Bourbon, Ballads and Big Tech's Threat to Songwriting :: Ep 69 Try That in a Small Town Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So everyone knows like where Joe Biden fell off
the bicycle right.
Everyone's seen that viral clipthat's so good.
So I was talking to Neil beforeall you latecomers got here.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
We were on time for the show.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'd be here to your stomping ground.
It's okay, but I was tellingNeil that's like where he fell
off.
It's just like in a parking lot.
It's like 20 minutes from whereI grew up.
It's in Rehoboth Beach, that'swhere Joe Biden's beach house is
, but it's just in the parkinglot where I pull up to go to the
beach.
It's the cheapest parkingaround, that's where I go, and

(00:33):
he just fell off right there.
So someone on Google Mapsrenamed that one spot, that
parking lot, brandon Falls.
Are you serious?
I'm dead serious.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
That's amazing, dude, that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
So we'll just be writing songs early and thinking
, okay, if I get any kind ofidea, personally I think, okay,
that's Aldine.
First thing I'm going to do iscall Neil and if he loves it,
then we'll save it, tuck it awayand then start working on it.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Then, if he doesn't, then I'll try to write it with
somebody else, but you're justtrying to write wait, wait, wait
what if you don't like it, youknow most people just want to
exist in in a landscape ofcommon sense and just exist.
No one, you know nobody wants.
I don't know anyone who that'smoved here from california that
is trying to maybe force theirpolicies.
Most of them are trying toescape it and just live.

(01:22):
Force their policies.
Most of them are trying toescape it and just live normally
.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Maybe some of those people are in Nashville proper.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
I mean, Nashville is more Democratic, yeah of course,
the Try that in a Small TownPodcast begins now.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
And we're back with the Try that in a Small Town
podcast, if anybody ever wonderswho's doing that crazy voice on
the eSpaces intro.

Speaker 7 (01:53):
You're welcome eSpacescom.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
This is the Try that, in a Small Town podcast Coming
to you from the Patriot MobileStudios Powered by eSpacescom,
try that in this small townpodcast coming to you from the
patriot mobile studios, uh,powered by e-spacescom nailed it
.
We love it here, we absolutelylove her.

Speaker 7 (02:18):
That's thrash.
Thank you, we got kaylo tk.
I'm due hello, we're gonna gowith you.
Yeah, okay, I mean that's finenow I'm gonna go with douche, oh
no.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Oh no, let's take it right into our new episode.
Yeah, exactly, it blends sowell.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
It is so you guys are going to want to check this out
.
This is very, very different.
Tonight we have a guest on.
His name is Christian Hodges.
He has a podcast of his ownamerica don't give up, isn't
that?
Right, he has a book, uh, withthe same title.
You'll want to check this out.

Speaker 7 (02:51):
Uh, he's 20 years old yeah, he was nobody's supposed
to be.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
That be our grandson yeah, he wrote the book when he
was 17, I think yeah, crazy,this kid is impressive, uh, and
I don't want to call him a kidbecause he's got an old soul and
he's he's a man now.
Yeah, it's, it's really coolwhat's about to happen.
He's gonna he's gonna basicallyinterview us.

Speaker 7 (03:15):
I think it's gonna go out on both podcasts, um I was
a little uncomfortable at first,without being interviewed on my
own podcast.
I was a little little, I didn'tknow what was coming.
Well, he was sitting in yourchair.
So I mean, that's it.
That's uncomfortable at first,without being interviewed on my
own podcast.
I was a little little, I didn'tknow what was coming.
Well, he was sitting in yourchair or something.
That's what it was.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Maybe that was it.
Well, this is the intro, so youreally don't know what happened
.
We're fooling people intobelieving that it's about to
happen?

Speaker 7 (03:38):
The secret's out.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
The secret's out.
We already did the interview.
We're just trying to make youbelieve this is the intro.
You see what we did.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
Who needs?

Speaker 4 (03:50):
AI, but it's actually .
I think you guys are going toreally enjoy this.
Maybe it'll be a thing.

Speaker 5 (03:57):
Maybe we can do it, maybe that'll be a thing that we
have other people come on andWhile Tom Brady, come on and
interview us.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Interview us Because really we're very interesting.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
Very yeah.
I think, so We'll find out,won't we?

Speaker 3 (04:11):
And we have a lot of spare time, yeah, so much spare
time.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Anyway, let's not waste any more time.
Let's get to it with ChristianHodges.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
We're back for season two of America.
Don't Give Up.
We're starting off strong forseason two of America.
Don't Give Up, we're startingit off strong.

Speaker 7 (04:26):
Jason Aldean's guy, some of his writers, you're a
little too comfortable on ourset.
I like it I wasn't expectingthat comfortable Really.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
No, I like it.

Speaker 7 (04:37):
The Lord said have dominion.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Proceed, sir, I love this.

Speaker 7 (04:42):
This is a cool format here.
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
There we go.
You guys are in the hot seattonight.
Okay, all right.
These are the guys who wroteTry the Another Small Town Back
when the BLM stuff broke out, Iwas about 15.
What I just turned, 20 lastweek.
Are you serious?
No, bro, I just turned 20.
I remember, wait, you're 20?
I'm 20.

(05:04):
Wait a minute I'm going to makeyou guys feel old a little bit.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
We got shoes older than you, that we use on stage.
I was going to ask if youwanted something to drink, but I
guess not, no.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You got songs older than me.
Oh God, here we go.
Uh-oh, here we go.
I'm going to get kicked out.
Here we go, I'm going to getkicked out.
But these are the guys who wereat Trident, in a small town
Back when that stuff broke out,because you guys released that
just before BLM broke out, rightIf?

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I remember.
Yeah, it was right around thattime.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Just about before.
Yeah, I think I was going to mybrother's graduation in West
Virginia when the George Floydstuff broke on the TV.
That's when I remember seeingit.
That kind of got my start inpolitics a little bit and threw
me into it.
But back then what's goingthrough your head to release
that?
Before the BLM stuff broke outno one knew George Floyd was

(05:57):
going to happen.
But you guys were already aheadof the curve.
You didn't release it for theBLM stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
It was well after George.
Floyd we're not great at timingand remembering things like
that, but it really wasn't.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
We didn't write it in response to BLM that's the way
I ever took it, of coursedefinitely not the case that's
exactly right.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
Jason's vision for that song was always, once he
heard the song and liked it, itwas always to release it with a
video, yeah, together at thesame time.
Um, what happened was the label, I think, kind of got scared of
the video and said, well, let'slet the song do its thing first
and then put the video out.
It was supposed to come outtogether and it really wasn't

(06:43):
trying to prove any point otherthan just look how crazy stuff
is, and do we really like theway things are right now?
So it certainly wasn't a timingthing or anything like that.
It was just looking back on it.
It was a very crazy time and Ithink that's why it struck a
nerve is that it was hard tolook at for a lot of people that

(07:05):
that was happening.
That's real footage that's notthat's not acting, that's not,
you know, scripted, you know.
So I think it hit people in aweird way what year was it,
kaylo, that you saw?

Speaker 7 (07:17):
what year was it that that all came?
I don't.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
I don't remember what I mean it had to be when the
song came out in may so it wouldhave been.
Yeah, we were talking about itover Christmas break, so it
seems like it was 22.
Yeah, it was K-Lo, so I thinkit was 22.
K-lo came up with the title Okay, but it was in response to just
like what happened, I think, inCincinnati, where you had a
group of people beating up oneguy, right Okay, and just

(07:43):
kicking him in the head, hittinghim in the head as hard as
possible.
That just happened.
I was watching Fox News and Ijust saw they put together a
bunch of violence like that justa little lady getting hit in
the face with her mask on, youknow, just a stranger knocks her
completely out, and they go tothe next frame and it's six
people beating people, beatingup a 70 year old man and stuff

(08:06):
like that.
And so I just got to thinkingabout all that and and I just
got madder and madder as I wasthinking about it and I just
said, try that in a small town,just kind of in anger, you know,
and and then, when I did,that's when I thought oh all
right, that could be let me callneil real quick, and so and so,
and so we did, and that's howthat that started and you can
take over the story no, it wasjust a response to that.

Speaker 7 (08:29):
We write we.
That's when we wrote ontuesdays, yeah, and he and I was
ready to play golf because itwas a pretty day, and he said I
don't think we're playing golftoday, and so he told me the
title and I was like, oh my god,here we go.
And it was like this thing hasto be written exactly like you
would think we didn't think itwas going to get cut you thought
it was too political, or youjust didn't think.

(08:50):
Yeah, I just didn't know it wasjust, there's only we.
We said that day we kind of gotstarted on a little bit and got
through it and I go, dude, Iwas like there's only one artist
on the planet that would evereven consider saying this.
And that's when we called Curtand Tully.
It was like, dude, you've gotto help us finish this song.
And the rest was history.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, so you said you just came up with the title
just off the cuff, out of anger,Like when you're going to write
songs.
Do you usually come up with thetitle before, or does it matter
?
Is there any process to it?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
I like to have something before, just so you
don't come in empty.
You know, but everybody does itdifferently.
You know somebody else mightjust have a groove going and
then the idea people will bescanning through see if they
have an idea for that and youguys may do it differently, but
it happens in all there's no setthing.

Speaker 7 (09:41):
That's the cool thing I love about writing with all
three of these guys is kaylo isa great idea, guy like try, that
in small town was his title,tough crowd was his, was his
title.
And then and then I'll getmusical inspiration and tracks
from these two guys that arelike will totally inspire a
whole song.
I mean the whole thing can be.
I'll see it when I hear theirtracks and stuff and and I hear

(10:04):
that stuff and then if we take asong that we've started or a
title to them and go in thestudio, they actually make it a
song Kurt turns into the madscientist.
I don't even see his face.
The rest of the day he's justdoing this on the computer like
this and putting track, and thenhe picks up a guitar and plays
and Tully's over there bitchingat me.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I say, come on, neil, that line was great.
Talk to us, we're right here,you can't avoid that.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
But does it matter whether you record the track
first or write?

Speaker 5 (10:35):
the lyrics, I don't care.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
You just put them together, mash them together.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Generally, what we like to do is we'll go into
writing and will have some, someideas, some some landscape of a
thought, a sonic piece, and,like kayla said, I like to look
through the, the titles and seewhat.
What does that feel like, youknow?
And and I never like to startany kind of right without a any

(11:02):
kind of title or hook or thought.
It just leads to nowhere.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Just an idea, yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
I mean.
So it's a but try that in asmall town.
What was funny is God has a wayof handling things, and that's
something he handled.
I'll never forget when Neilsent he goes.
Man, I got this rough sketch ofan idea.
He sent it on a voice memo.
I put it down.
I called him right away.

(11:28):
I said this is it, this is whatwe've been waiting for, and we
finished it and I still didn'tbelieve it at all, at all I said
, this is what we've beenwaiting for and you know, to cut
through the rest of, wefinished it and it just all came
together like the same weektrack.
We, we finished it was prettyquick because I remember when we

(11:50):
got the the demo finished, whenneil's singing the demo, um, I
sent it to aldine.
It was december and I sent it.
And how long is that song?
Three minutes, 302, 303 it Fourminutes.
Aldine calls.
Really, he goes this is whatwe've been needing.
It just came together.
It was like the hook that Calebhad, with the honest lyric and

(12:13):
the southern rock kind of soundthat we put to.
It was just this, god handlesthat stuff.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
It was an old school, Aldine and modern country.
I got to tell you we're on tourthis year.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
What's the third year we handles that stuff?
Yeah, it's an old school,aldean and and modern country.
Yeah, yeah, and it just I gottatell you like we're on tour
this year.
What's the third year we'retouring on this or third, is
this third tour for the song?
It's bigger.
It's bigger than it was thefirst go around and and, uh,
this year, you know, jason's notreally on the tour we're on now
.
The the last two years he'skind of set it up where he would

(12:44):
talk about it.
This year we just busted intoit and it is.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
They're waiting for it, they're waiting for it every
night Really.
Oh yeah, Where's that on theset list?
Middle Middle.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
It's middle, a little bit down, so it's like
two-thirds of the way down.
It's a good spot.
It's when the show.
You know.
It's like here we're simmering,we're simmering, and then that
one goes and we're starting toramp up to the end.
It's a perfect spot for it.
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Kurt Tully.
So you're playing guitar forhim, you're playing bass for
Jason.
Is that like the peak of yourperformance, the rock aspect of
that coming into it?
Do you like look forward tothat song in the set list?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, what do you thinkthis song?
Means a lot to us for a lot ofreasons.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
You know it was really good for us.
It's.
It's been great for us aswriters, together as a team.
Um, you know it's a bond.
Um, I definitely look forwardto it, just because I know the
crowd is looking forward to it.
Yeah, you know, um, and thisyear what's great is we added at
the end of it, we've added anextended guitar kind of solo
section, so we even get morestuff out of it.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
You know more time, more bang for the buck yeah,
yeah I bet kurt loves that itwas my idea well, and I actually
, uh, I didn't even know theseguys until until that song, like
we never met him you know, Iheard about them and their
writing producing and I knewthey're in jason's band and
stuff but and neil knew him andI'd you know and I'd written for

(14:14):
a long time but I'd neverwritten with him at all but neil
said hey man this is this isright up there.
Alley said let's give him a call, said great, you know, let's do
it.
And then now, I don't know, acouple years later, here we are
making no money in a podcast.
It's amazing.
It's amazing what God does.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
We know how to parlay something good, don't we?

