August 18, 2025 • 41 mins
In this inspiring and unfiltered conversation, Jordan Davis opens up about his unlikely path from environmental science graduate to award-winning country music star. He shares the grind of his early years in Nashville—bartending by night, writing songs by day—and the turning point that came after almost giving up. Jordan talks about the formula for a great song, the story behind “Buy Dirt,” and how becoming a dad has shaped his priorities. From playing legendary venues like Red Rocks and Radio City to balancing touring life with raising four kids, this episode is a masterclass in perseverance, authenticity, and chasing dreams.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Post Friend. Hi. I am so excited
for today's episode because it is with one of my
all time favorite country singers, Jordan Davis. If you guys
follow me on Instagram, you know how often I have
been sharing Jordan's songs to my stories because truthfully, I
have been running to his music all summer long. So
to actually go for a run with him through Brooklyn
(00:20):
and then sit down for this conversation, it was a
total dream come true. Also I got him to sing
along to Buy Dirt with me on the run, so yeah, guys,
safe to say I was on cloud nine. In this conversation,
you are going to learn all about Jordan's untraditional journey
in country music. Jordan actually never set out to be
a country singer, which I was so surprised to learn.
He thought he was going to be a Nashville songwriter.
(00:42):
But as we all know, life has a way of
surprising us, and Jordan's story is proof that when you
stay open to possibility and keep showing up for what
you love, doors can open in ways you never imagined.
And before we jump in, I love hearing your ideas
for the show, So please follow me on Instagram at
kpe Max and send me a DM with your dream
guest picks for the show. All right, let's get into
(01:04):
today's episode with Jordan Davis. Jordan Davis, welcome to Post
Run High.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you, thank you very much. That was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We ran a little over a mile in Brooklyn. Ye,
how are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I feel great. I don't run a ton.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
We usually on the road will work out, but like
mostly just waits.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But I feel like I handled that better than I thought.
I thought.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I thought at some point I was gonna have to
tell you, like, hey, can I get five?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But we made it through.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, we made it through. I know. I was hoping
you wouldn't tell me that, and you didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, you made it through the whole run. No breaks.
A lot of people take breaks, so Jordan crushed it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You'd probably run a lot further than a mile or two, so.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, I know, I was like I was hoping it
it wasn't too far of because sometimes when we start
doing those piers in Brooklyn, it can become like two
miles really quick when we promise a mile. So I
was like Jeremy's Times of Germany. Yeah, no worries, We
talked about it a little bit on the run, but
tell us a little bit more about like your workout
routine and maybe like how you guys stay fit on tour.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think a lot of it is just we have
so much time to kill, you know. Music is a
lot of sit around and wait, so we try to
go in the morning, find a gym. A lot of
times the menu will have either a gym hook up
or if we're playing an arena, usually either hockey team
or something, we can use their facilities. But we usually lift,
you know, three to four times a week. I think
the biggest thing it's like trying to be smart with
(02:40):
what I'm working out, you know, either it be I've
had some lower back issues, so like trying to strengthen
my legs, strengthen muscles around the back. And then the
other side of it is the diet.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know, it's like.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Trying to you know, if depending on where we're at,
a lot of times we're in the middle of nowhere,
so we're either bringing food or trying to run down
something to eat healthy. But yeah, out there it's mostly
three or four times a week lifting weights, trying to
eat clean and yeah, now after today throwing in some cardio.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I mean, what's great about this show is you
get your workout in and now you know you're set
for the day because getting a little movement, I feel
like always makes you feel better.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's like, you know, getting which is great having Alex out,
you know, because it's very easy to get pretty still
on the road or hang on the bus or go
do something else. So having him out there to kind
of kick us in gear early, knock it out and
get back and start focusing on the show.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
It's interesting knowing that you said, you guys have a
lot of extra time on the show, which makes sense,
right because you're performing at night and then you got
to fill your time during the day. Our interview with
your Spentley is coming out this Monday, but we played
pickleball before the show with him, so it was fun
knowing that his team kind of sets up the pickleball courts.
They get out there, they you know, get very competitive.
You guys do stuff like that too, Like what are
(04:01):
some of the activities you're feeling your time?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Absolutely, So we toured with Dirks a couple of years ago,
which is where we picked up pickleball, so we usually
go to pick a ball in the fall. You know,
when it gets cold outside, you can't really do much.
So well, we stole their court making abilities, so we'll
make our own courts play pickaball in the fall, or
if we're in you know, arenas or wherever, we'll try
(04:24):
to do pick up basketball, something indoors and active. In summer,
we play a lot of golf, so like we'll you know,
either play golf and then go get a workout in
or vice versa. I'd say like that time from you know,
waking up to one two pm is kind of when
(04:44):
we have our That time between one, you know or
from waking up to two pm is kind of when
we have our time to go do something, be active.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You know, songwriters are good with audio when you just
do you repeated yourself because something came on. Are you
a sports fan outside you are? What's your favorite team?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So, I mean, I'm a huge football fan. So being
from Louisiana, I'm a Saints guy. New on the Saints
and then I went to LSU, So I'm a huge
LSU Tiger fan. Football and baseball my two. So my
baseball team is Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, So and you said for the forty nine Ers,
you've performed at that stadium or before games?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
No, we got to play.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We did a tour Luke Holmes and played NFL stadiums,
So we got to play the forty nine Ers, the Bengals,
the Bills. We got to check off a lot of
really cool football stadiums. And that was, you know, awesome
on a sense of like you're getting to play these
amazing stadiums that you know, I'm used to watching people
(05:51):
play football on Sundays, but also too, they were really
cool and let us you know, work out in the gyms,
getting tour the facility, see the locker rooms.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Going to say, I feel like seeing the locker rooms
is like the coolest thing.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I mean it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I feel like, what's going to be cool for you too,
is you've got your first performance at Red Rocks coming up.
Like that's going to be pretty surreal going backstage there.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You know, I was a huge Dave Matthews fan, so
like the live you know, DVDs. Kids don't even know
what those are anymore, but like I would watch these
DVDs of Dave at Red Rocks, and you know, with
no clue back then that this would ever music would
ever pan out in this way. But I think the
(06:33):
coolest thing is I've had some chances to some opportunities
to play Red Rocks as an opener, and is actually
one of them was with Dirks on a tour that
ended up going away because you know, twenty twenty one,
right at start a COVID, and I remember being bummed
at that tour went away because Red Rocks was on it.
(06:55):
But now, you know, being able to go there for
the first time as a headliner is going to be
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I mean, it's going to be surreal. The first, the
first and only concert I saw at Red Rocks was
oh gosh, what is it called Big Wild? Oh yeah, yeah,
and it was insane.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's a special spot.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's a special spot. I remember we were going to
Colorado for the first time to visit Jeremy's brother who
lives in Colorado Springs, and I said, the one thing
we're absolutely doing is we were driving to Denver and
we're going to Red Rocks. So that's going to be
pretty surreal. You said, growing up you were a Dave
Matthews fan. Yeah, what was like your life, like in Louisiana.
Were you always into music? Did you play sports growing up?
(07:35):
Like what was young Jordan Like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, music from an early age, and I think
a lot of that was just my dad the family,
which we talked a little bit about, but like, you know,
my uncle being a songwriter. My dad was an avid
guitar player and kind of you know, would pick songs
and stuff. So and then my mom was piano player,
you know, played piano at the church. So you know,
we grew up Sunday and Wednesday night being there watching
(07:58):
her play. So like, music was very was just from
the start. And then you know, as I got older,
I got into sports and I played football and baseball
you know, up through high school. But yeah, music never
got too too far. But it really wasn't until you know,
college that I picked the guitar up and started trying
to write my own songs. You know, I'd always like
(08:19):
cover songs or you know, basically songs my dad had played.
But you know, still to this day, I'm not really
like an artist that and like I'm envious of artists
like Jaco and Dirk's is great at this but like
being able to just play any song out there, you know,
picking a guitar up and you name a song and
they can play it. I've never really been that guy,
(08:41):
just because when I, you know, really started playing guitar,
it was just always to write my own stuff. But yeah,
college is when that really took off.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Being able to pick up the guitar and play any song.
