Bobby talks to Brett Young who is currently living in a bus. He is keeping himself quarantined from his family for 2 weeks after flying back from Europe earlier this month. Bobby also talks to Matt Ramsey the lead singer of Old Dominion about them being one of the first bands to cancel tour dates due to the coronavirus. Matt also talks about having to perform with the flu, the band’s 8 no. 1 and no. 1 songs he’s written for other artists.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, welcome to episode two thirty seven. Hey, by the way,
if you missed the talk with Lionel Richie, go back
in episode Pretty cool. Let's just talk to Lionel Richie.
Pretty cool, and I can talk to Line American idolds
his friend, but pretty cool to get the nerd out
and ask him about stuff that you know, you just
don't ask friends real career interview type questions when you're
(00:25):
hanging out. Mostly it's like, hey, how is that lunch.
It's never like, yo, dude, tell me about nineteen seven
to nine. He's like, the one impression. I can do
that because I do spend enough time with Line Richie
where I can. Here you go, my friend, let me
tell you it was nineteen eighty one. The commodores were
blowing up the charts. So it's like the one impression
that I do a better hand than Luke. But go
(00:45):
back an episode if you want. You know, I don't
know what you're doing, probably quarantined in. Maybe listen to
the podcast if you want to check out Amy's it's
called Four Things with Amy Brown. Kelly Henderson has the
Velvet's Edge podcast kind of style and uh, you know
what a life podcast. It's called The Velvet's Edge. And
check out Caroline Hobbies. You know, she has one called
(01:06):
What's Up? Get Real? Get Real? There there it is.
I was watching her Instagram today and her husband was
playing a song. I think he was gonna play do
one of these acoustic songs everybody's doing and uh, he
starts to play and there's a snake under him on
the picnic table. She just freaks out and takes off running.
Pretty funny, but I'll jokes aside. Check out Get Real
(01:27):
with Caroline Hobby, pretty cool where she talks to a
lot of the wives of country stars, interesting, interesting ideas,
talks a lot of really strong women, but wives of
country stars too. This as you know his music podcast.
What's great about this one this episode is that since
everybody's quarantined in, I can basically just go like, yo,
you want to talk and they're like why not. So
we got Matt Ramsey from Old Dominion coming up, who
(01:49):
was going to be in for the first time, but
Corona Scare got us. And then Brett Young who first
time to catch up with him. I did had seen
he was living on his tour bus because his wife
and daughter are in his house. And he didn't want
to get him sick. But he can tell you that
story coming up. So I'm I liked this episode. It's
two artists, Brett Young first, Matt Ramsey from Old Dominion second.
(02:13):
And if you like this and you don't mind, share
this and tell your friends and give us a five
star rating before we go, and let me encourage you
to check out Mike's podcast. If you like movies, movie
Mike's Movie Podcast, see it some growth and numbers over
there may. I love doing it, so people have been
checking it out. I tell you I have a friend
that works for nat GEO. He is one of the
big dogs. There's names Terry. I don't know is he
gonna hear this or not, but he sent me a
(02:36):
note talking about listen to your podcast. Yeah that's crazy, Yeah,
big wig. He's like really I like him because he's
a fine guy to talk to and our sensibilities are
pretty similar. Um. And he's worked with like how I'm
indels right, He's worked with a lot of really cool people. Um.
But now he works on the talent side and nat
GEO and he's basically the guy that was like, hey,
(02:57):
you know, whenever I did Barrick girls. You know it's
him and in Courtney Monroe, the president there that really
vouched for me. But anyway, hit me up people like
I like that movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I didn't even
ask him, what's that's crazy? H Yeah? Yeah, so check
it out movie Mike's Movie Podcast. What's the last episode
he did? So? I have a Quarantine movie playlist, so
a bunch of like franchises you can binge right now.
(03:19):
I recommend them. Okay, movies are tough to binge, but
you have time right now. Morgan Star Wars movies. Watch
all nine Star Wars movies in a weekend. Crazy. Okay,
check it out. Here is today's podcast. Here's the latest episode.
I hope you like it. And if you do, go
check out some old ones. We got a lot of
good ones up here for some of your favorite stars.
(03:39):
All right, bye, yo, dude, what's going on? How you
doing just the same thing to ground day over here?
Like everybody? You know, I saw some of the stuff
we're on your tour bus. Are you out there for
a reason so you don't get your wife in kids sick?
Or what's the story behind that? Yeah? Because we we
we were out and we were at that festival in Europe,
(04:00):
and one of the shows was in Berlin, like right
when the big outbreak hit over there, and so like
when I got home, you know, we came home early
because the travel band hit halfway into our trip. But
I just had been to like Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, and Oslo,
and I've been on like six planes, and I was
just like, you know, if this can take fourteen minutes
or fourteen days for symptence the show, I feel fine now,
(04:22):
but what if I start having symptoms and I'm already
holding my baby and sleeping in bed with my wife,
and I just didn't want to take the root. How
mature of you? Yeah, well I can fake it sometimes. Hey,
what was that like? When you're in Europe and you know,
in the early part of Corona and we're kind of
figuring out that it's a pretty real thing, and you
(04:44):
know some of our institutions are going to be moved
because of it, and you're out of the country. What
happens to you while you're over there? Yeah, I was
pretty scary. The second show was was Berlin, and the
afternoon of the show, like three o'clock, their government came
out and said like no gatherings. I think it was
five hundred at the time or bigger, and I don't
know how because that was at three o'clock. We still
(05:05):
played the show I headlined, I think was like four
thousand people. So I don't really that was kind of
scary because they're saying it's not safe to have that
big of a group and we're just playing our show anyways. Um,
but I think, you know, as it went on, that
was the beginning of of other governments starting to do
you put that restriction on on public gatherings and stuff.
And by the time we were in Offlow, we had
(05:26):
one club show left before we were going to go
to the UK and play the other big three arena shows,
and like an hour before the show, their government came
out and said, uh, like fifty people are less and
we're going, okay, this is this is like we're being
irresponsible by staying over here, and so we actually booked
our flights home like two hours before Trump came out
with the travel band. So it was it was I mean,
(05:47):
I don't think it's I think people over here think
that it's a little bit crazier over in Europe. It
felt kind of the same everybody's anxiety. Um, it's kind
of palpable, just like it is here right now. Um.
But it was just weird to not be home and
know that you were running the risk of maybe getting
stuck over there. Did you ask how much those flights
cost to get back or did you just go get me? Dude,
(06:08):
I know how much they cost. It was. It was
definitely a low blow. Yeah, you don't want to share.
I mean, I know, honestly, I don't wanna. It's it's well,
it's hey. I will say this because we booked ours
two hours before the travel band. We got them before
they went up to like an unreasonable number. I know
(06:29):
some people that waited. Um, I know ours. Ours doubled
from when we bought them to two hours later. And
who makes that call in your group? Was it you going, hey,
we got to go? Uh? It was we had our
finger on that button the whole time. And it was
the club shows I was playing in Stockholm and Aslo
were just me and my music records are just two guitars,
(06:52):
little acoustic clubs and uh so my manager was actually
on that run. There were just four of us and
it was kind of me and my manager, like watching
the news on the regular. But we both looked at
each other when the when the bosload we're at the
venue in the show got canceled and we went we
gotta go. It was like we like, you know, you
make eye contact, attack with somebody and you know you're
on the same page. It was one of those deals.
(07:13):
So yeah, I mean he wouldn't he wouldn't have pulled
that trigger without me. Um, But it was something that
we knew was a possibility the whole time. So you
get off the plane, and since you knew all this
was happening, you didn't hug your wife or kiss your
baby or anything like that. No, So all I did
was I went home. I left all my luggage, my backpack,
my suitcase, uh, everything in the garage because it can
(07:35):
live on surfaces for three days. I undressed in the garage, UM, showered,
through my towels, straight into the laundry, through stuff in
a bag, and drove to the bus. What are you
doing for food? Is it not the stock? You don't have,
like I mean, maybe cheerios from bus stock, But I like, well,
how you eating? Um? We had some stuff. I had
(08:01):
probably two days worth of food. Um, but then I've
been doing instat cart like grocery orders and just having
them leave it outside the bus and then wiping down
every item with wipes, one at a time before I
put it bring it into the bus. I'm assuming you
feel all right healthy, right? Just yeah, you're almost done.
You're almost done with that? Yeah, I feel I don't
have any symptoms. And uh, you know, when I've decided
(08:24):
to do this, they were still saying it takes five
days to show them them, and then on day two
they changed it to fourteen, and I was like, oh no,
so I thought I was five days. Joke was on me,
Are you doing any solo riding while you're on the bus.
I've kind of messed with it a little bit, but
I'm you know, with everything that's going on, and like
there's a ton of business decisions to be made right
(08:46):
now as shows are getting postponed and moved and all
of that. That, Like, I've kind of it's been hard
to put on the creative hat. I definitely have a
guitar in here that I've been like fooling around with,
and it usually ends up just not going anywhere because
I got too many other things on my mind. So, um,
once I get home and I've got a WiFi situation,
I'm gonna start doing like virtual rights and stuff. But
I just I haven't really been I haven't really had
(09:07):
the book to be creative. If you don't have WiFi
or a strong signal, are you able to watch Netflix? Yeah?
So luckily, Um, the streaming things not happening. But our
direct TV package has like all the movie channels. So
I've I've seen every movie in the world. Now, well,
what's good? What do you watch? It was good because
(09:28):
I'm struggling now a little bit. Except for Tiger King
on Netflix. I'm just searching around. Yeah, I've so once
I get home, Tiger King's My wife's already started and
she's digging it. Um. You know, I don't know if
you follow my socials, but one day I literally watched
all of the Rockies in one day. That was great.
What's the best one? Because I have my feelings best
(09:49):
Rocky best one. Yeah, we'll both pick one. Which which
is the best Rocky? It's hard to say, but I
think Rocky four with the Russian of the favorite me too.
