September 26, 2023 • 56 mins
Country music star Thomas Rhett and Kevin revel in their mutual love of Nashville in this week's episode. Thomas Rhett shares what it was like growing up with a famous dad, the challenges of being on the road with little ones and gets nostalgic when he talks about the first time he laid eyes on his eldest daughter. The guys are joined by Suzanne Mayernick from Love One International, an organization that provides life-saving medical care for children in Uganda.
To learn more and get involved with Love One International, head to www.LoveOneInternational.org. To support more initiatives like this program, text 'BACON' to 707070 or head to SixDegrees.Org to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this is a fun episode for me because for.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Those of you that don't know, I'm a musician, I'm
not just an actor.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I love play of music.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I love writing songs. I first visited Nashville when my
brother was living there as a staff songwriter at Combine
Music and I was about twelve years old, and I
got on a train to from Philly where I grew up,
to head south and kind of went into this whole
other world. This would be back in the seventies. I
(00:31):
think I sort of fell in love with that city.
It's changed a lot over the years, but it's always
remained a place where amazing, amazing songwriters and musicians meet and.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Play and write.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Not just country music. I mean has a reputation for country,
but there's all kinds of stuff being done there. I
have myself done the whole thing, gone to a little room,
met somebody that I didn't know, drank some coffee, and
written a few songs. And so to hang out today
with someone who has not only written a few songs,
(01:08):
but has written just twenty tops end songs something like that.
Just a fantastic artist and to you know, kind of
shoot the breeze about music and writing country and other
kinds of music, and also find out about something that
not only he cares deeply about, but also has been
(01:28):
a very, very big.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Part of his personal life.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm really excited to be hanging out today with Thomas Rhett.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So Lean.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Here we are with Thomas Rhett.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm so excited to meet you, and thank you so
much for being here.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
We were chatting before.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You're You're just in the middle of the tour.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, So we started in February in Canada. I don't
know you've ever been to Canada in February, but it
is the coldest I've ever been.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
In my whole I'm sure you have.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, we're halfway through the tour.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
We go through like September, and my family and I
have been at the beach for a few weeks, so
I've kind of been touring in and out of here.
So been a good summer, man, been a busy one.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You got a new vinyl coming out right, twenty number
ones or is it out now or yeah?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
I think it comes out in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It is still kind of mind boggling to me that
that we have that coming out. I feel some days
I feel like I've been doing this career for like
a year, and then some days it feels like thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So wow.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, the fact that we've had that many number ones
in a decade is pretty it's pretty mind boggling.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I mean, that's that's just amazing. Man, that is just amazing.
You must be so proud of that. And I don't know,
just to have that kind of like milestone for songs.
And I'm guessing that you probably wrote or used to
hand and writing all of these tunes.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, I would say maybe maybe seventy percent of the
songs I wrote.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Some of them were pitched to me, you know, from
outside folks.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But Nashville is such a tight knit community that you know,
there's there's really not a week that goes by or
I'm not getting sent at least fifteen to twenty songs
by buddies that are writing all the time. So yeah,
I mean, if it were not for co writers, man,
would I would not be I would not be sitting
where I'm sitting.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, one of real heroes.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I want to dig into that because I'm actually a
songwriter myself and I have.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Been on the road right now.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, we're kind of like, well, we were, we were
out and then our last three days I got COVID
and then we shot down and I had we had
to punt them for a little while. Right, We're going
to go back out in uh September, I think. But
that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I love I love doing it.
But I've always kind of written. Either when I was young,
(03:57):
I wrote with my brother and then from that point
on just by myself. And recently we've started to do
a little bit of partnering and do and getting into
a room with a complete stranger a couple of times
in Nashville. Yeah, once in New York and a few
times in Nashville. And it's such a it's such a
(04:20):
challenging and strange sort of situation I find because it's
a very vulnerable to me. It's a very vulnerable place
to be, you know. Stor writing to me is so
kind of confessional and and and then to get in
there and you know, you're you're playing something you're going
through like some changes, and you're like, you know me,
(04:43):
how do you like, how do you handle first off,
somebody telling you.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I think you could do.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Better with that rhyme or whatever it is. Or someone
else saying, yeah, that's that idea that I don't want
to write that today.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I mean, I I'm fascinated by that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, man, I've been kind of writting.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
My dad was a country artist in the nineties, and so,
you know, I was born in South Georgia and then
we moved to Nashville when I was like one years old.
My dad signed a record deal in nineteen ninety four,
and so I kind of grew up around the space,
you know, from the time I was like nine or ten,
I would do anything that I could to get out
of school on a Friday, to hop on the bus
with my dad on Thursday night, wake up at the
(05:24):
Nebraska County Fair, go to the Illinois County Fair, and
then come home. So I got to watch my dad write, record,
perform all the things, you know, from a young age.
And I was always kind of that kid that just
really loved being behind a camera. Like I loved entertaining
anyone that was in the room. I loved entertaining those people.
So like there's pictures of me in diapers and red
cowboy boots and a guitar, you know, with my dad
(05:46):
singing every Hank William senior Merle Haggard Whaling Jenny Song,
and so I kind of grew up around the craft
of songwriting. And so when my dad kind of retired
from the road, he kind of just just started writing,
you know, for country artist Nashville. And so I would
go when I was in college and watch him, and
he always co wrote, you know. So all I've really
ever known is co writing, and I've got a pretty
(06:09):
second guessing type of brain. And so as many times
I've tried to sit down at a piano or a
guitar and try to write something myself, I feel like
I'll write a verse that I'm okay with, but once
I get to the chorus, it's like I don't trust
I don't trust my instincts enough to just do it
by myself. And so co writers for me have, honestly,
and I'm sure you found this, they've become a therapy
(06:30):
session for me, because some days you can go in
there and write something super from the heart, something super
detailed about your past or about your present. But in
other days, it's like, man, let's just let's write something
fun today. Let's write a party song today, Let's write
a song that's gonna make somebody dance, and so so
many writers in Nashville. There are these niche groups of
people that do each of those things so well. And
(06:50):
you know, over time you kind of find those people
who you want to write specific songs with. And so
I've kind of had to learn through the years of like, oh,
maybe not everything I say is correct, and the older
I get, I'm like, actually, most things I say are
probably incorrect, and so but yeah, I've been doing most
of my writing on the road. Man, I don't have
time to do it at home. So Ibring Co writers
with me on the bus, ok, and we write it.
(07:11):
We write from ten am till you know, I start,
you know, to meet and greet and then we'll do
the show and then right after the show. And that's
kind of become my place of kind of creation.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So wow, that's amazing. And so do you have like
a kind of recording situational on the bus? I mean,
I mean, I guess if you got a mic in
a computer your self. I mean, yeah, as you know,
technology is insane. Like I've been at the beach for
a month now and I set up like a just
a mic, a computer and an Apollo twin in this
little Harry Potter looking closet that we have underneathn stuffs,
(07:41):
and I'm like recording record vocals under there.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
It's like amazing way you can do with just a
laptop and a microphone these days.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It is.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It is amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So let me ask you another question, obviously with with
you know, twenty number one songs incredible, you mentioned that
people are pitching you tunes all the time. I have
on one. Actually it's in the chat. I just send
it to you, and I'm just kidding perfectly, kidd thank you.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
I'm gonna check it out right now.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But but people are people are constantly pitching you things.
So you gotta have an excellent ear to be able
to say, yeah, not only I like the song, but
for sure because you probably like them all, sure I
think it's a hit.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, man, that's like a It's a whole different skill,
you know. I mean, so many of the greatest artists
of all time weren't necessarily songwriters, you know what I mean,
Like if I at least in my genre, you don't know.
George Strait probably wrote a lot of his six number ones,
but some of his biggest ones he wasn't. He wasn't
a writer on you know so, And I could say
the same for a lot of people in a lot
of genres. But I think having that ear to hear
(08:47):
something that you go not only is that great, but
I think that is a mega hit for me, you
know what I'm saying, And me also being a songwriter.
I think for me, when I'm listening to a song,
I'm trying to hear things that I've physically could not
write for sure melodically and second lyrically, you know, like
cause my brain it doesn't have like a melodic limit
(09:08):
on it. But there are other people that just do
things so much differently than I would do then, right,
so like I kind of know my lane of like
what what am I capable of?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
What do I what do I do well?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
And there's always multiple of those kind of songs on
a record, But every now and then, man, there's a
song that gets sent that you're like, Wow, if you
gave me one hundred co writes with a hundred different writers,
I don't think I could write that song. And it
speaks to me it's almost like I was in the
room with that person writing that song. That's how real
it felt to me. So that's been kind of my
gauge on you know, whether I cut an outside song
(09:39):
compared to a song that I wrote. It's just it's
got to hit me like a like a ton of bricks,
And if I listened to it over one hundred times,
then more than likely that song is gonna get cut.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So and how many how many.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Out of what percentage of the songs that you cut
end up on records.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Maybe eighty you know, I've gotten to work with a
bunch of different producers, and each producer is different.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But because I noticed actually that you're you know, you're
you're it's your stuff is not always you know, uh
like straight up exactly the same kind of sound, the
same kind of sure it kind of it kind of
moves in, uh in and out of you know, the
(10:25):
traditional kind of country stuff that you're were raised onto,
you know, pop, and I hear a lot of when
I listen to uh Renegades that has like a real
kind of Springsteen sort of yeah for sure vibe to me,
you know, And that's and it's a little bit of
an out lot, Like I'm just interested that is that
is that a function of multiple producers or is that
(10:46):
you just have a feeling about that this song needs
to kind of in production wise, needs to go in
this particular direction.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, I mean what you're talking about, you know, early
on in my career was absolutely terrifying. You know, I
started in this business eleven years ago and we were
kind of entering the phase that a lot of people
call bro country. That was kind of the phase that
we were in as a genre. And so, you know,
when you're first starting out, really in any career, you
(11:15):
can either kind of follow in the same footsteps as
everybody else. You can kind of chase and you can
kind of copy, or you as you know, you can
carve your own path, you know. And so for me,
it was writers, it was producers.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It was a lot of.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
People on my team saying, hey, I know that this
is kind of off kilter, but it suits you will.
And you know, growing up, man, I mean, on the
way to school with my dad, it could have been
DMX one day, and then the next day it could
have been Aretha Franklin, and then the next day it
could have been Ricky Skaggs, and the next day it
was in Sync, and then and the next day it
was some hardcore metal band like I grew up listening
(11:49):
to some many different types of music that even though
country music has always been and will forever be my
first love, I always ventured in and outside of those lines,
trying to take things influence as I grew up on
and trying to make them into my own brand of
country music. And so, you know, in the beginning of
this career, it was kind of terrifying.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
I got a lot of.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Flak for it.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
You know, there was a lot of people that were like,
you're not a real country where's the steel, where's the violin,
where's all these things? And you know, I mean, I'm
fine with that argument, because yeah, it's not traditional, but
it was the most authentically me that I could do.
