August 23, 2021 • 12 mins
On this episode of the Cody Cast podcast, a highly caffeinated Cody Alan fires off his conversation with Russell Dickerson, and 11-month-old Remington wants in on the action. Listen in now to hear Remy chatter and coo while his country star dad talks about music, writing with Charles Kelley, touring with Florida Georgia Line and explain how his wife Kailey Dickerson makes their tour bus feel like "Home Sweet" home.
PLUS: Russell explains what his album title 'Southern Symphony' really means.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Cody Allen's podcast. This is Cody Cast. On
this Cody cast podcast, my guest is a guy who
just churns out the hits. Yeah, churning like like butter
one hit after another number one everywhere. Russell Dickerson is
with me. I love Russell so much fun um. My
new book, Here's the Thing, takes you on some of
(00:21):
my favorite country music adventures with names like Russell, and
it's really an all access passed into my life. I
tell some behind the scenes stories I've never shared before.
Plus you'll hear about some of the things I've learned
as I've leaned in to listen to friends, family, and
even myself on my journey to find happiness and true authenticity.
You can pre order Here's the Thing That's h e
(00:42):
A r apostrophe s Here's as in hearing listening. Here's
the Thing out October nineteenth. Pre order Now, all right,
Russell is on the line, So Russell russells wrestle in
(01:06):
the remix. Remix Wrestle d Rustle d on the line
on the line, what is wrong with me? That's the
best intro to a phone conversation I've ever had. I
don't know what's going on, Russell. I've taken a little
caffeine this morning and my intake is pretty strong. Yeah,
(01:27):
I'm feeling it. Yeah, me too, Bro. I'm also home alone,
which is dangerous, just me and the dog here. So,
oh my gosh, are you home or you on the
road right now? I'm home right now? And we leave.
I hear baby, Actually hear baby in the background, don't
I do? Hid Hi little Remington? Oh my little chunky boy.
(01:59):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's a fat baby, dude, massive baby,
like dude. My family, My family was dying at that interview.
They were like, he said he's a fat baby. Yep,
he absolutely Well. I love that the doctors have confirmed this.
(02:19):
It's not just me throwing out like a rationalization about
your child. It's actually factually based on data. Yeah it is.
It is science. It has proven science that Mington is
a very fat baby. Well, the doctor said he was
off the charts, like he was in the percentile that's
way over a hundred, right, Yeah, it's just like it
only goes up to nine plus and it's just like
(02:41):
you can see his line above a hundred and like
it's it's honestly like a hundred and like seven eight,
like if it was actually a percent, it's nuts. And
you told me on the show The cemt Hot twenty
show what you're talking about the fat baby comment, Um
that he is like the size of a like a
two year old at this point and only in almost
one year old. Yeah he is. Uh, he's eleven months
(03:04):
old and the size of a two year old and
ways like a kindergartener has they're going to buy fast.
To me, it has I feel like just yesterday he
was born. Like it's yeah. I mean there's times, oh
you got a fall there is he was hurt by
(03:26):
my comments? No, it really has. It really has gone by.
Sometimes it feels so fast, and then other times I'm like,
I feel like he's been in our lives for like
three years. I hear to keep him from crying, you
sometimes play your music for him. He let your music right, Yes, dude,
my my Southern Symphony album. Literally, like you put on
(03:50):
Southern Symphony and he just like immediately stops crying. Is
it's amazing, that's a god thing. That's awesome. Oh. Absolutely,
And it's like he knows he knows his father's boys.
That's awesome. Um, Southern symphony. Since you brought it up,
let's go there. It sounds so sophisticated, Russell. Um, So
(04:10):
have you been to a symphony before? I have? I
mean I grew up kind of. I grew up singing
like choirs and stuff, and then we do we do
stuff with orchestras and symphonies and all that stuff. Uh
so yeah, I mean that was a huge part of
like my musical upbringing. So does cities that translate to
your current show? Uh? I guess singing right, like the
(04:37):
singing you know. But uh but yeah, I mean the
definition of of Southern symphony is like in the in
the song Southern Symphony, it's like all of the sounds
of like my childhood and you know, all the sounds
and sights of my childhood coming together and making a
Southern symphony. So that's gonna that's where that term came from. Um.
