Hailey Whitters (@HaileyWhitters) first single at country radio "Everything She Ain't" is climbing the charts and she stopped by Bobby's house before going on her new headlining Raised Tour. Hailey moved from a small town in Iowa to Nashville 15 years ago to pursue a career in country music but kept facing struggles. She talks about all the difficulties she had and ways she tried to make it, the jobs she had to take to survive, and the moment she got her publishing deal and first big song recorded by another artist but was still so broke she had to sleep in the airport one night. Hailey shares how she self-funded her 2020 album 'The Dream' that lead to her first breakthrough before getting her record deal. She also talks about the country artists who have slept on her couch and watching them all become successful before she did, and how it feels to finally have a song on radio. Plus cool moments like getting to perform on Jimmy Kimmel and Kelly Clarkson covering her song.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You get great news like that, and I was like,
so broke and busted. My flight got canceled and I
literally couldn't afford a hotel in Boston, so I slept
in the airport. Then you know Hayley Witters. I mean,
she absolutely could have made it just based on talent
in her first year in town. But what I like
(00:25):
about her story is just the timing. It wasn't right,
but she just kept on. Like timing's a big part
of it, because she's had the talent. But what's cool
is she didn't really change who she was, and now
she gets to be who she really is, and now
she gets she's having a real moment here. And so
I really like Hayley. We've had her on the radio
(00:45):
show to play and I don't know, I just just
her spirit is awesome. And she's very open about the
fact that she's been here ten, eleven, twelve years and
it took her that long, and she talks about had
to go back to waiting tables, and if anything, I
want people to take away from this, not even the
music part of it, that like, as long as you're
still going to day and over and it's super cool.
(01:06):
I'm just a big fan of her episode three eighty six.
Her current single is everything. She Ain't sort of turn
it down briefly, so let me get sued right down
and all the way, all the way now back up
money everything she eats everything. We still have an official
(01:33):
ruling on that, right. They just say no more than
five seconds. They say five seconds, but we should do
it like six seconds for a couple episodes to see
if they come at us, and then seven the next
thing you know, we're playing the entire song. Huh. So
Hailey Witters, she has an album called Raised to come
out last year. It's her third studio album. But she
talks about stuff and it's like, does that happened? Twelve
(01:53):
years she spent here and she just now started to
really see it happen. But she's always been awesome and
she's always been herself, and I think that's what held
her back for a bit because people didn't know what
to do with her because she was so different. But
it's also now what's really like put her in a
spot to be hugely successful. So follow her at Hailey
Witters on Instagram and TikTok or what I like to
do sometimes when I listen to podcasts. If I don't
(02:15):
know the person, I'll go look, it's what their face
looks like, so I can imagine them during the interview.
So if you like her, check it out, enjoy it. Mike.
What's on Movie's movie podcasts? This week? I watched every
single Marvel movie and did a breakdown of how I
watched them. He had in a different way. You didn't
watch him in order? Yeah, I did a character by character,
so check that out. And then next week on this
(02:36):
is we have Chase Rice. I don't know if that
was next week, but also one that Chase left. And
I've known Chase in our capacity for years. We never
really hung out, never really got along that well, but
we kind of get into that and it was I mean,
it really was one of the best ones as far
as somebody coming in and just going, all right, all
the armors off, let's just talk about it. It's awesome.
(02:59):
It's a really good one. And this one's great and
it's Haley Witters. I hope you enjoy it. She's going
out on the twenty twenty three Raised tour. I hope
you go see her alive. She's amazing and here she is.
I grew up in Arkansas, we had a bunch of tornadoes.
You have a bunch yeah in Iowa. Yeah, yeah, we
always did us too, And so I just got them
on my wife and she's driving to Memphis and then
(03:21):
back later tonight because she has an event out there.
But she was like, hey, they just come up the phone.
It's at tornado warning. I like, everywhere, I don't see
twenty warnings? Really, yeah, did you look any everywhere? I
didn't see anything I didn't see. You know. I feel
like we all get really skittish, and rightfully so because
we had that super bad one, you know, but like
I mean tornadoes back growing up, it was like, let's
(03:44):
go sit on the board. Same thing. It really was,
until we absolutely have to go to the basement. Yeah.
We the last time there was a big storm here,
probably like six months ago, we got in the basement
because under this place there's a big like finish basement.
And in my I just had a surgery and he's
in a cone. Had two people from New York that
have flown in for like business, and we're all underneath there.
(04:05):
One of the dogs is new Pean on stuff. It
was just wild, but they were all freaked out because
they were from New York and they had never seen
tornadoes before. Again, yea, we have in Arkansas every three
weeks or so. On this it Oh my god, it
was consistent. So my point is, she's freaking out a
little bit. But I'm looking. I don't see anything. Microphone
still on, right, Yeah, you're watching. I don't see anything. Well.
I saw Haley put her phone on airplane mode, and
(04:26):
I was like, I don't know if that's the move
right now. I'm trusting y'all will tell us if we
gotta go downstair. We got I got like four different
things that are gonna alert us. But other than that,
how's it been going? It's good. I was just telling
the boys. I just got in this morning. I was
in Minneapolis last night. She played like a radio show
or something. Yeah, we played um K one O two
(04:48):
radio show fan jam Frozen fan Jam. Scottie mccrew was
out there, Shane Prophet Brelan was out there. Um yeah,
it was good. Is that Greg sweat Berg? Yes? Greg
and Pat got it. Yep. And so you flew back
this morning. You know what I saw about you was
it was as I saw that your song had maybe
(05:11):
top thirty or something last week? Am I accurate on that? Yes?
Last week I thought super cool, because yeah, it's so
hard to get to that spot because there's like a
weird like swampy ground that's like forty eight to thirty thirty,
and if you can break that then you actually have
a shot. There's just so much I mean, people are
(05:32):
just throwing stuff left and right at that chart. And
I don't really like I don't personally do music and
don't really keep up with music as far as like
was on the charts, But I just play the stuff
that I like, or have the people on the show
that I like, or I program the National Countdown or
the Women of our Country and that. But I did
see that yours had climbed up and now like you
got you got a real shot with this song. It
has like this whole thing is so new to me.
(05:54):
This is my first go with radio and it's been
such a really yeah, I've never been you know, so
like I don't know what to expect. I told my managers.
I was like, y'all just call me if it's good news,
Like you know, I think it would drive me like
neurotic to just be like checking all the time and like,
because you know, it's so much like out of your control,
(06:16):
and but this is my first go with it all,
and it's been such a learning experience for me. And
like definitely they like preped me. They were like, look,
there it's a slog in like the fifties, forties and stuff,
you know, and so like, I'm I'm pleased to hear
you saying that about the thirties because who knows. Shoot, well,
I would say that just speaking to you honestly, that
(06:38):
I think you gotta get up to like thirty nine
twenty eight so that your team then goes because they
have to kind of be reminded even though they know,
but they're so inside that hey, maybe we should we
should spend even more money on this promotion. And sometimes
it can roll if you hit top twenty five or so,
that momentum actually rolls into the next song, right, It
(06:58):
was just kind of depending on what it is. But
no one I saw. I saw it on Twitter. There's
a guy that lives in New York and he's a
random like it is like I'm not sure the show
he does, but he posts a lot of charts stuff,
and yeah, I think I saw him post it that
you'd hit top thirty. Yeah, and I was like, that's
what I'm talking about. That's awesome, that's good. And I
didn't know. I guess I've known of you so long.
I didn't know that you hadn't really done that where
(07:21):
they have tried the radio thing, because I know for
a long time they were just putting out really good
music by you, so people would know the really good
music like strategically And so, is this the first time
you've had a promo team work a song? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean I this is like my first because I
was independent for so long. I mean I've been here
fifteen years, and it was like you're twelve. I think
(07:41):
it was twenty twenty. But three years ago I signed
my first ever record deal with Big Loud and Pigasus
and so, and then it was like with the pandemic
had hit, I came in with a record, so like
we released that and then we went and did this
EP and then Raised is the first record that like
was kind of like my official starting with Big Loud
(08:04):
record and um, this was one of those songs off it.
It was like kind of testing the waters a little
bit to see what would happen with it, and this
one kind of like took off, and so they were like, great,
let's get a radio campaign going, you know, which means
that it's money, right, They're gonna spend money. Yeah, I mean,
that's really what it is. They're gonna spend money to
make sure that you can get to places like Minnesota.
(08:27):
What sucks for you as you don't get paid, but
what's great is they're paying for it, and you're gonna
go do promotion and be in front of people's faces
and you know, and then they go, well, like her,
let's play the song. It's just up yeah, you know,
but it is money and resources. Yeah, and they're spending
it now. Yeah, and hopefully when it hits top thirty,
they go, Okay, let's look, let's go a little more in. Yeah,
and if they're listening now, you should go a little
and we should go a lot more in. I'm a believer.
(08:49):
I just got my first ever plaque. I got a
gold plaque two days ago. Does it gold me five
hundred thousand? I don't really know either, So what for
this song? Yeah? And so what does that mean now?
Because back in the day it would mean five hundred
thousand units bought. But I guess now it's the equivalent
with streams. I think it's like, is it seventy million
(09:12):
or some seventy or seventy five million? I feel like, congratulations.
Where do they give it to you on stage? Um? No,
they surprised me at the Big Loud label building the
other day. They like woke me up for a nine
am surprise come to the office. Likely. I was like,
actually dressed, you know, and um yeah, and they surprised
(09:34):
me there and it was awesome. I mean I've never
won anything, you know, So it's what's crazy. I hear
you say that. I just have such a high regard
for you and your talent that sometimes I have to
be reminded that, Like even when you're like this is
my first br I'm like really, yeah, Like what a
travesty that is. Oh gosh. But don't get me depressed, Bobby. No,
it's the opposite of that. And it's a true testament
(09:56):
of just tenacity more than anything. And I feel like
that's been the key to any success I have. Yeah,
where you're actually good at something, I just last like,
you're like super talented, and I just go I'm just
like a cockroach like things by around me. I just
keep walking. I want to go back though a few
years god to the record that you paid for yourself,
(10:19):
which was The Dream. Yeah right, yeah, when you when
you pay for a record yourself, how do you go
about that? Is it a lump some how? Many tracks?
Like walk me through those decisions, because sometimes there are
hard decisions to make because you don't have money pay
for all the tracks that you want to come right,
So go back to that record and tell me how
you made the decisions that you did to put that out.
(10:39):
That was like you know, some people go and they
like cut a record in like a week. That was
like a year and a half process for me. So
it wasn't like, you know, I just had this giant
sum of money and let's go blow it on a record.
It was like I was waiting tables I um I had.
I was still in my first publishing deal, which was
with Carnival Music, so I was getting like, you know,
(11:02):
my monthly songwriter thing. Um. But let me tell everybody
listening that ain't no luxury boats. Oh no, like you're
pension pennies. You know, like first deal, you ain't making money,
but um and so I like, I also had had
my first single as a songwriter kind of during that time,
maybe a few years prior, a little Big Town recorded
(11:24):
a song I've written called happy People. Um was that
on the Frail Project or was it it was on UM? Yeah,
it was right after it was the Breaker record? Got
it and you know, again like that one struggled at radio,
like I think it was only on there for maybe
a few months, So it wasn't like I had before.
You talk about struggle tho, I want to talk about
you getting the single, like, because because that isn't that's
(11:46):
an amazing thing to hear they're cutting your song. Yes, so,
and I'm gonna get back to the record, but You've
sent me down a different hole that I want to
go look into, where it's you're writing songs, you have
a publishing deal, you write that song, and how do
you know when they're interested? First, this was like a
total freak never happened thing that happened to me where
(12:08):
it was like I went up to Boston. I think
this was like you're eight maybe of me being in
town seven or eight something, and you know, Laurie McKenna,
it's like that's like years of building up to try
and get in a room with Laurie McKenna, and I
finally got the green light and I went up to
Boston and I wrote We wrote Happy People was the
first song we ever wrote. And I was literally sitting
(12:29):
in the Boston airport about to like fly back to Nashville,
just texting my plugger, Hey, here's what we wrote. YadA YadA.
She was like, I'm going to send this to Karen
Fairchild and she like texted it to her, emailed whatever,
and within like an hour she texted me back was like, hey,
Karen wants to hold this for the sand same trips.
I'm not even home yet, and I was like what dang,
(12:53):
and so um, you know they played it. I guess
everyone liked it. Next thing you know, they're cutting it.
Next thing you know is your first get that call
they're cutting the song or do you know afterward? I
knew they were holding it, but you didn't know they
had cut it yet. I didn't know they were holding it.
And you want to know what's so funny about this story,
and just to like give some perspective, I was still like,
you get great news like that, And I was like,
(13:16):
so broke and busted, Like my flight got canceled and
I literally couldn't afford a hotel in Boston, so I
slept in the airport. Then what is position things? What
a juxtaposition? You're like, hey, major artists, Yes, they want
your song and they love it. Also, yeah, you got
(13:36):
no money for Super eight. Yeah you can't stay well
in Boston downtown Boston. It's like two hundred bucks or whatever.
But still it's like I remember, like couldn't even barely
eat a meal because I was like probably had like
a few hundred bucks in my account at that time.
