Bobby Bones talks to radio personality and musician, Chuck Wicks. He tells his story about how he got into radio, his 2 shows and recently being fired when the coronavirus hit. Chuck talks about how he panicked after getting fired and took 2 weeks to figure out what he wants to do.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M H. Welcome to episode to forty five The Bobby Cast,
all about music. We'll talk to Chuck Wicks and a
little bit who is a buddy of mine. He's pretty
honest about how he's firing went down at a radio
station here in Nashville. So ah, interesting talking. You know.
I've never talked to Chuck on this before, but that's
(00:21):
coming up a little bit. I hope you hang out
for that. I do want to talk about because we
record this version of it on Friday. A lot of
new music coming out today. I was on Instagram a
little bit ago and I saw Brett Eldridge post a
clip of his new video, and I was talking about
a couple of days ago, and he was saying that
shooting a music video in the Corona world's kind of
peculiar because everybody's got masks on. You look over, we
(00:42):
got a camera guy with a mask on. It's a
super small crew. So Brett Eldridge, I believe the song
for that video. Before I get to the his new song,
I want to make sure I'm right here. I think
the video is for a single which is now It's
for good Day, I'll be day all right here it
(01:02):
is here's a good day, and something's got me thinking,
maybe it's gonna be a good I don't know. I
feel like love's coming in the sunny, even shining, keep
balls made to keep spilly, I gotta feed. It's gonna
(01:28):
be a good d like that one, all right. Cole
Swindell has got a new song called single Saturday Night,
We're in the corner, Baby. I saw pretty real lists
working on a white cloth, shaking to a little ship
me all night long and untend you don't wake up
(01:49):
in my show. It's funny to hear because whiskey is
the number one alcohol talked about. But you're starting to
see white clock kind of slowly slip into country songs
when they're talking about what the girls are drinking. You know,
that's the new female drink in country songs, like I'll
drink my whiskey, you're drinking your white claw and we'll
do it. Coleslandells oddly a really good athlete too. I
(02:10):
think he was a like an all state football player.
I think he played uh defense. Not a big guy,
could be deceivingly big. I'm not sure. Because the conversation
that have with Chuck Wicks, I was surprised that how
big Chuck is because I've stood next to Chuck and
I don't know, I don't feel like he towers over me.
But yeah, Cole, he had posted some pictures on his
(02:32):
Instagram if I'm playing football in high school and hit
him up and I was like, Hey, what'd you do?
And he was like, ah, you know, you know, he
wasn't bragging about it at all. I think I asked
him how good he was because I probably was awarded
too many. I think it was all State. Next time
we have them on, I'll talk to him by that.
Florida Georgia Line put out an EP, which EP is
we'll call the mini album what I call it, and
(02:55):
I'm not as sure if that's what it stands for.
His extended play. Yeah, it means it's extended from just
one song. Yeah, and the LP is the long play?
Is that what L stands for? So the EP is
six pack. Here's a song from Florida Georgia Line called
Ain't Worried About It. Jordan Davis has a EP and
(03:31):
before I play one of his new songs, Jordan has
a few songs he has. You want to pull him out, Mike,
because I called my manager last night. We were talking
about some new stuff. My TV show got announced yesterday,
so we were having a conversation about that. And by
the way, my new show we start shooting it hopefully
next month. It's called Breaking Bobby Bones. And the thing
(03:54):
that people ask most about the TV show world is, hey,
what's it like? And so I've kind of had to
describe the show. I would just crib, but like Anthony
Bourdain shot like that meets micro, dirty jobs meets jackass.
That's how I would describe it, because you know, there's
definitely that Anthony Bordain travel around um a little depth
(04:17):
and the micro. You know, he would go and see
people's dirty jobs. These jobs aren't always dirty, honestly. Some
of them are kind of cool and fun, some aren't,
some are dangerous, UM. And then jack ass because they're
gonna have me do in this crap. I say, they
developed the show myself, so anything that happens to me
is my fault. But that's what the show will be about.
And so I was calling my manager last night, who
also works a little bit with Jordan Davis, and so
(04:40):
I was said, hey, man, Jordan has really turned into
a great interview would you agree with that? At first,
I think the guy was just like, man, I'm gonna
a sea of all these like dudes because all these dudes,
there's so many of them, and a lot of them
are so similar. Uh. And Jordan's the guy with the
big long beard, and as a person, I really like him.
And at first when I would interview, I'll be like,
(05:01):
you know, I just don't hear enough to bring him
on the air a lot. But man, now, like the
last three times, the guy's been money and I love
it because I love him. But he's got three big
songs before I play this church in a Chevy, just
so you know who he is. He has if he
ever singles you up that song right there, stupid, then
(05:26):
he has uh that take it from me? You have
that one hold on, no one's freezing. I knew something
was up, but the clunky nature. I was like, we
must have some sort of computer issue over there. But
the other you have slow slow dancing a parking lot. Yeah,
(05:55):
if you don't have the other one, I could sing it.
I think you had to sing it. Okay, so it
goes you can now these other ones are on my
head anyway. It's called take it from me whatever. But
he has a new EP out today. Everybody we got
longs me Here here comes the chorus shot all are
(06:16):
alway get might play here we go fin take it
from me? Listen? Yeah good? So anyway, all that to say,
I just want to give you some background in Jordan,
his uh self tell DP is out today. Here's a
song called Church and a Chevy. I went church and
saving on the tulane on the side of the root sun,
(06:37):
coming up to love. Really excited for that guy, just
like him a whole lot. Craig Morrigan dropped his new
album called God Family Country and it's a mixture of
half songs that he had done before and they had
kind of re They call it remastering where they change
out some stuff, though they'll go back in and you know,
I'm a little more guitar, a little less drums. But
(06:58):
then it's a lot of new stuff too, and even
a cover. And the cover is Soldier by Gavin de Girl.
So here's a clip of that. You don't it when
dude Soldier? See what else we got coming out? This week?
(07:23):
Margot Price put out a live record at the Rheman.
It's called Perfectly Imperfect it's a digital only live release.
She did three nights at the Rheman. Profits donated to
Music Care's COVID nineteen relief fund. Do we have a
trick for this one? Yeah? Okay, Nashville, alright, alright, that
(07:48):
sounds pretty good. You know, I'd wanted to record a
live record in the Rheman because that's kind of the cool.
The thing about the Rheman is is you don't make
as much money playing at the Rheman unless you really
really bush take it out. And so a lot of
artists will play the Rheman and they make money. And
I played. I guess not time. I did the Rymans
for the million dollars show, now that I think about it,
I don't make any money from that show. It's all
(08:09):
gets donated. But the Rheman. You could play a bigger
place and make more money, but people to come through
town mostly want to play the Rhemans. So what you
do with theaters the I and the Rheman is a
theater ish Ryman Auditorium, but it's it feels like a
theater when you play. It's kind of a mixture. It's yeah,
it's yeah, Um, everybody wants to play the rhemans. But
(08:32):
it it costs money to rent a place. How it
works and the touring world is, Let's say I have
a building. I own a building, Bobby Theater. So Bobby
Theater costs, it costs me to buy and I want
to rent it out for five dollars a night. Well,
a promoter will see that it costs five dollars a
night to rent Bobby Theater. Now Mike's gonna come through.
(08:55):
I'm gonna rent Bob with theater for five bucks, and
I'm gonna pay you, m hmmm, six dollars. So now
that's costing me eleven dollars to rent the theater and
to pay you. I need to make sure I'm gonna
make a fourteen or fifteen dollars, so I'm gonna need
to go So, but that's the risk. You gotta pay
(09:16):
for the theater, you gotta pay for the artist. And
then this is the very bare bones way to describe it.
And they need to make you know, three or four
dollars off of it. Sometimes they lose money. Sometimes they
make a lot more money. And for me, when I
do stand up, if I sell over, it then goes
into a split. So let's say, I'm playing the Warner
(09:37):
Theater in DC, one of my favorite places to play.
It's an expensive theater rent, so I know I'm not
gonna check my ticket prices up high. Um. I want
to make money, but I also want to make sure
that people can come to a show. It's gonna find
that that balance and if they need that holds like
twenty three hundred or something after about twenty one hundred,
because I make my my five dollars up and then
(09:58):
the last two hundred we do a revenue flit like
then he gets and I get of the remaining tickets.
There's becomes a breakdown. Depending in the age that you have,
some people do. I would say I'm a mid level
touring artist. I'm definitely not mc graw or Dan and
Shay at this point selling out arena's arena's fair, right,
(10:22):
But I can do theater big theaters and but that's
how it works. Does that make sense? It makes sense?
Did you know all that? No? Not really not that? Yeah?
So is that that that was good? Huh? I described it?
I got it all right wrong. I'm not totally wrong,
because the promoter is the one that takes all the
risk and then you know, the promoter sometimes will book
(10:43):
a region and if I'm going to go through the Midwest,
you know, I have a guy that I'll see in St. Louis,
and then I'll have a galassie at Madison, Wisconsin, and
he kind of travels along with me because he rents out.
