#310 - Lisa Loeb on Why She Was Never Invited Back to Perform on Letterman + Her New Musical + Shy Carter on Writing Songs for Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Charlie Puth

Bobby talks to Lisa Loeb who you may recognize from No. 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the movie Reality Bites. She talks about her career in the 90’s and why she was never invited back to perform on David Letterman. She also talks about how the inspiration for her new musical came to be. Bobby sits down with Shy Carter who has written several No. 1’s for Kane Brown, Billy Currington, Sugarland and Charlie Puth. He talks about his friendship with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and how he got linked up with Keith Urban. Plus what inspired him to start a solo career in Nashville. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M h welcomed. Episode three ten. The super Cool Lisa
Lobe is on and she tells the story why she
was never invited back to perform on David Letterman. She
performed and something happened, she was never invited back. Pretty
wild story. And also Shy Carter is on. He talks
about writing songs for Tim McGraw, Key Thurbin, Charlie Pooth,

(00:21):
how that Charlie Poot song came together, the massive one
which was I'm Only One called wait that song. Pretty
cool story, I'll be that same. Let's look at the
big new music releases of the week. Travis Denning has
an EP called Dirt Road Down Here is the title track,

(00:43):
and a little Boss Summer, The Love the World, She
Love This Time, How Solidays used to be in Laris
Made We Like Travis di Any, We're Travis Any Podcast

(01:04):
for Sure Number four. This week, Ingrid Andrews has a
new song with Sam Hunt called Wishful Drinking Thanking You
Nice mess Me, It's a dreadful time to meet you.
I JA. At number three, Luke Brian has a song

(01:29):
out called Songs You've Never Heard. I think about it
and I laughed the tune because I can hear you
sing it along songs you never heard. Jake Owen has
a new song out called best Thing Since Back Roads
at number two you says, backgrounds Baby and head into

(01:52):
the middle, Little Windows down said the cross see review
and her childs late everyone hell got on dropping this?
You don't want more crazy Saints back Toby and number

(02:15):
one who I just think she's great and worked with
an American idol, Lacey K Booth with Charles Kelly of
Lady A. She released her debut EP Here's a song
called Broken Heart. Still Beats because He's getting hot, keeps
playing the yeats thanks to and He's bapties and spoke

(02:49):
the spoken huts. They're here the heartbeat in it. That's
pretty cool. We should get her in here? Okay? Cool?
Would lay? Uh? Some other songs coming out that you've
I want to check out. Thomas Rete put out a
song called Redneck be Like the Weekend put out Take
My Breath. Maddie and Tape put out a song called
Life Ain't Fair. Ashley Cook has a new song with

(03:09):
Jimmy Allen called good Goodbye. Uh, Let's See. Scotty mccourry
has Same Truck. Cheryl Crowe put out if It makes
You Happy Live from the Rheman, Do we have that
clip or no? I could find it. That's okay, that's
a jam though, if it makes you happy for all
your kids out there. And Carly Pearce put out a
new song as well album releases. Billy Currington has a
new album called Intuition. George Harrison All Things Must Pass

(03:33):
the anniversary edition nas Let's see Barbara strives In released
Me to Chris Young various. Now that's what I call
decade nineteen eighties. Yeah, alright, quick news is the quick
news is Garth Brooks is reassessing the remainder of a
stadium tour because of the COVID outbreak. Country Stories, Tippy

(03:54):
wofle House Waiters one thousand dollars. We have discovered who
that is. That is Struggle Jennings. Shout out Struggle Jennings,
yellow Stone prequel. It's happening with Tim and Faith three.
They'll play the Duttons and then Nickelback reveal they're working
on a new album. How about that at Lisa Lope
coming up on a second. You may remember this song

(04:15):
stay you say fantastic, I only hear what I want
to This is Lisa Loban Nine Stories. I guess that
was her band, but then that disappeared Nine Stories. Like
the first album, Here is do You Sleep because they
saw you as you walked across my room. You will

(04:38):
double it, double loop and sat on the corner of
my smokes with a ghost in the back of my head.
So I don't know and I don't have Here is

(05:00):
one of my favorites I do from a kid's record.
Here is Feel what you Feel with Craig Robinson. You
would know from the office. You just want to gramm me,

(05:22):
just want to grant. Yeah, yeah, pretty cool. So Lisa
Love coming up in a second. Just a massive match.
That's a massive fan. All right, thank you guys. Here
is today's podcast. Hey, we're on now with Lisa lobe
who I'm a massive fan, you know, just just so
you know at Lisa, I'm a massive fan. I love it,
I love it. We both got our glasses. Um, I'm

(05:43):
using a virtual background on the zoom portion of our interview.
Now you are like so distracting, and no wonder my
kids get so distracted in their zoom classrooms, especially my son,
and you are in your zoom background, which I find
there are pictures of you in your zoom background that
is you, right, I have I know, well, I have
this musical that's opening um this week on Broadway and Demand,

(06:05):
and I'm literally like having some kind of asset trip.
I don't even you know, I've never tried acid, but um,
only a light acid peel on my face. But I've
never used the virtual background, but I have this musical
theater poster kind of background behind me, and my face
is indeed on it. And I do want to talk
about that in one second. But here's how we came

(06:25):
together on a weird twist of events, is that I
have from your music to your reality show to um,
you know what the kids record the kids music, because
we did a little kids project to and I and
I saw how, you know, awesome and difficult that that
can be at times. And so I've just always been
a fan of yours and I have this show that's

(06:45):
on that gio on Disney Plus, and they just knew
I was a fan. I didn't send that box to anybody,
and I saw you get one of these boxes, and
I was like, Lisallo got one of these boxes that
you posted about it on Instagram I thought it was
one of the coolest things ever, and so my producer
was like, Hey, why don't we reach out to her
because she has a Broadway project we can talk about,
And that's how it came together. They Disney knew I

(07:05):
was a fan of you, sent that to you, you
posted it, and here we are. It's crazy, you know.
I have to say, um every day when we finally
did get in person in school with my kids, there's
a huge billboard of your show up and as I'm
driving my second grader and now he's going to be
a third grader every day to school, it was like
so aspirational to see a picture of you with all

(07:26):
those like tools and weapons and a lot of stuff
I wasn't good at using. Honestly, well, it was. It
was sort of aspirational because my son is super into swords,
and you know, anything that's like, uh, something I don't
really want him playing with basically is what he's into.
To see it up on a poster and know that
we get to watch a show about somebody who does

(07:48):
get to play with all that stuff, um, it was
very aspirational. And so then um I did get a
box of Really it was a really nice promotional box.
That's like one of the nicest ones I've ever seen.
I had like a Yeti water bot and like work gloves,
like a really nice lunch pale, like I want to
go somewhere, and like you want to go have lunch
just because of that. Yeah, that's well, I'm super pumped

(08:10):
that you're here. Has anyone ever come up to you
and said, hey, you look like Lisa Loe. I'm not
realizing that you are her. That happens all the time.
Happens all the time. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. Actually, there
was a guy who was helping me my toaster of
and broke last December, and you know, it's like this big,
it's this really important piece of equipment in our kitchen,

(08:33):
the toast of, and and then I realized, I want
one of those air fryer toast drivens, you know where
you can like make your fake chicken wings and French fries.
So I kept trying to do research, and I finally realized, Okay,
this is the one that I want, this revel this
one company. And then I started looking and I was like, oh,
you know, I'm one of those people who have to
overthink everything and like do all the research. Finally, I

(08:54):
was like, I'm going to get this, and I went
to bed Bath and Beyond. I'm going to get it.
They didn't have it. They had it on this but
didn't actually have it. But the guy from the company
walked and he had his company name on his mask
and on his hat, and I was like, oh my gosh,
do you know where to get this toaster of? And
so for weeks he was calling all these different stores,
even from bed Bath and Beyond. He was calling like
sir La Table and like Williams Sonoma. I'm like, dude,

