From Small Town Stages To “The Road”: Adam Sanders On Grit, Branding, And Country Music’s New Path :: Ep 79 Try That in a Small Town Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
I added Michael Knox to my space and um I messaged
him and I cannot rememberexactly what I messaged him
about, but he responded and wassuper nice and at the end of our
conversation I said to him, andthis is 21-year-old full of piss
and vinegar, me, that hasnothing going on in the music

(00:52):
industry.
I literally said something like,Hey man, I appreciate it.
Tell Al Dean I'm coming for it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01):
When y'all were talking about that, I think
about Jamie Johnson.
Like when he came to town, I waswriting a D of mine, he got
signed to E of mine as at theChristmas party.
I didn't know, I didn't knowhim.
He's he was new in town.
But he was uh just had on anormal shirt, a leather jacket,
and just uh just almost a highand tight haircut, just neat,
neat as a pen.
He didn't come to town as that,you know, with the outlaw and

(01:23):
all the hair and the beard andeverything, but he found through
his music and everything, hefound that lane and he took it
over.
And there's nobody like that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30):
I think guys like Jamie Johnson, to that point, he
was he finally let loose and didwhat he wanted to do.
Correct.
Yeah.
Instead of what they wanted himto do.

SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
I go to zoom in on my crotch and my thing.

SPEAKER_01 (01:44):
Oh Johnny's hanging out is hanging outside of my
boxes.
And I'm gonna send this pictureto 30 people.
The water was cold, guys.
It was cold.
Yeah, literally cold.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56):
A try that in a small town podcast.
Begin out.

SPEAKER_06 (02:05):
Welcome back.
This is the try that in a smalltown podcast.
You can't see it.
Yep, there's somebody across thetable from me that we'll get to.
Um now let's just go.
Who are you?
What is this?
Are you celebrating the Raidersor Alabama?
Because I which side of thehelmet?

SPEAKER_03 (02:21):
Yeah, I mean, this is the Bama side, right?

SPEAKER_06 (02:23):
Okay, that's the Bama side.
Yes.
What happened?
Was there a game?
Was there a game?

SPEAKER_03 (02:28):
Come on.

SPEAKER_06 (02:28):
Kurt, seriously, was there a game?

SPEAKER_05 (02:31):
Yeah, there was a game.
Well, there was a game.

SPEAKER_06 (02:33):
There was Neil Paddington.

SPEAKER_05 (02:35):
Yeah, Alabama had a had a game.
Uh and Tennessee, too many, toomany issues on the road.
There were a lot of issues.
I will say on um and Alabama'scredit, they did play a solid
game.
There are some we couldn't runthe ball.
There's some but but that's kindof been a a thing that y'all

(02:56):
haven't been running the balltrue that good.
I mean statistically, if youlook at the numbers, it should
have been a lot closer.
You know, uh statisticallythey're about the same, but the
scoreboard is a big thing.

SPEAKER_06 (03:07):
The game switch looks at right before half.
That was gonna be a game, andthen they threw that horrible
pass, pick six, game over.
Game over it was just a badpretty much.

SPEAKER_05 (03:16):
It was a it was a horrible play call.
Yeah.
And you didn't have time foranother play, so they knew it
was a pass.

SPEAKER_03 (03:22):
I've got to I've got you know, I've got to just I
don't think it was a horribleplay call necessarily, because
you're not giving my team anycredit.
Of course.
Well, we didn't get to that partyet.
I I well He made the play.

SPEAKER_06 (03:35):
I mean you could say He made the play, but there's a
lot of bad things.
Here's the thing too.

SPEAKER_03 (03:39):
Tennessee called timeout, called the play, and
then Alabama called timeout.
And I told I turned and told mywife, I said, that's the
smartest thing Deborah's done ina long time was call the timeout
right there.
And prepare these guys becausethey cannot run the ball.
Yeah, that's the thing.
There's no way they can run theball.

(03:59):
And the best thing he did wascall that timeout, bring the
guys to the sideline, andprepare for that play right
there, and they did, and theybroke on it.
And it was just a very, verysmart timeout.

SPEAKER_05 (04:12):
Yeah, everything bad and and on the opposite side of
that.
And I and I do I do like CoachHeipel, but this season there
have been some clock managementissues that are on the field
stuff that that he needs tocorrect because things like that
cost you games.
That was a that was a 14-pointswing.

(04:32):
I mean that that was uh you knowjust as Tennessee when you saw
that is like, oh my god, youcould that's the worst possible.

SPEAKER_06 (04:41):
I'm with you the clock management up to it, the
timeout it took before it, theyscrewed the whole thing up.

SPEAKER_05 (04:46):
Yeah, it was just ri really bad, and you're already
on the road and you just can'thave that stuff.
And I and I was gonna say too,Alabama, uh that when a
quarterback throws is accurateand you have a talented receiver
catching some of those, some ofthose plays it can't be
defended.
I don't care what DBs you have.
Some of them are just you justlook at it, and even as a fan,

(05:08):
I'm like, all right, well, theycouldn't I'm not mad at the
player because you can't, youknow, you can't stop that.
But they had they had everychance to be in the game.
I'm not gonna say, hey, theywould have won if they'd have
done this because I'm not thatkind of fan, but they had
opportunities even to stay inthat game, even coming back out
in the second half after thatdebacle, you know, because I was

(05:29):
sitting there thinking, well,that's it.
You know, and uh they come backout, Alabama gets the ball,
three and out, then we score.
On a running play, which whyweren't we running the whole
time?
Because that's been the strengthand that's that's Alabama's
weakness, and we didn't startdoing that to the second half.

SPEAKER_03 (05:44):
I don't I don't want our listeners to think that I
rub it in, because I don't, I'mnot that way.
And you know what?
No, we didn't rub it in.
We've kno we've known each othera long time ago.
We didn't rub it in.
But we're on a podcast now andwe're live, and the world gets
to see us, and I'm just saying,I'm I've the helmet's there.
I'm not trying to, it'scomfortable.
I'm just kind of going back tomy college days a little bit.
Well, I'm not I'm not trying torub it in.

SPEAKER_05 (06:07):
Then you should have an MTSU jersey up here, then
true.
Neil was a punter at MTSU.
Sticker.

SPEAKER_06 (06:14):
Well, let's uh let's get to the important stuff
because we have an awesome showtonight.
We have an awesome guest, Mr.
Adam Sanders.
Neil, are you because I'd nevermet him.
Is this somebody that you havewritten with?
And how do you know Adam?

SPEAKER_03 (06:30):
Uh me and Michael Delaney wrote with him.
Okay.
And and we uh I got to know himthere, and we had a lot in
common because the dude lovesthe outdoors, he loves to hunt.
I love to hunt.
We have we know a lot of peoplethat the same people that we
didn't know that we knew.
So and we were writing that day,and I go, I go, dude, come on

(06:51):
our podcast, would you?
And for people he was all aboutcoming on, and like we're so
appreciative.

SPEAKER_06 (06:58):
Yeah, and for people that don't know, he's on the
show The Road, which BlakeShelton is on, uh Keith Urban,
right?
Yep.
And it's a pretty awesome show,and he's one of the contestants,
and this is like m must mustwatch TV.

SPEAKER_03 (07:13):
They're two episodes in right now, two episodes in.

SPEAKER_06 (07:16):
Two episodes in.

SPEAKER_03 (07:18):
Yeah, I'm I'm gonna watch and I'm gonna be like
pulling for the dude.
Yeah, I'm pulling for him.
Now that we know him, like wedo.

SPEAKER_06 (07:24):
He's a songwriter, he's had number one hits, and
got a lot of uh uh He's beenhere a while, which so you want
to root for the guy.

SPEAKER_05 (07:32):
I like the way that he came up through the ranks.
Um is really cool.
You know, the way he'd beensinging since he was three.
You know, the uncle got he said,Hey, you ought to, you know,
write songs like at twelve yearsold.
And then he came to town andpretty shortly after that
started having hits, you know,like right away, which is
unusual.
I know.

SPEAKER_03 (07:51):
I almost almost told him, I go, it could be a curse.
I want to be an artist too, andI started getting cuts before I
was an artist, and my artistcareer never took off.
Same with well, Jeffrey Steeledid.
Boy howdy was pretty good.
No, he's gonna be uh Adam'sgonna he's gonna rock it, man.
He's his work ethic and knowingwho he is, everybody's gonna

(08:15):
know it after this episode.

SPEAKER_05 (08:16):
He's too stubborn to leave.
I know it.
He really is.
I love it.

SPEAKER_06 (08:20):
All right, let's let's not waste any more time.
Let's get to Adam Sanders rightnow.
We got Adam Sanders in Adam.
Thanks for being here, man.

SPEAKER_08 (08:29):
When he came in, we we called him little Adam
Sanders because we his chair wasabout three inches down.
Yeah.
We do that on purpose for theguests.

SPEAKER_05 (08:36):
We try to build you up as the show goes.
Seniority, right?
Yeah.
There we go.
Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 (08:43):
He looked like a door taller than me.
If I'd have done that, you youwouldn't even have seen that.

SPEAKER_03 (08:47):
Welcome to show, Adam.

SPEAKER_06 (08:50):
It's like uh dwarf on golf.
Remember that?
That Tim Conway thing.
He's got to be as old as methen.
Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 (08:56):
Yeah, little shuffle.

SPEAKER_06 (08:57):
Hey, so fun fact that I know the listeners don't
know, but I know that you'regonna be interested in.
I found out Adam's uncle issomebody we know.

unknown (09:08):
Who?

SPEAKER_06 (09:08):
Who's a player?

