February 20, 2024 • 48 mins
Big things come in small boxes. Big things also come in six foot seven country singers. This next guest quite possibly could be the tallest artist in country music, maybe in all of music. While I am quite excited, I am also quite intimidated to have this interview. After playing basketball at Drury University, this guest got accepted into Harvard University extension Pre-med program. He elected not to go and took the bold bet of becoming an artist in Nashville, TN, and that bet has paid off big time. After two number one songs on the radio, “Prayed For You” and “Everywhere But On,” appearing on Good Morning America, The Kelly Clarkson Show, The late Night Show, and Family Feud, and many tours, this artist is gearing up for a new project. I’m very excited to welcome to the studio…. Matt Stell.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tell it how it is. I appreciate that. A man
of honesty, let me tell you what you suck at? Yeah,
what is up, guys? We have a new episode here
(00:21):
on the six one five House podcast. It is your host,
Chris Rudeger. I am so excited because I have wanted
to have this guy on the podcast for a while
and we finally made it happen. They say big things
come in small boxes, but big things also come in
six foot seven giants that are country music stars. I'm
not gonna lie. I'm I'm excited, but I'm also a
(00:41):
little intimidated to have this interview because he is well
significantly taller than me. He did play basketball at Drury
University and then he got accepted into Harvard University for
a medical program, but he chose not to go and
instead come to Nashville and risk it to be a
country artist. And guess what it paid off. He's got
two number ones, prayed for you and everywhere. But on
(01:05):
we're going to talk about that plus new music. He
also has been on Good Morning America, Kelly Clarkson Show,
the Late night show, Family Feud. The list goes on,
So we've got to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
As well.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I want to welcome the six foot seven beast, Matt Stell.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I feel like I feel like there's a few of
us in country music that get the tale of the
tape red before they start, you know, like like a boxer,
you know, get get all the metrics out of the way.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I woke up this morning and I was thinking about
I was like, well, A, Matt's MAT's pretty tall. Who
else could like field the country music basketball team if
we were to go, you know, into a into a competition.
I feel like Trace Atkins is probably up there. He's
pretty tall. Who else? Who else have you found?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Blake Shelton, Brett Young's big, Yeah, Young sneaky tall. Yeah,
he's like he's almost my he's he's an athlete. Uh,
he would be up there. And we filled a pretty
good team. I feel like, you know, uh, we've we've
hooped out and you know, done some stuff. You know,
like Cae Kinge's pretty pretty good and uh you know,
(02:14):
and so is Sam Hunt. He's athletic, you know, he
can get up and down. But there's there's a few
out there. Yeah, Noel weskin Ball, he's a good player.
There you go, you got we.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Could have a team going on. When you did play basketball,
what position did you play?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I was a forward, so like we did sort of
a we did sort of like a this is like
who cares, but we did like a motion offense. But
I was ad, I won't even go yeah, man, you know,
I said some screens, I got some rebounds. I mean
a few passes from the interior. You know, I got
a bucket every now and then trying to be efficient.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Hey, big board guy, you know wins championship, man, you.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Got you know, it's like if you got to do
those things that that don't show up sometimes to win.
And uh, maybe I flatter myself. I don't know if
my coaches would say the same thing, but I felt
like I was willing to do that. But you know
whatever at this point now, I just I do talk
some shit online about being like the best basketball player
(03:10):
in all of music now and like including the rappers,
like I'm better than all of them, and I don't
know that it's true, but you know, I feel.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Like you can't you can't go back on your word,
master p.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
He got a bucket wayming Ted's Dale. You know he
played at Kansas and you know, whe but in terms
of like you know right now, you know, uh, I'm
I'm I'm all right, I'm cold with it. You're feeling
pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I get a bucket. Ye, So
so maybe somebody will take me up on that one day.
I've talked to just a lot of ship in the
comments of like of like basketball aggregate websites and you know,
(03:49):
like like all those things that post stuff about like
oh J Cole Cook, and I'm like, dude, I would
I would give you every bucket like I would give
you like kfcuckets.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Well you just got the hype man, Like I just don't.
I don't. I don't want to go up against you
in the paint. You know, I'll leave it at that.
I do want to talk because after you played basketball
at Drury you I believe you applied to Harvard right
for a program. Am I am? I am?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I correct about that, Yeah, but just to like, so
this was a while after like I went to play ball,
and after I played ball, I went to Arkansas, I
got my masters. When I was learning how to play music,
and I had I had some you know, life happened,
had a band in a van and whatever did that
all over you know, the South and Midwest. A lot
(04:40):
of the Texas music scene had a little success writing
in that scene with some artists, and and then I
finally moved to Nashville. And I was in Nashville a
couple of years trying to get a publishing deal, you know, trying.
My thing was I wanted to be like, you know,
I flattered myself with these comparisons. I don't I just
mean in the mold of but like somebody like Jaron
(05:00):
Johnson from Cadillac three, right, Like, He's written a bunch
of country songs. Then he had his band that he
did his own thing with, and I thought, that's what
I wanted to do. You know, at the time, Chris
Stapleton was doing that too, you know, he had like
still Drivers, Johnson Brothers, those things, and he was writing
these country hits, and I was like, Okay, I want
to write for like radio hits, and then I want
to have my little like project to this side as
(05:23):
an artist do that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Was it called the Matt Stell Band or was it
something else?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I mean by that point it was just me.
You know, I just wanted to release music that was
like very much not paying attention to people liking it,
you know just what I thought. Yeah, yeah, So I'm
telling two stories at once here. But so I moved
to Nashville to try to get a publishing deal, and
I was here a couple of years. Nothing I materialize.
(05:50):
I had the worst deal in the world offered to me,
and I would have taken it, but then they rescinded
the deal. They're like, oh, well, we actually offered three
guys for two spots, and we're gonna sign these other
two dudes.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I was like, all right, that's brutal. I'm for you
a shitty deal. And then they're like, oh, and we're
going to take back that crappy deal exactly exactly this happened,
and that yeah damn.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So then I went on like this medical missions trip
with a church out of like the girl I was
seeing at the time lived in Dallas and so anyway,
like that, I just went down there to like and
it was like a medical thing. So we worked alongside
these doctors and pharmacis, but mainly doctors, and I just
helped out and I was like, damn, this is incredible.
(06:30):
These people can just show up help these people. You
get there to morn of the line of people that
need everything from you know, some abscess cut off to
like antibiotics to like dive beat it, you know, insulin
or what you know, like whatever. And I was like,
this is incredible and worked my ass off there with
them and slept great every night. You know, we we
(06:53):
it was it was great, I mean to help you
know what I mean. It was a great experience. Yeah,
And I thought, man, you know, I've been in this town,
you know, for this long, and you know, I'd already
been to school, and I was like, man, maybe music
is just like this hobby thing. Maybe I maybe writing songs.
Maybe that's not my thing, you know, I always do it,
but maybe I'm not. I'm not one of these guys
(07:13):
I want to be. And uh so I applied to
Harvard's Extension school, which is like different than like so
basically i'd already I had a master's degree, right, but
I needed I needed like some hard sciences before I
could apply to you know, hopefully their med school, right.
(07:35):
And so I needed like organic chemistry one and two,
and I needed genetics, and I needed physics and like
I needed like something like.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Just stacking up on education.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Man. Yeah, yeah, I was about to have to take
like every class that everyone says sucks at once and
but I was gonna do it or try to do
it because and then you know, three years after that
and then residenty blah blah blah. But I was like,
you know what, whatever, you know, I'm down, and you
know what, So I got into that program that I
think called a post back program, you know, postback laureate.
(08:09):
I got in. But then like eight weeks or something
like that, before I was about to move up to Cambridge,
you know, Boston area, I got a publishing deal and
that not that change. I mean, I was like, man,
I got to stick this out. So I hit the
advisor up and I was like, hey, I need to
defer this. You know, I may come, but I got
(08:30):
this out and they were like, yeah, cool, because I
don't think it's you know, I don't know how hard
it is to get into those programs, and you know,
they were like, yeah, okay, come next year if you want, basically,
and so I stayed here. I did that and I
wrote songs and one thing led to another, and you know,
I put out an EP with the publishing company at
the time, and it had prayed for you on it.
(08:52):
Among other songs. You know, I had no idea that
was a hit song. I'm not one of these people
have that gift. I don't have that gift. So yeah,
we put out this EP. Pray for You is on it,
and it got on a playlist on Spotify I think
at the time, and it just blew up. Man. I mean,
you know, it was this quote unquote streaming story, and
(09:16):
it got me a record deal and it got me
all this. But it also, like it changed my life
in so many ways that I did not see happening.
Like I went from being who I want, you know again,
one of these guys like like like Jared or like
Hearty or you know that I thought, you know, I
wanted to write these songs. I thought I was writ
and pray for You for Blake Shelton or whoever. Yeah,
(09:38):
to being the person that sings Pray for You on
the radio, to be in a country radio like guy, right,
and you know, changed my life in every positive way.
But but it also changed it in some other interesting ways.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you deferred and waited, because
moments like that, you know, they happen in this town,
particularly on expectedly when so I want to talk about
Prayed for You because that song, like you said, it
was kind of a streaming story and then eventually, you know,
label gets involved and takes it to radio. Like at
(10:12):
what point did you know, like, all right, this song
might actually have the legs.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I never knew. I like, I wrote it, and I
thought we wrote a good song because we sat down
Alison Velt's great song. I came in and she was like,
I got this idea. You know, I met this guy
last night. You know, I think he's the one, and
I feel like I prayed for him. So she had
this idea. And I didn't know you from Adam more
than I could fathom, but I prayed for you. It
(10:39):
was like, all right, let's write that.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, So we wrote that kind of and it's really
telling mainly her story, but just in a in a
you know, in a way that I could tell it,
you know what I mean. Yeah, And I you know,
I left the room thinking that we wrote a good song.
