#194 - Brett Young on his biggest regret, playing music for years at a hotel in California, and how he got back together with his now wife.

Brett Young has had 5 No. 1 Singles in a row. He started out as an elite baseball player in highschool which translated into college. He talks about going from playing sports to playing music and making the move from LA to Nashville. Brett also talks about how he’s about to become a dad, potential baby names and more!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My dog in my hands right now, that's either me
or him. He has out of control with his chewing,
and he's getting bigger and his jaws are getting stronger,
and so I used to be cute, now hurts. And
so now we have resorted to putting pennies pennies in
a water bottle, and every time you choose, we just
I just slam right. He hates it. We're working on

(00:22):
it because anytime I'm like a pop him, like on
the butt or the nose, He's like, all right, I
see that, Let's do some more. He's a bulldog. He's
stubborn as crap. So we're trying new things. But I'm
holding it right now because I don't wanted to chew
the wires under the table um. But we're here but
to talk with Brett Young. We just did the interview

(00:43):
he just left, and I'm gonna tell you we talked
about his height in this. I just forget and I
know Brett a little bit. Um. We you know, have
done some show stuff together, radio show performance stuff. We
had idled together. Um, but you just forget how big
the dude is. Still you stand in beside him. He's
a monster, big guy. He's um, and we walked out

(01:05):
and talked a little bit downstairs, which is always UM.
You know, one of the good parts about it too,
because you just spend an hour talking with each other
and you're gonna hear that. UM, so I enjoy. I say.
There are a couple of music podcasts that we do
I think you should check out too that aren't even interviews,
Like there are some good interviews you can see if
you if you're here, you probably subscribe. And um, if

(01:25):
you write a comment to like, you're right, I don't
even know, you know if you do that. I normally don't.
If it's a podcast that I really love. I listen
to a couple of them and they're like, hey, would
you mind rating us? And I'm writing a nice note
I'll do it just for them. So if we're one
of those podcasts that you love to do, please do
that be great. Um. But there's a couple of music
ones where we talk about songs that you didn't even
know what that's what they meant. And that's a good one.

(01:46):
I don't know what the official title that is Famous
Songs with Misunderstood Meetings a good one, so much so
that stations have reached out to us to play that
played on the weekend. I enjoyed that one. I like
those music ones and always you know, if you're tweeting
me or posting an insta gram under the picture, UM,
let me know what you like because we'll do more
of that. So we just appreciate you listening to this.
Brett Young, check out the Ingrid Andrews one. Really, that's

(02:09):
a really good one. She's just cool. Check Um Thomas right,
obviously it's a recent one. And the other, the other
good music one is the famous songs that piked at
number two. Ah yeah, And I think we're about to
do one, which is bands that have had more than
one lead singer, like the women's bands. Where did they
win well or everybody hated him? Yeah, that's that would
be a good one. That So that's coming up. If
you don't mind, tag us on Instagram, put it puts

(02:31):
on your story and tag me. I love that. I'll
try to share some of them and then follow the
Bobby cast on Instagram. Few. We're asking a lot of you,
I know, but you know, I like you. If you
like me, do that. Uh. I'm about to head over
to Amy's my co host and take us on her
birthday presents. So it's kind of the only night that
I'm able to do that. Someone head over there and
do that. But you can check out Amies podcast called

(02:53):
four Things with Amy Brown. You can check out the
Velvet's Edge podcast if you're into that, the female trendy
hell fashion lifestyle stuff called Velvet's Edge with Kelly Henderson. Obviously,
U we have Get Real with Caroline Hobby over here
on the network. We have The Store Losers with lunch

(03:13):
Box Eddie and producer Ray, and we've got some more
coming on that. The Networks is probably gonna go by
two or three podcasts, including one that we're gonna go
on my d here. Yeah, finally finally saying message like
you gotta get in this, dude, gotta get in this
and you'll be good at it. So okay, Well that
being said, enjoy our talk here with Brett Young. Um. Yeah,

(03:38):
I liked it. And you'll hear if he was on
time or not. That's always a fun thing for me.
I always like, let's just see who shows up on time.
I'm a big time freak. Okay, thank you guys, and
here is Brett Young. All right, welcome to episode with
Brett Young, very punctual. I was extremely impressed. I parked
one minute early. Oh did you you set out front

(03:59):
of the house. Well, I actually pulled up twenty thirty
five minutes early. We should just come in, we're ready,
but but I was hungry, and I've noticed that there's
a nice little Mexican restaurant next door. How did you
go over? Stuff? Stuff? Pepper? Is that? Yeah? I don't
l L No, it's l something anyways, Yeah, I went
and I was like, guys, I got twenty minutes. You
need to hook me up. You ate at four thirty

(04:22):
first fal today? Did any breakfast? Do you breakfast? Um?
I eat breakfast food. They rarely eat it in the morning.
I mentioned how punctual you are recently on this because
people will come over to the house and we do this.
We've had a couple and without mentioning names, and I
feel we're so far removed from it. We had one
person that was almost a half hour late, and I
don't do well with lateness anyway. So it was a

(04:45):
bit of me trying to rebound and be professional and
the podcast ended up going great. Another one they showed
up drunk and Mike d saw them and they like
couldn't park their cars like dot dot and they came
in in And you can't tell in the podcast because
we went back and listen to it to make sure
you can't tell. You can't write. Well, that's great. I

(05:05):
guess that's I mean, and I and then I love
the person and I know the person, and I was like, boy,
I gotta put the rails up on this one. That's
a professional right there, at something. Yeah, that's something maybe
at both at at drinking and then being able to
maintain composure while drunk. But it's always it's always good
stories because people just come over to the house and

(05:26):
sometimes we hang out before sometimes you know, like you
and I were just talking, you know, beforehand. But yeah,
they showed up drunk and late, but you were here.
You nailed it, I promise, like I scheduled it. And
then I even I even like pulled in and I
was like, you got two minutes, go ahead, and like
take the time to back in, walk walk up on time.
I walked. I think I've knocked on the door at
five or actually I didn't knock on the door. You

(05:47):
guys were right on time. You opened it. As I
walked up watching it. We got cameras at my house
has so many cameras, didn't it crazy? You know, I
was watching the news this this dude who broke out
of jail. Did you see it a couple of days ago?
I got alert, right, So we got the alerts on
our phone, and I think he had murdered someone a
prison guard were like a t dot but it was

(06:07):
like a government employee right outside of the prison. It
was just uside of Memphis. So he's running around somewhere
and they ended up finding him because somebody's home security camera,
like the ring doorbell camera saw him walking across and
they called the cops because of the neighbor's ring doorbell.
That's literally how they got him, right, Mike, Yeah, there
was a screenshot of it. So as I'm so glad

(06:30):
I have ring at home. Is everybody's looking and have
cameras like on every door here, But yeah, we saw
you and we gets pulling up. You didn't see if
there are um invisible agents out there? Have you seen
speaking of that have rifles in the trees? No? But
you know I had a con wants on the show
and he was like he's talking Mike, were you with
me what I had an? I think he was talking

(06:51):
about how he has people like people in trees and
in the woods around his house with guns camouflaged. Okay, well,
he's also like, isn't he the one that's like you
think music probably made him befortune, but he's like involved
in diamonds and stuff, right, Probably. I think he's like.
I think he's like, he'll never even touch his actual
money with music. Money like music money doesn't he isn't
even meaningful to him. I think that's a con I

(07:13):
think problem. We looked it up. That sounds about right.
It's like Jay Leno, we're talking about him. He doesn't
he never spent his Tonight show money. Yeah, he just
spent his stand up money making millions doing stand up.
So we just kept saving his Tonight show. Leno could
liquidate his car collection and live off of it for
the rest of his life. He's gonna be all right,
how you been good? Oh man? You look dark and

(07:34):
tan or red or something. Um we just did um
we we my poor wife. I mean any anybody that
marries or or dates somebody that does what we do. Um,
you have to like kind of pick and choose in
time when you can do things and uh, and so
we we we really wanted to do a baby moon.
I didn't know what that was, the last kind of

(07:56):
hurrah before the baby is born. And we had to
plan that around a trip. It was only like a
couple of days. So we got like a couple of
days and then that was in July. We went to
uh this montage property uh in Palmetal Bluffs, which is
like just outside of Savannah, kind of between Charleston and Savannah. Beautiful,
but we only got like two days. And so I said, baby,
your your your birthdays coming up in another month and

