Kenny Chesney

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftsets podcast. My
guest today is Kenny Chesney, who's got a new word
of biography, part life Music. Kenny, Why this book? Why now?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Bob, I have been really running pretty hard for
a while, and there was always, uh, I've always been driven.
I've always been insanely creative, which hasn't left a lot
of time for reflecting. And when Holly and I first

(00:46):
started thinking about this.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Holly Gleison, your co writer, Holly Lison.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
My co writer, and we thought about all the roads
have gone down, We thought about, you know, all the
people that did it with me, and I just decided
that I'd better write it down now because there was
some hazy years. You know, we had a lot of
fun out there. But I also, you know, I wanted
to champion pay tribute to a lot of people that

(01:13):
championed me along the way also, And that's why now
I felt like now that was the best time, because
I still feel very creative and and want to move forward,
and but I just haven't. I just have not let
myself reflect that much. And until I sat down with
Holly Gleeson, and that's been like a year and something experience.

(01:38):
So but I'm really glad we did it. You know,
it's like almost like therapy. Every time, you know, in therapy,
they had you tell the story over and over again,
and every time you tell it, you remember something else.
And that's that's a lot about what writing this book
was Likeve.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
So what did you learn writing the book yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
That's a great question. I have learned that how powerful
dreams can be. I was a kid, like we say
in the book, I literally I lived with my grandmother.
My mom and my real father divorced when I was one,
and so my mom married my stepfather after that, and

(02:22):
he was a Vietnam So we lived with my grandmother
and I would lay out in her backyard at night
and stare up at the sky because there was really
no we were so far out outside of Knoxville. We
we didn't get any light pollution, you know. So when
it was when it was dark and clear, it was beautiful.
And I was dreaming, Bob, But I didn't know what

(02:42):
the dream was. I was just dreaming to dream, like
I said in the book. But I was just so
curious about what was past my county line, what was
past the only roads I knew to go down with
the roads to school, the roads to church with my grandmother,
the rose to the ballpark, and that was about it.

(03:04):
And every Christmas, my grandfather would be the guy that goes, Hey,
we're all going to get in the car. We're going
to go to Knoxville to see the lights, right, And
he was also the person that would sit there and go, Wow,
I wonder what that lot bills costing them. So I
don't know. I think about that kid, and I think
about the person that I am now, and I just

(03:27):
think about how powerful my journey has been, about how
many and how my life has changed, and how many
how it changed the lives of people that have come
along with me. And that's a very powerful, profound thing
because we all came from different places, we all have
different religious beliefs, we all have different political beliefs, but

(03:47):
somehow we all play the same notes. And I think
that's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, are you talking the book about burnout? You don't
use that actual term, but you say one thing. You're
on stage and again you can barely finish the gieg.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, I had, And I hesitate saying this because my
heroes have been on the road their whole life, right
they have. And now I've been on I have been
doing this for over thirty two years now, believe it
or not. But there was a moment in two thousand
and nine where I went on the road in November

(04:26):
of ninety three, and I did not stop mentally, emotionally, physically,
creatively at all until that night in Indianapolis. And that
was two thousand and nine. So with that sixteen years.
So it was a constant, constant, and I felt numb.
I didn't feel like I was listening to music the

(04:46):
same way. I didn't feel like I was creating the
same way. I didn't feel like that I was. I
just felt I didn't felt good or bad. I just
felt numb. And that's not the way to make music.
That's not the way to create. And I wasn't a
great friend. I wasn't a great son. I wasn't I

(05:07):
just was just lost, you know, And I didn't I
was really scared because I really loved what I do,
but I could and I could just tell that I
wasn't the same up there, and I wasn't giving like
I used to, and I got really scared, and that's
why I took all of twenty ten off. I just
needed a break, and that's when I had already had

(05:31):
Boys of Fall recorded, and we went when I had
some time off that fall to start shooting. It was
a long form video for that song. And then when
we got done with it, I went and played it.
I met the guy who was ahead of things at

(05:51):
ESPN at the time. His name was John Walsh. I
met him with Jimmy Buffett at the super Bowl party
a couple of years at a super Bowl party a
couple of years prior, and he said, if you ever
you know, told me if I ever wanted anything him
to look at anything, to call him. So when I
had that long form video, I sent it to him
and that was the beginning of a whole other chapter

(06:14):
for me. That's when we all of a sudden, I
am in the living rooms of Bobby Balden, Nick Saban,
Bill Parcells. I flew to San Francisco and was in
John Madden's. It wasn't his house. He had this big
warehouse and he had big screen TVs all over it
in a big kitchen, and all of a sudden, I'm

(06:36):
in places like that interviewing these people that were very
that were giants in football. My dad was a coach.
Sports was always very important to me. So walking into
those rooms, I was like, Wow, this is this is
really different. But it was feeding me creatively in ways

(06:59):
that music wasn't at that time. And I spent all
of twenty ten making that documentary and it was on
ESPN for a good while about it took something different
like that to feed me in ways that I never
saw coming. I mean, I was in Joe NAMA's house

(07:20):
in Florida and we weren't talking about football. We were
talking about life. We were talking about how life is
not just to get you know, how football is at
a game, and how life is a game egle. But
life is the big game and you can't do it alone.
You've got to have people around you. I didn't expect
that stuff to come out of Joe Namas mouth. I
was like wow, I mean, I was so inspired, and

(07:42):
all of a sudden, there was a moment where I felt, Wow,
I'm back, I'm really back. And then I started listening.
I started listening differently. I mean, my manager, Dell Morris,
some of the best advice he gave me was there's
a fine line between a groove and a rut. And

(08:07):
you know what's really bad is when you think you're
in a groove, but you're really in a rut. And
I was in a rut for a minute. I mean
you may not, you know, I see it all the time,
and we all see it. You know, everybody keeps making
the same music. Well, they're in a rut. And I
could have stayed and kept doing what I was doing,
but the boys that year I took off and getting
out of the rut Boys Will Fall helped me find

(08:28):
my groove again. And had I not done that, I
would have been off in an exhaustion oblivion.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
How do you avoid falling into a rut and getting
burned out going forward?

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, I think that just creatively, I feel right now
I'm taking better care of myself more than ever, I think, physically, mentally, everything.
I think that for me, I try to write with
different people, and I try to I think when you've
been doing this as long as I have now, it's

(09:05):
very easy to get caught in the same if you
will rut melodically, especially as a writer, and so I
try to write with new people. I try to write
with younger writers that have fresh brains and doesn't have
this same neural pathway as I do. I think that's
that's the thing, is creating different roads to go down

(09:25):
in different neural pathways. And that's what I that I've
been trying to do, you know, for a while now.
But moving forward is I just always try to keep it,
try to keep it fresh and write and be around.
It's not doesn't always work out, but I mean there's
there's some great new riters in town, you know, and
that has a different They just have a different way

(09:48):
of thinking. And for me that's been writing the same
way for a while. That's really good to create those
neural pathways.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Okay, but what's driving you? You know, you're living in
the booney you have a dream, you take yourself to
Nashville after college, and let's just go to the end.
You achieve your dream. Yes, you're in the Country Music
Hall of Fame. You can't be any bigger in country music.

(10:16):
So what gets you up in the morning? What makes
you say, well, I want fact that I don't have that,
or I want to achieve this.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
I would I would sincerely hope that I haven't written
my best song yet, And I sincerely hope that I
haven't made my best record yet. The idea of being better.
I try to be better. I you know, I don't
act like I used to out there on the road.
It's pretty boring out there. I remember you being in
LA when we played the Staples Center. It was called

(10:47):
then you know so, and we had a big party afterwards.
I mean it was We used to do that every
night and it was great. But I hadn't make a
decision right around I don't know, about fifteen years about ten,
fifteen years ago, if I was going to do that,
or if I was going to do this, you know,

(11:08):
if I was going to act like that all the
time and do that. Because I realized that I couldn't
do both. I couldn't live that lifestyle and give the
audience exactly what they deserved. And I didn't go down
all these roads to mail it in, you know, And
I just had a I don't know, I had to
come into Jesus meeting with myself in a way you

(11:28):
know where I said, no, you're you're going to give
these people care about your music, they care about you,
they care about the experience, and not only are they
going to get all of you, they're going to get
the best of you.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Okay, you reference therapy earlier. You reference a therapist in
the book. When did you start going? Do you still go?
Did it help?