I had no idea that my life was going to
be different after that a moment, and I had no
idea that song was going to be big. I had
(11:05):
no idea because like people just start saying numbers to you.
You know, it's like I'd been It's like I've been
had these visits to these labels in town and you know,
I you know, varied interest here and there, but like
no was the answer. And then the song comes along
and then people start talking about numbers about oh, streaming
(11:27):
and consumption and all this shit, and I'm just like,
I don't know. I mean, you could just be saying
like that's like points at ski ball, Like I don't
know what they mean, you know what I mean, it's
like watching a sports, like watching cricket and trying to
figure out who's winning. Like I don't know what you know?
And so I'm relying on these other people. But I
can tell by the smile on their face that they're
(11:48):
really excited to tell me these numbers. So I'm like,
that's gotta be good, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And generally more is better, right and.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, but you but it's like how much is good?
How much is great? How much is like? You know?
So I I really you know the song After being
told no, I got a call from a guy in
New York that is, you know, a sony like label
based out of New York that you know has like
(12:16):
Nelly signed and you know, Noah Cyrus and like twenty
four Carrot Golden like no country people, and they're like, well,
you know, basically, if this song was on rap caviaar,
you'd have people knocking down their door if that was
performing like this relative to the other songs on the play.
So cool. So I signed, you know, a record deal,
and they built a country staff and started it and
(12:38):
then that became you know whatever. You know, that became
a hit and I had just had no idea that
the whole time that, you know, I was just like,
this is crazy what one song could do.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
It's it's an amazing story. And then you know, you
come to follow it up with everywhere but on which
also you know, goes to radio and and and sort
of adds to your resume. What's the process like after
having those songs and then going out and playing shows
and people are singing it back to you, and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, it's the best thing in the world. Literally, It's
the reason I wanted to do it in the first place. Now,
I never thought I would be the guy that was
singing wedding songs. Just to be honest with you, like,
I didn't come like I didn't know that. Like when
I was talking about the way that it changed my life,
you know, people associate you know, the pray for you guy,
and you know, it's great to be associated with anything.
(13:28):
But I wasn't like, but people kind of think that's you,
you know who you are or and that is part,
but it's like not all or whatever. So it was incredible.
All I wanted to do is make music that people
cared about. And now I was a little bashful about it,
you know, like, oh, I want to write, you know,
songs about how bad it hurts and all this stuff.
And right now it's like the biggest compliment in the
(13:49):
world that people would include that in something that means
as much to him as their wedding, you know, and uh,
I really and when people sing it back, it's the
best thing. That's what I wanted to do at shows,
it's what I do. It shows that I go to
that of people that I love. You know, I'm still
a huge music fan, so like that's the biggest complement everywhere.
(14:10):
But on was one of my favorite songs that I'd written.
I couldn't believe I got to release it as a
single because it was like I liked it that I
didn't love I mean, Pray for You. I liked it,
but like everyone, but I was like, this is a
country song man, it's about how bad it hurts, and
I turn a phrase and it's what that blah blah blahh.
(14:32):
And but the thing about that was that song went
number one during COVID, and so the like the sing
along parts of it, or the touring on my second
number one parts of all that stuff kind of just
didn't happen, you know, because our first tour, like headline
(14:58):
and tour after Pray for You five dates and we
were we had like twenty of them done, and we
were in the Northeast. We played New York on a Wednesday, Salisbury,
mass on a Thursday, and you know, we noticed on
the Wednesday and we had sold out this place, but
it wasn't full. And then the Thursday there were less
(15:18):
people there. And then Friday we were going up to
Boston or Foxborough and we got the call and I
knew it was coming, but we got the call and
we just the bus. The bus. The bus just exited
out in like a rest area and just hit that
free way back down south and we put the bus
(15:39):
up for you know, the better part of a year,
and so like you know, part of part of everywhere,
but on just kind of just got skipped over because
of you know, because you know, I'm not gonna sit
here and complain about COVID. People died, but that was
a very much a part of that happening.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So you know, did you get to reap the words
kind of now? I mean, now the shows are back
or you still is that still a song that is
in your set list? That and singing?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You know, like yeah, I mean one hundred percent it's not,
but there's we yes and no, like now when we
go to play the shows, just people know it. But
like the the wash of it being on the radio
or like all of those things, you know, come into
a crescendo. Sure didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's an arc of a song and there's a part
of it that that was you get it. Yeah, man, Well,
I mean it's still one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I know. COVID was a tough time and you know, uh,
I think the beauty of it, you know, was sort
of the craziness of it, which was that everyone's on
their phones, right and we're like, you know, there's thing
called TikTok comes along and an answer comes along. We
were talking about this earlier, but you know, nowadays, like
a lot of people are consuming music organically right on
(16:54):
these platforms, and I think many artists are able to
kind of leverage those socials. Like how how have you
navigated sort of the new world of TikTok and Instagram
as it comes to marketing your music?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's it does not come easy. And I have people
around me that helped me to deploy that stuff because
you know, I'm not unique in this at all. I
would just tell you that for every douchey, like cheesy,
corny lip sync and video that some dude is doing
or girl is doing in their truck, this I think
(17:31):
I just had this song of the summer. Yeah, you know,
like all of that shit is like I don't know
very many people at all that like doing it and
want to do it. But the reality is is it's
part of it, and so you just kind of have
to get over it. And I, you know, I do.
What I don't like about it is I don't like synthetic.
(17:53):
I don't like the doing what everybody else is doing
part of it. But there's just no way around it.
And so you know, the times that that I can
be creative with it is when I enjoy it, but
I don't, but it ends up mostly being the cringe shit.
And but here the thing is is like it works
(18:14):
and it's just like it's it almost reminds me of
of now. If you buy, if you go to buy
like a vintage T shirt from a from Alan Jackson
from the nineteen ninety two Neon Rainbow Chasing the Neon
Rainbow Tour, what's on that shirt? His face? Right of course? Okay,
Like those are the worst T shirts ever to me,
(18:37):
Like band T shirts like now that have like there's
the picture of the artists and their name on it.
It's the most it's the it's always it always is
the biggest selling shirt.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Man, I love you. I don't know if I'm pulling
up to a Matt Stell show, Matt, I think I
get some look from from.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
But my point is, like I love you know, band
merch is some of the best stuff, you know, the
coolest shit in the world. I'm sorry I swearing, but
the best stuff in the world is these like bands
that have cool merch. Right, But if you go to
I would just be willing to bet that if you
go to see John Mayer and he's got, you know,
(19:19):
all this stuff up there, the best selling thing is
going to be something with a picture of John Mayer
on it and so and to me, that's like the
least and I have it too, but like the least
creative of the merch and it sells the best. And
I would just trying to make that analogy to what
lip singing in my truck is to TikTok. It's like
(19:41):
the creative stuff is super creative and fun and creative,
but what gets the job done is that stuff so
you do it?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I think that's actually a great analogy. And I
think too, you know, with the the pressure of consumption
online or you look online you see somebody that has
five million views off a video because they did the
cringey shit, and you kind of sit back and go like, well,
hold on, I want to be in the ball game, right,
I want to have a shot, And like the only
way to do that is finding you know, your laying
(20:10):
in that. You know, how have you been able to
have you been able to stay kind of authentic in yourself?
You know, in doing that.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well. One way is that I mean I have a team.
What I do is I go and film record so
you know, the stuff that we need, and then that
gets deployed by someone, you know, like the lipsiging videos
or stuff. But what I try to do, and they
encourage you to do this, is to also post stuff
(20:39):
that doesn't have anything to do with music, that is
like authentic to yourself, you know, like so stuff I
think is funny or stuff I think is interesting. I
like doing that, like to this day, like at this
moment right now, like my TikTok is not that big,
but whatever. My biggest TikTok by like three or four
(20:59):
x is not me doing the lip sing and not
not pray whatever. It's like I just filmed myself. I
started taping myself drawing stuff on the on the signature
line of like Kiosks when they ask you to tip
or whatever. And so I did this one where I
(21:21):
drew the American flag and I like set it to
like Lee Greenwood music playing and you know, Proud to
be an American, and it's got a million views on
there like it like that. I enjoy like funny like
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It's it's sort of the like you know, the dumb,
like day in the life stuff for the creative stuff
that just doesn't make you think too much, which is
the part I think we can appreciate sometimes, you.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Know, yeah, for sure. And I mean I think there
it's the people that are good at it. I mean,
I think are creative. I mean there are, man, people
are so created that would just wow you with their
creativity and the and the hardest thing to do is
to be creative in a simple way. And so anytime
that happens, whether I do it or whether I see
(22:06):
somebody else do it, it's just like that's cool. You know,
you got it, especially if you've ever tried to do
it and you realize how hard it is, Like you know,
that gives you more respect for people that are That's
the same thing with music, you know, Like I used to,
I used to be real bad about saying that sucks,
you know, when I heard something that I didn't like.
And now I go, man, not my cup of tea.
