like somebody else just from where I'm sitting now, Like I just look.
Back and I'm like, oh my god, it's.
Just confused guy, you know. And I think even when I look back at like there was an interview that I did with you when over for you came out, and I look back at that guy doing that interview, sometimes it pops up on whatever social media and I just look like, I'm just like sad trying to make sense of where I'm at, you know, And.
That was that was what that period was. I don't know that I.
Should have been doing interviews at that point, if I'm being honest, when I look at that guy, I'm like, oh my god, Like you were not like hitting me with hardball questions or anything, and I was just there kind of just like really sad. So yeah, it was just a kind of a whirlwind, life's changing moment.
What do you tell your parents after she says you want to get a divorced? You just calm, Hey, guys, this is what's happening. Yeah, what did they say?
I think they were kind of confused too, because they've been They've been there at the house with us, like I make confused like timing, but within like three months before that, and so they were kind of confused too. And like I said, they've been married for forty five years. They've been together since like sixteen and fourteen or something, so they don't really know much about breaking up and
stuff like that. But yeah, I mean super concerned for me and obviously like wanting to make sure that I was okay. I think that was the general general sentiment.
Did you write any music in the heart of your despair?
Yeah?
Some? Was it good?
Well, I say some, So there was like four months there where I didn't really write, but for the song over for You, that was the only song that I wrote during that period and then, which was.
A great song by the way, you came out and played it our show that night we set up and came out.
Yea, yeah, yeah, thank you.
I love that song and the way people have reacted to that song have kind of changed the way that I think about how powerful music can be in a lot of ways. But yeah, I definitely write a lot of songs during that time about it or just about how I was feeling, really, and a lot of that was like cathartic, and a lot of that was just like trying to express things that I didn't know how to express. Was any other good though, Man, I have a hard time thinking real sad songs are good.
See, I only think sad songs are good. That's the difference.
It's funny, Like it's funny you say that. I don't think that about other people's sad songs because I think, to me, it's so easy, like we could take any object in here, and you and I could write a sad song about it at a higher level than a happy song. I think if we had like twenty minutes to write it, you know what I mean. But that and so I think songwriter I've always had that in my mind of like it seems like the easy way out unless it's a really real thing, like over for
you is a really real feeling for me. And the song Things that we drink to was you know, my longtime manager passed suddenly and I wrote that on the day of his memorial service. And so I do have these sad songs that mean a lot, but generally on a normal day when I'm trying to express something, I'm trying to find the positive in it, or look for.
At least a positive way to look at it, if that makes sense.
With this new music, and you wrote a lot about your last few years, right because of how you were I feel unfairly written about. Did you treat that a little more precious about what you were saying outwardly because you wanted it to represent the actual truth.
Yeah, I was really thoughtful about the songs that I chose for this record from that period of time. You know, obviously wrote more than eleven songs in the last three years, but these these eleven tracks, to me, they all say something important on that journey of the last three years. So you know that was starting back in my hometown post wild aahuasca trip time, and yeah, all the way through the kind of stages of it, and then you know, finding.
The ground again and then you know, building from there.
Last question about that, because I got a lot of other stuff to talk about. Yeah, because you're just so annoyingly strikingly good looking. It's just it's so annoying, and I don't think people know that until they like see you in person. It's annoying. I'll say it. Okay, thanks, No, it is. You're a little taller than you should be, you're a little more muscular than you should be, and you're just I can be good look in sometime that pizzes me half thank you and good night. Yes, I know,
I know. Final question though about that chapter, what would you now, what advice would you give you back then? Let's say when you and I were together, right when it was happening. Yeah, you've been through it. What advice would you give you back then?
Oh?
Man, it's so funny because I feel like you gave me the advice, and you know other people gave me advice too, Like this is going to be a time right now that you look back on and you're really grateful for and at the time, it just seems impossible, you know, from like even every micro step of it.
I remember.
Just Nashville at that time, even after like hanging with you and like a couple of other mates and like, actually, you know, figuring out who like the real genuine people in my life were was like it was like the sky was falling or like the walls are caving in this town.
Was just everywhere I went, Are you okay? I saw blah blah blah, I read blah blah blah.
And I just going back to my hometown and like just catching up with the old mates. I go to the pub here, I mate.