And then somewhere along the way it kind of started
to stick with people, and I think people started to
expect me to be different on a record. So like,
(12:30):
when I'm making a record, man, I'm constantly making new
playlists of all the songs and rearranging them and rearranging
them and making sure that as I'm listening to this record,
I don't ever get bored, you know, I always want
something new to catch my attention or catch my ear. So,
like song one through four might have a vibe, and
then song five through nine might have a vibe, and
then something really different happens on ten, and then a
(12:51):
ballot on eleven, and then you know, just trying to
give people like an emotional roller coaster in the forty
five minutes, start going to spend you know, listening to
these records.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So and and you know you're you're kind of ahead
of the curve, I think, because that's the direction that
country music in general seem to have gone in. I mean,
you know, I hear country uh country records now that
they're just straight up pop, you know, or hip hop
hip hop beats.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
I mean the only the only difference is that the
singer has an accent.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Right and singing and singing about country stuff, well country stuff, right,
Speaking of singing about country stuff, I mean you kind
of think to yourself, Okay, is it really.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Possible to write a new song about beer? I mean,
like like that can't like aren't we done? Hasn't everything
been said? And yet that song is so great. It's
so great. It's it's like this is I.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
I my my sort of barometer of of what I
think is a great song is when I just go, Oh, God,
I wish I'd thought of that.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
For sure, God, I wish I'd written that's anything. I mean,
even if it's just a you know, a beautiful love
song or whatever. For sure, but half of me, that's
a really really funny, funny idea.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
No, you're right though, Like, because I'm in the process
of making a new record and my producer Julian we've
been going through all of the songs and anytime that
there is a drink reference, a beer reference, a whiskey,
a tequila, anything, we've been trying to change all of
those words to be anything else unrelated to alcohol.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Because country music we do.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
It's like on a record, there's at least three songs
in a creative way about a cold beer before wheel drive,
getting stuck in the mud, making out in the moonlight,
sitting on a tailgate, and you know, I think that
those those are all things that that we live, you know,
especially as a country genre, live on a weekly basis,
and so it is part of the culture for sure.
(14:59):
But I think when you can find unique and creative
ways to come up with new ways to say those things,
sure a lot of the times they can work.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
You know love songs.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I mean, gosh, I feel like i've that's the majority
of my career has been based on writing love songs.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
My my biggest hit everyone was a song called.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Die Happy Man, and I've spent years trying to recreate
that song. And I think, sometimes you can't recreate magic,
you know what I mean, Like sometimes you just kept
lightening in a bottle and you never.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Know when that's gonna happen again.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
But you have to just keep trying to come up
with new ways to say I love you, And at
least for the for the country market, it's like how
do you come up with new ways to drink?
Speaker 5 (15:34):
To drink a cold beer? So right, yes, you are correct.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
In what order to put those three maybe four chords in.
You know, it's really uh it. I find it to
be such a fascinating expression where you know, in under
four minutes you're gonna tell a full, well rounded story.
I make movies and TV shows and have hours and
(15:59):
hours and hours to you know, to tell the story,
and you know, to be able to capture in that
way is really fascinating. Tell me about the road, Like,
what's your relationship to it? Are you still enjoying it.
You mentioned that you bring writers on the bus with you.
How does it interact with family, etc.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, you know, I think before we had four kids,
when we just had two kids, it was a lot
easier for the fam to travel. But now we have
a seven year old, a five year old, a three
year old, and an almost two year old, and they're
coming with me this weekend and I'm sort of already
getting anxiety about it.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And you know, they're all girls.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
All girls. Yeah, it's crazy. Our house is chaos twenty
four hours a day. But no, dude, I love the road.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Man.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I think as my kids are getting older and starting to,
you know, do sports, whether it's horses or ballet or
soccer or basketball, whatever, it is, like, I just miss
a lot, you know. And I think that that is
probably the whole est part of being gone, is knowing
that you're going to miss a ballet recital, or you're
going to miss a a horse jumping lesson or a
(17:08):
golf lesson or whatever. It is, Like I just don't
want to miss all that stuff. But at the end
of the day, so many parents have to travel. Like
I was tucking my kid in the other night and
she was like, why do you have to leave all
the time? And I'm like, well, I do have to leave,
but most parents have to go to work, you know,
at seven o'clock in the morning, and they don't get
home till five o'clock at night. So I'm not going
to see you for these three days, but when I
do get home, you have all of me for four
(17:29):
straight days, you know. So trying to kind of tell
them that, like, you know, I don't have to leave.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I get to leave.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
It's like a privilege that I that I get to
go on the bus and sing for people that love
my music.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And so I'm.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Trying to like really instill in them from a young
age that it is possible to love what you do,
because I never want their dreams to get killed of
just like, well, I don't know that I could do that,
or I don't know that I could do that. I
love that, but that might be too tricky. I do
believe that if you if you put your mind on something,
you can accomplish it. So I'm really trying to teach
even though they were very young, I think they're trying.
They're starting to get a grip on that that's great,
(18:01):
that's that's awesome. There's a lot of that that I
can relate to as for sure, Dad, who you know,
when we were raising our kids, how many kids do
you have?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I have two kids now, they're kids that are grown.
I mean they're in their thirties, and we brought them
on the road a lot. Our kind of road was
that we would go to a town and actually live
in a town for sure, you know, two or three
months making a film all over the place, all over
the country.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
My wife's and actress too, so there was a lot
of that, you.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Know, flying in and you know, I used to kind
of say the same thing, which was that, yeah, I
know that I'm going to work and I'm working a
long day, but there's going to be a lot of
time when I'm not going to work at all. And
there was, you know, and there was a long period
(18:55):
where Cure was a on a TV show in LA
and I was, you know very much, you know, spending
more time than the than the than the average dad
with them. And I think that it it it paid
off in the long run. I'm not saying sure, you know,
somebody should feel bad about having a you know, a
nine to five gig like that's that's that's that's the
(19:15):
way the world. But I do think that sometimes people
look at parents in the arts and kind of go, well,
you know, where you're really there for your kid, you know,
And I just I push back on that all the time.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I agree completely.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
You spoke about about your dad and about his his
music and looking up to him, and I'm assuming that
the house had a lot of instruments around that you
could grab at any at any moment.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
For sure. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Man, you know, my my dad was always like growing up,
was in rock bands, country bands. The Rolling Stones are
are as all time favorite band, The Stones and Zeppelin both,
And so at a young age, I got really into
just like rock and roll, like seventies rock, eighties hair metal.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I wanted to be. I wanted to be a thrasher.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So I remember in eighth grade, I dyed my hair black,
started talking in a British accent, and and me and
like me and me and three of my buddies started
this band called the High Hilled Flip Flops when we
were in eighth grade, and we basically sang British pump.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Music, oh wow wow.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
And so the drums were my first instrument I can
get around okay on a piano, but guitar is kind
of the first thing I learned how to play. And uh,
you know, all through high school, man played in all
the talent shows.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You still have a kit? Do you still go and
bang away sometimes?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, dude.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
This year on tour, actually we built we put a
drum kit on this like little riser at the end
of the catwalk, and so the very first song, I'll
come up on a drum kit playing this like super
metal like halftime beat with my with my drummer, and
it's always just been one of my favorite instruments to play.
I'm not great at it, but any means that can
get great.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
People people let go nuts when they see they do.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
If only they knew that I was not a great drummer,
you know, so.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Listen, I'm sure, I'm sure you can play. I have
no doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So they were all the so the house was just
filled with music all the time.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
It was man, you know, And it's crazy because like
my my grandparents, like my dad's mom and dad like
played piano a little bit, singing church a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
But my dad was really the first person kind of
our family to take a big leap.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
And you know, move to Nashville and try the whole thing.
And he toured really well for like ten years, and
I think ultimately decided after ten years that writing was
like the thing that he wanted to do for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So my dad has written I think forty five number ones.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Uh in our genre.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
He's one three BMI Songwriter of the Year, he's one
ACM and CMA Songwriter of the Year, song of the Year.
He's he's kind of the goat, you know, of the
Nashville community, amongst a few other people.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
But you.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah, dude, we've written, we've written I think seven or
eight of of my number ones to get which is
really special. Wow, it could it could could be a
huge Like yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I can I can guarantee. Well, my my father was
so tone deaf that we used to we joked that, uh,
when he would sing us a lullaby, we would pretend
to be asleep so that we could he would stop.
But uh so, I can't imagine sitting down and trying
to work with him, my dad in that kind of cartiosity.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That's amazing.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
It works somehow, man. You know, I think in the beginning.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
I think my dad had a vision for what he thought,
you know, my career was going to be. What kind
of songs you were going to write? Like he wrote
my very he wrote he wrote my first number ones,
and and it was after that that I, you know,
I kind of got with my dad and I was like, hey,
I want to try something different, you know, And my dad,
being the the musical jukebox that he is, like, if
you you give my dad a couple a couple of
beers and then give him a guitar, he can literally
(22:50):
sing you the dictionary of any jhant name a song
and he can play it.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
And so as I started to kind.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Of shift a little bit musically, like, my dad was
just immediately right there with me, like helping me along
that journey, giving me advice on you know, how these
songs should go, what they should feel like. And so,
you know, my dad is just like a huge, huge
reason as to why I'm even sitting here talking to
you today.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Som hm wow, that's so that's that's so great. You
have brothers and sisters.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
I do.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
My My family is kind of all over the place.
I've got a twenty eight year old sister a sixteen
year old brother and.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
A three year old brother.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
So my dad got remarried five years ago, had had
had my brother, and uh so him and my three
year old were actually in the same preschool class, which
is amazing. And so uncle and niece, I think that's
how that works, are in the same preschool class.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So yeah, we have a pretty big I'm on my
wife's side, we have a she's got a Brady bunch family.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then yeah, and then I'm the youngest.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Of six, so wow, we have a pretty big Thanksgiving
here at the at our at our apartments because just
a lot of people and they're all spread out all
over the place. It's it's it's amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
I wouldn't want it any other way. I think it's read.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Oh yeah, it's great family, you know, it's it's such
a cliche, but it's everything. Sure, you live in Nashville,
live in Nashville. Yeah, do you do you.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Find that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
The it has I mean, Nashville has obviously changed a lot,
tremendously tremendous. I mean, my brother moved to Nashville to
work as a songwriter in uh, I guess it was
the seventies. He was a staff songwriter at Combine and uh,
(24:44):
you know all those like Fred Foster days and right
would would go and you know, kind of sit there
and you know, write write songs. And he moved down
there with his wife. Uh and and when they were,
you know, really young. So I I used to went
down and visited him a couple of times when I
was when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And uh.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Now obviously we go through Nashville, you know, quite a bit,
and you've been back a lot in the years. It
really is kind of just mind blowing how much that
that city has expanded and grown. Do you feel the
change also kind of culturally there? Yeah, is can you
(25:25):
expound on that at all?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I mean, what's it?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
What's what's the biggest change that you feel?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Well, I mean, so I grew up thirty minutes north
of Nashville. You know, I went to high school thirty
minutes north of Nashville, and you know, when I when
I was growing up, it would take I'm going to
talk about the traffic first, because I feel like traffic
is always like what it was all about.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
In their towns. Yeah, it will.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Never be New York, it will never be La but
it could be Atlanta. You know, I'm sure you've seen
tons of time in Atlanta, but I have have. We
just we don't have the infrastructure for what we are
trying to do, you know. And I think that that
was probably a flaw that happened fifty years ago when
no one thought Ashville was going to be anything other
than just this tiny little country music town.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
So it used to take me twenty minutes to get
to Nashville, and now, you know, my parents used to
live out thirty minutes and it would take an hour
to get to their house. And so, you know, all
my neighbors when we and Lauren first got married, all
were from either Nashville or Huntsville, Alabama, or Atlanta or Greensboro,
North Carolina. And now I would say our neighbors are
literally from all over the country. A lot of folks
(26:28):
from New York, a lot of folks from from la
a lot of folks from Miami are now moving to
this like central location because it's not just a country
town anymore. It's like you can come to Nashville to
do anything, whether it's film or pop music or hip
hop or R and B or soul or jazz or
bluegrass or whatever.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
It is. It's kind of become this melting pot.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
And like it's always been called music city, but now
it's like legit all genre music city and so but man,
I'm not mad about the food scene has really gone.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The food is insane. The food is insane.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
I mean it's gone away up like chill Well, all
we used to have was Chili's and now we have
like James Beard Award, you know, chefs winners.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Like what was it called.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I remember my brother taking me to it was called
meat and two vegs or something like that, or meeting meat. Yeah,
like a meeting three yeah, meeting three yeah, three three yeah,
the original for a Philly kid.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I was like, wow, that's I mean that just I mean,
and now, oh my god, it's crazy. It's crazy good
the food. But what's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Is you still see some guy or girl walking down
the street with a guitar and a dream and a dream.