(22:29):
But of course, man, I get it. That's the way
people people, you know, crap on your song. You go, well,
try writing one yourself, you know, So I get it. Man,
we're We're in the studio live here with Matt Stell
in the podcast. We're going to be right back in
just a second for you guys.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
What is up?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
We are back six one five hours podcast. We have
Matt Stell in the studio. We have to talk about
this new music. But first I would like to move
to the game portion of this podcast. This is rank
these five things without knowing what comes next. Matt Stell
in the hot seat. Here's how it works. I'm gonna
say something, you rank it one through five, but you
don't know what comes next, and then we get to
(23:04):
the last answer, and either it's great or not. People
can agree or disagree. I love it all right, Ranked
these five things. First category is types of beers. Okay,
there is the shower beer. Oh two, I do like
a shower beer. What about an airport beer?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Three?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Saving some room for the one spot, A beach beer, four,
a sports scheme beer.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Five?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Wow, you're waiting. You're waiting for the last one. And
the last one is a concert beer, which is in
the one hole.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Y yeah, I would say I would that's pretty close
to ranking. If I was gonna switch anything, maybe maybe
beach beer and plan airport beer need to be swapped.
But I don't know. Man, it's kind of like shower beers.
Though I'm not gonna underrate a shower beer, of course.
That's just that's an elite elite.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
You'll you'll find me showering and beering up quite a bit.
I try to do it discreetly sometimes because I just
don't want people to think, like, you know, it's a
regular occurrence.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
But what happened as a cup holder?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, that's innovation right there. All right, moving along, rank
these five things. There is no category, It is just things. Okay,
this is this is sort of the more advanced level.
But I feel like you're kind of getting the hang
of this, So here we go. First up is number two, pencils.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Five.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
They're kind of boring. I actually I actually agree with that.
Becoming an uncle. Oh dang, it's two uh an actual
fight club?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh man, side note here. I know this is probably
supposed to be rapid, but.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Uh no, this is good. I want the story. No.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I just read like this really good piece about misunderstood
movies a little bit not a little bit, like like
the misunderstood movies in general, and like fight Club is
one of is up there on on Evidently people missing
the point of what uh the writer and director meant
(25:25):
in in that case, So it's somewhere on TikTok. You
probably get it there. But so what what space do
I have left? Four? I'll take four slightly better than pencils.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Okay, so we got one and three left? What about
Darth Vader lightsabers?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
How is that not one?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You're putting it at one?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I like that? Dang man, you just could you just
imagine just having a having a lightsaber?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Don't you think about the power you have?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, because don't you have to. I'm not a Star
Wars person I have you know, But don't you have
to like be a Jedi to have one?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, you have to go through the training and acceptance
of being a Jedi to get it. So it proves
that you are a I have done that, and then
b you have it and no one else has it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's got to be one, right.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I would think. So you just you know, you never
know what the last one and the last one is drunk.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
SIGs drunk SIGs Man. Of the SIGs I've smoked in
my life, they've all been They've all been there, They've
all been except for like maybe the first couple I
tried when I was a kid, afraid, they've all been
accompanied with a cocktail of some kind.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So yeah, some some sort of beverage for the adults. Well,
that was ranked these five things you did really well, dude.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well, I'd like to thank my teammates and my sponsors.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Well, I think it just comes from your basketball background.
A lot of people choke under the pressure, but it
seems like you've you've been there, you know, when it
gets down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So that's right.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, Matt, let's uh, let's talk a little bit about
new music. Breaking in Boots is one of my favorite
songs from you. I I've listened. It's just I saved
to my playlist. It keeps coming up a bunch and
I'm jamming to it and hopefully that's the first of
a lot of music you're putting out this year. But
talk to me a little bit about that song and
(27:12):
and sort of what it means to you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, man, breaking in Boots is thank you for saying that.
You know, I've it's it's been a lot of fun
to have to have new music out, and you know,
new music out to radio and see the kind of
people responding to it in a positive way. You know
that song with me it was about It's about a
like a sort of a lot of instances, but kind
of one in particular where I basically saw a girl
(27:37):
across the bar and she had on boots that were
similar to mine and I was gonna, you know, I
was gonna have to say something. So I went to
tab out to go to go say something, you know,
and shoot shoot one shot as it were, and uh,
but she was gone. I could never find her. And
so we wrote this song very soon after, Like Ben Stennis,
(27:59):
I was writing with him and he had this tile.
He's like, I'm not sure what it means, but she'll leave,
She'll leave your heart breaking in boots or breaking in
your boots and breaking in boots. I was like, oh,
I know what that's about. And so we wrote that song. Man.
You know, I love and I love that kind of
up tempo, uh kind of heavy heartbreak banger. It's not
(28:19):
really that heartbreaking, but it is, you know, yea in
that vein of country music that I love. And uh so, yeah, man,
you know that song with this project, you know, it's
it's trying to be as as true as possible, whether
that's you know, lighter subject matter like this or like
you know, some other songs, or whether it's like, you know,
the heaviest of heavy stuff I've ever written about. You know,
(28:43):
the whole goal was to just just be true and
tell the truth, and I was telling the truth there.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I I mean, I love that song. I think what
I think you kind of nailed it there. But it
is a heartbreak song, but it has that groove and
that up type of field, so it's like you can
still crank that if you're like going out or like
at the lake or whatever. My it's like it's a
fun song and that's I don't know, I love that,
you know, it's not.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
There's a lot of great heartbreak songs, but they're like
sap and you're like, damn, like you know, I gotta
deal with this by myself, like a glass of wine
or something. But it's like, no, I love the tune, man,
I do want to talk about There's one song. I'm
actually pulling it up on your Instagram because I couldn't
I couldn't quite remember exactly what you said before playing it,
But Born Lonely you said and I'm looking at it now.
(29:28):
You said this is like one of the truest songs
you've ever written, and then you know teased a verse
in a chorus of this yea, And I mean, dude,
what a song like? Talk to me about the process
of writing this man.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You know, there's a lot of things to say, I
suppose or about this song. You know, from the song
in general is like I knew that my favorite music
right or from my favorite artists, and it's because you know,
(30:01):
it sounds good, but really my favorite stuff is I
believe them and whether or not it's like you know
them talking about characters that aren't them, Like isbel doesn't
write about himself all the time, you know, but he's
telling the truth in a in a in a way
that you believe. A lot of my favorite songwriters do that.
And so, you know, with this project, I felt like,
(30:25):
you know, the next step for me. For one, I
got out of like a situation where I had people
that didn't believe in what I wanted to do and
thought they knew better. And I myself am am a
consensus builder. I'm a team player. I know, I'm somebody
who likes doing that stuff. We talked about earlier about
(30:46):
you know, trying to do things to help you win,
and I do like that, but it also when everybody's
not on board like that, or when everybody doesn't have
incentives aren't aligned, you end up with that I I
I'm not I'm just talking about me myself. I ended
up with stuff that I was not as proud of
(31:08):
as I wanted to be because it wasn't real enough,
and it was, oh man, we you know, we got
to make sure the next thing we released were servicing
this market because you know, we got I'll take you guys,
we got a stream. It's really wasn't even Celtic. It's
is we got a stream.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Because back to that data conversation of.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, and that's important, man, I mean, you know, to
be I'm not discounting that, but I am saying that
I started making decisions based on things that were not
what I thought was cool, and I started to make
music feel like a job, and it started to make
me be a douche. Like. My inner dialogue was I
(31:48):
love music, and I felt myself being like jealous of
other people's success, and I felt myself not wanting to
listen to new music. Friday to see what people were doing,
because it felt like sort of like competition in an
(32:08):
unhealthy way, in a non creative way, in a maybe
businesslike way, but something was unconnected. And so there was
a portion of my post COVID all that stuff we
were talking about, like missing the wave to ride and
trying to catch another wave, you know, of well, we're
(32:30):
gonna go back to the world. And I knew I
didn't want to do that, but I didn't. I had
to learn that lesson. I had to learn that lesson.
I guess the hard way instead of you know, some
people instinctively just can't do that. And I learned that
I cannot bullshit. You know, I can be an artist
(32:52):
and I can step out of myself and understand, maybe
be empathetic, so I can write for you know, different perspective,
but I know that I cannot bullshit. I hate it.
It makes me a worse person in general. It makes
me not like the thing that I love the most.
And I hated that, and I knew I could feel
(33:12):
myself changing. I find a bit why is this, And
it's because the dude that set on his you know,
his in his dorm room or his apartment in college
and learn how to play all these songs and just
only wanted to do cool shit or it's stuff that
I thought was cool. I mean a lot of sucked,
but at least I was, you know, my heart, my head,
we're in the right place. I got away from that,
and I was like, after that experience, and that's all
(33:34):
I'll say about it, you know, but right now, But
after that experience, I said, I will never do this again.
I don't I do not care what it costs me.
I don't care if I'm no longer a country radio artist.
I don't care. I can't do I can't fake it,
I can't bullshit and I won't. And so you know,
(33:57):
part of that is, you know, understanding that I'm not
my heroes, even as bad as I want to be,
and trying to pretend like I'm Chris Knight or is
it just as bad as me trying to pretend to
be Justin Bieber or who fill in the blank, you know,
like it's just as disingenuous or ain't authentic, And so
(34:18):
coming to terms with who I am as an artist,
what I sound like, what I write about, and letting
the chips fall where they May was the most liberating
thing and it totally lifted this weight. I can't wait
to hear I love music like hearing it again. So
this is a very long answer. I'm so sorry, but
I mean, I just mean it a lot. And so
(34:41):
with this record, I was like, I'm cutting a record,
even before my label said that I could. I was like,
I don't care drop me, I don't give a shit,
Like I'm going to do what I think is cool.