Speaker 3 (14:33):
God can take something and turn it into
nothing.
Sometimes it's really amazing.

Speaker 8 (14:42):
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I'm the founder and CEO ofPatriot Mobile.
And then we have fourprinciples First Amendment,
Second Amendment, Right to Life,Military and First Responders.
If you have a place to go putyour money, you always want to
put it with somebody that's likemine, Of course.
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(15:03):
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Speaker 6 (15:04):
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Speaker 4 (15:23):
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Speaker 7 (15:25):
You know I've been drinking this every songwriting
session today.

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And they're just not making great beer, they're
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Well, it's just like us they believe in bringing
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Speaker 1 (15:59):
Join our original glory family and help ignite
that original glory spirit.
Back when I started my show,people were telling me don't go
into it.
The one thing that you shouldremember when you're making a
podcast don't go into it to makemoney.
If you do you're disappointed,right yeah.
Damn it, wade you didn't tellus that.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
You told us the opposite.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
Wait a minute, wade, you said, we'll make money.
I'm kidding.

Speaker 7 (16:18):
No, we're having a.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
that's one thing that God puts together with that
song.
We're having so much fun on thepodcast.
It is fun.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I look forward to it it doesn't feel like you have to
do it, but you still have to doit right.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
If we were going to quit, we should have quit six
months ago.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
We're past the point of no return.
Now, I never dread it.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Ever, I always look forward to getting here,
especially when you're here,it's like cool's gonna be fun.
Yeah, you know, yeah, that'sgood.
Uh, something I did want to hiton is how I mean back in 2023,
the statistic was, uh, that 50of like young people and say
under 30 under 30 is called thatyoung people.
Uh, gen z's 1997 onto 2012.

(16:59):
Uh, that's kind of been becomelike my niche and going on fox
and newsmax and even with theshow, I'm talking to young
people my age, so they're about12, or they're all the way up to
28 or 30.
And I'm right there, smack dabin the middle, just turning 20.
And I found the niche talkingto young people.
But in 2023, the statistic wasthat 50% of those young people

(17:22):
were drawn to country music.
That was their number one genreof music and I think we've even
seen it in the past two yearsWith what Morgan Wallen's done.
He's taken over the game, right.
It's hard to beat him.
The sad truth is it's hard tobeat him.
I mean, how do you see thatwhen you're writing songs, do
you think about who you'rewriting to?

Speaker 3 (17:44):
It depends when we're writing.
Do you think about who you'rewriting to?
It depends, like, when we'rewriting I always say, like when
a certain artist is in season,they're going in the studio,
they're getting close.
All we're thinking about, likeanytime Aldine is getting ready,
even I don't know six monthsprior really.
Oh, at least you know, becauseit takes a long time, you know,
to get the right thing for anartist like that.
You know because, and so sowe'll just be writing songs

(18:04):
early and thinking, okay, if I,if I get any kind of idea,
personally I think, okay, that'saldine.
First thing I'm gonna do iscall neil, you know, and if he
loves it, then we'll save it,tuck it away and then start
working on it.
Then, if he that, if he doesn't, then I'll try to write it with
somebody else.
But but you're just trying towrite wait, wait, wait what?
if you don't like it, you know,but um, but anyway, like you are

(18:24):
trying to and most of the townis trying to write for the next
biggest artist, that's cuttingright now.
That's what everybody's tryingto, yeah, trying to do that
that's just business.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, yeah, uh.
Part of that I think.
I mean you see some new artistscoming on, forrest frank he's
on the christian side, pop side,coming into things, but we even
see that as a christian.
Usually you don't haveChristian artists cracking the
Billboard Top 100.
That doesn't happen, it's not athing, is it?
He's coming into it.
I think I mean he understandsthe production end of it.

(18:54):
He really does, and I was at aconcert of his in Birmingham
back in April.
How was it?
It was really good.
It was a very diverse age range.
You had kids who were 10, andyou had grandparents who were
with them and they wanted tocome together as a family.
You don't see that often, youdon't.
But the thing I really likedabout his show he stopped at

(19:16):
just men's show and he got onhis MacBook and broke down a
song, each piece.
He started from the verybeginning.
There was nothing on the song.
He added each layer to it.
Oh cool.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
And showed how he created the song.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Very cool Very cool, but as the artist itself, he
understands it.
I don't know.
If you do, you see that artistsactually get the production
behind it, or is that?

Speaker 4 (19:35):
pretty unique.
Well, I think it's very unique.
It reminds me of Ed Sheerankind of did that sort of thing
too.
You know, he would show hisloop making thing.
He'd do a little and then thatwould loop, and then he'd get a
little guitar part.
Then he'd put the keyboard andhe would show people live, kind
of creating the loop effect, andthen he'd sing, you know, shape
of you or something, yeah, sothat's the only thing I can

(19:58):
compare to that.
That's a really cool idea,though, and a way to connect to
some of that younger generation.
You know, shoot, we're old guyslike that kind of just goes
over our head.
Yeah, in a way to to put on ashow like that.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
But I think that's cool man, I think it's super
cool yeah, I mean I think that'sthe most unique part of a
concert I think I've seen.
Yeah, is saying that I've neverreally understood that before,
like you see, like I meangrowing up like a computer class
and all of that, you havegarage man and all of that sure,
completely different right.
Yeah, obviously, um, but Ithink part of that and the

(20:32):
reason why there's there's kidswho attend there, a reason why I
think majority of the peoplethere are my age okay, it's hard
to see at a concert um, but thereason why is that his lyrics
are actually connect with youngpeople explaining their problems
.
But he's not just saying you'relonely, he's saying you've got
tension in your neck, you don'tfeel good today, but he's

(20:54):
breaking it down in that way.
I think it's one way he'sreally been able to connect with
them.
I don't know if you have anythoughts on that and how he's
connecting with the youth.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
I think every genre connects differently, though, oh
100%.
My son's 18 and creates music inhis logic and all this stuff,
and he does.
But I think the countryaudience what they're looking
for is, and every genre is alittle bit different what you're
talking about.
I spent some time as a musicianin the Christian genre and

(21:24):
toured and I spent time in therock genre and country genre and
what I love about the countrygenre is they're really hung up
on the storytelling as much asit has to feel good and feel
like something they'verecognized.
It might feel like an 80s or90s rock song, but it's got some
meat to the lyric.
So that's what I look for.
I like the connection there andwhy a song might connect.
I think it's just a matter of adifferent.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Every genre is different it is 100% and I think
that is a major part of it.
And the other part of it withcountry artists is people are
buying into the artist as well.
With the pop thing, it's justyou like the song and it goes
and you might not even know whoit is and they might not even
have another hit.

Speaker 5 (22:10):
But with a country artist they buy into the person,
the personal brand, yes, yeah,and I think that makes a huge
difference, which is why it'sthe only genre, kind of low, I
will say, kind of like christian, in a sense of a like a michael
w, michael w smith you know,country artists, if you really,
if you really are loyal to yourfan base, you can have a 40 year
run, 30 year run.
I mean just big touring, youknow, I think they stay, I think

(22:31):
that's the one thing that thata few pop acts have achieved,
but yeah, but not quite as manyas I mean country acts and you
can.
You can be around for a longtime, make a great living as a
country artist.
You don't have to be an aldeanor luke bryan or kenny chesney.
You can be a nice mid-level actand have a nice run of five six
, seven, number one hits yeahand and be around for 20 years

(22:54):
as long as you want to.
Really, I mean, yeah, you know,so that's, that's a great thing.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
I think it's still.
You think it's harder to breakinto now.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Then I think it's harder to stay.
Stay okay.
I think you can break in if youhave a viral moment, which
generally aren't.
I think they're quick hits.
I think it's harder for anartist to have a second hit and
a third hit now once they havethe first one.
I think it used to be hard tohave a first hit, harder than it

(23:22):
is now, but maybe you couldfollow it up with with two or
three good songs.
I feel like now, with the waythe viral moments are, it's such
a quick burn.
The audience doesn't give youthat other chance you could.
I mean, you can look at it likea shibuzi.
That that that song?
What bar song?
yeah whatever huge, massive songyeah, it's almost so massive he

(23:42):
can't come out of the shadow ofit, not saying that he's not
good enough, or shouldn't?
I'm just saying it's hard to.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
That was what his first.
That was his first as far as Iknow.

Speaker 7 (23:52):
It's the kind of thing and he's the kind of
artist you go.
What's he going to do next?
How's he going to maintain that?
Does he have a brand?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
and is he relatable as an artist or was it just a
hit or a viral moment?
You can look at it like aWalker Hayes and a fancy big
moment.
You know good form really good.
I mean, he toured on thatmoment and it's just hard to
come with something with a lotof meat on it when you have that
kind of moment for them to takeyou seriously.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I think it's a little more difficult now, because if
you look at how you're marketingand distributing songs,
distributing an album, it's allon social media now, isn't it?
Yeah?
I mean, before, back in the day, it was just radio.
You're relying on radio.
I mean, how has that changedthe game?

Speaker 4 (24:34):
just going to social media, yeah well, 180 is changed
the game, but you know they'restill their country.
Music fans still do digestsongs on the radio right now.
I mean, it's not as much as itused to be, but they still do it
.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Is that dying out?
Is that on the way down?
Yes, is it going to hit aPeople have said it for years.
Radio's going away.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Radio's going away.
I mean it's not going away andthe last format to go away would
be country, most likely andspeaking of that, as far as
songwriters go, if we didn'thave radio, we wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
We wouldn't be here right now doing this free
podcast I think there's a reasonto your point, though I think
there's a reason why, artistsstill really care about number
ones is because it does matter.
You know if you know, for if yougot an artist and you're
streaming a million streams aweek on a song doesn't mean you
can go sell 5 000 ticketssomewhere, okay.

(25:34):
The one thing you can still see, though if you have a top 10
hit at radio, you can see anupswing in ticket sales.
So it does matter.
If it didn't matter, no onewould care about having a number
one still, and all the labelsand artists do care about it.
It definitely for this genre.
It matters still.
I hope it continues to matter.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
The only thing that scares me with that is that they
are now the cars.
The automobiles that they makeare not equipped with radios or
CD players.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
You have to pay for it, yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Yeah, so that gets interesting there and a little
bit scary to me.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
I mean, who listens to the radio when you're not in
the car?
That's my point.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
yeah, I do.
If we have a song on the radio,you keep scanning, you're
transitioning.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
I need to hear something that you wrote.

Speaker 5 (26:21):
Hey, I'm with Kalo, though we better hope that it
stays.
That's our main part of ourlivelihood and that's what's
going to suffer the most is thesong quality.
It's already suffering.
It's going to really suffer.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
You think song quality is not as good on the
radio?
Not even close.
I was just getting ready to saysomething about it.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
It's not even close.
That's where I come in.

