FRI PT 2: Bobby’s Most Viral Interview Moments

We’re looking back at some of the biggest and most-talked-about moments from The BobbyCast this year! From Kenny Chesney ranking his own songs and Tom Bergeron clearing the air about DWTS, to Megan Moroney, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde and more opening up in ways that got the internet talking. Plus, cartel insight from Mariana van Zeller, Stella Lefty on the overnight success of “Boston,” and Morgan Evans sharing the moment he found out his marriage to Kelsea Ballerini was ending. These are the clips that went viral!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, welcome. So we're going to look back at
some of the most viral, talked about moments from the Bobbycast.
These are some great interviews. If it was on TikTok
or Instagram or in the news, these are the most
viral parts of that show and it's been pretty crazy.

(00:23):
So let's start now with our premiere episode, Whenever the
Bobbycast Went on Netflix. And it's Kenny Chesney. Kenny sat
down and he was awesome because I said, Hey, this
is my first episode of Netflix. Will you come in?
He did. And he crushed. And the clip that blew
up here was him talking about his top five songs ever.
Final question. Two of three of all of your songs,

(00:45):
which song ended up being a monster that maybe you
didn't quite think it would be. And I'm sure you
have confidence in all of them.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
But one that surprised me was save it for a
rainy day. Um, And I don't know that it was
the biggest hit, but I didn't, I mean, it was
on brand. I knew when I heard it that it
was on brand, if you will, and that it might
be fun live. But when we kick into that today,
I went, oh, wow. I mean, that was a real hit.
There's that one. I mean, the first time I heard

(01:16):
When the Sun Goes Down, I went, oh, yeah, that's
going to work. I don't know that it's going to
be an eight-week number one, which it was, but I
didn't know it was going to be that. That surprised me,
but I knew it was going to be, you know,
Good for Us. You and Tequila, I didn't know what
it was going to do. But that song didn't even
go number one. I've had more number two records than

(01:36):
probably any act in the world. I mean, I've had
like 14 or 15 songs that didn't hit number one
that was number two. Like No Shoes, No Shirt, No
Problems went to number two.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
That wasn't a number one?

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Nope.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
And it got stuck behind my friend Jimmy Buffett. And
Alan Jackson's Five O'Clock Somewhere.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
For eight straight weeks. Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's just bad timing.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
Same label. Pissed me off.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Oh, because they didn't make the call to go pull
that one back to play.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
Let's do a little bit. But that record was so hot,
they couldn't maneuver it.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know what I mean? You and Tequila is a
top five all-time song for me.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, it's... Not a top five Kenny song. Like a
top five all-time song.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Oh, wow. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I mean, that song was.
You know, I had that song recorded, but I didn't
know who I wanted to sing on it. And I
didn't want someone expected within the format. There was nothing
wrong with that. I mean, that happens all the time.
But I felt like that song was so special and
a little left to center for me. You know, I

(02:41):
felt like that you and Tequila, you could be in
an Uber or a taxi or your own car somewhere
in Italy or Wherever in the world, and that song
come on and it fit. And so it needed the voice,
the perfect female voice to be that, the yin and

(03:03):
the yang of it, you know? And when I heard
Grace Potter, I went, oh my God, that's the voice.

Speaker 5 (03:08):
I'd never met her.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
And I sent her You and Tequila. And less than
three days later after I sent it to her, she
was in Nashville on my birthday, March the 26th. And
we were in the studio recording, doing our vocals on
You and Tequila.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
When you recorded it, did you think it'd be a single?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Didn't know if it was going to be a single.

Speaker 5 (03:27):
No, had no idea.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
It was part of the Hemingway's Whiskey album. And we
had no idea what was going to be the first single.
It ended up being Boys of Fall was the first
single off that because we released it in late summer.
But You and Tequila is one of my top five
songs of mine.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, that's what I'll do the final question. Then do
your top five songs of you. You do your top
five songs. From five to one or one to five?
It's probably easier to go one to five, right?

Speaker 5 (03:52):
But it changes. I mean, it's like, you could ask
me tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, but I'm asking you today and you open that up. Okay,
here we are today. I want one through five. Kenny
Chesney doing Kenny Chesney songs.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Number one.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
Number one, probably it would be Old Blue Chair.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Wow, we're going a little deeper cut. It's such a
portrait of my soul. It's it was it stamped a
time of my life where I was in the Virgin Islands.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
And I mean, I remember I was out. This is remember.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
And I started writing this song at New Year's Day.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Well, New Year's Eve, whatever. But it was it was
in 1999. There was this this person.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
I forgot the name that the name that a guy
that did this. But he predicted that the world was
going to end. at the year 2000.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
So everybody was.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
Just kind of.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Like Y2K was also going to kill everybody?

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:49):
What's that guy's name?

Speaker 1 (04:51):
It wasn't Nostradamus. Nostradamus was.

Speaker 7 (04:52):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Oh, I thought it was like somebody you knew.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh, I didn't know it was like Nostradamus from hundreds
of years ago. It's not my uncle.

Speaker 8 (04:57):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I thought it was like Crested the Credit Union again.
I didn't know. Yeah, Nostradamus. No, it's not my Uncle Butch. Yeah,
got it, got it, got it.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
But.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
So everybody, the whole country was, the whole world was
kind of, oh, okay, well, this is gonna be weird.
And I thought, well, that's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
I'm going to have fun.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
So I was down in the Virgin Islands and I
was having a blast. And the place that I rented
had two blue wicker rocking chairs. And I stayed there
for like three or four years. And I remember I
came in from town and I had a cup that tall, full,
you know, coconut rum and Diet Coke. And I went

(05:34):
out there and sat in that chair. And I was
looking up, and it was beautiful. And I was right
on the beach, and I was looking up at the sky,
and there was a million stars in the sky. And
I had to drink in between my legs, and I
fell asleep. And I woke up the next morning with
the sun coming right over the hill, and I was
covered in mosquito bites. And that day, I started writing

(05:57):
down the lyrics to Old Blue Chair. And Finished it
several months later. But that'd be, I mean, as a songwriter,
that would be number one.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Okay, number two.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Number two would, as a songwriter slash artist, would be
I Go Back. Number three would probably be There Goes
My Life. Number four would probably be Anything But Mine.
And then, I don't know, there's like young summertime.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well, you said you had tequila as top five. Tequila
has to be five, right?