I feel like that's like a special talent. Like do
you feel like more a lot of people can do
that that are musicians.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, well, I mean it's just like it's I'm so
bad at it, and like it shocks me when one
person knows like five cover songs.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That's like to me, that's like people that can like
see a dance choreographed like once and then be able
to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I mean some some people just have that gift. Like
and I say that, and Jake is Jake Owen's.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Really really good at it. But I don't know. I
think it just goes back to.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
When I started playing, it was just to write my
own stuff, and you know, still and the guitar is
one of those things where like you can always learn
something new, you know, I can. I'm not a great
guitar player by any means, but it's it's it's fun
to watch somebody. I've got a guy, Marcus King is
(09:44):
on a song on this record with me, and he's
the best guitar player I've ever like been around, and
uh watching him play it, like, you know, kind of
inspires me to It's like, come on, dude, you could
you could get a little bit better at that. So
uh yeah, that's the next that's the next goal.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Next goal. I feel like it's cool to have like
a foundational understanding of playing the guitar, especially as a
country singer, and then you can kind of appreciate somebody
like that phenomenal at it. But it's cool that you
you taught yourself how to play. Yeah, when you were
at LSU, you were studying environmental science. Did you think
that you were going to do something completely different post college?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah? I did? You know?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I had moved when I got to Baton Rouge. You know,
I kind of jumped majors around a couple of times.
I knew I wanted to go into one Gas Like
that was like kind of what I thought my life
was going to be. I figured I would move to
New Orleans, get a job with a one Gas company,
and that would be that would be how it turned out.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I graduated, I started working.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
With a friend of mine who had an environmental company
in Baton Rouge, and I worked there for probably five
six months.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And you know, there's no school. It was the eight, it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Was the nine to five. Uh, And that's kind of
when it set into me. Like, you know, I was
still playing a lot of music, going to a lot
of shows in Baton Rouge, and uh, it was just like,
all right, this is life, Like if I if.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
This is what I want to do, this is this
is the blueprint.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You know, I work this and maybe I'll get promoted
and be able to climb the ladder at this company,
which I loved working there and the people were great,
but you know, every night it was kind of like
I don't know if, I don't know if I'm ready
to do this yet. And uh there was just that
constant pool at you know, moving to Nashville and giving
songwriting a shot. But uh, yeah, I never I never
(11:38):
really saw I definitely didn't see music working out the
way it did. But grateful I made the move and
and gave it a shot.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's cool knowing that you had this itch when you
were working, you know that nine to five. When you
were growing up, how was success kind of defined in
your house? And how many siblings you have?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Like what's the You've got an older brother and a
younger sister. Okay, uh and we're all within you know,
seven years.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But yeah, I think that I kind of.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And this is no knock on on my parents, but
you know, like, uh, it was kind of the go
to work, uh, you know, get the nine to five,
come home to the picket fence and buy a house
and work a job that's safe and comfortable. And I
think that that was.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
What I thought. Uh you know, it was like go
to go to.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
College, you gotta get a degree, you gotta do this,
you gotta you gotta make this much coming out of college,
or you know, it's it's kind of just put all
these parameters on stuff. And that's what I thought success
was at the time, to where now, you know, being
a dad, I think that that I can I'll probably
shift that view of success a little bit to my
(13:04):
kids because you know, I'm so grateful that something in
me pushed me to move to Nashville and chase something.
And I've always said this, you know, is being a
musician or really working anything outside of the box. You know,
I think it just takes confidence in what you do
(13:24):
to chase after it. And that's like the biggest thing
I'm proud of to be able to teach my kids.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Was like, you know, it wasn't easy. It wasn't fun leaving.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
A job that was pretty stable to move to Nashville
and go back to bartending at twenty six and writing
songs and getting rejected here, getting rejected there, having a
good meeting here, but not panning out like you know,
And that was my first four or five years in Nashville.
So but you know, I stuck with it, and you know,
(13:58):
it was a passion that I loved, and it's okay
to stick with passions a little bit longer and ignore
a few knows to see where it gets you.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
And I feel like sometimes you have to ignore even
family members who want the best for you, that are like,
you know, stay in that nine to five, like do
songwriting on the side. But yeah, you really created your
own lane, which is the scariest thing about doing your
own thing. And I think what's cool about going to Nashville, though,
is you get to see some of the greats that
have done it before you, and you're in this culture
of a lot of people trying to make it, so
(14:29):
there's a lane in some way. It's just kind of
like carving your own path within it. We talked a
lot with Dirk's about like learning the craft of country music,
and I thought it was fascinating as a Jersey girl
that web you talked about this. But I grew up
listening to Akon and Beyonce, so I didn't know much
about country music. Now I'm a huge country fan. So
can we talk a little bit about like when you
moved from Louisiana to Nashville, Like what were those early
(14:52):
years like for you? You know, you were bar attending, but
like paint the picture of like what life looked like
for Jordan at the time.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So I left the environmental job and had, you know,
maybe like two months of money saved up to before
then I could just survive. I moved in with a
friend of mine that is still grateful to the state
didn't charge you rent for the first four months, and
then after that he's like, all right, you got to
(15:19):
figure it out.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So I moved to town.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I found a job bartending pretty quick and you know,
kind of started meeting my group of writers and friends,
and which has been really cool because a lot of
those have we've kind of all come up together.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And one of those was Carly Pearce, who.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I think we met in twenty twelve so have been
dear friends since.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But like, and I had this thought.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I was like, all right, when I moved to Nashville,
I want to sign a publishing deal, which means I
could focus on music one hundred percent. You know, you
get paid to write songs. That's basically what a publishing
deal is. And I was just like, man, I want
to sign au pup deal within two years and you know,
hopefully get a couple of songs cut. And you know,
that was like the that was the goal. At four
(16:09):
years in, I was still bartending. No signs of a
publishing deal, no nothing. And I say it was four years,
it felt like ten. I mean because it was wake up,
you know, show up at a ride at nine o'clock,
right till two or three, be at the bar at four,
(16:31):
work till midnight, and then wake up and repeat the
process again for four years of my life. And and
then and not a ton of positives in between, there.
You know, it kind of just felt like you were
like I was like barely treading water.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Pretty much up until twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Was when I kind of I went to my brother's
house and kind of had like a little come to
Jesus and I was like, dude, I don't know if
I could do this anymore. Man Like, I left a
pretty good gig in Baton, Rouge. I've been here up
in Barton and haven't had much going on. I think
I'm going to move back to Louisiana, and my brother,
(17:14):
thank God, was like, dude, give it one more year,
give it five years. Like and I wrote slow Dance
in a parking lot that month, and that was the
song that like opened the door for me and eventually
led to me signing my publishing deal and record deal.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
When did you go from writing to then deciding, oh,
I'm going to be the one that sings these songs.
And how did you always know you had a good voice?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I think everybody, every songwriter, is an artist. So you know,
my goal was to move to Nashville, write songs for
other people, you know, and become just a nine to
five songwriter. Obviously wasn't getting anywhere, getting close to signing
a publishing deal with that, and I'd seen some people
that I was writing with and knew of that. We're like, oh,
(18:01):
I want to be an artist, and they were signing
publishing deals to signing record deals. And you know, early on,
I've had a meeting with somebody in there like are
you are you doing the artist thing? And I had
no clue what that meant. And I was like, oh, no,
I'm not doing that. I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
And I went and had a meeting and brought that up.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I was like, man, I just feel like I'm writing
good songs and this person just signed a deal.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This person just signed a deal.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
And the publisher at the time said like, yeah, well
they want to be artists, they want record deals.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And right then I was like, well I want one to.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Had never played a show and never never really you know,
I've done like two or three writers rounds live, but
I did. I was like, well, I want one too,
if that gets me, if that's what I have to
do to get out of the constant, right Bartend, Right, bartend,
(19:00):
I was willing to do anything.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You're looking and me the microphone.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Now, I was like I'll find a band.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I'll do whatever you need me to do if I
can get out of serving drinks. It's like that thing
that you you say you want to do, not thinking
that anything's going to happen. And then next thing I knew,
I was meeting, you know, with record labels, and they
were asking me to when's my next show? Like, oh,
(19:26):
we want we want to come see you live, So
when are you playing next? And I remember being like, oh,
I have to check, you know, I'm booking. I'm working
on booking a show next month.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And then I would get home and.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Be like, I don't even have a bass player, like
much less a show next month. So like having to yeah,
I mean one hundred percent, Yeah, I had to throw
a band together pretty quick and start calling bars to
see if I could play a show.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
But it is amazing that it's like you were chasing
this dream of becoming a songwriter, and obviously, like you
are a songwriter and that's a big part of you.
