#223 - Michael Hobby: Lead Singer of A Thousand Horses...They’re Back! What It’s Like Being Dropped for 2 Different Record Deals + Being Related To A Famous Rock Star - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm gonna have a Michael Hobby in just one second,
the lead singer of the band A Thousand Horses. They
kind of shot quickly to success with the song here
called Smoke. That's the number one for them. We'll get
to that. And also they have a new song I

(00:20):
called Drinking Song, which is right here, song to keep killing.
So that's the second. His wife's Caroline Hobby, has a
really great podcast called Get Real with Caroline Hobby. You know,
she has the whole thing too where she talks to
the wives of country stars. Just definitely more than that.
That podcast has really turned turned into a great podcast.

(00:43):
Um so um. I've just I know him through her again,
and I know her and him through Amy too, like
I've known Caroline, but I've become i think more friendly
with especially both of them on a different level because
of Amy because over the house and I guess they
live right by each other, so I just kinda be
hanging out. So when they put out new music and

(01:05):
I kind of tell them in a minute that Rod.
You know, my guy in radio was like, have you
heard the new song? And I was like, I haven't
heard it. I was day we should get an I
think I just text you one night. I was like, Okay,
let's get my gobby in all right, so um, yeah,
he's coming in a second. But check out Get Real
with Caroline Hobby. Mike has a podcast called Movie Mike's
Movie Podcast, which I saw you when and saw that

(01:25):
movie Parasite, which is a movie without English. It's no,
it's North Korea, South Korea. Okay, what I like it?
I think you would. It's not scary. It's kind of
like black mirror ish, but okay, I don't care about that.
It's the subtitles, but you don't. You don't After five minutes,
it doesn't even like factor into it. M I thought

(01:47):
it was gonna be it. She's too That's why I
waited so long to see it. But after about five minutes,
I was like, I'm totally into this movie. Will it
win Best Picture? Is that up for Best Picture? Yeah?
I think it's close. One of my friends went and
saw nineteen seventeen the movie loved it, and I guess
it only goes black a couple of times, like fades
to black. Otherwise it looks like one continue shot pretty much. Yeah,
they'll do like little camera motions where he goes like

(02:07):
to the side will go black for like a quick
second and then it goes back into it. It's about
a kid who has to get let me see if
I'm right on this, because you've seen it. It's about
a kid who has to get many miles away during
the war to tell them that they're all about to
be killed. Yeah, to call off an attack. So it's
him and another guy and go travel to tell this
other troup, like, hey, call off this attack. And they
sent him because of the brothers in the troup and
they know he'll do everything possible to get to them. Man,

(02:28):
that sounds good. It is really good. Like I'm still
holding on that once upon a time will win. But
after sing nine seventeen, I like, that's like probably the
critic favorite movie. Mike's Movie Podcast where on this week's episode, which,
by the way, who knows when you'll hear this, but
you're talking about massive A list stars that never won
an Oscar? Yeah, who is who is one that comes

(02:50):
to mind? Brad Pitt never won an Oscar. He's one
as a producer, but never as an actor. So is
he up for any of this year? He's up for
Best Supporting for one. Yeah, So he'll probably finally one
this year. Al Right, check that movie mix movie podcast.
Amy has the four Things podcast where she talks about
four things that faith, family, love, watermelons, I don't know,

(03:11):
it's all different stuff. Check that out The Sore Losers.
The sports podcast is obviously this one. Um. We always
say that another one's coming. I don't know, is it coming?
Are we close to the other one? How close? Pretty close?
All right? I give up saying we have another one again. Um, alright,
So appreciate you guys. I'm on Instagram, Mr Bobby Bones.
And if you like this podcast, heck, even if you don't,

(03:33):
if you have a second, go and rate this thing
with all the stars. Is it five stars or four
five stars? Give up five stars? Write a comment. And
we appreciate that because it moves us up to podcast rankings,
and if we're up higher, more people see it when
they're just looking for something to listen to me when
you're scrolling through the like, oh what's this? Yeah, so
check it out? All right, that's it. We do need
to change. But by the way, hey, where's your Joe Mike.

(03:57):
You guys have done a good job on that new
thing where it's like me and the R like see
your face whatever, it's good. But we need to change
the main Bobby Cast image because when i'm you can
tell me why we can't or I shouldn't. When I'm
scrolling other people have cool pictures. Who knows what the
heck of Bobby Cast is. I just named it that
two and a half years ago because I don't know
to name it. We'll just call it something the Bobby Cast.

(04:18):
It's really not I didn't know what to name it.
What's your thought? Like, I've seen other people kind of
take that now, what like putting their name in cast
after you did it? I don't know. I don't know.
I don't think I invented that, but I have seen
people cloth right, But again I didn't invent that. But yes, people,
I know, yeah that's which is weird, Like yeah, but

(04:41):
again I didn't. I didn't admit that. But we should
change not the name of the podcast obviously, but the
header to be more attractive. Because when I'm scrolling through
looking for like a sports podcast to listen to, I
find a fun picture, I'm like, oh, it looks fun.
I don't know, maybe even a face on it. When
I have put my books out. I never want to
put a picture on the front of the book, and
they're like, no, you need to put a picture in

(05:02):
the front of the book because people feel like they
can see who's riding it, who's voice coming from. If
they don't know, we should do something like that. We
can keep the same dark, straight colors, but we should
do that. All right, here we go. This is Michael
Hobby from A Thousand Horses. By the way, check out
Velvet's Edge with Kelly Henderson, a lifestyle podcast for women. Um, yeah,

(05:23):
there you go. All right, here you go, Michael Hobby.
Welcome to episode to three with Michael Hobby of A
Thousand Horses. And I was looking at I didn't realize
that you guys don't ever spell out that thout due
to the numbers. Do you know the numbers are wrong?
Twenty one Pilots has the thing too, where they don't
put the number. It's spelled t W E N T

(05:44):
Y And you guys are a thousand. No do people
spell it out? And does that annoy you? I mean,
we I got over it, but yeah, everybody writes one
thousand like the numbers and horses and I'm you know,
after a while, you're like, well, I mean whatever, we're
happy to be here. Was that a creative conversation or
me on to where Okay, we're just gonna we're spelling it,
we're not doing numerals. Well, where it came from was,

(06:05):
uh a song title that we had called A Thousand Horses.
That's just how we wrote the song. So when we
came up with it, we didn't have a band name
at the time. We had the terrible band name um,
but it was we had to come up. We were
with signed to a label and Interscope and we had
to come up with this. You know, they're like, we
gotta have a band name in like two weeks, like
no pressure. So you know, we we get out the

(06:28):
white board, everybody writes down a bunch of ridiculous names.
I mean space Wolf name space Wolf. Did you guys
lean in space Wolf's direction? Personally? I like space Wolf,
I like Spacebolf, but also like space hog. And it
makes me feel like that's what and you know what
that was that came up? Electric Buffalo. Okay, here's the question. Yeah,

(06:52):
it sounds like you're going to are your band names
are different exhibits of the zoo? Um? You mentioned that
the first interest up deal. So was that more of
a rock thing? And is that why electric and space
Because if you're a country band, I don't hear a
lot of you know, astronaut type names and country music.
But on then Interscope deal, because when I was over

(07:13):
in pop and hip hop, Interscope is a big big
deal for rock and pop bands. Was that more of
the idea we will be a shot ahead rock band? First? Well, no,
I mean we were always like a southern rock band.
I mean we all come from South Carolina and Georgia
and that was a big influence with us musically and
and with country music. You know, Alan Jackson was my
first concert, so like we were listening to that constantly
in the house. And then you know, my older brother

(07:35):
got into the grunge rock phase, so he was always
doing that and then so I mean we were just
were Yeah, we were a southern rock band, and like,
you know, how they thing came about was they were
looking to put together a group. I don't know if
you remember that back in the day of like an
Eagles type thing, and uh, Interscope was yeah, And and

(07:55):
my name came across as you know, uh to to
meet with him. And then when I met with them,
you know, I told I was like, well, guys, I
got my own band. Where do you go to meet
with them? Will you get an email from like a
guy Desmond Child? It was like to see the guy
that uh set me up. Like my wife Caroline introduced
me to Desmond because she knew him through Victoria. So

(08:17):
do you go to New York to meet with him?
I'm just curious about what building this is in? Like
they came to town, So they came to Nashville. Yeah,
and they said we're them, We'd like to meet with
you and they wanted to. Yeah. Yeah, So I can
give you the whole story if you want to hear,
Like how the whole interscipt our first record do we
ever got? Came about? How old are you? By the way,
when it starts, I was, yeah, um been in town.