SPEAKER_08 (09:10):
Holding on information.

SPEAKER_06 (09:12):
He's a session player, Scotty Sanders.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We knew that.

SPEAKER_03 (09:16):
I need that.

SPEAKER_06 (09:17):
Love Scotty.
Isn't that amazing?

SPEAKER_08 (09:19):
Pretty wild, huh?
Yeah.
Man, we used to do a bunch ofsessions with him when we were
doing demos back in the day atStation West.
Oh, yeah.
I'm not half as funny as he is,though.
I'll be into something else.
He is so great all the wayaround.
What a great guy to have in asession, too.

SPEAKER_02 (09:34):
Just awesome people.
And you know, the wild thing uhis in the fate of how I got in
the music industry was when Iwas 12, he called me one day
because I started singing when Iwas like two or three years old,
and he said, Hey, have you everthought about writing songs?
And at 12 years old, like thatdid not compete for me.
Um he said, You should youshould look into writing songs.
That could be your way in themusic industry one day.

(09:55):
And so I hung up the phone andstarted writing songs with my
dad, and then I started writingin high school and literally
fast forward moved in 2009 andtwo years later got a publishing
deal, and that's exactly how Igot my start, was all because he
planted a seed when I was 12.
Is this your dad's brother?
Okay.
Yes, my dad's younger brother.
And where were you living atthis time?
So I grew up in north centralFlorida, a little small town

(10:16):
called Lake City.
Um you blink, you miss it, Ilike to say.
Um, but I kind of grew up justlike you know, every small town
America kid, you know, intosports and music was always my
thing, though.
You know, I always sang intalent shows and fairs and
festivals and all that kind ofstuff, and you know, so my whole
goal from the time I could evenremember was to literally

(10:36):
graduate high school and move toNashville.
I had no other dreams oraspirations.
Um I literally think I kind ofprocrastinated for about a year.
I took a half semester at ourcommunity college, and I kind of
thought to myself, well, youknow, all my buddies haven't
gone off to college yet, andwe're all still hanging around
during the summer and going tothe rivers and you know, kind of
hanging out and bonfires and andall that.

(10:57):
And I was like, I'll I'll takelike a uh half semester of
college and like you know,business, and then I'll transfer
it to like music business, whichI barely graduated high school,
so the thought of me going tocollege was never gonna work,
you know.
So literally it took about ahalf semester, and I was like,
That was my same pass.

SPEAKER_03 (11:14):
I gotta go to music business.
The music business, yeah, right.
Anything had business in thetitle?
Yeah.
I couldn't even spell business.

SPEAKER_08 (11:20):
I still don't think I really graduated.
I think they just pushed methrough.
Yeah.
Because I mean I was right onthe bubble him out of here.

SPEAKER_05 (11:27):
Well, it's all the all the rich kids get a pass.
Oh, yeah.
Isn't that crazy though?

SPEAKER_02 (11:31):
Like, I I talked to a lot of people in the music
industry, and like as likecreatives, like I was just not
interested in school.
Like, I wasn't a bad kid.
I wasn't, you know, like indetention or getting expelled.
I just didn't like to go.
And if I went, I just wanted togo and socialize and hang out
with my buddies.
You know, like I didn't give ashit about you know what.

SPEAKER_06 (11:51):
I mean, I think creative type should be.

SPEAKER_03 (11:52):
They call that ADHD today.
My boy being a boy is now calledADHD.

SPEAKER_08 (11:58):
Hey Neil, I Neil, I gotta say, I I agree with you on
that.
It's true.
Yeah, it's a there's alwayssomething you got a name for
everything now.
Yeah.
You know.

SPEAKER_03 (12:08):
In fact, I think there I heard something the
other day where they're tryingto like make recess like half
the day of school.
What do you mean?
Like why?
Run it, run it, run them, one,run them crazy, man.
Run them wild.
Shoot, let the kids go.
They get too bound up in there.

SPEAKER_02 (12:23):
Huh.
That used to be my favoritetime.
I still to this day, one of myonly claims to fame of growing
up is I still hold the milerecord in my elementary school
for the mile run.
I record the fastest time.
Elementary, you're holding theelementary.

(12:47):
No.
I do remember this though.
This was uh they still do it.
I as far as it's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 (12:52):
Maybe that's why maybe they stopped it.

SPEAKER_02 (12:54):
I don't even know I don't even know if that school
is still I don't even think it'seven there anymore.
So that is gonna bring therecord books.
But I but a funny story is I doremember um I was always in like
chorus and drama and all thatkind of stuff, you know, growing
up, and I remember we did thisuh we did this Grease play in
fifth grade, and I got to likelead role and you know was John

(13:15):
Travolta or whatever, so I exyedmy hair jet black for this.
And I had this crazy thoughtafter literally we done the the
play, and it was uh like aThursday, Friday afternoon, and
I was like, man, I'm about to gohit this mile.
Like I I'd been trying to run itand I'd kind of gotten close to
it, and I was like, I'm gonna doit.
And I remember I got about threeor four laps around this track,

(13:36):
and I started sweating, and allthat black dye started coming
out of my hair, and it was allrunning down the side of my
face, and I I somehow got thethe fastest time as I'm running
around with black hair goingaround.
Does anybody have a picture ofthat?
If they do, I don't know, and Idon't probably don't want to see
it.
That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 (13:54):
Speaking of pictures, I want to hear the
story because Adam's a bighunter, like I am.
Okay.
And we're like when we've gottentogether to write, all we do we
spend half the day looking atdeer pictures.
Yeah.
You gotta tell the story aboutthe deer that you sh that you
shot this year with your bow.
Go.

SPEAKER_02 (14:14):
This is this is uh this is embarrassing.
I'll tell you this.
Um so I go to Kentucky uhopening weekend for velvet
season, and um I have a goodfriend that's up there, um
George Cummins, that invited meto come up and hunt with him.
And um These guys don't knowwhat velvet season.
Well, the velvet season.
I was actually gonna ask him ontheir antlers.
Oh, yeah, so on their antlers,velvet is what's on their

(14:35):
antlers.
And in certain states, you thehunting season starts early
enough where you can harvest abuck that is still in velvet.
Most seasons doesn't start untilafter they've already shedded
their velvet.
So it's kind of a unique thingto be able to hunt one that
early to get you know a deer.
So anyway, so I go up for thatuh section of the season, which
is literally the first weekend,and he puts me on this really,

(14:57):
really nice buck.
He scored 164 inches.
So I shoot this deer, and uhwhere I shot him with my bow, he
fell in this creek, and it wasway off down in this big deep
ravine.
And so we go to track him andfind him, and he's in the middle
of this water, it's like fourfoot of water.

(15:18):
So I have to strip down to myboxers to go in to get this deer
out of the water.
So all my buddies, you know,that are with me, they're on the
bank, and you know, they're alllaughing at me.
Oh, any excuse to take yourshirt off, you know, sort of
thing.
They're videoing me.
And so I wade out in the middleof this water, like you know,
waist deep, get him, we get himto the side of the bank, and uh

(15:39):
I didn't think anything of it.
So I just start posing him upand I start taking pictures, and
I'm still in my boxers, and allI got is my boxers on and my
hat.
This this exact hat, I got itturned around backwards.
So I started taking pictures andposing, and about halfway
through I realized, hey, youidiot, like you probably need to
put some clothes on.
So I go and put my you knowclothes on.
So we get back to the truck, andyou know, I'm sending these

(16:02):
pictures around to all mybuddies.
Well, and some of the photos helooks the biggest when I'm in my
boxers.
And I thought it would be funnyfor them to, you know, tell the
story.
Hey, I had to get him in thewater.
I didn't realize this though.
I had sent it to about 30 of mybuddies, and I realized after
setting about a week later, I goto zoom in on my crotch and my

(16:25):
big box.

SPEAKER_01 (16:31):
The water was cold, guys.
It was cold.
Really cold.
So I was too high number of thisbig boxer buck.

SPEAKER_02 (16:40):
I wasn't worried about what he was doing now.
But now 30 of my buddies hasthis picture, and I don't know
if they've you're in trouble.
No, you're in trouble.
If they were too busy looking atthe rack.
But so yeah, so now that I got apicture of my of my Johnson
hanging out the side of myboxer's.

SPEAKER_03 (16:58):
You know what?
If you win the road, my God, youit's not gonna be only your face
going viral.
Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 (17:06):
Only fans deer hunting edition.

SPEAKER_08 (17:09):
You ever watch Seinfeld?
So there's an episode where thesame thing, like Kramer.
Uh oh.
So Kramer takes a picture ofElaine for a Christmas card and
uh turns out her her nipplesshowing and she doesn't realize
it until the Christmas card'salready sent out.
So that should be your Christmascard.
That's right.

SPEAKER_02 (17:28):
See who first person I'm gonna send it to you.
See who catches it.

SPEAKER_01 (17:31):
See who pictures on the print.
Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
Luckily you can't see much about it, but you can
tell what it is.

SPEAKER_03 (17:38):
Oh my God.

unknown (17:40):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
I want to hear about the road.
I want to know how that's going.
Man, how it started.

SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
Yeah, tell people what it is and and what's
happening.
What a wild opportunity, firstoff.
Um, I mean, man, like like Isaid earlier, I moved to
Nashville in 2009, and my wholegoal when I moved here was to be
an artist and you know, found myway through songwriting.
And I feel like, you know, umfor my early years, I got such
uh success early in songwritingthat I kind of got labeled as

(18:06):
the songwriter pretty early,like in Nashville.
Um and I think a lot of labelsand everything sort of just saw
me as like the young kid thathad two number ones and all
these things, but like I didn'thave anything really developed
in the in the artist side ofthings.
And so I've spent the last tenyears just sharpening the knife,
going out and playing shows andgetting better and writing and

(18:29):
finding what my brand is and andunderstanding the difference of
there's already a Jason Aldean,there's already a you know Luke
Bryan and Luke Combs.
What is my thing that separatesme?
And so, you know, I kind of feellike I hit on that uh about
Boxer shorts.
Uh yeah.
That's your thing.
I yeah, well, uh Luke Bryan'sgot the jockey stuff going on.
So I don't know if that's yeah,that might be uh competitive

(18:51):
conversation.
I see a big endorsement coming.
So um, so I literally get a callout of nowhere one day from
Blake Shelton's productionmanager, and he says, Hey, can I
pitch you for a show?
And I was like, sure.
I have to do that.
Did you have any connection withhim?
Did you have any connection withthe other?
No, so I played a I think Iplayed a Country Thunder
festival, which you guys haveplayed Country Thunders before.

(19:13):
Uh I played the Wisconsin one,and he saw a show and he was
like, Man, I just love what youdo.
He was like, this is great, youknow, you got like a thing about
you.
And so he remembered thatperformance, and when they were
starting to look for people uhfor the show, he reached out to
me and I was like, sure,whatever.
Well, I had never had any uh bitof um thought to do any sort of

(19:37):
singing competition show.
Like I that was the furthestthing from my mind.
But when they told me sort ofthe parameters of the show, I
got a little intrigued, whichwas so Blake Shelton produced uh
this show and was the uh creatorof the show, him and Lee
Metzger.
So they come from the you knowthe voice, obviously.

(19:58):
From my understanding, Blake wasin a position where he was like,
Man, I feel like this model isbroken.
We're not producing stars.
We basically, you know, havewe're putting singers um on a
polished stage that is you knowconfetti falling.
It's the furthest from realityof what you know an actual star

(20:18):
is supposed to be.
Um and a lot of times, you know,no fault of their own as far as
the contestants that were onthese shows, a lot of them are
pretty inexperienced.
So when they win the show orthey do well, when it comes time
to say, okay, well, now what isyour songs now that you're not
gonna cover a song, they don'thave that sort of stuff built.
They don't have the foundationbuilt, so they spend the next

(20:38):
four or five years building allthat.
Well, by then all the hype issort of sort of went down the
drain and they're kind of caughtin this weird spot of like,
well, they won this televisionshow, but they could never
capitalize on it because theydidn't have all the mechanics.

SPEAKER_08 (20:49):
Or they lose their platform.

SPEAKER_02 (20:50):
Yeah, you know, so so Blake was like, We need to
get more established artiststhat are kind of right under the
surface, that have all been sortof doing this, grinding it out,
and it's just a moment away fromhaving their career go to the
next level.
And he said, We need to put themin real show environments.
So what they did was they gotKeith Urban to come along.

(21:14):
Keith Urban is headlining thenight, and we started with 12
contestants, we all opened forKeith Urban that night.
We had a session band that weall played with, and Keith used
the same exact band, so therewas no changeover.
Um, and we basically did twosongs each night.
We did a cover and we did anoriginal.

(21:35):
Um and the goal was one inevery, you know, so many
audience members got a votingdevice.
And they said, Hey, you pick whoyou think did well.
And so what they would do is,you know, all these fans show up
thinking they're coming to aKeith Urban pop-up show.
They get in this thing, and thenthe producers walk out and say,

(21:56):
All right, you're here to seeKeith Urban, and he's gonna play
after, but you're also here forthe filming of the road, and uh
you're gonna see, you know, 12contestants you've never seen
before, or how many ever arestill in the competition, and
whoever got a voting device,they're gonna play their two
songs.
You've got two minutes, ratethem from one to ten, voting
closes and goes to the nextperson.

SPEAKER_06 (22:16):
Oh, that's a great concept.

SPEAKER_02 (22:17):
So it's not a TV audience, it's an audience
that's there to see music andthen oh by the way Malone.
Country music audience that areis there to see you know Keith
Urban play.
That's awesome.
Are they uh letting them drink?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
That that's a good end of it.
And here's the thing.

(22:38):
So when when I understood sortof the parameters of it, I
thought, man, okay, this is acool opportunity because I've
spent the last 10 years touring,anyways, and I've been fortunate
to open for some of the biggestacts in our format.
I'm gonna tour either way.
So if I can tour in front ofKeith Urban for a handful of
shows, and I can get somenational television exposure,

(23:02):
and I'm doing my own originalmusic, and I can um have the
freedom to pick what songs Iplay, when and where, and you
know, like there's not a host ofthe show per se, so I'm sort of
telling all the artists aretelling their versions of of
their careers through their owneyes.
So you're representing yourself.
So whatever your story is inyour mind, you get to tell that.

(23:23):
They don't necessarily fabricatethat and sort of say, Well, we
should brand this person thisway, we should brand this person
that way.
They sort of give you thefreedom to say, All right, well,
what do you want people to knowabout you?
You know, and so I thought thatwas really cool, and I did it to
sort of prove a point, which wasI knew what I was doing out on
the road.

(23:43):
I knew the amount of engagementthat I was having and the meet
and greet lines, and I knew whatmy streaming numbers were doing.
My problem with being anindependent artist is I never
could get any consistency.
I would go out and I would openfor, you know, uh Carrie
Underwood for, you know, threeor four shows in, you know, the
state fair of Iowa.
Well, I couldn't get the bookingagent to send me back to a club

(24:06):
to build that market out afterthey've already seen me.
So I was falling in thesepitfalls of like, man, I would
go on a run a run of a year ortwo where I was playing great
shows, but we couldn't convertit to hard tickets and we
couldn't build up markets.
And so I said, I'm about to dothis to prove what I already
know, which is I know there's ademand for being my music, and
if the fans decide this, I feellike I got a shot, you know, to

(24:30):
go all the way to the end withthis.
So um it was a a wonderful,wonderful experience.
I can honestly say that there'snot anything about it that I
would um say was negative in anysort of way.
It was uh it was pretty coolfrom top to bottom because I
feel like it in po it empoweredthe artist, and it wasn't this
um fabricated thing, and andit's meant to be sort of a

(24:52):
docuseries, so it's not areality-based thing.
So it's a lot of b-roll, a lotof behind-the-scenes stuff of
when we're in rehearsal andwe're trying to figure out
transitions and we're trying tofigure out what songs we're
gonna play, um, and the bandsort of helping us, you know,
say, okay, well, uh, for timepurposes, we got to cut the
intro, so we gotta do a drystart.

(25:13):
Okay, well, what if we add twobars in the verse or whatever,
you know, sort of thing.
Um all that all they gave youthe tools to be able to say, all
right, here's your moment,here's your two songs to wrap an
artist or wrap an audience in,give them what you got.

SPEAKER_08 (25:27):
That's awesome.
I do I do what love what hisBlake's model is though, is that
it's it's the people that arejust bubbling.
Yeah, and and we always talkedabout it for years being here
for so long before YouTube andTikTok and all the stuff that
happens now and Instagram.
So many great artists were justa breakaway.

(25:48):
And they're incredible, youknow, but they didn't ever get
that one break that you needed.
Yeah.
And that's that's that is theaudience truly gets to decide.

SPEAKER_02 (26:00):
100%.
That's what I love about it.
And the great thing is, is thediversity of music in this show
is awesome.
You've got a couple artists thatmay lean a little bit more
towards like a red dirt, you'vegot, you know, a guy that is
like more of an old school kindof Whalen feel, then you've got

(26:21):
kind of my thing, which isprobably right down the middle
country radio.
Um, and so when a when a viewerwatches this show, regardless of
what kind of music you like,there's going to be someone that
you identify with um and sort ofconnect to.
And so I think that the beautyis is you know, they didn't sort
of get all of the artists thatdo the same thing.

(26:44):
There's a lot of diversity inthat whole thing.
Um, but I also think that, youknow, you had to be pretty
strategic because you guys knowthis.
You know, you go and playdifferent markets, different
crowds and different regions ofthe country are different as far
as what they're kind of lookingfor, kind of what they want.
So I think, you know, like thatserved me well to sort of think

(27:06):
that through all the way to thedetail of okay, we are in, you
know, Fort Worth, Texas tonight.
What does a Fort Worth, Texascrowd want to hear of my music
that they can relate with?
You know, versus what does a youknow um a Nashville crowd want
or wherever it may be, you know.
So um so it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 (27:29):
We talked about this a lot too, whether it's and like
you said, it's no fault of theirown, but if you're on the voice
or if you're on any of thoseshows, they're you don't have
the background of grinding in aclub for five years and knowing
how to fail, knowing how to havesuccess after that failure.

(27:50):
And like you said, they've gotthese artists that have done it,
been bubbling at the surface.
I love the concept, it'samazing.

SPEAKER_08 (27:58):
Yeah, because you've been you've been working at it.
And that that's my biggestcomplaint with some of the
artists today, the new artists,is they're they may go viral,
whatever that means on whateverplatform, and they're tossed out
there on a tour and they don'tknow how to do a show.
They're out there and they'reand you're like, oh, this is
it's so uncomfortable to watch.
Yeah, you know, it's afull-free.
Well, half of them haven't evenplayed with in-airs before.

SPEAKER_02 (28:17):
It's like they don't even know what an in-air mold
is, you know.
So it's like how can I mean thestadium if you don't you don't
have that?
But I do love the dragon.