Speaker 7 (26:47):
Preach on that.
It's not even close.
That's where I come in.
No, I'm just no, I'm just likeit's.
This town used to be a placewhere you would have song
pluggers who work for publishingcompanies pitching songs to
producers and record labels andartists and they would be
running into each other on musicrow taking the greatest, latest
, greatest new song written byso-and-so to whoever.
That doesn't happen anymore.
It just, it's just.

(27:08):
I've got and I'm speaking justfor myself here I've written
some of the best stuff that I'vebeen a part of and collabed
with with some of my favoritewriters.
In the last five years.
I've written some of the bestsongs I think I've ever been a
part of and I can't get them cut, really no.
And there was a time that theywould be fighting over them, and

(27:29):
I know that.
I know what a great song is.
I don't know anymore what a hitsong is.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
What's the next generation of that Of like the
song pluggers?
What do you think?
Is there something?

Speaker 3 (27:40):
I mean now, and I think we will continue for a
good while the songpluggers noware A&R reps.
They're trying to create cutsin the room, like there's a
chance of, hey, let's put you inhere with this person, this
person, this person, hopefullysomething will come from it.
So you're trying desperately toget with any act that is
happening, and if you can't dothat, then your publisher is

(28:03):
trying to get you in with an actthat they think is going to be
happening and who knows who thenext Morgan Wallen is going to
be.
So you're having to write witha bunch of people, just over and
over and over again, and you'rewriting a bunch of songs that
nobody's ever going to hear, inthe hopes that you're going to
write with that next big artist.

(28:23):
And then you have arelationship with that artist
because you wrote with thembefore they had a hit you know,
that

Speaker 1 (28:28):
went yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
And the problem is Christian and maybe your
listeners don't know this.
They might, but they might notand kind of what we're referring
to is that we get paidaccordingly for songs on the
radio.
When it's on digital platforms,the songwriters get the show
like we don't make shit it'sjust, it's a it's embarrassing

(28:51):
it's a complete drop off.
So we could have a percentagedifference but somebody has the
stats but.

Speaker 7 (28:56):
I mean, you know it's like well on terrestrial radio
we get paid nine cents per spin.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Okay, Well, there's a formula for that, but you're
talking about more mechanicals,like a sail I'm talking about
just in a performance in a radiospin as opposed to a stream.

Speaker 7 (29:16):
A stream is like 0.008 of a penny or something.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
So you could have millions of streams and then I
could, maybe, and you're stillbroke.
So that's the difference youget a million airplays on the
radio.

Speaker 7 (29:30):
You're doing something, you're making a
living.
A million streams.
You're still broke.
You're still broke.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
To your point, kelly.
You said you write so manysongs, you only get one that
actually gets cut.
How many songs do you think youwrite?
Is it 25 songs before one getscut?
Is it more than that?

Speaker 4 (29:52):
you had to put a number on it.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, and it depends who the writer is.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
If you're fortunate and you're,you're in, you know, and you're
you're hitting the lick with,with aldine or or back.
You know, years ago, when I waswriting a bunch with, uh, with
brad paisley, you know it's,it's just a.
It's a great advantage for itfor songwriters to have a
relationship with an artistbecause one you know them so
well, you know what they wouldand wouldn't say.

(30:13):
And a lot of other people think, oh, this is perfect aldine
song, perfect paisley song, butbut you can listen to us now,
they wouldn't say that yeah, butyou're writing their words.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, but so it, so it helps and you're not.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
It's not everything you're writing, but you're
writing in their words.
Yeah, so it helps and it's noteverything you're writing.
But you get to a point where ifyou're writing for those people
and you're that close to them,you don't even start the thing
unless you think that could be ahit for them.
We're not going to waste timejust writing a song for fun.
It needs to be purposeful andwe're trying to elevate that
artist and make money and raisetheir families and stuff.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
But there are writers in town that write hundreds of
songs that don't get any cuts.
Yeah.
It just like Kalo said.
It's just we have beenfortunate to have some
relationship with artists.
That it might be a little bitbetter for us, yeah, but that
took time to develop and it maynot have worked Right.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
You know what I mean, but it did.

Speaker 7 (31:03):
You still have to write a good song.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
You've got to be intentional.

Speaker 7 (31:06):
You can have the relationship.
You've still got to write agood song.
You've still got to be able tobring it.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And even in that, just the creative part of you, I
still think of ideas and Ithink, oh, this would be perfect
for Lanny Wilson.
This would be a smash.
Now I have no connectionwhatsoever.
So, lanny Wilson, this would bea smash.
Now I have no connectionwhatsoever.
So, Lanny, if you're listeningout there, that's an amazing
idea, but you still have thatdreamer part of you, the same

(31:33):
dream that you had when itstarted is because we didn't
know how hard it was.
So we're just writing stuff andbeing excited about it.
So we try to keep that samefeeling, so that you'll keep
generating music, because it'snot impossible to get songs cut.
That's an outside song, meaningthat you're not inside the camp
.
It's not impossible.
It's just really, reallyfreaking hard.

(31:53):
But, like Neil said, we'retrying to write a better song
than everybody else on that day.
Right, that's the contest.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
It's just the universal principle of
networking.
It's a skill you have to master, right, patrick?
And I talk about this all thetime, talk all the time.
How can we get to this person?
How can we get to this person?
Can we get a meeting with thisperson?
How do we do it as thesongwriter, if you're not in the
camp?
How are you going to approachsomeone like Lanie Wilson to get
into that camp?

Speaker 3 (32:23):
that's hard and the thing is, we understand the
reason it's hard is becausethey're already doing great.
She's already doing greatwithout us.
Now could we have hits with hertoo?
Yes, do we need to for herperspective?
No, she's having number oneafter number one and it's
working.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
She's probably comfortable inside of her bubble
.
I think that's important for anartist number one and she's.
It's working so and she'sprobably comfortable not to do
it.
Probably comfortable inside ofher bubble and I think that's
important for an artist like as,like you know, we're as much as
we're victims of in some camps.
We benefit from it with jasonand other people because we're
in the bubble right and otherpeople are trying to get in the
bubble and they can't get in thebubble right the bubble people
Once you're tapped in, likeKayla said and you get on a run,

(33:08):
you feel like you can't writeanything they're not going to
like.
When you get to that point it'sgoing to be hard for someone to
come in.
Like Kayla said, just hope thatyou write a better song than
everyone else, such a great songthat it's undeniable.
It seems like those moments areharder now.
Yeah, I think the artists hearthings differently now.

(33:28):
That's just my, my opinion.
I think the the song qualityhas dipped a little bit where
it's like you know, great songskind of go over the head
sometimes right you gotta maybewrite more in the nose than you
used to.
Yeah, um, you try.
I tend to find myself saying isit?
Is it to a term like writery?
Is that too?
Saying, is it too a term likewritery, is that?
too inside is it too, because Ifeel like things today when

(33:51):
we're writing something, I feellike it needs to be a little
more on the nose for the artistto relate not all of them, but
just in general what I hear.
That's one reason I stilllisten to radio.
I want to know what's out there.
Is there a space for?
And that's why I love aldine,you.
We can write stuff a little bit.
Sometimes that might be insideand left to some interpretation,

(34:15):
where some artists I feel likeyou just got to write right on
the nose, where they don't wantto think, and to some credit to
the artist, they know their fanbase, sometimes the fan.
Sometimes they don't want tothink and, to some credit to the
artist, they know their fanbase.
Sometimes the fan.
Sometimes they don't want tohave to think.
They want to go buy a beer 20000 people there, they want to
have a good time.
So that's when, like a try thatin a small town comes up,
that's the moment to make themthink that's less of the story,

(34:37):
right?

Speaker 7 (34:37):
yeah, you know I mean , sometimes you don't want to go
get a beer when that they don'twant to miss that intro.
Right, they don't want to missthat song.
They, a lot of them, came therefor that song and so that's a
moment there, right you?

Speaker 5 (34:48):
know where you can make them stop and think, but
yet somehow they're still havinga good time all right, yeah,
you know you you kind of getthat lightning in a bottle
moment, which is always fun.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
You know you made it then yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, to
the point of like networking.
How tight are like theintroductions around n around
Nashville if you're trying toget to somebody?

Speaker 5 (35:07):
Really keeping the bubble that tight?
I'll be honest with you Keepour bubble pretty tight.
We've been here forever.
I've been here almost 30 years,neil and Caleb we were just
talking about this with Jasonand I think the older we get, I
think it's natural for thecircle to close in and I think

(35:28):
it's just for me.
I know who my friends are andwho I can really trust and I
tend to want to work with thepeople that I trust.
At this point, you know, it'sjust A thousand percent.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
I think that's I mean .
But you, as far as networking,it is easy to get to people for
sure, but to get inside that'sreally hard.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
That's years, yeah, and there's not enough time for
everybody to write with all thepeople that you want to.
There's not enough time.
And then to what Kurt wassaying a lot of that is artist
dependent.
Like the artist is having funand getting great songs from his
crew, so they're comfortableand they can hang out with those

(36:13):
guys and they're like familyand you're having hits.
You don't need to let anybodyelse in.
There's not a need for it.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Right, I get that.
It's the same in politics.
I mean working with Dr Carson,with him that far into Carson,
with him that far into hiscareer.
He's towards the end of hiscareer.
He's trying to wind down alittle bit.
He's got a circle, yeah.
He doesn't want to add anyoneto it like you're saying and you
trust who he trusts and hedoesn't trust who he doesn't
trust.
But trying to break into thatis difficult.

(36:42):
Can we trust you?

Speaker 3 (36:45):
He's at our table.
Yeah, I think we already got it.
His name's Christian.
I mean, you can't hear that.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
You can't hear it, you got that roll-tied hat.
Come on, is that good or bad?

Speaker 4 (36:55):
That's good, that's bad.
That's good.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
And he's from Delaware, delaware.
Oh really, that's the problem,joe Biden's stomping grounds I
was just talking to Neil.
I was going to say stompinggrounds but it's more as
crawling grounds.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (37:13):
Tell them about what they named, where the bicycle
ended.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
So everyone knows where Joe Biden fell off the
bicycle right Everyone's seenthat viral clip that's so good.
I was talking to Neil beforeall you late comers got here.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
We were on time for the show.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
I'll be here to your stomping grounds, okay, but I
was telling Neil, that's likewhere he fell off is just like
in a parking lot.
It's like 20 minutes from whereI grew up.
It's in Rehoboth Beach, that'swhere Joe Biden's beach house is
, but it's just in the parkinglot where I pull up to go to the
beach.
It's the cheapest parkingaround, that's where I go and he

(37:51):
just fell off right there.
So someone on Google Mapsrenamed that one spot, that
parking lot, brandon Falls.
Are you serious?
I'm dead serious.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Dude, that's incredible.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
I can't help but feel slightly you know bad, it's an
old man like I don't know hefought his bike.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
I know it is a little bit of elder abuse a little bit
.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
I mean he shouldn't have been on the bike anyway.
No, you can put two helmets on.
I forget, did he?

Speaker 4 (38:17):
have the bike shorts on hopefully not.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I don't know about the whole outfit that they get.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah but no, you're not making fun of him because of
that.
It was just the fact that hewas the president and everybody
was saying, no, he's sharp as atag and he's the most physically
fit he's ever been in his wholelife.
And then you could just see himmaneuver around.
So all of us, if we're blessedenough to live that long, we're
all going to be like that.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
So we're not making fun of you, we just don't want
to be on the front cover.
We're not going to be thepresident.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
We're not going to be the president either, though,
oh my God, it's been a whilesince I've seen that.

Speaker 7 (38:50):
I'm not riding a bicycle when I'm that old.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
There's another clip I love and this is again.
I feel bad.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
I'm sorry, lord, that one, and that's hard for
anybody.
It's really hard for Joe whenhe's trying to walk in the sand.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
I don't know if I remember that, jim.

Speaker 6 (39:07):
Can you dig it up?
Well, I was going to say thathe was wearing shorts.
Yeah, but they were not bikeshorts in the traditional sense.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
Okay, if you can find the clip of him on the beach
walking behind.
He's trying, but he's not goinganywhere.
He's having a hard time in thesand.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
It's hard to look cool walking in the sand.
It's that thick powdery stuff.

