In this powerful episode of Music Saved Me, host Lynn Hoffman sits down with multi-platinum country music superstar Chris Young to explore how music and mentorship became his lifeline through adversity and transformed him into one of Nashville’s most successful artists.
From winning Nashville Star to topping the country charts with hits like “Gettin’ You Home,” “Tomorrow,” “I’m Comin’ Over,” and the chart-topping collaboration “Famous Friends” with Kane Brown, Chris Young shares the untold story behind his rise to stardom. The Tennessee native opens up about the challenges, setbacks, and moments of doubt that could have derailed his career—and how music, mentorship, and unwavering resilience saved him.
Discover the inspiration behind Chris Young’s biggest songs, his songwriting process, and the relationships that shaped his journey in country music. From his early days in Murfreesboro to selling out arenas worldwide, Chris reveals how faith, family, and the healing power of music guided him through life’s toughest moments.
This episode dives deep into the intersection of mental health, creativity, and perseverance in the music industry. Whether you’re a die-hard country music fan, an aspiring artist, or someone who’s found solace in song, Chris Young’s story will inspire you to believe in the transformative power of music and mentorship.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Music Saved Me. Welcome to Music Save Me. I'm your host,
Lynn Hoffman. Music has the power to heal us, transform us,
and carry us through our darkest moments. For some artists,
it's not just what they do, it's also what saved them.
And today I am so honored to sit down with
the award winning multi platinum country music singer songwriter whose
(00:24):
voice will melt you like Butta on a hot sunny day.
Chris Young is here with his tenth studio album, I
Didn't come here to leave on Black River Entertainment. Chris
is entering a bold new chapter in his career. But
before the chart topping hits and the sold out shows,
there was a young man from Tennessee who found his voice,
(00:45):
his purpose, and his salvation in music. And our conversation today,
Chris opens up about the moments when music became more
than a career choice, it became a lifeline. This is
Music Saved Me, and this is Chris Young. Chris, Welcome
to the show. It is so great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Happy to be on with you. And I just loved
the idea of what this entire show is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Thank you, thank you. And speaking of which, and I
know you're in very high demand and you have very
limited time, so I want to jump right in and
ask you to take us all back to that first
moment when you realized music was more than just something
you enjoyed, that it was something that you needed in
your life.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I don't know that my mom realized this, and I
know you're asking me when I realized it, but I
will say I probably learned the weirdest song as a kid,
like to be a kid in the backseat of the
car singing, and my mom was like, oh, he likes
country music, which is digging up bones. I was like, free,
(01:58):
I think I don't know if that's the song that
I should have started with. What it was Randy Travis,
and I do love Randy, so of course I would
say for me personally, I remember driving home after having
my first song out on an actual label, and I
pulled over in somewhere on an old phone that's probably
(02:21):
bricked or thrown away. At this point, I had to
pull over because my car had the thing that would
actually scroll across for the first time, I finally had that,
and I was pulling back into Murphis, where I'm from Nashville,
and I saw my name, scroll across and pulled over,
and it was just like, this is a moment, Like
this is so cool. I was so excited. You know,
(02:44):
it was one play on a radio station, but it
was the fact that it happened and I got to
just randomly hear my song, not because I asked somebody
to play it, not because it you know, I played it.
It just happened, and it was like in the moment,
it was so exciting, and I was like, I haven't
made it, but this is a start.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It's so exciting. I mean, were you waving to the
cars going by, like that's me, this is me.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Did I roll my windows down and turn it up?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I did?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yes, of course you have to. When you were growing
up in Tennessee, before you became a big country music star,
what was your relationship with music? Was there random instruments
around the house. Was it something you saw on television?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Radio? Oh? I mean obviously not the random instruments around
the house, unless you count where I really got my
old school country music knowledge from, which would be my grandfather.
He had a music room, he played piano, played guitar.
Still does he's ninety three, You're still here with us?