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh? Well that was only went once they made me
do that, or yes they helped? I think we should all,
you know, I try really hard to be in shape physically,
to go do what I do. My show is I
don't sit there and tap my toe. I have video
footage of me as a child in my grandmother's kitchen

(12:20):
listening to music, and I almost stand the same way
and move the same way. That being said, I think
it's also important for you to work out your brain too.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
And yes, hell, you know you're talking the book about
eating the same meal and eating clean and you're eating
one day and people are eating the other way? What
is driving you there? I'm sure you know you want
to be in shape, but is it also a physicality?
And don't you feel deprived that you can't have, you know,

(12:51):
the junk that other people haven't.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, look, I come from a family of emotional eaters, right,
and I grew up loving to eat. I loved to eat.
But I don't necessarily feel deprived, I would say I
when I made this life choice and change. I was
still on one bus, so it was it was me

(13:15):
and the band, and we were pulling a trailer with
all the merch right, and they would get pizza after
the show and it would be the most excruciating thing ever.
So I would just open the box and smell it
and go to bed. But yeah, I mean sometimes I
feel deprived. But look, I will tell you when I'm
off the road, when I'm done. For the last how

(13:39):
many years, we've ended our shows. Ended our tour with
two nights in Foxboro and at Gillette Stadium, and I
trust me, I make up for it as soon as
that the next day for a while. And so but
I don't know, just being I'm so driven, and so
when I'm up there on stage, I don't it's I've

(14:02):
just built this. I don't know if it's a persona
or whatever it is, and it's I don't even know
how sustainable it is, to be honest with you, but
that's the way I've done it. And but I wouldn't
say deprived, but I I know I'm missing out, but
I'd rather do what I do. I'll eat later.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, any other vices, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
None no, not really. I'm I'm I'm as pretty boring
to be honest with you. I mean, I'm one of
the reasons that I you know, one of one of
the reasons I got tired while we were talking earlier,
and is doing what I do the way I do
it is sometimes feels I wouldn't say like I sacrificed,

(14:52):
but I will tell you it. Sometimes it feels very robotic.
So I have to go. I have to go jump
in the ocean. I have to go feel sunlight. I
have to I have to get out of my head
a little bit, you know. So, But that's the way
it's been for me, and it is every year. Around
the second week of January, I flipped I flipped the

(15:13):
switch off, and I go, Okay, now I start living
my life almost like it's like it's through a straw,
like this is all you see. And I work out,
I eat clean, I create, and I'm like, when we're
we already know right now that in June when we
go play the Spear again, that we're going to have

(15:34):
to change half that show. It took us a long
time to create that content. Well here we are almost,
you know, almost the end of the year. And we're
already working forward on that. So it's just a constant cycle.
But you know, look, I love it, I really do,

(15:55):
and I love being able to see what we can
create up there. But but that being said, I have
to sit there and go, Okay, now you're gonna eat
at Christmas, you're gonna eat it Thanksgiving, you're gonna go
to the Islands, you're gonna you're gonna get on a boat,
you're gonna, you know, do whatever. But it's second week
of January. You've got to prepare to start being that person.
And that has been the cycle I've been on for

(16:17):
a lot of years.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Okay, you go on the road, you finish in Foxborough.
How long does it take you to decompress from being
on the road.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Well, in twenty twenty four was like, we didn't do
stadium shows last year. In twenty twenty four was the
last one, and it took a minute. To be honest
with you, there is and I don't know why, but
that year specifically, I felt a real emotional and mental

(16:55):
release from it all because you and I wasn't prepared
for it. It was really hard, and there was such
a calm down from all of it. And you know,
for years I've I took my band and crew, probably
one hundred people all down more than that to the
Virgin Islands after after every tour and let them jump
in the ocean and just let us celebrate the life

(17:18):
we get to live. Well, that specific year, I was
just emotionally so tired, and it was the first time
that I felt that emotional and mental release that hard.
And I don't know why, but it messed with me

(17:39):
a little bit, you know, and it was it took
it took about a month for me to go, oh, wait,
where did everybody go? You know, because we're just all
together for so long, and you live every day out there,
and these people that have been with me have been
with me for years. I mean, we're a family out there.
But yeah, it's it's hard to say goodbye to that.

(18:01):
To me, it's a lot like our last show of
the year. Is a lot like when we were kids.
It was a lot like the last day of school, right.
I mean, you're ready for a break, but you don't
want to let go of it either because it's so great.
And that's how it is for me, you know, I
look forward to my summer vacation but I start to

(18:21):
get antsy if I say it still too long.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay, On a more a granular level, you're out there
playing maybe to fifty thousand people. You leave the stage,
you have the same people you might have known for decades.
How long did it take you to wind down and
go to sleep after a show?

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Well, I haven't slept in years. I don't feel like
you know. I've my brain. The one side of my
brain is turning one way or the other side terms
the other, and I got to find the happy medium
in there. It takes a couple hours, you know. But

(19:04):
my after show, what after shows look like now, is
much different than when I met you originally, and when
I when all this, than when my life really changed.
Like I look forward to after the show, I don't don't.
I don't drink like I used to. I don't I
don't live that lifestyle. I truly like now. I have

(19:26):
an ice tub out outside my bus that my friend
Lard Hamilton.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Let me start, How the fuck do you know Lard Hamilton?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
I know Lard Hamilton for years.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
I mean no, wait, in the book, you are constantly
talking about different people, but you have relationships with these people.
It's not here one. It's not like you said, Nolly,
I met that person, we had a conversation. No, we continue,
you know, etcetera.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Here's how I met Lard Hamilton is the girl that
I was dating at the time, Mary. She and I
were in Maui and there was a lady that was
cooking us breakfast every morning, and she goes, well, where
are you guys going next? I said, well, I've never
been to Kawhi. We're going to go to Kawai. She goes, well,
you should call Laird Hamilton. I said, well, he don't
know me. I don't know him, you know, why should

(20:20):
I call him? But I did, and him and his
wife Gabby met us down at their barn right on
the river in Kawai, and they let us go out
on their paddle boards and when we got back, they
had two open coconuts in our jeep and that was
the beginning of our friendship. And I've been they have
really been a positive impact on my life, you know,

(20:41):
mentally and physically. I go up there and train with
Laird and it's a grueling thing, but yeah, I mean
I this goes to show you how powerful the universe is.
I mean, the kid from me Tennessee is not supposed
to be friends with Larr at Hamilton, right, That's just
the way it is, or even met all these people
that I that I reference in the book. So but Laird,

(21:05):
I spent countless days up at Laird's house, setting in
asauna and getting an ice tub. I went, wow, this
is what I need out on the road, you know,
because I beat my body up so much during a
show that I went, well, I need to get an
ice instead of acting like I used to, I need
to set an ice tub and let my body heal
and then go to bed. So that's basically what after

(21:28):
shows look like now. And it's become a thing out
there like now. Like I told you earlier, I take
a lot of Bandon crew down to the Islands after
our tour. Well, one of the caveats is is they
have to at least participate onints in the Cold Plunge,
and if they don't get in the Cold Plunge, then
they don't get to go. So it'll be okay. We

(21:50):
got two weeks left in the tour, and there's I
know exactly how many people haven't hadn't done it yet,
and so so and I know who they are, and
so if they want to go, they got to get
in that ice tub. And last day of the tour
is always really fun because everybody has to pay the
piper and they got to get that ice And it's
taught me a lot about I know, I'm off the
subject now, but it's taught me a lot about human

(22:11):
behavior because you never know how people are going to
react under pressure. Some react favorably, some react unfavorably, and
it teaches you a lot about that person, you know.
So it been it's so fun to watch them, to
watch that game in the ice it's great. But Lair
taught me all that.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Okay, once again, a little more granular. You have the
people they don't you know, there's some people who die
that jump in the water. That's what the other people
they would do anything. So what did you learn about
people observing this?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Well, it gets everybody out of their comfort zone. I
mean everybody. They'll participate, but I don't know. Here's what
it does. As terrible as it is for some of them,
it does it's a bonding moment for all of us.
That's what I learned. I mean, next thing, you know,

(23:08):
there's fifty people around that coplonde watching everybody do it,
and it just brought us all together in ways that
you don't you don't see. You don't see that coming, right,
But it's just human behavior is a tricky thing, and
some people that you think would flourish in that moment,
they don't do well. And then some people that you

(23:28):
think wouldn't do well do great. So I don't know,
but it's for me. I like doing it because it's
such a bonding moment for everybody out there on the road.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Okay, you're obviously the boss, but are you a person
in the cabin at summer camp or you the camp counselor.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Well, I have a camp counselor I like to be
in the cabin. I mean, I'm paying for it.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Who's in charge?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Well, David, David Farmer is you know, my road manager,
and he's him, and uh my production manager, Ed Wannabo.
But David's the boss of everybody. I'm the boss, but
David's the the underboss, right so, and he's done a
great job over the years, you know. But yes, Look,
one one day I was looking out my bus window.