(08:18):
we'll be on the West coast, and you've been wanting
to go to this property in Santa Barbara. So let's
make that the extension of the baby moon and your birthday.
So even though we've had to cram it in, I've
gotten to beat like out by the pool a couple
of times on you know, we've had to do them
all midweek days because we're on the road in the
on the weekends. But um, it's the first year in
like five since I've been in Nashville and in this

(08:39):
kind of lifestyle that I've actually been like, whoa, I'm
laying by a pool in the summertime. Are you a bully?
I mean, I'd rather be at the ocean. Are you
a beach guy? Yeah? I grew up five minutes from
Huntington Beach, so, um, my parents we didn't even do
boys and Girls club. They've dropped me off of the
beach at eight o'clock in the morning, go to work.
My mom would get off at three and come pick
me back up. I'd either sir, or lay on the

(09:00):
beach or you know, throw the football or whatever. I'd
just be at the beach all day. So you were
in surfing culture. Yeah, it was so bad at it though,
really it's good of an athlete as you ended up being. Yeah,
I think I don't know, Like sometimes as an adult,
I wonder if I should go back and see again,
because I was growing so rapidly while I was surfing.
And you know, the culture where I grew up was

(09:20):
you don't longboard your short board what that means. But
I'll be honest, the big longboard like they right in
Hawaii where they like they walked to the nose and
they walked back, or the tiny little pointed short board,
the belly board. They're very different. Like the short board
is like they do all the acrobats surfing boards. They're
both surf boards. You're talking about the one you boogieboard,
that's what you're talking No, boogie boards weren't allowed where
I came from. That was like out of our ocean.

(09:43):
Yeah alright, but again that wasn't me. There were a
lot of great surfers. I played baseball, basketball, football, football.
I also surfed. Um, so I was outgrowing these short boards.
It's very specific to your height, like they need to
be able to carry your weight, and like, so I
was growing so much. I would go from like this
board is a little too big to like four months later,

(10:04):
it's so too small for me that it's kind of
sinking underneath me when I stand up. I just got
kind of frustrated with it. And none of my friends
wrote a big longboard that just kind of floats you
no matter what you do, and you just cruise. You
don't do tricks or anything. And so anyways, long story short,
I'm like, I play three sports that I'm really good at,
and uh, i'd like laying on the beach or body
surfing without any sort of instrument or board, and uh,

(10:27):
I just stopped surfing when body surfing just no, yeah,
you just paddle into the way. Have you seen those
guys you like paddle in and then you just kind
of I never knew that was really a thing. Yeah,
it's actually maybe you just surf like a I guess
a boogie board. Everything is a boogie board in my head.
Everything is a boogie board. That's like, that's a T shirt.
Everything is a boogie board in my head. How tall
are you? Six six? Really? Yeah? You know what's so funny?

(10:53):
I bet you The people that work with me are
so tired of this. But people always comment they walk
into meet and greet and I don't know for whatever reason.
I guess a picture is a picture, so you just
don't notice it. But my meet and greets at every
show consist of people going, WHOA, you're way taller than
I thought. And so I started saying I had nothing
to do with it because I didn't, And uh, it's

(11:14):
it's just funny that, like I guess, I guess, people
assume that you must not be I don't know what
I mean tall. I'm TALLI ish I'm over six ft tall,
would be about six to six through, like really tall,
but then you're just abnormal and you're not just tall,
you're also just like a big, strong guy. And so
I think because your body is proportionate to six six

(11:36):
that you look pretty normal size and pictures. That's a
good thing. Yeah, and it's I don't even have long
legs either. I have badly. Yeah, me and Manute, we
don't have anything in common. Um, your parents big folks bang.
My dad's six to my mom's five, So six six
doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Um, But I

(11:57):
kind of blame it on the guy was a glutton.
I was kind of like a chunky kid. I kind
of and and because I had a healthy appetite before
I grew up, probably ate like all the pizza and
all the steak and all the things. I mean, the
hormones are hormones. We we do have way more hormone.
We have way more hormones in our food than we
used to back in the day. And I think I

(12:17):
was a guy that like, if I could fit it
in my mouth while I was still chewing, I was
shoving it. But I was used to make a joke
with girls. I'd be like, you know, I like you
so much, You like being at a pizza party and
not wanting to walk away from the pizza because you
want to make sure you get full. Like I like
you so much. You made me want to stand by
the pizza. That was like a joke. I would have
a girl in high school and like it never worked,
by the way, but that was true. I was the

(12:39):
fat kid that, like at a pizza party, would stand
by the pizza until I was full, in fear that
it would run out. When did you start to become
I don't know, athletic shaped, Yes, the shape was. The
athletic ability was there before the shape came or the
high I got cut from eighth grade basketball and I

(12:59):
played city my sophomore year two years later. So you
developed that much in two years. Yeah, I think I
think this is a guess. It's close. It might not
be perfect. I think I was five nine or five
ten in eighth grade but slow and overweight. Um, And
I think I started freshman year six one, six two

(13:23):
because I was six three sophomore year playing varsity. So yeah,
I've sprouted and it wasn't even it was like awkward
thinned out those two years. But it made me quicker
because I wasn't carrying the weight right, So I was
because we do a lot of our research here, a
lot of heavy research, and we found all of your
old stuff that you scrub from the internet. Oh no,
I'm just kidding. We can't find any of it. It's there.

(13:44):
We found a YouTube, Michael, do we find just a
YouTube a live version, but otherwise they've taken your entire
early discography off. Um, there's just a YouTube of fly
because in two thousand seven you put out an EP.
There's a YouTube of fly. Oh you didn't know it
was still up. It's that's very old song. I recorded
it on my flip cam. Did you really have we

(14:06):
known each other that we have two thousands, but you're
two thousand seven self title dps completely off the internet.
Why is it? Think? No? I know, I think it's
pretty normal for like, you know, I put out seven
projects before I got my record deal. I was doing
this for almost eleven years before I got my deal,
and I think it's pretty normal now. At the time,

(14:29):
I was like, why the same like you're asking. I
think it's pretty normal for them to want to control
the branding when they, you know, make an investment like
they do whenever they signed an artist, and um no,
I'm not. I'm proud of all of it. I think
my songwriting was a lot weaker back then, but that's normal.
That was I mean, that was two thousand and four,

(14:50):
fifteen years ago. Yeah, it's crazy. Huh. Oh my gosh.
When when I say it out loud, it's like I
can't even believe that was happening. Then, well, what's kind
of your story I'm getting here. So you're a California kid.
Did you do the California just do all the shows
in California and then finally decide I've just kind of
exhausted this, I need to go. What was that for you? No,

(15:11):
that's exactly it. Um. I I hit this weird um
kind of ceiling where I was the only one of
my friends that was making a living playing music. The
problem was I was playing other people's songs and there
were four hour cover gigs where I had to wear
like a suit and tie to play this nice hotel lobby.

(15:34):
And you at the beginning of it, you're like, you
look around at your buddies and you're like, yeah, they're
jealous because I'm making money playing music. And then you go,
nothing about this is fulfilling anymore. Nobody's really listening. And
even when they do care, it's because they liked that
song that you didn't write and have nothing to do with,
you know. And Uh I was I was playing Montage

(15:56):
Beverly Hills every Wednesday night four hours eight and at night,
and uh, I had to had to wear like dress clothes,
you know. And Uh, this guy came through. Uh he's
become one of my best friends. He was the best
man at my wedding. He comes through and he's from Atlanta,
but he's he's staying in the hotel and he hears
it and he's just sold a company and he just

(16:18):
turns around. He kind of goes, I have friends in Nashville.
Why is this not connecting? Why like, why are you
still here? Basically? And I just went, you know what,
I don't know. I might be done with this. I've
I've been doing this in l A for ten years.
I've never had a meeting. I've I've watched Jimmy Ivan,
who's living in the hotel at the time, walk back

(16:38):
and forth in front of me multiple times every Wednesday
night and never even stop and listen. So I don't know.
Good question. I said, I think, I think I need
to either change something or maybe it's money. Maybe I
need to go make up studio record, like a real record.
And he goes, well, I just sold a company. I
know some people in Nashville. Why don't we Let's get
you out to Nashville. Let's get you out. I was

(16:58):
bar attending on my off nights. I was gigging about
four nights a week, bartending the other three. He goes,
let's get you out from behind the bar. Let's take
those other three days a week for you to start
writing songs more aggressively. And uh. Within a year he
had me moved out to Nashville. And um, I got
to Nashville and I got intimidated, like I think everybody does.
I went, everybody here's incredible. What am I gonna do here?
Even the people that haven't made it are incredible? Incredible?