(03:50):
So he was the guy that like set me down
and played me forty five's, seventy eight's of like Marty
Robbins and Lefty Frizelle and people like that. As much
as I draw from a knowledge base of country music, uh,
he was definitely like highly influential into that and instilling
(04:12):
just the love of country music into me. But I
would also say, you know, everybody always goes to church,
but like he was actually a church christ elder at
that church, I thought it was normal that there weren't
any instruments because they didn't do instruments in backwards church
christ churches. And somebody would just stand up and be like, hey,
(04:35):
we're singing this one, and they'd be like and then
everybody would like break into harmony singing the song. And
I thought that was completely.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Normal, no normal.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And then I went to another church with a friend
of mine, and I was like, why are there instruments?
What's happening? What's going on? But I think a lot
of that stuff, you know, you can stack all of
those up alongside each other. And then just me falling
in love with people that I heard on the radio,
(05:09):
going oh man, I really wish I could do that
one day.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And here you are all these hit songs, and is
this your ninth studio album that you're about to release
or tenth? That's right, But who's counting?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Was that all? Right? Who's counting? Counting one? With the
Black River? This is number one?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I'm sorry, I was just confusing your nine billion downloads
or streams globally with you know, it's just a little
something like that. Was there a specific time in your life,
Chris that you can think of when you when you
look back and say that music literally saved you a
moment in crisis, struggle, maybe a darkness where songwriting and
(05:50):
performing sort of pulled you through it.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Breakups, breakups, man. I remember sitting in my car listen
to It's Getting Better all the Time by Brooks and
Dunn and just being like defeated because I'd just broken
up with somebody and she was like not want to
have anything to do with me.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Is Like.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'd see her around and she would just like sort
of look at me and be like which I don't
know if she regrets that now or not, but I
think she probably would. But I just think that breakup
songs are something that's truly intrinsic in country music. You know,
(06:33):
Keith Whitley had a whole album called Sad Songs and Waltzes,
and I think that those even though it seems like
it would be depressing to listen to a breakup song
if you're going through a breakup, I think that is
one of the things that helps you heal from one
of those and you just need to be like, I
(06:55):
just need to feel this moment for a second. And
when how many picks one of your songs for that,
I think it's really really cool because it's like, hey,
I shared a part of myself and then you related
with that. And that's what makes music so important, is
that whether it's going on having a good time, talking
(07:17):
about a breakup, talking about falling in love, talking about
being in love with someone and how much they mean
to you, I think all those things are really heavy,
heavy feelings in life, and there's only certain moments where
it's like I just want to hear that song that's
going to make this deeply rooted in me as the person,
(07:39):
and it's if it's something bad, it's going to get
you past that moment eventually.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
What song of yours would you prescribe to someone going
through a moment like that.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You know, not to bring them something sad in relation
to this, but I think I would be remiss if
I didn't say, man, I want to be Uh, that
song I was not one that I wrote, but it
was one that that found me for whatever reason. And
you know, obviously we just lost Bred James, one of
(08:11):
the most amazing songwriters that's, in my opinion, ever lived.
You know, I think country music lost to a legend
there with him. And uh that that song has helped
not just me, but I know a lot of other
people will come up and be like, hey, like guys,
(08:31):
which guys don't like to talk about their feelings normally,
they'll come up and be like, yeah, that one, that
one got me.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
That one resonated very A very small amount of words
mean so much, I'm sure with guys, because you know,
you don't get too goofy when you're talking about personal stuff,
but but you write about a lot of it. Do
you ever use your music or writing the prom sess
(09:00):
of writing a song and performing and or performing sort
of as therapeutic for yourself in certain instances?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I think if you wanted a specific instance, and I
don't want to take all of these to mean it
all has to be sad. I think sometimes you just
want to go listen to a party song as well.