That's right, that really has sustained. I also think that
what's what's fascinating. We kind of touched on this before,
but you know, there's, uh, there isn't really a tradition
(27:52):
in straight ahead rock of doing songs that other people wrote.
You know that it's really a real country tradition, and
Nashville has always been the center of the greatest songwriters
in the world.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I mean for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You know, I remember going once later on in life
and going to the Blueberd Cafe and just you know,
one of those you know, circle kind of things, and
you just go, oh, man, I got to go back
to school. I mean, these are incredible songs that some
(28:31):
many of which will never be heard other than you know,
in that in that framework. So it's just I find
it fascinating. One thing, I'm always curious about them. Maybe
you have the answer to this. Last time we were
in Nashville, I saw, like, I don't know, twelve bachelorette parties.
(28:52):
Is that like a thing that it's it's it's a
destination for bachelorettes for some reason.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I think I could be wrong on my likesatistics here,
but I do think we have I think we have
become the number one location now, like even over Vegas
and Troston for bachelorette parties.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Okay, so it wasn't just a coincidence. I know it
was like a bachelorette convention or something was in town.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Well, yeah, but the ironic part is that there's a
bachelorette convention every single night of the week, three hundred
and sixty five days a year. It's like, so Nashville.
Nashville started this thing called pedal taverns. Have you heard
of these?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Oh yeah, that's that's right. I saw them there.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
They there, you drink beer and you and you pedal
your an pedal town, right, yeah, so right.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
And I don't. I don't.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I don't go downtown very often, maybe if I'm going
to watch the Preds play or watch, you know, our
minor league baseball team play, Like me and Lauren kind
of stay away from downtown. I love downtown, but when
you go, it's, uh, it's intense.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
There's party buses everywhere, there's pedal taverns everywhere, there's bachelor
and bachelorette parties everywhere. Downtown is absolute. It's amazing, but
it's absolute chaos, especially for someone like me. It would
it would, it would be a complete disaster.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
No, no, going to Broadway, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
It is unlike really any any other city, you know,
because you can you can literally hear music from six
a m To six am, Like it's non stop coming
out of every bar on Broadway. It's like, I mean,
if you if that, if that is your dream to
become a musician of any kind, Like yeah, La and
the Orc are amazing, but when you when you go
to Nashville, man, it just it just bleeds out of
every orifice of the city. So it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Tell me about your daughter and your relationship to Uganda,
and I'm really fascinated by that whole story.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Yeah, man, I mean, you know, I could, I could
get into the weeds and all this stuff. But long, long,
super long story short. It was twenty sixteen and I
was I'll never forget it. I was in Phoenix, Arizona,
playing the show and my wife, I know it. We'll
probably get into this stuff later, but my wife was
really getting into traveling, you know, across the world. My
wife graduated the University of Tennessee with a nursing degree,
(30:59):
and right when we got married, our marriage counselor advised
us to for her not to go to work and
to come on the road with me so we could
spent our whole first year of marriage sorting out marriage things,
you know. So my wife did six hundred and fifty
something straight toward dates with me on one bus with
nine you know dude band members and crew guys. And
(31:21):
it was like year two of the road and she
was like, you know, I think I'm I think I've
had my feel of the road.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I don't know that my wife has ever spent a
single night on a tour bus with me.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I mean she's been on she's maybe gone, she might
have gone.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Two hundred miles or something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
But she's never done it overnight. That is so impressive, dude.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And we had no like zero dollars, like we took
a bus out, but it was like we were losing
money every weekend that we were touring. And so we
were sharing a bunk and you know you've been on
a but those bunks are like small sharing a bunk,
hearing a bunk, Yeah, smaller than a twin sized bed
for like two years.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Oh, but for sure you'd be in the back louns.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
We didn't have the back louns.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Man.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Oh we do now, but but we did not back then.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
And so well, yeah, to you know, two years of that,
Like you know, in the beginning of any career, just
the grind is just never ending. You know, I feel
like we were doing like six shows a week. I mean,
it was just a lot. And so after the second year,
my wife was like, I think I'm gonna chill. I'm
gonna I'm gonna figure out what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I think my wife, about two or three years in
our marriage, were just like, I think that there has
to be a bigger purpose for me, you know what
I mean. Like she was a graduate of the nursing degree,
I think, always wanted to work in a hospital, always
wanted to take care of people.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
For the first two years after she got out of college,
she just like, you know, travel with me. And so
she had met this woman who is going to hop
on on the zoom in a little wild name names
Suzanne Marrinick. And Suzanne has been doing you know, mission
work for like fifteen years kind of all over the
country help and take care of babies in different countries.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
And my wife met her.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
They became instant best friends, and my wife was like,
anywhere you go, where you're going to serve and do
any kind of mission work, I want to go with you.
And this would have been twenty sixteen and my wife
was in Uganda, and she just was sending me a
bunch of pictures of the children's song that they were at,
you know, facetiming me with a bunch of the babies
that were there. And she had posted a picture that
(33:23):
night of this one little girl whose name at the
children's song was Blessing. And I've always thought my wife
is the most beautiful person ever seen in my life,
but there was something about this picture that she was
like glowing man. And so was this baby who I'd
never met before. And I remember facetiming or that night,
saying who was that baby that you were holding? And
(33:43):
she said, well, you know, this is Blessing and there
are no you know, living parents or living relatives, and
so she has no family, and so she's she's been
at this children's home now and her name is Willie Gray,
but her name was Blessing at the orphanage, and she
had been there for like a week. She was six
weeks old. And my wife was just talking to me
and she was like, we have to find a home
for this child. And I'll never forget it, dude. It
(34:06):
was two o'clock in the morning, where I was half
asleep and It just kind of blurted out of my
mouth of like, well, we're going to bring her home.
And I don't even I don't even remember saying it.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
It was just like I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I don't even know if I was ready to have
kids yet. Wow, Like I was really loving the road thing.
My career was just starting to take off. I was like, man,
if we have kids right now, you know, what is
that going to do? And I'll never forget those words
coming out of my mouth. And then, you know, two
months later, do we started the whole you know, home
study process, had people come into our house asking us
a bunch of questions, doing background checks, you know, making
(34:37):
sure the home was safe and all that kind of stuff.
And then we spent the next foreseeable future in a
little town called mas Cindi, Uganda, which is where Willi
Gray is from. And it wasn't maybe six months later
that I that I met Willi Gray for the first time.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Went to this children's home.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And she had met Lauren, but she never met me.
And I walked into this little front room on the
grounds and she was taking a nap on a dirt floor.
It was it was the first time I'd ever met
her and so spent a ton of time with her
there and once we actually started the adoption process, we
were we lived in Uganda roughly for almost a year.
(35:16):
You know, I had to travel back and forth playing shows.
My wife basically stayed in Uganda for almost a year.
And just you know, this is kind of cliche, but
a lot when a lot of people begin the adoption process,
they get pregnant as well, and that's that's what happened
to us.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
So, oh, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, we were five months in the adoption process
and found out that Laaren got pregnant, and uh so,
you know, Lauren was like your version of twins for sure.
So not only was like Lauren and Uganda by herself
a lot, she was also by herself, uh six seven
months pregnant, So it was it was a really crazy time.
But dude, I look at Willie Gray now, she's offtionally
(35:53):
eight years old in November, smart as a whip, beautiful,
just it's I will never get that image out of
my head the first time I'm at her, and then
I look at her today and I'm just like, this
is one of the most incredible things in the world.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So wow, that is such an amazing story. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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(36:42):
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Speaker 2 (36:49):
Well, Suzanne Marineck is here, Susan, would you like to
join us?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Good morning?
Speaker 5 (36:54):
How you do?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's up?
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Says I'm doing great, Harry Hei Jr.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Thanks, Thanks, thanks so much much for being here, and
I'm well. First off, how did how did the two
of you meet?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Three? Lauren? Yeah, big Lauren. Lauren was friends with my
nephew in college and I was traveling somewhere where we're going.
I was actually going to Haiti, and my nephew reached
out to Lauren and said, hey, I know that you.
Your heart's always desired to go and serve somewhere. My
(37:29):
aunt's going in a few weeks. She ought to see
if you can jump on her trip. And I got
an email or call I don remember from Lauren just saying, hey,
I'm friends with Land then and I heard you were
going out of you know, to Haiti and I would
love to join. And I had actually just had my
trip was full, but I had the week before, I
had had a nurse drop out, and I said, oh,
(37:51):
actually I have one spot open for a nurse. And Lauren,
I don't know if tr told you, but in school
she got her nurse seemed to gree and so we
just filled that spot with Lauren and I got to
know her on that trip, and I think the Lord
just kind of knitted our hearts together. And when we
(38:12):
got ready to leave Haiti, she looked at me and
she said, I really feel like this is something that
I'm supposed to do in life. Everywhere you go, I
want you to book me a flight. I want to
go with you. And I said, be careful what you
asked for, because I'm going to be going to Africa, saying,
and she goes, I want to be sitting next to you.
And several months later I looked over and there Lauren
(38:32):
was sitting in the airplane next semi headed to Uganda.
So that's kind of how it started.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Had you been to Uganda before, I have, I.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Have a little girl. That actually's how this whole thing started.
That we brought home, that we adopted from Meganda.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
And Thomas Rover was telling me the whole process of
adoption is pretty pretty complicated and time consuming.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
It is. She's been here now for thirteen years, and
so when we adopted her, we didn't you didn't have
to live there for a year or all the you know,
the things that they've put in place. Now, it took
us about a year to get her home just with paperwork.