(04:59):
When it comes to the at single, you wrote that
one or co wrote it with a Charles Kelly of
Lady A. So how did that come together? First of all,
the two tallest guys in country music, I think, yeah,
the two the two tallest guys in country music crammed
in the back of a bus lounge and writing this song.
It was it was hilarious. It was exit to see
and uh my Casey like the other guy. We wrote
(05:22):
it with um who's written all of my other singles. Yeah,
and he uh he was like, hey, what about this
title home Sweet, Home Sweet us or something like that,
and I was like, I was like, dude, what about
home sweet? You and me? And we were just like
oh boom, And then like immediately ran back to the
bus and started writing it. And and then I text Charles.
(05:44):
I was like, hey, bro, I think we're I think
we're onto something over here if you want to pop
on my bus. And then he came over and he
was super stoked on it. He actually sang the demo
um of home Sweet and so so uh yeah, it
was like super cool and man, it's just like that
demo was magical and we all, I mean I immediately knew.
(06:05):
I was like, this is gonna be a single, no doubt. Yeah.
And it's so personal, I think, so reflective of your
life and where it is right now. You included home
videos home movies in the video, So how did you
choose which wants to include? Um? I mean, really, it's
just kind of just just videos that lined up with
what we were talking about, you know, like we, uh,
(06:28):
coming back from our honeymoon. Like there there's honeymoon pictures
on in the video, and then there's like us we
when we moved into our first house. We're like eating
Chinese food on the oven door because our our heat
was our heat was off and it was New Year's
Eve and like it literally like turned the oven on
and ate our Chinese food off the oven door. Man.
(06:51):
You know, it's just like little little precious memories that
stick out like that. And uh and Kayleie is so
good at documenting all of this stuff, like along, like
she has such a bigger vision for everything. And I'm like,
I'm like, we're literally eating Chinese food off the door
right now, and She's like, no, this is gonna be
such a cute memory and take a picture, you know
what I mean. She's so good that. Yeah, it made
(07:12):
for a great video. So what was your reaction just
seeing it all compiled into like three minutes all at
one time? I mean you must have been a little emotional.
Oh yeah, man, emotions just come flooding back because you
know it's not it's not just like it's not just
the early marriage days. It's like the hard days on
the road. And you know that's kind of what verse
two is about. It's like, you know, if it's a
broken a C hotel room or whatever, as long as
(07:35):
we're together, it's all good. And so to go back
in time and get these to find that on the
road footage of like you know, Kale's used to drive
the van and sell the merch and all that. So
it's like it's just so yeah, it brings back so
many emotions of mainly I mean even how far we've
come over the last six years, seven years that you know,
(07:56):
we've just been grinding and so to have know, this
be my fifth single and and to be where we
are now. And yeah, it's a flood of emotion coming
back just looking at all that old footage. Is kayleie
um with you on the road a lot of the
time obviously, Um, I don't know if baby, if that
works or not. Yeah, yeah, no, she's she's very she's
very intentional about you know, keeping the fan together and
(08:18):
being on the road and you know, even if that
means bringing out a nanny and help or whatever, She's like, well,
I mean it's home. Sweet. It's like, as long as
we're together, that's where home is. Has she transformed the
bus and with your help into sort of home on
the road, Oh my gosh. With she's not zero of
my health. She's just like she's like, Okay, get these
(08:39):
pillows out of here, we need these get you know,
get this tile out of here. We need this tile.
It's like she she she literally does. She makes it
feel like home, and it's it's amazing because you know,
we're on this thing for half of our lives now
and it's like it has to feel like home. Um,
you're back on the road with the Florida Georgia line
(08:59):
in the fall, all the Islema Country tour. So he
what do you look forward to most about tour with
Brian and Tyler? I know they're they're so fun and
such nice guys. Oh yeah, I mean we we had
a we had a festival with him last weekend and
you know, we as soon as we got there we
went and played around a golf and then like it's
(09:20):
not I mean, I'm great friends with Brian and Tyler,
but through the years, you know, even my band guys
have become great friends with their band guys, and so
it's just like the camaraderie between these two camps is
just magical and like it's just even that was just
a tiny little taste of of what what the fall
is gonna be. Like, Yeah, you're all Belmont boys too, right,
(09:41):
I mean were you all? Were y'all in school at
the same time. I'm just trying to think about the
timeline here. Yeah. Yeah, they they graduated a little bit
before I did. So when they when we met, I
was still in school and they had just graduated, and
we started writing. We just started writing songs together really
and and uh and then from there, you know, they
(10:04):
obviously wrote Cruise and just took off like a rocket
ship and left me behind. That's that's one right, you
would like to have been in on if possible. I
was like, where was I that one day? Even if
they divided up like five ways or whatever it happens.