(09:17):
you can't make a speaker phone call in bed Bath
and Beyond. Calling other stores. He's like, no, no, no,
it's cool, it's cool. And he finally he tracked down
the one last remaining toaster of and thing in the
whole state of California for me in the right color.
And I was like so happy. I was like that
guy was such a great rep, Like he was so nice,
he really cared about getting me that toaster ofven And

(09:38):
then at the end he texted me and said, oh,
and by the way, if you're ever playing a concert
in town. I was like, I thought it was I
thought it was just like a nice lady he was helping.
But people always stopped me and say that or they say, oh,
your glasses look like Lisa Lobe or whatever. Yeah, do
you go that is me? Because that's an awkward thing
because people will do that to me times, to be like, hey,

(09:58):
have you ever tell you like Bobby Bones and and
it's weird to go I am him. It's it's it's
it's kind of that weird. Do you ever go that
is me? Or do you go, yeah, I get that?
Sometimes I think it might cool when I was more cool,
like in in my twenties and more like hip and
like yeah, I might have said like yeah, I get
that a lot, but I would say yeah. But then
I realized as I've gone along, um you kind of

(10:21):
want to treat everybody like a grandma. You're like, yes,
it is you know, like let enjoy their moment with
them so that they can enjoy their moment more and
not be the one who's like, uh, I mean I've
done both. I've done like yeah I get that a lot,
or um, yeah that's me, Yeah it's me. Do you
what do you do? Do you give them the enjoyment
of like it is I am well, I am yes,

(10:42):
I do look like well, I am Lisalla. And right
now I have on clear glasses because usually if I
were clear glasses, nobody stopping, nobody knows what I look
like if I work cluar glasses, so I never get studied.
So but if I am wearing my normal glasses, someone
will say, hey, does anyone ever tell you like a
Bobby Bones? Depending on if I think they hate me
or not, because sometimes if they're just not, I just
know they're just they are not a fan whatsoever comedy

(11:04):
or radio show that I do, I'm like, I do, Yeah,
I do get that a lot crazy. He's a real
he's a real loser. Huh. And it depends how they
play it back. But most of the times I'll be like, hey,
that that's actually me, thank you. You know. Most of
the time I do, yeah, figure it out. I know.
In college, actually, um, I was taking dance class and
it was African dance and I was really not good
at it. And I had a couple pair of contact

(11:25):
lenses for auditions or whatever. But I'm kind of allergic,
so I can't wear them really much, like maybe to
a three D Imax movie or something every once in
a while, but even that I don't do anymore, or
like for an audition, I'll wear contact lenses or if
I'm trying on glasses, you have to wear contacts so
you can see what they look like. But anyway, I
I purposefully did not wear glasses at my final, um,

(11:48):
my final African dance class out on the middle of
campus because I didn't want anyone to see me and
be like, oh, there she is. And literally my friends
didn't even seem they couldn't. In college, I war glasses too,
and in high school people just didn't even see me
without my glasses. They didn't recognize me people that I knew. Well, Yeah,
I have three music questions for you, if um, if

(12:08):
you'll allow them. Um. My first one is when you
when you put together a set list, like do you
still play all the massive hits? Like do you feel
like you you are going to play that for the
fans regardless even though you've made so much music in between,
when Stay came out or Stay with number one to today?
Like do you put them all in? And where do
you put them in your set list? Do you open
with a big one? Do you close with you know, Stay,

(12:30):
like what happens there. This is all very well thought out.
It's been a process over thirty years to like really
home in on and figured out I put Stay. I always, well,
it depends if there's a bunch of fans and they
have so many requests that I don't end up playing Stay,
that's fine, but I am really aware of it. Um

(12:51):
I remember early on when I played at CBGB's and
I remember my drummer who I'm still friends with now,
he was my drummer at the time. He was like,
I can't believe we have to play Stay, And I'm like,
that's one of the songs, like, you know, it's like
one of every other song. It happened to get really,
really really popular right now, but there are people driving
in from New Jersey and stuff to like see us
play that song, like we've got to play the song.

(13:12):
Um So I understand being a music fan myself. If
I go see Holland Notates, which is an old example,
but if I go see Holland Notes, I want them
to play rich Girl. I want them to play Kiss
on my list. I want them to play those songs,
you know, Like I respect the fan who knows that
song and that's it, and you know and I know
that it's again. It's like that grandma perspective. You see

(13:33):
people who really enjoy it and they have a really
close connection with it, and it's a song I'm very
proud of. So I play it. I do play it
about halfway through the set because early on, when I
was doing a lot of radio shows when the song
was really popular and like outdoor radio shows whereas a
bunch of different artists, if we played it early in
the set, people would just walk away. They're like OK.
I'm like, oh my god. Usually I play seated theaters now,

(13:56):
so it's not an issue people don't get up and leave. Um.
But I do love giving the people a hard time
who do get up and get a beer? Uh during
during the middle of my set, I'm like, how can
a person get up in the middle of a theater
show to like go get a snack or whatever? And
then they come back in and they request say later
in the set, I usually do request. I'm like, you know,
when you got up to leave, that's when I play

(14:16):
the song. But anyway, so I play stay in the middle. Um,
I usually play my song. I do at the end,
which was also like a top forty hit. And then
I usually start the set with something upbeat, and I
mixed up new songs and old songs and songs that
I have stories about and songs that are upbeat. And
I also have a usually a few kids songs I

(14:37):
play in my grown upset, and I usually play some
requests as well. But I try to mix it up
because you can kind of feel the crowd, um, you know,
they're in engagement. And usually I like to I have
different categories for songs in my head, and I like
to split them up so that you kind of you
get a good again, a good range from the beginning
to the end. You don't feel like you're hearing you

(14:59):
like some answers I go too, I'm like, are they
still playing the same song? Like what's what's happening? I
remember you playing David Letterman and I looked it up
because I was a huge David Letterman fan. He was
my hero, and I was a huge, huge fan of yours.
Do you remember what it was like playing that show?
And Dave actually coming over afterward and like being like, hey,

(15:20):
how are you? Because it seems like he was a
big fan well, that's an interesting thing too. I was
a huge fan of Letterman. I joined his fan club
when I was a kid. I signed up for the
fan club in the back of Rolling Stone magazine. I
think I did it too because I love kitchen stuff
and like he sent out a fly swatter and like
all this weird David Letterman stuff was like the the
David Letterman fan club, um. And so it was really

(15:43):
exciting to being on a show. I felt very like
minded with David Letterman. I have, I like having a
dry sense of humor, and I just I've been a
big fan of like Father, Brito Sarducci and um, I
don't know, like a lot of different adians. Um. So
when I went on the show, I felt like, oh,

(16:04):
this is so cool, you know. And I and it
was really cold there. We didn't speak to Letterman at all.
He didn't speak to us. And we played and it
was like a big deal, you know. And at the
end I was being coy and I played and he
came over say thank you so much, and I went
and I like, I pet him on that should like
I went like to pet him like that, you know,

(16:25):
as if this is his here's a water glass Um.
Later I found out they thought I'd put a sticker
on him and they never asked me to come back.
That's what I heard. That was the story. I was like,
what what I know? And I'm friendly with like the

(16:46):
producer of the show, and I'm friendly with you know,
the band Willie and all those guys in the band.
And I was like, this is so weird because you know,
you go on Conan and Conan's like a person you
have a conversation with him, He's like a a person
of him being Yeah, Letterman didn't act like a person
to me, and I was so sad about that because
you know, we're huge fans, right There's some people you

(17:08):
meet like Standler, he's a person you like, you have
a conversation with them. Um, But Letterman, I still I'm
still waiting for the day when I can like have
a conversation with him and understand what is going on.
You know. I've heard that from quite a few people
who have done that show, where you don't meet him.

