Marty Roe, the lead singer of the '90s country group, Diamond Rio, sat down with Bobby Bones to talk about his monumental career. Marty shares how he got his start singing at Opryland and doing voice impressions. He also shares why in the early days the band went through multiple name changes and how the group, Shenandoah, inspired the band name they settled on. He also talks about what it was like to be the first band to have their debut single go number one, the new music he's working on, the new band members and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
We actually played a showcase for the re Music Row
and Steve got his first writing deal out to skip youing.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Like the minor league.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We were the only ones who didn't get a publishing deal.
Really yeah, we just kept playing it up.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Related episode four twenty two Marty Row of Diamond Rio,
which by the way, they're going out go watch them.
They're doing their holiday shows Holiday in the Hits, kicking
off in Baton Rouge on December first. But it's pretty cool.
I mean, Diamond Rio was first concert I ever went to,
and I do bring that up, but I almost forgot
(00:41):
to bring it up. I guess I've known we're going
to do it, and I thought it ten times, but
I almost never said anything about it. And then I
kind of felt weird, going yeah, it was in the
theme park because I waite feel weird. I don't know,
because I didn't know if they would be like, yeah,
that's before we hit it. Did I just didn't know,
but it was it was that Magic Springs was awesome.
(01:01):
They're like thousand people there. It's my first ever concert.
So Marty Row of Diamond Rio. Now he talks about
the band. They originated as the Tennessee River Boys back
in the eighties, they turned into Diamond Rio. They signed
with Arista Nashville in nineteen ninety one. I mean, come on,
this song Meet in the Middle is like the ultimate
country jam. I mean, this is it. You start walking
(01:22):
And if I were to go through just some of
the songs that I listened to over and over again,
I mean, Beautiful Mess from two thousand and two was
really a jam. I mean, Norma Jean Riley, come on,
Norman Jean Jam and they have a bunch of number ones.
How about Unbelievable eight.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Song?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I forget about how good that one is. Sometimes the
length of their career is crazy. Yeah, it is crazy,
I mean ninety one, and then they put out I
mean I think their last number one was in the
two thousands. I believe was the crazy though from the nineties,
two thousands. I know, Here's I Believe from two thousand
and two.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I Can't Deep and Reach Across.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then here is walking Away another song, I like,
here you go, No, No, you know this band that
he talks about it where they played all their own
instruments and that wasn't really welcomed at the time, And
we get into that, but here he is Marty Row
of Diamond Rio. Followed them on Facebook at Diamond Rio,
on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Diamond Rio band. They
(02:30):
have a current release called The Kick, which you can
check out and here he is Marty Rowe, Marty Hall.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The heck are you man? I'm doroughing great. I'm still
in your net. If we have I don't remember it.
So that's.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay, I think, and you can tell me if I'm wrong.
I think, did you do Blake Shelton's video? No, that
was Jimmy, Okay, then that is son. I saw everybody
all at once, A bunch of people come in when
I was leaving them, Blake in la or something. Yes, okay,
so then we haven't met. That was the only time
I thought we might have been in the same room.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
No, that was that was Jimmy's deal.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't even know what.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, they had the dogs. Scott produced that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Scott Hendry probably it's yeah. And so I was out
there doing idol and I was with Blake and then
I was leaving as the whole band was coming in,
and I was like right up, and that was it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And so Scott sent that off to Jimmy and Jimmy
uh with the solo in there.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hey, that hat's pretty cool, the Burberry hat.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Hey, award just for you. That's the truth. She said,
he's really in the hats my wife, I sent my
you want to hear the whole story.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I want to hear the whole You.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Can cut it out.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We won't cut a dang thing going.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So here's the deal. So in twenty twenty, my wife
and my two daughters were scheduled somebody was sending them
on a trip to Paris, and they really wanted to go.
And my brother's daughters were in school over there. So anyway,
that got mixed, of course, because it was twenty twenty
(04:02):
and it didn't happen. So last year they had to
cash out their plane tickets and they ended up going
to Hawaii and I'm like, I'm on the road making
a living and she's complaining about being in Hawaii for
her vacation. Anyhow, fast forward to this year, they finally
got to go to Paris. And so I had looked
(04:25):
at one of these hats. I didn't know. She said,
what do you want for Christmas? Or not? Man? If
I wanted, I go get it. And I'm not real
picky about stuff. But I have a large hat collection,
and somebody told me you do too. I have a hat.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Collection, a shoe collection, dog collection. It feels like.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I have a collection of shoes.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's not a shoe collection exactly. That's do you know
how much that hat cost you?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yes? I found out, but I found out.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I found out. So she did. Couldn't find it in Paris.
She fands it in London. Apparently it was cheaper, which
is a relative term, very relative, and not any of
my relatives. But she goes, it's four hundred and twenty euro.
So get your phones out and you do the translation. Well,
when I saw a lot of money. When I saw
(05:15):
you coming, I was like, man, I go, and I go,
I said. When I first saw it for Christmas last year,
I said, oh, man, I don't want one of those.
I said that that hat is literally you put something
of that garment on and it's basically saying some things
I don't want to say to people. And she goes, well,
we can find a fake when and I went, well, that's.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
The yeah, that's right. Well I appreciate When you walked down,
I was like, that is legit.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Three hundred and thirty or forty bucks for this hat.
And this is probably the only place I will ever
wear it. Really just for you.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Now, that's a fun It brings that your eyes. Yeah,
did you know?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And you brought you a couple.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I know, I see that. I can't wait to look
at it.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
They were not that expensive.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What's interesting about you? And about Diamond Rio. My first
ever concert of my whole life with you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I heard that, well you had how old were you? Eleven?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Something like that. Diamond Rio formed in nineteen eighty two
at Opryland, USA, a former theme park that was based
on country music in Nashville, and they had some member
changes early in the years, but since then the band
has consisted of the same six members. From nineteen eighty
nine to twenty twenty two, three of the band's albums
have been certified platinum. They received four Group of the
(06:29):
Year Awards from the CMAS, two Top Vocal Group Awards
from the ACMs, and one Grammy Award. We went to
Magic Springs and it was an arc and theme park. Yeah,
in a theme park, and I mean I listened to
you guys as tape. It was that transition of tape
to CD time for me too, So I had the
same exact tape and CD same album because it had
(06:51):
all kind of shifted from tape and I was so pumped.
It was awesome. I mean, I don't really remember anything
except for just like being I cannot believe I'm seeing
famous people. That's what I felt like to me is
this as a kid in a small town from Mountain Pine, Arkansas,
and you guys are my first concert ever and it
was awesome. And I kept waiting for me in the
middle and you did it finally and then that was it.
Show was over.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It was great. Yeah. Yeah, we learned pretty quick with
when we only had one hit, which was me from Middle.
You play that one last or or your walk out
music after that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So that was that. You know, you listen to music
sometimes it really reminds you of things. Listening to that
record that reminds me of writing in the van going
to and from church. That was a really significant time
and that's what we listened I was sitting there done that.
That's what we listened to. That was that record back.
Every time we did anything was that record?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You have a big, big piece of like my my
memory and my life with you guys when you go
and you start singing at Aupreyland and this is before
Tennessee River Boys, this is just you. What were you
doing at first when you started to be a performer.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Were you doing.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Songs about the park? Were you buy yourself or you
in a group? Like what is your first singing job
at Opprey Land?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah? It was. It was a cast show called after
Music USA. And we did what you would call mimicking,
uh and we did country hits and you were you
were supposed to. It was a caricature and do kind
of what your your version of them? And I had
an ability apparently with my ear.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Too, was that to do a lot of would you have?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I did? I had the ability with my.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Ear, God and with your ear something he said, got
to be.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Able to manipulate my voice and sound like real different
people somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
You could sing like that artist well enough that it
commute it got by.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean I was a big Gatlin fan, so I
could do. I can't do it anymore, but I could
do Gatlin. I could do I did Hanks senior.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Impressions too, like no, that's what it was. Yeah, But
could you do like spoken impressions as.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
We No, not really just singing.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Some of my friends have that ear like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, I can't a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But no, they can hear someone singing and they can
sing just like them. They can hear like a rich
little or whomever.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, they can do those impressions like that. But you
could do that singing.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
No, but you got to sit and practice that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Is that what you did?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yes, I did for that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You just listen to the st the tape over and over.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah. Yeah. Like Stephen Curtis Chapman, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I do know, yeah, Stephen Curtis Chapman. He's an American
contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, producer, actor, author, and social activist.
