Bobby sits down with songwriter Casey Beathard who has written No. 1 for Kenny Chesney, Tracey Lawrence, Darius Rucker and more. He also has 12 songs on the new Eric Church project and wrote with Eric before he was “Eric Church”. He talks about growing up with a dad who was an NFL manager, having kids both in music and sports and learning the valve of not taking things for granted.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to episode to I just love this conversation with
Casey Bethard, written so many songs, has such a positive message,
has such an interesting life, and you'll hear a couple
of parts of this. You know, I'm such a sports nut.
His dad was a GM for multiple NFL teams, Casey
Bethard um and so we talked about that early because
(00:24):
I was just so curious about it. But we moved
that to the very very end. So if you're not
a sports person, you don't how to listen to it.
But if you are, it's pretty cool conversation. But you know,
he wrote twelve of twenty four songs on the new
Eric Church triple album Trilogy, but he just had He
wrote don't Blink, he wrote just and I just love
the guy. I've been a big fan, so I was
(00:44):
pretty pompy came in. So I hope you guys hang
out and listen to that. What I'm gonna do now
is run through the five releases this week. I think
you should check out. At number five one, Pilots put
out a new song called Shy Away. The Fastest Sealing
had number four. Taylor released Fearless. Taylor's version twenty six songs,
(01:08):
including six never before released songs from the vault. Here's
a clip of a new song called Mr. Perfectly Fine.
Yeah Yeah, Do you know who that's about, right, Joe Jonas,
Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah, it's from the vault.
I even saw his wife, Sophie Turners like. I can't
(01:28):
say it's not a good song. It's a good song
from Back in the Day. To number three, Luke Brian
released the deluxe version of his album Born Here, Live Here,
and Die Here. There are six new songs on it.
Here's his new song called Waves, Jeep Coming and He's
keep coming in. At number two, Walker Hayes has a
(01:49):
new song out and I love Walker Hayese. It's called
make You Cry Hello And at number one, this is
one of my favorite songs in a long time. Jamison
Rogers has a new song called Good Dogs, Good Trucks
and Runs Forever. If you keep bulling the man, you
(02:12):
treat them, run good, hold year together. She'll stick with
you for the rest of your good buddies. Low's come Running,
got you back, Old matter one, Good Dogs Don't Little.
I just love that guy, love that song so pretty cool.
(02:35):
Those are your new releases. We'll get to Casey Bethard
coming up all right in here with Casey Bethard. It's
the first time that we've met in person. Listen, I
know who you are. I'm a fan of your work
and I think I've even seen you out at a
couple of things. But you're one of these guys who's
legendary because you when you moved down nineties. Yeah, yeah,
(02:56):
that for me, like that's the generation I looked to
and go, Man, that's when music was awesome. And when
you see you, I'm like, I want to go bother him.
But but well I got I got to know Tucker
a bit and love Tucker, and so then I want
Then I saw you had written a bunch of the
songs on the Church record that's coming out, and Mike
was like, well what about now? Now would be a
(03:16):
good time. I said, yeah, Now, I feel like we
can go and not feel like we're annoying him. No,
that's awesome. So I appreciate, appreciate you. Coming about where
do we start? First of all, just about you in general,
because I do want to get to the church stuff,
But then I really want to get to your body
of work. Um, because it is so robustly not just
good but meaningful, and you may get embarrassed. You don't
(03:37):
have to know that. That's that's a gigantic honor to
to know that, to hear you say that that, that's
a That's what I think any songwriter wants to hear,
you know, for example, find out who your friends are. Like,
that's a song to me that reminds me of growing up.
Like I know where I was at the exact part
of the time when this, when this Tracy Lawrence song
was a hit song. I mean, you wrote this. This
(04:01):
is a big part of my life. That's what excites
me about having you here. Yeah, I feel old, but
but but appreciated, right, Like I'm forty one now and
I'm starting to feel a little older. But it's almost
like I'm trying to balance older with appreciated. Yeah, I
get that. Yeah, I get it, because you can't you
can't fight old, No, you can't. And it goes fast,
(04:22):
it goes fast. So yeah, man, that's that's crazy, I think. Yeah,
I don't know. I think it was just more free
because you didn't know, you weren't always checking, you couldn't
see what everybody was doing. At the at the you know,
the touch of a button, and once you aren't weren't
always comparing. All you were doing was living where you
(04:45):
were in life and going in rooms and literally writing
without without cell phones, you know, without knowing what everybody
was doing or where the charts were. All you could
do was really check the charts and listening to radio
and and so yeah, and then uh, we ed Hill
(05:05):
and I wrote that song and we wrote a wrote
a it was a real slow song and that that
we missed the demo and it sat around for a
while and I think we just missed it. We were, well, yeah,
we wrote as it was a slow song, and it
sat around and uh, Tracy was kind of out of
(05:27):
the scene for a little bit, and uh and we
loved the song. But you know, of course we were
you know, because Tracy was out of the scene. We
were we were hoping for whoever was hot right then,
and he got passed on and passed on. Tracy wanted
to do it, and we're like, sure, go for it,
and he thankfully took it to a radio song. Uh,
(05:51):
you know, push it to up tempo or with some tempo,
and uh just made it the song that was that
was cutible and that would you know, radio would play
and let alone put his buddies on it, and that
that that didn't hurt at all. They're crazy thinking about
that is me growing up in Arkansas. Tracy Lawrences from Arkansas.
So anybody that comes where you come from a bigger
(06:12):
deal than they are everybody else. But Tracy Lawrence was
massive anyway. But that was his first number in eleven years.
It was crazy, like most people had written Tracy Lawrence
off at that point because he tried, he had been on.
But that song, yeah, reminded people of how great he
is and was at the same time think about it,
I mean, and the truth was, you know at the time,
(06:34):
I remember Tim and Kenny. He used to take them
on the road and he was the headliner and they
would go out and play before him, and I think,
uh he called in a favor later on in life
and was like, hey, will you guys sing on this
and and and the and the funny thing about it
is is that Joe Galante he when that song started
(06:58):
getting substained because they you know, they told him, do
not play the one with them with our guys on it,
with these other stars on this record. You can't play that.
So that made radio go oh really so he the
big record executive at the time. Yes, yeah, um oho,
I know now, yes, great guy. Yeah, I love him.
Doing us has really stood up for me in certain
(07:19):
instances when the industry has been against me. But but
he was the guy who was like, dude, don't play
this song with all the people on it, which which
would make me go, well, we gotta play the song
with yes, and and everybody wanted to hear that one
with with the friends on it, because yeah, well that's
what made it a number one record, I believe because
(07:41):
they were they spend everybody had to spend it. Then
you talk about having no cell phones back then when
you would record a song, did you was it a
tape player and a task camp player or you're going
I'd go in and just do guitar vocals on a
multi cassette track and put a couple on there, and
(08:02):
and uh, that was my way of doing it, and
you just take a I took a lot of work
tapes that way and and we got him recorded. What
which to you when you look at your sons C
J and Tucker, which to you are you like, man,
there's there's just no no, there's you know, with this industry,
(08:24):
there's not a lot of stability, no either one of them. No,
there's not in a and it's a yeah, it's it's
really it's really crazy. And I think, um, uh, you know,
I don't know this is maybe there's a good lead
(08:45):
into it. But I think when you grow up like
knowing my dad and he didn't really worry about us,
but because you know, I I honor him so much
and made me love my kids so much that I
that I think I grew up always worrying about that.
You know, what are you doing? And what how is
it gonna go? And all these things and and uh,
(09:08):
these aren't stable career choices and uh and it used
to drive me up a wall. I would think about
it all the time, and I'd worry about it constantly.
And then and I think it wasn't um, it really
wasn't until probably whatever it was sixteen months ago when
(09:28):
when my third son went to heaven. It just changed
my perspective on anything, everything, you know, Um, because I
I it's something it was all these things are out
of my control, you know, and so it really it
took all the worry out of out of me trying
(09:51):
to make things are hoping things would happen for them,
because and everything, all my plans or thoughts for Clay,
you know, they went out the windows. So you know,
in in just a moment and just a day, and
so you just say that. It was just like, you know,
it's not there's nothing I can can can do to
control these uh, these situations. So I just let it
(10:14):
go and let my My wife said, you know a
few years ago before that too, it was really wild.
She's like, Case, I think you worry about them and
your texting them all the time, and you're blah blah blah,
and you're thinking about what's gonna happen, and that you're
you're a good earthly father. But gosh, let's let's let
the Lord, let God have him and let him. You
(10:35):
know they're gonna learn, let them go through their things
and let him. You know, we could we could trust
trust him to raise him. And then I was like, yeah,
how do you do that? How do you let go
the bumper stick? How do you let go and let God?
And within eight months later it was liken't put in
my lap? Yeah, I had to. I got and had
(10:55):
nothing less to lean on. So I go of all
my five kids I got, I know it's probably not
the platform for this, but the platform of all of
all my five kids, I've got one one that I
don't worry about anymore. I don't even think about it anymore.
I've got to think about him every day, a thousand
times a day and run into that wall. But I
don't have to worry about him because I honestly, with
(11:18):
all my heart, I never I don't know, um how
I got to this knowing of of that Heaven is
real and God is real. So I so I just
was like, Okay, he's okay. That's how you let going.
I just know, I know he's all right and that
you know, and then we're just we're not here very long.
So whatever happens with c J or whatever happens with Tucker,
(11:42):
and and that's where they are too. Now that's the
great things. Like Tuck, you know, he was a coming up.
You know, he's a kind of a fiery I'm gonna
this is how it goes, and I'm gonna do this
is what you know. And then it's just what what
that has done, what that is to the perspective on
all of our lives. It's just changed dramatically, Like, man,
(12:02):
we do we got today to make a difference in
the world, you know, And that's it and and and
it doesn't and and whether you're you know, making a
ton of money or whatever or or not, I think
you're you know, it's still living and you could still
find joy and peace in that and whatever you're doing,
(12:25):
you know, because I have, you have. You know, I
look back at some of the happiest times of our lives.
When I got my first hold and I had three
roommates and two kids in them, you know, you know,
I was like, man, that was awesome. That was that,
that was the hope of that stuff was thought it
wasn't that. I feel the same way, like I look
back and I, you know, my whole life, I was
(12:45):
poor until I wasn't. It was like super poor. I
was late twenties, early thirties, and I was like, now
I'm not super poor anymore. But I looked back at
the actual best times, and it was when I was
struggling in an apartment, I was going to school all day,
was working all night, driving an hour back. I would
sit with my roommate. We had a two hundred dollars
(13:06):
on my department. We played Kingdravir Junior baseball and hopefully
we had enough money to have a blowny sandwich and fundans.
That was, that was, and it was the greatest because
our whole futures were ahead of us. We limitless, and
it was it was so, it was so filled with joy.
And it's never when you get to these places. That's
never all it's cracked up to be. It never is.
(13:28):
So that that's what helps me when you ask what
about Tucker and c J. And because I know when
when I left for Nashville and was, you know, a
truck full of you know, nothing and nothing in my pockets,
and it was I was that kid that didn't want
to take anything from my dad. I was like, no,
I'm gonna I'm gonna make it. And um um, I
(13:48):
know that I was. I knew that I was. I
was okay. No. I liked my two jobs. While I
was had, I was working on the habit of being
a singer and songwriter. I liked that I've been a
dump with three roommates. But my dad, dad was worried
about worried about me. So I can see that and
I go, no, he doesn't understand. So Mike, my kids
(14:08):
are fine, they're gonna they know how to work, they
know to do what they ought to serve, they know
to you know. And and I'm I think we're all
you're a testimony. We're all testimonies for the fact that
it's just you get there and it's just not all
that's cracked up to be. It never is, and the
things that you didn't expect to be as good are
often better. So it's like a weird juxtapasaship them beside
(14:32):
each other, like you're like, wow, I've really achieved this,
and you're like, you know, it's good. Yeah, but it's yeah,
I thought i'd be a little a little higher than
a little better. But then it's on things like people
in relationships and and moments that you're like, well, crap,
this is where it is right here, or being able
to help people. That's that's exactly right. That's that's where
my world got turned up, that side down, and and
(14:55):
and tux and and c J's and just there the stuff.