(08:39):
I moved to when I was eighteen so five, so
yeah it was um. Anyways, I met Desmond Child through
Victoria's Shaw and I do who that is, by the way,
I would have played cool and that like a Desmond
Child huge songwriter? Okay, yeah, like uh living on a
prayer Manjoe, I mean huge Aerosmith angel like big songwriter. UM,
so I was stoked when I got to meet this guy.
He wrote a bunch of huge hits and uh, I

(09:00):
guess the lady like Katie Perry's, um what was that song?
Woke up waking up in Vegas? Um? So he called.
I went to his house and played him some like
demos that we had and he was like okay, cool.
And he's like, I'll I'll be in touch and I
was like, all right, we'll see you later. So he
kind of took me under his wing and he introduced
me to a guy, Brian House, who had an imprint

(09:22):
with Interscope and he's the guy that like started Hinder
and founded them and reproduced that record and uh and uh.
He called his boss, who was Jeff's oz now who
was the head of A and R at Interscope, and said, Hey,
I got this kid and he's got a band and
I think they're really great. You want to come to
town and see him? And uh He's like sure, So

(09:43):
like next week he flew in. We get an email
from Jeff's assistant to meet him at the Hermitage Hotel.
How nervous do you get the one you get the
email saying someone's gonna come watch your band. They could
make they could they could change your life. I think
showcases are the worst like for artists to do. I
mean the conference room showcase to uh, you know, the
where they set up the tables and everybody comes in

(10:03):
at six o'clock for a show. I've never quite gotten that,
but it's worked for a lot of people, so great.
And Uh, anyway, so we go meet him at the
Hermit's Hotel. We go in his room. He's got four
chairs like set up in front of his bed, and
he hops in his bed and he goes, okay, cool,
play me some songs. And we're we got our acoustic guitars,

(10:25):
and we run through a song in this little hotel
room and he goes, okay, play me another one, and
so on and so forth, and he goes all right.
He's a very methodical guy. He's very quiet, and uh
He's like, can you play electric for me tomorrow? And
we're like yeah, I mean, hell yeah, we can play
whatever you want to do. Books the room at s

(10:46):
ar We go in um and honestly, it's crazy that
the people he brought with him, he brought Dave Cobb
with him, which we didn't know David at the time. Um,
and then an attorney and then another guy. Anyways, we
play on song and he walks up to the stage
and he goes, welcome to Interscope Records, and we thought,
this is the greatest day of our life. We just

(11:07):
signed a major deal. Holy cal you didn't have a
name at this point, well we did. It was called
sterling Y, which is the name that Bill and I
guitar player, came up with back in South Carolina when
we started playing music together when we were teenagers. Um,
and we moved to town together. So anyways, we knew
that name wasn't gonna work because we didn't like it either.
But I was saying name in a band's tough. Um.

(11:31):
But so anyways, two weeks later, we're in l A.
We're playing for Jimmy IV, you know, at his little club.
He's the final say so of anybody that gets signed.
So we go to his little clubs called the Time
Sign Club. It's right across the street from their office
in Santa Monica. We played three songs. Jeff says we're
good to go. We go to the Rainbow Room, like

(11:52):
old school style, and celebrated and then picked Dave to
do our first little six song EP. What's the conversation
though at the celebration, because again it sounds like a
whirl wind. Hey, we'll come to town. They come to town,
you play, then you play one song, and then it's
like you're in. But now let's go get really into
l A. Then you're in. I mean at that point

(12:14):
you've been through about five stages. It's like a callback,
call back and cons and then they go, yeah, you're in,
let's go celebrate. What is that? What are you thinking
at the celebration? What what is your head wrapping around
right then? Well, you know, like everybody's verbally like committed,
but then you gotta negotiate your contract, which you know
they always say, well, you know, hopefully everything works out

(12:35):
with us negotiating, so you know, and that takes they
they'll tell you it takes a month, but it takes six.
I don't care what anybody says. We've done a few
of them now and it's um that. But yeah, we
just celebrating like, hey, we got a team, and like
all these people are around and you know, they make
you feel like you're on top of the world and
you feel great because you're just some kids that land
at a record deal. Now you're in Los Angeles on
sunset and everybody's stoked about your band. I mean, it

(12:59):
was a dream come true for us. I mean I
still look back on it and think about those memories. So, Sterling,
why you're here? Did you guys? What were you gonna
stay in Nashville without the plan? Yeah? Yeah, So when
we picked Dave Cob to do the little EP that
we did, he had a house in Silver leg So
we went to Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Yeah, California. So

(13:21):
we went out there and stayed with him and we
spent three weeks recording in his little basement. You know,
this was before Dave was Dave and he was just
doing records too, and um we uh made the EP
and then went home and then it came out just
digitally like a little release. We were on tour, you know,
in our van. What year was this? This was two

(13:43):
thousand ten, Okay, so streaming really wasn't a super thing. Yeah,
you could download. Yeah, we were talking about we were
like gonna get high MySpace place, you know what I mean.
Uh So, yeah, we're on tour, it's like six months
into touring and we're out just rough, and we've always
been in a van, but this tour was like just
grew to like three months at a time. And uh

(14:05):
we get a call from uh raining and Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
and ever forget We just got off a skinner cruise.
We did the Lenear Skinners simple Man cruise, and we're
about to start back up and we're in a hotel
in Fort Lauderdale, raining like crazy, and our manager calls
us and says, Interscopes, let go of all rock bands

(14:26):
and rock department. They've shut down the vision the label
of d g C. And we're just like, oh man,
how does that conversation get to that point? Does do you?
Did you take the call by the way where the
one I was always a guy that takes call. Do
you remember because there are certain times in my life
where I can vividly remember looking at my phone and
seeing a call and answering and knowing every part of

(14:47):
the call right there. There are three or four times
in my life. Do you remember that call? Yes? Absolutely?
And how does your manager warm you up to that
or does your manager go right to it? Like like
Michael what you just got dropped? Well, it was you
kind of could feel it in the area anyways, you know,
because we'd had conversations before because the label wasn't really
doing anything and we couldn't get really any answers, and
that's always a pretty big red flag. And then we

(15:09):
talked to some other friends that were bands on the
on the roster, and they were getting the same thing.
And then so the call, when I answered it, I
knew it was gonna be you guys are gonna be
okay or we gotta figure something out, and it was
your drops and we gotta figure something out. What do
you do with the tour? Do you keep going? Yeah?
We had to finish. Everything was booked already. Yeah, I mean,

(15:30):
and and what's funny is in our agent quit right
after that, of course Classic and uh and then our
management we parted ways. But we finished the tour and
then we came back home to Nashville and like regrouped.
Were you a thousand horses at this point? Yes, we were. Yeah,
we were already a thousand horses this point. So Sterling
I was dead when we did that deal. And then
thousand Horses was born in Dave's garage. So okay, so

(15:51):
you get you're in you're in Florida, the whole thing disintegrates.
There is no in front of that that the rock
part of Interscope is done. So not just do anyone
else get dropped? A note. You can have big bands
like Marilyn Manson and popa Roach and like some other things,
and like if you weren't really in the pop world,
it was pretty much done because boy band I mean

(16:13):
boy bands, and they've been humongous in pop, like in
my time in pop, they were probably the biggest record
label that would constantly blow acts up like Interscope is massive. Yeah,
I mean they had a bunch of huge I mean
you still have a fuge stuff. But yeah, I guess
who was on was Instinct, Yeah yeah, and then Biscuit

(16:33):
was huge and eminem and so you get dropped. You
go back to nash. How much longer do you have
to tour? And are you just defeated? Like six months?
You had six months because this was in January and
we weren't there. Last date was in like June or July. Okay,
so you're still out, You're grinding trying to figu yourself
out while you're grinding it. Yeah, no tour support, and
we weren't making any money, I mean anything, so we

(16:55):
were you get crafty um. So yeah, we come home.
We didn't really know what we were gonna do. You know,
we had a bunch of songs that we had written,
so we regrouped and you know, all the new material
leaned like where we are now, you know as a
southern rock country band, and you know, we just kind
of started plugging away at that and and you know,

(17:16):
we we signed it with CIA. They came to the table,
and then we met our manager, a new manager at
the time, Scott McGee and Doc McGhee and then uh,
that's when we had Jimmy Harden at Republic or Big
Machine and signed a deal with him. So how long
between you getting dropped and you're signing a new deal?
Um a four years? And then what's the celebration like

(17:37):
the second time you signed? Well, I mean yeah, I
guess you know, it's different. It's always different the second time.
But what was crazy about that is, you know, we
were kind of a band that always bets on ourselves
and in any type of defeat and just you know,
if you don't stop it won't stop. It's kind of
our mentality. So what we did too, we had to
you know, Dave would record us because he moved to