(17:28):
He might come over and it's very cold and then
you just go away. It's I mean, the sticker thing.
I've never heard that story before, the part about going
on and him not coming over and giving you a
big hug, or like jay Leno j will go over
what when he was doing that show or Jimmy Fallon
visit you backstage? Jay Leno would the dressing room every
time and say, hey, how are you doing? Good to
see you, like ask how's your mom and dad? Like
if he had met them before, like he had ever

(17:49):
he was prepped, you know he knew um. But Letterman,
you know, and and it's hard, you know his show
biz like like meeting people who they are versus who
their persona is. You know you see him on TV
or like we could be friends. We should be friends
because we have the same sense of humor. And you know,
I listened to Bob and Ray growing up, and I
bet Letterman listened to Bob and Ray growing up, and

(18:10):
like we have the same sense of humor. And then
you don't actually even you meet like shaking hands or
when they're speaking to you, they're not like they're speaking
to you, like we're speaking to each other right now.
It's so weird to be on a talk show and
then person is not actually connecting and speaking to you.
It's weird and that never resolved itself. Huh. I mean weird,

(18:33):
that's weird listening. He can connect. Yeah, No, I would
love to connect all three of us. We just get
in a room and and and have it watch it out,
just to hash it out. I do want to talk
about your project together apart, So let us start with like,
what what what was the inspiration behind getting this together? Well,

(18:58):
it's um, it's a little of a long story. But
I went to Brown University in Rhode Island and because
of COVID. Um, basically we can start any sentence lately
of because of COVID. Because of COVID, we started having
some inner I mean some zoom reunions. So we had
Brown Zoom reunions last summer. Um there was like an

(19:22):
l G B t Q one and then that led
to a Zoom theater people reunion, and then that led
to a musical theater reunion. And during that reunion, one
of the more organized professors. There's a lot of professors
who a lot of people who I graduated with who
are now like theater professors and writers and actors and

(19:43):
all the and some people are doctors. But anyway, um,
we had pages and pages of people. So a friend said,
let's go around and each person say what they're doing,
how how COVID is affecting them, So that that's how
we came together through a Zoom reunion and for a
lot of us, even though it was strange being at
home during COVID, it's also been a really creative time

(20:03):
for a lot of us who normally live lives in
a different way to be communicating and connecting through Zoom.
And that's also what the musical is about. If you
guys want to watch it, it's at Together Apart Musical
dot Com. You can go there. It's the Broadway and
demand platform Together Apart Musical dot Com. Am I saying
that right, like that's that's okay. It's called Together Apart.

(20:23):
And originally we thought that artwork would say together Apart,
Together Apart, because you know, it's like when you're in Zoom,
you're in these little windows and you're together, but you're
also separate and yet like when we wrote the musical,
even the meta side of it, UM, there were people
in Italy and Germany, California, at Chicago, New York, Ohio.
We were all connecting in this amazing way and getting

(20:46):
to be better friends and collaborating. UM and although we
were so apart, we were also together, so you know,
I think there's a lot of focus on that during
this time. I don't know if you found that during
this time, like were you at home doing most of
your Oddly we were out shooting that show. I would
do my radio show every day, but we would shoot

(21:06):
Breaking Bobby Bones, that TV show. We did it right
in the middle of COVID, all of it and it
was extremely difficult. But a lot of the time on
the road was being locked in a hotel and having
a quarantine before we all got together. So even though
I was out, you're still kind of alone. Ours would
be out and alone, set it together alone and be
out and a loan, out and a loan. But you
guys go to together apart musical dot com and proceed

(21:27):
support the Actor's Fund, an organization that provides emergency of
financial assistance to members of the entertainment community. And so
that that is fantastic. Congratulations on getting something up and going.
There were so many people who, you know, we're friends
with a lot of professional actors, and not everybody is,
like you know, able to make a living during this time.
It was really tough. So the Actor's fund has really

(21:48):
come out to help not only actors with people behind
the scenes, and we were able to raise over thirty
dollars so far for the Actor's Fund and you can
still do that. To watch the show itself is free
on this great platform. But like you said, you can
go straight to the website together Apart musical dot com

(22:08):
and you'll see where to you know, sign up in it.
You'll you'll be able to watch for you for a
few weeks and you know, it's very it's I've heard
a lot of positive reviews. It takes you a lot
of different places. Well, if you allow me to talk
about your music career for a second, because again I'm
such a big fan of your music. Are you going
going back out on the road right in September in
the fall? Are you excited about that or no? I'm

(22:30):
I'm excited to see fans and I have been doing
a lot of live streaming shows and connected again, connecting
with people in England and all over the place. Like
doing these live shows, I missed performing in person. I
did an event in San Santa Fe the other day,
but it was like in an open air. It was

(22:52):
an indoor space. But with all these huge doors that
open to the outside. Um, I'm nervous with the delta variant.
I've got to say me too. We have uh now,
all of a sudden, I agree we have three music
festivals my group does, and that we're putting on festivals,
entire festivals ourselves. And I'm starting to get nervous about
it too, frankly. And these are outdoor and but you know,

(23:14):
you are seeing things go back up, and so are
you kind of like I have these shows scheduled, but
I don't know. Um, I had the caveat when I
when I booked the shows that look, if things are
not looking good, we're gonna do everything to be safe. Um,
there's a little bit of an issue and that I
look back in the nineties when I started, I was

(23:34):
playing concerts all through the eighties and nineties. It used
to be the thing. Everybody was smoking, right, and you
would go to a concert. I don't know if you
knew this, and you would go to a concert and
you'd come home and you're close smelt like smoke. And
when you're on stage and everybody's smoking, it's like I
used to tell the club owners in the theater people,
I was like look, we're not going to have any smoking.
You have to tell everybody it's a no smoking show
because I don't want to be a singer in this

(23:56):
room with a bunch of smokers. And they used to
give me a hard time and say, well we can
and ask the audience to do that. That's not cool,
and I said, you gotta do it. I don't want
to play a show you know where people are smoking.
So they would do it. But with the mask thing,
I said, look, you got to ask the audience to
wear masks like they're not even They're not even gonna
be like lower capacity or sitting far apart from each other.
It's not an outside show. These aren't outside shows. And

(24:19):
I've been hearing since the government or the states or
whatever can't mandate the masks, I can't either, So living
day to day, I'm hoping that these shows are going
to happen. I'm so excited to see my fans. I
love playing music. I put a record out right before COVID.
I've got a million songs and stories to tell, and
it's so fun to connect with the audience. Safety first,

(24:41):
let's see as we move forward. Uh, this is my life.
I want to play a clip of this can you
hear clips? Mike? Okay, let me play a clip of
this is My Life? Didn't know that sleep was that dream? Emma,
dream is heaven to me? Yeah, so this is from

(25:05):
your album, A simple trick to happiness. But you you
put it out right before the pandemic. Did you feel
like any sort of you know, any sort of you know,
uh press that you were doing, any sort of momentum
that was being built was all lost immediately in the
record kind of floated away or did you Were you
able to keep it going through the pandemic by by
doing stuff on social media? Yeah, it was, it was

(25:26):
just it was just it evolved, it changed. You know.
It's funny when started, I always since or earlier, my
friends and I, as a joke would make up like
a catchphrase for the year, like more than ninety four,
which meant like more drinking, and I still never did
enough drinking. So in two thousand four that came back
again more in two thousand four, um, and it was

(25:48):
like see you in person. Part of it was like
I'm going to see people in person, I'm gonna really
connect with people. And then you know, a few months
in it's like, well, you're actually not going to see
anyone in person, and uh, but it because we ended
up connecting with so many more people through Zoom then
I probably would have connected with in person maybe and
even my neighbors and like people in my own community

(26:08):
I really connected with. But um, it just changed. You know. Luckily,
we had shot a video for every single song already, um,
so we put those up. It was just a time.
You know. In the back of my head, I think
I'd always been trying to grow my social media presence,
my connection with my fans through I didn't know about Zoom,
but you know, through through virtual concerts and stuff. So