Everything they do now and I do now, it revolves
around like, Okay, what is this gonna do? Not for me?
What is this gonna do for somebody? Why are you
doing this? You know? And that honestly when I mean,
(15:19):
that's that's why I'm here. I'm not I'm trying to
I'm trying not to do anything for I've done enough
doing things for the money for me too. I'm at
that part part of my life. I'm getting offers and
for the first time, I'm going, you know what, do
just make me happy? And if it doesn't make me
happy anymore, I don't chase it. Really, there's nothing none,
(15:40):
It just doesn't And because it goes too fast and
and and I've said this a lot lately, and that
I truly now know what a last day looks like.
And it looks like any other day. It looks like,
all right, Dad, I'll see you in a little while
of you, I love you too, but be careful. And
(16:02):
that's it, like every other day. And then that's that's
what we gotta keep in on and in our every
day when we get up and go somewhere and do
what we're doing, and what do we what is it about?
What what is it for? You know? So um um,
I'm grateful for everything I've gotten in my life, and
especially this town, this town, just bless men. And but
(16:27):
I spent a lot of time, you know, chasing chasing
the thing, the next thing, the thing did you write today? Yes?
Is any good? Um? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
It was fun. But fun can actually be good. It
isn't be You're exactly right. Sometimes that's why all it is.
(16:49):
It's fun. It's just fun, and that's what it should be.
And if it could get you, even if it gets
to you, I mean yeah, I could look back and
go These are not the reasons I moved to town,
but they gave me a platform to get to the
next thing, you know level, and I'm grateful for that.
You know, I've written some sounds that didn't. I'm not
gonna ever change the world and whatever. But but but
(17:12):
it was it's what was there that day, and it
was fun, you know, and it was fun or or
or it was impactful. You know, when Eric Church is
gonna start a new project, does he send out like
a a bad signal of sunglasses and you see it?
How do you get involved in a real tight knit
(17:33):
camp and a real private person like Eric, How how
do you get involved with him? Well, that's that's that's
just the ground floor literally is it's it's it's uh
and and as that's that's the funny thing because every day,
you know, you get there's there's a new young guy,
and you wonder, is this is this Garth Brooks or
(17:53):
Eric Church or whoever you know? And that's that's just
what it was. Um um. I remember our tour went
a horror who's a publisher in town back when I
was at so Many three years and years ago. Uh.
He called me in the office one week and he goes, hey, man,
(18:14):
we just I just found this new girl. And she's uh,
I think she's good, and you know, we're gonna sign
her and blah blah blah, and I want you to
consider getting with her, and you know, showing her the
ropes and all this stuff. And I was like cool,
and he he was gonna play something for me. He
gave me a picture and and I was like, man,
I was like, how old is she? He's like, well,
(18:36):
she's like whatever she was at the time. It turns
out it was Taylor Swift and I passed. I passed.
I said, I don't know. I just don't know if
I have anything, you know, and and uh, I don't know.
I don't. I don't think. I don't think I would.
I could do that, and uh, and the truth is
(18:58):
I was right. You know, I remember kids always dead.
You screwed up? And man, what are you doing? No, man,
I would have tried to None of my songs would
have made her records anyway. She knows what she's doing,
she knows her audience, she knows who she is. And
I would have gone in there and tried to bully.
And now you can't say that. You gotta do you
know whatever. And then the next time was check this
(19:19):
guy out and he played me, uh, Eric and it
was like a worked just the guitar vocal of a
song called Lightning that won on his first record. Then
and then it was a snow brainer and I heard
like a good night. This guy's this is good. He goes, yeah,
well he's back and forth in town and blah blah blah.
(19:40):
And we developed a relationship before he had anything going.
In fact, they were talking about and he was talking
about once you whatever, you guys do, just record some
stuff with him and on and you know, trying maybe
you could produce him. And I was like, and that
was not not a good idea I'm not I'm not
(20:01):
a producer. I love the studio and stuff, but I'm not.
I'm not that guy. But we just, man, we eat
it off. We just spent a lot of time together
and he had nothing going on, and um, he just thinks,
he know, you know, there's not many people that really
know who they are and what they're gonna say and
what you know, like he is. And even at that time,
(20:22):
so we it was fun and just writing, um what
he wanted to do and or what I wanted to do.
But he he wasn't afraid to go anywhere and it
was awesome. And so we are just you know, we
just started writing that way, and and and and then
(20:43):
all the pieces fell together, you know when they found
j and and and his management and everything and and
it's record label and and and it took off and
I just happened to be and the thing that kind
of knew where to go with him, I was just
we're on the same wave length. Do you ever wonder
if someone you know, it's on a rocket ship. And
(21:05):
Eric's rocketship is different than any artist that I've seen,
because it took a second. Although Eric knew the songs,
it took a second to get all the pieces together,
like you said, but once it hit, it really hit hard. Um,
did you ever wonder, well, man, now he's gotten so big.
I wonder if he's even gonna call me back, like
to write with him again. Yeah, yeah, I think so.
I I yeah, I'm thinking that even now for the
(21:30):
next time, the next you do you have twelve songs
on his on the records, so don't tell me. Yeah,
it almost sounds like that is maybe that was the last.
But you have a good point. I think I feel
I sit around and go, he's, hey, enjoy these because
I'm gonna move on, you know, That's what I think. No,
(21:51):
I I think he. I think he just you know,
you surround yourself with people you trust, and you know,
and I I I always I know what I spend
years in advance, Like right now, if I if I
knew that there was just something that was crazy enough
that that he would like, I would send it to
(22:14):
him right now and just go check this out and
you go, man, love it, and we just work on
it for a year, or work on it for right now,
or just tuck it away and I'd save it till
going to the mountains again. You know, that's how That's
just how it is. And uh and then usually in
(22:34):
that process of recording and doing that, when he wants
to go record again, he'll find out what he's gonna do,
you know, maybe two or three or four songs in
and uh, this time, I think everything just kind of
worked for it all. So he just said he didn't
want to scrap anything. You know. So when you guys
(22:55):
are writing and you're in the mountains and you're writing
and recording, and it's the whole situation, what's the food situation?
It was the it was this food situation was the best,
hands down, I've never been anywhere. Uh, you know, I
don't that was more exciting to me than going to
(23:16):
than writing a song. He hired a schiff that I
don't know that he met on one on a boat
and the Caribbean or something. Of course, man like we
all did. Yeah, so and uh and uh he hired him.
And this guy he was, you know, just just a incredible,
(23:42):
incredible guy. And he hired him for two months to
live up there and stay in this this clubhouse at
the bottom of the mountain that was closed during the offseason.
It's kind of like the shining and um so in
the clubhouse where the studio was in the kitchen and
he cooked I mean breakfast, lunch, and dinner from I mean,
(24:07):
it was just ridiculous, ridiculous and it was all organic fresh,
you know, everything was It was just it was the
best of the best. I've never been to a restaurant
that tasted like that. That's always what I think about
when people hold themselves up for any sort of writing situation.
It's like, Okay, what's food? Yeah, Like, I know you're
gonna write good songs. I know you're gonna record, but
like what are you eating? Like how good are they treating?
(24:28):
That's really cool though, that all that was there. Have
you ever had to cancel a right and then you
found out afterwards that during that right they wrote the
best like massive song or later on when it goes
(24:50):
to number one. You're like with Jimmy and Bill that
day when I didn't go in. Yeah, you think about that.
I think about that all the time whenever I have
to cancel something. Uh, And then I'll ask, and what
did you all do? You put in a notebook? What
did you all do that day? And I and I've
I can't right, off hand and think of something that
(25:12):
happened that I that I should have been. I was
supposed to be in there, but I can I was,
I've been in rooms that titles have been you know,
pitched to me that I've I'm all over and passed on.
That turned into the number one songs because they wrote
(25:33):
him with somebody else, and I was like, wow, what
about the opposite? Where has someone ever canceled on your
right and then you and you know, somebody else ended
up writing something and you're like, dang, if you just
come to the right. Yeah, you know we wrote don't blink? Yeah, yeah,
no kid, Um, it's good that nothing comes to mind.
That means nobody really good. Yeah, nobod's living a life
(25:55):
of regret here the I mean, yeah, see people nowadays.
Back then, a lot of the lot of the songs
that we wrote were without not a lot of them
were with with artists in the room. So it was
easy to cancel, you know, but if there was somebody
gonna be there, a lot of people won't cancel. Nowadays,
(26:16):
you know, you just if there's gonna be a an
artist there, they're gonna not cancel. But I mean it's like,
what's gonna happen with Casey and Ed Hill today that
I'm gonna miss, you know, you know, so they'll bail
and I'm going to the beach and you're like yeah, right,
and then you is sit around and your talk. Oh
(26:38):
I've got one and I probably shouldn't shouldn't you say?
That's oh my god, this is this just this hit
me and I hope because I said, and so one
of my best, my favorite co writers and and he's
come up on the last couple Eric Records is Monty
(26:58):
chris Well too, and he's is a great friend of
mine and we've had a relationship for a long time
and we had a standing. We had a standing every
other week or maybe once a week, right I had
I was riding with Ed Hill and he had his
wife has a little house in Franklin. It's a venue
house that they do whatever and they rented out or
(27:20):
they let people use it. But we'd use the front
porch in the spring and get there every Tuesday and
hang out and talk and see whatever came to mind.
If nothing less, if nothing else, we'd just walk in
the spring around Franklin and end up at Puckets and
eat and that's how every Tuesday or Thursday was whatever
it was. And sometimes we did invite somebody that was
(27:43):
just a great writer come hang with us and we
were out there. Maybe it might have been a consecutive
week of having Monty out there and we were and
we were out there and uh, and I don't know
where you know, Ed, it is just a you know,
he's a Hall of Fame writer and just a he's
(28:05):
just a great writer and a great guy and a
great friend. But sometimes he gets, you know, like we
all do, we get a little jaded, um man, I
don't know whatever. That We were on the front porch
out there and Money opened up his laptop and he's like, man,
I think I got I got an idea I want
to write. I think I'm not I think that the
(28:29):
concept is this like she loves me like Jesus does
and I and then lightning bulb, I mean the light
bulb went off in my head and I was like wow.
And he goes, you know, and like I'm along Gone
Wayland song on vinyl and the back. Before you can
get that line out, Ed got up out of his
(28:49):
chair and he opened the screen door to go back,
and he's like, oh, man, he can't say, Jesus, they're
not gonna blame it. And they got quieter and quietly
they have and he drifted off down the hall of
the kitchen and go and that just well, Monty will
write that. And he's like, Okay, I go, let's write
something else today for it. But we'll write that another day.