Speaker 7 (39:29):
I knew if we brought up the Biden thing, this was
going to happen.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Sorry, christian, sorry.
Continue.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
Go on.
We're not very political,obviously.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
No, I just tell people he's my uncle, and then
they start dying.
Now my brother just moved, likenorthern delaware.
Uh, he's a lawyer, so he's oneof those people.
Nobody likes those people uh,yeah, nobody likes those people
I don't even know if I like them.

Speaker 4 (39:55):
Yeah, is he older?

Speaker 1 (39:57):
he's 10 years older, yeah we look alike, we think
alike.
We're basically twins 10 yearsapart.
Wow, so we kind of butt heads alittle too much.
Okay, um, but he had moved upthere, take a new job, whatever.
Uh, he was going to tour thisapartment building to stay there
and he pulls up, like before heeven goes in, and it seems like
a black suv like pulling up andthey open the trunk and they're

(40:17):
just pulling out.
Ars, because the secret servicereally yeah, they just happened
to pull up and and they weresaying that's where they live.
Yeah, in the same apartmentbuilding.
It's really close to JoeBiden's house up there, like
where he spends most of his time.
That's like an hour and a halfaway.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
We do that.
Delaware's like it's about twohours.
I know.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
When you said northern Delaware, I was like do
you really do that, or is itjust Delaware?
We have three counties.

Speaker 7 (40:41):
It sounds like Alabama to me.
We pull up down there on theGulf and pull out our ARs and go
lay out, that's what we do.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
Nobody says a word.
I thought I was going to sayopen the trunk and I'll pop Joe
Biden.
It was not a hearse.
Oh, there you go, ouch.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, but I had to go up to New York City last week.
Newsmax, I was weed eating lastweek just around the house and
everything weed eating around.
I get a call.
My phone starts buzzing.
It's Newsmax calling to ask meon the next day.
So I do it, but thinking aboutlike, try that in a small town
going to New York City, I don'tthink we need to say anything.

(41:24):
Yeah, right, and what happeneda few days ago?
The shooting in Midtown?
Crazy, crazy.
Try that in a small town.
It's not going to go well.
But I think about my small town.
I grew up in a town of lessthan 5,000 people.
My mom's been in that smalltown, her family, same part of

(41:44):
the river, same town for over200 years.
Tracing back your genealogyit's like the late 1700s.
They probably came over like theMayflower and one of those.
But now, because her family'sthere forever and she grew up
there, my parents met in collegeand they moved back there.
But my dad served on the towncouncil for a little bit for 15
years and he stepped down after15 years.

(42:06):
He was like I did my time,that's fair.
But now that he's stepped downwe see people from New Jersey,
people from New York, peoplefrom Pennsylvania, people I mean
Idaho is seeing this, texas isseeing this, tennessee is seeing
this.
People are moving fromCalifornia, moving from these
liberal states, and they'recoming to small towns like the
Franklin.
They're coming to small townslike the Franklin, they're
coming to Columbia, they'recoming to Spring Hill, they're

(42:28):
coming to even Colocasia, rightdown there.
They're coming to all thesesmall towns, like my small town
in Delaware, and they'rebringing their liberal policies
and saying I want to move to asmall town.
I love the small town aspect, Ijust want to relax and settle.
And then they bring their bigcity mindset, their liberal
mindset, into these small townsand they ruin it because they

(42:49):
create it just like the townthey came from.
Yeah, they don't reallyconsciously realize that,
because they're getting away,this is much better than where
they came from.
Yet for a family like my mom's,who's been in this town for 200
years and seeing these liberalscome in and now become the mayor
of the town and completely takeover the town on the council,
uh I mean, my mom's just readyto leave.

(43:10):
She never thought she would getto the point that she would
want to leave delaware and she,she grew up there, that's where
her family is.
Now that her parents havepassed, it's a little easier, I
guess.
Um, but I mean, I've had anidea for a song, so I guess,
this is the place right.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Well, it's like that, saying you know don't
California, my Tennessee, youknow, and people said that, and
there's all.
There wasn't so many shirtsabout it, we would have, we
would have wrote about it a longtime ago.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
But it's true, you know small town blues people are
doing that.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
They forget why they moved.
I mean that they forget whythey moved.
I mean just everyone'sexperiencing this.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
It's not unique to delaware.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
I mean, people in alabama are experiencing this,
yeah, um I do wonder, though,like if and I don't know this,
but I wonder if you're trying tomove to columbia, tennessee,
are you really getting away withthose liberal thoughts?

Speaker 7 (43:58):
no, you're not, not in franklin, you're not in
college grove where I live it'slike we we probably had 70 in
the last three or four years.
We probably had 70 over 70people move in from california
into our neighborhood.
They had like that manyclosings, but they all, from

(44:18):
what I could gather, they allwanted to join our camp.
Yeah it, it really felt thatway.
The who, they found out realquick.
The ones who maintained theirideology they found out real
quick this wasn't a place forthem and they sold their house
and left.
But a lot of them, most of them, want to stay.
Most of them want to stay.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
They love the people you look at the Tennessee
landscape you have a lot ofconservatives.
Mainly conservative rights areat stake.
But among the conservatives,who's actually in the
conservatives?
It's a debate a lot of peopleare having now who's running for
governor this time around?

Speaker 4 (44:56):
We had Marcia, yeah, marcia.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
I heard she's about to declare.
I think she already did.
She declared on our show.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
Really, I forced her to declare.
I think she already did.
She declared on our show,really, really, I forced her to
declare.
I think most people.

Speaker 5 (45:08):
I really do think most people.
I have friends that moved herefrom California a lot of them
during COVID because it was socrazy and they were business
owners and their business gotshut down.
They moved here.
They just want to live theirlife, raise their kids, pay the
bills.
They don't want to be caught upin any radical left policies.

(45:28):
They just most people just wantto exist in in a landscape of
common sense and just exist.
No one, you know, nobody wants.
I don't know anyone who that'smoved here from california that
is trying to maybe force theirpolicies.
Most of them are trying toescape it and just live normal.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Maybe some of those people are in Nashville proper.
I mean Nashville is more.
Democratic.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Of course yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
And the small town areas.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
And they just become a sanctuary city.
Yeah, kristi, noem and DHS justdeclared them a sanctuary city
a few weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
I can't tell you this yeah, Nashville hasn't, but
they do.
I can't get out of Nashvillefast enough.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
When I'm in Nashville , yeah Downtown, I can't and
that's sad.
We go there to work, most ofthe studios are shut down, so a
lot of it doesn't happen, evenin Nashville.
I find myself in a hurry to getout of Davidson.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
County, just the safety.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
Not not safety, or is it just?

Speaker 7 (46:27):
it's just like trash a lot, a lot of a lot of things.
Um, it's, it's so.
I mean it's turning intoatlanta.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
It's hard to even get anywhere anyway it's crazy,
it's like, all of a sudden, rushhour is from 9 am till 6 pm.
There is no time when you canget anywhere, but just in
general it's.
It's not.
Um, you know, I'll go down tostarbucks on 21st Avenue, which
I used to go to that Starbucksevery morning before we were in
the studio, and I'm in there nowand it's like you're such a

(46:52):
liberal what's going on atStarbucks?

Speaker 1 (46:55):
I used to always go there.

Speaker 7 (46:56):
I'd go get my coffee it was a shame the coffee's good
, it was a great place to go, itwas fine.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
And now I went in there recently and I'm like okay
, well, this is the last timeI'm coming in here.
It's filthy, uh, gonna have aguy.
That day.
I had a guy with a beard and adress, so I'm so I'm I'm
confused, I'm confused and I'mlike what this?
I just wanted a latte man.
I don't want to try to figureout what I'm doing here.

(47:23):
What do I got going on?
Dude ma'am full makeup bearddress.
I'm like okay.

Speaker 7 (47:29):
I think I need to get back to the counter.
It's crazy because Starbucksdoesn't realize and a lot of
other companies don't realizethat that is hurting their
business down here, but theydon't care and they still hire
pink hair with a dress and abulge.
How are you?
Seeing that behind the counterthey're still hiring those
people.
I'm sorry that latte doesn'ttaste as good when that dude

(47:51):
hands it to me.
I mean when that thing, ends up.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
There's a funny taste in it.
I can't disagree with you there.

Speaker 7 (47:58):
No no, no, it's just I don't Especially ingredient.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Oh no, Yikes.

Speaker 5 (48:08):
It's time for a hey, welcome to the Try that Podcast
everybody.
No, I think I don't really care.
Honestly, if someone wants tolive their life, just live it.
Just do your thing.
If you're confused, I'm sorry,just making me deal with it.
At 830 in the morning andyou've got full heels on and a

(48:32):
manicured beard, I'm I don'tknow what the hell to say.
I just want this coffee early,early.
I got a long day.
I'm trying to figure out what'sgoing on here that's why I
don't go down there anymore.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
It's just a lot I keep going, I keep.
They keep pushing me furthersouth.
I'm just gonna keep going.

Speaker 7 (48:41):
They keep pushing me further south.
I'm just going to keep goingsouth Until you end up back in
Alabama.
It may happen.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
I'm sure you guys heard Delaware is home to the
first transgender congressman,Sarah McBride.

Speaker 5 (48:58):
I can't keep track of it.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
We have one congressman in Delaware.
We only have one representingthe whole state.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (49:01):
And it's a transgender.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
Really, I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
It's a man identifying as a woman, so they
go by Sarah McBride.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
So is it Congress man or woman?
I call it Congress man.
Okay, I mean they identify as awoman.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
It's a.

Speaker 7 (49:14):
Congress day.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Congress day, congress them.

Speaker 7 (49:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
I'm just kidding.
I can't even process this.

Speaker 7 (49:21):
I can't either.
This is DC.
I can't believe we're talkingabout it.
I mean seriously.
We've gotten to the point wherethis is actually a serious
discussion, Apparently so I knowit's un-freaking-believable to
me.
It's been for a minute.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Yeah, it's happening, but there's people.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Yeah, the number of young people going towards that,
yeah, and actually identifyingas, actually identify as
transgender.
The highest numbers lesbian.

Speaker 5 (49:44):
Highest numbers of gay, highest numbers of
transgender they keep comingthrough I think there's a sad to
say, though, a certainpercentage of parents out there
who push that on the kids.
If they're confused, or if yourfour-year-old says, dad, I want
to be a dinosaur, you don'ttake them to the doctor and sew

(50:05):
on a tail and say, okay, well,you're a dinosaur.
I mean, give him a chance to be.
I mean, these are kids.
Like, it's a tough thing toswallow when you're talking
about confusing your ownchildren and why you would want
to.
It's confusing enough to be achild today.
It's just evil.
You know, you've got socialmedia and you've got all these

(50:34):
other things that we didn't havelike influencing us when we
were kids and they have accessto it.

Speaker 7 (50:38):
So it's um and you see it on TV.
Yeah, Do you know what we did?
We did, we, we had, there wasstuff didn't have these.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Well, not yeah, but it wasn't like, but I mean, it
wasn't as accessible.
No, no, no, it wasn't, but, butyou also didn't have the option
of transgender back then.

Speaker 7 (50:50):
No, that was a good point.
Who wouldn't even think aboutthat?

Speaker 5 (50:52):
no, who would cut your balls off?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
you wouldn't do it.
Right, you wouldn't do it.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Yeah are most of them cutting their balls off I don't
know.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
I don't know here's my thing.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
What are they doing with the?

Speaker 1 (51:03):
balls, I will they pickle them, put them, I will.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
They put the balls they pickle them and put them in
jars they're making footballs,do they really?

Speaker 5 (51:10):
this is the start of a season where pickleball came
from no, I don't think thatfootball I'll be on footballs
made out of old ball skin don'tsay that about alabama um that
was the thing, so we had thisdebate?

Speaker 4 (51:22):
did caitlyn or, uh, bruce I think bruce might he if
he was smart he actually gothrough with.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
That was the thing we had this debate.
Did Caitlin or Bruce?
I think Bruce might.
If he was smart he'd come Didhe actually go through with that
.