I'm I'm okay, let's go to the second best one
and you can put the Creeds in there if you want,
what's the second best Rocky. So, honestly, if if we
can do Creeds, so like all of them, including Rocky
(10:11):
Balboa and Creeds, right yeah, I would go Rocky four,
then the first Creed, then Rocky two. Interesting, I think
I put the first Creed second as well. Rocky two
is good because he wins right like, no, it's not
spoiler alert, folks, if you're on there, this first Rocky
was made in so if you don't watched it by now,
(10:32):
I just suck it up because he loses the first
one to Apollo, right yeah, they they're in the hospital, yeah,
on a on a decision, right yes, and then he
wins again because Apolo isn't satisfied with that, And so
then three is the awful one with whole Kogan and
Mr T. I didn't really like that one that much,
does you? No? No, no, not at all. And I
(10:54):
didn't really care for the one and you may like
this one, but the one where Tommy Morrison comes, I
don't know that I love that one. I liked it,
I don't know that I loved it though. Yeah, Rocky Balboa,
that was fun. What do you think about the one
where he comes back and he's old. What was that
one called? That was? What was that one called? I
think Rocky five was with Tommy Morrison. I think Rocky
Balboa is where he comes back and fights you're you
(11:16):
are correct? You are correct? Yeah, Rocky Balbo is the
one when he comes back and he and they did
the virtual fight and then and then they went to
Vegas and fought him. Uh yeah, it's pushing it at
that point. It was already pushing it with Rocky five,
He's already too old for that to be believable. But
with Rocky Blabbo, I was like, guys, come on, I
(11:37):
was thinking about what was that whole Like, if you
fight again, you could die. But then he passes all
his text tests and gets cleared by the boxing concision.
If you go through the physical, you're not gonna die.
That's the whole point of the physical Like yeah, So,
and I also struggled a bit with this second creed
and that I started rooting a bit for the Russian
Sun because he was not treated well all and he
(12:00):
was only like he was because he was treated like garbage. Yeah,
and you felt bad for him that his mom abandoned
him to Yeah, and so I didn't really know. And
then Creed is all like rich I like Creed One.
By the way, I loved Creed one. I liked Creed too.
How do you fall on those two? Yes? Same one
was better? Yeah. Have you seen the Godfather movies? Because
(12:21):
those are movies I have not got into. I've never
seen them. But just like you watched Rockies, I've been
thinking about hopping into the Godfather. Yeah. Yeah, it's been
years and years. I haven't revisited him. But like like
back in college, Um, yeah, I like them. I I
would put I'd rather watch gar Face than Godfather. I've
never seen that one either. But scar Face is that
(12:41):
a series or just one movie? Um? If they did
more than one, I don't know about it. How it is.
I mean well, I mean I'm not to not to
ruin it for you, but the way the first one ends,
I don't know how they could well, and it's not
ruining if any movies over fifteen years old, you know,
it's his on me to have not seen it. Well,
that's interesting. What else they just they just they fill
(13:03):
them with bullets over a giant pile of cocaine on
his desk in his house. That's how like that's the end?
So well, Mike, should I still watch it? Then? It's
the know the ending? Yeah, Okay, great movie. Okay, okay,
but you definitely should watch it. I think you should
watch it. He's he's it's it's like a it's a
full blown, like gory gangster movie that is hilarious. Al
Pacino is hilarious. So what else are you doing in
(13:26):
the bust chalk about business? Are you trying to figure
out how to reschedule these shows and what you're gonna
do whenever we do come back. Yeah, that's a big
part of it. You know. Our big thing is that
we don't want to cancel anything, so it's all about
trying to move them and and and we also don't
want to make announcements that they're moved or postponed until
we know where we put them. So we're trying to
actually get them on the books for a different date
(13:46):
before we even let anybody know for sure that it's
not happening. So it's tricky because you know, really everybody
that's having to cancel anything or move anything March April
is all trying to squeeze them into November Tocember, so
you have every act in the business trying to find
venues for those last six to eight weeks and so it's, uh,
(14:07):
it's been it's been pretty interesting, but um but yeah,
there's a lot of that, and there's you know, you know,
there's all of us carry like a pretty big load
of rentals, whether it's like buses or semi trucks or
musical equipment and stuff, and trying to figure come to,
you know, some sort of agreement with these companies that
you know, hey, you can add X amount of months
(14:28):
on the end of our contract if you give us
a break right now while nobody's making money and just
try to just try. We're trying to stretch, stretch what
we have out as long as we can so in
case this thing goes longer than we think it will. Um,
because nobody knows that will still be around and be
able to afford to get back on the road. And
no tickets the chapters tour available now, I guess a
good thing is it wasn't supposed to kick off to
(14:49):
April sixt right, and we're not there yet. So if
you don't have to make a decision, why would you
I'm talking about in your place right now. You can
kind of sit for a little bit, right, Yeah, I
mean we so we that's the second half of it.
So unfortunately, uh, you know, there was a there was
a date at the end of March that in Arkansas
that we had to move already. Um, and there were
(15:10):
uh and then and then the second half started on
the sixteenth, and so yeah, like like you said, hopefully,
you know, in a perfect world, May one is what
we're looking at to get back on track. And they're
saying that's the earliest, and that August is the latest.
I'm hoping for the earliest. But you know, even if
they even if Trump kind of changes what we're allowed
to do publicly, I bet you public gathering, it's going
(15:31):
to be the last thing to get cleared. Yeah, it'd
be tough to go. All right, we've just been given
a controversial clearance. Let's everybody get together. That would be tough.
Mm hmm. Yeah. And nobody's got Anybody that doesn't already
have a ticket that's paid for are probably not spending
money after they've been out of work for two months
on concert tickets. That's a good point too. Uh. It's
(15:53):
interesting it's scary. I was looking at this place lest
you put up that's Brett Young Quarantine with a hundred
and twelve song sixty five hours, and it's a lot
of your songs, a lot of your favorite songs that
people submit their songs. I was kind of looking through
the listen of that. But I'm trying to get a
film for you as like what you listen to when
you're alone, Like, who is your favorite artist of all time?
(16:15):
Of all times? Is that right? How cool do you
get to be friends with your favorite favorite? I just
I knew he was a big, a big part of
you know, your music, and you really liked him. I
don't know who's your favorite though. That's cool, Yeah, his
his his songwriting is very unique and interesting to me,
and his voice is my I could listen to Gavitt
(16:36):
thing forever. Um, So that's I mean, it was very
cool that that we crossed paths and got to become
friends and we've worked together a little because that's Ah,
that's definitely like working with one of my idols. So
that's that's definitely top of the list. There's a guy, though,
um that I met a couple of years ago playing
the as Cap stage at Sundance UM in Park City. UM,
and he has a song out right now that that
(16:58):
everybody's loving called if the was Ending with Julia Michaels.
But um, his name is JP Sachs and he has
a new EP out and all the songs on his
EP or on repeat for me right now. So you
know that dude. I mean, yeah, we met, Like I said,
we met doing an ASCAP event a couple of years ago.
But we've been in touch recently about getting together and writing.
He's in town. But there's just something really like honest
(17:20):
and straightforward about his songwriting and he's got a really
cool voice. So I've been kind of mainlining JP s
act lately. Well, let me go back to Gavin for
a second, because I think of the people that I
love and I've been able to work alongside or do
some stuff with them, and you know, it's always an
interesting thing to to to be ap peer to someone
(17:41):
that you admire. When when you meet Gavin for the
first time, do you remember that, Yeah, the first time
I met get well, it's kind of a yes. So
I was at his show. He was on a co
headlining tour with Avril Levine and I was living in
l a and they played the Greek Theater and Uh, Gavin,
(18:02):
I don't know if he still does this, but he
always used to go out and listen to the opener,
just stand in the crowd, and if people approached him,
they approached him. And uh. And that night, Um, she
was on stage and I was with a couple of
my cousins, girls both younger than me, and we saw
him and we went over and introduced ourselves and took
pictures with him and stuff, and Uh, my cousins rove
(18:22):
back to Orange County. I went out to a nightclub
after the show, and me and my buddy, at like
three o'clock in the morning, we're eating at Mels Diner
on Sunset and we were out on the patio, um,
right along the sidewalk on Sunset, and Gavin came walking
down the street and I yelled at him and stopped
him and we had a conversation. I was just about
to go into the studio to record my first EP ever.
This was like two thousand and four, two thousands five maybe,
(18:46):
and Uh he stopped for twenty minutes at three o'clock
in the morning and asked me questions and gave me
advice about, you know, recording the EP and and about
songwriting and the whole thing. And um. Fast forward a
year later and I'm in Hawaii for a YouTube through
I find out Gavin's playing for the Honolulu Marathon at
the Wiki Ki show and uh, same thing. He's standing
(19:08):
out listening to this ukulele player before I walk up
to him and he's like, dude, I remember you, Mels
on Sunset. I couldn't believe that you remember, but he
was like, dude, I was a crack up. He's like,
I hate Hawaii. It's terrible. It's all tourists. What are
you doing later, Let's get a beer. I'm staying. I
forget what he was staying at that the Long Border
or whatever, but we ended up hanging out the rest
of that trip, going to the U two show together
(19:29):
and within Buddies ever steps. I have a good Gavin
to Gross story where we were at the airport and
we were on the same flight flying back from Los Angeles,
and just to show how nice of a guy is,
we're flying back and he's in the seat behind me
and we're talking a little bit, but it's an awkward
thing where you don't really want to turn around and
have the conversation through the hole in the middle of
the seats. But you're like, hey, man, you're good. Yeah,
you're good. And he had just um does some charity work.
(19:51):
We did some charity work together, and we come off
the plane about the same time. So we're talking on
the way out, and Gavin is a super nice guy.
It's funny that you mentioned that you just went up
to him becau in the airport. He'll he stops and
talks to anybody who wants to come up, and it's
just saying hello to anybody and everybody and just a
smile on his face. And we're waiting for our bags baggage,
and I'm taking picture with a few people. He's taking
pictures with a few people, and I'm you know, and
(20:16):
people are like struggling to take pictures, and you know,
if someone's like, hey, can get a picture, and they
give their phone to somebody and they're like, oh crap,
I gotta flip the all the stuff's happening. And he
pulls me aside and he goes, hey, I'm gona give
a little advice on these pictures, because I was just
taking pictures of people, but it was taking me a
lot longer than it was him. And he said, hey,
what you do? Said, just grab their phone and go, hey,
let's get that selfie and just go boom boom and
hand them their phone. That way you can get more
(20:36):
people in the line faster. And also they're not like
I can't flip my phone. You avoid all of that
trouble of them not knowing how to handle their phone.
