Top 8 BobbyCast Interviews of 2021 (Part 1)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to Part one of the Top Eight
Bobby Cast. I am your host for this episode. I
am Mike d producer of the Bobby Cast, and we
have selected the best interviews that we did this year.
Bobby and I came up with a list of our favorites.
We took a look at the most downloaded episodes of
the year, and we also asked you on Twitter and
Instagram what you thought were the best episodes. Took all

(00:23):
that and made two special episodes that we're going to
share with you this week and next week. If we
don't follow us online, we are at the Bobby Cast
on Twitter and Instagram, So I'll be your host this
week and next week. We took clips of the best
eight interviews from the entire year, and I'll give you
some behind the scenes from some of these interviews. As producer,
my job is to book the guests, research the guests,

(00:45):
pull up all the audio clips you here within these episodes,
and then I'm in the room with Bobby while we
do these interviews. So I'll give you a look into
that process behind each of these interviews. And if you're
not subscribed to the Bobby Cast, wherever you're listening to
this right now, hit that followed button, hit that. Subscribe
to be sure you get brand new episodes starting in
two And if you're looking for something completely different to

(01:06):
listen to, I also do a podcast on my own
called Movie Mix Movie Podcast. If you're looking for movie recommendations.
I do spoiler free movie reviews, and I also interview
actors and directors and talk all things movies every single week.
So that's another podcast I hope you check out. But
here we go. Let's get into the top eight Bobby
Cast interviews. We'll start right now with number eight with

(01:26):
Actuley McBride. Now, this was the first time Bobby and
I had ever met Ashley McBride, and you actually here
in this full interview, the moment she walks into the
room is the first time we ever met her. So
I thought that was kind of a cool moment to capture.
And another part of my job is to produce her
on this show. I coordinate with them getting over to
Bobby's house and then I go meet them out front.
And this is only hard for me because I am

(01:47):
terrible at small talk. So I kind of have this
routine in my head that I go through with each guest,
so I have things to say as we walk all
the way back to the studio. So here we go
with number eight. Come on, guys, I'm gonna put this
monster in some airplane mode. Mom loves to call when
I'm doing something. It's like a an innate sense that

(02:08):
she should call you right when something. I wonder what
actually is doing. How often do you talk to your mom? Um?
Not quite as often right now, but it's usually I
don't know, every couple of days, yeah, or anytime I
try to cook something. And is that often? If I
are you a good cook? I'm not bad. I think
what I'm really interested is people who do something really wonderfully,
like you as an artist songwriter, but also are you

(02:30):
what else are you good at? And does that translate
like your drive for being an artist and to anything
else in your life that that that same drive that
I think then drive pops up in um handywork. Really Yeah,
I would like to fix stuff myself, and when it's
too much for me to tackle, I'm I'm not afraid
at all to call in for for the rescue party. Um.

(02:51):
But like I had a problem with my air duct,
my my brand new house. It just kept flooding, the
downstairs kept flooding, and then that finally results in an
air duct getting full of water. And I was like,
I can fix that. So did you go? Because what
we have now is the ability to go to YouTube
for anything, which changes. Before I went to YouTube, though,
I called so my drummer is also a mechanic and

(03:12):
an eagle scout and he's awesome. I did not call him.
I called his father, who taught that that boy had
to be all of those things. So I called um
George Hill and I was like, here's what I want
to do, and he was like, okay, here are the
steps you need to make sure you take. So I
did it. It's also funny too that when you're in
an artistic business um like you are UM in in

(03:33):
my different worlds that I'm in, your broke a long
time and you have to figure out how to do
other things because since you're so broke, you have to
learn or you just die as you can't do music
or I can't you know, try to do radio or
be a comedian because there's no money in it for
the first forever forever, so you have to fix your
own crap and cook your own meals and learn to survive,

(03:54):
and you become a good cook because you get tired
of eating crappy food, and you kind of acquire all
of these skills. And then then you get it kind
of all figured out at once and you think you
can have a figured out. Then you realize you have
no idea and you kind of start over again. Yeah,
but I think it just has to do with your
ability to be miserable and your tolerance for it. I mean,
I know you're kind of joking, but but it was
about going, well, this is uncomfortable. But I've all it's