Chapman began his career in the late eighties a songwriter
and a performer, and has received the most awards in
Christian music. That's five Grammys and fifty nine Gospel Music
Association Dove Awards. That's more than anybody. Chapman's first number
(09:35):
one was His Eyes, which was released in spring of
nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Jus never convince.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No man away you go.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You will always be here. Steve and I would do
we did the faster flat Neurle Scruggs. Jeez, excuse me,
forgive me, but yeah, we did that, and so that
wasn't too hard. But the Gatlin things really kind of
(10:07):
what got me in the door at that time in
my life. I pretty much nailed that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You and Stephen kras Shaman working together at Aubreyland, that's where.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
We both gott yeah, and we were writing some together.
And actually when I got into this band, which was
the Tennessee River Boys at the time, and had a
show at the park. We actually played a showcase for
some us and about three or four other writers that
were worked out at the park for the Music Row,
(10:38):
and Steve got his first writing deal out of that.
Soda Skip Ewing Tim Nichols.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's like then, like the minor league of we were.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
The only ones who didn't get a publishing deal. Really. Yeah,
we just kept playing at Appyland.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The Tennessee River Boy that always turned out that evolved
into Diamond Rio. But how did the Tousy Boys come
together to begin with?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It was that was other guys, not any of us.
And they had a new ride called the Grizzly River
Rampage and they had formed a band and were playing
private things at the hotel. Hotel they had a booking
agent and the hotel they formed a band to get
jobs over there, and then they asked them to just
(11:21):
do what they were doing. It was basically top forty
type stuff, current country music, and they were good performers.
Paul Gregg the bass player in Russell's artist brother Danny
and Matt Davenport and Ty Herndon was the lead singer.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And so they just rotated since it was an act there,
did people come in and out?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah? Man, the band was Yeah, it was kind of
like spinal tap. Yeah. There were many different people that
claimed have been in this band.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So what was special about you guys's you know a
version of it?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well, it became much more original. We became more focused.
When I came in, we were more focused on trying
to get a record deal Alabama. The Advent of Alabama
had happened because that was an eighty two and Alabama
was brand new and the idea of a kind of
a rock and roll band in country music self contained,
so it was perceived in and so we chased that dream.
(12:21):
At the same time, Paul and Greg and Scott Hendricks
and all those guys were they were doing the putting
together a band down on the road. They'd been playing
studio stuff, and we're all just young, you know, try
to do hip stuff. That was basically a cross between
(12:43):
our country background and the seventies rock and roll that
we grew up loving. And we kind of melded those
two things. However, you some way shape or form that
those influences are in both in what we do. And man,
we just kept on plowing and creating and and reality
(13:03):
of getting guys getting married, having children, attritionian guys. You know,
I can't because we weren't making any money, right, and
so they they would one guy would leave and we
would be down about that, and you know, somebody knew
it coming. That was me. I ty went and did
(13:26):
Star Search and finished second got a record deal out
of it, and he left the band, and so they
asked me to join. And I was still working at
the park and another show. So another guy did did
the park park when I worked at the park. When
we were not working at the park, I was in
the band and I didn't sing lead. I just sang
tenor and played mandlin and acoustic and then you know,
(13:51):
one by one, drummer and piano left shortly thereafter, and
Dan Truman and another guy named JJ Whites. They was
a drummer at the park. We left the park, JJ left,
the steel player left, and we had to replace a
guitar player. And that's when Oleander came in March of
eighty five, and it was went kind of fast, but
for a while there, but we kept changing members and
(14:14):
it kept the sound kept getting more unique and different,
and and Gene came along. All of a sudden, I
went to sing in the low part the bass player,
the only original member left. Matt was singing, and we
got we started getting that bluegrass thing because I was
familiar with that name from roots in eastern Kentucky and stuff.
(14:36):
And then Matt decided to leave when I became the
lead singer and and we and Dana came along. Of
course he is bluegrass. It's Osborne Brothers and all over
uncles and it just I can remember the first song
we did with Dana. It was the vocal sound man.
It locked in. But the idea to have a piano
(14:58):
and a bender guitar and a piano was just organic
and the and the different influences that we had we'd
all liked like Dixie Draggs. I don't know anybody knows
who that is, but they had a lot of ensemble
harmony stuff instrumentally, So instrumentally we had a unique sound,
and I thought that was I wanted to hang on
to that, because instrumentally you knew who we were before
(15:21):
you ever heard the vocal, and I thought that was value.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby cast.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Whenever you were playing mandoline or rhythm and singing.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
As soon as Gene came around, I hung the manlin
on the wall and it's pretty much been there ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, were you ever like I should be the lead singer?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
No, you when you weren't the lead singer, you didn't
feel like you should be.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
How do they coax you into it?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Then? I like singing, you know, lead a melody, but
I didn't want to be the front guy. I was.
I'm shy, and naturally I don't tend to not really
care to be out front. I can be a ham
you know, I can do it, but I had to
(16:18):
learn how to do that. But it happened because of
Keith Stiegel. We went to the studio with Keith and
we were doing original stuff try to get a record deal,
and Keith agreed to produce some tracks on us, and
we did a couple of things that we had written,
and Matt couldn't sing the scratch vocal and play bass,
so I sang all the scratches and that was the
(16:39):
first time Keith had ever heard me sing lead.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So because he couldn't do it both at the same
time at the level I hated to be done in
the studio, right, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Back then you're would have bleed and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
So he had to do him at the same time.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So he played bass and I sing scratch with the
intention that he would come in and overduble over me.
But when then we had a meeting after that and
our Keith asked us to get together and we did
and he said, I think Marty should I should pitch
somebody SAWT with him as the lead singer, And unbeknownst
to me, all my other bandmates other than the one
(17:13):
who was singing lead all jumped in and really agreed
with that. And how'd you feel about that? It became
a very uncomfortable moment. Matt was not happy, and rightfully so.
He's a great musician. He's been very successful. And we
had a gig. We had to go work, and of
course back then having a gig was a big deal
(17:35):
because he didn't have them all the time, and it
was in Canada. We did two weeks sit down in Canada,
in Montreal, and not a soul spoke English, and we
spent two weeks in his band house in this very
uncomfortable situation. And I was sad to stand in the
center and become the lead guy, and I was nobody
knew it was a great place to do it because
nobody would ever know. But I began to learn that craft.
(17:59):
And when we got home, Matt call Mean said he
had decided to leave, So then we had to look
for That's when Dana came along. That was in eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well when did the band transition from the Tennessee river
Boys to Diamond Rio. It was the late eighties.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, musically we've always since about eighty eight or nine,
we've been what you know is Diamond Rio. Of course
we're better at.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It now, sure I don't, But why did you change
the name?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, we changed the name because Tennessee Rairboys sound like
a you know, like a Gospels. Yeah, yeah, and that's
not really what we did. And we wanted something that
was a little more nondescript, a lot hipper sounding, more
current in the for the nineties anyway. But we decided
not to change the name. We had a following under
(18:49):
that name that we were making some money with the
woman in the studio. We would go out work as
Tennessee Raarboys. Matter of fact, we did our first radio
promotion tour when Meet in the Middle came out. We
were as the Tennessee River Boys. But we would stop
at radio stations and do our our Diamond Rio that's
radio visits the new single, And at the end of
(19:10):
each of one of those shows, we would play Meet
in the Middle and say we've changed their name, and
all the people you could see their eyes go, I've
seen you, I've seen that video.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Why Diamond Rio? Like, what are the names? I'm always
interested in words? Why those words?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I'm glad I don't have to do that. That was
a very very difficult Picking a name is an awful
but I'm glad it's over. But we had gone through
a bunch of names, and we had bunch of friends,
and believe it or not, that name came from Shenandoah
guys Mike and Marty, they they they had they they
(19:45):
they did business under the name Diamond Rio. I think
they still do. Like when they check in the hotel
in Shenandoah, it's Diamond Rio doing business as Shenandoah. And
and they they said the record they didn't like it,
and they used the R E O saying and and
so they didn't use it, and they just kind of said,
here's something because we've been messing with diamond Back and Dimond.
(20:08):
We liked Diamond for some reason, and we liked that.
We changed it to Rios More southwest Field. And we
also didn't have a clue if we get sued by
the trucking company, which is Diamond Real, as there's.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
A Diamond Real trucking company.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Cross road trucks. Yeah, dump trucks.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Spelled the same.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Now it's spelled Rio. It's a bit quick history. R E.
