Clint Black has 22 No. 1 songs such as "A Better Man,” “Killin’ Time”, and "When My Ship Comes In”. He talks about what it was like blowing up in the 90’s, finishing 5th on The Apprentice and his new album “Out of Sane”. Plus new music out today from Kenny Chesney, Luke Combs, The Dixie Chicks and Bretty Young.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M h Welcome to episode two forty two. We'll talk
to Clint Black and just a little bit. Always fun
to talk to people you love when you were a
kid who's got new music out too. But we definitely
get into a lot of the nineties stuff before we
turn the mics on here, Mike, you had asked me
if I had heard the new Dixie Chick song, and
I haven't because I guess the song came out today, right.
(00:21):
I woke up today and for the first time in
five years, I want to play golf today. Eddie and
Amy hasn't been and I wouldn't play it. So I
haven't really done anything. I just you know, we're gonna
go over music here, but I'm just not feeling a
lot of music right now, oddly for a music podcast.
I don't know if if it's because I'm really not
listening to as much music because I'm not commuting ever um,
(00:43):
or if nothing's really hitting me right now. And we'll
go through some new stuff, maybe some of this stuff
will hit you. But I was more excited talk to
Clint Black about the nineties than I have anything new
coming out today. You know. Um, I think a lot
of people are feeling that way right now. Once we
get back to uh what normal, I think some of
our normal habits will kind of kicked back in. But
(01:04):
have you been listening to new music at all? This week?
Is probably like the first week I started listening to
some new stuff. What did you listen to that's new? Um?
I listened to like, I've been listening to Machine Gun
Kelly a lot. And you put out a new song
today and I was checking it out and it's weird
because I know him as a rapper, but a lot
of the stuff he's putting out is a lot more
alternative sounding. Is he's singing, yeah, and he's playing guitar
(01:25):
a lot, So I like the sound everybody being post
Malone now basically pretty much like he didn't never, He
didn't have that sound before. Now it's like he's on
alternative radio. It's weird. I gotta feel like post Malone
created that space. Like rapper, but you can also do
rock if you're not to play guitar, Yeah, using real instruments.
That's all. Yeah, that's all him. Alright, Well, let's start
(01:46):
with some new music out this week, and I we'll
start with the Dixie Chicks song because you had brought
that up to me. The Dixie Chicks were supposed to
put a gas lighter the whole album m It was
the first record of fourteen years, but it's been has
been pushed back in definitely because of Corona. But they
did about this new song, and it is called Julianna. Julianna, Julianna, Julianna.
You said Julianna. Somehow you said Julianna. I hear is Julianna.
(02:10):
Calm down. I guess this is the time to remind
you sometimes what's going through your head. It's just a
temperate situation and I would soon be shared. Just put on,
put on, put on your best shoes, and stra to
(02:34):
fucking round like you've got nothing to lose. Shoot off,
shoot off, shoot off your best moves, and do it
with a smile, so then no one knows it's put on,
put on, put on vibe. I can't really find the
chorus because I'm hearing it from a random time. Is
that the chorus? Like that part towards like maybe twenty
(02:54):
seconds into the chorus, put on, put on and Katie
calm down. You know it sounds like a slightly country
Florence in the Machine. Oh yeah, it kind of does.
But I was hearing again and I was going, right,
what am I hearing here? Pay play that from the
beginning again, just with a clip. Guess this is the
(03:15):
time to remind you sometimes what's going through your head.
It's just a temperate situation. Do you hear that like
the Florence Welch kind of? I mean, yeah, yeah, I'll
probably like that. I can't tell from hearing this one
clip of a song, but that sounds like like my
(03:36):
kind of vibe. They're oddly hard to get a hold of,
meaning they didn't want to be interviewed or they don't
want me to interview them. And I think I've been
one of the biggest advocates, oddly, but I can't get
any of them to talk to me, which is weird
because usually that's not the not the case, it's the opposite.
People are trying to get on because of, you know,
the platform that we have. So but the Dixie Chick
(03:56):
has been weird because I've been like pro Dixie Chick
forever and they just have like we're gonna wait from Boby.
Weren't talking to him? Uh, I don't know why. Let's
go here and Now from Kenny Chesney. This is record nineteen.
Is that right? Here's the title track, here and now now,
(04:17):
nowhere in this world, and here's a song called Everyone
she Knows She's and the medico down mood. She's sick
to something love but the letters just too cold. She's
a mar Jeans. I mean it definitely sounds like Kenny.
(04:40):
That's crazy. At the nineteen records, I mean, Kenny was out,
you know, he started some of those guys that are
just called nineties country. We're still around kicking and they're
considered nineties country. But Kenny started then as well and
has managed to continue. Look out. When his first record
came out, I think I think I looked at it earlier.
It was like ninety one. I want to say, wow,
was it? I was looking to all his albums earlier,
(05:01):
just to make sure. Like Kenny and McGraw are two
guys where if they had stopped after a few big
records or had kind of petered out, they'd be considered
legacy acts. But they have just continued to produce, continue
to put out hits. Man, if it was nine one,
I'll be shocked and see studio albums even then says
(05:25):
early Wow, Wow, good for him. I like Kenny. I
got to set with Kenny wants or sit with Kenny
on stage and it was just him and I and
he played acoustic the whole time and we were talking
to interviews and make jokes and stuff. But he's a
just a really good singer. You know, when you think
of the big singers, you don't think of Kenny Chessen
that you think of a guy Kenn. He just puts
(05:46):
out the beach hits and but just sitting there acoustic
with the guitar, it was surprisingly good. The k is
Silent from Hot Country Nights. This is Dirk Spentley's nineties
influenced comedy band. This was always a bit difficult because
the songs are pretty good. They're even good and funny,
(06:06):
but it was always weird to talk to them on
radio because it's such a visual thing and I would
feel like sometimes it wouldn't come across like I wanted
it to on radio because unless you could see them,
you really weren't getting the joke because it just sounds
like Dirk dark manly making jokes, and so that was
this was always the thing that we had to juggle
on the radio with Dirk's as Doug Douglason because he
(06:28):
would come on and be moderately funny, but what he
was wearing was hilarious. But people can't see what he's
wearing when they're listening to live, so that was always
a juggle for me. I would imagine they're kind of
done with this project at this point, especially they were
gonna go on a little tour, but that got cut,
as did everybody else's. But they had songs that were good,
that were aside from the funniness of it, had good hooks.
(06:50):
Here is Sorry, Hot Country Nights with Travis Tritt a
song called pick Her Up Up, Dance Around. You know
what's funny is the three artists we've talked about so far,
(07:12):
and then we're gonna get to Clint Black in a
second Dixie Chicks nineties two thousand's Kenny Chats and he
started in right what he said, And then Derk Spanley's
band is that nineties uh pop parody band? I mean
that nineties. It's the real retro in vogue thing right now.
(07:34):
Either you came from the nineties and you're making a
new sound or you're new and you're making a nineties sound.
As long as you've got some feeling of the nineties,
people are like, oh, I accept that, that's pretty cool.
Do you feel that at all? Why is that though?
The nineties? Well, I think that's when country music went
massively mainstream, so all the big stars are there. You
think it will ever shift to a different decade or
(07:55):
is just something about the nineties. I think it's that
that was the Garth, Brooks and Done. I mean, I
think for a while it was probably the sixties. I
don't know there was ever a seventies and eighties boom
maybe you know, but but nineties, and I don't think
the two thousands were great just generally speaking. I think
it's you know, the most songs. When you think of
(08:16):
all those massive songs from the nineties, I mean McGraw, Garth,
Dixie Chicks, even you know, Chesney, Joe, Diffy, Clinton Black,
We're Gonna I mean, it was just a really good
time for country music. A lot of money was going
in to support it because they were seeing that it
can make a lot of money. So I can't see
the two thousands. Maybe you know, you have like a
(08:37):
Luke Combs tribute band, later in like maybe which Luke
has a new song out too. That's interesting. Now I'm
gonna think about that. Why the nineties A couple of reasons.
When I think the age of all the people making
decisions were nineties listeners. The adults now we're big nineties kids.
So the people that are making the decision as adults,
the music that's getting made, the the artists for a
(09:00):
lot of them, or nineties influence. I think that's probably
what it is. And then the stars that's the biggest
generation of country stars. Luke Hombs has officially released six
ft Apart. We played the YouTube version a couple of
weeks ago, but this song is up to stream. Mom,
(09:21):
Mr Mystery. You know, I saw the title of this,
and I think I mentioned this on last week's podcast.
I thought, how in the world is he gonna do
a song that's not cheesy about quarantine? Because I've heard
(09:42):
a hundred of them and they're almost all cheesy. This
is a pretty good one. I mean, everything he writes
right now just turns into gold. I played the all right,
He played the Opery and I was hosting it last
week and it was great. He played this at the
Opery last week, kept More put out a new song
called Crazy for You Tonight Mama, Yeah, Crazy Crazy. Brett
(10:09):
Young put out a new song called Lady. Here's Brett
Young just back your Mama and love can do. You'll
see close to perfect patience. If you want your every move,
you can always run into daddy. Let gonna see what
else we got here? I guess some other stuff. Um,
(10:31):
what's your favorite on the list here? I don't want
to go through all these what's your favorite on the
list that we haven't played? Why do you see your
machine gun? Kelly song? Kelly? We here this one. I
don't do freak off, but I'll take song from mute.
It does sound like uh, fall out boy. It meets
like an angry blank one rock Field. Yeah, it does
(10:53):
street this night. That you have any jack that's straight
alternative stuff that's not that's crazy. I would never guess
that was a machine on Kelly. Huh. I mean that
sounds like your style though, yeah, very much so. It
sounds like it sounds like he showed up late for
Warp Tour about five years like his style is a
little a little beyond that. But he could have fit
(11:13):
in Marshmallow and Halsey. I saw them laying on the
ground together on Instagram. I guess like a promotion for
this song. This is called be Kind alright, alright, alright,
um let's see if there's anything else I want it.
(11:34):
I'll just mentioned some of this um him him him.
I thought it was Hime, but when I got no
reaction back to him him him. The three sisters they
have a I know alone. I don't need to play that.
Gabby Barrett has a song featuring Shane and Shane. I
don't know what Shane and Shane is. I thought it
was like a Shane and Shane company, like a jewelry company.
(11:57):
Do you ever see that car from It's a Cren duo?
Oh it is. Yeah, imagine both our names, Shane, Shane
and Shane. All right. Hardy has a new song called Boots.
Let me hear a little bit of Mitchell Tinpennies cover
of Someone You Loved by Louis Capaldi. Now the Dedly
Far Okay, start, let's start it over and I I
(12:21):
like Mitchell. No, Mitchell a little bit? Is he using
auto tune on this? Yeah? You can hear it. I
thought so too. It's like, man, if you're gonna chase
one of these really big vocal songs, and he's a
good singer. Let me hear this again, Yeah, you can
hear it. Kind of tin odd choice of a song
to pick if you have to use auto tune. By
(12:43):
the way, everybody has pitched shifted a little bit. I've
only known a couple of artists that go in and go,
don't touch it. My vocal that's carries one of them current.