And I think so cool.
Anyway, did you see the Nights game on the weekend and they just get on with it, you know, And you realize that Nashville feels like the center of the universe in a lot of ways, you know, in the country music ordered it is. But the well was a big place, you know, and where I was sitting in it, I just needed to get out of that for a second. And starting there, like the record starts there. I think the perspective that you get that maybe sometimes you can
only get with time and experience of life. And I'm sure, it always takes longer than you wanted to those things ring true. I'm glad that I didn't go out and do a bunch of tell all things while I was in the midst of a workout how I was feeling. And I'm also really grateful for where I'm at now in life, and so it's hard to have any regrets.
You're really good looking when you're When you get single again, where do you get to go to Australia? Like, what's the deal?
Well, we were on tour. We were on tour that whole time.
Yeah, tough, and yeah, it wasn't really on the forefront of my priority list to get back into it, you know, so that took some time.
I texted you because I knew you were dating Lacey. I know, I know Lazy from a version of Bouth the Oar Pass. We didn't date anything. We worked together, but I was like, you dated Lazy and you were like, why do you ask? Lacey is awesome, that's super cool. So when did you guys meet? How'd you meet?
It's not really like a crazy meeting story.
We kind of knew each other like doing radio shows and festivals and stuff like that. But a couple of years we just kind of, I don't know, connected on that level and enjoyed each other's company.
And that's too vague of an answer. I want to accept that. Where did you like talk to her and go, hey, we should go on a date? Give me some I.
Say, I have learned from my experience with my previous relationship and previous life that there is a level of detail that I think is healthy to share, and then there's a level that's like really healthy.
I completely agree, unless you're talking to your friend and he wants some bugget No.
Look, Lacey's a legends, like she's a proper legend, and she's actually really private, so she doesn't do any press or interviews or anything like that. And we just put this song out together, the two broken hearts, and we filmed a lot of content for it, like a lot of content of us singing the song together or doing life together. And you know that was filmed by people
we work with. And then we would send that to you know, either we would cut it up or if someone a lady that works with Virgin, who I'm signed with now, I would cut it up and she would send it to She's like, ahy this is this little moment in between takes is like, this seems really cute.
We should share that with the.
Song over it or something and and listen and I would look at it and and we were both kind of decide, Ah, that's a little bit too inside, you know, that's too much of us to share at this point. And so we've been really intentional about sharing what we want to share and also like keeping what we want to keep to ourselves too.
Yeah, that's great. Where'd you go on your first date? Can you give me something like? Where? Like where do you take her on your first date?
Oh?
Man, I don't I'm not going to stop. I don't want you, but you know, okay, you can. I know you.
I know you'll keep going, but I'm just gonna I'm going to keep pushing back. I really, I really care about her and and I'm really grateful for where we're at right now too. And I just don't want to I don't want to mess with it. Where'd you go in infestidate with your wife?
We'd like to keep things private. Two can play this game. How long have you guys officially been together?
Ah?
Two years? Yeah?
You live together?
We did know?
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, we've just in Australia together too. Yeah, okay, yeah.
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast.
What album do you have here? This is hold it up for the camera please, Okay. So I guests come in and they bring an album that means a light to them and they tell us the reason why and it goes into the ultimate collection. So what do you have there?
This is the first Keith Urban record that I ever owned.
And I got this my mom dragged me along to this gig in my hometown at the Newcastle Workers Club because my grandma, her mum, was sick, and so I got dragged along this gig and turns out this guy was playing, and when I saw him come out on stage, he was like all the old rock and roll that I grew up on, all the old country music I grew up on, all put together and he was just ripping on the guitar and it was just like this light bulb going off in my head, and I thought,
I need to find out where that came from. And that Christmas, my mom gave me this album on CD and I wore this thing out and I think I read the back about a million times, and so I kept seeing Nashville, Tennessee, and I think this record. Although I think maybe Golden Road might be my favorite Keith Urban record, this is the first one that pointed me towards him and Nashville and probably led me down this path that has led me to sitting across from you
here all these years later. And I still love this record actually, and it's the one I would like to redonating it to the.
To the collection.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah.