But it's gotten a lot more difficult than it was.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Why is that? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I think, well, in all countries it's kind of come
to a it went to a screeching halt for a
long time with China and Ethiopia and Ukraine and Russia
and Africa, and then they've kind of started opening them
up again. I think countries started feeling like that it
(39:48):
was a money It became a moneymaker. I think there
were people here that had a heart to bring children
home and were willing to pay the money because they
but like that they needed homes rather than them laying
in orphanages, and you know, the it's this unequaled balance
of and for children and then countries being corrupt in it,
(40:13):
and so I think they just leveled it for a
little bit. Now the countries are starting to open up
a little bit more, but they have made the process
a lot more difficult. And so some children are you know,
still coming home to forever families and others aren't.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
I'm curious, Suzanne, about what you think it is. Tom's
rad and I were talking about this a little bit,
how that connection to that little girl just sort of
hit him without really having planned to have this, you know,
be a part of his life. But I'm wondering what
it is in your either your upbringing, or your point
(40:55):
of view about the world, or some some kind of
experiences you have that you've had that makes you, you know,
want to follow this path because it's not an easy path,
you know, to go to places like Haiti, to go
to go to Africa, to see the kind of conditions
that these children are living in. A lot of us
(41:15):
want to sort of kind of like turn away from
that or at the very least not spend our life
focused on it. So I'm just wondering if there's something
that you think is a reason for you.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Well, I'll tell you. If you've ever held a dying
child in your arms, or a dying baby and you're
wondering if they're every while you're holding them, if they're
going to take their next breath, it's a failing that
(41:53):
you can't shake and that you never forget. And if
you ever sit across from another mother who is holding
her baby wondering if her baby's gonna live, truly is
to my child fixing to take their last breast And
(42:15):
the look on the mother's face feels like, I mean,
I don't care what country you're in. A mother's love
is a mother's love. And when they are holding their
child and they are worried that they're gonna die in
their arms, yeah, they have no way to get them
(42:38):
the help that they need to keep them alive, it
does something to you. And I think I had enough
of those times to where I was either holding a
baby thinking they're fixing a die. They're fixing a die,
we have to like, I've got to do something to
(42:58):
get this baby help. Or I was sitting next to
a mother and I could feel her emotion of worry
that her baby was going to die. And then I
would come back to my home in Brentwoo, Tennessee and
look around and everything that I've ever needed or wanted
was at my fingertips. And it was this battle and
(43:20):
my head and my heart. If I can sit here
and I can live this great life, or I can
do more to help these other mothers and these babies
that I've held. And I just couldn't lay in bed
at and I and do nothing. I just couldn't do it.
I couldn't sleep. I worried all the time. My heart
(43:41):
just continued to be called back to the different countries.
We ended up landing in Uganda, which is where loved
One is now because basically that's where Jessie Love is from.
But when you have ever held a dying child, you
don't forget it. And that's what me to do it.
I mean, on a weekly basis, I get photos and
(44:04):
babies that truly are skin and bones on oxygen, and
I think about their moms sitting there in the hospital
next to him, wondering if they're going to take their
last breath, yet they don't have the money to pay
for them to have the oxygen that's on on their face.
And you know, Kevin, I tell my kids all the time,
(44:29):
we only have one life and what are we going
to do with it while we're here? And so for
me to answer your question, that's what moves me to
continue to do it.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Well, it sounds like might think the thing that you
that what really struck me with what you said is
that you felt like you didn't really have a choice,
that it just you just had to do it, and
that it it. It sounds like also that it continues, it
feels better, a lot better than doing nothing, and it
(45:08):
continues to give back in that way. I mean, you
must feel a tremendous sense of I don't know, just
pride or energy to keep going. When you see a situation,
when you see a child whose life is saved or
moved or moved to a nice home or whatever, that
(45:29):
must that must really fill you up.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
I would think.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
It makes the heart happy. And I looked at a
mom who was once holding her child, worried about it,
and then their child is healthy, rating around their community,
and it does you know, I feel like that that's
what my number one calling in life is to be
(45:57):
a mom to my children and a wife to my husband.
But I do feel like that he has given me
a passion in my heart to do more to help
other babies and moms, and thankfully now we have a
way and means to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
So you said that loved One is on the ground
in Uganda. Explain to me what happens on a day
to day basis how the organization functions there.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Okay, So children come to us in several different ways.
We have moms who truly strap their babies to their back,
walk for miles and knock on our door. We have
community liaisons or unity leaders that are out in all
the different villages and if there's a child that's in need,
(46:44):
they'll call the loved One Admin center and say, hey,
we have a child that needs care. Or the hospitals
that are in our area they'll call and say there's
a child that has come they need medical care, but
their parents can afford it. And so our staff goes
(47:05):
in and they do a medical assessment on a child
or out in the community or either on our center
when they show up and they see what their basic
needs are. We have several pediatricians, nurses, social workers, nutritionists,
we figure out kind of what they need, but our
first step or stop is always make sure they go
(47:26):
to the hospital so we have an overview medically to
know if they have any secondary infections that are accompanying
the malnutrition. We get a medical care that they need
at the hospital, make sure that that's paid for and
the mom is there with them or a caretaker is there.
Then they bring them to our center. A lot of
(47:47):
times once we get rid of the secondary infection, they're
so malnourished they can't have solid foods. Their bodies want
to absorb the nutritional like the substance, and so we
have to start on a liquid diet that's full of awe.
It's just packed full of vitamins and nutrients to kind
of get them boost into where then their body can
(48:07):
absorb the other solid foods. Then our nutritionists make a
specific meal for that child depending on what their situation is,
and they start feeding that child that meal. In the beginning,
when they first come, they typically kind of sit and
they they're sad and well, they've just been sick and
(48:29):
they haven't had energy to do anything. But once they
start getting healthy and then they start playing with the
other children and they have energy and they go from
sitting in a corner or laying in the bed to
actually getting out and playing. Then we start if they
need physical therapy, we can give them physical therapy. We
have a spiritual peace to our program to where where
(48:53):
everybody that comes through the doors we're trying to share
the love of Jesus and tell them just about Christ.
Then once they get healthy and they're ready to go
back home, we have their families come in and do
training the whole time they're at they're at our center,
(49:13):
we train them on nutrition, on hygiene, preventative measures, on
you know, how to keep your child from getting in
this situation again. And then when they're ready to go home,
we bring their families in. We send them home with
a meal for about a month for them and their families, mattresses,
(49:36):
mosquito nets, Bibles in their language, and we resettle them,
make sure they're okay, and then our social workers go
back and do follow up checkouts just to make sure
that they're continuing to stay healthy and thrives.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Wow, that is that's kind of a full service situation.
That's that's incredible. You know, Thomas fred I didn't even
ask how is how is your little girl doing? How's
the adjustment been? I mean, she's been here for quite
a few years now, but how's that going.
Speaker 4 (50:12):
It's uh, it's been the biggest blessing of my entire life,
you know. You know Suzanne was talking about, you know,
right when we sort of decided that we were going
to adopt the rules, did change, you know. So I
don't think we I don't think we thought we were
going to live in Uganda for as long as we did.
But but that time being in Uganda for that long
really opened my eyes up to just a whole different
(50:34):
kind of life, you know, Like Suzanne said, like we
all of us are on this podcast or are so
blessed and there is not anything that we couldn't hop
on Amazon right now and have delivered to our doorstep
in twenty four hours, you know. And so I think
when you see that type of poverty, and you see
that type of malnutrition, and you start to play with
(50:57):
a bunch of kids, I mean I literally I remember
walking to the children's home one day, was just a
bracelet on and it was like the kids just swarmed me,
asking me.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
For my bracelet.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
You know, it's just I think I was just like,
how can you all, how can you be so happy
in these circumstances where I live in a world full
of excess and there are so many days where I'm
just like either non content or at a want for more.
And I think that surrounding myself with so many of
the of the folks in Uganda, it just changed my
(51:28):
outlook on life and honestly transformed my heart. And so
every day that I wake up and I get to
see Willi Gray, it's just absolutely incredible. And so you know,
next year we're actually going to take Willi Grade back
to Uganda for the first time, wow since twenty sixteen,
So wow, Wow. Willi Gray talks about it all the time.
(51:48):
Every night we got to bread. She prays for her
friends in Uganda and loves seeing pictures and loves getting
updates all the kids that love one is helping, and it's.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
Just been incredible. Man.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
She and Willi Gray at a young age are He
has a heart for wanting to go and do it
as well, which is which is pretty awesome for wille
Grade to get to watch her mom, you get to
watch Susanne do it, because it's I think it's lighting
a fire in her heart to kind of go back
to Uganda and and uh and uh you know, she's
so obsessed with learning about her culture and learning about
her friends and and uh. So it's going to be
(52:19):
a very special time for for us and our family
to you know, to get to take WILLI grade back
to Uganda and get to kind of watch her kind
of reunite with with a bunch of our friends. So
it's been incredible. Man, it's been the big blessings of
my life. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
You know this some podcast was sort of started with
the idea, I mean, you two are the perfect example
of what we're trying to do in this in this
situation where you have somebody who is incredibly successful in
in uh in you know, in one way, and then
(52:53):
also finds the time and the passion to do something
good in the world, and through that has found someone
who is generally unsung like you, Susan uh and and
giving both of these people an equal voice. So thank
you so much for for being here. I mean, this
(53:14):
is your your exactly what we're talking about on this
on this podcast. But is there a call to action,
like how can how can people help? Where can they
get in touch with you find out about the organization.
Let's give it a shout out.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
And well, we have our website. It's www dot leve
one International dot org. You can find us on all
our socials. It's eleven one I N T. And you know,
we started out honestly, Kevin, I thought, if I can
(53:51):
help five longs or five babies, and that's five babies
that would live that wouldn't ordinarily be able to live.
And we're five years in. It was five years in
April that we kind of just put our sword down
in Uganda, and we've helped over eleven thousand children. Amazing,
(54:13):
and so I think, so we've gone from a little
bitty house that held ten children to now our center
will hold forty five. And we just started construction and
we're hoping to be finished in twenty twenty four for
a rehab center that'll hold over one hundred children. And
so we started out with one district in Uganda and
(54:35):
now we're touching ten. And so as we grow, our
operating costs to go up. And you know, I think
if that's one of the biggest things that Thomas, Rent
and Lauren have played such a significant role in just
helping us as we've grown to be able to fund
what you know has come our way, and I would
(54:56):
love to touch every district in the entire country and
just making be just a huge impact for malnourished babies
in Uganda. And I think learning t are both kind
of have that fire in them now that we've actually
watched it and be able to grow. You start out
going can we do it? Can we not do it?
And then all of a sudden it starts happening, and
(55:17):
so it feels your fire to do more and to
help more. And so I just think anybody that wants
to come alongside us and help the babies that we're serving,
we would be more than happy to take them along
with us on our journey. Day.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Well, thank you guys for your time. Thomas Rhetz's in
Mary Nick, keep up the great work.