Because you know what we do. We would do shows
and see the same promoter from you know, sometimes a
weekend if we're doing two shows, sometimes two kinds in
a row for kind of in the same area, ask
him around, thanks for coming, Thanks for coming to my
(11:05):
ted talk. But that's that's how it works. And you know,
then it gets a little icier for me because part
of every ticket I still it goes to charity. Um,
so I donate that and then then you do merch
and we merch for charity. So then it comes all
these weird breakdowns. But that's why I have a business manager.
At this point. I remember the breakdown merch and like
the charity party would always be a whole like no,
this is this and this is like okay, I got it.
(11:26):
And because you gotta pay the house too, because they
rent you. And again that's why I didn't want to
go back into such uh specifics, because then the house
rents you a merch booth. Because remember because by the way, Mike,
he did merch for me before he started doing opening
and doing comedy. But if you remember that, you have
to we have to pay to rent the table. We
(11:48):
have to give a percentage of what we made. So yeah,
with a whole different split. Yeah, which is the whole
they got to pay people for everything. Ghosts of West
Virginia is out. It's Steve Earle and the Dukes. The
album centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion
that killed twenty nine men in West Virginia in two
thousand ten. Here's a song called Union God and Country
(12:10):
Gotten Country. They were burn mountains, tracked the mine and
walk the line. That's just what you did down with
got there you go? Someone ringing my doorbell in the
(12:34):
middle of this. Well then I looked at at my
front porch and I think CMT just dropped off that kit.
I'm doing the c MT Hero Award thing. They dropped
up a mini kid as to what we had, an
American idol, which was weird and might ran the whole thing.
It was lights and cameras. This is gonna be way
less than that one thing, the whole big thing to
(12:57):
connect back if I see it on my porch at
they just left it there expensive his crap sit in
the rain by the way. Train has a new song
called Rescue Dog. I don't know if we have that one.
Hold on one second. I got to talk to this
(13:18):
guy out here. Hey, man, how are you? Hey, it's Bobby.
How are you? Uh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do I need
to come out there or can you leave it there
for up to you? Yeah, I'm inside. I'm in the bathroom. Yes,
yes it is, Thank you very much. All right, I
get it in a minute. Guy. Thanks. You're talking to
somebody sitting on the toilet right now. Let you go. Ah,
(13:41):
there's train. Let's see. We don't have to play all
these m hm. Grace Potter, who I love? Do you
have this one? I say that? Then I want to
hear this one. Grace Potter has a new song called
each Other. Oh no, well, I like Grace Potter playing
acoustic cooling. Get come on, we've got each other. I'm
(14:08):
gonna say that one right now. No that alright, let's
do one more, little more clip here. Lady Gaga got
something new from Oriana Grande called Rain with Ariana Grande
called Rain on Me. There you go, Hey, check out
(14:34):
Mike's podcast called Movie Mix Movie Podcast before we get
into Chuck Wicks. What's your episode this week night? I'm
talking about the greatest movie quotes and then some of
my favorites movie My movie podcast you can just search
for movie Mike podcast is growing like a little weed.
And then next week I'm gonna try to do sequels
that were better than the originals. Let me think about
The Terminator because of mine immediately, I haven't seen The Godfather,
(15:00):
but I think that's kind of accepted as better. Yeah,
I think the second one was better. M what else
would be? Oh? Man, I mean Rocky ish, that's so
early on. I think that's probably probably as good. I
don't know about better, but as good. It's also hard
to do. It didn't suck. I liked it. It just
(15:22):
compared to one, two, and four. I did not like
Rocky three, But okay, put Rocky in that. What about
maybe fast and furious movies because does that count that
there's a lot of them? Yeah, if any of those
are actually better than the first one, am I forgetting
any just glaring ones? I mean I think The Dark
(15:45):
Knight was better than Batman begins. Yeah. Interesting, and also
the Captain America, the second one was better than the
first one. Someone first one is very slow. Yeah, I
was never just into Captain America as a its own.
That may be the worst one to me, really. Yeah.
I never watched Dr Insignia or whatever his name was.
Doctor Strange Yeah whatever, dr Strange love No, just Doctor Strange.
(16:07):
I don't watch that one. I'll think about that. All right,
a movie, Mike search it. Come back with Chuck Quicks.
It's really honest. Talk here next, alright, talking with Chuck
Wicks right now, Hey man, what's up? It's interesting to
(16:28):
get you on because uh, and we're gonna get back
around in a second to what's happening with you in
your career and just a little bit. But I was
looking over notes, as I often do. I didn't know
that you had done four You did four iron Man's,
Is that right? Yeah? Well let me clarify because the
people that do four iron Man's will have my head
for it. I am a seventy point three guys, So
(16:48):
I've done four half iron Man's. I am not. I'm
not full crazy as they say I'm just half crazy.
So but yeah, I love doing triathlons. It's like it's uh.
I started doing it maybe four years ago, five years ago.
And you know, I grew up an athlete, went to
the comments to play baseball, and I was just I
(17:09):
needed something to feel that like competitive edge. So triathlons
it was why not? And I say this as someone
I've done a couple of Olympic traath lines which aren't
quite what you've done in the iron Man, but why
not go ahead and hit the full iron Man? Um? Honestly,
I want to do a full one full iron Man,
(17:30):
but I also want to still have my body left
as I get older. I mean, the training, it's all
about the training. If it takes so much time to
train for half, to train for a full would be
like it's almost it's almost like a career move. I'm
just saying, you're probably happy with yourself. If you got one,
(17:50):
you got one in, that's all just one. I can
get one. I'm gonna get one in before. I'll get
one in before. How about that? Are you shredded right now? Yeah?
I have no now. When I when I'm training full board, like,
I'll go into a race at one all way about
one eight, and then I'll be shredded. Like race day,
(18:13):
I'm shredded, But right now I'm about one. If that
gives you an idea of like, how tall are you?
Six two six two and three quarters? Bobby? You that
much taller than me because I'm six lot over six ft.
But I didn't know that you were demanding height when
you stood next to me. I didn't know I needed
to recognize who was my superior in height. Dang, I
(18:36):
don't know two inches is not demanding or superior. I mean,
now if I'm six five, if I'm going like Charles
Kelly height or Tray Sack inside, that's a different story.
But Chuck and I have been been but for a
couple of years. Um, Chuck, your radio career started back
with Blair? Is that right? Back like five six years ago?
Tell me how that started? Yeah? So well, I'm you know,
(18:59):
I'm moved to Nashville. I played baseball down a Florida
Southern college and that's when I like picked up a
guitar and started. You know, I was like, Okay, I
want to be a recording artists. This is what I
want to do. This is what I was meant to do.
Hold on, We're gonna get to the recording artist stuff
in a minute. I go, I'm just talking because I
think a lot of people know you as Chuck Wicks,
that the guy with the songs. But I'm curious about
(19:20):
when you got into radio first. Okay, some radio talking
on the radio. I got into that about six years ago,
and Blair Garner did ask me to be a part
of it. I remember he because I knew Blair from
being on a show as an artist, and He's like, Hey,
I'm working on this new show. Do you want to
be on it? And I'm like, what is it? And
(19:40):
I'd like, dude, I had just I had lost my
record deal, I had lost my publishing deal. And I
was like, I'm like, what am I doing? Like what
am I gonna do? Because it wasn't like I wasn't
getting another record deal anytime soon. I wasn't. I didn't
know if it's gonna happen. I was like, you know what,
maybe this is maybe this is my new half and
(20:01):
I said, yeah, let's do it. So it was it
was Blair Garner, myself, Kerry Clark, who we love, uh
grade nineties y u K artists um Lee and Walmack
started with us, um Sonny Sweeney. It was like Blair,
Garner and a bunch of artists, and I jumped in
and ended up loving it. I remember when you got
(20:25):
because that show went on and we went on. I
think we might have been on like a month ahead.
I mean, because there was really no ahead because both
shows were kind of getting put together. And I remember here,
I was just coming in with all my friends. And
by the way, I love Blair. I love all those
people you just mentioned. And I remember Blair was going
on because Blair had left my heart and he went
over to a Cumulus the radio company, and they were like,
(20:47):
Blair's doing a show with all these artists, and I'm like,
what the crap? Like I showed up with my buddies,
and Blair's got the all star team of Nashville the
country music artists. And that's what I remember thinking. And
you know, that's when I was introduced you, except for
uh stealing Cinderella that song. That's that's how I was
introduced to you as being a part of that show.
So you worked with the Blair for how long it
(21:11):
would have been three years? I was with him, and
I'm assuming that went pretty well because you ran that whole,
that whole gamut with him. Yeah, and then some yep,
I went three years with him. And listen, a lot
of people Blair and I were together for three years,
but Jerry Clark lasted a long time too. A lot
of people there were interwoven with that, like different other
(21:31):
third chairs, fourth chairs, whatever you want to call him
on that show. And you know, then Blair ended up
going back to UM after midnights or like in that
slot of like the overnight night, Yeah, overnights, and a
guy named Ty came in and and took his spot,
(21:52):
and then it became the Ty Bentley Show for and
I lasted with him for another three years. And so
how was that vibe different with Ti than with Blair? Um?
You know, it's it wasn't really different. Ties a little
bit younger, um, a little bit different style, um, but
besides that, it was it was pretty much the same
(22:14):
kind of outline. Well, so then I see where Ti
leaves or whatever happened there, and then you're running the
show and by this point you and I have become
had become buds. We see each other out, we've talked.
