We are featuring each solo episode of Little Big Town!
On this episode, Kimberly Schlapman from Little Big Town is the first guest in our new BobbyCast studio. Kimberly talks about how the group struggled for many years before landing their first big hit with Boondocks. Kimberly also talks about her love for cooking, her faith, wardrobe and family. She shares her journey with adoption and how she had her baby unexpectedly while out on tour.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Little Big Town. So this is Kimberly Schlatman, which,
by the way, if you're just coming across this, we
had Jimmy on Friday, which we just did like four
days ago. He was the final one. But we have
all the members of A Little Big Town telling their story,
which is really cool over the years. This is from
So this is Kimberly Schlapman. She has the blonde here,
the really curly blonde here. So this is interesting because
(00:22):
she talks about her love for cooking, which she came
and I was living in a different house at the time,
but she brought over with cookies. Remember that only a
few people have ever brought gifts, and that they're almost
not bringing gifts because they're on the podcast. They're bringing
gifts because they're coming to my house, which is weird
when you think about it, which is well, yes, if
(00:43):
they were bringing gifts to the podcast, that would feel weird,
But if someone comes and it's like a guest at
your house, I don't think that's that weird to bring
a gift. I just forget that. The aspect of it
is that are coming to your house to the interview
me too, So I'm like, oh, she brought cookies to
be interviewed, but no, she knew she was coming to
the house. Other people who have done that. I think
(01:03):
Morgan Wade may have brought something. Laney I don't know,
brought all kinds of stuff. I think she brought a
chef and had a whole flambay. I don't know what
flambi is. Um So, Kimberly talks about her love for cooking,
the TV show her faith Wardrobe family. She shares her
journey with adoption, how she had her baby unexpectedly while
on tour, and how the group struggled for many years
(01:26):
before their first big hit with Boondocks. This is another
version of a little Big town story that's all the same,
just from a different set of eyeballs from Here's our
Bobby Cast with Kimberly Schlapman from a Little Big Town,
Little Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. I welcome
to another episode of the Bobby Cast. This is the
first time we've used the studio, so this table is
(01:48):
much shorter than I'm remember sitting this close to anyone. No,
I never have. I don't mean that like in a
good or bad away, but it's kind of so Kimberly
Slapman is here, and I can. I can reach out
and touch you as you can. And in the past, yes,
in the past, we've had these big recliners which looked sloppy,
so we wanted to change it up. But I didn't
know we'd be able to reach out and give each
(02:09):
other high byes. Mike do So, how are you good?
I'm great. I'm so happy to do this. I've been
looking for You've been trying to work this out for
a while. Yeah, but I'm gone, You're gone. We are
to traveling fiends. Yeah. You guys go hard. We go hard.
When do you not go hard? Because you guys, you
(02:29):
guys are reminiscent, like I see you guys in the
roads because I follow you guys on Instagram and I
feel like I know everybody from Instagram, and I feel
like you and I are friends over Instagram. There's this
but there's this like weird part of life where you
can We don't have each other's text, but I needed
it on the way over here because I was seven
minutes later. You're there was nothing terrible over here, but
(02:52):
we don't. There's like three levels. There's email, there's insta
story friends, and then there's text and so we'll actually
send messages on inst the story. So we're at that level.
So by the end of this though, let's just trade
fund number. Sure my life. I don't bother people. What
did you bring over over to the house? Some kind
of food? I brought you slap happy bars. Those. My
(03:16):
husband's name is Steve, but so is my late husband,
so I don't call my current husband Steve because that
would be weird to be married. It is already weird.
I'm married to Steve's So the second Steve I call
schlap because our last name is Schlapman. So there. Starbucks
once made this bar that he was crazy about and
they quit making it, and he loved it so much
that I decided I would figure it out for myself,
(03:37):
so they discontinued it. But I figured it out. I
figured it out, and um, I call him slap happy
bars because they make him very happy. So I brought
you a plate appreciate and I know you don't eat
much of that, but just indulgeay, you do look well.
You know this too. Whenever you can get on TV,
(03:58):
you do look bigger. Listen, one time I was at
my sister's church down in Georgia, and this lady walked
up and she goes, oh, honey, you look a whole
lot bigger on t V. How how do you cook
so much but you're so skinny. I'm just careful. I
eat like I already ate Pappy bar at my house
when I cut them. But um, but then I won't.
(04:21):
I'll just be careful the rest of the day. I
just take it like day. But but if I if
I go to my mama's house and have biscuits and gravy,
which I'm not going to turn down, then for the
next day or two, I'll be just real strict. I
think it's just about moderation. I really do, because I
do indulge. But then I'll restrain. When I waited tables,
so I gotta say I didn't eat a lot of
(04:41):
the food that I was serving. Yeah, I waited tables
here too. You wait tables here in Brentwood at a
little cafe called Maggie's Cafe. It's not open anymore. What
was what was your job like there when you waited table?
I just served. I've took um the orders and took
it back to the kitchen and handed it in and
then took it to the table. Oh yeah, it was
(05:04):
when I first got here. Yeah, it was a little, tiny,
little lunch cafe. It was just lunch only in Brentwood.
And so what would you do you work in the
daytime and then seeing at night. Yeah, I was working
in the daytime, and then Karen and I would hang
out at night and dream and brainstorm and figure out.
We knew we wanted to do something together. I know
you talked to Karen through all this on her podcast,
but we we knew we wanted to do something together,
(05:26):
but we just didn't know what. And for months and
months and months we tried to figure it out, and
we just hang out together all the time. And you
guys went to school together and you were friends through school,
moved to Nashville, and still stay friends. Oh yeah. We
met in college and we were in there at Sanford.
They Sanford University in Birmingham. They have this incredible acapella choir,
(05:47):
and so we literally met on the bus going to
choir camp. She was sitting in front of me, I
was behind her, and we struck up a conversation because
we were both from Georgia, and I mean, I remember
that vividly. I remember the seats and everything, and her
face and her long Amy Grant hair which she had
back then, and I just remember the conversation and and
(06:09):
stracking up a friendship that has lasted a very, very decades,
very long time. Then, individually, we both moved here to Nashville.
She came first. Oh, you guys didn't move at the
same time. No, because we never did talk about doing
anything in country music together until both of us got here,
because we were all just always just really good friends.
(06:30):
We had so we had already at that point experienced
so much fun stuff together, and so we just kept
in touch and we would just say. It first started with,
you know, we're both here in town, let's go to lunch,
let's just catch up. Did you guys ever consider just
being a duo a female duo? Was that a thing? Even?
I mean, the Judds, the Jud's and the chicks were
(06:51):
really hot at that time, so we didn't want to
do an all girl thing. And that's why we thought,
let's let's put a male, at least one male. It
took up with some you know guy and start singing,
and then and then somewhere along the way we decided, well,
if we had two guys and we could do even
better harmony. Um. So at first we were singing with
(07:13):
Jimmy for many months. So you Karen and Jimmy, right.
And then first of all, it took when Karen and
I finally were like, hey, let's just do a mixed group.
It took us probably a year to even start singing
with Jimmy just to figure it out. And then it
took us many many more months to find Philip, and
(07:34):
then finally in I think it was late not it
was the fall of when we first sang together in
my living room, and that was the beginning. But even
those guys like they probably came to town looking to
do their own things. We all did. Karen was gonna
do country music. I was gonna do country music, our
(07:55):
own thing, yeah, Philip, Jimmy, everybody was just going to
chase their own dreams. Is there a bit of an
ego drop to go, Okay, now I'm part of a group.
I didn't come as a band and now we're a band.
It's like a relationship almost where there's a lot of
compromise that then goes in. Yeah, but I don't I
don't think it was an ego thing at all, I
think it. We were so excited about the idea um
(08:17):
and we had all been in groups before, well, Karen
and I had, Jimmy had, and Philip had sung with
his family a lot at his mom's um country music
theater in Arkansas, so we had all you know, had
that experience and we loved being in groups. So you know,
it wasn't It wasn't like it was a compromise or anything.
(08:38):
Is there a code with you guys, because you're all
of you guys are notoriously super nice, like always to
me at least I don't know how you are and
everybody else, but you are super kind and you've been
kind to me even when people weren't kind to me.
When I came to town and I was the guy
that was trouble or the guy that was different, you
guys were always so nice to me. And I'll always
be thankful because you were nice to me when other
people weren't. But I wonder, is there some kind of
secret code in the band where you have to be
(09:00):
nicer and then when you get away you're just meaning never?
But are you getting is that? Is it like written
somewhere that you guys really try to be kind everybody.
It's not written anywhere. I feel like that's just how
we were raised. We were just raised on some good
Southern roots to treat people well. But all four of
you guys, it's hard. Usually there's a turd in there somewhere.
(09:20):
And I've been able to be friends with Philip a
bit outside of the music world, Philip and his wife
and so. And he's the quietest of all four of
you guys. Sometimes well, whenever you guys come in and
do you know, publicity, he usually doesn't say much. And
he's who have probably become socially the friendliest, right, And
(09:45):
he's super nice, and he's the least nice because he
doesn't talk as much. So, yeah, you guys have always
been super super kind since the very beginning. And I
just if that was like because our show, you know,
we have roles on the show radio show. I do
wonder if you guys had a role like, okay, even
feeling bad, you got the rule is you have to
be nice and if you're not nice, you can find
a thousand dollars. That's hilarious. No, no, nothing like that.
I feel like, um, I feel like the reason maybe
(10:09):
that you would say we're all nice still is because
of our journey, because it wasn't handed to us on
a silver platter. We worked so very, very hard and
we are very very grateful for what we've been given
and know that any day, you know, it could it
could go away. But I think that that appreciation just
(10:29):
keeps us grounded and helps us remember that, you know,
remember what the other way was like. And and and
just just you know, my just my parents taught me
to treat people well and to be good to everybody.
And you know, you never know what somebody else is
going through, even if they're you know, ugly or mean,
you never know why they might be ugly in me,
(10:51):
and you don't know what's going on at home. So
just be sweet to him and maybe more than a bit.
But Keith Urban's like that too, because I'll talk to
Keith even outside of the world of whatever we're in.
It keeps always super kind everyone. But I'll talk to him,
and you know, it keeps on to a lot of
drug issues and we can we talk about we we'll
(11:11):
talk about that because my my mom died of you know,
drugs and or forties and I was around that my
whole life, and so I think he's been a little
more open with me about that. And he'll talk about
not even remembering yours and being rude, and I think
now he appreciates, and so that makes him kind and
I hope that's what makes me nice because I get it.
(11:32):
And so, yeah, you guys are just you. And I
have only have like three plaques have that And I
don't keep plaques. I normally don't even take plaques, but
that one. I have that one. And then it's it's
a girl crush plaque. But that's before it even sold
all of it, Like that's way. But then Laurie that
the whole group, Laz and Hillary, they all they did
(11:53):
a handwritten lyric and given it is it really kind
of that sweet. I love him, Love Junkies. Little Big
Town Week on the Bobby Cast. It's Little Big Town
Week on the Bobby Cast. So you're a mom twice
now and you have a baby baby, Yeah, I have
a one year old. Whenever you came in, you're like, hey,
did you know how your girlfriend? I was like, I
(12:14):
did a girlfriend like six months and forgive me, oh
my goodness, that little angel phase. She she she you know,
she requires a lot of time, and I don't. I
feel like I really have felt the last six months
like I'm struggling socially to keep up with what is
happening in this world. It's so weird how I feel
(12:34):
like I know things about social media? Does it? But
I know? I watch your daughter and your husband's karate Taekwonda.
Oh my goodness, they just got their black belts. I
saw that, and that's and oddly I'm proud of them. Listen.
I told Daisy I was coming to see you today,
and she said, oh, I love Bobby Bones. When I
tell her that, you know, she got her black belt,
(12:55):
She's going to feel like the biggest kid in the
was on Instagram and I was like, and then I
watched after she finished a singing recital. Yeah, all that.
That's why I feel like I know you. I think
we all feel a bit like Iah. So, how old
does she's tin? And then you have a one year old.