Speaker 5 (55:40):
Kevin, thank you so much, man. This is huge. We
cannot thank you enough. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
It's huge for me too, So thanks a lot for being.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more
about Love One International, all you got to do is
head to their website. At www dot Loveweinternational dot org.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
You can find all.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
The links in our show notes and to hear more interviews,
more laughs, more good in the world. To make sure
you subscribe to the show and tune into the rest
of our episodes, you can find Six Degrees with Kevin
Bigon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
See you next time.
So this is a fun episode for me because for.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Those of you that don't know, I'm a musician, I'm
not just an actor.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I love play of music.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I love writing songs. I first visited Nashville when my
brother was living there as a staff songwriter at Combine
Music and I was about twelve years old, and I
got on a train to from Philly where I grew up,
to head south and kind of went into this whole
other world. This would be back in the seventies. I
(00:31):
think I sort of fell in love with that city.
It's changed a lot over the years, but it's always
remained a place where amazing, amazing songwriters and musicians meet and.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Play and write.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Not just country music. I mean has a reputation for country,
but there's all kinds of stuff being done there. I
have myself done the whole thing, gone to a little room,
met somebody that I didn't know, drank some coffee, and
written a few songs. And so to hang out today
with someone who has not only written a few songs,
(01:08):
but has written just twenty tops end songs something like that.
Just a fantastic artist and to you know, kind of
shoot the breeze about music and writing country and other
kinds of music, and also find out about something that
not only he cares deeply about, but also has been
(01:28):
a very, very big.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Part of his personal life.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm really excited to be hanging out today with Thomas Rhett.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So Lean.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Here we are with Thomas Rhett.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm so excited to meet you, and thank you so
much for being here.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
We were chatting before.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You're You're just in the middle of the tour.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, So we started in February in Canada. I don't
know you've ever been to Canada in February, but it
is the coldest I've ever been.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
In my whole I'm sure you have.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, we're halfway through the tour.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
We go through like September, and my family and I
have been at the beach for a few weeks, so
I've kind of been touring in and out of here.
So been a good summer, man, been a busy one.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You got a new vinyl coming out right, twenty number
ones or is it out now or yeah?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
I think it comes out in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It is still kind of mind boggling to me that
that we have that coming out. I feel some days
I feel like I've been doing this career for like
a year, and then some days it feels like thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So wow.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, the fact that we've had that many number ones
in a decade is pretty it's pretty mind boggling.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I mean, that's that's just amazing. Man, that is just amazing.
You must be so proud of that. And I don't know,
just to have that kind of like milestone for songs.
And I'm guessing that you probably wrote or used to
hand and writing all of these tunes.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, I would say maybe maybe seventy percent of the
songs I wrote.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Some of them were pitched to me, you know, from
outside folks.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But Nashville is such a tight knit community that you know,
there's there's really not a week that goes by or
I'm not getting sent at least fifteen to twenty songs
by buddies that are writing all the time. So yeah,
I mean, if it were not for co writers, man,
would I would not be I would not be sitting
where I'm sitting.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, one of real heroes.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I want to dig into that because I'm actually a
songwriter myself and I have.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Been on the road right now.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, we're kind of like, well, we were, we were
out and then our last three days I got COVID
and then we shot down and I had we had
to punt them for a little while. Right, We're going
to go back out in uh September, I think. But
that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I love I love doing it.
But I've always kind of written. Either when I was young,
(03:57):
I wrote with my brother and then from that point
on just by myself. And recently we've started to do
a little bit of partnering and do and getting into
a room with a complete stranger a couple of times
in Nashville. Yeah, once in New York and a few
times in Nashville. And it's such a it's such a
(04:20):
challenging and strange sort of situation I find because it's
a very vulnerable to me. It's a very vulnerable place
to be, you know. Stor writing to me is so
kind of confessional and and and then to get in
there and you know, you're you're playing something you're going
through like some changes, and you're like, you know me,
(04:43):
how do you like, how do you handle first off,
somebody telling you.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I think you could do.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Better with that rhyme or whatever it is. Or someone
else saying, yeah, that's that idea that I don't want
to write that today.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I mean, I I'm fascinated by that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, man, I've been kind of writting.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
My dad was a country artist in the nineties, and so,
you know, I was born in South Georgia and then
we moved to Nashville when I was like one years old.
My dad signed a record deal in nineteen ninety four,
and so I kind of grew up around the space,
you know, from the time I was like nine or ten,
I would do anything that I could to get out
of school on a Friday, to hop on the bus
with my dad on Thursday night, wake up at the
(05:24):
Nebraska County Fair, go to the Illinois County Fair, and
then come home. So I got to watch my dad write, record,
perform all the things, you know, from a young age.
And I was always kind of that kid that just
really loved being behind a camera. Like I loved entertaining
anyone that was in the room. I loved entertaining those people.
So like there's pictures of me in diapers and red
cowboy boots and a guitar, you know, with my dad
(05:46):
singing every Hank William senior Merle Haggard Whaling Jenny Song,
and so I kind of grew up around the craft
of songwriting. And so when my dad kind of retired
from the road, he kind of just just started writing,
you know, for country artist Nashville. And so I would
go when I was in college and watch him, and
he always co wrote, you know. So all I've really
ever known is co writing, and I've got a pretty
(06:09):
second guessing type of brain. And so as many times
I've tried to sit down at a piano or a
guitar and try to write something myself, I feel like
I'll write a verse that I'm okay with, but once
I get to the chorus, it's like I don't trust
I don't trust my instincts enough to just do it
by myself. And so co writers for me have, honestly,
and I'm sure you found this, they've become a therapy
(06:30):
session for me, because some days you can go in
there and write something super from the heart, something super
detailed about your past or about your present. But in
other days, it's like, man, let's just let's write something
fun today. Let's write a party song today, Let's write
a song that's gonna make somebody dance, and so so
many writers in Nashville. There are these niche groups of
people that do each of those things so well. And
(06:50):
you know, over time you kind of find those people
who you want to write specific songs with. And so
I've kind of had to learn through the years of like, oh,
maybe not everything I say is correct, and the older
I get, I'm like, actually, most things I say are
probably incorrect, and so but yeah, I've been doing most
of my writing on the road. Man, I don't have
time to do it at home. So Ibring Co writers
with me on the bus, ok, and we write it.
(07:11):
We write from ten am till you know, I start,
you know, to meet and greet and then we'll do
the show and then right after the show. And that's
kind of become my place of kind of creation.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So wow, that's amazing. And so do you have like
a kind of recording situational on the bus? I mean,
I mean, I guess if you got a mic in
a computer your self. I mean, yeah, as you know,
technology is insane. Like I've been at the beach for
a month now and I set up like a just
a mic, a computer and an Apollo twin in this
little Harry Potter looking closet that we have underneathn stuffs,
(07:41):
and I'm like recording record vocals under there.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
It's like amazing way you can do with just a
laptop and a microphone these days.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It is.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It is amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So let me ask you another question, obviously with with
you know, twenty number one songs incredible, you mentioned that
people are pitching you tunes all the time. I have
on one. Actually it's in the chat. I just send
it to you, and I'm just kidding perfectly, kidd thank you.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
I'm gonna check it out right now.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But but people are people are constantly pitching you things.
So you gotta have an excellent ear to be able
to say, yeah, not only I like the song, but
for sure because you probably like them all, sure I
think it's a hit.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, man, that's like a It's a whole different skill,
you know. I mean, so many of the greatest artists
of all time weren't necessarily songwriters, you know what I mean,
Like if I at least in my genre, you don't know.
George Strait probably wrote a lot of his six number ones,
but some of his biggest ones he wasn't. He wasn't
a writer on you know so, And I could say
the same for a lot of people in a lot
of genres. But I think having that ear to hear
(08:47):
something that you go not only is that great, but
I think that is a mega hit for me, you
know what I'm saying, And me also being a songwriter.
I think for me, when I'm listening to a song,
I'm trying to hear things that I've physically could not
write for sure melodically and second lyrically, you know, like
cause my brain it doesn't have like a melodic limit
(09:08):
on it. But there are other people that just do
things so much differently than I would do then, right,
so like I kind of know my lane of like
what what am I capable of?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
What do I what do I do well?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
And there's always multiple of those kind of songs on
a record, But every now and then, man, there's a
song that gets sent that you're like, Wow, if you
gave me one hundred co writes with a hundred different writers,
I don't think I could write that song. And it
speaks to me it's almost like I was in the
room with that person writing that song. That's how real
it felt to me. So that's been kind of my
gauge on you know, whether I cut an outside song
(09:39):
compared to a song that I wrote. It's just it's
got to hit me like a like a ton of bricks,
And if I listened to it over one hundred times,
then more than likely that song is gonna get cut.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So and how many how many.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Out of what percentage of the songs that you cut
end up on records.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Maybe eighty you know, I've gotten to work with a
bunch of different producers, and each producer is different.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But because I noticed actually that you're you know, you're
you're it's your stuff is not always you know, uh
like straight up exactly the same kind of sound, the
same kind of sure it kind of it kind of
moves in, uh in and out of you know, the
(10:25):
traditional kind of country stuff that you're were raised onto,
you know, pop, and I hear a lot of when
I listen to uh Renegades that has like a real
kind of Springsteen sort of yeah for sure vibe to me,
you know, And that's and it's a little bit of
an out lot, Like I'm just interested that is that
is that a function of multiple producers or is that
(10:46):
you just have a feeling about that this song needs
to kind of in production wise, needs to go in
this particular direction.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, I mean what you're talking about, you know, early
on in my career was absolutely terrifying. You know, I
started in this business eleven years ago and we were
kind of entering the phase that a lot of people
call bro country. That was kind of the phase that
we were in as a genre. And so, you know,
when you're first starting out, really in any career, you
(11:15):
can either kind of follow in the same footsteps as
everybody else. You can kind of chase and you can
kind of copy, or you as you know, you can
carve your own path, you know. And so for me,
it was writers, it was producers.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It was a lot of.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
People on my team saying, hey, I know that this
is kind of off kilter, but it suits you will.
And you know, growing up, man, I mean, on the
way to school with my dad, it could have been
DMX one day, and then the next day it could
have been Aretha Franklin, and then the next day it
could have been Ricky Skaggs, and the next day it
was in Sync, and then and the next day it
was some hardcore metal band like I grew up listening
(11:49):
to some many different types of music that even though
country music has always been and will forever be my
first love, I always ventured in and outside of those lines,
trying to take things influence as I grew up on
and trying to make them into my own brand of
country music. And so, you know, in the beginning of
this career, it was kind of terrifying.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
I got a lot of.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Flak for it.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
You know, there was a lot of people that were like,
you're not a real country where's the steel, where's the violin,
where's all these things? And you know, I mean, I'm
fine with that argument, because yeah, it's not traditional, but
it was the most authentically me that I could do.