Olds Oldsmobile Okay, sold the GM he started making. Old
was his name, Yes, huh Oldsmobile, So ri E Olds
was and so they started making fire engines, bus Rio
speed wagons.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That's my next question.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's what they were called. And then there was a
trucking company called Diamond t They merged in nineteen sixty
four and uh we and became Diamond Reel and they
made trucks till they were still making some trucks when
we first came out, mostly dump trucks and seemen.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And you never heard from them going, hey you got
her name.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No, well, they called us when we were in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
which is where the factory was. This was in ninety one,
and said do you want to come to an other factory?
And we did. I got mud flaps, like I'm not
real stuff in my garage right now.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So you guys are known in like the history of
country music as the first band ever put out a
debut single to go number one. I guess I'm surprised
that that had never happened, so were we, Like, I'm
not surprised that song did it, or that you did
it because I was a big fan, but that it
had never happened with any band to go number one
on a debut single.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, I mean it's really tough. I mean Alabama bands,
Alabama didn't do it, and they probably had the best shot,
I guess. But they had Tennessee River and that came
out and it went like top twenty, and then they
released My Homes in Alabama that was number Then they
re released tennis Sea River and it went number one.
But they were the closest before us. Now that's happened since.
(22:07):
But there was before Alabama, and there were quartets. Okay,
there was the Oaks, and there were the Statler brothers
and and things like that, and It'll do it, you know,
brother like the Osburn's and Jim and Jesse. Uh. They
though there were a lot of those, and those were
considered vocal groups, but there really weren't. You know. Nashville
(22:29):
was all about the same a team when Chet was here,
I mean they dreamlined that and and it was a
factory and they and so great players, but they played
on all the records and being a band and coming
up in the seventies, rock and roll was all about
the band, wasn't. You didn't even have pictures of the band.
It was just Chicago logo, you know whatever, and that's
(22:52):
kind of that's our that's our wheelhouses when we were
growing up, and that was a big part of our
musical influence. Thank goodness. It was really cool music, great music,
and I'd never really made a distinction between I didn't
grow up making a distinction between country and because I
(23:14):
did classic stuff. You know, I was in choral groups,
and I just liked great music and I enjoyed all
all of it. And I guess in some way, shape
or form, and there are some of those things that
influenced what we did. And it's kind of a hodgepole,
which is true of all generational music. You know, this
(23:39):
generation has something a lot of different things that influenced
them that never influenced us, And the same thing's true
of my predecessors.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So when you guys played, you talk about bands and
how the bands that you looked up to had certain
images and sounds. Do you guys play every note on
the records? I mean that again was kind of on
heard of then, because like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yea country music, it was. It was unheard of, and
we we got we didn't take about at least two
record deals because they didn't want us to do it.
They wouldn't let us do it, and so we kind
of turned down. That was a that was a well
they what's the how they used that? That was a
(24:21):
breaking point, I know, I know, negotiating for us, which
is amazing that we had the intestinal fortitude to do
that actually, but we just we knew that our sound
was unique, not that we were We thought we were better.
It's just different than what you know. Otherwise. The only
(24:42):
thing that would make us unique would be my voice
in our three part Harvey, which is has got some
unique and I think it would probably work.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But you would have like, you're crazy, You're not taking
a deal.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You have lost Jimmy Olanders. Yeah, your guitar and the
and the texture between Gene and the piano and that
Bender playing unison licks and harm harmony licks, all that.
They could have tried to mimic it, but there was nobody.
There wasn't the first bender that ever existed at the
Forest double Bender, like Jimmy plays him and Joe Glazer
(25:18):
made it in their dorm room in Belmonts you know,
I meaning they that's yeah, he's a I mean Jimmy
and Joe are they They forged that path. There was benders.
Graand Parsons played a b Bender. There were bee Benders,
and they had to do with the steel guitar. For
(25:38):
those who don't know what that means, it's like a
steel guitar. There's little mechanisms. You see their knees go
walking lucky.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
They're being Suzanne Sewers, the master.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, stretching the string to a half step one way
or the other, down or up. And so Jimmy has
that mechanism hooked to his guitar strap and to his
belt loop not on one, and so he does these
weird and that's how Meet in the Middle was created.
That lick, you can't play it, he can't play it
without a bender guitar and well, well, well that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Break nicely doom. Yeah, it's exactly that. People think that's
the studio recording, it's not. It's actually Meet in the
Middle was released in nineteen ninety one and it was
the first of five number one songs for Diamond Rio.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I Start Fucking Lady, start Walking the Mine, We met Georgia.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Why that song is a single? Was it always going
to be the first single? Is there a storybind why
that song was picked?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
No? Man, When when I, Jimmy and I, when we
heard the demo, we got out voted on whether to
cut it or not four to two because we were
not into it. The demo was not good. It wasn't
like it is. There was no the bridge didn't exist.
And Monty Powell, who was my roommate in college and
was producing what we were doing along with Tim to
(27:00):
the wall. But Monny and I and Jimmy we went
to work on mostly money and uh, we're just coming
up with some sort of turnaround, a bridge or whatever
you want to call a b section. And that's where
they started playing that that went to those changes and
I just I just did you know, just making it babe,
(27:23):
you know how we'd work it out, and that's what
love is all about. Bam, and right back into it
and and we as we work through the saw. I
want to preface that with when we lose a vote
in our deal, there's six fingers. When you're listening to
those songs like we would you raise the fingers like
pushing fast forward and I'm done. And anytime we had
(27:45):
four votes that wanted to keep the saw, we did,
and we went in. We cut it and the rule
was and we we verbalized this, We're going to all
even the ones who got out voted, will give it
their best shot because if you don't and it is
up everybody else loves it as a single, you have
your not your best performance on there. But I don't
(28:07):
want that. So we got that pretty quick. So we
all gave it our best effort to make it, to
make it work, even though I didn't wasn't really all
let into it start off with. When we finished the record,
the tracking, just the tracking, and it had a rough
vocal art. For me, it was yeah, that was when
(28:27):
the epiphany happened on it. This is you liked it? Then?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yes, So when you talk about the bridge, you know,
let's see, I love the way we work it asked, well,
I was all about could you do you ever? Would
you be recording and kind of just say stuff in
the studio or were you writing it down? Like how
would you come up with that new bridge? And now
went specifically, and I can.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Have a great memory of it, but I'm pretty sure
it was ends. We had all the time in the
world in the studio. We actually went to what we
used with our record money. We bought a studio, we
bought all the equipment and rented a little past over
in a fight what they called the fights.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well that's quite responsible.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah. Yeah, we did not go blow it.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It didn't sound like it. So you, guys, how did
it feel, Because it depends on the speed of the
success of the song. Did it feel like me in
the middle was flying up a chart? Did your life
feel like it was changing?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It was because we were starving to death and had struggled.
I've been in this band since eighty four. Not until
basically nineteen ninety did we even do a handshake deal
with Tim to have a record deal. And on that
we were able to get some writing contracts and a
(29:42):
little bit of money and sit down and I didn't
go on the road anymore. Just we were wrote and
the way we wrote we Monny had a sixteen track
in his basement. We would sit and work all day
on ride on stuff and literally get on the bass
boat online.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And go this all night and do it again the
next day.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yep. Then, and we kept writing, and Jimmy and I
and Dan did a lot of that together and ended
up coming up with a lot of songs. And other
guys were writing too, and we were We spent our
time writing in a studio, not unlike what they used
to do back in the seventies, where you just kind
(30:25):
of go in and create a record. Now we were listening,
we put all of our create our stuff right alongside
with the greatest. We were all of a sudden getting
top notch songs pitched to us, and we didn't. We
didn't give ourselves a preference. A matter of fact, we
probably judged our stuff more critically.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Instead of the other way around, which is usually the
game to a fall.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, but but we've we found great songs and then
we we always made them our own. We didn't sometimes
the demo was great, we would we would would not
be too proud to go, let's see if we can
do that just a little better. I would real on
that that arranged me. But not that's not true most
(31:15):
of the time, at least it wasn't for us.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You've talked about golfing, and you've talked about fishing a
little bit, and you've talked about cars a little bit.
I haven't just at the passion that you talk about them.
I would expect those of the three things you love
I do.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I love I love God all the outdoors. I love
to be outdoors, and I love to play golf, and
I used to fish and hunt, and I don't have
time to do all of them.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
How often you play.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Golf three or four times in a week, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Gonna say it. That's going to say, how do you
even have time to do that?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I live on the golf course. Did it was one
of the first things I was able to do. We
bought a home in Williamson County that was on golf
course that was not in great shape, but it is
now called Nashville Golf and Athletic and it's.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
An incredible played there last week.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Diamond in the Rough played there last week. Yeah, beat
you up.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It will beat you up. There's a hole. Maybe it's
like I haven't played enough to all the holes. But
if it's like fourteen or fifteen, you have to you
don't really know how far. You're up on a hill
and you have to three. It's all far. Four. It's
a short part four, but you have to hit it.