But it's the insane thing about this business where it's
like the highs and the lows, you know, but um
(13:57):
and the dream that feeds you even when you're not
really eating real food. Yes, like that was it for
me for such a long time, where I just had
the idea that one day it wasn't going to be
like this, and because I had that hope in that dream,
yeah it was Okay, it sucks now, but I just
gotta keep fighting. Yes, And without that, I don't think
I could have done it. Yeah, without there being a hope,
I don't think I would have been able to last
(14:20):
like I did. Yea, that was my nourishment A lot
of times was what possibly could be. Yeah, and I
think there's a lot of that to be said about
this story too. Yeah. I like to say, like we're
kind of like negligent optimists, you know what I mean.
We take foolish risks sometimes, but every once in a
while something pays off really big. You sleep in the airport,
(14:40):
you go home, use rubb with Dorian McKinnon. You're broke,
but you're things are happening in a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.
So whenever a little big town has your song and
they say they're key, will you get any any better
rights just because an artist is holding a song or
is that mostly after they cut it? Or like when
does the reputation st a little bit where people want
(15:00):
to get you in a room? I feel like it
starts there, you know, like Lorie being able to see
my name on a song with Lori and like a
hold and a little big towns cutting it and stuff,
you know, like that all kind of really helps. I
think get cracked the door open for me a little bit.
When did they tell you that they did they send
you the song before I came out on the record.
(15:22):
I don't think they did. I think that they posted
a clip of them singing it a cappella somewhere and
that was like the first moment. I was like, oh,
you know, chills, just like hearing their voices on it.
It was such a cool feeling and it was just
really exciting, you know, you think like everything's gonna change
for you. Yeah. I've had a few of those and
(15:44):
I'm like, oh, this is huge chip and it does it,
but it's always something really small that is at the
time kind of inconsequential feeling. Yeah, that are the big things. Yeah,
that actually do pivot into stuff. So you have the
relationship with Loria the Rush a little big town, but
at the same time you're working on this record that
you're paying for yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So you say it
(16:04):
took a year and a half. Is that because you
would save up and get a track done or how
was that process? I would do like five songs I
think a session, and you know, we'd like work on that.
And I didn't really have a team at this point either,
so it was like me and my producer Jake and
my publisher Emily Schiraldi Firman at Carnival, and it was
(16:26):
kind of like the three of us just like holing
up in the office like what should we do? I
don't know, Yoda yoda, And you know, we'd kind of
work on the record a little bit. Frank Ladell at
Carnival he produces Miranda Lambert or he had done a
few records on Hurley and Walmack. He was kind of
like grandfathering us a little bit and like coaching us
through it and telling us, you know, like what he
(16:47):
honestly was just really supportive and kind of like fed
us to keep going and whatnot, because we had no
idea what we were doing. I'd never produced a record,
My producer had never produced a record. We just like
we're following our gut with it all, you know, and
making trying to make music that we liked, that we
would want to listen to. And for me, it was
the mentality of like I've been here ten years, like
(17:11):
this may be it for me, So let's just make
something that if this is the last thing I get
to make here, we love it and we can go
home and like I can tell my kids about it
some day or something. You know, unless you fail doing
what you wanted to do. There have been times when
I failed doing something other people have say why don't
you do this, and I'm like, you know what, okay,
(17:31):
and then you bam them out and you're like, god, dang,
I'd rather failed doing what I wanted to do, So
I didn't have all these thoughts that would like yeah,
and so that was that was your idea of Okay,
we may go down, dang it, but we're gonna do
something that really feels true to me and what we're doing,
because if it fails, at least we fail to honestly Yeah, yeah,
and you can hang your hat on that, you know.
And so that's kind of what we did. And it
was a year and a half of just like holding
(17:52):
up in my engineer's studio in Germantown, and you know,
we'd just stay up late into the night, drink bourbon
and talk about we're just so buzzy on songs and
energy and excitement and fun. You know. It was like
one of the most fruitful years for me because I'd
been so brokenhearted by the industry, you know, and so
(18:14):
this was like kind of me getting a little bit
of like I tuned out so much of the town
and just kind of went in and was like finding
it all again. Is there an impatience as you guys
were creating the songs that would be the record and
you're doing them in batches? Was it ever like, you know, what,
screw it, let's just put these five out, like I
(18:35):
just want to get something out. Did you have to
battle that or did you really have the patience to go,
we're gonna finish this whole thing and we're gonna put
it out as the project is because my patience isn't good. Yeah,
I'm just like, oh, didn't let's go and get it
out there. How was that process for you? I it's
funny that you say that, because I have never thought
about that. But I was just like, it was a
record in my mind, and it wasn't done until everything
(18:56):
was complete. I mean, shoot, I think that I went
up to right with Lorie again and I wrote what
ended up being like one of the title track of
the record. So we've gone in and made that session,
you know, and then I went up with her and
I wrote a few more songs. So it wasn't you know,
it was a work in progress the whole way until
it felt complete to us, and then we didn't have
(19:17):
a team, so then we're like, okay, now what do
we do with it? You know, you put out other
songs from that record, like a deluxe version, right because
you did the record that you've added songs. Was it
different to do those songs that were added because the
record was at least critically acclaimed and depending on I mean,
I like the record, and a lot of people like
the record, but I don't. I don't know it's reach
(19:38):
out because I wasn't watching any of your Psycho about
you just so was it easier to find the money
to do those tracks because of the success of the
original record? Yeah? I think so, And I'm trying to like, remember,
I think on the deluxe is when Big Loud I
was signing my deal too, so then they were a
part of that. So I wasn't like saving all my
(20:02):
waitressing tips anymore. You know. It was like they were
helping float me and giving me the freedom to be
able to create han Ty, the Bobby Cast will be
right back. Wow, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Was there any part of that record that whomever signed
you over at Big Loud, Like, I don't know which
of the guys. Yeah, which are the people over there
were instrumental and hey, that's awesome, let's get her. Was
(20:24):
there a song or two that they brought up like
really resonated with them. They were like, when we listen
to this, this song shows us who you are. Do
you remember? I remember like Seth got super jacked on
Filling my Cup when he heard Feeling my Cup. He
was like, this is the sound you know? That was
like we'd put fiddle on it. It kind of has
(20:45):
that throwback like you know, um and and he was
just like he lit up on that song. And yeah,
it's been really cool, you know, to see the whole
thing with them, and Nicole Gallants a part of it too,
with songs and daughters, and she's someone I've written with
for a very long time, so she knows me very
well creatively. But I feel very fortunate. I think having
(21:05):
been here for so long, I was always so like
gun shy about record labels because I've seen so many
friends just get crushed, you know what I drop, Yeah,
just it not work. Yeah, So it was very important
for me. One of the perks of having been around
the block of this town a few times. Very important
for me to find someone that just like got it,
(21:27):
you know, and I felt that Seth and Nicole and
the team there, they really got it. And they've been
really cool about letting me do my thing. You know,
when you play shows now and if you when you
play the single, do you hear people sing back to you, Yeah,
it's last night. It was so freaking nuts. It's so
bizarre as someone who's been here for freaking ever, you know,
(21:49):
put out multiple records to be able to see the
difference with this one song. It's just nuts, and it's
nuts at thirty, oh god, twenty, it's a it's a
different level ten. I mean, you're gonna have so many
people that finger quotes believed believed in you from the beginning.
Like that's the best. That's the best part about it
(22:11):
is that so many people now, Hayley, You're gonna be like,
we knew it. We knew it when we first we
first moved to town. You're like, well, if you knew it,
why don't you call me? Yeah? Seriously, I was so
when you moved to town there you were if some
of the stuff, I'm just gonna go from memory of
ye speaking with you, uh teenager when you moved here.
I was seventeen. That's why teenagers seems because you weren't.
But you went to school here though, right I came here. Yeah,
(22:33):
so I was like, I'm moving here no matter what.
And my mom kind of panic mode, oldest to leave
the nest, like she found Belmont. She was like, please
go to school. So it was kind of like my
safety net, you know. But if you're seventeen when you
move here, because you even go to school right when
you moved here. Yeah, I was like one of I
was one of those weird kids where it was like
school starts in August. I'm eighteen in September, you know.
(22:55):
Um so, yeah, i'd lived there. I lived on campus.
I didn't have a call, are you know. I walked
down a broadway, walked into Tootsie's, was like, can I
get a gig? You know that whole thing. How did
you find Nashville though? In general, because that your town
in Iowa. Not big, No, So it was Nashville a
bit because for me, this is the biggest city of
ever I've been. I'm in big cities a lot now,
(23:16):
but I'm from Mountain Pine, Arkasas. I never lived in
a city this big yeah, like Austin, Nashville, same size,
And when I would get to I'd be like, dany,
this is huge. H But then my friends would come
here from bigger they were like, oh, what a tiny town.
And I'm like, you guys don't know what it's like
growing up in a small town. Was there that for
you when you first moved here? Like holy crab, tall building? Yeah,
sports team? Oh yeah. I felt like such a city girl. Yeah,
(23:37):
you know, like q sex in the city. I was like,
I am just a huge city girl now. But yeah,
because this was the biggest city i'd been to too.
What'd your parents think about you moving to a big city?
I think they were a little scared for me, but
I think they were excited for me, you know, and
could they've been nothing but like encouraging and go get
(23:58):
it and go do it and Whatnotum Apparently my mom
like locked herself in her bedroom for a week because
I was just like, I'm the oldest six like moving
nine hours away. I didn't know a single soul, you know,
so I think, um, you know, I like to think
she missed me. But yeah, it was a big deal
for me, and I found it because she had she knew.
(24:19):
I was so determined to do something here and I
just didn't know how. You know, probably same with Arkansas.
It's like there's no music scene. There's nobody that's done
in there's no blueprint. People where I grew up worked
as mill Yeah, and so that's what I knew. So
people most people left school they did in your town.
What did most kids do when they graduated? Um, you know,
(24:40):
either went into like a trade school, started work over
their dad or um, you know, some kids would go
to like Iowa or Iowa State or something. And so
you move here and you're going to school. What did
you think about Belmont as a school freshman year? Big?
Did you think? Were you like whoa? Also these kids
are really talented? Yeah, because you're so scared because again
I'm like little kind kid, you know, I didn't come
(25:01):
from a musical family like, so I just totally it
was just like oh my gosh, you know, like everyone
here is so good, and you know there's the whole
like Belmonte culture and the stars and all that. So yeah,
I mean this Nashville was like my crash course and
like country music and honky tonk education, you know, going
down playing bars learned very quickly. It's a songwriter town book,
(25:24):
a gig at Richard's Cafe, which ironically is where I
went back in twelve years later, asking for a job,
but just feeling my way through the dark with it all,
trying to meet as many people as possible, trying to
co write immediately, just to build my network and get
to know people. What were you doing playing in Iowa?
If you're fourteen fifteen you love music? Where were you
(25:46):
playing the year or two years or however long to
actually know that you love to do it and you
wanted to move and pursue it. I mean, gosh, like
flatbed trailers at birthday parties and graduation anywhere? You just anywhere?
Like did you start? Where do you get your first guitar?
My first guitar? My mom got me. She signed me
up for some good like guitar center, I think in
(26:08):
Cedar Rapids. She signed me up for some guitar lessons.
I started playing guitar, learning a few chords. I always
loved writing, and I always knew I wanted to write
my songs, So I started writing silly little songs. And
then she actually brought me down here when I was
like fifteen, and that was like the moment I think
(26:29):
that I got to see it, and then there was
no turning back. You know, when you left, you just knew.
Did you talk about it a lot? Like? Oh? Probably?
I think I was like so pumped and just I'm
moving to Nashville, YadA, YadA. You know that's so cute.
Did you think let's just talk at the trip down?
Do you drive or fly? Drug drove with my family.
My family all loaded up the truck. All my siblings
(26:50):
came down, and you know, I'm like, all your siblings
came down. Five huh yeah. Dad brought the truck. Everyone
he liked to. I mean, he'd throw us all in
the back of the truck, put a topper on it,
and we don't just probably not the most safe, but
sometimes no top, you know, I mean. And so we
all drove down, and I was really it was bittersweet.
I was, I was so excited to be here, but
(27:13):
I've always been so sad to leave there. And so
you know, I'm thinking, we're gonna have this really sweet,
you know, emotional weekend. And they literally dropped me off
and we're like, all right, we'll see Thanksgiving and they
just turned around and drove back to Iowa. Were you
in a dorm? Yeah, so did you think on your
You're not going to be able to really remember this,
(27:35):
but maybe you can just kind of identify the feeling.
But as you were on your way down and were
you like I'm going to Nashville breaking gonna make it,
or like I'm going to Nashville, I don't know what's
gonna happen, but I'm gonna try. Like what was that?
I was like, I'm gonna make it, you know. I
think I was just like so, I didn't know how,
I didn't know when, but I just had this feeling
like this is what I'm doing, you know, and I'm
(27:56):
there's never been a plan B. It wasn't until you know,
a decade in that I really started to think for
the first time ever, like what if this doesn't work?
What else are you going to do? You know? Um,
did you finish school at Belmont? But did oh good
for you? Yeah? And were you playing You say you
went to Tousie Where did you go very first and go, hey,
(28:17):
can I like audition or where was the first time
you played a show in Nashville's Yeah, I mean I
went down to like the open mic and asked. But
then the other place was Richards and then another early
one was um gosh, I don't even think it exists anymore.
It was like kind of behind Saco over in Vandy.
I think it was called like cat. It was like
(28:39):
a oyster bar or something, which sounds so weird in Nashville,
but yeah, it was like this little basement dive bar.
You walked down and the guy would have writers nights there.