And then somewhere along the way it kind of started
to stick with people, and I think people started to
expect me to be different on a record. So like,
(12:30):
when I'm making a record, man, I'm constantly making new
playlists of all the songs and rearranging them and rearranging
them and making sure that as I'm listening to this record,
I don't ever get bored, you know, I always want
something new to catch my attention or catch my ear. So,
like song one through four might have a vibe, and
then song five through nine might have a vibe, and
then something really different happens on ten, and then a
(12:51):
ballot on eleven, and then you know, just trying to
give people like an emotional roller coaster in the forty
five minutes, start going to spend you know, listening to
these records.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So and and you know you're you're kind of ahead
of the curve, I think, because that's the direction that
country music in general seem to have gone in. I mean,
you know, I hear country uh country records now that
they're just straight up pop, you know, or hip hop
hip hop beats.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
I mean the only the only difference is that the
singer has an accent.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Right and singing and singing about country stuff, well country stuff, right,
Speaking of singing about country stuff, I mean you kind
of think to yourself, Okay, is it really.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Possible to write a new song about beer? I mean,
like like that can't like aren't we done? Hasn't everything
been said? And yet that song is so great. It's
so great. It's it's like this is I.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
I my my sort of barometer of of what I
think is a great song is when I just go, Oh, God,
I wish I'd thought of that.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
For sure, God, I wish I'd written that's anything. I mean,
even if it's just a you know, a beautiful love
song or whatever. For sure, but half of me, that's
a really really funny, funny idea.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
No, you're right though, Like, because I'm in the process
of making a new record and my producer Julian we've
been going through all of the songs and anytime that
there is a drink reference, a beer reference, a whiskey,
a tequila, anything, we've been trying to change all of
those words to be anything else unrelated to alcohol.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Because country music we do.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
It's like on a record, there's at least three songs
in a creative way about a cold beer before wheel drive,
getting stuck in the mud, making out in the moonlight,
sitting on a tailgate, and you know, I think that
those those are all things that that we live, you know,
especially as a country genre, live on a weekly basis,
and so it is part of the culture for sure.
(14:59):
But I think when you can find unique and creative
ways to come up with new ways to say those things,
sure a lot of the times they can work.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
You know love songs.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I mean, gosh, I feel like i've that's the majority
of my career has been based on writing love songs.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
My my biggest hit everyone was a song called.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Die Happy Man, and I've spent years trying to recreate
that song. And I think, sometimes you can't recreate magic,
you know what I mean, Like sometimes you just kept
lightening in a bottle and you never.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Know when that's gonna happen again.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
But you have to just keep trying to come up
with new ways to say I love you, And at
least for the for the country market, it's like how
do you come up with new ways to drink?
Speaker 5 (15:34):
To drink a cold beer? So right, yes, you are correct.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
In what order to put those three maybe four chords in.
You know, it's really uh it. I find it to
be such a fascinating expression where you know, in under
four minutes you're gonna tell a full, well rounded story.
I make movies and TV shows and have hours and
(15:59):
hours and hours to you know, to tell the story,
and you know, to be able to capture in that
way is really fascinating. Tell me about the road, Like,
what's your relationship to it? Are you still enjoying it.
You mentioned that you bring writers on the bus with you.
How does it interact with family, etc.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, you know, I think before we had four kids,
when we just had two kids, it was a lot
easier for the fam to travel. But now we have
a seven year old, a five year old, a three
year old, and an almost two year old, and they're
coming with me this weekend and I'm sort of already
getting anxiety about it.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And you know, they're all girls.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
All girls. Yeah, it's crazy. Our house is chaos twenty
four hours a day. But no, dude, I love the road.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Man.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I think as my kids are getting older and starting to,
you know, do sports, whether it's horses or ballet or
soccer or basketball, whatever, it is, like, I just miss
a lot, you know. And I think that that is
probably the whole est part of being gone, is knowing
that you're going to miss a ballet recital, or you're
going to miss a a horse jumping lesson or a
(17:08):
golf lesson or whatever. It is, Like I just don't
want to miss all that stuff. But at the end
of the day, so many parents have to travel. Like
I was tucking my kid in the other night and
she was like, why do you have to leave all
the time? And I'm like, well, I do have to leave,
but most parents have to go to work, you know,
at seven o'clock in the morning, and they don't get
home till five o'clock at night. So I'm not going
to see you for these three days, but when I
do get home, you have all of me for four
(17:29):
straight days, you know. So trying to kind of tell
them that, like, you know, I don't have to leave.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I get to leave.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
It's like a privilege that I that I get to
go on the bus and sing for people that love
my music.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And so I'm.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Trying to like really instill in them from a young
age that it is possible to love what you do,
because I never want their dreams to get killed of
just like, well, I don't know that I could do that,
or I don't know that I could do that. I
love that, but that might be too tricky. I do
believe that if you if you put your mind on something,
you can accomplish it. So I'm really trying to teach
even though they were very young, I think they're trying.
They're starting to get a grip on that that's great,
(18:01):
that's that's awesome. There's a lot of that that I
can relate to as for sure, Dad, who you know,
when we were raising our kids, how many kids do
you have?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I have two kids now, they're kids that are grown.
I mean they're in their thirties, and we brought them
on the road a lot. Our kind of road was
that we would go to a town and actually live
in a town for sure, you know, two or three
months making a film all over the place, all over
the country.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
My wife's and actress too, so there was a lot
of that, you.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Know, flying in and you know, I used to kind
of say the same thing, which was that, yeah, I
know that I'm going to work and I'm working a
long day, but there's going to be a lot of
time when I'm not going to work at all. And
there was, you know, and there was a long period
(18:55):
where Cure was a on a TV show in LA
and I was, you know very much, you know, spending
more time than the than the than the average dad
with them. And I think that it it it paid
off in the long run. I'm not saying sure, you know,
somebody should feel bad about having a you know, a
nine to five gig like that's that's that's that's the
(19:15):
way the world. But I do think that sometimes people
look at parents in the arts and kind of go, well,
you know, where you're really there for your kid, you know,
And I just I push back on that all the time.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I agree completely.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
You spoke about about your dad and about his his
music and looking up to him, and I'm assuming that
the house had a lot of instruments around that you
could grab at any at any moment.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
For sure. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Man, you know, my my dad was always like growing up,
was in rock bands, country bands. The Rolling Stones are
are as all time favorite band, The Stones and Zeppelin both,
And so at a young age, I got really into
just like rock and roll, like seventies rock, eighties hair metal.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I wanted to be. I wanted to be a thrasher.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So I remember in eighth grade, I dyed my hair black,
started talking in a British accent, and and me and
like me and me and three of my buddies started
this band called the High Hilled Flip Flops when we
were in eighth grade, and we basically sang British pump.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Music, oh wow wow.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
And so the drums were my first instrument I can
get around okay on a piano, but guitar is kind
of the first thing I learned how to play. And uh,
you know, all through high school, man played in all
the talent shows.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You still have a kit? Do you still go and
bang away sometimes?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, dude.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
This year on tour, actually we built we put a
drum kit on this like little riser at the end
of the catwalk, and so the very first song, I'll
come up on a drum kit playing this like super
metal like halftime beat with my with my drummer, and
it's always just been one of my favorite instruments to play.
I'm not great at it, but any means that can
get great.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
People people let go nuts when they see they do.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
If only they knew that I was not a great drummer,
you know, so.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Listen, I'm sure, I'm sure you can play. I have
no doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So they were all the so the house was just
filled with music all the time.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
It was man, you know, And it's crazy because like
my my grandparents, like my dad's mom and dad like
played piano a little bit, singing church a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
But my dad was really the first person kind of
our family to take a big leap.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
And you know, move to Nashville and try the whole thing.
And he toured really well for like ten years, and
I think ultimately decided after ten years that writing was
like the thing that he wanted to do for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So my dad has written I think forty five number ones.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Uh in our genre.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
He's one three BMI Songwriter of the Year, he's one
ACM and CMA Songwriter of the Year, song of the Year.
He's he's kind of the goat, you know, of the
Nashville community, amongst a few other people.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
But you.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah, dude, we've written, we've written I think seven or
eight of of my number ones to get which is
really special. Wow, it could it could could be a
huge Like yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I can I can guarantee. Well, my my father was
so tone deaf that we used to we joked that, uh,
when he would sing us a lullaby, we would pretend
to be asleep so that we could he would stop.
But uh so, I can't imagine sitting down and trying
to work with him, my dad in that kind of cartiosity.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That's amazing.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
It works somehow, man. You know, I think in the beginning.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
I think my dad had a vision for what he thought,
you know, my career was going to be. What kind
of songs you were going to write? Like he wrote
my very he wrote he wrote my first number ones,
and and it was after that that I, you know,
I kind of got with my dad and I was like, hey,
I want to try something different, you know, And my dad,
being the the musical jukebox that he is, like, if
you you give my dad a couple a couple of
beers and then give him a guitar, he can literally
(22:50):
sing you the dictionary of any jhant name a song
and he can play it.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
And so as I started to kind.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Of shift a little bit musically, like, my dad was
just immediately right there with me, like helping me along
that journey, giving me advice on you know, how these
songs should go, what they should feel like. And so,
you know, my dad is just like a huge, huge
reason as to why I'm even sitting here talking to
you today.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Som hm wow, that's so that's that's so great. You
have brothers and sisters.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
I do.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
My My family is kind of all over the place.
I've got a twenty eight year old sister a sixteen
year old brother and.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
A three year old brother.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
So my dad got remarried five years ago, had had
had my brother, and uh so him and my three
year old were actually in the same preschool class, which
is amazing. And so uncle and niece, I think that's
how that works, are in the same preschool class.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So yeah, we have a pretty big I'm on my
wife's side, we have a she's got a Brady bunch family.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then yeah, and then I'm the youngest.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Of six, so wow, we have a pretty big Thanksgiving
here at the at our at our apartments because just
a lot of people and they're all spread out all
over the place. It's it's it's amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
I wouldn't want it any other way. I think it's read.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Oh yeah, it's great family, you know, it's it's such
a cliche, but it's everything. Sure, you live in Nashville,
live in Nashville. Yeah, do you do you.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Find that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
The it has I mean, Nashville has obviously changed a lot,
tremendously tremendous. I mean, my brother moved to Nashville to
work as a songwriter in uh, I guess it was
the seventies. He was a staff songwriter at Combine and uh,
(24:44):
you know all those like Fred Foster days and right
would would go and you know, kind of sit there
and you know, write write songs. And he moved down
there with his wife. Uh and and when they were,
you know, really young. So I I used to went
down and visited him a couple of times when I
was when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And uh.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Now obviously we go through Nashville, you know, quite a bit,
and you've been back a lot in the years. It
really is kind of just mind blowing how much that
that city has expanded and grown. Do you feel the
change also kind of culturally there? Yeah, is can you
(25:25):
expound on that at all?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I mean, what's it?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
What's what's the biggest change that you feel?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Well, I mean, so I grew up thirty minutes north
of Nashville. You know, I went to high school thirty
minutes north of Nashville, and you know, when I when
I was growing up, it would take I'm going to
talk about the traffic first, because I feel like traffic
is always like what it was all about.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
In their towns. Yeah, it will.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Never be New York, it will never be La but
it could be Atlanta. You know, I'm sure you've seen
tons of time in Atlanta, but I have have. We
just we don't have the infrastructure for what we are
trying to do, you know. And I think that that
was probably a flaw that happened fifty years ago when
no one thought Ashville was going to be anything other
than just this tiny little country music town.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
So it used to take me twenty minutes to get
to Nashville, and now, you know, my parents used to
live out thirty minutes and it would take an hour
to get to their house. And so, you know, all
my neighbors when we and Lauren first got married, all
were from either Nashville or Huntsville, Alabama, or Atlanta or Greensboro,
North Carolina. And now I would say our neighbors are
literally from all over the country. A lot of folks
(26:28):
from New York, a lot of folks from from la
a lot of folks from Miami are now moving to
this like central location because it's not just a country
town anymore. It's like you can come to Nashville to
do anything, whether it's film or pop music or hip
hop or R and B or soul or jazz or
bluegrass or whatever.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
It is. It's kind of become this melting pot.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
And like it's always been called music city, but now
it's like legit all genre music city and so but man,
I'm not mad about the food scene has really gone.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The food is insane. The food is insane.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
I mean it's gone away up like chill Well, all
we used to have was Chili's and now we have
like James Beard Award, you know, chefs winners.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Like what was it called.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I remember my brother taking me to it was called
meat and two vegs or something like that, or meeting meat. Yeah,
like a meeting three yeah, meeting three yeah, three three yeah,
the original for a Philly kid.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I was like, wow, that's I mean that just I mean,
and now, oh my god, it's crazy. It's crazy good
the food. But what's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Is you still see some guy or girl walking down
the street with a guitar and a dream and a dream.