And luckily, after some other internal like shuffling, I found
out that that was what I did. Good, let's just
put it that way, and it set off a lot
(35:02):
of positive dominoes. So, okay, how does that relate to
the question you asked me about Born Lonely? Born Lonely
is a song that I wrote that I actually wrote
it once by myself, and I knew I had this
title and I had this idea, and I was thinking
about my childhood and if anybody knows, you know, my
mom and I are the closest you could be. You know,
(35:25):
love her, no shade at her. But my childhood was
tough because you know, my parents were split up, right,
And I'm not calling it trauma because I didn't starve
and I wasn't beaten. You know, there's people that have
serious but I would be lying if I said that
it didn't mess me up or at least change me
(35:46):
in some important ways. And I see it most vividly
in relationships on how I can't have them when I
do have them, I kind of don't like I shy
away from that, and it's and it's like asking those
questions of like why is that? And it's because for
a lot of my life, family was where like pain
(36:09):
came from. Not because I have great people, great step
parents too, but my parents, and it meant it just
it bothered me. And you know, it took me till
now to be able to say that, and I was
embarrassed about it a little bit, but I was like,
you know, what if I'm going to do all this
truth telling, tell the truth. And so I wrote this
(36:31):
song and it, like I thought, was good. And then
fast forward a little bit and I'm in the writer's
room with Jake Mitch, Benji Davis, a couple of guys
I really like, and Jay's got this vibe and we're talking.
I was like, guys, listen, I wrote this song of
this title. It means the world to me. This feels
like for whatever reason, we were kind of having a conversation.
(36:52):
I was like, whatever reason, this feels like something we
may need to chase down. Now I've already written it,
so if I like that one better, I may just
keep it. But if y'all want to try this title
and try to make it better, you know, let's give
it a shot. They said, okay, and it got way better,
like just way better. And you know, this song is
about like meeting someone and seeing myself in someone and
(37:14):
the problems that you know I have of you know,
coming like from a broken home on how that affects
my relationships with people and seeing it in someone that
I care about and being able to go you know what,
you're this way because I'm this way, and just so
you know. And and so that's where it came from.
(37:35):
And it's I was embarrassed to say that for a
long time and talk about things that aren't like outlaw
you know, oh you have child, Oh you have your child,
Like I've always minimized it. But it is the fact
of the matter, man, you know. So that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I mean, thank you for sharing that, dude.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
That so many words. Bro, I'm sorry, just that was.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That was super real. There's a lot to unpack there,
I'm The first thing I'll say is I love that
you're writing and putting out music that means something to
you and that you care about. And I do agree.
I think there's a lot of topics that, for whatever reason,
certain genres you know, maybe are like sheltered from and
(38:17):
just the way that whatever the commercial music is, it
just doesn't talk about that, right. But I think there
are a lot of people out there, you know that
probably have had similar experiences with their upbringings or maybe
similar experience on sort of the relationship front that you
mentioned and and really can relate to this song. And
I think like having the courage to just kind of
(38:37):
be like, you know, fuck it, I'm gonna put out
this song and it means something to me, you know.
I think that's that's really cool, and I think it's
going to connect, you know, more than than than you expect.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I really, you know, I appreciate that because it's just
like thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I you know, I'm rarely am I sort of left
like speechless on a boda because like every word in
the world's great man like, you know, and I think
a lot of people, you know, to your first point,
I think a lot of people struggle with jealousy and
anxiety and frustrations when they see other people that are
(39:13):
It becomes this comparison game because it's so easy to
look up how many followers or how many streams you have,
and if you have more than me, well then you're
farther along or you're better. And you know, that game
of numbers in comparison just like only digs you farther down.
I'm just like happy that you have had that realization,
and I hope you know other people are having that
(39:34):
as well.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So yeah, man, And it's it's not like those things
don't matter. They do matter, especially if you want to
play you know, music as like a you know, a
job or whatever. But like it's also the case that
to be an all thing like I don't do I
don't know. I mean, there's there's probably artists that that
(39:55):
can do the thing where they can just say what
they think people liking it works, and that's probably a superpower,
you know. But it's just like, you know, for me,
my favorite stuff at least doesn't seem to be that
and I just for me for this to matter, you know,
for this to be what I do with my life,
(40:18):
you know, to make a living especially whatever it's like,
it needs to matter. And with me, I just everything
that goes in the funnel of creativity. My only you know,
the only thing I can control is did I meet
my own standard that day? You know, and then let
the ships fall with me?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So anyway, Yeah, well I love it well Born, lonely
and I'm breaking in boots. You can stream, run it up, share,
share it for this guy, because data still does matter. Yeah,
for sure, I do appreciate you sharing that. I actually did.
I read a a little bit of a lighter note.
I read or saw a video of you saying that
(41:00):
you claim to be the best best ex boyfriend there is.
So what I want to know is you know what
what and what are sort of the tips and tricks
to being the best ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
That's that's good? Uh Yeah, I mean I just the
best because you know, I got a lot of reps.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
In Yeah, I feel like I feel like it's a lot.
It's a quantity game for.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Sure, exactly. Man, Like you know, I learned, you know,
there's things that that you learn and like, you know,
all joking aside once you feel like, I don't know, man,
I I say that have joking, But like the other
day I had, like I ordered a book and I
didn't check where I was. I just ordered it. Right,
(41:47):
But the last time I ordered a book off of
off of this website because it wasn't Amazon, because it
just wasn't. But so I tried to order this book,
but it it's sent to the last address that I
sent a book to, which I would have been to
this girl's you know place, And so I sent the
thing and then I got like a text. It was
(42:08):
like a picture of this book that I ordered from
my ex, and she was like said something like funny,
you know, like why would you think I give a
shit about you know, yeah, like information theory or whatever
the hell it? Well, I don't remember what it was.
And I just take that as like, if I have
a book sent to my my ex, probably my most
(42:31):
recent X, and they text me back and we're able
to figure out me getting said book, there can't be
too many hard feelings, right, like, you know, like she
could have just like had a complete just like book burning,
you know, but she didn't. So I just chalk that
up to evidence that that uh, you know, like you
(42:54):
to burn every bridge.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Pretty calculated maneuver by it. You know, you know it's
cost efficient. You know, you buy books ended and you
test the waters there and didn't see what happens one time.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I Uh, this is off topic, but it just reminded
me of that. But this is like some some girl
had her in her profile, had like a quote for
a some poem that I didn't know who it was
or something, and uh, it didn't have it like, she
didn't have it attributed to anybody. She's headed in quotations,
and so I just highlighted the quote, googled it and
(43:27):
found out and I was like, oh man, I love
Billy Collins, you know, books and poetry, and it's just
oh do you doing Yeah? And we dated for five.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Years so at that so yeah, it works. You gotta
use you gotta use your I'm just I'm just waiting
for the day that that goes poorly. And there's a
video online of the girl burning your book.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Tell this guy, yeah, the second that I say that
about being as good as it's just like famous last words.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Dude, it's been awesome having you the studio we have
just a few minutes left, so I do want to
I do want to get to this portion of the podcast.
We have a good friends at area that a country
Western or Peril, and they like to do this game
with us called rapid Fire Questions. Very simple. Mattie's gonna
wind up sixty seconds on the clock, right, matt, how
we doing? And you just got to kind of free
(44:19):
flow this all right? Some people have have struggled with it,
but based on your performance of the other games, I
feel like you're in a good spot. Hell yeah, So
rapid Fire Questions with ariat, here we go, three two one.
What was the last thing you bought on the internet?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
A book?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Oh man, I've taken time. Describe yourself in three words.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Tall, true, and funny.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I hope you are favorite dipping sauce?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Oh Dan's French onion dip.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's good. I like that. If there was a movie
made after you, what actor would you want playing Matt style?
Rick Fox go to McDonald's order sausage biscuit. That's fire.
Fastest speed you've ever driven in a car, A car
or truck, doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. Any vehicle.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Man A two thousand and six thirty two valve three
quarter ton Cummings dodge that's chipped up will shut off
at one hundred and three thereabouts.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
So yeah, and you put you pushed it all the
way there. I like that. Oh yeah, boots are sneakers
M sixty forty boots. There you go, and one collaboration,
your dream collaboration megan to stay. I did see you
slid into those dms. How's that going for you?
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Man, It's it's lonely in there. It's starting to echo
in those dms. Yeah, you just got to follow it
up with a book exactly. Oh mag I'm so sorry.
I imagine this book like how to Survive with the
World's I'm just yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Oh man, sixty seconds ver sided by area. That was
That was good. That was good. I liked your I
think your performance on the uh other the other games
was was top tier. I think your performance on this
gets like a like an.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
A that's fair. I'll take that criticism. I would also, uh,
if we're doling out opportunities for improvement, Yeah, yeah, please,
you could maybe not laugh so hard at the things
that I said, so you could give me more questions.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand. Are you looking at Are
you looking to run this back at some point? Because
we run we can run it back. Look at that,
look we tell it how it is. I appreciate that.
A man of honesty.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Let me tell you what you suck at that?
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Yeah, this is good.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I suck at short answers.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
I had a buddy on the Logan Crosers, on an
episode a couple of weeks back, and midway through the
podcast he started asking me questions and I looked at
him like, wait, is this my podcast or yours?
Speaker 2 (47:07):
I love it?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Flip the script, baby, Well, dude, thanks for taking the
time to be in here. I'm super excited about this,
this new product you have. So you're hitting the road
as well this year.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah. Man, we're a lot of places all the time,
and we keep keep the rose hot. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
I can't wait to check out a show you guys.
Check them out. Matt stell On on Socials run up
that music, and dude, thanks again for doing this, because like,
this is an opportunity for me to meet a lot
of people in town that I maybe don't get, you know,
the time to always hang with and hear about their stories.