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Tequila has to be five. But if I had to
do another five, it.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Would be young.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
It would be summertime. It would be safe before a
rainy day. It would be, I don't know. You know,
the duet with Pink was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
I'm not forcing you to do a top other five.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, okay. You look like you're stressing a little bit.
If there's some alternates, we could put those in there.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, right. I've really enjoyed this. We were talking about
before you got here, the Sphere 2. So after you
do it the first time, I guess people have seen it.
They want to come back. Do you feel like you
need to promo it as much now or do you
just feel like it's going to sell like crazy because
the proof of concept is already there?

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, I mean, you got to promo it for sure.
But It's just such a unique experience. I'm coming to
this one.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'm coming to this one.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Please come. I just saw so many of my friends
going like they were like, we're with like coaches that
I know. Like I saw like Dan Mullen. I got
all these guys that are like my.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Dan Mullen, I believe, was at every show.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
By the way, Dan Mullen, for those that don't know,
right now he's the UNLV head coach, but he was
at Florida. He was at Florida. He was at Mississippi State.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
He was at a lot of places.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
And he got the gig at UNLV, so he let
me and Bailey come work out there. I worked out
at UNLV's football facility every single day for a month
and a half that I was in Vegas. So I
would go into that backstage area. I had a little
area we called the Sock Monkey Lounge. And I'd go
in there and say hi to people. And nine times

(07:58):
out of ten, I'd see Dan there.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
That was the tradeoff. Next up is a moment that
caught everybody off guard. Former Dancing with the Stars host
Tom Bergeron, him and I had a talk. And we
kind of cleared the air about the comments he made
after I won Dancing with the Stars. I want to
lead with the first question.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Why do you hate me?

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Now, here's the thing.

Speaker 7 (08:21):
I don't know if you give titles to these podcasts,
but in my mind, the title for this one is
Friendship Cleanup on Aisle 2.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
I love you. I never have stopped loving you. And
I feel the same about you.

Speaker 7 (08:36):
And I felt terrible that the way I phrased my
honest surprise at your win- I think the question to
me was, what's the most shocking elimination that you remember?
And I honestly, I'm at the point where I hide
my own Easter egg. So I couldn't remember a shocking elimination.

(08:58):
And I wish I had said, well, this wasn't a shock,
but it was a surprise when Bobby Bones won. And
I have to show you, because I rewatched that moment.
This is your face. I wasn't the only one surprised, Bobby. So,
you know, but the fact that it hurt your feelings

(09:20):
and that you sent your trophy back, I felt terrible
about that.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
I was right out of a surgery. And what's funny
is I've now talked about this because so many people
have called and asked me about it. But I've said
in every interview, I've said, I love Tom Bergeron. So
that's never changed. But I had ankle surgery the day before,
and I really think I was messed up on pain medicine.
I think that was a big factor in everything that

(09:46):
I did and how I reacted. And I watched it
back again right before the interview to see how it felt.
And I think what hurt was I wasn't even asked about,
and maybe just in your head, it was such a shock.
You thought the rules needed to be changed because I
won the show.

Speaker 7 (10:03):
Well, I'll tell you, in all honesty, I knew in
the moment that, as I think I even said to you,
because I watched it again, and I said, as I
was handing you and Sharna the trophy, I said, you're
the people's champion. And that was true. And it was
true because understandably, you were able to get your radio

(10:25):
audience to vote en masse for you. I knew though,
the producer part of my brain knew that this will
probably cause the show and the real producers to give
the judges a bit more of the sway. So, you know,
in all candor, you won according to the rules of

(10:47):
the show at the time. But I knew that something
would change, and it did.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
And my argument with the rules changing was there just
wasn't another example, really, pre- or post of my lightning
in a bottle scenario. So I didn't feel like it
really demanded a rule change because it hadn't happened a
couple or three times out of five. It was such
a weird and wild season. And I knew that. And I,

(11:16):
and I really, I gave it everything I had. Like I,
was working full-time, was training longer hours than anybody else
because I was so far behind. But I thought, they
shouldn't change the rules because this happens once. It's such
an outlier. And what they did the next season was,
is they allowed the judges to have a save. And
I thought that was good anyway. I didn't mind that anyway.
But I do take pride in making them change the rules.

(11:38):
As you should. As you should.

Speaker 7 (11:43):
Yeah, you were the precedent. I mean, they didn't have outliers, but...
You know, they were responding to, again, in all candor,
a significant response from a certain section of the audience
and felt that they need to give the judges a
little bit more oomph in the total process. So that's

(12:04):
how it played out.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
I felt it was a good look for a couple
of things. I thought it was a good look for
anybody in the audio medium. So all my podcast listeners,
all my radio listeners, that they're that dedicated to long
form content, right? To anybody that speaks in long form content,
there's a relationship. And it's frankly how this podcast ended
up on Netflix, right? We had such a following that
Netflix is like, we want that podcast. And so there

(12:27):
is such a, cause I didn't have as many Instagram
followers as a bunch of the people on the show.
You know, there was, uh, Alexis Wren, who had millions
because that was her thing. There was a few people
that had more social media, but social media doesn't have
the connection of long form audio. And I thought it
was a testament. And I think now we're seeing that
with podcasts to the relationship that somebody has in long

(12:50):
form audio medium. and how they feel they know them
and will follow them places, will buy products that they
are honest about. I thought it was a good look
for that.

Speaker 6 (12:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (12:59):
And this was, if my chronological memory is accurate, this
was what, 2018 that you won?

Speaker 1 (13:07):
That sounds about right.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
2018, 2019.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That's about right.

Speaker 7 (13:10):
So we've come a long way in terms of what
social media is. And you can look at the show.
I just did the 20th anniversary show with them in November.
And most of the kind of bookings they're doing now,
not all of them, but a good number of them
are influencers through social media. That's taken on a weight

(13:31):
that it didn't have even as recently as 2018.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
It was a fun year. And what it also helped
me do was I had like a ton of television
offers because people were like, we didn't know people cared.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
Let's address that because I think we both in separate
appearances on Cheryl Burke's former podcast talked about this. Before
they went to Tyra Banks to replace me, they went
to you, right?

Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
But in full transparency, I was told you were leaving.
It wasn't... I had to, they fired me. Well, that
was not the conversation that they had with me. It was, hey,
Tom is leaving at the end of this season. Would
you want to come and host Dancing with the Stars?
And I said, I think that would be great. But again,

(14:22):
I respected you so much. I was like, hey, can
I talk to Tom and get advice on this decision?
And they were contractually... We don't think you should do that.

Speaker 7 (14:31):
They are such weasels sometimes, aren't they?