That's right, that really has sustained. I also think that
what's what's fascinating. We kind of touched on this before,
but you know, there's, uh, there isn't really a tradition
(27:52):
in straight ahead rock of doing songs that other people wrote.
You know that it's really a real country tradition, and
Nashville has always been the center of the greatest songwriters
in the world.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I mean for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You know, I remember going once later on in life
and going to the Blueberd Cafe and just you know,
one of those you know, circle kind of things, and
you just go, oh, man, I got to go back
to school. I mean, these are incredible songs that some
(28:31):
many of which will never be heard other than you know,
in that in that framework. So it's just I find
it fascinating. One thing, I'm always curious about them. Maybe
you have the answer to this. Last time we were
in Nashville, I saw, like, I don't know, twelve bachelorette parties.
(28:52):
Is that like a thing that it's it's it's a
destination for bachelorettes for some reason.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I think I could be wrong on my likesatistics here,
but I do think we have I think we have
become the number one location now, like even over Vegas
and Troston for bachelorette parties.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Okay, so it wasn't just a coincidence. I know it
was like a bachelorette convention or something was in town.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Well, yeah, but the ironic part is that there's a
bachelorette convention every single night of the week, three hundred
and sixty five days a year. It's like, so Nashville.
Nashville started this thing called pedal taverns. Have you heard
of these?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Oh yeah, that's that's right. I saw them there.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
They there, you drink beer and you and you pedal
your an pedal town, right, yeah, so right.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
And I don't. I don't.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I don't go downtown very often, maybe if I'm going
to watch the Preds play or watch, you know, our
minor league baseball team play, Like me and Lauren kind
of stay away from downtown. I love downtown, but when
you go, it's, uh, it's intense.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
There's party buses everywhere, there's pedal taverns everywhere, there's bachelor
and bachelorette parties everywhere. Downtown is absolute. It's amazing, but
it's absolute chaos, especially for someone like me. It would
it would, it would be a complete disaster.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
No, no, going to Broadway, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
It is unlike really any any other city, you know,
because you can you can literally hear music from six
a m To six am, Like it's non stop coming
out of every bar on Broadway. It's like, I mean,
if you if that, if that is your dream to
become a musician of any kind, Like yeah, La and
the Orc are amazing, but when you when you go
to Nashville, man, it just it just bleeds out of
every orifice of the city. So it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Tell me about your daughter and your relationship to Uganda,
and I'm really fascinated by that whole story.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Yeah, man, I mean, you know, I could, I could
get into the weeds and all this stuff. But long, long,
super long story short. It was twenty sixteen and I
was I'll never forget it. I was in Phoenix, Arizona,
playing the show and my wife, I know it. We'll
probably get into this stuff later, but my wife was
really getting into traveling, you know, across the world. My
wife graduated the University of Tennessee with a nursing degree,
(30:59):
and right when we got married, our marriage counselor advised
us to for her not to go to work and
to come on the road with me so we could
spent our whole first year of marriage sorting out marriage things,
you know. So my wife did six hundred and fifty
something straight toward dates with me on one bus with
nine you know dude band members and crew guys. And
(31:21):
it was like year two of the road and she
was like, you know, I think I'm I think I've
had my feel of the road.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I don't know that my wife has ever spent a
single night on a tour bus with me.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I mean she's been on she's maybe gone, she might
have gone.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Two hundred miles or something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
But she's never done it overnight. That is so impressive, dude.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And we had no like zero dollars, like we took
a bus out, but it was like we were losing
money every weekend that we were touring. And so we
were sharing a bunk and you know you've been on
a but those bunks are like small sharing a bunk,
hearing a bunk, Yeah, smaller than a twin sized bed
for like two years.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Oh, but for sure you'd be in the back louns.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
We didn't have the back louns.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Man.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Oh we do now, but but we did not back then.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
And so well, yeah, to you know, two years of that,
Like you know, in the beginning of any career, just
the grind is just never ending. You know, I feel
like we were doing like six shows a week. I mean,
it was just a lot. And so after the second year,
my wife was like, I think I'm gonna chill. I'm
gonna I'm gonna figure out what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I think my wife, about two or three years in
our marriage, were just like, I think that there has
to be a bigger purpose for me, you know what
I mean. Like she was a graduate of the nursing degree,
I think, always wanted to work in a hospital, always
wanted to take care of people.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
For the first two years after she got out of college,
she just like, you know, travel with me. And so
she had met this woman who is going to hop
on on the zoom in a little wild name names
Suzanne Marrinick. And Suzanne has been doing you know, mission
work for like fifteen years kind of all over the
country help and take care of babies in different countries.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
And my wife met her.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
They became instant best friends, and my wife was like,
anywhere you go, where you're going to serve and do
any kind of mission work, I want to go with you.
And this would have been twenty sixteen and my wife
was in Uganda, and she just was sending me a
bunch of pictures of the children's song that they were at,
you know, facetiming me with a bunch of the babies
that were there. And she had posted a picture that
(33:23):
night of this one little girl whose name at the
children's song was Blessing. And I've always thought my wife
is the most beautiful person ever seen in my life,
but there was something about this picture that she was
like glowing man. And so was this baby who I'd
never met before. And I remember facetiming or that night,
saying who was that baby that you were holding? And
(33:43):
she said, well, you know, this is Blessing and there
are no you know, living parents or living relatives, and
so she has no family, and so she's she's been
at this children's home now and her name is Willie Gray,
but her name was Blessing at the orphanage, and she
had been there for like a week. She was six
weeks old. And my wife was just talking to me
and she was like, we have to find a home
for this child. And I'll never forget it, dude. It
(34:06):
was two o'clock in the morning, where I was half
asleep and It just kind of blurted out of my
mouth of like, well, we're going to bring her home.
And I don't even I don't even remember saying it.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
It was just like I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I don't even know if I was ready to have
kids yet. Wow, Like I was really loving the road thing.
My career was just starting to take off. I was like, man,
if we have kids right now, you know, what is
that going to do? And I'll never forget those words
coming out of my mouth. And then, you know, two
months later, do we started the whole you know, home
study process, had people come into our house asking us
a bunch of questions, doing background checks, you know, making
(34:37):
sure the home was safe and all that kind of stuff.
And then we spent the next foreseeable future in a
little town called mas Cindi, Uganda, which is where Willi
Gray is from. And it wasn't maybe six months later
that I that I met Willi Gray for the first time.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Went to this children's home.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And she had met Lauren, but she never met me.
And I walked into this little front room on the
grounds and she was taking a nap on a dirt floor.
It was it was the first time I'd ever met
her and so spent a ton of time with her
there and once we actually started the adoption process, we
were we lived in Uganda roughly for almost a year.
(35:16):
You know, I had to travel back and forth playing shows.
My wife basically stayed in Uganda for almost a year.
And just you know, this is kind of cliche, but
a lot when a lot of people begin the adoption process,
they get pregnant as well, and that's that's what happened
to us.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
So, oh, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, we were five months in the adoption process
and found out that Laaren got pregnant, and uh so,
you know, Lauren was like your version of twins for sure.
So not only was like Lauren and Uganda by herself
a lot, she was also by herself, uh six seven
months pregnant, So it was it was a really crazy time.
But dude, I look at Willie Gray now, she's offtionally
(35:53):
eight years old in November, smart as a whip, beautiful,
just it's I will never get that image out of
my head the first time I'm at her, and then
I look at her today and I'm just like, this
is one of the most incredible things in the world.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So wow, that is such an amazing story. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
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(36:42):
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Speaker 2 (36:49):
Well, Suzanne Marineck is here, Susan, would you like to
join us?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Good morning?
Speaker 5 (36:54):
How you do?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's up?
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Says I'm doing great, Harry Hei Jr.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Thanks, Thanks, thanks so much much for being here, and
I'm well. First off, how did how did the two
of you meet?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Three? Lauren? Yeah, big Lauren. Lauren was friends with my
nephew in college and I was traveling somewhere where we're going.
I was actually going to Haiti, and my nephew reached
out to Lauren and said, hey, I know that you.
Your heart's always desired to go and serve somewhere. My
(37:29):
aunt's going in a few weeks. She ought to see
if you can jump on her trip. And I got
an email or call I don remember from Lauren just saying, hey,
I'm friends with Land then and I heard you were
going out of you know, to Haiti and I would
love to join. And I had actually just had my
trip was full, but I had the week before, I
had had a nurse drop out, and I said, oh,
(37:51):
actually I have one spot open for a nurse. And Lauren,
I don't know if tr told you, but in school
she got her nurse seemed to gree and so we
just filled that spot with Lauren and I got to
know her on that trip, and I think the Lord
just kind of knitted our hearts together. And when we
(38:12):
got ready to leave Haiti, she looked at me and
she said, I really feel like this is something that
I'm supposed to do in life. Everywhere you go, I
want you to book me a flight. I want to
go with you. And I said, be careful what you
asked for, because I'm going to be going to Africa, saying,
and she goes, I want to be sitting next to you.
And several months later I looked over and there Lauren
(38:32):
was sitting in the airplane next semi headed to Uganda.
So that's kind of how it started.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Had you been to Uganda before, I have, I.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Have a little girl. That actually's how this whole thing started.
That we brought home, that we adopted from Meganda.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
And Thomas Rover was telling me the whole process of
adoption is pretty pretty complicated and time consuming.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
It is. She's been here now for thirteen years, and
so when we adopted her, we didn't you didn't have
to live there for a year or all the you know,
the things that they've put in place. Now, it took
us about a year to get her home just with paperwork.