Speaker 7 (51:29):
Are you seriously calling him Caitlin?
I'm never doing it, it's neverhappening.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
Then I corrected myself.
I said Bruce, did Bruce havethe surgery?
Someone could change their name.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
You could kind of get behind that I can't get behind
the transgender.
I'm not pretending.

Speaker 7 (51:43):
That's the one thing that pissed me off about Fox.
It's the one thing that pissedme off about them.
Well, give it what.
No, it's when Bruce came onthere, and now he's.
What do they call that?
When he's on there, he's acorrespondent, or whatever A
contributor.
And they pretend and they callhim Caitlyn.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
Yeah, pretend, and they call him caitlin, yeah, and
, and it's all just pretend, buthe does have a lot of common
sense stuff politically andthat's why they have him on
there.
I believe he was woman of theyear, I know and but it was so
disappointing to see them fallinto that pretend thing.

Speaker 7 (52:17):
You know, we're gonna cater, we're gonna, okay, let's
, let's respect caitlin, sorrychristian, are we getting you in
trouble with this?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Probably.
I think he started it.
I just won't see the lettertoday.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
No, no, that's what they need to hear.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
I remember being in LA man, kurt, when it was
probably late 90s and you wouldsee, when we were 15.
Yeah, when we were 15.
I remember going to thelaundromat and doing laundry and
I'd see like a transvestite,whatever it was called back then

(52:55):
, and I was like, wow, it was abig deal.
And now it's just like, okay,well, are some of these people
doing this?
I feel like some of the the guyat Starbucks I saw are just
doing this to like get reactionValidation.
I think there's actually peoplewho are legitimately confused
and they're living in this placewhere they just can't find

(53:18):
their way, and I and I hate that.
But I also feel like there's alot of people who are just
pushing the buttons.
What can we do to push theboundaries and make people
uncomfortable?
And that's what's weird to me.
Like you know, look, don't growa beard, put a dress on, make
up and just a with my headLanguage telling.

Speaker 7 (53:43):
You can tell people not to do that stuff and they
can hear us rant and rave aboutthem and the way they dress.
It's a depraved mind at the endof the day.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Just pick one.

Speaker 7 (53:57):
It's all a big spiritual battle right here.
It's all demonic.
They've given their souls overto the devil yeah, you see that
in that and it's just a depravedway of thinking, and and and
god has given them over to theirdepravity he has.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
That's, that's what scripture says, and I think I
mean, each one of them have adifferent reason why, like
they're not, we can't put themunder the same umbrella.
You know, because some, somepeople, had tragic childhoods
that that just did something tothem.
You know they might have beenmolested or something you know
just awful, and it and itchanges their changes, their

(54:35):
brain and stuff and they're Idon't know it.
Just, I think everybody, Ithink there's a lot of tragedy
in a lot of those people and Ido think that they're, they're
lost, you know, but, and andmaybe maybe some are just trying
to fit in, but other othershave psychological problems.
Some people are just, are justweak-minded and they go and they
think like, oh, life will beeasier this way, which is the

(54:56):
total opposite.
I mean, yes, you can be in aprotected group, you know, if
you want, if you want to beprotected, right, um, then, yeah
, I guess you can do somethinglike that.
But but what's next?
You know?
I mean that's what will be thenext, the next thing, because,
because if somebody says, saysoh, I'm gay, he said oh, okay,
right, uh, cool, I just needthat's my coffee right there,

(55:16):
and you don't think a thingabout it.
You're so in a transit, you'reup in the ante, you know what's
the what's the next thing oncethat gets.
Oh yeah, there's, there's a lotof.
You know what I mean.
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
It's scary to think about.
Well, the next thing is what'shappening in schools?
Are coming in dressed as a catand they're little boxes and
that's in Delaware in.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Delaware.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
I mean, this is an actual problem If you have young
kids.
Thank God my kids are a littleolder now, but it's a thing.
If you're forced to be exposedto this and someone says I'm a
cat in a litter box, come on.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
I mean, I've heard that.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
That's a real thing, it's a real thing the furries.
I'm not making it up, it is,it's happened Wow.
There's no end.
There's no end.

Speaker 7 (56:03):
Once you get on that road, there's no end to it.
I mean they're going to bedressing up like cats and
pissing in litter boxes andthey're going to be marrying
animals.
They're going to be marryingtheir dog.
They're going to be.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Bestiality.
Absolutely, this is legal.
I believe in Europe.

Speaker 7 (56:20):
There's no end to it.
Once you give in to that, onceyou take that road, there's no
end to it.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
It goes on and on, I think if we walk it back a
little bit.
I don't know if you're familiarwith what's called the World
Economic Forum.
They call it the WEF.
It's headed up by Klaus Schwab.
They meet in Geneva,switzerland, multiple times a
year.
I mean I see that as like theplaybook for the future.
They're the ones pullingstrings behind the scenes.

(56:48):
As I see it in politics, andthis has been their plan for the
past decade or two to get tothe point of transgenderism
being normal.
It's normalized today.
You walk into a Starbucks, butit's okay for them to be there,
societally acceptable for themto be there, societally
acceptable for them to be there?
Not really to us.
We still.
It rubs us the wrong waybecause it's wrong.

(57:09):
We know it's wrong, innately,we know it's wrong.
Um, but the wef, what they'verevealed is like their next
plans and they've tried to uhbring up in their meetings in
geneva uh, is pedophilia.
If you're asking what's next,if you can stand behind that,
all right, that's I have a hardtime even talking about it.

Speaker 7 (57:30):
Yeah, no, I don't like, yeah, no it is everything
that used to be in the dark andbehind closed doors.
It's it.
It always finds its way on theother side, always right, and it
always will it always that'sthe direction that side's headed
.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
Right there, well and the thing is, with the trans
and things like that, it I meanI'm, I'm all for it.
I think all of us are just, youknow, go, go, do your thing,
whatever, as long as you're not,you know, breaking the law,
hurting anybody or whatever.
Do, do your thing, you can.
You can be trans, you can begay.
I, I don't, I don't care and Idon't judge that person.
You know, I I think about it,man, what, what, what made them?

(58:07):
You know, just for a minute,you know, think what made them
make that huge decision.
You know, but I just want tolive my life, you know, and but,
but what I don't want is for,you know, a transgender person
to to try to preach to me of ofthis is right.

Speaker 7 (58:24):
For your kids.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
And you need to agree that it's right.

Speaker 7 (58:27):
That's what they want .

Speaker 3 (58:28):
You know, and for me you know, I grew up, I'm a
fundamentalist, bible-believingChristian and I'm just not going
to be able to say, like I'm notGod and I'm not condemning
anybody, but I'm not going toproclaim that is right.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
I'm just not.
You can't stand behind that.
Plus, what really turned me?
My daughter's a freshman inhigh school, heading to be a
freshman, so the last few yearsshe was in cheerleading and
stuff.
The thought of a guy walking inwhere she's using the bathroom,

(59:05):
that's.
That's a an opportunity you'regiving to someone to do harm to
your daughter and there's no way, no way to look and and if
anyone that supports that, Ican't imagine them having a
daughter or anybody supports atrans and and girl sports to
harm your daughter and not liftup.

(59:25):
We're supposed to be lifting upour daughters and our women and
and how's that doing that?
It's not protecting them, it's,it's no, it's, it's quite the
opposite.
So I I found that reallydisheartening when I saw so many
people get behind this.
You know, being able to walkinto a, a girl's bathroom
because you identify as a woman,that's just an avenue to take

(59:47):
advantage of our young girls.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
It is, and it happens all the time.
That's the biggest problem Isee with Sarah McBride.
There's a lot of problems, butthe problem that we had earlier
in the congressional sessionlike this year, maybe it was in
the last year right after theelection session, like this year
, maybe it was in the last yearright after the election is that
when Sarah McBride was elected,he, she, whatever, they were
just elected this year.

(01:00:10):
So they got to Congress andthere's a congresswoman by the
name of Nancy Mace, so she's awoman, biological woman, going
into the bathroom and SarahMcBride walks in with her.
I mean, as Nancy Mace, you'renot okay with that.
But something I want to hit onwith you guys is when I talk to
young people and we're talkingabout the transgender stuff, I

(01:00:30):
mean the biggest answer I wouldget from them, the biggest
reason I would get for how thishappened, is the influence
that's been had on them inentertainment, in Hollywood, in
music.
How have you seen it come intomusic, be infiltrated into music
, have you?
Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean whatwould you say?
Big time, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:51):
I think it's part to blame.
Yeah, it's entertainment, buthere's the thing.
It's like I always monitoredwhat my kids listened to when
they were growing up, and you'rea writer.
Yeah, yeah.
But I, when they were growing upand you're a writer, yeah, yeah
, but I always, I always knewwhat they were listening to and
if and if I listened tosomething, I'm like I'm like you
ain't listening to this, nomore.
I mean really, and I alwaysknew who they hung out with.

(01:01:12):
I always knew I was just thatthat kind of me and my wife were
those kind of parents.
Right, we always knew, and itstarted there.
But the freedom that some ofthese kids have today and once,
once, they dive off into thatworld and they get accepted to
in that world, I mean there's,there's no end to the depravity

(01:01:33):
that they can fall into right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
It all starts at home all 100 because you have to
because what's different?

Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
I'll say it again my kids grew up, are growing up, in
the era of social media andaccessibility, and so it's more
important than ever to havehonest conversation with your
kids about what's going on,communication, raising them with
God in their life, becausethey're exposed to it, whether

(01:02:02):
it's on their phone or theirfriend's phone or they go to
school.
They have to know what's rightor wrong.
They have to know when theywatch the Grammys and see
something weird in the Grammys,they've got to know that that's
messed up.
That's on the parents.
If you teach your kids theopposite, that you accept

(01:02:22):
everybody and that's okay, thenthat's what's going to happen
and that's that's what neil'stalking about with the.
It is a battle with like rightand wrong, how you believe and
and you should always you haveto take your kids and you have
to explain this to them from thevery young age right and just
put them in god's path and do.

(01:02:42):
That's all you can hope for.
I hope they stay there.
I hope they stay there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
The scripture says teach them the way, and they
shall not depart from it whenthey're old.
That's in the Proverbs.
But it's not even just tellingthem that trunk.
Explain to them the why behindit.
Otherwise, if you don't knowthe why, you don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
They have to make sure, without god, without god
there in their, in their life.
That's what I'm talking about.
You've got to have that as afoundation, everything up from
there right if you don't havethat and 100 and, unfortunately,
like I see a lot of parentsthat don't, and and and their
kids get off on a weird path andand they sit there and they ask
themselves why.
Well, why is?
Because you didn't do it rightand it is on the parents.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Well, and sometimes I definitely believe that that
can be true.
But I also think that you canhave good, solid parents and you
can do the best you can raisingthem, and these kids are
influenced by so many otherpeople that are more powerful
than you as they grow up.
And if they, if my kid Godforbid you know came up and said

(01:03:44):
, hey, I'm gonna, I'm thinkingabout you know, right, being a
transgender, I would.
I would be, I'd be devastatedand I would.
I would talk to her over andover again, I would pray, do all
the things, but but I wouldstill love her and work through
it with her and stuff like that,like it's not like it's not
like these, these, these peopleare like, oh you're, you're
terrible people, we don't wantto be around.
It's not, and stuff like that.

(01:04:04):
It's not like these people arelike, oh, you're terrible people
, we don't want to be around you.
It's not that it's like youwould try to love them through
that, because their life isgoing to be at some point in
time, their life is going to bemuch more complicated than it
was before.
They decided to do that.
Whatever they are running fromor trying to get out of at some
point that's coming back becausethat you just can't to me.

(01:04:25):
Your mind is not wired toaccept the life lived as you're
not supposed to live it.
Biologically, you're created acertain way.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
God created you ruined your body.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
This way and and they've messed with you and the
hormones and all the stuff thataffects your brain and all that
stuff you know but you're goingback to the music and the social
media.

Speaker 7 (01:04:41):
It's a today that's like media.
Today that's an assault on theyouth and it's going to get
worse.
It's going to get worse.