And I remember seeing Ruthie Collins. She was in a
band at the time, she was in a duo, and
I just like watched that show and then I went
(29:00):
and asked the guy, the sound guy, like how can
I play here? The commodore was really big. I remember
when were you playing a bunch of covers mostly after
are people there? Or were you playing your own music?
Those riders nights were totally my own music. What about
like a tutsis tutsis covers? You know, did you have
to learn a lot of covers or did you learn
some but then put like the phone up and play
(29:23):
the chords of people? Asked that was that was like
some old day stuff, you know, like I knew a
lot of songs from playing the bars back home, so
I knew a lot of covers, you know, and then
they have the house band there, so I'd jump up
sing SuDS in the bucket, uh, you know, Heads Carolina
things like that. Um, you know, some days I'd to
(29:44):
wake up and I'm still trying to go to school too,
and sometimes they call and they're like, hey, we need
you down in like ten minutes. Can you get down here,
and you know, stitching class to like go play, yeah,
and I'm like playing. I'd go do like a four
There was some days that I would play like a
four hour shift. Me and I gets are at the
airport and then I would go straight down to Broadway
and I'd play Rippies from like you know, two to six.
(30:07):
So it's like we're in the airport. Um, it doesn't
really exist anymore. But there's like two Tootsies. There's the
one that's cool and in there, and then there was
one that was like on your way to baggage claim,
and I was the one on the way to baggage claim.
So you're playing these places you're going to school. How
about your grades? Oh see, CB, did you feel like
(30:29):
because I was working full time and going to school
two and there were times where I felt underwater. Yeah,
did you feel that way? Did you ever feel like, hey,
I'm a after quit school. I never felt that way.
I mean I did enough to like get to pass
and to make good grades, you know, But in my mind,
it was like I was out hustling music, row in
the honky tonks and trying to work and you know,
(30:51):
make music and get noticed and get discovered. How'd you
get your publishing deal? Um I had graduated. I was
like a year after I'd graduated, and I made a
little EP and you know, I had a few contacts
passing it out whennot I was at an ASCAP and
they had a GPS program that would like hook you
up with a publisher every month and you would get
(31:13):
to go in and have sessions. And I'm reconnected with Emily,
who I'd known from running around in circles and stuff
like that, and she I was her first signing at Carnival.
Well yeah, she was like, I want you to be
my first signing here, and so, you know, for both
of us it was brand spanking new. We don't know
what we're doing, but we're figuring out together. We believe
(31:33):
in each other and and I was with her for
eight years. Was there anyone that you kind of showed
up to town around the same time and or maybe
a few people that you saw actually make it and
you're like, yeah, dang, they are good, but I'm good too.
I was like, so, I mean, I don't know if
I had that approach. Everyone was just like so much
better than me in my mind. So it wasn't like
(31:55):
I was like bitter or like, you know whatever. But
I mean Casey Musgras like slept on my couch a
few times. Marin. I remember when Marion got to town.
I was probably like five years in at that point
and she I just remember watching her blow up, you know.
And um, I went to school with like Ryan hurd Um,
(32:17):
what do you think? I think he was like a
year older than me maybe, but yeah, same time. What
do you what do you credit And I know what
your answer is going to be, but I'm just walking
back to it. What do you credit their success too?
Especially early? I think they were so good they had
been doing it since they were so much younger. I
didn't have like those resources, I don't think growing up,
(32:39):
you know what I mean, I just didn't know Um,
they kind of had the Texas thing where it was
like it sounds like they were tour in Texas and
making records and whatnot. I didn't have that, and I
think that that really helped them know who they were
so early. They both did know who they were, very
knew who they were. Yeah, you know, they showed up
knowing who they were, and they were really great songwriters. Yes, which,
(33:03):
like you said, this is a songwriter town, which I
don't think a lot of people know because it's just hey, Nashville,
can you sing? Go make it really hard to sing
if you can't actually sing your own store your own words,
because there's a lot of being luke and sing. Yeah,
there's a lot of people who can write really good songs,
but there's a few they can write really good songs
and freaking sing them. Yeah. And if you can do that, yeah,
(33:26):
Like that's where it is. You're playing these shows, you're working,
you're going to school, you graduate. Do you think, okay, well,
it's about to get easier now because now I can
focus fully on music. And was it easier? Well? I
had sort of a unique situation, I guess, because I
actually I actually graduated a month after a month later
(33:47):
than I was supposed to because my brother died, So
that kind of threw a whole you know, left turn
into my plan. So those years after I freshly graduated,
it was pretty dark for me, you know. I mean
I wasn't focused on music. I was still writing. I
remember getting like the first email from someone in the industry,
Bonnie Baker emailed me, and it was really sweet and kind,
(34:11):
and it made me think like I should keep doing this,
you know, someone checked in on me and thout going
home to stay. I did go home for a minute.
I went home for like his funeral, and then a
whole month or two months after that, my whole entire
family just kind of like packed up the RV and
went driving out west. So once we got back from
(34:31):
that trip, though, I was like, I need to go back.
I'm gonna keep working graduate all that, So I did that.
But yeah, you know, I think coming out of that period,
I don't really know when I was. I was still writing,
still working, probably not as much, but I don't know
when I really started hitting the ground running. After that.
(34:52):
It just kind of gradually started happening again, probably when
I started making that next DP and trying to land
a publishing deal because I was nannying at the time
and waiting table still and and then I made that
EP and I got my pub deal like an hour
or an hour. That's quick story. Yes, let's do a
(35:13):
tornado check, Mike. How are we doing? We're good? Okay?
Is there anything tornado? Becauld? Say? Even? If so, I'm
gonna call Kate. Like as you driving to Memphis, they
just said nothing spicy on the radar as of this minute.
Who said nothing spicy? And why am I trusting them
if they're calling the weather weather? Okay? And like to Memphis.
If there's only a Memphis account, I can find one.
(35:34):
Take a look see if you don't mind. Is your
car on the shop? Uh? No, it's that it's in
your's right, Yeah, was it in the shop? I was
gonna take it, but I don't have time. No, that's
a time. That's a thing. You should have time. That's
a priority thing. I know. I'm gonna take it tomorrow,
I think. But what's wrong? Why are you driving? What's
wrong with it? Just needs an oil change? Oh that's it?
(35:54):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, my god, okay, yeah, no, no, no, no,
I'm not like missing a bumper or anything. Well even work. Okay,
so your car everything's good. I'm good. Okay. Um, who
taught you how to drive? Back home? Well? I didn't
drive like a shift or anything, my dad. No, I didn't.
My dad taught me how to drive a shift later. Um,
(36:15):
but I drove a truck and he taught me how
to drive. And he was like the scariest teacher. He
taught me how to read. He taught me how to
drive because he's like one of those guys. It's like
you want to learn how to swim. Boom, push you
in the deep in starts swimming, you know what I mean.
So um, and he's very impatient. So you start just
(36:37):
like making moves you know. Um, you didn't drive it,
you'd have to throw a stick like early on. No
I didn't. No, I didn't. Um, I am assigning a
biased that I shouldn't be doing. I would love to.
I mean I tried. He went and gave me a
crash course in the field and whatnot, and it was
(36:58):
very painful. You have a shut corn getting so mad?
Oh yeah okay, yeah I've done that too. But yeah,
if you just had no one that I've been like,
you're not from my one. Get right here, Yeah, that's
all the story. So did you ever get close, meaning
you're in town, you're working, you're writing, you're singing. Did
you ever get close to like landing something and it
(37:18):
just didn't quite happen? Um, like the first time you
had your heart broken by this town where you're like
godly like that, oh so close? I mean, I think
it was kind of like the cuts, you know, when
people are putting things on hold, or when it was
like you were starting to have some like label meetings
and stuff. The showcases. Man, those things are so intense
(37:41):
because it's like you get so worked up. Everyone's coming out,
they're watching you. And I don't even know if those
happen anymore with TikTok, But like back in the day,
it was like this is your moment and press us
and that was always really painful. They talked funny, it
sounds like they did. Yeah, that's how I'd be working.
But you know, stuff like that. I'm sure there's been
(38:01):
I feel like mine has. Mine was just like a nice, slow,
gradual heartbreak, you know, of things not working out. I
think so probably you know, it wasn't like there was
one big moment that just kind of like, you know,
screwed me up and then I quit. It was it
was like kind of just like a low, a slow
grind And then yeah, so did you have any label
(38:27):
heads or meetings that you would meet with and they
would be like, man, you got something good, we just
don't know what it is. We can't do anything with
you all the time because I only asked that because
what what's making you different now also made you different then,
But I think people are now realizing the value of
it now. Yeah, because then, like you there there are
(38:49):
parts of you that are very traditional, there are parts
of you that aren't. But depending how you're viewed by
the individual, they could go while she's way too traditional
for what we're doing, or it could be the other way,
like she look tritional butter So I just I would
imagine there were times where people just know what to
do with you, because you're obviously awesome, but they were like,
we just we don't know, we don't know what to do. Yeah, yeah,
(39:13):
I think like all the time, did you reconsider your
style or yeah I did. There was like a phase
that I did and it was awful, and I was like,
I'm never we had we made cut some things, and
I had our first meeting and I had to play
it for a friend in the business, and I was like,
I'm never gonna play these songs to anybody again. I
don't like this stuff, you know what I mean. But yeah,
(39:35):
it was weird because everyone always told me I was
too Americana to Americana. I was Texas country. I wasn't,
you know, commercial, and at that time it was very pop.
Commercial was very pop. So I felt like fish out
of water, Like I grew up on Alan Jackson and
Trishia Yearwood and stuff like that. So I didn't know
what to do with that. But yeah, I mean, it's
(39:56):
interesting how music is just so cyclical because now it's
like countries back and Americana's country and America Americana is
the most country thing period anyway. Yeah, Like honestly like that.
People say, oh, they do Americana, but that to me,
there's nothing country or than Americana music. Yeah, is the
weird thing about that. Yeah, And so I was with
Lucas Nelson a few weeks ago, who's awesome, Like just
(40:21):
by the way, I liked his music, but until I
heard him play a live like I liked his music.
Now I freaking love I love what he does. After
watching that guy sing, and he's also the nicest guy,
and you know, you'll classify him as like americana. Yeah,
and I'm like that dude's just a country music artist. Yeah,
like straight up just a country music artist. Yeah. And
so the Americana label, I feel gets tossed around a
(40:43):
little unfairly, yeah, because it's just people that don't know
what to do with it. Yeah, and that's what it is, Like,
it's really good, but we don't know what to do
with it because we're scared to take a commercial risk
on it. So we're gonna assign you the category of Americana. Yeah,
Like Isabel would go to the whole list of people
that there's nobody more country, and had they arrived at
a different time now or three years prior or, they
(41:05):
would have just been country. Yeah, but because of the time.
And they say, I remember just seeing you like your style,
and I was like, okay, before I even heard you,
I was like very traditional, but then I heard you
and I was like, oh yea, yeah, you're traitional, but
there are some really progressive elements here at the same time. Yeah,
the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back. Welcome back to
(41:26):
the Bobby Cast. So whenever you meet with Seth at
Big Loud, did they say, look, this is you're doing
what we want and so let's keep doing that, but
let's find a way, Like we'll find a way to what?
Like what do they how do they grow you an artist?
Because you knew you were too. We talked about Marion
just you just did it here? Yeah, like you found
it here? Yeah? What do they say about your future
(41:48):
and your progression whenever you finally sign a deal? You know,
they honestly didn't say much. I was like really caught
off guard by how much they were, like, go, do
you really? Because I was like expecting to come in
and get changed and shifted a little bit, you know,
and YadA YadA. But like from the beginning they were like, no,
(42:09):
we are into this, you know what I mean? Just
keep doing you, keep being you. So I feel very
lucky in that respect. You're doing some big tours, You're
getting to post some really good people. I was looking
before I came over here. Did you have you done
this Shania stuff yet? Or is that coming up? It's
coming up in May. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, it's
so cool. Excited about that. Yeah, I'm very excited about it.
(42:32):
I'm like so nervous. I was doing an interview today
and he was like, how's it going to feel to
play stadiums? And I was like, what, I don't think
it really hit me yet. You know what I mean,
It's gonna be big. Have you spoken to her yet
at all? Never matter, it's gonna be So I have
a friend I'm gonna pull some details so it never
gets tracked back to them, and we'll say he he
(42:55):
was opening for an artist, big artist, Shani alike, but
not Garth. People think it's going and uh, this friend
goes back and he had it. He'd played multiple shows
and still hadn't met the headliner really, which I thought
was weird too. And so he played multiple shows. I'll
tell you off there the whole real story about I'm
gonna give you the ju up. And now he played
(43:16):
multiple shows and like the ninth show headliners says, hey,
I want to go. I want to meet him, and
he's like, oh great. So he goes in and meets
him and he takes a acoustic guitar and he said, hey,
I haven't get to me. Yet you're my hero, You're
one of my heroes. I'm so grateful to you bring
(43:36):
me on this tour. You know, I just want you
to know that that you've really influenced the music. And
he said, yeah, I've done that to a lot of people. Whoa, whoa,
and like, yeah, then what did you come sign the guitargoes? No.
I said, well, thank you for having me and left
and he didn't go back again. Oh my god, he
didn't play any more shows. He didn't know. He didn't
(43:58):
go back to meet him again. He played shows, but
he just like played the shows and left. And by
the way, he yeah, okay, and I'll tell you the
whole day because it's okay, it's hilarious. Oh my god.