I don't want to. I don't want to be the
guy that's like, yeah, sometimes you get your heartbroke and
(09:29):
you're like, I just want to hear a love song
to tequila like that happens. But I think for me,
Drowning is another song that I had a hand in
writing with my buddies Corey Crowder and Josh Hoague, And
that song means volumes to me of just losing a
(09:49):
friend way too soon when he was in his twenties,
you know, and I, you know, now being much older
and having had all the career that I've had even
thus far. It sort of gives you a weight and
a gravity. And I think that song, even when I
(10:10):
wrote it, had gravity, but it still continues to just
define a piece of life that I lived through and
that a lot of other people lived through with the
loss of a friend or a relative or son. And
I think everybody can relate to that at some point
(10:31):
in their life.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What does the phrase music save me mean to you? Personally?
Upfront before we started the show, you were telling me
that you really like the theme of this show. Can
you elaborate a little.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Bit, Yeah, I think sort of an encapsulation of what
I just said of you know, I think there's a
lot of people that like their favorite song, whether it's happy, sad,
something else, story, whatever it is. They can listen to
that and they can hear like if you're just sort
(11:01):
of having a broken moment as a human, which I
think we all do, whether we want to admit it
or not, especially guys, but sometimes girls too. It's you know,
sometimes you're having a broken moment, you just don't want
to look at it in the face, and you just
sort of busy yourself with other things. I think music
(11:23):
can kind of fill that void if you don't have
somebody that you want to talk to about it, or
you don't want to talk about whatever you're dealing with.
I think that that is an incredibly powerful, powerful thing,
and it's art. So it's just interesting to me, and
it's probably why I spent my entire life. And that's
(11:44):
then the direction I pointed myself in is music creating it?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Do you know, it's almost as if you found a
way to just give back by making art. The way
you're talking when you come up against fans when you're
out performing and touring. What is it like when someone
comes up to you and tells you that you saved
them with your music.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, it's worth a thousand times what they think
it is. Anybody saying that they love your music or
they love a specific song. My thing that I used
to say when I first got started, and it still
holds true, is if anybody tells me I made their
favorite song. If there's one person that hears something that
(12:31):
I wrote and they're like, that's my favorite song, you
have to think that means that song to them is
worth more in their mind than anything else that they've
ever heard. And so if there's one person I think
that does that, that's incredible. I think everybody has their
favorite song. I've had people, you know, at the most
(12:55):
recent show that I did, I didn't even see it
because there was so much going on. And they did
a Laryer release at this festival that I played in Texas,
and so you see all these lanterns and I'm just
watching them go on, like that was so beautiful. And
then I see a clip layer on in the day
where they were filming the crowd while I was singing
(13:19):
my current single to the Last One Dies, and a
guy gets down on one knee and ascer and got engaged.
And that song is not even Top twenty yet, So
it was just so cool to see that reaction and
somebody thought enough of a moment at my concert to
do that. And I've seen it happen before, but with
(13:42):
the new song, I was just like, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How does it make you feel?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It makes you feel good, It makes you feel like
you pick the right song, you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Pick the right profession and the right song. Well, you
just said top twenty, so you don't you have like
this thing where every song sort of has to You're
an overachiever, let's face it. I mean it's not like
you're trying it. Just you make these incredible songs with
these incredible lyrics, like, for example, to the Last one, Guys,
did he get down on one knee with the fake rose.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Or I don't know, because again I'm seeing like a
clip of an edit of a video after the fact.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah no, but just based on your lyrics, you know
that it's such an incredible creative I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Visual you can see, I'll tell you it is. I
didn't write that song. Really, that's one of the very
few that's on this record that I didn't write, but
I felt in love with it. So I'm just glad
other people were falling in love with the song and
they dig through this album because there's a lot of
meaningful stuff there is.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I am so fortunate. I feel that I get to
hear your album before everyone else. And my husband came
in and he's like, what is going on? I had
it cranked so loud, and he's a producer, so he's
got good speakers. The house is shaking. I'm listening to like,
pour some whiskey on it, which I don't know if
we can say anything about that yet, but I just
did because it's a really great song. We're talking about
(15:09):
your tenth studio album, I Didn't Come Here to Leave,
which is another phenomenal song. The title sounds pretty significant.