Dolly is one, so she's sixteen months. So you've done
(13:17):
it before. So is it harder the second time? Yeah,
because it's a decade later, Mama is older. Yeah, it's
it's it's I mean, I guess it's harder physically, but
oh my word, it's this the sweetest thing. I mean,
it's the best. The best part of my life is
(13:38):
being a mama. You look forward to going home. I
love it. They go with me on the road, though
I don't leave them. I rarely ever have to leave
him at home. Um, but yeah, I love if I've
been working all day in town and I walk in
the door and days he is like mommy and Dolly
starts running towards me. There's nothing better. Amy, my co host,
(13:59):
adopted to children, and it was a five year process
for the kids to get here, and you know, it
was obviously a whole different situation. But I feel like,
in a third hand way, I know what it's like
to at least be close to someone who goes to
the process. And so, how long were you in the
adoption process? Well, Um, Daisy started praying for a baby
(14:20):
when she was five years old. She wanted a baby
brother or sister. She didn't care what, she just wanted
a baby brother sister. So we were trying to have
another baby very hard. We did everything you know under
the sun medically that we could do, and so then
we decided, well, maybe God, that's not in his will.
Maybe he just wants us to adopt a baby because
(14:41):
I've always wanted to adopt a child. So we started
the process UM and they told us it would be
eighteen months at least we'd waited eighteen months. And we
were like, oh, that's a big bummer, but okay, because
we were doing it domestically, UM, and lo and behold
it happened. About four months later we got a call
(15:03):
about Dolly. It just happened. It just you know, it
was just this fluke thing that happened. And someone called
and said, there's a baby girl. Are you interested? Yes? Yes,
But here's the great thing. UM. That was in um
January of two thousand seventeen, and Daisy had asked Santa
(15:28):
Claus for a baby that year. We got her when
whenever she asked did you know, no, no, and my
husband and I were like, oh, baby, you can ask Santa,
but you know, Santa really we really didn't have control
over that. So you know, I mean, he probably talks
to Jesus so you can have him, you know, put
(15:50):
in a good word, but but I don't think Santa
can do that. And even when she sat on Santa's lap,
he said, Oh, she sat on his lap and asked him,
and and before she got out there, I was like,
you know, he probably I don't know he's going to
say to this because I don't know Santa can even
Santa can do this. And so she said, um, I
(16:10):
wanted the only thing I want this Christmas is a baby.
And I know you might not can do it, but
if you talk to Jesus, would you tell him that
I want a baby? And that's what we got. So
whenever you told her, did you tell her at Christmas? Okay?
I got a text on my phone and said there's
(16:31):
a baby. Are you interested? And we were um out
of town. We were, she, myself and my husband were
all sitting on the bed together very late at night.
And when I read that text, it took my breath
and I went and of course Dasy's like, what what what? What? What?
What is it? What is it? So I turned my
phone so that she and my husband could see it.
(16:53):
And oh. She burst into tears and started jumping up,
jumping up and down on the bed, say and thank
you Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you Jesus, jumping up,
crying and my husband are like, baby, hey, we don't
know if this is our baby. We don't know, we
don't know, And she was going I believe it as
I believe. I believe, and she was really so emotional
and it was just one of the most beautiful visions
(17:16):
I still have. It will last me of my whole life.
Just her on that little bit jumping up and down,
crying because she knew that was her baby. That's crazy.
It's crazy that she asked Santa. She did, she wanted
it so bad and now she's the best little mother.
She loves that baby to pieces. Yeah, congratulations, that's a
(17:41):
special How important it's faith to you? Most important? Yeah,
it's most important. Um. I just I have a very
strong faith. I grew up that way, my parents raised
me that way, and I just believe that my whole
life is because of God and what He's given me.
(18:03):
And I've been incredibly blessed, and I've been through a
lot of hardship also, and um, but what He's given
me now I could have never even dreamed or I
never could have even dreamed up, both business wise and
personal mostly Really, what kind of church did you grow
up in? Southern Baptists so did I. Yeah, Now, were
(18:24):
you guys a non dancing because we weren't. They let
us dance. They let us dance, that we were a
non drinking one though the only down there if you
were a Southern Baptist, the only way you could drink
is if you were in the closet. You had to
hide it in your closet, and you know, nobody drank.
And maybe I was just a kid and my parents
didn't go to church with me, so I don't know.
(18:45):
But I went to us in Arkansas Southern Baptist Church
and it was pretty free considering what a lot of
we were to church camp, and they would be hardcore.
I mean there were kids who couldn't dance. It was
like footloose. We would go to church camp and there
were the kids that were they were in footloose um
and they couldn't dance. I thought it was so crazy
that we were no we danced? Did you have because
(19:05):
we would go? It went. I was in very small town.
How big was your town? Oh? I don't even know.
I really don't even know. I still don't know. It
was We had one high school in our whole county,
and there's about in our in my class, my graduation class.
There's like, okay, well mine was like forty oh years
(19:26):
was smaller, probably the same type of area. Yeah, very rural.
Not as rural anymore? Is your town? Are they super
Kimberly Slapman's from here? This is embarrassing, but like three
years ago they had Kimberly Slapman Day on my birthday.
It was the whole big and was sweet, really sweet
(19:51):
and precious. And that year, that day we announced the
scholarship that we do now every year down there to
someone in the high school, which it's really cool. Yeah,
been the coolest part of any sort of success that
I've been able to have. One. They put up a
sign when you drive into my town. I didn't put
it up. I've seen it on Instagram boyhood home, you know,
(20:15):
and I'm proud of my hometown. And I didn't know
that we're gonna put that sign up. But I started
a scholarship at my school too, and I give it
to a senior. And I was driving in and Amy
my coast and my girlfriend at the time, we were
driving and I had no idea and it was raining,
and I was like, what did that signs? You didn't
know it was there. I had no idea. It was
really one of the coolest moments. And I don't have
a bad problem with taking in cool things, like I
(20:38):
really it's helped me to appreciate awesome moments because I
feel like they're fleeting and so yeah, it's a whole
therapy thing. Yeah, I was gonna go there, but I
didn't want to know. I know why, because that because
you were disappointed in your young laft and so that's
what you expect always. But I really took that and
I'm like, man, although my town is seven seven seventy
(21:00):
seven people, that's the coolest thing. A son and listeners
will go in the old drive for hours and take
a picture with the sign. It's unbelievable. That's what I
think I've seen. I think I've seen a listener with
the sun. I don't know. The thing is, I don't
even know why people like the show, where like I
really don't like I say it on the air, like
I'm confused as to why they're such passion for the show.
Like I get Amy, everybody loves Amy. Well, of course
(21:21):
she's a little angel. But I think first of all,
it's very entertaining and Secondly, you give people an inside
look at Nashville fishing. By the way, this is I'm
not fishing, that's this is really what I believe. I
believe that you give people such an insight in the
city of Nashville and the workings of country music that
they don't get anywhere else. You're like the live social media.
(21:44):
Now I'm like Comfortab. I'm gonna change the subject here
for a minute. You talk about the little big town struggles.
What was so the moment where you guys tell I
don't know if we can do this anymore. Well, we
never collectively, he thought that, or at least we never
collectively said it out loud. Um, I feel like we
(22:07):
we had a few very very low points. One was
after we lost our second record deal from Sony, and
then one was when my husband died and and nothing
was going well for us. At that point, we had
written and recorded Boondocks, and so we had that in
our back pocket and it and it was it was
actually about to come out right around the time that
(22:28):
he died. Um, And we were already signed to Equity Records,
which was that little independent label that sold over a
million records for US. UM. But that was a very
low moment. Karen told me much much later that she
thought the band was probably over at that point, not
that anybody wanted it to be, but they didn't know
(22:48):
that I would want to continue. Um, So we never
ever said this isn't gonna work together, at least in
my head. After or He died, I was just so numb.
I didn't want to really do anything, but I showed up.
(23:09):
You know. We went on the road a few weeks later,
on the radio tour four Boondocks. Do you remember that.
I remember moments of that. I remember really really super
sad moments of that, and then I remember a couple
of highs. You know. I remember the first time we
heard on the radio. That was really super cool because
(23:30):
we've been struggling for at that point six years. We've
been a banded six years and so many struggles, and
so when we heard it live for the first time,
that was just amazing. Yeah, do you think all four
of you guys remember that hearing it for the first time.
We were in a car together, and that was after
Steve had died, and we heard that and we just, oh,
(23:53):
we celebrated. That's probably the first celebration or a moment
that we had to celebrate after his death. You know,
that was the first happy moment together. How high did
this song elevate you guys as a band? Meaning did
your guarantees go up? Did you make more money? Were
you starting to get award show bookings because of the song.
(24:16):
We started making money, period. And when this song came out, Yeah,
we had prior to that, we had told Cia to
just book us for enough money to rent a van
and pay for the gas and stop at McDonald's. That's
all we needed. So there was no money coming in
because well, anything that did come in went back out
because of the expenses. It's very expensive to tour, whether
(24:37):
you're in a minivan or you're in ten buses. You know,
it's super expensive. It's all relative. But um, at that point,
we were just barely sometimes we make five and that
was enough to rent a van and gas and food. Um.
So yes, after Boondocks hit, you know, the money went
up a little bit, the invites went up a lot
(24:59):
and and the credibility went up a lot um because
people they just so connected with that song and it
became their anthem and it changed everything for us. What
was the quickest thing that it changed. Um, probably our spirits, Yes,
(25:19):
our spirits were kind of broken and wounded. And yeah,
now we had something that people actually believed in us.
And you know how that is. That's that's worth more
than anything, when someone believes in you and invites you
to come do shows. I'll tell you this is so funny.
We pulled up in a parking lot in I think
it was Lexington, Kentucky. We pulled up in a parking
(25:42):
like one lot to sing. This was right when Boondocks
had come out, and the parking lot was crammed full
of people and it was just the four of us
in this van, and we looked around, like, who are
we opening up for? Who is this? Who's here tonight?
We we genuinely wondered who was here that we were
opening up for, and we found it It was for us, us,
And that moment was like, Holy yell, these people came
(26:03):
to see us. This is amazing, um, and that not
They asked for an encore, so we played all the
songs we knew and they wanted an encore, so we
played Boondocks again because we didn't have any more song.
That's funny and loved it. I love the end of
the song, like my favorite parts, and so are all
(26:28):
four of you guys on that and all going over
the top? What do you call? It starts around around Phil,
it starts it then Jimmy, then Karen than me. Yeah,
because I was working in pop at the time, still
listening to country, but not as much because I was
totally in pop, trying to build my own syndication. I
was talking for the most part, but still all that
have was pop music around me. But I remember that
(26:49):
song because I plup over the country station and out
here you get on We'll go fishing, and I was like, oh,
I love that song, but you know five cop poker,
that was that song. I don't sing it back to
you because you have Oh I love it, And that's
my favorite part of every single show that yes, because
the crowd, well, the crowd sings that whole song. But
at the end of that song usually that means the
(27:10):
shows are just about over and the crowd they'll pick
their parts and they'll sing it. It's so much fun.
You put that at the end of the show. Mostly, yeah,
And we've tried not putting it at the end of
the shows. We've tried to put it up farther in
the show, and then we get to the end of
whatever you know we're we end with and it's like, oh, nope,
we needed to end with the knocks. Every time we
experiment on something else, Nope. Whenever you guys get your
(27:33):
clothes because you and Karen dressed so well, thank you defferently,
but so well, thank you? Did they loan you this?
Are you buying all that stuff both? Because holy I know, listen,
Karen has a shopping problem. Everyone knows that. But it's
working out really well for me and the rest of
the van. She um, She's got such a gift at
fashion and putting things together, so we have it. We
(27:56):
do things a couple of different ways when we're on television,
and usually we have a stylus out in l a
named Carla Welch, and she's amazing and she'll put looks
for us together for all that, but then for tours
and other things, Karen shops and pulls just incredible clothes
and then we just kind of, I mean, we also
(28:19):
buy for ourselves. She doesn't buy everything, but she buys
a lot. Like last night. I remember at the last show,
I was like, Okay, from head to toe. I am
Karen Fairchild because she bought everything I have on But um,
I love it when she shops from me. She'll go
out shopping and she'll be like, I bought you something.
I was like, whoa, I love that. I love that. Um.
And so you know, every night when we get ready
(28:41):
for the show, we have these incredible wardrobe cases, which
we used to not have and now we do, and
they're just so amazing. So we keep all our tour
clothes in them, and you know, we just all pick
out what we want to wear. And sometimes Jim, you'll
come in our room and I'll go, what color are
you all wearing tonight? And so we'll try to coordinate
and look like we're going to the same party. But um,
Karen pulls a lot of that for us. She picks
(29:01):
a lot of that out for us. I have so
intrigued because you guys dressed so well. But I wonder
if it's on Instagram, do you wear it again or
is it dead? I wear it again, yeah, yeah, just
because that's how I was raised. I just I just
I don't have a problem wearing again. Sometimes karens like, okay,
you need to retire that so yeah, I'll wear it again.