But I know that Shania is not like that is
why I tell the story good because yeah, good, that
would tear, that would crush me. I know it suck
now though it's harder to be a jerk, I think
(44:19):
just because the way that information is distributed quickly and
in so many places. Yeah, that will be tough if
or today. But Shanaya, I've met her a few times.
I have people that have that she's lovely, so lovely.
So that's super cool. What do your parents think about that?
When you go I'm gonna go do shows with Shanaya.
They're so stoked. I mean, like I grew up like
on those records. I have a video of me singing
(44:40):
in my underwear like any man of mine, just belting
it out. You know. Um, that's like a record I
just remember being played all the time in my house.
You know, Dad always thought Shania was hot, so I'm
sure he's stoked. Your dad also talks funny. They are
like some like Screech meets Yeah, some kind of weird.
I'll be an impersonator when this when my single crashes.
(45:04):
That's what I'm saying. You don't, You're not you can't
be an impersonator. They're terrible impressions. But I appreciate it.
Appreciate it. Well, yeah they could. Yeah. Um, so are
you doing stuff? They're at church? Yeah, what is that?
I'm gonna go do some shows with him. I think
in September we're doing the Gorge Jelly rolls on that show,
and then I'm doing another Weekend with him and Paul Coffin.
(45:25):
Are you doing festivals? I'm doing a lot of festivals
this year, and I'm gonna do, you know. So I'm
doing the Schnaia Tour. I'm doing some dates on the
Eric Tour. You know, everyone kind of doing that thing
where they're rotating openers. So I have some dates there,
some dates there, some dates with Luke Brian and the Fall,
and then I'm doing a lot of festival stuff. We
interrupt this interview to bring you a message from our sponsor.
(45:49):
This is the Bobby Cast. Are you doing any of
your shows where you're like, let's see if anybody comes,
how many fans I have? I mean, that's basically right.
I mean that's the test too. And anytime I put
tickets on sale, because I'll do theaters and I'll do
set specific seats, I am so neurotic and I get
so nervous that nobody likes me every single time. It's scary, man.
(46:13):
So are you doing your own shows where it's like
please sell? Yeah, we're starting that next week and um
we start. It's called the Raised Tour and it'll be
you know, this record, the Raised Record and all that,
and I think we have like nine dates. But I'm
really stoked. I mean, it is scary and I've definitely
had the total flop ones, you know, but it's so
(46:35):
cool to do a show that's just you know, even
if it's freaking fifty people showing up, they know every
word to every song, and that's just like, those are
the moments you for thinking that, because I don't. I'm
not mature like that. If I go and it's not
sold out, I go, oh, I've mental mental breakdowns almost
Oh my gosh. And if a show doesn't sell like
(46:56):
seventy percent the first weekend, I'm like, well, this sh'll
end up getting canceled. It is good for you, oh man,
good for you for enjoying it. If there are five
open seats and I see them, I'm like, they people
must have been sitting there and they left because they hated.
Oh no, that's not. My brain's tragic. I live in
tragedy constantly. But good for you. You're gonna go play
(47:18):
these shows. The song is hopefully we'll be killing it.
It's doing great right now with momentum, which is amazing
to see and it's just so cool to see it. Like,
you're just an example for a lot of folks. And
I hate wh people tell me that sometimes because I
don't want to be the example. I want to be
the example of somebody just shows up and is super
talented and makes it. But there are a lot of
(47:38):
people who are super talented who showed up and then
he got sent back home too because they didn't have
the knowledge or the capacity to handle it once it
finally happened. And man, it is time. It's it's your
time to be a star. It's so cool. It is
thank you. It is your time to be a star.
So when you do the show's for like Shanaya or Eric,
(47:58):
that set is probably twenty minutes or so, I think. So, yeah,
when you do your shows, are you doing an hour?
We're doing like ninety Okay, I'm gonna do an hour.
I'm gonna go home after an hour, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna it's the rest of us gonna be good
like a capacity for like sixty minutes being a capacity
and then I'm out. Um so, and they can go
to your website and get tickets to your your tour. Well,
it is an exciting time for you. It is. It's
(48:21):
super cool. I mean, when when did you come on
anything with me? The first time I came on, was
it a year ago. Maybe actually everything she ain't had
maybe just come out when I came on the show,
Is that right? Yeah? And I brought fiddle player in
and Laurence Achs and um Ethan and we sat into
I don't think the record had come out because you
asked me about boys back Home or what my favorite
(48:43):
song wasn't we talked. I don't think it'd come out yet.
It does seems like forever ago, doesn't. It seems like
forever ago. Did I do a TikTok about you before
I ever met you? Did? I? I did what like,
I've been a fan and for let me, I'm not
gonna go back home my own TikTok. I just want
to look at all my h streaming numbers, so tough, right,
(49:03):
I did a TikTok about her. I was so interested
in your story. This read who does all my like
social media editing? He's like video a plus guy? And
I was like, let's do ony on Haley Witters. And
so we found all this stuff about you, and then
we did one and I posted it and I was like,
I never met that girl. That's oh my gosh, holy cow.
Did was she the one that did you sing? Dixie.
(49:23):
Was that her? No, maybe it wasn't her. Do you
think Dixie checks like a high school something? Oh? I
wrote a paper? Is that what it was? Trying to
remember the things that we had said about her? It
was like one of them. I think, like someone got
sick or something, and I like stepped in. That's what
it was in your paper. You had imagined that one
of the chicks got sick, and you're which one can
(49:45):
you stepped in and filled her off? That's funny. My
point was all dying to know where that paper is.
By the way, me too, because that would be awesome
to see. My point is I've been a fan for
a long time, even before we met each other. I
was like, I'm so interested in like what she's about
because I know and knew it wasn't easy to stay
being about what you were about when people didn't quite
(50:06):
get it yet, because that that ain't easy, and you
can go, well, I'm as talented everybody else. I could
change and just do what's accepted now. But he didn't
do that, and like, sincerely, that's I'm super proud for
you that it's now starting to happen. Well, thank you
so much. And there's a lot of really great people
in this town. I don't believe you have to show
me so many great people. One of them and there's
(50:27):
two other people in here, so that tells you one
of the main great in here. I mean, there's been
so many great people, and I'm inspired by so many
of the paths. And Brandy Clark, I remember she's one.
I remember when she was shopping and all that, and
it was just like, how you know? And so I
just I have a lot of good friends. Give a dog.
I have two dog? What are they? An awesie? Who
(50:50):
is awesome? I'm so codependent? Out of do you have dogs? Like?
So codependent? And then I have a blue tick beagle mix. Boh,
he doesn't really like that much. So did you get
Bow from here or from home? Bo? We got from
like Indiana. He was a foster pop. Yeah, we had
a bunch of I asked that because we had blue ticks,
but we used him to hunt. Oh yeah, they're like
(51:12):
they were either a bird dog or so if he's
from Indiana was a blue That's that's just whrom my
mind went. So, anyway, you got Bow, why were you
in Indiana touring? No? We found it like the foster
company or something was in Indiana, I don't know, and
so we like went up there and got him. And
then the Aussie we say were rescued her showed up
in an Arby's parking lot in Cookeville and this woman
(51:34):
just like handed her to us. So wait, I don't understand.
You got to go into more, dear. It was Craigslist.
It was a Craigslist find. You know. I was at
my friend's baby shower and I was like, let's get
a dog. We're not getting a kid, so let's get
a dog. And we went on Craigslist and found Aussie's
and we went and like drove to Cookeville to meet
this person and they just like we thought it would
(51:57):
be at the barn. They were like their she was
raised on a farm, like would be with a mama
at the barn and all that, and like literally the
address takes us to an Rvy's parking lot and the
woman gets out of the car with the one puppy
and just like hands her to us and you just
handle money and we just hand her cash, and we're like,
I mean, we got to take this dog now, you know.
It's like we can't send her back right. So it
(52:18):
was kind of sad because then we got home and
she had flees too, So we say we rescued her. Yeah, no,
that works. And anything off Craigslist was rescued no matter
what it is. But it's couch, a human, yeah, a dog, anything?
Is that any good part of town to be And
it's in general, like you just need to know exactly
where you're gonna go in those places and don't go
anywhere else. Nope. I have two dogs. We have a
(52:39):
husky mix, a husky and she's also a hound. Oh
so we got her. She was like this big she
was just pulled her off the street. She was so
aggressive that they told us she would never be able
to be with her other dog. He was like a
year older. They were like, she's so aggressive, you can't
keep her in the same house. And we had aggression
specialists come here and work with us because it's about
(53:00):
us being able to be consistent with the dog. And
the aggression special is like, she's so she was on
the street so long, these traits will never leave her.
She will attack and if she gets big, she'll kill
your other dog. Whoa. And to Caitlin's credit, she was
like that's tough. Okay, it didn't matter. This is the dog.
(53:22):
So we're very consistent with her, and she's awesome. Now
she's too she's not aggressive, she's actually opposite, annoyingly like
loving her, her and the bulldog. She has a crate
that she sleeps in, but it never closes, right, it's
not a crate, but we create trained her early on
to know, this is your house, this is your consistency. Yeah,
and so it's her crate. But even but the bulldog
(53:43):
will sometimes go lay in her crate and she'll just
go lay in the bed beside it. But she's not
aggressive at all. So she's just like, okay, cool. And
so we've had her for two years. And then Stanley
is a bulldog and he's in surgery today is fourteenth surgery.
Whoa we got him? I mean he had six surgeries
in his first year. He had a lot of stuff
(54:04):
from eye weener, no, that's but it's really him, it's
really him. But he had all these surgeries and so
he lived in a cone. So it's really hard to
instill any sort of discipline in because of that. But
he's a great dog now. But he tores acl one
leg all the way in two had surgery, miserable rehab
because these three's fat dogs towards the other one all
the way in half. And today he gets sent off
(54:26):
to the hospital. I'll be back tomorrow morning. But I
actually just posted this walking over here. This is me
give him a pep talk this morning. Here you go,
Oh my gosh, you don't even know English, so you
don't know what surgery is. But when you're done that leg,
he's gonna be all better. Okay, And I'm sorry I
can't teach you this morning because you'll vomit all over
the doctor. I love it very much. Hopey for concergery. Okay, buddy,
(54:52):
high five? Oh my gosh, he high fives. So yes,
I love my dogs. I'm set just and my wife
never had dogs growing up, so these are her first dogs.
And it's fun to see that her. Yeah, she was like,
we never had dogs, I don't like and she just
loves them. It's like I told you, I told you,
(55:12):
you tell me I'm an idiot. I told you you're
the idiot. You said you didn't like dogs. Except I
don't call her radio because she beat me. Okay, look, Hayley,
we've we've we've done it all, we've said it all.
First of all, it's great to see the trajectory that's
happening now because you deserve it. And I will say
I would say the same thing to do off the air.
Getting to this place on the chart is good for
(55:32):
one of two reasons. One either this song keeps going
or two it's crazy momentum for the next one. Okay,
it literally is like, for some reason, you're in five
weeks levels like, well, we can't get past that's they're
gonna go to a song immediately. Yeah, and that's what's good.
So you've hit that spot that actually allows you to
(55:52):
have another really strong shot. Worst case, that's worst case scenario. Okay,
best cases, let's go. Let's go best case. Let's go.
Oh may I hope we get so famous forget who
I am in two years? That would be that's soul
to make goals to for you to walk out and
be like, who's that guy? It's like white ain't gonna
that could be him? That ain't happening. Look, Haley Witters
at Hailey Witters follow her everything she ain't can we
(56:14):
have like four seconds of it? Mind? So way, don't
get sued by the music police. Everything. We'll get sued
by the music place if we play over five seconds.
Oh my gosh. Brutal, brutal exactly, the music police. That's
you and your people though. So talking with how was
it doing like late night TV for the first time?
(56:35):
Oh my god, that's one of those things, is like
for the first time I get to do would you
do Kimel? So insane? Yes, yes, he say, tell me
about it Kimmel? Very like a publicist called Monday night, Hey,
can you do Kimmel on Wednesday? Sure, jumped on a plane,
flew out, very cool, like honestly, just hung in our trailers. Um,
they had great snack selection. We did two takes, just
(56:59):
ran through this song twice. I got to meet Jimmy.
He was very sweet, took a few photos and it
was done like a yeah. And then it was kind
of nice because we were like pre taped. I don't
know if I was supposed to say that, but we
were pre taped. But it was kind of nice because
the day of you could be like, I'm gonna be
on Kimmel all night without the nerves and knowing it
was good. I didn't see it, so I didn't know.
(57:22):
I was like, oh, I got it because I was like,
she's in a pre tape. If I know I did good, yeah,
if it's like live, I'm like, I don't know, I
may suck at this. I don't want body watching quite yet.
That's awesome. And then I saw it may have been
around the same time that Kelly Clarkson did a cover
up because she comes out and sings at the beginning. Yes,
and I've done her show before and she she did
a queen song and she crushed it. I was like, oh, yeah,
(57:42):
forgot she's like one of the greatest singers ever too. Yeah.
But then she did one of your songs. Yeah, like
the next morning. Oh, it was like the next morning really. Yeah.
It was really strange where it was like all and
it was like kind of funny because I had just
been on Kimmel. But again, like I guess like back
Home demo or something. Every like woman I know back
home texting me like you were on Kelly Clarkson this morning,
(58:04):
and I was like, I was on Kimmel last night too,
you know. But it was like, Kelly, Man, that's awesome, O, congratulations,
I'd love to see it. I'm super proud. For you
and you guys, go follow Haley on Instagram and TikTok
and just listen to her singing, listen streamer music. But
also you do enough singing and places and on social
media so people can actually hear you sing without a
(58:26):
processor without like it's just it's so good, you're so good.