They'll maybe they'll put some effect on it. They don't
pitch shift her vocal. It's very noticeable. Wow. Um, I
mean I would read idiot stuff. I would just put
shifted all of it. So like, yeah, we're doing this.
If everybody knows like Emoji Love song, I think a
(13:06):
lot of that. We just were like, instead of having
fixed little parts, shift the whole thing so people know.
It's very obviously not the live version, but the studio version.
By the way, yes, I'm comparing Emoji Love talking about
raging idiots too. Let's see and Hardy has any song
called boots Um The alt country band American Aquarium. Now,
I don't know who they are, but are they good?
(13:27):
I kind of like the sound. Yeah, I wouldn't have
thought you to put this up if you didn't think
it was cool. Yeah, I heard it. I was like,
I could probably see myself listening. Right. Let me hold
the country band American Aquarium. All right, I'm into it.
They have a new album out called Lamentations. Lamentations. Okay,
here's a song called the Luckier You Get. Let me
see if I dig it. It's it sounds a little
(13:55):
bit like Tom Petty and the and the waff Flowers,
The Wallflowers meets the wall Flowers, Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers meets the wall Flowers. When I'm trying to say,
Tom Petty also as an album called wild Flower. Thank
I got all these in my head, but I would
say it's like the wall Flowers meets Tom Petty. That's cool,
all right, all right, I'm stay hearing. Yeah. Tom Petty's
(14:23):
album Wildflower, I can't talk. Wild Flowers is one of
my favorite records. I just want to make sure I
said that right. Were you ever a Tom Petty fan?
Not really? The song you belong the wild Flowers never
love the other one, I don't think so that's a
good one. And then you don't know how it feels. No,
(14:44):
you don't know how it feels to be me that one.
I know that one. Yeah, that's a good one. Let's
see what else is on you wreck Me Baby, Doom Doom,
you wrecked me into you know that one. Let's see
I got that song. It's so it's fine. No, that's her,
it's fire, that's her and dead that is not petty
(15:06):
you read me? Yeah, that's a jam here this one.
I don't know this one. God, this reminds me I'm
not even interested in new music. I would sit here
on this record for a long time. That's what we
should do. We should break down our favorite albums and
all the songs on it. Because I'm looking at this
like track five, it's good to be king. It's good
(15:27):
to be king, if just for a day. So if
you know this one, let's see f I don't think
so when your bulldog barks and your canary things now, Yeah,
(15:55):
this is a jam jam album. Top twenty album from
me here for sure, to be key it just for
a while, to be there in velvet. Yeah, to give
him a smile. Nothing nothing, man, you're missing out. Never
(16:16):
come down. All right, Well that's it. We want to
update your new music and um also we're gonna to
play this Clint Black Interview. What can I stun't believe? Today?
I was having the sun today for four hours playing golf,
and I think the sun is not cooperating on my
body at this point because it's been months since I've
seen it one day. I think I'm overdosing. I'm vitamin d. Okay,
(16:38):
here we'll take a little break, come back with Clint Black. Enjoy. Hey,
Clint's Bobby. How's it going? Hey, Bobby Twill it's going nowhere? Yeah,
that I get I felt I saw today it was
like day fifty with no boards to day four. I
(17:01):
mean it does feel like a big old blurd, doesn't it. Yeah,
it starts to just not matter what day of the
week it is. Well before we get rolling here, we're
already rolling before we get like moving through. I just
want to tell you I'm a and I think I've
I've mentioned this to you before, but I'm just a
massive fan of yours, so it's it's really exciting for
me to get to talk to you. Well. Thanks, you know,
(17:21):
I'm a fan of yours, but I really wasn't a
massive fan until I saw you dance. Well you probably yeah,
that that isn't a good look for me with you,
so we'll we'll move away from that. I was asked
to do that show a couple of times, and uh,
there's it's just absolutely no way on earth your brave man. Well,
(17:44):
you know, obviously you have the chops too. I would
have Uh, I only dance the silly dance to make
my family laugh. I feel like that's what I should do,
just only the silly dance. Well, you know, I'm excited
to see that you're putting on a new record. Now,
hey tell me about out of saying, because I was
thinking about this, is that the is that the opposite
(18:04):
of insane? Out of saying? You know, it's actually uh,
they're multiple interpretations of that, and uh, it really comes
from a little you know, play online from one of
the songs. Uh. Song title is what I knew then, um,
and the line is uh a little in and out
(18:26):
of saying. So I didn't like any of the song titles.
I usually will name an album after one of the
song titles that sums it up. I didn't like any
of them for that, the same with my last album
on Purpose. So I just scoured the lyrics for something
that made sense. And and when I when I thought
(18:49):
of that, when I thought, it's just you know, serious,
seriously speaking um that you know, the writing of songs,
are creating a music is really you know, born out
of out of sanity, and uh. And then you go
through the recording process and by the time it's down
(19:10):
to all the music's recorded, and now I'm trying to
mix it and make sure scientifically everything has its place
and it's going to sound good on any system it's
played on it, it just becomes a science. And it's
just it's really kind of borders on insanity at that point.
(19:31):
It's no longer this art form. It's a science. And
and and it's just five hours of sleep at night
and working on that, you know, for eighteen hours a day.
And by the time I get to the end of
making an album, there's a reason I don't only do
one about every five years. Now, m I'm getting no sleep.
(19:53):
I've wanted to be over and so I start out
saying and end up insane. And uh. And I thought
that really it really sums it up. When I always
wanted to use that photo for the cover with that
American flag guitar of mine, and I thought that that
(20:14):
also brings in another interpretation, because it seems our country,
you know, is a little in and out of saying
and uh, just depending on what cycle we're in. So
I thought, this is this is a title that anybody
can see any any way they want for their own uses.
But for me, it spoke to the album. It spoke
(20:35):
to the process, which you know, it's not iron work,
which I've done, uh, but it's uh, but it gets
to be grueling at one point just uh need to
need to call it finished, but not until it's right well,
(20:56):
the full album except for a June nineteenth, really east
and you know we're six or so weeks out from that.
Do you feel like any of this it's happening now
is going to affect that release date or are you
determined that that's the date the projects coming out? Oh,
we're firm, We're firm on it. Uh. We've got the
video of the the second and third uh instant grat
(21:17):
tracks or or lined up and ready to go. It's
all in the system. And I've just gotten my little
I'm going to call it a broadcast studio, it's my
recording studio. But I've finally gotten all the elements. You know,
it's hardest. There's a lot of stuff like this is
back ordered. You know. I needed a converter to go
(21:38):
from my um uh, you know, my four K camera
into the computer to use it, you know, for live streaming,
and also wanted to tie that in a pro tools.
So it's been this step by step process of getting
the point where I can start live streaming and and
(21:58):
promoting the album from my studio. I've been watching this
The Last Dance, which is the Bulls documentary. I think
they've put out four episodes now, and you know it's
about you know, Michael Jordan's his his final season with
the Bulls, and they do this really cool thing where
they go back in time, current, back in time, current,
that kind of thing, and if you'll, um, you know,
(22:19):
kind of indulge me a little bit. I like to
do that now where I want to talk about new
stuff and they kind of do a flashback and then
come back and forth with a new project. Will you
indulge me in this this type of all right, perfect,
We'll see how it goes. Um. I Like, you had
a lot of jobs before I kind of got into
what I'm doing now, where I worked, I worked at
a marina and did bait work. As what you were?
(22:41):
Were you a bait cutter? What was that job about?
That was my uh one of the guys that my
management company. When he was taking down stuff about me,
you know what I what I done. He was basically
putting together a simple bio and uh and he laughed
(23:01):
and said, I'm gonna put because I was an iron worker,
I worked in security, uh as a consultant salesman and
uh sold security services and I actually did and I starved,
but uh, um, you know I had uh you know,
I was a newspaper solicitor, had a paper route as
(23:22):
a kid, you know. And he he laughed and said,
I'm gonna put down bake cutter and fishing guide and
I laughed and uh and then suddenly it's in a
newspaper and it went everywhere, and so it was. It
was not true, and I thought he was kidding. But
(23:43):
you know, they had managed rock and roll acts and uh,
I was their first country act. And I think maybe
you know, they like Kenny Loggins told me once he said,
when I'm not doing anything interesting, I'm paraphrasing. He said,
I'll make stuff up and say I'm some where I'm
not and uh, Steffter, he told me that I was.
(24:05):
I was doing an interview over the phone, and and uh,
the interviewer asked me, so where are you calling from.
I said, I'm in Barbados. Really, what are you doing
in Barbados? And I said, I'm not really in Barbados.
I couldn't even do it. That's funny. So you never
(24:25):
wear a bait cutter, but now it's it's that's been
part of your bio legacy all these years. Yep, yep,
people still want to want me to tell them where
the fish are. That's funny because I literally was a
bait cutter, and I don't put that in my bio anymore.
I was a cricket grabber because I would I would
shovel crickets into tubes for people. I would cut bait.
I would catch shad and give them out. I was
(24:45):
a bit of a small small time fishing guide. And man,
maybe I should put that in my bio. People ask
me about that because I was really interested to hear
that story. You know, you want that word to get around.
So when this job falls a part on you, you
know you'll have some her to go, people of demand
will be there. I wonder, you know, as you have
this new record, we're weeks away from it coming out,
(25:07):
and you know you are a guitar player, are you
Are you playing lead on the record. I played most
of the yeah, most of the electric guitar stuff. I
do some slide doough bro and electric slide? Yeah do you.
Finally started that with the Nothing but the tail Ights
album when Stroud heard my demos and he said, you
(25:28):
should play guitar on this. Well, Haydon Nicholas, my lead
guitar player, really got me started when we're writing songs
one day and he said, you know, with your fingerpicking style,
you can play licks like this Ray Flack stuff. And
I laughed and laughed and uh, he said no really,
and he taught me some things to practice, and I
went home and got a little, you know, out of
(25:49):
a sequencer, call it a metronome, and I started practicing
slowly and sped it up until I was convinced I
can play stuff like this, And so I played most
of the everything but three songs on Nothing but the
tail Lights and uh, and then I did the Electrify,
which was all acoustic, and there wasn't much to do there,
(26:11):
and then I started doing it again, and on the
On Purpose album, I really dug into it and made
myself take on a lot of that work. Whereas you know,
I might reach out to Hayden to hurry it along,
or her, Steve Warner or Brent Mason because they can
do it in a flash. And uh, I decided, I'm
(26:33):
going to take the time. It takes me longer, but
if I can make myself happy as the producer artist,
and I'm gonna do it. And uh so it's it's
it's really satisfying and and and it's been a really
uh it's been a real you know, i'd like you'd
(26:58):
learn to think you're gonna get better with age, right,
and the fact that I can play guitar solos on
Tuckered Out Now, which is our burn burner, really convinced
me that there's still room for growth, but I have
to work really hard for it. I'm gonna run some
numbers by you here, uh the numbers. You were chosen
(27:20):
by People magazine. It's one of the fifty most beautiful
people in the entire world. How vivid is that memory
when you got that call? You know, what I just
slashed on all the makeup and wardrobe it took to
earn that title. You know, It's funny. I can't even remember,
(27:42):
you know, I can't even remember that so much was
happening to me, coming at me, uh, happening for me. Um.
