#278 - HARDY In-Studio: Writing No.1’s for Blake Shelton, Morgan Wallen to Becoming An Artist + Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees on Why He Hasn’t Seen Their New Documentary + New Music Top 5!

Bobby sits down with HARDY. They talk about his success as a songwriter with songs like “God’s Country”, “Simple”, “More Than My Hometown” and now a No. 1 of his own. Bobby also talks with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees about their new documentary, his friendship with Dolly Parton, and all the country collaborations on his new album. Plus, the best new music releases of the week! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M h welcomed episode to seventy eight Party in studio.
We'll talk to Barry Gibb of the b GS, which
is pretty crazy in legend and I watched that documentary
loved it. It's on HBO Max. We always start with
the best new music releases of the week. Why don't
we do this? Number five. Tim McGraw released a stripped

(00:23):
acoustic version of something like that older song but pretty cool.
Here you go, that's a hit. Marva Qui staying on
my l T shirt. She was killing me in that miniskirt,
skipping knocks on the livery by the real role trash.
She had a sun Tan, light and red. At number four,

(00:45):
a new artist that I really like named Harper Gray
who has played on the radio show. She has a
new song called Caviare and Bars. At number three. Jeremiah,
who is of the Luminears, has a new album out

(01:07):
called Piano Piano. It's his debut solo record. He's the
hat and suspenders guy in the lumine Ears. Here's a
new song called an Air that Kills. By the way,
it's all instrumental, but it feels like it's a movie
when you're listening. Here you go. I feel I should

(01:31):
write words over this rap, over it anything. I just listen.
I'm not going to spend time listening to this, I
don't think. But I do think it's interesting when people
will kind of hop out and do something a little
different and on their own, like with this project. You know,
he's not trying to go solo. He's like, I got
a little itch to scratch, and but I do really
like the Luminears. At number two, Laney Wilson has a

(01:54):
new song called Neon Diamonds Amma Hill for Champagne. And
number one my guy Brandon Ray has a new song
out called Fresh Because It's so said Dan Sweet pos

(02:21):
around my bandone large, it's good so French. You know.

(02:42):
There's a Billie Eilish song out and I'll ask for
your health here. It did made my top five, but
I think I should, you know, actually recognize that it's out.
It's with Rosaliah My. I don't how to pronounce it,
lo Vas all of it go ahead will be that okay?
And what does that mean? You're going to forget? I
know I'm gonna forget, but what does that mean? The

(03:04):
song title? Yeah, like you're good to forget? Something. Oh,
I thought you men, I was gonna forget how to
say that time you're heard to forget? That's the song title. Okay,
do you have a clip of that? That Billie Eilish

(03:24):
stuff is just consistently a little too dark for me,
very whispery. Yeah, this feels like it's a sex scene
between two people who shouldn't be doing it in a movie.
You know, like there's cheating happening, and it's like when
they get away and think slightly against the rules. It's just, yeah,

(03:44):
it's a little too dark for me. New albums out today.
Willie Jones released his debut album Right Now Fraternity, which
is Bond Scott pre a C d C which Bond
Scott was the lead singer originally who died Now Brian
Johnson's the lead singer. But that's out. It's box that
Steve Hackett Lee Rocker from the Straight Cats. I think

(04:06):
that's pretty much it. Not a lot of music this week, honestly.
Music news. Eric Church is releasing one to three albums
in April. The first one is called Heart Out April.
Here's the trend. Morgan Wanlan puts that to Church puts
out three. I heard Luke Bryan's got a nine album
coming up. Yeah, they're just gonna out album each other.

(04:27):
Now here's the shipment of records. Uh, the first one's Heart,
then there's Soul, and then there's one that's called End
like the End Sign. What is that called the ampers
And it's only available on vinyl First Church Choir members.
By the way, you'll probably be able to get it

(04:47):
to eventually somewhere else, but that's just me guessing. So
Heart and Soul, So Heart, Soul, whatever you get it.
There's three albums, Heart and Soul, but and only goes
to the choir, all right. Speaking of Eric Church, Eric
Church and R and B singer Jasmine Solomon will team
up form the national anthem at the Super Bowl. The
game is February seven on CBS. The last time two

(05:10):
singers performed it together was Aaron Neville and Rita Franklin
at Super Bowl in Detroit. Lady A the newest members
of the Grand Old Opry. They were invited Thursday by
Darius Rutger during a taping of the Grand ol Opera
Nine Years of Country Music Special. Their membership becomes effective immediately,
which was a bit odd to see them be invited

(05:32):
and they were already members, because usually what happens is
you get invited, then you have the night where you're inducted.
But I guess because of COVID, it's like, all right,
we want you to remember, and you remember because you
can't really do the big pomp and circumstance. That show
should be interesting. I'm supposed to be a part of
it that because I worked with the opery and play
the opera a lot. But the struggle for me is

(05:52):
that show is on the same night that American Idol debuts.
But I don't do the first episodes of Vital because
I was off shooting my other show. I don't know
what's gonna happen, but hopefully I can still be a
part of the opera show. I think it'd be pretty cool.
Dolly Parton's brother dies Randy Parton, has died of cancer.
He was a singer and musician who played in Dolly's band,
also had a show of his own at Dollywood, probably

(06:14):
best known for his duet with Dolly Old Flames Can't
Hold a Candle to You, which, by the way, Dolly
celebrated her seventy five birthday on Tuesday, Brandy Clark postponed
are tour. She's lightest artist to postponed or canceled tour DIDs.
I mean you kind of have to write it's getting there. Yeah,
it's getting there in what way? I feel like it's
not near close to being there? Well, Tori, you like,

(06:36):
you can't have anything that's not gonna happen people still
holding tickets for so help me here, help me out here?
Was this the tour that she was already doing, like
she announced a long time ago and rescheduled, so then
it's like done, got it? Okay? I was thinking, because
you're not gonna go, We're gonna start touring in February,
and then yeah, so it was the tour that originally
was played and then rescheduled like Marion had, like Mary okay.

(07:00):
Olivia Rodrigo is the youngest ever with a number one
song with her song Driver's License Get My Driver's License
last week. It's like we I'm gonna hear the song
all the time. Captin loves It. She was in his
in high school musical and she was dating the other
dude in high school musical and then he started dating
Sprinting Carpenter Sprendy Carpenter, thank you, and then she wrote

(07:21):
this song and come Drivers Light since last week, just
like we always talked about, because you're so excited for
me to finally drive. She turns eighteen next month. A
debut number one on the chart, which happened fewer times
in fifty times in history. Boy. Uh, finally, now I

(07:43):
got to two or their left hip to be squared
by Huey Lewis and Metallica. They match exactly. Someone posted
this mash up on YouTube. Check it out. I feel

(08:07):
like they sped up the vocals a bit, so it
doesn't match perfectly. They said that it's a nice little
mix that someone did, but that's sped up the Metallica stuff.
It's so fun to hear, all right. Cool. Barry Gibb
has the second best selling album of the week, Who
We'll talk to You Later. Barry gibbs new soul album
did pretty well. Barry Gibb and Friends a debut at

(08:30):
number two. He's from the Beg's. I mean, I didn't
realize really the impact of the Bags. I knew their songs,
but the impact in general until watched that documentary. It
is fantastic. I mean, they were before me. But you
just realized what a legend this guy was. I mean,
holy crap. They got famous like three times, all different levels,
and after they weren't famous anymore, they wrote massive hits

(08:50):
for people, including Islands on the Stream. Taylor Swift's two
records were number three and number four. Drake's new album,
Certified lover Boys, it coming out this month. For all,
he says, all his energy has been dedicated to his
recovery from knee surgery. There you go. It's the second
delay for Certified lover Boy. It was originally supposed to
come out last summer. That's your music news, that's your