And so that was my gavin to go advice. So
we both have been served a little bit of of
Gavin's sage wisdom. Yeah, he's a he is the king
of the meet and greed. I gotta give him that.
He's he if there is, he won't leave until everybody
(20:58):
that got their picture is happy. Do you feel like
speaking to meet and greets that you're gonna do yours
different for now on as far as just touching as
much and hugs and pictures and stuff. Yeah, I don't know.
That's that's a great question. We definitely while we were
over in Europe we canceled all the meet and greets. Um,
I don't know, I don't know how that's gonna look.
I mean the tour that I'm on has A has
(21:20):
a V I V meet and Greek package. So I
don't know that canceling it is an option, but um,
it's got it's got to change somehow. It's got to
be like, you know, no shaking hands or or it's
got to be something. It's got to change a little
bit social social distance, meeting greet until we've flattened the curve,
so to speak. Yeah, do you watch the news a
lot or now? Um? Yeah, but lately it's been like
(21:44):
a lot of the same information and it's become it
started to become kind of a downer. So I do
like a I do like a before bed check in
rather than watching it all day long. At this point,
do you ever listen to your own music and you're
the bus, just turn it up and have a have
a breath. And I just wrote it otherwise. I take
a break from my voice as often as possible. Last
time you're in just to kind of catch up. You
(22:05):
hadn't had the baby. You had the baby right afterwards,
Like how what's the difference in life right now? Everything?
Nothing is the same, um, even even being here right now,
Like I bet I would have let my wife decide,
but I bet I like I would have gone home
and if she got it, we like we would have
it together, you know the virus I'm talking about, so
(22:26):
like even down to that. But I think, um, it changes,
you know. I used to I used to be a
really like late night like night owl guy. Um. And
then I would because I could sleep in because shows,
you know, I don't have to be in the sound
check to like two and uh, and it's it's now
it's like, because you have to be up in the
morning with the baby, you're getting tired earlier. And it's
(22:46):
like even on the road. Now I get off stage
and I used to need a little time to like,
you know, let the kind of adrenaline come down, and
it's like half the time. Now I walk off stage,
walk back, changing the like clean clothes, and fall into bed.
So it's I mean, it's definitely I'm definitely adulting nowadays,
which is not something I was used to. I'm looking
(23:06):
at picture your baby here on your Instagram. By the way,
it's Brett Young music. Who do you see in your
baby's face? More you or your wife? I still think
it's more me. Um. But when she was born the
first month, it was my twin. I mean she was
exactly mem I'm starting to see even though she's my coloring,
she's got lighter skin and light eyes and light hair.
(23:28):
I'm starting to see more of like my wife's the
shape of my wife's wife's face. I think she has
like a lot of Taylor's features, but she has all
my coloring, so it's starting to become more of a blend.
But I think if you ask people at this point,
they'd still say more me. How's Taylor doing having to
be the sort of single mom right now? She's she's
doing great. Luckily, her mom was in town visiting when
(23:50):
this whole thing went down, and because her mom's in
that like mid sixties age range, which is like like
high risk, we decided that it wasn't safe for her
to fly, and especially they of like in the Seattle area,
which is like Washington is the worst right now. So, um,
she's it worked out great that she's been able to
have her mom. They're helping while I've been on the bus,
So she's doing good. I'm sure she's excited for me
(24:11):
to come be able to help and and take on
part of the load, but it's been nice to have
grandma there. I give you one more question before we jump,
But it's it's about songwriting. Yeah, that's something new that
happened in your life, which is your baby. Are you
writing songs now with new intentions because there's something new
in your life? Absolutely? You and I've talked about this before. UM,
(24:32):
I never want to. I never want to write, um
in a in a way that would come across pandering,
you know, like I don't want to. I'm not gonna
put out a lullaby's record because I just had a baby,
you know, like that's this is not how it's gonna work.
But at the same time, authenticity UM in songwriting has
always been really important to me. Like, if I'm not
writing about something I've been through or at least associate
(24:55):
with and relate to, then I don't think I can
expect people to like connect with the song. You know,
I'm not connected with it. And so the best way
to do that is to write about your life. And
obviously the biggest thing that's happened in my life lately
is that we had our first child, So it's it's
definitely influencing the rights. There is a song that I've
written for her that we're closing the tour with now
that will be that will come out when my next
(25:15):
project comes out, whenever that is. Um So it's it's
a tricky balance because yeah, it's it's going to affect
and influence my songwriting. But I also want to make
sure that you know, I don't write twelve songs about
my daughter. You know, there's there's people out there still
having their heartbroken that want to hear the quintessential heartbreak
song or the people that are that neat that wedding song,
and so I want to make sure there's a little
(25:36):
bit of something for everyone. But um, she's She's definitely
life has changed forever and it will affect songwriting moving
forward for sure. Well, dude, I'm glad to hear you're
doing well. I'm glad to hear you have no symptoms
and very mature of you to chill on the bus,
and I don't know if I would have been so mature.
It's good to hear from you. Thanks, But it's always
good talking with you, all right. I talked to you soon,
budd Hey, we're rolling already, So anything you say cannon
(26:03):
will be used against you just right out of the gate.
I like it, you know, No need. Hey, you know
what I was talking to Trevor. I saw him a
couple of weeks ago, really before all the Corona stuff,
like a really hit, and I went up to him.
We were at a charity event together, and I was like, hey, dude,
you guess put pulled out of the Country to Country festival.
(26:23):
And I was like, man, kind of you guys are
the first ones to do that, kind of the cutting
edge of pulling out of festivals, Like you guys knew
what was coming. Yeah. Man, we had a little I
don't know, man, and we just you know, we talked
about that for a long time and it was not
an easy thing to do, and we knew we were
gonna catch some flak for it, but just man, I
(26:48):
felt like the right thing, especially you know, when we
started talking about like our crew and stuff, because I
mean partially that was a big part of the decision,
because as those guys don't have any like game for
going over there. You know, it's not like they're not
getting paid more for going over there. They're not, you know,
(27:10):
we're just kind of putting them over there. And at
the time, it seemed like we were putting them in
a little bit of risk of maybe getting stuck or
maybe not getting home as easily as possible. And it's
just there was just so much uncertainty around it that
we just made that decision. I'm glad we made it.
It sucks that we took some people off, but you know,
(27:34):
we just did it, and now we look like we
knew something was coming. But yeah, you'd like to the
nostrodamis a freaking touring bands. Yeah, you know, you bring
up the crew, guys. I was writing an article on
Billboard today and it was talking about coronavirus and the
vulnerability of the gig economy and it's you know, who's
suffering and everybody's suffering, but all those guys, and I
(27:57):
can tell you, Mike's my deal is. I felt like
I needed to pay because I just have a tour manage, right,
I do stand up have a very little crew. You
guys have a ton. But I had probably eight or
nine dates and I was able to pay her because
she was one person. But what a lot of people
don't know is you have a whole team that is
traveling with you. Who is some of them are are
(28:18):
gig paid? Right? Uh? Well most of our yes, some
of them are most of them our on salary at
this point. So right now everybody's good. Oh really, you know, yeah, hopefully,
you know, we're trying to ride this out to the
very last minute. Um Like, right now it looks like
(28:38):
everybody's good, everybody's taking care of nobody's working. But but
right now we don't really have anyone that is scrounging
for a paycheck. So um so that we're fortunate in that,
you know, in that way that we have gotten to
a point where we could you know, pay our employee
and the way we do and keep them keep them
(28:59):
in their homes. Right now, Well, let's rewind a little
bit though, because let's say it's a year and a
half ago, or it's some of these artists that have
like a hit, like they don't really have the resources
to pay someone a salary yet. And you know, it's
a lot of those guys who are the players or
guys that are you know, running monitors who are now going,
what the crap am I supposed to do? Yeah? Man,
(29:21):
that's you know, we weren't. We aren't that far removed
from that. And there are a lot of those guys
out there, and some of them are you know, on
bigger tours to bigger tours, bigger than us, Like, you know,
that's just the it's just the philosophy of how you
want to pay your people. And neither one is wrong.
We just kind of lucked out and this way right now,
that that's how we chose. But yeah, for those guys
(29:44):
and girls that are out there like humping it and
they're getting per show pay, it's got to be really
really scary right now. I saw a video you posted
trying on curling. Yeah, what that was. That wasn't old,
that wasn't a their video. But that was fun. But
what's difficult about that? I'm not saying it's easy because
(30:04):
I have no idea. I've just never done curling. I
see it in the Winter Olympics. Well, so what's tough
about curling? Man? Man? Those guys like if you like,
talk to the guys who are like super into it.
That's the only time we ever did it. Um, there's
there's different releases that you can release that stone and
make it curve and all this stuff. I mean, the
(30:26):
most difficult part is obviously standing on the ice and
not just you. But it was fun. I mean, you know,
it's it's like it's like, you know, the sport you
can drink a lot of beer while you're playing. It's like,
you know, it's like bowling almost, So it's like bowling
and shelf and board. I'm sure like there's people that
(30:46):
are super into it that you know. I don't know.
We all sucked at it, but it was fun to try.
What are you doing at the house all day? Now? Uh? Man,
I've been doing a lot of artwork. Actually, I went
to arts cool, so I haven't had a whole lot
of time in the past decade to do any kind
(31:07):
of like painting or digital art. And that's that I
grew up doing a lot of them, so kind of
kind of dove into doing a lot of that lately.
Would you go with the intentions of doing when you
went to art school? Uh, you know, my degree is
in the illustrations, so but but honestly, man, I just
(31:33):
I couldn't really do anything else. I wanted to go
to either music school or um art school because as
we're two things that I was super passionate about. But
I don't know, I still don't know how to read music.