I remember now that you say it, that that I
was given that, But no, I can't remember that feeling. Um.
You know, I I imagine I'm on the bus with
(28:03):
the band and and and they're all mocking me. That's
probably what we were doing. Whenever something like that that's
outside of the country genre happens, because that's very mainstream,
do you start to hear from other people that you
thought you would never hear from that, to go, hey
I saw you and People Magazine. I also like what
you're doing. I just haven't reached out yet. No, not
(28:26):
in not really in that way I would. I would
meet people outside my genre. I assume you're talking about
other artists, yeah, artists and actors, anyone that was like,
hey I saw you People Magazine. Yeah. Yeah, But it
was never it was never clear to me that one
thing was happening because of the other. I would meet
people like Gary Shandling at when he was hosting the Grammys,
(28:49):
and he said, hey, you should do my show. You
should come on and let's goop around. And so I
did his show and and UH ended up going and
playing basketball over his house every Sunday for you know,
quite a while, and mean a lot of people over there.
I think that's how Kevin Nealon and I became friends. Um,
(29:11):
I'm you know, I've met Eric Idol because uh Lisa
worked with a fitness trainer who trained Eric's wife and UH,
and so I said, Uh, I said, hey, would you
give this phone number two uh to Tanya and uh
(29:33):
and see if I'm gonna record a Monty Python song,
see if if he would be willing to do something
on it. And so that led to working with him,
uh and becoming friends with him, and then meeting people
through him, other comedians and actors and and and it
(29:55):
just never it never, I never, I never really knew. Okay, well,
this is because of my music or it's just because
I reached out or met someone through someone else. You
have twenty two number one singles. What's the when you
(30:15):
play the first look of what song? Do people react
a loud as to uh? Well that killing time lick
on the intro is pretty definitive. Better man is really recognizable.
And those were you know, those were huge for me,
Like The Rain. Of course, I don't do the intro
(30:37):
lick in concert. From Like the Rain, I wrote another
little uh acoustic guitar piece that I do on the
front end of that, and then when I start singing it,
they know and nothing but the tails that licks really recognizable. Um.
With some of these songs that you play, and you
(30:58):
have played for you know this at this point for
thirty years, do you ever go, man, I want to
switch up this arrangement because I'm I'm kind of bored
with playing the same song over and over and over again,
Like you want to play it for the fans, but
you want to switch it up a little bites. Has
that happen at all? Yeah, I'm really careful about that.
I I keep in mind that they have some ownership
in it and uh an attachment and and so you know,
(31:23):
I'm a music fan. When I see someone in concert,
I've seen that happen and not liked it. I've also
seen it and liked it. Um. I've done that on
records where I did a version of put Yourself in
my shoes, a real slow blues version with a twelve
piece horn section instead of harmonica, and uh, I did
(31:47):
that for the second Greatest Hits Extra Tracks. And I
did a version of No Time to Kill with Bruce Hornsby.
That was a real funky version, and I played around
with a bad goodbye and I felt, uh, I felt
some liberties with that because I wasn't doing it with Whinnona,
(32:08):
so the song wasn't gonna be what it was anyway.
I messed around with a a different arrangement, but I'm careful.
I try to be careful about it. The new song
that I was listening to before I called you is
America Still in Love with You. I want to play
a little bit of that real quick, and I'm gonna
ask a couple of thoughts about it. Here's a clip
of America I Still in love with You. I'm still
(32:30):
in love with you in spite of all arabs and
down we've done a separate ways, we've come back around.
So even when you wrote that with Steve Warnery, yep,
So tell me about that day when you guys go
into the room to do this, well, Steve had been
(32:52):
coming over. We've been doing stuff together, just hanging out.
He would come by for one reason or another and uh,
and and every time I say you, you didn't bring
your new Steve Warner gretch. I ordered one and it
was taken a while to get it, and I hadn't
seen his and oh, I forgot. And so one day
(33:13):
I said, well, you just have to come over with
the intent of bringing that guitar so you won't forget it.
So he came over one day just to show me that,
and we were playing around with it. And after we
had after we've played around for a while, I said, Uh.
I said, oh, I had this uh new song idea.
I've got it and I told it to him and
it was kind of the basics of the chorus. Uh,
(33:37):
sounds like a love song, you know, to a to
a woman, and you get to the end of the
chorus and America is the lady. And he just reacted perfectly.
Just couldn't. I didn't see that coming, And yeah, we
gotta write that and uh and I just launched into it.
I said, what what could we do musically? And we
(33:59):
started playing around on it. We just go right in
literally standing around the kitchen of the then off the kitchen,
and once I saw that we had a structure and
a direction on the versus, I started texting musicians to
(34:19):
see who was available, and within about four days we
were all in the studio recording it. And I knew
I had to hurry in order to make the deadline
for this album. And I wanted it to be on
the album. Uh my love of the song and the message,
but also it just went so well with the cover
(34:40):
and uh, it just has to be on there. Literally
made it about the same day as my deadline's got
the master delivered. Well, the videos out too now, so
people can check out in all of the song. But America,
I still in Love with You. The music video is out,
so man still making the videos. Are they harder to
make now or easier? They're harder to make? In Quarantine, Um,
(35:08):
I was uh again just ordering pieces and they would
come and it was the wrong piece. Uh, you know,
I would order a lens I thought I needed and
turned out, you know, it just wasn't gonna wasn't gonna
work for the for the framing, and uh, you know
(35:30):
back in the day, you know, making them for our
c A. Of course, I had these great budgets about
eighty five dollars. And uh I worked with a video producer,
Brent Hedgecock, who really enabled me to be a director
when I wasn't really a director, but I got to
write the treatments. I would write out a treatment for
(35:52):
the video, and he would budget it out and he
would come back and he'd say, that's that's about a
three and the thousand dollar video. You've got to cut
more than two thousand, two thousand dollars worth of ideas
of this video. And that what happened every time. And
uh so we'ld finally get it, uh, get it down
(36:17):
to where it fit the budget, and we would go
shoot it. And he was so much fun to work with,
such a creative guy that when he no longer produced videos, UM,
I really lost my enthusiasm for it for a while,
and uh I really just kind of stopped. And then, uh,
(36:43):
you know when I started putting out these uh these
records on purpose and uh and this one, you know,
the management company the first video I didn't know while
I was this old house, which is an homage to
the Grand Ole Operty, and they Opery gave me access
to all or archival footage and so I went through everything,
and I put together a really nice piece that I
(37:07):
spoke to the opry in that old house and that
that family you know, you know, uh what a hundred
years and uh and I sent a copy to the
management company and uh. Now they came back and said,
this is great, this is really great. I love it
(37:30):
and uh and and they said, but we really think
you should be in it. I wasn't in it, and
uh and I was disappointed and just you know, a
big sigh. I said, no, really, I don't need to
be in it. And we went back and forth that
way for a while, and they finally convinced me that
(37:53):
I needed to be in it. And part of it
was I really didn't feel like I needed to be
in it. This was going to move people just by
watching all of these great, you know, opry moments. And
then the other part was I didn't know how I
was going to do it, How how was I going
to fit into this? And uh And so when I
(38:13):
agreed I was going to put myself in the video,
I started thinking and and at one moment I had
the idea that I could be the backstage guide and
uh and once that happened, the ideas started coming and
the Harry Potter you know, picture frames come to life
idea hit me and I called my editor, said, okay,
(38:39):
we have to do this. How easy is it going
to be? You know, what do we have to do
on the front end. So once once that happened, then
the creative juices were flowing, and I uh managed to
get it done. You know, I was looking back and
you can tell me if I'm wrong here. I'm going
from memory, but I look back because I had, like
everybody else, I had to kill in time tape and
(39:02):
so from the record Killing Time. But I don't think
that was was better Man. My recollection, it was better Man.
A single before Killing Time was Yeah. Actually, you know,
the first single was set to be straight from the
factory and uh, and I was worried about it in cities.
I knew it would go over in Texas and Oklahoma
(39:26):
and I was just kind of worried about it. And
we got to k z l A and Los Angeles
and Bob Gara was a program director and we're sitting
in his office and uh and and playing that song
and he stops the tape and he says, well, he
(39:46):
said I could add that if you get it into
the top twenty. So I knew what that meant. I
didn't I know a lot about the business yet, but
I also didn't know if it would be okay for
me to pull this tape I had in my pocket
it out and play him something from it. Um Carson
Schreiber was the promotion guy there, and I kind of
(40:10):
looked over at him and decided, I'm just gonna do it.
And I pulled out the tape and I said, uh,
I said, Bob popped us in and play the first song,
and it was a better Man. And that's what I
was thinking, you know, it would be a better first single,
but I just I let him play it. And at
the end of the first course, he stopped the tape
and said, I'll add that out of the box. So
(40:32):
we got out of there and called the head of
our c A and said, you know, here's what just happened.
And the decision was made on the spot to switch
to a Better Man. And how fast did that song
make you feel like you were firmly in the country
music community. It took a while, you know. I was
(40:54):
still traveling around in a twelve seater van pulling a
U haul trailer four or five hundred miles a day
a night, and uh and and so it was about
a seventeen week climb to number one. So we started
promoting it and I think late February and it peaked
(41:17):
in mid June. I think that's seventeen weeks. Uh. Anyway,
it uh it really it really seemed to be going
fast to me. But that was not a quick climb
back then. But it was rare for a debut single
(41:37):
to go to number one. And so I'm hearing all
these things, and you know, getting perspective by the time
that hit. I think I was. By the time it
really uh you know started a peak. I think I
was getting some slots opening for the juds and and
acts like that. So it started to feel more like
(42:01):
this is gonna work. I'm gonna make it. When you
guys decided to put out Killing Time second and the
song again, looking back at as my history, I feel
like Killing Time was even bigger than a Better Man.
Well it had, it had a step up on Better Man,
and uh, I think it was more of a honky
(42:23):
talk song and uh, you know, but again I'm I'm
stepping off of debut number one releasing that so, uh,
that song getting in and I think the promotion team
had a little easier time pushing that one out, so
it had a little bit of an advantage. But it's
(42:48):
it's also you know, it's a it's a different feel
and flavor and texture. Better man was kind of haggard, asked,
and killing time wasn't. I don't know what i'd call it,
but um, it form for me for my sensibilities. It
really it really felt like this is this is going
(43:12):
to You're going to get different things from me. It
was important to me that I had diversity, uh and
my body of work, and I felt like that song
really spoke to that. What was it like plotting a
tour back in the late eighties early nineties? Would you
have to use a phone book to call places? Like?