I mean, you're still getting a gigantic chunk. You're still
getting some fat, right for the fat baby. Yeah. So yeah,
(10:31):
what is he saying? He says he loves you. I
thought he's like, wrap up, We've got to talk to
Bobby Bones next. Um, this is actually the first Halloween.
I was thinking, because he'll turn one in September, and really,
you know, he was so small last year. There was
(10:52):
I don't what did you'll dress him up last year?
I don't remember that he did. Yeah we did. We
did a little farmer and then we dressed him up
as a cow. Okay, you know, because he's he's a giant,
fat baby, so we you know, it was it was
the only thing that fit. I was thinking this year
would be like the first year. But nonetheless, do you
all have ideas for this year? What do you what's
what are you and Kaylie thinking for the UK? We
(11:12):
we do have some ideas, but I think it's too soon.
We have there's a home alone idea that we were
that we're gonna go with eventually, because you know, it's
like he would obviously be Kevin and then we would
dress up as the two bad guys, you know, and
that's that's one. But that's you know, it feels down
(11:36):
the road. It was down the road. When he's more
of a like maybe kindergarten or something, I feel like
it's still like character, you know, time or like innocent.
It's like a farm baby still like you think, Yeah, like,
I don't know, we'll probably dress him up. It's like
a cocoa melon baby or something, Cocoa melon baby. I
was like, no, it's like this annoying kids show that
just like puts you puts kids in a trance and
(11:58):
they just sit there and watch it. Well, well you
get stuff done around the house. Yes, all right, Russell listen, Um,
thanks for the time. Have a great rest of the day.
You'll have fun on the road. I always love talking
about your time. Cody Allen. Back at you. Tell Kaylee
high for me and uh. I hope to see you
again soon and maybe we can get out on this tour, um,
(12:20):
you know, sometime in the fall with the shows. All right,
take care of love you too, Okay, all right, thanks
for listening to Cody Cast. Follow Cody right now at
Cody Allen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Care Cody on
hundreds of radio stations every day, and watch Cody on
twenty this weekend, Saturday and Sunday and n a M.
(12:42):
Eight Central on CMT. Bye for now.
This is Cody Allen's podcast. This is Cody Cast. On
this Cody cast podcast, my guest is a guy who
just churns out the hits. Yeah, churning like like butter
one hit after another number one everywhere. Russell Dickerson is
with me. I love Russell so much fun um. My
new book, Here's the Thing, takes you on some of
(00:21):
my favorite country music adventures with names like Russell, and
it's really an all access passed into my life. I
tell some behind the scenes stories I've never shared before.
Plus you'll hear about some of the things I've learned
as I've leaned in to listen to friends, family, and
even myself on my journey to find happiness and true authenticity.
You can pre order Here's the Thing That's h e
(00:42):
A r apostrophe s Here's as in hearing listening. Here's
the Thing out October nineteenth. Pre order Now, all right,
Russell is on the line, So Russell russells wrestle in
(01:06):
the remix. Remix Wrestle d Rustle d on the line
on the line, what is wrong with me? That's the
best intro to a phone conversation I've ever had. I
don't know what's going on, Russell. I've taken a little
caffeine this morning and my intake is pretty strong. Yeah,
(01:27):
I'm feeling it. Yeah, me too, Bro. I'm also home alone,
which is dangerous, just me and the dog here. So,
oh my gosh, are you home or you on the
road right now? I'm home right now? And we leave.
I hear baby, Actually hear baby in the background, don't
I do? Hid Hi little Remington? Oh my little chunky boy.
(01:59):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's a fat baby, dude, massive baby,
like dude. My family, My family was dying at that interview.
They were like, he said he's a fat baby. Yep,
he absolutely Well. I love that the doctors have confirmed this.
(02:19):
It's not just me throwing out like a rationalization about
your child. It's actually factually based on data. Yeah it is.