I don't know how to read music. So I couldn't
really go to music school. I would have been way
behind the curve there. So, um, so art school was
(31:58):
really kind of my only other options. So I was
either going to have to like stay at home with
my parents or and get a job or go to
art school. So art school is it? You're telling me
you have eight number ones and you don't know how
to read music. I don't know how to read. I mean,
I can you know. I mean I could not fight
(32:19):
read a thing. I could not sit down and play
look at it some sheet music and play it. No,
I couldn't do it. If you showed me a note
and said what note is that, it would take me
embarrassingly long to figure it out. I can figure it out,
but uh no, I don't read music. It's all here,
(32:40):
Of all of we'll do the number ones. Of all
the number ones, which one kind of fell out? The
quickest that you wrote, um, save it for any Day
was the quickest one. And it's a funny story about
that one, because so that one was written by me
(33:00):
and UM Brad Percy and UM our friend Andrew Dorff,
who had passed away a couple of years ago. UM
And back then we used to write we had like
a sort of standing thing where we would write at
nine am before our regular rights, so we would right,
(33:21):
our normal right would be scheduled for eleven with whoever,
but we would meet at nine and kind of work
on something that we had already started or you know,
start something knowing that we weren't going to finish it.
But that day we didn't really have anything. So the
nine am right, and I was trying to think of
ideas before I you know, went into the right, and
(33:46):
and I had that idea and save it for any day.
And I sort of was driving into the right and
thinking about it and kind of singing through it. And
so when I got there, I kind of sang through
the idea and they were like, yeah, let's do that.
And we wrote that in like minutes. Um. So when
you say you were singing it on the way in,
are you just singing the melody? Do you have a
lot of the lyrics for the hook? How do What
(34:08):
does that mean when you say that? Well, I had, like,
you know, I definitely had the idea of like the
chorus of like songs to Bright Sky's two Blue, you know,
Beers Too Cold. I had that I had basically the
chorus kind of idea mapped out and the melody, but
I didn't have you know, it wasn't like I was
playing a guitar, but I just heard it in my head.
(34:30):
So when I got there, I just picked up a
guitar and said something like this and and there was
a song that that um was inspiring me a lot
at that point in time that I've actually written a
few songs after that. There's a song called Supplying Demand
amous Lee that I just couldn't stop listening to it.
I just wanted to keep writing songs like that, and
(34:52):
that was sort of my inspiration for that song. So
so yeah, I was just kind of like hearing the
melody and the lyrics in my head, and when I
got there, I spit it out to them and they
were like, yeah, let's do it, and like I said,
four or five minutes, that thing was done. Yeah. I'm
a huge amos amos Lee fan. I saw him at
the Right I know Supply and the Man too. I'm
just a big amos Lee nerd. But I saw Amoss
(35:15):
Lee play at the Rhyman probably six or seven months ago,
and he had lost his voice completely and so he's
up there he's grinding it out, he's sick. He can
only sing the real low parts because the whole high
part of his voice was was was gone that his
cold or his his whatever had eliminated that. And he
had the crowd sing a lot of his songs. And
(35:36):
I just felt bad for him, and I was happy
that he stayed and tried to sing it. But I wonder,
if you're the lead singer, if you if you have
that issue, what is it that you do? Now? Man?
You just do think you do what he did? You
power through? Um, I've done it, you know before. It sucks. Um.
I sang with the flu and stripped through before and
(36:01):
it was not fun. And it was actually it was
a heartbreaking gig because we were playing at the Stone
Pony in New Jersey and it's a you know, that's
a big, like Springsteen like hot spot, and I'm a
huge Springsteen nerd, and you know, that was the first
time we ever got to play there, and I was
so excited, and I ended up having the flu, but
I couldn't sing. But usually I just kind of address it,
(36:25):
you know, I say something to the crowd and say, look,
you know, at this point, thankfully we have fans that
know the words to the songs, and I can say, look,
I'm I'm gonna push through this, but I need you tonight,
and and they all just kind of carry you through.
But it does suck. It gets in your head and
you know, get you down because you want to do
the best you can do. You ever do a steroid
(36:46):
shot right before and get that pop? Oh yeah, I've
I've gotten the steroid shots before. They they they are magical,
but they've got to be terrible for you. Yeah. I
usually crash really hard about a day and a half later,
like hardware. I feel worse than I did to begin with.
But as long as you can get through the show,
like that's what if that's all it feels like it
(37:07):
matters because people paid money for tickets, right right, Yeah,
Like I'm okay being sick by myself because people didn't
lose money if I'm sick by myself, right And if
if I'm playing, you know, they do they come and
you're harder on yourself, then then they are you know that.
I mean, you could probably get through that show and
no one would even notice if you if you said it,
(37:30):
if you didn't say anything. But it's still in your
head and you in your heart, and you want to
do the best that you can, and you know it's
such an important and kind of sacred thing when you
go out there to do that, especially the bigger and
the crowd get and you're like, Okay, this is a
people have been looking forward to this moment, you know,
(37:51):
all year long, So I gotta give it to him.
And it sucks to have to like do it sick,
but they wouldn't notice. Half time. I brought up eight
number ones and that was just Old Dominion, you know,
and you brought up Saving for a Rainy Day, which
ended up being you know, a Chesney song. How many
number ones do you have total? That aren't that are
all in the world? Do you know, uh that that
(38:13):
aren't Old Dominions? Yeah, like Old Dominion plus other artists
I have, Because you got eight with O D right,
So then I've got the one that got away with
Mike Lay, I got Saving for any Day with Um Kenny.
I got to say you do with um dirks Um
(38:38):
make you miss Me with Sam like, crap, that might
be it. I think that that might be it. When
did it? When? When did it start to pop for you?
As a songwriter in town, like where people started to
actually search you out for rights more so than the
other way around. Oh man, Um, like after what was it?
(39:02):
Maybe not a year, but what did you do? Peo?
We'll go, Oh that's good. I'd like to write with
that guy. Yeah, I mean I think it was a
song that that we wrote. Um, Trevor and and I
and Josh Osborne wrote a song called wake Up Loving
You that Craig Morgan ended up recording and that song
(39:25):
changed the game for me in a lot of different ways. Um,
but it opened up so many doors for me like
that that was and for old Dominion. Honestly, that was
like the song. That song got me a publishing deal
when I needed it, you know terribly. Uh that that
(39:46):
song probably opened up more doors than any other song.
You know. That song I remember from that me like
the alarm at the beginning of it with my alarm.
Oh that was from you? Was that from the demo? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
it's funny that song, man, it's crazy like that. The
moment that really, the moment that got me in the
(40:10):
mix was this decision to go to Key West for
the Songwriter Festival. Have you ever been here? No? No,
I usually I have to freaking work at my real job.
I'd like to go. It's fun. But like back in
the day, this is sort of a long story, but
back in the day, I was a stay at home dad.
(40:31):
I was trying to like work and you know, try
to write songs at night and and raise my daughter
and try to like somehow make this happen. And I
was feeling very frustrated because I'm not a very good
like networker and there are people that are really good
(40:54):
at that and that gets them pretty far. And I
wasn't really good at that, but I knew and I was,
you know, writing stuff that was good and if I
could just get out there, but I couldn't because I
had this daughter and you know. So I was like, look,
the whole town goes to key West for for this
songwriter festival. If I could just go down there, then
(41:17):
I could spend like three or four days networking for
this thing. So I had no money. I had a
friend that um whose brother is a pilot, and he
got me a free ticket, and so I was like, Okay,
I don't have a place to stay, but I'm gonna go.
I don't care. I'll find a place to stay. I
(41:39):
got a free ticket down there, so I got my bag.
I landed in Key West. I'm literally walking down the
street with my suitcase and I see a songwriter everybody
in my name is Bruce Wallace, and he was like, dude,
where are you staying. I was like, God, I don't know,
and he was like, ah, you should stay with me.
I have an extra bed. I got two beds, so
(42:01):
I stayed with him. As Cap covered my meals like
I would. I got out of like box of granola
bars that I would eat for breakfast and for lunch,
and then as Cap got my dinner every night. And
then I waited until like three am at this little
bar called the Bottle Cap that was kind of an
(42:23):
open mic thing to get up and play my song.
And I got up and played Wake Up Loving You.
In the whole place went nuts. And actually Brothers Osborne
weren't Brothers Osborne at the time. They were a bank
called Team Billy, and they were the house band. So
I got up there with them and played Wake Up
Loving You and that ended up getting me a publishing
(42:45):
deal and set me up amazing. Let's go back two years.
Tell me about Old Dominion. Two years ago, Where were
you guys two thousand eighteen, Like what what? What? What
was the band thinking? Because that's about the time right
before you guys really hit hard. Yeah, two thousand and eight,
(43:06):
two years ago was when it sounds crazy, but uh,
that's when Naked Sweet happened. Um, that was when we
it was time to make the next album, and uh,
we thought, you know, what are we gonna do. Let's
(43:27):
just usually we we have like a list of songs
that we kind of have to to go in and
record and and I had kind of thrown this little
tantrum one night at the end of the year about
how we didn't have enough time to make an album
(43:48):
and so we needed more more time in our team,
who is wonderful made the time for us. So our
first recording session snuck up on us and we didn't
have any songs. Um in mind, we had songs, but
we didn't have a plan. So since we didn't have
a plan, we had studio time. We decided to go
(44:09):
in and write a song and record it in the
same day and see what happened. So that was when
you make it Sweet happen. And that that sort of
set the tone for the whole thing. I can't believe
it was that long ago. He was what song that
you put out? Did you feel at the quickest? Uh?
(44:32):
What did you feel it the quickest? Meaning like, oh
we got ourselves a hit here. Oh it was one
man band for sure? Really yeah? Because yeah, yeah, that
was like, um immediate, like we went in, we went
on tour. The first show was in Chicago in January,
(44:54):
and that wasn't necessarily going to be the next single yet,
and we played it and people were already singing it
like like louder than some of the hits that we
had already had, and it was just kind of like
a you know, grat track at that point. So it
(45:14):
was such an immediate response to that song. Yeah, that's
my that's my jam. That's my jam too. As soon
as it came out, I remember hitting you up being like,
this is my favorite song of my whole life this week? Yeah, crazy, Yeah,
that was definitely the biggest one. Well listen, man, go
to talk to you. I know we were gonna do
this in studio, but the virus got us and hopefully
it doesn't have either one of us, but we had
(45:37):
to throw it down on the phone. So we'll be
sure to connect up one day in person. But what's
a big fan of what you do? You know, I'm
a massive Old Dominion fanca is. When it comes to albums,
I don't think manchoul put them out anymore unless your
name is Old Dominion. That's the only album that I
care to invest all my time into because you guys
just do hit after freaking hit, and the songs you
don't put on your record, other artists take them and
(45:57):
then they have number one. It's like you're just passing
out chair. He hits. I appreciate him. Well, good to
talk to you, Matt, and we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, man,
stay healthy, I see that. H
Hey, welcome to episode two thirty seven. Hey, by the way,
if you missed the talk with Lionel Richie, go back
in episode Pretty cool. Let's just talk to Lionel Richie.