(04:18):
always been uncomfortable for me, you know, growing up, you know,
a poverty kid. And I was like, what's the worst
that can happen? I stay the same, Like, right, so
let's go. My vacuum broke two days ago, just like
the little spinny thing stopped being a spinny thing, and
I thought, I can probably get someone to fix it.
I can probably just buy another one. But what I'm
gonna do now is take it apart entirely. You really

(04:38):
did that fix it myself? Because um, you know, before
I live back here, back back in Nashville, I was
over in Watertown. There was nobody around to help, and
growing up we didn't have a lot of money, and
when something broke, my mother would fix it. My father
would fix and he can fix anything. But my mom
is not afraid to take something apart and see how
it works either. So do you feel like a little
bit of you does that because you feel like that's

(05:00):
where you come from? Because I mean, at this point,
you have plenty of money. I can get another vacuum, right,
And I struggle with this too sometimes, Like you could
get a vacuum, You could hire somebody to get a vacuum,
bring it to you in vacuum your floor. You can do,
you could you I didn't think about having someone else
clean my house. And that's but a bit of that.
I wonder if that is that instilled in you and

(05:21):
that's what you just do because of where you come
from and the people that raised you. Yeah. Absolutely, I
think our first instinct for for people like you and
I is to roll up our sleeves and figure it
out for ourselves. And that's cooking or fixing a vacuum cleaner,
or how do I make a career making stuff up
and expect to be paid for it? And that's where
it comes back over to I mean, that's it. You

(05:43):
had to go. I mean, listen, you you played what
these small biker bars. You know you've been to Cabin,
Arkansas many times. I mean I know every everywhere that
your story has gone from Jonesboro, Arkansas stage like that's
that's my path as well, you know, one way or
the other. And so you know, when I would know

(06:04):
your story, but then I would kind of reread your
story to make sure that I was still kind of
clued in before I do this, I kind of go
back over things, and it's just like dang, Like that's
a that's a different way to go about it as
someone who wants to be um known as a great
songwriter and country music artist and a female to go
into these bars. But there's no other way. That's no

(06:25):
one told me. Just like you know, I'm left handed,
but I played guitar right handed and um and but
no one ever told me that was an option to
restring it or turn it upside down or learn it
another way. I just thought this was how things were done.
So I, you know, would would play some shows and
like borrow people's equipment to do that and then save
up and buy those pieces of equipment and run my

(06:46):
own sound and um, you know, I didn't need like
a fog machine or anything, but you know how to
run monitors and how to how to ring out a
room and all of that. I'm still not a great
sound engineer, but I had to figure out how to
do it all and how to fund it all. Talk
to me about when you first started playing shows live,
like before you learn how to play guitar. I want
we'll get to all that early early stuff, but I
want to know about your live kind of your live
show experience, like was it out of our or a church,

(07:09):
or like where do you for the first time go
and ask for the affection of others? You don't know.
I didn't play like a lot of talent shows and stuff.
In fact, I was pretty shy, it terrified. Maybe maybe
just to make me cry for people to so, you mean,
like in high school, to pay me any attention, like
middle school. Um, but I lived in We lived really
close to Hardy, you know, Mammoth Spring is really close

(07:30):
to Hardy, Arkansas. And they have like it's like a
um canoe rentals and antique shops and they had a
little place in the gazebo where people would play music,
and I did that and they gave me a hundred
dollars to stand there and play. Who who gave it?
The city? Yeah, we're just like go catterwaller out, but
this gazebo for a couple of hours and just played

(07:50):
you know, bluegrass songs and stuff and that. So that's
probably the first time. And when you first started playing,
do you feel like I'm pretty good at this or
do you feel like this is something I can do
while I figure out what I'm good at. I knew
I just I just wanted to do it, and I
didn't know yet at that young age if I was
good enough to do it. Oh man, I was probably