(17:58):
town too, so he'd record us, and we exchange for recording.
We'd clean his studio or we'd help him move gear
and he could use our band trailer and things like that.
So one day we're like, man, we gotta make a
full length record, Like we can't make two or three
songs here and there in this. So we all got
on our phones and called our credit card companies to
try to get a lot of like to put it
on a credit card. Because day was like, pay the musicians,

(18:19):
pay this and don't worry about me, and we'll we'll
just make a ten twelveth song record. Wow, yeah, huge, huge,
And uh couldn't get any credit card. But you're paying
your bill on time though, yeah we didn't. I don't
even that's the question because if you're paying the bill
on time, did you pay your bills on time in
twenty one? I don't know. That's that's the whole thing though,

(18:39):
is is And I know a few people who have
done that, who have said, hey, I'm gonna kind of
bet at all myself the most notable and I don't
know him. I met him. I don't know as Kevin Smith,
who did Clerks and mall Rats and Chasing Amy. So
what his whole story is is that he had no money.
He wanted to make clerks, so he opened a bunch
of credit cards and put the whole thing on credit.
He was like, believe in myself so much. I'm just

(19:01):
gonna finance the whole thing on credit. I bet you
it's a hundred of one. Didn't work out for people,
for sure. You guys couldn't even get credit. Yeah we could.
You never even had the shot there. But so you
do record the music. So yeah, what we did is
actually had a friend of mine who was the head
of Avenue Bank, and he'd become a really good buddy,
and he was always a fan of our band, and
he believes in us. And I don't know if he

(19:22):
likes people doing this but or thinking banks should do this.
But he gave us a line of credit and he's
he said, I'll never give you more than I know
you can't pay me back sweeping my parking lots, and
we're like deal. So he hooked you up. So he
hooked us up How does he write that on paper?
How does he That's what I'm saying. That's why I
don't know. I mean, we talked about it now, but
um and and we did it. And then that led

(19:45):
to our deal, you know, with with Big Machine and
Republic with Jimmy because we took that chance. We we
we got that opportunity before the even record was done.
They heard it, and so we just kind of moved
right into you know that world. What were you doing
for four years to pay the bills? I worked at
Buckle in Cool Springs? Is that because here my experience

(20:08):
of the Buckle not a not a great one. I
apologize for you used to go there a lot. But
here's my thing with the hip thing with the Buckle.
Would go into the Buckle and I need a pair
of jeans, and so I go in and I would say,
I'm a thirty one and I find me a pair
of jeans that I like. And I don't like the
jeans two shaved or I don't like fancy pockets. You know.
So I'm I'm I don't like I don't like to

(20:30):
be the jeans to be the story of who I am.
I'd like the jeans to be there. The rest of
me will define who I am. My jeans are just
they're just they're they're placeholders for the rest of me.
And so I get my jeans and put them on.
I go into the dressing and put them on, and
all of a sudden, there's like seven things coming over
the top of the dressing room door, like this show
look great with those. Here's a bell, here's a T shirt.
What do you think about this? Here's a corset. I'm like,

(20:51):
don't you go the corset? So that so you had
to do that at the buckle? You didn't. I didn't
really like that either, so I would kind of figure
out ways to not be that guy. Did they tell
you to do that? Though someone grab something, you need
to grab things that match exactly. Do you make commission? Yeah?
I would do that too. Then yeah, yeah, I lost
just lost a lot of hate for that because if
it's the commission, I would do that too. Well. Now,
when I go into stores, like, uh, like, if I

(21:13):
see shirts, un fold them up because people would come
in like you do this immaculate table, It's take you
an hour and then people just come in and just
throw your stuff where I'm like, God, come on, let
me grab it armed people awesome and sucky because that's
what I learned and working in service because I had
waited tables or did a marina, I did maintenance on
a golf course. I have all these jobs where people

(21:35):
could really make my day so much easier and better
with just a little bit of um being nice kind
that they could also really piss me off and ruin
my day too by doing things, especially in the restaurant
business especially I worked a hobby lobby and where people
would when people would come in and just knock over
complete racks and displays like you're talking about with shirts,

(21:56):
just you do just like one second to fix it.
And and you're talking about because I want he just
displays now and it'll give me PTSD display PTSD. I
gotta fix it back for them because I know somebody's
struggling with that. So I feel the same way. And
so when I when I see it's funny that you
say that about shirts, because I do that with corner
displays like edge displays. So you're working at Buckle, how

(22:18):
long did you work there? Just like a few years
off and on? And then what's our guitar player? Zach
had a photo booth rental company, so we would go
work for him, like doing photo booth events and like
setting it up, set it up, and like stand there
and he'd you know, he'd pay us to do that
because that was his side hustle. So we all kind
of jumped in on that, and you guys all decided
you were gonna stay together. We did. Yeah, was there

(22:40):
ever a minute where you go, you don't want me
to try to my coobby project? No? I mean I
never wanted to. You know, I've never I've always wanted
to be in a band, and I've never really had
like a big desire to do a solo thing. Even
even when opportunities were presented. It was always like, well,
I want to, I want to. These are my brothers
and we grew up together and we're best friends in
our families, your best friends, and you know, this is

(23:02):
what we do. It's kind of was always my thing.
So you're working at Buckle, You're you're working the photo booth.
You're just hustling so you can hustle harder at something
else later, Because it's a difference on hustling o something
you love. You were hustling to do something you loved. Yes, absolutely,
So you're making them, you're making money to pay the bills,
did you were you guys playing together at all? And

(23:23):
and you know, we play in town like we and
we tour regionally like we'd go out and do these
gigs and people would give us opportunities. And when we
took every opportunity we could get what did anyone ever
see a buckle and gohahs, Oh my god, I saw
you play a show? Uh no, I don't think so.
So it had been cool, that'd have been my day. Yeah. Right,

(23:47):
you're playing a little bit and you cut this record
and who hears it though as you're making it, and
they go, hey, this may be a cool thing for us. Well,
I guess our manager, Scott you know, was was with us.
He just signed on with us, and because he'd heard
some demos and yeah, I didn't even know that he
was playing it four people, you know, so he was.
I guess he was playing golf, he said, and with
with Jimmy Harden and he played it for him on

(24:09):
like the last hole one. Jim he was like, oh,
let me hear it again. And then speaking of showcases,
we get to do the awkward conference for him showcase
for him and his staff, and then we do it
again for for Scott Borchetta A Big Machine, which was
funny because like this showcase, I messed up the first song,
like I didn't. No one knows this, but I sing
the chorus twice and I never went into the verse.

(24:31):
But the band covered me. So the course was the
best part anyways. And uh, and you know Scott's sitting
like right here in front of me, like just as
as nerve racking as it gets, you know, And uh,
I mess up the first song, So I'm like, you know,
did they know you messed up? Okay? So so really
get didn't messed up? Because if they're covering you, and
you don't because I mess up a lot, but you

(24:52):
know that feeling you get, yeah, and you gotta pull
yourself balance balance. Yeah. So luckily we pulled ourselves together
and kept playing songs and that, and you know when
we left there, we weren't sure that wasn't like a
slam dunk. And uh, talk about though for a second,
because I've been in these rooms where you're playing for
someone and they're giving there's like four people watching you,
and you're pouring your heart into something and they're looking

(25:13):
at you like this, there's nodding their head really not.
You know, it's different than to show people are pumped.
They've seen a thousand bands come through. You really can't
read them. They almost don't want you to read them.
I could agree with that. And even if they're loving you,
they may crack a smile or but for the most part,
they never show it. And for you, as a performer,
you're playing towards something that's isn't giving you anything back.

(25:36):
And that's the hardest to do, is to play towards
something that isn't reciprocating anything back. And that's what you
guys do as artists. In these you talk about how
weird it is to go into these rooms and do
these showcases. I mean, I have to imagine that's what
it was like playing in front of Borshadow. Yeah, I
mean it led to great opportunity. But I recommend everybody.
I mean, yeah, if you get the shot. But it's

(25:57):
like comedians who go on Saturday and a lot of
the talk about warming in front of um, Laura Michael's
and he just he doesn't move and even though he
loves him, he's just like, all right, next Yeah, you
get a phone call the next day of good or bad,
and if it's good, and that's it. It's just like okay,
all right, here we go. Let's get to work. But
you play it and then how long until you know
that the deal at Republic Big Machine is actually gonna

(26:18):
work for you? Guys? We got a little word that night,
but the next day, what's the word that night? What's
a little word that night? I mean like he did great,
feels good, We'll be in touch when you left the room,
did feel good? No, I don't think so. I don't
think any of us were like super stokes about you know,
how it went down, and plus I'm in my head
about messing up and anyways, you know. But I was like,

(26:40):
you know, we're all positive and optimistic. It's like, well shit,
I mean we did it. What songs did you play?
Remember man old songs like some landslide that's I think
it's still out Tennessee. Whiskey was a song. We played
a bunch of other songs we didn't end up cutting
and uh, and we played I think they wanted to
would play like tin song Holy crap. I mean it

(27:01):
was a record. Yeah, we played like a whole set.
Like I even thought, I was like, really, did you
stand up or sit down? We're standing up? Yeah, right
at the end of the coward really weird. Yeah, that's
part of it though. It is. So you get the
call the next day, tell me, tell me about the
phone call. Yeah, Like our manager calls and staid we're
doing a deal, and they and we did the deal.