You came when I was doing Dancing with the Stars,
because you had done Dancing with the Stars back in
the day. You came by my by my trailer and
so um and then you were heading the show for
(22:34):
how long were you heading the show or at least
you were the you know, one of the main one,
or I don't know what that was. I don't know,
if you consider yourself, I would consider you the main
But how long did that last? Yes, that's interesting that
you even say that, because, um, so what had happened
about it was actually a few months ago Ty had quit.
You left the show. So here we are on the
tip of Emily Show with no tie, and you know,
(22:57):
I saw the staff and everybody and on the morning
show freaking out, and I'm like, wait a minute, this
is my moment. I'm like waiting for this for six years,
like I've kind of waited in the way it's gonna
always wanted my own show. I'm like, no, I got it.
I'm gonna we're gonna be good. I'm gonna sit at
the helm, I'm gonna take over. We're gonna do this.
And that's when like the next day, Nashville got slammed
(23:23):
with the tornado that six tornadoes actually just wiped a
lot of people out, a lot of devastation. So my
first week is like taking over once Tye left. We
had this you know, natural disaster that we had to
take care of, and we're all all the focuses on that,
not what does Chuck sound like, as you know, the
lead guy. So right after that we run into what
(23:46):
we're currently facing, the pandemic and everybody having to social
distance and work from home. So I got about I
think seven weeks and at the Helm, but it was
never really at the Helm, that was at home via zoom.
And so in your mind, you're doing this show, you're
(24:06):
I'm assuming that you've kind of taken charges. Hey, I'm
gonna be the leader, like follow me, We're gonna do
some really great things here. But but you're doing it
from home. Are you communicating with your bosses, like what's
happening in that world? Because even for me now it's
a struggle sometimes to get ahold of my bosses because
everybody is being pulled in all these different directions like
what are you feeling at this time and who are
you talking with? So it was interesting because I had
(24:28):
to almost, uh, plead my case. I had to beg
almost I had to plead my case. Hey, guys talking
to the vice the vps. And at the time, we
got a new vv VP that came in, so he
didn't really know me. I didn't we knew of each other.
And I said, you gotta give me a shot, you
gotta give me a shot, and they kept saying yeah,
(24:50):
you know, and I had to like, I was, you know,
I'm talking to my agent, I'm talking to you know,
several vps. I'm talking to my boss within the building
where I work, trying to get every I need to
get on the same page, like, hey, Chuck's got this.
So I'm thinking, I'm like, all right, maybe maybe they're
gonna give me a shot at this. It comes to
find out they never really were like they you know,
(25:12):
when the the new VP came in, he was just like,
I got my people, they're coming in now. And looking
back now he's like, I got my people, they're coming in, Chuck.
They basically used me to keep the keep the team
together until they got all their ducks in a row
and figured out what they wanted to do. And then,
you know, I don't know if you're gonna ask me
this or not. But we all ended up getting fired
(25:34):
about two weeks ago, right after we did a Friday show,
and we're honestly man really never saw it coming and
just kind of bummed us out. It was it was
a tough time. They call you in the office and
how did that go? What happened? They tell you, so
because it wasn't oh that's right, Corona. You didn't get
to go in to the office. I didn't even get
(25:54):
to go in the office, didn't even get a face
to face, And it was just it was one of
those deals versus like, hey, tuck in the minute, because
I didn't really talk to, you know, the new VP
that much. So the minute he I got a call
from him, and then the minute he goes, hey, I
don't know if you met so and so from HR,
but he's on the phone as well, and I was like,
(26:15):
I'm getting fired, and it hit me right in the chess. Man.
I was just like, because I always, you know, you
always have a gut feeling if someone's going to give
you a shot, or they're behind you, or if they
get it. And I always kind of knew in my
gut that they didn't get it. They I wasn't going
to get the shot, but it hit home, man, Like
(26:38):
in that phone call, I was just like, I'm gonna
I'm about to get fired, and now I'm a different
I'm a different guy than I was last year. Like
I'm married, now, I got three bonus daughters, and I
have people to take care of. So immediately I was
just like, holy crap, Like what am I gonna do?
Like what am what? Now? What am I gonna do?
(27:00):
I remember because you and I were talking even way
before that, you know, the firing happened, and and even
I thought it was weird that they were keeping the
show name for someone who wasn't on the show anymore.
I mean, that was an odd thing. And now looking back,
you know, it kind of makes sense. I'm not gonna
rebrand it with you if they knew from the beginning
it wasn't gonna be you. Um, but you and I
(27:20):
have been talking and just I was we were checking
on each other because you know, we're both doing the
same thing right across the street from each other basically,
And I remember whenever I saw it, I was like,
oh crap, because I think you're really talented obviously, I
think you're really good at what you do. And you
called and I was like, hey, dude, give it a bit,
like take two weeks, and because right, because you're kind
of on tilt a little, but something crazy happens to
(27:41):
you're kind of on tilt where you're just you're reacting
more than you're responding. And you took two weeks, and
what did you kind of find out about yourself in
that two weeks? Uh? Well, first of all, thank you
for saying that in great advice, because the minute it
did happen, I got The minute I got fired, I
did panic because I'm like, how am I gotta I
gotta make money, I gotta take care of my family,
(28:05):
and being in this weird spot, I mean it was weird.
Immediately started thinking about all the other people that lost
their jobs and all the other people that got furloughed
or whatever it was. I was just like, Wow, this sucks.
And so I took the two weeks and I figured
out what do I want? What I want to do?
(28:26):
What do I want? And I do want my own show,
you know, I do want to have my own radio show.
It's just it's just not there there at that home
at that place that I was. I want people that
believe in me. I want I want to be with
the right team, and I want to do things that
that are great. I remember going to work, Dude. I
would go to work and it was just I was
just kind of like showing up. You know. It wasn't
(28:48):
I wasn't being challenged. I wasn't being I was comfortable.
And we we had talked about this. When you get
fired or when you get let go or something major happens,
you immediately get out of your comfort zone. And dude,
I was immediately uncomfortable. So I did take the two weeks,
(29:09):
and I was like, I want my own show, and
you know, and that's what I was wondering too. If
you took the whole time, did you want to get
back to grinding as an artist because you had success there?
Did you want to really do radio? Like what? And
so you know, you and I talk again and You're like, Hey,
this one what I'm gonna do. And I'm like, well,
I think you're super talented. Uh, nobody's hiring right now. Which,
by the way, as soon as they had put the
(29:30):
announcement that you weren't working over there, I called my
boss and I was like, hey, there's a guy here
is real good, and nobody's hiring anywhere at all. Right,
it's everybody's just just hemorrhaging money at this point. And
you know, I listen, I have said on the show before,
I took a percentage pay cut just so we wouldn't
have to lay people off on my show. So you know,
everybody and I'm not that's not that's uh right now,
(29:52):
everybody's hurting. And so you know, I remember telling you, hey,
nobody's hiring. Don't take that as a youth thing. But
if you want to like do something, and there's no
announcement here and out, but you know, and you and
I are working on on something that I think you'll
just thrive in. And I'm excited to hear that you
want to do this for however long you want to
do this. You know, the thing that I love about
(30:14):
you know, us getting together and and working on a
project together and making some things happen is that one
thing that did not happen where I was, where I
was working, was they never got like, they never got
they never got the full you know, three sixty picture
of what could happen and like I look at you,
(30:37):
You're doing exactly what I want to do. Like you
gotta you know, a badass shell in the morning, right.
I mean, listen, you kicked our butt all every day, right,
so you know you got this badass show, but you're
also making it happen outside of that. Like you're an
American idol. You go around and you tour in these
great places, these amazing theaters and sell them out and
(31:00):
do your your show, and you take your friends with you,
and you do music and you do all these things.
And I'm like, there's a guy, you know, And I'm
not trying to blow you up right now, but you're
a guy that you get it because you're doing it.
So I'm excited to get started on our front. I'm
excited to get started working with you, and I'm excited
(31:21):
to see where it goes because it's gonna go more
places than just one place. Well, and this is in
no means an announcement, but I'm very excited because listen,
I've been a Chuck fan for a long time. Um,
I remember at one point while you were on you
may not remember this, but while you were doing the
show that you know it's I'm not a big believer
in just radio competitors, because I think we're competing with
(31:41):
everything YouTube, We're competing with everything is is you're you're
trying to find your spot in people's consciousness. And so
with me, I never look at somebody on another radio
frequency and go, uh. That being said, I remember you're
on the other country station and and you put out
a song I thought was so good. I played it
on my show while you were doing the other show
as of the main talents over there. So you know,
(32:03):
to me, it's always about and it always has been
about just surround yourself with the best people. Yeah, encourage
and give them the resources that they need, because if
you surround yourself with the best people, which I've done
with my show, it elevates me. I wouldn't be the
talent that I am without Amy, my co host, who've
never been on the radio, or Eddie or lunch Box
(32:24):
are those guys, And I think that that there's going
to be that relationship with us too, because you're way
better at most of the things that I do. And
so I'm excited to see where you can go that
I mean, I don't, but I will say this, you
and I together That's that's some strength right there. That's
(32:45):
something that will be hard to be I do have
a couple of questions, and at a later time when
this is finalized, if it is in the world gets
back to normal, um, we'll do an official analysis. But
as I was kind of looking up some stuff about you, UM,
I had a couple of questions that I had written down.