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Honest to God. We're now going to go over to
Megan Maroney, who obviously had a massive year. And this
clip went super viral because she was talking about prepping
for her tour and wearing a weighted vest to get
in shape. When you're tour prepping, what did you say
you were doing your tour?

Speaker 9 (14:51):
Tour prep, yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Tour prep. What does that mean? So, no alcohol.

Speaker 9 (14:56):
No alcohol.

Speaker 10 (14:57):
Um, and it's really, I'm like a week and a
month out. So May 1st is when I really super
duper lock in with like the diet stuff right now.
It's just kind of been like, I'm not eating out
and like, it's mostly like steak, fish, vegetables, like the
boring stuff.

Speaker 9 (15:13):
Um, but it might get even crazier May 1st.

Speaker 8 (15:15):
We'll see.

Speaker 10 (15:16):
But anyways, it's like the diet aspect, no drinking. Um,
my rehearsals start tomorrow. I'm doing, I'll do all my
rehearsals in a weighted vest. I've underestimated how Sometimes my outfits,
because sometimes my outfits weigh like 10 to 15 pounds.
And when I've done the performance, I'm like, oh, shit,
like I am not in shape for this. So I'm

(15:37):
rehearsing in a weighted vest.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
That's crazy.

Speaker 9 (15:41):
Also the singing with a weighted vest on a treadmill,
doing that. Red light therapy.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
I was going to ask you about that.

Speaker 10 (15:53):
He actually gave me he was like I was asking
him about it because he had a red light, Matt.

Speaker 9 (15:57):
And he was like, oh, do you want this one?
I have an extra one.

Speaker 8 (15:59):
Just gave it to me. Like, absolutely.

Speaker 7 (16:01):
Yes.

Speaker 9 (16:02):
But it's the higher dose, Matt.

Speaker 10 (16:03):
So doing that every day, sauna and cold tub every day.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Physically, this feels like it's such a positive grind, though.
I don't think a lot of people would understand that.
That it takes all of that, like for you to
do all that just to get ready for this.

Speaker 7 (16:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (16:21):
And I, I mean, I think it's, I obviously, oh,
Lagree too. Have you ever been to Lagree?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's like a crazy plot. For those that don't know.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's like, it's like a Pilates machine times eight.

Speaker 4 (16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (16:31):
And then go super slow and die the whole time.
Like my legs fall asleep while I'm doing it. I'm like,
I'm not sure if this is good for me, but, um, yeah,
a lot of strength training too. But I, I think
that I've never taken touring as serious, like as far
as like the prep for it as I'm doing right now. But, um,
I want it to be the best show. And it's

(16:53):
the biggest one yet. It's going to be the biggest,
most involved show. So just really locking in.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
I had a doctor in here pretty recently. We were
talking about red light therapy and red light therapy. We
have a red light bed at the house.

Speaker 11 (17:06):
Oh, nice.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Beds and, you know, red light's great. And then the
deep red light, which is what that bed is. And how...
I'm cynical towards everything at this point. I've been burned
by everyone and cynical towards everything until it's proven until
I'm proven otherwise. Yeah, I know. I'm super fun to
be around. And so we were talking about so why

(17:30):
I started to believe that red light works because I
had to see data to go because otherwise you're just
laying in a tanning bed and you're not you're not tan.
That sucks. You just laid a tanning bed for 20 minutes.
You came out no tanner.

Speaker 8 (17:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
But there were these studies that NASA did on plants,
like broken plants. And they did a whole study with
them under red light and a whole study with them not,
just under sunlight. And they healed back at such a
faster rate under the red light than they did with sunlight.

Speaker 7 (17:58):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
So I can't see it.

Speaker 9 (18:01):
Right.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
But I believe it.

Speaker 8 (18:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (18:03):
They said it's like laying out in the sun, too,
but better.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
But better?

Speaker 4 (18:09):
What did you say?

Speaker 9 (18:10):
It's like vitamin D, basically.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (18:12):
Got it.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
I don't do that. I don't go to the sun. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (18:17):
I'm hoping that like the winter months in Nashville, because
this is like I just got it recently. So I'm
hoping like in the winter months when it's like the
seasonal depression comes out.

Speaker 9 (18:26):
I'll be like, no, me and my red light therapy
is for good.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
I have Tuesday depression. Have I told you about that?
Tuesday depression. I have Tuesday depression. That's why I go
into the comments.

Speaker 10 (18:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
That always. When you're doing this tour, are you keeping like...
How do you keep things a surprise nowadays?

Speaker 9 (18:43):
By not telling anyone?

Speaker 1 (18:44):
At all, though? Do you take everybody's phones? What do
you mean? I don't know if you're even tour prepping.
You're rehearsing. Oh, rehearsing?

Speaker 9 (18:53):
Oh, everybody knows better.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
But how do you not have random security people in there?

Speaker 9 (19:00):
We just don't.

Speaker 10 (19:00):
We keep that locked down. I think, too, obviously my
touring career is expanding. I think they said I have
16 trucks this year.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Holy crap.

Speaker 9 (19:12):
That's a lot of trucks.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's a lot of trucks. You know what I hear?
That's a lot of trucks to pay for.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
But good for you for needing them also. Like it's great.
It's both.

Speaker 10 (19:19):
So obviously with that many trucks, there's a lot more
people on tour, but a lot of my touring crew
is the same. They've been for a long time. So
it's kind of just an understanding.

Speaker 8 (19:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (19:30):
We have a good group.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
You're doing 49 shows on this tour?

Speaker 9 (19:37):
Is that true?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's what I see here. 49?

Speaker 7 (19:39):
49.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
It says- Maybe 49 in Summerfest?

Speaker 7 (19:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (19:43):
I thought it was 50, but maybe it's 49. 50
sounds better, so we'll go with that.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
And so if you're doing... Okay, let's say 50 shows.
Do you do different wardrobes every night?

Speaker 10 (19:56):
That would be a secret.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Love having Kane Brown in. We're friends. I feel like
he can get comfortable. And so this one, maybe... one
of the most viral clips of the past couple of years.
He was talking about finding out that he was biracial
later in life. And you'll hear it here. He said
he didn't even know he's black. So you're biracial. Were
you white or black growing up?

Speaker 11 (20:23):
I don't know what I was.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
I was just walking.

Speaker 11 (20:26):
I didn't know like really anything about races.

Speaker 8 (20:30):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
But what friends did you have?