(27:22):
I mean that was pretty much it whenever we call it.
When you going to round two, you've been through it once,
so you're probably not as wide eyed and just like
life has changed, but you're like, we got a shot again, right,
it's gotta be a different a different optimistic feeling than
it was the first time. Yeah, I mean you feel
lucky for sure, and then you're like okay, like you

(27:42):
still swept the small stuff because you're like, well, this
will take a while and they'll get it all worked out.
And you know, do you get money initially when you
signed a deal? Uh? No, we did not. Uh did
you have to keep working your side hustles after you
signed the Dude, I did a pub deal. I gotta
pub deal with Water Chapel before that. So you're being
hay to write. Yeah, so that took That took me
out of the work working force game, which was like

(28:05):
about probably a year before we did that deal. I
got a pub deal. You Did you ever have any cuts? Uh? No,
I mean not no. Do you feel like they signed
you because they knew as an artist you would probably
hit soon and they wanted you as a writer because
of what you were going to write for you as
an artist? Did you feel like there was anything there
with that? You know? I think I think when it
comes to artists and writers in town, the separation is

(28:27):
if your sign as a writer and an artist, you're
viewed as an artist, you know, and and there's a
difference between just being a soul writer, you know, like
a lot of our friends that we have. But so
I think that's you know, people write writers and artists
talked about at all the time, like what's the the difference?
Like why can't I be an artist and a writer
for other people as well? Or you know, why can't

(28:47):
these songs be cut and I'll just cut these from
my project and do this. Um, you know, that's a
that's something that comes up all the time. I had
that conversation, you know, last night with a friend. It's like,
I don't know. I guess My point is if I
thought that you in the next year or two would
be good enough as an artist to get a deal,
I would try to sign you as a writer because

(29:09):
my assumption is you're gonna write songs for you as
an artist, and that's where I'm gonna make my money. Totally,
absolutely so. Do you feel like that someone had faith
in you as an artist a year prior that signed
you to a published deal or they just saw you
as a writer Michael Howe the writer and signed you
to a pub deal. I think they just saw me
as a writer, an artist who writes his own songs,
so level one, Yeah, yeah, cool, that's good. That's someone

(29:30):
investing money in you a year prior to you landing
an artist deal. Because a lot a lot of my
friends were artists. They get a pub deal for a
year and a half, they don't have a record deal,
but whoever signed them just was betting early money that
they would get signed eventually. And then if you're an
artist writer, you're gonna write most of your own stuff,
and that's how you're gonna make your money back, because
those you're gonna get cuts because you're writing your own cuts.

(29:53):
So you go over and you guys are like, wow,
we gotta deal. So what what what? What do you
do as a band? Like, what's what's the first thing
when you get to deal at the second time? What
do you? Well? We went keep writing, so and uh
we kept writing. We you know, book studio. We went
right back in to finish the record and kind of
redo some stuff and it was like September of two
four we did that, and uh, I wrote all the

(30:14):
way up till the day we started the record, and
thank god I did, because the last song I wrote
for the record was Smoke, and it came in in
the eleventh hour. Turn it in first song we cut,
and then first single, and you know, then it all
that that began, which is crazy. Here's a little bit
of smoke from a thousand and we'll get around to

(30:40):
being a number one song in just a second. But
what's interesting is the last song I wrote got on
the record ended up being the single because it's not
just you, guys, has happened to a lot of friends
go but as the last song I wrote. Now, my
theory is this that it's the last song you wrote,
and it's the one you for sure. Remember you're very
passionate about because you just finish to it's so top

(31:01):
of mind, and you've been writing so much and you
know what you're writing for because you're you're building, You're
you're writing for a record. Now, I could be telling
it wrong in this situation, I think. I think there's
a lot of truth to that. And you're like calibrated,
you know of what you're doing, and yeah, the excitement
and what you need and yeah, you're like that focus
is like really strong, especially like up to the you know,

(31:22):
the game. Did you feel like you were trying to
write a radio single when you wrote Smoke? Like did
you walk in the room and go, all right, we
gotta I need a we need a radio song, we
need to hit. I was just in the room, right,
you know. And that's what's funny, Like I wasn't even
like planning on writing anymore because they told me that
the record was done, but I just like to write.
And they had this right lined up and which was

(31:44):
with Ross Copperman and John Knight, which, by the way, massive, huge,
So yeah, like I'm not gonna go into that, yeah massive,
right with guys who are just monster songwriters, producers, so yeah,
all above, those guys are incredible. What's that room? Like?
You walk into the room, and again I'm asking you
to pull deep from the memory tap. You walk into
the room, and how does this concept come up? Okay, yeah,

(32:08):
so the concept came up. I walk in and I
met Ross and John and uh, I was wearing a
BlackBerry smoke hat, the camouflage BlackBerry smoke at I still
have it. Um, And you know, we're sitting there and
like hass around ideas and Ross has got a vibe
going and and uh I think he said he was.
Was he building a track going on about this? Yeah?

(32:29):
You know what he does, That's what he does. He
does his thing, and um, he's like, let's writing a
song about what about the title smoke? You know, he's
looking at my hat and I was like, okay, that
could be cool. And like then you start hashing and
it's like, well, what about an addictive relationship? It's toxic
but compared to you know, a cigarette in a way,
and uh, and then it just kind of fell out.

(32:50):
I mean it didn't take us very long at all,
and then we had it. He sent me the demo
at midnight that day. I played it and sent it
to my guys and send it the label and management.
And then the next morning just the phone lit up
and we're like, this is the one, Like this is
the first single. Let's let's go crazy. How it was
the last minute thing? You got the demo in and

(33:11):
time everything. Yeah, I think we started recording September five.
I wrote a September three. Whenever you're nailing something with
Ross and he goes, he gets that's his enthusiasm is
what makes the right which man, Yeah, he's got his thing.
That's that's Ross. So you're right, this right on the
edge of the record. It's gonna become the first single

(33:33):
when you signed a new deal. How much of them
is picking the single? How much of you care that
they picked the single? I mean, I think in any situation,
whatever they felt was the strongest way to lead and whatever,
they're gonna put the reference behind exactly. I mean, that's
their job, not ours, as the way I always look
at it. I mean, you can voice your opinion, but

(33:54):
that was you know, we're just in there and like
this thing's happening fast, and you know they're like, we're
gonna go with this one, and it's getting great. Response.
You know how that that world goes and so we're like, hell, yeah,
that sounds great. What you know, we love all these songs.
So so it goes to radio. And did you feel
like it was going to be a success at first?
It wasn't? On the verge? Was that the biggest So,

(34:16):
which is the biggest thing you can get as a
new artist new song because it's the biggest company playing
your song the most amount of times, and so, holy crap,
there's a lot that's happened quickly. New Deal wrote a
song on the record, it's gonna be the single. Now
you're on the verge. Yeah. And then when a debuted
debut at like seven, which is not normal. No. Yeah,
so we're sitting here going, wait this how this works?