SPEAKER_08 (28:25):
And of course, Blake would because Blake was a
grinder too.
So he gets that.
Like the people that have beenwork like yourself that have
been working at it, you know,writing songs and and trying to
build your brand, that's who weshould be given the chances to.
Amen.
That that that makes the mostsense to me because you know how
to do it.
You know how to to get a crowd.
If you start to lose a crowd,how do you get them back?

(28:46):
You gotta learn the only way tolearn that is by playing shows.
Yep.
You know, so great.
I mean, I just I actually Ididn't realize that was the the
kind of the platform model.

SPEAKER_06 (28:57):
Yeah, so uh we'll keep talking about it, but what
channel is this on?
How do people watch?

SPEAKER_02 (29:01):
Yeah, so this is on CBS Paramount Plus.
Yeah.
So every Sunday night, um 9 p.m.
Eastern, 8 p.m.
Central, uh it's a live episodebasically, you know, of that
night.
And if you miss it, you can, youknow, stream them all on
Paramount Plus.
Um and so this thing is gonnarun all the way up into December

(29:21):
until they whittle it down toyou know, what episode are we on
now?
So we uh just finished thesecond episode.
Okay.
Um so there's two shows in.

SPEAKER_06 (29:31):
Um Do you know if you made it past a second
episode?

SPEAKER_02 (29:34):
Yes, yeah.
Uh so yeah, so we're we're we'relocked in and good to go and
still still do it.

SPEAKER_06 (29:41):
Third episode's coming up.
We need people to watch ussinging.
Hold on, not the TV audiencedoesn't do it.
It's only the people actually inthe audience.

SPEAKER_03 (29:48):
Oh, we give you a try that in a small town podcast
t-shirt, will you wear it on theshow?

SPEAKER_02 (29:53):
Yeah, yeah, uh, yeah.
Let me go let me go back in timeand report back.
Hey, the funny thing is though,is we have been doing uh some
pickup shots through thisbecause they sort of realize as
they put these episodestogether, you know, we filmed
all of this February, March, andApril.
Okay, well, when they got intopost production, they realized,
man, um, we didn't have enoughof this.

(30:16):
So we would have to go back andthey would sort of ask me, hey,
you know, like the first show umyou did uh your your song What
if I'm right?
You said it was the moststreamed song to date.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout it?
And then I would go in and belike, well, you know, put this
out and Blah blah blah in 2021,blah blah blah, you know, and so
they would add some of thoseelements in to kind of give more
backstory, you know, to it.
So good for you.

SPEAKER_03 (30:37):
And I like the song too.
I heard it.
It's great.

SPEAKER_02 (30:38):
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 (30:40):
I think the coolest thing, like you said, it might
have been a uh negative for youbeing uh known as a writer first
and everything as far as theartist thing.
I I think it's the huge strengthbecause your success as a writer
took off pretty quick.
I mean, when you move to town,usually it doesn't happen that
fast.
So what do you attribute thatto?
Were you just a great idea guy,melody guy?
Was it the right co-writes,relationships?

SPEAKER_02 (31:01):
I think it was finding your crew, you know, and
you guys all know this.
Um man, when I moved here, um,so you know, having Uncle Scotty
in the business was a little bitof an advantage, but my uncle
has always sort of been a guythat is not the, hey, look how
great my nephew is.
He is never that way.
And you guys know him, you know,personally, he's just not that

(31:22):
way.

SPEAKER_08 (31:23):
And as a steel player, I gotta say something
before, and I'm glad you broughthim back up, because steel
players are a quirky bunch, tosay the least.
Yeah.
But not him.
He's an amazing player, but justan amazing guy and normal.

SPEAKER_06 (31:39):
He's a pretty normal guy.
As far as steel players go, Ithink know this.

SPEAKER_08 (31:43):
This is nothing like I'm gonna offend anybody.
They're weird as shit.
Like steel players are weird.
We're all weird as being alittle bit.

SPEAKER_01 (31:55):
No, no, no.

SPEAKER_08 (31:58):
Yeah, no, he's a good thing.
They're weird.
They're weird.
But he is awesome.
I remember being in sessionswith him, and he was I mean,
sitting there just feeding offeach other, which was really,
really cool.
What a great tell him he saidhello.
I will.
He's a great man.
But he is he's a great player,but also just a normal guy.

SPEAKER_02 (32:15):
Yeah, so when I moved here, the first thing I
thought of is I said, All right,my dad's uh in construction.
So I said, I moved in with mydad.
We lived in this double-widetrailer, and uh so I said,
Alright, I can go work with him,I can live with my dad, so I got
a place to sleep and got a placeto stay.

(32:35):
Um I'm gonna work with him for aweek, save up a little bit of
money, and then I'm gonna callmy uncle Scotty and say,
Alright, where what sessions areyou in for this week?
And he would text me, I'm atCounty Q 10, 2, and 6, or I'm at
you know Legends Corner orwhatever, you know, this these
sessions.
So I would just go shadow himfor a whole week, and I would

(32:56):
set in the on these sessions,and every time, you know, as
they're demoing songs, I'd gethim to print me out a chart
because I wanted to learn, youknow, the Nashville number
system.
I was like, I'm in class, herewe go.
So sort of by association and bybeing there, um, so many times I
started running into the samesongwriters, and you know, after
I don't know, three or fourmonths of this, I would have

(33:20):
guys, hey, what are you you wantto write?
You know, sort of thing.
So that sort of started tohappen.
But what I was also doing is Iwas going out and networking,
and I would go out to winnersand losers and you know, Red
Door and all these places, goingto whiskey jams and all this,
and and meeting guys that wereall in the same level as me.
And some of my best friendshipsstill today came from those

(33:43):
times.
You know, uh that was back inthe MySpace days, if y'all wow,
yeah.
Tom was my friend.
And uh so we uh, you know, someof the very first people I ever
met was Cole Swindell and ChaseRice and John Party and Blaine
Rhodes, you know, that's inpublishing, and uh, you know, so
uh Ryan Bisel and all thesepeople that like we all started

(34:04):
to kind of rise together.
And you know, back to yourquestion, Kallo, I feel like my
early success was by writingsongs with my crew that we all
started to kind of grow growtogether.
Like my first number one was uhsong called You Ain't Worth the
Whiskey for Cole Swindell.
And so we wrote this song beforeI had a publishing deal.

(34:27):
Uh Cole had just signed apublishing deal, um, and our
buddy Josh Martin was a securityguard officer at Belmont
University, which is whointroduced us together.
He had the title, we write thissong, and this song just kind of
like floats around Nashville forlike five years, and it was on
hold for Montgomery Gentry, andI think Luke Bryan had it on
hold at one point.

(34:48):
Easton Corbin had it, and wealways joked.
We said, All right, out of thethree of us, whoever gets a
record deal first is going tocut this song.
Cole gets a record deal first,he cuts the song, ends up being
my first number one, his thirdconsecutive.
And so, same thing.
You know, my second one was uhhell of a night for Dustin
Lynch.
Uh he saw me play a whiskey jamone night, came up to me and was

(35:10):
like, hey dude, I love what youdo.
A month later, I'm on the buswith him writing uh songs.
Now Boy Boyer said he wrote thatby himself.

SPEAKER_08 (35:17):
Yeah.
Now wait a minute now.
Jaron Boyer.

SPEAKER_02 (35:25):
We love Jaren with this with this.
Um but I I played that song onthe on the bus while we were
out.
Um we were um we were out to Ithink me, Zach Crow, and Jaron
might have been on that run, andme, Zach Crow, and Jaron had
written that song a few monthsprior, and I played it for Dusk
on the bus, and he ended upcutting it.
And so it's just by finding theguys that I was, you know.

SPEAKER_06 (35:47):
You're a hundred percent right.
And what you said also, peoplealways ask, hey, I want to come
to Nashville, what do I do?
What do I do?
And that is one of the biggestthings is you just gotta get
out.
You gotta get out and meetpeople, find people that are in
the same spot or different.
Just get out.
You have to be present to beable to make anything work.

(36:07):
And and that's what we did whenwe came to town, too.
It's like you just have to bepresent.

SPEAKER_03 (36:10):
Yeah, well we got enough, we got enough writers in
town right now.
Just wait another five, tenyears.
Well, but well we we got itcovered till the end, right?
I think so.

SPEAKER_02 (36:20):
Yeah.
I don't know.
Let me tell you what not to dothough.
I can't wait.
Y'all are gonna get kicked out.
We know this, too.
Y'all are gonna get a kick outof this.
All right, so this is MySpacedays, right?

SPEAKER_03 (36:29):
And what's MySpace now?
Were you on MySpace now?
No.
I just got a cell phone.
It was before Facebook.

SPEAKER_08 (36:36):
Yeah, it was the OG of it.

SPEAKER_02 (36:38):
You really don't know what MySpace is?
Really?
MySpace was like the OG ofFacebook.
Yeah.
And you could have like a musicpage.
So you would basically have apage and you'd have like your
top friends on your page, and sowe all created music pages, and
we would put our songs up on themusic page, and you would find
someone that's kind of new andyou'd listen to their songs, and

(37:00):
if you liked them, you would dowhat every young writer does.
Hey, everybody should writesometime, you know, and then you
would connect, and so that's howI kind of social networks.
But uh crazy and funny story,and I cannot believe I'm about
to say this because I have nevertold this story before.