Speaker 11 (20:32):
I had one black friend. And I know this sounds crazy,
but I just thought he stayed in the sun longer
than me.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Come on. I promise you.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Come on.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
I swear.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
That's not true.

Speaker 11 (20:41):
Dude, because if I don't go in the sun, I
get super pale. So I was like, okay, cool. And
then when I get in the sun, I get super dark.
And yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but I mean,
I'm in, it was week hair. So I'm like, I
might be eight years old. And I didn't find out
I was, I didn't find out of another race. Until

(21:04):
I got called the N-word in middle school. And then
I went back home and said, what is that? And
my mom told me. And it took my little brother
to tell me that I was half black.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
So you didn't know. But I guess there was no need.

Speaker 11 (21:18):
I never met my dad. And then my granddad, which
is my mom's dad, I called him Pop. He was
with me every day. And he was just a white man.
So that was, I never asked. I never asked. I
don't know what it was.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
He never got brought up.

Speaker 11 (21:33):
It was like my family just tried to completely ignore
the fact. And I'm a kid, so I'm not going
to sit there and be like, where's my dad? Because
my pop's right there. And then not to mention, I
had my stepdad in the picture too, which was my
little brother's dad. And he was with my mom. So
there wasn't a man that wasn't in the house. So
it wasn't necessarily me saying, where's my dad?

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Do you know your biological father now? Do you have
a relationship with him?

Speaker 2 (22:00):
No.

Speaker 11 (22:00):
That's another, this is probably going to get brought up,
bring some stuff up too. But yeah, I do not.
He's been in prison since 96. And that just goes to,
that side of the family for me is kind of crazy.
Love them. I've helped them out many times, but all

(22:20):
they do is you'll help them out. Then they talk
crap about you on social media when you don't. And
it's like, I'm not doing that. I've gave you, I've
gave all of them Multiple thousands of dollars. I've helped
multiple get into houses that they needed to. I've paid rent.
I've done so much. And then after, if I don't,
they just talk shit on Facebook and say, I have

(22:43):
all this money and don't help no family members, but
I'm all about family.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Bobby Bones.

Speaker 10 (22:50):
The Bobby Bones Show.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
The Bobby Bones Show. This one was pretty intense, but
it was super interesting. This is Mariana Vanzeller talking about
the cartel. And my question was, are there any basic
white guys in America that are in the cartel? How
active or how interested are cartels in middle, Midwest America?

(23:19):
Because I think of California and obviously the big cities.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
But I live in Nashville.

Speaker 12 (23:23):
That's such a good question.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Are they there? Great question. I feel like that's a
dumb question because I don't know.

Speaker 12 (23:28):
It's not a dumb question at all. So we did
a story for the last season of Trafficked, season five,
called Cartel USA. Because the more I reported on the cartel,
the more I realized that first, there's an enormous presence
of the cartel here, but also that it's not exactly
what you expect. So I started realizing that there was
a lot more presence of the cartel in small town
America than most people know. We think of cartel, we

(23:49):
think of drug distribution, we think LA, New York, Chicago,
big cities. And through my reporting, I started realizing, wait,
this is not exactly the case. And also we think
the cartel and we think Mexicans living here.

Speaker 8 (24:02):
Right.

Speaker 12 (24:02):
But I started realizing that was also not just that
the case that there were actual American citizens working and
collaborating and for the cartel and part of the cartel.
So we did that story. And yeah, one of the
biggest revelations was we spent a lot of time with
the cartel in small town in America. In fact, the
episode starts. with a case in Georgia in a small

(24:24):
town in Georgia. It was actually sort of in the
woods where there was a woman who was killed by
a member of a cartel. And it started a massive investigation,
and they realized, again, that there was a massive presence
of the cartel. And then, in fact, they prefer small
towns because there's less law enforcement, so there's less eyes
on them. And they're able to sort of do their work,

(24:45):
distribution and selling the drugs much, much easier.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
So are there generic white dudes like me that are
in the cartel in America?

Speaker 5 (24:52):
Yes.

Speaker 12 (24:52):
So one of the people we interviewed, that was my
favorite interview. One of my favorite interviews ever on, on traffic.
It was a guy that we called del gringo because, uh,
he was a gringo.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
I get called that by all my Mexican friends. Cause
I live in Texas for a long time. I know that.
I was like, yes, that's, that's me.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (25:09):
We thought it was a brilliant name because he doesn't
even speak a word of it, of Spanish. Uh, and, uh,
I don't even think he's been to Mexico, but he
had connections with the cartel. He was involved in the
drug business. And then they realized he was a really
good distributor. But here's what was amazing when I asked him,
so how do you distribute your drugs? Because he would
get massive amounts of fentanyl, meth, cocaine, whatever it was

(25:30):
that the cartel had and wanted him to distribute. It's
not as if he can ask, I want 10 kilos
of cocaine, ship it to me. It's whatever the cartel decides,
it's what he's going to be shipped. And once he
has it, he has to figure out how to distribute
across the U.S. And to his different buyers all over,
a lot of them in small-town America. And then he decided,
he realized that the best way to do this was

(25:52):
through Delta Airlines. It was actually commercial airlines, particularly Delta,
because they have a really good weight fee, luggage, what's
it called? The luggage baggage fee, which you can get
like 70 pounds for free or something like that. And
that's how he distributes most of his drugs.

Speaker 8 (26:11):
Isn't it mind-blowing?

Speaker 1 (26:12):
How do they not notice what's going through? Do they
cover it in something that doesn't allow the machines to
see through? Are they so scientifically advanced?

Speaker 12 (26:19):
I don't think the machines notice. I do think they're
very scientifically, not scientifically advanced, but they are very smart.
I once filmed a fentanyl being.

Speaker 13 (26:28):
Wrapped up and hidden.

Speaker 12 (26:30):
Inside in a way that was not detectable in on
the border crossing. And that was mind blowing how they
use tinfoil. So it's not detected by the machines, how
they use like softener and coffee powder so it's not
detected by the dogs. And it was all this way

(26:51):
that they can come across. And I think they possibly use,
I didn't actually see them hiding the drugs in the
case of El Ringo, but he says what he does
is that he uses women a lot of the times.
It's women carrying the bags. And a lot of times
it's strippers, actually.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
I had a friend that was an Olympic athlete and
what this reminds me of is with steroids or any
performance enhancing drugs, I should say, but I think it's
easy to say steroids, that He would say, if you
got caught using, you're as dumb as a rock because
the users were so far ahead of how they were
trying to find the people using that they were months ahead.