What's been the biggest surprise in the little big town life?
(29:23):
Like the whole the thing you really didn't think was
going to work out that ended up going Wow? Why?
Because you were working hard, obviously and grinding towards that
first single. Obviously you expected something a paper you wouldn't
have continued to do it. What was the big one
were you that was unexpected? Um? Maybe the for Rell
record that we did. Yeah, we got a phone call
(29:45):
and thank you, thank you. That was such a treat
to make. What a genius he is. We adore him.
We got a phone call and they said, do you
want to Forrell wants to write with you? Like what for?
Wait for real? Yeah? Yeah, So we booked a day
with him and it was a day in Nashville. He
came here. It was a day in Nashville where we
(30:05):
had a little snow storm storm and you know how
that that goes here, so it's everything down. We all
made it to the studio and we started rotting. We
wrote two songs that day and he said, let's come
back tomorrow. So we said, of course. We came back
to oor. I wrote another song. You wrote two songs
the same day a lot of songs. And with him
and pop pop music, I guess this is pretty common.
(30:28):
They write a song, but as they write it, they
go ahead and record it. They start tracking it and
go ahead and get it down, which we had never
done before. And it was so much fun. So at
the end of two days we had three songs written
and recorded, and so he said, let's just do this again,
and so we said, well sure, So we started just
(30:50):
rotting more and more, and every time we wrote we
would get it cut. You know, I want to say,
get it on tape, but you know how that goes.
Now that's comes that sounds like I'm really old. But
before we knew it, we had eight songs written and
recorded and we weren't going to do anything with it.
But then when we ended up with that many that
we loved so much, we thought, wow, wouldn't we put
it out? So let's just put it out. And you know,
(31:12):
we weren't like trying to make a statement of that
we're switching teams or anything like that. We just had
a ball and he's so musical and we learned so
much from him and ended up making a record. I
enjoyed the record and I because you guys did a
press store two and Farrell came by the studio, yes,
And I loved it because I'm a big Farrell fan.
(31:33):
I'm for all. It's got three different versions of Farrell,
you know, his big band, his little band, just him,
and so that was really cool for me. What was
frustrating a bit, though, was some of the Nashville old
school country people were like, what's happening? How is a
little big town with Farrell? That's got to be a
little bit unnerving, right. It's a little almost a little
(31:54):
hurtful because we are to our bones country and we
country Usic is our music, but we love all music
and we the four of us is such a melting
pot of influences, and when we were approached by someone
as genius as Pharrell, we could not turn that down.
And we were just having fun. We weren't taking ourselves
(32:14):
too seriously. We weren't trying to, like I said before,
go pop or change teams. We were just having a
ball in the studio and that's all that was. When
you write, are you a melody writer first? Or are
you a lyric writer? Because it just for those listening.
I have friends that are both, and some will sit
with the guitar and just do that's a bud and
then insert the words over the melody that's written. And
(32:35):
some will write the words and then assign the melody
to the lyrics. How do you write? Usually to me personally,
it's words that come first, and um, I'll make some notes,
you know, something will come to me and I'll I'll
be like, oh, I gotta write that down before I
forget it, and then maybe later I'll work on some
more a lyric to go with it. And so so
it's usually that that comes first. In the early days
(32:57):
that all you guys just sit around write songs all
the time. Is what you did every day, almost almost
every day the first couple of years we were together. Yeah,
so he sat around. Not many of them were very good,
well early on they probably weren't. Yeah, I mean that's
the story. I was talking to Ryan Herd, who's a
songwriter artist and he's married to Maran now, but he's like,
(33:21):
man I rose in terrible songs were on my songwriter.
I'm such a fan of songwriters, and he's a man
I moved to town because he graduated with like a
sociology degree, really wasn't gonna do music. Wow. Yeah. And
he's like, you know, I started writing songs and they
were really bad, but I thought I can improve at it.
He's like, man, they were so bad at the beginning. Yeah,
some of ours were too, some of ours were doozies.
(33:41):
Do you ever keep any of those? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it feels like not long ago. It's usually Philip that
pulls out the old songs. He remembers every word, every
every melody. Has there ever been a time with all
four of you guys were someone saying, hey, I want
to step out and do something about myself. That never
been a conversation, not even as a like a fun
(34:01):
one song anything. No, Now Karen and Philip and Jimmy
have um that's that makes that kind of hurts my feelings.
But the three of them have been, you know, on
other like duet, on other projects like Karen and Luke
and single. We've never ever even talked about it. I've
(34:21):
actually never even thought about that until right now. Look,
look what happened. But how do we got to start thinking? Now?
Little Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. It's Little
Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. When did you
think that you were able to get you're gonna be
able to turn food into oh wait for you to
actually take your passion and make a living at it. Well,
(34:45):
when I was a little tiny girl, I used to
pretend like I had a cooking show. Yeah, I would
stand on a stool in the kitchen with a bowl
and a wooden spoon and I would just pretend and
I've just talked to nobody and just pretend like I
was cooking. And I had this really silly voy that
I used, and I was a chef on a TV show. Um,
I don't I don't know where that came from, but
(35:07):
I did it all the time. And then you know,
that kind of went on the back burner. I never
even thought about it again until Jason, my manager, called me, Um,
I don't know, several years ago, and said, are you
sitting down? And I said no, but I will, And
he said, how do you feel about doing a cooking show?
(35:27):
And I was like, holy, yeah, that would be amazing.
I mean it, it had become a dream of mine
again because I love to cook, and I you know,
I cook for people a lot, and um, I love it.
It's definitely a passion of mine as a young girl,
would you have rather been a singer or a chef?
At ten years old? At ten years old, I started
(35:50):
getting the singing bug because I had sung a little
bit in church and then probably eleven I was probably
my first talent show at eleven um and then I
really caught the bug. But I always still cooked, but cooked,
But then I didn't think about cooking as a as
a career at that point. When you say you caught
the bug, was it because you were looking? Because for me,
(36:10):
performing and doing stand up or being on the radio,
I feel like it's a search for some kind of love,
Like I really is, Like that's that's I'm terrible at
accepting it, and so I go on, I try to
get it from strangers. It's back to your therapy part
for sure. Absolutely and so and that's not funny. I'm
not laughing at that, but I think it's so self
aware of it and I work on it. And but
(36:32):
for me, that's where the performance comes in and I'm
searching for some sort of validation or so, why you
why did you start with singing? Were you just so
good at it? Did you enjoy it? Were you looking
for love? Uh? No, I felt very loved. I wasn't
looking for love. I enjoyed it, and I did. I
did enjoy the the accolade, you know in the applause,
(36:53):
You're really good. I've had a talent, but I wouldn't
like Taylor Swift good, you know when I was a
little but um yeah, everybody around me I thought that
I was talented, which now that probably encouraged me to
do another talent show and another talent show and then
sing started singing for the Rotary Club or whoever would
(37:15):
have me and my daddy would drive me, you know,
all over the state of Georgia, whoever would listen to
me sing for whatever function it was. And um, probably
the encouragement of that grooma desire. And you were good.
You had a god given talent too. Yeah. Did you
take less? You work on it? Did you? Um? Not?
(37:36):
At first? My daddy is a singer and my sister
is a singer. Um, so it was always we always
did it. But I started taking voice lessens uh late
in high school and then in college. Is it a
thing where what if one of you guys get sick,
we ever fake it like one of you four and
just move your mouth because it's such a full group,
(37:57):
but you're probably so strong that maybe you don't have
to sing that hard if one of you go down.
Have you ever had to do that? Oh, yeah, we've
We've had We've had each of us go down at
some point. And we normally have so much fun in
a show. We can't wait for the show. It's just
the best part of the day. We can't wait to
get out there and do it. But except for the
(38:17):
days when somebody's down, because then we're each going, Okay,
if it's Karen, then I got to cover her part
on this, this, and this. If it's me, then Karen's
got to cover my part. If it's Jimmy, you know,
and we're all we're not able to just put it
on copilot and do our thing. We're having to think
super hard about Oh I gotta cover that part. I
gotta cover that part. Yeah, we've We've had to do
(38:38):
it plenty of times. Is there a single text thread
that just you four keep, like one text, one group text?
That is it? Is it labeled anything like us just
it's just it's just it's just the four of us.
At this point, what do you for talk about? Let
me thinking about the last one. Um, oh goodness, because
(38:59):
I'm sure there are many one on one conversations. Yeah,
all the time. And and Karen and I have the
best ones because we get ready together in the same
dressing room every night, so those are friends. Yeah, that's
that's so rare and awesome. It's really special. And I
know you're telling I'm acting only bit like I don't
know that, but I know you're telling the truth because
I'll see you guys back in the back and you're
(39:20):
in the same dressing right. You're about big stars. You
can have your own rooms, have your own buildings. We
know what we did get this year, which has been
such a treat and um, we've never ever had this before.
We each have our own bus now and it's been
really special. Um, the Westbrooks have a family bus. I
have one and Philip. Now each of us also has
(39:40):
a crew person um also on our bus. So it's
not just our families. But that's been really really cool
and special for our families, you know. But we still
spend all the time together and get ready together and
spend the whole day together. We park our buses in
a little square so that we can all get out
(40:01):
there in the mornings and the lounge chairs and watch
the babies run around, and um, we're always together. Look
at you guys, still liking each other. Yeah, Like I
have a staff of eight, and you know, everybody that
I've hired has been a friend. You know. I've been
lucky that we did things a weird way as a
radio show. Then we have any money, So I just
(40:22):
brought my friends on. And we still like each other.
You know. So as you talk about this, it's crazy
for me to hear this, but I put the mirror
up and I go but you know, but you know, Amy,
I have it together almost fifteen years. Yeah, it can happen.
There are still times like with Amy, and we have
this white board we keep up because Amy and I
are together more than anybody else. So we end up
my office. There's a white board and we walk in
(40:44):
right now, what number we feel like we are that day?
One through ten? Like tin is great means I'm fantastic,
I'm in a great mood. If you're down below four,
it's like, give me a little space, And so we
write this number down, so we have to fill each
other out. It's just like, got it your fourth today?
I know, what something I didn't get any sleep. Maybe
it's you know that is so smart. That's so smart,
(41:05):
and it saves us any sort of you know, step
each other's toes a bit because you get really close
when you spend that much time together just fights. That's
really cool. Karen and I can read each other's mind.
I know when she's a four and when she's a tin,
just pretty much by spinning about three minutes with her
in the morning, and she knows the same about me.
Um ever a tin. Oh yeah, like tin is a
(41:27):
great right, ye a lot. You seem like a super positive.
I'm a tin a lot. I have my moments, you know,
I'm real and normal and yeah I was with your
I was one seat back behind your husband and your daughter.
We're flying Southwest, and they're like you, they're so not
Usually there's a yang. Usually there's because I feel like,
(41:49):
if I ever get married, if I ever get a
girlfriend like she has to, I don't have much to
say I want. When I'm not doing this, I'm very quiet,
kind of solitude, and I feel like any time I've
ever been with anyone, their big personality have to be
to kind of make up for the fact that I'm
not dudly, I'm not you know. I do my my
little song and dance and then I shut it down.
And so you would think you would be with like.
(42:11):
But he's the sweetest guy, sweetheart. No, he yeah, he's
is there too much sweetness? Now? Now he's a tough
he's a tough dude. Yeah, I mean he's not. He
and he's he's a he's strong, but he's beautifully strong,
(42:33):
you know. He. Oh my goodness, he's the best to me.
He picked me out out of the darkest, deepest hole
that I never thought I would escape from and fixed
me and is such a beautiful soul inside and out.
I mean, he is an incredible man and now an
(42:53):
incredible daddy. You know you talk about your kids. Didn't
you have your baby right after a show? Now that
I think about it, Yeah, you guys were playing a show. Yes.
So we were on the Martina McBride tour back in
two thousand seven, and the tour had two more weeks left,
and I had three more weeks left of my pregnancy.