(17:20):
Walk down Broadway. It's not like one guy per bar.
It's every bar has three floors. All of them have
a stage, and every guy on every stage deserves to
be on the radio, like who am I? And so
I literally got here thinking I was coming here to
make it. Once I got here, I went, nope, I
want the writing side of this. I want to write
for people. So I actually signed with song Pluggers to

(17:41):
have my songs pitched to other people. I gave up
on artistry within a couple of months of being here.
I'd rather be the songwriter because this is intimidating. And then, uh,
you know you pitched. You pitched to the labels and
you you know who's cutting which artists needs songs, and
they kept going, this is a good song, but who's
the demos singer? And I ended up wanting to get

(18:04):
cuts on other artists and ended up having walking into
these rooms with my acoustic guitar by myself to play
for all these record execs that I want to know
who the demo singer was. So that's how it came
about for you. As you were writing songs singing the demos,
and so many people were attracted to that sound. They
were like, Hey, we'd like to see who this guy is,
which was which was the opposite of why that was
why it didn't work in l A. You don't sound

(18:26):
like anybody else. We don't know where to put you here.
Then I get to Nashville and everybody's like you don't
sound like anybody else. This is fantastic. I mean, it's
just such a funny dichotomy because it's like I could
have literally just stayed in l A forever and been
told you, we can't, we don't know what box to
fit you in, whereas in Nashville it was wow, this
will this will stand out? How long from when you

(18:47):
moved to town until when when you started to get
considered as as an artist? Like when you're talking about
these meetings, I had my first meeting, I had my
first um who's singing the demo? Bring him in to
sing for us? Meeting at about ten months of living
in town, and my record deal within fourteen months of

(19:09):
you move into town. Boy, that all moves pretty quick,
that huh? If you and again when you it's always
funny like looking back, that feels like a really long
time ago, but that happened really fast. I mean I
didn't even find those song pluggers for five or six months,
and then four months with them and I'm having meetings
and then you know, six more months or five more

(19:30):
months or whatever it was. I've met with Jimmy Harnan
six times, and now there's a deal offered but I'm
I had my deal with Jimmy before, like Scott was
out of town or Shadow was literally out of town,
and went, Jimmy, you're wearing me out about this kid.
I'm not back. But if you're that sure, I trust you,
go ahead. So I'm actually didn't meet Scott until after
Jimmy offered me the deal. That's how quick it moved

(19:51):
when it happened. Was there a song that you ended
up cutting for yourself? It was one of those songs
you were pitching the people are like, Okay, what's this about?
Like what what was one of those? Yeah? So I
think there were. Actually I had three songs from the
first record already before I got my deal, But the
one that that if you asked Jimmy Harnon that got
me signed, uh ended up being my third number one record. Um,

(20:15):
it's a song called like I Loved You that I
wrote with uh girlfriend of mine of town, Jesse Lee,
and we wrote that. It was one of the first
writes those song pluggers got me on to like try
to be a songwriter, and uh, it wasn't. It wasn't
the easiest write on the planet. It was you know,
we heard and I had never met, and so you

(20:35):
do a lot of you know how this goes like,
you do a lot of feeling each other out before
you actually get to work. And it ended up. You know,
most writes are three four hours and this one was
like a six and a half hour day. But I
went in and with my investor that I had before
I saw my deal, and we went in and did
an EP of this song that we also was one
of the ones we had to pull down. Like you said,
all the old stuff's gone, because when I played an

(20:57):
acoustic for Jimmy Harden, he still claims that's the song
when he went, I can make a record on this kid.
So you you recorded this song as a demo hoping
that someone else will here it, don't pick it up
after you cut it on your AP, but then you're
kind of re pitching it. Yeah, the EP was just
a means of I mean, nowadays with like downloads and
streams and stuff, it was just another income stream. While
we were trying to figure it out. We knew that

(21:17):
if any song that ever got picked up by another
artist to get cut, we would pull down. We I mean,
I didn't have enough social media following to like it.
Wasn't going to like make a mark on the industry.
We could pull it down and everybody would forget about it.
Um so yeah, I mean we were. We were still
recording songs because why not have at the time, if
you have an investor who's you know, risking money on you,

(21:39):
you should have every I was college touring like crazy.
I would I would fly out just me and my
guitar or at the smallest cheapest car I could get
and like Fargo and then play seven colleges in eight
days and end up in North Carolina and then fly
myself home. You would just drive the entire track. I
would pick up one car and like I really I

(21:59):
do remember the uh the Fargo trip that ended in
North Carolina where I played seven shows in eight days,
and I just you know, that's the cheapest way to
do it. A cheap flight to Fargo, the tiniest car,
and I'm again we just said I'm six six. It
was like a Ford focus but like I don't fit
in that, you know, that's that's that's lower back and

(22:20):
hit pain every day. But I was I was so
concerned with I've always been this way to like if
anybody's like taking a chance on me. I want to
make sure that I'm respecting what they're investing, and so, um,
you know that was part of making these EPs. At
the time, Like I said, we had already tried to
transfer over to the songwriting side of things. But if
you have a song that you think we'll sell or stream,
might as well have an income stream there. We called

(22:41):
it turning on all the faucets, right and hopefully you
get some water from somewhere. Yeah, that's it. I I
have other um friends that had people when when they
were broke, invest in them and go, hey, let me
help you out here. Let's get starready. Are you still
is that guess still part of the Brett Young enterprise? Yeah?
I mean don't know if if you heard what just

(23:01):
happened with my clothing company. But um, when I signed
my record deal, I also signed a publishing deal with
Big Machine. And part of what you have to do is, um,
when you go from owning your publishing to going into
a copub deal, Um, you can't. You can't keep the
same publishing name. So I had like whatever it was,
Brett Young Publishing or whatever, Um, you need to come
up with a new name to go into a joint

(23:22):
venture for publishing, and so I came up with this name,
Caliville Um from California to Nashville. Yeah, that's it, and
and that's all it was. But then I kept seeing
it on contracts as we were doing stuff, and I
was like, that's just a really cool thing. And I
had this buddy that was you know, I had a
company where he was making hats and t shirts and sweatshirts,

(23:42):
and I was like, hey, you want to just throw
this on some hats. See what happens. We started putting
it on hats and before we could put it on
sale there we're getting stolen off people's heads in bars
in Nashville. Well, just a couple of weeks ago we
announced that, like we're we just got bought out by Coals.
So we're starting on October like there the exclusive retailer

(24:04):
for Caliville in the country. And uh, you know my
investor that, like I said, he became best man at
my wedding. Like he we've since him and I are
whole on his initial investment. Is that right? Yeah? Praise God? Um,
you know, and he was. He he was so gracious
about how long it took because it took a minute. Um,

(24:26):
but yeah, he's my business partner on Caliville. So um,
he's somebody that, like I said, went from somebody that
just kind of believed in it and wanted to help
to being you know, one of my best friends and
the best man in my wedding and so um yeah, well,
I mean we'll be we'll be tied together in business
and in friendship for a really long time. How's that
going by? By the wedding and you're about to have
a baby? Huh, it's so close? When is that? Yeah? Right,

(24:47):
like it's in the next couple of weeks. No, no, no,
don't rush me, Bobby, go ahead. We're we're middle of October.
So I got about two months. And how do you
feeling about that? Man? I'm so excited? Are you ready though?
Or are you you're anxious? What's the one? Have you
got one feeling? You know? I am? I'm ready and excited. Um.
I guess like if if there was a because I'm

(25:10):
not I'm not nervous, but if if I'm being honest,
the one concern that pops into my head every once
in a while is just that like both me and
my wife had the best example set by both of
our sets of parents. Just we neither of us would
have changed anything about our upbringing or our parents. And
that's a blessing. Not everybody can say that, and we

(25:30):
both know that, and so the bar is set very
high for us in both of our heads. And so, um,
this is a This is a strange industry to raise
a child in, and I know people are successful in
it on a regular basis. A lot of my friends
are doing an amazing job raising children and bringing them
on the road, and um, I just want them to

(25:51):
I want to make sure I do everything I can
to make sure that they have an experience like I did,
even though our lifestyle is so different than mine was
growing up. So, oh yeah, baby, it's about just complete.
You should see how pink my house is. And it's
a girl. It is a little girl. Have you have
you announced the name yet? No, we don't know yet.