What on the bus? Would you have a phone book
(43:34):
to pull over in call places? Well? I had nothing
to do with that part of it. I had to
I just did interviews and showed up at radio stations
and and uh, you know, targets, etcetera. And uh, but yeah,
back then, you know we'd have to get to a
(43:56):
hotel room, get in there and and get on the
phone them and uh, you know, it was a while
before you know, I got that fifteen pounds cellular phone.
Did you ever do when you talk about targets and Walmart?
Did you ever go to one of these signings and
it got to the point where it was so crazy
because you had so many hits in a row. It
(44:18):
was crazy, It was you know, I've I've said recently,
you know that back then I was pretty level headed.
I I feel like I never got the big head
um and I treated everyone well. But I don't know,
because it was so crazy and I wasn't nearly as
(44:40):
comfortable with it as I am now. It took me
a long time to get used to being famous and
uh the center of attention and uh, you know, being
in the middle of chaos. Uh, it was it was
really hard to adapt to. So I would I felt
(45:04):
like I went from one chaotic moment to another. And
there were times where, uh, you know, we're doing nine
shows in a row, one day off, eight shows in
a row, one day off. I mean, they had me
really going and I was reaching the point of uh
(45:25):
really just the point of breaking. And uh, I told
my manager, I said, I'm not gonna last like this.
And you know, we have to have some spacing in there.
So you know, it ended up getting two days off.
But I've been that doing interviews and stuff, you know, so, uh,
it was really taking a toll on my vocal cords.
(45:48):
And I tried to tell him, you know, listen to
my listen to my melodies, and listen to my songs.
You know, I'm not Joe Cocker. I can't. I can't
sing these things with a raspy voice, and I can't
hit those high notes. Uh, if I'm worn out. You know,
you were talking talking about Dancing with the Stars earlier.
I was I didn't know that you were on the
(46:09):
second season of The Apprentice back in the day. What
was that like two thousand four during the Apprentice, it
was it was really I didn't know what I was
getting into. I saw a clipper two um, and you know,
to me it was going to be going on. Some
people were gonna be jerks, you know, but we're going
(46:29):
to go on and do these tasks. And I like
those kinds of challenges. So so I agreed to do it.
And uh it was eighteen and a half hours a
day every day but Sunday for five and a half weeks. Um,
and some of the people were really hard to be around.
(46:50):
Others were great to be around and uh and so
I quickly realized that I don't really have I don't
have a strong enough desire to win this thing to
compromise who I am, and I would have had to
do that. I Uh, I felt like, you know, uh
(47:14):
calling up people I know and and and asking them
for money. I didn't like. I didn't feel like it
was great for the charity. I didn't win a lot
of money for my charity. You know, I made more
for my charity in two days after that than I
did in five and a half weeks. And uh and
(47:36):
so I changed. I decided that my goal was gonna
be to to to keep my behavior and check and
to maintain my standard of character and uh not let
anyone draw me into bad behavior. That was my goal.
(47:58):
That became right. I'm gonna do my best with the
tasks I'm gonna I'm gonna really limit you know, calling
up people and asking them for money. Uh and uh
and I'm just going to try to get through this
without letting someone uh bring out the worst in me.
(48:21):
And I ended up. You know, I was this place,
I was there right through the end, and uh, yeah,
proud of the way I handled it, but it was
it was it was disgusting. You know, there was some
some behavior and that that that was just really hard
(48:46):
to watch. Well. On on a lighter note, we're gonna
do one old and one new, and I want to
start with I want to run a few things, a
few song titles that I love by you, and just
a quick sentence or two about you know what that
song at that time kind of reminds you of. We'll
start with when my Ship comes in. Mm hmmm. Uh.
(49:08):
The first thing I thought of was shooting the video
for that and uh, you know the the T shirt
on the sailboat and uh it was it was forty
degrees and they had a hurricane fan on the so
so it's so it's it's kind of apropos since the
(49:31):
song is about you know, being in Colorado, uh and
waiting for your ship to come in. The whole reason
that song came about was because of a skip viewing
song called the Coast of Colorado and Hayden and I said,
you know, let's let's let's jump off from there. And
the other part of it was I'm a big Jimmy
(49:53):
Buffett fan and and I wanted, uh, you know, Gulf
of Mexico came out of that, you know, love for
his music, and uh and the style, the feeling a
shift came out of that too. How about a good
run of bad Luck? Haydon and I were We're in
a hotel in Toronto. It was it was crazy snow blizzard. Uh,
(50:22):
we had a little time, so we decided to try
to write a couple of songs. We wrote Tuckered Out
and good Run of bad Luck and uh, good Run
of bad Luck. We knew what we wanted to say,
but we wanted to make sure we had some good lingo.
And I played Caesar's Palace a lot, so I thought,
you know, they'll know me there if I called. And
(50:43):
I called and and got him to put me through
to one of the pit bosses and at the blackjack tables,
and I got him on the phone and uh, and
so I started, uh, you know, just trying to get
slang out of him, and uh, you know, I'd say like,
you know, what do you guys, what do you guys
(51:04):
call the high rollers? And he said rollers. Okay, I
got that one, and I asked him another question and
it would be kind of the same thing. So it
got us pretty much nothing, but we we started writing
down all of the gambling stuff we could think of
(51:24):
and just launched into writing one more from back in
the day, like the rain. Sitting in UH. I had
had a house. My first house here in Nashville was
way up north of town, and I needed to get
into town because it was just too much driving. So
I found some uh condo. I was in a high
(51:46):
rise condo and in Nashville, and Lisa and I were
sitting looking out the window at Highway seventy and it
was just poor in rain and she loved it, and uh,
I really have had enough for rain in Houston. So
(52:07):
UH Now I started playing, thinking, you know, what's what's
rain music sound like? And I started playing that chord
progression of the verse and came up with the first verse.
I said, Okay, that's that's enough. I'm gonna I'll get
with Hayden next chance we'll get and we're right that.
(52:28):
I want to ask you about the new record, and
we'll end with this. By the way, if you're listening
right now, Clint's web store brand new album focused merchandise
that pre sell autographed copies of the album, pre sell
c ds vinyl, go to Clinton Black dot com slash store,
and I guess about the new record. I wonder, you know,
just as as someone who creates myself, like you don't
(52:49):
have to produce the whole thing. You don't have to
play get you don't have to do all of the
intricate things that you're doing. Why do you keep doing
it to save money? H Uh? It's uh, you know.
I I from the first demos Hayden and I made
where uh you know, he showed me how he used
(53:11):
an eight track tape recorder to get as many tracks
on there as possible. I became interested in that when
about six or seven, I looked into meeting the guys
with Digit Design, who created pro Tools, and they set
me up in our place in l A down in
(53:33):
the basement with the pro tools gear and baby sat
me through. I made a test it for them. I'd
find problems they had come to fix them. And so
I was using pro Tools and learning more and more
about engineering. So when we got this new place in Nashville,
I built a studio and uh and really started becoming
(53:56):
more and more a student of engineering. So I can
sit and work by myself and do a lot of it,
and uh, and I enjoy it. It's uh, it's a challenge,
but it's a creative outlet. And the result is there's
just it's just more of me going into my music
(54:18):
as much of an expression of myself as I can make. Um.
You know, I feel it'll be a better end result,
or at least it will be more me, as much
of my taste in music, my sentiments, my Uh, you
know what, I would like to hear the songs when
(54:40):
I'm writing them, you know, they they're talking to me already,
telling me what they want and uh. And then when
I create the cut the basic track with a band,
they're really talking then. And so uh, it's more satisfying
to give the song it wants or needs myself and
(55:02):
to hire someone to do it. Well. I really appreciate
the time. Good luck with the new record, and it
will be your twenty three album, wow, except for at
least June nine, And Clint promises it will be out
June nineteenth, So we're not moving it. It's gonna be
out June nineteenth, dang it. So it is. It's great
talking to you. This was this is interesting. Um, I
(55:26):
never know what that means. When someone says this is interesting,
you're like interesting good or interesting bad? Or what? Well,
I'm saying interesting good. You know. I knew I could
give you the long answers and ramble around to find
the point I was making because it's a podcast. But
you're also asking different questions that make me think more
(55:48):
and go in depth to things, and uh uh you know.
I mean I remember joking in the old days about um,
you know, some questions are how did you and Mark
O'Connor do that harmonica fiddle swap and live and learn
and and how did that come together? And then there
were the other questions, which were why the hat? Is
(56:11):
that what you wanted? Clint? Why the hat? Yeah? Why that? Well?
I finally came up with the answer to that question,
why do you wear a black hat? And it hit me.
I know now, it's because it makes my head look thinner.
I need to wear a black hat. I've had a
big head in my whole life when I was a kid.
When I was a young kid, my mom would have
to cut slits into the sides of my t shirts
(56:32):
to get my head to go through because it was
abnormally large. Oh man, I just had to make room
for all those brains. Yeah, I guess. I guess. Also
one of my best friends. And because we're gonna play
some of this on my my radio show too, because
I'm such a big fan and I'm gonna, you know,
do radio and podcasts. This is gonna be used everywhere
and even the Countdown. So um. But one of my
(56:52):
dearest friends named Eddie, and he was just recently asked
on the National Show if he could quarantine with one artist,
who would it be? And he picked you, Clint Black.
And I saw that, I saw your tweet that I
was just curious what it's like saying, you know, Clint
and I have nothing in common? And I'm thinking, yeah,
we do. And then I went, no, wait a minute.
(57:14):
I wasn't even my first concert. We have nothing in common?
What what do you do during quarantine? Like? What are
you doing all? What are you watching? Like? What can
I give to him to show him that you guys
probably do have some stuff in common? Uh? Well, I'm uh,
I've watched everything on Netflix. We watched Ozark, me too,
(57:37):
every movie, um, you know love, Uh you know, I've
watched the uh documentaries that uh, Ray Romano made on
building a stand up act, and that Jerry Seinfeld did
on or he took you all the way back to
his first joke at the place he told it and
went through all of his old material, and then his
(58:00):
documentary on uh on building his new material. So I
love to follow that stuff. Um, you know, I'm I'm
betting he's an Andy Griffiths fan. Of course we all are,
but uh, you know, for for the oh, Bosh, Bosch
on Amazon Prime is the best detective show ever. If
(58:25):
you want to watch a show where the guy's not
uh you know, you know, swinging off the side of
a train, throwing grenades inside to kill the bad guys,
you know, a real detective show. Um, bosh, I'm gonna
pass all that to Eddie and tell him this what
you two would be doing watching Bosch and Ray Romano
right for his first joke. That's it, Clint, then we
(58:47):
were we were made for each other for Quarantine. All right,
I'll let you get back to your life, but I'm
again I'm a massive fan. Thank you for your time
and good luck with the record, and man, just uh
just keep being awesome. Hey, thanks you too. A big fan,
big fan of yours and uh I really enjoyed this. Thanks, thanks,
(59:08):
talk Hopefully I'll talked to you and let's get out
there and work again soon alright, hopefully ill see you soon, hope.