(24:23):
We were It was one of the first few years
that I was playing stadiums. I was outside of the
Pittsburgh Steed there was football stadium and I was looking
at all this stuff, and I went, you know, who's
paying for this? And I was like, God, I am
And it really hit me, you know, so I tried
not to think about. I don't like to be the boss.
I really don't. I like to I like to be

(24:44):
the kid the cabin I really do. But I know
I'm the boss, but I let I delegate a lot
of that stuff to Dave.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, okay, you got a lot of people on the
road with you interact with a lot of people. There
are band members don't even hang with each other. Okay,
a person, you know, it's a well oiled machine. So
are you the type of person you know, don't bug Kenny.
He's doing this thing, He'll show up. Well, are you
the type person knows what everybody's doing, giving everybody shit?

Speaker 2 (25:15):
You know?

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Connected all the time? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:18):
I try to stay connected. I don't disappear. I mean, look,
I'm isolated enough in my life. You know. That's the
one place where I don't have to be isolated. I
got my family around me, So no, I mean I
have seen that what you're saying happen. I really have
my really big acts and people that some of my heroes,
and they don't really communicate with anybody, And I think,

(25:40):
I think, wow, what a You know, our life is
isolating enough. We're doing enough a good enough job on
our own doing that, you know, or I do anyway,
especially when I'm off the road. But when I'm out there,
that's where one of the places that I feel actually
comfortable in my skin and is communicating with everybody and
having fun. Look, I've been doing this a while now,

(26:01):
and I'm telling you, we have the fund meter out
there for a lot of years has been all the
way over. I mean, we have had a lot of
fun doing this, and I couldn't think of just isolating
myself and I don't know, having some sort of this
unapproachable persona. I just never understood that. I never understood

(26:22):
people with you know, I'd go to friends shows and
they would have all this this this over the top
security with the microphones in their face, and you know
that I just it's just I just don't do it
that way. I refuse to because it just it's I
would go to shows that would make me uncomfortable, and
I do this for a living, So you'd imagine what

(26:44):
somebody that that's just back there for how they feel.
So I've tried not to be that person.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well tell me you did say I'm isolated enough. Tell
me more about that.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Well, I think over the years I have. I think
over the years I wouldn't always I was. I was
always a very people person. Now I can be up
there on stage and communicate and be intimate, I mean
so intimate, and I can take my finger and I
can move fifty thousand people to the left if I want,

(27:16):
and to the right if I want, and I know
how to do that. That's one thing. But over the
years I've developed I would say, some sort of social anxiety,
especially with the new technologies and all the devices that
we have, and with all and how quickly an awkward
interaction can go viral, right, and when you don't even

(27:39):
mean it for it to like somebody, Oh, Kenny didn't
say hi to me, he's an asshole, And maybe I'm
maybe I didn't hear them, maybe I'm having a bad day.
Maybe I was, you know what I mean. And so
it's that way. So I have developed social anxiety to
a point. I'm not saying that I don't I do
get out of the house. I I'm not painting myself

(28:02):
into a room or anything. But it has changed out there.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Okay, but you have, as I say, it was very
notable reading the book. You have a number of people
who are celebrities, let's call them, in different walks of life. Yeah,
you maintain contact with is the type of thing where
you say, hey, I haven't heard from the guy in
a while. I'm in the text or are you in
constant communication? Are you the recipient or you the person

(28:32):
who does the outreach? What does it look like?

Speaker 2 (28:34):
It's different for everybody, you know? Got I got a
video this morning from Joe Walsh. It was this funny
video of this guy playing guitar and it just I
forgot what was but it was just burning his hands off,
you know. And it was just Joe's a very Joe's
got a very unique sense of humor and I love

(28:56):
him and Joe's one of those guys that just showed
up in my life. Know it was. It was great
because me and the guy was talking about earlier David Farmer.
David Farmer had had a pool table in his garage
and we were those kids. You know that that would
take the pool sticks and play the guitar licks, you know,
to Uh to the James Gang, or to Montrose with

(29:21):
Sammy Hagar or I mean every Van Halen record that
was ever made, we were we were doing that. So
to think that you would be later on in your
life and get being this place and you would be
friends with those people on any level. The fact that
they know who you are at all is one of

(29:42):
the most amazing things. That's That's about what's happened to
me in my journey that I did become friends that
one day out of the blue, Irving asof called me
and he goes, hey, Adie van Halen's gonna call you.
I went, yeah, okay, right, And next thing you know,
I answered the phone and it was Eddie. I could
tell it was Eddie. I I saw interviews I had,

(30:02):
you know, and so the fact and then you fast forward.
Then Eddie and Eddie and Alice come to our show.
I think we played the soccer stadium outside of LA
and they came and showed up and got there early.
And Eddie had his long hair and he had his
shirt off and he was ripped and then all of
a sudden here are It was like a it was

(30:24):
such a Wayne's World moment or a Beavis and butt
Head moment, you know what I mean. It was like
we couldn't believe it. And everybody that was on the
road with me loved that music so much, not just
my crew, but every band that was on the show,
their crew and everybody. You could just see hundreds of
people stage right and stage left seeing this moment. And

(30:46):
my guitar player at the time, Clayton Mitchell, was one
of those guys that sat in his that sat in
his closet and learned every single lick of Eddie's. He
tried to to copy everything. So to see that moment,
it was, it was it was insane. So our communication,
my communication with Eddie was back and forth a lot.

(31:09):
Now with Sammy, it's it's that on steroids, you know.
I I love being around Sammy because he feels like
sunshine to me. I just I love him. And the
first time I went to play Sammy's birthday party in Cabo,
I was thirty six years old, and I talk about
this in the book, but it was a life changing

(31:29):
moment for me, you know, in a way, because I
was thirty six, and I felt like I had to.
I didn't know where this this journey was taking me.
I had just broken up with a girl at the time,
and I was going, wow, like where is my life going?
You know? And that night I was like, we played

(31:52):
almost three hours at Cabo Wabo and at Sammy's bar,
and then I went back to the house the Samy
god for me and I'm the guitar out and I thought, well,
I don't have to figure out what's next. I just
got to go and just just live it. And that's
the night that I I wrote very in Mexico, all
of it that night, and that taught me a lesson too,

(32:14):
about you know, creating and and just writing what you
live and how you feel and not just some something
that's made up in a a in a room with
three or four co writers on a writing trip, you know.
I mean, that was a real that was a real
soulful there was a glimpse into my soul. Really, people

(32:34):
that listen to the people that I always saw that
title thought it was a drinking song, but it wasn't.
It was it was a it was a glimpse into
my soul, like I said, and it was a turning
of the page for me.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Let's go back to John Madden. You rest him. John
Madden one said, you play one game in the NFL
and your body will never be the same. Yeah, you
played high school football. How's your body?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Well, my body is a lot better than the guys
that play in the NFL. I was. I loved high
school football, but I was absolutely terrible at it. I
mean that was five six and one hundred and forty pounds,
soak and web and we were just an okay team.
I mean we lived out in the country. We lived
you know, we had what we had. We didn't have