So I appreciate you for being you know, so open
and just a fun hang bro like so so thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Absolutely man. Next time, let's do this in the afternoon
so we can justify some cold beers.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
I was I was thinking about that. We may have
to crack a couple open, so look forward to doing that.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
We will see you next week on the Stepson Playhouse
podcast Take Care for No
Tell it how it is. I appreciate that. A man
of honesty, let me tell you what you suck at? Yeah,
what is up, guys? We have a new episode here
(00:21):
on the six one five House podcast. It is your host,
Chris Rudeger. I am so excited because I have wanted
to have this guy on the podcast for a while
and we finally made it happen. They say big things
come in small boxes, but big things also come in
six foot seven giants that are country music stars. I'm
not gonna lie. I'm I'm excited, but I'm also a
(00:41):
little intimidated to have this interview because he is well
significantly taller than me. He did play basketball at Drury
University and then he got accepted into Harvard University for
a medical program, but he chose not to go and
instead come to Nashville and risk it to be a
country artist. And guess what it paid off. He's got
two number ones, prayed for you and everywhere. But on
(01:05):
we're going to talk about that plus new music. He
also has been on Good Morning America, Kelly Clarkson Show,
the Late night show, Family Feud. The list goes on,
So we've got to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
As well.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I want to welcome the six foot seven beast, Matt Stell.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I feel like I feel like there's a few of
us in country music that get the tale of the
tape red before they start, you know, like like a boxer,
you know, get get all the metrics out of the way.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I woke up this morning and I was thinking about
I was like, well, A, Matt's MAT's pretty tall. Who
else could like field the country music basketball team if
we were to go, you know, into a into a competition.
I feel like Trace Atkins is probably up there. He's
pretty tall. Who else? Who else have you found?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Blake Shelton, Brett Young's big, Yeah, Young sneaky tall. Yeah,
he's like he's almost my he's he's an athlete. Uh,
he would be up there. And we filled a pretty
good team. I feel like, you know, uh, we've we've
hooped out and you know, done some stuff. You know,
like Cae Kinge's pretty pretty good and uh you know,
(02:14):
and so is Sam Hunt. He's athletic, you know, he
can get up and down. But there's there's a few
out there. Yeah, Noel weskin Ball, he's a good player.
There you go, you got we.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Could have a team going on. When you did play basketball,
what position did you play?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I was a forward, so like we did sort of
a we did sort of like a this is like
who cares, but we did like a motion offense. But
I was ad, I won't even go yeah, man, you know,
I said some screens, I got some rebounds. I mean
a few passes from the interior. You know, I got
a bucket every now and then trying to be efficient.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Hey, big board guy, you know wins championship, man, you.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Got you know, it's like if you got to do
those things that that don't show up sometimes to win.
And uh, maybe I flatter myself. I don't know if
my coaches would say the same thing, but I felt
like I was willing to do that. But you know
whatever at this point now, I just I do talk
some shit online about being like the best basketball player
(03:10):
in all of music now and like including the rappers,
like I'm better than all of them, and I don't
know that it's true, but you know, I feel.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Like you can't you can't go back on your word,
master p.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
He got a bucket wayming Ted's Dale. You know he
played at Kansas and you know, whe but in terms
of like you know right now, you know, uh, I'm
I'm I'm all right, I'm cold with it. You're feeling
pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I get a bucket. Ye, So
so maybe somebody will take me up on that one day.
I've talked to just a lot of ship in the
comments of like of like basketball aggregate websites and you know,
(03:49):
like like all those things that post stuff about like
oh J Cole Cook, and I'm like, dude, I would
I would give you every bucket like I would give
you like kfcuckets.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Well you just got the hype man, Like I just don't.
I don't. I don't want to go up against you
in the paint. You know, I'll leave it at that.
I do want to talk because after you played basketball
at Drury you I believe you applied to Harvard right
for a program. Am I am? I am?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I correct about that, Yeah, but just to like, so
this was a while after like I went to play ball,
and after I played ball, I went to Arkansas, I
got my masters. When I was learning how to play music,
and I had I had some you know, life happened,
had a band in a van and whatever did that
all over you know, the South and Midwest. A lot
(04:40):
of the Texas music scene had a little success writing
in that scene with some artists, and and then I
finally moved to Nashville. And I was in Nashville a
couple of years trying to get a publishing deal, you know, trying.
My thing was I wanted to be like, you know,
I flattered myself with these comparisons. I don't I just
mean in the mold of but like somebody like Jaron
(05:00):
Johnson from Cadillac three, right, Like, He's written a bunch
of country songs. Then he had his band that he
did his own thing with, and I thought, that's what
I wanted to do. You know, at the time, Chris
Stapleton was doing that too, you know, he had like
still Drivers, Johnson Brothers, those things, and he was writing
these country hits, and I was like, Okay, I want
to write for like radio hits, and then I want
to have my little like project to this side as
(05:23):
an artist do that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Was it called the Matt Stell Band or was it
something else?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I mean by that point it was just me.
You know, I just wanted to release music that was
like very much not paying attention to people liking it,
you know just what I thought. Yeah, yeah, So I'm
telling two stories at once here. But so I moved
to Nashville to try to get a publishing deal, and
I was here a couple of years. Nothing I materialize.
(05:50):
I had the worst deal in the world offered to me,
and I would have taken it, but then they rescinded
the deal. They're like, oh, well, we actually offered three
guys for two spots, and we're gonna sign these other
two dudes.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I was like, all right, that's brutal. I'm for you
a shitty deal. And then they're like, oh, and we're
going to take back that crappy deal exactly exactly this happened,
and that yeah damn.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So then I went on like this medical missions trip
with a church out of like the girl I was
seeing at the time lived in Dallas and so anyway,
like that, I just went down there to like and
it was like a medical thing. So we worked alongside
these doctors and pharmacis, but mainly doctors, and I just
helped out and I was like, damn, this is incredible.
(06:30):
These people can just show up help these people. You
get there to morn of the line of people that
need everything from you know, some abscess cut off to
like antibiotics to like dive beat it, you know, insulin
or what you know, like whatever. And I was like,
this is incredible and worked my ass off there with
them and slept great every night. You know, we we
(06:53):
it was it was great, I mean to help you
know what I mean. It was a great experience. Yeah,
And I thought, man, you know, I've been in this town,
you know, for this long, and you know, I'd already
been to school, and I was like, man, maybe music
is just like this hobby thing. Maybe I maybe writing songs.
Maybe that's not my thing, you know, I always do it,
but maybe I'm not. I'm not one of these guys
(07:13):
I want to be. And uh so I applied to
Harvard's Extension school, which is like different than like so
basically i'd already I had a master's degree, right, but
I needed I needed like some hard sciences before I
could apply to you know, hopefully their med school, right.
(07:35):
And so I needed like organic chemistry one and two,
and I needed genetics, and I needed physics and like
I needed like something like.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Just stacking up on education.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Man. Yeah, yeah, I was about to have to take
like every class that everyone says sucks at once and
but I was gonna do it or try to do
it because and then you know, three years after that
and then residenty blah blah blah. But I was like,
you know what, whatever, you know, I'm down, and you
know what, So I got into that program that I
think called a post back program, you know, postback laureate.
(08:09):
I got in. But then like eight weeks or something
like that, before I was about to move up to Cambridge,
you know, Boston area, I got a publishing deal and
that not that change. I mean, I was like, man,
I got to stick this out. So I hit the
advisor up and I was like, hey, I need to
defer this. You know, I may come, but I got
(08:30):
this out and they were like, yeah, cool, because I
don't think it's you know, I don't know how hard
it is to get into those programs, and you know,
they were like, yeah, okay, come next year if you want, basically,
and so I stayed here. I did that and I
wrote songs and one thing led to another, and you know,
I put out an EP with the publishing company at
the time, and it had prayed for you on it.
(08:52):
Among other songs. You know, I had no idea that
was a hit song. I'm not one of these people
have that gift. I don't have that gift. So yeah,
we put out this EP. Pray for You is on it,
and it got on a playlist on Spotify I think
at the time, and it just blew up. Man. I mean,
you know, it was this quote unquote streaming story, and
(09:16):
it got me a record deal and it got me
all this. But it also, like it changed my life
in so many ways that I did not see happening.
Like I went from being who I want, you know again,
one of these guys like like like Jared or like
Hearty or you know that I thought, you know, I
wanted to write these songs. I thought I was writ
and pray for You for Blake Shelton or whoever. Yeah,
(09:38):
to being the person that sings Pray for You on
the radio, to be in a country radio like guy, right,
and you know, changed my life in every positive way.
But but it also changed it in some other interesting ways.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you deferred and waited, because
moments like that, you know, they happen in this town,
particularly on expectedly when so I want to talk about
Prayed for You because that song, like you said, it
was kind of a streaming story and then eventually, you know,
label gets involved and takes it to radio. Like at
(10:12):
what point did you know, like, all right, this song
might actually have the legs.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I never knew. I like, I wrote it, and I
thought we wrote a good song because we sat down
Alison Velt's great song. I came in and she was like,
I got this idea. You know, I met this guy
last night. You know, I think he's the one, and
I feel like I prayed for him. So she had
this idea. And I didn't know you from Adam more
than I could fathom, but I prayed for you. It
(10:39):
was like, all right, let's write that.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, So we wrote that kind of and it's really
telling mainly her story, but just in a in a
you know, in a way that I could tell it,
you know what I mean. Yeah, And I you know,
I left the room thinking that we wrote a good song.