(09:13):
music releases, and that is it. What's the order we're
doing here? We'll do Hardy first. Okay, you're gonna love
the interview with Hardy and then Barry Get from the BGS.
Thank you guys. Check out Mike's podcast movie Mike's movie podcast.
What's on this week? Mike? I have Eddie on. We're
talking about Matthew mcconaughhan. Eddie's your guest. Yep, all right,
he's not guesting on this week, so I guess he's
gotta find a spot somewhere alright. Check out movie Mike's

(09:34):
movie podcast, Thank you guys, alright with Hardy here in
the studio. We never met before this, which is weird.
Could you've been around for a bit now and I've
been around for a bit, but we didn't even run
into each other the few chance times that we were
both out, you know what, m yeah, yeah, yeah a

(09:57):
c M S. I feel like to the last time
I was at like an actual awards show, like a
red carpet where people were you know, pre COVID had
was like over a year ago obviously, so um yeah,
I think I've only literally seen you like once ever,
like in passing then. But I mean except for kind

(10:20):
of the would you say, that's a mullet not a
mullet longer it's it's it's a weird tweenter. Other than that,
I would say something, we're similarishly looking. Yeah, I would think,
so we got that we're thinner than me, generic white.
We're both generic white guys though that have dark rimmed glasses.
You can still pull off the flat bill cap. Once

(10:40):
I turned forward this last year, I was like, I'm out.
I go hats anymore, not hats, but I can't do
flat bills, and I feel like I'm a little too
old to really rock the flat one. I think that
for the most part, every body is too old. I
think they're like just going away. For the most part.
It's literally talking somebody about that earlier. It's like people just,

(11:00):
no matter who you are, look less cool these days
on a flat bill. I don't know. Why has it
been a bit odd to finally get recognition as part
of the artist and you really can't do anything with it?
What do you mean, well, because here you have number
one song on the radio, you have a ton of
songwriting hits, but nobody outside of our community knows who
the songwriters are. For the most party, that's that's a

(11:21):
celebrated job, a well paying job if you hit big
inside of our bubble. Yeah, but you can't go to
you know, Tupelo or Lexington and play a full show
as a songwriter. No, you can't sell out you know,
rupp Arena. No, definitely not so your your success as
an artist, and you can tell me if I'm wrong.
It's mostly you're the peak of it has been when

(11:43):
we can't do crap. Yeah, that's true, Okay, I get
what you're saying. Um, Yeah, it's been tough dude. Um
And and I really felt like I can think about timeline.
Our last few shows were uh, I guess around this
time last year and we were finally um, you know,
selling out like bigger, biggest rooms and stuff. And I

(12:07):
mean our set was like amazing and we were really
dialed in and and everything went away. So um. But yeah,
it's been it's been kind of tough on that end.
But the sungwriting school, I mean it's like I get
to play covers quote unquote, and you said that I wrote,
and so I kind of don't have to do real
covers and and get to play some of the stuff

(12:27):
that I've written, and I try to explain it live
and I don't know if it translates, you know, if
people really are listening. But um, yeah, that's cool. I
wonder how many people, because again we're so into the
industry in different ways, but I wonder how many people
that go to a show that don't know the ends
of it actually know what you're saying when you're talking, going, hey,
I wrote God's Country from Blake Shelton, and then you

(12:48):
play it and how many go, oh, yeah, he's governing
this on This is a good one. Yeah, I probably
a lot. I would think so too. I think we
give ourselves too much credit that people listened everything we say. Yeah,
I think so, especially like in bars like arenas and stuff.
I are probably different. I haven't gotten to do that
in arenas obviously, but um, but like in bars and
they're loud and everybody's drunk, and and do you know

(13:10):
that they're probably not paying attention. You're number one as
an artist song, your first one is. And this is
mostly what I was referring to, because I know you've
you've built a base and you've opened up for other
big artists, but for you to have a song that
has extreme massive hill and people to go, oh, it's
the guy that did one beer like that hasn't been

(13:30):
able to happen quite yet. No, I mean because no,
we haven't really played shows since it happened. Let me
play this first. Here is one beer on the record.

(13:50):
This hits slightly different than the rest of the songs.
So whenever this was decided to go to you know, radio,
conventional radio, was someone really pushing that and it was like, Wow,
we can't believe we're gonna do this, or was that
kind of the consensus to go with that song. Yeah,
it was just the Internet. It was data of it
stood I mean oddly enough to It was on Hicks tape.

(14:12):
It wasn't even originally on my um My Rock, my
actual record. It was a Higgs tape song. And of
all the songs we knew we were probably gonna do
a single from Higgs tape, and Seth England kept saying like, dude,
it's gonna be one beer you just watch and I
was like, okay, and uh, sure enough, I mean exponentially

(14:33):
beat everything else on the record. And and I've always
been uh I say always, I've only been doing this
a couple of years. But like anything that I cut,
I would be willing to do to have as a single.
So whatever that they, you know, say, is blowing up
on you know whatever Internet, any app or whatever, I'm
good to go with. So I just said, let's let's

(14:55):
do it. I know it's different, but go for it.
There's only ever been one of the person to say
that in that way to me when when doing these
long form conversations, and he said, you know what, I
write almost all my stuff, not always like I'll take
a couple of songs that that I don't write because
I'm a songwriter and I appreciate songwriters. And he said,
but if I cut it, I just go, it's good
enough to put out. So you decide, because I wouldn't

(15:16):
have cut it if I didn't think it was good.
And that other that was Chris Stapleton, who goes, I
cut it, I gotta believe in it, So label you
take it and do what you're good at, because I
already did what I'm good at. That's how I feel
pretty much exactly the same. I'm cool with anything. And
I know there's kind of a whole spectrum of of
sonically of of stuff that I put out, But I'm
cool with anything going out there. When you move to town,

(15:38):
uh ten and a half years ago, that's when you
moved here officially? Yes, when did you come to town
the first time? Ago? I can't believe people get paid
to do that. Um, about eleven years ago. Well, my sister, So,
my sister moved here before I did. She's a year
and a half older than me to do music. Yes, originally,
and now she's you know, found her own path and

(15:58):
she's doing something completely are different. But um, and so
I was in like late high school like senior year
high school slash junior college. And she was going to
Belmont and she hit me up and she was I
just started like writing songs and stuff. And she was like, hey,
I don't know like what you're trying to do with
your life pretty much, but there's a thing called a

(16:20):
publishing deal, and you there's a whole industry where you
get paid to write songs if you ever wanted to
do that. And I just kind of on a whim,
was like sure, and just moved up here and and
you know, that's kind of when everything started. So you
moved up here from Mississippi. Where were you living because
you're from Philadelphia, Mississippi. Yeah, I played up from Arkansas

(16:41):
and we played a lot of ball all around you know, Arkansas,
Mississippi and Alabama. Have you ever been there? Yeah, I've
been through really Yeah, I've been through almost all of Mississippi.
You just when you don't have when you don't come
from a place that has a lot, you go to
other places that don't have a lot. Yeah. Sure, wow,
that makes sense. Yeah, so totally, you just move around.
And so yeah, I've been through there a couple of times.

(17:02):
And so you were living there in high school? Is
that when you moved out to high school. I moved.
I went to one year of junior college, and it
was like a joke. I mean, I didn't know what
I wanted to do, and I was such a terrible student,
and I ended up going to college here. But um,
I just I knew I needed to leave too. So
I was technically in UM. I would come home on

(17:22):
the weekends. But Decatur, Mississippi, which is like twenty five
minutes away from Philadelphia. UM. But yeah, technically I was
in Philadelphia. I want I moved here, so you move
up here to go to school. Yeah, I went to
MT s U UM, and so I lived in Nashville
for the summer and then I went lived in Murfreysboro
for like a year, and then I moved back and
just commuted for the rest of the time. When you're

(17:45):
at MT. S U, who has a good music school, Yeah,
it's like the poor man's Belmont. Yeah, that's why I
said it's a good music school. You know, Belmont's. It's
like the end of music. That's like the castle on
top of the hill. Yeah, Like, you graduate, you could
get a number one record, but you go and you
study songwriting there, What in the world do you learn
in school as a songwriter? You know, it was really interesting.