(33:29):
a lot of great athletes. We had one guy on
our team that played a Division one football. His name
was Donnie Collins and he went to the University of Georgia.
So we were just we knew that we weren't going
to play past foot class high school. But Bob, I
got to tell you, man, it taught me so much
about the way that I do business today, and especially
when you try to achieve something wonderful with a lot

(33:53):
of people, and football taught me that lesson. You know,
you can't everybody has to be on the same page,
you know, whether whether you're on the road or you're
in corporate America or whatever. If not, ever, if everybody
is not aligned, and what's the same thing, it's not
it's not gonna it's gonna be really hard to achieve

(34:14):
anything great. But I've also learned through sports that mediocre
people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like
mediocre people that they want because their thought processes aren't aligned.
They're not because the mediocre people think they're working hard,

(34:34):
but the high achievers know they're not, and so it's
never going to be aligned. Ever. So that's what football
taught me, and that's what thirty years of being on
the road has taught me.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Can you lift a mediocre person who's not working enough
for efficiently up into the upper realm.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
If they're willing, Yes, if they're willing. It depends on
what work ethic I think that you know, especially if
they have if they have some sort of talent. But
you can have things without talent and still and still

(35:14):
you know, because you don't need talent to have work ethic.
You don't need you don't have to have talent to
be coachable. You don't have to have talent to show up,
you don't have you see what I'm saying, Like, they
have to. They have to have all those things if
they're mediocre, and then they can overachieve. For sure they can,
you could, but they got to want to be there.

(35:35):
And so that's what that's I've tried over my career.
I've tried really hard to look at that through a
fish eye lens and just see how people react. It
goes back to the ice cub in a way. It
goes back to how they act and react and under
pressure or when they're uncomfortable. That says a lot because

(35:55):
it's it's it's it's it's really. Football also taught me this.
It's really people. Really, everybody reacts favorably when things are good.
It's how when things are bad, when they see it,
you start to see you start to measure human behavior.
It's it's how people react under pressure is one of

(36:15):
the biggest barometers of human behavior that I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
How do you react under pressure?

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, I just I turn it up and just go.
You know, I have the most pressure I have ever
I mean, this was the scaredest I've ever been and
the most nervous I've ever been, and the most pressure
I've ever been. Music Cares honor Bruce Springsteen in La
You're in Gramy Week and I was asked to come

(36:46):
sing One Step Up and Two Steps Back for him
that night, and I'd sing that song forever. I mean,
I could play it backwards. I played it in college.
It was on my No Shoes record. I did a
cover of it. But this was different. I mean here
I am me, my guitar on a stool, my piano player,
and there's Bruce ten feet away from me, and Sting

(37:10):
and Jackson Brown and Bruce's wife and this all these
people in front of me, and I went, oh wow.
I mean I really felt the gravity of that moment.
I mean I was like, I don't know, I could
feel sweat going down my nose. But I just took
a deep breath and I just went, hey, just go

(37:31):
be your authentic self. Do it just like you did
at Chucky's Trading Post in Johnson City, Tennessee. That's a
Mexican restaurant I played at in college. And I would
play One Step Up because I love that song so much. Well,
I love the whole Tunnel of Love record a lot,
and because I think it had a country soul to it,
but especially one step up. All of a sudden, there

(37:55):
I was, in my life in front of the man
that wrote that song, and he's watching me say it,
and I don't know. It was just one of those
really surreal moments, But that was that. That is the
scariest and the most pressure I've ever felt as an
entertainer in my life. If I look, I don't get nervous.
I know this probably sounds cocky, but I don't get

(38:17):
nervous doing the stadium shows because I have forgotten the words.
I have fell off stage. I have, I've had fans
come on stage, so those don't Those kinds of things
don't make me nervous. But playing a really great song
for one of your heroes right in front of you
is really difficult.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
It was for me. You ever get the sensation or
feeling like I don't want to do it, I mean
ultimately not doing it, but the reaction going, you know,
reacting to the pressure that you know is going to
be there.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Well, I mean I I never I never thought that
I didn't want to do it, but trust me, on
the flight out there, it hit me. I went, oh wow,
I mean, this is this is going to be different.
This is going to be different than in college. And
but what made me so happy. You know, a couple
of weeks later, they send you the audio and the

(39:15):
video because they do some sort of thing they show
it the next year or whatever, and they wanted me
to approve the cut of my performance. And when I'm done,
they cut to Bruce and you can read his lips
and he's whispering to his wife Patty. He goes, I
loved it, and that made that validated my whole dream
as good as it gets. I mean, that's as good

(39:36):
and validated my whole dream. And so I'm glad I
did it, even though I was I was under a
lot of pressure.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
What's the best show you've ever seen that you weren't
on the stage.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
My first rock show I saw was was def Leppard
in Knoxville.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
I don't know if that's the best. I mean, I
saw Bruce when they got back. It was when it
was this because him and the EA street Man hadn't
played in a while, and then they got back together,
right and it was that year. So me and Holly
went to Baltimore to see them, and I was just

(40:22):
stunned to see someone give every sale of their body
and to I I just couldn't believe it, you know,
and just how the how the the momentum kept going.
You thought for a minute that it was going on,
you know, because a concert is a lot like sex.
You know, it has its ups and downs. It's kind

(40:42):
of you know, it's it's flow. But I mean, it
was a freight train. It was a freight train. I
watched the drummer, and I watched how they played and
how they interacted with each other, and it was just
that's the best. That's the best. I walked away from
there and I was on my way home going that's

(41:04):
the best thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Ever jumping around. Let's go back to college football. What
was your best play?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Well, I didn't play college football. I played I met
high school. Yeah no, I was too small to play
college football. My best play I don't know. I mean
I called four passes in one game.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Well that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
That's my high school highlight. Because we weren't that talented,
and uh, we ran the ball a lot. We ran
what is called in football the power eye, which is
a running formation, and we ran the power out because
we didn't because we weren't that athletic, and we got
the ship kicked down of us a lot, you know, so,
but we had fun. And like I said, that, playing

(41:49):
playing football changed my life. I still love it to
this day. But I was just I mean, I was little.
I was I got to ship kicked down on.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Me, all okay, So no one was forcing me to play.
Why did you play?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
I love competition.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
I've played because across the board.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I love competition. I mean, you can ask my band,
my band, my crew. There was a moment where I
get that competition from my father and all of his friends.
I still to this day. Then I'll go back to
the band thing, but I still to this day. My
dad has two friends in Knoxville, Tennessee. One Jim cogged

(42:28):
on John Stay, and to this day, for the last
fifteen years, I talk to them every Saturday morning and
every Sunday morning, and we met every game on the line,
the Vegas line and the over and under on each game. Now,
we've never paid each other. I'm not a gambler really,
but I am with them and we've never paid each other.

(42:50):
And it's all in fifty dollars bets, and so it's
been a rolling amount for the last fifteen years. And
I say it in the book and I'm right around
the same thing. I'm about almost eight thousand dollars in
the hole in fifty dollars bets right now to Jim Cogging, Knoxville, Tennessee.
It's crazy, but it's all about competition. There was a

(43:12):
time where, you know, when college PlayStation came out and
we had that football game in there and we played.
I've held shows for fifteen to twenty minutes because we
weren't done with the game. And I can do that
because I can get ready to go on stage in
less than five minutes. I got a T shirt, I

(43:33):
got jeans, boots, straw cowboy had. Okay, I'm ready to go,
and so I can hold it. But that's how that's
how competitive I am. And rolling down the highway were
we were somewhere in Alabama and I had a terrible game,
and I got so pissed off that I pulled the
whole game out of the console, like the whole game,
and threw it out the side, out the window, and
the band just looked at me like I was crazy.