Pretty cool, and I can talk to Line American idolds
his friend, but pretty cool to get the nerd out
and ask him about stuff that you know, you just
don't ask friends real career interview type questions when you're
(00:25):
hanging out. Mostly it's like, hey, how is that lunch.
It's never like, yo, dude, tell me about nineteen seven
to nine. He's like, the one impression. I can do
that because I do spend enough time with Line Richie
where I can. Here you go, my friend, let me
tell you it was nineteen eighty one. The commodores were
blowing up the charts. So it's like the one impression
that I do a better hand than Luke. But go
(00:45):
back an episode if you want. You know, I don't
know what you're doing, probably quarantined in. Maybe listen to
the podcast if you want to check out Amy's it's
called Four Things with Amy Brown. Kelly Henderson has the
Velvet's Edge podcast kind of style and uh, you know
what a life podcast. It's called The Velvet's Edge. And
check out Caroline Hobbies. You know, she has one called
(01:06):
What's Up? Get Real? Get Real? There there it is.
I was watching her Instagram today and her husband was
playing a song. I think he was gonna play do
one of these acoustic songs everybody's doing and uh, he
starts to play and there's a snake under him on
the picnic table. She just freaks out and takes off running.
Pretty funny, but I'll jokes aside. Check out Get Real
(01:27):
with Caroline Hobby, pretty cool where she talks to a
lot of the wives of country stars, interesting, interesting ideas,
talks a lot of really strong women, but wives of
country stars too. This as you know his music podcast.
What's great about this one this episode is that since
everybody's quarantined in, I can basically just go like, yo,
you want to talk and they're like why not. So
we got Matt Ramsey from Old Dominion coming up, who
(01:49):
was going to be in for the first time, but
Corona Scare got us. And then Brett Young who first
time to catch up with him. I did had seen
he was living on his tour bus because his wife
and daughter are in his house. And he didn't want
to get him sick. But he can tell you that
story coming up. So I'm I liked this episode. It's
two artists, Brett Young first, Matt Ramsey from Old Dominion second.
(02:13):
And if you like this and you don't mind, share
this and tell your friends and give us a five
star rating before we go, and let me encourage you
to check out Mike's podcast. If you like movies, movie
Mike's Movie Podcast, see it some growth and numbers over
there may. I love doing it, so people have been
checking it out. I tell you I have a friend
that works for nat GEO. He is one of the
big dogs. There's names Terry. I don't know is he
gonna hear this or not, but he sent me a
(02:36):
note talking about listen to your podcast. Yeah that's crazy, Yeah,
big wig. He's like really I like him because he's
a fine guy to talk to and our sensibilities are
pretty similar. Um. And he's worked with like how I'm
indels right, He's worked with a lot of really cool people. Um.
But now he works on the talent side and nat
GEO and he's basically the guy that was like, hey,
(02:57):
you know, whenever I did Barrick girls. You know it's
him and in Courtney Monroe, the president there that really
vouched for me. But anyway, hit me up people like
I like that movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I didn't even
ask him, what's that's crazy? H Yeah? Yeah, so check
it out movie Mike's Movie Podcast. What's the last episode
he did? So? I have a Quarantine movie playlist, so
a bunch of like franchises you can binge right now.
(03:19):
I recommend them. Okay, movies are tough to binge, but
you have time right now. Morgan Star Wars movies. Watch
all nine Star Wars movies in a weekend. Crazy. Okay,
check it out. Here is today's podcast. Here's the latest episode.
I hope you like it. And if you do, go
check out some old ones. We got a lot of
good ones up here for some of your favorite stars.
(03:39):
All right, bye, yo, dude, what's going on? How you
doing just the same thing to ground day over here?
Like everybody? You know, I saw some of the stuff
we're on your tour bus. Are you out there for
a reason so you don't get your wife in kids sick?
Or what's the story behind that? Yeah? Because we we
we were out and we were at that festival in Europe,
(04:00):
and one of the shows was in Berlin, like right
when the big outbreak hit over there, and so like
when I got home, you know, we came home early
because the travel band hit halfway into our trip. But
I just had been to like Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, and Oslo,
and I've been on like six planes, and I was
just like, you know, if this can take fourteen minutes
or fourteen days for symptence the show, I feel fine now,
(04:22):
but what if I start having symptoms and I'm already
holding my baby and sleeping in bed with my wife,
and I just didn't want to take the root. How
mature of you? Yeah, well I can fake it sometimes. Hey,
what was that like? When you're in Europe and you know,
in the early part of Corona and we're kind of
figuring out that it's a pretty real thing, and you
(04:44):
know some of our institutions are going to be moved
because of it, and you're out of the country. What
happens to you while you're over there? Yeah, I was
pretty scary. The second show was was Berlin, and the
afternoon of the show, like three o'clock, their government came
out and said like no gatherings. I think it was
five hundred at the time or bigger, and I don't
know how because that was at three o'clock. We still
(05:05):
played the show I headlined, I think was like four
thousand people. So I don't really that was kind of
scary because they're saying it's not safe to have that
big of a group and we're just playing our show anyways. Um,
but I think, you know, as it went on, that
was the beginning of of other governments starting to do
you put that restriction on on public gatherings and stuff.
And by the time we were in Offlow, we had
(05:26):
one club show left before we were going to go
to the UK and play the other big three arena shows,
and like an hour before the show, their government came
out and said, uh, like fifty people are less and
we're going, okay, this is this is like we're being
irresponsible by staying over here, and so we actually booked
our flights home like two hours before Trump came out
with the travel band. So it was it was I mean,
(05:47):
I don't think it's I think people over here think
that it's a little bit crazier over in Europe. It
felt kind of the same everybody's anxiety. Um, it's kind
of palpable, just like it is here right now. Um.
But it was just weird to not be home and
know that you were running the risk of maybe getting
stuck over there. Did you ask how much those flights
cost to get back or did you just go get me? Dude,
(06:08):
I know how much they cost. It was. It was
definitely a low blow. Yeah, you don't want to share.
I mean, I know, honestly, I don't wanna. It's it's well,
it's hey. I will say this because we booked ours
two hours before the travel band. We got them before
they went up to like an unreasonable number. I know
(06:29):
some people that waited. Um, I know ours. Ours doubled
from when we bought them to two hours later. And
who makes that call in your group? Was it you going, hey,
we got to go? Uh? It was we had our
finger on that button the whole time. And it was
the club shows I was playing in Stockholm and Aslo
were just me and my music records are just two guitars,
(06:52):
little acoustic clubs and uh so my manager was actually
on that run. There were just four of us and
it was kind of me and my manager, like watching
the news on the regular. But we both looked at
each other when the when the bosload we're at the
venue in the show got canceled and we went we
gotta go. It was like we like, you know, you
make eye contact, attack with somebody and you know you're
on the same page. It was one of those deals.
(07:13):
So yeah, I mean he wouldn't he wouldn't have pulled
that trigger without me. Um, But it was something that
we knew was a possibility the whole time. So you
get off the plane, and since you knew all this
was happening, you didn't hug your wife or kiss your
baby or anything like that. No, So all I did
was I went home. I left all my luggage, my backpack,
my suitcase, uh, everything in the garage because it can
(07:35):
live on surfaces for three days. I undressed in the garage, UM, showered,
through my towels, straight into the laundry, through stuff in
a bag, and drove to the bus. What are you
doing for food? Is it not the stock? You don't have,
like I mean, maybe cheerios from bus stock, But I like, well,
how you eating? Um? We had some stuff. I had
(08:01):
probably two days worth of food. Um, but then I've
been doing instat cart like grocery orders and just having
them leave it outside the bus and then wiping down
every item with wipes, one at a time before I
put it bring it into the bus. I'm assuming you
feel all right healthy, right? Just yeah, you're almost done.
You're almost done with that? Yeah, I feel I don't
have any symptoms. And uh, you know, when I've decided
(08:24):
to do this, they were still saying it takes five
days to show them them, and then on day two
they changed it to fourteen, and I was like, oh no,
so I thought I was five days. Joke was on me,
Are you doing any solo riding while you're on the bus.
I've kind of messed with it a little bit, but
I'm you know, with everything that's going on, and like
there's a ton of business decisions to be made right
(08:46):
now as shows are getting postponed and moved and all
of that. That, Like, I've kind of it's been hard
to put on the creative hat. I definitely have a
guitar in here that I've been like fooling around with,
and it usually ends up just not going anywhere because
I got too many other things on my mind. So, um,
once I get home and I've got a WiFi situation,
I'm gonna start doing like virtual rights and stuff. But
I just I haven't really been I haven't really had
(09:07):
the book to be creative. If you don't have WiFi
or a strong signal, are you able to watch Netflix? Yeah?
So luckily, Um, the streaming things not happening. But our
direct TV package has like all the movie channels. So
I've I've seen every movie in the world. Now, well,
what's good? What do you watch? It was good because
(09:28):
I'm struggling now a little bit. Except for Tiger King
on Netflix. I'm just searching around. Yeah, I've so once
I get home, Tiger King's My wife's already started and
she's digging it. Um. You know, I don't know if
you follow my socials, but one day I literally watched
all of the Rockies in one day. That was great.
What's the best one? Because I have my feelings best
(09:49):
Rocky best one. Yeah, we'll both pick one. Which which
is the best Rocky? It's hard to say, but I
think Rocky four with the Russian of the favorite me too.