I had no idea that my life was going to
be different after that a moment, and I had no
idea that song was going to be big. I had
(11:05):
no idea because like people just start saying numbers to you.
You know, it's like I'd been It's like I've been
had these visits to these labels in town and you know,
I you know, varied interest here and there, but like
no was the answer. And then the song comes along
and then people start talking about numbers about oh, streaming
(11:27):
and consumption and all this shit, and I'm just like,
I don't know. I mean, you could just be saying
like that's like points at ski ball, Like I don't
know what they mean, you know what I mean, it's
like watching a sports, like watching cricket and trying to
figure out who's winning. Like I don't know what you know?
And so I'm relying on these other people. But I
can tell by the smile on their face that they're
(11:48):
really excited to tell me these numbers. So I'm like,
that's gotta be good, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And generally more is better, right and.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, but you but it's like how much is good?
How much is great? How much is like? You know?
So I I really you know the song After being
told no, I got a call from a guy in
New York that is, you know, a sony like label
based out of New York that you know has like
(12:16):
Nelly signed and you know, Noah Cyrus and like twenty
four Carrot Golden like no country people, and they're like, well,
you know, basically, if this song was on rap caviaar,
you'd have people knocking down their door if that was
performing like this relative to the other songs on the play.
So cool. So I signed, you know, a record deal,
and they built a country staff and started it and
(12:38):
then that became you know whatever. You know, that became
a hit and I had just had no idea that
the whole time that, you know, I was just like,
this is crazy what one song could do.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
It's it's an amazing story. And then you know, you
come to follow it up with everywhere but on which
also you know, goes to radio and and and sort
of adds to your resume. What's the process like after
having those songs and then going out and playing shows
and people are singing it back to you, and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, it's the best thing in the world. Literally, It's
the reason I wanted to do it in the first place. Now,
I never thought I would be the guy that was
singing wedding songs. Just to be honest with you, like,
I didn't come like I didn't know that. Like when
I was talking about the way that it changed my life,
you know, people associate you know, the pray for you guy,
and you know, it's great to be associated with anything.
(13:28):
But I wasn't like, but people kind of think that's you,
you know who you are or and that is part,
but it's like not all or whatever. So it was incredible.
All I wanted to do is make music that people
cared about. And now I was a little bashful about it,
you know, like, oh, I want to write, you know,
songs about how bad it hurts and all this stuff.
And right now it's like the biggest compliment in the
(13:49):
world that people would include that in something that means
as much to him as their wedding, you know, and uh,
I really and when people sing it back, it's the
best thing. That's what I wanted to do at shows,
it's what I do. It shows that I go to
that of people that I love. You know, I'm still
a huge music fan, so like that's the biggest complement everywhere.
(14:10):
But on was one of my favorite songs that I'd written.
I couldn't believe I got to release it as a
single because it was like I liked it that I
didn't love I mean, Pray for You. I liked it,
but like everyone, but I was like, this is a
country song man, it's about how bad it hurts, and
I turn a phrase and it's what that blah blah blahh.
(14:32):
And but the thing about that was that song went
number one during COVID, and so the like the sing
along parts of it, or the touring on my second
number one parts of all that stuff kind of just
didn't happen, you know, because our first tour, like headline
(14:58):
and tour after Pray for You five dates and we
were we had like twenty of them done, and we
were in the Northeast. We played New York on a Wednesday, Salisbury,
mass on a Thursday, and you know, we noticed on
the Wednesday and we had sold out this place, but
it wasn't full. And then the Thursday there were less
(15:18):
people there. And then Friday we were going up to
Boston or Foxborough and we got the call and I
knew it was coming, but we got the call and
we just the bus. The bus. The bus just exited
out in like a rest area and just hit that
free way back down south and we put the bus
(15:39):
up for you know, the better part of a year,
and so like you know, part of part of everywhere,
but on just kind of just got skipped over because
of you know, because you know, I'm not gonna sit
here and complain about COVID. People died, but that was
a very much a part of that happening.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So you know, did you get to reap the words
kind of now? I mean, now the shows are back
or you still is that still a song that is
in your set list? That and singing?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You know, like yeah, I mean one hundred percent it's not,
but there's we yes and no, like now when we
go to play the shows, just people know it. But
like the the wash of it being on the radio
or like all of those things, you know, come into
a crescendo. Sure didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's an arc of a song and there's a part
of it that that was you get it. Yeah, man, Well,
I mean it's still one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I know. COVID was a tough time and you know, uh,
I think the beauty of it, you know, was sort
of the craziness of it, which was that everyone's on
their phones, right and we're like, you know, there's thing
called TikTok comes along and an answer comes along. We
were talking about this earlier, but you know, nowadays, like
a lot of people are consuming music organically right on
(16:54):
these platforms, and I think many artists are able to
kind of leverage those socials. Like how how have you
navigated sort of the new world of TikTok and Instagram
as it comes to marketing your music?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's it does not come easy. And I have people
around me that helped me to deploy that stuff because
you know, I'm not unique in this at all. I
would just tell you that for every douchey, like cheesy,
corny lip sync and video that some dude is doing
or girl is doing in their truck, this I think
(17:31):
I just had this song of the summer. Yeah, you know,
like all of that shit is like I don't know
very many people at all that like doing it and
want to do it. But the reality is is it's
part of it, and so you just kind of have
to get over it. And I, you know, I do.
What I don't like about it is I don't like synthetic.
(17:53):
I don't like the doing what everybody else is doing
part of it. But there's just no way around it.
And so you know, the times that that I can
be creative with it is when I enjoy it, but
I don't, but it ends up mostly being the cringe shit.
And but here the thing is is like it works
(18:14):
and it's just like it's it almost reminds me of
of now. If you buy, if you go to buy
like a vintage T shirt from a from Alan Jackson
from the nineteen ninety two Neon Rainbow Chasing the Neon
Rainbow Tour, what's on that shirt? His face? Right of course? Okay,
Like those are the worst T shirts ever to me,
(18:37):
Like band T shirts like now that have like there's
the picture of the artists and their name on it.
It's the most it's the it's always it always is
the biggest selling shirt.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Man, I love you. I don't know if I'm pulling
up to a Matt Stell show, Matt, I think I
get some look from from.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
But my point is, like I love you know, band
merch is some of the best stuff, you know, the
coolest shit in the world. I'm sorry I swearing, but
the best stuff in the world is these like bands
that have cool merch. Right, But if you go to
I would just be willing to bet that if you
go to see John Mayer and he's got, you know,
(19:19):
all this stuff up there, the best selling thing is
going to be something with a picture of John Mayer
on it and so and to me, that's like the
least and I have it too, but like the least
creative of the merch and it sells the best. And
I would just trying to make that analogy to what
lip singing in my truck is to TikTok. It's like
(19:41):
the creative stuff is super creative and fun and creative,
but what gets the job done is that stuff so
you do it?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I think that's actually a great analogy. And I
think too, you know, with the the pressure of consumption
online or you look online you see somebody that has
five million views off a video because they did the
cringey shit, and you kind of sit back and go like, well,
hold on, I want to be in the ball game, right,
I want to have a shot, And like the only
way to do that is finding you know, your laying
(20:10):
in that. You know, how have you been able to
have you been able to stay kind of authentic in yourself?
You know, in doing that.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well. One way is that I mean I have a team.
What I do is I go and film record so
you know, the stuff that we need, and then that
gets deployed by someone, you know, like the lipsiging videos
or stuff. But what I try to do, and they
encourage you to do this, is to also post stuff
(20:39):
that doesn't have anything to do with music, that is
like authentic to yourself, you know, like so stuff I
think is funny or stuff I think is interesting. I
like doing that, like to this day, like at this
moment right now, like my TikTok is not that big,
but whatever. My biggest TikTok by like three or four
(20:59):
x is not me doing the lip sing and not
not pray whatever. It's like I just filmed myself. I
started taping myself drawing stuff on the on the signature
line of like Kiosks when they ask you to tip
or whatever. And so I did this one where I
(21:21):
drew the American flag and I like set it to
like Lee Greenwood music playing and you know, Proud to
be an American, and it's got a million views on
there like it like that. I enjoy like funny like
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It's it's sort of the like you know, the dumb,
like day in the life stuff for the creative stuff
that just doesn't make you think too much, which is
the part I think we can appreciate sometimes, you.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Know, yeah, for sure. And I mean I think there
it's the people that are good at it. I mean,
I think are creative. I mean there are, man, people
are so created that would just wow you with their
creativity and the and the hardest thing to do is
to be creative in a simple way. And so anytime
that happens, whether I do it or whether I see
(22:06):
somebody else do it, it's just like that's cool. You know,
you got it, especially if you've ever tried to do
it and you realize how hard it is, Like you know,
that gives you more respect for people that are That's
the same thing with music, you know, Like I used to,
I used to be real bad about saying that sucks,
you know, when I heard something that I didn't like.
And now I go, man, not my cup of tea.
(22:29):
But of course, man, I get it. That's the way
people people, you know, crap on your song. You go, well,
try writing one yourself, you know, So I get it. Man,
we're We're in the studio live here with Matt Stell
in the podcast. We're going to be right back in
just a second for you guys.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
What is up?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
We are back six one five hours podcast. We have
Matt Stell in the studio. We have to talk about
this new music. But first I would like to move
to the game portion of this podcast. This is rank
these five things without knowing what comes next. Matt Stell
in the hot seat. Here's how it works. I'm gonna
say something, you rank it one through five, but you
don't know what comes next, and then we get to
(23:04):
the last answer, and either it's great or not. People
can agree or disagree. I love it all right, Ranked
these five things. First category is types of beers. Okay,
there is the shower beer. Oh two, I do like
a shower beer. What about an airport beer?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Three?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Saving some room for the one spot, A beach beer, four,
a sports scheme beer.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Five?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Wow, you're waiting. You're waiting for the last one. And
the last one is a concert beer, which is in
the one hole.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Y yeah, I would say I would that's pretty close
to ranking. If I was gonna switch anything, maybe maybe
beach beer and plan airport beer need to be swapped.