(43:55):
I was that pissed off. I think I threw like
five interceptions in the game. But that's how competitive I am.
And I remember why I'm my piano player. I mean,
he kicked my ass like it was almost like the
whole week. We played every day and he beat me
by over twenty points. And we were playing rupp Arena
in Lesington, Kentucky one night. We had these big screen
TVs behind us, and why it had taken a picture

(44:18):
without me knowing it of the screen of the score.
And while I was introducing the band, they put that
picture up there on the on the screen, and yeah,
it really pissed me off. But I was like, that's
how competitive I am. So that answered to you. That's
a long answer to your question. But I just loved
I just loved being competitive, and I liked playing football

(44:42):
because it it got me out of my comfort zone.
That's what that goes back to Laird. Laird taught me
a lot about, especially with pool training and being out
in the ocean. Is you grow a lot as a
as a human, and you get better when you're out
of your comfort zone.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Okay, you know that's not a good story. In the
bus throw you know, throwing stuff out the ego. Did
you say you're at it's great to win. But would
you say sometimes you're a sore loser.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
No, well they all tell me that I'm a sore loser.
But I'm a worst winner, you know, because when I win,
I just you know, I like to I like to
run my mouth and so yeah, I mean I think
a lot of my band and a lot of people
have been around me. I'm so competitive that I am
a bad loser, but I'm a worst winner.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And are you someone like you know, in today's online world,
you can be you know, playing scrabble with somebody. You
can be you know, an online multiplayer game, you involved
in any of that shit.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
No, I don't know. No, that's I don't do that. Uh.
I try to stay off the devices in the computer
as much as possible, honestly. But I mean, if you're
we got a basketball, go out by the bus. I mean,
I'm you know, you can always get a game of
horse with somebody, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
So wait, wait there's a basketball there, it's sitting by
the hoop. No one is there. Yeah? Are you going
to be the person say hey, who's playing ones?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah? Yeah, no, no question, Yeah, I really am. Look,
there's only so many, Like I said, I've been on
a bus now for thirty two years. It's crazy to
think about, but I have. And there's only so many
times that you can walk from the back of the
bus to the front of the bus and then walk
from the front of the bus back to the bus,

(46:38):
thinking you're going to see something different. So I've got
to get I've got to get out of there. That's
why I don't iscolate myself like you were talking about.
I mean, I can't tell you how many times I
walked into the production office and just to say hi, people,
you know, just say what's up.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Okay, you're off the road. When you're off the road, listen,
there are things you do. You answer emails, talk on
the phone. There's a little but that doesn't take twenty
four hours. You write a few songs. What do you
do with the rest of the time.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Well, this year has been different. I was with Holly
Gleason Rydne's book. That's what I did this year, and
we haven't stopped. I mean once I let.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Me let me be very clear, there's work. You're not
writing a book all day long.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
No, No, you're right.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Let's you assume it's seven o'clock. Are you calling somebody up.
What are you up to?

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Are you watching soon television? Are Yeah, I'll binge watch.
I mean, I'll probably binge watch. And if it's football season,
I'll watch football, you know. Or I'll go hang with
my dad, or I'll you know, do whatever.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
I mean. It's it's I will tell you it is
when when you're really busy and you've in your brain tired.
I look forward to sitting still, I really do. But
I got to tell you, I'm I'm I'm a little
tangled in the vine. When it comes is the time
off because I crave time off. I do, But when
I get it, I start to freak out. I start

(48:07):
to I start to wonder if I'm missing something, you
know what I mean. So it's so, I I work
out a lot. I love the ocean. I love it,
get on the paddle board, I I I don't know,
I visit family. I it's just whatever, you know.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
So, how much time are you in the islands?

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Now that's gotten, that's that's decreased in the last couple
of years, But a lot once I get done with
with the launch, and once I get I think I'm done.
On the seventeenth or eighteenth something like that. I'll probably
go down for a little bit. You know, it takes
me a minute because I it's it's uh, sooner or later,

(48:55):
I will pull the guitar out of the case. Sooner
or later. It takes it takes a minute, but it
may not take as long this year because I've been
actually done playing music since since July. And once I
got out, once I got done at the sphere this year,
I went straight into the audiobook. And theo book is
another animal. I don't know, but I'm telling you that's

(49:18):
one of the most unpleasant things I've ever done in
my life. It's the audiobook. But I'm glad I did it.
It was business. And you know, if I'm a fan,
like we were talking about my friends and heroes, you know,
if Sammy Hagar wrote, if he wrote a new book
and put it out, I'm going to want to hear
Sammy do the audiobook. You're not going to want to
hear me do it. You want him to do it.

(49:38):
And so I understand that it took me a month
to read this book in the studio. It was just
it was I was like I was like a week
in and I was only like on chapter four and
there's forty nine chapters in this book. I was like, wow,
this is going to take a minute, but yeah, this

(50:01):
But now I think when I get done with the
book launches because the guitar is going to come out
of the case a little sooner than usual because I've
been done playing music for a minute and I miss it.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
When you go down, do you ever go down alone?

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I yeah, because I'm not alone down there. I've got
I've got a lot of still a really close group
of Island friends that really in ways knew me before
they even knew what I did. That that was the
beauty of it. You know, when I first went down,
I was spending time there. There was you know, it

(50:36):
was way before social media. It was way before you know,
everything was so instant, and I don't know that I
could insulate myself in a way. I mean I was,
I was playing arenas. I was wow. I mean I
was on the climb right. But these people didn't care.
They didn't know, so they really got to know the

(50:58):
real meat. And then they would come to shows and
they would see what I do on stage and they
would scratch their head and go, They're going, wow, we
had no idea that this person that was down here
constantly with us on boats and in bars does this
for a living. They truly, I mean, they knew what
I did eventually, but they didn't know that that was

(51:18):
our life at all. So it was really interesting, you know,
to see them see that. But yeah, I'll either take
my girlfriend down, or I'll go with my family, or sometimes,
I mean we usually do it once a year, I'll
take some writing friends down and we'll just go hang
for a week and see what we can come up

(51:38):
with and see if we can find something inspired in
a different way. And I think as a creative person,
that's really that's really good to do, you know, because
earlier we were speaking about neural pathways. As a songwriter,
for me, I'm always feel like that I need to
get out of my comfort zone and create somewhere else,

(51:59):
because you can go down the same neural pathway that
a room can make you create the same thing. And
so it's always good to do that, especially after you
make a record, you know, or while you're making a record.
More importantly, I get asked for advice all the time about,
you know, how I made my records and what I've
done over the years. And the one thing that I

(52:20):
still do is in the process of making my record,
especially when I think it's almost done, I'll take that
in the sequence of the songs and I'll go listen
to that in different environments, like I'll go to the Islands,
or I'll go to easton a see because those are
my people. Or I'll go to New England, or I'll
drive across Mulholland in la or I'll just see how

(52:41):
it sits in every environment. And if it doesn't sit
great in every environment, then I'll try to, Okay, well,
what will make it sit? And that's exactly how you
and Tequila came about that whole story right there, because
I was I didn't have I did. There was this
missing piece of the Hemming Ways Whiskey record, and I

(53:02):
had no idea what it was. And Materesa Berg sent
me you in Tequila. I was driving north at that time.
I was renting a house. There's this market in Malibu
culture it used to be called Trapas Market, and I
was reading a house north of there, and so I
was just driving home one night and she sent me
a song and I listened to it on the way

(53:23):
home and it was just magic, the sun was setting,
it was it was just a perfect, perfect scenario to
hear to hear that song. And once I heard that,
I went, wow, Okay, this is the missing piece because
I had listened to that what was supposed to be
the heming Ways Whiskey record, and there was a few
things missing and that was one of them.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
So what degree do you feel pressure to be part
of the game and to continue to have charge success
because you know, country is a little bit different country.
You know, it's not like pop radio where you can
have a hit and your audience moves on. If you've
got a good audience and country, they stay with you.
There are people who that hit for a long time,

(54:13):
but most people, even Garth Brooks, you have your time
and you're done. You're not going to have another hit.
How do you mentally deal with all that? Well?

