Josh Kelley

Wells is hanging out with Country star Josh Kelley to find out what came before his Top 10 singles and his marriage to Katherine Heigl. You won't believe the story of how they met!

He writes, performs, records and produces all his own music and we find out how he mastered every step of the musical process.

 

Plus, hear why he and Wells have lived very similar lives!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everybody? Why do I always feel the need
to start shows like speaking differently than I normally do,
like with like a different energy. What's up everybody? I
don't ever talk I never talked like that? Why am
I talking like that? So you gotta start it differently
or weird or fun or something. I don't know. Why
don't I just be like, Okay, here we go, because
that's that's myself. I don't know, I'm overthinking it. Hey.
By the way, the Hills are coming back. And for

(00:22):
a lot of you out there, you might not remember,
but the beginning of this show was actually not called
the Wells Cast. It was called the Pratt Cast because
Stephanie Pratt of The Hills had her own podcast. Steph
being Steph my Heart, had had asked if I would
help co host a show with her with you know,
my radio background, kind of keep her between the mustard

(00:43):
and the mayonnaise, keep things on track, if you will.
But then Steph left the show, moved to London. She go,
but the show is coming back. The Hills are coming
back with some even bigger names apparentl So we're talking
about it, like what do we do here? Do we continue?
Doing the Wells Cast. We bring back some of the
Pratt Cast. We changed the name over to the Hills Cast,
Like what do we do? And I think paying homage

(01:04):
to the genesis of this show. We gotta do a
little bit of Hillstock even though the person who you
know was on the show was no longer on this show.
It's whatever. We're gonna do it long Diet Tribe to
tell you the next week we're going to have a
Drey No, that's right now, we're gonna talk about Hills
season two coming back. All right, let's get out with

(01:25):
the show wrote it. This is a Wells Cast with
Wells Adams and I heart radio podcast. Welcome into the
Wells Cast. I'm your host, Wells Adams. Anyways, super pumped
about this show. And I'll tell you what. The guy
that's coming on today as a very similar story to mine.

(01:48):
He grew up playing golf as a kid, went the
same college as I did, moved to Nashville after college
just like I did, got super lucky in some how
was able to trick a famous beautiful actress into being
with them. Were like the same person, We're cut from
the same cloth. Now is he more talented? Than me.

(02:11):
Yes is my mother reminded me of that every time
we speak. Yeah, am I working it out with my therapist? Maybe?
Probably not though, because we got bigger problems. This guy's
been doing it for a long time. Absolutely amazing musician.
He got offered a record deal when he was like fourteen.
You have to meet James Brown back then. His mainstream

(02:33):
debut for The Ride Home found a top five single
with Amazing, and his second album, Almost Honest, included a
top ten single Only You. He's appeared on the Today show,
Good Morning America, Ellen DeGeneres, That's the Night Show at
Jay Leno Lie with Regis and Kelly, Rachel Ray, Last Call.
I mean literally, the dude has done everything. Oh yeah.
He also wrote the theme song for Mike and Molly

(02:55):
and if that wasn't all very impressive. He's married to
the one the Lee Katherine Heigel from Like Grey's Anatomy
or Under Siege or Knocked Up or if you're Josh
from My Father The Hero. His story is so cool,
so interesting, and he is so candid about his life.
This is a really really enjoyable interview for me. I

(03:18):
truly loved having this guy on this show so stick
around because it's coming up in the Wells cast an
episode you do not want to miss with the one
the Only Josh Kelly Yellow. Can you hear me? Oh yeah,

(03:43):
I can hear you. Fantast dude. Thanks for having me.
By the way, man, this is awesome. There's some sort
of wonderful flex of doing an interview as someone who
instead of beats by dre headphones, they've got in ears in.
I really do appreciate that. The other day it looks
silly when I was where in my mind, but you
look cool with yours on. But I just, you know,

(04:05):
I don't know, man, something about this face just looks
silly on on Skype with headpons on. Josh Kelly, Welcome
to the Wells gass dude. Good to see a man.
Yeah you too. Our paths aligned a lot. Did you
know that? No? I didn't give me tell me why. Okay,
so you're a couple of years older than me. But
I went to Old Miss What yep. I was there

(04:28):
from two thousand two to two thousand seven Victory Lab. Okay,
so let's think here. So let's see I was nine nine, uh,
and I got my record deal. I think it was
in two thousand two, so like right when you got
there is right? I was playing that was it like
the height of my old miss fame as far as
like playing the Sneaky Tiki and all those places, the

(04:49):
Sneaky teky Man. I remember that place. It's no longer there.
I played that. There was a venue called the Library.
I played a lot still there. There was a couple
different places, and I remember, basically like when I first
started writing songs that I knew, I was like, oh
my god, I think these are good. I would make
flyers and I put the flyers for the Sneaky Tiki
shows on every single sorority door and put it under there,

(05:13):
and I would, you know, sometimes they would open the
door and be like, guys, I'm playing the show now.
I think you're gonna love it. I just kept on
like promoting it. And then at one point the Sneaky Tiki,
I think they were giving me three dollars ahead at
the door. And there was one night I had a
thousand people there, so I was like a I was
still a dependent. I was like twenty years old and
I made three grand on a Thursday. I remember just going,

(05:35):
holy mold it. We in the money. Baby. I was like,
I'm like at the time, I was dating this girl
at Brittany, I was like, dude, we're going out for shrimping,
grits and wine tonight. Baby, We're going to city grocery. Baby,
let's go. We're going to the city grocery. We're gonna
have them fried bottom fetus. I think we basically just
missed each other at Old Miss, And then after that

(05:56):
I graduated from Old Miss with my journalism degree, and
I went and did radio in Nashville and worked at
Lightning one hundred for seven years and then I heart
after that. So I assumed you you must have been
gracing the Lightning one airwaves when I was there. Absolutely
I was. I was in Lightning one hundred a lot
like Amazing was part of heavy rotation for a long time. Yeah, yeah,

(06:20):
it was. I remember that, uh, And I remember there
was country radio stations and pop stations in Nashville that
we're playing Amazing, and um, you know what's funny about
that too, is that originally Amazing was a bluegrass song.
And I was trying to get a record deal in
Nashville in the very beginning. I got turned down somehow

(06:42):
got a pop deal in with Hollywood Records, and all
I did is just all we did is just changed
the song a little like, Yeah, we just changed the groove.
And that's how closely related like country and pop music
really actually is. Its attitude and groove. That's the only
thing that's a little it different. Yeah, take out the
Mando and the Van Joe and now it's a pop song.