SPEAKER_06 (37:14):
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SPEAKER_03 (37:23):
You know, I've been drinking this every songwriting
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SPEAKER_05 (37:26):
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SPEAKER_06 (37:30):
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SPEAKER_08 (37:34):
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SPEAKER_02 (38:36):
I added Michael Docs to Facebook or to MySpace.
And um I messaged him, and Icannot remember exactly what I
messaged him about, but heresponded and was super nice.
And at the end of ourconversation, I said to him, and
this is 21-year-old full of pissand vinegar, me, that has

(38:59):
nothing going on in the musicindustry.
I literally said something like,Hey man, appreciate it.
Tell Al Dean I'm coming for it.

SPEAKER_01 (39:10):
16 years later, still coming for him.
You're still coming for him,though.
We're all coming for him.
I love the attitude of that.
You need that.

SPEAKER_02 (39:20):
I I he I don't know if he remembers that, but I as
Did you get a response?
I I think he laughed, you know,but it's fun, but it's funny to
me, like now being in thebusiness, I cringe at thinking
that I would have done somethingthat way, but 21-year-old mind
to me was like I mean every wordof that.
I was like, hell yeah, I'mfreaking out.
I think you I think you'd havethat attitude.

SPEAKER_08 (39:42):
Trust me, he's heard you know, I met Michael when I
was 21.
Yeah.
And so he was slinging songs atWarner Chapel, you know.
And so he's heard it, he's heardhe believe me, he appreciates
that.

SPEAKER_06 (39:54):
Oh, I 100%.
And it's like, you know, when wewere opening acts, playing 20
minutes in front of Urban orRascal Flats or anybody, that's
what we said.
Yeah.
We're coming for your crowd.
We're taking them.
Yeah, yeah.
Not really.
We're doing 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 (40:09):
Yeah, I mean, but we thought you gotta have that
confidence, man.
Like, I mean, because you guysknow, man, you get kicked in the
teeth so much with thisbusiness.
Like you have to have anunwavering uh belief in yourself
and what you do.
Um and obviously, you know,there's a line there.
You don't want to be cocky andyou don't want to be um sort of
uh a know-it-all, but you gottakind of have that competitive

(40:30):
spirit in you, I think, becauselook, as a creative, I'll be the
first to say it.

SPEAKER_08 (40:35):
Like, there's that shell of confidence, and you
gotta keep that confidence herebecause underneath that shell is
just a bunch of insecurity.
100%.
So if you break through thatconfidence, which you gotta keep
that strong, yeah, if you getdown to the mush as a creative,
it takes very little to likereally start questioning

(40:55):
yourself and what you're doing.
And so that's that's theconfidence is crucial to have.
I go back and forth all the timefrom those levels.

SPEAKER_06 (41:03):
Well, it's a failure business.
We said this a lot.
Ninety percent of what we do isfailure.
It's like you can tr write ahundred songs, most of them
aren't getting cut, most of themaren't gonna make it.
It's like that's what happens.
Most of them aren't any good.

SPEAKER_03 (41:18):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a fact.
It's a truth.
And then when somebody tells youthat they're not any good, it
all depends on how you handlethat rejection because I we all
went through that.
Yeah.
It's like, you know.
Well, this could be better.
And I'm like, what are youtalking about?
It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 (41:33):
Exactly.
When you think, when you'relike, well, they don't know
music.
You know, and you get older andyou kind of realize, yeah, well,
but some of them know and someof them don't.

SPEAKER_05 (41:40):
Correct.
And it's hard to figure thatout.
That takes a minute.

SPEAKER_03 (41:43):
Thank God we were surrounded, or at least I was,
by people who actually knew whatthe hell they were talking
about.
If you look at that, oh sorry,Karen.

SPEAKER_08 (41:49):
I was gonna say if you if you if you if you
reference Al Dean in that as faras like confidence, and you can
look at him, he's a greatexample of it.
Like, we got passed on for yearstelling people telling him he's
no good.
And these songs are no good.
You know?
So if you don't have thatconfidence to in yourself to

(42:09):
say, okay, even if you don'thave the right songs, you've got
what it takes.
You know it, right?
So without that, I mean, wewouldn't have half the artists
we have.

SPEAKER_02 (42:19):
Well, uh, you know, for me personally, man, like I I
wouldn't trade anything for mymy story and my path because
where I sat today at 37 versusyou know what I was when I first
moved to Nashville, um, I'vesort of become like a journeyman
in in so many different aspectsof the business because I've had
to do it.
Like I know what it's like to uhadvance shows and to to add

(42:43):
ISRCs, you know, todistributions and all these
things.
And so um, you know, I've alwayslooked at guys like Aldean and
um Chesney and and some of thesepeople that like man I don't
know if a lot of people sawanything in them early, but they
just kept grinding and just keptI always just call it sharpening

(43:05):
the knife.
They just kept sharpening ituntil one day it cuts.
And so I feel like I'm in thatseason of my career now to
where, you know, a lot of peopleare discovering me on the road,
but it's like, man, I've beenI've been hitting the pavement
hard for the last 10 years, andI think I've got a lot of people
in Nashville that they're kindof like this guy will not go
away.

(43:25):
You know, and I don't thinkthere's any sort of like they
don't want to see me succeed,but I think it's a little bit of
like, man, that's awesome thathe's like sickening out.
But for me, it's never been anoption.
Like I've always sort of said,music is what I do, regardless
of the success.
I am always gonna write songs,I'm always gonna play shows, I'm
always gonna record songs.
To matter to whatever successthere is, I have dreams and

(43:48):
goals where I want to be.
But if it was about beingsuccessful, hell I'd I'd have
hung it up a long time ago, youknow.
Um, but I feel like now havingall that knowledge that I have
and having the story I havemakes me pretty dangerous now,
you know, to be in thisposition.

SPEAKER_06 (44:02):
I love that man.
I love you referencing Jason andof course Chesney too.
It's like, are they talented?
Sure.
But more than that, theysucceeded because of the hard
work and the per perseverance,and even more so when the
opportunity came, they wereready for it.

SPEAKER_02 (44:19):
Yeah, what's the old saying?
You don't have to uh get readyif you stay ready?
That's it.

SPEAKER_08 (44:24):
He also said something crucial to the whole
process, but I think people uhsome artists today don't get the
chance to do this, which isdefining their brand.
And when you when you find yourbrand and you feel comfortable
in your own skin, you attack andyou stay there.
And that and that's what Al Deandid and Chesney did, that's what
Tim did.

(44:45):
That's the art of it.
That's what Blake did.
You know, when you find that andyou have that success, then you
can experiment, then you canveer off, and you can be
creative but define your brand.

SPEAKER_02 (44:56):
Someone told me that um uh three or four years ago,
they said to me, when youidentify what makes you
different than anyone else,that's what you lean into.
And that is the center and coreof your brand.
You know, so if you look at aguy like Chris Stapleton,
there's not a soul on thisplanet that can sing like Chris

(45:19):
Stapleton.
That's why he can stand there onstage and not move a muscle and
wow a crowd.
There's not a performer likeJason Aldean and you know, that
had that style of music, youknow, and so um it's you find
what makes you you and andbetter than anyone else, and

(45:40):
nobody can beat you at yourgame.
And so when I look at it aslike, you know, I don't want to
get in a singing competitionwith Chris Stapleton because I
know he'll sing circles aroundme.
Um but I know what my thing is,and people can't beat me at my
game.
You know, you got you know, samething with quarterbacks, you
know, you got guys that canthrow deep balls, you got guys
that you know can run, you gotguys that you know are you know

(46:04):
good backups, whatever it is,but when you find what makes you
successful and different fromanyone, that's when you got a
shot, I feel like.
And generally when you find it,you realize that's the truest
you.

SPEAKER_08 (46:14):
100%.
You know what I mean?
And then when you buy intoyourself, you know, you realize
that oh, okay, well the crowdsthe this crowd, country music,
the fans they love authenticlike being authentic and they
will buy into that.
They believe it.

SPEAKER_05 (46:29):
Yeah, you know, yeah, it's and the fans have a
weird way of knowing withoutever talking to you.
They they know if you'reyourself or not.
It's it's just weird.
Yeah, country fans especially.

SPEAKER_08 (46:39):
No, they they will see through it if it's not.
And but man, if it's true, thatthey seem to buy in and they'll
buy in for 20 years, 30 years.
Yeah.
You know, that's the great thingabout this genre and these fans.
You know, you're that's great.
It's very exciting stuff goingon for you.

SPEAKER_03 (46:53):
No, Adam's a true pro.
He's a true pro I've I've beenable to write with him and sit
in the room with him, and I'vewritten with a lot of you know
artist wannabes.
And y'all have too, and we'veall been in the room and like
Kunil.
Come on.
Yeah, I'll say the buttons.
It's a trash talk.
A little trash talk, just aminute.
No, no, no, it's not it's not.

(47:14):
I'm just saying some of theseguys don't bring anything to the
table.

SPEAKER_04 (47:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:18):
You know, and gals, and they and and I get it.
They're they're they're beingforced into these into these
writing rooms, but this guy canactually bring it as a writer.
You know, and it's it's uh Welland if you like like you've been
saying, because you know it cutsthe workload in half to write
with guys that that know whothey are and what they want to
be.
You know, and you're gonna bebig, I think, especially when

(47:41):
the boxer pictures come out, theboxer short pictures.
I mean for all the wrongreasons.

SPEAKER_08 (48:01):
Depends what kind of boxes we got.
Yeah, especially under cold.

SPEAKER_01 (48:06):
Well, there's your endorsement.

SPEAKER_05 (48:08):
I think with the temperature being that cool and
it coming out at all is a goodsign.
Cheers.

SPEAKER_08 (48:18):
Shrinkage is a thing.
Unfortunately it's a thing.