But it's cool that through chasing that for years and
like being on that journey, you found your way into
what you're doing now, and it's different than you had
ever expected or planned for it to be, But it's
funny how life happens that way.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Never rule anything out. That's what that taught me.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
How many songs do you think you wrote before crafting
a hit song.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I mean, for four years, I was writing at least
four or five songs a week. I was trying to
write Monday through Friday, you know, and sometimes I'd have
six or.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Seven writes a week.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And it's definitely changed now, but you know, at that time,
it was more like volume. I was just kind of like,
all right, if I'm up here to write songs, I'm
gonna write songs. So if I wasn't Bartend and I
was trying to write with somebody somewhere. And now that's
kind of shifted to where I'm a little more strategic
(20:49):
and I kind of plan ideas out more, mainly just
because I don't have as much time as I to
write as I used to. But a good A good
saying on that is, it takes one hundred bad songs
to write one good one. And I hate even saying
like bad songs, but like you know, we all know
when songs are special, you know, I mean, even you
(21:13):
know by dirt next thing, you know, when we finished
those songs. I left that day being like, I don't
know if that's going to be a huge hit, but
I know that's a special song. So you know, even
writing them in the live in the moment, you can
be like, all right, I think this one's got something.
But I've also written my fair share of songs that
(21:35):
I hope live in my email forever and nobody ever hears.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So do you feel like you had an AHA moment
with songwriting where you were like, Oh, this is the
formula for what makes a great country song, and what
is that formula?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I chase the formula forever, and I say formula. It's
it's more so like you know, when I moved to Nashville,
and like I said, it was, I was trying to
write songs for other people. So I was looking it
who was making records, who's looking for songs? And I
was trying to write a song like I think Tim
McGraw would write a song, or I was trying to
(22:09):
write one like I thought Jaco wanted to write a
song and totally ignoring any of like my instincts for
what I would say. And that was the switch for
me when I was like, you know what I've been
doing this for four years, don't have one cut, very
few holds for people that were even thinking about recording.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
One of my songs.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And I'm just going to start writing songs the way
I would write them and throughout any other person singing
this other than me. And that was when it. That
was when my song started getting traction, and that was
a big moment.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
There was a gap between you putting out your first
album and putting out your single By Dirt and then
a couple of years later your second debut album. I
know within that gap you got married, right, you started
your family. There was a lot going on personally in
your life. Was there a pause during that gap, because
I think it, What was it like twenty seventeen you
(23:13):
dropped your first hit single and then twenty there's just
like a few years before twenty twenty one when By
Dirt comes out, So like, what was kind of going
on in your life in those years? Did you have
another like I quit moment?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Or I think it was kind of to catch up.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You know, my first single did really well and even
signing a record deal, putting a song out, you don't
expect I don't think I expected it to do what
it did, and you know, I sing As You Up
came out in twenty seventeen, and I thought it sounded awesome,
It felt great to me, and it went on to
(23:49):
be one of the biggest most play songs that year.
So I think a little bit of that pause was
kind of catching up and being like, oh my gosh,
like this kind of worked.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It is still writing a lot, but like that was
also when like touring picked up. I was playing more
shows than I'd ever played before, or we'd done one
hundred shows for like, you know, you take away the
two years where touring didn't exist, you know, I mean
we were over one hundred shows going back to twenty seventeen,
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. Uh So it was
(24:23):
a lot of like being on the road, a lot
of touring.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
That's gretty one hundred shows.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
And you know the thing too is is like the
kind of saying in and making records is like you
have your whole life to make your first record, you know,
which I did.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'd had I.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Recorded songs on my first album that I wrote in
twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen. You put your album out and
then it's like, all right, now you have a year
and a half to make your second one.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So it was it was a.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Lot of like catching up touring and kind of getting
back to writing.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And and that's a lot of pressure too.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know, you're like, oh, well, I spend so much
time crafting this first debut album and now all of
a sudden, you know, there's bangers on that album. The
fans want to make sure the next music I put
out is great.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, uh, you know, And a lot of it was
because you know, by Dirt went on to do some
amazing things.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Still, I think thank you. Like I said, I knew the.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Song was special. I had no clue that Luke would
sing on it with me and it would go on
to do what it did.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
How did that come to be?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So Luke was at the time.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I just put out like an eph and we had
a writer's retreat and we it was me, my brother,
and two of my best friends who I write most
of my songs with that group. And they came down
there and they were like, well, man, what are you
what are you doing right now? And I was like, guys,
I've just I just put this EP out. I don't
know what I'm doing for this next album.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And really quickly, what does a writer's retreat look like
for you? Like, what are you guys doing? Duck hunting
and like brainstorming on the side.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Sometimes sometimes this was just one we went like like
about an hour and a half south of Nashville, just
got a got a spot in the woods and just
kind of us four hanging out writing songs all day
and uh, you know, just kind of getting out of
getting away from Nashville for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And I'd kind of told him. I was like, guys,
I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I don't know, you know. We just put this project out.
I don't know when this next record is gonna come out.
And to be honest with you too, like I'm I
don't even know what I want this next record to be.
And we had sawt you know, I knew Luke was
recording songs and we had the idea for by Dirt,
and I was like, well, guys, what if we write this,
you know, and see if Luke will cut it, and
(26:49):
then we write it and I finished it and I
was like, guys, I can't let this song go. I
don't know what this next record is going to be
but I know I want this to be on it.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And I get back I couldn't. I couldn't, you know.
At that point, I was like, man, Luke would sound
good on this. Do I pitch it to him? Do
I hang on to it?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
And I'm sitting at the house and I was like, man,
I'm just gonna send it to him, see if he
wants to sing on it with me. And I sat
there and wrote the text message out erased it, rewrote it,
erased it because the scariest thing in the world is
sending a song to somebody, especially a buddy, and being like, hey, man,
do you want to sing on this? Because you're opening
the door to like, no, man, it's not that good.
(27:29):
I don't want to sing on that. So it's nerve
wracking to send it, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, there's a lot of vulnerability in sharing in your
art with someone.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
And I hate like putting him in that spot for
him to have to be like maybe not, dude, acknowledging.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Pretty cool to have Luke's number in your phone, just yeah,
ready to test.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I mean, he's a great dude.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
He's like and uh, but I mean he hit me
right back, and you know sing on it, and it
went on and got me my first ever song of
the year, which is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But yeah, that was a I do. I owe a
lot to that song.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I owe a lot to you for writing that song
because truly it has been getting me through my runs recently.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Thank you. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
How do you feel like post that song your life changed?
Because I feel like that was really like the I
made it moment, that song, and that was a big
turning point for you in life.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, so I felt it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
The first time we ever played that song live, I
can like see it right now. We played, you know,
because we released that tail end of the Pandemic and
our first show back was in Carolina. We played this
big music festival in Carolina and we had put it out.
(28:46):
We were going to put it in the set, and
then I took it out of the set and my
guitar player came up and was like, dude, we're not
playing by dirt And I was like, man, I don't know,
I don't have Luke here, like you know, it's kind
of and he's like, dude, I think we should play it,
and I was like, all.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right, whatever. The stove back in.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
We played it second to last, and I mean the
second we started playing that song, I was just I
just remember being like, oh wow, like they're listening to this,
and it just got bigger and bigger every time we
played it, and the shows got bigger, even our headline
and stuff like I could see like a change and
(29:21):
people showing up.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It just felt like it just felt different.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And we'd had some big songs before that, but that
was the one that really kind of kicked the doors
open for us.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Is that a wild experience performing a song in front
of a crowd and having them go so crazy to it?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Has that been surreal?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It never gets old, like I mean it is. I
think as a songwriter, that's the coolest moment. And being
like being able to see something from an idea to
being in the right room to the recording process and
then playing it on stage and seeing it connect is.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I mean, that's the top.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And seeing some of these numbers, like I was looking
at YouTube earlier watching some of your music videos, and
I mean those numbers are astronomical. You're talking like over
fifty million views for a lot of them, and then
you look at Spotify, it's like hundreds of millions of plays.
I mean that just it's just surreal, you know, and
it's cool thinking getting to learn the story of like
(30:35):
the work that went into all of this coming to fruition.
And what does your wife think of it all? Is
she like this is nuts?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah? I mean, you know, she.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
She's been really with you through it all.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, when we first started dating,
I was still bartending. So like when her first trip
to Nashville, you know, she landed and the bar I
used to work at was like right by the airport, so, uh,
we met New Orleans. She was still living in Virginia,
so she flew in and I was like, you don't
(31:06):
have to go far because I'm barton in two miles
from the airport. So she landed, came and hung out
with us. So yeah, she's kind of seen the whole
the whole thing. The thing I love about that is, like,
you know, it's it's been just as enjoyable for her
to kind of like to see the ups and downs,
(31:26):
to see the growth of it, you know. And the
most fun for me is to you know, have you know,
hit a loll or feel like you're kind of losing
steam and and come home and her be like, do
you ever did you ever think you would be here anyway?