What does this album represent to you at this stage
in your career.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's funny because I obviously did the album title on purpose,
but it doesn't mean anything other than I've got more
to say, And I think that's the cool part. I
think there's stuff that I say on this record that
I haven't said in the past. There's things that I
haven't touched on. I haven't talked about, you know what.
(15:44):
My dad went through the cancer battle, which is one
of the songs Just Keep Living like that specifically is
his story being able to talk about that, Like I
had to call him and be like, hey, old man,
I don't want to put this out there if I'm
not allowed to. I want to make sure you're okay
with it. So it was a really meaningful song for
(16:09):
me to write. Also, of course some whiskey on it.
Sometimes that's what people have to do to get over things,
to let music ill. I said that earlier in a
different format, But I think there's a lot that people
will dig through on this record and find.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, I didn't come here to leave. When I listened
to the song, it sounded like you didn't want to
leave the bar till four am because you weren't done.
But then I realized, like you just said, it's a
metaphor for so much more in your career in life.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And that's all. It sounds like I wrote it at
nine pm and we wrote it at nine am. Oh really, Yeah,
that is.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Not easy to do when you're performing late at night.
So I don't want to let you go, but I
do have to. I want to quickly touch on your
philanthropy because you do a lot of it. You have
the Chris Young Cafe at MTSU, you do scholarships for
recording art students. Why is it so important for you
to give back with especially in music education?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Music education obviously is something that's near and dear to
my heart, just because of what I do for a living,
but even beyond that, like military things that I've done,
you know, being able to donate to cancer charities that
I've been able to donate to, you know, there's so
(17:28):
much opportunity to do that, and I think you should
give back if you had the ability to. And I'm
lucky to be in a position so the people that
put me here are facilitating that, and I feel like
it's something you should do as an artist and whatever
(17:48):
level that you can, I'm just grateful. But I'm able
to do.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's it feels really good, doesn't it. In a way,
it's sort of selfish, But I talk about this a
lot with pretty much Aye who will listen to me talk.
But when you do have a platform, whatever it is,
if it's a platform of any kind. You should always
make time to give back because it's so important.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, for sure, Chris Young.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I could talk to you for another hour because I
have a bazillion other questions. Congratulations on the new music,
and thank you for coming on and sharing a bit
of your story with all of us. And I wish
you nothing but incredible success to continue for you in
your future and hopefully you'll come back again and see
us absolutely.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Thanks Chris
Music Saved Me. Welcome to Music Save Me. I'm your host,
Lynn Hoffman. Music has the power to heal us, transform us,
and carry us through our darkest moments. For some artists,
it's not just what they do, it's also what saved them.
And today I am so honored to sit down with
the award winning multi platinum country music singer songwriter whose
(00:24):
voice will melt you like Butta on a hot sunny day.
Chris Young is here with his tenth studio album, I
Didn't come here to leave on Black River Entertainment. Chris
is entering a bold new chapter in his career. But
before the chart topping hits and the sold out shows,
there was a young man from Tennessee who found his voice,
(00:45):
his purpose, and his salvation in music. And our conversation today,
Chris opens up about the moments when music became more
than a career choice, it became a lifeline. This is
Music Saved Me, and this is Chris Young. Chris, Welcome
to the show. It is so great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Happy to be on with you. And I just loved
the idea of what this entire show is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Thank you, thank you. And speaking of which, and I
know you're in very high demand and you have very
limited time, so I want to jump right in and
ask you to take us all back to that first
moment when you realized music was more than just something
you enjoyed, that it was something that you needed in
your life.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I don't know that my mom realized this, and I
know you're asking me when I realized it, but I
will say I probably learned the weirdest song as a kid,
like to be a kid in the backseat of the
car singing, and my mom was like, oh, he likes
country music, which is digging up bones. I was like, free,
(01:58):
I think I don't know if that's the song that
I should have started with. What it was Randy Travis,
and I do love Randy, so of course I would
say for me personally, I remember driving home after having
my first song out on an actual label, and I
pulled over in somewhere on an old phone that's probably
(02:21):
bricked or thrown away. At this point, I had to
pull over because my car had the thing that would
actually scroll across for the first time, I finally had that,
and I was pulling back into Murphis, where I'm from Nashville,
and I saw my name, scroll across and pulled over,
and it was just like, this is a moment, Like
this is so cool. I was so excited. You know,
(02:44):
it was one play on a radio station, but it
was the fact that it happened and I got to
just randomly hear my song, not because I asked somebody
to play it, not because it you know, I played it.