(29:12):
And that that's my favorite church song. Change man, that
is my she she loves me Jesus, that's my favorite
Eric church song. Yeah, that yet she uh. And that
was the first thing. That never intended to pitch that
to Eric because he didn't cut outside songs with us,
(29:33):
the first one he ever did. Yeah, what why did
he tell you that he cut that song? Because I'm
to him it was like, I don't cut songs that
I don't write. Yeah, yeah, they have to fit, they
have to be or they have to I mean, I'll
just say at the point, at to that point, he
had not. I think I think Catherine heard it, and
(29:56):
that was you know, she she uh pulls a lot
more way, can you think in that house? And so
I think she was like, you can say this, this
is tough enough to say. You can say, yeah, I'll
cut that, Okay, it's just a great song, just a
great song. You have seven number ones? Is that right?
Do you have seven? Something like something like that Don't
Blink Kenny Chesney. And when I talk about you know,
(30:20):
meaningful songs like do you know how many people hear
this song and they get to relive their lives because
of three and a half minutes? That's that. That one's
that's one of the ones. I'm just just that one
made a difference. You know, there's those Those are the
songs that just they're timeless and they never Those are
the ones you know that you know it's I just
(30:42):
love to play. Those are the ones I really love
to play anymore in rooms when I get a chance
to play, rather than the you know, there's you know,
are people shocked when you go, alright, I wrote this one.
Don't blink and you start singing, They're like, wow, you
wrote that. That's a generation an all song. That's gotta
be a really cool song to pull out when people
(31:03):
don't know you wrote it and start singing it and go, yeah,
I wrote this one. Yeah it is. It's it's it's awesome.
It's fun to sing, and it's fun to fun. It's
hard to sing now, but it's uh, um, it's a
it's it's yeah, it's just a It was a gift, man,
and I'm just grateful that I get to play it,
(31:23):
and you know, because there's always someone's got a story.
Every time I do, someone's got a story for me,
and in it means the world you have another Chesney
number one boys a fall for me being such a
sports guy like this again, this song is important to me.
I know where I was because I listened to the
(31:45):
song and think about me playing literally like I take
this song very literal and how big it was in
my life. When you guys, I wrote this song like
you were you talking about all right, there are all
these white people are gonna hear this song? Or was
it a straightforward like we're talking about baseball? No? Yeah, no,
we were. We were, like honestly we were. There wasn't
(32:09):
anything to write that day, and and I was with
Dave Turnbull and We're just sitting around picking on guitars,
and I was going through I I coached the kids
at the time in Franklin Football youth league and I
was going through that and that's mostly where my mind was.
And uh, that's crazy because I think baseball, that's what Yeah, yeah,
(32:32):
yeah you could have it. There's that. There's that too,
But that's what I'm saying, Like you know about me,
I'm hearing it and going every fall, Yeah, this is
what I was doing. You know, Spring ran into early
fall and we were usually playing like legion ball in fall,
and I'm hearing this song going, man, I'm like, we
live in my life again because of the song. That
wasn't even what you were thinking when you wrote it. Yeah,
(32:53):
and plus you know you think about you know, that's
when you know October that's when the MLBS going rocking,
you know, and so yeah, it makes sense it would.
In fact, that's how the phone, that's how the song
got got um created was. I had picked my team.
I had a really good little team about fifteen kids,
but there's just one kid that wasn't out there for tryouts.
(33:14):
And I was like I was back before you know,
texting and all that. This guy would email me and
I I emailed this guy a friend and I was like, hey, Wherese,
what's your son? Why isn't out here? I need him?
He's fast and he's this and that he's like, man,
can you believe he picked fault baseball, and you don't
(33:35):
play fault baseball. That's just they just started making this up.
You played football. And he's like, yeah, I know. And
then and then he's like, I know what I'm saying.
I go I was just messing with him. And one
day he he checked in and I think the subject
line was like hey, because he was missing. He was
missing being out there watching practice. He goes, how are
(33:55):
my boys of fault? And I've never heard that before,
and I was like, so, I just tucked it away.
And we're sitting there and this guy was mowing the grass.
I was sitting there a day one day and then
it was falling, the windows open and I heard him lawnmower,
and then that smells started coming in the window, and
I was like, gosh, did that smells like Friday night?
(34:17):
And it reminds me of foot football or just being
in a field and playing. And he's like, yeah, man,
that's that's right. Let's right a song about that those
days in high school. I feel like that the Chesney
art was football to like, if I'm thinking about like
the single art for that song, it was there was. Yeah,
he did a whole document. Yeah, it was all because
I feel like Chesney really went hard football. He went
(34:40):
he went over the top and made that thing the
priority in the in the in the the video, the
documentary which was gotten as probably forty five minutes long,
of going to colleges and coaches and mentors and locker
rooms and uh the the making the you know m
(35:01):
relationship between sports and in life. It was awesome. I
mean it was incredible. And so let's playing a couple
more of these number ones comeback song from Darius Rodney Atkins,
Cleaning this Gun funny. Yeah, yeah, you talk about this.
(35:22):
This is a fun song. Yeah, but I think also
a lot of it's a very relatable song, yeah that
you don't have to talk about history of life first
to also go oh, like I felt that, Like there
are a lot of dads. I'll play that song out
and they laugh. Everybody in the room laughs, but they go, dad,
I get it. I would have had three boys, and
(35:42):
then I had my first daughter finally, And I remember
I was sitting down the backstop of the baseball game
and literally talking to a dad and my first daughter,
Charlie was at my feet, just playing in the dirt.
And next time I looked down. He father looked down too,
and he was like, and there's a little boy that
(36:04):
kind of came over there too, And I was like, wow,
it came a little faster than I thought, you know.
And then uh, that was just that's where that idea
was born. I was like, okay, and uh and I'll
never forget when I was in the early nineties when uh,
(36:24):
a great songwriter was over at the office. Buddy Brock
was over there and he was like, yeah, I gotta
get Eddie here early day. Boys, I my daughter's got
her first prom date. I want to be waiting in
the garage with it, cleaning my guns. And I'll never
that never left and just just just a just for
optics when he pulled up. Let's see if I out
(36:46):
your friends always talking about that, justin more why we
drink that's a recent one. Yeah, yeah, that was That
was a blast. It was David Leady Murphy, uh, Justin
and Jeremy Stover, Yeah you are you and David Lee.
But yes, then listen, I love the guy, the nicest guy,
(37:07):
and also look at him as the same guy that
when I was a kid, I was like this Davidlee
Murphy the artist. But now like the nicest. Yeah, he
just come up. No, he's got Yeah, he's just nothing's changed.
I got more money in God and he doesn't and
nothing's changed. Uh, you have three number two's. I go,
I gotta wonder about these number two like are they
(37:30):
more painful than a top ten because it's so clear? Yeah,
it was really really odd. I mean the the yeah,
I mean those like no shoes, which I would have been,
was the number one. Yeah, everybody, just because I think
people would associate this with Kenny more than some of
his other number ones. This is the Kenny brand. You
(37:52):
know what's you know what's wild is that um um
uh that came out, that came out first on him
and was storming up the charts until Alan Jackson put
out five o'clock somewhere and it jumped him in the
top five and stayed there and kept him out with
(38:12):
Jimmy Buffett, right, Yeah, it was. It was wild. It
was they were kind of like battling with the same
lane in the same thing. And then and then there
was another number two with the stars and stripes an
eagle fly. I think I think that was number two
that was that was going up right there too, and
Alan Jackson jumped him with remember where were you in
(38:34):
the world? Stop turning and stayed there and kept him out.
Alan Jackson, we hate and Tucker had a number two
with rock On. Yeah. Do you know what kept it out? Um,
Alan Jackson, let's go get Casey. That's right, that's right,
you know it was up. I don't know, I don't know,
(38:55):
I I you know, I don't know how that all
really really works at the end of the day whenever.
Just back to church for one second. But when Homeboy
came out, we had always heard that was about one
of the writer's sons. That writer is is that writer you?
And was that son Tucker? It was, yeah, it was, yeah,
it wasn't And it was a it was a dramatization,
(39:17):
you know, it was. It was a title in my
head that I had. And Tucker was going through some
rebellious days and um, nothing crazy, but he was. He
was stepping outside the lines and we were grounding him
all the time. And his older brother c J. I'll
never forget it was in high school. It'd always come
(39:37):
down on Friday nights and Saturday nights, would come down
the kitchen and look running hate dad, Uh, don't let
Tucker go out tonight. He's not going where he says
he is. But just you didn't hear it from me,
and that he just loved him. That you know, my
kids just I'm grateful. They just love each other so much,
are so tight and uh so that's how it was.
And that's and that one day when I was outside
(40:00):
yard working and on a weed eater and stuff, and
they came back from football practice is cutting up and
hanging out. You know, you just see the love there.
And I thought, man, there's no nowhere that either one
of them could go that he wouldn't go find him
or get him back and that and then it just
sparked me and I was like, and that's where I
(40:21):
do a lot of work, is um outside the rooms.
It's just out and on a on a moor and
a job or a walk and in a field and
just thinking and I and I started formulating that song
and I immediately put it on a I recorded it
on a little you know, message thing I had, and
(40:42):
I told Eric about it, and he was like, yep, yep,
that's one. Let's do that. And he just you know,
he always if I have something to start, he he
knows exactly what to do and want to where to
go and how to wrap a bow run. And that
was a little nylon string, gut string, you know, Kenny Chesney,
(41:06):
Jimmy Buffett guitar work tape, me on a cassette tape,
playing and singing, and it turned into what the song
it was. That's how crazy those two are when they
get in the studio. That's it's it's awesome what they
did with it. I'm looking at Heart and Soul, the
three records they're coming out from Eric, and I'm doing
something him tomorrow. And I mean again, he wrote twelve
(41:31):
of the twenty four. I mean he should put it
should just be Eric Casey. Um. Here here's hell of
a View, which, by the way, which I think a
lot of people will know. But this Leonard Skinner Jones
(41:52):
play some of this here. This is the last. It's
on Soul, It's on the back record. So tell me
the story. Tell me the story about this song. He
was on a walk. I was walking outside and Lennard
Skinner and Jones, Lennard Skinner and John. I was like,
what is that? And then just really dawned on me.
(42:12):
When I was walking, I thought, man, surely a crazy
fan is named there a son. I bet you there's
a Leonard Skinner and not a Leonard Skinner, but with
all four wise somewhere, if not, there's a dog I
know there, you know, and and uh and so I
(42:33):
didn't even know where to go with it. And those
are my favorite things to do, sitting just just just
whittle away on and I started and I had I
had Curtis Slow in the first verse the Tallahassee show.
We laughed at that, and we sang Curtis Slow, and
then I was stuck, and I go, well, what what's
(42:55):
the point? And then I was like, oh, wait, uh,
maybe a that's just the whole story that this kid
becomes who he is because he was the son of
Curtis Lowe, and that's the whole point of the song.
And I just just an imagination thinking of stuff and
trying to just it was a puzzle that that that
(43:16):
challenged me and and I spent about a month trying
to figure out and and got it to where it was.
And and I respect his his you know, opinion so
much that and the thought that I thought he could
make it better. I sent it to him and then
he was like the way it was way out of season,
you know, and he was like this, Uh, what's the
(43:40):
deal with this? And I said, well, you make it,
make it better and he was like, nah no, but
don't play this for anybody. And I was like okay,
and that was gonna be And these people were coming
up and cutting and recording and I was like, yeah,
they probably wouldn't sing it or say it. I don't
know so, but I but I honored him, honored that hold.