Like what you know, and to kind of get that
relief of like, oh yeah, you're right, Like I get
(31:49):
to make music for a living. This is amazing. Uh,
it's been It's been good for me.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
And it's like, yeah, and you've you've made songs that
people listen to NonStop on repeat.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, even then there's still it's it's nice to know
that you can have so much success and still feel
at a low sometimes and.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, grass is always greeners.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Is always greener. But looking back at all, you know,
you've had so much success, Like what would you tell
your younger self?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Man, I get asked that question a ton, and like
as opposed to like going to like this like cliche
thing of I try to like be honest with it.
And I think with me, it's like the the it's
it's scary, it's not easy. I'm really glad the way
it played out. I'm glad it took me the years
(32:37):
it took me to because even though those four years
of like moving to Nashville were tough, I became such
a better songwriter in those four years.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Oh yeah, what do you miss the most about those years?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
It was that it was like the daily grind of
like waking up and trying to come up with the
best idea, you know, staying up late, you know, get
bartending home at two am, no one I had to
rite the next day, staying up till three, trying to
come up with something to be able to bring in,
being tired all the time. I think if I could
(33:11):
go back and tell myself something earlier, it would it
would be to follow your gut to chase it sooner.
I think I knew that I wanted to move to
Nashville before long before I did, but it was kind
of breaking free of that, like, oh no, dude, that's risky.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
You know that sometimes the risky play is the one
you need to get to.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So I would I would say, I would tell myself
to get there quicker.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
How late are you normally up on the nights that
you're performing.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
We usually like it's like one am. So like if
we we'll play between nine and ten thirty somewhere in there,
play for an hour and a half. It takes me
probably like an hour and a half to kind of
let the let the adrenaline calm down. But yeah, we're
also a big Mario Kart camp, so we play a
(34:04):
lot of Mario Kart.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay, wait, you're going to need.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
To educate me. It's pretty, it's pretty rockstar.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Is that on your phone? Or is that.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's the Nintendo What is it? The switch? Switch switch?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Okay, I need to get a Nintendo switch. Are they
like the old fashioned ones or have they gotten cooler? No?
Speaker 3 (34:22):
There, it's like a PlayStation. It's like a PlayStation controller.
But yeah, it's like the regular Mario Yoshi Luigi characters.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I love yah.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's pretty like yeah, like I said, we're pretty, we're
pretty rock star out there.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, pretty rockstar.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I also love knowing that you have four kids. You
just had your fourth child a month old, so congratulations,
thank you very much. That must be an interesting context
switch to right, Like you're going on tour in a
couple of weeks, so soon they're going to be on
tour September to October. Right, it must be so wild
going home and being in dad, I would like talk
about it. It's a switch right.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Oh you know there's like a group of US dads
and country music Tyler Hubbard Thomas, Rhett, Russell, Dickerson, Cordy Kent,
And I mean, I know there's more out there, like
Dirk's is talked about it, but there you know, ours
are like kind of in the same age range me,
Thomas Russell Tyler. So Thomas told me one day when
(35:24):
he's like, you know, we were just talking about family
and stuff, and he's like, man, there's nothing more humbling
than being on the road where you know it's catering
and people are walking you around and it's like, hey,
I need this and somebody's gonna go get it and
bring it back to you.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Play the show.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Everybody's screaming at you, singing it's it's awesome. And then
you get home on Sunday morning and you walk in
and immediately met with like, hey, Dak, can I get
some oras juice? And it's like everything that just happened
is gone. They don't care who you are, they don't
care how many songs you've had out you know, you're
(36:03):
just dad, and it's very humbling and the most awesome
thing out there.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
So yeah, I mean, the word normal I think is
the best because you need those things that just make
you feel normal and grounded.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And I'm the least cool to any of my kids. Okay,
like they would rather listen to they never listen to
my songs. Oh well they will maybe hopefully.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, your girls are going to be like, Dad, you
need to write me a song for my wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
They that's the real.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Work's gonna get That one's gonna be a tough one.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Tough critics.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They love Luke Luke colmb's Luke Bryn.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
My daughter's obsessed with Meghan Maroony so like it's everybody
but me that gets played in my house.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So well, you've got your new album Learn the Hard
Way coming out August fifteenth. First of all, where did
the name come from? I feel like it's kind of
self explanatory, but where'd the name come from? And also,
what are you excited about about this new album.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I've been learning things the hard way my whole life, Uh,
pretty hard headed, I think going back to even you know,
as a kid, uh, you know, working for my dad. Uh,
my dad had a furniture polsry company. I was always
every summer was spent working there. So like I was
(37:20):
trying to come up with ways to get out of
work every day, you know, through college, made a lot
of stupid mistakes and even too like.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Going you know, moving to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
In those early years of being in town, there were
some things that I just hadn't learned, learned the tough
way in to where even now you know the the
balance I think now the thing I'm kind of struggling
with is the balance between working home.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
How much is working too much? You know?
Speaker 3 (37:52):
But in my opinion, the best way to learn anything
is is maybe getting your hands slapped a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Uh, it sticks with you enough.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
So and I think a lot of these songs kind
of point to that. You know, I wanted to have
fun making this record. I wanted to have I wanted
these songs to be fun to play live, and I
wanted to kind of take some chances. So I think
there's a lot of songs on here that are going
to be a new sound to my fans, something I
(38:19):
haven't done before. I've got a couple of great collabs
on it. Carly Pierce's on one. Marcus King, who I'm
a huge fan of, is on one. So up to
this date, it's I think it's the best record I've
ever made.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Who's a dream collab for you somebody that you haven't
collapbed with yet, but you're like, oh god one day.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
I'm a huge Alice Keys fan, so like anything with
Alis Keys, I think that was like when.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Somebody's like, have you ever been starstruck? You know? I
was at an.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
iHeart Awards and Alicia Keys walked down the hallway I
was in. That was probably the closest I've ever been
to being like, oh, wow, she's really good.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It'd be cool to hear your sounds merged.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, she's I mean, she's just amazing. Alicia Key, I
mean john legend like that.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Those are wow.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
So not these aren't country artists, these are like yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
I mean I'm a massive music fan. I mean obviously
country is the one that I kind of always get
pulled to, but yeah, I mean I think I mean,
those they're just crazy talented, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
I think in country, Luke was a big one for me.
You know, so it's kind of like, how do you
beat that?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
That was the guy man, like, you know, he was
the radio so and still kind of is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
So.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, I think those are legend and a last Keyser,
they're pretty up there.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
We're gonna manifest it happening now that you spoke it
into the universe, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
They have no clue who I am, but maybe one day.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
They know they know who you are. Okay, Well, major
US tour coming up in tandem with this new album.
We've been teasing it. What is the tour name? It's
not Learned the Hard Way, Ain't Enough Road and it's
from September eleventh to October twenty fifth. You're hitting some
legendary stops. We've got Red Rocks, Radio, City of Music Hall, yep,
for you.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It's gonna be pretty special. So I can't wait. I mean,
this is we just wrap rehearsals up last week and
this is the best show we've ever put together off
of the heels of I think my best record I've done.
So it's gonna be a gonna be a fun fall.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
What can we expect to see you on stage doing?
Are you going to be dancing? Like? What?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
A you don't want to see that?
Speaker 1 (40:26):
What is the on stage? What is your on stage performance?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I feel like I move. I do move a lot
on stage, but yeah, you don't want to see me dancing.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
You're getting flow up there. I have to come to the.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Radio City Music. No, you have to love. We'd love
to have you all there.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
It's going to be That's a that's a bucket list
spot for me and my kids because they come up
here for Christmas every year. So the fact that Dad's
playing on the same stage that the Rockets dance on,
my daughter thinks is awesome. It is awesome, So I'm
pretty excited about it though.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Well, thank you so much, Jordan. It is so cool
to get to know you today.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
This is a blast, and thank you for making me
run a mile.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
That was awesome anytime. Thank you so much for listening
to today's episode with Jordan. This week concludes our three
week streak of country artists. But don't worry, guys, there
are plenty more coming very soon, and I wish I
could tell you who they are now, but I don't
(41:27):
want to jinx it. But maybe if you're into it,
you guys can slide into my dms and guests who
we're having on the show. If you guys are enjoying
Post Run High, please be sure to follow us on
socials at Post Run High and me at Kate Max
and leave us a five star review. Your support helps
us continue bringing you inspiring conversations. All right, I'll see
you guys next week.