(34:36):
You know, I mean kind of blown away by it?
And then you know that's when it all began. And
you know, you learn a lot in that time period,
and we were just going a million miles a minute
in that process and it Yeah, and then it just
kept climbing and kept going and everything was perfect. What
was kind of the apex of that Smoke run where

(34:57):
the song was killing it, like you do something real cool?
I don't know, if it's a TV show, if it
was a festival, like where did you go? Holy crap,
this thing this song had right now has taken us.
Just do this man, I mean, I guess you know,
getting to do like Kimmel was awesome and and uh,
you know we did The Morning Good Morning America. I think, yeah,

(35:18):
and uh, but like some of those big festivals like
the Tortigos I mean I remember, I mean, uh Root
ninety one festival we did in Vegas like sixteen fifteen
or six sixteen, and that was like I still have
a video of that where these the entire place is
lit up in like the whole crowd at night is

(35:38):
just and that for me was a moment where it
was like wow, I mean, because you know when a
song it went number one and then you're out on
these tours, but when you go back out on another tour,
that's when you start to see the people have really
heard it, and you know, there's moments like that, you know,
Tortugo was one of those moments. And and then being
out on the road with like Al Deane, you know

(35:59):
towards the end of that too, where you started to
see that the arena light up you know, and and
those are things that you know you'll never forget still
to this day, you know, when it happens, so smoke
kills it. We're gonna run through a couple of these
other ones, so that ain't no drunk dial. Here's this
one here, So this one peaks according to my chart
here at three. Yeah. So after you have a number

(36:22):
one and the song goes to twenty three and kind
of peters out, How what what's the conversation like in
between the band members when that happens. I mean, to
be honest with you, that was super stressful, you know,
for where we were at and what we were doing.
And you know, that was a point where things really

(36:44):
started to like get wobbly, you know that quick you know,
as quick as that other one happened, is as quick
as they got wobbly. So it put us in a
very I mean, it was a stressful time, you know,
I mean it was. It was when tension started to
build build between you know, our situation with la Able
in a way, and then you know, we were like
what's going on? You know, like you know, are we

(37:05):
were just frustrated, you know, and like nothing was happened,
but why does this song look like you couldn't have
gone farther? I mean, it got that high in a
very short period of time. So we're like, well, let's
keep pushing, you know. Let's did you feel like you're
feeling was the label stopped before they should have and
you're feeling right? Right or wrong? Was your feeling? As
a band man, you got to keep pushing, you know,

(37:25):
we didn't know any We just we kind of trusted
them that that was the right thing to do, to
be honest with you, and we didn't really know any better.
We thought, well that you know, if they want to
put come off of it, then they'll come off it,
will come with something else, and that's okay. You know,
let's let's just keep keep rocking. But looking back, I
think maybe pushed a little harder, you know, in our end,

(37:48):
but we didn't We didn't really know any better. So
you have a couple other songs, uh, Southern reality, like
a Southern Reality and then preaching to the choir depot
didn't work at least radio wise. Yeah, that that was
That was when we were like talking about timing. That's

(38:10):
when we were like in the position to get out
of this, like situation that we were in. So that
song came out and then we parted ways. How did
that go down? It was just more like, you know,
they wanted us. It just was the relationship wasn't working
any What do they want from you that you didn't
want from you? Well, I think it got it to

(38:32):
the point of trying to change things to a big
degree for us, Like fundamentally they wanted to change something
with you guys. Yeah, like what you know, just you
know what we musically and like recording wise, and like
we started trying different hats on. You know, we got
in that situation where we're trying different things and try
different people and we're cutting you know, an outside song
and we're doing this, which is great. We love that song.

(38:52):
We think it's a great song. Um, and it just
got really like cloudy and like really like heavy, you know,
and it just wasn't the relationship wasn't the right where
it needed to be. So we just both agreed two,
you know, walk away, and they were super great about it.

(39:14):
We were super great about it. We went out and
had drinks after it, you know, and we took our
things and we went home. And then they continue to
do what they do. So it wasn't like a big
you know, fight or argument or anything. It was more like, Okay,
we need to go be a band and you know,
our career is still here and before anything else happens,
like can we go do our thing? And they said,

(39:36):
you know, we just all agreed on that. That's what was.
It really was a blessing and they changed our life,
you know with that was what we did on that
first record. And the difference between not having a record
deal after the first one and the second one is
people now know your music and you can still go
tour and make money. Yeah, you can go and actually sleep.
So even though you're not in a record deal, people
now knew what thousand horses because of the success that
you had. Yeah, so you're able to go out and

(39:58):
play shows and actually maintain a lifestyle. Do they still
when you broke off? How long do they have like
part of your part of your deal, part of your
touring or was it all like it right then done? Yeah?
So yeah we went back back on the road and regroup.
What are we gonna do next? So you know, we

(40:19):
did like we did the first time. We it's got
a while to think about, but we uh had a
bunch of songs, wrote a bunch of songs. Called Dave said, hey,
we want to make a record. Same guy, same freaking guy.
We want to make a record. By the way, he's
much elevated. He's elevated, we're elevated. So we're all in

(40:39):
a way better situation. But you know each other, and
we known each other for ten years, so I mean,
Dave's like family to us. And he calls us his
little hippie brothers. So we called him and he goes, okay, cool, Well,
come play me the music. So we sat playing some music.
He's like all right. So we went to Hooters, and
he loves Hooters, and we had these little Hooters cards

(40:59):
for a minute where you got free Hooters, So we
went there all the time. How did you get a
Hooters card? A friend of a friend, a girl that
a regional that worked for Big Machine had a friend
that like, I don't know, owned Hooters, or like a
gold card. If you just go it says, you know,
you eat for free on us, and you just how
long a year at a time? Holy crap? And did

(41:21):
they cancel it at some point? Did the record label
call and be like, wait, wasn't It wasn't a label thing.
It was just her friend things. So, I mean we
had them for a couple of years and then we
didn't get them. Would you take advantage of that? Would
you go a lit Yeah we would. Yeah, absolutely, I
got here. I had an out back one. That's cool.
I know, it was really cool and and so and
I forget the name of the company. Where there's a company.

(41:44):
Well crop was part of it too, but they all
were owned. Yeah, and they were like, here's a card,
go whenever you want. It was like outback Corrobs, bone
Fish Grill. There were like four of them on this.
I never used it. This is a gold mine, I know,
and I was so I didn't. I was so scared
of being the guy that was looking like he was
going to take free food. I never used it. It's

(42:04):
out of my wallet, bloom big tips right right right.
I know. I just felt like looking back, looking back,
I wish I would have used it a lot. You
had a good varide, I did. We were just we
were stuck in one spot. Yeah that's a good spot though. Yeah,
so you're going to Hooters. He goes to Hooters. What
what's he doing at Hooters to make to decide. Well,

(42:26):
he knew we had these cards, so like we just
got a bunch of wings and uh, he loves you know,
we all love footers, and uh he said, all right, cool,
we're gonna make the record and this is what we're
gonna do. But just gotta schedule it and we'll do it.
But it's just gonna be us and me and you
guys and that hip. We're like great. So gets scheduled.
We lock ourselves in his studio in our c a

(42:46):
for a month or three weeks in September. Another September thing.
Where are you getting the money, by the way, to
make this record? We just yourself. Okay, so you went
on the road, you save money touring for the record? Yeah,
once again, but on ourselves. Same guy at the bank said,
well I'll go in a little heavier this time. Is
good for him? Yeah, well we've already, we've done well
in the first You didn't make him look smart already?

(43:09):
Did you pay that one back all the way immediately immediately?
That was a great One of the greatest things you know,
to pay off isn't to prove someone right? Really like
a wonderful blessing to prove someone right that believes in
you absolutely. For a lot of my life, people were
and I felt this way and you may feel this
way too. For a lot of it, I was trying
to prove the naysayer is wrong a lot of people.

(43:34):
I didn't think I, or you or anyone else would
turn out to you know, we come from places where
a lot of people don't. You know, don't because it's
not because they can, it's because they don't chase their dreams.
When when you're told that your dreams can't come real,
sometimes you got more than me. I shouldn't chase them, um,
And I think that happens a lot in places like
we're from. But whenever people would say now, you can't

(43:55):
do it because of where you came from, for a
lot of my life, I thought I'm just gonna prove
them all wrong. But then there was that point or
it flipped for me and it was I'm going to
prove them all right that bet on me or then
invested in me. I've never actually thought about it like
in flipping it of like the people that really believe
in you and letting them have the glory as well.
And to me it has become one of you know,

(44:17):
my favorite things to do is to go to someone
and say, hey, you believe to me. And I was
able to achieve this because of what you did for
me back. And it's also encouraged me time and time
again to believe in other people because you just are
constant you're chasing the people that helped you. You're like, man,
I'm so grateful that people bet on me, and you
start betting other people because of this. And so when

(44:39):
you mentioned your friend, I'm like, man, how great is
that that you got to go and prove him right? Yeah?
For all the big win you pay him back, and
he's like, I'm gonna give you even more to you
still him right now. So you go into the studio
and how long has taken to record the new record?
And how many songs you got? Songs took a out

(45:00):
three weeks and then we did some overdubs and stuff
after the fact, but uh, you know, and then we
get a phone call from another electra a labeled Dave's
imprint that he has through Warner in Atlantic and and
they they heard it, you know, he obviously Dave sent
it to him and and they called and said, hey,
we we love this, and we wanna we wanna offer

(45:22):
you another deal and what's the third deal? Party like that?
Now this is what this is because we're in this now,
you know that, you know, yeah, what is the At
that point we can figure this out together, man, And
it's like all right, well let's let's just let's eat
and get back to work. Yeah that's pretty much. Yeah,