(26:11):
Have you had a limited down of you? Yeah, we're
really close. I think we're down to three. And where
did you get these names? You don't have to reveal
that it's a combination of like it's one of Calieville,
one of the names of the Can you imagine? Yeah,
can you imagine we did be like, was it was
I first? Or was the brand first? Um? No, it's
a collection of um, working off of like family names

(26:35):
that have been around for a little while. UM, but
also just um like something fresh and different that we
don't think it's out there yet. UM. But I think
in all honesty, I think it's three. It might be too.
We might have we might have checked another one off
the other day. UM, but I don't know that, like
anything's off the table. And I think we're to the
place now where we're so close that we want to

(26:56):
look at her first. You know, she might not get
her name until we see her. At this point. It's
a little calisi. We'll only get the name once you
put eyes on her. I wonder run through some of
your songs sleep without You, There you go. You have
five number ones in a row, but this the first one.

(27:17):
This is the first one justin Ebach and Kelly Archer
on this home. So this is what's an expectation for
you With the first single they're going on, we're gonna
put this song out? Is it number one or bust?
For me? It was I would have never said that
out loud. I think I always like knock on Wood
or you know, with stuff like that. It's like I
joke with people all the time. It's like, if you

(27:37):
put something out there that's almost the same as like
leaving l a X. You've just arrived in Los Angeles
on a Friday at like four thirty pm and you
pull out of L a X and you go, oh,
there's no traffic. You've just asked for traffic, Like pretty much,
you've just doomed yourself to traffic. Um. And so I
kind of feel the same way about stuff like that.
It's like, hey, it's really moving up the charts. I'll
be like, knock on Wood, don't say that just you know. Um.

(28:00):
But but yeah, I think at my age and and
with the fact that I wasn't really pursuing the artist
career anymore, I thought, you know, if if this is
something's going to happen, um, let's let's start it off
with the bank so that I can, you know, really
wrap my head around where this thing is going. And
it and it did. And it was a song that
I had written about my parents relationship. UM, so it

(28:24):
was personal to me. So it lit a fire in
me when this song started having success. Um, that enabled
me to not just get excited again about being an artist,
but like get passionate about it. Did you take the
song and play for your parents before you put it out?
Like kay, I wrote this for you guys, know you
know what's so funny? For whatever reason, I wanted to

(28:45):
keep the story behind it, kind of because if it
didn't do well, I didn't want anybody to feel like, hey,
the song about you like tanked you know. Um so
they probably the first time they heard that this was
about And I don't know if you've heard me tell
the story, but literally was this one night my dad's
a pastor, and uh, there was this one night in
high school. Um, I walked in at curfew, which was

(29:07):
like for me, it was midnight on game days, so
like probably if it was probably a Friday night basketball game.
I'm sure it was because my mom was away for
a women's retreat for the weekend, but my dad went
to bed. Like growing up, I walk in at my curfew,
probably a little early. Like you said, I'm punctual, and
my dad's sitting in his bathrobe and the reclinent are

(29:28):
watching Sports Center. Well, if you know Sports Center, you
know that program runs for an hour and then starts over, Well,
if my dad goes to bed at like he's been
watching that episode over and over since nine. So I
walk in and I'm like, Dad, what are you doing up?
And he goes, it's just weird. You know, after at
the time x amount of years, probably at the time
married for twenty years. After twenty years of being married

(29:49):
to your mom, is still hard to sleep in our
bed when she's not here. And that that that memory
never left me. So when we started the title sleep
Without You didn't come from that, but once we had
that title brought me back to that. So I was
inspired by that moment that I remember from being eighteen
years old and a senior in high school. So yeah,
it turned into it turned into this thing that was, uh,

(30:10):
you know, kind of the song that kicked things off.
What a good story, and I like that I hadn't
heard that before. Really, Yeah, I mean I think they didn't.
I don't think my dad knew that that resonated the
way that it did. And again I was eighteen then
and I wrote this song at thirty one, So I
mean it was years and years later where that popped up.
That was obviously something that stuck with me. All right,
here's the next one in case you didn't know, Case

(30:31):
you didn't know, baby, is this the one that's thing
allowed us to you and shows back? Yeah, because if
I were on the show, I'll be saying this one
allowed us back to you. It is, Yeah, it is,
it is. It's top three. Um, before Mercy, it was
definitely the loudest, and we have this kind of interesting

(30:54):
cultic thing happening with the post chorus on here tonight
right now. Um, they don't sing it, they kind of
scream it, so it gets pretty loud. But um, I
think this is the one that makes people feel the most. Um.
This is when the flashlights or lighters come out. This
is when like I noticed, like, I'll look in a guy,

(31:15):
I'll grab a girl to slow dance, and I'll be like,
the only reason he's even at my show right now
was for this moment to slow dance. He bought her
this ticket to dance with her like he might be
proposing tonight he might not, but like he he knew
he was black picking this moment. Um. I think it
is the the most intimate, tender moment of the set
every night. Where do you put this song on the
set list right in the middle. Oh yeah, you're not

(31:37):
going anywhere, You're You're at least wait until the middle,
like I love do. We talked about that a little bit.
Let's play this again, so you go, it's just you
just who you write this song? Yeah, just me and
Jesse Lee. Yeah, made a little kid, Little cash. Yeah,
that was a good That was a good one on
the writer publish. Yeah. And when I hear uh, he's
just a co ride or a single, I'm like, oh boy,

(31:59):
he did all right on that one. Yeah. That was
that was That was and and and and I think
her second number one. She had just had Peter Pan
with Kelsey Ballerini right before that. Um yeah, we like
I'm I'm always the passionate one in the room. When
something comes up that I have feelings about, I get
real fired up. And this whole idea of like somebody

(32:21):
being able to break up with you and then still
want to be your friends came up in conversation. And
again it was the first time we met man she
got pissed like Jesse was fired up, and I went,
I actually don't think I've ever seen somebody more passionate
in the writer's room than me. So that is definitely
the song we have to write. And we were already
four hours in think when we were going to call
it a day, and it fell out in like an

(32:42):
hour and a half. So were you working on a
song already and this is an idea that hit you pivoted? Yeah,
we were working on like fifteen that weren't working out
at that point. Right. Um, it went from like get
to know you to try to write a song to
back to just get to know you some more. And
it came out in conversation. But when I saw her
get fired up, I was like, let's tap into that.
Whatever that is. Let's and it's I mean it is.
It's an angry song and that's what they get to

(33:03):
know you parted. You're kind of milking You're kind of
milking it to see when does the milk actually come out?
Where do we connect? Yeah, like that's that, that's the moment.
That's cool, Mercy, Let's do this one. That was another
two way right, Yeah, you and Sean McConnell. Well he
is good. Huh. Like if you've never gone to a
Sean McConnell show, um, you're missing out. He is good.