(43:15):
So you're nine months pregnant and you're still up there
singing there, singing and dancing. I was the happy I
wanted to baby my whole life. I wanted to be
a mommy. So I was happy as a lark. I
loved it. I was huge and happy. And I have
a picture of the night that I went into labor
and I was in six or seven inch wedge shoes.
(43:37):
I still have nine months pregnant. So so we the
plan was, we'll finish up the Martina McBride tour in
the next two weeks and I'll have one week to
get my house all perfect and ready and pack my
bag for the hospital, and I'll have a baby. But
the good Lord had a different story. So um, we
(44:00):
finished up a show on the Martine of tour in Phoenix.
I wasn't feeling very good that day, but I had
a bad cold, so I thought, you know, it's just
I'm just not I'm just tired and very pregnant. So um,
I went and got my bunk after the show. Something
woke me up two hours later, like a like a cramp,
(44:23):
you could say. So you're in a bunk to a
nine months pregnant. It was in a bunk, a special bunk.
Oh no, it was it was the you know the
difference in the bunks. There's the bunks that are like coffins,
are stacked three hat and then then the condo bunks
which are real fancy and they're amazing. But we were
there was twelve of us still on this bus. So
(44:44):
I was rolling in and out of the bottom bunk,
not able to sit up, hardly able to get my belly.
And I was pregnant, yeah, and I was on the
bottom bottom of the you know, the three stacks, So
I'll just roll in and roll out. And so your
water breaks on the bus yep, And um so it
shocked me. I mean, it wasn't like the pickle jars
(45:06):
in the grocery store. It wasn't that dramatic. But um
so I got up and I went to the bathroom
and I'm on the bathroom and I'm freaking out in
the bathroom. And then my husband, who was doing merch
for us at the time, comes on the bus. Everybody
else is asleep. He comes on the bus because he
had just finished the merch merchandise, and he walked on
(45:28):
with one of Martina's guys. Well, I'm in the bathroom.
He didn't know that. And Martine's guy says, you really
think Kimberly is gonna last for another two weeks till
this tour is over. And Schlap was like, oh, yeah,
she's gonna be fine. She's gonna be fine. She's gonna
make him. So that guy leaves the bus and I
slammed over from the bathroom were and I'm like happening.
(45:50):
I'm freaking out. My whole body is shaken. My chance
is going la la la la la. I could hardly
even speak, and he's like, okay, okay, let's call your nurse.
So he called my nurse, and she who did not
want me to have this baby out of town. She
wanted me to get back to Nashville because she wasn't
with you know, she's here in Nashville. I'm in Phoenix.
(46:11):
And she's like, okay, maybe it's just maybe it was just, uh,
you coughed too hard because of your bad cold, and
you know, you know, just a little link it's your
something from their bladder. That's just t m I. But anyway,
so she said, but you should go to the hospital
and get checked out. So everybody's still asleep in the
back of the bus. So Schlap tells the driver, don't
(46:33):
tell us Soul this, but find us the closest hospital
and we're gonna need to go get checked out. So
he went back in the venue and he asked for
the best hospital and they sent him just down the
road to this incredible hospital called ban Or Australia Hospital
in Phoenix, Arizona. And I went in and they took
me right in in the emergency room, and I said
to the lady, we just want to get checked out
(46:55):
because we're going to go back on tour and we
have to be in Las Vegas in the morning, so
I just want to get checked out and then we're
going to go. And she goes, oh, honey, you're not
going anywhere. You are in labor, and so oh jeez.
And then I really freaked out. I'm like, what a minute,
I have nine more shows to do, I can't have
a baby yet, and my mom is not here. Most
(47:16):
of all, my mother is across the country in Georgia. So, um,
yeah it happened. How long was your labors? Did your
nurse end up coming from Nashville? Oh? No, so just
so you just went and in Phoenix in Phoenix at hospital. Yes,
(47:39):
and um Schlap sister who lives in Ventura, California, so sweet,
She flew in so that she could be there. So
when I did deliver, Slap walked out and he was
able to say to someone, it's a girl. You know.
Otherwise there would have been nobody but um, the band.
So I labored all night. The band came in about
ten o'clock the next morning and and Um, you know,
(48:02):
hung out with me for a while, and then they
had to go because the show must go on, so
they had to drop to face the while you had
a baby. They did nine they had to do nine
shows without me those last two weeks. And they finished
the tour, Martina Tour, and we stayed in Phoenix for
four days and then though the most precious gift, this
(48:22):
is my husband, the most precious gift. We're packing up
and we and the doctor didn't want us flying with Daisy,
so we had to bring a bus out. So we
were going to ride the bus home thirty three hours
with a brand new baby. So we were packing up stuff.
I was kind of nervous about that, but still so
excited just to be a mama. And Um, as I'm
(48:43):
packing up my stuff getting ready to go, I turned
around and into the room walks my mother. Slap had
flown her out to surprise me and ride the bus
home with us. I was a mass I've lost it
and she lost it and oh it's just this eat
is It turned out to be just the most beautiful
four days, first slapping me in little Daisy and then
(49:05):
my mama all the way home in thirty three hours
back the Star room. At least are you still on
the are you still on the coffin ball? We were
in there, we got the I think we had the
condo bunks on that bus. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, Yeah
a little bit. But Schlap pulled out one of the
drawers in the front of the bus and padded it out,
and that was Daisy's baby bed, a little drawer. That's cool.
(49:26):
I want a good story. Little big town week on
the Bobby Cast. It's little big Town Week on the
Bobby Cast. So that's a really good story that I'm
glad you did. I love that story. Whenever I think
about you guys in the past five or six years
that I've been here, like, I just know you guys
is the big big big little big town, you know,
(49:49):
because you guys have really stepped up to that next
level where you wanted all the Awards. By the way,
I remember when you said my name at the what
was the c M as RA c MS. I don't
remeber which one it was now I'm just thinking thinking
out loud here, I can't remember which the pre uh show.
And I've been on the radio. I don't know what
I was doing. I was nuts. Who knows what I
was doing early on and you said someone said thank
(50:11):
you Jesus and said thank you Bobby Bond. Yeah, because
I told you we would. Yeah. So, And I remember, like,
I owe you one. I still remember that in my heart,
like someday I'm gonna get you back, and I'm gonna
something's gonna happen that people are gonna think I'm cool.
One day I'm gonna be able to put it back
around you guys. But that was that was really cool.
I was like, man, these people, the nice this is
someone name on National TV. We told you we would.
(50:31):
That's true, you did? I forgot all about that at all?
The what's up? Wow? How about that? How about that?
Do you do you would know who the cash me
outside girl is? Do you know who that is? Oh?
Never mind, I don't know. Never look her up. Don't
get me in trouble and if pad afterwards, she's the
girl that goes cash me outside. How about that? See
(50:52):
I'm listening to Elmo and says me straight right now.
So I don't know the cash me hot girl? How
how long ago she Mike? How long goes cash me
outside girl? It was like two years ago. She's not
someone to look up to. Uh. The I felt like
Happy People got a raw deal. Oh me too, me too,
(51:13):
all of you guys as songs. I really felt like
Happy People was the one. Oh there, it is right there,
this song was. I was disappointed, Like my my gud,
thank you and thank you for everything you did on
air to try to make this a hit for us.
I mean you were the you were waving the flag.
I just didn't understand, Like I really didn't understand how
(51:34):
it wasn't. I don't either. I don't understand. I will
tell you in our live show. It's one of the
sweetest moments because we made a video that I'm so
proud of and it's just a whole bunch of different
people with happy smiles on their faces or they're dancing
or their giggling, and our kids are in it, and
it's so special and at our shows. UM on the
Breakers tour which just ended, we UM have this video
(51:56):
on the huge screens behind us, and every night I
have to just turn around and watch. It just makes
me happy and and that that that song means a
lot to people in the shows, in our audience. When
I just think about you, guys, I think about that
song like one of the At first I think about
Girl Crushed first, but this song probably second of all
your songs, because again I was so irritated at whatever
(52:18):
country radio or country whatever that is. I don't even
understand it anymore, but whatever they is, I was so
disappointed in it. Thank you guys got such a raw deal.
Do you know why? What was? What were they telling
you guys? I don't know. I just couldn't get played.
Great message was upbeat, everything that's supposed to that people
say it's supposed to be. It was precious. Lori McKinnon
(52:40):
wrote that in Haley Winters and oh yeah, I thought
I thought it was going to be a big song.
When you put the last record out the Breakers, critics
loved it, like loved it. It wasn't even when you
had to struggle, it was Was that a normal for
the critics to just love a record is rare for
(53:04):
someone that's big like you guys. Yeah, that was rare.
It is my favorite record we've ever done. I'm super
I'm proud of everything we've done, but that record really
meant a lot to me. Um. Yeah, the critical acclaim
was really cool and the best we had ever had.
And not because your other stuff isn't good, but you
guys had achieved that point of you. You're kind of
(53:24):
a big deal now, and usually when you get to
be a big deal, you're not as critically love because
the critical well, they're already a big deal. I'll get
more clicks by taking a shot, yes, right then, I
will by saying something is good. And even with that,
that's how you know the record was fantastic because even
with that, you guys were getting loved in all the
award nominations even while being a big deal. Congratulations on
(53:45):
that that. I thought it was really cool. Anyway, UM,
tell me about your cookbook. My cookbook, UM is a
collection of recipes that have been handed down to me
or that I came up with along the way. Some
of them are from my cooking show, and um it's
that and then pretty much my life story because the publisher, HarperCollins,
let me like them. They really Lett gave me a
(54:10):
lot of leeway on the book to tell a lot
of my life story, which I love, you know. I'm
mostly I'm glad I have that book for Daisy and
Dolly because it has so much history of my life
and my family and how my parents got together and
my grandparents got together, and just sweet stories about recipes
and um. So it's it's both. It's a memoir and
a cookbook. That's cool. It's cool that you're able to
(54:32):
do what you love and then also do what you
love while doing it with people you love. Let me
have any note, I know, I haven't even been to
them yet. Let me see I have anything. How do
I open this thing up? Mike? So you're born in Cornelia, Georgia,
my little hometown. Oh Gussie on Twitter? I know this,
But that's an expression that's like a Southern expression. I'm
right about that, right, oh Gussie. Yeah? And it can
mean so many things. It can mean that you're happy.
(54:53):
It can mean you that you're mad. You can mean
that you're excited. You have I didn't know this if
a kid in line loving Daisies, so people can buy
it right now? Is that a Is that a TV
thing where you're on TV the Home Shopping Network that
Loving Daisy is at at the Home Shopping Network and
it's really some really beautiful kitchen things. And then at
Cracker Barrel, I also have a line of things that
(55:15):
I've had for several years at Cracker Barrel. The coffee
mag I brought used from Cracker Barrel. And um, my
daddy makes pottery and he's a beautiful potter. Some of
my greatest treasures are his pieces of pottery. And we
have a line at Cracker Barrel called Paul Paul Pottery
because we call him Paul Fall. So, um, pap Paul
Pottery is at Cracker Barrel. That's cool. Well, well, well,
(55:37):
and the name of your book, oh come, you have
to tell me now if it was prepared, it's called
Gussie and then it's something like Childhood in Kimberly Schlapping
this kitchen or something unprepared. I thought I would just
know that. Please don't think you're unprepared. I didn't even
know you weren't dating anymore. Yeah, but you're not supposed
be prepared. You just came over to the house. Listen.
(55:58):
I really appreciate you coming to her. You're so welcome.
You guys are my favorite people. You're one of my
favorite people. You're so kind. I was standing on the
side of the road one day. I don't know if
you remember this. I was staying. I was down by
church tree. I was getting my haircut, and you were
driving and I was walking and you stopped the card.
Do you remember see me? And we looked at each
other and we're like, yeah, we know each other and
give it a thumbs up, and like, h that was cool.
(56:20):
I should ask you if you needed a rod. No, yeah,
I would have. Never, I mean maybe I would have.
You're safe stranger danger though, yeah, range danger Um. Well,
thank you very much, welcome. Thanks for breaking in the studio.
This person I've ever done, and I'm so happy that
I was able to. Thanks for having and I have
some slap happy bars. I know that's I can't keep
anything in the house because I'll eat it. Well, just
(56:42):
eat that, I'll eat eat one and pass them out.
I'll take them to work tomor take them to work.
All right, thank you very much. All right, We'll see
you next time on the Boby Cast. Everybody be sure
to download all little bit times of music about all
the stuff that Kim really talking about. By it all
by three of them, by one for you and one
for your cousin, and then one for her friend. All right,
thanks guys, a little big town week on the Bobby Cast.