(07:05):
He'll be fine, it really is. So I do want
to go back to all that, but I just wanted
to kind of start the interview off with you and
I have Hotti Totty and I missed Nashville. You're no
longer there. You're in like Utah now right, Yeah, we're
right right right outside of Park City, Utah. Congratulations. You
are one of the very few people in the music

(07:26):
industry that I've been able to put out music because
and I totally get it, you can't tour behind anything
right now. But you've got an unplugged record out now
right yea. You know, I mean, I don't know if
you can see this, but this studio, this is my
mad scientist laboratory. And you know, over the years since
I was a kid. I think it's because my parents
never gave me out of all, I just ended up

(07:47):
learning like fifteen different instruments. So I produce everything, I
engineer everything, I mix it all, master at all. I
mean I've always done it like that myself. So you know,
no matter really what happens and comes my way, I
I always will make music. I'll be making music until
I can't talk anymore. And because for lack of better words,
there's no overhead. I mean, I make everything here, so

(08:07):
it's like a little it's like a little factory. So
me during the pandemic, it just gave me an excuse
to sort of lose myself in the studio and spend
more time with the kids. And UM, I did a
lot of online shows, but I have written this is
the most prolific I've been in my whole life, because
I don't know how to sit around and do nothing

(08:27):
unplugged from upstream studios. Is upstream studios like your little
man cave. Yeah, it's this is actually a it's like
a it's a farm. So it's a horse ranch, pigs, goats, chickens,
you name it, dog rescue. UM and my mother in
law buitless place, and there's this room at the very

(08:48):
sort of end like if you go outside these doors
as a bunch of horse stalls and all that. And
she was gracious enough to give me this space. And
it's a nice big room because I used to create
at home, and and as much as I love that,
my kids are getting to the point now where they
will come in and you know, we want to hang
with Dad, and they will, you know, kind of take

(09:10):
me out of the moment I have to escape to
to be able to really create. And so it's this
is this is great that I can come here and
sort of get lost in the music and then go
back home and be dad. What can people expect from
this Unplugged record that they wouldn't normally from past releases? Well,
you know, I mean I grew up at the very
beginning of MTV Unplugged, and I used to love that stuff.

(09:33):
And I used to love I mean, I remember I
could probably paint every frame of their Nirvana Unplugged and
the air Clapton one. And so over the last probably
four or five years, my team and I we've noticed
that my my my solo acoustic shows which I played
piano acoustic guitar sometimes, I mean I had my rig two.

(09:54):
So sometimes where I'm like, let's just have a dance
party and I'll just like press the space bar and
we just rock out. And there something about the solo
acoustics show that moves the needle more than the full
band show. I think it's because it's a variety show.
I can grasp my fans a little bit better and
you know, make him laugh, make him cry, take him
through a sort of an emotional roller coaster. And because

(10:15):
of that, my fans have asked, you know, repeatedly on
social media for me to record the songs the way
I do them, you know, on the shows. And so basically,
you know, of it is there was their choice, you know,
songs that they chose, and then the other were some
of the new songs that I only got to do

(10:35):
three shows right before the pandemic that I was doing
those songs live and it was really moving the needle.
And one of them is a gospel song called hold
Me My Lord, and so I just kind of cherry
picked him and started recording them in here and kept
them really minimal, you know, just sup just not a
whole lot going on, and very exposed, very naked, and

(10:55):
and it allows the voice and the message to really shine.
So I'm really proud of it. I mean, it kind
of was just something that I did for fun, and
when I sent it into my team, they were like,
we're putting this out right. So that's kind of how
it happened, is very organically and having fun. You can
never really beat that. I used to always say that

(11:17):
my favorite bands to go see where three pieces because
there was nowhere to hide. You can't be bad at
your craft to a three piece, And I guess I
should revise that to what you're doing because you have
to be super vulnerable in that space. You are the
piano player, you are the guitar player, you are the

(11:39):
lead singer. I used to play music back in the
day and stuff, and there is something nice about being
able to hide behind people when you need to. Was
it a hard transition to be like, guess what, it's
just me now, you know? No, it was. I remember
the moment. It was two thousand fourteen. I was in
Virginia and I was about to play this show, and
I was in my hotel room and I just decided,

(12:00):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this or
not on the show. You can probably bleep it, but
I decided to not. I didn't give it anymore. I
didn't give a ship what people thought about me. I
didn't give I don't care. I'm not going to censor
myself anymore. And because of that, it allowed me to
be authentically me and goof around, mess with people, make
them laugh, and then play a song about my daughter

(12:21):
and make him cry, like just instead of trying to
be someone else. It just it just literally was like
light bulb went off. And ever since that day, I
walk into shows going I'm about to mess these people
up like I and it and it's fun for me
because you know, I've been doing it long enough now
to where I really know what I'm doing, and I
really really love it. I love it when people don't

(12:44):
know if they're about to have an uncomfortable moment. You know,
some shows, like acoustic shows, you're like, oh my god,
this is so uncomfortable. Man. I make us a family
right off the bat, and and once we're a family,
then it's a variety show that we're all on together.
I want to know about the science of creating the
set list because you're like me, my fiance is an actress,

(13:04):
your wife is an actress, and I've learned so much
just from being around her about character arc in stories,
and a lot of times should be like, well this
is gonna happen, because this needs to happen, for this, this,
and this to happen. I'm like, I never even thought
about movies and TV shows that way. And I guess
the question is that live music is very similar. You're
taking people on this emotional roller coaster. What's your blueprint