(45:44):
it's like, great, what's the plan? You know, where everybody's
a little sharper, everybody's a little more knowledgeable of how
you know what, how you think it works? I guess
and uh, you know, and that was it. So now
that's you know, that's where we are now with this
new record, and it's about to you know, come out
here in a little it and it just just to

(46:04):
you know, always to keep going, I think is what
you know. Always tell people to ask, you know, people
ask you, like what's your advice or what you're thinking.
It's like just don't stop and like don't be afraid
to jump and just keep kind of rocking. I mean
you're gonna hit. I mean for us, I mean, hell,
they go from like where we like that's first song
to like dropping back down to like coming back you know,
it's the peaks and valleys, and there are a lot

(46:25):
of them. There's a ton of them. It's funny you
bring that up. I have a whole whole deal that
I talked about because you've had to go through no no, no, yes, no, no, no, no, no, yes.
You know, it's a lot of nose to get to
that one. Yes. And if you find that thing that
you love so much, it could be music, it could
be horses, it could be it's gonna be hugs. I

(46:47):
don't need. If you find that thing that you love
so much and someone telling you know doesn't keep you
from loving it. That's what you're supposed to do. And
as soon as someone telling you know it makes you go,
well maybe it shouldn't be that's not your thing anymore.
Like you guys are being told no, not for us,
or yes and then no again a lot, and it
sounds like you guys were never like, all right, well

(47:07):
maybe this isn't for us. It's not like you guys
were always like, we may have to go work at
the buckle for a little bit, or do you know,
picture boots. We'll figure something out. But you know, it's
it's that if people telling you know does not disenfranchise
you at all. That's what you're supposed to be doing.
I agree with that, Like that is it because that

(47:28):
someone saying not for you, we're not gonna and you're like,
it's good. Maybe it's not for you, but I'm going
to keep going. That's how you know, that's what you're
supposed to be doing. And that's what's so cool about
I'd tell you. What's cool is to me about you
guys is that you're still a freaking band that you
stayed together through through some ups but a lot of downs.
That's I mean, that's great. I mean, that's my favorite

(47:50):
part of this whole story, frankly, is that you guys
are still together because who knows what's gonna happen. You
may have tend number one, you may may get another
deal in three years. Imagine that party. That party we're
gonna do that. I a nap, Like all right, I'm
gonna take a nap, celebration, nap. We'll be back. Come
on here, we'll talk about the chapter here is. Here's
the new single drinking song from Thousand Horses. Everybody was

(48:10):
a drinking song to keep you going long into tree
too strong. The glass raised every time it comes, hoverybody
in the body, crawl, getting singing, even nib doors all wrong,

(48:31):
every song my my, I mean, I guess it's my boss.
I guess what kind of appears. But he's the head
of country for I Heart Radios and Rod Phillips. Rod
came to me and he goes, hey, this is a
month ago, so you are that thousand Horses news and
we didn't. He doesn't bring up music to me, and

(48:52):
I don't bring up music to him unless it's kind
of a And we don't even talk about the big
the songs that are already hits, because those are the ones,
you know, the al Dean's and the Luke they're gonna
flya off the chart anyway. Um, we don't get a
lot of time to spend together. But it's one of
my dearest friends, and we worked together. And he comes
up and he goes, hey, you hear that new thousand
Mors song and drinking song. I don't even if it
was out yet, and and I hadn't, and he was like,

(49:15):
that's a good one. He never said he almost almost
never says that that's great, and rarely, yeah, it rarely
does he bring songs to my attention. So he said
it was like it's real good. So here we are
the songs out now, Like what's happening with it? Like,
what's the hasn't he been playing it? Yeah? No not Yeah,
we're there gearing up for that whole plan. So it's

(49:36):
not as of right now, that's not happening yet. It's
gonna happen. It's coming. Are you doing the whole You're
going to stations and stuff, you know, I don't. I
don't know what they have planned for all that they're
they're doing that whole brutal I let them where you know,
let's you know the people that do that. But I mean, well,
it's it's coming very soon. I mean, you know it's
out now, and then radio is right right behind it.

(49:58):
Your voice is pretty distinct and very raspy and strong.
You have a very really strong singing voice. If you
get sick, what the heck happens? Oh man? You just
hope that doesn't happen. Have you ever had to cancel
let show because you had no voice? No? Wow? Is
that right? No? I did one time, thought it was

(50:18):
going to have to and then I got a shot. Yeah,
and who Yeah, does that work? Tell me about it.
They have been a couple of times, and I'm like,
I can't go on stage and do standard. I feel
like you go and then you feel like garbage the
next after that, you gotta take the next week off. Well,
my thing is, I'll book two or three shows and three,
you know, consecutive nights, and so I'll get this shot,

(50:41):
and I'll get an I V and a shot, and
I get if they can put it in any hole
in my body, I'll take it. I don't care what
it is. Do you have anything to put in my hole? Medical?
Not medical? Stick in the hole. Let's just see if
it works. And so you get that shot and you're like, oh,
and your your voice starts to come back a little
bit and you're like, I'm top of the world, baby.
And then you take it and you crush and then
you feel like garbage and you're like, I don't know

(51:02):
if I go on the next night. You do it again,
and you do it again vicious, and then it just
wallops you after that, But the show much freaking go on.
Gotta play, got pay, I gotta pay for the lights
of the podcast. I gotta go do this expensive lives people. Um, so, okay,
so you have not you have a whole record that's

(51:22):
gonna come out. Do you have a date on that yet? No,
not yet. So they're pretty excited about it though. Man,
we're so it's been a long time since we put
out a record, you know, since the first one, and
uh yeah, we're just ready to get back get back
at it and do what we love to do. You're
one line insta bio husband to Caroline Hobby, father of
Sonny Yah. Let's let's talk about the baby first. How

(51:44):
much is the baby changed your life? I mean, like unbelievable,
Like how much she's changed my life. It's you thought
you loved something and then like we have her, and
like the amount of love you feel for that child
is like nothing you've ever felt before, at least for me.
And Caroline says the same thing. But you know, like Carolin,
I love each other, we're married, that's all great, but

(52:06):
like with her, just watching her grow and you know
it definitely it drives you and it makes you more
like pay attention to everything that's around you because you're
now you've got a human that you gotta take care
of and send an example for and and try to
raise to be a good human, you know, And I
think that's the that's the thing about me is just

(52:29):
it's it's all fun too, Like I want to have
fun with it and not be so serious. But you know,
keep it. I don't know every parents probably got a
different story. But and when I happened a baby, it's
I'm gonna do bits with it all the time. Yeah,
I'm gonna do like like a puppet. Don't have a baby.
It's gonna be all bits all the time. Yeah, I
mean the puppet thing. Whatever I've spen around my uh

(52:51):
even Caroline have been married for how long? Five years?
How's that going going great? Yeah, it's better be the answer. Yeah,
can you imagine? I mean it's all right. I mean,
I'm glad you have me on here getting things so
much as I's been married for five years. Do you
listen to every Caroline podcast? I not every single podcast.
I do when I go on like walks or runs

(53:12):
like I'll pop you one in like especially like a
friend or something and listen to. I mean, she's got
a very you know, female audience, extremely female. Yeah, I
mean I think it's her. It's like a hundred percent
female unless I'm listening to see what's going on in
you may be you may maybe the one percent that
ticks in from time to time. Um, but yeah, so

(53:33):
a lot of the topics of conversation aren't really a
male thing for me, I guess. But she does an
incredible job. I mean, the people come to the house
and I get to meet all these awesome people that
come in and people that we've known, and she's just
got a gift for that thing. Man, She's really good. Yeah.
And she always says she's like, is this a stamp
on my forehead that says tell me your problems or something.
I'm like, yeah, I mean that's kind of been the

(53:54):
name of the game for a long time. And uh,
she's just done a really great job and being a
part of your you know, your thing with the Heart
and Bobby cast is. She loved it. It's called Get
Real with Caroline Hobby if you want to check it out.
And the thing is, I remember Caroline coming over and
I was like, hey, because I think she thought she
was really good. Thinks she's really good, really talented. She
just hadn't been with the right person to actually show

(54:18):
her what road to walk down and she was like,
I never made any money off this, but I've been
just grinding at it. And I was like, well, welcome
to the world of you know art period. And she
had done that in her band too, That's right. She
was an artist before that and a radio regional done
it before that. I mean, she's she's done it all
and but now she's actually making a little money to
a podcast, which is great because she's so good and

(54:40):
it's just and I can just see it really turning
into something really special for her. Like like, you know,
you gotta pay the bills, but if you find something
you love, you tend to work harder at it and
pursue it with a passion. And when you do pursue
something with a passion and you work hard at it,
that's when you're successful. And that in you know music
are I just really see big things for her and

(55:03):
what she's doing. So I agree with me to you, man,
she if she puts her mind to it and puts
her head down, I mean she I can't wait to
see what she turns all this into because she's such
a special person in that way and and just just
as great at it. Do you let her pick songs? Like,
which one do you like? Play her everything? Yeah, And
it's funny when like she's like, I don't like that,
and I'm like, I don't know any wrong, But sometimes

(55:25):
they're mostly don't me around. I think everybody plays their
their wife, a significant other, um their music to see
what they think. And does she ever go, let's do it,
do it? Let me get on that. No, we haven't.
We haven't done that yet. She always laughs about that.
Maybe one day. You know, she's a great singer. So yeah,
that would be fun. That would be fun. Maybe like
a Christmas song, that would be fun. Christmas. I want

(55:45):
to do a Christmas song, right, because then your band
want to get mad if it's like Michael and Caroline
Hobby the Hobbies Christmas, nobody gets mad at Christmas and
let the band play on. That's the name of what
is it? What does that? The name of the new album?
Possibly the name just doesn't come out. It is not
out yet. No, Yeah, we're just getting a street day.
So it's like a baby that you have named. It's
not out, Yeah, it's not quite there. What's up? What's sunny?