Because when you talk to your friends, like when we're
at an event, we're just talking with each other. I
don't get to ask you questions like this because it
(33:06):
would be weird. But in your song, better than flowers,
you say quote, but I can make love to you
for hours, It's better than flowers. My question is have
you ever made love for hours? If so, how that's right? Okay, UM,
that's a great question. I have made love with U.
(33:31):
And the only reason why I made I made love
for hours is because I was really drunk, and so
that's what I need to do then, kind of numb
it with alcohol. That's right. I recommend whiskey if that
puts it together for you. Whenever stealing Cinderella hit, did
you play weddings with that song and make a little
bit of money doing that? Because I know it was
(33:52):
a wedding song. But did you ever go planning yourself? Okay, yes,
I did. I have been asked to play a lot
of way and at first, um, I was like, no, no, no,
I don't want to do it. Until I don't know
if I should say that. There was uh, somebody that
paid me a bunch of money to sing still in
(34:13):
Cinderella at their wedding, and I was like, okay, wait
a minute, why, yes, let's go do this this Maybe
maybe I meant to be a wedding singer. But yeah,
I've played I've played four, maybe five weddings, and it's
usually been around like maybe a governor's daughter is getting
married or you know, uh coach Fumer was. That's when
(34:37):
I knew it was a big wedding song. I didn't
write it as a wedding song. I didn't write it
as like a father daughter dance. I never even thought
about that. Um. But it it happens to be one
of the biggest wedding songs and it still gets played
today and it's so amazing because it's just a reminder
of the power of a song. Right And you know
(34:58):
you said it when we first got on your like
you you know you know him for this, you know
you know him for this song, And part of that's like, well,
I got other songs too, but to being to be
known for anything is special and that song is special,
and uh it's pretty cool. Hey, I brought up better
than flowers too, So don't act like I only said
you were known for stealing Cinderella, So don't twist my words.
(35:21):
That's true. Yeah, you're right. I appreciate I've never thought
another man would ask me if I had made love
for hours, and I appreciate it coming from you. Yeah,
would you draw that for me? Like maybe a sketch
with chalk that would be cool on the sidewalk. Yeah. Um,
let me ask this because you did Dancing with the
Stars when you got into it, because I never danced
a second in my life. I've never I was the
(35:42):
one on our show that had no training. Were you
the same when it came to dance? Same and listen?
People hated me on Dancing with the Stars because, um,
well I was very polarizing. Either loved me or hated me.
They hated me. The haters hate to me because I
was dancing at Julianne huff At the time. I have
been dating Julianne for seven months at that time, so
(36:06):
they're like, in their minds, the fans minds that watched
the show, they're like, oh, well, he's dated her for
like seven months. They probably practice all the time, see
each other or they have advantage, And I'm like, please,
not even close. I can't imagine being in a relationship
with someone because my partner and I Sharna, no romance whatsoever.
(36:29):
Loved her, respect, you know, respect her because they were
really really hard times because there's a lot of training,
and respect her so much after that's all over. But
to also have to be in a functioning romantic relationship
while going through that would be near impossible. Yeah, actually,
I see. I actually thought it hindered our performances because
(36:50):
we we we knew once you know, dance practice or
whatever you wanna call it was over, we were still
going to be with each other, so we didn't I
think we were we were not as focused because we're like, wow,
we got all day, We're gonna be together all day.
So we would dance for like maybe a couple of hours,
(37:11):
and then that was it. I got a couple of
the By the way, where'd you finish on that show
fifth place. Did you want to? Did you think you
could win? Mm hmm no not actually now, I thought
I thought I was gonna come in top three, but
and all I wanted to do was make it to
the finals. And I was one week away from making
(37:34):
it to the finals, So I was okay with it.
But also the next week, because every year is different,
I think you as the years went by, it got
harder and harder. Like you, you probably started doing two
dances per show first week. First week exactly, we didn't see.
I was just responsible for one dance my whole entire time.
If I would have made it to the following week,
(37:57):
I would have had to learn two dances. So I
was like semi happy that. I was like, all right, good,
I only have I don't have to learn two dancers.
I get a bye week, and then I come back
to the finale because I like that. So I don't know,
I was happy with it. Yes, you won, it's no
well first, by the way, my first sect to dances
a second week. But who won your season? Sean Johnson?
(38:18):
Oh wow, I mean, and I know Sean from here
in Nashville. I didn't that's tough. When you're up against
a gymnast, it's tough. Are you supposed to compete with that?
I was Melissa Ryecroft was on our season and she
was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Again, not fair. We had
a Disney kid and he should have beat me as
far as the day. I mean, listen, everybody should beat
me as far as the dancing. I just went like this,
(38:40):
and you know you came to an episode, you sat
right in the front row. I knew I wasn't the
best dancer. I trained as hard as I could to
get me to the highest dance point that I could get. Period.
But then while everybody else is playing checkers, I'm playing chess.
Going it's two things. I'm gonna win the audience vote
by five times more than everybody else by the not
only the antics, but the vulnerability of my story, by talking,
(39:04):
by talking with the judges. That's what I wanted for me.
So while everyone's going we've got to kill ourselves and
get eights and nines, I'm like, I'm gonna get my
sevens and eights, but I'm gonna go out and when
the freaking spirit stick. Every week like this is ninth grade. Baby,
you know the game, bro, you were you were our season,
like our version of you of our for our season
(39:25):
with Steve Waniak Oh yeah, co founder of Apple that
he was. He won everybody's hearts. Man, he like was
the funniest guy out there and like did not care.
And but you were saying you were you were a
better dancer. On top of that, well, I did get
a lot of hate, a lot of the hardcore Dancing
with the Stars like, uh through and through's really dislike me.
(39:48):
But in order to I found through my career, in
order to really pop with some folks, you gotta really
not because what's making you so lovable to a certain
amount of people, it should also make you unlovable to
others because it's a very distinct flavor. Um. So I
didn't know that. I didn't know the whole story about
your season. It's a great show. I'm happy I did it.
You are you happy you did it? One of the
(40:11):
one of the best experiences I was about that me too.
I have one of the things that I found about you,
I says you, Chuck Wicks quit college two classes short
of graduation. What that? Why why would you not finish
what an idiot? Right? Um, you know, here's a funny story,
and I don't think I've ever told the story. Actually,
So I'm in college. I tell my parents. I'm like, hey,
(40:35):
I'm going to drop out of college. You're going to
become a singer. They look at me, Bobby, and go,
hold up, you can sing. They had no idea because
all I would I would sing around the house. I
would do but I wasn't like in places. I wasn't
in course, I wasn't in you know, I didn't sing
in church. I didn't do any of that. And they go,
(40:57):
we'll sing for us, Like right now. Now, I'm nineteen
years old, I've never sang really really standing in front
of my parents. They made me get up in front
of them in the living room. My mom and dad
are staring at me. I go, I don't know what
to sing. They're like, sing anything. I sang the national anthem?
Did they stand up? But their hand over their heart
(41:18):
like they should have. No. They looked at me like
I had five hands and not bad, not bad. So
then you pieced out you're gonna go back and finish that.
Ever can you get it through correspondence or virtual or
I don't know what they're doing now. I looked into
it actually, like nine years ago. I was like, in
the middle of touring. I was just like, I'm not
you know, I'm gonna see if I can get my
(41:39):
degree just to make my parents happy. I called and
because so much time had passed since I've been to school,
of the whole curriculum changed. So instead of two classes,
now I actually have a full half semester I need
to finish. So what is that like, a half semester
or full semester? What do you like twelve or something
like that? All right, Hey, are our goals? That is
(42:00):
what I like. I like setting goals. Our goals here
are and are I mean yours? All right? I got
a few things here. One, we're gonna get something really
cool and we're gonna work on it, hopefully get that
thing rolling. That's one to your This is a longer
term goal. You're going to do a full iron Man
as at some point in the next few years. Three,
you're going to make your parents happy and figure out
(42:23):
how to get that, you know, twelve hours or whatever virtually.
And then four we're gonna figure out once we get
this podcast or show or whatever we're gonna do popping
and I get back on there. We're just gonna go
tour together some too. We're just gonna go out and
it will be the music and comedy variety show. But
all these are great ideas that we can definitely do,
all doable ideas, and all ideas that we can crush.
(42:46):
Especially you're going back to school, because I think kids
everywhere would love to see Uncle Chuck go back to
school and get his degree. That's all. I'll leave it there.
It may take a while, but I'll leave that there. Well. Listen, man,
I um, I'm super excited to talk with you on
a on a big stage, and you know, I'm anxious
to see what's happening with you and and hopefully we'll
come back soon. You and I and I have a
little something to talk about with people that they can
(43:07):
they can check out and listen. I think you're a
real talent and I hated to see you you be
let go over there, But man, some of some of
the best things happen when adversity hits you kind of
find out who you are and what you really want.