(26:29):
it gave me finally an opportunity to to learn my
technology in my house a little bit better. I'm not
in my house right now, I'm in Texas, but in
my own house, I've got lights and I've got really
good WiFi, and I like, I know how to set
up at my stuff. So it became a time of
learning and connecting with people in other ways. And definitely
it's a bummer. I mean, I had gone to Japan
because the album always comes out first in Japan, so

(26:51):
I did get to go to Japan. Before covid Um,
but yeah, it was. It was just a different times
Together Apart. I want you to check it out. It's collection,
a new short musical is written, composed, directed by, and
featuring Brown University alumni, of which Lisa is. She speed
ahead of the musical. It does premiere today August six
on Broadaway and Demand and available to watch for two

(27:13):
weeks on the Broadway on Demand platform. You can go
to Together Apart Musical dot com for more info Together
Apart Musical dot com. Um, well I will. I'm definitely
gonna check it out. I'm a massive fan of yours.
Thank you for taking the time to you know, hang
out and tell me some stories and again, just appreciate
your time, Lisa, and good luck with the project, and
congrats on your show as well. I hope to meet

(27:35):
you in person one when you come through Nashville, because
that's where I am and you're doing a show and
we're able to not get covid. I will be there.
I will be there and I will be singing along
great and you'll bring some grits and I'll bring it.
You got it all right? Bye, Lisa, Hi, thank you,
take care of We're good all right in studio now

(28:01):
with Shy Carter, who comes in and brings the energy
every went on before we went on, he's like, who
part of I'm like, you know, wake up when we did?
We woke up three o'clock this morning and you said
you just woke up? Yes, I did. But you've been
on the road all weekend right playing Yes your watershed.
I was pretty cool up there. Huh. It was amazing.
The views incredible, man, Difficult to get to but worth

(28:25):
it once you're there, absolutely, man. Yeah. And how did
you and McGraw become friends? Because on Instagram I saw
a picture of you with him because I think you
did a song with him. I did, but but I've
seen you with him, And I remember talking to Tim
maybe a year and a half or so ago even,
and he was talking about you. So how did that
relationship come together? Well, it's been a long uh long

(28:47):
time thing. Um. Missy Gallimore she's Byron Galimore's wife, and
Byron produced all of Tim, Tim and Face records in
because I did Stuck Like Glue with sugar Land back
in two thousand ten and Byron produced it. So one
day around that time, I was here in Nashville, and
I met Missy. She said, hey, you know, uh you'r

(29:09):
Shock Carter. You did that song with my husband? Said yeah.
She was like, would you like to work with Faith Hill?
And I was like yeah, of course. So you know,
next thing, you know, I was like pulling up to
their house and Faith was just like such an amazing Uh.
She just showed me so much love and was so nice.
And then eventually I met Tim and you know, we
did a couple of songs on the album that they

(29:31):
did together. I did Speak to a Girl for them,
and uh, they just always just showed me love man,
and they liked my music and they've just been so
kind to me. So we just became friends and whenever
I got something and he helps me out of you
know when you said you did speak to a Girl,
you produced that for them? I wrote it? You wrote
it for that? Yeah, I was one of the writers.
So did you get that to them purposefully or did

(29:56):
you write it and go I think this is good
for this project that you're doing. Um, we we got
it to Missy because Missy would would always find songs
for them and still doesn't. She's just a beast at it.
And we actually wrote the song in Jamaica, me and
these two two other writers, and Missy got ahold of it.
Think BMG might have sent it to her or something,
and she she far hard for She's like, we need

(30:17):
this song, you know, like, hey, cool, I love y'all
to have it. Where'd you grow up all over the place?
I tell people I grew up in Memphis because that's
like my main formative years. But you know outside of Memphis,
outside Atlanta, when it's smaller town in Michigan. What moved
you all over the place? Oh? My dad, he's just

(30:38):
They always say, are we a military family? Which he
was in the Marines, but at that time he was
just working for the I R. S. And wherever we
would he would get a promotion, that's where we would go.
So what was it about music as you're moving around?
I mean, was that a stable part of like your childhood?
Because regardless because I moved around to a lot, was
music to you always important? Because regardless of where you went,

(30:58):
you still had it? You know? I never even looked
at it like that, But that's absolutely true. Yeah, because
I just remember riding when we had to leave a place,
just riding and crying and listening to the song's like
listening to boys to Men songs and Mama playing Tracy
Chapman and Ben Morrison and uh uh there was Yeah,

(31:21):
I can't remember another them. But whenever you guys are
moving around and you're a kid, are you playing music
at all? And worded? And why what got you into actual?
Like I think I want to do this for my
career as a song writer. Yeah, when I was in Memphis,
I was like ten, eleven twelve I started. I remember
I got a keyboard from my uncle and I was

(31:41):
like eleven years old and it had these little pre
made beats. You could kind of make the beats and
hit a couple of chords on there, and uh so
I would have a beat going and I would just
make these rhymes and just make whatever little silly song
I could to it um and I just loved it.
And I would just be in room also just pretending

(32:02):
like I'm singing to a crowd and stuff. And like
shortly after that, I formed a little group and we
sang at talent shows and stuff, like we're saying the
Mid South Fairs. We won the talent show at the
high school. Kind of group was it a singing group?
Like a boys to men type group. Yeah, just like that.
And a lot of times we didn't have the music
we wanted, so we were just singing our compella. They
had the good harmonies. I couldn't even sing the harmonies.

(32:23):
I had to like close my ear so I wouldn't
jump on their note. They were good with the harmonies.
I just sing the middle note and but I just
loved it so much. And then eventually I found a
guy who Um. I was working at sears and there
was a guy named Chris who and this is in
Memphis who Um was giving out cards that he was

(32:44):
selling selling beats like seventy five bucks or something. So
I went over there, got cool with him, made my
first song with him, and I just had the bug
after that. Did you pay him? No? What happened was
was what I was hoping would happen. That we we
we got cool and we just wanted to work together.
So you know, he was very kind and just helped

(33:05):
me out and try to help him out where I could.
So how did that bring you to Nashville? Because you've
been pretty prevalent in kind of my periphery for the
last few years. Because I mentioned to you maybe even
off the year. Like Keith Urban and I are buds,
and you know, I went over to his house once

(33:26):
and he was like, he's just playing some stuff from you,
and he was just so high on you. And Keith
is like next level. Sometimes I feel like I know music,
you know, play it a little study to learn. But
he like talking to in the language. Sometimes I don't
even understand. He's just in a different planet. He's brilliant man.
And when he's talking about how much he really like
loves someone's music and sound, I'm like, okay, I should

(33:46):
listen to this. And that was you. And so first
I'll ask you about Urban. How did you guys get
in kind of that same little little world? And but
then what is it that brought you to Nashville? Cool? Well,
once again, Missy gallum Or she she was finding songs
for Keith too, and she put a Keith camp together,
and so she just called me and asked me if

(34:07):
I wanted to come. That was a few years ago,
and and I went, and well, actually I just did
a couple of sessions with him. First, actually that song
speak to a Girl. He loved that song, and so
I wrote with him and a guy day that I
wrote that song with was um and yeah, we just
hit it off. He's just real cool. We like to
talk talk about you know, the songs just flowing and

(34:28):
coming um and not not overthinking it, just just just
letting it flow. And Uh, he's just he's just a
brilliant dude. Obviously, he's incredible on the guitar and it's
just fun to like create with him because he wants
to push the envelope. He wants to make something new
and fly. So it was Missy's managing me now so
because she's looked me up with everything I've had. Man,

(34:51):
so I want to come and go, Um, I want
to play some of these these songs real quick. So
your first, your first number one. I'm trying to look
at years here because I've got it all. Get your
whole life right here. Um. Two thousand nine, someday that
you wrote that Rob Thomas recorded. Did you write that