(13:26):
for setting that all up beforehand or is it all
off the cuff and just how the crowd is reacting
to Well, yeah, so it's it's for me, it's mainly
based on the crowd and they, you know, they based
on how what whether show is, what kind of show
it is, what the venue is. I tailored that to
the crowd for sure. What I what I make is

(13:47):
a cheat sheet. So I make I will write down
a list and very big black sharpie on the ground
of like forty songs, and I kind of put little
little cartoons next to some of them, like hey make
sure you you know hit these these are the most
important ones for this kind of venue. And then based

(14:08):
on the crowd, I sort of organically kind of decide
what kind of journey I'm going to take them on
based on how they're reacting. If it's like a chill crowd,
like let's say it's a hotel cafe in l A.
Or let's say, like in Boston, it is a city winery,
and those people are there, they pay, they pay top
dollar to wine and dine and to really listen to music.

(14:30):
And so that's a totally different experience. I don't have to,
you know, like if I'm doing a festival and there's
a bunch of drunk idiots, it's completely different, like an
outdoor thing, you know where it is, And so I mean,
I really do tailor it towards that. Um it's the
people will let me know what kind of journey they
want to go on. But I think usually my big

(14:52):
thing is is I love to make people laugh, and
I love stupid Dad ones and jokes and all that
stuff and coming up with him, and I you know,
if I'm flying from here to New York or Boston
or something, I spend the majority of the flight coming
up with new jokes and it's really fun. Some of

(15:14):
them suck, and those are the funniest ones. What's more,
gratifying doing like let's say a show that would be
outdoors or at the festival where where people aren't paying
as much attention as you'd like and then winning them over,
or from jump Street playing a show, or everyone is
just already hanging on every word. Dude. I will give

(15:35):
you an example. So I did this. I was headlining
this country festival and I can't remember was in the
middle of nowhere. I mean, I don't even know where
this place was on the map, but it was, you know,
it was an outdoor festival, and right before me, a
full band with like smoke and it come out of

(15:57):
cannons played and then all of a sudden, it's just
me and acoustic and are and this one dude, super drunk,
kind of young guy. He kept going play Garth Brooks
and he was so loud, and there's probably three thousand
people there they could all hear him play Garth Brooks.
The old me would have just like kind of shrunk into,

(16:18):
like just shrunk in and just like gotten through the show.
The new me that doesn't give a shit, starting in
two thousand fourteen, said, um, I think I think what
I said is I said, is there any security here?
I said, see that guy over there yelling Garth Brooks,
I said, can you get that mother effort out of here?
And the crowd erupted and then I had him. We

(16:41):
were together. They clapped and the dude got escorted out
and all of a sudden, we're a family, you know,
And and then the show was great. Before that, all
I could hear is this guy kept on saying that
over and over again. Play Garth Brooks and I love
Garth Brooks, but no, not right now. And it worked.
And that's one of the things that I've learned just
over the years, Like you know, there's gonna be outside

(17:04):
forces that try to can mess you up and skip
you up, and you just don't give it a heartbeat,
get rid of it or play with it, don't shrink.
And then once that mother was kicked out, you brought
the house down with color on baton rouge and everyone
loved it. It was fun, man, it was very interesting.
I don't know if you know this. Do you know

(17:25):
When when I was at Old Miss, I was actually
there on a golf scholarship. So we're gonna get into
all that. Don't worry about this because now you've got
me thinking about Old Miss Man. That was so fun. Yeah,
a great place. Speaking of all this live music, I
feel like it's it's about to happen, or it's like
slowly happening. I was talking to Russell Dickerson on my
other podcast and he was like, dude, were about to

(17:47):
release a tour. You've got a tour coming up in
the fall of It's happening. We're back. I'm so excited. Yeah.
I mean, you know, right when the pandemic happened, I
finished three shows and and we were still I was
still thinking about going to Atlanta and finishing out that
next little part of the run, and my wife was like,

(18:07):
are you sure? And then next thing, you know, my
manager calls me and she was like, no, no, You're
not going anywhere. But what I did during that is,
I will tell you the positives of COVID For me,
there was actually I hate saying this, but there was
a lot of them. Um. The positives are I created
a much better and closer relationship with my fans. My
social media following doubled, and because I just became more involved,

(18:32):
and so I spent a whole week researching how to
how to create my own really great online live shows
with multiple cameras UM using and using o b S
online broadcast service and but like really owning it UM
and so I was kind of one of the first
guys that I know of during it that really hit

(18:54):
the ground running with the live shows online. I had,
you know, three camera set up. I switched the cameras
with my toes and it was so fun. Man, it
was really cool and I was able to do these fun,
quirky things that I do. But I will tell you this,
there are subtle things that you do in a live show,
really subtle things that do not translate online. And I'm

(19:14):
so looking forward to October because the tour got pushed
four times. In October, It's happening and I am ready
two to have a tangible experience with other humans, well
everyone out there. You can go get your tickets at
a Josh Kelly dot com. And the new unplugged record
is called Unplugged from Upstream Studios. It's out now on

(19:37):
Spotify and Apple Music and everywhere you can everywhere you
can get music out. Is there anything else that you
want to talk about or promote before we kind of
pivot over to my portion of the show. Yeah, well,
I'll just tell you too. Like the album that came
out in November is called My Baby in the Band,
and we just printed let's see if I have it
right here. We it's my first time ever, you know,

(19:59):
basically printing vinyl, like doing it on my own. Check
this out, dude. So we got this. This is actually
a picture that of my wife and I when we
were in New York in our honeymoon phase where we
you know, where everything was sparkles and butterflies. I got
to choose the color, dude. I have a huge vinyl

(20:20):
collection and I don't have one that's read and I
love it. Yeah, it's like lipstick red. So we're selling
these on online on my website and I'm I'm personalizing
and signing every one of them. So when people get
the record, you just have to put in the and
the comments like this is first stay Facious loves Jeremy