SPEAKER_05 (48:22):
But no, like like the songwriting thing, just to
just to harp on that just alittle bit.
Even on the uh it's uh it itjust helps in every way, like
all the artists that we'retalking about, whether it be you
know Al Dean, Chesney, McGraw,there's it's not an accident
that those those guys, girls,carry under wood, whoever it's
it around, because whetherthey're writing mur writing
those songs or not, they knowwhat a hit song is and they know

(48:44):
what a hit song is for them.
That's exactly what it's like.
And that's that is really andit's and as writer, just a
straight-up writer, a lot oftimes we get frustrated and say,
Man, it's such a smash.
I mean, they I don't know whythey wouldn't record that, but
it's not the right song for thatartist on that particular day.

SPEAKER_02 (48:57):
Yep.
And for me, like as a as a youngwriter artist, I feel like that
was uh a lot of where my growthand learning came from was if
you look at the songs I releasedearly in my career, they were
all good songs, and we had greatsuccess.
You know, I had songs on Cirus Xin the highway that you know ran
up their chart and we sold tonsof downloads and you know, I

(49:20):
think we're 200 million plusstreams all independently.
But they were all there wasnothing consistent.
And what we were doing was, andthis is no fault of anyone, but
this is just sort of the waythat business is, you know, I
would write these songs and theywould, you know, my publishing
company would pitch it to youknow all the top artists.
Well, when they wouldn't cut it,they would say, Well then you

(49:43):
you should put that out.
Well, the problem is is when yougot four or five songs deep, you
realize that one's going thisway, one's going that way, one's
going this way, and it's likethere's no consistency here.
You got good songs, but where'sthe brand, you know, sort of
thing.
And so identifying that, youknow, a lot of people's asked
me, like, how do you how do younow write songs and know what's

(50:04):
for you?
And and it's when you realizewhat your thing is, like I can
still go write all those songsand we can pitch them to
whoever, you know, now, but Ican quickly tell you this feels
like something in the sandbox Iwould play in, or this is a
better off being a pitch, youknow, and so um I I I like doing
both.
Like sometimes, yeah, it's coolto write for what I'm thinking,

(50:25):
but a lot of times it's more oflike, man, let's just write the
best song we can write that day.
And if it falls in my category,cool.
If it doesn't, you know, there'splenty of buddies we can pitch
this thing to.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (50:35):
Well, plus if you I really believe this and and even
the young artists that we workwith or produce or whatever, I
do think there's a switch thathas to be flipped from writer to
artist.
And when you switch that flip toswitch it to artist, you're
gonna write songs that are sogood for yourself.
You you probably end up gettingtons of cuts anyway because

(50:56):
they're they're true toyourself.
Yeah.
And you're writing for yourself,and that's the most pure part of
it, right?
And so it's it's they'll wantwhat you do.
And all of a sudden you're gonnahave a pile of songs that you
were kind of writing foryourself that oh, that everybody
wants.

SPEAKER_06 (51:11):
Yeah, and all of a sudden they're unique songs
because you're not gonna be ableto do that.

SPEAKER_02 (51:15):
This happen all the time, you know.
Like, look at the run Hardy wenton.
Yeah, yeah.
How many outside songs did Hardyhave cut because Hardy created
his thing, and then everybodywas like, Dang, I kind of want a
little bit of that, you know,sort of thing.
That happened with Thomas Rhettback in the day and Cole
Swindell, he had tons of youknow, cuts, and so yeah, it's it
always comes back.

SPEAKER_08 (51:34):
It's hard to figure out young, but when you get
older and you're in that spotnow, it's like you're figuring
out damn, just do what we do, dowhat you do.
Yeah, and that w will generallygive you the best shot.
I mean, it ha it's it has forus, it's been it's been a great
learning.
I wish we had learned this yearsand years ago, you know.
It's hard to figure out you feellike you're always chasing

(51:55):
something.
Yeah, chasing you is always astep behind.
We used to feel like we're astep behind.
Whether it was you know as anartist or uh being with Jason or
writing, always felt like wewere chasing something.
When you find when you find thatyou're just doing something to
yourself, generally it uh itstarts chasing you, and you're
like, oh, this is great.

SPEAKER_02 (52:14):
And you become the leader of the pack.
And then you see the trend of,you know, I've sort of brought
up uh like Zach Top.
Okay.
Zach Top is doing authenticallywhat Zach Top does.
Okay.
Well, you see this resurgence ofI call it late 80s, early 90s
country.
Okay.
Well, now you're gonna see awave of 30 people trying to do

(52:38):
the same thing, and my mind islike, you're late to the party.
Like when when Al Dean came out,he was the first one to plant
the flag and say, Hey, I'mhaving grungy guitars, do do do
do do do do, and it was like arock show.
Well, then everybody was wearinga wallet chain and and you know,
tight jeans and a cowboy hat thenext day, you know, walking

(52:58):
around with an armband on, youknow, and it was like, buddy,
like they'll there will beversions of that, but you like
if you're the first one to doit, it's hard to beat the first
one, you know, at it, you know.
So for me, it's finding whatthat lane is and and kind of
knowing what that next wave is.

SPEAKER_08 (53:14):
It's smart though, because a lot of art a lot of
artists, even after a certainamount of success, I see artists
that have you know four or fivenumber ones on radio, still
can't do a hard ticket, right?
So I I feel like they I all hearsingle to single is different.
They're still chasing they'rechasing the hard ticket now,
they're chasing something else.

(53:35):
How can you connect on a biggerlevel?
You're already ahead in thesense that you know it feels
like you already know what youneed to do.
Yeah.
Stay true to yourself.

SPEAKER_02 (53:44):
You look at all of the guys that I call it sticking
power.
Every person that has stickingpower that has been in this
business and at the top for youknow decades, all have a brand.
And a lot of times you candescribe their brand with one or
two words.

SPEAKER_03 (54:05):
What's yours?

SPEAKER_05 (54:11):
Give an example of that, like one or two words for
like uh like a Chasner McGraw orsomething.

SPEAKER_02 (54:17):
Sam Hunt, for an example.
Sam Hunt is mysterious.
Like he's you don't ever see himdoing these selfie videos.
Hey, what's up, guys?
You know, I'm Sam Hunt.
He's just kind of that guythat's like you he's just he's
either there or he's not, youknow.

SPEAKER_03 (54:35):
The one thing that Sam Hunt did, he came out, he
came out of the chute withawesome songs.
And they were unique.
They killed every writer intown, they killed the the
listener, everybody just lovedwhat he was putting out.
The songs were just killer.

SPEAKER_02 (54:52):
Um Yeah, I mean, even look at like a guy like
Keith Urban, you know, likeKeith Urban is like a mold of
like a triple threat.
Like he's he's like guitarplaying, writing, and singing
all in one.
It's like it's hard to kind oflike twine that up, you know,
like into one thing, you know,like that's his his thing.
But he's got energy in his show,but it's a different energy than

(55:15):
what like Aldean is, you know,like it's Al Deen's more of a
rough around the edge as a shit.
He's a badass thing.
Yeah, it's just a different kindof cool.
Yes, he he's he's the hat down,he's kind of that slant, like
that, that slant smirk, youknow, kind of thing of like
girl, you know you want it.
And she's like, yes, I do.
That's what that's what he is,you know.

SPEAKER_03 (55:37):
Uh and he's coming after you, Al did.

SPEAKER_02 (55:40):
And and and Urban is just kind of that, he's just
man, he's just got a littleswagger to him, you know.
It's like it looks effortless,you know, like he just plays his
notes and he just kind of hasthis little lean about him and
his hair.
He does do that shoulder thing.
Yeah, he just yeah, you know, hejust has a thing.

SPEAKER_08 (55:54):
Urban oh, we've always been a huge fan of Keith,
just because he's you know, weused to go out, we opened for
him in years and years ago.
And he was at that point, what Iwhat I would say was our purest,
you know, closest thing to arock star we had in country
music, just with the way he wasgoing about it, you know.
And um always been a fan of his.
And you're right, he's got he'sgot all things covered, he puts

(56:17):
on a great show, does his thing.
You know, that's it, does histhing.

SPEAKER_02 (56:22):
And you can to me one of the best examples of
this, Eric Church.
When Eric Church threw onaviator sunglasses and pulled
that ball cat down and crushedit down, and started beating on
his chest.
Yeah, well he found his brandand he leaned into that.
And it went to, hey, I'm sort ofa little bit against the
establishment here, and I'm I'mgonna kind of be the rebel of

(56:46):
I'm gonna I'm gonna be the thethe the stepbrother of country
music over here, and I'm notgonna let anybody tell me how to
do it and what I do.
I'm not gonna be confrontationalabout it, but I'm gonna stand
right here and if I'm gonna singa song about smoke, a little
smoke, I'm gonna sing it, youknow, sort of thing.
We love Eric, you know, so it'sthat, you know, sort of thing.
Like he was great before, but hewas just kind of a guy.

(57:08):
Well, I was gonna say, withthose glasses on, son, and it
was just like a light.

SPEAKER_08 (57:14):
We all know Eric before it happened for him.
Two two pink lines, Eric.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, was different than Ericallowing allowed to be Eric.
And that we they he was on tourwith this opening when he right
was discovering that.
Like uh Smoke a little smoke hadjust come out and you could see,
you know, two pink lines thatwas going away, and he's

(57:36):
discovering who he is, his whathis sound is, and that that's a
great thing because it reallythat was it was different.
It was different than what wewere doing.
Edgy and i they're both edgy butdifferent kind of edge.
Correct.
You know, so that's he found hislittle lane.
And those lanes exist.
And if you can find it, likelike Kenny just destroyed that

(57:58):
lane.
When he figured out what he was,man, he is now the Jimmy Buffett
of Country Music.
And it is it's amazing to seewhat he's done.
Talk about an example of I Ithink he sets the bar as an
example of how to do it.
Oh, for sure.
From from discover from the fromthe work ethic to discovering

(58:22):
his brand to how to tour, to howto treat his people, to how to
do it all.
There's I can't do it.