It just happened, and it was like in the moment,
it was so exciting, and I was like, I haven't
made it, but this is a start.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It's so exciting. I mean, were you waving to the
cars going by, like that's me, this is me.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Did I roll my windows down and turn it up?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I did?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yes, of course you have to. When you were growing
up in Tennessee, before you became a big country music star,
what was your relationship with music? Was there random instruments
around the house. Was it something you saw on television?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Radio? Oh? I mean obviously not the random instruments around
the house, unless you count where I really got my
old school country music knowledge from, which would be my grandfather.
He had a music room, he played piano, played guitar.
Still does he's ninety three, You're still here with us?
(03:50):
So he was the guy that like set me down
and played me forty five's, seventy eight's of like Marty
Robbins and Lefty Frizelle and people like that. As much
as I draw from a knowledge base of country music, uh,
he was definitely like highly influential into that and instilling
(04:12):
just the love of country music into me. But I
would also say, you know, everybody always goes to church,
but like he was actually a church christ elder at
that church, I thought it was normal that there weren't
any instruments because they didn't do instruments in backwards church
christ churches. And somebody would just stand up and be like, hey,
(04:35):
we're singing this one, and they'd be like and then
everybody would like break into harmony singing the song. And
I thought that was completely.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Normal, no normal.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And then I went to another church with a friend
of mine, and I was like, why are there instruments?
What's happening? What's going on? But I think a lot
of that stuff, you know, you can stack all of
those up alongside each other. And then just me falling
in love with people that I heard on the radio,
(05:09):
going oh man, I really wish I could do that
one day.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And here you are all these hit songs, and is
this your ninth studio album that you're about to release
or tenth? That's right, But who's counting?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Was that all? Right? Who's counting? Counting one? With the
Black River? This is number one?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I'm sorry, I was just confusing your nine billion downloads
or streams globally with you know, it's just a little
something like that. Was there a specific time in your life,
Chris that you can think of when you when you
look back and say that music literally saved you a
moment in crisis, struggle, maybe a darkness where songwriting and
(05:50):
performing sort of pulled you through it.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Breakups, breakups, man. I remember sitting in my car listen
to It's Getting Better all the Time by Brooks and
Dunn and just being like defeated because I'd just broken
up with somebody and she was like not want to
have anything to do with me.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Is Like.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'd see her around and she would just like sort
of look at me and be like which I don't
know if she regrets that now or not, but I
think she probably would. But I just think that breakup
songs are something that's truly intrinsic in country music. You know,
(06:33):
Keith Whitley had a whole album called Sad Songs and Waltzes,
and I think that those even though it seems like
it would be depressing to listen to a breakup song
if you're going through a breakup, I think that is
one of the things that helps you heal from one
of those and you just need to be like, I
(06:55):
just need to feel this moment for a second. And
when how many picks one of your songs for that,
I think it's really really cool because it's like, hey,
I shared a part of myself and then you related
with that. And that's what makes music so important, is
that whether it's going on having a good time, talking
(07:17):
about a breakup, talking about falling in love, talking about
being in love with someone and how much they mean
to you, I think all those things are really heavy,
heavy feelings in life, and there's only certain moments where
it's like I just want to hear that song that's
going to make this deeply rooted in me as the person,
(07:39):
and it's if it's something bad, it's going to get
you past that moment eventually.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
What song of yours would you prescribe to someone going
through a moment like that.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You know, not to bring them something sad in relation
to this, but I think I would be remiss if
I didn't say, man, I want to be Uh, that
song I was not one that I wrote, but it
was one that that found me for whatever reason. And
you know, obviously we just lost Bred James, one of
(08:11):
the most amazing songwriters that's, in my opinion, ever lived.