Welcome back to Post Friend. Hi. I am so excited
for today's episode because it is with one of my
all time favorite country singers, Jordan Davis. If you guys
follow me on Instagram, you know how often I have
been sharing Jordan's songs to my stories because truthfully, I
have been running to his music all summer long. So
to actually go for a run with him through Brooklyn
(00:20):
and then sit down for this conversation, it was a
total dream come true. Also I got him to sing
along to Buy Dirt with me on the run, so yeah, guys,
safe to say I was on cloud nine. In this conversation,
you are going to learn all about Jordan's untraditional journey
in country music. Jordan actually never set out to be
a country singer, which I was so surprised to learn.
He thought he was going to be a Nashville songwriter.
(00:42):
But as we all know, life has a way of
surprising us, and Jordan's story is proof that when you
stay open to possibility and keep showing up for what
you love, doors can open in ways you never imagined.
And before we jump in, I love hearing your ideas
for the show, So please follow me on Instagram at
kpe Max and send me a DM with your dream
guest picks for the show. All right, let's get into
(01:04):
today's episode with Jordan Davis. Jordan Davis, welcome to Post
Run High.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you, thank you very much. That was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We ran a little over a mile in Brooklyn. Ye,
how are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I feel great. I don't run a ton.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
We usually on the road will work out, but like
mostly just waits.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But I feel like I handled that better than I thought.
I thought.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I thought at some point I was gonna have to
tell you, like, hey, can I get five?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But we made it through.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, we made it through. I know. I was hoping
you wouldn't tell me that, and you didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, you made it through the whole run. No breaks.
A lot of people take breaks, so Jordan crushed it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You'd probably run a lot further than a mile or two, so.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, I know, I was like I was hoping it
it wasn't too far of because sometimes when we start
doing those piers in Brooklyn, it can become like two
miles really quick when we promise a mile. So I
was like Jeremy's Times of Germany. Yeah, no worries, We
talked about it a little bit on the run, but
tell us a little bit more about like your workout
routine and maybe like how you guys stay fit on tour.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think a lot of it is just we have
so much time to kill, you know. Music is a
lot of sit around and wait, so we try to
go in the morning, find a gym. A lot of
times the menu will have either a gym hook up
or if we're playing an arena, usually either hockey team
or something, we can use their facilities. But we usually lift,
you know, three to four times a week. I think
the biggest thing it's like trying to be smart with
(02:40):
what I'm working out, you know, either it be I've
had some lower back issues, so like trying to strengthen
my legs, strengthen muscles around the back. And then the
other side of it is the diet.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know, it's like.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Trying to you know, if depending on where we're at,
a lot of times we're in the middle of nowhere,
so we're either bringing food or trying to run down
something to eat healthy. But yeah, out there it's mostly
three or four times a week lifting weights, trying to
eat clean and yeah, now after today throwing in some cardio.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I mean, what's great about this show is you
get your workout in and now you know you're set
for the day because getting a little movement, I feel
like always makes you feel better.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's like, you know, getting which is great having Alex out,
you know, because it's very easy to get pretty still
on the road or hang on the bus or go
do something else. So having him out there to kind
of kick us in gear early, knock it out and
get back and start focusing on the show.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
It's interesting knowing that you said, you guys have a
lot of extra time on the show, which makes sense,
right because you're performing at night and then you got
to fill your time during the day. Our interview with
your Spentley is coming out this Monday, but we played
pickleball before the show with him, so it was fun
knowing that his team kind of sets up the pickleball courts.
They get out there, they you know, get very competitive.
You guys do stuff like that too, Like what are
(04:01):
some of the activities you're feeling your time?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Absolutely, So we toured with Dirks a couple of years ago,
which is where we picked up pickleball, so we usually
go to pick a ball in the fall. You know,
when it gets cold outside, you can't really do much.
So well, we stole their court making abilities, so we'll
make our own courts play pickaball in the fall, or
if we're in you know, arenas or wherever, we'll try
(04:24):
to do pick up basketball, something indoors and active. In summer,
we play a lot of golf, so like we'll you know,
either play golf and then go get a workout in
or vice versa. I'd say like that time from you know,
waking up to one two pm is kind of when
(04:44):
we have our That time between one, you know or
from waking up to two pm is kind of when
we have our time to go do something, be active.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You know, songwriters are good with audio when you just
do you repeated yourself because something came on. Are you
a sports fan outside you are? What's your favorite team?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So, I mean, I'm a huge football fan. So being
from Louisiana, I'm a Saints guy. New on the Saints
and then I went to LSU, So I'm a huge
LSU Tiger fan. Football and baseball my two. So my
baseball team is Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, So and you said for the forty nine Ers,
you've performed at that stadium or before games?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
No, we got to play.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We did a tour Luke Holmes and played NFL stadiums,
So we got to play the forty nine Ers, the Bengals,
the Bills. We got to check off a lot of
really cool football stadiums. And that was, you know, awesome
on a sense of like you're getting to play these
amazing stadiums that you know, I'm used to watching people
(05:51):
play football on Sundays, but also too, they were really
cool and let us you know, work out in the gyms,
getting tour the facility, see the locker rooms.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Going to say, I feel like seeing the locker rooms
is like the coolest thing.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I mean it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I feel like, what's going to be cool for you too,
is you've got your first performance at Red Rocks coming up.
Like that's going to be pretty surreal going backstage there.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You know, I was a huge Dave Matthews fan, so
like the live you know, DVDs. Kids don't even know
what those are anymore, but like I would watch these
DVDs of Dave at Red Rocks, and you know, with
no clue back then that this would ever music would
ever pan out in this way. But I think the
(06:33):
coolest thing is I've had some chances to some opportunities
to play Red Rocks as an opener, and is actually
one of them was with Dirks on a tour that
ended up going away because you know, twenty twenty one,
right at start a COVID, and I remember being bummed
at that tour went away because Red Rocks was on it.
(06:55):
But now, you know, being able to go there for
the first time as a headliner is going to be
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I mean, it's going to be surreal. The first, the
first and only concert I saw at Red Rocks was
oh gosh, what is it called Big Wild? Oh yeah, yeah,
and it was insane.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's a special spot.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's a special spot. I remember we were going to
Colorado for the first time to visit Jeremy's brother who
lives in Colorado Springs, and I said, the one thing
we're absolutely doing is we were driving to Denver and
we're going to Red Rocks. So that's going to be
pretty surreal. You said, growing up you were a Dave
Matthews fan. Yeah, what was like your life, like in Louisiana.
Were you always into music? Did you play sports growing up?
(07:35):
Like what was young Jordan Like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, music from an early age, and I think
a lot of that was just my dad the family,
which we talked a little bit about, but like, you know,
my uncle being a songwriter. My dad was an avid
guitar player and kind of you know, would pick songs
and stuff. So and then my mom was piano player,
you know, played piano at the church. So you know,
we grew up Sunday and Wednesday night being there watching
(07:58):
her play. So like, music was very was just from
the start. And then you know, as I got older,
I got into sports and I played football and baseball
you know, up through high school. But yeah, music never
got too too far. But it really wasn't until you know,
college that I picked the guitar up and started trying
to write my own songs. You know, I'd always like
(08:19):
cover songs or you know, basically songs my dad had played.
But you know, still to this day, I'm not really
like an artist that and like I'm envious of artists
like Jaco and Dirk's is great at this but like
being able to just play any song out there, you know,
picking a guitar up and you name a song and
they can play it. I've never really been that guy,
(08:41):
just because when I, you know, really started playing guitar,
it was just always to write my own stuff. But yeah,
college is when that really took off.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Being able to pick up the guitar and play any song.