Isn't it funny how music if you hear certain songs. I read this book a long time ago called I'm Okay, You're Okay, and it talks about the brain and how there's certain things that could be a smell. Smell and
music are probably the two biggest ones. Then when you smell something or you hear a song, it triggers a part of your brain that, even for just a split second, puts you back into that place, yes, where you were, And as you're telling that story about being that kid, I can imagine that when a song fires off from there, you probably for a second feel what it feels like to be that kid again.
Oh dude, black Top ends when he played that at the whatever award show that was with Brothers Osborne the other day. It was just like like time portals so good?
Have you got to tell him that.
I don't know that.
I've gone into gushy detail with him, no, but I think he knows I'm a big, big fan and he's done a lot for me, especially as an Aussie man. Like he's like when I was out doing my first you know rounds at all the radio stations, they were like, oh, from Australia as opposed to like, I'm sure he was like country music from Australia.
That doesn't make.
Sense, you know, but he kind of made it made sense and so you know, being able to come in after that, Yeah, it's like a door already kind of you know, nudged open a little bit.
I love Keith And I was in Australia once and it was Christmas time and I haven't already got for Christmas. It was one of those times where I was like, okay, and I have a friend named Nikita who is from Australia, and she was playing with me a little bit and she was like, you can come back and have Christmas with my family, And wasn't romantic at all, and I was like, I've never been to Australia, I'll go. So
I didn't. I always feel like I'm intruding, so I didn't stay at her house with them, even though they had a room. I stayed in a hotel nearby. And it was crazy because Christmas was in the summer in Australia.
How good is an ausy Christmas in the sun.
It's crazy. It was like they were prawns against the prowns. Yeah, yeah, there were like people eating prawns for Christmas, and so that whole thing was happening. And I had tweeted something and Keith saw my tweet because I think I walked up on that bridge. There's the stairs. You go up on the bridge. What's that big bridge in Sydney.
Sydney have a bridge, of course it is.
Yeah, So I go up on top of that. You climbed the bridge. It's awesome. I hate heights, but it's awesome too. And the wind's blowing so you feel like you're gona die and stuff, and so I'm up there. I took a picture of that. I posted it and Keith texted me and he's like, are you in Australia. I was like, yeah, he was like, we are too, come over to because they happened to be back home for went over to his and him Nicole together at the time, went over to their like condo in Australia.
It was like a two layer and there were some Australian famous people there. I don't know a single one of them because they were all famous in Australia. There's a bunch of people walking around and going I am I you know whatever, and they were everybody was so nice. Do you remember any of the nights or anything. None, but they were prominent. Yeah, That's all I know is they were probably well obviously they were Keith and Cole's
house too. But Keith would introduce me like this is somebody He's so yeah, and I just remember thinking, man, like I'm right in the middle of Australian celebrity culture and I don't really I don't. I don't understand it enough to respect it in the same way that I think of like if like I did Bear Girls the show once and he was talking about he all have super famous people and really not know who they are and they're massive in their area. But he's taking some
like K pop artists out and that's no idea. They have ten billion fans with them. But Keith's awesome. Like I love Keith Urban and I love I just want to say that because I liked your story that way.
I've been around him a few times and he's always been like complete gentleman. I would love to hang with him probably someday, but yeah, his music's done, his music's noting off.
I probably make that happen. Yeah, give me a story, but let's see I make that. She has really great music. I like her anyway because we work together in a capacity for a while. Her what she's doing now, And I hope you're okay me mentioning this. We're talking about this. It's it's distinct, and it's such, it's so it's quality, it's so different and it's high quality stuff and so and I really like it. Like I'm a fan of the person that she's turned into. Yeah, can I say that.
I foolheartedly agree, Yeah, you go all right, She's awesome and she's one of those artists too that as you know, there's people in this town that like come here and work really hard, and there's other people that come here and.
They've just got a gift.
And when she opens her mouth to saying it is just a gift and I'm so happy for and the music she's making. And I showed to that text you sent me to about digging her record and stuff, and she really appreciated that.
So yeah, that's cool.
No more, I'm not going to ask anything else lives you're going to lock up on me over here, all.
Right, man, I've been to it. You got to learn something from what you go through, don't you.
Yeah, unless it's your friend, Yeah you know.