(33:24):
And and writing and performing like just just I'm a
fan of that guy. Incredible. UM, just me and Sean.
And at the time, he was writing for Warner and
I went over there and they had forgotten to hold
a room for us. So I show up and they're like, well,
we got the rooftop and you know, they got that
open air rooftop over at Warner and it was mid

(33:46):
supper and it was so hot and there's wasps flying
around because all their furniture out there is wood, and
I'm like, and I'm already a big fan of him
in his artistry and um. At the time, the label
was asking for tempo because we were ready to close
the record. They just wanted more up tempo and I
told you on that it was basically like, I don't
really care about that. And that was the first time

(34:07):
we met, too, and it was it was I get
to know you, and it wasn't even a concept. I
just said the word mercy and he goes, I'd love
to chase that down and he just started playing do
you do you play on keys? Or do you are
you playing with the guitar? And you just him and
an acoustic I had put my down at that point
because we were just talking and he just started strumming
through this chord progression and he started Sean's so good
at everything, but he like leans on these melodies, and

(34:30):
he started kind of humming along to that, and we
just started plugging words into it. I mean, it was
like most of what he was doing initially instinctively ended
up being the music and melody behind mercy. You know,
that's an interesting thing too, that people may not know
what the songwriting like. I have some friends that are
they will build a melody and then plug words, and

(34:52):
some people that will go with lyrics and kind of
string them together and build a melody afterward. Um. Like
I've been able to spend some time when it called
Galley and and and she'll build She'll bout a melody,
She'll here's the music, and just be like why would U?
Then you just I've never been around someone who is
so good at that. And you mentioned that, are you
a melody guy where you make a melody over music
and then insert of words later or wire you going

(35:13):
to go out these are my words? I'm I'm a
words guy. Um. The story and the lyric is paramount
to me, um, which is why I pick my co
writers to compliment that in me, I pick music and
melody people, right, Um, it's right. If you look at
track listing on both records, you're gonna see John Knight

(35:35):
all over the place because melodically like, what he does
is not only fantastic, but it's it's what I it.
It follows all the things that I would do or
wish I would do, or it sounds like the music
I would listen to as a music fan. I mean,
he just I've taken on two albums combined, I've taken
four outside songs, and he's been a writer around all

(35:56):
four of them. Um. And then I mean he has
He's a writer on seven of the twelve songs on
my new record. Um. So, if I can find somebody
and John's also a great lyricist, but I gravitate towards
his melodic inclinations and so it's all words for me.
If I can find somebody with a great melody and
somebody that they pair well with music, let me what

(36:19):
do they call it in l A top lining, Give
me the track and let me write words to it. Um,
that's where I think, that's where I'm the best. But
but in this town that everybody has different skill sets,
and and sometimes you gotta pivot and kind of figure
out where you where you fit in and and and
I think I'm I think I'm pretty good at reading
the room and where I'm actually gonna have strengths and weaknesses.

(36:41):
But in a perfect world, if I got a meloy
guy and a music guy and you just let me
kind of stick to the lyric, That's when I'm the happiest.
Let's do one more here tonight. We can just say
what's your what song you close? They used to be
here tonight? We just because we've been playing a lot
more headlining shows lately. Um, we moved here tonight to

(37:04):
the end of the regulation and then we walk off stage,
and then we come back and encore UM, and we
encore with Mercy and Ticket to l A the title track. UM.
Only because the way that we uh, the way that
we finish here tonight is kind of like a it's
kind of an unresolved, like kind of trash candy on
the drums type thing, whereas Ticket to l A. When

(37:27):
we finished, we've like we've reintro the outro, so like
we I finished the song and then the band rips
back into the intro while I walk off, so it's
kind of a little more dramatic exit. Um. But yeah,
up until about two weeks ago, we were finishing with
here Tonight, um and and for the first two years
we were finishing with Sleep Without You with an extra
outro for me to walk off too. So I think

(37:49):
I mean, for us, it changes. You know. One of
the best feelings is having multiple singles now because you
build your show around your singles. You know, you don't
want anybody to go anywhere, so you kind of spread
them out. Um. And we finally got to a place
where we were like, we can put Sleep Without You
earlier in the set finally, which is gonna be pretty
cool too, to be able to put some more heat
up and all through the set. It feels great. People

(38:10):
are just waiting for the big hit, like you got
a bunch of big hits, so we got you. Yeah,
it's it's that that's that is a I remember being
jealous of everybody I opened for at the beginning of like,
you know, the first year or two, I'd be like, man,
I recognize every song you play in your set. That
must feel great, you know, to not have to fill
half of it with covers, just so people know what
you're singing. And we're to a place now where I

(38:30):
mean we could if we have a half hour set.
We just you know, we just did c M A
fest recently. Six songs, well, I have six singles. It
was the best feeling on the planet. I played all
radio singles for thirty minutes. It was incredible feeling. And
uh and yeah, when you have an hour fifteen hour
and a half, you have to kind of strategically spread
them out. But it's been cool. We I mean, we

(38:51):
start with catch my current radio single, dark Stage. We start,
we just rip into the first single and it's like
we used to have to kind of wait to tease
those in. Now it's like, no, let's go for it,
you know. And it's I think for everybody, make them wait,
but make don't make them wait at the beginning, and
don't make them wait. Don't don't make them like left
wanting at the end, at least not too much. And

(39:12):
uh and yeah, so it's been great. I hired a
really close friend of mine who's my music director now,
who's really conscious of not only spreading the singles out,
but also like that you know the way the energy
moves in the set and key changes and things that
I don't think about it at all because so you
let your music doctor build a step for you. Yeah. Absolutely,
I mean I mean I have veto power, but he

(39:33):
I mean he knows me so well and for so
many years veto powered. I don't never have to pull it.
I'll just be like, hey, is there anyway this is
all perfect? But it's seventeen songs. Could like, could you
flip these two and still make it work? And sometimes
you can't. Sometimes you can't, but it's always like a
collaborative conversation, which I really appreciate. Let's play a little
bit of catch. This is the single right now, cat

(39:56):
game the same I was watching because we had the
same PR team and I was watching, Um, you want
a Christie your time? I mean Christie but both ye
so Christie me too. Christie had on hers I think
you had like blown your voice and I she posted

(40:17):
it and I was like, oh man, I've been there,
Like that's that's that most helpless feeling and she was like, yeah,
he's bombed, Like yeah, it's it's It's a bumming thing
when what you're paid to do and what everybody couldn't
you can't do it? It was I was broken hearted.
We were um out with Kelsey Ballerini and it was
the second till last weekend, and I had an amazing

(40:38):
sound check and then after sound check, I went and
worked out and like my normal daily routine and uh,
I even sat down an hour before the show with
my music director, who I was just talking about to
like run through We had an idea for a um
A cover medley of a bunch of songs that we
were running through, which we're doing in the show. Now,
Voice felt great. Now we're like forty minutes from showtime.

(41:00):
Voice was feeling great, had a good workout, had a
great day. I went and showered up, got chained, and
I sat down in the front lounge of my bus.
And now we're like maybe twenty minutes from the show
and my wife walks out of the back and asked
me a question. I went to answer it and it
was like this like gravelly um scratchy voice that because
you were just talking and it was yeah, it wasn't.

(41:20):
It wasn't that I have to clear my throat thing.
It was the weird I've never felt. It has to
be allergies. Still, I thought I was so sick. I
was like, what happened? Did I blow out a vocal cord?
Like this is I've never and I was like, you
know what, I've been through this before. I grabbed out
my little like uh my inhaler like the steam and
haler thing like, let me just hit this real quick,
It's gonna be all right. Did the normal like lemon,

(41:42):
honey whiskey, took a quick shot before I went out,
and like I'm gonna be all right. And I went
out to sing and we opened with catch and I
literally couldn't you know what's bad when you can't reach
the key of the verse. I wasn't even in the
chorus yet, and I had to stop the music and
apologize everybody and be like, guys, this happened in this
transpired in twenty minutes. I have no idea but it
and it didn't come back for three days, but it

(42:05):
came all the way back and it's never happened since.
So that night were you it was you were playing second? Right?
So did Kelsey come on early? Did she play actually?
Put they pushed her set up earlier? Yeah, and she
rocked it and I The first thing I did was
go to my booking agency and go, guys, um, I
know that I know. If I know financially we're going

(42:27):
to take the hit here, that's fine. I don't care
about that. UM. We need to find out which fans
are like, you know, raising a stink about this and
let them know straight up their ticket will be honored,
and we need to put together some sort of show
or free show or whatever it is um back in

(42:47):
that city. And uh. And so I think we've got
a couple of days held for that. I mean, it
was just it was just months ago. So that's pretty reason.
It just popped in my head think about because I
was watching that Answer story and I was like, oh man,
I've been that where you don't know what's coming and
it hits you and you have nothing you can do.
I was literally like fighting back tears when I got
back on my bus, because you don't never like, I've
never once taken for granted or it's never been lost

(43:08):
on me that people spend their money and and and
you know, build their whole weekend around these shows, and
it's important to them, and it's it's it's never lost
on me and that's the only time I've ever had
I've never had to cancel the show. Is that but
alone walk off in the middle of a song in
an arena and um, and it just breaks my heart.