I feel like that's like a special talent. Like do
you feel like more a lot of people can do
that that are musicians.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, well, I mean it's just like it's I'm so
bad at it, and like it shocks me when one
person knows like five cover songs.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That's like to me, that's like people that can like
see a dance choreographed like once and then be able
to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I mean some some people just have that gift. Like
and I say that, and Jake is Jake Owen's.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Really really good at it. But I don't know. I
think it just goes back to.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
When I started playing, it was just to write my
own stuff, and you know, still and the guitar is
one of those things where like you can always learn
something new, you know, I can. I'm not a great
guitar player by any means, but it's it's it's fun
to watch somebody. I've got a guy, Marcus King is
(09:44):
on a song on this record with me, and he's
the best guitar player I've ever like been around, and
uh watching him play it, like, you know, kind of
inspires me to It's like, come on, dude, you could
you could get a little bit better at that. So
uh yeah, that's the next that's the next goal.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Next goal. I feel like it's cool to have like
a foundational understanding of playing the guitar, especially as a
country singer, and then you can kind of appreciate somebody
like that phenomenal at it. But it's cool that you
you taught yourself how to play. Yeah, when you were
at LSU, you were studying environmental science. Did you think
that you were going to do something completely different post college?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah? I did? You know?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I had moved when I got to Baton Rouge. You know,
I kind of jumped majors around a couple of times.
I knew I wanted to go into one Gas Like
that was like kind of what I thought my life
was going to be. I figured I would move to
New Orleans, get a job with a one Gas company,
and that would be that would be how it turned out.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I graduated, I started working.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
With a friend of mine who had an environmental company
in Baton Rouge, and I worked there for probably five
six months.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And you know, there's no school. It was the eight, it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Was the nine to five. Uh, And that's kind of
when it set into me. Like, you know, I was
still playing a lot of music, going to a lot
of shows in Baton Rouge, and uh, it was just like,
all right, this is life, Like if I if.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
This is what I want to do, this is this
is the blueprint.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You know, I work this and maybe I'll get promoted
and be able to climb the ladder at this company,
which I loved working there and the people were great,
but you know, every night it was kind of like
I don't know if, I don't know if I'm ready
to do this yet. And uh there was just that
constant pool at you know, moving to Nashville and giving
songwriting a shot. But uh, yeah, I never I never
(11:38):
really saw I definitely didn't see music working out the
way it did. But grateful I made the move and
and gave it a shot.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's cool knowing that you had this itch when you
were working, you know that nine to five. When you
were growing up, how was success kind of defined in
your house? And how many siblings you have?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Like what's the You've got an older brother and a
younger sister. Okay, uh and we're all within you know,
seven years.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But yeah, I think that I kind of.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And this is no knock on on my parents, but
you know, like, uh, it was kind of the go
to work, uh, you know, get the nine to five,
come home to the picket fence and buy a house
and work a job that's safe and comfortable. And I
think that that was.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
What I thought. Uh you know, it was like go
to go to.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
College, you gotta get a degree, you gotta do this,
you gotta you gotta make this much coming out of college,
or you know, it's it's kind of just put all
these parameters on stuff. And that's what I thought success
was at the time, to where now, you know, being
a dad, I think that that I can I'll probably
shift that view of success a little bit to my
(13:04):
kids because you know, I'm so grateful that something in
me pushed me to move to Nashville and chase something.
And I've always said this, you know, is being a
musician or really working anything outside of the box. You know,
I think it just takes confidence in what you do
(13:24):
to chase after it. And that's like the biggest thing
I'm proud of to be able to teach my kids.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Was like, you know, it wasn't easy. It wasn't fun leaving.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
A job that was pretty stable to move to Nashville
and go back to bartending at twenty six and writing
songs and getting rejected here, getting rejected there, having a
good meeting here, but not panning out like you know,
And that was my first four or five years in Nashville.
So but you know, I stuck with it, and you know,
(13:58):
it was a passion that I loved, and it's okay
to stick with passions a little bit longer and ignore
a few knows to see where it gets you.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
And I feel like sometimes you have to ignore even
family members who want the best for you, that are like,
you know, stay in that nine to five, like do
songwriting on the side. But yeah, you really created your
own lane, which is the scariest thing about doing your
own thing. And I think what's cool about going to Nashville, though,
is you get to see some of the greats that
have done it before you, and you're in this culture
of a lot of people trying to make it, so
(14:29):
there's a lane in some way. It's just kind of
like carving your own path within it. We talked a
lot with Dirk's about like learning the craft of country music,
and I thought it was fascinating as a Jersey girl
that web you talked about this. But I grew up
listening to Akon and Beyonce, so I didn't know much
about country music. Now I'm a huge country fan. So
can we talk a little bit about like when you
moved from Louisiana to Nashville, Like what were those early
(14:52):
years like for you? You know, you were bar attending, but
like paint the picture of like what life looked like
for Jordan at the time.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So I left the environmental job and had, you know,
maybe like two months of money saved up to before
then I could just survive. I moved in with a
friend of mine that is still grateful to the state
didn't charge you rent for the first four months, and
then after that he's like, all right, you got to
(15:19):
figure it out.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So I moved to town.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I found a job bartending pretty quick and you know,
kind of started meeting my group of writers and friends,
and which has been really cool because a lot of
those have we've kind of all come up together.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And one of those was Carly Pearce, who.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I think we met in twenty twelve so have been
dear friends since.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But like, and I had this thought.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I was like, all right, when I moved to Nashville,
I want to sign a publishing deal, which means I
could focus on music one hundred percent. You know, you
get paid to write songs. That's basically what a publishing
deal is. And I was just like, man, I want
to sign au pup deal within two years and you know,
hopefully get a couple of songs cut. And you know,
that was like the that was the goal. At four
(16:09):
years in, I was still bartending. No signs of a
publishing deal, no nothing. And I say it was four years,
it felt like ten. I mean because it was wake up,
you know, show up at a ride at nine o'clock,
right till two or three, be at the bar at four,
(16:31):
work till midnight, and then wake up and repeat the
process again for four years of my life. And and
then and not a ton of positives in between, there.
You know, it kind of just felt like you were
like I was like barely treading water.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Pretty much up until twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Was when I kind of I went to my brother's
house and kind of had like a little come to
Jesus and I was like, dude, I don't know if
I could do this anymore. Man Like, I left a
pretty good gig in Baton, Rouge. I've been here up
in Barton and haven't had much going on. I think
I'm going to move back to Louisiana, and my brother,
(17:14):
thank God, was like, dude, give it one more year,
give it five years. Like and I wrote slow Dance
in a parking lot that month, and that was the
song that like opened the door for me and eventually
led to me signing my publishing deal and record deal.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
When did you go from writing to then deciding, oh,
I'm going to be the one that sings these songs.
And how did you always know you had a good voice?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I think everybody, every songwriter, is an artist. So you know,
my goal was to move to Nashville, write songs for
other people, you know, and become just a nine to
five songwriter. Obviously wasn't getting anywhere, getting close to signing
a publishing deal with that, and I'd seen some people
that I was writing with and knew of that. We're like, oh,
(18:01):
I want to be an artist, and they were signing
publishing deals to signing record deals. And you know, early on,
I've had a meeting with somebody in there like are
you are you doing the artist thing? And I had
no clue what that meant. And I was like, oh, no,
I'm not doing that. I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
And I went and had a meeting and brought that up.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I was like, man, I just feel like I'm writing
good songs and this person just signed a deal.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This person just signed a deal.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
And the publisher at the time said like, yeah, well
they want to be artists, they want record deals.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And right then I was like, well I want one to.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Had never played a show and never never really you know,
I've done like two or three writers rounds live, but
I did. I was like, well, I want one too,
if that gets me, if that's what I have to
do to get out of the constant, right Bartend, Right, bartend,
(19:00):
I was willing to do anything.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You're looking and me the microphone.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Now, I was like I'll find a band.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I'll do whatever you need me to do if I
can get out of serving drinks. It's like that thing
that you you say you want to do, not thinking
that anything's going to happen. And then next thing I knew,
I was meeting, you know, with record labels, and they
were asking me to when's my next show? Like, oh,
(19:26):
we want we want to come see you live, So
when are you playing next? And I remember being like, oh,
I have to check, you know, I'm booking. I'm working
on booking a show next month.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And then I would get home and.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Be like, I don't even have a bass player, like
much less a show next month. So like having to yeah,
I mean one hundred percent, Yeah, I had to throw
a band together pretty quick and start calling bars to
see if I could play a show.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
But it is amazing that it's like you were chasing
this dream of becoming a songwriter, and obviously, like you
are a songwriter and that's a big part of you.