SPEAKER_06 (58:29):
I agree, he's second to none, and his work ethic is
like unlike anything that I'veever seen from any other artist.
Yeah.
And he's hands-on at everything.
Everything.

SPEAKER_08 (58:39):
It is it's really impressive to be out there.
We were out there with him for alittle bit, and it was like,
man, this is this is how you doit.
Like, this is a great examplefor for us and for other artists
who were wanting to learn, stilllearning.
We learn from we you know, Kennystayed a step in the next
learning.

SPEAKER_03 (58:56):
He stayed a step ahead in the music world too.
I mean, like, as far as the thethe songs he was cutting, he
always stayed a step ahead ofeverybody else.
Yep.
He just got inducted to the Hallof Fame.
Yeah, yeah.
He was my first cut I ever hadover 30 years ago.
When he was on CapricornRecords.
What song was that?
Uh Angel of the Devil.
Wow.
I've got to watch his career andfollow his career since the

(59:19):
city.

SPEAKER_02 (59:19):
But like but like he's a guy that like his first
couple records.
Right.
He's just kind of a guy, right?
Yeah.
Like and and there's a littlesuccess.
But when to me, it turned whenthat first album where he's
standing on the beach and he puta black tank top on and he's got
a black cowboy hat with a pukashell necklace, and he comes out

(59:39):
with, you know, wanna be rebelsthat didn't have a clue.
You know, like it turned there.
And that's when it went to hestarted selling the Tonight is
not about me, it's about all ofyou.
I'm the host of your party andI'm inviting you to have a great
time, and I'm selling younostalgia.

(01:00:00):
I'm selling you, you know, youngand you know, all the I Go Back
and all those things, you know,that made you remember your
childhood and all that.
Like that's what he sold, youknow, and it made it work into
like a a a stadium, and that's Imean And and you can hear in
every artist's first couplealbums, right?

SPEAKER_08 (01:00:17):
I look listen to our first couple albums and they're
all over the place.
Yeah.
Okay, you've got Hicktown on thefirst album, but then you've got
stuff that's like, wow, whatwere we doing?
You know, but you're trying tofigure out yourself.
And that's In the it it happensaround that third album.
Oh, this is what we're good at.
And and that's exciting to watchartists figure that out when

(01:00:40):
they have the the chance to.
Eric, everybody.
You know, you start to Blake,you can see it.
Keith, figure it out, you know.

SPEAKER_05 (01:00:47):
It's kinda like uh I when y'all talking about that, I
think about Jamie Johnson.
Like when he came to town, I waswriting at EMI, he got signed to
EMI as at the Christmas party,and I didn't know I didn't know
him.
He's he was new in town.
But he was uh just had on anormal top shirt, a leather
jacket, and just uh just almosta high and tight haircut, just
neat, neat as a pen.

(01:01:07):
He didn't come to town as that,you know, with the outlaw and
all the hair and the beard andeverything, but he found through
his music and everything, hefound that lane and he took it
over.
And there's nobody like that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:17):
I think he I think s guys like Jamie Johnson, up to
that point, he was uh he finallylet loose and did what he wanted
to do.
Correct, yeah.
Instead of what they wanted himto do.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:28):
And I identify so much with that because like I am
now, you know, when I first gothere and I started like uh
putting out songs uh on my own,you know, I had a publisher and
I had booking agent andmanagement.
I was like, my team looked likethe Patriots, like on paper.
And I said to them, Hey, let'sstop chasing record deals.

(01:01:50):
For whatever reason, we'regetting uh not right now, which
is we all know what that means.
And I said, I need to just kindof do some soul searching and
figure out what my thing isbecause I identified it and I
said it can't be why is this nottranslating to a record deal?
It can't be the numbers, becauseI was crushing on numbers.
I had plenty of show experienceat that point.

(01:02:12):
What was missing was the brand.
Like they what my thought was isyou know, they were looking at
me and was like, How do we builda star out of this?
You know, with with nothing likea you know, foundation.
And so I stepped back from it,and when I realized what made me
me, and I started turning it,their thought and version of me

(01:02:33):
was going this way, mine wasgoing this way.
So I tore it all back down tothe foundation and started all
over again.
And literally for the last sixyears, I've literally
self-managed myself, you know, Iwent through some booking agent
stuff.
I am just now building it backbecause I had to go out and
prove the model of what it wasthat I'm doing, and now that

(01:02:56):
it's working, it's like, okay,now we can bring back the
managers, and now we can bringback the business managers and
you know, all these things makeit their idea.
It's always their idea.
It is, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:07):
And you let them think it.
Oh, yeah, of course you do.

SPEAKER_06 (01:03:10):
Of course you do.
Adam, I didn't know you beforeyou got here.
I'm a fan.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Thank you.
I'm a big fan.
You I won me on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:21):
Look, I've I've been a huge fan of you guys.
I I can honestly tell you, uh,the first Al Dean record changed
my life.
Like it literally, I remember,you know, being in my hometown,
getting ready to move toNashville, and when, you know,
heck, uh, you know, just thatwhole first you know, couple
records, you know, like I just Iremember listening to it

(01:03:42):
thinking, whatever this is, Iwant to be a part of that.
I think it was authentic, andthat's probably what you felt.
It was just like But I love theenergy.
So I'm a very like I'm a verypassionate singer.
Like I love to sing.
Um and I loved the energy thatit brought, like, in the in the
speakers.
Like I grew like Alan Jacksonwas my childhood idol.

(01:04:04):
But Alan Jackson ain't gettingout there and welling on a
guitar and you know hittingthese big rangy notes, you know,
whatever.
And so like I always just was awas a guy that just loved to
sing big belty notes, and AlDean does a lot of that stuff.
And so so man, I like I said,I've been a fan of you guys just
watching y'all's whole careergrow and then all the songs
you've been a part of, you know,through the years, and you, I

(01:04:26):
mean, both of you guys have beena part of some of you know the
staple songs of my life that Ican go back to and say, Man,
like there goes my life, and youknow, all these songs that I
look at that like made me wantto be in this business, and to
be sitting here with you guystoday is man, it's crazy.
Like I'm I'm I'm literallyliving uh what my three-year-old

(01:04:47):
dream was, you know, is to besitting here, you know, just go
on, go on, very kind.
But no, continue.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:57):
By chance.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:58):
Yes, all of them.
He doesn't even know that song.
I knew it.
My all-time favorite crypto.

SPEAKER_05 (01:05:12):
Yeah, yeah.
See, that's pretty good.
Yeah.
I mean, being the you know, topfive.

SPEAKER_08 (01:05:15):
You know what's funny?
It it is I actually that song,Laughter We Cried, should have
been a five-week number onesong.
It was just we weren't the rightones to do it at that right
time.
Yeah.
At that time, we were we were wewere just not but that's it's
funny.
It it all pertains to.
Yes.
And it also goes back to peoplechasing what something is.

(01:05:39):
So I remember the label beinglike, okay, well, this this is a
huge like a Tim McGraw typesong.
And that's what you did.
Like, what's the next what's thequickest, best way to get to the
next level?
And that song was a incrediblesong.
It just wasn't right for us.
Yeah.
And looking back on it, I it'seasy to say that.

(01:06:00):
Then it it felt we I remembercutting it in the studio.
I remember saying, Oh, that'sjust a you know, everybody's
like that's a huge song.
Caleb does it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:07):
Yeah, but good, a really good version of it in the
writer's rounds.
I'm gonna I'm gonna brag on youbecause it's really good because
it goes the room goes.
And it's really, really good.
Well, it helps because you'resinging with me.
It makes a sense.
No, it's really good.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:20):
Anything you're singing on, it elevates by a
lot.
But uh but I was gonna say too,um uh you've you've got a single
out now on uh Drew, uh BaldurDrite the Top People Top 20,
something like this?

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:32):
Well it uh double dipping it topped out at top 10
and they pulled it.
Okay, uh, but I do have his nextsingle that is uh coming out to
radio too.
And it's too Russia.
So yeah.
Coming out in two weeks.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:43):
Am I the only one at the table that doesn't have a
single and charts right now?
I don't.
But you can't don't you have uhdon't you have that pop thing
out?

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:50):
Uh with oh yeah, it's not on radio, but it's it's
been out a while.
It's still going though.
It's like but it's like all themain international.
So we need to make your ownhere.

SPEAKER_05 (01:07:03):
I'm more I'm more local.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:06):
We're more mom and pop.
You're Walmart and we're uhwe're we're granny's kids.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:11):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:12):
You're IKEA.
I forgot about that.
Thank you, Caleb.
I feel better now.
You're welcome.

SPEAKER_06 (01:07:18):
Don't forget to watch Adam on the Road.
I'm gonna watch now.
CBS Paramount.
CBS Paramount Plus.
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:26):
We're gonna have watch night now.
I'm gonna have popcorn.
It's like I'm gonna be jumpingup and down like I'm watching a
Bama game.
By God, yeah, do it.
He's Florida, by the way, Klo.
Oh, I am appreciated.