(56:07):
The name of the baby? Like, what's the story of that?
So Sonny Uh, yeah, it was a name that we
just kind of randomly came up with. Her middle names Grayson.
So a lot of people don't know, but I had
a brother that passed away when I was younger from
cancer and his name was Grayson. So I wanted to
honor him with our family and her, you know, for
his name, because he was such an incredible, you know guy,
and you know, his life got cut short unfortunately, but um,

(56:31):
you know that was kind of my like honoring him,
you know, in his life that he had, in his
impact on me. I mean he was he was the
one that encouraged me to do music, and he helped
me buy my first guitar, and he was always there
and uh he was very wise, you know for his
his age, and you know, it's it holds a special
place in my heart. And then to have her carry

(56:52):
his name on as something that we thought would be special.
It's fast forward thirteen years. She's Sunny's fourteen years alto
comes up. She's dad, I want to be a country singer.
Oh boy, I mean, if that's what she wants to do.
You know, what's the first piece of advice you give
your fourteen year old daughter who wants to be a
country singer. Oh man, first piece of advice? What would

(57:15):
I have told myself? Oh? I mean I definitely I
first write your own songs for sure. You know that
would be the what somebody told me that, Um, I
don't know, stay away from stay away from guys. That's
probably gonna be whatever she is. You can't say that anyway.

(57:35):
What's Newberry, South Carolina? Like? Man, it is a little
small town, just a street light town. It's about ten
thousand people I think there now, but just a little town.
Everybody knows everybody. You know. We grew up about fifteen
twenty minutes outside of town on some land that my
parents had, and so we were country kids, you know,
and everybody knew everybody in that town. Still do still talk.

(57:58):
I mean it's a small town. I mean so I'm
pretty sure it's similar to your small town. Well, your
guys are like New York City. We're populate. Yeah yeah, yeah, okay,
so little the same prize. Yeah yeah, well I'm related.
Everybody's difference because I don't just know everybody. Somehow our
twenty three and me all match up somewhere. I did

(58:19):
the thing. It's kind of weird. What was the conversation, Like, um,
you did you and billgo, We're gonna move out there
together just in Nashville. Was that? Yeah? So we, Uh,
Bill and I met in middle school and uh there
was a one local music store and we would go
there every day after school. And he was the only
kid to play guitar too, and I played guitar, so
we'd play every guitar in that place, and uh, we

(58:39):
just kind of formed a friendship and bond over music
and uh and when we were in high school, his
cousin Graham, who's our bass player. You know, he come
to the town every summer and stay with us, and
he played punk rock music, and you know, he had
his nipple piers and he was like the long haired
rebellious guy. So he would come to town and we
would just listen to records and play music together. And

(59:00):
we were kids. And then we got the opportunity to
come to Nashville, um to record with a guy that
my dad had met, and UM, we came here and
uh stayed here for like a few weeks, I think,
and recorded a few songs. I don't know really what
we got done. And this wasn't a good situation. That
we got into, I don't think, but and then we

(59:21):
went back home and came back to do some more
and then we just never left. So I was eighteen
at the time. Bill was seventeen. He was still in
high school. But our principle was really cool because we
were in a small town and they knew that, you know,
that's what we wanted to do from away young age,
because we knew everybody, and so they just supported us,
and our parents supported us, you know, they they were

(59:42):
there for us. And Bill got to do high school
from here over there. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's pretty
cool that an educator actually let education happen in a
non traditional way. Yeah, Principal Floyd, Bill Floyd was his name.
That's that's really great. Look at you guys back again,
and you know what, no speaking of what you said,
like prove everyone, prove those people right. When we finally

(01:00:06):
had success, we went back to our hometown and went
to the high school and he'd be retired at the time,
but he came back and we filmed a thing and
like did a thing and he walked around the school
and we kind of told our story together. And you know,
it's because of him that we were allowed to miss
school days and still get high school deployma. I mean
we had decent grades. I don't know if I had
great grades, but uh, you know it's guys people like

(01:00:28):
that along the way that just do a little thing
that helps you in the in a big way. And
that was one of those moments to that we were
proud to be a part of. Do you have long hair?
Didn't you for a while? Oh yeah you don't. It's
in your hat? Or did you cut it? No, it's
it's cut okay. So it's it's what's that conversation, like
who says, hey, cut your hair? Or do you say it?
Or and and also I always wonder what the barber's thinking,

(01:00:50):
like I'm going to be the one that has to
cut all this hair. Well, I talked to my the
lady that cuts my hair, Debbie. We probably talked for
four years about me cutting my hair before I actually
committed to cutting my hair. And I think one day
I came in there and I was like, you know,
I think maybe I'll do it, and she's like the
like before you know it, She's like, you know, I'm
just sorry to hearing you talk about this. So she
just went at it before that chance to go back.
She just went at it. And I was like, thank

(01:01:11):
you for just making that because I had long hair
my forever, like that was the rebel thing to do
in our little small town. And yeah, she just cut
it and I've never I love it. Are are you related?
Are you the Black Crows related? Are you related? It
was one of them, your cousin, Christian rich Robinson And

(01:01:32):
what is their relation to you? So they're my my
dad's cousin, my second cousin, but my dad and their
dad grew up they were similar to the same age
in Atlanta, and you know that was a yeah, So
they're growing up like they were a big influence on
me because like my cousin, I mean they were. Did
you ever know them? Not till uh my dad let
me meet them in ninety nine nine, when I was

(01:01:55):
like really, I mean I was, you know, I was
like twelve, um when they came to Columbia, South Carolina
to play and he's like, all right, I'll let you.
I'll let you meet your cousins. Now you're old enough
to kind of understand and like you obviously were taking
this music thing very serious, and uh, that's who told
me to write my own songs was Rich. I was like, hey, man,
what's your advice for a guy like me? You know,

(01:02:17):
He's like, well, write your own songs. He's like, don't
learn other people's You'll have time for that, but writing
your own songs is what makes you unique. So I
took that obviously to heart. And uh, and then ever
since then we've been close and even two now, and
you know it, it's kind of a while to have
a you know, that's your family, you know, I don't

(01:02:37):
think of it and the sometimes I'm like, well damn,
I mean, those guys are a badass. But yeah, that
was a big musical influence for me growing up. The
biggest really because they were family, or because of their style.
Their style and like you know, when you're a kid,
you're like, man, these guys were rock stars and that's
what you know, that's what I wanted to be. And uh,

(01:02:58):
and they were cool and like I was a huge
Black Crows fan. Yeah I still am. They're coming to
play the show in a few weeks um here in
nashvill which is pretty cool because I'm die hard and
they were like, what come players shows? So they gonna
come to brother because they're back together, they're coming to show. Awesome,
Yeah okay. And so because i'm red Light Management, they're
red Light Yeah yeah, Mark Yeah. And so they know
I'm a fan, and I was like, dude, I'm on

(01:03:20):
like hundred fifty cities like that. And so they're gonna
come play the show. So I'm super pumped about it.
But I've also sure, whatever you want. I'm a family affair.
But it's it's interesting to hear and know their story
because as big a fan as I am with them,
I also followed their story. And I've listened to the
interviews on Howard Stern and they did not like they
there was a big old right between those two brothers. Yeah,

(01:03:42):
they had some turmoil for sure. Did you talk to
both of them while they were split or any either
one of them or did you have one year were
closer to I did? I mean I talked to Rich Moore,
you know, and his wife and my wife are friends,
and he's got kids and now that we have a kid,
but and there they were more in town than Chris was.
But I see Chris when he came to town and
we go to the show, and you know, he was
always great, But yeah, there was a time they don't

(01:04:04):
even talk. They say this, this is not your saying.
I listened to many interviews they didn't talk like years.
I mean, imagine not talking to your sibling for sick
and I always it say like, man, just it's your brother,
like call but for whatever reason, you know. And then
I guess they finally did their back. I love they're
back because and they're playing they're playing the whole record
from back Yeah, which that to me is one of

(01:04:27):
the albums that, as I look back at what I
really listened to as a kid, that was one of
the records that was most influential to me growing up
in Arkansas being a grunge kid. It was kind of
this weird hybrid. It wasn't eighties metal, it wasn't like
sound Garden, and it wasn't quite grunge, but there was
a little bit of everything. And it wasn't quite country.