(20:41):
Day and and I'll put it on and I put
it on there. It's fun, man, I love it. And
we're like a homegrown one stop shop over here and
it's my wife and I and it's actually really fun.
I'm back to being an independent artist again because we've
thought about doing the major label thing again. But but
the thing is is, I'm forty one now, I've got
so many great relationships. We were really moving the needle

(21:02):
on our own with our partnerships and like digital distribution everything,
and nobody's buying when's the last time you bought a CD?
I don't even think they make cars with CD players anymore.
I think that's over right, Yeah, so I don't you know,
I think we're just gonna stay kind of homegrown, you know,
for as long as we can. And I'm loving it. Man.
It's it's more fun. I can put out a song
a day if I want to, instead of having to

(21:25):
wait for your place in line. It's definitely the way
the future, man, the way the industry is moving, it
makes the most sense. Or like, just do it like
Isabel did, and like start your own label and then
that's effectively what you're doing anyways, and you're putting out
That's that's what we've done. Yeah, we start our own label,
and we just partnered with the distribution company, which is
what major labels do anyway. And if you want to
go on a radio tour, just get alone. That's what

(21:46):
a breaker deal is. It's a loan. So I hate
saying that because now somebody's going to call me after
this and be like, I don't know whatever, I don't
give it. I don't think our c A is like, oh,
did you hear what happened on the Wells guest this weekend?
Josh Kelly would typical Josh Jops quick break. When we

(22:08):
come back. I don't know if anyone told you, but
my show's origin stories. I like to find out where
people came from and how they got here, the success
stories that you had along the way, the blueprint that
you have created for yourself that other people that listen
to this show can use in their life. So when
we come back, we're gonna find out where the hell

(22:29):
Josh came from and why the he is on this show.
Stick around and you're listening to the Welles Cast, you're
a nut all right? Back in the Wells Cast. Very

(22:53):
excited to have Josh Kelly on the show. New Unplugged
record out right now. It's called Unplugged Upstream Studios. You
can download its, stream it whatever over on the Internet.
And then of course the Fall tour is coming up
in October. Grab your tickets at Josh Kelly dot com.
I saw that you're opening up in Nashville at City Winery,
which is the place that's near and dear to my heart,

(23:15):
love that place. I love all those venues because it's
perfect for what I do. It's the perfect size audience.
It's the it's people that get my jokes, you know,
that are going to spend that much money on the ticket.
They get my jokes. I hate saying that, but you
know a lot of my stuff falls flat for anybody,
you know nineteen or younger, So I am in your
age bracket, and I too love that. I don't know,

(23:37):
like for people that don't know. It's kind of like
dinner theater but with with musicians, and it's so wonderful.
The food is great, like this is now turning into
a City Winery plug but the food is great, the
wine is great. And then it's also just like good vibes.
It's a bunch of people that like are there for
the same reason, like just to enjoy music sitting together.

(23:57):
You never know who's at your table other than the
people that you rot. It's awesome. Yeah, no, they spent
they spent their money. I think there's like ten of
them now and they spent money on making sure like
when you go there, it sounds like a freaking record,
like the sound system, the engineers that are there, I mean,
it's it sounds like. That's why I always tell them

(24:17):
to him, like when you please record the show for me,
because I want to be able to use this because
that sound quite so good. So that's that's what it is.
It's all about vibe. It's almost like you're going to
like a distillery or something. You need to take a tour,
like it looks like that nice and oki. Yeah, like
that kind of like oky places, floody. Everyone makes sure
you go download the new Unplugged record now grab your tickets.

(24:40):
I want to pivot over to my portion of the show.
I'm just kind of fascinated with how successful people became
successful and like what trials and tribulations you ran into
along the way. When we started the show off talking
about how we both went to Old Miss but you
know we got there in different avenues. I from California

(25:01):
and you were born in Georgia, right, yeah, originally Augusta, Georgia,
Home of the Masters. Yeah, which the tradition unlike any
other I know, you went to Old Miss on a
golfing scholarship and we will get there. But you grew
up in Augusta. Have you played Augusta? I have? You know,
I've been very lucky to have some friends who um

(25:21):
are members, and they've been very kind to me, and
you know, allowed me and my family and us to
go out there and play. And it really is the
most incredible, most beautiful experience. I hope that my buddy
Ernie is listening to this because I really like to
rub that in. There's something Bad's the most beautiful place
in the world, and it's weird. It's like its own
it's like its own country inside of the city of Augusta.

(25:44):
You know, you can't get in, and if you get in,
you can't get out. It's like one of those things.
It's its own little world, and it is a glorious,
beautiful world. Very rarely does anyone trump me on being
from a more badass golf mecca because I'm from Pubble Beach.
But I do think that you win because anyone can
go play Pebble, but not everyone can go play Augustina. Dude,

(26:08):
Pebble is not talk about an unbelievable experience. I think
I'm actually going to be doing when they when when
they allow the celebrity pro am to happen again, it
looks like I'm going in. My little brother does it
all the time. My younger brothers, Charles Kelly from the
band Lady and A Bellum now called Lady A and Um.
You know, he does it every year. And I used
to do all these pro ams and then finally my

(26:30):
wife was like, if you're not making money, you can't
just leave us for a week. So I what I
always do now is I'll always call whoever is like
putting on the celebrity pro am. I'm like, hey, if
you need entertainment, just think of think of me, because
then I can I can justify going. So you were
born in Augusta, Georgia. Is it just you and your
brother or do you have other siblings? Know, there's six

(26:51):
of us with a brady bunch, the girls, three boys
and uh you know Charles and I. Well, actually my
older brother. The reason we got into music is my
older brother on you know, took us everywhere with him
and I honestly I can't thank him enough for that,
Like everywhere he went, even with his friends. We were
in his beat up car, listening to led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath,
Jethro Tolls, Supertramp Like. He just immersed us with music.