SPEAKER_05 (01:07:36):
He's a gator.
Hey, yeah, uh go ahead, tell mewhat you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:39):
Speaking of that, it's funny because uh, you know,
we've we've had a tough year,you know, obviously, in a few
years, but um I ain't lookingover there.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:46):
Um I brought this for KLO, sorry.
We did Don't interrupt thestory.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:50):
We did uh the the the the premiere of the road was
uh the 19th of October and sothat was Sunday, and um I texted
a buddy, uh he was like, How youfeeling?
You know, it's the premiere andI was like, Man, this is a great
day.
Florida's getting a new headcoach because they fired, you
know, final day beer and thepremiere of the roads tonight.
Heck, I couldn't be any better.

SPEAKER_06 (01:08:11):
They needed to do that.
They needed to do that in myopinion.
He was it was time to go fornow.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:15):
Yeah, I mean, I was a I was a fan of them, you know,
but at some point, i you winball games or you don't.
You gotta know, like that's whatit's gonna be.

SPEAKER_06 (01:08:23):
And Florida deserves to win games.
I mean, they really do.
That's that kind of program.

SPEAKER_08 (01:08:27):
You know, you can't have a you can't I mean Florida,
you had a great run.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:33):
You can't it can't be like this.
See, I was I was a senior inhigh school and all that was
going down.
Uh Tim Tebow come and played atuh at our high school um when he
was a senior, and then when Igot out, um you know, that was
all during the Tebow years orwhatever, and so like man, my
early 20s was the bomb.com.
So it was awesome, you know, andthen it's it's been a little

(01:08:53):
rough through the years.
But I don't know.
I I'd love to see us get back ontop.
And um, you know, everybodykeeps saying, you know, we might
get Kiffin, might get Urbanback, and it's like I don't
know.
I don't know.
You don't want Urban.
I don't know if we're Urban.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:06):
Like everybody seems to like they really pushing
Kiffin.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:09):
It seems like why would Kiffen leave where he's
at?
I don't think he would.
I don't know.
He's got a pretty good gigthere, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:15):
Because it's Florida.
But it but all right.
To pick up where Spurrier couldgo on.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:27):
Than Kiffin.
Are we just as a Florida fan,and I'm trying to be honest with
myself, am I, you know, we won anational championship what 20
years ago?
So are we looking at it from astandpoint is Florida really as
prevalent of a job as as wethink it is?

(01:09:47):
If you look at the last 20years, you know, I would like to
think it is.
I think it's like there there issome some uh some some deep
roots that are there at Florida,you know, what it could be.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:57):
Well, nobody wants to play the swamp.
Yeah.
Especially Tennessee.
I'm a Tennessee fan.
We we don't ever want to playthere.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:02):
I mean, when we're right, that is the good that is
the good thing about Florida.
Like when Florida's right,they're they're tough to handle.
I mean I mean they're giving alot of people some headaches.
But when we're bad, we're bad.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:17):
Well my whole mission, my whole mission
tonight was just to start a feudbetween you two, and I was just
gonna sit back and watch.
Well, it's not really a feudright now.

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:25):
We don't play for a couple of times.
We do.
I mean that fan base.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:28):
Why did they move that game so late this year?
Because it's always the third orfourth game of the season.

SPEAKER_08 (01:10:33):
Yeah, I'm not sure why they're gonna do that.
Does it still mean as much?
Oh, yes, teams are better ifthey're all both O and two.
I mean, like if you're stilldoing okay from last week, you
yeah, I'm doing it.
Neil's being very nice to youtonight, by the way.
Yeah, I wasn't sure how muchwe'd be.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:47):
It's easy to be nice.

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:48):
I didn't know we talked about football a lot, but
Adam will talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:51):
We can talk about anything.
You can talk about killing deer,football, whatever you want to
go.
Where are you gonna talk aboutnext?
You know?

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:55):
So but I do I do owe you a hundred bucks because that
was the that was the big thing.
It was five hundred.
Uh no, I guess a thousand.
We whittled it down to ahundred.
Jim can Jim can pull it.
You don't want to put on thejersey that Nick.
No, that wasn't the that wasn'tthe the deal.
That wasn't part of the deal,remember?

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:11):
You gotta wear Alabama boxers.
Oh, heck yeah.
Nick brought it to me.
Nice, Nick.
It's a gift.
He knows, roll tied.
You ever you ever put it on?
You're an Alabama fan?
Okay.
Oh, son.

SPEAKER_05 (01:11:23):
And I did your podcast?
Yeah.
That's 615.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:31):
Amazing.

SPEAKER_05 (01:11:32):
Yeah, that was a rough game.

SPEAKER_08 (01:11:33):
That was a rough game.
Hey, you should have to uh nexttime loser goes hunting in
boxers, goes in the water,boxers, takes a picture with the
other teams on.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:44):
I can't wait to see the picture.
I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:49):
It's gonna be dangerous.
There's only uh two or threepeople that that knows about
that.
I've actually told like whathappened.
There's gonna be now.
What they've done is we're we'rein this thread and they have
zoomed in on it, and every aboutthird day they just send a
picture of just the zoom in thetext thread, and I'm just like I
love that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:07):
I can't love it now.
That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:10):
There'll be about 30 something thousand looking at it
next week.
They're gonna be searching it.
Good luck on the road, dude.
Yeah, hey, we're gonna be ableto do that.
Congratulations too.

SPEAKER_08 (01:12:20):
Congratulations on and it's so great to for an
artist like you to be gettingthis sh shot and doing it the
right the right way.
You know, I think it'simportant.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:31):
You guys know, man, uh there's so much of this and
it's is fate and timing.
Like how many people do we knowthat we have seen through our
careers that are just as good,just as deserving to be some of
the biggest songwriters, thebiggest you know, artists, but
for whatever reason, fate andtime it just didn't sort of work

(01:12:52):
out, and for whatever reason, Ijust feel like, you know, um my
fate and timing is, you know,now and you know, to capitalize
on these these opportunitiesI've been given over the last,
you know, year or so.
And um, you know, at some pointand and the crazy thing is is um
about a year and a half ago uhmy prayer was I kind of had

(01:13:13):
gotten in the spot where I wasjust kind of like, Lord, I felt
like everything that I hadaccomplished in my career was
all manifested through my hardwork.
Because I could justify it fromthe standpoint of saying, man,
because I grinded my ass off,and because I stayed up till
three in the morning and makingall these, you know, social

(01:13:35):
media posts and you know,uploading these songs to
Tunecore and all these things,and emailing people at playlists
and all this, I can directly saythis is why these things moved.
And I feel like that's a badplace to be in, because
obviously everything comes fromyou know him and giving you the
ability to have you know thestrength to do that.

(01:13:55):
And I kind of got to a spot inmy career where I said, you know
what?
If all the success that I've hadis all that it is, I'm good with
it.
Like I kind of accepted, like,if I never write another number
one song, if I never get, youknow, the dream of you know
selling out, you know, NissanStadium, you know, whatever, I'm
good with it.

(01:14:16):
You know what my dreams are andwhat where my heart is, but my
prayer was I said, Lord, at somepoint you have to open doors for
me that I cannot open myself.
And if you open them, I willwalk through them, but there's
gotta be fate and timing withall this.
And when I literally let go ofit all and just sort of said,

(01:14:36):
Hey, it is what it is, but I'mgonna keep working, everything
started to line up.
I got a song back on radio, Igot this opportunity to go on
the road, you know, and and allthese different things that are
happening.
So I feel you're on try that ina small town podcast right now.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:51):
I mean, wow.
This is real time prayer.
Whatever.
Hey, God works in mysteriousway, right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:00):
Very mysterious.
But it's it's just crazy thefact that, like uh, you know,
five, ten-year-old uh go mewould be so chomping at the bit
right now to manifest something,like trying to connect dots and
trying to do this.
And I'm honestly just kind oflike like I didn't ask to be on
this podcast.

(01:15:20):
You know, you'd be like, hey,you want to come do that?
I'm like, hell yeah, I'd love todo that.
You know, before I'd be like,hey, you if y'all got any open
spots, okay.
Hit a brother.
You know, so so it's good to bein this spot of feeling a little
bit free to kind of like, I'mjust taking it as it comes and
not over-exerting myself withworrying about things that like
you try to put together becauseyou know, 80% of the things that

(01:15:43):
you spend time trying tomanifest, they don't ever pan
out anyways, you know, so youjust wasted all that energy over
here on stuff that didn't evenmatter, you know.

SPEAKER_06 (01:15:50):
Yeah, amen.
You're in a good spot.

SPEAKER_03 (01:15:52):
Well, one of the requirements of coming on here
if you're an artist is you haveto write a song with us.
Okay.
Done deal.
Okay.
That'd be easy.
Well, it's just one of therequirements.
Okay.
Whether it's easy or not.
I don't care if it's easy ornot.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:05):
Oh yeah, I'm on it and I I don't I don't do it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:08):
We'll talk about it, but we're talking about that
later.
We'll talk about it.
Yeah.
It's just one of the reasons.
It's just one of therequirements.
Yeah, just initial here.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:18):
Okay.
It can't be any worse than theroad participation.
That's gotta be right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:16:23):
With that, make sure you're watching Adam on the
Road, CBS Paramount Plus.
Make sure you're watching us onYouTube or on Spotify or Apple
Music, all the places you canget podcasts.
We're there, I think.
We're there.
We're everywhere.
Yeah.
Download all of the stuff.
We want to thank Patriot Mobile.
We want to thank eSpaces.
We want to thank Original GloryBeer.

(01:16:45):
Thank you to Adam Sanders.
This is a try that small townpodcast.

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