So I think we're gonna see that with you. My
friend I appreciate you man, And everything happens for a reason,
and here we are. All right, have a good time
at the beach. Tell everybody I said hello. I'll talk
(43:28):
to you soon, all right, all right, see dude s
M H. Welcome to episode to forty five The Bobby Cast,
all about music. We'll talk to Chuck Wicks and a
little bit who is a buddy of mine. He's pretty
honest about how he's firing went down at a radio
station here in Nashville. So ah, interesting talking. You know.
I've never talked to Chuck on this before, but that's
(00:21):
coming up a little bit. I hope you hang out
for that. I do want to talk about because we
record this version of it on Friday. A lot of
new music coming out today. I was on Instagram a
little bit ago and I saw Brett Eldridge post a
clip of his new video, and I was talking about
a couple of days ago, and he was saying that
shooting a music video in the Corona world's kind of
peculiar because everybody's got masks on. You look over, we
(00:42):
got a camera guy with a mask on. It's a
super small crew. So Brett Eldridge, I believe the song
for that video. Before I get to the his new song,
I want to make sure I'm right here. I think
the video is for a single which is now It's
for good Day, I'll be day all right here it
(01:02):
is here's a good day, and something's got me thinking,
maybe it's gonna be a good I don't know. I
feel like love's coming in the sunny, even shining, keep
balls made to keep spilly, I gotta feed. It's gonna
(01:28):
be a good d like that one, all right. Cole
Swindell has got a new song called single Saturday Night,
We're in the corner, Baby. I saw pretty real lists
working on a white cloth, shaking to a little ship
me all night long and untend you don't wake up
(01:49):
in my show. It's funny to hear because whiskey is
the number one alcohol talked about. But you're starting to
see white clock kind of slowly slip into country songs
when they're talking about what the girls are drinking. You know,
that's the new female drink in country songs, like I'll
drink my whiskey, you're drinking your white claw and we'll
do it. Coleslandells oddly a really good athlete too. I
(02:10):
think he was a like an all state football player.
I think he played uh defense. Not a big guy,
could be deceivingly big. I'm not sure. Because the conversation
that have with Chuck Wicks, I was surprised that how
big Chuck is because I've stood next to Chuck and
I don't know, I don't feel like he towers over me.
But yeah, Cole, he had posted some pictures on his
(02:32):
Instagram if I'm playing football in high school and hit
him up and I was like, Hey, what'd you do?
And he was like, ah, you know, you know, he
wasn't bragging about it at all. I think I asked
him how good he was because I probably was awarded
too many. I think it was all State. Next time
we have them on, I'll talk to him by that.
Florida Georgia Line put out an EP, which EP is
we'll call the mini album what I call it, and
(02:55):
I'm not as sure if that's what it stands for.
His extended play. Yeah, it means it's extended from just
one song. Yeah, and the LP is the long play?
Is that what L stands for? So the EP is
six pack. Here's a song from Florida Georgia Line called
Ain't Worried About It. Jordan Davis has a EP and
(03:31):
before I play one of his new songs, Jordan has
a few songs he has. You want to pull him out, Mike,
because I called my manager last night. We were talking
about some new stuff. My TV show got announced yesterday,
so we were having a conversation about that. And by
the way, my new show we start shooting it hopefully
next month. It's called Breaking Bobby Bones. And the thing
(03:54):
that people ask most about the TV show world is, hey,
what's it like? And so I've kind of had to
describe the show. I would just crib, but like Anthony
Bourdain shot like that meets micro, dirty jobs meets jackass.
That's how I would describe it, because you know, there's
definitely that Anthony Bordain travel around um a little depth
(04:17):
and the micro. You know, he would go and see
people's dirty jobs. These jobs aren't always dirty, honestly. Some
of them are kind of cool and fun, some aren't,
some are dangerous, UM. And then jack ass because they're
gonna have me do in this crap. I say, they
developed the show myself, so anything that happens to me
is my fault. But that's what the show will be about.
And so I was calling my manager last night, who
also works a little bit with Jordan Davis, and so
(04:40):
I was said, hey, man, Jordan has really turned into
a great interview would you agree with that? At first,
I think the guy was just like, man, I'm gonna
a sea of all these like dudes because all these dudes,
there's so many of them, and a lot of them
are so similar. Uh. And Jordan's the guy with the
big long beard, and as a person, I really like him.
And at first when I would interview, I'll be like,
(05:01):
you know, I just don't hear enough to bring him
on the air a lot. But man, now, like the
last three times, the guy's been money and I love
it because I love him. But he's got three big
songs before I play this church in a Chevy, just
so you know who he is. He has if he
ever singles you up that song right there, stupid, then
(05:26):
he has uh that take it from me? You have
that one hold on, no one's freezing. I knew something
was up, but the clunky nature. I was like, we
must have some sort of computer issue over there. But
the other you have slow slow dancing a parking lot. Yeah,
(05:55):
if you don't have the other one, I could sing it.
I think you had to sing it. Okay, so it
goes you can now these other ones are on my
head anyway. It's called take it from me whatever. But
he has a new EP out today. Everybody we got
longs me Here here comes the chorus shot all are
(06:16):
alway get might play here we go fin take it
from me? Listen? Yeah good? So anyway, all that to say,
I just want to give you some background in Jordan,
his uh self tell DP is out today. Here's a
song called Church and a Chevy. I went church and
saving on the tulane on the side of the root sun,
(06:37):
coming up to love. Really excited for that guy, just
like him a whole lot. Craig Morrigan dropped his new
album called God Family Country and it's a mixture of
half songs that he had done before and they had
kind of re They call it remastering where they change
out some stuff, though they'll go back in and you know,
I'm a little more guitar, a little less drums. But
(06:58):
then it's a lot of new stuff too, and even
a cover. And the cover is Soldier by Gavin de Girl.
So here's a clip of that. You don't it when
dude Soldier? See what else we got coming out? This week?
(07:23):
Margot Price put out a live record at the Rheman.
It's called Perfectly Imperfect it's a digital only live release.
She did three nights at the Rheman. Profits donated to
Music Care's COVID nineteen relief fund. Do we have a
trick for this one? Yeah? Okay, Nashville, alright, alright, that
(07:48):
sounds pretty good. You know, I'd wanted to record a
live record in the Rheman because that's kind of the cool.
The thing about the Rheman is is you don't make
as much money playing at the Rheman unless you really
really bush take it out. And so a lot of
artists will play the Rheman and they make money. And
I played. I guess not time. I did the Rymans
for the million dollars show, now that I think about it,
I don't make any money from that show. It's all
(08:09):
gets donated. But the Rheman. You could play a bigger
place and make more money, but people to come through
town mostly want to play the Rhemans. So what you
do with theaters the I and the Rheman is a
theater ish Ryman Auditorium, but it's it feels like a
theater when you play. It's kind of a mixture. It's yeah,
it's yeah, Um, everybody wants to play the rhemans. But
(08:32):
it it costs money to rent a place. How it
works and the touring world is, Let's say I have
a building. I own a building, Bobby Theater. So Bobby
Theater costs, it costs me to buy and I want
to rent it out for five dollars a night. Well,
a promoter will see that it costs five dollars a
night to rent Bobby Theater. Now Mike's gonna come through.
(08:55):
I'm gonna rent Bob with theater for five bucks, and
I'm gonna pay you, m hmmm, six dollars. So now
that's costing me eleven dollars to rent the theater and
to pay you. I need to make sure I'm gonna
make a fourteen or fifteen dollars, so I'm gonna need
to go So, but that's the risk. You gotta pay
(09:16):
for the theater, you gotta pay for the artist. And
then this is the very bare bones way to describe it.
And they need to make you know, three or four
dollars off of it. Sometimes they lose money. Sometimes they
make a lot more money. And for me, when I
do stand up, if I sell over, it then goes
into a split. So let's say, I'm playing the Warner
(09:37):
Theater in DC, one of my favorite places to play.
It's an expensive theater rent, so I know I'm not
gonna check my ticket prices up high. Um. I want
to make money, but I also want to make sure
that people can come to a show. It's gonna find
that that balance and if they need that holds like
twenty three hundred or something after about twenty one hundred,
because I make my my five dollars up and then
(09:58):
the last two hundred we do a revenue flit like
then he gets and I get of the remaining tickets.
There's becomes a breakdown. Depending in the age that you have,
some people do. I would say I'm a mid level
touring artist. I'm definitely not mc graw or Dan and
Shay at this point selling out arena's arena's fair, right,
(10:22):
But I can do theater big theaters and but that's
how it works. Does that make sense? It makes sense?
Did you know all that? No? Not really not that? Yeah?
So is that that that was good? Huh? I described it?
I got it all right wrong. I'm not totally wrong,
because the promoter is the one that takes all the
risk and then you know, the promoter sometimes will book
(10:43):
a region and if I'm going to go through the Midwest,
you know, I have a guy that I'll see in St. Louis,
and then I'll have a galassie at Madison, Wisconsin, and
he kind of travels along with me because he rents out.
Because you know what we do. We would do shows
and see the same promoter from you know, sometimes a
weekend if we're doing two shows, sometimes two kinds in
a row for kind of in the same area, ask
him around, thanks for coming, Thanks for coming to my
(11:05):
ted talk. But that's that's how it works. And you know,
then it gets a little icier for me because part
of every ticket I still it goes to charity. Um,
so I donate that and then then you do merch
and we merch for charity. So then it comes all
these weird breakdowns. But that's why I have a business manager.