But I don't know. Man, it's kind of like shower beers.
Though I'm not gonna underrate a shower beer, of course.
That's just that's an elite elite.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
You'll you'll find me showering and beering up quite a bit.
I try to do it discreetly sometimes because I just
don't want people to think, like, you know, it's a
regular occurrence.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
But what happened as a cup holder?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, that's innovation right there. All right, moving along, rank
these five things. There is no category, It is just things. Okay,
this is this is sort of the more advanced level.
But I feel like you're kind of getting the hang
of this, So here we go. First up is number two, pencils.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Five.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
They're kind of boring. I actually I actually agree with that.
Becoming an uncle. Oh dang, it's two uh an actual
fight club?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh man, side note here. I know this is probably
supposed to be rapid, but.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Uh no, this is good. I want the story. No.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I just read like this really good piece about misunderstood
movies a little bit not a little bit, like like
the misunderstood movies in general, and like fight Club is
one of is up there on on Evidently people missing
the point of what uh the writer and director meant
(25:25):
in in that case, So it's somewhere on TikTok. You
probably get it there. But so what what space do
I have left? Four? I'll take four slightly better than pencils.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Okay, so we got one and three left? What about
Darth Vader lightsabers?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
How is that not one?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You're putting it at one?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I like that? Dang man, you just could you just
imagine just having a having a lightsaber?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Don't you think about the power you have?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, because don't you have to. I'm not a Star
Wars person I have you know, But don't you have
to like be a Jedi to have one?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, you have to go through the training and acceptance
of being a Jedi to get it. So it proves
that you are a I have done that, and then
b you have it and no one else has it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's got to be one, right.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I would think. So you just you know, you never
know what the last one and the last one is drunk.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
SIGs drunk SIGs Man. Of the SIGs I've smoked in
my life, they've all been They've all been there, They've
all been except for like maybe the first couple I
tried when I was a kid, afraid, they've all been
accompanied with a cocktail of some kind.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So yeah, some some sort of beverage for the adults. Well,
that was ranked these five things you did really well, dude.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well, I'd like to thank my teammates and my sponsors.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Well, I think it just comes from your basketball background.
A lot of people choke under the pressure, but it
seems like you've you've been there, you know, when it
gets down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So that's right.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, Matt, let's uh, let's talk a little bit about
new music. Breaking in Boots is one of my favorite
songs from you. I I've listened. It's just I saved
to my playlist. It keeps coming up a bunch and
I'm jamming to it and hopefully that's the first of
a lot of music you're putting out this year. But
talk to me a little bit about that song and
(27:12):
and sort of what it means to you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, man, breaking in Boots is thank you for saying that.
You know, I've it's it's been a lot of fun
to have to have new music out, and you know,
new music out to radio and see the kind of
people responding to it in a positive way. You know
that song with me it was about It's about a
like a sort of a lot of instances, but kind
of one in particular where I basically saw a girl
(27:37):
across the bar and she had on boots that were
similar to mine and I was gonna, you know, I
was gonna have to say something. So I went to
tab out to go to go say something, you know,
and shoot shoot one shot as it were, and uh,
but she was gone. I could never find her. And
so we wrote this song very soon after, Like Ben Stennis,
(27:59):
I was writing with him and he had this tile.
He's like, I'm not sure what it means, but she'll leave,
She'll leave your heart breaking in boots or breaking in
your boots and breaking in boots. I was like, oh,
I know what that's about. And so we wrote that song. Man.
You know, I love and I love that kind of
up tempo, uh kind of heavy heartbreak banger. It's not
(28:19):
really that heartbreaking, but it is, you know, yea in
that vein of country music that I love. And uh so, yeah, man,
you know that song with this project, you know, it's
it's trying to be as as true as possible, whether
that's you know, lighter subject matter like this or like
you know, some other songs, or whether it's like, you know,
the heaviest of heavy stuff I've ever written about. You know,
(28:43):
the whole goal was to just just be true and
tell the truth, and I was telling the truth there.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I I mean, I love that song. I think what
I think you kind of nailed it there. But it
is a heartbreak song, but it has that groove and
that up type of field, so it's like you can
still crank that if you're like going out or like
at the lake or whatever. My it's like it's a
fun song and that's I don't know, I love that,
you know, it's not.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
There's a lot of great heartbreak songs, but they're like
sap and you're like, damn, like you know, I gotta
deal with this by myself, like a glass of wine
or something. But it's like, no, I love the tune, man,
I do want to talk about There's one song. I'm
actually pulling it up on your Instagram because I couldn't
I couldn't quite remember exactly what you said before playing it,
But Born Lonely you said and I'm looking at it now.
(29:28):
You said this is like one of the truest songs
you've ever written, and then you know teased a verse
in a chorus of this yea, And I mean, dude,
what a song like? Talk to me about the process
of writing this man.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You know, there's a lot of things to say, I
suppose or about this song. You know, from the song
in general is like I knew that my favorite music
right or from my favorite artists, and it's because you know,
(30:01):
it sounds good, but really my favorite stuff is I
believe them and whether or not it's like you know
them talking about characters that aren't them, Like isbel doesn't
write about himself all the time, you know, but he's
telling the truth in a in a in a way
that you believe. A lot of my favorite songwriters do that.
And so, you know, with this project, I felt like,
(30:25):
you know, the next step for me. For one, I
got out of like a situation where I had people
that didn't believe in what I wanted to do and
thought they knew better. And I myself am am a
consensus builder. I'm a team player. I know, I'm somebody
who likes doing that stuff. We talked about earlier about
(30:46):
you know, trying to do things to help you win,
and I do like that, but it also when everybody's
not on board like that, or when everybody doesn't have
incentives aren't aligned, you end up with that I I
I'm not I'm just talking about me myself. I ended
up with stuff that I was not as proud of
(31:08):
as I wanted to be because it wasn't real enough,
and it was, oh man, we you know, we got
to make sure the next thing we released were servicing
this market because you know, we got I'll take you guys,
we got a stream. It's really wasn't even Celtic. It's
is we got a stream.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Because back to that data conversation of.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, and that's important, man, I mean, you know, to
be I'm not discounting that, but I am saying that
I started making decisions based on things that were not
what I thought was cool, and I started to make
music feel like a job, and it started to make
me be a douche. Like. My inner dialogue was I
(31:48):
love music, and I felt myself being like jealous of
other people's success, and I felt myself not wanting to
listen to new music. Friday to see what people were doing,
because it felt like sort of like competition in an
(32:08):
unhealthy way, in a non creative way, in a maybe
businesslike way, but something was unconnected. And so there was
a portion of my post COVID all that stuff we
were talking about, like missing the wave to ride and
trying to catch another wave, you know, of well, we're
(32:30):
gonna go back to the world. And I knew I
didn't want to do that, but I didn't. I had
to learn that lesson. I had to learn that lesson.
I guess the hard way instead of you know, some
people instinctively just can't do that. And I learned that
I cannot bullshit. You know, I can be an artist
(32:52):
and I can step out of myself and understand, maybe
be empathetic, so I can write for you know, different perspective,
but I know that I cannot bullshit. I hate it.
It makes me a worse person in general. It makes
me not like the thing that I love the most.
And I hated that, and I knew I could feel
(33:12):
myself changing. I find a bit why is this, And
it's because the dude that set on his you know,
his in his dorm room or his apartment in college
and learn how to play all these songs and just
only wanted to do cool shit or it's stuff that
I thought was cool. I mean a lot of sucked,
but at least I was, you know, my heart, my head,
we're in the right place. I got away from that,
and I was like, after that experience, and that's all
(33:34):
I'll say about it, you know, but right now, But
after that experience, I said, I will never do this again.
I don't I do not care what it costs me.
I don't care if I'm no longer a country radio artist.
I don't care. I can't do I can't fake it,
I can't bullshit and I won't. And so you know,
(33:57):
part of that is, you know, understanding that I'm not
my heroes, even as bad as I want to be,
and trying to pretend like I'm Chris Knight or is
it just as bad as me trying to pretend to
be Justin Bieber or who fill in the blank, you know,
like it's just as disingenuous or ain't authentic, And so
(34:18):
coming to terms with who I am as an artist,
what I sound like, what I write about, and letting
the chips fall where they May was the most liberating
thing and it totally lifted this weight. I can't wait
to hear I love music like hearing it again. So
this is a very long answer. I'm so sorry, but
I mean, I just mean it a lot. And so
(34:41):
with this record, I was like, I'm cutting a record,
even before my label said that I could. I was like,
I don't care drop me, I don't give a shit,
Like I'm going to do what I think is cool.