It is science. It has proven science that Mington is
a very fat baby. Well, the doctor said he was
off the charts, like he was in the percentile that's
way over a hundred, right, Yeah, it's just like it
only goes up to nine plus and it's just like
(02:41):
you can see his line above a hundred and like
it's it's honestly like a hundred and like seven eight,
like if it was actually a percent, it's nuts. And
you told me on the show The cemt Hot twenty
show what you're talking about the fat baby comment, Um
that he is like the size of a like a
two year old at this point and only in almost
one year old. Yeah he is. Uh, he's eleven months
(03:04):
old and the size of a two year old and
ways like a kindergartener has they're going to buy fast.
To me, it has I feel like just yesterday he
was born. Like it's yeah. I mean there's times, oh
you got a fall there is he was hurt by
(03:26):
my comments? No, it really has. It really has gone by.
Sometimes it feels so fast, and then other times I'm like,
I feel like he's been in our lives for like
three years. I hear to keep him from crying, you
sometimes play your music for him. He let your music right, Yes, dude,
my my Southern Symphony album. Literally, like you put on
(03:50):
Southern Symphony and he just like immediately stops crying. Is
it's amazing, that's a god thing. That's awesome. Oh. Absolutely,
And it's like he knows he knows his father's boys.
That's awesome. Um, Southern symphony. Since you brought it up,
let's go there. It sounds so sophisticated, Russell. Um, So
(04:10):
have you been to a symphony before? I have? I
mean I grew up kind of. I grew up singing
like choirs and stuff, and then we do we do
stuff with orchestras and symphonies and all that stuff. Uh
so yeah, I mean that was a huge part of
like my musical upbringing. So does cities that translate to
your current show? Uh? I guess singing right, like the
(04:37):
singing you know. But uh but yeah, I mean the
definition of of Southern symphony is like in the in
the song Southern Symphony, it's like all of the sounds
of like my childhood and you know, all the sounds
and sights of my childhood coming together and making a
Southern symphony. So that's gonna that's where that term came from. Um.
(04:59):
When it comes to the at single, you wrote that
one or co wrote it with a Charles Kelly of
Lady A. So how did that come together? First of all,
the two tallest guys in country music, I think, yeah,
the two the two tallest guys in country music crammed
in the back of a bus lounge and writing this song.
It was it was hilarious. It was exit to see
and uh my Casey like the other guy. We wrote
(05:22):
it with um who's written all of my other singles. Yeah,
and he uh he was like, hey, what about this
title home Sweet, Home Sweet us or something like that,
and I was like, I was like, dude, what about
home sweet? You and me? And we were just like
oh boom, And then like immediately ran back to the
bus and started writing it. And and then I text Charles.
(05:44):
I was like, hey, bro, I think we're I think
we're onto something over here if you want to pop
on my bus. And then he came over and he
was super stoked on it. He actually sang the demo
um of home Sweet and so so uh yeah, it
was like super cool and man, it's just like that
demo was magical and we all, I mean I immediately knew.
(06:05):
I was like, this is gonna be a single, no doubt. Yeah.
And it's so personal, I think, so reflective of your
life and where it is right now. You included home
videos home movies in the video, So how did you
choose which wants to include? Um? I mean, really, it's
just kind of just just videos that lined up with
what we were talking about, you know, like we, uh,
(06:28):
coming back from our honeymoon. Like there there's honeymoon pictures
on in the video, and then there's like us we
when we moved into our first house. We're like eating
Chinese food on the oven door because our our heat
was our heat was off and it was New Year's
Eve and like it literally like turned the oven on
and ate our Chinese food off the oven door. Man.
(06:51):
You know, it's just like little little precious memories that
stick out like that. And uh and Kayleie is so
good at documenting all of this stuff, like along, like
she has such a bigger vision for everything. And I'm like,
I'm like, we're literally eating Chinese food off the door
right now, and She's like, no, this is gonna be
such a cute memory and take a picture, you know
what I mean. She's so good that. Yeah, it made
(07:12):
for a great video. So what was your reaction just
seeing it all compiled into like three minutes all at
one time? I mean you must have been a little emotional.