You know, I think country music lost to a legend
there with him. And uh that that song has helped
not just me, but I know a lot of other
people will come up and be like, hey, like guys,
(08:31):
which guys don't like to talk about their feelings normally,
they'll come up and be like, yeah, that one, that
one got me.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
That one resonated very A very small amount of words
mean so much, I'm sure with guys, because you know,
you don't get too goofy when you're talking about personal stuff,
but but you write about a lot of it. Do
you ever use your music or writing the prom sess
(09:00):
of writing a song and performing and or performing sort
of as therapeutic for yourself in certain instances?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I think if you wanted a specific instance, and I
don't want to take all of these to mean it
all has to be sad. I think sometimes you just
want to go listen to a party song as well.
I don't want to. I don't want to be the
guy that's like, yeah, sometimes you get your heartbroke and
(09:29):
you're like, I just want to hear a love song
to tequila like that happens. But I think for me,
Drowning is another song that I had a hand in
writing with my buddies Corey Crowder and Josh Hoague, And
that song means volumes to me of just losing a
(09:49):
friend way too soon when he was in his twenties,
you know, and I, you know, now being much older
and having had all the career that I've had even
thus far. It sort of gives you a weight and
a gravity. And I think that song, even when I
(10:10):
wrote it, had gravity, but it still continues to just
define a piece of life that I lived through and
that a lot of other people lived through with the
loss of a friend or a relative or son. And
I think everybody can relate to that at some point
(10:31):
in their life.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What does the phrase music save me mean to you? Personally?
Upfront before we started the show, you were telling me
that you really like the theme of this show. Can
you elaborate a little.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Bit, Yeah, I think sort of an encapsulation of what
I just said of you know, I think there's a
lot of people that like their favorite song, whether it's happy, sad,
something else, story, whatever it is. They can listen to
that and they can hear like if you're just sort
(11:01):
of having a broken moment as a human, which I
think we all do, whether we want to admit it
or not, especially guys, but sometimes girls too. It's you know,
sometimes you're having a broken moment, you just don't want
to look at it in the face, and you just
sort of busy yourself with other things. I think music
(11:23):
can kind of fill that void if you don't have
somebody that you want to talk to about it, or
you don't want to talk about whatever you're dealing with.
I think that that is an incredibly powerful, powerful thing,
and it's art. So it's just interesting to me, and
it's probably why I spent my entire life. And that's
(11:44):
then the direction I pointed myself in is music creating it?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Do you know, it's almost as if you found a
way to just give back by making art. The way
you're talking when you come up against fans when you're
out performing and touring. What is it like when someone
comes up to you and tells you that you saved
them with your music.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, it's worth a thousand times what they think
it is. Anybody saying that they love your music or
they love a specific song. My thing that I used
to say when I first got started, and it still
holds true, is if anybody tells me I made their
favorite song. If there's one person that hears something that
(12:31):
I wrote and they're like, that's my favorite song, you
have to think that means that song to them is
worth more in their mind than anything else that they've
ever heard. And so if there's one person I think
that does that, that's incredible. I think everybody has their
favorite song. I've had people, you know, at the most
(12:55):
recent show that I did, I didn't even see it
because there was so much going on. And they did
a Laryer release at this festival that I played in Texas,
and so you see all these lanterns and I'm just
watching them go on, like that was so beautiful. And
then I see a clip layer on in the day
where they were filming the crowd while I was singing
(13:19):
my current single to the Last One Dies, and a
guy gets down on one knee and ascer and got engaged.