And you think you can just cut the corner and
you drive around your lege. You can't re look cut
the car. Number five Maybe I don't know. Maybe we
played a that was it? And ten is that the
(32:45):
one I.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Number one is the toughest, one of the toughest.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Number one sucks. You're right, it's hard. We were driving
off and the lady was like, be careful for the
water on one and we're like, yeah, whatever. Then we
get the tea off the tea and then on your
second shut.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah everywhere and if the green on your third.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Shoes hitting the water off the tea, you know, I
didn't know the water was over there. So you can
play a few times a week. You feel pretty good?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Are you healthy? Yeah? Oh yeah, I love it. I
don't play as well as I used to. I was
very very into it. I still am. But yeah, I
mean I have my handicap down the scratch and what
and yeah, yeah, I know that's the truth. But I
I've got a little since twenty twenty. I went through
a few things with my family that I just could
(33:28):
have this golf was not in it, and my mother
passed and then my father and of course twenty twenty
and all that kind of stuff, and I can't hit it.
I got old, what do you think you are? Now?
I know what I am. Well, what I'm living.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, that's about what I am.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I've played for seven that's pretty good. Behind this curtainer.
I got a simulator, and you think i'd be better.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I know, like it's fun if it's snowing outside, that's
when it's to work on your swing and yeah, stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
But simulator won't you just and I do.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
But it's not the same golf. Yeah, golf is a
creative game, and that's what I like about it.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Golf has affected other parts of my life too, where
with the you hit in the woods, are you gonna
freak out and be like, Oh, this sucks or do
you just have to go I gotta forget that. I
got to remember maybe why I did it. But I
can't let that affect the next thing.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's that I've learned. I learned things everybody should, but
I learned things about myself when I when I have
many options, when I'm in the middle of the fairway
and I got all kinds of different ways to play
this shot and and have a correct result when I
desired result, I lose focus and I will That's when
(34:46):
I will hit my worst shots when I only have
one option. And it's something that most people will go,
you can't do that, you can't see fall through that.
I'm like, yeah, that's I don't have can't in my vocabulary,
so and and I will, I'll hit some of the
coolest jobs.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Why do you think that.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
In the woods? I love that part of Why do
you think that?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Is focus?
Speaker 1 (35:07):
For focus, I would I would say focus and just
no choice. You had no choice but to play this
play or you're going to have to. You're you know
you're gonna make a ten whenever you pick up and
you go the next hole. And that's the other cool
thing about golf. You get eighteen chances, you know, and
you can always come back and do it again, which
should something about life. Even a lot of things in
(35:32):
life you can't you do get another crack as they
come around, often the same scenarios, not always every now
and then there's once in a lifetime things that you
wish you had done better, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Tell me about the cake.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We had. I mean, that was a lot of fun,
but that came about, you know. Obviously we had two
guys retire if no one out there knows, but Jeane
and Brian both retired from the business and they're enjoying
being done. They're a little older than the four of
us who stayed and we're happy for them, but we
(36:12):
didn't want to quit and we needed a drummer and
somebody saying I army play Manlin and so during all
that it didn't happen all. At the same time, when
Brian left, he had actually groomed Micah, who was our drummer.
He had been his sub for many men for about
a decade. And Micah is young. They're both really young.
(36:35):
He's forty I think now, but he started playing with
us when Brian went through his first surgeries for carpal
tunnel and things like that that are common with drummers,
and was awesome, and he had grown up worshiping. That's
how he learned to play drums, was listening to Diamond
Real records. And he's a spectacular talent, so that was
(36:57):
a natural thing. That was the only question was with
Michael say yes, and he did, and so he's been
with us for a couple of years now. And then
we were subbing with these guys that bluegrass dudes, sang
high harmony and played manlin, fiddle whatever, and they really
couldn't hang if several of them I won't name them,
but they were well known and awesome musicians of their
(37:22):
own right and had some success. And there one of
them said, you know, you realize Jean's a freak the
way he seeks so high and it's not false set in,
it's full voice. And so we had we had a
couple of girls that were subbing and they did great.
And this little girl who was a senior at UK
and of course I'm a big Kentucky fan, so that
(37:46):
didn't hurt. But she was a fiddle champion and competition
fiddle player and sang high harmony and it fit and
she was high energy, and he grabbed a hold of
mail and started learning that it's all same fingerings, but
it's totally different. But she's been champed. And her name's
(38:08):
Carson McKee. So by the end of the year, Jeane
lost his wife during all that, that was part of
the reason why he was gone. That's the only reason.
He was obviously where he needed to be with June
in her struggle. And when that was over, he Gene
was seventy three years old seventy two at the time,
(38:30):
and he decided he wanted to do the same thing
as as Brian did. And so when that happened, we
asked Carson if she would at least, you know, do
a full year with us. And she's been here now
going on two years, about year and a half, and
(38:50):
so when that happened, so we're back to the kick.
When those two young uns came in, we wanted to
showcase their abilities, and she was wanting and Jimmy was
wanting to write some stuff, so him and Carson started
writing this thing, and then Micah got involved because he
had heard it and just kind of all got involved
(39:11):
with add R two cents work, not unlike how we
used to do it. And also we had we had
an instrumental, which we've always done. We've had instrumentals on
every album from the very beginning and had several nominated
for Grammys. Ever wanted Grammy, but on the instrumental side
that that's always been a part of what we've done.
And all of a sudden, Micah is a film He
(39:33):
was doing shooting videos and things like that already for
a living, so he shot the video and edited it.
He does he's spectacular of that. And we had friends
across the road from Jimmy who had this great shop
and all these cool collectible cars, and we just came
up with this idea and It's what's cool about where
we are in our life. It's like, if nobody cares
(39:54):
or nobody likes, I don't care. We just do it
for fun and we know that it's going to be
good music because that's that's what we do. We wouldn't
put it out. We feel like we hold ourselves to
the higher accountability than anyone else does. And if it
doesn't hit the chord with somebody, then okay. I mean
(40:16):
it's our label and with our money, and we shot
the video and that's what I like about. That's the
good thing about what's going on in music business with
the Internet and being able to get an outlet out
there and not have to go through certain gatekeepers that
we that we grew up having to go through. That's
that's cool like that.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Starting December first, you guys are out on the road.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Through the eighteenth or someone like seventeenth or eighteen. Yes, yes,
we're doing every weekend. We're having our Christmas Show, Diamond
Real Holiday and the Hits and it is. It varies.
Sometimes it's a lot of Christmas stuff. Sometimes it's mostly hits.
But the Christmas Show itself is mostly Christmas. You know.
(41:00):
It's a great diversion for us. And it's a great
it's a fun show. It's a lot of fun, and
it shows a slightly different side of us. And you'll
get to hear your favorite Christmas songs and you'll definitely
hear mine.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well what about though, if I go, am I going
to hear this is a bit of a mess. It's
a bit of a mess.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Minute any one for sure? How about it? We'll be
in there.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
As long as you do that. I don't know any
words of any song, but I know everywhere.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
To me in the middle.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'm not singing that though. Good I tried, thank you, Yes,
I tried. Didn't go well for me. Uh so let
me say this you guys. Go check it out on Facebook,
at Diamond Rio, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Diamond Rio band
and go check out the show. It's I'm super pumped.
Thanks for coming and hanging out. Thanks for the merch.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yes, you're right, And I didn't know what signe, so
I brought it and large and I saw where you
you just fairly recently married the last year or so. Yes,
and so if if the medium doesn't fit you, maybe
it'll fit the wife. Is she a diamond real she is?
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Who's not?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
What would you say you're not gonna Yes? I would.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
I would for sure be like she never heard of you.
No worry, I tell you truth like you're.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Talking the truth. But yes, And we are working on
a new single okay, a new song okay. Uh and
it is actually from the off Balls about something that
Jimmy and I. Uh and a girl named Heather wrote
who uh not an instrumental? No, No, this is a
duet with Carson. So this is gonna be that's all
waiting about. She and I are not about she and
(42:28):
I was about my daughter and when she went to
she went off to school and in Australia and to
chase her dream about being in the Praisen worship world.
And uh and I we wrote this song with aw.