(18:07):
Um and I hate saying this, but the class itself,
you kind of either got it or you don't. And
I don't know. It's the I learned more about publishing
and like the music industry and kind of how not
to get screwed in a contract and which that's what
lawyers afford to. But um, I learned more about that,
I think than the actual craft of writing a song.

(18:31):
But I did learn a lot about publishing and a
lot of music industry terminology and like three sixty deals
and stuff like that. I I really got. Um, I
got a lot. I took a lot in from that
based on that major. And also you meet people who
then introduce you to people who then introduce you to people. Yeah, totally,
And that's and that's what I always do at It's

(18:52):
like I understand that if I didn't do that, I
definitely wouldn't be here. And I and I kind of
had a weird college experience and and only had a
couple of friends. So I stayed in my room a
lot and just really learned how to write songs by myself.
And if I didn't do that, you know, I wouldn't
have kind of developed my portfolio for signing a publishing
deal and all that. So it's definitely worth it. Did
you finish school? Yeah? I have a degree, dude, I

(19:13):
believe it or not, I definitely do. It's in. It's
in uh commercial songwriting, which is insane. So you finished school,
you're in Nashville full time? How long and I assume
you finish school twenty three around that age? Yeah? How
long until you're actually getting to pay the bills writing songs? Um?
So I signed a publishing deal. Um I graduated August,

(19:36):
so I had to do like a four and a
half semesters and I did summer to finish and so September, October, November, December, January,
favorite six months, six months after college. Um I I
signed my first polisting deal. What song or songs do
you remember sending out? Because you kind of have this
collection of material to go, hey guys, please sign me. Yeah,
do you remember did you have anything that is still

(19:57):
floating around or ended up getting cut in that first
batch of No. I didn't even get a cut on
my first publishing deal until I signed my second deal
and then I got one cut. They paid you for
a whole deal and made no money off of you. Yeah. Um,
I had one song about a dog that was really
good that like got pitched around and that was like
on my schedule a so it was one of the

(20:18):
songs that I came into my deal with that Still,
uh I will hear maybe we'll go on hold or something.
But no, nothing, nothing that I wrote before my pub
deal has seen the light of day for the most part.
Did you resign with your original pub company for your
second deal because they've just been screwed. They just spent
all this money on you didn't get anything. It's well,
it's kind of um interesting, but my publisher is a

(20:41):
relative of mine, no kidding. And uh so we we
kind of right at the beginning, sort of had a
dream together and and he just kept saying, dude, it's
gonna happen. It's gonna happen, and uh yeah, I went
with him again. How many years was your first deal? Three?
Are you after year two? You're going into the year three?

(21:01):
Are you? Like, like, I don't know if this is
gonna happen. Yeah, I was discouraged for sure. I was
why wasn't it happening? Were you not good enough yet?
I think so yeah. And it's so funny because I
was so like mad. I just I wasn't bitter and
I wasn't um what's I didn't blame the industry, and
I wasn't that guy, but I was very frustrated. But

(21:24):
I know, and and there were a few songs, but
there is proof in the pudding that I only got
like one cut from my first deal, And I just
I was just I wasn't there yet. The songs weren't.
I would go back and listen to him all the time,
and I just kind of picked them apart, and I'm like, yeah,
I just wasn't It wasn't the radio yet. Do you
ever go back and listen to an old song and
then a bit rewrite it and make it better no

(21:44):
years later, like as a just like an exercise, if anything,
I would And I don't even think I've done this
on purpose, but you know, you write a thousand songs,
so you gotta write the same title eventually, even if
you forget about it. But if anything, if I had
a great, great idea or title that maybe I didn't
know how to write, I would or I might like

(22:05):
rewrite the whole idea and if it was a co write,
just split that with the people or either we write
it with them or something like that. I'll be down
for that. Your first money making song was up Down. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
it was that. The first song that ever got cut. No,
my first cut was, but that was actually so I

(22:25):
sold two cuts. Updown was on my old deal. Um
I should go to Church sometime by Tyler Farr. Oh yeah,
that was my first cut and it was my first single.
I died like in the sixties, I remember it. Yeah, yeah,
but still exciting to get that first single when you
get the call and they go, hey, it's a single.
Are you pumped? Yeah, oh dude, yeah, I mean I
thought it was gonna be rich. Not that that's why

(22:47):
I do it, but um yeah I was. Yeah, I
mean that's yeah, it's a it's a huge milestone and
and and uh, you know, just a confidence booster and
it's like you are doing this and somebody legitimate cut
your song and yeah, it's it was. It was all
the wind and the sales I think that I needed.
And then after that everything just kind of started happening,
which is everybody says like you get one and you
get X amount or whatever. And I've seen that happen

(23:09):
with a ton of my friends too. It's just funny
how that works. So as much wind gets put in
your sales when they say, hey, it's gonna be a single,
did as much get taken out when it didn't hit. Yes,
but up Down kind of cross faded with that, so
I had a little hope there. Um, But around the
time it died was when Morgen cut it, so we

(23:33):
just still didn't know, and he had only had the
way I talked, um, So it's hard to you know,
really gauge that, but um, yeah, it was a good
It was enough cross fade for me to not like
be super down and think maybe that was my shot.
There had to be too a bit of excitement whenever
it's not only Morrigan who who at the time was
an unknown artist on a label who had no history

(23:55):
at all, not even if success or not success, but
no history. Big Loud have no history. But then when
FGL gets on the song, you gotta go, oh man,
I got another bullet for the gun inside of the song. Yeah,
it was a huge um booster for him, and that
was kind of a sigh of relief for you. I'm saying,
like to write a song, you know, I fgl Is
on the song It's not Gonna Die at sixty. Uh yeah,

(24:18):
and that was that was kind of the Okay, this
is gonna be a hit. There's no way it's not
gonna be a hit. And uh, that was definitely a
huge thing for all of that. That was all me,
Brad Clawson and c J. Soler was our first really
a few of our first cut or maybe mine and
somebody else's like first or second cut, and our first

(24:38):
hit together too, So it was good for all of us.
Let me play this here is Morgan walling up down. Damn, Dawn, damn.
You mentioned Brad Clawson. So when I heard about you
the songwriter about to start turning into you the artist,
it was from Nicole Galley and who's a friend, and

(24:59):
she was like, yeah, hard he's he's gonna try to
be an artist. And I didn't know who you were.
I just yeah, nobody did. If she was talking about
the songs she had written and she was like, I
don't know, I'd try that, you know, because a lot
of songwriters in town have either tried and it was
unsuccessful and not a good experience, or they just don't
want to do it. Yeah, you see all their friends

(25:20):
do it, and they're like, I don't know by that.
You never have someone who's a songwriter who hits it
big for a couple of songs, goes you know what,
I'm good. I don't only do it. It's never that way.
So you know, if you with the songwriter, mostly they're
they're like, I don't know, I want to live the
artist lifestyle. But for you, was I always kind of
the goal on the No, it was not. When I
was in college, like I kind of wanted to, and

(25:41):
then I signed a pub deal and I was just like,
this is awesome and all I gotta do is write
a song every day, and and uh no I had.
I had. I had reached to the point where I
had zero intentions of being an artist or at least
like signing a record deal and like doing the thing.
I might have had aspirations to put music out or something,

(26:02):
but no, I had no. I had no plans to
to do it. I'm gonna ask you, this is a
weird question to ask, and I know what the answer is,
but I wonder what your answer is when you say
you didn't have aspirations to be an artist? Can you sing? Yes?
Like like can you are you? Like, I'm a freaking
I've never heard you sing? Right, it hasn't been you
haven't been on the show, the radio show to play,