(44:01):
And uh six or eight months later, he when I
was with him in the mountains, he was like, all right,
let's let's do that one. And Jay was like, alright, Casey,
you you play. You play the acoustic guitar like you
do on the work tape and just Erico going and
sing and I'm like, no, not me, man, You're just
(44:23):
gonna fire me in about two hours. And that's how
it goes. He does, you know, he gets and uh
So we spent about two hours trying to cut that
and maybe make it more than it wasn't. Plus I
don't I don't play time real well, and it just
wasn't jelling and broke my heart, I think because we
(44:44):
didn't capture it. But they were still like, oh man,
we're gonna we're gonna get to we'll salvage it. We
kind of we just moved on to another song. And
and I can't say I wasn't disappointed after I went home.
I would go there like three or four days at
a time, and I went home going, oh, well, you know,
but He's like hey, he and Jay were like, no,
(45:05):
we we love that song. We're gonna get it somehow,
some way we might have it. We just gotta you know,
you know, going and figure this out. And then they
got a real guitar player, and in my opinion, like
Brian Sutton is one of the best there ever was
on him on any kind of acoustic instrument. And just
(45:31):
that's they just went in and that's all they needed,
just those two and it was just it just killed
me when I when I heard what they did with it.
It's just phenomenal. You wrote that by yourself, yea. How
do you know if a song you wrote by yourself
is good? Yeah, that's that's the that's the problem. Yes,
because no one's no one's across me going, I don't
(45:52):
know about that. You know, you gotta know, you gotta know.
Eric just send it to him and he'll tell you,
and he will tell you yeah, yeah, you'll know if
he gets it, or even Kenny Kenny's you know. I
mean there's guys like that, you know, like, um, that's
what I get. And I think every songwriter in town
that's why they co write, because they're insecure, what what
(46:15):
what do I do? And I'm sure there's a lot
of them that have taken songs that probably were done,
but they didn't think they were done, so they just
playing the half of it and they still go where
they already had it going anyways. You're like, dang, I
could have just rooted it myself. But so that's what's
the best thing about co writing is that you just
(46:36):
you know, that's where you get the immediate feedback and
you know what you got, and you get people offering
you know, a better, better thing and and something a
different angle. You wouldn't have seen that one either. I
played for my my kids. Usually songs I played for
(46:56):
my kids, especially Tuck or Eric, you know, with my
wife and see what they think. And and that's where
I get the real feedback, you know. Final question for you, Yeah,
if you could be remembered just by one song that
you wrote. They're like, all right, it's time to go
into the Pearly Gates song right around you get one song?
(47:19):
Um um, I I would, I would, I could say
don't don't blink or honestly, I think it was a
new it's a new song that that that it was
(47:39):
just a gift to me that it was called There
was Jesus. And I wrote it with a guy named
Zack Williams and Jonathan Smith. And Zach Williams is on
the c C him, you know, charts, and he's just
a phenomenal singer. I ran and ran into on the
radio one day and I just dude, like this guy's
(48:01):
voice is just so real and so good and and
I'm just blown away by this guy. And I had
hit a wall of chasing stuff in Nashville. I mean
of just you know, trying. I think I was trying
too hard to be with the recent hits were and
I couldn't never ring the bell or get anything going
and I and I was like, I just want to
(48:23):
I had stuff in me that I wanted to get out,
and I was afraid that a lot of people wouldn't
in country music say so. I asked my publishers. I said,
find this guy and see if I can get with him.
And uh, we wrote a song called there was Jesus
in It. I went to number one this year on
and they put Dolly Parton on it, and and uh,
(48:44):
it just was I had no intentions. I had no
I just wanted to get it out and hear this
guy singing and it was phenomenal and and it and
it came out right at the perfect time that I
didn't know with minister to me. I was a ministering
to me, not not to just others, because I didn't
know I needed that song. I wouldn't need that song.
(49:06):
And uh. And so that one, you know, I wasn't
chasing anything. I was just trying to be honest and
write something with a with a great singer and and
and a great producer. And all of a sudden, Dolly
shows up on it and he's on it, and it
sounds like an angel and another angel singing, and uh,
(49:28):
and it gets I've been nominated for Grammys before, but
you know, I was just nothing's ever. I just that's awesome.
It's an honor. And I thought the same thing for
this one. And and it turns out and it wins
one and you're like I had, I had nothing to
do with it. And that's where I could I literally,
I know it sounds cliche, but I could honestly point
when you finally stopped trying to do what you think
(49:51):
you want to do and just do what the gift
is given to you and your heart to do, you know,
and just let it go and see what happened. And and
and that's what I did. And I think that just
that one did everything I think a song is supposed
to do for me and for for and for God,
(50:12):
you know, and and and it just and it worked.
And that's one I think that I could look back
on my life and go everything in my life. The
reason I moved to Nashville, I thought was from music,
and I thought it was for this, but it wasn't.
It was for meeting my wife, It was for having
my kids. It was for raising them in the right places,
and for meeting all my best friends in the world
(50:32):
and getting to do what I do well. I very
much appreciate you coming over here. I've just been a
big fan for so long, and most of the time,
like you said, I have all my nutcase friends that
are big stars and I don't give a crap. But
occasionally I get to hang out with somebody that I'm
in awe of and I appreciate and and that today's you.
(50:53):
So I really appreciate you coming by here. No, thank you.
I think the same thing. I have so much respect
for you. I love the way you carry yourself, I
love your story, I love everything. I think. We got
off a plane one time a while back, about the
same time you got off the plane and you stood
out there and you were talking to I can't remember
exactly what it it was. There was a a couple of people,
(51:14):
but you were standing there talking about where to go,
what to do now from here? Maybe get on another flighter.
But it was in Nashville, and I was like, I
think that's Bobby Bones. In fact, I think if I
was lost and nerdy, that was me. That's how you
know what I mean, lost and nerdy. That's it. Well,
you guys are do you tweet much? I don't. I
don't have an Instagram and tweet on le Okay, Well,
(51:35):
somebody named Casey about to got a Twitter, so so
don't follow Casey on Twitter. Passed along left to your
family for me and thank you for coming buy I
really appreciate thank you. There is hey, guys, Bobby back here.
So that was the interview. But now, if you've made
it this far and you want to hear more, here's
the part where I got really into talking about sports
and I got to really geek out. So here is
(51:56):
part two. That was actually the very beginning. But enjoy
going back in time. Bit Uh, your dad was an
NFL general manager who knew, so you must be just
mr Football knowledge. That was life. I someone sent me
(52:16):
a picture just that's our who was actually my brother.
I don't know where he got it from. He goes,
look at this and it was it was someone put
it on Instagram from the It was the Dolphins Instagram
page and it said an old Oh. It was a
picture of Shoela's kids and Bethord's kids getting taught by
Matt Morrel and the and the Earl Moral was a
(52:37):
backup quarterback at the time in the early seventies of
the of the of the Dolphins. But her dad was
a ran the player personnelity department there in Miami. So
when I was a kid, that's that's what we used
to do, just spend you know, running around barefoot on
those fields and I lived there's it's a picture of me,
(52:57):
long hair, no shirts, the bathing suit on in the
it of a football player with the Shula kids and
we're just getting you know, playing with football and that
was life. And so it was kind of like, uh,
you know, like we are now. When you grow up
around these guys that people that there, it's you know,
you're never really starstruck. You just that's that was life,
(53:18):
and it was it was just an awesome way of
life to just grow up there. And then he went
from there to the Redskins and gosh, he's has like
eight super Bowl rings. So we were all we were
all at those Super Bowls and it was just a yeah,
it was a spoiled it was a life you kind
of took for granted. You just you did that. You
mentioned the seventies Dophins and I didn't put the time
(53:41):
frame together, but was he seventy two Dolphins? That was
undefeated team? That that Zonka, that's crazy, it is, it's crazy.
Larry Zanka was like my my, just my mentor. I
got a picture of I came up to about to
hear about high high on him and he's got his
(54:03):
head on my hand on my head, and I used
to hang out with him most of the time and
his locker and he'd take me around. And because I
was just a little boy and he didn't have kids
and stuff, so he kind of meant towards me and
kind of in camp and stuff. And it was awesome.
We were we were best friends for a little while.
There are those good memories to you. Oh, they're awesome. Awesome,
(54:23):
I mean, that was that's a you know, that's when
I mean, it was such an innocent life, you know,
you know, I sounded like an old guy talking about
you know, the kid you just run around and do
you know. Yeah, I mean we literally played hide and
seek in the Dolphins locker room and would hide under
Don Shula's desk when he was the coach. By the way,
(54:47):
because you're not a sports guy or sports sportswoman, Don
Shula was the head coach of the Dolphins. Did you
were you ever there when Marino came in early or
did you got to leave before he came out? Where
you gotta to Washington? Yes? So, I I from about
ten or eleven up. I grew up in Northern Virginia
up there in the Redskin area that Joe Gibbs yours. Yeah,
(55:09):
Dad hired Joe. That's crazy, are you the music? Remember
when he had the idea of hiring him, because right
after it was Jack Party and my dad got hired
at the same time in seventies seven or whatever, and
they didn't work very well, and so they ended up
(55:30):
going with Dad not firing him, and they fired Jack
Party the head coaching because my dad was a roommate
of John Madden's in college. So they said. The owner
was like, you need to hire John Madden. That'll be
star power. I I got somebody else in mind, and
(55:50):
and they he threatened them, I mean, the coach. The
owner was like, if this doesn't work, it's your You're gone,
and he said, just try to trust me. And of
course they started out on six their first year, and
they ended up eight and eight and the next year
they went to the Super Bowl and anymore, so it
worked out. But yeah, that's that's wild. So you have
(56:11):
a lot of football in your life early then, I'm
assuming you played football for a while until when I
played through college. I went to a little school in
North Carolina called Elon College, and uh, uh, you know,
growing up in that my mother. My mother was musical,
so I around her. I was kind of like the
(56:31):
black sheep in the in the family of gravitating towards that.
But every but it was athletics too, you know. And
so my brothers they played, and they went through college
and played, and I but I was kind of leaning.
I didn't know what to do. But I, uh, I figured,
especially when you're young watching your your heroes, you just go, well,
(56:53):
I guess I'll go be a pro football player or
something first, and then I'll probably getting I didn't know
how to get into the muse, and guy, I knew
I could just get in the football and then you well,
I ended up coming out of high school and stopped
growing and uh, I just didn't have all that stuff,
but I that it takes. But I ended up getting
(57:14):
a chance to, you know, playing college, and and that's
right after that, and through college, I was I was
honing a lot of you know, music stuff too at
the same time, and my mother had died in that time,
and so I started I wrote my first real song,
uh maybe when I was a junior in college that
(57:34):
really meant meant something that impressed the roommates and the
people around and they're like, wow, that's cool. And then
I it kind of um encouraged me to go that direction,
you know. And then my dad was one of those
kinds that you know, he's he's he is that like
the best dad in the world, I think, And um,
(57:55):
so he was always like, how I don't know how
to help you, and I don't know anything about music,
what you're gonna move to Nashville. I don't know how
to help you. And uh, I said, I don't, I don't.
It's all right, I don't need it, and you know,
and he wanted us, you know, he would have rather
let me get you started and scouting and stuff like that.
(58:17):
The irony, as you know, your life paralleled from sports
to music, is that CJ your sons. Is he still
with Jacksonville? Yeah, he just signed with jackson but they
haven't moved. They haven't. They signed him because're gonna the
first overall pick too and they're probably take Trevor Lawrence.
So but he's staying. And they didn't like sign him
and then ship him off. No, no, no, no, So
that that was a point, you know, they have you know,
(58:39):
I don't know who they he knew the intentions of them,
but they sometimes you don't wanna you don't want to
throw a rookie in the fire, kind of like he
got thrown in four years ago. But and and and uh,
they want to competent back up. I think at least
(58:59):
you home. But he's taken it as just a great
opportunity to help somebody and or to compete, you know.