At this point. I remember the breakdown merch and like
the charity party would always be a whole like no,
this is this and this is like okay, I got it.
(11:26):
And because you gotta pay the house too, because they
rent you. And again that's why I didn't want to
go back into such uh specifics, because then the house
rents you a merch booth. Because remember because by the way, Mike,
he did merch for me before he started doing opening
and doing comedy. But if you remember that, you have
to we have to pay to rent the table. We
(11:48):
have to give a percentage of what we made. So yeah,
with a whole different split. Yeah, which is the whole
they got to pay people for everything. Ghosts of West
Virginia is out. It's Steve Earle and the Dukes. The
album centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion
that killed twenty nine men in West Virginia in two
thousand ten. Here's a song called Union God and Country
(12:10):
Gotten Country. They were burn mountains, tracked the mine and
walk the line. That's just what you did down with
got there you go? Someone ringing my doorbell in the
(12:34):
middle of this. Well then I looked at at my
front porch and I think CMT just dropped off that kit.
I'm doing the c MT Hero Award thing. They dropped
up a mini kid as to what we had, an
American idol, which was weird and might ran the whole thing.
It was lights and cameras. This is gonna be way
less than that one thing, the whole big thing to
(12:57):
connect back if I see it on my porch at
they just left it there expensive his crap sit in
the rain by the way. Train has a new song
called Rescue Dog. I don't know if we have that one.
Hold on one second. I got to talk to this
(13:18):
guy out here. Hey, man, how are you? Hey, it's Bobby.
How are you? Uh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do I need
to come out there or can you leave it there
for up to you? Yeah, I'm inside. I'm in the bathroom. Yes,
yes it is, Thank you very much. All right, I
get it in a minute. Guy. Thanks. You're talking to
somebody sitting on the toilet right now. Let you go. Ah,
(13:41):
there's train. Let's see. We don't have to play all
these m hm. Grace Potter, who I love? Do you
have this one? I say that? Then I want to
hear this one. Grace Potter has a new song called
each Other. Oh no, well, I like Grace Potter playing
acoustic cooling. Get come on, we've got each other. I'm
(14:08):
gonna say that one right now. No that alright, let's
do one more, little more clip here. Lady Gaga got
something new from Oriana Grande called Rain with Ariana Grande
called Rain on Me. There you go, Hey, check out
(14:34):
Mike's podcast called Movie Mix Movie Podcast before we get
into Chuck Wicks. What's your episode this week night? I'm
talking about the greatest movie quotes and then some of
my favorites movie My movie podcast you can just search
for movie Mike podcast is growing like a little weed.
And then next week I'm gonna try to do sequels
that were better than the originals. Let me think about
The Terminator because of mine immediately, I haven't seen The Godfather,
(15:00):
but I think that's kind of accepted as better. Yeah,
I think the second one was better. M what else
would be? Oh? Man, I mean Rocky ish, that's so
early on. I think that's probably probably as good. I
don't know about better, but as good. It's also hard
to do. It didn't suck. I liked it. It just
(15:22):
compared to one, two, and four. I did not like
Rocky three, But okay, put Rocky in that. What about
maybe fast and furious movies because does that count that
there's a lot of them? Yeah, if any of those
are actually better than the first one, am I forgetting
any just glaring ones? I mean I think The Dark
(15:45):
Knight was better than Batman begins. Yeah. Interesting, and also
the Captain America, the second one was better than the
first one. Someone first one is very slow. Yeah, I
was never just into Captain America as a its own.
That may be the worst one to me, really. Yeah.
I never watched Dr Insignia or whatever his name was.
Doctor Strange Yeah whatever, dr Strange love No, just Doctor Strange.
(16:07):
I don't watch that one. I'll think about that. All right,
a movie, Mike search it. Come back with Chuck Quicks.
It's really honest. Talk here next, alright, talking with Chuck
Wicks right now, Hey man, what's up? It's interesting to
(16:28):
get you on because uh, and we're gonna get back
around in a second to what's happening with you in
your career and just a little bit. But I was
looking over notes, as I often do. I didn't know
that you had done four You did four iron Man's,
Is that right? Yeah? Well let me clarify because the
people that do four iron Man's will have my head
for it. I am a seventy point three guys, So
(16:48):
I've done four half iron Man's. I am not. I'm
not full crazy as they say I'm just half crazy.
So but yeah, I love doing triathlons. It's like it's uh.
I started doing it maybe four years ago, five years ago.
And you know, I grew up an athlete, went to
the comments to play baseball, and I was just I
(17:09):
needed something to feel that like competitive edge. So triathlons
it was why not? And I say this as someone
I've done a couple of Olympic traath lines which aren't
quite what you've done in the iron Man, but why
not go ahead and hit the full iron Man? Um? Honestly,
I want to do a full one full iron Man,
(17:30):
but I also want to still have my body left
as I get older. I mean, the training, it's all
about the training. If it takes so much time to
train for half, to train for a full would be
like it's almost it's almost like a career move. I'm
just saying, you're probably happy with yourself. If you got one,
(17:50):
you got one in, that's all just one. I can
get one. I'm gonna get one in before. I'll get
one in before. How about that? Are you shredded right now? Yeah?
I have no now. When I when I'm training full board, like,
I'll go into a race at one all way about
one eight, and then I'll be shredded. Like race day,
(18:13):
I'm shredded, But right now I'm about one. If that
gives you an idea of like, how tall are you?
Six two six two and three quarters? Bobby? You that
much taller than me because I'm six lot over six ft.
But I didn't know that you were demanding height when
you stood next to me. I didn't know I needed
to recognize who was my superior in height. Dang, I
(18:36):
don't know two inches is not demanding or superior. I mean,
now if I'm six five, if I'm going like Charles
Kelly height or Tray Sack inside, that's a different story.
But Chuck and I have been been but for a
couple of years. Um, Chuck, your radio career started back
with Blair? Is that right? Back like five six years ago?
Tell me how that started? Yeah? So well, I'm you know,
(18:59):
I'm moved to Nashville. I played baseball down a Florida
Southern college and that's when I like picked up a
guitar and started. You know, I was like, Okay, I
want to be a recording artists. This is what I
want to do. This is what I was meant to do.
Hold on, We're gonna get to the recording artist stuff
in a minute. I go, I'm just talking because I
think a lot of people know you as Chuck Wicks,
that the guy with the songs. But I'm curious about
(19:20):
when you got into radio first. Okay, some radio talking
on the radio. I got into that about six years ago,
and Blair Garner did ask me to be a part
of it. I remember he because I knew Blair from
being on a show as an artist, and He's like, Hey,
I'm working on this new show. Do you want to
be on it? And I'm like, what is it? And
(19:40):
I'd like, dude, I had just I had lost my
record deal, I had lost my publishing deal. And I
was like, I'm like, what am I doing? Like what
am I gonna do? Because it wasn't like I wasn't
getting another record deal anytime soon. I wasn't. I didn't
know if it's gonna happen. I was like, you know what,
maybe this is maybe this is my new half and
(20:01):
I said, yeah, let's do it. So it was it
was Blair Garner, myself, Kerry Clark, who we love, uh
grade nineties y u K artists um Lee and Walmack
started with us, um Sonny Sweeney. It was like Blair,
Garner and a bunch of artists, and I jumped in
and ended up loving it. I remember when you got
(20:25):
because that show went on and we went on. I
think we might have been on like a month ahead.
I mean, because there was really no ahead because both
shows were kind of getting put together. And I remember here,
I was just coming in with all my friends. And
by the way, I love Blair. I love all those
people you just mentioned. And I remember Blair was going
on because Blair had left my heart and he went
over to a Cumulus the radio company, and they were like,
(20:47):
Blair's doing a show with all these artists, and I'm like,
what the crap? Like I showed up with my buddies,
and Blair's got the all star team of Nashville the
country music artists. And that's what I remember thinking. And
you know, that's when I was introduced you, except for
uh stealing Cinderella that song. That's that's how I was
introduced to you as being a part of that show.
So you worked with the Blair for how long it
(21:11):
would have been three years? I was with him, and
I'm assuming that went pretty well because you ran that whole,
that whole gamut with him. Yeah, and then some yep,
I went three years with him. And listen, a lot
of people Blair and I were together for three years,
but Jerry Clark lasted a long time too. A lot
of people there were interwoven with that, like different other
(21:31):
third chairs, fourth chairs, whatever you want to call him
on that show. And you know, then Blair ended up
going back to UM after midnights or like in that
slot of like the overnight night, Yeah, overnights, and a
guy named Ty came in and and took his spot,
(21:52):
and then it became the Ty Bentley Show for and
I lasted with him for another three years. And so
how was that vibe different with Ti than with Blair? Um?
You know, it's it wasn't really different. Ties a little
bit younger, um, a little bit different style, um, but
besides that, it was it was pretty much the same
(22:14):
kind of outline. Well, so then I see where Ti
leaves or whatever happened there, and then you're running the
show and by this point you and I have become
had become buds. We see each other out, we've talked.