(26:24):
and I haven't seen you live. So I just go
by the records. And some of my friends that are
great artists can sing pretty well, but they go, you
know what, I'm not the best singer a song. I
had a great performer, But can you sing? I think so? Yes?
Do you think that? Do you understand the question like
do you think that you can see compared to Nashville? Yeah?
I do. Um, I think it took me a while
to figure that out or to find my voice, but um, yes,

(26:47):
I do. I consider myself a vocalist very much. So
whenever you were coming up and you were looking at artists,
or maybe you even just listen to artists when you're
growing up in Mississippi, who was it that you were like, dang,
let's because I assume you're in your thirties. Yeah. So
I grew up with napster and and we started to
download and then stream, so I was able to get

(27:09):
music from every direction. Really, I was the first generation
to do that, where just because I grew up in
Mountain Pine, Arkansas, population seven hundred didn't mean I wasn't
listening to Tupac and and Limp Biscuit and Bruson Done.
So we have all of this music coming from different angles.
So I'm gonna ask you what came to you from

(27:30):
outside of country music? First we we were like, goddamn, man,
this is what I love. Dude. Well that I mean
rock and roll in general. Um, I didn't grow up
listening to country. I know that's like against the country
music bible, but um so it was all rock and roll, old,
a lot of old just from my dad. And I
still love classic rock. But Stone Temple, Pilots, Uh, Sound Garden,

(27:53):
Publo Mud, Limp Biscuit. Yeah, the whole nineties vibe for
you sounds like it was late, kind of late, and
he's transitional to like early two thousand's. Honestly, Nickelback dude,
when they came out, when they first came out, dude,
that some of those songs there were such hits, and
I just my mom was blown so that I'm a
Nickelback defender to my core because the only reason people
hate Nickelback is because they got so freaking famous, and

(28:16):
when somebody is so famous, you can't help but get
people start to The cool thing to say is I
don't like them. Yeah. Sure, I just watched the Bags
documentary and I didn't get to experience the bejs. I
was like, that was a way too old for me.
But they got so big and there was such a
backlash that people just started hating on that. It was
just the cool thing to do. Yeah, because everybody loved him,
So I'm gonna be cool and go like, you know what,

(28:37):
I don't love them. And then it slowly starts to
be a movement. And I've seen that and I don't
know what. And listen, I have friends up hung out
those guys and they're like, they told Duch Bags, it
doesn't matter to me. Their music was great at the time.
It was, I mean it was it was just to
me it was mind blowing too, and kind of you know,
the that was like even though, like like you said,

(29:00):
Napster and whatever, all the lime wire or whatever, all
the illegal things, where we still kind of had that
beauty of hearing music for the first time without having
like complete access to it like we do now, and
and so when I heard stuff like nickelback Lincoln Park
is another one. Um, that stuff just it did something
to me, man like just completely inspired me. I don't

(29:21):
even know how to explain it. But favorite artist of
all time, um, Pink Floyd. Oh yeah, so similar. I
grew up listening to classic rock radio, and so I
was like CCR credence was is really one of the
most influential parts of music history to me. But I
would assume that had to be your dad classic rock radio.

(29:45):
Um yeah, I mean my first memory, like my first
few memories were, um, my dad had a chicken farm
for a long time and um uh he had like
this little s ten and we would listen to the
classic rock station out of Jackson, Mississippi, and those are
like I was probably three years old. I remember hearing
free Bird for the first time, and then like I

(30:05):
heard it. I don't know how I remember this, but
like later that day I heard it again on the
radio and he was singing it and I was still
kind of learning the concept of radio, and I remember
asking my dad how he how do you know that song?
Because the first time we heard it was earlier today
and he was like, no, son, that's like actually an
old song. But um, yeah, classic rock radio was like

(30:26):
very early in my my childhood, your death still alive
and what do you think about what you're doing now?
He's taking it all in stride. Both my parents are
they love it. Their mind is kind of blown a
little bit. My sister was I was very much a
black sheep, and they will even admit this that she was.
She's saying growing up and and um, I was just

(30:46):
a kid and play baseball and sort of she moved
to Nashville and you know she was that was this
was kind of her thing and and so um, it's
just still sort of people are still in shock a
little bit that the roles are kind of reversed. But
my parents are they love it. Have they seen you
perform to pretty crowded room? My folks, Yeah, the first

(31:09):
time they saw that, they trip out a little bit. Yeah.
The first time that they saw a good show was
in Atlanta, and it was the first time that a
crowd ever sang uh Rednecker. But it was when Rednecker
was like kind of peeking, and um, they were in
the crowd. And when I came back stage, like my
mom was like crying a little bit or whatever, and
they were just they I had never seen them freak

(31:30):
out like that. It was it was really cool. Mike
de Wo's producing this. I was doing Standout and playing
theaters around the country and Mike d had was opening
for him and he was doing, you know, five to
seven minutes of comedy, but his parents didn't even know
he was doing comedy. So we're so we're in Austin
and it was the first time they come to see
your first time ever. Oh my god, so similar. What
did they think? They freaked out, Like they saw me

(31:52):
walk out on stage and start telling jokes and like
people laughing, and they were like, what is happening because
he's so quiet, he says nothing, but then he gets
up on stage and it's a pretty funny guy. And
I just kind of wonder if that was the same
thing with your folks a little bit. I think so, Um,
I've yes, I think so. And they hadn't really seen
that side of me, but they did. Also, like, my

(32:13):
first show ever was like this Halloween show I did
in Nashville and it was like packed with industry people,
so everybody was like extra hype just because it was
like my first show and everybody knew, like we knew
each other, but the real like to see it in
front of real fans, I think was a whole different
experience for them and for me. Where did Rednecker peak
twenty three? Maybe twenty four? So you were right on
the edge of really feeling it though, Huh yeah, it

(32:35):
definitely took Uh. It's interesting though because it didn't like
one Beer, the fan base was like kind of learning
the stuff before even one Beer kind of went top
twenty and they knew Rednecker and it's still like the biggest,
if not second biggest song of the night. But um, yeah,
I mean it was. It took a different different turn.

(33:00):
One Beer came out for sure, after Up Down goes
and hits what was it crossing with any other songs
at the same time? Yeah, so, um Simple came out
right after that. I think Simple came out and like

(33:21):
June or something, and uh, up Down went number one
in July, so that was like the first like crossover
and um I remember Simple Up Down at the number
one party. Simple was number one. It's like a crazy
cool kind of moment, you know, here is f g
L Simple whether your second song that that hits sorry

(33:52):
you starting to go, Hey, I think I'm really gonna
do this for a while, Like there's a pressure off
your shoulders. Yes, definitely, Um yeah, I think like up down,
like stood alone. And then I started really going on
the road with f GL and Morgan was out there
and Chris Lane was they were all on tour together,
and the next thing I know, um, Chris uh Lane

(34:14):
um came up and I was like, Hey, I'm gonna
cut the song you wrote. I don't know about you,
and then like um and a couple of others, and
then Morgan was he and I started writing a lot,
and he was like I'm gonna cut this and this
and this and this with you, and then kind of
f g L sort of followed suit. And that's like
when I really knew, like, Okay, I think I have
a camp, and you know, because that's kind of the
name of the game for the most part, you know,

(34:35):
if you can at least find a crew and then
you branch out and get cut sort of here and
there everywhere else. But um, I I had never really
had like a solid camp of people that I could
trust in and and like felt like I was maybe
their guy or this dude's guy or whatever, and that
was the first time that I felt a lot of
security from that. There's Chris Lane, I don't know about
your bay was miss Stead battle Birds Day. Do you

(35:03):
want to run through some of these? Here's low Cash
One big country songs gone around here is Jamison Rogers.
Some girls get them take a trip back home and
say they got song drinking. Here's Blake Shelton, God's Country.