(27:15):
And then when he he went off to college, he
was on a golf scholarship at wake Forest and he
came home one day with like some pawn shop guitar
and when he went back to school, he accidentally left
it there. And when he came back a month later,
I had already taught myself a couple of led Zeppelin
songs and he was like, well, I guess I'm giving
this thing to you. Like he couldn't take it from

(27:37):
me after that, And so that's really how music started
for us. And um, we made a drum set for
Charles out of pots and pans, and next thing you know,
we're just jamming all the time. And I felt like
Charles and I put in our ten thousand hours before
we ever even got to college. That's how music started
for us, just gigging around. We had a band called

(27:57):
Inside Blue. I remember that James Brown's manager, Larry Friday,
he wanted to sign us to a record deal. I
remember this. We were like fifteen and fourteen. He was like,
you'll have a record release party and in New York
will have all the finest ladies and all this kind
of stuff. We were like, yeah, Larry, and my dad
came to the meeting and he was like, nope, you
do any addition. We were so mad at my dad,

(28:20):
but thank god he said no, because who knows where
we'd be right now. I'd probably still be new music,
but I'd probably be on the side of sleeping on
a park bench and in California somewhere. I had read
that like in in meeting uh those people and being
offered that uh that deal that you got to actually

(28:41):
meet James Brown though oh yeah, wow, I'm a huge
James Brown fan, and yeah we got to meet James Brown.
I still can remember the feeling of his hand on
the handshake. It was like it was like a like
a like a really he had a really thick hand too,
and it was like a like an old like baseball glove.

(29:02):
I could I swear. I can still feel. It's like
dry baseball glove hands and and it and it it
was so like nice and warm and nurturing handshake. He
was like hello, young man. I was like hey, Mr Brown,
and he was so cool man. It was just a
cool dude. Uh, and I got to I think we
met him again too when we were my little brother

(29:23):
was getting like allergy shots. He was at the allergy
shot doctor and my mom was like, my boys would
love to shake your hand. He's so nice man. Yeah,
we got to meet James. That was great. You put
in your ten thousand hours before you went to college,
but I guess you also put in your ten thousand
hours before you went to college for golf as well,
because you went to Old Miss on a golf scholarship.

(29:44):
At the time. Were you like, I'm gonna be a
musician or were you like I'm gonna be the next
Tiger Woods? You know, I didn't. I didn't know. All
I knew is that I wanted to to to get
far enough away from Augusta where I could kind of
like started. I mean, I loved my growing up in
august It was amazing. It was a perfect place to

(30:06):
grow up and have the opportunities to learn music and
and golf and all those kind of things. But I
just I've always been kind of a loner and I
need space, you know, to to kind of you know,
blossom and being myself. And so I was I was
very excited about golf, but music has always been sort
of like the dream. And I remember when I was
a kid, tell him my little brother. I was like,

(30:27):
I'm I think I'm gonna doing music for a job.
And remember him going, no, no, you can't, man, nobody
does that. They're born into it. I was like, I
don't think so. I think they're just normal people. It
just you know, worked really hard, and so it was
always in the back of my mind. And I think
what happened is is once I started realizing that I
was going on more dates because of music and not

(30:50):
golf when I was in college, I really just sort
of organically started steering myself in that direction and and
then it just, you know, it happened out of nowhere.
I don't know if I how many times I haven't
really said this very much about how I did it,
but I remember when I came up with my little,
for lack of better words, scheme online scheme. At the time,

(31:12):
I think it was like two thousand or two one,
I knew it was gonna work, and it involved Napster,
remember Napster. Of course, what happened is is that you know,
I was making music that I really that I liked
and I and I was like, I need to get
my music out there. And you know, I had already
had Napster and I was, you know, getting music and

(31:32):
at the time, Napster basically it's like if somebody in
let's say Braithwait Louisiana, had their laptop open and and
we're sharing their library songs, you know, you could take
from their laptop and you know, share it through the
Internet onto yours. And so I realized one day, by accident,
I right clicked on somebody's unique user name, and all

(31:54):
of a sudden, this little thing popped up on Napster.
It was like, basically you could send them a message,
and I went really, and so every single day I
would type in a new artist, Like first day I
typed in James Taylor, and then a hundred results of
unique users that were sharing James Taylor songs basically came
up on a list and so I sent a hundred

(32:17):
people that day a mets is saying, Hey, I noticed
that you like James Taylor. Why don't you try this
kid out I just found named Josh Kelly. You're gonna
love him. What was your user name? Did you have
a different user names of people weren't like I don't
even remember who knows what it was. It was probably
something stupid. I think it actually was something stupid. It
was like change basket or something like that. But it
wasn't like Josh Kelly at Gmail and they're like this

(32:39):
guy Josh Kelly is telling me to go check out this.
It was. No, it wasn't. I prided myself on coming
up with clever names, and now I'm older, old enough
to realize that none of those things using names the
game at would be clever at all. But yeah, I
did it a hundred times a day for I think
about two months, you know, and I would go to
the library at Old Miss and do it because there
was a firewall, so you know, nobody knew what my

(33:02):
IP address was. And basically after about two three weeks,
I didn't even have to have my laptop of the
open anymore to to share to host my songs. People
were sharing them on their own. They so many people
have downloaded my stuff that it, for lack of better words,
kind of went viral and napster. And then I remember
one of my recipients about two months into it, I

(33:26):
think I was basically had like typed in like Stevie
Wonder or something. I said, hey, if you like Stevie Wonder,
you're gonna love Josh Kelly and and all of a sudden,
for the first time in two months, somebody actually like
sent me a message back and said, hey, I love
this stuff. Who is this guy? And I said, well,
it's actually me. I'm just trying to get my music
out there. And he goes, well, I'm an A and
R guy for Hollywood Records. Can I call you tomorrow?

(33:48):
And I gave him my number and I thought it
was BS, and all my friends were like, this is BS,
And all of a sudden, he called me the next day,
and six months later I had a record deal, and
a year later I had, you know, one of the
highest played songs on the radio. And it really all
happened a little bit too fast, but it happened. That's ingenious, dude.