So that's yeah, they just signed him one son in
the NFL and then one son. It's like you've were
split in half and they went there their different ways
there
Welcome to episode to I just love this conversation with
Casey Bethard, written so many songs, has such a positive message,
has such an interesting life, and you'll hear a couple
of parts of this. You know, I'm such a sports nut.
His dad was a GM for multiple NFL teams, Casey
Bethard um and so we talked about that early because
(00:24):
I was just so curious about it. But we moved
that to the very very end. So if you're not
a sports person, you don't how to listen to it.
But if you are, it's pretty cool conversation. But you know,
he wrote twelve of twenty four songs on the new
Eric Church triple album Trilogy, but he just had He
wrote don't Blink, he wrote just and I just love
the guy. I've been a big fan, so I was
(00:44):
pretty pompy came in. So I hope you guys hang
out and listen to that. What I'm gonna do now
is run through the five releases this week. I think
you should check out. At number five one, Pilots put
out a new song called Shy Away. The Fastest Sealing
had number four. Taylor released Fearless. Taylor's version twenty six songs,
(01:08):
including six never before released songs from the vault. Here's
a clip of a new song called Mr. Perfectly Fine.
Yeah Yeah, Do you know who that's about, right, Joe Jonas,
Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah, it's from the vault.
I even saw his wife, Sophie Turners like. I can't
(01:28):
say it's not a good song. It's a good song
from Back in the Day. To number three, Luke Brian
released the deluxe version of his album Born Here, Live Here,
and Die Here. There are six new songs on it.
Here's his new song called Waves, Jeep Coming and He's
keep coming in. At number two, Walker Hayes has a
(01:49):
new song out and I love Walker Hayese. It's called
make You Cry Hello And at number one, this is
one of my favorite songs in a long time. Jamison
Rogers has a new song called Good Dogs, Good Trucks
and Runs Forever. If you keep bulling the man, you
(02:12):
treat them, run good, hold year together. She'll stick with
you for the rest of your good buddies. Low's come Running,
got you back, Old matter one, Good Dogs Don't Little.
I just love that guy, love that song so pretty cool.
(02:35):
Those are your new releases. We'll get to Casey Bethard
coming up all right in here with Casey Bethard. It's
the first time that we've met in person. Listen, I
know who you are. I'm a fan of your work
and I think I've even seen you out at a
couple of things. But you're one of these guys who's
legendary because you when you moved down nineties. Yeah, yeah,
(02:56):
that for me, like that's the generation I looked to
and go, Man, that's when music was awesome. And when
you see you, I'm like, I want to go bother him.
But but well I got I got to know Tucker
a bit and love Tucker, and so then I want
Then I saw you had written a bunch of the
songs on the Church record that's coming out, and Mike
was like, well what about now? Now would be a
(03:16):
good time. I said, yeah, Now, I feel like we
can go and not feel like we're annoying him. No,
that's awesome. So I appreciate, appreciate you. Coming about where
do we start? First of all, just about you in general,
because I do want to get to the church stuff,
But then I really want to get to your body
of work. Um, because it is so robustly not just
good but meaningful, and you may get embarrassed. You don't
(03:37):
have to know that. That's that's a gigantic honor to
to know that, to hear you say that that, that's
a That's what I think any songwriter wants to hear,
you know, for example, find out who your friends are. Like,
that's a song to me that reminds me of growing up.
Like I know where I was at the exact part
of the time when this, when this Tracy Lawrence song
was a hit song. I mean, you wrote this. This
(04:01):
is a big part of my life. That's what excites
me about having you here. Yeah, I feel old, but
but but appreciated, right, Like I'm forty one now and
I'm starting to feel a little older. But it's almost
like I'm trying to balance older with appreciated. Yeah, I
get that. Yeah, I get it, because you can't you
can't fight old, No, you can't. And it goes fast,
(04:22):
it goes fast. So yeah, man, that's that's crazy, I think. Yeah,
I don't know. I think it was just more free
because you didn't know, you weren't always checking, you couldn't
see what everybody was doing. At the at the you know,
the touch of a button, and once you aren't weren't
always comparing. All you were doing was living where you
(04:45):
were in life and going in rooms and literally writing
without without cell phones, you know, without knowing what everybody
was doing or where the charts were. All you could
do was really check the charts and listening to radio
and and so yeah, and then uh, we ed Hill
(05:05):
and I wrote that song and we wrote a wrote
a it was a real slow song and that that
we missed the demo and it sat around for a
while and I think we just missed it. We were, well, yeah,
we wrote as it was a slow song, and it
sat around and uh, Tracy was kind of out of
(05:27):
the scene for a little bit, and uh and we
loved the song. But you know, of course we were
you know, because Tracy was out of the scene. We
were we were hoping for whoever was hot right then,
and he got passed on and passed on. Tracy wanted
to do it, and we're like, sure, go for it,
and he thankfully took it to a radio song. Uh,
(05:51):
you know, push it to up tempo or with some tempo,
and uh just made it the song that was that
was cutible and that would you know, radio would play
and let alone put his buddies on it, and that
that that didn't hurt at all. They're crazy thinking about
that is me growing up in Arkansas. Tracy Lawrences from Arkansas.
So anybody that comes where you come from a bigger
(06:12):
deal than they are everybody else. But Tracy Lawrence was
massive anyway. But that was his first number in eleven years.
It was crazy, like most people had written Tracy Lawrence
off at that point because he tried, he had been on.
But that song, yeah, reminded people of how great he
is and was at the same time think about it,
I mean, and the truth was, you know at the time,
(06:34):
I remember Tim and Kenny. He used to take them
on the road and he was the headliner and they
would go out and play before him, and I think,
uh he called in a favor later on in life
and was like, hey, will you guys sing on this
and and and the and the funny thing about it
is is that Joe Galante he when that song started
(06:58):
getting substained because they you know, they told him, do
not play the one with them with our guys on it,
with these other stars on this record. You can't play that.
So that made radio go oh really so he the
big record executive at the time. Yes, yeah, um oho,
I know now, yes, great guy. Yeah, I love him.
Doing us has really stood up for me in certain
(07:19):
instances when the industry has been against me. But but
he was the guy who was like, dude, don't play
this song with all the people on it, which which
would make me go, well, we gotta play the song
with yes, and and everybody wanted to hear that one
with with the friends on it, because yeah, well that's
what made it a number one record, I believe because
(07:41):
they were they spend everybody had to spend it. Then
you talk about having no cell phones back then when
you would record a song, did you was it a
tape player and a task camp player or you're going
I'd go in and just do guitar vocals on a
multi cassette track and put a couple on there, and
(08:02):
and uh, that was my way of doing it, and
you just take a I took a lot of work
tapes that way and and we got him recorded. What
which to you when you look at your sons C
J and Tucker, which to you are you like, man,
there's there's just no no, there's you know, with this industry,
(08:24):
there's not a lot of stability, no either one of them. No,
there's not in a and it's a yeah, it's it's
really it's really crazy. And I think, um, uh, you know,
I don't know this is maybe there's a good lead
(08:45):
into it. But I think when you grow up like
knowing my dad and he didn't really worry about us,
but because you know, I I honor him so much
and made me love my kids so much that I
that I think I grew up always worrying about that.
You know, what are you doing? And what how is
it gonna go? And all these things and and uh,
(09:08):
these aren't stable career choices and uh and it used
to drive me up a wall. I would think about
it all the time, and I'd worry about it constantly.
And then and I think it wasn't um, it really
wasn't until probably whatever it was sixteen months ago when
(09:28):
when my third son went to heaven. It just changed
my perspective on anything, everything, you know, Um, because I
I it's something it was all these things are out
of my control, you know, and so it really it
took all the worry out of out of me trying
(09:51):
to make things are hoping things would happen for them,
because and everything, all my plans or thoughts for Clay,
you know, they went out the windows. So you know,
in in just a moment and just a day, and
so you just say that. It was just like, you know,
it's not there's nothing I can can can do to
control these uh, these situations. So I just let it
(10:14):
go and let my My wife said, you know a
few years ago before that too, it was really wild.
She's like, Case, I think you worry about them and
your texting them all the time, and you're blah blah blah,
and you're thinking about what's gonna happen, and that you're
you're a good earthly father. But gosh, let's let's let
the Lord, let God have him and let him. You
(10:35):
know they're gonna learn, let them go through their things
and let him. You know, we could we could trust
trust him to raise him. And then I was like, yeah,
how do you do that? How do you let go
the bumper stick? How do you let go and let God?
And within eight months later it was liken't put in
my lap? Yeah, I had to. I got and had
(10:55):
nothing less to lean on. So I go of all
my five kids I got, I know it's probably not
the platform for this, but the platform of all of
all my five kids, I've got one one that I
don't worry about anymore. I don't even think about it anymore.
I've got to think about him every day, a thousand
times a day and run into that wall. But I
don't have to worry about him because I honestly, with
(11:18):
all my heart, I never I don't know, um how
I got to this knowing of of that Heaven is
real and God is real. So I so I just
was like, Okay, he's okay. That's how you let going.
I just know, I know he's all right and that
you know, and then we're just we're not here very long.
So whatever happens with c J or whatever happens with Tucker,
(11:42):
and and that's where they are too. Now that's the
great things. Like Tuck, you know, he was a coming up.
You know, he's a kind of a fiery I'm gonna
this is how it goes, and I'm gonna do this
is what you know. And then it's just what what
that has done, what that is to the perspective on
all of our lives. It's just changed dramatically, Like, man,
(12:02):
we do we got today to make a difference in
the world, you know, And that's it and and and
it doesn't and and whether you're you know, making a
ton of money or whatever or or not, I think
you're you know, it's still living and you could still
find joy and peace in that and whatever you're doing,
(12:25):
you know, because I have, you have. You know, I
look back at some of the happiest times of our lives.
When I got my first hold and I had three
roommates and two kids in them, you know, you know,
I was like, man, that was awesome. That was that,
that was the hope of that stuff was thought it
wasn't that. I feel the same way, like I look
back and I, you know, my whole life, I was
(12:45):
poor until I wasn't. It was like super poor. I
was late twenties, early thirties, and I was like, now
I'm not super poor anymore. But I looked back at
the actual best times, and it was when I was
struggling in an apartment, I was going to school all day,
was working all night, driving an hour back. I would
sit with my roommate. We had a two hundred dollars
(13:06):
on my department. We played Kingdravir Junior baseball and hopefully
we had enough money to have a blowny sandwich and fundans.
That was, that was, and it was the greatest because
our whole futures were ahead of us. We limitless, and
it was it was so, it was so filled with joy.
And it's never when you get to these places. That's
never all it's cracked up to be. It never is.
(13:28):
So that that's what helps me when you ask what
about Tucker and c J. And because I know when
when I left for Nashville and was, you know, a
truck full of you know, nothing and nothing in my pockets,
and it was I was that kid that didn't want
to take anything from my dad. I was like, no,
I'm gonna I'm gonna make it. And um um, I
(13:48):
know that I was. I knew that I was. I
was okay. No. I liked my two jobs. While I
was had, I was working on the habit of being
a singer and songwriter. I liked that I've been a
dump with three roommates. But my dad, dad was worried
about worried about me. So I can see that and
I go, no, he doesn't understand. So Mike, my kids
(14:08):
are fine, they're gonna they know how to work, they
know to do what they ought to serve, they know
to you know. And and I'm I think we're all
you're a testimony. We're all testimonies for the fact that
it's just you get there and it's just not all
that's cracked up to be. It never is, and the
things that you didn't expect to be as good are
often better. So it's like a weird juxtapasaship them beside
(14:32):
each other, like you're like, wow, I've really achieved this,
and you're like, you know, it's good. Yeah, but it's yeah,
I thought i'd be a little a little higher than
a little better. But then it's on things like people
in relationships and and moments that you're like, well, crap,
this is where it is right here, or being able
to help people. That's that's exactly right. That's that's where
my world got turned up, that side down, and and
(14:55):
and tux and and c J's and just there the stuff.