So ay by bye, thank you, bye,
M h Welcome to episode two forty two. We'll talk
to Clint Black and just a little bit. Always fun
to talk to people you love when you were a
kid who's got new music out too. But we definitely
get into a lot of the nineties stuff before we
turn the mics on here, Mike, you had asked me
if I had heard the new Dixie Chick song, and
I haven't because I guess the song came out today, right.
(00:21):
I woke up today and for the first time in
five years, I want to play golf today. Eddie and
Amy hasn't been and I wouldn't play it. So I
haven't really done anything. I just you know, we're gonna
go over music here, but I'm just not feeling a
lot of music right now, oddly for a music podcast.
I don't know if if it's because I'm really not
listening to as much music because I'm not commuting ever um,
(00:43):
or if nothing's really hitting me right now. And we'll
go through some new stuff, maybe some of this stuff
will hit you. But I was more excited talk to
Clint Black about the nineties than I have anything new
coming out today. You know. Um, I think a lot
of people are feeling that way right now. Once we
get back to uh what normal, I think some of
our normal habits will kind of kicked back in. But
(01:04):
have you been listening to new music at all? This week?
Is probably like the first week I started listening to
some new stuff. What did you listen to that's new? Um?
I listened to like, I've been listening to Machine Gun
Kelly a lot. And you put out a new song
today and I was checking it out and it's weird
because I know him as a rapper, but a lot
of the stuff he's putting out is a lot more
alternative sounding. Is he's singing, yeah, and he's playing guitar
(01:25):
a lot, So I like the sound everybody being post
Malone now basically pretty much like he didn't never, He
didn't have that sound before. Now it's like he's on
alternative radio. It's weird. I gotta feel like post Malone
created that space. Like rapper, but you can also do
rock if you're not to play guitar, Yeah, using real instruments.
That's all. Yeah, that's all him. Alright, Well, let's start
(01:46):
with some new music out this week, and I we'll
start with the Dixie Chicks song because you had brought
that up to me. The Dixie Chicks were supposed to
put a gas lighter the whole album m It was
the first record of fourteen years, but it's been has
been pushed back in definitely because of Corona. But they
did about this new song, and it is called Julianna. Julianna, Julianna, Julianna.
You said Julianna. Somehow you said Julianna. I hear is Julianna.
(02:10):
Calm down. I guess this is the time to remind
you sometimes what's going through your head. It's just a
temperate situation and I would soon be shared. Just put on,
put on, put on your best shoes, and stra to
(02:34):
fucking round like you've got nothing to lose. Shoot off,
shoot off, shoot off your best moves, and do it
with a smile, so then no one knows it's put on,
put on, put on vibe. I can't really find the
chorus because I'm hearing it from a random time. Is
that the chorus? Like that part towards like maybe twenty
(02:54):
seconds into the chorus, put on, put on and Katie
calm down. You know it sounds like a slightly country
Florence in the Machine. Oh yeah, it kind of does.
But I was hearing again and I was going, right,
what am I hearing here? Pay play that from the
beginning again, just with a clip. Guess this is the
(03:15):
time to remind you sometimes what's going through your head.
It's just a temperate situation. Do you hear that like
the Florence Welch kind of? I mean, yeah, yeah, I'll
probably like that. I can't tell from hearing this one
clip of a song, but that sounds like like my
(03:36):
kind of vibe. They're oddly hard to get a hold of,
meaning they didn't want to be interviewed or they don't
want me to interview them. And I think I've been
one of the biggest advocates, oddly, but I can't get
any of them to talk to me, which is weird
because usually that's not the not the case, it's the opposite.
People are trying to get on because of, you know,
the platform that we have. So but the Dixie Chick
(03:56):
has been weird because I've been like pro Dixie Chick
forever and they just have like we're gonna wait from Boby.
Weren't talking to him? Uh, I don't know why. Let's
go here and Now from Kenny Chesney. This is record nineteen.
Is that right? Here's the title track, here and now now,
(04:17):
nowhere in this world, and here's a song called Everyone
she Knows She's and the medico down mood. She's sick
to something love but the letters just too cold. She's
a mar Jeans. I mean it definitely sounds like Kenny.
(04:40):
That's crazy. At the nineteen records, I mean, Kenny was out,
you know, he started some of those guys that are
just called nineties country. We're still around kicking and they're
considered nineties country. But Kenny started then as well and
has managed to continue. Look out. When his first record
came out, I think I think I looked at it earlier.
It was like ninety one. I want to say, wow,
was it? I was looking to all his albums earlier,
(05:01):
just to make sure. Like Kenny and McGraw are two
guys where if they had stopped after a few big
records or had kind of petered out, they'd be considered
legacy acts. But they have just continued to produce, continue
to put out hits. Man, if it was nine one,
I'll be shocked and see studio albums even then says
(05:25):
early Wow, Wow, good for him. I like Kenny. I
got to set with Kenny wants or sit with Kenny
on stage and it was just him and I and
he played acoustic the whole time and we were talking
to interviews and make jokes and stuff. But he's a
just a really good singer. You know, when you think
of the big singers, you don't think of Kenny Chessen
that you think of a guy Kenn. He just puts
(05:46):
out the beach hits and but just sitting there acoustic
with the guitar, it was surprisingly good. The k is
Silent from Hot Country Nights. This is Dirk Spentley's nineties
influenced comedy band. This was always a bit difficult because
the songs are pretty good. They're even good and funny,
(06:06):
but it was always weird to talk to them on
radio because it's such a visual thing and I would
feel like sometimes it wouldn't come across like I wanted
it to on radio because unless you could see them,
you really weren't getting the joke because it just sounds
like Dirk dark manly making jokes, and so that was
this was always the thing that we had to juggle
on the radio with Dirk's as Doug Douglason because he
(06:28):
would come on and be moderately funny, but what he
was wearing was hilarious. But people can't see what he's
wearing when they're listening to live, so that was always
a juggle for me. I would imagine they're kind of
done with this project at this point, especially they were
gonna go on a little tour, but that got cut,
as did everybody else's. But they had songs that were good,
that were aside from the funniness of it, had good hooks.
(06:50):
Here is Sorry, Hot Country Nights with Travis Tritt a
song called pick Her Up Up, Dance Around. You know
what's funny is the three artists we've talked about so far,
(07:12):
and then we're gonna get to Clint Black in a
second Dixie Chicks nineties two thousand's Kenny Chats and he
started in right what he said, And then Derk Spanley's
band is that nineties uh pop parody band? I mean
that nineties. It's the real retro in vogue thing right now.
(07:34):
Either you came from the nineties and you're making a
new sound or you're new and you're making a nineties sound.
As long as you've got some feeling of the nineties,
people are like, oh, I accept that, that's pretty cool.
Do you feel that at all? Why is that though?
The nineties? Well, I think that's when country music went
massively mainstream, so all the big stars are there. You
think it will ever shift to a different decade or
(07:55):
is just something about the nineties. I think it's that
that was the Garth, Brooks and Done. I mean, I
think for a while it was probably the sixties. I
don't know there was ever a seventies and eighties boom
maybe you know, but but nineties, and I don't think
the two thousands were great just generally speaking. I think
it's you know, the most songs. When you think of
(08:16):
all those massive songs from the nineties, I mean McGraw, Garth,
Dixie Chicks, even you know, Chesney, Joe, Diffy, Clinton Black,
We're Gonna I mean, it was just a really good
time for country music. A lot of money was going
in to support it because they were seeing that it
can make a lot of money. So I can't see
the two thousands. Maybe you know, you have like a
(08:37):
Luke Combs tribute band, later in like maybe which Luke
has a new song out too. That's interesting. Now I'm
gonna think about that. Why the nineties A couple of reasons.
When I think the age of all the people making
decisions were nineties listeners. The adults now we're big nineties kids.
So the people that are making the decision as adults,
the music that's getting made, the the artists for a
(09:00):
lot of them, or nineties influence. I think that's probably
what it is. And then the stars that's the biggest
generation of country stars. Luke Hombs has officially released six
ft Apart. We played the YouTube version a couple of
weeks ago, but this song is up to stream. Mom,
(09:21):
Mr Mystery. You know, I saw the title of this,
and I think I mentioned this on last week's podcast.
I thought, how in the world is he gonna do
a song that's not cheesy about quarantine? Because I've heard
(09:42):
a hundred of them and they're almost all cheesy. This
is a pretty good one. I mean, everything he writes
right now just turns into gold. I played the all right,
He played the Opery and I was hosting it last
week and it was great. He played this at the
Opery last week, kept More put out a new song
called Crazy for You Tonight Mama, Yeah, Crazy Crazy. Brett
(10:09):
Young put out a new song called Lady. Here's Brett
Young just back your Mama and love can do. You'll
see close to perfect patience. If you want your every move,
you can always run into daddy. Let gonna see what
else we got here? I guess some other stuff. Um,
(10:31):
what's your favorite on the list here? I don't want
to go through all these what's your favorite on the
list that we haven't played? Why do you see your
machine gun? Kelly song? Kelly? We here this one. I
don't do freak off, but I'll take song from mute.
It does sound like uh, fall out boy. It meets
like an angry blank one rock Field. Yeah, it does
(10:53):
street this night. That you have any jack that's straight
alternative stuff that's not that's crazy. I would never guess
that was a machine on Kelly. Huh. I mean that
sounds like your style though, yeah, very much so. It
sounds like it sounds like he showed up late for
Warp Tour about five years like his style is a
little a little beyond that. But he could have fit
(11:13):
in Marshmallow and Halsey. I saw them laying on the
ground together on Instagram. I guess like a promotion for
this song. This is called be Kind alright, alright, alright,
um let's see if there's anything else I want it.
(11:34):
I'll just mentioned some of this um him him him.
I thought it was Hime, but when I got no
reaction back to him him him. The three sisters they
have a I know alone. I don't need to play that.
Gabby Barrett has a song featuring Shane and Shane. I
don't know what Shane and Shane is. I thought it
was like a Shane and Shane company, like a jewelry company.
(11:57):
Do you ever see that car from It's a Cren duo?
Oh it is. Yeah, imagine both our names, Shane, Shane
and Shane. All right. Hardy has a new song called Boots.
Let me hear a little bit of Mitchell Tinpennies cover
of Someone You Loved by Louis Capaldi. Now the Dedly
Far Okay, start, let's start it over and I I
(12:21):
like Mitchell. No, Mitchell a little bit? Is he using
auto tune on this? Yeah? You can hear it. I
thought so too. It's like, man, if you're gonna chase
one of these really big vocal songs, and he's a
good singer. Let me hear this again, Yeah, you can
hear it. Kind of tin odd choice of a song
to pick if you have to use auto tune. By
(12:43):
the way, everybody has pitched shifted a little bit. I've
only known a couple of artists that go in and go,
don't touch it. My vocal that's carries one of them current.