You're so good, and I love to see it. Okay,
at Haley Woods, go follow her and her car's fine,
so don't worry about that. And there are no tornados, Mike,
We're all good, good, okay, thank you, and we will
conclude by Haley. This has been a Bobby Cast production.
You get great news like that, and I was like,
so broke and busted. My flight got canceled and I
literally couldn't afford a hotel in Boston, so I slept
in the airport. Then you know Hayley Witters. I mean,
she absolutely could have made it just based on talent
in her first year in town. But what I like
(00:25):
about her story is just the timing. It wasn't right,
but she just kept on. Like timing's a big part
of it, because she's had the talent. But what's cool
is she didn't really change who she was, and now
she gets to be who she really is, and now
she gets she's having a real moment here. And so
I really like Hayley. We've had her on the radio
(00:45):
show to play and I don't know, I just just
her spirit is awesome. And she's very open about the
fact that she's been here ten, eleven, twelve years and
it took her that long, and she talks about had
to go back to waiting tables, and if anything, I
want people to take away from this, not even the
music part of it, that like, as long as you're
still going to day and over and it's super cool.
(01:06):
I'm just a big fan of her episode three eighty six.
Her current single is everything. She Ain't sort of turn
it down briefly, so let me get sued right down
and all the way, all the way now back up
money everything she eats everything. We still have an official
(01:33):
ruling on that, right. They just say no more than
five seconds. They say five seconds, but we should do
it like six seconds for a couple episodes to see
if they come at us, and then seven the next
thing you know, we're playing the entire song. Huh. So
Hailey Witters, she has an album called Raised to come
out last year. It's her third studio album. But she
talks about stuff and it's like, does that happened? Twelve
(01:53):
years she spent here and she just now started to
really see it happen. But she's always been awesome and
she's always been herself, and I think that's what held
her back for a bit because people didn't know what
to do with her because she was so different. But
it's also now what's really like put her in a
spot to be hugely successful. So follow her at Hailey
Witters on Instagram and TikTok or what I like to
do sometimes when I listen to podcasts. If I don't
(02:15):
know the person, I'll go look, it's what their face
looks like, so I can imagine them during the interview.
So if you like her, check it out, enjoy it. Mike.
What's on Movie's movie podcasts? This week? I watched every
single Marvel movie and did a breakdown of how I
watched them. He had in a different way. You didn't
watch him in order? Yeah, I did a character by character,
so check that out. And then next week on this
(02:36):
is we have Chase Rice. I don't know if that
was next week, but also one that Chase left. And
I've known Chase in our capacity for years. We never
really hung out, never really got along that well, but
we kind of get into that and it was I mean,
it really was one of the best ones as far
as somebody coming in and just going, all right, all
the armors off, let's just talk about it. It's awesome.
(02:59):
It's a really good one. And this one's great and
it's Haley Witters. I hope you enjoy it. She's going
out on the twenty twenty three Raised tour. I hope
you go see her alive. She's amazing and here she is.
I grew up in Arkansas, we had a bunch of tornadoes.
You have a bunch yeah in Iowa. Yeah, yeah, we
always did us too, And so I just got them
on my wife and she's driving to Memphis and then
(03:21):
back later tonight because she has an event out there.
But she was like, hey, they just come up the phone.
It's at tornado warning. I like, everywhere, I don't see
twenty warnings? Really, yeah, did you look any everywhere? I
didn't see anything I didn't see. You know. I feel
like we all get really skittish, and rightfully so because
we had that super bad one, you know, but like
I mean tornadoes back growing up, it was like, let's
(03:44):
go sit on the board. Same thing. It really was,
until we absolutely have to go to the basement. Yeah.
We the last time there was a big storm here,
probably like six months ago, we got in the basement
because under this place there's a big like finish basement.
And in my I just had a surgery and he's
in a cone. Had two people from New York that
have flown in for like business, and we're all underneath there.
(04:05):
One of the dogs is new Pean on stuff. It
was just wild, but they were all freaked out because
they were from New York and they had never seen
tornadoes before. Again, yea, we have in Arkansas every three
weeks or so. On this it Oh my god, it
was consistent. So my point is, she's freaking out a
little bit. But I'm looking. I don't see anything. Microphone
still on, right, Yeah, you're watching. I don't see anything. Well.
I saw Haley put her phone on airplane mode, and
(04:26):
I was like, I don't know if that's the move
right now. I'm trusting y'all will tell us if we
gotta go downstair. We got I got like four different
things that are gonna alert us. But other than that,
how's it been going? It's good. I was just telling
the boys. I just got in this morning. I was
in Minneapolis last night. She played like a radio show
or something. Yeah, we played um K one O two
(04:48):
radio show fan jam Frozen fan Jam. Scottie mccrew was
out there, Shane Prophet Brelan was out there. Um yeah,
it was good. Is that Greg sweat Berg? Yes? Greg
and Pat got it. Yep. And so you flew back
this morning. You know what I saw about you was
it was as I saw that your song had maybe
(05:11):
top thirty or something last week? Am I accurate on that? Yes?
Last week I thought super cool, because yeah, it's so
hard to get to that spot because there's like a
weird like swampy ground that's like forty eight to thirty thirty,
and if you can break that then you actually have
a shot. There's just so much I mean, people are
(05:32):
just throwing stuff left and right at that chart. And
I don't really like I don't personally do music and
don't really keep up with music as far as like
was on the charts, But I just play the stuff
that I like, or have the people on the show
that I like, or I program the National Countdown or
the Women of our Country and that. But I did
see that yours had climbed up and now like you
got you got a real shot with this song. It
has like this whole thing is so new to me.
(05:54):
This is my first go with radio and it's been
such a really yeah, I've never been you know, so
like I don't know what to expect. I told my managers.
I was like, y'all just call me if it's good news,
Like you know, I think it would drive me like
neurotic to just be like checking all the time and like,
because you know, it's so much like out of your control,
(06:16):
and but this is my first go with it all,
and it's been such a learning experience for me. And
like definitely they like preped me. They were like, look,
there it's a slog in like the fifties, forties and stuff,
you know, and so like, I'm I'm pleased to hear
you saying that about the thirties because who knows. Shoot, well,
I would say that just speaking to you honestly, that
(06:38):
I think you gotta get up to like thirty nine
twenty eight so that your team then goes because they
have to kind of be reminded even though they know,
but they're so inside that hey, maybe we should we
should spend even more money on this promotion. And sometimes
it can roll if you hit top twenty five or so,
that momentum actually rolls into the next song, right, It
(06:58):
was just kind of depending on what it is. But
no one I saw. I saw it on Twitter. There's
a guy that lives in New York and he's a
random like it is like I'm not sure the show
he does, but he posts a lot of charts stuff,
and yeah, I think I saw him post it that
you'd hit top thirty. Yeah, and I was like, that's
what I'm talking about. That's awesome, that's good. And I
didn't know. I guess I've known of you so long.
I didn't know that you hadn't really done that where
(07:21):
they have tried the radio thing, because I know for
a long time they were just putting out really good
music by you, so people would know the really good
music like strategically And so, is this the first time
you've had a promo team work a song? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean I this is like my first because I
was independent for so long. I mean I've been here
fifteen years, and it was like you're twelve. I think
(07:41):
it was twenty twenty. But three years ago I signed
my first ever record deal with Big Loud and Pigasus
and so, and then it was like with the pandemic
had hit, I came in with a record, so like
we released that and then we went and did this
EP and then Raised is the first record that like
was kind of like my official starting with Big Loud
(08:04):
record and um, this was one of those songs off it.
It was like kind of testing the waters a little
bit to see what would happen with it, and this
one kind of like took off, and so they were like, great,
let's get a radio campaign going, you know, which means
that it's money, right, They're gonna spend money. Yeah, I mean,
that's really what it is. They're gonna spend money to
make sure that you can get to places like Minnesota.
(08:27):
What sucks for you as you don't get paid, but
what's great is they're paying for it, and you're gonna
go do promotion and be in front of people's faces
and you know, and then they go, well, like her,
let's play the song. It's just up yeah, you know,
but it is money and resources. Yeah, and they're spending
it now. Yeah, and hopefully when it hits top thirty,
they go, Okay, let's look, let's go a little more in. Yeah,
and if they're listening now, you should go a little
and we should go a lot more in. I'm a believer.
(08:49):
I just got my first ever plaque. I got a
gold plaque two days ago. Does it gold me five
hundred thousand? I don't really know either, So what for
this song? Yeah? And so what does that mean now?
Because back in the day it would mean five hundred
thousand units bought. But I guess now it's the equivalent
with streams. I think it's like, is it seventy million
(09:12):
or some seventy or seventy five million? I feel like, congratulations.
Where do they give it to you on stage? Um? No,
they surprised me at the Big Loud label building the
other day. They like woke me up for a nine
am surprise come to the office. Likely. I was like,
actually dressed, you know, and um yeah, and they surprised
(09:34):
me there and it was awesome. I mean I've never
won anything, you know, So it's what's crazy. I hear
you say that. I just have such a high regard
for you and your talent that sometimes I have to
be reminded that, Like even when you're like this is
my first br I'm like really, yeah, Like what a
travesty that is. Oh gosh. But don't get me depressed, Bobby. No,
it's the opposite of that. And it's a true testament
(09:56):
of just tenacity more than anything. And I feel like
that's been the key to any success I have. Yeah,
where you're actually good at something, I just last like,
you're like super talented, and I just go I'm just
like a cockroach like things by around me. I just
keep walking. I want to go back though a few
years god to the record that you paid for yourself,
(10:19):
which was The Dream. Yeah right, yeah, when you when
you pay for a record yourself, how do you go
about that? Is it a lump some how? Many tracks?
Like walk me through those decisions, because sometimes there are
hard decisions to make because you don't have money pay
for all the tracks that you want to come right,
So go back to that record and tell me how
you made the decisions that you did to put that out.
(10:39):
That was like you know, some people go and they
like cut a record in like a week. That was
like a year and a half process for me. So
it wasn't like, you know, I just had this giant
sum of money and let's go blow it on a record.
It was like I was waiting tables I um I had.
I was still in my first publishing deal, which was
with Carnival Music, so I was getting like, you know,
(11:02):
my monthly songwriter thing. Um. But let me tell everybody
listening that ain't no luxury boats. Oh no, like you're
pension pennies. You know, like first deal, you ain't making money,
but um and so I like, I also had had
my first single as a songwriter kind of during that time,
maybe a few years prior, a little Big Town recorded
(11:24):
a song I've written called happy People. Um was that
on the Frail Project or was it it was on UM? Yeah,
it was right after it was the Breaker record? Got
it and you know, again like that one struggled at radio,
like I think it was only on there for maybe
a few months, So it wasn't like I had before.
You talk about struggle tho, I want to talk about
you getting the single, like, because because that isn't that's
(11:46):
an amazing thing to hear they're cutting your song. Yes, so,
and I'm gonna get back to the record, but You've
sent me down a different hole that I want to
go look into, where it's you're writing songs, you have
a publishing deal, you write that song, and how do
you know when they're interested? First, this was like a
total freak never happened thing that happened to me where
(12:08):
it was like I went up to Boston. I think
this was like you're eight maybe of me being in
town seven or eight something, and you know, Laurie McKenna,
it's like that's like years of building up to try
and get in a room with Laurie McKenna, and I
finally got the green light and I went up to
Boston and I wrote We wrote Happy People was the
first song we ever wrote. And I was literally sitting
(12:29):
in the Boston airport about to like fly back to Nashville,
just texting my plugger, Hey, here's what we wrote. YadA YadA.
She was like, I'm going to send this to Karen
Fairchild and she like texted it to her, emailed whatever,
and within like an hour she texted me back was like, hey,
Karen wants to hold this for the sand same trips.
I'm not even home yet, and I was like what dang,
(12:53):
and so um, you know they played it. I guess
everyone liked it. Next thing you know, they're cutting it.
Next thing you know is your first get that call
they're cutting the song or do you know afterward? I
knew they were holding it, but you didn't know they
had cut it yet. I didn't know they were holding it.
And you want to know what's so funny about this story,
and just to like give some perspective, I was still like,
you get great news like that, And I was like,
(13:16):
so broke and busted, Like my flight got canceled and
I literally couldn't afford a hotel in Boston, so I
slept in the airport. Then what is position things? What
a juxtaposition? You're like, hey, major artists, Yes, they want
your song and they love it. Also, yeah, you got
(13:36):
no money for Super eight. Yeah you can't stay well
in Boston downtown Boston. It's like two hundred bucks or whatever.
But still it's like I remember, like couldn't even barely
eat a meal because I was like probably had like
a few hundred bucks in my account at that time.
But it's the insane thing about this business where it's
like the highs and the lows, you know, but um
(13:57):
and the dream that feeds you even when you're not
really eating real food. Yes, like that was it for
me for such a long time, where I just had
the idea that one day it wasn't going to be
like this, and because I had that hope in that dream,
yeah it was Okay, it sucks now, but I just
gotta keep fighting. Yes, And without that, I don't think
I could have done it. Yeah, without there being a hope,
I don't think I would have been able to last
(14:20):
like I did. Yea, that was my nourishment A lot
of times was what possibly could be. Yeah, and I
think there's a lot of that to be said about
this story too. Yeah. I like to say, like we're
kind of like negligent optimists, you know what I mean.