But it's cool that through chasing that for years and
like being on that journey, you found your way into
what you're doing now, and it's different than you had
ever expected or planned for it to be, But it's
funny how life happens that way.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Never rule anything out. That's what that taught me.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
How many songs do you think you wrote before crafting
a hit song.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I mean, for four years, I was writing at least
four or five songs a week. I was trying to
write Monday through Friday, you know, and sometimes I'd have
six or.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Seven writes a week.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And it's definitely changed now, but you know, at that time,
it was more like volume. I was just kind of like,
all right, if I'm up here to write songs, I'm
gonna write songs. So if I wasn't Bartend and I
was trying to write with somebody somewhere. And now that's
kind of shifted to where I'm a little more strategic
(20:49):
and I kind of plan ideas out more, mainly just
because I don't have as much time as I to
write as I used to. But a good A good
saying on that is, it takes one hundred bad songs
to write one good one. And I hate even saying
like bad songs, but like you know, we all know
when songs are special, you know, I mean, even you
(21:13):
know by dirt next thing, you know, when we finished
those songs. I left that day being like, I don't
know if that's going to be a huge hit, but
I know that's a special song. So you know, even
writing them in the live in the moment, you can
be like, all right, I think this one's got something.
But I've also written my fair share of songs that
(21:35):
I hope live in my email forever and nobody ever hears.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So do you feel like you had an AHA moment
with songwriting where you were like, Oh, this is the
formula for what makes a great country song, and what
is that formula?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I chase the formula forever, and I say formula. It's
it's more so like you know, when I moved to Nashville,
and like I said, it was, I was trying to
write songs for other people. So I was looking it
who was making records, who's looking for songs? And I
was trying to write a song like I think Tim
McGraw would write a song, or I was trying to
(22:09):
write one like I thought Jaco wanted to write a
song and totally ignoring any of like my instincts for
what I would say. And that was the switch for
me when I was like, you know what I've been
doing this for four years, don't have one cut, very
few holds for people that were even thinking about recording.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
One of my songs.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And I'm just going to start writing songs the way
I would write them and throughout any other person singing
this other than me. And that was when it. That
was when my song started getting traction, and that was
a big moment.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
There was a gap between you putting out your first
album and putting out your single By Dirt and then
a couple of years later your second debut album. I
know within that gap you got married, right, you started
your family. There was a lot going on personally in
your life. Was there a pause during that gap, because
I think it, What was it like twenty seventeen you
(23:13):
dropped your first hit single and then twenty there's just
like a few years before twenty twenty one when By
Dirt comes out, So like, what was kind of going
on in your life in those years? Did you have
another like I quit moment?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Or I think it was kind of to catch up.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You know, my first single did really well and even
signing a record deal, putting a song out, you don't
expect I don't think I expected it to do what
it did, and you know, I sing As You Up
came out in twenty seventeen, and I thought it sounded awesome,
It felt great to me, and it went on to
(23:49):
be one of the biggest most play songs that year.
So I think a little bit of that pause was
kind of catching up and being like, oh my gosh,
like this kind of worked.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It is still writing a lot, but like that was
also when like touring picked up. I was playing more
shows than I'd ever played before, or we'd done one
hundred shows for like, you know, you take away the
two years where touring didn't exist, you know, I mean
we were over one hundred shows going back to twenty seventeen,
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. Uh So it was
(24:23):
a lot of like being on the road, a lot
of touring.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
That's gretty one hundred shows.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
And you know the thing too is is like the
kind of saying in and making records is like you
have your whole life to make your first record, you know,
which I did.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'd had I.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Recorded songs on my first album that I wrote in
twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen. You put your album out and
then it's like, all right, now you have a year
and a half to make your second one.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So it was it was a.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Lot of like catching up touring and kind of getting
back to writing.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And and that's a lot of pressure too.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know, you're like, oh, well, I spend so much
time crafting this first debut album and now all of
a sudden, you know, there's bangers on that album. The
fans want to make sure the next music I put
out is great.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, uh, you know, And a lot of it was
because you know, by Dirt went on to do some
amazing things.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Still, I think thank you. Like I said, I knew the.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Song was special. I had no clue that Luke would
sing on it with me and it would go on
to do what it did.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
How did that come to be?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So Luke was at the time.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I just put out like an eph and we had
a writer's retreat and we it was me, my brother,
and two of my best friends who I write most
of my songs with that group. And they came down
there and they were like, well, man, what are you
what are you doing right now? And I was like, guys,
I've just I just put this EP out. I don't
know what I'm doing for this next album.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And really quickly, what does a writer's retreat look like
for you? Like, what are you guys doing? Duck hunting
and like brainstorming on the side.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Sometimes sometimes this was just one we went like like
about an hour and a half south of Nashville, just
got a got a spot in the woods and just
kind of us four hanging out writing songs all day
and uh, you know, just kind of getting out of
getting away from Nashville for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And I'd kind of told him. I was like, guys,
I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I don't know, you know. We just put this project out.
I don't know when this next record is gonna come out.
And to be honest with you too, like I'm I
don't even know what I want this next record to be.
And we had sawt you know, I knew Luke was
recording songs and we had the idea for by Dirt,
and I was like, well, guys, what if we write this,
you know, and see if Luke will cut it, and
(26:49):
then we write it and I finished it and I
was like, guys, I can't let this song go. I
don't know what this next record is going to be
but I know I want this to be on it.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And I get back I couldn't. I couldn't, you know.
At that point, I was like, man, Luke would sound
good on this. Do I pitch it to him? Do
I hang on to it?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
And I'm sitting at the house and I was like, man,
I'm just gonna send it to him, see if he
wants to sing on it with me. And I sat
there and wrote the text message out erased it, rewrote it,
erased it because the scariest thing in the world is
sending a song to somebody, especially a buddy, and being like, hey, man,
do you want to sing on this? Because you're opening
the door to like, no, man, it's not that good.
(27:29):
I don't want to sing on that. So it's nerve
wracking to send it, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, there's a lot of vulnerability in sharing in your
art with someone.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
And I hate like putting him in that spot for
him to have to be like maybe not, dude, acknowledging.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Pretty cool to have Luke's number in your phone, just yeah,
ready to test.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I mean, he's a great dude.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
He's like and uh, but I mean he hit me
right back, and you know sing on it, and it
went on and got me my first ever song of
the year, which is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But yeah, that was a I do. I owe a
lot to that song.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I owe a lot to you for writing that song
because truly it has been getting me through my runs recently.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Thank you. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
How do you feel like post that song your life changed?
Because I feel like that was really like the I
made it moment, that song, and that was a big
turning point for you in life.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, so I felt it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
The first time we ever played that song live, I
can like see it right now. We played, you know,
because we released that tail end of the Pandemic and
our first show back was in Carolina. We played this
big music festival in Carolina and we had put it out.
(28:46):
We were going to put it in the set, and
then I took it out of the set and my
guitar player came up and was like, dude, we're not
playing by dirt And I was like, man, I don't know,
I don't have Luke here, like you know, it's kind
of and he's like, dude, I think we should play it,
and I was like, all.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right, whatever. The stove back in.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
We played it second to last, and I mean the
second we started playing that song, I was just I
just remember being like, oh wow, like they're listening to this,
and it just got bigger and bigger every time we
played it, and the shows got bigger, even our headline
and stuff like I could see like a change and
(29:21):
people showing up.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It just felt like it just felt different.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And we'd had some big songs before that, but that
was the one that really kind of kicked the doors
open for us.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Is that a wild experience performing a song in front
of a crowd and having them go so crazy to it?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Has that been surreal?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It never gets old, like I mean it is. I
think as a songwriter, that's the coolest moment. And being
like being able to see something from an idea to
being in the right room to the recording process and
then playing it on stage and seeing it connect is.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I mean, that's the top.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And seeing some of these numbers, like I was looking
at YouTube earlier watching some of your music videos, and
I mean those numbers are astronomical. You're talking like over
fifty million views for a lot of them, and then
you look at Spotify, it's like hundreds of millions of plays.
I mean that just it's just surreal, you know, and
it's cool thinking getting to learn the story of like
(30:35):
the work that went into all of this coming to fruition.
And what does your wife think of it all? Is
she like this is nuts?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah? I mean, you know, she.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
She's been really with you through it all.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, when we first started dating,
I was still bartending. So like when her first trip
to Nashville, you know, she landed and the bar I
used to work at was like right by the airport, so, uh,
we met New Orleans. She was still living in Virginia,
so she flew in and I was like, you don't
(31:06):
have to go far because I'm barton in two miles
from the airport. So she landed, came and hung out
with us. So yeah, she's kind of seen the whole
the whole thing. The thing I love about that is, like,
you know, it's it's been just as enjoyable for her
to kind of like to see the ups and downs,
(31:26):
to see the growth of it, you know. And the
most fun for me is to you know, have you know,
hit a loll or feel like you're kind of losing
steam and and come home and her be like, do
you ever did you ever think you would be here anyway?