They'll maybe they'll put some effect on it. They don't
pitch shift her vocal. It's very noticeable. Wow. Um, I
mean I would read idiot stuff. I would just put
shifted all of it. So like, yeah, we're doing this.
If everybody knows like Emoji Love song, I think a
(13:06):
lot of that. We just were like, instead of having
fixed little parts, shift the whole thing so people know.
It's very obviously not the live version, but the studio version.
By the way, yes, I'm comparing Emoji Love talking about
raging idiots too. Let's see and Hardy has any song
called boots Um The alt country band American Aquarium. Now,
I don't know who they are, but are they good?
(13:27):
I kind of like the sound. Yeah, I wouldn't have
thought you to put this up if you didn't think
it was cool. Yeah, I heard it. I was like,
I could probably see myself listening. Right. Let me hold
the country band American Aquarium. All right, I'm into it.
They have a new album out called Lamentations. Lamentations. Okay,
here's a song called the Luckier You Get. Let me
see if I dig it. It's it sounds a little
(13:55):
bit like Tom Petty and the and the waff Flowers,
The Wallflowers meets the wall Flowers, Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers meets the wall Flowers. When I'm trying to say,
Tom Petty also as an album called wild Flower. Thank
I got all these in my head, but I would
say it's like the wall Flowers meets Tom Petty. That's cool,
all right, all right, I'm stay hearing. Yeah. Tom Petty's
(14:23):
album Wildflower, I can't talk. Wild Flowers is one of
my favorite records. I just want to make sure I
said that right. Were you ever a Tom Petty fan?
Not really? The song you belong the wild Flowers never
love the other one, I don't think so that's a
good one. And then you don't know how it feels. No,
(14:44):
you don't know how it feels to be me that one.
I know that one. Yeah, that's a good one. Let's
see what else is on you wreck Me Baby, Doom Doom,
you wrecked me into you know that one. Let's see
I got that song. It's so it's fine. No, that's her,
it's fire, that's her and dead that is not petty
(15:06):
you read me? Yeah, that's a jam here this one.
I don't know this one. God, this reminds me I'm
not even interested in new music. I would sit here
on this record for a long time. That's what we
should do. We should break down our favorite albums and
all the songs on it. Because I'm looking at this
like track five, it's good to be king. It's good
(15:27):
to be king, if just for a day. So if
you know this one, let's see f I don't think
so when your bulldog barks and your canary things now, Yeah,
(15:55):
this is a jam jam album. Top twenty album from
me here for sure, to be key it just for
a while, to be there in velvet. Yeah, to give
him a smile. Nothing nothing, man, you're missing out. Never
(16:16):
come down. All right, Well that's it. We want to
update your new music and um also we're gonna to
play this Clint Black Interview. What can I stun't believe? Today?
I was having the sun today for four hours playing golf,
and I think the sun is not cooperating on my
body at this point because it's been months since I've
seen it one day. I think I'm overdosing. I'm vitamin d. Okay,
(16:38):
here we'll take a little break, come back with Clint Black. Enjoy. Hey,
Clint's Bobby. How's it going? Hey, Bobby Twill it's going nowhere? Yeah,
that I get I felt I saw today it was
like day fifty with no boards to day four. I
(17:01):
mean it does feel like a big old blurd, doesn't it. Yeah,
it starts to just not matter what day of the
week it is. Well before we get rolling here, we're
already rolling before we get like moving through. I just
want to tell you I'm a and I think I've
I've mentioned this to you before, but I'm just a
massive fan of yours, so it's it's really exciting for
me to get to talk to you. Well. Thanks, you know,
(17:21):
I'm a fan of yours, but I really wasn't a
massive fan until I saw you dance. Well you probably yeah,
that that isn't a good look for me with you,
so we'll we'll move away from that. I was asked
to do that show a couple of times, and uh,
there's it's just absolutely no way on earth your brave man. Well,
(17:44):
you know, obviously you have the chops too. I would
have Uh, I only dance the silly dance to make
my family laugh. I feel like that's what I should do,
just only the silly dance. Well, you know, I'm excited
to see that you're putting on a new record. Now,
hey tell me about out of saying, because I was
thinking about this, is that the is that the opposite
(18:04):
of insane? Out of saying? You know, it's actually uh,
they're multiple interpretations of that, and uh, it really comes
from a little you know, play online from one of
the songs. Uh. Song title is what I knew then, um,
and the line is uh a little in and out
(18:26):
of saying. So I didn't like any of the song titles.
I usually will name an album after one of the
song titles that sums it up. I didn't like any
of them for that, the same with my last album
on Purpose. So I just scoured the lyrics for something
that made sense. And and when I when I thought
(18:49):
of that, when I thought, it's just you know, serious,
seriously speaking um that you know, the writing of songs,
are creating a music is really you know, born out
of out of sanity, and uh. And then you go
through the recording process and by the time it's down
(19:10):
to all the music's recorded, and now I'm trying to
mix it and make sure scientifically everything has its place
and it's going to sound good on any system it's
played on it, it just becomes a science. And it's
just it's really kind of borders on insanity at that point.
(19:31):
It's no longer this art form. It's a science. And
and and it's just five hours of sleep at night
and working on that, you know, for eighteen hours a day.
And by the time I get to the end of
making an album, there's a reason I don't only do
one about every five years. Now, m I'm getting no sleep.
(19:53):
I've wanted to be over and so I start out
saying and end up insane. And uh. And I thought
that really it really sums it up. When I always
wanted to use that photo for the cover with that
American flag guitar of mine, and I thought that that
(20:14):
also brings in another interpretation, because it seems our country,
you know, is a little in and out of saying
and uh, just depending on what cycle we're in. So
I thought, this is this is a title that anybody
can see any any way they want for their own uses.
But for me, it spoke to the album. It spoke
(20:35):
to the process, which you know, it's not iron work,
which I've done, uh, but it's uh, but it gets
to be grueling at one point just uh need to
need to call it finished, but not until it's right well,
(20:56):
the full album except for a June nineteenth, really east
and you know we're six or so weeks out from that.
Do you feel like any of this it's happening now
is going to affect that release date or are you
determined that that's the date the projects coming out? Oh,
we're firm, We're firm on it. Uh. We've got the
video of the the second and third uh instant grat
(21:17):
tracks or or lined up and ready to go. It's
all in the system. And I've just gotten my little
I'm going to call it a broadcast studio, it's my
recording studio. But I've finally gotten all the elements. You know,
it's hardest. There's a lot of stuff like this is
back ordered. You know. I needed a converter to go
(21:38):
from my um uh, you know, my four K camera
into the computer to use it, you know, for live streaming,
and also wanted to tie that in a pro tools.
So it's been this step by step process of getting
the point where I can start live streaming and and
(21:58):
promoting the album from my studio. I've been watching this
The Last Dance, which is the Bulls documentary. I think
they've put out four episodes now, and you know it's
about you know, Michael Jordan's his his final season with
the Bulls, and they do this really cool thing where
they go back in time, current, back in time, current,
that kind of thing, and if you'll, um, you know,
(22:19):
kind of indulge me a little bit. I like to
do that now where I want to talk about new
stuff and they kind of do a flashback and then
come back and forth with a new project. Will you
indulge me in this this type of all right, perfect,
We'll see how it goes. Um. I Like, you had
a lot of jobs before I kind of got into
what I'm doing now, where I worked, I worked at
a marina and did bait work. As what you were?
(22:41):
Were you a bait cutter? What was that job about?
That was my uh one of the guys that my
management company. When he was taking down stuff about me,
you know what I what I done. He was basically
putting together a simple bio and uh and he laughed
(23:01):
and said, I'm gonna put because I was an iron worker,
I worked in security, uh as a consultant salesman and
uh sold security services and I actually did and I starved,
but uh, um, you know I had uh you know,
I was a newspaper solicitor, had a paper route as
(23:22):
a kid, you know. And he he laughed and said,
I'm gonna put down bake cutter and fishing guide and
I laughed and uh and then suddenly it's in a
newspaper and it went everywhere, and so it was. It
was not true, and I thought he was kidding. But
(23:43):
you know, they had managed rock and roll acts and uh,
I was their first country act. And I think maybe
you know, they like Kenny Loggins told me once he said,
when I'm not doing anything interesting, I'm paraphrasing. He said,
I'll make stuff up and say I'm some where I'm
not and uh, Steffter, he told me that I was.
(24:05):
I was doing an interview over the phone, and and uh,
the interviewer asked me, so where are you calling from.
I said, I'm in Barbados. Really, what are you doing
in Barbados? And I said, I'm not really in Barbados.
I couldn't even do it. That's funny. So you never
(24:25):
wear a bait cutter, but now it's it's that's been
part of your bio legacy all these years. Yep, yep,
people still want to want me to tell them where
the fish are. That's funny because I literally was a
bait cutter, and I don't put that in my bio anymore.
I was a cricket grabber because I would I would
shovel crickets into tubes for people. I would cut bait.
I would catch shad and give them out. I was
(24:45):
a bit of a small small time fishing guide. And man,
maybe I should put that in my bio. People ask
me about that because I was really interested to hear
that story. You know, you want that word to get around.
So when this job falls a part on you, you
know you'll have some her to go, people of demand
will be there. I wonder, you know, as you have
this new record, we're weeks away from it coming out,
(25:07):
and you know you are a guitar player, are you
Are you playing lead on the record. I played most
of the yeah, most of the electric guitar stuff. I
do some slide doough bro and electric slide? Yeah do you.
Finally started that with the Nothing but the tail Ights
album when Stroud heard my demos and he said, you
(25:28):
should play guitar on this. Well, Haydon Nicholas, my lead
guitar player, really got me started when we're writing songs
one day and he said, you know, with your fingerpicking style,
you can play licks like this Ray Flack stuff. And
I laughed and laughed and uh, he said no really,
and he taught me some things to practice, and I
went home and got a little, you know, out of
(25:49):
a sequencer, call it a metronome, and I started practicing
slowly and sped it up until I was convinced I
can play stuff like this, And so I played most
of the everything but three songs on Nothing but the
tail Lights and uh, and then I did the Electrify,
which was all acoustic, and there wasn't much to do there,
(26:11):
and then I started doing it again, and on the
On Purpose album, I really dug into it and made
myself take on a lot of that work. Whereas you know,
I might reach out to Hayden to hurry it along,
or her, Steve Warner or Brent Mason because they can
do it in a flash. And uh, I decided, I'm
(26:33):
going to take the time. It takes me longer, but
if I can make myself happy as the producer artist,
and I'm gonna do it. And uh so it's it's
it's really satisfying and and and it's been a really
uh it's been a real you know, i'd like you'd
(26:58):
learn to think you're gonna get better with age, right,
and the fact that I can play guitar solos on
Tuckered Out Now, which is our burn burner, really convinced
me that there's still room for growth, but I have
to work really hard for it. I'm gonna run some
numbers by you here, uh the numbers. You were chosen
(27:20):
by People magazine. It's one of the fifty most beautiful
people in the entire world. How vivid is that memory
when you got that call? You know, what I just
slashed on all the makeup and wardrobe it took to
earn that title. You know, It's funny. I can't even remember,
(27:42):
you know, I can't even remember that so much was
happening to me, coming at me, uh, happening for me. Um.