I'm I'm okay, let's go to the second best one
and you can put the Creeds in there if you want,
what's the second best Rocky. So, honestly, if if we
can do Creeds, so like all of them, including Rocky
(10:11):
Balboa and Creeds, right yeah, I would go Rocky four,
then the first Creed, then Rocky two. Interesting, I think
I put the first Creed second as well. Rocky two
is good because he wins right like, no, it's not
spoiler alert, folks, if you're on there, this first Rocky
was made in so if you don't watched it by now,
(10:32):
I just suck it up because he loses the first
one to Apollo, right yeah, they they're in the hospital, yeah,
on a on a decision, right yes, and then he
wins again because Apolo isn't satisfied with that, And so
then three is the awful one with whole Kogan and
Mr T. I didn't really like that one that much,
does you? No? No, no, not at all. And I
(10:54):
didn't really care for the one and you may like
this one, but the one where Tommy Morrison comes, I
don't know that I love that one. I liked it,
I don't know that I loved it though. Yeah, Rocky Balboa,
that was fun. What do you think about the one
where he comes back and he's old. What was that
one called? That was? What was that one called? I
think Rocky five was with Tommy Morrison. I think Rocky
Balboa is where he comes back and fights you're you
(11:16):
are correct? You are correct? Yeah, Rocky Balbo is the
one when he comes back and he and they did
the virtual fight and then and then they went to
Vegas and fought him. Uh yeah, it's pushing it at
that point. It was already pushing it with Rocky five,
He's already too old for that to be believable. But
with Rocky Blabbo, I was like, guys, come on, I
(11:37):
was thinking about what was that whole Like, if you
fight again, you could die. But then he passes all
his text tests and gets cleared by the boxing concision.
If you go through the physical, you're not gonna die.
That's the whole point of the physical Like yeah, So,
and I also struggled a bit with this second creed
and that I started rooting a bit for the Russian
Sun because he was not treated well all and he
(12:00):
was only like he was because he was treated like garbage. Yeah,
and you felt bad for him that his mom abandoned
him to Yeah, and so I didn't really know. And
then Creed is all like rich I like Creed One.
By the way, I loved Creed one. I liked Creed too.
How do you fall on those two? Yes? Same one
was better? Yeah. Have you seen the Godfather movies? Because
(12:21):
those are movies I have not got into. I've never
seen them. But just like you watched Rockies, I've been
thinking about hopping into the Godfather. Yeah. Yeah, it's been
years and years. I haven't revisited him. But like like
back in college, Um, yeah, I like them. I I
would put I'd rather watch gar Face than Godfather. I've
never seen that one either. But scar Face is that
(12:41):
a series or just one movie? Um? If they did
more than one, I don't know about it. How it is.
I mean well, I mean I'm not to not to
ruin it for you, but the way the first one ends,
I don't know how they could well, and it's not
ruining if any movies over fifteen years old, you know,
it's his on me to have not seen it. Well,
that's interesting. What else they just they just they fill
(13:03):
them with bullets over a giant pile of cocaine on
his desk in his house. That's how like that's the end?
So well, Mike, should I still watch it? Then? It's
the know the ending? Yeah, Okay, great movie. Okay, okay,
but you definitely should watch it. I think you should
watch it. He's he's it's it's like a it's a
full blown, like gory gangster movie that is hilarious. Al
Pacino is hilarious. So what else are you doing in
(13:26):
the bust chalk about business? Are you trying to figure
out how to reschedule these shows and what you're gonna
do whenever we do come back. Yeah, that's a big
part of it. You know. Our big thing is that
we don't want to cancel anything, so it's all about
trying to move them and and and we also don't
want to make announcements that they're moved or postponed until
we know where we put them. So we're trying to
actually get them on the books for a different date
(13:46):
before we even let anybody know for sure that it's
not happening. So it's tricky because you know, really everybody
that's having to cancel anything or move anything March April
is all trying to squeeze them into November Tocember, so
you have every act in the business trying to find
venues for those last six to eight weeks and so it's, uh,
(14:07):
it's been it's been pretty interesting, but um but yeah,
there's a lot of that, and there's you know, you know,
there's all of us carry like a pretty big load
of rentals, whether it's like buses or semi trucks or
musical equipment and stuff, and trying to figure come to,
you know, some sort of agreement with these companies that
you know, hey, you can add X amount of months
(14:28):
on the end of our contract if you give us
a break right now while nobody's making money and just
try to just try. We're trying to stretch, stretch what
we have out as long as we can so in
case this thing goes longer than we think it will. Um,
because nobody knows that will still be around and be
able to afford to get back on the road. And
no tickets the chapters tour available now, I guess a
good thing is it wasn't supposed to kick off to
(14:49):
April sixt right, and we're not there yet. So if
you don't have to make a decision, why would you
I'm talking about in your place right now. You can
kind of sit for a little bit, right, Yeah, I
mean we so we that's the second half of it.
So unfortunately, uh, you know, there was a there was
a date at the end of March that in Arkansas
that we had to move already. Um, and there were
(15:10):
uh and then and then the second half started on
the sixteenth, and so yeah, like like you said, hopefully,
you know, in a perfect world, May one is what
we're looking at to get back on track. And they're
saying that's the earliest, and that August is the latest.
I'm hoping for the earliest. But you know, even if
they even if Trump kind of changes what we're allowed
to do publicly, I bet you public gathering, it's going
(15:31):
to be the last thing to get cleared. Yeah, it'd
be tough to go. All right, we've just been given
a controversial clearance. Let's everybody get together. That would be tough.
Mm hmm. Yeah. And nobody's got Anybody that doesn't already
have a ticket that's paid for are probably not spending
money after they've been out of work for two months
on concert tickets. That's a good point too. Uh. It's
(15:53):
interesting it's scary. I was looking at this place lest
you put up that's Brett Young Quarantine with a hundred
and twelve song sixty five hours, and it's a lot
of your songs, a lot of your favorite songs that
people submit their songs. I was kind of looking through
the listen of that. But I'm trying to get a
film for you as like what you listen to when
you're alone, Like, who is your favorite artist of all time?
(16:15):
Of all times? Is that right? How cool do you
get to be friends with your favorite favorite? I just
I knew he was a big, a big part of
you know, your music, and you really liked him. I
don't know who's your favorite though. That's cool, Yeah, his
his his songwriting is very unique and interesting to me,
and his voice is my I could listen to Gavitt
(16:36):
thing forever. Um, So that's I mean, it was very
cool that that we crossed paths and got to become
friends and we've worked together a little because that's Ah,
that's definitely like working with one of my idols. So
that's that's definitely top of the list. There's a guy, though,
um that I met a couple of years ago playing
the as Cap stage at Sundance UM in Park City. UM,
and he has a song out right now that that
(16:58):
everybody's loving called if the was Ending with Julia Michaels.
But um, his name is JP Sachs and he has
a new EP out and all the songs on his
EP or on repeat for me right now. So you
know that dude. I mean, yeah, we met, Like I said,
we met doing an ASCAP event a couple of years ago.
But we've been in touch recently about getting together and writing.
He's in town. But there's just something really like honest
(17:20):
and straightforward about his songwriting and he's got a really
cool voice. So I've been kind of mainlining JP s
act lately. Well, let me go back to Gavin for
a second, because I think of the people that I
love and I've been able to work alongside or do
some stuff with them, and you know, it's always an
interesting thing to to to be ap peer to someone
(17:41):
that you admire. When when you meet Gavin for the
first time, do you remember that, Yeah, the first time
I met get well, it's kind of a yes. So
I was at his show. He was on a co
headlining tour with Avril Levine and I was living in
l a and they played the Greek Theater and Uh, Gavin,
(18:02):
I don't know if he still does this, but he
always used to go out and listen to the opener,
just stand in the crowd, and if people approached him,
they approached him. And uh. And that night, Um, she
was on stage and I was with a couple of
my cousins, girls both younger than me, and we saw
him and we went over and introduced ourselves and took
pictures with him and stuff, and Uh, my cousins rove
(18:22):
back to Orange County. I went out to a nightclub
after the show, and me and my buddy, at like
three o'clock in the morning, we're eating at Mels Diner
on Sunset and we were out on the patio, um,
right along the sidewalk on Sunset, and Gavin came walking
down the street and I yelled at him and stopped
him and we had a conversation. I was just about
to go into the studio to record my first EP ever.
This was like two thousand and four, two thousands five maybe,
(18:46):
and Uh he stopped for twenty minutes at three o'clock
in the morning and asked me questions and gave me
advice about, you know, recording the EP and and about
songwriting and the whole thing. And um. Fast forward a
year later and I'm in Hawaii for a YouTube through
I find out Gavin's playing for the Honolulu Marathon at
the Wiki Ki show and uh, same thing. He's standing
(19:08):
out listening to this ukulele player before I walk up
to him and he's like, dude, I remember you, Mels
on Sunset. I couldn't believe that you remember, but he
was like, dude, I was a crack up. He's like,
I hate Hawaii. It's terrible. It's all tourists. What are
you doing later, Let's get a beer. I'm staying. I
forget what he was staying at that the Long Border
or whatever, but we ended up hanging out the rest
of that trip, going to the U two show together
(19:29):
and within Buddies ever steps. I have a good Gavin
to Gross story where we were at the airport and
we were on the same flight flying back from Los Angeles,
and just to show how nice of a guy is,
we're flying back and he's in the seat behind me
and we're talking a little bit, but it's an awkward
thing where you don't really want to turn around and
have the conversation through the hole in the middle of
the seats. But you're like, hey, man, you're good. Yeah,
you're good. And he had just um does some charity work.
(19:51):
We did some charity work together, and we come off
the plane about the same time. So we're talking on
the way out, and Gavin is a super nice guy.
It's funny that you mentioned that you just went up
to him becau in the airport. He'll he stops and
talks to anybody who wants to come up, and it's
just saying hello to anybody and everybody and just a
smile on his face. And we're waiting for our bags baggage,
and I'm taking picture with a few people. He's taking
pictures with a few people, and I'm you know, and
(20:16):
people are like struggling to take pictures, and you know,
if someone's like, hey, can get a picture, and they
give their phone to somebody and they're like, oh crap,
I gotta flip the all the stuff's happening. And he
pulls me aside and he goes, hey, I'm gona give
a little advice on these pictures, because I was just
taking pictures of people, but it was taking me a
lot longer than it was him. And he said, hey,
what you do? Said, just grab their phone and go, hey,
let's get that selfie and just go boom boom and
hand them their phone. That way you can get more
(20:36):
people in the line faster. And also they're not like
I can't flip my phone. You avoid all of that
trouble of them not knowing how to handle their phone.
And so that was my gavin to go advice. So
we both have been served a little bit of of
Gavin's sage wisdom. Yeah, he's a he is the king
of the meet and greed. I gotta give him that.