(08:13):
twelve or thirteen when that happened. I started playing guitar
when I was nine. But when I was like a
little little squirt, not any taller than you know, what
do they say kneehi to a grasshopper? We read a
blue grass festival and I had a plastic telecaster. Got
a photo of it and it had like Mickey Mouse
or Kermit the Frog or something on it, and um,

(08:33):
this this band called the Tennessee Gentleman was on stage
and they asked my mom, because I'm glued watching these guys, Um,
would she like to come and sit on the edge
of the stage. So I did, and I didn't take
my little plastic guitar at first. UM. And I sat
there on the edge of the stage and I watched
them play, and then the audience erupted, of course, into applause,
and my mom looked at me and she said, I knew,

(08:54):
I knew you had it. Then you wanted to be
on a stage and you wanted people to applaud you.
Okay of music was played around you as a kid.
Luckily all kinds um, I mean, like the carpenters love
and spoonful um. And then also my mom she didn't

(09:14):
try to shove classical music down our throats at all,
but she would just kind of have it playing in
the house. It's sort of so I'm that we would
ask questions, what is this song, and she was like, oh,
that's on a planet knockm music, Vibe Mozart. There's a
movie about him, if you'd like to watch it. And
they're like, oh, yeah, I want to watch a movie
about the school guy. So luckily all of that was included.
And then my dad, Um was more like Christofferson that area.

(09:37):
He really liked those tormented h which version of christoffers, Yeah,
why me Lord? That version um To this day my favorite,
one of my favorite songs of all time. My favorite
Christofferson song is to Beat the Devil? Is that because
of your dad? Is there a song that was played
in your house so much that let's eliminate that one?
But you hear it and it just puts you back,

(09:59):
like you feel of that, like dang, I remember being Amanda,
Amanda because we had this UM. I think it was
supposed to be like a family room, but it's where
my dad kept There was like a gun safe in there,
and like guitars and the kids weren't really supposed to
be in there a whole bunch unless you were going
to go there and use an instrument. And so that
is just about half a hallway away from the kitchen

(10:20):
where my mom is doing dishes, and my dad was
playing Amanda on the guitar and singing and that high
part that happens on the end of Uh. My mom
was singing it in the kitchen and here I am
kind of walking down the hallway and catching both they're
singing together. They don't know, he doesn't know that she's
singing with him, and I'm hearing it and just that song,

(10:40):
you see what it does. I'm like when I think
about why not me from the Judd's because my mom
used to sing that and moms you know that's since
passed away. But it's that you. I mean, you kind
of feel how you felt then just for a split second.
It's like there's also the intro to an Alison Krause record.
It was Alison Krausing Union Station. It's the one I
had it on vinyl. She seated like a staircase or

(11:03):
something with her fiddle in her hand. And I am
seven ish or nine years old. As soon as I
hear that guitar riff startup and I get giddy. My
therapist at one point gave me a book, and I've
been through a decent amount of therapy UM at this
point in my life. And that's a superpower. Yeah, it's
a tool. It's like Batman's superpower, right, Like Batman had

(11:24):
much cool stuff and so he was a superhero and
so I feel like, again, I've accumulated coold tools and
traits and UM. And she gave me a book that
talked about music, and you know, the book talked about
how when you hear something, even when you smell something
very specific for a split second, in your brain, it
reacts the exact same way it did when you were

(11:44):
what at whatever point. So just for a brief moment,
you get that feeling again, like in your chest of like,
oh man, that's that that reminds me of being seven
or nine or thirteen. Yeah, because our brains really don't
know the difference between an actual experience and the thought
of that expins I suppose, right, And you know what
do they call that? It's like our our dumb lizard brain,

(12:06):
our caveman brain. They just know that that experience is real,
So that would make sense. It was actually studying the
three parts of the brain yesterday, which is wild, and
you know, the bottom part of the brain is like
the lizard brain. It's they have two modes. They are attacking,
running or relaxing, you know what those two or they're
just like there's nothing else right. And I try not

(12:27):
to live like that, and I really work on trying.
As I've gotten older, I try not to react as
much and I try to respond more. I'm trying I'm
learning because I love my therapist, and I know it
was like probably trying to put overalls on a cat,
trying to get me to go to therapy, and finally
it did, and I was like, this is awesome. I
was talking yesterday with my therapist not to go down