I remember now that you say it, that that I
was given that, But no, I can't remember that feeling. Um.
You know, I I imagine I'm on the bus with
(28:03):
the band and and and they're all mocking me. That's
probably what we were doing. Whenever something like that that's
outside of the country genre happens, because that's very mainstream,
do you start to hear from other people that you
thought you would never hear from that, to go, hey
I saw you and People Magazine. I also like what
you're doing. I just haven't reached out yet. No, not
(28:26):
in not really in that way I would. I would
meet people outside my genre. I assume you're talking about
other artists, yeah, artists and actors, anyone that was like,
hey I saw you People Magazine. Yeah. Yeah, But it
was never it was never clear to me that one
thing was happening because of the other. I would meet
people like Gary Shandling at when he was hosting the Grammys,
(28:49):
and he said, hey, you should do my show. You
should come on and let's goop around. And so I
did his show and and UH ended up going and
playing basketball over his house every Sunday for you know,
quite a while, and mean a lot of people over there.
I think that's how Kevin Nealon and I became friends. Um,
(29:11):
I'm you know, I've met Eric Idol because uh Lisa
worked with a fitness trainer who trained Eric's wife and UH,
and so I said, Uh, I said, hey, would you
give this phone number two uh to Tanya and uh
(29:33):
and see if I'm gonna record a Monty Python song,
see if if he would be willing to do something
on it. And so that led to working with him,
uh and becoming friends with him, and then meeting people
through him, other comedians and actors and and and it
(29:55):
just never it never, I never, I never really knew. Okay, well,
this is because of my music or it's just because
I reached out or met someone through someone else. You
have twenty two number one singles. What's the when you
(30:15):
play the first look of what song? Do people react
a loud as to uh? Well that killing time lick
on the intro is pretty definitive. Better man is really recognizable.
And those were you know, those were huge for me,
Like The Rain. Of course, I don't do the intro
(30:37):
lick in concert. From Like the Rain, I wrote another
little uh acoustic guitar piece that I do on the
front end of that, and then when I start singing it,
they know and nothing but the tails that licks really recognizable. Um.
With some of these songs that you play, and you
(30:58):
have played for you know this at this point for
thirty years, do you ever go, man, I want to
switch up this arrangement because I'm I'm kind of bored
with playing the same song over and over and over again,
Like you want to play it for the fans, but
you want to switch it up a little bites. Has
that happen at all? Yeah, I'm really careful about that.
I I keep in mind that they have some ownership
in it and uh an attachment and and so you know,
(31:23):
I'm a music fan. When I see someone in concert,
I've seen that happen and not liked it. I've also
seen it and liked it. Um. I've done that on
records where I did a version of put Yourself in
my shoes, a real slow blues version with a twelve
piece horn section instead of harmonica, and uh, I did
(31:47):
that for the second Greatest Hits Extra Tracks. And I
did a version of No Time to Kill with Bruce Hornsby.
That was a real funky version, and I played around
with a bad goodbye and I felt, uh, I felt
some liberties with that because I wasn't doing it with Whinnona,
(32:08):
so the song wasn't gonna be what it was anyway.
I messed around with a a different arrangement, but I'm careful.
I try to be careful about it. The new song
that I was listening to before I called you is
America Still in Love with You. I want to play
a little bit of that real quick, and I'm gonna
ask a couple of thoughts about it. Here's a clip
of America I Still in love with You. I'm still
(32:30):
in love with you in spite of all arabs and
down we've done a separate ways, we've come back around.
So even when you wrote that with Steve Warnery, yep,
So tell me about that day when you guys go
into the room to do this, well, Steve had been
(32:52):
coming over. We've been doing stuff together, just hanging out.
He would come by for one reason or another and uh,
and and every time I say you, you didn't bring
your new Steve Warner gretch. I ordered one and it
was taken a while to get it, and I hadn't
seen his and oh, I forgot. And so one day
(33:13):
I said, well, you just have to come over with
the intent of bringing that guitar so you won't forget it.
So he came over one day just to show me that,
and we were playing around with it. And after we
had after we've played around for a while, I said, Uh.
I said, oh, I had this uh new song idea.
I've got it and I told it to him and
it was kind of the basics of the chorus. Uh,
(33:37):
sounds like a love song, you know, to a to
a woman, and you get to the end of the
chorus and America is the lady. And he just reacted perfectly.
Just couldn't. I didn't see that coming, And yeah, we
gotta write that and uh and I just launched into it.
I said, what what could we do musically? And we
(33:59):
started playing around on it. We just go right in
literally standing around the kitchen of the then off the kitchen,
and once I saw that we had a structure and
a direction on the versus, I started texting musicians to
(34:19):
see who was available, and within about four days we
were all in the studio recording it. And I knew
I had to hurry in order to make the deadline
for this album. And I wanted it to be on
the album. Uh my love of the song and the message,
but also it just went so well with the cover
(34:40):
and uh, it just has to be on there. Literally
made it about the same day as my deadline's got
the master delivered. Well, the videos out too now, so
people can check out in all of the song. But America,
I still in Love with You. The music video is out,
so man still making the videos. Are they harder to
make now or easier? They're harder to make? In Quarantine, Um,
(35:08):
I was uh again just ordering pieces and they would
come and it was the wrong piece. Uh, you know,
I would order a lens I thought I needed and
turned out, you know, it just wasn't gonna wasn't gonna
work for the for the framing, and uh, you know
(35:30):
back in the day, you know, making them for our
c A. Of course, I had these great budgets about
eighty five dollars. And uh I worked with a video producer,
Brent Hedgecock, who really enabled me to be a director
when I wasn't really a director, but I got to
write the treatments. I would write out a treatment for
(35:52):
the video, and he would budget it out and he
would come back and he'd say, that's that's about a
three and the thousand dollar video. You've got to cut
more than two thousand, two thousand dollars worth of ideas
of this video. And that what happened every time. And
uh so we'ld finally get it, uh, get it down
(36:17):
to where it fit the budget, and we would go
shoot it. And he was so much fun to work with,
such a creative guy that when he no longer produced videos, UM,
I really lost my enthusiasm for it for a while,
and uh I really just kind of stopped. And then, uh,
(36:43):
you know when I started putting out these uh these
records on purpose and uh and this one, you know,
the management company the first video I didn't know while
I was this old house, which is an homage to
the Grand Ole Operty, and they Opery gave me access
to all or archival footage and so I went through everything,
and I put together a really nice piece that I
(37:07):
spoke to the opry in that old house and that
that family you know, you know, uh what a hundred
years and uh and I sent a copy to the
management company and uh. Now they came back and said,
this is great, this is really great. I love it
(37:30):
and uh and and they said, but we really think
you should be in it. I wasn't in it, and
uh and I was disappointed and just you know, a
big sigh. I said, no, really, I don't need to
be in it. And we went back and forth that
way for a while, and they finally convinced me that
(37:53):
I needed to be in it. And part of it
was I really didn't feel like I needed to be
in it. This was going to move people just by
watching all of these great, you know, opry moments. And
then the other part was I didn't know how I
was going to do it, How how was I going
to fit into this? And uh And so when I
(38:13):
agreed I was going to put myself in the video,
I started thinking and and at one moment I had
the idea that I could be the backstage guide and
uh and once that happened, the ideas started coming and
the Harry Potter you know, picture frames come to life
idea hit me and I called my editor, said, okay,
(38:39):
we have to do this. How easy is it going
to be? You know, what do we have to do
on the front end. So once once that happened, then
the creative juices were flowing, and I uh managed to
get it done. You know, I was looking back and
you can tell me if I'm wrong here. I'm going
from memory, but I look back because I had, like
everybody else, I had to kill in time tape and
(39:02):
so from the record Killing Time. But I don't think
that was was better Man. My recollection, it was better Man.
A single before Killing Time was Yeah. Actually, you know,
the first single was set to be straight from the
factory and uh, and I was worried about it in cities.
I knew it would go over in Texas and Oklahoma
(39:26):
and I was just kind of worried about it. And
we got to k z l A and Los Angeles
and Bob Gara was a program director and we're sitting
in his office and uh and and playing that song
and he stops the tape and he says, well, he
(39:46):
said I could add that if you get it into
the top twenty. So I knew what that meant. I
didn't I know a lot about the business yet, but
I also didn't know if it would be okay for
me to pull this tape I had in my pocket
it out and play him something from it. Um Carson
Schreiber was the promotion guy there, and I kind of
(40:10):
looked over at him and decided, I'm just gonna do it.
And I pulled out the tape and I said, uh,
I said, Bob popped us in and play the first song,
and it was a better Man. And that's what I
was thinking, you know, it would be a better first single,
but I just I let him play it. And at
the end of the first course, he stopped the tape
and said, I'll add that out of the box. So
(40:32):
we got out of there and called the head of
our c A and said, you know, here's what just happened.
And the decision was made on the spot to switch
to a Better Man. And how fast did that song
make you feel like you were firmly in the country
music community. It took a while, you know. I was
(40:54):
still traveling around in a twelve seater van pulling a
U haul trailer four or five hundred miles a day
a night, and uh and and so it was about
a seventeen week climb to number one. So we started
promoting it and I think late February and it peaked
(41:17):
in mid June. I think that's seventeen weeks. Uh. Anyway,
it uh it really it really seemed to be going
fast to me. But that was not a quick climb
back then. But it was rare for a debut single
(41:37):
to go to number one. And so I'm hearing all
these things, and you know, getting perspective by the time
that hit. I think I was. By the time it
really uh you know started a peak. I think I
was getting some slots opening for the juds and and
acts like that. So it started to feel more like
(42:01):
this is gonna work. I'm gonna make it. When you
guys decided to put out Killing Time second and the
song again, looking back at as my history, I feel
like Killing Time was even bigger than a Better Man.
Well it had, it had a step up on Better Man,
and uh, I think it was more of a honky
(42:23):
talk song and uh, you know, but again I'm I'm
stepping off of debut number one releasing that so, uh,
that song getting in and I think the promotion team
had a little easier time pushing that one out, so
it had a little bit of an advantage. But it's
(42:48):
it's also you know, it's a it's a different feel
and flavor and texture. Better man was kind of haggard, asked,
and killing time wasn't. I don't know what i'd call it,
but um, it form for me for my sensibilities. It
really it really felt like this is this is going
(43:12):
to You're going to get different things from me. It
was important to me that I had diversity, uh and
my body of work, and I felt like that song
really spoke to that. What was it like plotting a
tour back in the late eighties early nineties? Would you
have to use a phone book to call places? Like?