You came when I was doing Dancing with the Stars,
because you had done Dancing with the Stars back in
the day. You came by my by my trailer and
so um and then you were heading the show for
(22:34):
how long were you heading the show or at least
you were the you know, one of the main one,
or I don't know what that was. I don't know,
if you consider yourself, I would consider you the main
But how long did that last? Yes, that's interesting that
you even say that, because, um, so what had happened
about it was actually a few months ago Ty had quit.
You left the show. So here we are on the
tip of Emily Show with no tie, and you know,
(22:57):
I saw the staff and everybody and on the morning
show freaking out, and I'm like, wait a minute, this
is my moment. I'm like waiting for this for six years,
like I've kind of waited in the way it's gonna
always wanted my own show. I'm like, no, I got it.
I'm gonna we're gonna be good. I'm gonna sit at
the helm, I'm gonna take over. We're gonna do this.
And that's when like the next day, Nashville got slammed
(23:23):
with the tornado that six tornadoes actually just wiped a
lot of people out, a lot of devastation. So my
first week is like taking over once Tye left. We
had this you know, natural disaster that we had to
take care of, and we're all all the focuses on that,
not what does Chuck sound like, as you know, the
lead guy. So right after that we run into what
(23:46):
we're currently facing, the pandemic and everybody having to social
distance and work from home. So I got about I
think seven weeks and at the Helm, but it was
never really at the Helm, that was at home via zoom.
And so in your mind, you're doing this show, you're
(24:06):
I'm assuming that you've kind of taken charges. Hey, I'm
gonna be the leader, like follow me, We're gonna do
some really great things here. But but you're doing it
from home. Are you communicating with your bosses, like what's
happening in that world? Because even for me now it's
a struggle sometimes to get ahold of my bosses because
everybody is being pulled in all these different directions like
what are you feeling at this time and who are
you talking with? So it was interesting because I had
(24:28):
to almost, uh, plead my case. I had to beg
almost I had to plead my case. Hey, guys talking
to the vice the vps. And at the time, we
got a new vv VP that came in, so he
didn't really know me. I didn't we knew of each other.
And I said, you gotta give me a shot, you
gotta give me a shot, and they kept saying yeah,
(24:50):
you know, and I had to like, I was, you know,
I'm talking to my agent, I'm talking to you know,
several vps. I'm talking to my boss within the building
where I work, trying to get every I need to
get on the same page, like, hey, Chuck's got this.
So I'm thinking, I'm like, all right, maybe maybe they're
gonna give me a shot at this. It comes to
find out they never really were like they you know,
(25:12):
when the the new VP came in, he was just like,
I got my people, they're coming in now. And looking
back now he's like, I got my people, they're coming in, Chuck.
They basically used me to keep the keep the team
together until they got all their ducks in a row
and figured out what they wanted to do. And then,
you know, I don't know if you're gonna ask me
this or not. But we all ended up getting fired
(25:34):
about two weeks ago, right after we did a Friday show,
and we're honestly man really never saw it coming and
just kind of bummed us out. It was it was
a tough time. They call you in the office and
how did that go? What happened? They tell you, so
because it wasn't oh that's right, Corona. You didn't get
to go in to the office. I didn't even get
(25:54):
to go in the office, didn't even get a face
to face, And it was just it was one of
those deals versus like, hey, tuck in the minute, because
I didn't really talk to, you know, the new VP
that much. So the minute he I got a call
from him, and then the minute he goes, hey, I
don't know if you met so and so from HR,
but he's on the phone as well, and I was like,
(26:15):
I'm getting fired, and it hit me right in the chess. Man.
I was just like, because I always, you know, you
always have a gut feeling if someone's going to give
you a shot, or they're behind you, or if they
get it. And I always kind of knew in my
gut that they didn't get it. They I wasn't going
to get the shot, but it hit home, man, Like
(26:38):
in that phone call, I was just like, I'm gonna
I'm about to get fired, and now I'm a different
I'm a different guy than I was last year. Like
I'm married, now, I got three bonus daughters, and I
have people to take care of. So immediately I was
just like, holy crap, Like what am I gonna do?
Like what am what? Now? What am I gonna do?
(27:00):
I remember because you and I were talking even way
before that, you know, the firing happened, and and even
I thought it was weird that they were keeping the
show name for someone who wasn't on the show anymore.
I mean, that was an odd thing. And now looking back,
you know, it kind of makes sense. I'm not gonna
rebrand it with you if they knew from the beginning
it wasn't gonna be you. Um, but you and I
(27:20):
have been talking and just I was we were checking
on each other because you know, we're both doing the
same thing right across the street from each other basically,
And I remember whenever I saw it, I was like,
oh crap, because I think you're really talented obviously, I
think you're really good at what you do. And you
called and I was like, hey, dude, give it a bit,
like take two weeks, and because right, because you're kind
of on tilt a little, but something crazy happens to
(27:41):
you're kind of on tilt where you're just you're reacting
more than you're responding. And you took two weeks, and
what did you kind of find out about yourself in
that two weeks? Uh? Well, first of all, thank you
for saying that in great advice, because the minute it
did happen, I got The minute I got fired, I
did panic because I'm like, how am I gotta I
gotta make money, I gotta take care of my family,
(28:05):
and being in this weird spot, I mean it was weird.
Immediately started thinking about all the other people that lost
their jobs and all the other people that got furloughed
or whatever it was. I was just like, Wow, this sucks.
And so I took the two weeks and I figured
out what do I want? What I want to do?
(28:26):
What do I want? And I do want my own show,
you know, I do want to have my own radio show.
It's just it's just not there there at that home
at that place that I was. I want people that
believe in me. I want I want to be with
the right team, and I want to do things that
that are great. I remember going to work, Dude. I
would go to work and it was just I was
just kind of like showing up. You know. It wasn't
(28:48):
I wasn't being challenged. I wasn't being I was comfortable.
And we we had talked about this. When you get
fired or when you get let go or something major happens,
you immediately get out of your comfort zone. And dude,
I was immediately uncomfortable. So I did take the two weeks,
(29:09):
and I was like, I want my own show, and
you know, and that's what I was wondering too. If
you took the whole time, did you want to get
back to grinding as an artist because you had success there?
Did you want to really do radio? Like what? And
so you know, you and I talk again and You're like, Hey,
this one what I'm gonna do. And I'm like, well,
I think you're super talented. Uh, nobody's hiring right now. Which,
by the way, as soon as they had put the
(29:30):
announcement that you weren't working over there, I called my
boss and I was like, hey, there's a guy here
is real good, and nobody's hiring anywhere at all. Right,
it's everybody's just just hemorrhaging money at this point. And
you know, I listen, I have said on the show before,
I took a percentage pay cut just so we wouldn't
have to lay people off on my show. So you know,
everybody and I'm not that's not that's uh right now,
(29:52):
everybody's hurting. And so you know, I remember telling you, hey,
nobody's hiring. Don't take that as a youth thing. But
if you want to like do something, and there's no
announcement here and out, but you know, and you and
I are working on on something that I think you'll
just thrive in. And I'm excited to hear that you
want to do this for however long you want to
do this. You know, the thing that I love about
(30:14):
you know, us getting together and and working on a
project together and making some things happen is that one
thing that did not happen where I was, where I
was working, was they never got like, they never got
they never got the full you know, three sixty picture
of what could happen and like I look at you,
(30:37):
You're doing exactly what I want to do. Like you
gotta you know, a badass shell in the morning, right.
I mean, listen, you kicked our butt all every day, right,
so you know you got this badass show, but you're
also making it happen outside of that. Like you're an
American idol. You go around and you tour in these
great places, these amazing theaters and sell them out and
(31:00):
do your your show, and you take your friends with you,
and you do music and you do all these things.
And I'm like, there's a guy, you know, And I'm
not trying to blow you up right now, but you're
a guy that you get it because you're doing it.
So I'm excited to get started on our front. I'm
excited to get started working with you, and I'm excited
(31:21):
to see where it goes because it's gonna go more
places than just one place. Well, and this is in
no means an announcement, but I'm very excited because listen,
I've been a Chuck fan for a long time. Um,
I remember at one point while you were on you
may not remember this, but while you were doing the
show that you know it's I'm not a big believer
in just radio competitors, because I think we're competing with
(31:41):
everything YouTube, We're competing with everything is is you're you're
trying to find your spot in people's consciousness. And so
with me, I never look at somebody on another radio
frequency and go, uh. That being said, I remember you're
on the other country station and and you put out
a song I thought was so good. I played it
on my show while you were doing the other show
as of the main talents over there. So you know,
(32:03):
to me, it's always about and it always has been
about just surround yourself with the best people. Yeah, encourage
and give them the resources that they need, because if
you surround yourself with the best people, which I've done
with my show, it elevates me. I wouldn't be the
talent that I am without Amy, my co host, who've
never been on the radio, or Eddie or lunch Box
(32:24):
are those guys, And I think that that there's going
to be that relationship with us too, because you're way
better at most of the things that I do. And
so I'm excited to see where you can go that
I mean, I don't, but I will say this, you
and I together That's that's some strength right there. That's
(32:45):
something that will be hard to be I do have
a couple of questions, and at a later time when
this is finalized, if it is in the world gets
back to normal, um, we'll do an official analysis. But
as I was kind of looking up some stuff about you, UM,
I had a couple of questions that I had written down.