We take foolish risks sometimes, but every once in a
while something pays off really big. You sleep in the airport,
(14:40):
you go home, use rubb with Dorian McKinnon. You're broke,
but you're things are happening in a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.
So whenever a little big town has your song and
they say they're key, will you get any any better
rights just because an artist is holding a song or
is that mostly after they cut it? Or like when
does the reputation st a little bit where people want
(15:00):
to get you in a room? I feel like it
starts there, you know, like Lorie being able to see
my name on a song with Lori and like a
hold and a little big towns cutting it and stuff,
you know, like that all kind of really helps. I
think get cracked the door open for me a little bit.
When did they tell you that they did they send
you the song before I came out on the record.
(15:22):
I don't think they did. I think that they posted
a clip of them singing it a cappella somewhere and
that was like the first moment. I was like, oh,
you know, chills, just like hearing their voices on it.
It was such a cool feeling and it was just
really exciting, you know, you think like everything's gonna change
for you. Yeah. I've had a few of those and
(15:44):
I'm like, oh, this is huge chip and it does it,
but it's always something really small that is at the
time kind of inconsequential feeling. Yeah, that are the big things. Yeah,
that actually do pivot into stuff. So you have the
relationship with Loria the Rush a little big town, but
at the same time you're working on this record that
you're paying for yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So you say it
(16:04):
took a year and a half. Is that because you
would save up and get a track done or how
was that process? I would do like five songs I
think a session, and you know, we'd like work on that.
And I didn't really have a team at this point either,
so it was like me and my producer Jake and
my publisher Emily Schiraldi Firman at Carnival, and it was
(16:26):
kind of like the three of us just like holing
up in the office like what should we do? I
don't know, Yoda yoda, And you know, we'd kind of
work on the record a little bit. Frank Ladell at
Carnival he produces Miranda Lambert or he had done a
few records on Hurley and Walmack. He was kind of
like grandfathering us a little bit and like coaching us
through it and telling us, you know, like what he
(16:47):
honestly was just really supportive and kind of like fed
us to keep going and whatnot, because we had no
idea what we were doing. I'd never produced a record,
My producer had never produced a record. We just like
we're following our gut with it all, you know, and
making trying to make music that we liked, that we
would want to listen to. And for me, it was
the mentality of like I've been here ten years, like
(17:11):
this may be it for me, So let's just make
something that if this is the last thing I get
to make here, we love it and we can go
home and like I can tell my kids about it
some day or something. You know, unless you fail doing
what you wanted to do. There have been times when
I failed doing something other people have say why don't
you do this, and I'm like, you know what, okay,
(17:31):
and then you bam them out and you're like, god, dang,
I'd rather failed doing what I wanted to do, So
I didn't have all these thoughts that would like yeah,
and so that was that was your idea of Okay,
we may go down, dang it, but we're gonna do
something that really feels true to me and what we're doing,
because if it fails, at least we fail to honestly Yeah, yeah,
and you can hang your hat on that, you know.
And so that's kind of what we did. And it
was a year and a half of just like holding
(17:52):
up in my engineer's studio in Germantown, and you know,
we'd just stay up late into the night, drink bourbon
and talk about we're just so buzzy on songs and
energy and excitement and fun. You know. It was like
one of the most fruitful years for me because I'd
been so brokenhearted by the industry, you know, and so
(18:14):
this was like kind of me getting a little bit
of like I tuned out so much of the town
and just kind of went in and was like finding
it all again. Is there an impatience as you guys
were creating the songs that would be the record and
you're doing them in batches? Was it ever like, you know, what,
screw it, let's just put these five out, like I
(18:35):
just want to get something out. Did you have to
battle that or did you really have the patience to go,
we're gonna finish this whole thing and we're gonna put
it out as the project is because my patience isn't good. Yeah,
I'm just like, oh, didn't let's go and get it
out there. How was that process for you? I it's
funny that you say that, because I have never thought
about that. But I was just like, it was a
record in my mind, and it wasn't done until everything
(18:56):
was complete. I mean, shoot, I think that I went
up to right with Lorie again and I wrote what
ended up being like one of the title track of
the record. So we've gone in and made that session,
you know, and then I went up with her and
I wrote a few more songs. So it wasn't you know,
it was a work in progress the whole way until
it felt complete to us, and then we didn't have
(19:17):
a team, so then we're like, okay, now what do
we do with it? You know, you put out other
songs from that record, like a deluxe version, right because
you did the record that you've added songs. Was it
different to do those songs that were added because the
record was at least critically acclaimed and depending on I mean,
I like the record, and a lot of people like
the record, but I don't. I don't know it's reach
(19:38):
out because I wasn't watching any of your Psycho about
you just so was it easier to find the money
to do those tracks because of the success of the
original record? Yeah? I think so, And I'm trying to like, remember,
I think on the deluxe is when Big Loud I
was signing my deal too, so then they were a
part of that. So I wasn't like saving all my
(20:02):
waitressing tips anymore. You know. It was like they were
helping float me and giving me the freedom to be
able to create han Ty, the Bobby Cast will be
right back. Wow, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Was there any part of that record that whomever signed
you over at Big Loud, Like, I don't know which
of the guys. Yeah, which are the people over there
were instrumental and hey, that's awesome, let's get her. Was
(20:24):
there a song or two that they brought up like
really resonated with them. They were like, when we listen
to this, this song shows us who you are. Do
you remember? I remember like Seth got super jacked on
Filling my Cup when he heard Feeling my Cup. He
was like, this is the sound you know? That was
like we'd put fiddle on it. It kind of has
(20:45):
that throwback like you know, um and and he was
just like he lit up on that song. And yeah,
it's been really cool, you know, to see the whole
thing with them, and Nicole Gallants a part of it too,
with songs and daughters, and she's someone I've written with
for a very long time, so she knows me very
well creatively. But I feel very fortunate. I think having
(21:05):
been here for so long, I was always so like
gun shy about record labels because I've seen so many
friends just get crushed, you know what I drop, Yeah,
just it not work. Yeah, So it was very important
for me. One of the perks of having been around
the block of this town a few times. Very important
for me to find someone that just like got it,
(21:27):
you know, and I felt that Seth and Nicole and
the team there, they really got it. And they've been
really cool about letting me do my thing. You know,
when you play shows now and if you when you
play the single, do you hear people sing back to you, Yeah,
it's last night. It was so freaking nuts. It's so
bizarre as someone who's been here for freaking ever, you know,
(21:49):
put out multiple records to be able to see the
difference with this one song. It's just nuts, and it's
nuts at thirty, oh god, twenty, it's a it's a
different level ten. I mean, you're gonna have so many
people that finger quotes believed believed in you from the beginning.
Like that's the best. That's the best part about it
(22:11):
is that so many people now, Hayley, You're gonna be like,
we knew it. We knew it when we first we
first moved to town. You're like, well, if you knew it,
why don't you call me? Yeah? Seriously, I was so
when you moved to town there you were if some
of the stuff, I'm just gonna go from memory of
ye speaking with you, uh teenager when you moved here.
I was seventeen. That's why teenagers seems because you weren't.
But you went to school here though, right I came here. Yeah,
(22:33):
so I was like, I'm moving here no matter what.
And my mom kind of panic mode, oldest to leave
the nest, like she found Belmont. She was like, please
go to school. So it was kind of like my
safety net, you know. But if you're seventeen when you
move here, because you even go to school right when
you moved here. Yeah, I was like one of I
was one of those weird kids where it was like
school starts in August. I'm eighteen in September, you know.
(22:55):
Um so, yeah, i'd lived there. I lived on campus.
I didn't have a call, are you know. I walked
down a broadway, walked into Tootsie's, was like, can I
get a gig? You know that whole thing. How did
you find Nashville though? In general, because that your town
in Iowa. Not big, No, So it was Nashville a
bit because for me, this is the biggest city of
ever I've been. I'm in big cities a lot now,
(23:16):
but I'm from Mountain Pine, Arkasas. I never lived in
a city this big yeah, like Austin, Nashville, same size,
And when I would get to I'd be like, dany,
this is huge. H But then my friends would come
here from bigger they were like, oh, what a tiny town.
And I'm like, you guys don't know what it's like
growing up in a small town. Was there that for
you when you first moved here? Like holy crab, tall building? Yeah,
sports team? Oh yeah. I felt like such a city girl. Yeah,
(23:37):
you know, like q sex in the city. I was like,
I am just a huge city girl now. But yeah,
because this was the biggest city i'd been to too.
What'd your parents think about you moving to a big city?
I think they were a little scared for me, but
I think they were excited for me, you know, and
could they've been nothing but like encouraging and go get
(23:58):
it and go do it and Whatnotum Apparently my mom
like locked herself in her bedroom for a week because
I was just like, I'm the oldest six like moving
nine hours away. I didn't know a single soul, you know,
so I think, um, you know, I like to think
she missed me. But yeah, it was a big deal
for me, and I found it because she had she knew.
(24:19):
I was so determined to do something here and I
just didn't know how. You know, probably same with Arkansas.
It's like there's no music scene. There's nobody that's done
in there's no blueprint. People where I grew up worked
as mill Yeah, and so that's what I knew. So
people most people left school they did in your town.
What did most kids do when they graduated? Um, you know,
(24:40):
either went into like a trade school, started work over
their dad or um, you know, some kids would go
to like Iowa or Iowa State or something. And so
you move here and you're going to school. What did
you think about Belmont as a school freshman year? Big?
Did you think? Were you like whoa? Also these kids
are really talented? Yeah, because you're so scared because again
I'm like little kind kid, you know, I didn't come
(25:01):
from a musical family like, so I just totally it
was just like oh my gosh, you know, like everyone
here is so good, and you know there's the whole
like Belmonte culture and the stars and all that. So yeah,
I mean this Nashville was like my crash course and
like country music and honky tonk education, you know, going
down playing bars learned very quickly. It's a songwriter town book,
(25:24):
a gig at Richard's Cafe, which ironically is where I
went back in twelve years later, asking for a job,
but just feeling my way through the dark with it all,
trying to meet as many people as possible, trying to
co write immediately, just to build my network and get
to know people. What were you doing playing in Iowa?
If you're fourteen fifteen you love music? Where were you
(25:46):
playing the year or two years or however long to
actually know that you love to do it and you
wanted to move and pursue it. I mean, gosh, like
flatbed trailers at birthday parties and graduation anywhere? You just anywhere?
Like did you start? Where do you get your first guitar?
My first guitar? My mom got me. She signed me
up for some good like guitar center, I think in
(26:08):
Cedar Rapids. She signed me up for some guitar lessons.
I started playing guitar, learning a few chords. I always
loved writing, and I always knew I wanted to write
my songs, So I started writing silly little songs. And
then she actually brought me down here when I was
like fifteen, and that was like the moment I think
(26:29):
that I got to see it, and then there was
no turning back. You know, when you left, you just knew.
Did you talk about it a lot? Like? Oh? Probably?
I think I was like so pumped and just I'm
moving to Nashville, YadA, YadA. You know that's so cute.
Did you think let's just talk at the trip down?
Do you drive or fly? Drug drove with my family.
My family all loaded up the truck. All my siblings
(26:50):
came down, and you know, I'm like, all your siblings
came down. Five huh yeah. Dad brought the truck. Everyone
he liked to. I mean, he'd throw us all in
the back of the truck, put a topper on it,
and we don't just probably not the most safe, but
sometimes no top, you know, I mean. And so we
all drove down, and I was really it was bittersweet.
I was, I was so excited to be here, but
(27:13):
I've always been so sad to leave there. And so
you know, I'm thinking, we're gonna have this really sweet,
you know, emotional weekend. And they literally dropped me off
and we're like, all right, we'll see Thanksgiving and they
just turned around and drove back to Iowa. Were you
in a dorm? Yeah, so did you think on your
You're not going to be able to really remember this,
(27:35):
but maybe you can just kind of identify the feeling.
But as you were on your way down and were
you like I'm going to Nashville breaking gonna make it,
or like I'm going to Nashville, I don't know what's
gonna happen, but I'm gonna try. Like what was that?
I was like, I'm gonna make it, you know. I
think I was just like so, I didn't know how,
I didn't know when, but I just had this feeling
like this is what I'm doing, you know, and I'm
(27:56):
there's never been a plan B. It wasn't until you know,
a decade in that I really started to think for
the first time ever, like what if this doesn't work?
What else are you going to do? You know? Um,
did you finish school at Belmont? But did oh good
for you? Yeah? And were you playing You say you
went to Tousie Where did you go very first and go, hey,
(28:17):
can I like audition or where was the first time
you played a show in Nashville's Yeah, I mean I
went down to like the open mic and asked. But
then the other place was Richards and then another early
one was um gosh, I don't even think it exists anymore.
It was like kind of behind Saco over in Vandy.
I think it was called like cat. It was like
(28:39):
a oyster bar or something, which sounds so weird in Nashville,
but yeah, it was like this little basement dive bar.
You walked down and the guy would have writers nights there.
And I remember seeing Ruthie Collins. She was in a
band at the time, she was in a duo, and
I just like watched that show and then I went
(29:00):
and asked the guy, the sound guy, like how can
I play here? The commodore was really big. I remember
when were you playing a bunch of covers mostly after
are people there? Or were you playing your own music?