And luckily, after some other internal like shuffling, I found
out that that was what I did. Good, let's just
put it that way, and it set off a lot
(35:02):
of positive dominoes. So, okay, how does that relate to
the question you asked me about Born Lonely? Born Lonely
is a song that I wrote that I actually wrote
it once by myself, and I knew I had this
title and I had this idea, and I was thinking
about my childhood and if anybody knows, you know, my
mom and I are the closest you could be. You know,
(35:25):
love her, no shade at her. But my childhood was
tough because you know, my parents were split up, right,
And I'm not calling it trauma because I didn't starve
and I wasn't beaten. You know, there's people that have
serious but I would be lying if I said that
it didn't mess me up or at least change me
(35:46):
in some important ways. And I see it most vividly
in relationships on how I can't have them when I
do have them, I kind of don't like I shy
away from that, and it's and it's like asking those
questions of like why is that? And it's because for
a lot of my life, family was where like pain
(36:09):
came from. Not because I have great people, great step
parents too, but my parents, and it meant it just
it bothered me. And you know, it took me till
now to be able to say that, and I was
embarrassed about it a little bit, but I was like,
you know, what if I'm going to do all this
truth telling, tell the truth. And so I wrote this
(36:31):
song and it, like I thought, was good. And then
fast forward a little bit and I'm in the writer's
room with Jake Mitch, Benji Davis, a couple of guys
I really like, and Jay's got this vibe and we're talking.
I was like, guys, listen, I wrote this song of
this title. It means the world to me. This feels
like for whatever reason, we were kind of having a conversation.
(36:52):
I was like, whatever reason, this feels like something we
may need to chase down. Now I've already written it,
so if I like that one better, I may just
keep it. But if y'all want to try this title
and try to make it better, you know, let's give
it a shot. They said, okay, and it got way better,
like just way better. And you know, this song is
about like meeting someone and seeing myself in someone and
(37:14):
the problems that you know I have of you know,
coming like from a broken home on how that affects
my relationships with people and seeing it in someone that
I care about and being able to go you know what,
you're this way because I'm this way, and just so
you know. And and so that's where it came from.
(37:35):
And it's I was embarrassed to say that for a
long time and talk about things that aren't like outlaw
you know, oh you have child, Oh you have your child,
Like I've always minimized it. But it is the fact
of the matter, man, you know. So that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I mean, thank you for sharing that, dude.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
That so many words. Bro, I'm sorry, just that was.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That was super real. There's a lot to unpack there,
I'm The first thing I'll say is I love that
you're writing and putting out music that means something to
you and that you care about. And I do agree.
I think there's a lot of topics that, for whatever reason,
certain genres you know, maybe are like sheltered from and
(38:17):
just the way that whatever the commercial music is, it
just doesn't talk about that, right. But I think there
are a lot of people out there, you know that
probably have had similar experiences with their upbringings or maybe
similar experience on sort of the relationship front that you
mentioned and and really can relate to this song. And
I think like having the courage to just kind of
(38:37):
be like, you know, fuck it, I'm gonna put out
this song and it means something to me, you know.
I think that's that's really cool, and I think it's
going to connect, you know, more than than than you expect.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I really, you know, I appreciate that because it's just
like thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I you know, I'm rarely am I sort of left
like speechless on a boda because like every word in
the world's great man like, you know, and I think
a lot of people, you know, to your first point,
I think a lot of people struggle with jealousy and
anxiety and frustrations when they see other people that are
(39:13):
It becomes this comparison game because it's so easy to
look up how many followers or how many streams you have,
and if you have more than me, well then you're
farther along or you're better. And you know, that game
of numbers in comparison just like only digs you farther down.
I'm just like happy that you have had that realization,
and I hope you know other people are having that
(39:34):
as well.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So yeah, man, And it's it's not like those things
don't matter. They do matter, especially if you want to
play you know, music as like a you know, a
job or whatever. But like it's also the case that
to be an all thing like I don't do I
don't know. I mean, there's there's probably artists that that
(39:55):
can do the thing where they can just say what
they think people liking it works, and that's probably a superpower,
you know. But it's just like, you know, for me,
my favorite stuff at least doesn't seem to be that
and I just for me for this to matter, you know,
for this to be what I do with my life,
(40:18):
you know, to make a living especially whatever it's like,
it needs to matter. And with me, I just everything
that goes in the funnel of creativity. My only you know,
the only thing I can control is did I meet
my own standard that day? You know, and then let
the ships fall with me?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So anyway, Yeah, well I love it well Born, lonely
and I'm breaking in boots. You can stream, run it up, share,
share it for this guy, because data still does matter. Yeah,
for sure, I do appreciate you sharing that. I actually did.
I read a a little bit of a lighter note.
I read or saw a video of you saying that
(41:00):
you claim to be the best best ex boyfriend there is.
So what I want to know is you know what
what and what are sort of the tips and tricks
to being the best ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
That's that's good? Uh Yeah, I mean I just the
best because you know, I got a lot of reps.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
In Yeah, I feel like I feel like it's a lot.
It's a quantity game for.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Sure, exactly. Man, Like you know, I learned, you know,
there's things that that you learn and like, you know,
all joking aside once you feel like, I don't know, man,
I I say that have joking, But like the other
day I had, like I ordered a book and I
didn't check where I was. I just ordered it. Right,
(41:47):
But the last time I ordered a book off of
off of this website because it wasn't Amazon, because it
just wasn't. But so I tried to order this book,
but it it's sent to the last address that I
sent a book to, which I would have been to
this girl's you know place, And so I sent the
thing and then I got like a text. It was
(42:08):
like a picture of this book that I ordered from
my ex, and she was like said something like funny,
you know, like why would you think I give a
shit about you know, yeah, like information theory or whatever
the hell it? Well, I don't remember what it was.
And I just take that as like, if I have
a book sent to my my ex, probably my most
(42:31):
recent X, and they text me back and we're able
to figure out me getting said book, there can't be
too many hard feelings, right, like, you know, like she
could have just like had a complete just like book burning,
you know, but she didn't. So I just chalk that
up to evidence that that uh, you know, like you
(42:54):
to burn every bridge.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Pretty calculated maneuver by it. You know, you know it's
cost efficient. You know, you buy books ended and you
test the waters there and didn't see what happens one time.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I Uh, this is off topic, but it just reminded
me of that. But this is like some some girl
had her in her profile, had like a quote for
a some poem that I didn't know who it was
or something, and uh, it didn't have it like, she
didn't have it attributed to anybody. She's headed in quotations,
and so I just highlighted the quote, googled it and
(43:27):
found out and I was like, oh man, I love
Billy Collins, you know, books and poetry, and it's just
oh do you doing Yeah? And we dated for five.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Years so at that so yeah, it works. You gotta
use you gotta use your I'm just I'm just waiting
for the day that that goes poorly. And there's a
video online of the girl burning your book.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Tell this guy, yeah, the second that I say that
about being as good as it's just like famous last words.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Dude, it's been awesome having you the studio we have
just a few minutes left, so I do want to
I do want to get to this portion of the podcast.
We have a good friends at area that a country
Western or Peril, and they like to do this game
with us called rapid Fire Questions. Very simple. Mattie's gonna
wind up sixty seconds on the clock, right, matt, how
we doing? And you just got to kind of free
(44:19):
flow this all right? Some people have have struggled with it,
but based on your performance of the other games, I
feel like you're in a good spot. Hell yeah, So
rapid Fire Questions with ariat, here we go, three two one.
What was the last thing you bought on the internet?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
A book?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Oh man, I've taken time. Describe yourself in three words.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Tall, true, and funny.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I hope you are favorite dipping sauce?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Oh Dan's French onion dip.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's good. I like that. If there was a movie
made after you, what actor would you want playing Matt style?
Rick Fox go to McDonald's order sausage biscuit. That's fire.
Fastest speed you've ever driven in a car, A car
or truck, doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. Any vehicle.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Man A two thousand and six thirty two valve three
quarter ton Cummings dodge that's chipped up will shut off
at one hundred and three thereabouts.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
So yeah, and you put you pushed it all the
way there. I like that. Oh yeah, boots are sneakers
M sixty forty boots. There you go, and one collaboration,
your dream collaboration megan to stay. I did see you
slid into those dms. How's that going for you?
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Man, It's it's lonely in there. It's starting to echo
in those dms. Yeah, you just got to follow it
up with a book exactly. Oh mag I'm so sorry.
I imagine this book like how to Survive with the
World's I'm just yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Oh man, sixty seconds ver sided by area. That was
That was good. That was good. I liked your I
think your performance on the uh other the other games
was was top tier. I think your performance on this
gets like a like an.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
A that's fair. I'll take that criticism. I would also, uh,
if we're doling out opportunities for improvement, Yeah, yeah, please,
you could maybe not laugh so hard at the things
that I said, so you could give me more questions.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand. Are you looking at Are
you looking to run this back at some point? Because
we run we can run it back. Look at that,
look we tell it how it is. I appreciate that.
A man of honesty.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Let me tell you what you suck at that?
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Yeah, this is good.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I suck at short answers.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
I had a buddy on the Logan Crosers, on an
episode a couple of weeks back, and midway through the
podcast he started asking me questions and I looked at
him like, wait, is this my podcast or yours?
Speaker 2 (47:07):
I love it?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Flip the script, baby, Well, dude, thanks for taking the
time to be in here. I'm super excited about this,
this new product you have. So you're hitting the road
as well this year.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah. Man, we're a lot of places all the time,
and we keep keep the rose hot. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
I can't wait to check out a show you guys.
Check them out. Matt stell On on Socials run up
that music, and dude, thanks again for doing this, because like,
this is an opportunity for me to meet a lot
of people in town that I maybe don't get, you know,
the time to always hang with and hear about their stories.
So I appreciate you for being you know, so open
and just a fun hang bro like so so thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Absolutely man. Next time, let's do this in the afternoon
so we can justify some cold beers.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
I was I was thinking about that. We may have
to crack a couple open, so look forward to doing that.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
We will see you next week on the Stepson Playhouse
podcast Take Care for No
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