(57:04):
H
It's Little Big Town. So this is Kimberly Schlatman, which,
by the way, if you're just coming across this, we
had Jimmy on Friday, which we just did like four
days ago. He was the final one. But we have
all the members of A Little Big Town telling their story,
which is really cool over the years. This is from
So this is Kimberly Schlapman. She has the blonde here,
the really curly blonde here. So this is interesting because
(00:22):
she talks about her love for cooking, which she came
and I was living in a different house at the time,
but she brought over with cookies. Remember that only a
few people have ever brought gifts, and that they're almost
not bringing gifts because they're on the podcast. They're bringing
gifts because they're coming to my house, which is weird
when you think about it, which is well, yes, if
(00:43):
they were bringing gifts to the podcast, that would feel weird,
But if someone comes and it's like a guest at
your house, I don't think that's that weird to bring
a gift. I just forget that. The aspect of it
is that are coming to your house to the interview
me too, So I'm like, oh, she brought cookies to
be interviewed, but no, she knew she was coming to
the house. Other people who have done that. I think
(01:03):
Morgan Wade may have brought something. Laney I don't know,
brought all kinds of stuff. I think she brought a
chef and had a whole flambay. I don't know what
flambi is. Um So, Kimberly talks about her love for cooking,
the TV show her faith Wardrobe family. She shares her
journey with adoption, how she had her baby unexpectedly while
on tour, and how the group struggled for many years
(01:26):
before their first big hit with Boondocks. This is another
version of a little Big town story that's all the same,
just from a different set of eyeballs from Here's our
Bobby Cast with Kimberly Schlapman from a Little Big Town,
Little Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. I welcome
to another episode of the Bobby Cast. This is the
first time we've used the studio, so this table is
(01:48):
much shorter than I'm remember sitting this close to anyone. No,
I never have. I don't mean that like in a
good or bad away, but it's kind of so Kimberly
Slapman is here, and I can. I can reach out
and touch you as you can. And in the past, yes,
in the past, we've had these big recliners which looked sloppy,
so we wanted to change it up. But I didn't
know we'd be able to reach out and give each
(02:09):
other high byes. Mike do So, how are you good?
I'm great. I'm so happy to do this. I've been
looking for You've been trying to work this out for
a while. Yeah, but I'm gone, You're gone. We are
to traveling fiends. Yeah. You guys go hard. We go hard.
When do you not go hard? Because you guys, you
(02:29):
guys are reminiscent, like I see you guys in the
roads because I follow you guys on Instagram and I
feel like I know everybody from Instagram, and I feel
like you and I are friends over Instagram. There's this
but there's this like weird part of life where you
can We don't have each other's text, but I needed
it on the way over here because I was seven
minutes later. You're there was nothing terrible over here, but
(02:52):
we don't. There's like three levels. There's email, there's insta
story friends, and then there's text and so we'll actually
send messages on inst the story. So we're at that level.
So by the end of this though, let's just trade
fund number. Sure my life. I don't bother people. What
did you bring over over to the house? Some kind
of food? I brought you slap happy bars. Those. My
(03:16):
husband's name is Steve, but so is my late husband,
so I don't call my current husband Steve because that
would be weird to be married. It is already weird.
I'm married to Steve's So the second Steve I call
schlap because our last name is Schlapman. So there. Starbucks
once made this bar that he was crazy about and
they quit making it, and he loved it so much
that I decided I would figure it out for myself,
(03:37):
so they discontinued it. But I figured it out. I
figured it out, and um, I call him slap happy
bars because they make him very happy. So I brought
you a plate appreciate and I know you don't eat
much of that, but just indulgeay, you do look well.
You know this too. Whenever you can get on TV,
(03:58):
you do look bigger. Listen, one time I was at
my sister's church down in Georgia, and this lady walked
up and she goes, oh, honey, you look a whole
lot bigger on t V. How how do you cook
so much but you're so skinny. I'm just careful. I
eat like I already ate Pappy bar at my house
when I cut them. But um, but then I won't.
(04:21):
I'll just be careful the rest of the day. I
just take it like day. But but if I if
I go to my mama's house and have biscuits and gravy,
which I'm not going to turn down, then for the
next day or two, I'll be just real strict. I
think it's just about moderation. I really do, because I
do indulge. But then I'll restrain. When I waited tables,
so I gotta say I didn't eat a lot of
(04:41):
the food that I was serving. Yeah, I waited tables
here too. You wait tables here in Brentwood at a
little cafe called Maggie's Cafe. It's not open anymore. What
was what was your job like there when you waited table?
I just served. I've took um the orders and took
it back to the kitchen and handed it in and
then took it to the table. Oh yeah, it was
(05:04):
when I first got here. Yeah, it was a little, tiny,
little lunch cafe. It was just lunch only in Brentwood.
And so what would you do you work in the
daytime and then seeing at night. Yeah, I was working
in the daytime, and then Karen and I would hang
out at night and dream and brainstorm and figure out.
We knew we wanted to do something together. I know
you talked to Karen through all this on her podcast,
but we we knew we wanted to do something together,
(05:26):
but we just didn't know what. And for months and
months and months we tried to figure it out, and
we just hang out together all the time. And you
guys went to school together and you were friends through school,
moved to Nashville, and still stay friends. Oh yeah. We
met in college and we were in there at Sanford.
They Sanford University in Birmingham. They have this incredible acapella choir,
(05:47):
and so we literally met on the bus going to
choir camp. She was sitting in front of me, I
was behind her, and we struck up a conversation because
we were both from Georgia, and I mean, I remember
that vividly. I remember the seats and everything, and her
face and her long Amy Grant hair which she had
back then, and I just remember the conversation and and
(06:09):
stracking up a friendship that has lasted a very, very decades,
very long time. Then, individually, we both moved here to Nashville.
She came first. Oh, you guys didn't move at the
same time. No, because we never did talk about doing
anything in country music together until both of us got here,
because we were all just always just really good friends.
(06:30):
We had so we had already at that point experienced
so much fun stuff together, and so we just kept
in touch and we would just say. It first started with,
you know, we're both here in town, let's go to lunch,
let's just catch up. Did you guys ever consider just
being a duo a female duo? Was that a thing? Even?
I mean, the Judds, the Jud's and the chicks were
(06:51):
really hot at that time, so we didn't want to
do an all girl thing. And that's why we thought,
let's let's put a male, at least one male. It
took up with some you know guy and start singing,
and then and then somewhere along the way we decided, well,
if we had two guys and we could do even
better harmony. Um. So at first we were singing with
(07:13):
Jimmy for many months. So you Karen and Jimmy, right.
And then first of all, it took when Karen and
I finally were like, hey, let's just do a mixed group.
It took us probably a year to even start singing
with Jimmy just to figure it out. And then it
took us many many more months to find Philip, and
(07:34):
then finally in I think it was late not it
was the fall of when we first sang together in
my living room, and that was the beginning. But even
those guys like they probably came to town looking to
do their own things. We all did. Karen was gonna
do country music. I was gonna do country music, our
(07:55):
own thing, yeah, Philip, Jimmy, everybody was just going to
chase their own dreams. Is there a bit of an
ego drop to go, Okay, now I'm part of a group.
I didn't come as a band and now we're a band.
It's like a relationship almost where there's a lot of
compromise that then goes in. Yeah, but I don't I
don't think it was an ego thing at all, I
think it. We were so excited about the idea um
(08:17):
and we had all been in groups before, well, Karen
and I had, Jimmy had, and Philip had sung with
his family a lot at his mom's um country music
theater in Arkansas, so we had all you know, had
that experience and we loved being in groups. So you know,
it wasn't It wasn't like it was a compromise or anything.
(08:38):
Is there a code with you guys, because you're all
of you guys are notoriously super nice, like always to
me at least I don't know how you are and
everybody else, but you are super kind and you've been
kind to me even when people weren't kind to me.
When I came to town and I was the guy
that was trouble or the guy that was different, you
guys were always so nice to me. And I'll always
be thankful because you were nice to me when other
people weren't. But I wonder, is there some kind of
secret code in the band where you have to be
(09:00):
nicer and then when you get away you're just meaning never?
But are you getting is that? Is it like written
somewhere that you guys really try to be kind everybody.
It's not written anywhere. I feel like that's just how
we were raised. We were just raised on some good
Southern roots to treat people well. But all four of
you guys, it's hard. Usually there's a turd in there somewhere.
(09:20):
And I've been able to be friends with Philip a
bit outside of the music world, Philip and his wife
and so. And he's the quietest of all four of
you guys. Sometimes well, whenever you guys come in and
do you know, publicity, he usually doesn't say much. And
he's who have probably become socially the friendliest, right, And
(09:45):
he's super nice, and he's the least nice because he
doesn't talk as much. So, yeah, you guys have always
been super super kind since the very beginning. And I
just if that was like because our show, you know,
we have roles on the show radio show. I do
wonder if you guys had a role like, okay, even
feeling bad, you got the rule is you have to
be nice and if you're not nice, you can find
a thousand dollars. That's hilarious. No, no, nothing like that.
I feel like, um, I feel like the reason maybe
(10:09):
that you would say we're all nice still is because
of our journey, because it wasn't handed to us on
a silver platter. We worked so very, very hard and
we are very very grateful for what we've been given
and know that any day, you know, it could it
could go away. But I think that that appreciation just
(10:29):
keeps us grounded and helps us remember that, you know,
remember what the other way was like. And and and
just just you know, my just my parents taught me
to treat people well and to be good to everybody.
And you know, you never know what somebody else is
going through, even if they're you know, ugly or mean,
you never know why they might be ugly in me,
(10:51):
and you don't know what's going on at home. So
just be sweet to him and maybe more than a bit.
But Keith Urban's like that too, because I'll talk to
Keith even outside of the world of whatever we're in.
It keeps always super kind everyone. But I'll talk to him,
and you know, it keeps on to a lot of
drug issues and we can we talk about we we'll
(11:11):
talk about that because my my mom died of you know,
drugs and or forties and I was around that my
whole life, and so I think he's been a little
more open with me about that. And he'll talk about
not even remembering yours and being rude, and I think
now he appreciates, and so that makes him kind and
I hope that's what makes me nice because I get it.
(11:32):
And so, yeah, you guys are just you. And I
have only have like three plaques have that And I
don't keep plaques. I normally don't even take plaques, but
that one. I have that one. And then it's it's
a girl crush plaque. But that's before it even sold
all of it, Like that's way. But then Laurie that
the whole group, Laz and Hillary, they all they did
(11:53):
a handwritten lyric and given it is it really kind
of that sweet. I love him, Love Junkies. Little Big
Town Week on the Bobby Cast. It's Little Big Town
Week on the Bobby Cast. So you're a mom twice
now and you have a baby baby, Yeah, I have
a one year old. Whenever you came in, you're like, hey,
did you know how your girlfriend? I was like, I
(12:14):
did a girlfriend like six months and forgive me, oh
my goodness, that little angel phase. She she she you know,
she requires a lot of time, and I don't. I
feel like I really have felt the last six months
like I'm struggling socially to keep up with what is
happening in this world. It's so weird how I feel
(12:34):
like I know things about social media? Does it? But
I know? I watch your daughter and your husband's karate Taekwonda.
Oh my goodness, they just got their black belts. I
saw that, and that's and oddly I'm proud of them. Listen.
I told Daisy I was coming to see you today,
and she said, oh, I love Bobby Bones. When I
tell her that, you know, she got her black belt,
(12:55):
She's going to feel like the biggest kid in the
was on Instagram and I was like, and then I
watched after she finished a singing recital. Yeah, all that.
That's why I feel like I know you. I think
we all feel a bit like Iah. So, how old
does she's tin? And then you have a one year old.