Like what you know, and to kind of get that
relief of like, oh yeah, you're right, Like I get
(31:49):
to make music for a living. This is amazing. Uh,
it's been It's been good for me.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
And it's like, yeah, and you've you've made songs that
people listen to NonStop on repeat.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, even then there's still it's it's nice to know
that you can have so much success and still feel
at a low sometimes and.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, grass is always greeners.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Is always greener. But looking back at all, you know,
you've had so much success, Like what would you tell
your younger self?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Man, I get asked that question a ton, and like
as opposed to like going to like this like cliche
thing of I try to like be honest with it.
And I think with me, it's like the the it's
it's scary, it's not easy. I'm really glad the way
it played out. I'm glad it took me the years
(32:37):
it took me to because even though those four years
of like moving to Nashville were tough, I became such
a better songwriter in those four years.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Oh yeah, what do you miss the most about those years?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
It was that it was like the daily grind of
like waking up and trying to come up with the
best idea, you know, staying up late, you know, get
bartending home at two am, no one I had to
rite the next day, staying up till three, trying to
come up with something to be able to bring in,
being tired all the time. I think if I could
(33:11):
go back and tell myself something earlier, it would it
would be to follow your gut to chase it sooner.
I think I knew that I wanted to move to
Nashville before long before I did, but it was kind
of breaking free of that, like, oh no, dude, that's risky.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
You know that sometimes the risky play is the one
you need to get to.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So I would I would say, I would tell myself
to get there quicker.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
How late are you normally up on the nights that
you're performing.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
We usually like it's like one am. So like if
we we'll play between nine and ten thirty somewhere in there,
play for an hour and a half. It takes me
probably like an hour and a half to kind of
let the let the adrenaline calm down. But yeah, we're
also a big Mario Kart camp, so we play a
(34:04):
lot of Mario Kart.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay, wait, you're going to need.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
To educate me. It's pretty, it's pretty rockstar.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Is that on your phone? Or is that.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's the Nintendo What is it? The switch? Switch switch?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Okay, I need to get a Nintendo switch. Are they
like the old fashioned ones or have they gotten cooler? No?
Speaker 3 (34:22):
There, it's like a PlayStation. It's like a PlayStation controller.
But yeah, it's like the regular Mario Yoshi Luigi characters.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I love yah.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's pretty like yeah, like I said, we're pretty, we're
pretty rock star out there.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, pretty rockstar.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I also love knowing that you have four kids. You
just had your fourth child a month old, so congratulations,
thank you very much. That must be an interesting context
switch to right, Like you're going on tour in a
couple of weeks, so soon they're going to be on
tour September to October. Right, it must be so wild
going home and being in dad, I would like talk
about it. It's a switch right.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Oh you know there's like a group of US dads
and country music Tyler Hubbard Thomas, Rhett, Russell, Dickerson, Cordy Kent,
And I mean, I know there's more out there, like
Dirk's is talked about it, but there you know, ours
are like kind of in the same age range me,
Thomas Russell Tyler. So Thomas told me one day when
(35:24):
he's like, you know, we were just talking about family
and stuff, and he's like, man, there's nothing more humbling
than being on the road where you know it's catering
and people are walking you around and it's like, hey,
I need this and somebody's gonna go get it and
bring it back to you.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Play the show.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Everybody's screaming at you, singing it's it's awesome. And then
you get home on Sunday morning and you walk in
and immediately met with like, hey, Dak, can I get
some oras juice? And it's like everything that just happened
is gone. They don't care who you are, they don't
care how many songs you've had out you know, you're
(36:03):
just dad, and it's very humbling and the most awesome
thing out there.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
So yeah, I mean, the word normal I think is
the best because you need those things that just make
you feel normal and grounded.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And I'm the least cool to any of my kids. Okay,
like they would rather listen to they never listen to
my songs. Oh well they will maybe hopefully.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, your girls are going to be like, Dad, you
need to write me a song for my wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
They that's the real.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Work's gonna get That one's gonna be a tough one.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Tough critics.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They love Luke Luke colmb's Luke Bryn.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
My daughter's obsessed with Meghan Maroony so like it's everybody
but me that gets played in my house.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So well, you've got your new album Learn the Hard
Way coming out August fifteenth. First of all, where did
the name come from? I feel like it's kind of
self explanatory, but where'd the name come from? And also,
what are you excited about about this new album.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I've been learning things the hard way my whole life, Uh,
pretty hard headed, I think going back to even you know,
as a kid, uh, you know, working for my dad. Uh,
my dad had a furniture polsry company. I was always
every summer was spent working there. So like I was
(37:20):
trying to come up with ways to get out of
work every day, you know, through college, made a lot
of stupid mistakes and even too like.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Going you know, moving to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
In those early years of being in town, there were
some things that I just hadn't learned, learned the tough
way in to where even now you know the the
balance I think now the thing I'm kind of struggling
with is the balance between working home.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
How much is working too much? You know?
Speaker 3 (37:52):
But in my opinion, the best way to learn anything
is is maybe getting your hands slapped a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Uh, it sticks with you enough.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
So and I think a lot of these songs kind
of point to that. You know, I wanted to have
fun making this record. I wanted to have I wanted
these songs to be fun to play live, and I
wanted to kind of take some chances. So I think
there's a lot of songs on here that are going
to be a new sound to my fans, something I
(38:19):
haven't done before. I've got a couple of great collabs
on it. Carly Pierce's on one. Marcus King, who I'm
a huge fan of, is on one. So up to
this date, it's I think it's the best record I've
ever made.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Who's a dream collab for you somebody that you haven't
collapbed with yet, but you're like, oh god one day.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
I'm a huge Alice Keys fan, so like anything with
Alis Keys, I think that was like when.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Somebody's like, have you ever been starstruck? You know? I
was at an.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
iHeart Awards and Alicia Keys walked down the hallway I
was in. That was probably the closest I've ever been
to being like, oh, wow, she's really good.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It'd be cool to hear your sounds merged.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, she's I mean, she's just amazing. Alicia Key, I
mean john legend like that.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Those are wow.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
So not these aren't country artists, these are like yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
I mean I'm a massive music fan. I mean obviously
country is the one that I kind of always get
pulled to, but yeah, I mean I think I mean,
those they're just crazy talented, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
I think in country, Luke was a big one for me.
You know, so it's kind of like, how do you
beat that?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
That was the guy man, like, you know, he was
the radio so and still kind of is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
So.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, I think those are legend and a last Keyser,
they're pretty up there.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
We're gonna manifest it happening now that you spoke it
into the universe, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
They have no clue who I am, but maybe one day.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
They know they know who you are. Okay, Well, major
US tour coming up in tandem with this new album.
We've been teasing it. What is the tour name? It's
not Learned the Hard Way, Ain't Enough Road and it's
from September eleventh to October twenty fifth. You're hitting some
legendary stops. We've got Red Rocks, Radio, City of Music Hall, yep,
for you.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It's gonna be pretty special. So I can't wait. I mean,
this is we just wrap rehearsals up last week and
this is the best show we've ever put together off
of the heels of I think my best record I've done.
So it's gonna be a gonna be a fun fall.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
What can we expect to see you on stage doing?
Are you going to be dancing? Like? What?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
A you don't want to see that?
Speaker 1 (40:26):
What is the on stage? What is your on stage performance?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I feel like I move. I do move a lot
on stage, but yeah, you don't want to see me dancing.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
You're getting flow up there. I have to come to the.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Radio City Music. No, you have to love. We'd love
to have you all there.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
It's going to be That's a that's a bucket list
spot for me and my kids because they come up
here for Christmas every year. So the fact that Dad's
playing on the same stage that the Rockets dance on,
my daughter thinks is awesome. It is awesome, So I'm
pretty excited about it though.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Well, thank you so much, Jordan. It is so cool
to get to know you today.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
This is a blast, and thank you for making me
run a mile.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
That was awesome anytime. Thank you so much for listening
to today's episode with Jordan. This week concludes our three
week streak of country artists. But don't worry, guys, there
are plenty more coming very soon, and I wish I
could tell you who they are now, but I don't
(41:27):
want to jinx it. But maybe if you're into it,
you guys can slide into my dms and guests who
we're having on the show. If you guys are enjoying
Post Run High, please be sure to follow us on
socials at Post Run High and me at Kate Max
and leave us a five star review. Your support helps
us continue bringing you inspiring conversations. All right, I'll see
you guys next week.
Host
Kate Mackz
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