It just killed me. She's as far away from me
as she could get.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
If she've kept going, she just get closer, the exact opposite.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Good to see you, mar Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
If I knew where your house was, I had to
hit a golf walk closer to it.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yes, out, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I might have hit your house an accident.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
No, I know how to buy a house. On the
golf course. It's not quite right on.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Okay, good deal, all right there he is, Marty Robe
diamond Rio.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production
We actually played a showcase for the re Music Row
and Steve got his first writing deal out to skip youing.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Like the minor league.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We were the only ones who didn't get a publishing deal.
Really yeah, we just kept playing it up.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Related episode four twenty two Marty Row of Diamond Rio,
which by the way, they're going out go watch them.
They're doing their holiday shows Holiday in the Hits, kicking
off in Baton Rouge on December first. But it's pretty cool.
I mean, Diamond Rio was first concert I ever went to,
and I do bring that up, but I almost forgot
(00:41):
to bring it up. I guess I've known we're going
to do it, and I thought it ten times, but
I almost never said anything about it. And then I
kind of felt weird, going yeah, it was in the
theme park because I waite feel weird. I don't know,
because I didn't know if they would be like, yeah,
that's before we hit it. Did I just didn't know,
but it was it was that Magic Springs was awesome.
(01:01):
They're like thousand people there. It's my first ever concert.
So Marty Row of Diamond Rio. Now he talks about
the band. They originated as the Tennessee River Boys back
in the eighties, they turned into Diamond Rio. They signed
with Arista Nashville in nineteen ninety one. I mean, come on,
this song Meet in the Middle is like the ultimate
country jam. I mean, this is it. You start walking
(01:22):
And if I were to go through just some of
the songs that I listened to over and over again,
I mean, Beautiful Mess from two thousand and two was
really a jam. I mean, Norma Jean Riley, come on,
Norman Jean Jam and they have a bunch of number ones.
How about Unbelievable eight.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Song?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I forget about how good that one is. Sometimes the
length of their career is crazy. Yeah, it is crazy,
I mean ninety one, and then they put out I
mean I think their last number one was in the
two thousands. I believe was the crazy though from the nineties,
two thousands. I know, Here's I Believe from two thousand
and two.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I Can't Deep and Reach Across.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then here is walking Away another song, I like,
here you go, No, No, you know this band that
he talks about it where they played all their own
instruments and that wasn't really welcomed at the time, And
we get into that, but here he is Marty Row
of Diamond Rio. Followed them on Facebook at Diamond Rio,
on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Diamond Rio band. They
(02:30):
have a current release called The Kick, which you can
check out and here he is Marty Rowe, Marty Hall.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The heck are you man? I'm doroughing great. I'm still
in your net. If we have I don't remember it.
So that's.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay, I think, and you can tell me if I'm wrong.
I think, did you do Blake Shelton's video? No, that
was Jimmy, Okay, then that is son. I saw everybody
all at once, A bunch of people come in when
I was leaving them, Blake in la or something. Yes, okay,
so then we haven't met. That was the only time
I thought we might have been in the same room.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
No, that was that was Jimmy's deal.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't even know what.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, they had the dogs. Scott produced that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Scott Hendry probably it's yeah. And so I was out
there doing idol and I was with Blake and then
I was leaving as the whole band was coming in,
and I was like right up, and that was it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And so Scott sent that off to Jimmy and Jimmy
uh with the solo in there.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hey, that hat's pretty cool, the Burberry hat.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Hey, award just for you. That's the truth. She said,
he's really in the hats my wife, I sent my
you want to hear the whole story.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I want to hear the whole You.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Can cut it out.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We won't cut a dang thing going.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So here's the deal. So in twenty twenty, my wife
and my two daughters were scheduled somebody was sending them
on a trip to Paris, and they really wanted to go.
And my brother's daughters were in school over there. So anyway,
that got mixed, of course, because it was twenty twenty
(04:02):
and it didn't happen. So last year they had to
cash out their plane tickets and they ended up going
to Hawaii and I'm like, I'm on the road making
a living and she's complaining about being in Hawaii for
her vacation. Anyhow, fast forward to this year, they finally
got to go to Paris. And so I had looked
(04:25):
at one of these hats. I didn't know. She said,
what do you want for Christmas? Or not? Man? If
I wanted, I go get it. And I'm not real
picky about stuff. But I have a large hat collection,
and somebody told me you do too. I have a hat.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Collection, a shoe collection, dog collection. It feels like.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I have a collection of shoes.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's not a shoe collection exactly. That's do you know
how much that hat cost you?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yes? I found out, but I found out.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I found out. So she did. Couldn't find it in Paris.
She fands it in London. Apparently it was cheaper, which
is a relative term, very relative, and not any of
my relatives. But she goes, it's four hundred and twenty euro.
So get your phones out and you do the translation. Well,
when I saw a lot of money. When I saw
(05:15):
you coming, I was like, man, I go, and I go,
I said. When I first saw it for Christmas last year,
I said, oh, man, I don't want one of those.
I said that that hat is literally you put something
of that garment on and it's basically saying some things
I don't want to say to people. And she goes, well,
we can find a fake when and I went, well, that's.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
The yeah, that's right. Well I appreciate When you walked down,
I was like, that is legit.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Three hundred and thirty or forty bucks for this hat.
And this is probably the only place I will ever
wear it. Really just for you.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Now, that's a fun It brings that your eyes. Yeah,
did you know?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And you brought you a couple.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I know, I see that. I can't wait to look
at it.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
They were not that expensive.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What's interesting about you? And about Diamond Rio. My first
ever concert of my whole life with you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I heard that, well you had how old were you? Eleven?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Something like that. Diamond Rio formed in nineteen eighty two
at Opryland, USA, a former theme park that was based
on country music in Nashville, and they had some member
changes early in the years, but since then the band
has consisted of the same six members. From nineteen eighty
nine to twenty twenty two, three of the band's albums
have been certified platinum. They received four Group of the
(06:29):
Year Awards from the CMAS, two Top Vocal Group Awards
from the ACMs, and one Grammy Award. We went to
Magic Springs and it was an arc and theme park. Yeah,
in a theme park, and I mean I listened to
you guys as tape. It was that transition of tape
to CD time for me too, So I had the
same exact tape and CD same album because it had
(06:51):
all kind of shifted from tape and I was so pumped.
It was awesome. I mean, I don't really remember anything
except for just like being I cannot believe I'm seeing
famous people. That's what I felt like to me is
this as a kid in a small town from Mountain Pine, Arkansas,
and you guys are my first concert ever and it
was awesome. And I kept waiting for me in the
middle and you did it finally and then that was it.
Show was over.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It was great. Yeah. Yeah, we learned pretty quick with
when we only had one hit, which was me from Middle.
You play that one last or or your walk out
music after that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So that was that. You know, you listen to music
sometimes it really reminds you of things. Listening to that
record that reminds me of writing in the van going
to and from church. That was a really significant time
and that's what we listened I was sitting there done that.
That's what we listened to. That was that record back.
Every time we did anything was that record?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You have a big, big piece of like my my
memory and my life with you guys when you go
and you start singing at Aupreyland and this is before
Tennessee River Boys, this is just you. What were you
doing at first when you started to be a performer.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Were you doing.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Songs about the park? Were you buy yourself or you
in a group? Like what is your first singing job
at Opprey Land?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah? It was. It was a cast show called after
Music USA. And we did what you would call mimicking,
uh and we did country hits and you were you
were supposed to. It was a caricature and do kind
of what your your version of them? And I had
an ability apparently with my ear.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Too, was that to do a lot of would you have?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I did? I had the ability with my.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Ear, God and with your ear something he said, got
to be.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Able to manipulate my voice and sound like real different
people somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
You could sing like that artist well enough that it
commute it got by.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean I was a big Gatlin fan, so I
could do. I can't do it anymore, but I could
do Gatlin. I could do I did Hanks senior.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Impressions too, like no, that's what it was. Yeah, But
could you do like spoken impressions as.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
We No, not really just singing.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Some of my friends have that ear like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, I can't a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But no, they can hear someone singing and they can
sing just like them. They can hear like a rich
little or whomever.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, they can do those impressions like that. But you
could do that singing.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
No, but you got to sit and practice that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Is that what you did?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yes, I did for that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You just listen to the st the tape over and over.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah. Yeah. Like Stephen Curtis Chapman, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I do know, yeah, Stephen Curtis Chapman. He's an American
contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, producer, actor, author, and social activist.