(34:09):
I wish what I knew. I wish at the time
I knew what I was doing with social media, I
would be a billionaire, but I just all I cared
about was getting the music out. I didn't realize it
like people wanted to communicate on a platform. If only
you had known that Instagram was going to be a
thing out of flowing my helicopter too. I'd be right

(34:30):
there in person with you right now. So that all happens,
you become this kind of huge name. You somehow hacked Napster,
which is genius. What happens next? The A and R
guy asked me to send him music. So I burned
a CD, and and I was an art major at
Old MRS. So I used the art department to make
like a really cool CD cover and all this kind

(34:52):
of and so you know, remember the Mac computers that
were looked like an ice cube. Yeah, that's what I
made it on. And so I sent him the music
and he loved it. But and he, you know, and
I was I was really talking myself up to him
when I was on the phone. I mean, and I
you know, I talked to him like every week. I
wouldn't let I wanted to be on his frontal lobes

(35:14):
at all times, because by god, this was gonna happen.
And so I sent him music, and I was telling
him how the shows, where I probably was embellishing them
a little bit. I was like, dude, there's like ten
thou people here, you know, and he came out to
see He came out to see a show, and you know,
I think he liked what he saw. And then we
just kept on chatting and then at one point he

(35:35):
was like, let me fly you out here to l
A and he flew me out. And I played for
the A and R team, you know, at the record
label on the Disney lot. And here's the problem. I
don't know how I got away with this, but or
how I'm even got in the business, because I showed
up with berking stocks, uh frat boy hair, a golf

(35:55):
shirt and raggedy khaki shorts and I played my songs
and I remember, you know, going back home and in
that called him. I said, you know, how how did
it go? They were like, hey, they really like you
and they loved the song, but they don't think you're
a star. And I was like, what not a star?
And it's because dude, I showed up in sand you

(36:15):
know what an idiot? You know? But I was. That
was me and I remember going, well, I think what
I said to him, I said, go over them. He
goes that. They don't want to. You know, the in
our team didn't want to take a chance on you.
I said, we'll go over their heads then go to
someone else, and he literally went to the general manager
and played them the song because I asked him to
go over their head and the general man was like,

(36:36):
why are we not what? This is a hit? And
the next thing, you know, I had the deal. It
was almost not gonna happen. And I think at the time,
I just I wish I still had that fire. You know,
I'm still looking for that guy sometimes. That was you know,
it was gonna happen to come hell or high water,
and I lost him a little bit. But it was
very interesting. You know, when you have that that much

(36:58):
will and you is you know, you know you're gonna
make it happen, it always seems like things just kind
of do you know. It's so funny because I have
this conversation with a lot of really successful people, a
lot of actors and musicians and stuff. In that time
of your life, there is no plan B. And so
when you have no plan B, it makes it really
really easy to be like super hungry because there is

(37:21):
no fallback. Yeah, there's no there's no doubt. I mean,
you know, I remember being you know, having all this
nervous energy back then that was a little almost kind
of manic, you know, I mean it was it was
all I thought about. It's all I focused on. I remember,
you know, praying for a record deal, and I had
a ritual every night that I did. I literally would

(37:43):
I would kneel down next to my bed when I
was at Old Miss, I would need on next to
the bed. I made sure no covers were touching me
and nothing on the floor was touching my legs or anything.
It was like, it was like this crazy ritual, and
I was praying for a record deal. Everything that I
was thinking about, everything I was doing, was focused on that.
So if there was any angles that were coming at

(38:03):
me that maybe nowadays I probably wouldn't see it, then
I was so focused on anything that could even fit
in the category of helping me to get a record deal,
I saw it at all times, you know, and I
pulled those things in. So it was interesting how I
look back on that time my life where you know, yeah,
I mean I was gonna make it happen, you know,

(38:24):
if it wasn't going to be Hollywood Records, and if
he couldn't have gone over their heads to get to
the GM, we were going to go to Columbia. We're
gonna go somewhere else. I was going to knock on
doors until it happened, And you know, I am actually
finding that guy again. I will tell you what's helped
is I stopped drinking bourbon. Oh boy, I mean me,

(38:46):
my brother is my family. We have very addictive personalities,
and I spent a lot of the last whatever fifteen
years being uh, not the best version of myself, a
bad guy or anything, just just always like living in
a low hanging fog. Over the last two months, I've
been so clearheaded. I am running on functioning on all

(39:09):
cylinders again, and now I'm addicted to that. Yeah, I
love it, dude. I love being sharp and and really
getting stuff done and like you know, and like turning in.
I'm writing a new song every day or every other
day with an artist and sometimes different countries. And I'll
do the demo after we're done on the zoom and
then I send the song in and it's like that

(39:32):
stuff makes me super happy. Now. I don't know why,
I just love it. I assume you got signed to
Hollywood Records. Was it a good deal? Yeah, yeah, it
was a good deal. I you know, I had actually
my A and R guy at the time. He found
me a good lawyer, you know, I mean, and I
will tell you this, like if there's any young kids
who are thinking about doing this, and you know, and
here's some advice that I wish that I would have

(39:53):
been given. I got two things. The first thing is
I wanted to show my parents that I could do it.
I didn't need their help. I could do it all
my own. I regret that I wish that I would
have involved my dad and you know, my mom and
everybody else, because there's a certain wisdom that he would
have brought to the table. And there's mistakes that I

(40:15):
would not have made. I made a lot of them.
But now because of all those mistakes, I'm when if
a new young artist comes here and I'm writing with him,
I'm able to teach that. The second little life lesson
which I did, hold on to my very first producer
who produced all that. His name is John Alasia. He
produced John Mayer's first record, Jason Mraz Lifehouse. You know,
we were like, it's like young singer songwriter, like factory.