Speaker 5 (01:04:51):
I think we're just finding out, and we'll find out
the true effect of what it'sdone to our kids.

Speaker 7 (01:04:56):
If you hand this to a six-year-old, you hand that
phone right there to asix-year-old and go, you hand
that phone right there to asix-year-old and go, that's a
pacifier.
Go and you're not you're, andyou just give it to them and let
them be who they're going to be.
It's nine times out of tenthey're going to turn out with a
problem.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
You're going to have a problem on your hands right,
the next generation after gen zis called gen alpha.
Uh, they're born after 2012.
Uh, there's a whole joke.
You've probably seen the memesonline.
You have the iPad kids.
They have what they call aniPad cough.
As they're sitting down,they're slouching in their
chairs, they're on their iPadsall day long because the parents
don't want to do their job andbe parents.

(01:05:34):
So they hand them an iPad andthey say go entertain yourself.
I mean, there's no limit towhat they can get on there, if
what they can get on there, ifthey have the vocabulary, they
can get anything right.
Thankfully they don't.
But I mean that's a hugeproblem.
I mean, if we're talking aboutthe principles that we're trying
to raise kids with, that we'retrying to start in the home, how

(01:05:56):
do you think about that fromthe writer's perspective when
you're writing the music?
Because you don't just want towrite feel-good songs that are
sentimental.
Those don't just want to writefeel-good songs that are
sentimental.
Those don't perform that well,do they?
They don't perform the best.
How do you think about puttingthose values into songs?

Speaker 5 (01:06:12):
Well, I think we, you know to be fair.
I mean, the first thing wethink about usually is
career-wise is writing the rightsong for the right artist.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Of course.

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
Like if I Didn't Love you when we wrote that song it
was like One of my favorites, tobe honest.
You know, we're just trying towrite a great song that he wants
.
You know, I think we're notgoing to.
I think all four of us we tryto write songs that, you know,
don't have a bad message Right,you know, but also will be
successful.
Right, but also will besuccessful you know, and so it's
I don't know how much thought.

(01:06:44):
I mean, I don't think we'regoing to sit down and write
something that's that's going tonegatively affect any children,
you know Right, and it just.
I try not to, but it just itjust depends man Telly's right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
You are trying to, you know, write the next hit,
for that can write something, oryou just fall out on on an idea
.
You know that that has thattalks about god or jesus or
spiritual whatever, and thensometimes they get recorded.
And I've told these guys acouple weeks ago that uh, chris
jansen had called me and he haduh recorded a song that's like

(01:07:14):
nine years old that me and himand his wife kelly uh wrote and
has a lot of spiritual stuff init, you know, and it's a really
really song.
It's called the Broken and tome it's like everything I'm
about and the way that you feelabout people and taking care of
people and stuff like that.
Really same as try that insmall town You're taking care of
people, but it's always reallycool when that happens.

(01:07:37):
Whether it be a single or not,I don't know, but he did record
it and put it on there, so wedon't shy away from it, it's
just generally, they're notlooking for hey, I'm looking for
a spiritual song.

Speaker 7 (01:07:51):
It's country music.
We're going to still write somedrinking songs.
We're going to put whiskey insongs Every other song we've
written for a certain length oftime had whiskey in it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
Whiskey in town.

Speaker 7 (01:08:05):
I used to listen to Hank Jr when I was a kid.
I used to listen to all that.
It didn't turn me into analcoholic because I was
listening to Hank Jr.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
I think sometimes too it's fun because it's
entertainment.

Speaker 7 (01:08:16):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:08:17):
Interesting though Kalo reminded me of something it
is fun to use the power ofsongwriting to get a message
across.
So on, on the new, on the newaldine project coming out, we
were run that deals withdementia and that kind of thing,
because we have people that welove going through it right, and
that was a real therapeuticsong to write because it was

(01:08:38):
like it got a lot of emotion outthat I didn't even know was
pent up, you know.
And so it is fun when you, whenyou tap into something that
you're like, wow, this, thismeans something a little bit
bigger than just the normal song.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Yeah, you begin to realize that a little bit bigger
than you know, being in a box,a lot of songs you write are
like Neil Sedgwick.

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
you know we write country music we love, so it's
got a thing.
But it is fun when you tap intosomething that you think
someone might get on a biggerlevel.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Almost to that point, maybe branching out a little
bit.
How would you break down thefactions in country music?
Because you have Trudy Oakgoing all the way on the rock
and roll side of country, thenyou have Ann Wilson all the way
on the left going to theChristian country kind of side,
which is more of what we'retalking here.
How do you break down, likethose different factions?

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
I break it down ticket sales I do.
I break it down to theheadliners.
I break it down to what they'redoing.
I break it down to themid-level acts that have been
around and what new acts arespeaking to the crowd.
I mean, you can define anything.
You can define yourself as acountry music artist.
Are you connecting?
That's the disconnect for mewith streaming and these

(01:09:51):
platforms is you have a lot ofpeople who can call themselves
successful artists becauseyou're streaming, but I like to
listen to the one like theStapletons and those guys.
What are they tapping into?
I break it down like that.
I break it down like who'shaving success?
Because that is what we'redoing.
That is what we're doing.

(01:10:13):
I say it all the time.
There might be an artist.
The other night we were talkingabout an artist we were hanging
out and he's not my favoriteartist, but he's selling out
arenas every night.
Can't argue with it.
Can't argue with it.
You cannot argue with a hardticket and a merch number.
That's how you break it down.
Who's on the come up?
Who's going from clubs totheaters to little arenas to

(01:10:37):
opening, to headlining?
That's what's fun for me.
Who's really tapped in, likeMorgan did it better than
anybody Watched him come up andhe just.
You know, that's how I look atit, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Right.
If you had to buy stock inthree people today who are like
coming up, who would it be?
Wow?

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
Coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
That's a good question If you're saying who's
starting at the clubs?

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
who's going to the theaters?

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
who's moving their way up.

Speaker 7 (01:11:06):
Yeah, you're talking about new artists.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
Zach Topp would be one, just because he's got a
good lane.
Is he from?

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Montana.

Speaker 3 (01:11:13):
I don't know where he's from.
I don't think he's from theSouth.
I've got a great idea for him.

Speaker 7 (01:11:17):
also, we'd have to say John Morgan just because we
work with him and I'd go withhim and he's a true artist, like
a lot of these newer artiststhat come out.

Speaker 4 (01:11:29):
Um, they might not have the whole package, but he's
one of those guys that has itif you, if you wanted to buy
early stock, inexpensive stock,buy Mary Cutter stock, okay, but
check her, we're producing herand she's well.

Speaker 5 (01:11:44):
I'm not just saying that cause we're producing her.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
You're paid to say this.
No, no, I'm really not.

Speaker 5 (01:11:49):
Cause you can look at .
You can look at what we look atin the business.
You can look at social media andwhat she's done.
She's connecting on her own.
That's another thing.
Okay, okay, you can.
You can look at social mediaand some people may have a way
to buy some of that.
And some people just do aground floor right and I look at
that like, okay, you know, howdid she get millions of views on

(01:12:10):
something?
She's tapped into something I'm.
That's why we are producing her, because there's a there.
I think there's a.
There's a rising stock there.
You know, I I zach tops a goodone.
I think he's tapped in that's.
You know who just did.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
Indigo.
Who was that?
What's the lady's name?
Indigo, just came out, let'ssee I don't know.
Let me see.
I'm blanking on her name in thespot Indigo Avery Anna.
Oh, avery Anna, we know her,she's great.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
Our friend David Fanning is working with her and
she's you're right, she'stapping into something that
people are buying.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
I like her a lot.
She's the one who stands out tome.
Yeah, she's great yeah Sincewe're plugging.

Speaker 7 (01:12:56):
I'm going to plug Ben on your show.
There you go, ben Gallagher.
Okay, yes, ben, he's amazing,he's a stud.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
Yeah, there's a lot of talent out there.
I mean, it's harder for theseyoung kids to like cut through
because there's so much noisearound it, you know.
But I think if, like I said, inthis genre, if you stick with
the fan base, you can have agreat career, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
What do you think is young guys trying to break into
it?
Is there like a right age to?

Speaker 5 (01:13:26):
break into nashville nowadays seems like any, seems
like it's off the table prettymuch.
It's pretty broad right yeah itis, it is, it seems like it's
it.
You can't be, I think I'm gonnatry hey, that's the great thing
about country music seriously,I don't know, why y'all?

Speaker 7 (01:13:39):
I think you can still .
It can still work.
Have a shot when you're in yourmid-30s.
I got a good 20 years left andthen you have someone like Mason
Ramsey, who's what 12?

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
Whatever he is, but he had the viral moment.
Like you said earlier, healready broke in and he can tour
just because he went viral once.
Right, it's interesting.
Now.
I want to throw somethingbefore you.
Have you heard of Josiah Queen?
No, he's more on the Christianside, but he's breaking in.
He's doing Bridgestone.

(01:14:08):
He just sold out Bridgestone,actually two months ago my lord,
he got married at like 1920 andnow he's 2122 and he's based
out of Texas, he's not even inNashville and I think he's got
his second album.
Might have just come out.
It's about to come out no,september.
I think he's got his secondalbum.
It might have just come out.
It's about to come out.
No September, I think, is whenhis second one comes out.
He's independent, not signed toa label, started out that way,

(01:14:33):
just started pumping songs outthere, releasing single after
single after single, then EPafter EP after EP, just putting
them on blast, right.
And he's on a whole tour, justas an independent artist.
I mean, I think about, like asan author.
I think about, like, thepublishing world in books.
You have the HarperCollins, youhave the Penguin Random House,

(01:14:53):
you have all these publishinghouses, the Big Five, they call
them.
You're trying to break intothose.
It's similar same concept whenyou're in music, trying to get
to the big record labels, bigpublishing houses and sign those
deals.
And then you have the option ofself-publishing a book.
That's what I did myself and Ienjoyed it because I'm the
entrepreneur, I wanted controlover it, right?

(01:15:14):
And what do you think about theindependent rise in music,
independent artists?
Do you have any thoughts?

Speaker 5 (01:15:21):
Those publishers.
Let me sign you up.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
No well, it's, it's interesting, and I I don't have
a lot of these guys have a lotmore, but it it's interesting to
me because you can find outyou're writing with an artist
and they're not on radio.
They don't have a deal oranything, yeah, but they're
making like like seven to tenthousand dollars a month, right,
you know, by putting outcontent and on all the social
YouTube, all that stuff.
They have a business.
They're doing really, reallygood.

(01:15:46):
A lot of them.
They're not chasing a label,they're happy and they're
getting to perform.
They go out and play.
They're doing great.
I don't know, I love it.

Speaker 7 (01:15:57):
If we wrote a song with them, we're making $7 to
$10 a month.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
That's the problem.
How does that work on thewriters?

Speaker 7 (01:16:06):
then Some of these new artists are giving master
percentages away to writers thatare right with them.
Now, that's a thing now whichis good.
It's an incentive forsongwriters to write with them.
If you're independent andyou're not really selling
product or anything like that,and you're not on radio, there's

(01:16:28):
really no incentive for anybodyto want to co-write with you,
unless you're not a business toit yeah, but it's cool, man, I
think it's great that there's anavenue for an independent
artist yeah, to put his musicout there without signing with a
record label.

Speaker 4 (01:16:43):
I think it's awesome.
Yeah, uh, and if it connects,it's going to connect and it's.
That's right.
I, I think it's incredible.

Speaker 7 (01:16:49):
I think it's great because the fans get to decide
if they love it that's exactlyright, it's going to be huge.
It's not.
It's not a business or apolitical decision, it's the
fans actually get to go.
I love this and it goes viral.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
Well, that's the reason, though, is why we're
stuck with some things, though Alittle piece of me.
I like the gatekeepers, I likethe label head.

Speaker 7 (01:17:09):
The gatekeepers, or the gatekeepers the gatekeepers.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
Move beyond.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
LGBTQ.
I like the head of the labelwith the A&R staff Cause we it's
harder to get through, but Ilike sometimes it protects the
industry from things thatshouldn't go viral and shouldn't
be as big as they are.
Just my opinion.
I take some backlash for that,but I don't want to hear fancy
like on the radio.
I don't.