Yeah, Well hey, look let's go pay pickable something and you give.
Them a nugget. Are you touring this record in the States at all? Because I saw a bunch of like you're going. I feel like you're getting so many flyer miles going back to Australia and New Zealand.
Yeah, we're doing Australia New Zealand in May and June for the album too with Steeltown Tour, and then we're going to do the States later in the year, which if I tell your dates they'll probably change, so when they're confirmed or.
Lena, are you happy to Life's good? Yeah?
Like I said, it's like she's been a rollercaster or a ride or a haunted house maybe sometimes, but yeah, it's good.
It's good to be a live right now.
It's good to have an Australian summer, and it's good to be back here with the record that I feel really proud about and the story to tell.
How do you pick eleven songs? Because, like you said, you've written so many more? What's that process?
Like it's kind of twofold in the reasoning for me as a listener, I feel like as albums have got longer, it's almost intimidating or something just to start it. Does that make sense to you? Like you probably get hit with music every day anyway, But I wanted to have a concise record eleven twelve songs And.
How many think you wrote that that you considered?
Poh, fifty maybe that I considered. There's probably more that I wrote, but like fifty that had purpose, you know, But I also didn't want any double ups, Like I didn't want any Well that song kind of already does that pick the winner, you know, or the one that feels the most authentic, And that's how I kind of got whittled down.
Why do you name it? After your hometown.
I named it after my hometown because it's kind of where this story starts.
It's kind of where I felt like whatever this building of the next phase of my life started going home that Christmas and having that experience with the old mates and the old places and family, and that's the place that it all built from. It's also kind of unique too, I think for an Australian to be singing about place like that, Like there's some legends that have done it
really well in Australia, but there's only a handful. And one of the things I love about America and Americans is the pride of place that they have, especially in country music, and Texas is like the glowing example of pride of place, and so to be able to have a song and articulate, you know, a love for a hometown like steel Town. And there's another song on the record called Land I Love, which is about Australia as a whole, which we have a fellow named William Barton
playing on. He's a first Nation's Australian, like one of the world's foremost did we Do players, and he sang and beat box enchanted and played did we Do?
On? This record and.
Those two songs particularly, I feel like ground the record in a way that was really important and special to me, And so that's where the name came from.
I remember why I was bringing up to Keith Throbin's story because when I was with him, he was talking about country music in Australia and he said that for a lot of his life, country music in Australia was wildly traditional and if you wanted to hear country music, it would be like on what the AM band, like what we consider like AM here. There weren't like big mass stations that were just playing country music. The kind of had to cross over and get played on a
pop station in Australia. Has that shifted at all still or do they have modernish country music stations in Sydney or in Australia.
Yeah, so that's shifting just now.
Hey, Like it's kind of you know, as as Keith, I'm sure when his stuff was like really kind of exploding, you know with this record and the subsequent ones. Yeah, it just stayed super traditional down there, and for that reason stayed really niche like it was kind of you had to go to this first of went Tamworth, which is kind of the they'd have shows everywhere and was
the kind of big moment for country music. And now I feel like since I moved here eleven years ago, every time I go back, they love it more and more.
And I remember, like Sam Hunt had that song body Like a Back Road, and I remember I heard that on pop radio somewhere, and then I think the next time I went back, I saw like this guy riding a Harley in Bondi and he was like blaring Florida Georgia line as he drove through, and I was like, it's it changing around here to the point now where I think country might be the biggest touring genre in Australia right now.
Like it's just exploded and.
Radio has responded, and obviously people are finding it on streaming and the Internet and all that kind of thing, and it's quite amazing to see to the point where in my hometown on the weekend where you would never have found country music, or you'd have to go to one of like two or three little niche places on
the outside of town to play country music. We played a festival to like twelve or thirteen thousand people with Laney Wilson on Saturday night, and it was just like in my hometown to be there playing Steeltown for the first time.
Laney's there.
There's a couple other big acts too, like Flatland Cavalry was there and Caitlin Bartson.
It was just like, this is that's happening, you know, it's exciting.
Did any of your stuff get played on pop radio there?
It did? Yeah, yeah, it was.