Oh yeah, man, emotions just come flooding back because you
know it's not it's not just like it's not just
the early marriage days. It's like the hard days on
the road. And you know that's kind of what verse
two is about. It's like, you know, if it's a
broken a C hotel room or whatever, as long as
(07:35):
we're together, it's all good. And so to go back
in time and get these to find that on the
road footage of like you know, Kale's used to drive
the van and sell the merch and all that. So
it's like it's just so yeah, it brings back so
many emotions of mainly I mean even how far we've
come over the last six years, seven years that you know,
(07:56):
we've just been grinding and so to have know, this
be my fifth single and and to be where we
are now. And yeah, it's a flood of emotion coming
back just looking at all that old footage. Is kayleie
um with you on the road a lot of the
time obviously, Um, I don't know if baby, if that
works or not. Yeah, yeah, no, she's she's very she's
very intentional about you know, keeping the fan together and
(08:18):
being on the road and you know, even if that
means bringing out a nanny and help or whatever, She's like, well,
I mean it's home. Sweet. It's like, as long as
we're together, that's where home is. Has she transformed the
bus and with your help into sort of home on
the road, Oh my gosh. With she's not zero of
my health. She's just like she's like, Okay, get these
(08:39):
pillows out of here, we need these get you know,
get this tile out of here. We need this tile.
It's like she she she literally does. She makes it
feel like home, and it's it's amazing because you know,
we're on this thing for half of our lives now
and it's like it has to feel like home. Um,
you're back on the road with the Florida Georgia line
(08:59):
in the fall, all the Islema Country tour. So he
what do you look forward to most about tour with
Brian and Tyler? I know they're they're so fun and
such nice guys. Oh yeah, I mean we we had
a we had a festival with him last weekend and
you know, we as soon as we got there we
went and played around a golf and then like it's
(09:20):
not I mean, I'm great friends with Brian and Tyler,
but through the years, you know, even my band guys
have become great friends with their band guys, and so
it's just like the camaraderie between these two camps is
just magical and like it's just even that was just
a tiny little taste of of what what the fall
is gonna be. Like, Yeah, you're all Belmont boys too, right,
(09:41):
I mean were you all? Were y'all in school at
the same time. I'm just trying to think about the
timeline here. Yeah. Yeah, they they graduated a little bit
before I did. So when they when we met, I
was still in school and they had just graduated, and
we started writing. We just started writing songs together really
and and uh and then from there, you know, they
(10:04):
obviously wrote Cruise and just took off like a rocket
ship and left me behind. That's that's one right, you
would like to have been in on if possible. I
was like, where was I that one day? Even if
they divided up like five ways or whatever it happens.
I mean, you're still getting a gigantic chunk. You're still
getting some fat, right for the fat baby. Yeah. So yeah,
(10:31):
what is he saying? He says he loves you. I
thought he's like, wrap up, We've got to talk to
Bobby Bones next. Um, this is actually the first Halloween.
I was thinking, because he'll turn one in September, and really,
you know, he was so small last year. There was
(10:52):
I don't what did you'll dress him up last year?
I don't remember that he did. Yeah we did. We
did a little farmer and then we dressed him up
as a cow. Okay, you know, because he's he's a giant,
fat baby, so we you know, it was it was
the only thing that fit. I was thinking this year
would be like the first year. But nonetheless, do you
all have ideas for this year? What do you what's
what are you and Kaylie thinking for the UK? We
(11:12):
we do have some ideas, but I think it's too soon.
We have there's a home alone idea that we were
that we're gonna go with eventually, because you know, it's
like he would obviously be Kevin and then we would
dress up as the two bad guys, you know, and
that's that's one. But that's you know, it feels down
(11:36):
the road. It was down the road. When he's more
of a like maybe kindergarten or something, I feel like
it's still like character, you know, time or like innocent.
It's like a farm baby still like you think, Yeah, like,
I don't know, we'll probably dress him up. It's like
a cocoa melon baby or something, Cocoa melon baby. I
was like, no, it's like this annoying kids show that
just like puts you puts kids in a trance and
(11:58):
they just sit there and watch it. Well, well you
get stuff done around the house. Yes, all right, Russell listen, Um,
thanks for the time. Have a great rest of the day.
You'll have fun on the road. I always love talking
about your time. Cody Allen. Back at you. Tell Kaylee
high for me and uh. I hope to see you
again soon and maybe we can get out on this tour, um,
(12:20):
you know, sometime in the fall with the shows. All right,
take care of love you too, Okay, all right, thanks
for listening to Cody Cast. Follow Cody right now at
Cody Allen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Care Cody on
hundreds of radio stations every day, and watch Cody on
twenty this weekend, Saturday and Sunday and n a M.
(12:42):
Eight Central on CMT. Bye for now.
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