He's he if there is, he won't leave until everybody
(20:58):
that got their picture is happy. Do you feel like
speaking to meet and greets that you're gonna do yours
different for now on as far as just touching as
much and hugs and pictures and stuff. Yeah, I don't know.
That's that's a great question. We definitely while we were
over in Europe we canceled all the meet and greets. Um,
I don't know, I don't know how that's gonna look.
I mean the tour that I'm on has A has
(21:20):
a V I V meet and Greek package. So I
don't know that canceling it is an option, but um,
it's got it's got to change somehow. It's got to
be like, you know, no shaking hands or or it's
got to be something. It's got to change a little
bit social social distance, meeting greet until we've flattened the curve,
so to speak. Yeah, do you watch the news a
lot or now? Um? Yeah, but lately it's been like
(21:44):
a lot of the same information and it's become it
started to become kind of a downer. So I do
like a I do like a before bed check in
rather than watching it all day long. At this point,
do you ever listen to your own music and you're
the bus, just turn it up and have a have
a breath. And I just wrote it otherwise. I take
a break from my voice as often as possible. Last
time you're in just to kind of catch up. You
(22:05):
hadn't had the baby. You had the baby right afterwards,
Like how what's the difference in life right now? Everything?
Nothing is the same, um, even even being here right now,
Like I bet I would have let my wife decide,
but I bet I like I would have gone home
and if she got it, we like we would have
it together, you know the virus I'm talking about, so
(22:26):
like even down to that. But I think, um, it changes,
you know. I used to I used to be a
really like late night like night owl guy. Um. And
then I would because I could sleep in because shows,
you know, I don't have to be in the sound
check to like two and uh, and it's it's now
it's like, because you have to be up in the
morning with the baby, you're getting tired earlier. And it's
(22:46):
like even on the road. Now I get off stage
and I used to need a little time to like,
you know, let the kind of adrenaline come down, and
it's like half the time. Now I walk off stage,
walk back, changing the like clean clothes, and fall into bed.
So it's I mean, it's definitely I'm definitely adulting nowadays,
which is not something I was used to. I'm looking
(23:06):
at picture your baby here on your Instagram. By the way,
it's Brett Young music. Who do you see in your
baby's face? More you or your wife? I still think
it's more me. Um. But when she was born the
first month, it was my twin. I mean she was
exactly mem I'm starting to see even though she's my coloring,
she's got lighter skin and light eyes and light hair.
(23:28):
I'm starting to see more of like my wife's the
shape of my wife's wife's face. I think she has
like a lot of Taylor's features, but she has all
my coloring, so it's starting to become more of a blend.
But I think if you ask people at this point,
they'd still say more me. How's Taylor doing having to
be the sort of single mom right now? She's she's
doing great. Luckily, her mom was in town visiting when
(23:50):
this whole thing went down, and because her mom's in
that like mid sixties age range, which is like like
high risk, we decided that it wasn't safe for her
to fly, and especially they of like in the Seattle area,
which is like Washington is the worst right now. So, um,
she's it worked out great that she's been able to
have her mom. They're helping while I've been on the bus,
So she's doing good. I'm sure she's excited for me
(24:11):
to come be able to help and and take on
part of the load, but it's been nice to have
grandma there. I give you one more question before we jump,
But it's it's about songwriting. Yeah, that's something new that
happened in your life, which is your baby. Are you
writing songs now with new intentions because there's something new
in your life? Absolutely? You and I've talked about this before. UM,
(24:32):
I never want to. I never want to write, um
in a in a way that would come across pandering,
you know, like I don't want to. I'm not gonna
put out a lullaby's record because I just had a baby,
you know, like that's this is not how it's gonna work.
But at the same time, authenticity UM in songwriting has
always been really important to me. Like, if I'm not
writing about something I've been through or at least associate
(24:55):
with and relate to, then I don't think I can
expect people to like connect with the song. You know,
I'm not connected with it. And so the best way
to do that is to write about your life. And
obviously the biggest thing that's happened in my life lately
is that we had our first child, So it's it's
definitely influencing the rights. There is a song that I've
written for her that we're closing the tour with now
that will be that will come out when my next
(25:15):
project comes out, whenever that is. Um So it's it's
a tricky balance because yeah, it's it's going to affect
and influence my songwriting. But I also want to make
sure that you know, I don't write twelve songs about
my daughter. You know, there's there's people out there still
having their heartbroken that want to hear the quintessential heartbreak
song or the people that are that neat that wedding song,
and so I want to make sure there's a little
(25:36):
bit of something for everyone. But um, she's She's definitely
life has changed forever and it will affect songwriting moving
forward for sure. Well, dude, I'm glad to hear you're
doing well. I'm glad to hear you have no symptoms
and very mature of you to chill on the bus,
and I don't know if I would have been so mature.
It's good to hear from you. Thanks, But it's always
good talking with you, all right. I talked to you soon,
budd Hey, we're rolling already, So anything you say cannon
(26:03):
will be used against you just right out of the gate.
I like it, you know, No need. Hey, you know
what I was talking to Trevor. I saw him a
couple of weeks ago, really before all the Corona stuff,
like a really hit, and I went up to him.
We were at a charity event together, and I was like, hey, dude,
you guess put pulled out of the Country to Country festival.
(26:23):
And I was like, man, kind of you guys are
the first ones to do that, kind of the cutting
edge of pulling out of festivals, Like you guys knew
what was coming. Yeah. Man, we had a little I
don't know, man, and we just you know, we talked
about that for a long time and it was not
an easy thing to do, and we knew we were
gonna catch some flak for it, but just man, I
(26:48):
felt like the right thing, especially you know, when we
started talking about like our crew and stuff, because I
mean partially that was a big part of the decision,
because as those guys don't have any like game for
going over there. You know, it's not like they're not
getting paid more for going over there. They're not, you know,
(27:10):
we're just kind of putting them over there. And at
the time, it seemed like we were putting them in
a little bit of risk of maybe getting stuck or
maybe not getting home as easily as possible. And it's
just there was just so much uncertainty around it that
we just made that decision. I'm glad we made it.
It sucks that we took some people off, but you know,
(27:34):
we just did it, and now we look like we
knew something was coming. But yeah, you'd like to the
nostrodamis a freaking touring bands. Yeah, you know, you bring
up the crew, guys. I was writing an article on
Billboard today and it was talking about coronavirus and the
vulnerability of the gig economy and it's you know, who's
suffering and everybody's suffering, but all those guys, and I
(27:57):
can tell you, Mike's my deal is. I felt like
I needed to pay because I just have a tour manage, right,
I do stand up have a very little crew. You
guys have a ton. But I had probably eight or
nine dates and I was able to pay her because
she was one person. But what a lot of people
don't know is you have a whole team that is
traveling with you. Who is some of them are are
(28:18):
gig paid? Right? Uh? Well most of our yes, some
of them are most of them our on salary at
this point. So right now everybody's good. Oh really, you know, yeah, hopefully,
you know, we're trying to ride this out to the
very last minute. Um Like, right now it looks like
(28:38):
everybody's good, everybody's taking care of nobody's working. But but
right now we don't really have anyone that is scrounging
for a paycheck. So um so that we're fortunate in that,
you know, in that way that we have gotten to
a point where we could you know, pay our employee
and the way we do and keep them keep them
(28:59):
in their homes. Right now, Well, let's rewind a little
bit though, because let's say it's a year and a
half ago, or it's some of these artists that have
like a hit, like they don't really have the resources
to pay someone a salary yet. And you know, it's
a lot of those guys who are the players or
guys that are you know, running monitors who are now going,
what the crap am I supposed to do? Yeah? Man,
(29:21):
that's you know, we weren't. We aren't that far removed
from that. And there are a lot of those guys
out there, and some of them are you know, on
bigger tours to bigger tours, bigger than us, Like, you know,
that's just the it's just the philosophy of how you
want to pay your people. And neither one is wrong.
We just kind of lucked out and this way right now,
that that's how we chose. But yeah, for those guys
(29:44):
and girls that are out there like humping it and
they're getting per show pay, it's got to be really
really scary right now. I saw a video you posted
trying on curling. Yeah, what that was. That wasn't old,
that wasn't a their video. But that was fun. But
what's difficult about that? I'm not saying it's easy because
(30:04):
I have no idea. I've just never done curling. I
see it in the Winter Olympics. Well, so what's tough
about curling? Man? Man? Those guys like if you like,
talk to the guys who are like super into it.
That's the only time we ever did it. Um, there's
there's different releases that you can release that stone and
make it curve and all this stuff. I mean, the
(30:26):
most difficult part is obviously standing on the ice and
not just you. But it was fun. I mean, you know,
it's it's like it's like, you know, the sport you
can drink a lot of beer while you're playing. It's like,
you know, it's like bowling almost, So it's like bowling
and shelf and board. I'm sure like there's people that
(30:46):
are super into it that you know. I don't know.
We all sucked at it, but it was fun to try.
What are you doing at the house all day? Now? Uh? Man,
I've been doing a lot of artwork. Actually, I went
to arts cool, so I haven't had a whole lot
of time in the past decade to do any kind
(31:07):
of like painting or digital art. And that's that I
grew up doing a lot of them, so kind of
kind of dove into doing a lot of that lately.
Would you go with the intentions of doing when you
went to art school? Uh, you know, my degree is
in the illustrations, so but but honestly, man, I just
(31:33):
I couldn't really do anything else. I wanted to go
to either music school or um art school because as
we're two things that I was super passionate about. But
I don't know, I still don't know how to read music.
I don't know how to read music. So I couldn't
really go to music school. I would have been way
behind the curve there. So, um, so art school was
(31:58):
really kind of my only other options. So I was
either going to have to like stay at home with
my parents or and get a job or go to
art school. So art school is it? You're telling me
you have eight number ones and you don't know how
to read music. I don't know how to read. I mean,
I can you know. I mean I could not fight
(32:19):
read a thing. I could not sit down and play
look at it some sheet music and play it. No,
I couldn't do it. If you showed me a note
and said what note is that, it would take me
embarrassingly long to figure it out. I can figure it out,
but uh no, I don't read music. It's all here,
(32:40):
Of all of we'll do the number ones. Of all
the number ones, which one kind of fell out? The
quickest that you wrote, um, save it for any Day
was the quickest one. And it's a funny story about
that one, because so that one was written by me
(33:00):
and UM Brad Percy and UM our friend Andrew Dorff,
who had passed away a couple of years ago. UM
And back then we used to write we had like
a sort of standing thing where we would write at
nine am before our regular rights, so we would right,
(33:21):
our normal right would be scheduled for eleven with whoever,
but we would meet at nine and kind of work
on something that we had already started or you know,
start something knowing that we weren't going to finish it.