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I think for me that we have built something a
little unique and different. I mean, I have built an
audience that I hope that you know, I don't feel
anywhere close to being out the tank, you know, I
just still feel creative. I still want to go to
do great shows, and I think that we've built an

(54:46):
audience over the years that will that will go down
that road with us, no matter what the success is. Look,
the business has changed from when I started making records
with Mary Beckett. The business is not even recogniz as
you know. You know, Barry taught me so much. But
that's a whole other podcast.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
But yeah, it's just it's just it's just changed a lot,
you know. But for me, I mean, I think that
we have built such a unique audience and people that
not only have just listened to these songs on the radio,
they've lived their life with them and they come to

(55:26):
the show to experience it live, and they've given They
realize how much of myself that I've given, and I
realize how much of themselves that they give to come
and experience that experience. And I think as long as
because I've seen artists get complacent, I've seen artists dollar
in and they get to this weird point where they

(55:47):
just don't care, and I've never understood it, I still care.
And I think as long as my audience knows I
care about them, and they care about the experience and
still care about the music, then a lot of the
other stuff I don't have to worry about as much,
you know, well, you have a.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Large audience, and you know, let's use Jimmy Buffett. You know,
Jimmy Buffett had his hits at the end of the seventies.
He continued to put out records until he did a
Nashville record. Long and deep into his career he had
no more chart success, but he had his audience who
consumed that to what is that okay for you? Or

(56:28):
do you need to have something that's on the chart,
something that's hot in Nashville that people are talking about
that might spread to different people.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Well, I mean, yeah, of course, I mean everybody would
want to have chart success, and I still feel like
that we're going to have some. But moving forward, I
mean I do. I feel very fortunate to have had
the chart success that I've had, and I still feel
very creative and I try really hard to and I

(57:00):
added myself to a phone. I really do, because when
I'm listening to songs and even creating, I'm like, Okay, well,
how is this to your point? How is this going
to fit now? Because sonically a lot of the things
are different. They are and I've changed mixers and I've
done a lot of stuff, but I can't sing what
some of these people are singing about because I've already
done it right, And so it's it's tricky. If if

(57:26):
a brand new guy can go sing the next version
of no shoes, no shirt, no problems, and he'd be
and he'll be a genius, I can go sing the
exact same song, and I'm repeating myself. So it's it's
I got a thin target to hit and I know that.
And God, I mean, I am so blessed to say this,
because not every act in the world gets to say this.

(57:47):
But I've reached a point in my life and in
my career where I'm competing with myself and I'm thankful
for that. But it's hard. It's hard creatively, it really is.
So that's why it takes me longer to get there,
because I just can't throw anything against a blank page

(58:10):
and it be accepted because I'm competing with myself and
I know that I can't go do when the sun
goes down again, I can't. I don't even know if
I can go do I go back again? So so yeah,
it's harder, you know. So, But if I to answer
your question, yeah, I still want radio success, but am

(58:30):
I fine with it not having it. I don't know.
I haven't thought about it yet, to be honest, But
if you really want the honest answer, I haven't thought
about that yet. But yeah, I mean, look, I'm not
immune to what happens to every act in the world.
It happened to Bruce Springsteak, for God's sake.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Okay, you barely touch on romance in the book, and
you say you want to respect the privacy of this
one specific to Todd Lloyd romance whatever. But you're a
fifty seven year old guy, hasn't been married, doesn't have children.
What my average person has no idea. They have no

(59:13):
idea how hard it is to make it. You have
to literally work all day every that's right. They just
literally have no idea.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
And I'll tell you that. Look, my mother has asked me,
she goes, when am I going to have grand babies?
I said, I better hurry. I won't be deald to
play with them. You know. But Bob, I think you
know this, and especially everybody on my team known this.
I had somebody say to me recently, we think it's
great that you give so much of your life to

(59:45):
what you do. And I stopped them. I said, no, no, no,
I said, I've given everything I have, I've given all
of me to do what I do because I felt like.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
That.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
I don't know. I guess maybe it's the way I
grew up because we didn't we poor Bob, but we
but it was right down the street from us, if
you know what I mean. And so I've always had
this this thing. If I didn't give all of myself
to everything that I'm doing, that it wouldn't happen. And
maybe that's how I was brought up, I don't know.

(01:00:18):
Or being competitive from my father, I don't know. But yeah,
in ways, my look, my personal life has has I've
sacrificed son, we're talking about sacrifice earlier. I never fell
a personal sacrifice, but it was really hard on a
lot of people, honestly. But I don't think now though.

(01:00:38):
I think now though, Yeah, look I think for me
now in my life now, I'm not the same. And
I I realized at one point about three years ago,
three or four years ago actually, that I had given

(01:01:03):
every decision and every choice I ever made, I had
given to the persona not the person, and whether that
be good or bad, it got me here, right. And
if I did make a personal choice. I had to
check with a persona to see how it was going
to affect all of it before I made that choice,

(01:01:25):
and which is really hard, you know, But I didn't
realize that until about three or four years ago because
I was still so in the zone. You know, it
was just so just grinding and creative and driven, and
you're right to do it like we've done it, and
to get to this place, it takes all of you,
it really has. And I'm not been great at balance,

(01:01:48):
I'll admit I haven't.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Can you give me an example of the separation between
personal and persona choice?

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
No, I don't know. It was just whether I was
going to I mean, it got so even the where
I was going to live, right because when I met
Lard and Gabby, I said, oh man, I'm gonna I'm
going to move to Malibu full time. I'm going to
train with them every day. And I do have a
great circle of friends out there. That's at the time,

(01:02:19):
you know, it still is a lot healthier lifestyle for me.
But I was going to do that, and I went
my creative community in there. Your persona is not there,
You're what you've created is here. Your creative community is here,
so and now. But that was before you know, we've
realized we could get on a call a lot like
this one in FaceTime. But still it's not the same.

(01:02:41):
But that's not how you write songs. And so that
was just one example, you know. Or I could go, hey,
I'm going to live in the version iss I love
getting on the boat every day. I'm going to but
that's not I can't do that either. So because you
have to be present, you have to be available to
what I felt like I had to be available to

(01:03:02):
what I built and everybody around me. And it goes
back to this. I mean, I truly do Bob feel
a And I don't know the answer because I can
just see you that's ask me why on this? But
I don't know the answer to it. But We've been
able to achieve so much success, and I've had so

(01:03:23):
many people around me to do this with me, that
there is when you do it with all these people
all these years, you feel some sort of sense of
responsibility to them and to what you created. And yeah,
so every decision you make you kind of go, oh, wow, okay,
how is how is this decision you might want to

(01:03:45):
make for the person going to affect the hope, and
I deal with that a lot in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
So when did you realize you were smarter than the
average beer?

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Well, I don't know. I think it was I learned
how to do the quadratic formula pretty quickly in high school.
I still know it. You can thank my math teacher,
Joe Hollander for that, because he would give us a
pop quiz on it and if we got it right,
we would get the equivalent to an A on a test.

(01:04:21):
So I knew the quadratic formula just it's X equals
negative B plus or minus the square root of A
squared minus four a C all over two A. That's
the quadratic formula. And I knew the protagon. Riam there,
but I can't say it right now. I didn't know,
but it was a round. I don't know, but I
didn't know that I was smarter than the average Joe,

(01:04:42):
I don't know that I am now or not, but
you definitely are, yeah, but I am. I don't know.
I think that when I went on the road and
I started to really dive into because there was a
moment where when I first got started. There was years. Honestly,

(01:05:03):
when I first got started that I was just trying
to do whatever made sense. I was. I just wanted
my songs on the radio. Everybody was trying to be
a B and C version of George Strait, and I
was right in there with them. But I still felt
like it was when I would go up there on
stage and I don't know, I was wearing a belt

(01:05:26):
buckle and I had these jeans, these certain genes on,
you know, and I'm going it felt so disingenuous, right,
and I was, I don't know. And then there was
ways that I wanted to create around us the the
I don't know if this is the answer to me
being smarter than the average Joe, but I felt very creative.
And I saw everybody was doing their show, and it's

(01:05:48):
a lot like I guess having kids and being a parent,
Like you don't I don't know how to be a parent,
but I know what not to do, I think. And
so when I was trying to create my show, I'd
watched how everybody did it that I didn't like, and
I was making mental notes. I was going, Okay, I
don't want that, And then I would see things that