(01:04:49):
But if you put you know, she Talks to Angels
out now, you definitely could put it on country radio. Absolutely,
they've said that before, So it's this. It was a
big part of because again they were like southern rock
is they don't like to be called that. Other things, right,
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, what do you call it?

(01:05:09):
Rock and roll band? But it was interesting though because
when they came out that they were this sound and
nobody else was. And I tell a lot of new
artists that are different, for example, like a Cassie Ashton.
I don't know if you know Cassie at all. It's
she's so different, but yeah, but all of it. But
she's so different, and at times it can be a

(01:05:30):
struggle to be very different. But if you're different and
you pop, you now have created them. You're now and
everyone wants to get in your road. Every wants to
get on the road that you've now created. I think
you you saw that with guys like Sam Hunt, who
comes in and you know, half the public was like,
what is this garbage? But the other half was like,
this is the greatest thing ever. But then success happens
and then everybody's using snap tracks, everyone's using all of

(01:05:51):
this thing. Everyone's like talking in their songs, yeah just so,
and everyone is going, well, I don't know if that's
gonna but once itau and Sam created his own lane,
you see that with I would even say you guys
did it for a bit where people were starting to
hop in and be this kind of southern rock thing
and so we're still here with Yeah, and with the
Black Crows, that was that was what happened. They were

(01:06:12):
the first of the sound and other people trying to
emulate them, and it's the emulation is never quite the same.
But I was just a massive fan. I'm so pumped
there coming in, man, that I didn't even think about
you guys being related till I was. I was like,
I knew you related. It's not even my note. I
knew related at somebody and I was like, Oh, they're
coming on the show. Yeah, I'm I haven't announced that
on yet on the radio show, but um, that's a
cool one for me. That's my favorite artist to bring

(01:06:34):
in or those from when I was a kid. Nobody
is really famous and cool to me unless they were
famously cool when I was a kid. That's like the
time to be famous. Well, it's like, also, I don't care.
It's like your favorite football team. It's like and I'm
so jaded because I see what this fame crap is.
There's nothing, it's nothing. Who cares? And like and I've
just had like a little tiny morsel of it like

(01:06:54):
just and it's like you're killing grills, man. But again,
even at the tiniest more in it, it's like everybody's
just putting the drawers on the same way. As my
dad always said, everybody wakes up and puts their pants
on the same way. To either and the person you
think has that most together, Often it's the opposite. Often
it's the opposite unless you were famous. When I was

(01:07:16):
a kid, then you were awesome. Who's like your number one?
Like the guy, like the person whoever you want to
get on the show that you haven't done yet? Well,
I mean I think I've got them. But for me
it was like, obviously Garth was a big deal to me, Um,
who do you? Was a huge part of my childhood.
It was the biggest foot in the Blowfish fans and

(01:07:37):
Darius and are buds and like close and so to
get Darius and then do the hoodie stuff was cool.
But even aside from the show. Once this is one
of my cooler stories that most people don't find it
fun at all. But I'm a massive sports fan and
I was getting on a Southwest Caroland's flight and I
was the last one on the flat right before they
shut the doors, and they're like, I gotta get in,
I gotta get it. So I go on and they
shut the doors and one there's like just one seat left,

(01:07:59):
and it's a middle seat, obviously, and I'm walking back
and trying to find that seat, trying to find that seat,
and in between there was one middle seat and there
are two old men sitting on both sides of the
middle seat. And one of the men was Eddie Sutton
who coached Arkansas Oklahoma State. It was a massive college
basketball coach. And the other one Barry Switzer, who is
Arkansas played Arkansas one national champions Oklahoma Dallas Cowboys. And
the seat was opened in the middle of them and
they were famous to me as a kid, and I

(01:08:20):
sat between them and I was like, oh my god,
why didn't no one else sit here? And Barry Switzer
was the nicest guy. He was. He we talked the
whole time, and I was trying to be very I
was cognizant. I'm not talking too much because sometimes now
I'll get on Southwest and someone will go, oh, I'm
gonna about Bobby, and then they won't stop talking. They
will not and I love it. I don't get me wrong.
I love it, but I want airplane. I get motion sick,

(01:08:42):
and I get tired. I'm tired. I'm just trying to
sit by the window because I want to take a nap. Yeah,
and I put the headphones on, like no, no, no,
I didn't want to be that and he but we
talked the whole time. So for me, that was cool,
like the childhood you know, fame. It's still cool. Otherwise
who cares? Yeah, like I just wrote for my friends
that are that are good to do good things and

(01:09:03):
move on. It's always a few though, like that our garbage. Yeah,
well listen, um, whenever you hear this is gonna go
up soon. So right now, drinking song is out. But
if you're listening to this far away now, the record
may already be out. If you listen to this way
later on and the record it's fine. Don't tell me
the name of it. Don't tell me the name of it,
because I need to remember this too. It is called

(01:09:26):
let the band play on. Why that because you guys
are like back and freaking let us play. Yeah, it's
kind of the same. But at the end of this song,
I ad libbed that, like randomly doing ad libs at
the end of the song, and I said, let the
band play on, Baby, and then I think grahamar bass player.
We're trying to figure on the name for their title,
and he's like, man, you said this in this song.
He's like, why don't you just why don't we just
call it? Let the band play on. That's what we are.

(01:09:46):
We've always forged ahead, and we've always just played. And
at the end of the day, we're just a band,
and we're four dudes. They love to play music together
and that's what we do. So that was the whole
sentiment to the whole album, and that's what we did.
We just went in and played one final note. Zack
in your Band, which, by the way, he has an
interesting name, yeah, which is the same Zack Zack Brown,

(01:10:11):
which is is that weird? He's got the h But
I mean, people did they ever confuse just so he's
he's actually um he calls himself the real Zach Brown,
but he uh. He was in Vegas one time that
had staying at a hotel doing a photo booth event
and out there with his wife and he was like, uh,
checking in and the lady was like, oh, Zack Brown

(01:10:35):
and she goes, sir, you know that we we have
private you know, interest is for people like you. You
know that you can come in and like don't we
we're gonna take care of your room and we're gonna
you know, room service will take care of all that, like,
but thanks for staying at our hotel. And he's like,
they're like, you're a musician, musician, right, and he goes, well, yeah,
I am a musician and she's like okay, great, great, great,
And you know he didn't lie, and then like they

(01:10:55):
just kind of like took care of a lot of
stuff for him, and he was like, man, this whole
is Zach Brown. So he never had to pay. They
just I think he did a little bit, but like
they treated him, but any of it, if he gets
any of it, because that's what he looks, nothing, nothing, nothing.
My point was zac as we were playing a softball game,
he slid hard in a second and like towards what
did he is? That? What it was? He slid hard

(01:11:17):
and then he limped off and I was like, I
was wearing a boot on stage for a while. That
stuck and he was giving it all he had. At
a charity game, the only person I've seen go harder
than Zach with Lauren Lane, who I saw it actually
face first dive into home plate on a play that
didn't matter and I will never forget it. And she
went as harder because she and you can tell you
play ball as a kid. She went face first harden

(01:11:38):
too home and it was like eleven to one, and
I was like, Lauren, there was no need for that.
He could have just walked. Yeah, you could. So we'll listen. Congratulations,
I'm glad, You're glad you're able to come over, and
thanks for having me. I was very excited about this.
Carolina said, hello, absolutely, there we go. Um, so there,
we can check it out. Drinking song that is episode
to three. You can follow Michael on Instagram at icle Hobby,

(01:12:01):
or you can follow a Thousand Forces both the the
the solo and the band. All right, that's it, We'll
see you next time. Everybody. M hm hm hm

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#223 - Michael Hobby: Lead Singer of A Thousand Horses...They’re Back! What It’s Like Being Dropped for 2 Different Record Deals + Being Related To A Famous Rock Star

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Bobby Bones

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