Chapman began his career in the late eighties a songwriter
and a performer, and has received the most awards in
Christian music. That's five Grammys and fifty nine Gospel Music
Association Dove Awards. That's more than anybody. Chapman's first number
(09:35):
one was His Eyes, which was released in spring of
nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Jus never convince.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No man away you go.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You will always be here. Steve and I would do
we did the faster flat Neurle Scruggs. Jeez, excuse me,
forgive me, but yeah, we did that, and so that
wasn't too hard. But the Gatlin things really kind of
(10:07):
what got me in the door at that time in
my life. I pretty much nailed that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You and Stephen kras Shaman working together at Aubreyland, that's where.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
We both gott yeah, and we were writing some together.
And actually when I got into this band, which was
the Tennessee River Boys at the time, and had a
show at the park. We actually played a showcase for
some us and about three or four other writers that
were worked out at the park for the Music Row,
(10:38):
and Steve got his first writing deal out of that.
Soda Skip Ewing Tim Nichols.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's like then, like the minor league of we were.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
The only ones who didn't get a publishing deal. Really. Yeah,
we just kept playing at Appyland.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The Tennessee River Boy that always turned out that evolved
into Diamond Rio. But how did the Tousy Boys come
together to begin with?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It was that was other guys, not any of us.
And they had a new ride called the Grizzly River
Rampage and they had formed a band and were playing
private things at the hotel. Hotel they had a booking
agent and the hotel they formed a band to get
jobs over there, and then they asked them to just
(11:21):
do what they were doing. It was basically top forty
type stuff, current country music, and they were good performers.
Paul Gregg the bass player in Russell's artist brother Danny
and Matt Davenport and Ty Herndon was the lead singer.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And so they just rotated since it was an act there,
did people come in and out?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah? Man, the band was Yeah, it was kind of
like spinal tap. Yeah. There were many different people that
claimed have been in this band.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So what was special about you guys's you know a
version of it?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well, it became much more original. We became more focused.
When I came in, we were more focused on trying
to get a record deal Alabama. The Advent of Alabama
had happened because that was an eighty two and Alabama
was brand new and the idea of a kind of
a rock and roll band in country music self contained,
so it was perceived in and so we chased that dream.
(12:21):
At the same time, Paul and Greg and Scott Hendricks
and all those guys were they were doing the putting
together a band down on the road. They'd been playing
studio stuff, and we're all just young, you know, try
to do hip stuff. That was basically a cross between
(12:43):
our country background and the seventies rock and roll that
we grew up loving. And we kind of melded those
two things. However, you some way shape or form that
those influences are in both in what we do. And man,
we just kept on plowing and creating and and reality
(13:03):
of getting guys getting married, having children, attritionian guys. You know,
I can't because we weren't making any money, right, and
so they they would one guy would leave and we
would be down about that, and you know, somebody knew
it coming. That was me. I ty went and did
(13:26):
Star Search and finished second got a record deal out
of it, and he left the band, and so they
asked me to join. And I was still working at
the park and another show. So another guy did did
the park park when I worked at the park. When
we were not working at the park, I was in
the band and I didn't sing lead. I just sang
tenor and played mandlin and acoustic and then you know,
(13:51):
one by one, drummer and piano left shortly thereafter, and
Dan Truman and another guy named JJ Whites. They was
a drummer at the park. We left the park, JJ left,
the steel player left, and we had to replace a
guitar player. And that's when Oleander came in March of
eighty five, and it was went kind of fast, but
for a while there, but we kept changing members and
(14:14):
it kept the sound kept getting more unique and different,
and and Gene came along. All of a sudden, I
went to sing in the low part the bass player,
the only original member left. Matt was singing, and we
got we started getting that bluegrass thing because I was
familiar with that name from roots in eastern Kentucky and stuff.
(14:36):
And then Matt decided to leave when I became the
lead singer and and we and Dana came along. Of
course he is bluegrass. It's Osborne Brothers and all over
uncles and it just I can remember the first song
we did with Dana. It was the vocal sound man.
It locked in. But the idea to have a piano
(14:58):
and a bender guitar and a piano was just organic
and the and the different influences that we had we'd
all liked like Dixie Draggs. I don't know anybody knows
who that is, but they had a lot of ensemble
harmony stuff instrumentally, So instrumentally we had a unique sound,
and I thought that was I wanted to hang on
to that, because instrumentally you knew who we were before
(15:21):
you ever heard the vocal, and I thought that was value.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby cast.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Whenever you were playing mandoline or rhythm and singing.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
As soon as Gene came around, I hung the manlin
on the wall and it's pretty much been there ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, were you ever like I should be the lead singer?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
No, you when you weren't the lead singer, you didn't
feel like you should be.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
How do they coax you into it?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Then? I like singing, you know, lead a melody, but
I didn't want to be the front guy. I was.
I'm shy, and naturally I don't tend to not really
care to be out front. I can be a ham
you know, I can do it, but I had to
(16:18):
learn how to do that. But it happened because of
Keith Stiegel. We went to the studio with Keith and
we were doing original stuff try to get a record deal,
and Keith agreed to produce some tracks on us, and
we did a couple of things that we had written,
and Matt couldn't sing the scratch vocal and play bass,
so I sang all the scratches and that was the
(16:39):
first time Keith had ever heard me sing lead.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So because he couldn't do it both at the same
time at the level I hated to be done in
the studio, right, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Back then you're would have bleed and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
So he had to do him at the same time.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So he played bass and I sing scratch with the
intention that he would come in and overduble over me.
But when then we had a meeting after that and
our Keith asked us to get together and we did
and he said, I think Marty should I should pitch
somebody SAWT with him as the lead singer, And unbeknownst
to me, all my other bandmates other than the one
(17:13):
who was singing lead all jumped in and really agreed
with that. And how'd you feel about that? It became
a very uncomfortable moment. Matt was not happy, and rightfully so.
He's a great musician. He's been very successful. And we
had a gig. We had to go work, and of
course back then having a gig was a big deal
(17:35):
because he didn't have them all the time, and it
was in Canada. We did two weeks sit down in Canada,
in Montreal, and not a soul spoke English, and we
spent two weeks in his band house in this very
uncomfortable situation. And I was sad to stand in the
center and become the lead guy, and I was nobody
knew it was a great place to do it because
nobody would ever know. But I began to learn that craft.
(17:59):
And when we got home, Matt call Mean said he
had decided to leave, So then we had to look
for That's when Dana came along. That was in eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well when did the band transition from the Tennessee river
Boys to Diamond Rio. It was the late eighties.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, musically we've always since about eighty eight or nine,
we've been what you know is Diamond Rio. Of course
we're better at.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It now, sure I don't, But why did you change
the name?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, we changed the name because Tennessee Rairboys sound like
a you know, like a Gospels. Yeah, yeah, and that's
not really what we did. And we wanted something that
was a little more nondescript, a lot hipper sounding, more
current in the for the nineties anyway. But we decided
not to change the name. We had a following under
(18:49):
that name that we were making some money with the
woman in the studio. We would go out work as
Tennessee Raarboys. Matter of fact, we did our first radio
promotion tour when Meet in the Middle came out. We
were as the Tennessee River Boys. But we would stop
at radio stations and do our our Diamond Rio that's
radio visits the new single, And at the end of
(19:10):
each of one of those shows, we would play Meet
in the Middle and say we've changed their name, and
all the people you could see their eyes go, I've
seen you, I've seen that video.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Why Diamond Rio? Like, what are the names? I'm always
interested in words? Why those words?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I'm glad I don't have to do that. That was
a very very difficult Picking a name is an awful
but I'm glad it's over. But we had gone through
a bunch of names, and we had bunch of friends,
and believe it or not, that name came from Shenandoah
guys Mike and Marty, they they they had they they
(19:45):
they did business under the name Diamond Rio. I think
they still do. Like when they check in the hotel
in Shenandoah, it's Diamond Rio doing business as Shenandoah. And
and they they said the record they didn't like it,
and they used the R E O saying and and
so they didn't use it, and they just kind of said,
here's something because we've been messing with diamond Back and Dimond.
(20:08):
We liked Diamond for some reason, and we liked that.
We changed it to Rios More southwest Field. And we
also didn't have a clue if we get sued by
the trucking company, which is Diamond Real, as there's.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
A Diamond Real trucking company.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Cross road trucks. Yeah, dump trucks.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Spelled the same.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Now it's spelled Rio. It's a bit quick history. R E.
Olds Oldsmobile Okay, sold the GM he started making. Old
was his name, Yes, huh Oldsmobile, So ri E Olds
was and so they started making fire engines, bus Rio
speed wagons.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That's my next question.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's what they were called. And then there was a
trucking company called Diamond t They merged in nineteen sixty
four and uh we and became Diamond Reel and they
made trucks till they were still making some trucks when
we first came out, mostly dump trucks and seemen.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And you never heard from them going, hey you got
her name.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No, well, they called us when we were in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
which is where the factory was. This was in ninety one,
and said do you want to come to an other factory?