Dolly is one, so she's sixteen months. So you've done
(13:17):
it before. So is it harder the second time? Yeah,
because it's a decade later, Mama is older. Yeah, it's
it's it's I mean, I guess it's harder physically, but
oh my word, it's this the sweetest thing. I mean,
it's the best. The best part of my life is
(13:38):
being a mama. You look forward to going home. I
love it. They go with me on the road, though
I don't leave them. I rarely ever have to leave
him at home. Um, but yeah, I love if I've
been working all day in town and I walk in
the door and days he is like mommy and Dolly
starts running towards me. There's nothing better. Amy, my co host,
(13:59):
adopted to children, and it was a five year process
for the kids to get here, and you know, it
was obviously a whole different situation. But I feel like,
in a third hand way, I know what it's like
to at least be close to someone who goes to
the process. And so, how long were you in the
adoption process? Well, Um, Daisy started praying for a baby
(14:20):
when she was five years old. She wanted a baby
brother or sister. She didn't care what, she just wanted
a baby brother sister. So we were trying to have
another baby very hard. We did everything you know under
the sun medically that we could do, and so then
we decided, well, maybe God, that's not in his will.
Maybe he just wants us to adopt a baby because
(14:41):
I've always wanted to adopt a child. So we started
the process UM and they told us it would be
eighteen months at least we'd waited eighteen months. And we
were like, oh, that's a big bummer, but okay, because
we were doing it domestically, UM, and lo and behold
it happened. About four months later we got a call
(15:03):
about Dolly. It just happened. It just you know, it
was just this fluke thing that happened. And someone called
and said, there's a baby girl. Are you interested? Yes? Yes,
But here's the great thing. UM. That was in um
January of two thousand seventeen, and Daisy had asked Santa
(15:28):
Claus for a baby that year. We got her when
whenever she asked did you know, no, no, and my
husband and I were like, oh, baby, you can ask Santa,
but you know, Santa really we really didn't have control
over that. So you know, I mean, he probably talks
to Jesus so you can have him, you know, put
(15:50):
in a good word, but but I don't think Santa
can do that. And even when she sat on Santa's lap,
he said, Oh, she sat on his lap and asked him,
and and before she got out there, I was like,
you know, he probably I don't know he's going to
say to this because I don't know Santa can even
Santa can do this. And so she said, um, I
(16:10):
wanted the only thing I want this Christmas is a baby.
And I know you might not can do it, but
if you talk to Jesus, would you tell him that
I want a baby? And that's what we got. So
whenever you told her, did you tell her at Christmas? Okay?
I got a text on my phone and said there's
(16:31):
a baby. Are you interested? And we were um out
of town. We were, she, myself and my husband were
all sitting on the bed together very late at night.
And when I read that text, it took my breath
and I went and of course Dasy's like, what what what? What? What?
What is it? What is it? So I turned my
phone so that she and my husband could see it.
(16:53):
And oh. She burst into tears and started jumping up,
jumping up and down on the bed, say and thank
you Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you Jesus, jumping up,
crying and my husband are like, baby, hey, we don't
know if this is our baby. We don't know, we
don't know, And she was going I believe it as
I believe. I believe, and she was really so emotional
and it was just one of the most beautiful visions
(17:16):
I still have. It will last me of my whole life.
Just her on that little bit jumping up and down,
crying because she knew that was her baby. That's crazy.
It's crazy that she asked Santa. She did, she wanted
it so bad and now she's the best little mother.
She loves that baby to pieces. Yeah, congratulations, that's a
(17:41):
special How important it's faith to you? Most important? Yeah,
it's most important. Um. I just I have a very
strong faith. I grew up that way, my parents raised
me that way, and I just believe that my whole
life is because of God and what He's given me.
(18:03):
And I've been incredibly blessed, and I've been through a
lot of hardship also, and um, but what He's given
me now I could have never even dreamed or I
never could have even dreamed up, both business wise and
personal mostly Really, what kind of church did you grow
up in? Southern Baptists so did I. Yeah, Now, were
(18:24):
you guys a non dancing because we weren't. They let
us dance. They let us dance, that we were a
non drinking one though the only down there if you
were a Southern Baptist, the only way you could drink
is if you were in the closet. You had to
hide it in your closet, and you know, nobody drank.
And maybe I was just a kid and my parents
didn't go to church with me, so I don't know.
(18:45):
But I went to us in Arkansas Southern Baptist Church
and it was pretty free considering what a lot of
we were to church camp, and they would be hardcore.
I mean there were kids who couldn't dance. It was
like footloose. We would go to church camp and there
were the kids that were they were in footloose um
and they couldn't dance. I thought it was so crazy
that we were no we danced? Did you have because
(19:05):
we would go? It went. I was in very small town.
How big was your town? Oh? I don't even know.
I really don't even know. I still don't know. It
was We had one high school in our whole county,
and there's about in our in my class, my graduation class.
There's like, okay, well mine was like forty oh years
(19:26):
was smaller, probably the same type of area. Yeah, very rural.
Not as rural anymore? Is your town? Are they super
Kimberly Slapman's from here? This is embarrassing, but like three
years ago they had Kimberly Slapman Day on my birthday.
It was the whole big and was sweet, really sweet
(19:51):
and precious. And that year, that day we announced the
scholarship that we do now every year down there to
someone in the high school, which it's really cool. Yeah,
been the coolest part of any sort of success that
I've been able to have. One. They put up a
sign when you drive into my town. I didn't put
it up. I've seen it on Instagram boyhood home, you know,
(20:15):
and I'm proud of my hometown. And I didn't know
that we're gonna put that sign up. But I started
a scholarship at my school too, and I give it
to a senior. And I was driving in and Amy
my coast and my girlfriend at the time, we were
driving and I had no idea and it was raining,
and I was like, what did that signs? You didn't
know it was there. I had no idea. It was
really one of the coolest moments. And I don't have
a bad problem with taking in cool things, like I
(20:38):
really it's helped me to appreciate awesome moments because I
feel like they're fleeting and so yeah, it's a whole
therapy thing. Yeah, I was gonna go there, but I
didn't want to know. I know why, because that because
you were disappointed in your young laft and so that's
what you expect always. But I really took that and
I'm like, man, although my town is seven seven seventy
(21:00):
seven people, that's the coolest thing. A son and listeners
will go in the old drive for hours and take
a picture with the sign. It's unbelievable. That's what I
think I've seen. I think I've seen a listener with
the sun. I don't know. The thing is, I don't
even know why people like the show, where like I
really don't like I say it on the air, like
I'm confused as to why they're such passion for the show.
Like I get Amy, everybody loves Amy. Well, of course
(21:21):
she's a little angel. But I think first of all,
it's very entertaining and Secondly, you give people an inside
look at Nashville fishing. By the way, this is I'm
not fishing, that's this is really what I believe. I
believe that you give people such an insight in the
city of Nashville and the workings of country music that
they don't get anywhere else. You're like the live social media.
(21:44):
Now I'm like Comfortab. I'm gonna change the subject here
for a minute. You talk about the little big town struggles.
What was so the moment where you guys tell I
don't know if we can do this anymore. Well, we
never collectively, he thought that, or at least we never
collectively said it out loud. Um, I feel like we
(22:07):
we had a few very very low points. One was
after we lost our second record deal from Sony, and
then one was when my husband died and and nothing
was going well for us. At that point, we had
written and recorded Boondocks, and so we had that in
our back pocket and it and it was it was
actually about to come out right around the time that
(22:28):
he died. Um, And we were already signed to Equity Records,
which was that little independent label that sold over a
million records for US. UM. But that was a very
low moment. Karen told me much much later that she
thought the band was probably over at that point, not
that anybody wanted it to be, but they didn't know
(22:48):
that I would want to continue. Um, So we never
ever said this isn't gonna work together, at least in
my head. After or He died, I was just so numb.
I didn't want to really do anything, but I showed up.
(23:09):
You know. We went on the road a few weeks later,
on the radio tour four Boondocks. Do you remember that.
I remember moments of that. I remember really really super
sad moments of that, and then I remember a couple
of highs. You know. I remember the first time we
heard on the radio. That was really super cool because
(23:30):
we've been struggling for at that point six years. We've
been a banded six years and so many struggles, and
so when we heard it live for the first time,
that was just amazing. Yeah, do you think all four
of you guys remember that hearing it for the first time.
We were in a car together, and that was after
Steve had died, and we heard that and we just, oh,
(23:53):
we celebrated. That's probably the first celebration or a moment
that we had to celebrate after his death. You know,
that was the first happy moment together. How high did
this song elevate you guys as a band? Meaning did
your guarantees go up? Did you make more money? Were
you starting to get award show bookings because of the song.
(24:16):
We started making money, period. And when this song came out, Yeah,
we had prior to that, we had told Cia to
just book us for enough money to rent a van
and pay for the gas and stop at McDonald's. That's
all we needed. So there was no money coming in
because well, anything that did come in went back out
because of the expenses. It's very expensive to tour, whether
(24:37):
you're in a minivan or you're in ten buses. You know,
it's super expensive. It's all relative. But um, at that point,
we were just barely sometimes we make five and that
was enough to rent a van and gas and food. Um.
So yes, after Boondocks hit, you know, the money went
up a little bit, the invites went up a lot
(24:59):
and and the credibility went up a lot um because
people they just so connected with that song and it
became their anthem and it changed everything for us. What
was the quickest thing that it changed. Um, probably our spirits, Yes,
(25:19):
our spirits were kind of broken and wounded. And yeah,
now we had something that people actually believed in us.
And you know how that is. That's that's worth more
than anything, when someone believes in you and invites you
to come do shows. I'll tell you this is so funny.
We pulled up in a parking lot in I think
it was Lexington, Kentucky. We pulled up in a parking
(25:42):
like one lot to sing. This was right when Boondocks
had come out, and the parking lot was crammed full
of people and it was just the four of us
in this van, and we looked around, like, who are
we opening up for? Who is this? Who's here tonight?
We we genuinely wondered who was here that we were
opening up for, and we found it It was for us, us,
And that moment was like, Holy yell, these people came
(26:03):
to see us. This is amazing, um, and that not
They asked for an encore, so we played all the
songs we knew and they wanted an encore, so we
played Boondocks again because we didn't have any more song.
That's funny and loved it. I love the end of
the song, like my favorite parts, and so are all
(26:28):
four of you guys on that and all going over
the top? What do you call? It starts around around Phil,
it starts it then Jimmy, then Karen than me. Yeah,
because I was working in pop at the time, still
listening to country, but not as much because I was
totally in pop, trying to build my own syndication. I
was talking for the most part, but still all that
have was pop music around me. But I remember that
(26:49):
song because I plup over the country station and out
here you get on We'll go fishing, and I was like, oh,
I love that song, but you know five cop poker,
that was that song. I don't sing it back to
you because you have Oh I love it, And that's
my favorite part of every single show that yes, because
the crowd, well, the crowd sings that whole song. But
at the end of that song usually that means the
(27:10):
shows are just about over and the crowd they'll pick
their parts and they'll sing it. It's so much fun.
You put that at the end of the show. Mostly, yeah,
And we've tried not putting it at the end of
the shows. We've tried to put it up farther in
the show, and then we get to the end of
whatever you know we're we end with and it's like, oh, nope,
we needed to end with the knocks. Every time we
experiment on something else, Nope. Whenever you guys get your
(27:33):
clothes because you and Karen dressed so well, thank you defferently,
but so well, thank you? Did they loan you this?
Are you buying all that stuff both? Because holy I know, listen,
Karen has a shopping problem. Everyone knows that. But it's
working out really well for me and the rest of
the van. She um, She's got such a gift at
fashion and putting things together, so we have it. We
(27:56):
do things a couple of different ways when we're on television,
and usually we have a stylus out in l a
named Carla Welch, and she's amazing and she'll put looks
for us together for all that, but then for tours
and other things, Karen shops and pulls just incredible clothes
and then we just kind of, I mean, we also
(28:19):
buy for ourselves. She doesn't buy everything, but she buys
a lot. Like last night. I remember at the last show,
I was like, Okay, from head to toe. I am
Karen Fairchild because she bought everything I have on But um,
I love it when she shops from me. She'll go
out shopping and she'll be like, I bought you something.
I was like, whoa, I love that. I love that. Um.
And so you know, every night when we get ready
(28:41):
for the show, we have these incredible wardrobe cases, which
we used to not have and now we do, and
they're just so amazing. So we keep all our tour
clothes in them, and you know, we just all pick
out what we want to wear. And sometimes Jim, you'll
come in our room and I'll go, what color are
you all wearing tonight? And so we'll try to coordinate
and look like we're going to the same party. But um,
Karen pulls a lot of that for us. She picks
(29:01):
a lot of that out for us. I have so
intrigued because you guys dressed so well. But I wonder
if it's on Instagram, do you wear it again or
is it dead? I wear it again, yeah, yeah, just
because that's how I was raised. I just I just
I don't have a problem wearing again. Sometimes karens like, okay,
you need to retire that so yeah, I'll wear it again.