(35:12):
with him? Or do you write that for him? He
wrote most of that song, but so you wrote it,
but you but you wrote it with I wrote it
with I wrote it. I started it with matter Letic
who's produced all of the Matchbox twenty and Rob Thomas albums.
I started it with him and then they finished it together. Okay,
so I'm gonna place him with this Here's Someday sound

(35:42):
what do you mean you started? Like, tell me the
process of this song, because it doesn't sound like you're
all three. Like a lot of songs do. They come
together at different points, at different times and years later.
Sometimes you started it with Rob, with Matt okay, and
then Rob finished it. Yeah, they finished it together, and
so I don't know exactly how that how that was

(36:04):
never met him, that's crazy. That's funny. It's like sometimes
you'll see or you'll listen to a duet from two
folks and you'd be like, I love it, and then
you hear an interview like, yeah, we didn't think it together.
We don't even were not we never met. Yeah, I
mean that. That's pretty wild that you still haven't met
the guy. He's in Nashville decent amount too. Now, yeah,
I went to the show. That's funny. Wait, you went

(36:25):
to a show and you still didn't haven't met him. Man,
it's like I'm trying to see how long I canna
make it. That about meeting him here is stuck like
glue Number one for sugar Land from two thousand, Who
Like You and Me? Whoa You? Almost? So a couple

(36:49):
of things about this song. One of one of the
guys that I listened to a lot as a kid,
and you know me growing up in the nineties, it
was a lot of alternative rock. There's a lot of
hip hop up and growing up in Arkansas. For me,
it was a lot of countries. So that was kind
of my three my tent poles. Yeah, but I went
to more Better Than Ezra shows than just about anybody.

(37:10):
And I got on stage once with Better Than and
they were like, They're like, who knows how to play
this time of year? And I did. I was like
I do, and so I was pumped. I was gonna
get up on stage and they handed me a guitar
and then left handed. I was like, and they didn't.
I ain't gonna play it, man, Kevin that story now
and Kevin and I have become friends. But you wrote
that song with Kevin the lead singer Better Than Right
and then Christian and Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland. Yes, sir,

(37:33):
how did that Right come together? That was cool. I
had just gotten to l a because the Rob Thomas
song was going and I talked to my publishing company.
I was in Atlanta, I was coming to Nashville. I
was hearing the music in Nashville for a few years,
and I was like, man, I want to do that UM.
But they also said that they could just get me
more rights if I came to l A. So I

(37:54):
went out there and actually was a guy named Casey Robinson.
I was working for b M I, so she's right
with Kell and Griffin. I was like cool. So I
met up and we wrote one one session. It was great.
We had a great time. And that was the second
time we hooked up UM, and we just we just
wanted to write a song. And he put up some
drums in the computer and I had actually broken my

(38:15):
drum machine. I used to go everywhere with this big
old drum machine MPC, and I had had broken it.
So it brought me back to what I used to
do with my friends, just beat boxing and beating on things.
So I didn't I said, man, just give me a guitar.
I just started beating on it and just making the
sounds of my mouth and stuff, and he loved it,
and we put a little loop together and we just
that was just that's just a simple song. We just
we just threw together, just trying to make something, and

(38:38):
we got a lot of it done. He was like,
this would be perfect for sugar Land and I was like, really,
you know Sugarland And he said yeah. My drummer from
Better Than Ezra was playing drums for them, so he
sent it to them. He said, leave you know, leave
space open. They want to write on it too, and
and they did. They made that wild bridge on there
and everything. I mean, that was a massive song, mass

(39:00):
of the song. Have you met them? Okay, it's been
funny if you had it, if every song he hadn't
met the person? Did you know better than right at
all from Kevin? Like before you met Kevin? Or was
that not really how because you're probably not as old
as I am, I'm close. Did you know them at all?
I knew the songs? I didn't really you know, sometimes

(39:20):
you just hear songs and it got big and I
didn't realize that that that was him. Did you know WHOA?
It's good? Yeah, yeah, so that song is massive. But
you're in California. What what made you move to Nashville?
Well before I had moved out there, I was coming
up here um to see a young friend I had

(39:41):
up here and and her uncle was playing I remember
it was like two thousand seven, two thoight. And the
thing that really made me um gravitate towards the music
here was hearing like the live instruments, the way they
would mix the songs, just the beautiful songs. And I
heard whatever it it blows me your way, and at

(40:01):
the time I try to tell how I feel, it
comes out I love you. Yeah man, it's that Brown band.
And like I started hearing all these songs that it
just like kind of refreshed my soul, man, and it
reminded me of the songs I grew up on that
were like Van Morrison and Tracy Chapman that really my
mom was playing. And there wasn't really a big the

(40:25):
R and B genre had kind of shrunk, and you
you couldn't like when I grew up, you could write
like Babysit Face was writing these songs for boys to
men that would go number one and in the top
forty charts. And then also like you had songs like
I'm Amazed by You or or which became a top
forty song too. But you have songs like I swear
like all for One. I loved all for One. And

(40:46):
then there was a country version of that song. You know, um,
so that what I loved about the R and B
songs and stuff was always right there in country music.
It was always the same. And so it just clicked
in my head that man, I need, I need to
be writing this. Music like this encapsulates what I want
out of music right now, and there's no other place
for me to write it except for the country music

(41:08):
and in Nashville. So I was just always coming down here,
and I had a place Carla Wallace, a big yellow dog.
She had an apartment above her her her publishing company
on music Roll, and she rented me that apartment. So
I was just splitting time between here and there and
Missy us always telling me come down here, comany just
move down and just leave. I just like, man, I'm

(41:29):
not ready to leave in l A yet. But eventually
I left. I went to Santa Barbara. I was tired
of the air is bad, too many people. I relaxed
in Santa Barbara for a minute, and I came down
here and hit it hard, baby, way out in the country.
How long have you been here now full time three years,
so I want to go to two thousand and fifteen.

(41:49):
It don't hurt like it used to. Billy Currington, Yeah,
here's a clip of that. Did you write this one
here in Nashville? Yes, sir? So what was it? Was
this your first big Nashville like you were in Nashville
when Nashville folks getting a Nashville head? Was this the
first one? I guess it. I guess it was. Yeah.

(42:12):
Didn't feel different because of that, like you're you kind
of had, you know, put yourself in this Nashville culture
and now you've actually done it here as well. Yeah,
because actually it was hard for me to connect because
I didn't realize that the writers here in Nashville would
book their sessions out like four or five months in advance.
I would just pop up and be like, yeah, I
want to write, and you know, some people like the

(42:34):
Warren Brothers, you know, they would they would make make
room for me. But I couldn't get it, you know,
my I couldn't get everything moving the way I wanted
it too, because I didn't. I was just on my own.
I didn't have really a manager or a publisher. That
was connected down here, and so that's why I wasn't
having a lot of success. And Billy was a great

(42:58):
friend of mine. I had known Billy through Carla Wallace
as well. Um I put a talk box on one
of my songs and he heard. He was like, what
does that? What does that sound? I want to do? Uh?
And so it was actually very special to me because
Billy was involved and we we've been friends like for
years at that point, and he just showed up at
the studio and it wasn't even a writing session and

(43:19):
he just so, you guys wrote that and not even
a schedule writing session. Yeah, that's cool. How fast did
that come out? You know, sometimes you sit down to
create and stuff just falls out again. Sometimes you just
beat yourself in the head and you're like, I don't
have it today. But that song, if it's not a
planned session, that just kind of come out of you
guys pretty quickly, very fast. It was. It was a miracle.
Like I feel like all these songs are really just

(43:41):
super blessings man when they when they work, we just
got to be available and ready to receive the beautiful blessing. Man.
Let's play Speak to a Girl. You mentioned this earlier.
This is from Tim and Faith tell you talk to
one that's good, that's telling you get with the It's