(01:06:10):
I loved. One, Oh wow, if I ever get to
do this. I'm gonna remember just a version of that
and make it my own. And that's it was. I
guess around then when I started to go, yeah, maybe
I think differently than some people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
So let's assume you know, you're at depth's door, hopefully
you know, forty odd years from now, and it turns
out you never got married, you never had children. When
you say, well, listen, I can't have it all. I
dedicated myself to my career, really worked out. Or are
you going to say, fuck, I miss something.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
I don't think I'll say I miss something. I think
everybody's on a different journey. I think everybody is. I
sincerely hope I get married and have kid one day.
I really do, because it would be really strange to
build this and not share it with someone and let
you know, give it to someone, you know, just I
don't have them give it to you know. But yeah,

(01:07:09):
I really hope that happens. I am more available now
for that to happen. I wasn't available until four or
five years ago. And I look, I have not been
my mother And I say, I think I say this
in the book. I'm not sure if I do or not.
But my mother This was when I was first starting.
It was around two thousand and two, right when the

(01:07:31):
Nose Shoes album came out, and things were different. They
were just different. I've been on the road since, you know,
ten years earlier, with my band and crew, but I
was still available because I hadn't felt that that change yet.
So I was available to my mother, I was I

(01:07:51):
was available to my friends. But when all that changed,
I was like, oh wow, this is unbelievable, and that
that dream that I was dream and that I don't know.
It's this horniness to go and do all that and
do experience that what we've experienced, and meet our heroes
and collaborate with them. And the rush of the audience
and building your audience was all a part of it.

(01:08:14):
So it was all a part of this train that
was taking me away, right And my own mother came
up to me and she goes, I can't seem to
reach you. And you know what I did. I dismissed her.
And if you can do that to your own mother,
you could do it to anybody, anybody. I just wasn't available,

(01:08:38):
you know, because I I dismissed her because I couldn't
change it, because I was gone. I was gone on
this I was gone on this journey, and there was
nothing gonna there was nothing gonna pull me back. Nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Before you started to really click, did you ever have
doubts say, well, maybe I should do something else.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
No, but no, because I loved I truly believe that
I was born to do this. I get asked a lot.
I would like to go back and say, now, me
and my mother have ironed all that out. Shit. I mean,
my mother, as you can read in the book, is
the lot of my life. But that was hard, you know,
But that just shows you how unavailable I have been

(01:09:30):
to certain things in my life at the you know,
for the greater good of just being this person. And
the answer to your question at forty years from now,
whenever I'm at death's door, I mean, I'm going to say, wow,
that was fun. That was a lot of fun. And
I got to make music and I got to give
it to people, and I got to give that to
the world, and I got to create with my heroes.

(01:09:52):
I got to know them. But I think everybody has that.
I think everybody has their own. I'm a big believer
in the universe big and I think everybody's got their
own path. Everybody's on different paths. You know. I talk
about that specific thing in the book when I the
night I wrote beer in Mexico. Okay, well, I'm thirty six.

(01:10:15):
Most thirty six year olds have maybe have two kids. Here.
I am a little buzzed at Sammy Hagar's pool he
got for us writing a song. It just played, So
my life was different. I just played Sammy Hagar's birthday party.
I don't have two kids, but I have this amazing experience,
and so no, I don't think i'll have that. I
hope I don't have that. Oh I wish I hadn't

(01:10:37):
done this because I really got to do this and
that is special. And but yeah, I mean I think
what's great for me now is I'm learning how to
be more available now in my life, and that's a
good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
So you're a smart guy. I didn't realize how smart
you were till today. You have a Southern accent. Yeah,
every Southern accent a little bit different. A lot of
people in the North look down on people with accents.
By the same token, you're very successful in the Boston

(01:11:14):
area and other places in the Northeast. What the people
in the North. Not get about the South.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I can't speak
to that really because I swear to God. I mean
maybe it was because of my Virgin Islands connection, but
the Six States of New England has always been an
unbelievable place for us to play music. And the audience

(01:11:43):
is just insane there. I think there's the only difference
between me and the audience there and a lot of
people that live in New England is the accent. I
say that in the book. I mean the people, their
work ethic is insane. They love sports, they love food,
they love family, and that's a lot. I mean, it's
everything I grew up on and for I don't know.

(01:12:07):
I can't speak to everybody else, but for us it's
just been it's been such a strong connection, and I
don't think they look at it north or South. For me.
They made for some. I mean, look, if you got
a bunch of corny songs, maybe you know what I mean.
I think speaking of corny songs, like the only station

(01:12:30):
in America when it was out that didn't play she
thinks my Tractor Sexy was the Boston Country radio statements.
It's not for us it's not for us. You fast
forward two years after the song had peaked. I think
it peaked at twelve something like that. It wasn't even
a top ten record. Two years later, I'm playing the

(01:12:52):
big beautiful theater in downtown Boston. We hadn't we hadn't
graduated to arenas yet, but we're playing a big theater
in downtown Boston. It's packed, and I go into Tractor
and the place comes unglued right well. Jenny Brofy and
Mike Brophy, who ran the Boston radio station at the time,

(01:13:13):
were in the audience and they went, well, how are
they hearing this? Because this is before streaming, This is
before you could you could listen to anything by anybody
at any moment that you wanted to. So back then,
the only way you heard it is if you were
if you heard it on the radio, or heard it
on an album cut, if you bought the record. And

(01:13:36):
the next Monday and one of the one of the
one of the surfaces where it was bill Boarder or
you know, when R and R put out their magazine
or whatever they called in the add and she thinks
my tractor sexty two years after and they said in
big letters, you probably find it. They said, the panel
is finally closed. And that's our joke. I mean, for years,

(01:14:01):
you know so so, but but I get what you're saying, like,
if you come with songs like that over and over again,
there will be some sort of a disconnect regionally. But
but thank god, there was more to me than that. Uh.
Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper's first segment that he ever did
on Sixty Minutes was on me and he brought that up.

(01:14:24):
He goes, well, tell me tell me about she thinks
my tractor sex. And I told Anderson, I said, well,
I was smart enough to record it, and I was
smart enough to not record it again. So because for him,
you know, his mom being Gloria Vanderbilt and his whole
you know, New York lifestyle, he did not understand.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
So, so, who is the coolest, most pinch me moment
person you've met?

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
Oh? Wow, that's a hard one. Hmm. One of the
coolest people that I met, only because and look, I
didn't realize the genius. There's two people I'm going to

(01:15:19):
tell you. I didn't realize the genius of Bob Marley
and the Whalers until I got into college. Like going
back to that point on tractor, you heard what you
were given, right. So we didn't hear Bob Marley and
the Way There's in East Tennessee. I didn't hear that
music until I went to college at East Tennessee State,
and so I was. I just loved it. It was

(01:15:42):
the most universe. I felt like, Wow, this is really
aspiring and it's all about love and positive energy. And
I don't know. Years later, I got to collaborate with
Junior Marvin and family Man bear Ashton, family man Beartt.
I sat on the beach with the family man Barrett
we were doing the video. I talked those guys, Junior

(01:16:04):
Marvin and family Man and some of the other guys
that were in the whalers to do the video for
me on the north to do the video with me
on the North shore in Jamaica. One night. It was
for the song Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but
nobody wants to go now. And we were done with
the video and me and family Man said right there
on the beach and talked about Bob's life, how they

(01:16:26):
met each other, and family Man said something that I
take with me to this day. He goes, Reggae and
country are cousins. He goes, they tell it like it
is and uncut and that's I went, Wow, what a
great what a great thing to share with me. But Bob,
we sat there on the beach and I have it recorded.
I'll send it to you. That I asked him if

(01:16:48):
I could record it. He said yeah, And that was
one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me,
and one of the coolest people that I ever met.
And just to sit there and talk to him about
his life and about what it was like, you know,
with him and Bob when they were just getting started
and everything they went through, and it just goes to
show you, like we all come from different places. We all,

(01:17:12):
like I said earlier, have different political beliefs, different religious beliefs.
And that's no more evident evident than being on the
road with over one hundred people. Right, they all didn't
go to Cedar four Baptist Church and electoral Tennessee, Right,
they have. So when you go out there on the road,
you you get you get to see a lot of things,