(01:17:33):
I think it's bad.
So I don't know God, I lovebacklash.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
So you prefer the corporate style?

Speaker 5 (01:17:39):
Well, I prefer the corporate style as much as just.
I like it when a legit artistwho has great songs and john
morgan's a great example, one ofthe best singers we've got in
this genre, he's, he's our guy,he's you know, he writes.
The songs that he puts out aregreat songs.
They don't stream huge becausethey're not, they don't have

(01:18:01):
that viral element to them, butthey're great songs.
Okay, it could be harder forhim to be a big star today than
it would have been 15 years agobecause of the reason that he
doesn't write those viral typecheeky songs.
So, yeah, I think I like theidea of taking a John Morgan and
having an A&R staff concentrateon him and just okay, push it

(01:18:25):
to radio and next thing, youknow John Morgan's headlining.

Speaker 7 (01:18:27):
Well, he deserves it, he's worthy of it.
That's what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:18:31):
Yeah, exactly, and I'm not saying everybody is or
isn't.
I'm just saying there's tons ofartists who are not worthy of
any attention, the legit greatsingers, great artists, who
maybe don't love dancing aroundon tiktok like the dude singing
in a toothbrush.
What's it was warren zeters.
Uh, yes, that guy's trash.
Well, but he's trash.

(01:18:53):
But john's not going to dancein front of his truck at
midnight doing a tiktok.
If that's what it takes, thenjohn's probably not gonna gonna
do that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
So I think that part of it for me is frustrating I
mean that well, that just thengo ahead well, the part that in
I like a lot of that, otherstuff I don't, and just the fact
that I think it gives there'stoo much talent there that they
can't all get out on the radioand the labels don't have the

(01:19:24):
capacity to sign all the talentin the world.
So I do think there'slegitimate talented people that
because of social media and allthat, it's giving them a chance,
it's giving them a vehicle andI like that.
I mean to me it's more hopeful,it's, it's it's american, it's
great.
I mean I think you can, uh, Ithink there's a lot of positives
to it.
And and if I don't know, and ifsomebody comes out and they

(01:19:45):
don't have a a great song, youknow, like if if, say, say you
don't like fancy, like, like forme as a writer, I wish I wrote
it, cause I'd like to be cashedin that chair, like I would like
for you to make fun of a lot ofsongs.
Just because I would be, I wouldbe making money.
So I just think it giveswriters and artists just more
opportunity Though I know whatyou're saying, but at the same

(01:20:06):
time.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
I like the opportunity.
I think it works and hurts allat the same time, but I feel
like it's harder.
There's no doubt it's harderfor an artist Quality artist.
Quality artist who's not goingto spend time on TikTok?
Because, let's be honest, aslabels, the labels want TikTok
and all that stuff to do thework for them.
So that's.
It's not so much as thediamonds in the rough that come

(01:20:30):
up that you notice throughTikTok.
I think it's great.
I think it's great, but it'sharder for legit guys who maybe
just want to be, you know, likea Keith Whitley type.
See Keith Whitley out theresinging into his hairbrush.
No, I mean, we're going to missout on some stuff.
Now we're going to have somestuff Zach Topp's going to come
up, that's amazing.

(01:20:50):
But we're going to miss out onsome great artists who are just
great, who maybe don't have thesocial media presence or don't
have that chip in their brain.

Speaker 7 (01:20:59):
They don't have it in them.
They're not that desperate.

Speaker 5 (01:21:02):
I think.
But to Kayla's point, kudos tothe go-getters on social media.
Who that is working for?

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Yeah, I mean and if it's great, it'll last, if it's
great, it'll last.

Speaker 5 (01:21:12):
If it's not, it won't .
It'll prove itself.
But I do hate the.
I do feel should be given ashot that just won't because
they don't have the right socialnumbers.
If you can take advantage,that's a good point.

Speaker 7 (01:21:26):
Yeah, if you can take advantage of social media and
you're willing to put in thetime and the effort to do it.
More power to you If you'rewilling to look stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:21:33):
Absolutely, it's true , if you got it, if you're
willing to do that.

Speaker 7 (01:21:37):
Do it, you know, and it's like and that leads me to
the AI thing with songwritingI'm like that's a real thing and
it's coming.
You think that's going toreplace you guys?
Yeah, you do, Absolutely, Fromwhat I've gathered and what I've
seen.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
Different opinion.
What do you think?

Speaker 7 (01:21:53):
No, no, no, Because there's going to be songwriters
out there that are going to callthemselves songwriters and they
don't have to write a thing,that they don't have to do a
thing.
They can throw a phrase into auh and it'll spit out a whole
song with a demo and it's.
It sounds amazing, and they'regoing to call themselves
songwriters and that's whatwe're up against.

(01:22:13):
It's already here.
Yeah, it's like, and if wedon't, if we don't, learn how to
use it to our benefit, we'regoing to get left behind, right,
that's a fact.
I've already seen it.
It's amazing, it's mind-blowing.

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
I think it'll affect us in some ways, but I think and
Tully said this on a previousshow I think AI it has to take
from something, it has to learnfrom something.
So AI is not going to be ableto come up with the idea I came
up with this morning.
It's just not.
You've got to feed it, and so Istill feel like there's always

(01:22:48):
going to be the need for writersto create new things to feed AI
you have a question on that,we'll have to do that, but what
I'm saying is somebody whodoesn't know anything about
songwriting and has neverwritten a song in their life,
can feed it anything and callthemselves a songwriter and put
their name on it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
The way AI works.

Speaker 7 (01:23:11):
But what I'm saying is AI is smart.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
I mean it will spit out an amazing lyric they can
write you a book if you wantedto An amazing lyric.

Speaker 7 (01:23:19):
Yeah, I've seen it and I was blown away.
I'm like I wouldn't havethought of that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
Right, yeah, it's, it's.
I've seen it and I was blownaway.
I'm like I wouldn't havethought of that.
Right, and it's not that youguys doing this intentionally,
but ai is built off a model andit's built off of things that
are out there presently.
It's built off the songs thatyou guys wrote 100, yeah, so you
guys fed it.
You didn't know this was gonnahappen.
But how do you, how do youcompete against that now, when
you almost built the, the modelfor it?

Speaker 4 (01:23:41):
I don't, that's the question yet, because when you
get into copyright andpublishing, like you said, it
has to learn from something, ithas to take from something, and
that's the big battle.
I don't know the answer.
I really don't.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
Yeah, and who would figure up that math?
Because it's hundreds ofthousands of songs.
I guess what I'm trying to sayhere.

Speaker 7 (01:24:04):
AI is going to turn out to be the most amazing
co-writer that's ever lived.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
It's going to be amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:24:10):
It's going to do all the work and you're just going
to be in the room and watch itdo its thing and keep feeding it
stuff.
If you don't like it, you canfix it, throw it back in there.
Ai is going to be an amazingcompanion for a lot of people in
the songwriting industry.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
Yeah, you think it will be used on the production
end.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
Yep, Well, I mean it already is it already is?

Speaker 7 (01:24:32):
Yeah, it already is.
It's going to put a lot ofpeople out of business.

Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
Yeah, I don't know what it was.
Who did I see?

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
The AI artists?
Yeah, they are.
Who is that it sold?
That they are.
Who is that?

Speaker 7 (01:24:40):
for 500,000 copies of something it's like oh god,
dang, yeah, yeah there's gonna.
I predict there's gonna be.
There's gonna be.
They're gonna put record labelsout of business and everything.
Or record labels are gonna puteverything out of business and
have no artist to pay, have no,no overhead whatsoever.
They will.
I predict an AI-generatedartist will sell out Bridgestone

(01:25:03):
in the next five years.
It won't even be anybody.
What do you guys think?
Hey, I knew it was going tohappen when I saw a DJ with a
light show sell out Bridgestone.
Well, I mean some of the With alight show.
He's just a guy doing this andplugging his stuff in and
there's these tremendous lightsand everybody's just and they
sold out Bridgestone.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
So, it was over when I saw that, as we've said before
, and this is true people areeasily entertained.

Speaker 7 (01:25:30):
Yes, absolutely.
They're here now.
Look at Jim.

Speaker 4 (01:25:37):
I don't think he's entertained.
Yes, he is Yep so entertained.

Speaker 1 (01:25:41):
I know.

Speaker 5 (01:25:44):
I'm going to.
I've got to a, you know, Ithink God will take care of this
, I think, and with Kayla, inthe sense that it still there's
no motion there.
So I think we're still it'sdehumanized.
I can't let myself believe thatthat will replace the heart and
the imagination of what we door artists in general.
You know, it still feelsplastic to me.

(01:26:06):
You know, I've.
You can have someone spit outlyrics and it's, it's fine,
that's just.
You know what?
it's just not, it's just.
It's just numbers it's ones andzeros, it is but I gotta, I
gotta say this I got.

Speaker 7 (01:26:17):
This is the scary part.
This is coming from I.
I've written a lot of songs inmy life and we have, freaking,
put my heart and soul into alyric before.
And when I heard a song comeout of that machine with a demo
behind it, it blew my mindbecause it had emotion and

(01:26:40):
that's what blew me away.
I was like I mean, it wasamazing, it was, it blew my mind
.
I'm like we're in trouble.
We're in trouble and when was?
That this thing can think whendid?
you first see that oh, it's beenin the last month.
Okay, yeah, this is all fresh.
Yeah, it's all brand new.
The music was amazing, thesinger was amazing and the song

(01:27:03):
was amazing, and the song wasamazing and I was.
I was blown away.
It was all fake.

Speaker 5 (01:27:08):
I haven't heard that side of it.
Yet Maybe I?
I don't, I don't want to, buteverything I've heard out of it
or like seen, or what it's spitout.
We were messing around one daywith the, our boys, the Warren
brothers were joking around andthey said something and it was
like okay, well, that's, that's,that's really not good, you
know.

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
And so I haven't seen the, the true fear that I've
seen in my friend now but youknow for me to say it, though I
know I mean it's like I, itscared me to death well, and we,
you know it wasn't real, Iguess and the way we approach it
, like we, these guys write foreverybody yeah, I've had hits

(01:27:47):
with everybody we kind of more,you know, focused towards jason
right, and when we're lookingfor songs for jason, the ai
doesn't do it because there's avery specific yeah thing.
But no, I see what you'resaying, man, I really do.

Speaker 7 (01:28:04):
It's going to come a time where you can throw an idea
in and go write it for JasonAldean.
Well, we did it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:10):
Believe me, we did that.
We like write this.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
You guys tested it oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
Write this title in the style of Jason Aldean.

Speaker 7 (01:28:16):
It won't hit it every time.

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
It won't hit it every time, but sometimes it'll spit
out one and you're like holyshit To me it sounds really good
, but it falls under thecategory of hey, that's pretty
good, but to me my experience ispretty good songs don't get
recorded.

Speaker 7 (01:28:33):
Right, there's a lot of them out there.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
I'm just saying I would have disagreed with you
there.

Speaker 2 (01:28:44):
But I said my experience, but I think it's a
good tool.

Speaker 3 (01:28:47):
I think it'd be a good tool, Like for me.
I'm not a great melody guy atall, so for me if I'm working on
something, it'd be kind of coolto say hey, spit it out and
make this more of a rock thingand you can start hearing pieces
of demos.
Make this more of a rock thingand you can start hearing pieces
of demos.
I think for some people it canbe a really good tool.
Or if you're completely stonecold, blocked on a second verse

(01:29:10):
or something I don't know, andsaid, hey, put it out, and it'll
spit out something generic,that's been said before.
I would never do that you won'tdo that will you, I haven't
used it.

Speaker 7 (01:29:18):
I'm just saying but people will.
But that was my point a whileago.
There's going to be people whodon't write songs for a living
and they're just brand new.
They'll throw a title into it,it'll spit out a lyric and
they'll get to mess with it andedit it and do this and put it
back in there and then do alittle work tape on it with just
their guitar on their phone,put that in there and out spits

(01:29:39):
this record with this singerthat doesn't exist.
And that took 10 minutes.
Yes, it is scary and it'samazing, right?
That's my whole point.
It's like there's going to bepeople who who haven't been
doing this for 30, 40 yearstheir whole life and still
learning the craft for 30 yearsthat'll be able to just step in
here and just do that and thatpisses y'all off.