(43:30):
Like it will be made up. I hope everybody that
was there is listening right now. We're gonna make that up.
But it sucked. I'm gonna read this, tell me if
this is true or not. UM. When you pitch for
Calvary Chapel Highs baseball team your senior year, you had
uh point nine O, E, R, A and D strikeouts
point nine one and a hundred and thirty three strikeouts

(43:52):
For those that don't know, that's less than one run
of game. Basically, when you went up there were some
game do you give gave up? No runs like that?
Not even one earned run a game. How many endings
you're throwing in high school? A game seven? I was
so I was fifteen and oh that year geez, we
only played twenty nine games and I was fifteen, So

(44:13):
they were strategically trying to play shoot in as many
games as possible. I was starting in the playoffs. I
started both games every week, but I just we we
would beat teams, so bad that I would only pitch
five innings and you can pitch ten a week, even
though you only play seven in high school baseball. So
I'd pitched ten and then we'd pull me. I'm sorry,
I pitched five and then we pulled me. Or I

(44:33):
pitched five and mercy rule mercy. That's it. That's actually
about So are you left handed? Right handed? Right handed? Wow?
You were that dominant as a right handed pick I
was throwing low nineties and I was my height and
weight as a senior in high school. Um, yeah, I
mean I think I think the stat is that it

(44:54):
was a hundred and thirty three strikeouts and one walks, which, yeah,
it was like just under eight. Good god, it was
like one point seven strikeouts an inning or one point
six strikeouts an inning. That's that's an insane ratio. We were,

(45:16):
but I mean, like to be fair, Um, we were.
We were like ridiculously dominant. We were twenty eight and
one that year, small private school with a D fifty
kids I'm sorry, six hundred kids, hundred fifty per grade. Um,
but we were seventeenth in the United States, and six
guys went on to play Division one baseball in Southern California.

(45:37):
They well, in California, they break up state playoffs into
what they call c IF because the state is so
big they have to break it up. So in southern
sections c IF UM we won UM. Over the course
of five games, we outscored our opponents fifty one and
the one run was unearned. Our left fielder dropped a
fly ball. We didn't give up an earned run in
c IF that did you guys win the state championship,

(46:00):
So it doesn't They don't do that in basketball in California.
If you win c i F, you go on to state.
But in base now, so we won c i F,
but there isn't a graduation to state unless unless you're
in Division one, and we were like in Division five,
Double A because it's a small school, so there's no

(46:20):
We went as far as you can go at that.
We won the final game twelve to nothing. So you
go to play ball at All Miss and how are
you feeling going into a freshman year? Excited? I mean, um,
I got a great scholarship. It's in my opinions, I
still think it's the best baseball conference in college baseball. UM.

(46:41):
And uh, you know, by the time we got to
conference play. I was our Saturday starter, which is the
number two starter as a freshman, which is fantastic. Um,
but I had I had a little shoulder trouble. Um.
I won my first two starts. I beat actually my
first conference start with Vandy. I beat Vandy UM in Oxford.
And then the next week we went to Kentucky and

(47:02):
I beat Kentucky. So I'm two and owen conference starting
on Saturdays as a freshman, which is you know, felt
pretty good because we were having a pretty average year.
You know, the win in Kentucky, I was the only
one that got to win our Friday night guy understand
that I both lost, Yeah and uh, and so I'm
feeling pretty good. And then the third week, we had
l s U at our place and I got knocked
around a little bit. It wasn't that bad, but I
think I ended up losing eight to six. Um. And

(47:25):
then the following week I was at Mississippi State. If
anybody's ever seen a baseball game there, they're like grilling
out in the outfield. Yeah, they let him park like
like when Ebagos in the freaking outfield. It's the craziest
cowbell for baseball games, are they? I don't know if
they're doing it in this Yeah they do in the
stadium too, Yes, boy, they do have football games. Yeah,

(47:45):
oh yeah, there and there. It's remarkable because so I'm
the Saturday starter. I got knocked out in the first inning,
like I didn't if I remember right, it went. I
walked the first hitter, the next guy, I hit the
next guy by the pitch, so it's first and second.
The next guy gets a base hit, one run scores,
and it's first and third, and I walked the next

(48:07):
guy to load them. So I've only given up one run,
but I have no outs in the bases loaded, and
they pulled me. And that also all those on runs
of yours too, by the way, they're on the basis, Yeah,
and all of them scored. They ended up getting six
in the first inning. I was charged for four. Ye
so um. When I was warming up for that game,
I was getting heckled like crazy. Mrs Mississippi State fans are.

(48:28):
I mean, that's a big right. And the bullpen they're
like out there grilling and they're like throwing hot dogs
at me and stuff like they're they're pretty they're pretty ruthless.
But and then Sunday the next day because I didn't
throw very many pitches, they put me out, like, got
me loose in the bullpen. We were losing again on Sunday,
and they all love me now because they like I
gave up all those runs. So I go out there
to warm up. They don't know that I'm going, They

(48:48):
just see me walk out there. And I went from
the day before they're throwing hot dogs at me to
this day they've got like freshly barbecued ribs that they're
handing me to eat. It was the most interesting experience.
But um so I won my first two conference starts,
and then I lost the next two, and I I
got two relief appearances for in the next two months,
I barely pitched again. It was like they gave up
on me. Was it like the team or where was

(49:09):
your shoulder bothering you? My shoulder was bothering me, and
I was disagreeing with my pitching coach, a lock. I
think my shoulder was bothering me because he's you know,
I've pitched the same way for years and years and years,
and he was trying to change mechanics and it was uncomfortable.
And this is not a blame game. Um, I just
think that the combination of everything that was going on
was a bad combo. And uh, you know, I bounced
after that year. I just missed California anyway, as aout

(49:30):
eighteen years old. I grew up at the beach now
in Oxford, Mississippi. And it's the It's the one thing.
And if you if you follow what I do now,
you see how much I talk about Oxford and how
much I talk about All Miss. It's my one regret.
I went to five schools counting Ole Miss. It's the
one place I wish I would have stayed. I don't.
I think regret is like a worthless emotion. I don't
like it. Um. I think if you made a decision

(49:52):
own it, you're supposed to be where you are now. Um,
I wish I would have stayed and finished it Ole Miss. Yeah,
I had no idea. So I knew you played ball.
I had no idea that you were that freaking dominant
as a high school player. I mean, that's super elite
level stuff there. Yeah it was. I mean the Twins
and the Devil Rays called my senior year. Um, it's
called like a they call it a pre draft selection. Basically,

(50:14):
there they have this window before the draft where they're
able to call and and get a feel for you
know that the questions are like, hey, if we took
you in the sixth round for X amount of money,
would because they knew I was already signed the letter
of intent to illness, so they know what they're negotiating against. Yeah,
and you know, it just didn't feel I'm throwing low nineties.

(50:34):
I'm fifteen and no point nine one r a hundred
let Orange County and everything that you're in. Orange County
had like Modern Day and Survey and all these huge teams,
and I'm going, no, you're low balling me. Because I
went to a small private school, it doesn't make sense
to take the money. So I did what I thought
was the respectful thing. I told them both not to
waste to pick and they didn't, so I didn't get drafted. Um.

(50:55):
And the word definitely gets around when you say that
to a couple of people, like don't don't waste your money,
don't used to pick um and you know, hindsight, But
like I said, I don't regret that. I think that
was the right decision. The one thing I do kind
of regret is that if I wanted to play baseball
for a couple of years. I should have probably stated
at all, miss, do you ever throw the ball? Now? Yeah?
I got after the elbow surgery, Um, I got pretty healthy.

(51:18):
I was playing in a men's league in Orange County.
I was living in l A and driving down every
Saturday to pitch. Were you a ringer in the men's league? Yeah?
I was. I was running it back up even though
I wasn't working out my arm or like playing long
coss or throwing during the week. I was running it
up to like hi eighties, low nineties, which in a
men's league is a lot. And the last, the last
game I threw, and my elbow was pretty sore. After this,

(51:40):
I end up throwing a like a nine inning complete
game shot out in a men's league. But when you
don't work out and you're not like in that kind
of shape, my arm was like hanging off my side
for like a week. But but yeah, I mean it
was I had just learned a slider before I hurt myself.
It wasn't a pitch I used to have, and it
just became this dominant, untouchable pitch, and so it was
fun to to bring that back to the men's league,

(52:01):
at least for a minute. There's a story out about
the songwriter named Steve Ronson. Don't know if you saw this.
He's taking Lady Gaga out of court over Shallow and
this is a three note progression that he says. It's
only three notes that he says that she took from him. Okay,
so I want to play these for you. Your thoughts
on this. So Ronson has accused Gaga of stealing again
a three note progression from his song almost for the

(52:24):
song Shallow. Now, they're gonna sound similar. But my question
is going to be to you after you hear that
here it is three notes enough to sue over this
vocal melody, music music melody, Right, Okay, I'm gonna play
on for they are going to sound similar, and and
my care we go play me almost from Steve Ronson,

(52:50):
play me Shallow. I think we'll agree that that they do.
So he's over. H'm fully, yes, that's it. We're gonna
agree that they do sound the same. But it's the
only three notes. You didn't. She didn't invent that progression.