(35:30):
When Devin Dawson was in here, how about a week
or so ago, he said, you sang the demo to this, yeah,
and that when you guys finished it in his recollection
and he said, hey, you're going to writing. Everybody has
different memories of what happens when that. He felt like
that was a song for you. Yeah. I made a
joke to uh Seth and Joey Um Joey moy Um,

(35:53):
and I sent it to them and I said, I
can't remember, and I tried tried to find the text,
and that you know, I give gets deleted after a
year or whatever. But I said something like, unless somebody
like Blake Shelton cuts this in a week, I want
this for myself and Blake cut it like basically now
you can listen, you're pumped when he cuts it. Yeah,
but it was one percent of You're like, man, I

(36:13):
should wish I could have cut that song. I had
never dude, I had modeled my uh like there. Blake
had had put out so many songs that I loved
and that I had like sort of gravitated towards that craft,
and a lot of that was because of Craig Wiseman
and like just other people that had Blake cuts. But um,
it was such a dream of mine, uh to have

(36:34):
a Blake cut, and especially one that he was hyped about.
So I didn't even think twice about it. And I
don't think that the song would have been as big
for me as it was for him. I think it
was so big as because it was so different. Well
for him, it was the biggest song of the year.
I mean that song with the song I suppose so no, no,
I suppose it one one song of like it literally

(36:55):
was the single of the year. Yeah, so there's no
supposing that it. I'm gonna play here's one more Morgan Wallen,
more than my hometown. So by doing math here let's
see one number one, two, three, four or five, six,

(37:17):
seven nine, number one, you're worth about ten million dollars.
I don't unless you're meant to be or something. I don't.
I don't know if those are much alright, Alright, So
your record, and again I'm gonna reference Staple too for
a second because when Staple to put out From a
Room part one and part two, the big thing was
is it from a room or from a right? And

(37:38):
it's from a room, right, because that's the room a room. Yes.
Now with your record, is it a rock or is
it a rock? Uh? You know what's funny is it's
probably a rock because the rock sounds like Iraq. Why.
I've heard that joke a lot recently, Like man, I
didn't think about that. Why a rock though? Um, well,

(37:59):
it's you know, it is a song on the record.
But also uh, I think there's a little bit of
a word play there with that. The record sounds like
a rock record. Um, I never, Okay, I didn't. I
didn't cross where I decided on that. I thought about like,
I thought of a million ideas and I can't even
think of him now. But um, I just that's what

(38:20):
we ended up with. And I do think that, you know,
the record does definitely sound like a rock record. And
that was just, you know, aesthetically pleasing or whatever. Yeah,
is the new single out if you goes? It goes
for ads Monday? What is it? Give Haaven some hell?
All right? Let let me play a little bit of this.
This is from when you Got Stories? Give you write

(38:48):
this one? Did you write all the songs on the record?
I've heard this song a few times. Where have I
heard this that it would play other than just me
checking out the record? Do you know? Uh? Have you
played it anywhere? I put the only played played it
at a w W E thing. It was like the

(39:08):
Troops thing. It was on TV. I don't know if
you saw that. Um, I mean, I don't know. I
missed that one. Tell us so give me the you
know that that the thirty second version of You're in
the room, the concept what the song means to you? Okay,
So we were writing The first song on our record
is called Truck, and originally the second the last half

(39:30):
of the second verse there's a line about a guy
that has sticker on the back that says ninety two
to twelve and in memory of his buddy, and and
we were gonna we originally made the line he misses
him our uh stories he can barely tell because he's
giving heaven some hell. And me and Hunter Phelps and
Ben Johnson we were all like, we that needs to

(39:51):
be its own idea, and so we changed the line
and we we wrote down give Heaven some hell, and
we wrote it like a week later. And to be honest, um,
you know, I don't I've never lost like a best friend,
thankfully or anything like that, and so, um, I wasn't
pulling from like a like a real like experience or
anything like that. Um, but I've definitely experienced it, uh

(40:14):
you know second hand or or you know, there's stuff
like that happened in my hometown a lot. So um,
there was no particular person in mind. But uh, I
will say, man, it's been the most the heaviest, Um,
like my Instagram and Twitter and stuff, and dude, just
literally like thousands of just stories of people and I
try to respond to all of them. But I know

(40:35):
that it's reaching people and it makes That's really the
kind of the realization I've had this year's is to
have a platform where I can help people or at
least trying to make people feel something. So I'm really
proud of that one. I mean, you're hitting on all cylinders.
Usually it's one or the other, and sometimes they shift, sure,
but right now you're kind of hitting in all areas.
Do you have any other songs that you have written
for other folks that are out or starting to kind

(40:58):
of flutter around a little bit like that? I wrote
that just other singles, Yeah, maybe not even singles. Are
there other you know, I'm assuming I don't. I don't
know this is true. But on Morgan's record, you're on
some of those songs. You wrote some of those. Yeah,
I had a few Morgan's and uh, right now I
have like col swindale single single Saturday Night. Uh, it's guy,
Robert Counts. He has a single out called what Do

(41:19):
I Know? And then um, Dylan Carmichael has a song
called Hot Beer. Um. I've been writing a lot with
Dirks recently. Um it isn't Dirk's the best dude, Like,
aside from just being you know, this songwriter, and I've
been lucky to be friends with Dirk's on a different
level than Yeah, he's just the best guy, dude. He's Yes,
he's as solid as you could you can get in

(41:40):
town and I found. I found, I've like found that
a lot of the guys that are like at the
top are like that. And you know that Luke Brian uh,
Blake Shelton and a lot of those guys like you're
around him and you're like, man, y'all are just normal.
You're just like you are, you know, on TV and

(42:01):
everything and just good dudes. And I love that. Man.
I if I ever get there, that's a testament to
how I want to be one day, you know. And
here's why. Because people at that level don't have to
prove anything to anybody. Sure you know I would. I'll say, um,
a two single new artist, no offense to yourself, I
just know, or like a soap opera star or someone

(42:22):
that's new on a TV show, and that when you
get that first taste of success, you start to go,
I gotta prove that I'm worth to be here, and
to prove my worth, I need to be a certain way.
And you have this and I think I went through
it a bit too when some of my TV stuff.
Not that I treat people different, but I was like,
I gotta show people that I'm actually worth what I'm
getting to do. And it's a weird feeling to have,

(42:43):
but then once you prove it to yourself, you're like,
you know what, I kind of have? What is sustainable?
I'm just gonna be who I am. And those guys
are like that Keith Urban, Yes, he's another one, dude,
the greatest dude, so nice. Man. You just would be like,
are you a little big town? Yes? Oh dude, yes,
You're like, are you guys real? And you hang around

(43:04):
them and you're like, one day I'm gonna catch you
getting out of character character. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting too,
and like just how they handle success and and uh yeah,
I just I like, look at them. I mean they
I don't know if they know, but all those people
that you mentioned are like role models at this point
because I just want to be like that as a

(43:25):
person if I ever get to be to that point.
You know, I think it's just an insecurity that every listen,
you can't create and be secure, Like, you can't be
a creator and not be insecure in some way. I agree,
because you're laying it out there in a vulnerable way
every single time. Yeah, totally. It doesn't matter if you're
writing songs, writing books, you gotta go, Okay, I've created this,

(43:47):
will you please like it? To do that? And you
want people's approval, you need it. That's why you what
you didn't do it. You know wouldn't have done it
in the first place. If you do that, you gotta
open up your ribs a little bit. And so when
that happens, I tend I was tending to get extremely
insecure and just be withdrawn more than be angry. I
was just or mean. I'm just I was just completely withdrawn.