(44:09):
gotta be pretty cool whenever a song that you write
and you know you have people out pitching these songs
or finding these songs, and somebody like Faith and Tim go, hey,
we think that's good enough for us to sing like,
that's gotta be like one of the greatest feelings is
something you created one of the biggest, most influential, most
powerful country artists in the past hundred years. It's like,
that's good enough. I love it. Yeah, I mean do

(44:31):
you need those sometimes to kind of go oh man?
Like if you're if nothing works for a while, you're like, man,
having written, nobody's picked up anything. Do you ever have
one of those that are like, we love it? You're like, Okay,
I'm back in I feel like I'm kind of back
in the game. I'm rejuvenated. Yeah, for sure, Like I
would think with me, because this this industry is so
many failures. It's it's most it's mostly failing, yeah, and

(44:52):
it's can you kind of withstand all the failing to
get to the success? You know? Absolutely, man, that's what
it's all about. When Tim and Faith they said, we
want to sing that song. I gotta imagine that feels great. Yeah,
make you want to cry, man. And the first time
you heard it, you remember the first time you heard
it after they cut it, Yeah, it was on the radio.
That's the first time you heard it on the radio.

(45:13):
And they played it like on every single radio station.
Um that for they like premiered it, and so it
was pretty cool. Man. You wrote Heavenful Kane Brown, Matt Massive.
Everybody's talking about the Massive. Did you write this with Kane? No,

(45:36):
Kane was there though. He was upstairs writing another song.
That's funny. Yeah, he ranted a lake house or and
you guys all got got a bunch of riders out
and all, and so you guys wrote that while Kane
was upstairs right another one. Yeah, he even came down.
We went we hadn't even finished it, and we were like,
you want to finish this. He's like, no, y'all go ahead, man.
And that was cool of him to do that though, too. Dude,

(45:59):
Kane is Cane is a man. That's one thing I
love about country music too. And these artists I've I've
met so many genuine people that have just not been
you know that the l a pop thing or it
can just be very real sharkish, you know. And just
so I've I've just met so many good people that
just are like family and friends around here. Man. And

(46:20):
if you're listening and you're wondering why I say that's
cool to him to do, Kne could have easily walked down,
written a liner to change a couple words earlier, and
then been a full songwriter and taking part of the publishing.
For sure, Like that was that was him going, no,
you guys keep that money. Yeah, that's that's what that was.
And that's what exactly, that's what happened. You guys made
a whole lot more money because Kine was cool for sure, man,
And I'm very grateful. Thank you, Kane, Love you, big dog.

(46:45):
Kane's a good dude. Man. Um One call away from
Charlie Poot two thousand and sixteen, I gotta imagine finance
this song has been the biggest for you, Yeah, for sure,
because I mean it's it pop, it's international, it's it

(47:05):
was just an everywhere you went. Yeah, man, you ever
go to like Kroger's playing over the top, Yeah, I've
been all over the place it's been playing. Man, when
you wrote this one, tell me about that. That was
a That was a great blessing too, because I really,
I really wanted to get out of l A and
I didn't want to leave until I did something I felt,

(47:26):
you know, I really got something great out of the place,
and I could I could move on, you know, because
it is it's it's it's just vultures man and his sharks,
and it's hard. But they called me one day said hey,
we got this soulful guy. He please work with him.
And he had the fast and furious song like getting
ready to it. It wasn't even I don't even think

(47:47):
the movie was out yet, but they had him and
him and with Khalifa had sing the song on on
a late night show. I looked at I was like,
that's cool. So I went and hooked up with him,
and so I started writing with him. As I'm writing
with him, the songs blowing up and he's becoming his
massive star. And so then he he rented a house
and it was in Montcito, California, by Santa Barbara. And

(48:08):
asked why I moved to Santa Barbara after that, and
because it was nice but you know, we stayed in
that house for like for like three or four days, man,
and you know, everybody wrote and I don't know where
all those songs went, but it was like the last
day and they just said, let's just go sit by
the fire pit. And we sat by the fire put
I have this guitar because you saw me played a mandolin,

(48:30):
So I have this guitar to that tune. Like a
mandolin has only got four strings on, it's called a
tenor guitar. And I had it with me, And that's
one of the best lessons I could tell anybody. Like
that was not a scheduled session either. It was just
let's go sit by the fireplace late at night. And
so because I brought that, like it changed everything and
I changed my life just because I picked that up.

(48:53):
Because otherwise we would have just went and sat by
the fireplace and just talked and laughed and then maybe
drank from training went to sleep. But instead I brought that.
I'm picking around on it. We're just kicking around ideas,
and that song just came out pretty instantly too. Whenever
I've talked or worked with some l A songwriters versus
Nashville songwriters, and I'm curious to know how your creative

(49:16):
process is a lot of I would say more so
of the l a people that I've either talked with
or worked with, right the melody first. And for those
if you're listening, the difference would be like one call
away there would be no words to it, but you
would say, you got Dawn dada, you have to sign
any words yet, but you're writing all the melody where
some a lot of my friends in Nashville are very

(49:37):
like they've got concepts for lyrics. They've got a bunch
of lyrics that don't have any melody to it. Yet
they'd be like, all right, well only one call away,
Like they know what they want to say, but they
don't have a melody yet. When you write, are you
writing melody first most of the time? Are you writing
like concept lyrically most of the time. I am more
like the melody thing because I feel like, like even
I remember Michael Jackson saying a long time ago that

(50:00):
like he goes all over the world and people don't
even know the language, but they know the song because
the melody is so important. So and also when I
get to Scat in Vada, thing that like I will
say something like Scott almost say a word and we'll
just listen to it. The beauty of the fact that
we can record it all right there, saying through auto tune,

(50:21):
have fun with it, you know, hit all these different
and then you're like, wait a minute, it sounds like
you're saying this, like maybe we should write about that,
or it just gives you a feeling or an emotion,
so it can it can you know, bring a concept
to you by that. But I also love you know,
sitting around, you know, when you're just walking around every
day somebody will say something and uh, he said, oh, yeah,
that's a good song. Let me put that in my

(50:43):
phone or something. And so I love the Nashville way of,
you know, just having really really thought out ideas and
how how they want to approach it, and then just
you know, I love both of them. It's great to
switch it up. When you did One call Away, did
you melody at first? Were you sitting around? No? Actually,
um d J Frankie he was sitting there and he said,

(51:04):
I got idea. I just want to write one call Away.
He said, I got this much. I'm only one call away,
And he had that much and I had the guitar
and I said I'll be there to say the day,
and I just started playing the chords. And Mozilla is
another great writer. She said Superman got nothing on me.
And then I just booked ended it. I'm only one
call away. There's the look like instantly man. And then
I just when we just started kicking around the verse

(51:27):
ideas man and and there was a A and R
guy sitting right there with us who was the A
and R for Charlie and he's he's this is a hit.
This is his is nothing like writing the right writing
something with the Usually you don't want them around and
they wouldn't be in the studio, but we're just hanging out.
And the fact that he was just saying it was
gonna be a hit the whole time, like let's do

(51:48):
this here is never coming down that you're on this
song with Keith Keith Urban here you go you beatboxing

(52:19):
this song? Is that right? I'm trying to remember correctly
because we just put in clips, but I'm thinking back
to this this record in general, there's a whole beatbox
here that right? Are the band is it to going?
Did you do this in the studio with Keith. Yeah,
it was a blast, was a funny session. You feel
pressure to perform in a small room with Keith or

(52:41):
does he make it loose where it's like, hey, just
go do your thing and have don't work this time.
We'll figure something that next time he makes it loose. Yeah, yeah,
I felt pressure. I've been doing it a long time,
Like uh, Nellie was the first person to give me
a chance of real chance in the industry. And when
I used to go around him like I was a
super nervous man, and you know after time, I just
less nervous as time goes on. Here is good as