(12:49):
a whole therapy train, but I was. He was like,
when did you know about therapy? I was like, I didn't.
I'm from the population seven seventy to Arkansas, right that
we were trying to afford, you know, Hamburger helper for dinner.
Not you didn't know about mental health. It wasn't It
wasn't really an option. And everything under the rug is
an option. Pray about it is an option in which

(13:11):
that it does work, you know, for for a lot
of people that simply simply praying about it, but let going,
like god, um, but also let go and let therapist,
let go and let yeah. And for me it was insurance.
I was like, once I even discover what insurance and
they were like, he was like, oh, that's house. Yeah.
I was like, twenty six, I did insurance for the
first time. So I started going to therapy and talking
to somebody who and I mean, this is the best

(13:33):
way possible, didn't give a crap about me. Yeah, that
was so freeing because I know that you know, you
don't have to hang out with me for three days
and deal with me. You're just gonna give me your
unbiased advice based on what I'm saying and your education.
That's how I feel with them and so but yeah,
that's been a big tool for me. Um, did you
do you feel like you've had a whole different set
of Like I wouldn't. I don't want to sort obstacle.

(13:55):
But since you've become so popular and famous, like, are
you finding new struggles with fame with notoriety because I
would assume someone that comes from where you come from again,
like with experience, like that's just an eye opening world
where you're like sometimes I love it, but sometimes I
really hate it. Well, yeah, when you all you know
is struggle and I have something to prove. I have

(14:16):
something to prove. I have something to prove. But I
still feel that way. So, like you know, when you
rescue a dog that's spent it's young life really hungry,
that dog is always in hunger mode, and so I'm
kind of that way. There's some things that I'm struggling with. Um,
I mean, I mean I live over in East Nashville,
where nobody cares, right, Um, it's a very cool part
of it, very cool part of town. Everybody's super cool

(14:38):
about stuff. And just just recently, as yesterday, I got
stopped a few times, which I think is great. I've
worked my whole life for someone to ask for a
photo with me. But then I thought, oh wow, I'm
not used to that happening. I don't think um my
address got leaked on the internet that was super cool
because I don't live behind a gate, you know. Um.

(14:59):
So it's like, as as things get better and you
feel like a lot of your problem, what I have
learned is that problem is just pivot, and it's all
and how, and it's all and how you you you
accept them and realize that everybody's got them and they've
Like my life has gotten better in a lot of ways.
But also I've had to take on a lot more

(15:19):
responsibilities and challenges, and I'm very proud of how I worked.
And the same thing. Sometimes I'm so tired, but I
have to remind myself, I'm so grateful that I get
to be tired doing something I love. Right, I don't
know how you have time to be sitting across from
me right now. Well everything, I don't have a talent,
and now you say that, I'm no. I'm gonna swear
to you. I'd have to hustle as my talent like

(15:40):
I have nothing. Hut is a talent. I will agree
with you there. But if you weren't talented, you wouldn't
live behind the gate, I promise, true. But they're just crazy.
You're right, I'll let you have that one. I'm not
even gonna argue that I'll let you have that one.
Um your talent? When did you start to be told
that you might be great at singing? I think it

(16:02):
started with not being told to not sing when I
wasn't great at singing. I was a little kid. Were
you a good little kid singing? Orre you a passionate
little kid singing? I both. I was singing, UM somewhere
out there from an American tale, and oh yeah, where up?
Oh yeah? And um somewhere over the Rainbow. And then
there was a record. Um, there was a Ricky Skaggs

(16:24):
record that I loved, was like live in London, and
um a record by the whites. I'm hanging it around,
just a little kid. Hope then you'll get lonely. Um,
and mom never told me not to sing. There's six
of us kids. So there's three boys, and then a girl,
and then another boy and then me. The boy right
before me. Daniel used to throw like shoes and stuff
at me and try to get me to shut up

(16:46):
when I'm trying to learn to play mandolin, I'm learning
to play guitar and learning to play bass, and I'm
singing all the time. And he was the one that
was like, but he's also he lives really he doesn't
live far from me at all. And um, he's one
of my biggest champions, my biggest cheerleaders. Um. My mom
was on a bowling league, and like I said, I
was a really shy kid, but I didn't mind singing
as my way of communicating. Uh, So I would sing.