Those riders nights were totally my own music. What about
like a tutsis tutsis covers? You know, did you have
to learn a lot of covers or did you learn
some but then put like the phone up and play
(29:23):
the chords of people? Asked that was that was like
some old day stuff, you know, like I knew a
lot of songs from playing the bars back home, so
I knew a lot of covers, you know, and then
they have the house band there, so I'd jump up
sing SuDS in the bucket, uh, you know, Heads Carolina
things like that. Um, you know, some days I'd to
(29:44):
wake up and I'm still trying to go to school too,
and sometimes they call and they're like, hey, we need
you down in like ten minutes. Can you get down here,
and you know, stitching class to like go play, yeah,
and I'm like playing. I'd go do like a four
There was some days that I would play like a
four hour shift. Me and I gets are at the
airport and then I would go straight down to Broadway
and I'd play Rippies from like you know, two to six.
(30:07):
So it's like we're in the airport. Um, it doesn't
really exist anymore. But there's like two Tootsies. There's the
one that's cool and in there, and then there was
one that was like on your way to baggage claim,
and I was the one on the way to baggage claim.
So you're playing these places you're going to school. How
about your grades? Oh see, CB, did you feel like
(30:29):
because I was working full time and going to school
two and there were times where I felt underwater. Yeah,
did you feel that way? Did you ever feel like, hey,
I'm a after quit school. I never felt that way.
I mean I did enough to like get to pass
and to make good grades, you know, But in my mind,
it was like I was out hustling music, row in
the honky tonks and trying to work and you know,
(30:51):
make music and get noticed and get discovered. How'd you
get your publishing deal? Um I had graduated. I was
like a year after I'd graduated, and I made a
little EP and you know, I had a few contacts
passing it out whennot I was at an ASCAP and
they had a GPS program that would like hook you
up with a publisher every month and you would get
(31:13):
to go in and have sessions. And I'm reconnected with Emily,
who I'd known from running around in circles and stuff
like that, and she I was her first signing at Carnival.
Well yeah, she was like, I want you to be
my first signing here, and so, you know, for both
of us it was brand spanking new. We don't know
what we're doing, but we're figuring out together. We believe
(31:33):
in each other and and I was with her for
eight years. Was there anyone that you kind of showed
up to town around the same time and or maybe
a few people that you saw actually make it and
you're like, yeah, dang, they are good, but I'm good too.
I was like, so, I mean, I don't know if
I had that approach. Everyone was just like so much
better than me in my mind. So it wasn't like
(31:55):
I was like bitter or like, you know whatever. But
I mean Casey Musgras like slept on my couch a
few times. Marin. I remember when Marion got to town.
I was probably like five years in at that point
and she I just remember watching her blow up, you know.
And um, I went to school with like Ryan hurd Um,
(32:17):
what do you think? I think he was like a
year older than me maybe, but yeah, same time. What
do you what do you credit And I know what
your answer is going to be, but I'm just walking
back to it. What do you credit their success too?
Especially early? I think they were so good they had
been doing it since they were so much younger. I
didn't have like those resources, I don't think growing up,
(32:39):
you know what I mean, I just didn't know Um,
they kind of had the Texas thing where it was
like it sounds like they were tour in Texas and
making records and whatnot. I didn't have that, and I
think that that really helped them know who they were
so early. They both did know who they were, very
knew who they were. Yeah, you know, they showed up
knowing who they were, and they were really great songwriters. Yes, which,
(33:03):
like you said, this is a songwriter town, which I
don't think a lot of people know because it's just hey, Nashville,
can you sing? Go make it really hard to sing
if you can't actually sing your own store your own words,
because there's a lot of being luke and sing. Yeah,
there's a lot of people who can write really good songs,
but there's a few they can write really good songs
and freaking sing them. Yeah. And if you can do that, yeah,
(33:26):
Like that's where it is. You're playing these shows, you're working,
you're going to school, you graduate. Do you think, okay, well,
it's about to get easier now because now I can
focus fully on music. And was it easier? Well? I
had sort of a unique situation, I guess, because I
actually I actually graduated a month after a month later
(33:47):
than I was supposed to because my brother died, So
that kind of threw a whole you know, left turn
into my plan. So those years after I freshly graduated,
it was pretty dark for me, you know. I mean
I wasn't focused on music. I was still writing. I
remember getting like the first email from someone in the industry,
Bonnie Baker emailed me, and it was really sweet and kind,
(34:11):
and it made me think like I should keep doing this,
you know, someone checked in on me and thout going
home to stay. I did go home for a minute.
I went home for like his funeral, and then a
whole month or two months after that, my whole entire
family just kind of like packed up the RV and
went driving out west. So once we got back from
(34:31):
that trip, though, I was like, I need to go back.
I'm gonna keep working graduate all that, So I did that.
But yeah, you know, I think coming out of that period,
I don't really know when I was. I was still writing,
still working, probably not as much, but I don't know
when I really started hitting the ground running. After that.
(34:52):
It just kind of gradually started happening again, probably when
I started making that next DP and trying to land
a publishing deal because I was nannying at the time
and waiting table still and and then I made that
EP and I got my pub deal like an hour
or an hour. That's quick story. Yes, let's do a
(35:13):
tornado check, Mike. How are we doing? We're good? Okay?
Is there anything tornado? Becauld? Say? Even? If so, I'm
gonna call Kate. Like as you driving to Memphis, they
just said nothing spicy on the radar as of this minute.
Who said nothing spicy? And why am I trusting them
if they're calling the weather weather? Okay? And like to Memphis.
If there's only a Memphis account, I can find one.
(35:34):
Take a look see if you don't mind. Is your
car on the shop? Uh? No, it's that it's in
your's right, Yeah, was it in the shop? I was
gonna take it, but I don't have time. No, that's
a time. That's a thing. You should have time. That's
a priority thing. I know. I'm gonna take it tomorrow,
I think. But what's wrong? Why are you driving? What's
wrong with it? Just needs an oil change? Oh that's it?
(35:54):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, my god, okay, yeah, no, no, no, no,
I'm not like missing a bumper or anything. Well even work. Okay,
so your car everything's good. I'm good. Okay. Um, who
taught you how to drive? Back home? Well? I didn't
drive like a shift or anything, my dad. No, I didn't.
My dad taught me how to drive a shift later. Um,
(36:15):
but I drove a truck and he taught me how
to drive. And he was like the scariest teacher. He
taught me how to read. He taught me how to
drive because he's like one of those guys. It's like
you want to learn how to swim. Boom, push you
in the deep in starts swimming, you know what I mean.
So um, and he's very impatient. So you start just
(36:37):
like making moves you know. Um, you didn't drive it,
you'd have to throw a stick like early on. No
I didn't. No, I didn't. Um, I am assigning a
biased that I shouldn't be doing. I would love to.
I mean I tried. He went and gave me a
crash course in the field and whatnot, and it was
(36:58):
very painful. You have a shut corn getting so mad?
Oh yeah okay, yeah I've done that too. But yeah,
if you just had no one that I've been like,
you're not from my one. Get right here, Yeah, that's
all the story. So did you ever get close, meaning
you're in town, you're working, you're writing, you're singing. Did
you ever get close to like landing something and it
(37:18):
just didn't quite happen? Um, like the first time you
had your heart broken by this town where you're like
godly like that, oh so close? I mean, I think
it was kind of like the cuts, you know, when
people are putting things on hold, or when it was
like you were starting to have some like label meetings
and stuff. The showcases. Man, those things are so intense
(37:41):
because it's like you get so worked up. Everyone's coming out,
they're watching you. And I don't even know if those
happen anymore with TikTok, But like back in the day,
it was like this is your moment and press us
and that was always really painful. They talked funny, it
sounds like they did. Yeah, that's how I'd be working.
But you know, stuff like that. I'm sure there's been
(38:01):
I feel like mine has. Mine was just like a nice, slow,
gradual heartbreak, you know, of things not working out. I
think so probably you know, it wasn't like there was
one big moment that just kind of like, you know,
screwed me up and then I quit. It was it
was like kind of just like a low, a slow
grind And then yeah, so did you have any label
(38:27):
heads or meetings that you would meet with and they
would be like, man, you got something good, we just
don't know what it is. We can't do anything with
you all the time because I only asked that because
what what's making you different now also made you different then,
But I think people are now realizing the value of
it now. Yeah, because then, like you there there are
(38:49):
parts of you that are very traditional, there are parts
of you that aren't. But depending how you're viewed by
the individual, they could go while she's way too traditional
for what we're doing, or it could be the other way,
like she look tritional butter So I just I would
imagine there were times where people just know what to
do with you, because you're obviously awesome, but they were like,
we just we don't know, we don't know what to do. Yeah, yeah,
(39:13):
I think like all the time, did you reconsider your
style or yeah I did. There was like a phase
that I did and it was awful, and I was like,
I'm never we had we made cut some things, and
I had our first meeting and I had to play
it for a friend in the business, and I was like,
I'm never gonna play these songs to anybody again. I
don't like this stuff, you know what I mean. But yeah,
(39:35):
it was weird because everyone always told me I was
too Americana to Americana. I was Texas country. I wasn't,
you know, commercial, and at that time it was very pop.
Commercial was very pop. So I felt like fish out
of water, Like I grew up on Alan Jackson and
Trishia Yearwood and stuff like that. So I didn't know
what to do with that. But yeah, I mean, it's
(39:56):
interesting how music is just so cyclical because now it's
like countries back and Americana's country and America Americana is
the most country thing period anyway. Yeah, Like honestly like that.
People say, oh, they do Americana, but that to me,
there's nothing country or than Americana music. Yeah, is the
weird thing about that. Yeah, And so I was with
Lucas Nelson a few weeks ago, who's awesome, Like just
(40:21):
by the way, I liked his music, but until I
heard him play a live like I liked his music.
Now I freaking love I love what he does. After
watching that guy sing, and he's also the nicest guy,
and you know, you'll classify him as like americana. Yeah,
and I'm like that dude's just a country music artist. Yeah,
like straight up just a country music artist. Yeah. And
so the Americana label, I feel gets tossed around a
(40:43):
little unfairly, yeah, because it's just people that don't know
what to do with it. Yeah, and that's what it is, Like,
it's really good, but we don't know what to do
with it because we're scared to take a commercial risk
on it. So we're gonna assign you the category of Americana. Yeah,
Like Isabel would go to the whole list of people
that there's nobody more country, and had they arrived at
a different time now or three years prior or, they
(41:05):
would have just been country. Yeah, but because of the time.
And they say, I remember just seeing you like your style,
and I was like, okay, before I even heard you,
I was like very traditional, but then I heard you
and I was like, oh yea, yeah, you're traitional, but
there are some really progressive elements here at the same time. Yeah,
the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back. Welcome back to
(41:26):
the Bobby Cast. So whenever you meet with Seth at
Big Loud, did they say, look, this is you're doing
what we want and so let's keep doing that, but
let's find a way, Like we'll find a way to what?
Like what do they how do they grow you an artist?
Because you knew you were too. We talked about Marion
just you just did it here? Yeah, like you found
it here? Yeah? What do they say about your future
(41:48):
and your progression whenever you finally sign a deal? You know,
they honestly didn't say much. I was like really caught
off guard by how much they were, like, go, do
you really? Because I was like expecting to come in
and get changed and shifted a little bit, you know,
and YadA YadA. But like from the beginning they were like, no,
(42:09):
we are into this, you know what I mean? Just
keep doing you, keep being you. So I feel very
lucky in that respect. You're doing some big tours, You're
getting to post some really good people. I was looking
before I came over here. Did you have you done
this Shania stuff yet? Or is that coming up? It's
coming up in May. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, it's
so cool. Excited about that. Yeah, I'm very excited about it.
(42:32):
I'm like so nervous. I was doing an interview today
and he was like, how's it going to feel to
play stadiums? And I was like, what, I don't think
it really hit me yet. You know what I mean,
It's gonna be big. Have you spoken to her yet
at all? Never matter, it's gonna be So I have
a friend I'm gonna pull some details so it never
gets tracked back to them, and we'll say he he
(42:55):
was opening for an artist, big artist, Shani alike, but
not Garth. People think it's going and uh, this friend
goes back and he had it. He'd played multiple shows
and still hadn't met the headliner really, which I thought
was weird too. And so he played multiple shows. I'll
tell you off there the whole real story about I'm
gonna give you the ju up. And now he played
(43:16):
multiple shows and like the ninth show headliners says, hey,
I want to go. I want to meet him, and
he's like, oh great. So he goes in and meets
him and he takes a acoustic guitar and he said, hey,
I haven't get to me. Yet you're my hero, You're
one of my heroes. I'm so grateful to you bring
(43:36):
me on this tour. You know, I just want you
to know that that you've really influenced the music. And
he said, yeah, I've done that to a lot of people. Whoa, whoa,
and like, yeah, then what did you come sign the guitargoes? No.
I said, well, thank you for having me and left
and he didn't go back again. Oh my god, he
didn't play any more shows. He didn't know. He didn't
(43:58):
go back to meet him again. He played shows, but
he just like played the shows and left. And by
the way, he yeah, okay, and I'll tell you the
whole day because it's okay, it's hilarious. Oh my god.
But I know that Shania is not like that is
why I tell the story good because yeah, good, that
would tear, that would crush me. I know it suck
now though it's harder to be a jerk, I think
(44:19):
just because the way that information is distributed quickly and
in so many places. Yeah, that will be tough if
or today. But Shanaya, I've met her a few times.
I have people that have that she's lovely, so lovely.
So that's super cool. What do your parents think about that?
When you go I'm gonna go do shows with Shanaya.