(01:17:32):
and you get to meet a lot of people who
are just so so their heart is unbelievable and what
that tell What that told me? And in collaborating with
them and with you, look into the audience and all
of it. We all come from different places, but we
play the same notes. We really do. And that's what

(01:17:54):
I learned from family man Bearrack. But we couldn't be
more different. But we loved each other. And I felt
the same way with Bruce. The first time I met Bruce,
I thought he was the coolest person ever. We played
in Holmedewe, New Jersey at the Amphitheater there and I
get a call from Louis Messina and Louis goes, Bruce
Springsteen's want to come to your show tonight. I went, yeah, whatever, Louie,

(01:18:16):
and he drove to the show on his motorcycle and we,
I mean literally, somebody's knocking on the bus door and
I'm looking out and it's really Bruce, you know. And
he comes up and we get we say our pleasantries,
we say hello, and and it was time for me

(01:18:37):
to go on stage. And my rod manager David, walked
Bruce to the front of house sound mix and he,
I mean it was he felt very comfortable there. And
he walked out to the front of house board and
watched our show and at the time we had I
had a horn section. I thought I felt like I
was wanting to be different and I had a horn section.
So I had Jim Horn, the famous saxophone player, and

(01:18:58):
I had the trumpet. I had the whole thing. And
Bruce came back on the bus after the show and
he was he just loved that we had Jim Horn
in the band. He couldn't believe it. But we sat
there and talked for almost two hours, and that was
one of the coolest experiences ever. And he was so
humble and real and I and you hope, you really

(01:19:21):
hope that when and I felt this way about Jimmy
Buffett too, Like you you build up in your head
before you meet your heroes who you think they are.
And when I met Jimmy. I met Jimmy at the
Four Seasons in a cabana in Vegas. He was out
hanging out by the pool with a guy named Mick Ramos,
and he was reading the Wall Street Journal and he

(01:19:42):
was just he was so cool and wonderful to me.
But he exceeded what I had built up in my head.
Bruce was the same way. I mean, he he sat
on the bus and we talked about songwriting and you know,
and it was just amazing to hear it this come
out out of his mouth. But he said, songwriting, you know,
you can write a song on a half a piece

(01:20:04):
of paper, and you can put that song in a
drawer and you can come back to it two or
three years later and pull that song out of the
drawer and it'll still be there. He goes, Your life
isn't like that. Your life is way more fluid, So
pay attention to things that matter, is what What was
his point? But to get a life lesson like that
from the boss, it was like, wow, I mean this

(01:20:24):
is that was one one one of the coolest persons
and one of the coolest experiences that I had because honestly,
he didn't have to be there and he didn't have
to care enough to give me that advice.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
Okay, you gotta go to dinner, I do.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
I gotta go to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Oh yeah, you've you've gotta go. Yeah right, Sorry, I
long winded.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
I'm sorry, No, we could talk for you talk. I
love it. I love that you're so forthcoming and honest.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
No, that's true. I love talking to you. Man, you
know that, like I've learned in my life that you're
an average of the five people you hang around the most, right,
So you don't get to have these conversations every day.
So I'm really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Well, you know, listen, I'll just talk from myself. It's
not easy to find people on your wavelength, and when
you do, you can't shut up because it's so exciting
that someone's tuned into what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
No, I get it, I get it. I appreciate it, man,
I really do. And it was great met I have
seen I don't think I've seen you at all since
since it up that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
La Now I haven't rock.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
Was there? We had a bunch of people, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I remember. I remember I walked off the bus and
walked through the hallway and there you were. You stuck
your hand out.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
Absolutely listen, Kenny, it's been wonderful the book. Certainly, once
you get continue to Rule, you find its rhythm and
it's really honest because at first, taken out, it seems simple,
but that's because you're getting the essence and the essences
to go through. And you know, a lot of these

(01:22:07):
rock biographies if you read it okay, now, I know.
I read it and I was thinking about the messages,
and I was saying, yeah, you know what am I doing?
And you know, as they say, it's not only for
Kenny Chesney fans.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
Well, I think it was more about you know, for me. Yes,
we talk about certain vignettes and snapshots of my journey
in my life, but if you pull back from all
of it, Bob, it truly is about the dream of
it all. And that's why in the beginning we have
to set the simple stuff up to see how far
this journey has taken me, you know, because yeah, I

(01:22:41):
mean I didn't know if I was ever going to
go past my county line. But these stories I'm telling
you about Ashton family, man, Barrett and Bruce, and I
mean I never saw that coming. I never would. You
don't know, the dream of stuff. So the book is
more about the dream of it all than it is
about the actual experiences. I'm proud of the experiences, but
this book, I mean, no matter what your dream is,

(01:23:01):
if it's music, if it's whatever it is, the lessons
are kind of the same. Just just just go do it.
You know. People ask me all the time for advice
and I'll leave you with this. But I get people
asking me for advice these new kids and whether they're
in the genre or whatever, and they ask me how
you know how to make it? And I'm going that
eternal voice in my head right there. I don't want

(01:23:24):
to tell them this because I'm thinking this to myself.
And I would never I would never deflate them at all.
But I'm thinking these guests, guys are never going to
make it because you don't do it to make it
in this world of celebrity, you know, these talent shows
on TV and people calling it is to a drives
me crazy. But you don't do it to make it.
You do it because it's what you do. And that's

(01:23:47):
why forty years from now or whenever the Good Lord
calls me home, I won't be that disappointed, you know,
because I got to do what I loved and I
got to I did it because it's what I do.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
And well, just one point on that. Bob Dylan, who's
famous for obsic skating but drops truth here and there.
He was interviewed on it could have been sixty minutes
and he said, I don't tell my people my hopes
and dreams because they would laugh and they deride because
they have no idea how big and powerful they are.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
Yeah that's right, Yeah, yeah, but it is. I don't
know when people ask me for advice like that, but
when they especially when they say that they make it
and yeah, look, I was the same kid, and I
wanted to make it. But at some point you go, wow,
I would be doing this on some level if I

(01:24:42):
didn't make it. If I wasn't this version of Kenny Chesney, right,
I would be doing it somewhere, maybe a holiday in
on a Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
Yeah. Yeah, but talking to you now, that's all fine.
In dandy Obviously, there was something deep inside you that
had to make whether it be in music or whatever,
whether it be you know, growing up with parents who
weren't together, growing up off the grid, you know, some

(01:25:10):
personal experience somewhere inside you had to say I'm special.
I have to leave my mark.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
No, that's right. There was there was, and whatever that is,
it was fuel. I'm still figuring out what that was.
I said. If you ask me right now what that is,
I can't tell you. But it was fuel for sure.
Whatever that is, whether it was I wrote a song
about a girl in my persuasion class, ironically enough, at

(01:25:37):
East Tennessee State University. It was a Tuesday Thursday class
and there was a girl that sat beside me and
I was trying to persuade her to go out with me.
And it was the first song I ever wrote in
my life, and I went, I want to write her
a song, you know. So I did that and I
gave it to her on a Thursday and it split
it across the table. So I had to wait all weekend, okay, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday,

(01:26:03):
and then to go back into class on Tuesday to
see how she felt about it. Well, when I walked in,
she was sitting in the furthest corner she could possibly
sit for me, and I went, hmmm, I got my
songwriter has got to get a little bit better, you know. So,
whether it's that, that was my first taste of rejection
in the music business ever. And so whether it was

(01:26:24):
that or who whatever, it was, my humble upbringings, whatever
it was, it was fuel to do whatever, to keep
the drive, you know, keep going.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Okay, just one final philipathy. Did you ever talk to
the bull again?

Speaker 2 (01:26:42):
No? I never did.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
I never talked to.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
The girl again, and I just decided, you know, I've
got it before I talked to her, Before I send
another girl a song, I've got to get a little
bit better.

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
Well, you certainly got a whole tone better. We've been talking,
Tony chesh. We're leaving a lot on the table, but
we got a lot there.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
We'll go around to you one day, Bob, I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:07):
Right, Okay, Kenny, you gotta go.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
I gotta go, all right, man, until next time. I
really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Oh man, it was great. Till next time. This is
Bob left sets

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Bob Lefsetz

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