And that song is not even Top twenty yet, So
it was just so cool to see that reaction and
somebody thought enough of a moment at my concert to
do that. And I've seen it happen before, but with
(13:42):
the new song, I was just like, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How does it make you feel?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It makes you feel good, It makes you feel like
you pick the right song, you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Pick the right profession and the right song. Well, you
just said top twenty, so you don't you have like
this thing where every song sort of has to You're
an overachiever, let's face it. I mean it's not like
you're trying it. Just you make these incredible songs with
these incredible lyrics, like, for example, to the Last one, Guys,
did he get down on one knee with the fake rose.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Or I don't know, because again I'm seeing like a
clip of an edit of a video after the fact.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah no, but just based on your lyrics, you know
that it's such an incredible creative I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Visual you can see, I'll tell you it is. I
didn't write that song. Really, that's one of the very
few that's on this record that I didn't write, but
I felt in love with it. So I'm just glad
other people were falling in love with the song and
they dig through this album because there's a lot of
meaningful stuff there is.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I am so fortunate. I feel that I get to
hear your album before everyone else. And my husband came
in and he's like, what is going on? I had
it cranked so loud, and he's a producer, so he's
got good speakers. The house is shaking. I'm listening to like,
pour some whiskey on it, which I don't know if
we can say anything about that yet, but I just
did because it's a really great song. We're talking about
(15:09):
your tenth studio album, I Didn't Come Here to Leave,
which is another phenomenal song. The title sounds pretty significant.
What does this album represent to you at this stage
in your career.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's funny because I obviously did the album title on purpose,
but it doesn't mean anything other than I've got more
to say, And I think that's the cool part. I
think there's stuff that I say on this record that
I haven't said in the past. There's things that I
haven't touched on. I haven't talked about, you know what.
(15:44):
My dad went through the cancer battle, which is one
of the songs Just Keep Living like that specifically is
his story being able to talk about that, Like I
had to call him and be like, hey, old man,
I don't want to put this out there if I'm
not allowed to. I want to make sure you're okay
with it. So it was a really meaningful song for
(16:09):
me to write. Also, of course some whiskey on it.
Sometimes that's what people have to do to get over things,
to let music ill. I said that earlier in a
different format, But I think there's a lot that people
will dig through on this record and find.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, I didn't come here to leave. When I listened
to the song, it sounded like you didn't want to
leave the bar till four am because you weren't done.
But then I realized, like you just said, it's a
metaphor for so much more in your career in life.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And that's all. It sounds like I wrote it at
nine pm and we wrote it at nine am. Oh really, Yeah,
that is.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Not easy to do when you're performing late at night.
So I don't want to let you go, but I
do have to. I want to quickly touch on your
philanthropy because you do a lot of it. You have
the Chris Young Cafe at MTSU, you do scholarships for
recording art students. Why is it so important for you
to give back with especially in music education?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Music education obviously is something that's near and dear to
my heart, just because of what I do for a living,
but even beyond that, like military things that I've done,
you know, being able to donate to cancer charities that
I've been able to donate to, you know, there's so
(17:28):
much opportunity to do that, and I think you should
give back if you had the ability to. And I'm
lucky to be in a position so the people that
put me here are facilitating that, and I feel like
it's something you should do as an artist and whatever
(17:48):
level that you can, I'm just grateful. But I'm able
to do.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's it feels really good, doesn't it. In a way,
it's sort of selfish, But I talk about this a
lot with pretty much Aye who will listen to me talk.
But when you do have a platform, whatever it is,
if it's a platform of any kind. You should always
make time to give back because it's so important.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, for sure, Chris Young.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I could talk to you for another hour because I
have a bazillion other questions. Congratulations on the new music,
and thank you for coming on and sharing a bit
of your story with all of us. And I wish
you nothing but incredible success to continue for you in
your future and hopefully you'll come back again and see
us absolutely.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Thanks Chris
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