(27:26):
So if any trace of anything was found, you just
didn't follow easy protocol to follow.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
That the people that would get busted, he would be shocked.
He would go, either they were so sloppy.

Speaker 6 (27:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Or.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
That wasn't what it is. It was a trace of
something else that was confused. And a bit it sounds
like that, where they know how they're searching. They're ahead
of it a bit.

Speaker 8 (27:43):
Yes, 100%.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
So they're able to beat it.

Speaker 12 (27:45):
Yeah, and we are not even talking about corruption, where
a lot of times what happens, and this was instrumental
in our whole reporting for Cartel USA. I think it
was the sort of scariest learning, even more than the
fact that there are Americans operating within the cartel and
the fact that they're operating in small-town America. was realizing
the extent of corruption that exists. You would not have

(28:05):
the level of drugs in this country, distribution of drugs
in this country, even if they come from Mexico, without
enormous level of corruption, everything from small town police offices
and sheriff departments to federal agencies. And this was something
that was corroborated, not only with cartel people that I
spoke to, but also with law enforcement agencies, agents themselves

(28:28):
who said, it is known, this is happening.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
We got Luke Combs here and the insight on songwriting
and music. But really, the clip was the parenting advice
he gave me because we had not had our baby yet.
Give me some advice. I'm about to have my first kid.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Oh, man.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I don't even know. It's like just.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
Oh, gosh. Don't... Just don't... This is going to be
so weird to say, but just... And this is... It's
the absolute antithesis of what you should do, but just
don't worry about it, man. You can't. You can't really
control it. I think a fear for me— Yeah, it's
just going to be chaos. It's going to be a

(29:11):
polar shift of your entire life.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Everybody says that, but until you experience it, I don't
think you can understand.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
And you can't.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
I don't understand that.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
You're never ready. You're not going to be ready. You'll
be ready when it happens because you'll just have been—
I mean, like, this is a stark comparison, but, like,
a soldier is never ready for war. And it's not
the same thing, obviously. But, like, that's the only metaphor
I can come up with. Like, you're never ready to
do that until you're there and then you've done it
and then you're like, oh. I guess I can do

(29:41):
this because I kind of have to and like when
you have the kid it's like you got to go
and there's no other choice like the kid can't do
anything for itself like your baby can't do anything for
itself I would say the my biggest piece of advice
is that like the baby, the like baby with an

(30:01):
infant that comes out, it does not need you in
any way. Your wife needs you a lot though. Got it.
Your wife is going to be so tired. It's going
to be so exhausting because she's going through the same
thing you're going through, but in it, there's also a
physical element for her. Like her body is going to
be completely different after this thing. And it's going to
be like, she's never experienced that before. And she's going

(30:24):
to be dealing with all these new emotions and, You're
going to be going through all these things. So helping
her and like helping her through it and doing everything
to make her life as comfortable and easy as it
can be through that process to me is the most
benefit that you can be for the child because the
child needs your wife. It does not need you. It

(30:46):
needs you to help the wife so she can help
the baby. You know, obviously you're going to hold it
and feed it and be around. Obvious. That's obvious. But
like it really benefits from that relationship with her in
those formative months. And she's going to need a lot
of support, man. She's going to be really tired and
stressed and not getting enough sleep. And you're not going
to be getting good sleep. And you just got to

(31:08):
be a team, dude. You just can't like you can't
ever like lash out at each other because it's like
you're not it's not it's not you versus the baby
or you versus your wife. Like this is the new team.
The new team has three players on it now. And
it's like, how do we dish the ball to the
new teammate? How do we get everybody involved? And that's

(31:31):
your role. You're basically point guard. Don't ever shoot.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Just pass.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Just set everybody up.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
Just set everybody up for success, man. You know what
I mean? Like, you're John Stockton out there, man. Like, no,
you don't need to do.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
Why am I going to be white?

Speaker 1 (31:46):
You've got to give me a white guy. Am I
that white where you can't give me Chris Paul?

Speaker 4 (31:50):
Yeah, okay. You're magic.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Fair enough.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
Yeah. But, yeah, you just got to– that's the thing
is you just got to be there. Like, you're a
support player, basically. You're an offensive lineman. You're not ever
going to score a touchdown. You're not ever going to
run the ball for 80 yards. Like, you just got
to help the people that are doing that do it.
You know what I mean? And the only other person

(32:14):
doing it is your wife. So you just got to
block for her, basically.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
A really moving segment that went super viral was from
Ashley McBride. The story that really popped from this episode
was the moment that she realized that she was an
alcoholic and knew she had to go to rehab. Things
do get pretty emotional here. When you had, and I
saw the video, like you said you're recreating.

Speaker 6 (32:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Was that triggering for you at all?

Speaker 14 (32:39):
Like third take-ish, you know, and we were having, we
were trying to be lighthearted about it because everybody in
the filming crew, everybody at Warner is, everybody at Q Prime.

Speaker 8 (32:49):
Everybody's in the know.

Speaker 14 (32:51):
When I went away, it was not because I got
up and said, hey guys, I think I have a
problem and I should go away.

Speaker 13 (32:59):
It was intervention style.

Speaker 14 (33:00):
And so everybody knows that there's a chance.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
That this is.

Speaker 14 (33:05):
Really, really hard on us. But we did good, kind
of lighthearted, blocked it a couple times. And by the
time we filmed it for real, those bottles are full
of apple cider vinegar, sweet tea, water.

Speaker 13 (33:19):
I have no idea what's in what bottle. I didn't
feel them. So those reactions are real.

Speaker 14 (33:24):
And then the farther into it I got, Being like
looking in that mirror and then grabbing a bottle and
then pouring it and then drinking the bottle and then
drinking the drink and then being.

Speaker 13 (33:33):
Like bigger bottle, bigger glass, pour two, pour one for you.
I'll drink it too.

Speaker 14 (33:36):
And then the faster I got into that and the
more it got on my face and kind of everywhere.
I don't know what exactly. I'm not a neuroscientist, but
something clicked and went, oh, no. We're doing we're off
the rails. So very last take. I'd be happy to
send you the clip. Um, as I was drinking and like,

(33:58):
you know, throwing the trash can behind me, being silly, all.

Speaker 13 (34:01):
Of that stuff.

Speaker 14 (34:01):
I looked into the mirror and then got scared. And
then for some reason I started just kind of picking
up on the set. I've already kicked stuff off the
bed and kick stuff off the nightstand. I started picking
up and then I started crying. And then I just,
I got in the bed. That's a prop bed. And
I got in it and cried and nobody said cut
and nobody moved. And then finally Brandon said, okay, cut.