(40:40):
And he told me to never sell my publishing. He said,
it will be your retirement. It will be your kids
education one day and I took that to heart and
I had there was a lot of people throwing a
lot of big money at me back then, and he said,
just remember that whatever that figure is, it has to
last year basically the rest of your life. And and

(41:01):
and then in a little way, you're kind of betting
against yourself. So I never did it, and now here
I am forty one, still own my publishing and it
literally is my retirement. It is my kid's education. Is
exactly what he said, So kids, don't bet against yourself
unless it's twenty million dollars. Didn't take it. Yeah, but

(41:22):
that mailbox money, baby, it's good stuff. I've wrote the
theme song for the TV show Mike and Molly and
it got syndicated, and I will tell you that was
an answered prayer man, because before that I was running
low on dough. All of a sudden, out of nowhere,
Kebmo and myself we got that theme song, and yeah,

(41:44):
I needed it. That financial security, you know, man, entertainment
business is there's no guaranteed. You make your guarantees hopefully
very true. Okay, so you signed with Hollywood. I assume
you go on tour for a while. When did you
separate from them? Uh? So, let's see, I made two
records for Hollywood Records. So the song only You, that

(42:07):
was the first single off the second record, Only You.
That's how I met my wife. Really, Um, I had
just bought a house in Nashville, and because I wanted I,
I was just ready to get back to the South
and I bought us in Nashville. And the day after
I bought the house, I had to go back to
l A and shoot a music video for the song
only You, and I didn't know who was gonna be
the leading lady in it at all. But and then

(42:29):
when I met her, it was Captain Freak and Heigel,
and I still didn't know then. I didn't know who
she was because nobody told me or anything. But we
were both under the Disney umbrella, you know, Hollywood Records.
She was on ABC doing grays Anatomy, and we hit
it off. Man, we hit it off, and we've literally
been together since that day and not until I can't
remember what it was. But when I was a kid,

(42:51):
I was totally obsessed with her movie, um My Father
the Hero, but I didn't know that it was her
for a while. And literally when I found out it
was her, I went, I can't believe that somehow I
figured out how to find that girl in my life
that I was totally in love with when I was thirteen?
How and the did that happened? And we've been together

(43:14):
since two thousand five minutes? So I think Hollywood records
for that. But after that record they let me go.
Wasn't she also the daughter and under Siege? Was? Was she? Okay? Yeah,
your wife's done a lot of really cool movies. I mean,
like Knocked Up Still is like one of my favorite.
It's so funny and so well done. I remember that's

(43:35):
actually when I proposed to her. Deft way through shooting
that movie. I took her to the place where we
shot the video that the couple that owned it on
Venice Beach, on the place they were like, yeah, of course,
I said, I want to propose to her here. So
they let me go up there and set up a
whole thing, and I proposed to her on the rooftop
in Venice where we shot the video. Like did you
feel a spark immediately or you're like, oh, she's like

(43:57):
a great actress and like this is no. I didn't
even know she was an actress, and I just I really,
I tell people on my shows all the time. I
cracked people up. I'm like, dude, I got Katherine Hygo
for twenty dollars Like that definitely wasn't gonna happen. I
mean what it talked about the sweet So I was
like right before Grey's Anatomy really hit, you know, so
I didn't know. We just hit it off, like we

(44:19):
were hitting it. We were in two separate buildings, so
we're like having this sort of love affair, you know,
through the windows while I'm playing music with my band
and she's dancing through the music and this, you know,
basically whatever apartment on the other side. And then we
started doing our scenes together. And when we did, that's
when I turned up the charm Southern charm Baby and

(44:40):
I started working it. And it's crazy, man. We literally
we have been together since that day. We just hit
it off, and you know, and I know this sounds
super cheesy, but she's definitely my freaking my soul jam.
You know, we just we fight like cats and dogs,
but we just get each other many that's for and awesome. Man.

(45:00):
How long from shooting that to like first makeout session
a week first day, but she had a yeah, but
anything past that, she had like a two month rule.
And I've never heard of anybody having any rules. You know,
I didn't. I didn't. The only rules I grew up

(45:21):
with there like you know, brush your teeth and go
to bed. I didn't know that those rules. And so
but I, you know, I was like, absolutely, you know,
anything you want, I got to cover it. So that
was great. Man. She's just, she's just, she's rad, she's fun.
You know, she has a lot of respect for herself
and and and and I respect that. I think we

(45:42):
were definitely both in love. But I think when you
know you've got something pretty special, you don't want to
you don't want to ruin it with that. You know,
there's more to life than that. So I'm glad that
she's taught me a lot. She's definitely made me a
way better person. And and you know, she's kind of
taught me how to see past myself. I can be
very self absorbed because I love making music, I love

(46:03):
what I do. I like to do my things. And
I've learned a lot from her, for sure, on how
to be how to how to not just keep myself
to myself, you know what I mean, like how to
be more present as a as a family man and
and and all that. So yeah, I'm very grateful. Yeah,
there's something to be said for getting involved with like

(46:27):
a super high functioning, powerful woman because I'm the same way.
I'm super self absorbed. I do these shows about me
and everything. And when I see her creative spark and
like her drive that I'm like, I gotta keep up
or I gotta try to at least, you know, and
it you know, it's like you know, rising tides raises

(46:48):
all ships or whatever, and it's an important thing to
align yourself with someone who also is super driven or
as driven as you would like to be. You know.
It makes life I feel like a lot easier. Yeah,
it's very interesting, you know what I mean. Like I've
never she's so freaking talented. Like you know, when I go,
I forget sometimes that this is what she does for
living living, And like I went and she was doing

(47:10):
her Netflix show and and I you know, I'll sit
right there next to director or whatever. Sometimes they'll give
me a chair, and I forget, My god, she's so
good this and it's effortless. She doesn't people get mad
at her because she doesn't have to. She will look
at like three pages of lines one time while you're
doing your hair and knows them for the rest of

(47:31):
the day. And everybody else is like studying their lines
and like, how do you do that? Do you have
a photographic memory? Like what is it? She goes, No,
I just really try to understand the tone of the moment,
like what like I put myself in the that emotional scenario.
And it's not so much that I've memorized all the lines.
I memorized. I memorized the feet, the feeling, and and