(17:09):
I would go to her friends at the bowling alley
and said, you want to hear me sing something from
um an American tale? And they were like sure, you know,
And I'd sing a few things and I'd go get
back in my chair and color in my coloring book.
So I think not being necessarily told that I was great,
but just not being um, not being shamed about it.
From a really young age. Your dad played music, your

(17:30):
mom loved music. Did that rub off on any of
the other kids to where they everybody can sing? Everybody
can sing. My sister has a beautiful voice. My mother
has a beautiful voice. And in church, you know, we
were required to know all of the parts. Alto Tender's
a brand obays everything. My grandmother used to um, take
my finger and move it along the page of the

(17:50):
hymnal to show me what notes we were going to
be singing, even if it was the base we would
everybody on on mom's side and Dad's side, everybody can sing. Um.
I'm the only one that just kind of took off
with it. I even had one of my brother's skin
was played guitar in our younger years, and I don't
know why he stopped. Had a brother that played trumpet.
My sister played flute. Um, So we are a musical family.

(18:12):
I'm just the only one that I guess it kind
of stuck. It's interesting because I'm left handed and I
played guitar left handed. When I first I went to
a pawn shop and I was doing comedy, and I thought, okay,
I don't want to have to steal other people's music
to do parodies. I want to actually write original comedy stuff.
So I went to pawn shop for fifty bucks a
bought a guitar was right handed, and I just switched
the strings around. But what happened when there's a nut
in it and it holds different? So I kept busting.

(18:34):
I was gonna say, busting nut. I kept breaking these nuts. Yea,
these nuts. The strings kept breaking the nuts at the
bottom of the guitarist. It like fracture, fracturing it. Oh
my god, yes, I got your back so overpe So
So it took a long time until I actually got
a left handed guitar. But I did not take to
it well. I I music for me has been very difficult.

(18:55):
I've put a lot of work into, you know, learning
chords and bar cole words, and for me, very difficult.
And I can't sing. I can sing just well enough
to do comedy that people aren't distracted by my bad singing. Boys,
now I'm pretty funny. You gotta give yourself for credit
that I don't trust me. Okay, I get enough credit,
don't with you? Growing up with a family full of music.

(19:15):
Did you feel like it was kind of intrinsic? I
love the way it sounded when we all sang in
church together, but yeah, it just kind of just is
playing guitar. Love it when you started still assuming you
got bloody fingers and like everything, but like, do you
feel like you got it? Well? They wouldn't let me
play guitar at first because I was too small to

(19:36):
hold it safely, so they let me bang on a mandolin.
I remember I was probably in kindergartener first, right, going
outside of the driveway and rubbing my fingers on the
concrete because I thought that would help me get Callice's.
I was tired of my fingers being sore. And then
when I'm nine years old, my dad takes me to
a music store and there Missouri, which is just right

(19:56):
across the line from Mammoth Spring, So up until now,
I've been playing band then and then I was big
enough that I could sort of play with my mom's
Alvarez um but kind of under supervision. But they were
going to get me a three quarter sized guitar and
I didn't know, So we went into this music store
called Fayer Music cleverly named. And Dad hands me this
little three quarter sized k guitar and he says, see

(20:17):
if you can play something on that, and then he
goes and talks to the guy you know. And I
was sitting there playing like go talent Roadie or something,
and he walked back into where I was he said,
can you play it? I showed him when I figured out.
He said it's time to leave. So I handed the
guitar back to the guy behind the counter and Dad said, nope,
that's yours. Take it home. And so I wasn't great.