(34:27):
And I tried to make light of it. And I
sat up and I said, oh, it's just like the
real drunk me. And I looked over in my team,
especially sweet Dana, who was, I mean, she's the glam artist,
best friend, assistant team.

Speaker 13 (34:39):
And if I tear up, forgive me. Just crocodile tears.
I was like, oh no, I hurt her again.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh, do we have a tissue?

Speaker 13 (34:47):
I didn't realize that that would be, it'll stop.

Speaker 8 (34:49):
It always stops.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
That was tough.

Speaker 14 (34:55):
And what we follow that with is tough because we
shot them one right after the other. So I messed
up my makeup and did all that stuff. And then
we shot The Bottle Tells Me So immediately.

Speaker 13 (35:10):
Same bedroom, same prop bed.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Do you mind some Arkansas tissue, which is toilet paper? Yeah.

Speaker 13 (35:16):
No, I would love that.

Speaker 8 (35:16):
Okay, good.

Speaker 13 (35:18):
I'm surprised I don't have a handkerchief.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
In my pocket.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
And for those thinking that I'm insulting Arkansas, I also
am from Arkansas.

Speaker 13 (35:25):
That is correct.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah. When I ask for a napkin at home, that
means a paper towel.

Speaker 8 (35:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (35:29):
A paper towel is everything.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
That's interesting.

Speaker 14 (35:33):
This is a Viva.

Speaker 8 (35:34):
This is a really nice paper towel.

Speaker 14 (35:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
And I definitely didn't.

Speaker 13 (35:39):
There's got to be some kind of record going from
everything's fine to tearing up.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
I really didn't plan to jump in this hard this quick.
I was just listening to the song and I was like,
I really enjoy that lyric at the beginning. And I
knew what you were trying to establish by it. And
so I just, because I was listening to it again
right before you came in. But you talking about that,
whenever you went in, because I had to put my
mom in rehab a couple of times before she died.
And it's never a fun thing. It was always a
terrible thing. But she never stayed. She left every time.

(36:06):
Because she had the ability to do that. I check
her in, but she's an adult.

Speaker 13 (36:14):
Technically, I had the ability to leave.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Did you ever want to?

Speaker 13 (36:17):
I kept being like.

Speaker 8 (36:20):
I can't do this.

Speaker 13 (36:22):
I don't know where I am.

Speaker 7 (36:24):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 14 (36:26):
I have to do this. I mean, I'm going to
do it. They got me here. I'm going to do it.
But I just kept being.

Speaker 13 (36:31):
Like, there's no way I'm doing this for 30 days.

Speaker 9 (36:33):
That's insane.

Speaker 13 (36:36):
I don't live under a bridge. I didn't hurt anybody.

Speaker 14 (36:38):
And now I can hear my other self going, oh, kid,
sit down and shut up and put your seatbelt on.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Why do you think you stayed?

Speaker 13 (36:47):
I was going to die.

Speaker 14 (36:51):
Yeah, I mean, that's the reason I had to go
there intervention style. God, I wish we gave an award
for who cries the most often.

Speaker 7 (37:00):
I woke up.

Speaker 14 (37:05):
At another artist's house, another female artist. And, um, and
if I told you who you would not be shocked,
of course. And I woke up in a bed that's
not mine in pajamas that aren't mine. And I was like,
Oh my God, that must've been a doozy.

Speaker 13 (37:21):
I'm thirsty.

Speaker 8 (37:22):
I don't know where I am and I don't know
where water is.

Speaker 13 (37:26):
So I'll just go find water.

Speaker 14 (37:27):
And when I went to find water, I found a
living room and, um, In that living room was my team,
Dana and John Peets and my day to day. And
I said, I looked at them and that artist was
also on the couch. And I said, okay, I don't

(37:52):
know where my boots are, but I need my boots.
And they said, we need you to stop. And I said,
I need me to stop too. And that was when
I found out that she took me to her house
that night after we'd been out to make sure I
didn't die.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (38:07):
But I didn't.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Was there a point, not was there, at what point
later did you appreciate how hard it was even for
them to do that for you?

Speaker 14 (38:18):
There's so much that I look at now and all
during the process. And it was, I say funny, but
I'm going to use that in kind of a loose term.
I'd be at treatment and people would say, oh, I
really like those shoes. And I'd go, thanks, they're not mine. And, oh,
cute pajamas. And I was like, my clothes aren't even
here yet. And when I think about Dana and Blakely

(38:43):
having to go shopping and find me clothes and having
to go through my stuff and to decide whether to
tell my family, I cannot.

Speaker 8 (38:54):
I cannot.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
I cannot.

Speaker 14 (38:57):
Fathom or make up for how much I put them through.
And that's another reason to stay is I didn't die.
And I have the chance right now. And yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm hurting me, whatever. And I'm hurting them. And if

(39:17):
this goes any farther, this is.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Really, really ugly.

Speaker 13 (39:22):
This is like, they'll have to make a movie about it.

Speaker 6 (39:26):
Bad.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
So I just buckled.

Speaker 14 (39:29):
Down and decided, well, I'm here and technically I can leave,
but we're far enough out in the middle of nowhere
that I wouldn't know what direction to go.

Speaker 8 (39:39):
Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm evidently a drunk.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
Evidently.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
You had to have that version.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
First, right?

Speaker 8 (39:47):
I did.

Speaker 14 (39:48):
And when I was like, I don't, you know, filling
out different, you know, they give you a worksheet and
can you list this and that?

Speaker 13 (39:53):
And they're like, how much do you drink? And I'm like,
out of time, the same as everyone else.

Speaker 8 (39:58):
I just drink two glasses at a time.

Speaker 14 (40:02):
Having to go through that to illustrate to myself. And
at the, you know, at first you're like, okay, I'll
fill out the worksheet, but whatever. Like, again, I do
my job. I do my job well.

Speaker 13 (40:13):
No one is hurt.

Speaker 8 (40:14):
I pay my bills.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
I think I'm okay.

Speaker 14 (40:17):
And then as you are filling out those worksheets and
doing those talks and everything, you go, oh, I'm not okay.
Oh my gosh, what a POS.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
And oh my God, that's me, how terrifying.

Speaker 13 (40:33):
And oh my God, that's me, how sad.

Speaker 14 (40:35):
And all of that, just looking at everything that you
did and accomplished and while being that ill and what
else could you have accomplished if you hadn't been drunk?