Because when you talk to your friends, like when we're
at an event, we're just talking with each other. I
don't get to ask you questions like this because it
(33:06):
would be weird. But in your song, better than flowers,
you say quote, but I can make love to you
for hours, It's better than flowers. My question is have
you ever made love for hours? If so, how that's right? Okay, UM,
that's a great question. I have made love with U.
(33:31):
And the only reason why I made I made love
for hours is because I was really drunk, and so
that's what I need to do then, kind of numb
it with alcohol. That's right. I recommend whiskey if that
puts it together for you. Whenever stealing Cinderella hit, did
you play weddings with that song and make a little
bit of money doing that? Because I know it was
(33:52):
a wedding song. But did you ever go planning yourself? Okay, yes,
I did. I have been asked to play a lot
of way and at first, um, I was like, no, no, no,
I don't want to do it. Until I don't know
if I should say that. There was uh, somebody that
paid me a bunch of money to sing still in
(34:13):
Cinderella at their wedding, and I was like, okay, wait
a minute, why, yes, let's go do this this Maybe
maybe I meant to be a wedding singer. But yeah,
I've played I've played four, maybe five weddings, and it's
usually been around like maybe a governor's daughter is getting
married or you know, uh coach Fumer was. That's when
(34:37):
I knew it was a big wedding song. I didn't
write it as a wedding song. I didn't write it
as like a father daughter dance. I never even thought
about that. Um. But it it happens to be one
of the biggest wedding songs and it still gets played
today and it's so amazing because it's just a reminder
of the power of a song. Right And you know
(34:58):
you said it when we first got on your like
you you know you know him for this, you know
you know him for this song, And part of that's like, well,
I got other songs too, but to being to be
known for anything is special and that song is special,
and uh it's pretty cool. Hey, I brought up better
than flowers too, So don't act like I only said
you were known for stealing Cinderella, So don't twist my words.
(35:21):
That's true. Yeah, you're right. I appreciate I've never thought
another man would ask me if I had made love
for hours, and I appreciate it coming from you. Yeah,
would you draw that for me? Like maybe a sketch
with chalk that would be cool on the sidewalk. Yeah. Um,
let me ask this because you did Dancing with the
Stars when you got into it, because I never danced
a second in my life. I've never I was the
(35:42):
one on our show that had no training. Were you
the same when it came to dance? Same and listen?
People hated me on Dancing with the Stars because, um,
well I was very polarizing. Either loved me or hated me.
They hated me. The haters hate to me because I
was dancing at Julianne huff At the time. I have
been dating Julianne for seven months at that time, so
(36:06):
they're like, in their minds, the fans minds that watched
the show, they're like, oh, well, he's dated her for
like seven months. They probably practice all the time, see
each other or they have advantage, And I'm like, please,
not even close. I can't imagine being in a relationship
with someone because my partner and I Sharna, no romance whatsoever.
(36:29):
Loved her, respect, you know, respect her because they were
really really hard times because there's a lot of training,
and respect her so much after that's all over. But
to also have to be in a functioning romantic relationship
while going through that would be near impossible. Yeah, actually,
I see. I actually thought it hindered our performances because
(36:50):
we we we knew once you know, dance practice or
whatever you wanna call it was over, we were still
going to be with each other, so we didn't I
think we were we were not as focused because we're like, wow,
we got all day, We're gonna be together all day.
So we would dance for like maybe a couple of hours,
(37:11):
and then that was it. I got a couple of
the By the way, where'd you finish on that show
fifth place. Did you want to? Did you think you
could win? Mm hmm no not actually now, I thought
I thought I was gonna come in top three, but
and all I wanted to do was make it to
the finals. And I was one week away from making
(37:34):
it to the finals, So I was okay with it.
But also the next week, because every year is different,
I think you as the years went by, it got
harder and harder. Like you, you probably started doing two
dances per show first week. First week exactly, we didn't see.
I was just responsible for one dance my whole entire time.
If I would have made it to the following week,
(37:57):
I would have had to learn two dances. So I
was like semi happy that. I was like, all right, good,
I only have I don't have to learn two dancers.
I get a bye week, and then I come back
to the finale because I like that. So I don't know,
I was happy with it. Yes, you won, it's no
well first, by the way, my first sect to dances
a second week. But who won your season? Sean Johnson?
(38:18):
Oh wow, I mean, and I know Sean from here
in Nashville. I didn't that's tough. When you're up against
a gymnast, it's tough. Are you supposed to compete with that?
I was Melissa Ryecroft was on our season and she
was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Again, not fair. We had
a Disney kid and he should have beat me as
far as the day. I mean, listen, everybody should beat
me as far as the dancing. I just went like this,
(38:40):
and you know you came to an episode, you sat
right in the front row. I knew I wasn't the
best dancer. I trained as hard as I could to
get me to the highest dance point that I could get. Period.
But then while everybody else is playing checkers, I'm playing chess.
Going it's two things. I'm gonna win the audience vote
by five times more than everybody else by the not
only the antics, but the vulnerability of my story, by talking,
(39:04):
by talking with the judges. That's what I wanted for me.
So while everyone's going we've got to kill ourselves and
get eights and nines, I'm like, I'm gonna get my
sevens and eights, but I'm gonna go out and when
the freaking spirit stick. Every week like this is ninth grade. Baby,
you know the game, bro, you were you were our season,
like our version of you of our for our season
(39:25):
with Steve Waniak Oh yeah, co founder of Apple that
he was. He won everybody's hearts. Man, he like was
the funniest guy out there and like did not care.
And but you were saying you were you were a
better dancer. On top of that, well, I did get
a lot of hate, a lot of the hardcore Dancing
with the Stars like, uh through and through's really dislike me.
(39:48):
But in order to I found through my career, in
order to really pop with some folks, you gotta really
not because what's making you so lovable to a certain
amount of people, it should also make you unlovable to
others because it's a very distinct flavor. Um. So I
didn't know that. I didn't know the whole story about
your season. It's a great show. I'm happy I did it.
You are you happy you did it? One of the
(40:11):
one of the best experiences I was about that me too.
I have one of the things that I found about you,
I says you, Chuck Wicks quit college two classes short
of graduation. What that? Why why would you not finish
what an idiot? Right? Um, you know, here's a funny story,
and I don't think I've ever told the story. Actually,
So I'm in college. I tell my parents. I'm like, hey,
(40:35):
I'm going to drop out of college. You're going to
become a singer. They look at me, Bobby, and go,
hold up, you can sing. They had no idea because
all I would I would sing around the house. I
would do but I wasn't like in places. I wasn't
in course, I wasn't in you know, I didn't sing
in church. I didn't do any of that. And they go,
(40:57):
we'll sing for us, Like right now. Now, I'm nineteen
years old, I've never sang really really standing in front
of my parents. They made me get up in front
of them in the living room. My mom and dad
are staring at me. I go, I don't know what
to sing. They're like, sing anything. I sang the national anthem?
Did they stand up? But their hand over their heart
(41:18):
like they should have. No. They looked at me like
I had five hands and not bad, not bad. So
then you pieced out you're gonna go back and finish that.
Ever can you get it through correspondence or virtual or
I don't know what they're doing now. I looked into
it actually, like nine years ago. I was like, in
the middle of touring. I was just like, I'm not
you know, I'm gonna see if I can get my
(41:39):
degree just to make my parents happy. I called and
because so much time had passed since I've been to school,
of the whole curriculum changed. So instead of two classes,
now I actually have a full half semester I need
to finish. So what is that like, a half semester
or full semester? What do you like twelve or something
like that? All right, Hey, are our goals? That is
(42:00):
what I like. I like setting goals. Our goals here
are and are I mean yours? All right? I got
a few things here. One, we're gonna get something really
cool and we're gonna work on it, hopefully get that
thing rolling. That's one to your This is a longer
term goal. You're going to do a full iron Man
as at some point in the next few years. Three,
you're going to make your parents happy and figure out
(42:23):
how to get that, you know, twelve hours or whatever virtually.
And then four we're gonna figure out once we get
this podcast or show or whatever we're gonna do popping
and I get back on there. We're just gonna go
tour together some too. We're just gonna go out and
it will be the music and comedy variety show. But
all these are great ideas that we can definitely do,
all doable ideas, and all ideas that we can crush.
(42:46):
Especially you're going back to school, because I think kids
everywhere would love to see Uncle Chuck go back to
school and get his degree. That's all. I'll leave it there.
It may take a while, but I'll leave that there. Well. Listen, man,
I um, I'm super excited to talk with you on
a on a big stage, and you know, I'm anxious
to see what's happening with you and and hopefully we'll
come back soon. You and I and I have a
little something to talk about with people that they can
(43:07):
they can check out and listen. I think you're a
real talent and I hated to see you you be
let go over there, But man, some of some of
the best things happen when adversity hits you kind of
find out who you are and what you really want.
So I think we're gonna see that with you. My
friend I appreciate you man, And everything happens for a reason,
and here we are. All right, have a good time
at the beach. Tell everybody I said hello. I'll talk
(43:28):
to you soon, all right, all right, see dude s
Host
Bobby Bones
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.