Everything they do now and I do now, it revolves
around like, Okay, what is this gonna do? Not for me?
What is this gonna do for somebody? Why are you
doing this? You know? And that honestly when I mean,
(15:19):
that's that's why I'm here. I'm not I'm trying to
I'm trying not to do anything for I've done enough
doing things for the money for me too. I'm at
that part part of my life. I'm getting offers and
for the first time, I'm going, you know what, do
just make me happy? And if it doesn't make me
happy anymore, I don't chase it. Really, there's nothing none,
(15:40):
It just doesn't And because it goes too fast and
and and I've said this a lot lately, and that
I truly now know what a last day looks like.
And it looks like any other day. It looks like,
all right, Dad, I'll see you in a little while
of you, I love you too, but be careful. And
(16:02):
that's it, like every other day. And then that's that's
what we gotta keep in on and in our every
day when we get up and go somewhere and do
what we're doing, and what do we what is it about?
What what is it for? You know? So um um,
I'm grateful for everything I've gotten in my life, and
especially this town, this town, just bless men. And but
(16:27):
I spent a lot of time, you know, chasing chasing
the thing, the next thing, the thing did you write today? Yes?
Is any good? Um? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
It was fun. But fun can actually be good. It
isn't be You're exactly right. Sometimes that's why all it is.
(16:49):
It's fun. It's just fun, and that's what it should be.
And if it could get you, even if it gets
to you, I mean yeah, I could look back and
go These are not the reasons I moved to town,
but they gave me a platform to get to the
next thing, you know level, and I'm grateful for that.
You know, I've written some sounds that didn't. I'm not
gonna ever change the world and whatever. But but but
(17:12):
it was it's what was there that day, and it
was fun, you know, and it was fun or or
or it was impactful. You know, when Eric Church is
gonna start a new project, does he send out like
a a bad signal of sunglasses and you see it?
How do you get involved in a real tight knit
(17:33):
camp and a real private person like Eric, How how
do you get involved with him? Well, that's that's that's
just the ground floor literally is it's it's it's uh
and and as that's that's the funny thing because every day,
you know, you get there's there's a new young guy,
and you wonder, is this is this Garth Brooks or
(17:53):
Eric Church or whoever you know? And that's that's just
what it was. Um um. I remember our tour went
a horror who's a publisher in town back when I
was at so Many three years and years ago. Uh.
He called me in the office one week and he goes, hey, man,
(18:14):
we just I just found this new girl. And she's uh,
I think she's good, and you know, we're gonna sign
her and blah blah blah, and I want you to
consider getting with her, and you know, showing her the
ropes and all this stuff. And I was like cool,
and he he was gonna play something for me. He
gave me a picture and and I was like, man,
I was like, how old is she? He's like, well,
(18:36):
she's like whatever she was at the time. It turns
out it was Taylor Swift and I passed. I passed.
I said, I don't know. I just don't know if
I have anything, you know, and and uh, I don't know.
I don't. I don't think. I don't think I would.
I could do that, and uh, and the truth is
(18:58):
I was right. You know, I remember kids always dead.
You screwed up? And man, what are you doing? No, man,
I would have tried to None of my songs would
have made her records anyway. She knows what she's doing,
she knows her audience, she knows who she is. And
I would have gone in there and tried to bully.
And now you can't say that. You gotta do you
know whatever. And then the next time was check this
(19:19):
guy out and he played me, uh, Eric and it
was like a worked just the guitar vocal of a
song called Lightning that won on his first record. Then
and then it was a snow brainer and I heard
like a good night. This guy's this is good. He goes, yeah,
well he's back and forth in town and blah blah blah.
(19:40):
And we developed a relationship before he had anything going.
In fact, they were talking about and he was talking
about once you whatever, you guys do, just record some
stuff with him and on and you know, trying maybe
you could produce him. And I was like, and that
was not not a good idea I'm not I'm not
(20:01):
a producer. I love the studio and stuff, but I'm not.
I'm not that guy. But we just, man, we eat
it off. We just spent a lot of time together
and he had nothing going on, and um, he just thinks,
he know, you know, there's not many people that really
know who they are and what they're gonna say and
what you know, like he is. And even at that time,
(20:22):
so we it was fun and just writing, um what
he wanted to do and or what I wanted to do.
But he he wasn't afraid to go anywhere and it
was awesome. And so we are just you know, we
just started writing that way, and and and and then
(20:43):
all the pieces fell together, you know when they found
j and and and his management and everything and and
it's record label and and and it took off and
I just happened to be and the thing that kind
of knew where to go with him, I was just
we're on the same wave length. Do you ever wonder
if someone you know, it's on a rocket ship. And
(21:05):
Eric's rocketship is different than any artist that I've seen,
because it took a second. Although Eric knew the songs,
it took a second to get all the pieces together,
like you said, but once it hit, it really hit hard. Um,
did you ever wonder, well, man, now he's gotten so big.
I wonder if he's even gonna call me back, like
to write with him again. Yeah, yeah, I think so.
I I yeah, I'm thinking that even now for the
(21:30):
next time, the next you do you have twelve songs
on his on the records, so don't tell me. Yeah,
it almost sounds like that is maybe that was the last.
But you have a good point. I think I feel
I sit around and go, he's, hey, enjoy these because
I'm gonna move on, you know, That's what I think. No,
(21:51):
I I think he. I think he just you know,
you surround yourself with people you trust, and you know,
and I I I always I know what I spend
years in advance, Like right now, if I if I
knew that there was just something that was crazy enough
that that he would like, I would send it to
(22:14):
him right now and just go check this out and
you go, man, love it, and we just work on
it for a year, or work on it for right now,
or just tuck it away and I'd save it till
going to the mountains again. You know, that's how That's
just how it is. And uh and then usually in
(22:34):
that process of recording and doing that, when he wants
to go record again, he'll find out what he's gonna do,
you know, maybe two or three or four songs in
and uh, this time, I think everything just kind of
worked for it all. So he just said he didn't
want to scrap anything. You know. So when you guys
(22:55):
are writing and you're in the mountains and you're writing
and recording, and it's the whole situation, what's the food situation?
It was the it was this food situation was the best,
hands down, I've never been anywhere. Uh, you know, I
don't that was more exciting to me than going to
(23:16):
than writing a song. He hired a schiff that I
don't know that he met on one on a boat
and the Caribbean or something. Of course, man like we
all did. Yeah, so and uh and uh he hired him.
And this guy he was, you know, just just a incredible,
(23:42):
incredible guy. And he hired him for two months to
live up there and stay in this this clubhouse at
the bottom of the mountain that was closed during the offseason.
It's kind of like the shining and um so in
the clubhouse where the studio was in the kitchen and
he cooked I mean breakfast, lunch, and dinner from I mean,
(24:07):
it was just ridiculous, ridiculous and it was all organic fresh,
you know, everything was It was just it was the
best of the best. I've never been to a restaurant
that tasted like that. That's always what I think about
when people hold themselves up for any sort of writing situation.
It's like, Okay, what's food? Yeah, Like, I know you're
gonna write good songs. I know you're gonna record, but
like what are you eating? Like how good are they treating?
(24:28):
That's really cool though, that all that was there. Have
you ever had to cancel a right and then you
found out afterwards that during that right they wrote the
best like massive song or later on when it goes
(24:50):
to number one. You're like with Jimmy and Bill that
day when I didn't go in. Yeah, you think about that.
I think about that all the time whenever I have
to cancel something. Uh, And then I'll ask, and what
did you all do? You put in a notebook? What
did you all do that day? And I and I've
I can't right, off hand and think of something that
(25:12):
happened that I that I should have been. I was
supposed to be in there, but I can I was,
I've been in rooms that titles have been you know,
pitched to me that I've I'm all over and passed on.
That turned into the number one songs because they wrote
(25:33):
him with somebody else, and I was like, wow, what
about the opposite? Where has someone ever canceled on your
right and then you and you know, somebody else ended
up writing something and you're like, dang, if you just
come to the right. Yeah, you know we wrote don't blink? Yeah, yeah,
no kid, Um, it's good that nothing comes to mind.
That means nobody really good. Yeah, nobod's living a life
(25:55):
of regret here the I mean, yeah, see people nowadays.
Back then, a lot of the lot of the songs
that we wrote were without not a lot of them
were with with artists in the room. So it was
easy to cancel, you know, but if there was somebody
gonna be there, a lot of people won't cancel. Nowadays,
(26:16):
you know, you just if there's gonna be a an
artist there, they're gonna not cancel. But I mean it's like,
what's gonna happen with Casey and Ed Hill today that
I'm gonna miss, you know, you know, so they'll bail
and I'm going to the beach and you're like yeah, right,
and then you is sit around and your talk. Oh
(26:38):
I've got one and I probably shouldn't shouldn't you say?
That's oh my god, this is this just this hit
me and I hope because I said, and so one
of my best, my favorite co writers and and he's
come up on the last couple Eric Records is Monty
(26:58):
chris Well too, and he's is a great friend of
mine and we've had a relationship for a long time
and we had a standing. We had a standing every
other week or maybe once a week, right I had
I was riding with Ed Hill and he had his
wife has a little house in Franklin. It's a venue
house that they do whatever and they rented out or
(27:20):
they let people use it. But we'd use the front
porch in the spring and get there every Tuesday and
hang out and talk and see whatever came to mind.
If nothing less, if nothing else, we'd just walk in
the spring around Franklin and end up at Puckets and
eat and that's how every Tuesday or Thursday was whatever
it was. And sometimes we did invite somebody that was
(27:43):
just a great writer come hang with us and we
were out there. Maybe it might have been a consecutive
week of having Monty out there and we were and
we were out there and uh, and I don't know
where you know, Ed, it is just a you know,
he's a Hall of Fame writer and just a he's
(28:05):
just a great writer and a great guy and a
great friend. But sometimes he gets, you know, like we
all do, we get a little jaded, um man, I
don't know whatever. That We were on the front porch
out there and Money opened up his laptop and he's like, man,
I think I got I got an idea I want
to write. I think I'm not I think that the
(28:29):
concept is this like she loves me like Jesus does
and I and then lightning bulb, I mean the light
bulb went off in my head and I was like wow.
And he goes, you know, and like I'm along Gone
Wayland song on vinyl and the back. Before you can
get that line out, Ed got up out of his
(28:49):
chair and he opened the screen door to go back,
and he's like, oh, man, he can't say, Jesus, they're
not gonna blame it. And they got quieter and quietly
they have and he drifted off down the hall of
the kitchen and go and that just well, Monty will
write that. And he's like, Okay, I go, let's write
something else today for it. But we'll write that another day.
(29:12):
And that that's my favorite church song. Change man, that
is my she she loves me Jesus, that's my favorite
Eric church song. Yeah, that yet she uh. And that
was the first thing. That never intended to pitch that
to Eric because he didn't cut outside songs with us,
(29:33):
the first one he ever did. Yeah, what why did
he tell you that he cut that song? Because I'm
to him it was like, I don't cut songs that
I don't write. Yeah, yeah, they have to fit, they
have to be or they have to I mean, I'll
just say at the point, at to that point, he
had not. I think I think Catherine heard it, and
(29:56):
that was you know, she she uh pulls a lot
more way, can you think in that house? And so
I think she was like, you can say this, this
is tough enough to say. You can say, yeah, I'll
cut that, Okay, it's just a great song, just a
great song. You have seven number ones? Is that right?