It was part of the I guess maybe around that time with the body like a background and whatever. It was the Floria Line song Meant to Be, I think, and then I think my song came out after those, and I think the programers were like, well, if the other stuff worked, maybe this will work too, and they did, and thankfully it did, and song Day Drink ended up becoming my biggest song down there, which is hilarious.
Was the biggest song for a long time.
So yeah, it was just I guess good timing, maybe the right music at the right time, But it was really it was a really cool thing to feel having left there to try to pursue this music that I didn't find anywhere around me, to then be able to go home and then you know, share it with people in the places that I kind of grew up.
In When did you get back into town, like.
Forty eight hours ago or something.
Yeah, man, you do a great job because you've showed no jet lag or really none.
But every time I've looked up, I'm like, what is that word that i'm you know, I know you've been gone.
I haven't saw you on social media, and I was like, man, he's going to be burnt on one end. Yeah, yeah, you killed it. Well, thanks man, there's no exhaustion.
Appreciate time.
I appreciate the come by every week, friendly space and congrats to you.
Man. So it's exciting to see what you're doing.
Graduate you congratulate me in my room.
Well you're on the on Netflix. Now you're on your wall.
Yeah, you got this sun that I thought you might have stolen, but no, it's a it's a replication.
The one from my hometown. That is exactly that. It has bullet holes in it.
Oh ship, how many?
Oh it's probably more now, but there's probably like five or six.
Yeah, but that's a that's like a country thing to do on the weekend, and it's not it's not a personal attack.
You guys don't have guns though there right like for us yes, everybody had guns all the time, right, But Australia.
I mean there's guns there for sure, but you have to but it's prevalent, right, Yeah, you have to go through like we had them at school.
Yeah, that's not that's not really a thing.
Yeah, like we had them in our cars or trucks and back like that school where you could see them.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm not bragging or saying that's bad. Actually yeah yeah.
Yeah, No, I didn't see guns at all growing up. Really.
My dad grew up out in the country and he had I think a couple of hunting rifles, like at twenty two and something else. And I remember the scope being around the house when I was a kid, but they saw the scope. Yeah, they got rid of them before I was born. Well maybe just after I was born, when the Port Arthur massacre happened. Yeah, I don't know the exact timeline of that, but they had them and then they got rid of them. And yeah, the gun law was a pretty tough town there.
Well, look, we've done an hour. Do you feel good about this?
I think so.
Anything else you want to say it's hard, I'm gonna say something here. You say that it's hard for me to interview a friend, it's harder. It's the absolute hardest thing to do because I know too much.
Yeah, well, yes, we would have a conversation off air that would be.
Yeah, I know too much. So then I don't want to put you in a place that makes you uncomfortable. Yeah, But then I'm going, well, what does he really want to say? And I don't want to. So I hate interviewing friends. Yeah, I do it because I like my friends. Yeah, but it's the hardest thing for me to do, is to interview somebody that I know a lot about and care a lot about.
Yeah, So, well, I appreciate you saying that. Let me say this too. So I've been away from this kind of press media, any sort of interviews, and this is kind of the first one I've done about the record, and so I'm kind of not giving the most succinct planned answers or whatever. But now there's something about doing press that is so much more intimidating because it's almost like I see stuff and stuff gets clipped out of context and then blown up for the wrong reasons and
stuff like that. So I had a level of kind of I guess anxiety coming into this, which had nothing to do with you or this space is just more I want to say today that it's gonna.
Everybody's looking for the best clip to posts.
Yeah, and I just I guess I know that's going to happen. But I've never really talked about any of this stuff before. But I appreciate the chance to do this with you, man, so so thank you and.
And good night.
Fair enough guys, Record March twentieth. I'm going for memory.
You got a good memory? Yeah, kicking offs.
Boom, March twentieth. I hope people strain the crap out of it. I hope they would go to all your shows, and whenever you announced the American part of it, we'll be sure to share that on the radio show. On all this. I love you. I'm glad you were here. And great job. Not seeming tired like I think that's that's the whole thing. Great job because not for a minute to drive.
You're the moster.
No, that's true. I've had a long day, I'm gonna tell you. Yeah, anybody else but you, I think i'd have been dragging. So I knew this would be easy.
All right.
There, he is the great Morgan
Evans thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production