What's been the biggest surprise in the little big town life?
(29:23):
Like the whole the thing you really didn't think was
going to work out that ended up going Wow? Why?
Because you were working hard, obviously and grinding towards that
first single. Obviously you expected something a paper you wouldn't
have continued to do it. What was the big one
were you that was unexpected? Um? Maybe the for Rell
record that we did. Yeah, we got a phone call
(29:45):
and thank you, thank you. That was such a treat
to make. What a genius he is. We adore him.
We got a phone call and they said, do you
want to Forrell wants to write with you? Like what for?
Wait for real? Yeah? Yeah, So we booked a day
with him and it was a day in Nashville. He
came here. It was a day in Nashville where we
(30:05):
had a little snow storm storm and you know how
that that goes here, so it's everything down. We all
made it to the studio and we started rotting. We
wrote two songs that day and he said, let's come
back tomorrow. So we said, of course. We came back
to oor. I wrote another song. You wrote two songs
the same day a lot of songs. And with him
and pop pop music, I guess this is pretty common.
(30:28):
They write a song, but as they write it, they
go ahead and record it. They start tracking it and
go ahead and get it down, which we had never
done before. And it was so much fun. So at
the end of two days we had three songs written
and recorded, and so he said, let's just do this again,
and so we said, well sure, So we started just
(30:50):
rotting more and more, and every time we wrote we
would get it cut. You know, I want to say,
get it on tape, but you know how that goes.
Now that's comes that sounds like I'm really old. But
before we knew it, we had eight songs written and
recorded and we weren't going to do anything with it.
But then when we ended up with that many that
we loved so much, we thought, wow, wouldn't we put
it out? So let's just put it out. And you know,
(31:12):
we weren't like trying to make a statement of that
we're switching teams or anything like that. We just had
a ball and he's so musical and we learned so
much from him and ended up making a record. I
enjoyed the record and I because you guys did a
press store two and Farrell came by the studio, yes,
And I loved it because I'm a big Farrell fan.
(31:33):
I'm for all. It's got three different versions of Farrell,
you know, his big band, his little band, just him,
and so that was really cool for me. What was
frustrating a bit, though, was some of the Nashville old
school country people were like, what's happening? How is a
little big town with Farrell? That's got to be a
little bit unnerving, right. It's a little almost a little
(31:54):
hurtful because we are to our bones country and we
country Usic is our music, but we love all music
and we the four of us is such a melting
pot of influences, and when we were approached by someone
as genius as Pharrell, we could not turn that down.
And we were just having fun. We weren't taking ourselves
(32:14):
too seriously. We weren't trying to, like I said before,
go pop or change teams. We were just having a
ball in the studio and that's all that was. When
you write, are you a melody writer first? Or are
you a lyric writer? Because it just for those listening.
I have friends that are both, and some will sit
with the guitar and just do that's a bud and
then insert the words over the melody that's written. And
(32:35):
some will write the words and then assign the melody
to the lyrics. How do you write? Usually to me personally,
it's words that come first, and um, I'll make some notes,
you know, something will come to me and I'll I'll
be like, oh, I gotta write that down before I
forget it, and then maybe later I'll work on some
more a lyric to go with it. And so so
it's usually that that comes first. In the early days
(32:57):
that all you guys just sit around write songs all
the time. Is what you did every day, almost almost
every day the first couple of years we were together. Yeah,
so he sat around. Not many of them were very good,
well early on they probably weren't. Yeah, I mean that's
the story. I was talking to Ryan Herd, who's a
songwriter artist and he's married to Maran now, but he's like,
(33:21):
man I rose in terrible songs were on my songwriter.
I'm such a fan of songwriters, and he's a man
I moved to town because he graduated with like a
sociology degree, really wasn't gonna do music. Wow. Yeah. And
he's like, you know, I started writing songs and they
were really bad, but I thought I can improve at it.
He's like, man, they were so bad at the beginning. Yeah,
some of ours were too, some of ours were doozies.
(33:41):
Do you ever keep any of those? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it feels like not long ago. It's usually Philip that
pulls out the old songs. He remembers every word, every
every melody. Has there ever been a time with all
four of you guys were someone saying, hey, I want
to step out and do something about myself. That never
been a conversation, not even as a like a fun
(34:01):
one song anything. No, Now Karen and Philip and Jimmy
have um that's that makes that kind of hurts my feelings.
But the three of them have been, you know, on
other like duet, on other projects like Karen and Luke
and single. We've never ever even talked about it. I've
(34:21):
actually never even thought about that until right now. Look,
look what happened. But how do we got to start thinking? Now?
Little Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. It's Little
Big Town Week on the Bobby Cast. When did you
think that you were able to get you're gonna be
able to turn food into oh wait for you to
actually take your passion and make a living at it. Well,
(34:45):
when I was a little tiny girl, I used to
pretend like I had a cooking show. Yeah, I would
stand on a stool in the kitchen with a bowl
and a wooden spoon and I would just pretend and
I've just talked to nobody and just pretend like I
was cooking. And I had this really silly voy that
I used, and I was a chef on a TV show. Um,
I don't I don't know where that came from, but
(35:07):
I did it all the time. And then you know,
that kind of went on the back burner. I never
even thought about it again until Jason, my manager, called me, Um,
I don't know, several years ago, and said, are you
sitting down? And I said no, but I will, And
he said, how do you feel about doing a cooking show?
(35:27):
And I was like, holy, yeah, that would be amazing.
I mean it, it had become a dream of mine
again because I love to cook, and I you know,
I cook for people a lot, and um, I love it.
It's definitely a passion of mine as a young girl,
would you have rather been a singer or a chef?
At ten years old? At ten years old, I started
(35:50):
getting the singing bug because I had sung a little
bit in church and then probably eleven I was probably
my first talent show at eleven um and then I
really caught the bug. But I always still cooked, but cooked,
But then I didn't think about cooking as a as
a career at that point. When you say you caught
the bug, was it because you were looking? Because for me,
(36:10):
performing and doing stand up or being on the radio,
I feel like it's a search for some kind of love,
Like I really is, Like that's that's I'm terrible at
accepting it, and so I go on, I try to
get it from strangers. It's back to your therapy part
for sure. Absolutely and so and that's not funny. I'm
not laughing at that, but I think it's so self
aware of it and I work on it. And but
(36:32):
for me, that's where the performance comes in and I'm
searching for some sort of validation or so, why you
why did you start with singing? Were you just so
good at it? Did you enjoy it? Were you looking
for love? Uh? No, I felt very loved. I wasn't
looking for love. I enjoyed it, and I did. I
did enjoy the the accolade, you know in the applause,
(36:53):
You're really good. I've had a talent, but I wouldn't
like Taylor Swift good, you know when I was a
little but um yeah, everybody around me I thought that
I was talented, which now that probably encouraged me to
do another talent show and another talent show and then
sing started singing for the Rotary Club or whoever would
(37:15):
have me and my daddy would drive me, you know,
all over the state of Georgia, whoever would listen to
me sing for whatever function it was. And um, probably
the encouragement of that grooma desire. And you were good.
You had a god given talent too. Yeah. Did you
take less? You work on it? Did you? Um? Not?
(37:36):
At first? My daddy is a singer and my sister
is a singer. Um, so it was always we always
did it. But I started taking voice lessens uh late
in high school and then in college. Is it a
thing where what if one of you guys get sick,
we ever fake it like one of you four and
just move your mouth because it's such a full group,
(37:57):
but you're probably so strong that maybe you don't have
to sing that hard if one of you go down.
Have you ever had to do that? Oh, yeah, we've
We've had We've had each of us go down at
some point. And we normally have so much fun in
a show. We can't wait for the show. It's just
the best part of the day. We can't wait to
get out there and do it. But except for the
(38:17):
days when somebody's down, because then we're each going, Okay,
if it's Karen, then I got to cover her part
on this, this, and this. If it's me, then Karen's
got to cover my part. If it's Jimmy, you know,
and we're all we're not able to just put it
on copilot and do our thing. We're having to think
super hard about Oh I gotta cover that part. I
gotta cover that part. Yeah, we've We've had to do
(38:38):
it plenty of times. Is there a single text thread
that just you four keep, like one text, one group text?
That is it? Is it labeled anything like us just
it's just it's just it's just the four of us.
At this point, what do you for talk about? Let
me thinking about the last one. Um, oh goodness, because
(38:59):
I'm sure there are many one on one conversations. Yeah,
all the time. And and Karen and I have the
best ones because we get ready together in the same
dressing room every night, so those are friends. Yeah, that's
that's so rare and awesome. It's really special. And I
know you're telling I'm acting only bit like I don't
know that, but I know you're telling the truth because
I'll see you guys back in the back and you're
(39:20):
in the same dressing right. You're about big stars. You
can have your own rooms, have your own buildings. We
know what we did get this year, which has been
such a treat and um, we've never ever had this before.
We each have our own bus now and it's been
really special. Um, the Westbrooks have a family bus. I
have one and Philip. Now each of us also has
(39:40):
a crew person um also on our bus. So it's
not just our families. But that's been really really cool
and special for our families, you know. But we still
spend all the time together and get ready together and
spend the whole day together. We park our buses in
a little square so that we can all get out
(40:01):
there in the mornings and the lounge chairs and watch
the babies run around, and um, we're always together. Look
at you guys, still liking each other. Yeah, Like I
have a staff of eight, and you know, everybody that
I've hired has been a friend. You know. I've been
lucky that we did things a weird way as a
radio show. Then we have any money, So I just
(40:22):
brought my friends on. And we still like each other.
You know. So as you talk about this, it's crazy
for me to hear this, but I put the mirror
up and I go but you know, but you know, Amy,
I have it together almost fifteen years. Yeah, it can happen.
There are still times like with Amy, and we have
this white board we keep up because Amy and I
are together more than anybody else. So we end up
my office. There's a white board and we walk in
(40:44):
right now, what number we feel like we are that day?
One through ten? Like tin is great means I'm fantastic,
I'm in a great mood. If you're down below four,
it's like, give me a little space, And so we
write this number down, so we have to fill each
other out. It's just like, got it your fourth today?
I know, what something I didn't get any sleep. Maybe
it's you know that is so smart. That's so smart,
(41:05):
and it saves us any sort of you know, step
each other's toes a bit because you get really close
when you spend that much time together just fights. That's
really cool. Karen and I can read each other's mind.
I know when she's a four and when she's a tin,
just pretty much by spinning about three minutes with her
in the morning, and she knows the same about me.
Um ever a tin. Oh yeah, like tin is a
(41:27):
great right, ye a lot. You seem like a super positive.
I'm a tin a lot. I have my moments, you know,
I'm real and normal and yeah I was with your
I was one seat back behind your husband and your daughter.
We're flying Southwest, and they're like you, they're so not
Usually there's a yang. Usually there's because I feel like,
(41:49):
if I ever get married, if I ever get a
girlfriend like she has to, I don't have much to
say I want. When I'm not doing this, I'm very quiet,
kind of solitude, and I feel like any time I've
ever been with anyone, their big personality have to be
to kind of make up for the fact that I'm
not dudly, I'm not you know. I do my my
little song and dance and then I shut it down.
And so you would think you would be with like.
(42:11):
But he's the sweetest guy, sweetheart. No, he yeah, he's
is there too much sweetness? Now? Now he's a tough
he's a tough dude. Yeah, I mean he's not. He
and he's he's a he's strong, but he's beautifully strong,
(42:33):
you know. He. Oh my goodness, he's the best to me.
He picked me out out of the darkest, deepest hole
that I never thought I would escape from and fixed
me and is such a beautiful soul inside and out.
I mean, he is an incredible man and now an
(42:53):
incredible daddy. You know you talk about your kids. Didn't
you have your baby right after a show? Now that
I think about it, Yeah, you guys were playing a show. Yes.
So we were on the Martina McBride tour back in
two thousand seven, and the tour had two more weeks left,
and I had three more weeks left of my pregnancy.
(43:15):
So you're nine months pregnant and you're still up there
singing there, singing and dancing. I was the happy I
wanted to baby my whole life. I wanted to be
a mommy. So I was happy as a lark. I
loved it. I was huge and happy. And I have
a picture of the night that I went into labor
and I was in six or seven inch wedge shoes.