(53:04):
you number one, Cam Brown again, Baby, I just want
to be good as you go your more than just
deserve it. And then I'll play this one and we
this is this song here God whispered your name like
I love it so much. We I got married a
couple of weeks ago here at the house and we

(53:25):
played this is the song that we played as right
before she walked down the aisle. And I've told Keith
this many times because I don't think Keith wrote it.
I know you wrote it. I think you guys wrote
and got it to Keith right, and he produced it
and I talked to Keith. I was like, man, that
song means so much to us. Uh and he would
have been at the wedden. They were out of they

(53:45):
were out of the country, but we played it as
as all of our h what do you call the
bride's brides maids walked down. But this song to me,
like in the last few years you wrote it. I
can tell you to your face like, this is one
of the best songs that that my ears have been
EXPO was doing a long time because I was feeling
it in my life when this song was out. Yeah,
you know, and I think that's a big part of

(54:06):
enjoying a song too. Yeah, connecting to it, right, It's
like the actual connection of it. Yeah. So congratulations on
that one too, man, Thank you. That means so much
to me. I appreciate that. I got, like, you know,
goose bumps. What you're saying that, man, I want to
see some of the footage and um, you you still
play saxophone at all? No, I'm gonna pick you back
up though. When did you stop playing? Uh? Well, I

(54:32):
was really playing like in middle middle school, in the um,
in the banding school and stuff. And when we went
to high school. The band had to play during the
football game, and I said, I can't, I need to
go play football. I can't, I can't let them play football.
And I come out with a saxophone in the middle
of the football game. There was a There was a

(54:53):
player in Arkansas named Dan Hampton who ended up being
in the NFL Hall of Fame. But he would go
out in the Arkansas Football ga. He wouldn't go in
a halftime and it's full football uniform. Hall of Fame
player would go out and play in the band. Where Yeah,
pretty crazy to look back at. Now, did you ever
go play like on Bill Street? I did? Yeah, you
know what's upping? Man? And so were you playing saxophone

(55:13):
out there? I was. My dad took me down there.
And what was the goal? To get better? To make money?
Both it was just for fun, Yeah, to get better,
definitely get better. Like he would put me in there
with musicians that the whole thing was just a freestyle impromptu,
you know, think jazz music. And they would just give
me a chance to just hit a solo. As long

(55:33):
as I know what key is in, I just whoop?
Is that an instrument? You could pick back up throwing
in a week to be able to play a little bit. Yeah,
maybe a little bit longer than a week. I could
figure it out if I put one, pull it out.
Could you figure out something if I handed you one
right now? Just to be serviceable? Yeah, I could. I

(55:53):
could do a little something on there. It's all about
that read and like you gotta suck on the read.
Make it all where that that if you just pick
it up in this dry and it will start screeching.
I just it's like nails on the chalkboard. Man, you
played at Watershed this past weekend? You do a whole set?
I did? Man, when you do your sets? And how
long was this set you played this weekend? An hour? Okay?

(56:15):
Do you play some of the songs that you've written? Yeah?
I play a lot of them. Do you tell people
so they know you wrote it and you're not just
covering it? Yeah, I gotta tell them. I hope they're listening,
you know, because the beauty of having these songs is
that I get to play songs people know. There's nothing
like playing songs people know that they can sing along to,

(56:35):
as opposed to here's twelve fifteen songs that are coming
out that you guys have never heard. It's not as fun.
You played at Lollapaloos as well. Yeah, had a big weekend.
That's why I wasn't giving you a hard time. And
You're like, I just woke up. I was like, if
I had had your weekend, I don't know that I've
woken up at all on Monday. But so you went
from Gorge, Washington, Seattle, Ish to Chicago. What was that?

(56:59):
What was the difference in the for those two festivals.
It was one of the funniest weekends in my life, dude,
because the Gorge was crazy and the weather like in Seattle.
We flew into Seattle for and first and got to
the weather was just perfect. Man. I got to see
one of my childhood friends out there and then Tim.
I literally got on stage with Tim McGraw and saying

(57:19):
I like it, I love it with him. I couldn't
believe I got to sing that song with him. You know,
do you have to riff? And and this as far
I was gonna tell earlier, I was I was doing
something in Austin. There was a festival and sugar Land
was playing and they were doing it was when Christian
and Jenniferen got back together and they put out a
record and they were back and they were doing um

(57:41):
stuff like Glue. And I know Christian really well. He
had opened for me when I was doing some comedies
and theater stuff and I'd like, Christian, come out and
you know, just played before me for half an hour.
And so so for part of like that that area Georgia, Alabama,
it was easy for him to get to so come
out into some shows with us because he lives in Atlanta,
and so we were in Austin and they were together
and he was like, Hey, you want to come out

(58:01):
and do a song with us with sugar Land. And
I was like, not really, because I know what I'm
good at and what I'm not and I don't need
to go out and try to sing some sugar Land
stuff or anything. And he was like, well, come out
and do like the rap part. This stuck like Glue,
and I was like, I was like, I don't know,
I don't I don't know that. I'm just gonna be
in it enough to just walk out and feel that

(58:21):
immediately like there was I said. But and so the
network was going, hey we do something, come in and
do something. So we can put on on TV that
we're looking for one of these performances from Sugarland if
you want to go, if you will do this, this
will be the one we used for TV. And I
was like, that's a that's for me. That's a weird
kind of hip. I don't know what you call Jennifer

(58:44):
doing that. I mean I would say it zimp hop.
It's kind of rap, but it's like, uh, damba dabada.
I don't know. I don't know what to call it either,
And I hope that's not defensive to you anyway. And
so I go out and I try. I tell you,
I went out and I did it. I give it
a C minus. But my point is I looked over

(59:06):
all the words and that the words to that they
weren't hard to remember. But I didn't want to mess
up that that project. Right, you go out with Tim
and you're doing I like it. I love it. You
can't mess up those words, do you? Are? You staring
at it beforehand? Is going? I know I know the words,
but I need to make sure again. Definitely was man
because I was doing that too, like I knew every word,
just talk like and I was like, all right, I

(59:29):
was sweet sweet, let me see okay. Oh then you
feel like you're good. You come off stage like I
nailed it. Um, you know, just gonna be honest. I
think I might have. I think I might have goofed
up the first line, which was which it was pretty

(59:49):
I think I played it off okay to you know, Tim.
Tim helped me out, but I think I killed the
rest of it. I gotta watch my eye truck and
dress up. I don't think got that truck line right
right away. I kind of just went up there and
I was like, oh, shoot, it's really time, here we go.
I gotta watch what earlier that day. That's how do
you perform? Okay, so you're still in it though a

(01:00:11):
little bit? Yeah, man, it was. It was. It was
blast like we could they did. They didn't know, Man, No,
they never know. And I'm gonna tell you to reel man.
As long as you're smiling and you're having a good time,
the crowd is too. That's what I learned a long
time ago. They don't know if you mess up, you
play it off, you know. So many of my friends
would go like, hey, if I freaking it worse and

(01:00:31):
I'll just put the mic out there. Everybody just things
it back ung man. Yeah, So let's talk about the
new song for a second, because you guys came in
on the show Bear with My Friends. Yeah, Man, and
Cole Swindell and David Lee Murphy came in. I played
a little clip of this for you stop seeing. So

(01:01:08):
how's this song doing right now? How do you feel
like I do you feel like starting to cut through
a little bit? Yeah? I think so for sure. Like
as soon as we put it out, people were hearing
it all in Florida, like, Man, you know, uh over
the holiday weekend or something it was, and uh, yes,
it's been really uh doing good on the on the
stream and stuff. And could you write that one with
David Lee Murphy and Brian Simpson. Yeah, and Brian's been