(44:08):
Now not so much. I'm like, Okay, I think I'm
gonna be here for but I feel confident. But I
think it's the same thing you made up. I just
brought up a great point. Luke Bryant. We're together all
the time shooting American Idol. People are always like Luke
for fifty six seventy million dollars and like the nicest,
coolest guy in the world. You never know almost much
as you with all these songs. When you tell people

(44:29):
you're from Philadelphia or do you ever say Philadelphia and
see if they can put it together? Dude, Every every
time I meet somebody new, I have to go through
the thing every single time. Yeah, I say it. And
when I say Philadelphia, like I see their confused face
for like a split second, and then I say Mississippi
and they're like, oh, make a joke about it. But

(44:49):
when you started writing, did you go buy a full
name or you always party? You did? Yeah? I did.
It's just that hardy, like all my friends called me hardy,
and I don't know, it's just like kind of one
of those like I have a couple of buddies that
I just have always called them by their last name
for whatever reason. And uh so when it just came
time to sort of do the artist thing that somebody

(45:12):
kind of brought it up and I was like, yeah,
I think that's cool, something different, and why all caps?
It's just bold? Um. I think it's just kind of
you know, redneck or being the first song, and I
think the music being a little more intense than than
maybe some of the stuff in the format. I just
you know, I think it just stands out are you

(45:34):
are you feeling? And again, I don't want you to
take this the wrong way because I compared to you
and I both to average white guys. If you just
see us, we're just normal dudes. You know. Um that
there's I would call it kind of a normal core
happening in country music. In this hardcore but like you
look normal. Yeah, Uh, Luke Holmes looks normal. Colmes created
a normal core I think for the longest time. Uh,

(45:56):
a lot of country acts before him, and really Stapleton
kind of in a way, in my opinion maybe sort
of helped develop that, but I think Luke Holmes kind
of delivered it to everybody. But uh, yeah, it's cool
to look normal again. I think before that it was
like everybody was like it was or was trying to

(46:18):
look like a professional wrestler or something. Yeah, either an
extreme cowboy, a chained up wrestlings. Like you had to
have your esthetic niche. But you don't have to have
that anymore. Just show up, do what you're good at.
And if you're good, I mean, the more normal you look,
I feel like if you're you know, if you're good,
people are gonna go nuts. Yeah. When Jamison Rodgers was here,

(46:39):
he was leaving that night after we had talked to
go and playing the softball the league that you guys
were playing in, and so I know you were on
the team. How how physically are you holding up when
you go back and play ball? Uh, I was sore.
I hurt. Uh, I can't even hurt my knee or
something like the last game. Um, dude, that was a

(47:00):
big like oh god, I'm getting old kind of thought.
Uh but dude, that was fun. That was so fun,
And you guys didn't win the whole thing. Huh, you're
freaking stacked. Uh man, it was. I tell you why
we got beat and myself included. Everybody tried to hit
a home run every single time they got up to

(47:22):
bad so we we I would bet eighty percent of
our outs were long fly balls. It just we couldn't
help it. Like everybody wanted to hit a home run,
I swear because we were good in the field. We
had great outfielders. We had good infield. We didn't make
a ton of errors. Uh, we just we would have to.
All right, bats were tough, We we were good. We

(47:43):
want a decent bit of games. But now we didn't
go all the way. Do you feel like you had
a target on your back because you were all the singers?
Like when you were without a doubt, dude, Oh my god,
you were the duke of college basketball. Like even the
bad teams are getting up because they're about to play
as hard as they've ever played. Absolutely. Oh man. There
were some teams some of these guys are really cool
and they would like kind of yell at us and

(48:03):
make like a song reference joke or you know, just
something like that. And then there was there were a
couple of teams that, like you could just tell they
were like these freaking country singer YadA YadA yadas and uh,
oh dude, we felt it every single game. It was intense.
Did you ever finish the game? And the other guys
be like, hey, ge get a picture before we get out. Yeah.
And by the end, Um, you know, Morgan only was

(48:24):
only at a few He had a lot going on,
you know, but thank god he wasn't at every game,
or I think it might have been chaos because it
was just sort of at his he was really starting
to peak. Uh and and uh with which there was
a ton of you know, like celebrity singers on our team.
But Chris Lane, let's walk to it. Yeah, Chris Lane,
you Jamison, Jordan Davis, Jordan Davis. Obviously Morrigan, there's five five.

(48:49):
Riley Green played one game. Uh, hey didn't come back. Um,
John Langston was there. Um, God, you don't not the
team I would want to fight either. No, I know
we were, we were thick, but yeah, for sure, Ernest
you I don't know if you know Ernest I say
him on Twitter sometimes Yeah, I don't know. He was
on there and then and then some some of the
younger guys Jeb Gibson, Hunter Phelps and uh yeah, but

(49:12):
it was cool man. It was a you know, our
team name was the Recoupable. So I don't know, I
just probably saw it on Jamison. Was he wearing this jersey?
And I then guys saw it on Instagram maybe Jordan
and posted a pictures yea, and which I think is
hilarious because in case you don't know, are recoupable you
have to pay the money back that the label pays you.
They're like, hey, we're gonna give you a five dollars

(49:34):
to go make a record. Well you gotta pay that
five dollars the five bucks is yeah, so yeah, that's
and you guess that jerseys yeah, no, I guess they
were not like jersey in form or in um material.
But yeah, we had uniforms. We had like, uh, just
very classic looking baseball shirt. Does someone buy all them

(49:54):
for you? Do you all have to go out, and
Jamison handled the whole thing and we just we just
paid him. So that's like old school softball. Yeah, that
doesn't give them all the money. We're gonna try to
do it again in the spring if the code stuff
kind of uh is still you know that it's not
looking like it's gonna be uh happening in the spring
as far as tor goes. So I think we're gonna

(50:15):
try to do it again. Are you a gambler a
little bit? Are you gambling more now that it's legal here? Uh? No.
I was doing it the same before to me though,
and I was to a bit, But I was so
tired of paying in bitcoin to an offshore site. How
I was gonna check from like Armenia and the bank
want cash it or like like for sure they think

(50:35):
there's some terrorist activity going on worse. Yeah, And so
I started to get tired of that. But now I'm
on draft kings, yeah, three or four times a week.
It's the greatest new part of my life. I've never
done DraftKings, like, because you do that kind of in
a fantasy format, right you can. Yes, I gamble on
games just just regularly straight up. Yeah, that's what I

(50:56):
do lines, you know, money line spreads just like anything else. Yeah,
So I mean especially during the break because you know,
I'll do the radio show Monday through Friday morning immediately
even go shoot TV on the weekends and whenever I'm doing.
You can't gamble in every state, so I have to
get I have to give my betsand before I leave,
I did that before I went to Colorado with Dirks

(51:17):
and him, I had to do all of my national
all of the playoff and all that stuff. And I
did it like in the airport because I was like,
oh my god, I'm about to screw up. But that's
how you know we have a problem. Well we're going, okay,
I'm acrossing the state line. Then yeah, it's fun. It
makes it, dude. It makes any game interesting. Like if
there is a game on and it just started and
it's the Nicks versus the Sons or whatever, and you

(51:39):
don't care about it, then just put like fifty bucks
or whatever on it, and then it's like suddenly the
most intense thing ever. Last night, I had a seven
and I don't usually bet long partleys, but a seven
game partlay, and I got to the seventh game and
It was the Brooklyn Nets. I don't bet NBA much
because Brooklyn Nets Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn was down by
about nine with three minute left. They come, they tie

(52:00):
and go to overtime. This is my seventh game. Yeah,
by the way, who did you have money? Brooklyn at
Brooklyn and and it was a money line. I wasn't
playing to spread. I needed to do was freaking win
seven games. I had put down a hundred bucks. I
was gonna all they have to do is win the game.
They lost my seventh game. They lost in double overtime
and double overtime, all freaking overtime. How do you lose

(52:21):
with James Harden, Duran Kyrie Irving and you can you
can also go you know what, I'm gonna take the
money I've already won and check out. You can like
go cash in. And I felt so good about the bed.
Oh yeah, I wanted to pull my hair out. Um dude.
My my favorite one this year was I put a

(52:42):
hundred bucks on l s U versus Florida money line.
I had a gut feeling and football, Oh that's right,
because everybody and Florida was still on the hunt to
be in the National Change. You about the money line, yes,
And I was like, dude, I just have a gut
feeling LSU's gonna play at least a really good game
when they beat him, And I was that was that
was my best of the year. You play golf, Yeah