(43:37):
I still have nine months pregnant. So so we the
plan was, we'll finish up the Martina McBride tour in
the next two weeks and I'll have one week to
get my house all perfect and ready and pack my
bag for the hospital, and I'll have a baby. But
the good Lord had a different story. So um, we
(44:00):
finished up a show on the Martine of tour in Phoenix.
I wasn't feeling very good that day, but I had
a bad cold, so I thought, you know, it's just
I'm just not I'm just tired and very pregnant. So um,
I went and got my bunk after the show. Something
woke me up two hours later, like a like a cramp,
(44:23):
you could say. So you're in a bunk to a
nine months pregnant. It was in a bunk, a special bunk.
Oh no, it was it was the you know the
difference in the bunks. There's the bunks that are like coffins,
are stacked three hat and then then the condo bunks
which are real fancy and they're amazing. But we were
there was twelve of us still on this bus. So
(44:44):
I was rolling in and out of the bottom bunk,
not able to sit up, hardly able to get my belly.
And I was pregnant, yeah, and I was on the
bottom bottom of the you know, the three stacks, So
I'll just roll in and roll out. And so your
water breaks on the bus yep, And um so it
shocked me. I mean, it wasn't like the pickle jars
(45:06):
in the grocery store. It wasn't that dramatic. But um
so I got up and I went to the bathroom
and I'm on the bathroom and I'm freaking out in
the bathroom. And then my husband, who was doing merch
for us at the time, comes on the bus. Everybody
else is asleep. He comes on the bus because he
had just finished the merch merchandise, and he walked on
(45:28):
with one of Martina's guys. Well, I'm in the bathroom.
He didn't know that. And Martine's guy says, you really
think Kimberly is gonna last for another two weeks till
this tour is over. And Schlap was like, oh, yeah,
she's gonna be fine. She's gonna be fine. She's gonna
make him. So that guy leaves the bus and I
slammed over from the bathroom were and I'm like happening.
(45:50):
I'm freaking out. My whole body is shaken. My chance
is going la la la la la. I could hardly
even speak, and he's like, okay, okay, let's call your nurse.
So he called my nurse, and she who did not
want me to have this baby out of town. She
wanted me to get back to Nashville because she wasn't
with you know, she's here in Nashville. I'm in Phoenix.
(46:11):
And she's like, okay, maybe it's just maybe it was just, uh,
you coughed too hard because of your bad cold, and
you know, you know, just a little link it's your
something from their bladder. That's just t m I. But anyway,
so she said, but you should go to the hospital
and get checked out. So everybody's still asleep in the
back of the bus. So Schlap tells the driver, don't
(46:33):
tell us Soul this, but find us the closest hospital
and we're gonna need to go get checked out. So
he went back in the venue and he asked for
the best hospital and they sent him just down the
road to this incredible hospital called ban Or Australia Hospital
in Phoenix, Arizona. And I went in and they took
me right in in the emergency room, and I said
to the lady, we just want to get checked out
(46:55):
because we're going to go back on tour and we
have to be in Las Vegas in the morning, so
I just want to get checked out and then we're
going to go. And she goes, oh, honey, you're not
going anywhere. You are in labor, and so oh jeez.
And then I really freaked out. I'm like, what a minute,
I have nine more shows to do, I can't have
a baby yet, and my mom is not here. Most
(47:16):
of all, my mother is across the country in Georgia. So, um,
yeah it happened. How long was your labors? Did your
nurse end up coming from Nashville? Oh? No, so just
so you just went and in Phoenix in Phoenix at hospital. Yes,
(47:39):
and um Schlap sister who lives in Ventura, California, so sweet,
She flew in so that she could be there. So
when I did deliver, Slap walked out and he was
able to say to someone, it's a girl. You know.
Otherwise there would have been nobody but um, the band.
So I labored all night. The band came in about
ten o'clock the next morning and and Um, you know,
(48:02):
hung out with me for a while, and then they
had to go because the show must go on, so
they had to drop to face the while you had
a baby. They did nine they had to do nine
shows without me those last two weeks. And they finished
the tour, Martina Tour, and we stayed in Phoenix for
four days and then though the most precious gift, this
(48:22):
is my husband, the most precious gift. We're packing up
and we and the doctor didn't want us flying with Daisy,
so we had to bring a bus out. So we
were going to ride the bus home thirty three hours
with a brand new baby. So we were packing up stuff.
I was kind of nervous about that, but still so
excited just to be a mama. And Um, as I'm
(48:43):
packing up my stuff getting ready to go, I turned
around and into the room walks my mother. Slap had
flown her out to surprise me and ride the bus
home with us. I was a mass I've lost it
and she lost it and oh it's just this eat
is It turned out to be just the most beautiful
four days, first slapping me in little Daisy and then
(49:05):
my mama all the way home in thirty three hours
back the Star room. At least are you still on
the are you still on the coffin ball? We were
in there, we got the I think we had the
condo bunks on that bus. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, Yeah
a little bit. But Schlap pulled out one of the
drawers in the front of the bus and padded it out,
and that was Daisy's baby bed, a little drawer. That's cool.
(49:26):
I want a good story. Little big town week on
the Bobby Cast. It's little big Town Week on the
Bobby Cast. So that's a really good story that I'm
glad you did. I love that story. Whenever I think
about you guys in the past five or six years
that I've been here, like, I just know you guys
is the big big big little big town, you know,
(49:49):
because you guys have really stepped up to that next
level where you wanted all the Awards. By the way,
I remember when you said my name at the what
was the c M as RA c MS. I don't
remeber which one it was now I'm just thinking thinking
out loud here, I can't remember which the pre uh show.
And I've been on the radio. I don't know what
I was doing. I was nuts. Who knows what I
was doing early on and you said someone said thank
(50:11):
you Jesus and said thank you Bobby Bond. Yeah, because
I told you we would. Yeah. So, And I remember, like,
I owe you one. I still remember that in my heart,
like someday I'm gonna get you back, and I'm gonna
something's gonna happen that people are gonna think I'm cool.
One day I'm gonna be able to put it back
around you guys. But that was that was really cool.
I was like, man, these people, the nice this is
someone name on National TV. We told you we would.
(50:31):
That's true, you did? I forgot all about that at all?
The what's up? Wow? How about that? How about that?
Do you do you would know who the cash me
outside girl is? Do you know who that is? Oh?
Never mind, I don't know. Never look her up. Don't
get me in trouble and if pad afterwards, she's the
girl that goes cash me outside. How about that? See
(50:52):
I'm listening to Elmo and says me straight right now.
So I don't know the cash me hot girl? How
how long ago she Mike? How long goes cash me
outside girl? It was like two years ago. She's not
someone to look up to. Uh. The I felt like
Happy People got a raw deal. Oh me too, me too,
(51:13):
all of you guys as songs. I really felt like
Happy People was the one. Oh there, it is right there,
this song was. I was disappointed, Like my my gud,
thank you and thank you for everything you did on
air to try to make this a hit for us.
I mean you were the you were waving the flag.
I just didn't understand, Like I really didn't understand how
(51:34):
it wasn't. I don't either. I don't understand. I will
tell you in our live show. It's one of the
sweetest moments because we made a video that I'm so
proud of and it's just a whole bunch of different
people with happy smiles on their faces or they're dancing
or their giggling, and our kids are in it, and
it's so special and at our shows. UM on the
Breakers tour which just ended, we UM have this video
(51:56):
on the huge screens behind us, and every night I
have to just turn around and watch. It just makes
me happy and and that that that song means a
lot to people in the shows, in our audience. When
I just think about you, guys, I think about that
song like one of the At first I think about
Girl Crushed first, but this song probably second of all
your songs, because again I was so irritated at whatever
(52:18):
country radio or country whatever that is. I don't even
understand it anymore, but whatever they is, I was so
disappointed in it. Thank you guys got such a raw deal.
Do you know why? What was? What were they telling
you guys? I don't know. I just couldn't get played.
Great message was upbeat, everything that's supposed to that people
say it's supposed to be. It was precious. Lori McKinnon
(52:40):
wrote that in Haley Winters and oh yeah, I thought
I thought it was going to be a big song.
When you put the last record out the Breakers, critics
loved it, like loved it. It wasn't even when you
had to struggle, it was Was that a normal for
the critics to just love a record is rare for
(53:04):
someone that's big like you guys. Yeah, that was rare.
It is my favorite record we've ever done. I'm super
I'm proud of everything we've done, but that record really
meant a lot to me. Um. Yeah, the critical acclaim
was really cool and the best we had ever had.
And not because your other stuff isn't good, but you
guys had achieved that point of you. You're kind of
(53:24):
a big deal now, and usually when you get to
be a big deal, you're not as critically love because
the critical well, they're already a big deal. I'll get
more clicks by taking a shot, yes, right then, I
will by saying something is good. And even with that,
that's how you know the record was fantastic because even
with that, you guys were getting loved in all the
award nominations even while being a big deal. Congratulations on
(53:45):
that that. I thought it was really cool. Anyway, UM,
tell me about your cookbook. My cookbook, UM is a
collection of recipes that have been handed down to me
or that I came up with along the way. Some
of them are from my cooking show, and um it's
that and then pretty much my life story because the publisher, HarperCollins,
let me like them. They really Lett gave me a
(54:10):
lot of leeway on the book to tell a lot
of my life story, which I love, you know. I'm
mostly I'm glad I have that book for Daisy and
Dolly because it has so much history of my life
and my family and how my parents got together and
my grandparents got together, and just sweet stories about recipes
and um. So it's it's both. It's a memoir and
a cookbook. That's cool. It's cool that you're able to
(54:32):
do what you love and then also do what you
love while doing it with people you love. Let me
have any note, I know, I haven't even been to
them yet. Let me see I have anything. How do
I open this thing up? Mike? So you're born in Cornelia, Georgia,
my little hometown. Oh Gussie on Twitter? I know this,
But that's an expression that's like a Southern expression. I'm
right about that, right, oh Gussie. Yeah? And it can
mean so many things. It can mean that you're happy.
(54:53):
It can mean you that you're mad. You can mean
that you're excited. You have I didn't know this if
a kid in line loving Daisies, so people can buy
it right now? Is that a Is that a TV
thing where you're on TV the Home Shopping Network that
Loving Daisy is at at the Home Shopping Network and
it's really some really beautiful kitchen things. And then at
Cracker Barrel, I also have a line of things that
(55:15):
I've had for several years at Cracker Barrel. The coffee
mag I brought used from Cracker Barrel. And um, my
daddy makes pottery and he's a beautiful potter. Some of
my greatest treasures are his pieces of pottery. And we
have a line at Cracker Barrel called Paul Paul Pottery
because we call him Paul Fall. So, um, pap Paul
Pottery is at Cracker Barrel. That's cool. Well, well, well,
(55:37):
and the name of your book, oh come, you have
to tell me now if it was prepared, it's called
Gussie and then it's something like Childhood in Kimberly Schlapping
this kitchen or something unprepared. I thought I would just
know that. Please don't think you're unprepared. I didn't even
know you weren't dating anymore. Yeah, but you're not supposed
be prepared. You just came over to the house. Listen.
(55:58):
I really appreciate you coming to her. You're so welcome.
You guys are my favorite people. You're one of my
favorite people. You're so kind. I was standing on the
side of the road one day. I don't know if
you remember this. I was staying. I was down by
church tree. I was getting my haircut, and you were
driving and I was walking and you stopped the card.
Do you remember see me? And we looked at each
other and we're like, yeah, we know each other and
give it a thumbs up, and like, h that was cool.
(56:20):
I should ask you if you needed a rod. No, yeah,
I would have. Never, I mean maybe I would have.
You're safe stranger danger though, yeah, range danger Um. Well,
thank you very much, welcome. Thanks for breaking in the studio.
This person I've ever done, and I'm so happy that
I was able to. Thanks for having and I have
some slap happy bars. I know that's I can't keep
anything in the house because I'll eat it. Well, just
(56:42):
eat that, I'll eat eat one and pass them out.
I'll take them to work tomor take them to work.
All right, thank you very much. All right, We'll see
you next time on the Boby Cast. Everybody be sure
to download all little bit times of music about all
the stuff that Kim really talking about. By it all
by three of them, by one for you and one
for your cousin, and then one for her friend. All right,
thanks guys, a little big town week on the Bobby Cast.
(57:04):
H
Host
Bobby Bones
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