Do you have seven? Something like something like that Don't
Blink Kenny Chesney. And when I talk about you know,
(30:20):
meaningful songs like do you know how many people hear
this song and they get to relive their lives because
of three and a half minutes? That's that. That one's
that's one of the ones. I'm just just that one
made a difference. You know, there's those Those are the
songs that just they're timeless and they never Those are
the ones you know that you know it's I just
(30:42):
love to play. Those are the ones I really love
to play anymore in rooms when I get a chance
to play, rather than the you know, there's you know,
are people shocked when you go, alright, I wrote this one.
Don't blink and you start singing, They're like, wow, you
wrote that. That's a generation an all song. That's gotta
be a really cool song to pull out when people
(31:03):
don't know you wrote it and start singing it and go, yeah,
I wrote this one. Yeah it is. It's it's it's awesome.
It's fun to sing, and it's fun to fun. It's
hard to sing now, but it's uh, um, it's a
it's it's yeah, it's just a It was a gift, man,
and I'm just grateful that I get to play it,
(31:23):
and you know, because there's always someone's got a story.
Every time I do, someone's got a story for me,
and in it means the world you have another Chesney
number one boys a fall for me being such a
sports guy like this again, this song is important to me.
I know where I was because I listened to the
(31:45):
song and think about me playing literally like I take
this song very literal and how big it was in
my life. When you guys, I wrote this song like
you were you talking about all right, there are all
these white people are gonna hear this song? Or was
it a straightforward like we're talking about baseball? No? Yeah, no,
we were. We were, like honestly we were. There wasn't
(32:09):
anything to write that day, and and I was with
Dave Turnbull and We're just sitting around picking on guitars,
and I was going through I I coached the kids
at the time in Franklin Football youth league and I
was going through that and that's mostly where my mind was.
And uh, that's crazy because I think baseball, that's what Yeah, yeah,
(32:32):
yeah you could have it. There's that. There's that too,
But that's what I'm saying, Like you know about me,
I'm hearing it and going every fall, Yeah, this is
what I was doing. You know, Spring ran into early
fall and we were usually playing like legion ball in fall,
and I'm hearing this song going, man, I'm like, we
live in my life again because of the song. That
wasn't even what you were thinking when you wrote it. Yeah,
(32:53):
and plus you know you think about you know, that's
when you know October that's when the MLBS going rocking,
you know, and so yeah, it makes sense it would.
In fact, that's how the phone, that's how the song
got got um created was. I had picked my team.
I had a really good little team about fifteen kids,
but there's just one kid that wasn't out there for tryouts.
(33:14):
And I was like I was back before you know,
texting and all that. This guy would email me and
I I emailed this guy a friend and I was like, hey, Wherese,
what's your son? Why isn't out here? I need him?
He's fast and he's this and that he's like, man,
can you believe he picked fault baseball, and you don't
(33:35):
play fault baseball. That's just they just started making this up.
You played football. And he's like, yeah, I know. And
then and then he's like, I know what I'm saying.
I go I was just messing with him. And one
day he he checked in and I think the subject
line was like hey, because he was missing. He was
missing being out there watching practice. He goes, how are
(33:55):
my boys of fault? And I've never heard that before,
and I was like, so, I just tucked it away.
And we're sitting there and this guy was mowing the grass.
I was sitting there a day one day and then
it was falling, the windows open and I heard him lawnmower,
and then that smells started coming in the window, and
I was like, gosh, did that smells like Friday night?
(34:17):
And it reminds me of foot football or just being
in a field and playing. And he's like, yeah, man,
that's that's right. Let's right a song about that those
days in high school. I feel like that the Chesney
art was football to like, if I'm thinking about like
the single art for that song, it was there was. Yeah,
he did a whole document. Yeah, it was all because
I feel like Chesney really went hard football. He went
(34:40):
he went over the top and made that thing the
priority in the in the in the the video, the
documentary which was gotten as probably forty five minutes long,
of going to colleges and coaches and mentors and locker
rooms and uh the the making the you know m
(35:01):
relationship between sports and in life. It was awesome. I
mean it was incredible. And so let's playing a couple
more of these number ones comeback song from Darius Rodney Atkins,
Cleaning this Gun funny. Yeah, yeah, you talk about this.
(35:22):
This is a fun song. Yeah, but I think also
a lot of it's a very relatable song, yeah that
you don't have to talk about history of life first
to also go oh, like I felt that, Like there
are a lot of dads. I'll play that song out
and they laugh. Everybody in the room laughs, but they go, dad,
I get it. I would have had three boys, and
(35:42):
then I had my first daughter finally, And I remember
I was sitting down the backstop of the baseball game
and literally talking to a dad and my first daughter,
Charlie was at my feet, just playing in the dirt.
And next time I looked down. He father looked down too,
and he was like, and there's a little boy that
(36:04):
kind of came over there too, And I was like, wow,
it came a little faster than I thought, you know.
And then uh, that was just that's where that idea
was born. I was like, okay, and uh and I'll
never forget when I was in the early nineties when uh,
(36:24):
a great songwriter was over at the office. Buddy Brock
was over there and he was like, yeah, I gotta
get Eddie here early day. Boys, I my daughter's got
her first prom date. I want to be waiting in
the garage with it, cleaning my guns. And I'll never
that never left and just just just a just for
optics when he pulled up. Let's see if I out
(36:46):
your friends always talking about that, justin more why we
drink that's a recent one. Yeah, yeah, that was That
was a blast. It was David Leady Murphy, uh, Justin
and Jeremy Stover, Yeah you are you and David Lee.
But yes, then listen, I love the guy, the nicest guy,
(37:07):
and also look at him as the same guy that
when I was a kid, I was like this Davidlee
Murphy the artist. But now like the nicest. Yeah, he
just come up. No, he's got Yeah, he's just nothing's changed.
I got more money in God and he doesn't and
nothing's changed. Uh, you have three number two's. I go,
I gotta wonder about these number two like are they
(37:30):
more painful than a top ten because it's so clear? Yeah,
it was really really odd. I mean the the yeah,
I mean those like no shoes, which I would have been,
was the number one. Yeah, everybody, just because I think
people would associate this with Kenny more than some of
his other number ones. This is the Kenny brand. You
(37:52):
know what's you know what's wild is that um um
uh that came out, that came out first on him
and was storming up the charts until Alan Jackson put
out five o'clock somewhere and it jumped him in the
top five and stayed there and kept him out with
(38:12):
Jimmy Buffett, right, Yeah, it was. It was wild. It
was they were kind of like battling with the same
lane in the same thing. And then and then there
was another number two with the stars and stripes an
eagle fly. I think I think that was number two
that was that was going up right there too, and
Alan Jackson jumped him with remember where were you in
(38:34):
the world? Stop turning and stayed there and kept him out.
Alan Jackson, we hate and Tucker had a number two
with rock On. Yeah. Do you know what kept it out? Um,
Alan Jackson, let's go get Casey. That's right, that's right,
you know it was up. I don't know, I don't know,
(38:55):
I I you know, I don't know how that all
really really works at the end of the day whenever.
Just back to church for one second. But when Homeboy
came out, we had always heard that was about one
of the writer's sons. That writer is is that writer you?
And was that son Tucker? It was, yeah, it was, yeah,
it wasn't And it was a it was a dramatization,
(39:17):
you know, it was. It was a title in my
head that I had. And Tucker was going through some
rebellious days and um, nothing crazy, but he was. He
was stepping outside the lines and we were grounding him
all the time. And his older brother c J. I'll
never forget it was in high school. It'd always come
(39:37):
down on Friday nights and Saturday nights, would come down
the kitchen and look running hate dad, Uh, don't let
Tucker go out tonight. He's not going where he says
he is. But just you didn't hear it from me,
and that he just loved him. That you know, my
kids just I'm grateful. They just love each other so much,
are so tight and uh so that's how it was.
And that's and that one day when I was outside
(40:00):
yard working and on a weed eater and stuff, and
they came back from football practice is cutting up and
hanging out. You know, you just see the love there.
And I thought, man, there's no nowhere that either one
of them could go that he wouldn't go find him
or get him back and that and then it just
sparked me and I was like, and that's where I
(40:21):
do a lot of work, is um outside the rooms.
It's just out and on a on a moor and
a job or a walk and in a field and
just thinking and I and I started formulating that song
and I immediately put it on a I recorded it
on a little you know, message thing I had, and
(40:42):
I told Eric about it, and he was like, yep, yep,
that's one. Let's do that. And he just you know,
he always if I have something to start, he he
knows exactly what to do and want to where to
go and how to wrap a bow run. And that
was a little nylon string, gut string, you know, Kenny Chesney,
(41:06):
Jimmy Buffett guitar work tape, me on a cassette tape,
playing and singing, and it turned into what the song
it was. That's how crazy those two are when they
get in the studio. That's it's it's awesome what they
did with it. I'm looking at Heart and Soul, the
three records they're coming out from Eric, and I'm doing
something him tomorrow. And I mean again, he wrote twelve
(41:31):
of the twenty four. I mean he should put it
should just be Eric Casey. Um. Here here's hell of
a View, which, by the way, which I think a
lot of people will know. But this Leonard Skinner Jones
(41:52):
play some of this here. This is the last. It's
on Soul, It's on the back record. So tell me
the story. Tell me the story about this song. He
was on a walk. I was walking outside and Lennard
Skinner and Jones, Lennard Skinner and John. I was like,
what is that? And then just really dawned on me.
(42:12):
When I was walking, I thought, man, surely a crazy
fan is named there a son. I bet you there's
a Leonard Skinner and not a Leonard Skinner, but with
all four wise somewhere, if not, there's a dog I
know there, you know, and and uh and so I
(42:33):
didn't even know where to go with it. And those
are my favorite things to do, sitting just just just
whittle away on and I started and I had I
had Curtis Slow in the first verse the Tallahassee show.
We laughed at that, and we sang Curtis Slow, and
then I was stuck, and I go, well, what what's
(42:55):
the point? And then I was like, oh, wait, uh,
maybe a that's just the whole story that this kid
becomes who he is because he was the son of
Curtis Lowe, and that's the whole point of the song.
And I just just an imagination thinking of stuff and
trying to just it was a puzzle that that that
(43:16):
challenged me and and I spent about a month trying
to figure out and and got it to where it was.
And and I respect his his you know, opinion so
much that and the thought that I thought he could
make it better. I sent it to him and then
he was like the way it was way out of season,
you know, and he was like this, Uh, what's the
(43:40):
deal with this? And I said, well, you make it,
make it better and he was like, nah no, but
don't play this for anybody. And I was like okay,
and that was gonna be And these people were coming
up and cutting and recording and I was like, yeah,
they probably wouldn't sing it or say it. I don't
know so, but I but I honored him, honored that hold.
(44:01):
And uh six or eight months later, he when I
was with him in the mountains, he was like, all right,
let's let's do that one. And Jay was like, alright, Casey,
you you play. You play the acoustic guitar like you
do on the work tape and just Erico going and
sing and I'm like, no, not me, man, You're just
(44:23):
gonna fire me in about two hours. And that's how
it goes. He does, you know, he gets and uh
So we spent about two hours trying to cut that
and maybe make it more than it wasn't. Plus I
don't I don't play time real well, and it just
wasn't jelling and broke my heart, I think because we
(44:44):
didn't capture it. But they were still like, oh man,
we're gonna we're gonna get to we'll salvage it. We
kind of we just moved on to another song. And
and I can't say I wasn't disappointed after I went home.