And we did. I got mud flaps, like I'm not
real stuff in my garage right now.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So you guys are known in like the history of
country music as the first band ever put out a
debut single to go number one. I guess I'm surprised
that that had never happened, so were we, Like, I'm
not surprised that song did it, or that you did
it because I was a big fan, but that it
had never happened with any band to go number one
on a debut single.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, I mean it's really tough. I mean Alabama bands,
Alabama didn't do it, and they probably had the best shot,
I guess. But they had Tennessee River and that came
out and it went like top twenty, and then they
released My Homes in Alabama that was number Then they
re released tennis Sea River and it went number one.
But they were the closest before us. Now that's happened since.
(22:07):
But there was before Alabama, and there were quartets. Okay,
there was the Oaks, and there were the Statler brothers
and and things like that, and It'll do it, you know,
brother like the Osburn's and Jim and Jesse. Uh. They
though there were a lot of those, and those were
considered vocal groups, but there really weren't. You know. Nashville
(22:29):
was all about the same a team when Chet was here,
I mean they dreamlined that and and it was a
factory and they and so great players, but they played
on all the records and being a band and coming
up in the seventies, rock and roll was all about
the band, wasn't. You didn't even have pictures of the band.
It was just Chicago logo, you know whatever, and that's
(22:52):
kind of that's our that's our wheelhouses when we were
growing up, and that was a big part of our
musical influence. Thank goodness. It was really cool music, great music,
and I'd never really made a distinction between I didn't
grow up making a distinction between country and because I
(23:14):
did classic stuff. You know, I was in choral groups,
and I just liked great music and I enjoyed all
all of it. And I guess in some way, shape
or form, and there are some of those things that
influenced what we did. And it's kind of a hodgepole,
which is true of all generational music. You know, this
(23:39):
generation has something a lot of different things that influenced
them that never influenced us, And the same thing's true
of my predecessors.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So when you guys played, you talk about bands and
how the bands that you looked up to had certain
images and sounds. Do you guys play every note on
the records? I mean that again was kind of on
heard of then, because like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yea country music, it was. It was unheard of, and
we we got we didn't take about at least two
record deals because they didn't want us to do it.
They wouldn't let us do it, and so we kind
of turned down. That was a that was a well
they what's the how they used that? That was a
(24:21):
breaking point, I know, I know, negotiating for us, which
is amazing that we had the intestinal fortitude to do
that actually, but we just we knew that our sound
was unique, not that we were We thought we were better.
It's just different than what you know. Otherwise. The only
(24:42):
thing that would make us unique would be my voice
in our three part Harvey, which is has got some
unique and I think it would probably work.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But you would have like, you're crazy, You're not taking
a deal.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You have lost Jimmy Olanders. Yeah, your guitar and the
and the texture between Gene and the piano and that
Bender playing unison licks and harm harmony licks, all that.
They could have tried to mimic it, but there was nobody.
There wasn't the first bender that ever existed at the
Forest double Bender, like Jimmy plays him and Joe Glazer
(25:18):
made it in their dorm room in Belmonts you know,
I meaning they that's yeah, he's a I mean Jimmy
and Joe are they They forged that path. There was benders.
Graand Parsons played a b Bender. There were bee Benders,
and they had to do with the steel guitar. For
(25:38):
those who don't know what that means, it's like a
steel guitar. There's little mechanisms. You see their knees go
walking lucky.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
They're being Suzanne Sewers, the master.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, stretching the string to a half step one way
or the other, down or up. And so Jimmy has
that mechanism hooked to his guitar strap and to his
belt loop not on one, and so he does these
weird and that's how Meet in the Middle was created.
That lick, you can't play it, he can't play it
without a bender guitar and well, well, well that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Break nicely doom. Yeah, it's exactly that. People think that's
the studio recording, it's not. It's actually Meet in the
Middle was released in nineteen ninety one and it was
the first of five number one songs for Diamond Rio.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I Start Fucking Lady, start Walking the Mine, We met Georgia.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Why that song is a single? Was it always going
to be the first single? Is there a storybind why
that song was picked?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
No? Man, When when I, Jimmy and I, when we
heard the demo, we got out voted on whether to
cut it or not four to two because we were
not into it. The demo was not good. It wasn't
like it is. There was no the bridge didn't exist.
And Monty Powell, who was my roommate in college and
was producing what we were doing along with Tim to
(27:00):
the wall. But Monny and I and Jimmy we went
to work on mostly money and uh, we're just coming
up with some sort of turnaround, a bridge or whatever
you want to call a b section. And that's where
they started playing that that went to those changes and
I just I just did you know, just making it babe,
(27:23):
you know how we'd work it out, and that's what
love is all about. Bam, and right back into it
and and we as we work through the saw. I
want to preface that with when we lose a vote
in our deal, there's six fingers. When you're listening to
those songs like we would you raise the fingers like
pushing fast forward and I'm done. And anytime we had
(27:45):
four votes that wanted to keep the saw, we did,
and we went in. We cut it and the rule
was and we we verbalized this, We're going to all
even the ones who got out voted, will give it
their best shot because if you don't and it is
up everybody else loves it as a single, you have
your not your best performance on there. But I don't
(28:07):
want that. So we got that pretty quick. So we
all gave it our best effort to make it, to
make it work, even though I didn't wasn't really all
let into it start off with. When we finished the record,
the tracking, just the tracking, and it had a rough
vocal art. For me, it was yeah, that was when
(28:27):
the epiphany happened on it. This is you liked it? Then?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yes, So when you talk about the bridge, you know,
let's see, I love the way we work it asked, well,
I was all about could you do you ever? Would
you be recording and kind of just say stuff in
the studio or were you writing it down? Like how
would you come up with that new bridge? And now
went specifically, and I can.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Have a great memory of it, but I'm pretty sure
it was ends. We had all the time in the
world in the studio. We actually went to what we
used with our record money. We bought a studio, we
bought all the equipment and rented a little past over
in a fight what they called the fights.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well that's quite responsible.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah. Yeah, we did not go blow it.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It didn't sound like it. So you, guys, how did
it feel, Because it depends on the speed of the
success of the song. Did it feel like me in
the middle was flying up a chart? Did your life
feel like it was changing?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It was because we were starving to death and had struggled.
I've been in this band since eighty four. Not until
basically nineteen ninety did we even do a handshake deal
with Tim to have a record deal. And on that
we were able to get some writing contracts and a
(29:42):
little bit of money and sit down and I didn't
go on the road anymore. Just we were wrote and
the way we wrote we Monny had a sixteen track
in his basement. We would sit and work all day
on ride on stuff and literally get on the bass
boat online.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And go this all night and do it again the
next day.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yep. Then, and we kept writing, and Jimmy and I
and Dan did a lot of that together and ended
up coming up with a lot of songs. And other
guys were writing too, and we were We spent our
time writing in a studio, not unlike what they used
to do back in the seventies, where you just kind
(30:25):
of go in and create a record. Now we were listening,
we put all of our create our stuff right alongside
with the greatest. We were all of a sudden getting
top notch songs pitched to us, and we didn't. We
didn't give ourselves a preference. A matter of fact, we
probably judged our stuff more critically.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Instead of the other way around, which is usually the
game to a fall.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, but but we've we found great songs and then
we we always made them our own. We didn't sometimes
the demo was great, we would we would would not
be too proud to go, let's see if we can
do that just a little better. I would real on
that that arranged me. But not that's not true most
(31:15):
of the time, at least it wasn't for us.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You've talked about golfing, and you've talked about fishing a
little bit, and you've talked about cars a little bit.
I haven't just at the passion that you talk about them.
I would expect those of the three things you love
I do.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I love I love God all the outdoors. I love
to be outdoors, and I love to play golf, and
I used to fish and hunt, and I don't have
time to do all of them.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
How often you play.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Golf three or four times in a week, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Gonna say it. That's going to say, how do you
even have time to do that?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I live on the golf course. Did it was one
of the first things I was able to do. We
bought a home in Williamson County that was on golf
course that was not in great shape, but it is
now called Nashville Golf and Athletic and it's.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
An incredible played there last week.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Diamond in the Rough played there last week. Yeah, beat
you up.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It will beat you up. There's a hole. Maybe it's
like I haven't played enough to all the holes. But
if it's like fourteen or fifteen, you have to you
don't really know how far. You're up on a hill
and you have to three. It's all far. Four. It's
a short part four, but you have to hit it.