(53:11):
That was my point too. If it were seven, can
we even prove she's ever heard that song. I've never
heard that song. No one has only like six thousand
lessons until her played again. Mike, this is okay, and
here's Lady Gaga again. What do you think about this
dude's suing for three notes? Well, I don't like I

(53:39):
don't like lawsuits anyways. Um, even if you have grounds, um,
but don't we have a rule that says is it
seven notes? Seven is the understood rule. So you're gonna
you're gonna cut that more than in a half and
go after it with a song that, um, you know,
just hey, if you're gonna go reuse your melody that

(54:01):
you can prove you own and a song that people
want to listen to, Like, like, that's the dumbest thing.
I just don't like it. I don't like And this
is like gonna go back to like kind of my upbringing,
my religious beliefs. But like, I don't like the lawsuit
thing at all. Like just just if if you come
into a riff with somebody like that that's in your life,

(54:22):
cut them out of your life, but like to take
it to court to blow somebody's life up over it.
I don't like that. I just don't like it. It's not.
It's not. I don't think that's part of our creative calling.
Now they don't know each other, all right, Okay, so
I'm saying, what if, uh, some new artists puts a
song out and there's eleven notes and it sounds like

(54:42):
freaking in case you didn't know, and it's like I
just spought me a boat boy. I'm going fishing, babe.
But you're gonna see him, right, you know what? There
I think there's a So to answer your question, yeah,
there is a limit, and I think there is a thing. Um,
but I still don't lawsuit. Um who was it? Recently?

(55:03):
Was it Jake that just gave songwriting credit Jack and Diane?
So to who? Because because uh, not to John Mellencamp
because he was in on it initially and immediately, Yeah,
he had to give someone else. I think so he
didn't know. But I think that's what we should do.
If if you accidentally step on something, you should go wow,

(55:25):
I totally didn't mean to, but would you take x percent?
And that is happening with some artists. That's how like
why the lawsuit? Hey you kind of grabbed this. Now
if he did that and she was like not sorry,
won't give you five percent? Well, then she can go
to court. But I think like there's there's some sort
of mediation. I think where you can split up the

(55:45):
songwriting or the publishing or however it has to look
to make it way easier than a lawsuit. I just
don't like that. I'm not sure if he approached her
to go, hey, give me nine percent or seven percent,
So I'm not sure. All I know is that it
has gone to court. And I wondered your thoughts on
three knows. I don't think that's enough, and I don't
and that's this like very like I would naturally go

(56:06):
to that escalating progression anyways, if those were the chords,
she followed the chords in this song. So no, that's
literally like what if what if my songwriting buddy played
those three on the piano and I heard it, I went,
that's dope, let's write to that. Would I be stealing
from Mark Ronson? I would say no, because it's only
three notes. It's like chord progressions. There's only so many

(56:27):
chord progressions. There's no new ones. That's it. And so
you're going to and now I'll equate this in my mind,
I write Jokes until Jokes is a comedian. Sometimes I
have like minded thoughts as people because we have like
minds and we're seeing the same things. Same thing with music,
You're not only are the songs some of the ideas similar,
but again, there are only so many ways to to

(56:50):
to play a song. So my question would be, um,
and there's no way to know this, but to him,
do you actually think she heard your song and stole it?
Are you just looking for a pay day? What are
you doing? And that? I don't know, Mike, Let's get
him on, say we get this guy. Let me ask
you this. What is making clean country music mean? Man?

(57:11):
That's kind of been something that I've tried to keep
a part of my brand from the very beginning. I think, Um,
I've always I've you probably heard me say this. Um.
If there's a thirty five year old mom with a
twelve year old daughter and they're both fans of my music,
I don't want anything to occur in on my record,
in my songs or at my live show that makes

(57:33):
that mom uncomfortable bringing her daughter out for a mother
daughter and I at a Brett Young concert. I don't
think that there's anything that we need to say that
requires any sort of PG thirteen plus rating to get
our point across. And and and if we need that,
maybe we should become better songwriters. And again that's not
a knock on songwriters that say the stuff that that's

(57:55):
their brand. They're they're chasing down a different brand, and
I'm fine with that. Um I've just always want to
keep mine accessible to everybody. And I don't see really
see the need to offend or make people uncomfortable in
order to go have fun and listen to the country music.
Is butt hole a bad word? Is it a bad word? No?
It does? Like should I say that on stage? Probably not?

(58:16):
And there's no way you can make this sound good
in the song. A lot of your songs were written
about your girlfriend now wife. Um So, she was on
the Get Real podcast with Caroline Hobby and this is
her talking or if you heard this clip, she talks
about how you and her broke up and you'd been
dated six years already, and now I would like to
play this and get your response to your wife talking

(58:36):
about this. Go ahead. He actually messaged me on Facebook
and said, hey, you know, I know your roommate is Alexa,
and he's like I'd love to get together. And I'm like,
so I went back to my roommate and I'm like, Okay,
tell me about this guy. I know you've mentioned him.
And that was before he was right young. He was
just doing probably like little work demos. Oh yeah, it was.
It was like my Space, like playing my Space music. Face. Yeah.

(58:58):
So apparently so you you guys break up and then
she has to hear you on the radio, she says,
and then you get how do you get back together?
So yeah, we were so that that clip, by the way,
was how we met. Initially, Um I saw her in
pictures with a girl I knew from Newport Beach. They
were like college roommates, and I happened to be living

(59:18):
in Arizona at the time. So I saw this girl
that I knew, and I think she's right. It might
have even been my space. Um I saw and I
was like, WHOA, who is this? Who is her roommate?
And I I was like the O G sliding into
her d M S. That's how we met. But yeah,
we were together for six years and and the sixth
year of that was the first year I lived in Nashville.

(59:39):
And then it just was like the distance, and the
whole thing kind of got in the way. Um, So
we were apart for two years and and and we
were both dating other people and we were not in
contact at all, and my relationship went south and it
felt like the same way me and Taylor like went south.
And I had this like kind of a bout of

(01:00:01):
like insecurity or self realization where I was like, am
I doing this? Because this is blowing up the same
way me and Taylor blew up? Am I the problem?
And so I reached out to Taylor, not to reconnect
that way, just to be like, hey, do you have
a second, because I need to like get introspective here
and look at myself and figure out if I'm gonna
forever like sabotage all my relationships. I need to know

(01:00:23):
if it's me. And that conversation that should have been
a quick like yeah, Brett, you're terrible or or no,
bread it's not you at all turned into like two
hours on the phone, and it turned into I miss you,
and I like it feels like I talked to you
yesterday and it's been two years, and it you know,
it was it was slow because um, out of respect,

(01:00:44):
I had just broken up with somebody and she was
in a relationship, and so we didn't go into like this.
We didn't like start this immediate relationship. Um, we had
some stuff to figure out. But it was this strange
thing of we haven't spoken in two years and hearing
your voice like feels like home. And how when you
launched onto the scene. How how confusing was having the

(01:01:05):
same name as another Brett in country music that's around
the same age, that's both good looking, both tall guys,
both both vocalists. Like, how confusing was that for you?
I mean it wasn't. I don't think that's that confusing.
Brett's not that rare of his name, is it? I mean,
how many? But how many are there that there's You
guys are very similar in if you're looking from ten

(01:01:26):
thousand feet up, good looking guys, great singers. Oh yeah,
we have a lot of similarities. Yeah do you ever
did you ever get called Brett Eldridge accidentally all the time?
All the time? I got? I actually got So you'll
enjoy this. The very first c m A Awards that
I went to, I went to the after party it
winners and losers, and I'm I don't have a single

(01:01:47):
out yet I've just signed my deal and Brett Eldridge
and Chris Young are standing there talking to each other,
and I just think I'm hilarious, and I walk up
to and I'm like, dudes, I'm Brett, so good to
meet you. I had this idea we should all go
on tour together and call it to Brett Young Tour. Like,
to me, I'm Brett Young, you're Brett Elder, You're Chris Young,
the bret to this sounds like a really funny joke.