(01:01:32):
replaced by colsch One dog. Yes, right, it's right. David
Murphy is like the greatest dude though, right, He's so phenomenal, man,
He's just everybody always says he's the coolest guy, and
he is. He just comes around and he's got great
ideas and he's a phenomenal writer. And it was just
fun to hang out with man and whenever you guys,
because you have this song. Were you writing it for

(01:01:53):
you to cut, or you're writing it you're just writing
a song that day. We're just writing a song. Most
of the time, I don't try to even you know,
make it so make it about me. I just want
to make sure we're getting the best song. But uh yeah,
there's another one that just came out real fast. It
was Brian's ideas like that just be with my friends,
like all right, that's cool and not not not not

(01:02:14):
too complicated, you know. And we just wrote it on
the guitar and it was It was great and they
loved it. I loved it. But once we really demoed,
it was like, oh, this thing is like slapping, you know.
And uh, Man Kenny helped us out. Man Kenny and
Buddy Kenny, Kenny Chesney and Buddy Buddy Canny went and studio.
They sped it up and got all those guitars rock.
And once she sped it up and stuff, I was like, oh,

(01:02:35):
this thing is the party sent trial. So why did
you cut it? Why did I did it? Because I
loved it. Yeah, I loved it. Man. I was like
just bona fide hit to me, you know, And uh,
I just I wanted them. I wanted to get some
cool guys on there with me to just be with
my friends. And David I was like, I loved love

(01:02:58):
for you to just get on here with me. Man,
let's just do it together. Because it was that was
the demo. Me and him just did the demo. I
was just I love this, let's just do this. And
what about Cale? How'd you come to inviting Cold to
the song? I've always liked Cole. I love his music,
and you know, we wanted to do We've been wanting
to do something together and we're on the same label.
So as Chris Lazy after, I was like, can you

(01:03:18):
can you just send this to Cold? And right away
as soon as he heard it, he loved it and
it just came to to the studio. Man, it made
it happen. Were you planning on pursuing the solo artist's
career at this point or did you write this song
and it kind of shoved you into doing it and
committing to it. No, it's actually been my plan ever
since I was a youngster man, like a long time.

(01:03:40):
So I've had this is my third major label record deal.
I've probably had five or six record deals and I
just really finally got a great team with Warner brother
you know, s BO and Chris Lacey and all these
great people that um at Warner here, and I had
just put out Good Love was was the song that
put out you know, like last year or like whatever.

(01:04:02):
But so we we've already been promoting and pushing, pushing
the artist thing. Man, I was like this want to
hit them hard, right, how do you feel like you
feel like it's going good? Like you feel like like
radio is like this is one. I mean, yeah, that's
the one they really wanted. I went on. I went
on a radio tour I did in the middle of COVID.
I was the first one to actually go out like

(01:04:24):
they had a whole idea to send me out there
on a bus and bring the speakers out and and
through this whole presentation on people's in front front yards,
in front of their house or in front of their
uh you know, radio station, and we hit a whole
bunch of them. And every time I played that song,
They're like, we want that song, we want that song.
And so I'm just so glad I finally can give

(01:04:45):
it to him. Man, let me play a little bit
of Good Love. So people know what you're talking about.
If you had to pick one artist, songwriter, producer, and
that was all you could do, Which one you're choosing? Oh,
just for me, just for you, you can only do one.

(01:05:07):
If I can only do one, Nobody's ever put it
like that. I would I would have to say, just
just writing, because then I would be singing songs I
didn't write, right, Yeah, So I love singing to people,
but I love to create, if I if I you know,
I would love to create. Man, what are you doing?

(01:05:28):
What do you do for fun? What are you doing Nashville?
Like create songs for fun? For you? Yeah? I mean
that's probably why you're so good at what you do, right,
I mean I feel like for me that's the case.
Like I enjoy what I do, so I get better
at it because I love doing it. Yeah, you know what,
I'm kind of inspired by the job for sure, man,
which makes me better at the job. If you take

(01:05:48):
yourself out of music, though, Like, what do you what
are you doing around town? Yeah? I've been trying to,
you know, have more fun outside of music like that.
But mmm, I'd like to play basketball, like to uh,
you know, be out in nature, get on a boat somewhere.
You gonna jump on one of these horses out there
in the country, bare back. See what they're gonna do.

(01:06:10):
See what they're gonna do. Never works out for me,
that's see what they're gonna do. Never, never good. But listen, man,
I'm super pumped you came by. I know you had
a crazy weekend, but I'm glad you came over the house,
said what up? And I'm so grateful to be here. Man.
I think it's what I like about you coming by
as we were able to because we've been talking for
forty minutes or so. But once people see your entire

(01:06:32):
package together, they don't realize how much they've been secretly
influenced by Shuy Carter like. And that's kind of the
plight of the songwriter sometimes. I got buddies have written
a ton of number ones and nobody knows who they are,
and they always wanted to be an artist, but they
never either committed to it or they never felt confident

(01:06:54):
enough to go for it. And so I mean, you
wrote all that and now you're just like, let's go,
let's let's go. And I'm you know you're gonna be
the face of you. That's right, man, it's really cool.
That's awesome. Man. I'm a big fan. Thank you, sir,
I'm a big fan of yours. I have a question
for you is how how do you possibly do a
radio show, podcast, TV shows, all these different things? Man?

(01:07:17):
God gave you a little bit of extra hours in
a day or you just take up at three every morning.
I don't know if it's extra hours. And I say this,
I say this as and I mean this as I
say because I'm not that talented at anything like this.
Now to hear me out, I don't have a skill.
I don't have something. I don't have a gift of

(01:07:40):
a skill that God gave me that I'm like I
naturally I'm good at music, or I'm a great communicator,
or I'm great. But what I but what I was
given was no one is more tenacious than I am.
Like I don't. I don't. If I have a goal,
I don't stop. And even if I suck and I
don't stop, I get better as I not stop. Noe

(01:08:02):
of this makes sense in the English language. Everything I'm
saying here's wrong. But I don't quit. And because I
don't quit, I continue to learn, so eventually I get
good at stuff because I've been bad at it so
long and I've I've just kept on so and so
now I'm pretty good a lot of things. I can
write books, I can do TV, I can do radio.
Not great at any of it. But my my trick,

(01:08:23):
you know, in my pocket, has been I just don't quit.
I appreciate that question. That's how I have time, is
that I just grind. But now I have a wife.
I just got married, and I have a wife, and
her goal with me sometimes is stop, like you're not
your job. It's a big part of who you are.
But I put so much worth into what I created

(01:08:43):
because I never had anything going as just a poor kid,
you know. And now you've got somebody who sees the
worth in you, and they're like, you don't even need
all that you You are already worthy. Man, you can
relax a little bit. She tells me that I don't
know that always believe her. But we're getting there. So
for me, I appreciate that question. But that's not about me.
It's about you know. But I've seen like that's the

(01:09:05):
that's the number one thing I see in life in general. Man.
It's it's never the person that's this the most talented
a way, it's the person who works the hardest man
just never gives up, that always went, that becomes the
real winner. Man. And most of the times we're talking
about this is an industry where you don't have a
lot of success until you get some success. Like you're
always fighting failure. Like nobody sees when you're failing. So
if you can just continue swimming, you'll get to the

(01:09:27):
other side. The same for me, man, Yeah, nobody sees.
Nobody sees all the songs that you're right that don't
get cut right. Nobody sees all the times I didn't
get hired or I get told no for projects. But
what they do see is when it does work out,
and as long as we can continue, we can withstand
the nose, they can't keep us from the yeses. Then
one day you'll be ballroom ballroom dancing. I did win

(01:09:49):
that one, and I was not good. Not good? All right,
you guys. Follow shy Shy Carter official on Instagram, stream
berea with my friends. Check it out and see him
in your town. Go see him. I'd love to I again.
Follow him at Shy Carter official. Should I gonna talk
to you? M.