(53:06):
you're good. Yeah, oh you are yeah? Oh neveryone? Why
that's just annoying. But you know, not the scratch You
guys that come in and you can sing and you
can write, and you can play golf and you can
play like all that's just annoying to somebody like Mews
had to like hustle and grab my teeth for every
single thing to play golf, to play ball everything. So

(53:29):
when did you start playing golf? When I was like twelve? Okay,
so you've had a bit of history at it. I haven't.
I mean like, I'm not like fundamentally like you know
what I mean. I don't have like the perfect swing
or anything. But I've been playing a long time. I
love it, dude. It's my favorite sport to play. Who
do you play with in Nashville, um Brad Terci, Yes,

(53:51):
a pretty good bit. I got a songwriter buddy of mine,
James McNair, that I play with a ton Um, play
with Devin a good bad I play with amoson a
good bit. Uh. There's a great community of of dudes
that that play. A lot of people play golf, and
I think a lot of people really picked it up
this past year. Um, but I love it. Dude. You

(54:11):
see my you're lefty, so am I? How are you? Yeah?
I can never see a lot of lefties here. Never.
I can never use anybody's clubs. I can never play
anybody's guitar. Yeah, you play left handed guitar. See I
played right handed guitar. We is it because there were
right handed guitars available? I think so, Like my first
one as a gift was a right handed guitar. But um,

(54:34):
it still feels like natural for me to play right
handed and not I don't feel like I could play
left handed. So I think it is a natural thing somehow. Yeah.
If people are playing and they're like they do that
funny song that you do, and I'm like, all right, well,
there's no freaking guitar that sucks. It sucks. That is
that's worse than golf clubs, because like, at least you
have your own in that situation. But that's like dinning

(54:57):
is like that. I've played trap, says he plays left
hand guitar. He's probably good. Keith took my guitar once,
who's not left handed. He goes, let me see if
I can just probably this and he has a little
conversation with both of his hands and he goes, all right,
you do this, you do this, and then he starts
to play. I don't know, four times better than I do.
That would make me. He's unreal, dude, Like he had

(55:19):
a conversation, are you gonna do what you usually do?
And you do that all right? Break and he's like,
oh my gosh, that's insane, amazing, slash annoying. I wish
that there was more, uh more, there were more things
like products and stuff that appealed to left handed people.
You right, left handed, especially when we had these pencils
at all, because you got you have, you have the

(55:41):
I thought about getting a tattoo one time where like this,
like to get this whole thing shaded, like to represent
like the yeah, because if you're left handed, for those
that don't know, and most of you don't, you have
to drag your hand across the paper like you right,
you're right, and then you go across what you just wrote.
So you always so it's always all over your life

(56:01):
stucks me. Even you guys don't even know Mike, you
have no idea how stuff it is. Um in the winter,
it's been because I have the gold I have the simulator,
and I saw it. Yeah, that's been where it's that
I want one. I've had more friends in the winter
than i've had all. That's funny. They're like, hey, man,
what you're doing today? You can play any course on there, right, Yeah,
mostly that's amazing. Yeah, so that that's been kind of

(56:22):
the winter project. Is is it pretty? I mean, of
course it's just a tripeman. So it's like super accurate, right, yeah,
it's it's it's yeah, it's accurate. I say that, and
I'm like, man, real life, I wouldn't hear the shot
that bad. Let's be honest, I would hit that bad.
So well, man, it's been good to hang out, good
to talk with you, and thanks for having me. No,
for sure, I'm looking forward to see what happens with
you next. I mean it's that odd mix of you're

(56:44):
kind of hitting in a lot of different ways at
the same time, and and for that, I commend to you,
because that doesn't happen without a ton of hard work,
Like you can be good. I have a lot of
friends are good at stuff but don't work and it
doesn't pop, or maybe it just pops for a second.
So to have this success, it's all kind of hitting
you at once. It isn't by accident, and it isn't
just because you're talented. You know in this town where

(57:06):
everyone is a giant, that the talent around you, everybody's
amazing for you to have this much success, like like,
I respect it, thank you, I appreciate what you're doing,
and congratulations, thank you, and everybody pleasure. Check out a rock? Rock?
What is it? Say it? I would say a rock. Okay,
that's what I was. That's what in conversation, I would
say a rock. Check out a rock. It sounds like,

(57:30):
all right, that's what's up. There is following on Instagram
at hardy tough to get the handle or I had
to pay five bucks. I just had to pay interesting. Well,
first of all, I can't get at Bobby Bones for anything.
For I've said yeah for five seven, eight years, I've
offered money and the person who has it doesn't even
really use it is it a guy or is it you?

(57:52):
They're posting stuff of yours. It's a guy that's just like,
he's another Bobby Bone. Who in the world. It's a
stupid name. It's not my real name. Obby is Bones?
Is it? And so I've given up and so I
just used Mr Bobby Bones right all across the board. Well,
we started this kind of online cooking show my fiance did,
and it's called Unfancied Cooking. And I was like, this

(58:13):
is be a good name. Let's name at that. She's
really talented at it. So we did it. Somebody's squatted
as soon as we put it up. Someby squatted the Instagram.
So I get a message going, hey, I have this,
gonna buy it? And I was like, all right, get
fifty bucks because okay, I'm gonna reward you for your ingenuity. Okay,
as sleezy as it could be. That is legal. Yeah,

(58:33):
you're right, I said, get fifty bucks. They say give
me a thousand. No way, one YouTube episode. It's not
worth So I say, don't message me again, just playing,
just being negotiating here and there. In about a week later,
they come back, Okay, we'll do it for seven fifty.
I said forty dollars because I didn't need it that bad.
And so in the end, how much you think I

(58:55):
gave for it in the end, uh, seventy. I'm not
that good of a negotiator, I gain. I ended up
giving him. That's not bad. I mean, you got him
down like seven fifty, that's not bad. I would have
probably gone up a bit, but they kind of chickened
out and thought I was gonna walk. And that's the key. Yeah,
you're right, I'm so bad at that, dude, I need

(59:16):
to be better. Well that's the risk of Well listen,
if I screw this up, I'm gonna get no nothing. Yeah,
you're right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well listen at Hardy follow him.
Good to talk to you, man to man hopefully, Well listen.
I won't see out anywhere because I don't go out.
But other than yeah, I out there all right on
right now is Barry gibb Who Hey, Barry? How are
You'm Bobby? It's really good to talk to you, Hubby.

(59:36):
How are you doing? Really good? I watched First of all,
I gotta say I was born in the eighties, but
I always love the beaj's growing up. But the doc
the documentary, Holy crap was so good. I watched it
last night. Oh wow, So yeah, you know what. I
haven't seen it? Are you kidding me? You didn't watch
it back? No, I worked. I watched the first cut

(59:57):
and made a couple of comments, and you know, deep
and deep inside, I knew that there's certain things were
sort of different people's truths and that you just have
to go with that. And thank Marshall did an amazing job,
and Nigel think Claire and I let go of it.
I just can't watch my family disappear one by one,

(01:00:18):
you know, and that's just too much. And you don't
plan to go back and watch it. No, wow, Well,
let me say they did a fantastic job at taking me,
who is a music fan, I mean, I do music
for a living, taking me on an emotional roller coaster.
Because and again, since you haven't seen it, I'm sure

(01:00:38):
you're gonna know all that I'm talking about. I know
what it is. I know what it is. I don't
need to see it. You know. It was the many times,
like the Rise and Fall or the rise in slow
Stop for the Bags, for example, you get a little
famous and then it kind of shuts down, you go
back to playing like the club, you know, back at
home a little bit. Did you think then on the