But that day we didn't really have anything. So the
nine am right, and I was trying to think of
ideas before I you know, went into the right, and
(33:46):
and I had that idea and save it for any day.
And I sort of was driving into the right and
thinking about it and kind of singing through it. And
so when I got there, I kind of sang through
the idea and they were like, yeah, let's do that.
And we wrote that in like minutes. Um. So when
you say you were singing it on the way in,
are you just singing the melody? Do you have a
lot of the lyrics for the hook? How do What
(34:08):
does that mean when you say that? Well, I had, like,
you know, I definitely had the idea of like the
chorus of like songs to Bright Sky's two Blue, you know,
Beers Too Cold. I had that I had basically the
chorus kind of idea mapped out and the melody, but
I didn't have you know, it wasn't like I was
playing a guitar, but I just heard it in my head.
(34:30):
So when I got there, I just picked up a
guitar and said something like this and and there was
a song that that um was inspiring me a lot
at that point in time that I've actually written a
few songs after that. There's a song called Supplying Demand
amous Lee that I just couldn't stop listening to it.
I just wanted to keep writing songs like that, and
(34:52):
that was sort of my inspiration for that song. So
so yeah, I was just kind of like hearing the
melody and the lyrics in my head, and when I
got there, I spit it out to them and they
were like, yeah, let's do it, and like I said,
four or five minutes, that thing was done. Yeah. I'm
a huge amos amos Lee fan. I saw him at
the Right I know Supply and the Man too. I'm
just a big amos Lee nerd. But I saw Amoss
(35:15):
Lee play at the Rhyman probably six or seven months ago,
and he had lost his voice completely and so he's
up there he's grinding it out, he's sick. He can
only sing the real low parts because the whole high
part of his voice was was was gone that his
cold or his his whatever had eliminated that. And he
had the crowd sing a lot of his songs. And
(35:36):
I just felt bad for him, and I was happy
that he stayed and tried to sing it. But I wonder,
if you're the lead singer, if you if you have
that issue, what is it that you do? Now? Man?
You just do think you do what he did? You
power through? Um, I've done it, you know before. It sucks. Um.
I sang with the flu and stripped through before and
(36:01):
it was not fun. And it was actually it was
a heartbreaking gig because we were playing at the Stone
Pony in New Jersey and it's a you know, that's
a big, like Springsteen like hot spot, and I'm a
huge Springsteen nerd, and you know, that was the first
time we ever got to play there, and I was
so excited, and I ended up having the flu, but
I couldn't sing. But usually I just kind of address it,
(36:25):
you know, I say something to the crowd and say, look,
you know, at this point, thankfully we have fans that
know the words to the songs, and I can say, look,
I'm I'm gonna push through this, but I need you tonight,
and and they all just kind of carry you through.
But it does suck. It gets in your head and
you know, get you down because you want to do
the best you can do. You ever do a steroid
(36:46):
shot right before and get that pop? Oh yeah, I've
I've gotten the steroid shots before. They they they are magical,
but they've got to be terrible for you. Yeah. I
usually crash really hard about a day and a half later,
like hardware. I feel worse than I did to begin with.
But as long as you can get through the show,
like that's what if that's all it feels like it
(37:07):
matters because people paid money for tickets, right right, Yeah,
Like I'm okay being sick by myself because people didn't
lose money if I'm sick by myself, right And if
if I'm playing, you know, they do they come and
you're harder on yourself, then then they are you know that.
I mean, you could probably get through that show and
no one would even notice if you if you said it,
(37:30):
if you didn't say anything. But it's still in your
head and you in your heart, and you want to
do the best that you can, and you know it's
such an important and kind of sacred thing when you
go out there to do that, especially the bigger and
the crowd get and you're like, Okay, this is a
people have been looking forward to this moment, you know,
(37:51):
all year long, So I gotta give it to him.
And it sucks to have to like do it sick,
but they wouldn't notice. Half time. I brought up eight
number ones and that was just Old Dominion, you know,
and you brought up Saving for a Rainy Day, which
ended up being you know, a Chesney song. How many
number ones do you have total? That aren't that are
all in the world? Do you know, uh that that
(38:13):
aren't Old Dominions? Yeah, like Old Dominion plus other artists
I have, Because you got eight with O D right,
So then I've got the one that got away with
Mike Lay, I got Saving for any Day with Um Kenny.
I got to say you do with um dirks Um
(38:38):
make you miss Me with Sam like, crap, that might
be it. I think that that might be it. When
did it? When? When did it start to pop for you?
As a songwriter in town, like where people started to
actually search you out for rights more so than the
other way around. Oh man, Um, like after what was it?
(39:02):
Maybe not a year, but what did you do? Peo?
We'll go, Oh that's good. I'd like to write with
that guy. Yeah, I mean I think it was a
song that that we wrote. Um, Trevor and and I
and Josh Osborne wrote a song called wake Up Loving
You that Craig Morgan ended up recording and that song
(39:25):
changed the game for me in a lot of different ways. Um,
but it opened up so many doors for me like
that that was and for old Dominion. Honestly, that was
like the song. That song got me a publishing deal
when I needed it, you know terribly. Uh that that
(39:46):
song probably opened up more doors than any other song.
You know. That song I remember from that me like
the alarm at the beginning of it with my alarm.
Oh that was from you? Was that from the demo? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
it's funny that song, man, it's crazy like that. The
moment that really, the moment that got me in the
(40:10):
mix was this decision to go to Key West for
the Songwriter Festival. Have you ever been here? No? No,
I usually I have to freaking work at my real job.
I'd like to go. It's fun. But like back in
the day, this is sort of a long story, but
back in the day, I was a stay at home dad.
(40:31):
I was trying to like work and you know, try
to write songs at night and and raise my daughter
and try to like somehow make this happen. And I
was feeling very frustrated because I'm not a very good
like networker and there are people that are really good
(40:54):
at that and that gets them pretty far. And I
wasn't really good at that, but I knew and I was,
you know, writing stuff that was good and if I
could just get out there, but I couldn't because I
had this daughter and you know. So I was like, look,
the whole town goes to key West for for this
songwriter festival. If I could just go down there, then
(41:17):
I could spend like three or four days networking for
this thing. So I had no money. I had a
friend that um whose brother is a pilot, and he
got me a free ticket, and so I was like, Okay,
I don't have a place to stay, but I'm gonna go.
I don't care. I'll find a place to stay. I
(41:39):
got a free ticket down there, so I got my bag.
I landed in Key West. I'm literally walking down the
street with my suitcase and I see a songwriter everybody
in my name is Bruce Wallace, and he was like, dude,
where are you staying. I was like, God, I don't know,
and he was like, ah, you should stay with me.
I have an extra bed. I got two beds, so
(42:01):
I stayed with him. As Cap covered my meals like
I would. I got out of like box of granola
bars that I would eat for breakfast and for lunch,
and then as Cap got my dinner every night. And
then I waited until like three am at this little
bar called the Bottle Cap that was kind of an
(42:23):
open mic thing to get up and play my song.
And I got up and played Wake Up Loving You.
In the whole place went nuts. And actually Brothers Osborne
weren't Brothers Osborne at the time. They were a bank
called Team Billy, and they were the house band. So
I got up there with them and played Wake Up
Loving You and that ended up getting me a publishing
(42:45):
deal and set me up amazing. Let's go back two years.
Tell me about Old Dominion. Two years ago, Where were
you guys two thousand eighteen, Like what what? What? What
was the band thinking? Because that's about the time right
before you guys really hit hard. Yeah, two thousand and eight,
(43:06):
two years ago was when it sounds crazy, but uh,
that's when Naked Sweet happened. Um, that was when we
it was time to make the next album, and uh,
we thought, you know, what are we gonna do. Let's
(43:27):
just usually we we have like a list of songs
that we kind of have to to go in and
record and and I had kind of thrown this little
tantrum one night at the end of the year about
how we didn't have enough time to make an album
(43:48):
and so we needed more more time in our team,
who is wonderful made the time for us. So our
first recording session snuck up on us and we didn't
have any songs. Um in mind, we had songs, but
we didn't have a plan. So since we didn't have
a plan, we had studio time. We decided to go
(44:09):
in and write a song and record it in the
same day and see what happened. So that was when
you make it Sweet happen. And that that sort of
set the tone for the whole thing. I can't believe
it was that long ago. He was what song that
you put out? Did you feel at the quickest? Uh?
(44:32):
What did you feel it the quickest? Meaning like, oh
we got ourselves a hit here. Oh it was one
man band for sure? Really yeah? Because yeah, yeah, that
was like, um immediate, like we went in, we went
on tour. The first show was in Chicago in January,
(44:54):
and that wasn't necessarily going to be the next single yet,
and we played it and people were already singing it
like like louder than some of the hits that we
had already had, and it was just kind of like
a you know, grat track at that point. So it
(45:14):
was such an immediate response to that song. Yeah, that's
my that's my jam. That's my jam too. As soon
as it came out, I remember hitting you up being like,
this is my favorite song of my whole life this week? Yeah, crazy, Yeah,
that was definitely the biggest one. Well listen, man, go
to talk to you. I know we were gonna do
this in studio, but the virus got us and hopefully
it doesn't have either one of us, but we had
(45:37):
to throw it down on the phone. So we'll be
sure to connect up one day in person. But what's
a big fan of what you do? You know, I'm
a massive Old Dominion fanca is. When it comes to albums,
I don't think manchoul put them out anymore unless your
name is Old Dominion. That's the only album that I
care to invest all my time into because you guys
just do hit after freaking hit, and the songs you
don't put on your record, other artists take them and
(45:57):
then they have number one. It's like you're just passing
out chair. He hits. I appreciate him. Well, good to
talk to you, Matt, and we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, man,
stay healthy, I see that. H
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