And you think you can just cut the corner and
you drive around your lege. You can't re look cut
the car. Number five Maybe I don't know. Maybe we
played a that was it? And ten is that the
(32:45):
one I.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Number one is the toughest, one of the toughest.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Number one sucks. You're right, it's hard. We were driving
off and the lady was like, be careful for the
water on one and we're like, yeah, whatever. Then we
get the tea off the tea and then on your
second shut.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah everywhere and if the green on your third.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Shoes hitting the water off the tea, you know, I
didn't know the water was over there. So you can
play a few times a week. You feel pretty good?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Are you healthy? Yeah? Oh yeah, I love it. I
don't play as well as I used to. I was
very very into it. I still am. But yeah, I
mean I have my handicap down the scratch and what
and yeah, yeah, I know that's the truth. But I
I've got a little since twenty twenty. I went through
a few things with my family that I just could
(33:28):
have this golf was not in it, and my mother
passed and then my father and of course twenty twenty
and all that kind of stuff, and I can't hit it.
I got old, what do you think you are? Now?
I know what I am. Well, what I'm living.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, that's about what I am.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I've played for seven that's pretty good. Behind this curtainer.
I got a simulator, and you think i'd be better.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I know, like it's fun if it's snowing outside, that's
when it's to work on your swing and yeah, stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
But simulator won't you just and I do.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
But it's not the same golf. Yeah, golf is a
creative game, and that's what I like about it.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Golf has affected other parts of my life too, where
with the you hit in the woods, are you gonna
freak out and be like, Oh, this sucks or do
you just have to go I gotta forget that. I
got to remember maybe why I did it. But I
can't let that affect the next thing.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's that I've learned. I learned things everybody should, but
I learned things about myself when I when I have
many options, when I'm in the middle of the fairway
and I got all kinds of different ways to play
this shot and and have a correct result when I
desired result, I lose focus and I will That's when
(34:46):
I will hit my worst shots when I only have
one option. And it's something that most people will go,
you can't do that, you can't see fall through that.
I'm like, yeah, that's I don't have can't in my vocabulary,
so and and I will, I'll hit some of the
coolest jobs.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Why do you think that.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
In the woods? I love that part of Why do
you think that?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Is focus?
Speaker 1 (35:07):
For focus, I would I would say focus and just
no choice. You had no choice but to play this
play or you're going to have to. You're you know
you're gonna make a ten whenever you pick up and
you go the next hole. And that's the other cool
thing about golf. You get eighteen chances, you know, and
you can always come back and do it again, which
should something about life. Even a lot of things in
(35:32):
life you can't you do get another crack as they
come around, often the same scenarios, not always every now
and then there's once in a lifetime things that you
wish you had done better, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Tell me about the cake.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We had. I mean, that was a lot of fun,
but that came about, you know. Obviously we had two
guys retire if no one out there knows, but Jeane
and Brian both retired from the business and they're enjoying
being done. They're a little older than the four of
us who stayed and we're happy for them, but we
(36:12):
didn't want to quit and we needed a drummer and
somebody saying I army play Manlin and so during all
that it didn't happen all. At the same time, when
Brian left, he had actually groomed Micah, who was our drummer.
He had been his sub for many men for about
a decade. And Micah is young. They're both really young.
(36:35):
He's forty I think now, but he started playing with
us when Brian went through his first surgeries for carpal
tunnel and things like that that are common with drummers,
and was awesome, and he had grown up worshiping. That's
how he learned to play drums, was listening to Diamond
Real records. And he's a spectacular talent, so that was
(36:57):
a natural thing. That was the only question was with
Michael say yes, and he did, and so he's been
with us for a couple of years now. And then
we were subbing with these guys that bluegrass dudes, sang
high harmony and played manlin, fiddle whatever, and they really
couldn't hang if several of them I won't name them,
but they were well known and awesome musicians of their
(37:22):
own right and had some success. And there one of
them said, you know, you realize Jean's a freak the
way he seeks so high and it's not false set in,
it's full voice. And so we had we had a
couple of girls that were subbing and they did great.
And this little girl who was a senior at UK
and of course I'm a big Kentucky fan, so that
(37:46):
didn't hurt. But she was a fiddle champion and competition
fiddle player and sang high harmony and it fit and
she was high energy, and he grabbed a hold of
mail and started learning that it's all same fingerings, but
it's totally different. But she's been champed. And her name's
(38:08):
Carson McKee. So by the end of the year, Jeane
lost his wife during all that, that was part of
the reason why he was gone. That's the only reason.
He was obviously where he needed to be with June
in her struggle. And when that was over, he Gene
was seventy three years old seventy two at the time,
(38:30):
and he decided he wanted to do the same thing
as as Brian did. And so when that happened, we
asked Carson if she would at least, you know, do
a full year with us. And she's been here now
going on two years, about year and a half, and
(38:50):
so when that happened, so we're back to the kick.
When those two young uns came in, we wanted to
showcase their abilities, and she was wanting and Jimmy was
wanting to write some stuff, so him and Carson started
writing this thing, and then Micah got involved because he
had heard it and just kind of all got involved
(39:11):
with add R two cents work, not unlike how we
used to do it. And also we had we had
an instrumental, which we've always done. We've had instrumentals on
every album from the very beginning and had several nominated
for Grammys. Ever wanted Grammy, but on the instrumental side
that that's always been a part of what we've done.
And all of a sudden, Micah is a film He
(39:33):
was doing shooting videos and things like that already for
a living, so he shot the video and edited it.
He does he's spectacular of that. And we had friends
across the road from Jimmy who had this great shop
and all these cool collectible cars, and we just came
up with this idea and It's what's cool about where
we are in our life. It's like, if nobody cares
(39:54):
or nobody likes, I don't care. We just do it
for fun and we know that it's going to be
good music because that's that's what we do. We wouldn't
put it out. We feel like we hold ourselves to
the higher accountability than anyone else does. And if it
doesn't hit the chord with somebody, then okay. I mean
(40:16):
it's our label and with our money, and we shot
the video and that's what I like about. That's the
good thing about what's going on in music business with
the Internet and being able to get an outlet out
there and not have to go through certain gatekeepers that
we that we grew up having to go through. That's
that's cool like that.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Starting December first, you guys are out on the road.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Through the eighteenth or someone like seventeenth or eighteen. Yes, yes,
we're doing every weekend. We're having our Christmas Show, Diamond
Real Holiday and the Hits and it is. It varies.
Sometimes it's a lot of Christmas stuff. Sometimes it's mostly hits.
But the Christmas Show itself is mostly Christmas. You know.
(41:00):
It's a great diversion for us. And it's a great
it's a fun show. It's a lot of fun, and
it shows a slightly different side of us. And you'll
get to hear your favorite Christmas songs and you'll definitely
hear mine.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well what about though, if I go, am I going
to hear this is a bit of a mess. It's
a bit of a mess.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Minute any one for sure? How about it? We'll be
in there.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
As long as you do that. I don't know any
words of any song, but I know everywhere.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
To me in the middle.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'm not singing that though. Good I tried, thank you, Yes,
I tried. Didn't go well for me. Uh so let
me say this you guys. Go check it out on Facebook,
at Diamond Rio, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Diamond Rio band
and go check out the show. It's I'm super pumped.
Thanks for coming and hanging out. Thanks for the merch.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yes, you're right, And I didn't know what signe, so
I brought it and large and I saw where you
you just fairly recently married the last year or so. Yes,
and so if if the medium doesn't fit you, maybe
it'll fit the wife. Is she a diamond real she is?
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Who's not?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
What would you say you're not gonna Yes? I would.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
I would for sure be like she never heard of you.
No worry, I tell you truth like you're.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Talking the truth. But yes, And we are working on
a new single okay, a new song okay. Uh and
it is actually from the off Balls about something that
Jimmy and I. Uh and a girl named Heather wrote
who uh not an instrumental? No, No, this is a
duet with Carson. So this is gonna be that's all
waiting about. She and I are not about she and
(42:28):
I was about my daughter and when she went to
she went off to school and in Australia and to
chase her dream about being in the Praisen worship world.
And uh and I we wrote this song with aw.
It just killed me. She's as far away from me
as she could get.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
If she've kept going, she just get closer, the exact opposite.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Good to see you, mar Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
If I knew where your house was, I had to
hit a golf walk closer to it.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yes, out, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I might have hit your house an accident.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
No, I know how to buy a house. On the
golf course. It's not quite right on.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Okay, good deal, all right there he is, Marty Robe
diamond Rio.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production
Host
Bobby Bones
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