(01:00:59):
first kind of hiccup with the basis that it was
over or you guys could climb back. That was a
one time only thing. And we were working and put
in in about nineties seven, beginning of the seventies. We
were working in a couple of clubs in in the
north of England, in the same places that Chuck Berry
and Roy Orbison were playing. So you know, there's nothing

(01:01:21):
to be ashamed of there. So while we were doing that, yeah,
it was a quiet period before that, but while we
were doing that, we had two number one records in America,
so it was a little bit of a two edged sword.
You know, you're doing great over there and you're not
doing so well here. And you know, we never did
We never were able to be um constant. We just

(01:01:42):
never were. It was never that. It was always it
was always what's next and take another shot, you know,
dushed yourself off, get back in the studio. We never
we just sort of never start. We never gave up.
You know. You go and you're in this French chateau
or yah, you know, and it's Elton John had done
a record and it was all fancy, and you guys

(01:02:03):
go and it wasn't quite as fancy as you thought,
but you you pushed on. But as you're there working
on the next album, you get the script for what
was going to be Saturday Night Fever. Yeah, that that's true.
And we didn't we didn't read the script. We listened
to Robert Stig would describe what he wanted to do
with the film, and we started writing from there. We

(01:02:24):
didn't want to be we didn't want to be affected
by the script. We just sort of wrote. So that
was gonna be my question, like, did you read part
of the script? You read none of the script? No,
what we knew what it was. And we already knew
about John Travolter and Robert was often running and he
wanted to do this and and you know, we wrote

(01:02:45):
for him. We always wrote for Robert, you know, to
please him. It's great to write for other people, you know,
to have someone in mind that you want to please.
And that's that's how we did it. When when when
that record is out and you guys are now turned
into not just superstar of the mega stars, unlike anything,
really you know seen in twenty years since the Beatles
are Elvis. Was there ever a point where you felt

(01:03:07):
like you can't even go outside? Well, yeah, of course, Um,
you know there are people climbing over our walls and
the kind of thing that you might expect, um that
comes from that kind of thing. It was. We had
a time of our lives, you know, we had a bath.
I think a lot of people don't see the seventies
the way we do if you live through it. It was.

(01:03:30):
It was quite an amazing period. There was no war,
there was everybody wanted to go out, you know, there
was a lot of fun being had. And and our
record label, Armattica in fact that you know, you guys
are got to kick it up. And that's where that
that's where they knew where we reinvented ourselves. And the

(01:03:50):
songs like Jive Talking and Fanny We Tender and songs
like that main course album Children of the World they
came about because of that, and yeah, and and and
then Fever so and and Fever's a compilation so it
wasn't actually our albums, but boy, we had the time

(01:04:11):
of our lives, you guys. And again, I know, Dolly,
um pretty well, and I knew Kenny a little bit
before he passed away. And you know, Islands in the
Stream is such a mega hit for both of their
careers and brands, and for for for you guys, for
you to have written that. Now. Is it true that
you were thinking about Marvin Gay when you first did

(01:04:31):
Islands in the Stream? No, we were thinking of Diana Row,
you know, because because Diana had asked us to write
it as a song for her. So I was in
the stream was probably going to be sent to Diana
when I got the call from Kenny, and and shows
you how are I beacon somehow coincide with country music.
I'll never understand that, But say he said, I want

(01:04:54):
to do a duet and I'd like to do it
with Dolly, So that that that song did it. He
loved it, and so did Dolly. And she she just
set it on fire, you know. And and and she's
it's her birthday today, and I wanted to have a happy,
happy birthday. And she's become one of my dearest friends.

(01:05:17):
And I could not wish more happiness on her than
I am doing. You know, she's on track six words.
It's you know you and Dolly and so when you
called Dolly, do you send her a text? Do you
have a friend reach out to her? How does that
work to get Dolly on a song? Oh, Danny, Danny
nozell Um. We've become good friend and he represents Dolly.

(01:05:41):
And I think that it was probably between Dave Carl
and and other I don't I didn't contact her directly,
and it was it was I just got the message
Dolly wanted to do worth. I didn't. I didn't tell
anyone what to sing. I didn't make the choices. Also
wanted to do too much heaven and the greatest thing

(01:06:03):
in the world, Bobby is that, they said yet And
there's some of the artists, by my most in the world.
So it was it was me just rolling around in
country music and blue grass and and and working with
the people I admire the most. You know. Now, I
was introduced to all of this, Tom to TG Shepherd

(01:06:27):
and Kelly Lang and they introduced me to Ricky Skag.
Ricky and Ricky got me on the opry twice. I
did it and one of the rhyman and I was
I was, I was chucked in. I was done. This
is the only this is the only world. I want
to be in and and and Nashville is a city

(01:06:52):
of music, you know, and and I wanted I wanted
to be there more than anything. So it's that's how
it came out. You know, you talk about some of
these amazing artists that's on the record, and I encourage
everybody to check it out. It's you know, the Gid
Brothers Songbook, Volume one. It is out now. It's got
Dolly Miranda, It's Livy Newton, John Jason, Isabel, It's it's

(01:07:13):
just loaded with talent. But I wonder, when you were
twelve years old, who did you whose record did you
want to hear? Royal pison, royal person without a hobby,
without without a second thing to think about it. And
my song whatever I do songwriting is inspired by royal person.
And I loved how his songs grew and and and

(01:07:35):
took shape as they went along and got bigger and
bigger and bigger. And I think running scared and blew
by you and crying and in dreams and it's over.
And I was just I was just in love with
the guy, in love with the music. And Johnny Cash,
I think was right there too. And I wanted to

(01:07:56):
I wanted to sing light Royals and I wanted to
write like Royal version. He would have been the single
inspiration for me. Was there ever a show where when
you guys were blowing up or maybe you were, you know,
hitting peak success And I know at one point Barbara
strides and shows up in the documentary coming to your show.
But was there ever someone that said, I'm a big fan,
I'm gonna come to a show, and you're like, I
cannot believe they're coming to one of our shows. I

(01:08:17):
couldn't believe that. I mean, I couldn't believe that Barber
was there and Olivia was there, and Olivia was one
of the main peaks at that point, and you know,
I could never believe. You know, I believe carry Grantfre's
in the audience at the front, and I would if
anyone had told me, I wouldn't have believed that either.

(01:08:39):
So well, yeah, life is just full of surprises if
you really want them. You know. I think that the
record is great. I hope people check it out. And
then the documentary on HBO Max is just so good.
And you know, if you even if you were a
fan already, and I consider myself, you know, if if
I know Massachusetts, I feel like I'm and like that

(01:09:01):
that and I knew it and it was a big
part of it. And when Ed Sharon sings it at
the end, I was like in tears, Wow, well you
know I love Massachusetts too, And that's the sixties, you know,
It's it's just amazing that that's that's fifty years ago.
You know that's outrageous. Boy. Well, Mr Gift, thank you

(01:09:22):
for your time. You're a big superstar. I'm grateful that
you give me a few minutes. And are you kidding me?
Telling everybody to check out the record? And my friends
did the look a little Big Town was so they
were wonderful. They were so grateful to be able to
work with you. What was it like working with them?
Pure pleasure and pure pleasure. They they are extremely what

(01:09:43):
is instant? They know exactly what they're doing, very professional,
wonderful harmonies. It didn't take long. And and how do
your love is? Is their feature? You know? And I
think they did another song, wasn't the Yeah they did
they did the they did how Deep as You Love Them?
They did Lonely Days? There you go, Yeah, you trust me.

(01:10:03):
I'm a big fan. I already know. I'll tell you
the whole thing. You've got a better memory than movie
they did. How do We Love Wonderful? I mean, that
was wonderful. They didn't have to do that, you know,
they didn't have to do two songs, and that's that's
that's when you know, that's when you know people are real. Well,
thank you for your time. I hope you have an

(01:10:24):
amazing day and a big fan and hope everybody checks
out the record and the documentary. Thank you very much,
Mr GiB Thank you sir. Bye bye, all right, bye
bye there