What on the bus? Would you have a phone book
(43:34):
to pull over in call places? Well? I had nothing
to do with that part of it. I had to
I just did interviews and showed up at radio stations
and and uh, you know, targets, etcetera. And uh, but yeah,
back then, you know we'd have to get to a
(43:56):
hotel room, get in there and and get on the
phone them and uh, you know, it was a while
before you know, I got that fifteen pounds cellular phone.
Did you ever do when you talk about targets and Walmart?
Did you ever go to one of these signings and
it got to the point where it was so crazy
because you had so many hits in a row. It
(44:18):
was crazy, It was you know, I've I've said recently,
you know that back then I was pretty level headed.
I I feel like I never got the big head
um and I treated everyone well. But I don't know,
because it was so crazy and I wasn't nearly as
(44:40):
comfortable with it as I am now. It took me
a long time to get used to being famous and
uh the center of attention and uh, you know, being
in the middle of chaos. Uh, it was it was
really hard to adapt to. So I would I felt
(45:04):
like I went from one chaotic moment to another. And
there were times where, uh, you know, we're doing nine
shows in a row, one day off, eight shows in
a row, one day off. I mean, they had me
really going and I was reaching the point of uh
(45:25):
really just the point of breaking. And uh, I told
my manager, I said, I'm not gonna last like this.
And you know, we have to have some spacing in there.
So you know, it ended up getting two days off.
But I've been that doing interviews and stuff, you know, so, uh,
it was really taking a toll on my vocal cords.
(45:48):
And I tried to tell him, you know, listen to
my listen to my melodies, and listen to my songs.
You know, I'm not Joe Cocker. I can't. I can't
sing these things with a raspy voice, and I can't
hit those high notes. Uh, if I'm worn out. You know,
you were talking talking about Dancing with the Stars earlier.
I was I didn't know that you were on the
(46:09):
second season of The Apprentice back in the day. What
was that like two thousand four during the Apprentice, it
was it was really I didn't know what I was
getting into. I saw a clipper two um, and you know,
to me it was going to be going on. Some
people were gonna be jerks, you know, but we're going
(46:29):
to go on and do these tasks. And I like
those kinds of challenges. So so I agreed to do it.
And uh it was eighteen and a half hours a
day every day but Sunday for five and a half weeks. Um,
and some of the people were really hard to be around.
(46:50):
Others were great to be around and uh and so
I quickly realized that I don't really have I don't
have a strong enough desire to win this thing to
compromise who I am, and I would have had to
do that. I Uh, I felt like, you know, uh
(47:14):
calling up people I know and and and asking them
for money. I didn't like. I didn't feel like it
was great for the charity. I didn't win a lot
of money for my charity. You know, I made more
for my charity in two days after that than I
did in five and a half weeks. And uh and
(47:36):
so I changed. I decided that my goal was gonna
be to to to keep my behavior and check and
to maintain my standard of character and uh not let
anyone draw me into bad behavior. That was my goal.
(47:58):
That became right. I'm gonna do my best with the
tasks I'm gonna I'm gonna really limit you know, calling
up people and asking them for money. Uh and uh
and I'm just going to try to get through this
without letting someone uh bring out the worst in me.
(48:21):
And I ended up. You know, I was this place,
I was there right through the end, and uh, yeah,
proud of the way I handled it, but it was
it was it was disgusting. You know, there was some
some behavior and that that that was just really hard
(48:46):
to watch. Well. On on a lighter note, we're gonna
do one old and one new, and I want to
start with I want to run a few things, a
few song titles that I love by you, and just
a quick sentence or two about you know what that
song at that time kind of reminds you of. We'll
start with when my Ship comes in. Mm hmmm. Uh.
(49:08):
The first thing I thought of was shooting the video
for that and uh, you know the the T shirt
on the sailboat and uh it was it was forty
degrees and they had a hurricane fan on the so
so it's so it's it's kind of apropos since the
(49:31):
song is about you know, being in Colorado, uh and
waiting for your ship to come in. The whole reason
that song came about was because of a skip viewing
song called the Coast of Colorado and Hayden and I said,
you know, let's let's let's jump off from there. And
the other part of it was I'm a big Jimmy
(49:53):
Buffett fan and and I wanted, uh, you know, Gulf
of Mexico came out of that, you know, love for
his music, and uh and the style, the feeling a
shift came out of that too. How about a good
run of bad Luck? Haydon and I were We're in
a hotel in Toronto. It was it was crazy snow blizzard. Uh,
(50:22):
we had a little time, so we decided to try
to write a couple of songs. We wrote Tuckered Out
and good Run of bad Luck and uh, good Run
of bad Luck. We knew what we wanted to say,
but we wanted to make sure we had some good lingo.
And I played Caesar's Palace a lot, so I thought,
you know, they'll know me there if I called. And
(50:43):
I called and and got him to put me through
to one of the pit bosses and at the blackjack tables,
and I got him on the phone and uh, and
so I started, uh, you know, just trying to get
slang out of him, and uh, you know, I'd say like,
you know, what do you guys, what do you guys
(51:04):
call the high rollers? And he said rollers. Okay, I
got that one, and I asked him another question and
it would be kind of the same thing. So it
got us pretty much nothing, but we we started writing
down all of the gambling stuff we could think of
(51:24):
and just launched into writing one more from back in
the day, like the rain. Sitting in UH. I had
had a house. My first house here in Nashville was
way up north of town, and I needed to get
into town because it was just too much driving. So
I found some uh condo. I was in a high
(51:46):
rise condo and in Nashville, and Lisa and I were
sitting looking out the window at Highway seventy and it
was just poor in rain and she loved it, and uh,
I really have had enough for rain in Houston. So
(52:07):
UH Now I started playing, thinking, you know, what's what's
rain music sound like? And I started playing that chord
progression of the verse and came up with the first verse.
I said, Okay, that's that's enough. I'm gonna I'll get
with Hayden next chance we'll get and we're right that.
(52:28):
I want to ask you about the new record, and
we'll end with this. By the way, if you're listening
right now, Clint's web store brand new album focused merchandise
that pre sell autographed copies of the album, pre sell
c ds vinyl, go to Clinton Black dot com slash store,
and I guess about the new record. I wonder, you know,
just as as someone who creates myself, like you don't
(52:49):
have to produce the whole thing. You don't have to
play get you don't have to do all of the
intricate things that you're doing. Why do you keep doing
it to save money? H Uh? It's uh, you know.
I I from the first demos Hayden and I made
where uh you know, he showed me how he used
(53:11):
an eight track tape recorder to get as many tracks
on there as possible. I became interested in that when
about six or seven, I looked into meeting the guys
with Digit Design, who created pro Tools, and they set
me up in our place in l A down in
(53:33):
the basement with the pro tools gear and baby sat
me through. I made a test it for them. I'd
find problems they had come to fix them. And so
I was using pro Tools and learning more and more
about engineering. So when we got this new place in Nashville,
I built a studio and uh and really started becoming
(53:56):
more and more a student of engineering. So I can
sit and work by myself and do a lot of it,
and uh, and I enjoy it. It's uh, it's a challenge,
but it's a creative outlet. And the result is there's
just it's just more of me going into my music
(54:18):
as much of an expression of myself as I can make. Um.
You know, I feel it'll be a better end result,
or at least it will be more me, as much
of my taste in music, my sentiments, my Uh, you
know what, I would like to hear the songs when
(54:40):
I'm writing them, you know, they they're talking to me already,
telling me what they want and uh. And then when
I create the cut the basic track with a band,
they're really talking then. And so uh, it's more satisfying
to give the song it wants or needs myself and
(55:02):
to hire someone to do it. Well. I really appreciate
the time. Good luck with the new record, and it
will be your twenty three album, wow, except for at
least June nine, And Clint promises it will be out
June nineteenth, So we're not moving it. It's gonna be
out June nineteenth, dang it. So it is. It's great
talking to you. This was this is interesting. Um, I
(55:26):
never know what that means. When someone says this is interesting,
you're like interesting good or interesting bad? Or what? Well,
I'm saying interesting good. You know. I knew I could
give you the long answers and ramble around to find
the point I was making because it's a podcast. But
you're also asking different questions that make me think more
(55:48):
and go in depth to things, and uh uh you know.
I mean I remember joking in the old days about um,
you know, some questions are how did you and Mark
O'Connor do that harmonica fiddle swap and live and learn
and and how did that come together? And then there
were the other questions, which were why the hat? Is
(56:11):
that what you wanted? Clint? Why the hat? Yeah? Why that? Well?
I finally came up with the answer to that question,
why do you wear a black hat? And it hit me.
I know now, it's because it makes my head look thinner.
I need to wear a black hat. I've had a
big head in my whole life when I was a kid.
When I was a young kid, my mom would have
to cut slits into the sides of my t shirts
(56:32):
to get my head to go through because it was
abnormally large. Oh man, I just had to make room
for all those brains. Yeah, I guess. I guess. Also
one of my best friends. And because we're gonna play
some of this on my my radio show too, because
I'm such a big fan and I'm gonna, you know,
do radio and podcasts. This is gonna be used everywhere
and even the Countdown. So um. But one of my
(56:52):
dearest friends named Eddie, and he was just recently asked
on the National Show if he could quarantine with one artist,
who would it be? And he picked you, Clint Black.
And I saw that, I saw your tweet that I
was just curious what it's like saying, you know, Clint
and I have nothing in common? And I'm thinking, yeah,
we do. And then I went, no, wait a minute.
(57:14):
I wasn't even my first concert. We have nothing in common?
What what do you do during quarantine? Like? What are
you doing all? What are you watching? Like? What can
I give to him to show him that you guys
probably do have some stuff in common? Uh? Well, I'm uh,
I've watched everything on Netflix. We watched Ozark, me too,
(57:37):
every movie, um, you know love, Uh you know, I've
watched the uh documentaries that uh, Ray Romano made on
building a stand up act, and that Jerry Seinfeld did
on or he took you all the way back to
his first joke at the place he told it and
went through all of his old material, and then his
(58:00):
documentary on uh on building his new material. So I
love to follow that stuff. Um, you know, I'm I'm
betting he's an Andy Griffiths fan. Of course we all are,
but uh, you know, for for the oh, Bosh, Bosch
on Amazon Prime is the best detective show ever. If
(58:25):
you want to watch a show where the guy's not
uh you know, you know, swinging off the side of
a train, throwing grenades inside to kill the bad guys,
you know, a real detective show. Um, bosh, I'm gonna
pass all that to Eddie and tell him this what
you two would be doing watching Bosch and Ray Romano
right for his first joke. That's it, Clint, then we
(58:47):
were we were made for each other for Quarantine. All right,
I'll let you get back to your life, but I'm
again I'm a massive fan. Thank you for your time
and good luck with the record, and man, just uh
just keep being awesome. Hey, thanks you too. A big fan,
big fan of yours and uh I really enjoyed this. Thanks, thanks,
(59:08):
talk Hopefully I'll talked to you and let's get out
there and work again soon alright, hopefully ill see you soon, hope.
So ay by bye, thank you, bye,
Host
Bobby Bones
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