Speaker 1 (40:53):
How raw did it feel coming out? Oh my God.

Speaker 14 (40:56):
And when I left, I went to a couple of
my practitioners and therapists and I said, okay, when I
leave here and I left on a Wednesday, Tuesday, When
I leave here, you need me to never, ever, ever
encounter alcohol again. I will leave here at noon. I
will be around alcohol by 10 p.m. I will be

(41:19):
in the bus.

Speaker 13 (41:20):
I've already fixed it at this time to where one
of my buses, there.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Is no alcohol.

Speaker 14 (41:24):
The other bus, you can have alcohol on it. And
I said, I'm not going to drink. I know that
I won't. And you don't know me well enough to
know that if I've made a decision, that's it. I
need you to give me the tools to be around
it tomorrow. It is our entire industry. It's one of

(41:45):
the most loved and celebrated things about our industry.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
I built a.

Speaker 13 (41:48):
Career on it.

Speaker 14 (41:49):
I was literally, before I ever popped on the scene,
dubbed the whiskey drinking badass. So now I need you
to give me the tools to.

Speaker 8 (42:00):
Not do it.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Stella Lefty, one of our most viral episodes. I mean,
TikTok went crazy. And it was just her talking about
her song Boston and how it blew up overnight. That song,
did it blow up on your TikTok virally?

Speaker 8 (42:16):
Boston.

Speaker 7 (42:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (42:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Is that where that song started too?

Speaker 8 (42:19):
Oh, yeah. That's where every song for me has started.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Who did you write that one with? I wrote that.

Speaker 8 (42:24):
I wrote the chorus that alone when I was out here.
And then I brought it to Grace and Joe, who's
like my producer in Nashville. And then we finished it together.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
And did you sing just a chorus of it on
TikTok or did you finish the whole song first?

Speaker 8 (42:42):
No, like on TikTok, the only thing I sang was
like the first half of the chorus.

Speaker 13 (42:47):
So nothing else existed.

Speaker 8 (42:48):
So by the time the video was doing well, I
was like, fuck, there's no song.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
You have success on an incomplete song.

Speaker 8 (42:55):
Yes, on like one line of a song. And I
was like, there's literally no song. And I was like,
I don't even know what the song is going to like.
I didn't even have an idea of what this like
the verse was going to sound like.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Was it just kind of a throwaway when you wrote it?
Because it was so limited. So did you just go,
I'm just going to do this, put it up for
something to post? Or did you think I'm going to
do this and if it works, I'll continue to grow it?

Speaker 8 (43:17):
No, I wasn't even thinking about... I was honestly, like,
I just had a second to kill before I was
going on a date. And I was, like, in Nashville
to be writing, and I hadn't written anything that day,
and so I was, like, feeling like I needed to
be more productive. And so I was like, I'll just
sit at the piano and just see, like, whatever comes out,
and then, like, go on the date and, like, you know,
do whatever else tomorrow. Like, I'm sure I had, like,

(43:39):
a session or whatever it was. But I... So I
wasn't thinking about it. Like, I wasn't thinking about anything.
I really just posted the song because... I was just
in this phase where I was just posting all the time,
which is, I guess, the phase I'm always in, posting
all the time.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Do you do that now still? Do you have time
to do that now?

Speaker 8 (43:54):
Yeah, I post all the time.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Even as busy as it is?

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Is it weird to kill it now?

Speaker 8 (44:00):
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 (44:01):
You're just killing it. You're killing it. You're selling it.

Speaker 8 (44:02):
Oh, to kill it? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Oh.

Speaker 8 (44:04):
I was like, kill the song.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I was like, to get rid of songs. No, it is.

Speaker 8 (44:08):
Is it weird?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (44:10):
Yeah, it's weird. It's definitely weird. But I really don't.
Now there's not so much time to even think about that.
You know, I'm more just like I want to like
maintain what I had going on before, like the way
that I was writing all the time. Like I want
to just I want to keep that.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
When you come to town, are you normally jam packed
since you don't live here and you're just getting you
got to do like 11 things?

Speaker 8 (44:33):
Yeah, now.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Has today been a packed day? Yeah. Walk me through it.

Speaker 8 (44:37):
Okay, what did we do?

Speaker 1 (44:39):
That's how you know it's packed. What did we do?

Speaker 8 (44:42):
Honestly, it's nice. I've been meeting a bunch of radio stations,
which is really nice. I get to meet all these
people or see people that I've met during CMA Fest
and see them again. But we did a CMA event
for CMA EDU. Yeah, CMA EDU.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 8 (45:01):
CMA EDU.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
But it was awesome.

Speaker 8 (45:03):
Like there was 50 students there. So I sang for them,
which was truly terrifying. Singing for people that are close
in age to you is like one of the scariest
things in the world.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Because? Well, it's just like, I don't know.

Speaker 8 (45:17):
Like none of us know how to act right now.
I don't know how to act. And I know that
you don't know how to act. Like, you know what
I mean? Because they're not going to like they don't
they're not singing back the words. And if they are
singing back the words, it's like shy. And then I
feel shy because, you know, I'm like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yeah, that's shy on shy crime. That usually isn't good.

Speaker 8 (45:36):
Shy on shy crime.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
That's usually not good for like performance.

Speaker 7 (45:40):
No.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (45:41):
No, but especially like 50, you know, 20 something year olds.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
So then how do you get through that? Do you
fake it at first and then it catches up to you? Meaning... Yeah.

Speaker 8 (45:50):
Yeah, I definitely. But the good like I really I
think with these songs, like I truly love these songs.
So I don't feel like when I'm singing them, like
I have wave of happiness doesn't come over me naturally.
So then I do end up feeling better. But there's
definitely a period where I'm like, oh, my God.

Speaker 6 (46:05):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
And we're back on the Bobby cast.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Do you enjoy performing now?

Speaker 8 (46:22):
I do.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Like you found it.

Speaker 8 (46:24):
I do enjoy it. But like, I am so nervous
every time before I get on stage in any setting,
like freaking out. And I'm like, I'm not, I can't
do it. I can't get on the stage.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Whenever people come in, a lot of times they bring
in albums that mean a lot to them. And if
you don't mind picking this one up here that you
brought in, I'd love for you to tell me why
you picked this and what it is and show the
camera here. Well, no, you show it to everybody watching
on Netflix. Show them the album.

Speaker 8 (46:47):
Where do I show? This way?