They're so stoked. I mean, like I grew up like
on those records. I have a video of me singing
(44:40):
in my underwear like any man of mine, just belting
it out. You know. Um, that's like a record I
just remember being played all the time in my house.
You know, Dad always thought Shania was hot, so I'm
sure he's stoked. Your dad also talks funny. They are
like some like Screech meets Yeah, some kind of weird.
I'll be an impersonator when this when my single crashes.
(45:04):
That's what I'm saying. You don't, You're not you can't
be an impersonator. They're terrible impressions. But I appreciate it.
Appreciate it. Well, yeah they could. Yeah. Um, so are
you doing stuff? They're at church? Yeah, what is that?
I'm gonna go do some shows with him. I think
in September we're doing the Gorge Jelly rolls on that show,
and then I'm doing another Weekend with him and Paul Coffin.
(45:25):
Are you doing festivals? I'm doing a lot of festivals
this year, and I'm gonna do, you know. So I'm
doing the Schnaia Tour. I'm doing some dates on the
Eric Tour. You know, everyone kind of doing that thing
where they're rotating openers. So I have some dates there,
some dates there, some dates with Luke Brian and the Fall,
and then I'm doing a lot of festival stuff. We
interrupt this interview to bring you a message from our sponsor.
(45:49):
This is the Bobby Cast. Are you doing any of
your shows where you're like, let's see if anybody comes,
how many fans I have? I mean, that's basically right.
I mean that's the test too. And anytime I put
tickets on sale, because I'll do theaters and I'll do
set specific seats, I am so neurotic and I get
so nervous that nobody likes me every single time. It's scary, man.
(46:13):
So are you doing your own shows where it's like
please sell? Yeah, we're starting that next week and um
we start. It's called the Raised Tour and it'll be
you know, this record, the Raised Record and all that,
and I think we have like nine dates. But I'm
really stoked. I mean, it is scary and I've definitely
had the total flop ones, you know, but it's so
(46:35):
cool to do a show that's just you know, even
if it's freaking fifty people showing up, they know every
word to every song, and that's just like, those are
the moments you for thinking that, because I don't. I'm
not mature like that. If I go and it's not
sold out, I go, oh, I've mental mental breakdowns almost
Oh my gosh. And if a show doesn't sell like
(46:56):
seventy percent the first weekend, I'm like, well, this sh'll
end up getting canceled. It is good for you, oh man,
good for you for enjoying it. If there are five
open seats and I see them, I'm like, they people
must have been sitting there and they left because they hated.
Oh no, that's not. My brain's tragic. I live in
tragedy constantly. But good for you. You're gonna go play
(47:18):
these shows. The song is hopefully we'll be killing it.
It's doing great right now with momentum, which is amazing
to see and it's just so cool to see it. Like,
you're just an example for a lot of folks. And
I hate wh people tell me that sometimes because I
don't want to be the example. I want to be
the example of somebody just shows up and is super
talented and makes it. But there are a lot of
(47:38):
people who are super talented who showed up and then
he got sent back home too because they didn't have
the knowledge or the capacity to handle it once it
finally happened. And man, it is time. It's it's your
time to be a star. It's so cool. It is
thank you. It is your time to be a star.
So when you do the show's for like Shanaya or Eric,
(47:58):
that set is probably twenty minutes or so, I think. So, yeah,
when you do your shows, are you doing an hour?
We're doing like ninety Okay, I'm gonna do an hour.
I'm gonna go home after an hour, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna it's the rest of us gonna be good
like a capacity for like sixty minutes being a capacity
and then I'm out. Um so, and they can go
to your website and get tickets to your your tour. Well,
it is an exciting time for you. It is. It's
(48:21):
super cool. I mean, when when did you come on
anything with me? The first time I came on, was
it a year ago. Maybe actually everything she ain't had
maybe just come out when I came on the show,
Is that right? Yeah? And I brought fiddle player in
and Laurence Achs and um Ethan and we sat into
I don't think the record had come out because you
asked me about boys back Home or what my favorite
(48:43):
song wasn't we talked. I don't think it'd come out yet.
It does seems like forever ago, doesn't. It seems like
forever ago. Did I do a TikTok about you before
I ever met you? Did? I? I did what like,
I've been a fan and for let me, I'm not
gonna go back home my own TikTok. I just want
to look at all my h streaming numbers, so tough, right,
(49:03):
I did a TikTok about her. I was so interested
in your story. This read who does all my like
social media editing? He's like video a plus guy? And
I was like, let's do ony on Haley Witters. And
so we found all this stuff about you, and then
we did one and I posted it and I was like,
I never met that girl. That's oh my gosh, holy cow.
Did was she the one that did you sing? Dixie.
(49:23):
Was that her? No, maybe it wasn't her. Do you
think Dixie checks like a high school something? Oh? I
wrote a paper? Is that what it was? Trying to
remember the things that we had said about her? It
was like one of them. I think, like someone got
sick or something, and I like stepped in. That's what
it was in your paper. You had imagined that one
of the chicks got sick, and you're which one can
(49:45):
you stepped in and filled her off? That's funny. My
point was all dying to know where that paper is.
By the way, me too, because that would be awesome
to see. My point is I've been a fan for
a long time, even before we met each other. I
was like, I'm so interested in like what she's about
because I know and knew it wasn't easy to stay
being about what you were about when people didn't quite
(50:06):
get it yet, because that that ain't easy, and you
can go, well, I'm as talented everybody else. I could
change and just do what's accepted now. But he didn't
do that, and like, sincerely, that's I'm super proud for
you that it's now starting to happen. Well, thank you
so much. And there's a lot of really great people
in this town. I don't believe you have to show
me so many great people. One of them and there's
(50:27):
two other people in here, so that tells you one
of the main great in here. I mean, there's been
so many great people, and I'm inspired by so many
of the paths. And Brandy Clark, I remember she's one.
I remember when she was shopping and all that, and
it was just like, how you know? And so I
just I have a lot of good friends. Give a dog.
I have two dog? What are they? An awesie? Who
(50:50):
is awesome? I'm so codependent? Out of do you have dogs? Like?
So codependent? And then I have a blue tick beagle mix. Boh,
he doesn't really like that much. So did you get
Bow from here or from home? Bo? We got from
like Indiana. He was a foster pop. Yeah, we had
a bunch of I asked that because we had blue ticks,
but we used him to hunt. Oh yeah, they're like
(51:12):
they were either a bird dog or so if he's
from Indiana was a blue That's that's just whrom my
mind went. So, anyway, you got Bow, why were you
in Indiana touring? No? We found it like the foster
company or something was in Indiana, I don't know, and
so we like went up there and got him. And
then the Aussie we say were rescued her showed up
in an Arby's parking lot in Cookeville and this woman
(51:34):
just like handed her to us. So wait, I don't understand.
You got to go into more, dear. It was Craigslist.
It was a Craigslist find. You know. I was at
my friend's baby shower and I was like, let's get
a dog. We're not getting a kid, so let's get
a dog. And we went on Craigslist and found Aussie's
and we went and like drove to Cookeville to meet
this person and they just like we thought it would
(51:57):
be at the barn. They were like their she was
raised on a farm, like would be with a mama
at the barn and all that, and like literally the
address takes us to an Rvy's parking lot and the
woman gets out of the car with the one puppy
and just like hands her to us and you just
handle money and we just hand her cash, and we're like,
I mean, we got to take this dog now, you know.
It's like we can't send her back right. So it
(52:18):
was kind of sad because then we got home and
she had flees too, So we say we rescued her. Yeah, no,
that works. And anything off Craigslist was rescued no matter
what it is. But it's couch, a human, yeah, a dog, anything?
Is that any good part of town to be And
it's in general, like you just need to know exactly
where you're gonna go in those places and don't go
anywhere else. Nope. I have two dogs. We have a
(52:39):
husky mix, a husky and she's also a hound. Oh
so we got her. She was like this big she
was just pulled her off the street. She was so
aggressive that they told us she would never be able
to be with her other dog. He was like a
year older. They were like, she's so aggressive, you can't
keep her in the same house. And we had aggression
specialists come here and work with us because it's about
(53:00):
us being able to be consistent with the dog. And
the aggression special is like, she's so she was on
the street so long, these traits will never leave her.
She will attack and if she gets big, she'll kill
your other dog. Whoa. And to Caitlin's credit, she was
like that's tough. Okay, it didn't matter. This is the dog.
(53:22):
So we're very consistent with her, and she's awesome. Now
she's too she's not aggressive, she's actually opposite, annoyingly like
loving her, her and the bulldog. She has a crate
that she sleeps in, but it never closes, right, it's
not a crate, but we create trained her early on
to know, this is your house, this is your consistency. Yeah,
and so it's her crate. But even but the bulldog
(53:43):
will sometimes go lay in her crate and she'll just
go lay in the bed beside it. But she's not
aggressive at all. So she's just like, okay, cool. And
so we've had her for two years. And then Stanley
is a bulldog and he's in surgery today is fourteenth surgery.
Whoa we got him? I mean he had six surgeries
in his first year. He had a lot of stuff
(54:04):
from eye weener, no, that's but it's really him, it's
really him. But he had all these surgeries and so
he lived in a cone. So it's really hard to
instill any sort of discipline in because of that. But
he's a great dog now. But he tores acl one
leg all the way in two had surgery, miserable rehab
because these three's fat dogs towards the other one all
the way in half. And today he gets sent off
(54:26):
to the hospital. I'll be back tomorrow morning. But I
actually just posted this walking over here. This is me
give him a pep talk this morning. Here you go,
Oh my gosh, you don't even know English, so you
don't know what surgery is. But when you're done that leg,
he's gonna be all better. Okay, And I'm sorry I
can't teach you this morning because you'll vomit all over
the doctor. I love it very much. Hopey for concergery. Okay, buddy,
(54:52):
high five? Oh my gosh, he high fives. So yes,
I love my dogs. I'm set just and my wife
never had dogs growing up, so these are her first dogs.
And it's fun to see that her. Yeah, she was like,
we never had dogs, I don't like and she just
loves them. It's like I told you, I told you,
(55:12):
you tell me I'm an idiot. I told you you're
the idiot. You said you didn't like dogs. Except I
don't call her radio because she beat me. Okay, look, Hayley,
we've we've we've done it all, we've said it all.
First of all, it's great to see the trajectory that's
happening now because you deserve it. And I will say
I would say the same thing to do off the air.
Getting to this place on the chart is good for
(55:32):
one of two reasons. One either this song keeps going
or two it's crazy momentum for the next one. Okay,
it literally is like, for some reason, you're in five
weeks levels like, well, we can't get past that's they're
gonna go to a song immediately. Yeah, and that's what's good.
So you've hit that spot that actually allows you to
(55:52):
have another really strong shot. Worst case, that's worst case scenario. Okay,
best cases, let's go. Let's go best case. Let's go.
Oh may I hope we get so famous forget who
I am in two years? That would be that's soul
to make goals to for you to walk out and
be like, who's that guy? It's like white ain't gonna
that could be him? That ain't happening. Look, Haley Witters
at Hailey Witters follow her everything she ain't can we
(56:14):
have like four seconds of it? Mind? So way, don't
get sued by the music police. Everything. We'll get sued
by the music place if we play over five seconds.
Oh my gosh. Brutal, brutal exactly, the music police. That's
you and your people though. So talking with how was
it doing like late night TV for the first time?
(56:35):
Oh my god, that's one of those things, is like
for the first time I get to do would you
do Kimel? So insane? Yes, yes, he say, tell me
about it Kimmel? Very like a publicist called Monday night, Hey,
can you do Kimmel on Wednesday? Sure, jumped on a plane,
flew out, very cool, like honestly, just hung in our trailers. Um,
they had great snack selection. We did two takes, just
(56:59):
ran through this song twice. I got to meet Jimmy.
He was very sweet, took a few photos and it
was done like a yeah. And then it was kind
of nice because we were like pre taped. I don't
know if I was supposed to say that, but we
were pre taped. But it was kind of nice because
the day of you could be like, I'm gonna be
on Kimmel all night without the nerves and knowing it
was good. I didn't see it, so I didn't know.
(57:22):
I was like, oh, I got it because I was like,
she's in a pre tape. If I know I did good, yeah,
if it's like live, I'm like, I don't know, I
may suck at this. I don't want body watching quite yet.
That's awesome. And then I saw it may have been
around the same time that Kelly Clarkson did a cover
up because she comes out and sings at the beginning. Yes,
and I've done her show before and she she did
a queen song and she crushed it. I was like, oh, yeah,
(57:42):
forgot she's like one of the greatest singers ever too. Yeah.
But then she did one of your songs. Yeah, like
the next morning. Oh, it was like the next morning really. Yeah.
It was really strange where it was like all and
it was like kind of funny because I had just
been on Kimmel. But again, like I guess like back
Home demo or something. Every like woman I know back
home texting me like you were on Kelly Clarkson this morning,
(58:04):
and I was like, I was on Kimmel last night too,
you know. But it was like, Kelly, Man, that's awesome, O, congratulations,
I'd love to see it. I'm super proud. For you
and you guys, go follow Haley on Instagram and TikTok
and just listen to her singing, listen streamer music. But
also you do enough singing and places and on social
media so people can actually hear you sing without a
(58:26):
processor without like it's just it's so good, you're so good.
You're so good, and I love to see it. Okay,
at Haley Woods, go follow her and her car's fine,
so don't worry about that. And there are no tornados, Mike,
We're all good, good, okay, thank you, and we will
conclude by Haley. This has been a Bobby Cast production.
Host
Bobby Bones
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