But it's gotten a lot more difficult than it was.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Why is that? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I think, well, in all countries it's kind of come
to a it went to a screeching halt for a
long time with China and Ethiopia and Ukraine and Russia
and Africa, and then they've kind of started opening them
up again. I think countries started feeling like that it
(39:48):
was a money It became a moneymaker. I think there
were people here that had a heart to bring children
home and were willing to pay the money because they
but like that they needed homes rather than them laying
in orphanages, and you know, the it's this unequaled balance
of and for children and then countries being corrupt in it,
(40:13):
and so I think they just leveled it for a
little bit. Now the countries are starting to open up
a little bit more, but they have made the process
a lot more difficult. And so some children are you know,
still coming home to forever families and others aren't.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
I'm curious, Suzanne, about what you think it is. Tom's
rad and I were talking about this a little bit,
how that connection to that little girl just sort of
hit him without really having planned to have this, you know,
be a part of his life. But I'm wondering what
it is in your either your upbringing, or your point
(40:55):
of view about the world, or some some kind of
experiences you have that you've had that makes you, you know,
want to follow this path because it's not an easy path,
you know, to go to places like Haiti, to go
to go to Africa, to see the kind of conditions
that these children are living in. A lot of us
(41:15):
want to sort of kind of like turn away from
that or at the very least not spend our life
focused on it. So I'm just wondering if there's something
that you think is a reason for you.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Well, I'll tell you. If you've ever held a dying
child in your arms, or a dying baby and you're
wondering if they're every while you're holding them, if they're
going to take their next breath, it's a failing that
(41:53):
you can't shake and that you never forget. And if
you ever sit across from another mother who is holding
her baby wondering if her baby's gonna live, truly is
to my child fixing to take their last breast And
(42:15):
the look on the mother's face feels like, I mean,
I don't care what country you're in. A mother's love
is a mother's love. And when they are holding their
child and they are worried that they're gonna die in
their arms, yeah, they have no way to get them
(42:38):
the help that they need to keep them alive, it
does something to you. And I think I had enough
of those times to where I was either holding a
baby thinking they're fixing a die. They're fixing a die,
we have to like, I've got to do something to
(42:58):
get this baby help. Or I was sitting next to
a mother and I could feel her emotion of worry
that her baby was going to die. And then I
would come back to my home in Brentwoo, Tennessee and
look around and everything that I've ever needed or wanted
was at my fingertips. And it was this battle and
(43:20):
my head and my heart. If I can sit here
and I can live this great life, or I can
do more to help these other mothers and these babies
that I've held. And I just couldn't lay in bed
at and I and do nothing. I just couldn't do it.
I couldn't sleep. I worried all the time. My heart
(43:41):
just continued to be called back to the different countries.
We ended up landing in Uganda, which is where loved
One is now because basically that's where Jessie Love is from.
But when you have ever held a dying child, you
don't forget it. And that's what me to do it.
I mean, on a weekly basis, I get photos and
(44:04):
babies that truly are skin and bones on oxygen, and
I think about their moms sitting there in the hospital
next to him, wondering if they're going to take their
last breath, yet they don't have the money to pay
for them to have the oxygen that's on on their face.
And you know, Kevin, I tell my kids all the time,
(44:29):
we only have one life and what are we going
to do with it while we're here? And so for
me to answer your question, that's what moves me to
continue to do it.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Well, it sounds like might think the thing that you
that what really struck me with what you said is
that you felt like you didn't really have a choice,
that it just you just had to do it, and
that it it. It sounds like also that it continues, it
feels better, a lot better than doing nothing, and it
(45:08):
continues to give back in that way. I mean, you
must feel a tremendous sense of I don't know, just
pride or energy to keep going. When you see a situation,
when you see a child whose life is saved or
moved or moved to a nice home or whatever, that
(45:29):
must that must really fill you up.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
I would think.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
It makes the heart happy. And I looked at a
mom who was once holding her child, worried about it,
and then their child is healthy, rating around their community,
and it does you know, I feel like that that's
what my number one calling in life is to be
(45:57):
a mom to my children and a wife to my husband.
But I do feel like that he has given me
a passion in my heart to do more to help
other babies and moms, and thankfully now we have a
way and means to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
So you said that loved One is on the ground
in Uganda. Explain to me what happens on a day
to day basis how the organization functions there.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Okay, So children come to us in several different ways.
We have moms who truly strap their babies to their back,
walk for miles and knock on our door. We have
community liaisons or unity leaders that are out in all
the different villages and if there's a child that's in need,
(46:44):
they'll call the loved One Admin center and say, hey,
we have a child that needs care. Or the hospitals
that are in our area they'll call and say there's
a child that has come they need medical care, but
their parents can afford it. And so our staff goes
(47:05):
in and they do a medical assessment on a child
or out in the community or either on our center
when they show up and they see what their basic
needs are. We have several pediatricians, nurses, social workers, nutritionists,
we figure out kind of what they need, but our
first step or stop is always make sure they go
(47:26):
to the hospital so we have an overview medically to
know if they have any secondary infections that are accompanying
the malnutrition. We get a medical care that they need
at the hospital, make sure that that's paid for and
the mom is there with them or a caretaker is there.
Then they bring them to our center. A lot of
(47:47):
times once we get rid of the secondary infection, they're
so malnourished they can't have solid foods. Their bodies want
to absorb the nutritional like the substance, and so we
have to start on a liquid diet that's full of awe.
It's just packed full of vitamins and nutrients to kind
of get them boost into where then their body can
(48:07):
absorb the other solid foods. Then our nutritionists make a
specific meal for that child depending on what their situation is,
and they start feeding that child that meal. In the beginning,
when they first come, they typically kind of sit and
they they're sad and well, they've just been sick and
(48:29):
they haven't had energy to do anything. But once they
start getting healthy and then they start playing with the
other children and they have energy and they go from
sitting in a corner or laying in the bed to
actually getting out and playing. Then we start if they
need physical therapy, we can give them physical therapy. We
have a spiritual peace to our program to where where
(48:53):
everybody that comes through the doors we're trying to share
the love of Jesus and tell them just about Christ.
Then once they get healthy and they're ready to go
back home, we have their families come in and do
training the whole time they're at they're at our center,
(49:13):
we train them on nutrition, on hygiene, preventative measures, on
you know, how to keep your child from getting in
this situation again. And then when they're ready to go home,
we bring their families in. We send them home with
a meal for about a month for them and their families, mattresses,
(49:36):
mosquito nets, Bibles in their language, and we resettle them,
make sure they're okay, and then our social workers go
back and do follow up checkouts just to make sure
that they're continuing to stay healthy and thrives.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Wow, that is that's kind of a full service situation.
That's that's incredible. You know, Thomas fred I didn't even
ask how is how is your little girl doing? How's
the adjustment been? I mean, she's been here for quite
a few years now, but how's that going.
Speaker 4 (50:12):
It's uh, it's been the biggest blessing of my entire life,
you know. You know Suzanne was talking about, you know,
right when we sort of decided that we were going
to adopt the rules, did change, you know. So I
don't think we I don't think we thought we were
going to live in Uganda for as long as we did.
But but that time being in Uganda for that long
really opened my eyes up to just a whole different
(50:34):
kind of life, you know, Like Suzanne said, like we
all of us are on this podcast or are so
blessed and there is not anything that we couldn't hop
on Amazon right now and have delivered to our doorstep
in twenty four hours, you know. And so I think
when you see that type of poverty, and you see
that type of malnutrition, and you start to play with
(50:57):
a bunch of kids, I mean I literally I remember
walking to the children's home one day, was just a
bracelet on and it was like the kids just swarmed me,
asking me.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
For my bracelet.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
You know, it's just I think I was just like,
how can you all, how can you be so happy
in these circumstances where I live in a world full
of excess and there are so many days where I'm
just like either non content or at a want for more.
And I think that surrounding myself with so many of
the of the folks in Uganda, it just changed my
(51:28):
outlook on life and honestly transformed my heart. And so
every day that I wake up and I get to
see Willi Gray, it's just absolutely incredible. And so you know,
next year we're actually going to take Willi Grade back
to Uganda for the first time, wow since twenty sixteen,
So wow, Wow. Willi Gray talks about it all the time.
(51:48):
Every night we got to bread. She prays for her
friends in Uganda and loves seeing pictures and loves getting
updates all the kids that love one is helping, and it's.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
Just been incredible. Man.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
She and Willi Gray at a young age are He
has a heart for wanting to go and do it
as well, which is which is pretty awesome for wille
Grade to get to watch her mom, you get to
watch Susanne do it, because it's I think it's lighting
a fire in her heart to kind of go back
to Uganda and and uh and uh you know, she's
so obsessed with learning about her culture and learning about
her friends and and uh. So it's going to be
(52:19):
a very special time for for us and our family
to you know, to get to take WILLI grade back
to Uganda and get to kind of watch her kind
of reunite with with a bunch of our friends. So
it's been incredible. Man, it's been the big blessings of
my life. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
You know this some podcast was sort of started with
the idea, I mean, you two are the perfect example
of what we're trying to do in this in this
situation where you have somebody who is incredibly successful in
in uh in you know, in one way, and then
(52:53):
also finds the time and the passion to do something
good in the world, and through that has found someone
who is generally unsung like you, Susan uh and and
giving both of these people an equal voice. So thank
you so much for for being here. I mean, this
(53:14):
is your your exactly what we're talking about on this
on this podcast. But is there a call to action,
like how can how can people help? Where can they
get in touch with you find out about the organization.
Let's give it a shout out.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
And well, we have our website. It's www dot leve
one International dot org. You can find us on all
our socials. It's eleven one I N T. And you know,
we started out honestly, Kevin, I thought, if I can
(53:51):
help five longs or five babies, and that's five babies
that would live that wouldn't ordinarily be able to live.
And we're five years in. It was five years in
April that we kind of just put our sword down
in Uganda, and we've helped over eleven thousand children. Amazing,
(54:13):
and so I think, so we've gone from a little
bitty house that held ten children to now our center
will hold forty five. And we just started construction and
we're hoping to be finished in twenty twenty four for
a rehab center that'll hold over one hundred children. And
so we started out with one district in Uganda and
(54:35):
now we're touching ten. And so as we grow, our
operating costs to go up. And you know, I think
if that's one of the biggest things that Thomas, Rent
and Lauren have played such a significant role in just
helping us as we've grown to be able to fund
what you know has come our way, and I would
(54:56):
love to touch every district in the entire country and
just making be just a huge impact for malnourished babies
in Uganda. And I think learning t are both kind
of have that fire in them now that we've actually
watched it and be able to grow. You start out
going can we do it? Can we not do it?
And then all of a sudden it starts happening, and
(55:17):
so it feels your fire to do more and to
help more. And so I just think anybody that wants
to come alongside us and help the babies that we're serving,
we would be more than happy to take them along
with us on our journey. Day.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Well, thank you guys for your time. Thomas Rhetz's in
Mary Nick, keep up the great work.
Speaker 5 (55:40):
Kevin, thank you so much, man. This is huge. We
cannot thank you enough. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
It's huge for me too, So thanks a lot for being.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more
about Love One International, all you got to do is
head to their website. At www dot Loveweinternational dot org.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
You can find all.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
The links in our show notes and to hear more interviews,
more laughs, more good in the world. To make sure
you subscribe to the show and tune into the rest
of our episodes, you can find Six Degrees with Kevin
Bigon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
See you next time.
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