Speaker 7 (46:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah. And so tell me what it is and why
that album is it.

Speaker 8 (46:53):
Okay. This is really thought out because I am a
huge Luke Combs fan. And I've been a huge, this
is for you. This one's for you. Not this is
for you. This one's for you.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Who's on first in me right now?

Speaker 4 (47:05):
I don't, what?

Speaker 1 (47:06):
This is for me. This is for me.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
No.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
I don't know what you just said. I'm confused.

Speaker 8 (47:11):
I've been told that I don't speak English.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
No, I mumble, but you just said this is for you,
but this is for you.

Speaker 8 (47:16):
No, this is for you, but this one's for you.
The album is called This One's For You.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Now we're there. Now we're there.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
So this one's for you, the album. You actually brought
that for me.

Speaker 7 (47:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
That is so nice. Okay, now why'd you pick that album?
This is for you.

Speaker 8 (47:29):
This one's for you. Okay, so I'm a huge Luke
Holmes fan. And when I was debating on what album
I felt had the biggest weight and was a no-skip
album in my life, the first thought was like, okay,
the first Taylor Swift album had a huge impact on
my life. Those were the first songs I ever learned
how to play. That's what made me fall in love

(47:50):
with music. But then.
When I discovered Luke Holmes when I was a freshman
in high school, like my whole everything was changed. Like
I only listened to this album, every single song in
this album, probably every single day for four years driving
to school. And they are some of the best songs
that have ever been written.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
And the final viral clip of this is Morgan Evans.
And this is one of those where he's my friend.
So I felt a little protective, but also I felt
like I could go into places that maybe other people
would not feel they could go. Man, this one turned
into a fight online. This one got crazy. But it
was Morgan Evans talking about the moment he found out
that his wife, Kelsey Ballerini, wanted a divorce. When the

(48:31):
divorce was finalized, how did that feel?

Speaker 2 (48:33):
When it was finalized? Oh, dude, it was pretty surreal.
It all happened super quick.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (48:47):
I mean, from finding out that that was... what Kelsey
wanted to do to getting a lawyer and having a
prenup and having three calls or four calls or something
with the lawyer and signing the documents in the parking

(49:07):
lot of the Ryman in the rain to going home.
That all happened in three and a half, four months
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
How did you find out she wanted a divorce?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
She told me.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Sit down. Let's have a talk.

Speaker 4 (49:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Were you expecting that conversation?

Speaker 2 (49:27):
I was not expecting that conversation.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
No.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Um, and maybe that was me being naive. I don't know,
but I, I definitely wasn't and took me by surprise, but, um, Yeah,
that whole time is such a blur, hey. Like it
almost feels like somebody else just from where I'm sitting now.
Like I just look back and I'm like, oh, my God.
It's just confused guy, you know. And I think even

(49:54):
when I look back at like there was an interview
that I did with you when Over For You came out.
And I look back at that guy doing that interview.
Sometimes it pops up on whatever social media. And I
just look like I'm just like sad. trying to make
sense of where I'm at, you know. And that was

(50:15):
what that period was. I don't know that I should
have been doing interviews at that point, if I'm being honest.
When I look at that guy, I'm like, oh, my God.
Like you were not like hitting me with hardball questions
or anything. And I was just there kind of just
like really sad. So, yeah, it was just a kind
of a whirlwind, life-changing moment.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
What do you tell your parents? After she says you
want to get a divorce, you just call them? Hey, guys,
this is what's happening.

Speaker 14 (50:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
What did they say? I think they were kind of
confused too because they'd been there at the house with us.
I may confuse timing, but within like three months before that.
And so they were kind of confused too. And like
I said, they've been married for 45 years. They've been

(51:04):
together since like. 16 and 14 or something. So I
don't really know much about breaking up and stuff like that.
But yeah, I mean, super concerned for me and obviously
like wanting to make sure that I was okay. I
think that was the general, the general sentiment.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Did you write any music in the heart of your despair?

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Yeah, some.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Was it good?

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Well, I say some. So there was like four months
there where I didn't really write. but for the song,
I have a few, that was the only song that
I wrote during that period.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
And then, which was a great song, by the way,
you came out and played it at our show that night.
We set up some keys.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Um, yeah, thank you. I love that song. And, and,
and the way people have reacted to that song have
kind of changed the way that I think about like
how powerful music can be in a lot of ways. But, um, yeah,
I definitely wrote a lot of songs during that time
about it. Um, or just about how I was feeling really.

(52:09):
And a lot of that was like cathartic and a
lot of that was just like trying to express things
that I didn't know how to express.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Was any of it good though?

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Man, I have a hard time thinking real sad songs
are good.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
See, I only think sad songs are good. That's the difference.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
It's funny you say that. I don't think that about
other people's sad songs because I think to me it's
so easy– Like we could take any object in here
and you and I could write a sad song about
it at a higher level than a happy song, I think.
If we had like 20 minutes to write it. You
know what I mean by that? And so I think

(52:49):
as a songwriter, I've always had that in my mind
of like, it seems like the easy way out. Unless
it's a really real thing. Like Over For You is
a really real feeling for me. And the song Things
That We Drink To was, you know, my longtime manager.
passed suddenly and I wrote that on the day of
his memorial service and so I do have these sad

(53:11):
songs that mean a lot but generally on a normal
day when I'm trying to express something I'm trying to
find the positive in it or look for at least
a positive way to look at it if that makes
sense with.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
This new music and you wrote a lot about your
last few years yeah right yeah Because of how you were,
I feel, unfairly written about, did you treat that a
little more precious about what you were saying outwardly because
you wanted it to represent the actual truth?

Speaker 7 (53:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I was really thoughtful about the songs that I chose
for this record from that period of time. I obviously
wrote more than 11 songs in the last three years,
but these 11 tracks to me they all say something
important on that journey of the last three years. So,
you know, that was starting back in my hometown post

(54:12):
wild ayahuasca trip time. And, uh, yeah, all the way
through the kind of stages of it. And, and then,
you know, finding the ground again and, um, and then,
you know, building from there.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
And that's our most viral clip special. That's fine. Make
sure you subscribe to the Bobby cast. I know this
is not a Bobbycast. We did this on the Bobby
Bone Show feed. But the Bobbycast is really a great show.
You can go on Netflix and watch it too. And
that's it. That's what's up. Thank you so much. Hope
you enjoyed it.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
I did.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Well, I did when I was doing them all. But
that's it. And we'll see you guys next time.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Bobby Bone Show.