(01:02:09):
They both looked straight through me like I was, and
I'm buddies with both of them now. I mean this
is five years ago, but um, I got a lot
of Brett Eldridge tags on social media, and I also
got a lot of private messages about people going, what
was it like growing up with your brother Chris? I mean,
me and Chris laugh about that all the time too,
because we're like, you just assumed and went straight to

(01:02:30):
the like not are you brothers straight to the what
was it like growing up together? And you guys that's
a pretty common name too Young. Yeah, I mean it's yeah,
but no, I think, um again, it's flattering even though
people are just making a mistake. It's flattering to be
confused with either of them, because they're two of my
favorite voices in our in our genre. Alright, instead of
a last mill, you offered a last song to listen

(01:02:50):
to before it's all over. You get one song? What's
your song? Man? That's a tough question, you know what.
I sang this at my cousin's grandma's funeral, and I
was so close to her, um growing up. It was

(01:03:11):
almost like another Grandma for me. Um. But if you
got have you ever seen the movie they did on
Mercy me Um, it's called I can only imagine, Yeah,
I can only imagine. I think that's one more time
you're saying that at the wedding, yeah or no at
her yeah? And and and uh that's so. I think
that's the only time I've ever been so choked up
that I was hard to get through. My eyes were

(01:03:33):
seeing when your face. Well, I bet that was tough
to sing out a funeral, sitting next to her. Get
to sing at a funeral, Yeah, but it was for family.
I mean it was an that's tough. I mean fifteen
people there, and I wasn't I'm obviously not going to
say no to the family, all your friends hit you
up to sing at weddings. Yeah, like, hey, I'm getting married,

(01:03:53):
I'm doing this becau when you come sing Yeah yeah.
In case you didn't know, it was kind of put
that on. I played a little bit. Uh, but I
love that. Like, what's cooler than having a song that
people want to attach to the biggest, most important, special
day of their life. I mean, obviously we're busy. We
I can't just go play everybody. I don't want to

(01:04:14):
turn into a wedding singer. But but yeah, I think
that's what I mean. That song every single summer has
spiked again because its wedding season and people are people
are using it again. So um yeah, we get that
request a lot, and I've done it a handful of
times when I've been able to. But um, more than anything,
it's just flattering that it's that song speaks to people

(01:04:35):
so much that it's a part of their wedding day.
Have you made any sink money yet commercials take a song?
You know? That's a good question. I don't. I think
that We've had a handful of offers for it that
have been like pretty small, and we're kind of precious
about that. Song, So I don't. I don't think we've
gone there quite yet. What's the most expensive thing you've
ever held in your hands? You didn't say valuable, So

(01:04:58):
you're talking about money? Yeah, expensive in your in your mind?
What's the most expensive thing you're gonna wrap upon a
few of these questions here? That's actually pretty hard. Um.
I held a hundred and sixty thousand dollar watch one time.
It was my buddy owned it. You have a friend

(01:05:20):
that owns a hundred Yeah. It was like it was
already an expensive wash and then it was custom done
in the whole face was covered in diamonds. I'm beautiful.
I would never feel comfortable walking around wearing it because
I'd be looking over my shoulder the whole time. But
I held it. What is your favorite quote? If you
want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. It's

(01:05:41):
a good one. If your life is a movie, at
what point will the audience gasp most loudly? Ah, you
would have been baseball when I hurt myself up until
life changed so much five years ago. I think when
Taylor came back into my life, that's why I like,
oh gasp, yeah, back like Jim and Pan Finally, I

(01:06:04):
didn't see that happening. Your ideal sleeping conditions cold. Yeah,
me too. I hate to be hot. I'll sleep. How
is she? How's our sleeping? She's luckily, she's always cold
any other situation, but in bed she wants to be
cold in bed at night. So it's like we fight

(01:06:26):
over the A C. During the day in the house,
but then the second we get in bed, we both
wanted cold. So it's good. Sleeping is good. Listen, I'm
glad you came Bay. We've done an hour. We've done
an hour felt like ten minutes. It felt like five minutes.
Thank you very much. Do you remember I think one
of the first times I think we had met, maybe briefly,
but I was doing a show in Boston. Yeah. I

(01:06:47):
came in saying let's get it on. That's right. Yeah.
I was what was the name of that venue with
the Wilber the Wilber Hip, and I was staying at
the w right next door. Yeah, I was on radio tour.
You and Jimmy came over and I was like, dude,
come out, and you came out and crushed it. That
was fun. I was doing half comedy, half music, and yeah,
you came and annihilated it, and you were so much

(01:07:09):
taller and to move my mic up and I was like,
that's awesome, but I hate him, but it's awesome. That
was so fun, man, Yeah, it was. That was so
early in my radio tour that not only Jimmy Hardin
but also Matthew Hargis were both out with me. Like
they didn't send regionals. They came strang home for radio
tour and we Yeah, that was a blast, man. That
was That was That was probably five years ago. It's
a while. Yeah, it's a while. We'll look at you.

(01:07:30):
You got five number ones in a row, got you
six on the way, got a baby coming, You're still tall?
What else do you need? I hope I'm not shrinking yet.
Holy yeah, unless I'm glad you came by. Man. I
was looking forward to this. Always a pleasure. And your
what is your Instagram? You don't have bright, bright young
straight music. That's what I thought. I know it was
something other than just Brett. There's a guy named Randall

(01:07:52):
Young in California that has Brett Young on Instagram. You
tried to buy it, Yeah, I tried. It doesn't respond.
I've tried to buy Bobby Bones too, can't get it.
It does mean use it just occasionally like we have it.
Why does Randall Young have Brett Young? He has the
website to Brett Young dot com. I have bretton music
dot he has the website and the instagram. Randall Young,
whoever you are, you're from my hometown. You don't use

(01:08:16):
it and your name is not Brett. What are you
doing and you've offered him cash for We've gone through
go Daddy to try to reach out to him and
we get no response. What has he used it for?
It doesn't it's not even live. He's just squatting. If
you go look right now, there's multiple Brett Youngs, but
the one that has the straight up it's not a thing.
Looking right now, I know, Well there we go. It's nothing. Huh.

(01:08:40):
If I can get this for you, you'll sing at
my wedding. Okay, I'm not even I don't even have
a girlfriend, so we're a long. I was gonna say,
do I need to match make for you first? Or
you don't have anybody? I'm a lost cause I was too,
But look at me now, yeah, like you're tall though,
you know I'm a lost cause. Okay, when I get
Brett Young dot com for you. That is a deal

(01:09:00):
we have. You will sing at my wedding. You gotta
get me the website and the Instagram. That's all. I'm
not getting out one of them. So it's a easy
deal to make. All right, there we go, Episode one,
Brett Young. Thanks. Okay, Um, Brett left. We were doing
a fact check on things from the podcast. So this
is not part of Brett being here. This is me

(01:09:22):
coming up after I walked right out the door. All right,
Mike dear, what's the fact check? So the thing was
about a con Okay, he actually does own a diamond
mine in South Africa and a lighting company and he
has like a net worth of eighty million. Wow, So
Brett was right the an I had no idea about that.
He had that, like right when he was getting into music,
he bought a diamond mine. I do like the fact
that we were doing a fact check segment into the

(01:09:44):
podcast as well. Yeah, um, okay, anything else likes fact check.
The other thing he mentioned Jake Owen, like paying a
songwriter and that I was Jack. I found nothing on that, okay,
So I don't think maybe he had somebody different in mind,
or you know, something we don't know. It could be
both okay, or we could just I'll be wrong sometimes
when you're just talking with with no you know, we
weren't prepped on that. He ignored me. We're just talking.

(01:10:06):
That's a good thing about the podcast, but also, um,
I'm wrong a lot of times because of that too.
So okay, so we have nothing on that anything else.
That was it? All right? Thank you everybody.