(47:52):
so it allows her to she knows what it's gone.
She knows what's going on, you know what I mean?
She doesn't. It's not like you can tell when an
actor is like really trying to pull from the member bank,
like what was that line? What was that line? And
they're like seeing it go through their head. She's just
pulling on the emotion and I'm like, you're genius, how
did you do that? And she's put in you know,

(48:13):
hundred thousand hours and I think that's how you do it.
I guess I don't know if it blows my mind. Well, hey, man,
I want to be respectful of your time. I generally
end the show before rapid fire questions with this question,
which is is there a credo or a motto or
a rule that you live by that you've found that
helps you continue to be successful and whatever it is

(48:35):
you do. God, that's a really going I have a
bunch of them. I'll tell you what I've learned in
my last ten years of living. Honesty is so freaking huge.
You remember when you were a kid and you would
you would have like a lie and you didn't want
anybody to know. This line you would hold onto and
even if people knew, you would still just like you
and it and it would it would eat you up
inside whatever you were hiding, it would eat you up inside.

(48:58):
And um and really kind of like just that nervous
energy can just kind of ruin your life. And and
there was a time in my life where I just
went honesty all the time, always, no more bs. When
I was a kid, I had to do a lot
of bullshit for reasons I won't explain, but to for
other people's feelings, you know, to make them feel better.

(49:19):
Tell him everything's will be whatever. And and now I'm
just I'm learning. I'm still not perfect at it. But
if you can be honest as you can throughout the
day all the time, you won't You'll never have that nervous,
niggling crap that can eat you alive. And yeah, definitely
it's very freeing, you know, even if it's bad, I
just you know, say it it's and it just freezy.

(49:39):
It's like when Jerry McGuire's beating on the steering wheel
when he finally gets was it Kushman or whatever and
the song plays and he's just so happy. I think
that's kind of like the relief that your body feels
when you when you don't put yourself in bad situations anymore.
Mean you're just honest about how you feel what is
going on, and it just cuts through the bullshit. I
work on this reality TV show where I'm kind of

(50:00):
like therapist slash bartender, and a lot of people will
come up to me and they'll ask for advice and
it's always the same, which which is what what you're
saying is. But the way that I say that is,
I was like, the truth always sells every single time.
If you lie, then you sound inauthentic because it's not
who you are, So just be who you are, and
I tell you what nine times out of ten, Especially

(50:21):
in the reality TV world, everyone wants to be the
funny guy on TV. The truth is always much funnier
than whatever you've come in your mind because the truth
is something that everyone can relate to. Oh yeah, I
I can't go on the stakes. I have diarrhea. I
ate too many times last night. So that's very true
and like a hard to say, but it's hilarious and
everyone that watches will be like, I've been there too. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah,

(50:45):
honestly is relatable and like I was saying, you know,
two fourteen, when I decided to be to not care
what people think, It's all I was doing is just
being authentically my honest self, my my true self. And
after that, man, uh god, it is so freeing. I
don't I really don't get nervous for shows anymore. I
get excited and I already know I'm about to take

(51:08):
people on an experience and it makes me. It is
better than any drug. I swear it is the best.
Before I lets you go, you're ready for some rapid
fire questions. Oh god, okay, God, I'm so bad at
these all right, I'm ready, alright. Rapid fire questions with
Josh Kelly. First of all, on favorite pizza topping, Oh uh,
sausage and black olives. You have a favorite book, Malcolm

(51:30):
Gladwell Outliers. First constant every went to? Uh? That was
Vince Gill with my mom. First job you ever had
was at Hickory Ham. I was glazing Hams and making
the most amazing sandwiches for lunch people's lunch time experience.
Aside from your wife, who's the most famous person in
your phone, and maybe also aside from your brother Ashton Kutcher.

(51:52):
That's a good one. First record cassette or CD you
bought Pearl jam Tin nice? Favorite superhero? My favor superhero
was Hulk Holgan. Maybe I only he wasn't superhero, but
I thought he was at as a kid, I always
had him making out with Barbie, but Barbie was so
much taller. He had to overcome, you know, he needed

(52:13):
something to overcome. Physical trait. You noticed first about someone
you're attracted to, Oh man, it's just vibe usually yeah,
confident in their own skin, so physical traits. So I
would say, how they hold himself while they're smiling? Did
you have a celebrity crush when I was a kid? Yeah,

(52:33):
I mean it literally was the girl from my father
The Hero and then Marrier. I swear god, it is
so weird. I can't believe it. I can still I could.
I haven't seen that movie and forever and I can
still like paint you a few of my favorite frames
that have been stained in my memory since. Josh Kelly
truly Winning It Life, The Unplugged from Upstream Studios is

(52:55):
out now, go stream it, downloaded by it. He's got
vine for sale at Josh Kelly dot com. Don't forget
about the Fall tour again. Also tickets available at Josh
Kelly dot com. Where can people find you on social
media or on Napster for that matter, Yeah, Naster and
there funny. So Josh B. Kelly, my midnime is Bishop.
Actually always wanted to go by like Bishop Kelly is

(53:18):
my my stage name, but they wouldn't let me. So
it's Josh Josh B. Kelly and Kelly spelled k e
l l e y. And we do some pretty goofy
funny ship there too, man. So it's it's actually been
a lot of fun for me to build that following up.
My wife thinks that my following is cute. That's what
she calls. Yeah, I feel like four million. I think
I have like a hundred thousand, and she's like, oh,

(53:39):
that's adorable, honey. Yeah, dude, I'm in the same boat
as you. Bro. Hey, let's play. Yes, let's play some
golf soon, dude, let's do it. I'm in let's do
it all right, Hotty Tide. Brother, thank you so much
for being on the show. It was really wonderful talking
with you. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Man. Alrightee man,
blast but subscribe her radio, Apple podcasts or anywhere you

(54:02):
get your podcasts. It's the internet line, h