(01:29:59):
Right, you can stay pissed oryou can adapt or die.
I think it's going to be hardto make money.

Speaker 3 (01:30:09):
I don't think you could just become a hit
songwriter just by feeding stuffinto AI and editing it.
It depends on who cuts it.
I don't know, maybe it'llhappen.

Speaker 5 (01:30:19):
I don't know if that's going to happen.
We better hope it's regulatedand it doesn't happen.
At that point I don't thinkit'll happen.
I don't know if that's going tohappen.
We better hope it's regulatedand it doesn't happen.
At that point I don't eventhink I want to.

Speaker 1 (01:30:26):
That's how well you suggest they regulate it.
I don't know, I don't either.
That's way above me, it's thesame way.

Speaker 5 (01:30:32):
I think how do you regulate social media?
How do you regulate any of it?
It's all negative to me.
The AI stuff for the creativemusic is everything.
My soul won't even let meentertain the thought.
So I think that's when I if, ifit comes down to that, I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:30:51):
I think you know we are old, we are a dying breed.
Yeah, if you're well dying.

Speaker 5 (01:30:56):
If a dying breed's creating music, if that makes a
dying breed, then I guess I'mI'm dead because it's I'm not, I
, I can't.
Where's the joy in it, right?
I find no joy in saying, spitme, spit me out.
A second verse, like to me,it's like I.
I love music with everything Ihave and it's like all I love

(01:31:16):
and what I want to do, andforever I can't even.

Speaker 4 (01:31:20):
It's hard though I mean this is, it's a wormhole,
but it's like.
You know, people build tracksand music through samples and it
isn't them creating the music.
It's just oh, I see this online.
Here's a sample.
Here's a sample.
Here's a sample.
There's your song.
So I mean, it's happening inchby inch, or even more than that.

Speaker 7 (01:31:43):
I don't think we're ever going to give in.
I don't think the guys likethis generation of writers.
I don't think we're ever goingto fully give in to AI.
But the new generation comingup, especially even the younger,
people.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
Well, yeah, you don't have to have any talent.
I know it, I could do it.
That's the scary part.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
You could, and it would be great Jim could do it.
I'm kidding.
Jim, I'm kidding Jim.
I'm kidding.

Speaker 7 (01:32:04):
You're right, kurt, jim can do it.
That's the sad part.
You're not going to need talent.

Speaker 5 (01:32:10):
That's what I'm getting at Then what's the point
of doing anything Just at thatpoint?

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
Don't give up.
It's a super depressing night.

Speaker 7 (01:32:19):
Hey, I think it's a sign the Lord's coming back soon
.
That's what I think.
I think a lot of things areyeah, but we can wrap this up.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
We've been at this like an hour, but I like to end
every show with one question.
So if we go around the roomhere a bit, if you could talk to
a young person, if you lookthem in the eyes and you can
tell them not to give up onething name of the show is

(01:32:46):
america.
Don't give up weed.
If you're talking weed, ifyou're talking in gen z a young
person, what do you?

Speaker 4 (01:32:53):
say well, you kind of uh, touched on this and I think
this is important.
I'm glad my parents instilledthis in me as critical thinking.
Uh, I just think we've lost it.
The younger generation has lostit.
You're kind of told what to do.
You kind of watch what to doright and I I know this guy has,

(01:33:14):
and I know you have, and I knowyou're going to instill that in
your kids uh, I'm very thankfulmy parents did that with me and
in some ways you would disagree, but that's the whole point.
That allows you to get througha lot of tough times.
I hope that I'm doing that withmy son.
That's the one thing I'd say.

(01:33:36):
Don't give up on.
Think for yourself.
Don't be influenced easily byothers.

Speaker 1 (01:33:41):
Yeah, we've been taught what to think, not how to
think.

Speaker 4 (01:33:42):
More than ever, we've been taught what to think, not
how to think.
More than ever, we've beentaught what to think Right.

Speaker 5 (01:33:48):
Well, I mean, I would say, just don't give up on
God's message.
What's that to you?
Well, look, I know it's easywhen things don't go right to
question it.
You know, like you may losesomebody close to you, you may
something may not go right, youmay hit a bad patch in your life

(01:34:09):
.
I've been through it, whereit's like you start questioning
you know is he out there?
Has he got my back?
Seriously, I've had thosemoments, you know, and I've
learned like that he's alwaysthere, right, he's always there
and it's those down moments thatmake you the strongest.
That's a lesson that I wish Iwould have learned when I was

(01:34:30):
younger.
That I know now, but I thinkthat's part of his plan.
So I would say to the youngpeople I've been through it,
don't give up on that, yeahdon't stay low.

Speaker 1 (01:34:40):
Yeah, I mentioned Forrest Frank earlier.
Earlier that new artist.
Uh, he was skateboarding.
Like a week ago.
He broke his back whileskateboarding.
He's on tour and everythingbroke his back, uh.
So he's like in bed right nowand he's like I need to make a
song and you just said it god'sgot my back.
He just made a song calledgod's got my broken back.
Wow, yeah so that song's doingwell.

(01:35:01):
Now I'm gonna going to put thatin AI tonight.
He just wrote it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
Neil will have that out by tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:35:07):
But you should look up the video of him actually
producing it because, it'sinteresting.
He made it in his bed theguitar and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:35:14):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
It's cool, I know my son knows it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:16):
I actually don't know much of him.
I'll look that up.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
See, AI is not going to get that emotion.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
No, they can't.
They can't time it like that.
Yeah, Kelly.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Uh, I mean, I would just say, you know um, those are
both great, by the way.
Um, but I would say don't giveup on family, um, because the
older you get, you know, and youand you start losing people.
Um, you, you know, and youstart losing people.
You know.
You just need to really valueyour mom and dad, your brothers,

(01:35:49):
sisters and all that, becauseI've kind of learned that our
family is kind of odd, becausewe all love each other.
We don't have an ousted familymember, you know, and a lot of
people do have those people andthey just don't repair it, like
for whatever reason.
I think it's just so incrediblysad because as you get older,
you start losing friends andstuff like that.
And even if you're going to besuccessful, um, you know, it's

(01:36:12):
great if you're successful, butif nobody cares when you get
there, I mean, what'd you do itfor?

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
right, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
so I mean friends, come and go to keep yeah and you
get older, I mean, your friendgroup starts getting real small
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:36:32):
Yeah, mine's more related to what Tully said, but
it's don't give up on prayer,because sometimes people get the
wrong answer to their prayer,or it's not the wrong answer,
but they don't get the answerthat they want, and they'll give
up on it really quick Becauseprayer works.
I'm 60 years old and I'm hereto attest that prayer works.

(01:36:56):
I haven't gotten the answer Iwanted every time, but it was
for the right reason and Ialways found out later that it
was for the right reason.
So don't give up praying.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Right, that's very true.
My life's a testimony of that.
Just a quick bit Senior year ofhigh school.
I wrote the book when I was 17.
Senior year of high school Ispent nine days in the hospital
Right over Christmas break.
Six days I was unconscious.
This is only two years ago.
Six days I was unconscious.
This is only two years ago.
Six days I was unconscious withwhat they call viral
encephalitis.
My brain was swollen andinflamed and I mean they didn't

(01:37:30):
know if I would live.
I mean people usually get thatmortality rate on that is 10%.
So if you want to talk aboutCOVID mortality rate of 0.00
something 10% mortality rate.
I was in a coma for a week.
People, people who get that arein a coma for weeks, if not
months, and you don't make itout, um, but I mean the lord uh

(01:37:52):
showed up.
Uh, the first week in thehospital I woke up from being
unconscious.
It's like midnight and there'slike a gonzaga unc basketball
game on tv.
I was like I was trying to watchit in bed.
But you're so dazed and out ofit after a week, as you can
imagine, and I couldn't focus onit.
But there's one thought in mymind like at that point and it's

(01:38:14):
like where's my Bible?
I have like one of the big ESVthick study Bibles.
It's just a brick.
In high school I was known to bethe guy who just carried it
around, which is a good thing tobe known by, but you can't beat
it.
And I remember like crawlingout of bed and stumbling across
the room, just hobbling overthere like out of breath,
huffing and puffing.

(01:38:35):
Once I found my Bible on thewindowsill, my mom's on a futon
trying to sleep at midnight, mydad's in a recliner, to your
point of family.
They were there the whole time.
They were there and I found myBible.
I got back to my bed, rippedthe IV out of my arm to even do
that.
Nurses were not happy, but thestud.

(01:38:55):
But I remember just flippingopen and I couldn't even read
the words on the page but Iprayed the only two words.
I can find the strength tomutter.
It was I surrender.
And after a week of beingunconscious and a coma.
A day later I'm out of thehospital.
I'm running laps around thefloor of that hospital, hospital
, uh floor, running laps,running away from the nurses

(01:39:17):
because they want to do moretests.
I'm like, I'm out of here, I'mgood, I'm done, uh, and I mean
that was the beginning of mystory.

Speaker 4 (01:39:24):
That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:39:26):
The Lord healed to the power of prayer.
I wouldn't be here if it wasn'tfor the power of prayer.
I was supposed to be on myfirst mission trip to Jamaica in
that time.
I didn't go.
There were people in Jamaicapraying for me, people in Europe
.
They had a whole prayer chaingoing across the country, across
the world.
That's where my parentsresorted to first.
I wouldn't be here if it wasn'tfor that.

(01:39:48):
So I just wanted to throw thatin there In that recovery
process.
I thought it was going to taketwo years.
I didn't think I'd be 100%until now, within six months
after that.
I read a book Amazing and rightbefore that book came out,
that's when Fox invited me onfor the first time and I was

(01:40:09):
able to go on there talk aboutGen Z, what we're talking about
now.
I didn't know what that wasback then and now this has
become my niche.
But like right after I was on,that hit something kind of
clicked with me, like when I wasgoing back for those like
checkup appointments with theneurologist, the rheumatologist,
that all the ologists that youcan't name these old guys
probably get it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:28):
You're right.

Speaker 7 (01:40:29):
We didn't in the show on that one.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
I think he was looking that way, he was, he was
.

Speaker 1 (01:40:34):
But I went to the neurologist's appointment with
my mom and my dad and heapproved me and everything.
So I was good to go.
I was cleared and he asked meand everything.
So I was good to go.
I was cleared and he asked mestupid questions like who's the
president?
And, knowing me, I hesitatedwhen I said Joe Biden, Is he
really the president?
We don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:40:52):
The trick question.
Maybe it was a dream the trickquestion.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
So I think I was on it.
He asked me some math questionsand I answered them and we're
walking out of that room.
This is in like February andfirst Fox hit was June of 2023.
This is 2023.
And book is out last day ofJune and we're walking out in
February of that meeting andwe're almost out of the room.

(01:41:16):
He comes up and grabs me and hetaps me on the shoulder and he
says, Christian, I never want tosee you again unless you're on
TV.
So in February he's saying thatand in June that happens to
come to be.
Because this is never what Iever imagined myself doing.
The last thing I ever thought Iwould do is to talk.
I mean, my whole life I was ashy kid behind my mom's leg.

(01:41:37):
I just wanted to sit there andobserve.
And here we are.
The Lord's called me into this.
So you're right, the prayerdoes work and I'm glad I think
you guys understand that.

Speaker 4 (01:41:49):
I love it.
You guys have experienced it.
That's an incredible story,right.
And we appreciate you beinghere tonight, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:41:54):
I appreciate you guys letting me come in and take
your space and let me into yourlittle bubble.

Speaker 5 (01:42:00):
Through the bubble you're in.

Speaker 1 (01:42:04):
I'm in, you'll get a bill, all right?
Well, I think that's it.
Thanks for tuning in everybody.
We'll be back for the nextepisode.

Speaker 6 (01:42:11):
Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share rate the
show and check out our merch attrythatinasmalltowncom.

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