I would go there like three or four days at
a time, and I went home going, oh, well, you know,
but He's like hey, he and Jay were like, no,
(45:05):
we we love that song. We're gonna get it somehow,
some way we might have it. We just gotta you know,
you know, going and figure this out. And then they
got a real guitar player, and in my opinion, like
Brian Sutton is one of the best there ever was
on him on any kind of acoustic instrument. And just
(45:31):
that's they just went in and that's all they needed,
just those two and it was just it just killed
me when I when I heard what they did with it.
It's just phenomenal. You wrote that by yourself, yea. How
do you know if a song you wrote by yourself
is good? Yeah, that's that's the that's the problem. Yes,
because no one's no one's across me going, I don't
(45:52):
know about that. You know, you gotta know, you gotta know.
Eric just send it to him and he'll tell you,
and he will tell you yeah, yeah, you'll know if
he gets it, or even Kenny Kenny's you know. I
mean there's guys like that, you know, like, um, that's
what I get. And I think every songwriter in town
that's why they co write, because they're insecure, what what
(46:15):
what do I do? And I'm sure there's a lot
of them that have taken songs that probably were done,
but they didn't think they were done, so they just
playing the half of it and they still go where
they already had it going anyways. You're like, dang, I
could have just rooted it myself. But so that's what's
the best thing about co writing is that you just
(46:36):
you know, that's where you get the immediate feedback and
you know what you got, and you get people offering
you know, a better, better thing and and something a
different angle. You wouldn't have seen that one either. I
played for my my kids. Usually songs I played for
(46:56):
my kids, especially Tuck or Eric, you know, with my
wife and see what they think. And and that's where
I get the real feedback, you know. Final question for you, Yeah,
if you could be remembered just by one song that
you wrote. They're like, all right, it's time to go
into the Pearly Gates song right around you get one song?
(47:19):
Um um, I I would, I would, I could say
don't don't blink or honestly, I think it was a
new it's a new song that that that it was
(47:39):
just a gift to me that it was called There
was Jesus. And I wrote it with a guy named
Zack Williams and Jonathan Smith. And Zach Williams is on
the c C him, you know, charts, and he's just
a phenomenal singer. I ran and ran into on the
radio one day and I just dude, like this guy's
(48:01):
voice is just so real and so good and and
I'm just blown away by this guy. And I had
hit a wall of chasing stuff in Nashville. I mean
of just you know, trying. I think I was trying
too hard to be with the recent hits were and
I couldn't never ring the bell or get anything going
and I and I was like, I just want to
(48:23):
I had stuff in me that I wanted to get out,
and I was afraid that a lot of people wouldn't
in country music say so. I asked my publishers. I said,
find this guy and see if I can get with him.
And uh, we wrote a song called there was Jesus
in It. I went to number one this year on
and they put Dolly Parton on it, and and uh,
(48:44):
it just was I had no intentions. I had no
I just wanted to get it out and hear this
guy singing and it was phenomenal and and it and
it came out right at the perfect time that I
didn't know with minister to me. I was a ministering
to me, not not to just others, because I didn't
know I needed that song. I wouldn't need that song.
(49:06):
And uh. And so that one, you know, I wasn't
chasing anything. I was just trying to be honest and
write something with a with a great singer and and
and a great producer. And all of a sudden, Dolly
shows up on it and he's on it, and it
sounds like an angel and another angel singing, and uh,
(49:28):
and it gets I've been nominated for Grammys before, but
you know, I was just nothing's ever. I just that's awesome.
It's an honor. And I thought the same thing for
this one. And and it turns out and it wins
one and you're like I had, I had nothing to
do with it. And that's where I could I literally,
I know it sounds cliche, but I could honestly point
when you finally stopped trying to do what you think
(49:51):
you want to do and just do what the gift
is given to you and your heart to do, you know,
and just let it go and see what happened. And and
and that's what I did. And I think that just
that one did everything I think a song is supposed
to do for me and for for and for God,
(50:12):
you know, and and and it just and it worked.
And that's one I think that I could look back
on my life and go everything in my life. The
reason I moved to Nashville, I thought was from music,
and I thought it was for this, but it wasn't.
It was for meeting my wife, It was for having
my kids. It was for raising them in the right places,
and for meeting all my best friends in the world
(50:32):
and getting to do what I do well. I very
much appreciate you coming over here. I've just been a
big fan for so long, and most of the time,
like you said, I have all my nutcase friends that
are big stars and I don't give a crap. But
occasionally I get to hang out with somebody that I'm
in awe of and I appreciate and and that today's you.
(50:53):
So I really appreciate you coming by here. No, thank you.
I think the same thing. I have so much respect
for you. I love the way you carry yourself, I
love your story, I love everything. I think. We got
off a plane one time a while back, about the
same time you got off the plane and you stood
out there and you were talking to I can't remember
exactly what it it was. There was a a couple of people,
(51:14):
but you were standing there talking about where to go,
what to do now from here? Maybe get on another flighter.
But it was in Nashville, and I was like, I
think that's Bobby Bones. In fact, I think if I
was lost and nerdy, that was me. That's how you
know what I mean, lost and nerdy. That's it. Well,
you guys are do you tweet much? I don't. I
don't have an Instagram and tweet on le Okay, Well,
(51:35):
somebody named Casey about to got a Twitter, so so
don't follow Casey on Twitter. Passed along left to your
family for me and thank you for coming buy I
really appreciate thank you. There is hey, guys, Bobby back here.
So that was the interview. But now, if you've made
it this far and you want to hear more, here's
the part where I got really into talking about sports
and I got to really geek out. So here is
(51:56):
part two. That was actually the very beginning. But enjoy
going back in time. Bit Uh, your dad was an
NFL general manager who knew, so you must be just
mr Football knowledge. That was life. I someone sent me
(52:16):
a picture just that's our who was actually my brother.
I don't know where he got it from. He goes,
look at this and it was it was someone put
it on Instagram from the It was the Dolphins Instagram
page and it said an old Oh. It was a
picture of Shoela's kids and Bethord's kids getting taught by
Matt Morrel and the and the Earl Moral was a
(52:37):
backup quarterback at the time in the early seventies of
the of the of the Dolphins. But her dad was
a ran the player personnelity department there in Miami. So
when I was a kid, that's that's what we used
to do, just spend you know, running around barefoot on
those fields and I lived there's it's a picture of me,
(52:57):
long hair, no shirts, the bathing suit on in the
it of a football player with the Shula kids and
we're just getting you know, playing with football and that
was life. And so it was kind of like, uh,
you know, like we are now. When you grow up
around these guys that people that there, it's you know,
you're never really starstruck. You just that's that was life,
(53:18):
and it was it was just an awesome way of
life to just grow up there. And then he went
from there to the Redskins and gosh, he's has like
eight super Bowl rings. So we were all we were
all at those Super Bowls and it was just a yeah,
it was a spoiled it was a life you kind
of took for granted. You just you did that. You
mentioned the seventies Dophins and I didn't put the time
(53:41):
frame together, but was he seventy two Dolphins? That was
undefeated team? That that Zonka, that's crazy, it is, it's crazy.
Larry Zanka was like my my, just my mentor. I
got a picture of I came up to about to
hear about high high on him and he's got his
(54:03):
head on my hand on my head, and I used
to hang out with him most of the time and
his locker and he'd take me around. And because I
was just a little boy and he didn't have kids
and stuff, so he kind of meant towards me and
kind of in camp and stuff. And it was awesome.
We were we were best friends for a little while.
There are those good memories to you. Oh, they're awesome. Awesome,
(54:23):
I mean, that was that's a you know, that's when
I mean, it was such an innocent life, you know,
you know, I sounded like an old guy talking about
you know, the kid you just run around and do
you know. Yeah, I mean we literally played hide and
seek in the Dolphins locker room and would hide under
Don Shula's desk when he was the coach. By the way,
(54:47):
because you're not a sports guy or sports sportswoman, Don
Shula was the head coach of the Dolphins. Did you
were you ever there when Marino came in early or
did you got to leave before he came out? Where
you gotta to Washington? Yes? So, I I from about
ten or eleven up. I grew up in Northern Virginia
up there in the Redskin area that Joe Gibbs yours. Yeah,
(55:09):
Dad hired Joe. That's crazy, are you the music? Remember
when he had the idea of hiring him, because right
after it was Jack Party and my dad got hired
at the same time in seventies seven or whatever, and
they didn't work very well, and so they ended up
(55:30):
going with Dad not firing him, and they fired Jack
Party the head coaching because my dad was a roommate
of John Madden's in college. So they said. The owner
was like, you need to hire John Madden. That'll be
star power. I I got somebody else in mind, and
(55:50):
and they he threatened them, I mean, the coach. The
owner was like, if this doesn't work, it's your You're gone,
and he said, just try to trust me. And of
course they started out on six their first year, and
they ended up eight and eight and the next year
they went to the Super Bowl and anymore, so it
worked out. But yeah, that's that's wild. So you have
(56:11):
a lot of football in your life early then, I'm
assuming you played football for a while until when I
played through college. I went to a little school in
North Carolina called Elon College, and uh, uh, you know,
growing up in that my mother. My mother was musical,
so I around her. I was kind of like the
(56:31):
black sheep in the in the family of gravitating towards that.
But every but it was athletics too, you know. And
so my brothers they played, and they went through college
and played, and I but I was kind of leaning.
I didn't know what to do. But I, uh, I figured,
especially when you're young watching your your heroes, you just go, well,
(56:53):
I guess I'll go be a pro football player or
something first, and then I'll probably getting I didn't know
how to get into the muse, and guy, I knew
I could just get in the football and then you well,
I ended up coming out of high school and stopped
growing and uh, I just didn't have all that stuff,
but I that it takes. But I ended up getting
(57:14):
a chance to, you know, playing college, and and that's
right after that, and through college, I was I was
honing a lot of you know, music stuff too at
the same time, and my mother had died in that time,
and so I started I wrote my first real song,
uh maybe when I was a junior in college that
(57:34):
really meant meant something that impressed the roommates and the
people around and they're like, wow, that's cool. And then
I it kind of um encouraged me to go that direction,
you know. And then my dad was one of those
kinds that you know, he's he's he is that like
the best dad in the world, I think, And um,
(57:55):
so he was always like, how I don't know how
to help you, and I don't know anything about music,
what you're gonna move to Nashville. I don't know how
to help you. And uh, I said, I don't, I don't.
It's all right, I don't need it, and you know,
and he wanted us, you know, he would have rather
let me get you started and scouting and stuff like that.
(58:17):
The irony, as you know, your life paralleled from sports
to music, is that CJ your sons. Is he still
with Jacksonville? Yeah, he just signed with jackson but they
haven't moved. They haven't. They signed him because're gonna the
first overall pick too and they're probably take Trevor Lawrence.
So but he's staying. And they didn't like sign him
and then ship him off. No, no, no, no, So
that that was a point, you know, they have you know,
(58:39):
I don't know who they he knew the intentions of them,
but they sometimes you don't wanna you don't want to
throw a rookie in the fire, kind of like he
got thrown in four years ago. But and and and uh,
they want to competent back up. I think at least
(58:59):
you home. But he's taken it as just a great
opportunity to help somebody and or to compete, you know.
So that's yeah, they just signed him one son in
the NFL and then one son. It's like you've were
split in half and they went there their different ways
there
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