(20:37):
Mom tells the story that it was like three days.
My dad shows me like three chords when we get home,
and about three days later, I'm bawling in the kitchen
because I can't play and sing at the same time.
So I'm learning Snowbird and by n Murray and I'm
learning Steel Rails by Alison Krausse in Union Station and
I'm super upset, and Mom said, give it a we

(21:00):
just just give it a week and see if if
you feel better about it. So I don't know. I
think I think there wasn't There weren't a lot of
distractions growing up on a farm and with access to instruments.
I think that helps everything kind of click. There's nothing
else to do. That whole situation. If you upset you
can't sing and play. That happened me last week the
same thing. I was like, Okay, I can't sing a play.

(21:22):
Why can't I do it? There are still certain things
I can't sing and play. I can't do it. Do
you ever get um? It's just wild that you started
on the mandolin. I don't hear of many people that,
because of their size, just start on the mandolin. Mostly
people learn a string instrument and they go to the mandolin,
but not because you're literally hands are so My hands
were so tiny. Yeah. Do you feel like that was

(21:42):
a good lead into the guitar? This is really really
different because it is so I feel like it's a
bit more advanced. It is more advanced, and I think
what it did for me is even though it wasn't
great at mandolin, I'm still terrible UM, but it did
teach my right hand a lot about rhythm and making
it hit the strings of wanted to hit. So I
didn't have to struggle when it came to guitar with

(22:04):
how do I strum? And what are the patterns. So
I think that that was probably beneficial, but I was
just terrible. You guys follow Ashley. She's got her own name,
which sometimes it is weird. People like, Hi, it's me.
I'm Clint Black, but only Clint black one on Twitter,
and I'm like, well, you couldn't get just get Clint Black.
Not that that's the exact case, but at Ashley McBride,
you guys go follow her, um, you know, go check
out never will maybe if for some reason you've been

(22:26):
in a cave and you don't know who she is
and you're like, Okay, this is interesting, go go go
listen to the music. I think you're one of and
I mean this is in a complimentary way. You're one
of the few album artists that that I will invest
I'm so I need a couple of songs. I'm done,
But there were there were a few you Casey Old Dominion,

(22:49):
Brandy's that way. And you know, it's all songwriting. Now
that I start to say this out loud, it's all.
It's songwriting more than it is anything else. But you're
definitely an album artist. And I don't know if that
means anything that's comment, but but thank you for coming
and I think we'll wrap it up there. All right,
There she is Ashley McBride. Moving on to number seven,

(23:10):
we're gonna get into our conversation with singer songwriter Luke Dick. Now,
I booked this one personally, and I keep this running
list of guests in my phone, just people I find
interesting when it comes to like sometimes in the radio studio,
people will come in and talk about different songwriters on
their number one songs, and I'll always keep a list
of those. And Luke Dick had been on my list
for quite a while because he's written so many songs

(23:30):
that I feel like are always a little bit outside
of the box. I follow him on Instagram. Seemed like
a very peculiar dude, so I thought getting him in
a room with Bobby would be a great conversation. I
actually deemed him on Instagram. He was like, I'm totally down.
Showed up the next week and we did this episode,
and I can always tell it's a really good Bobby
Cast episode. Whenever we get into like twenty minutes and

(23:51):
haven't addressed any music whatsoever. Bobby and the guests have
just been kind of talking about things outside of music.
Those are always the best one. So it happened on
this episode at number seven. Here's Luke Dick and with
Luke Dick. You know, I've seen many, uh photos of
you have friends who have worked with you. It's just
random for me to have not have met someone until

(24:14):
this point because you're very established, you know, super well
thought of guy. And our pets have a crossed have they? Um?
I don't think so. I'm pretty forgettable, though you are
not a forgettable guy. I'm pretty forgettable. I hide out,
you know. I just got my little studio and come
out when I get eat. I eat now and again,

(24:36):
and then I pick up my kids and then I
get back to doing whatever it is I'm doing. What
is your studio like? Um, you know, I bought this
house right when I moved to Nashville, um, six or
seven years seven years ago, and there was a garage
in the back, and uh, it was unfinished, and I

(24:56):
thought that'd be a great place for just have something
close to the house away from the house. And so
then I put these opaque glass doors so I could
have some light, and put as much of skylights in
and really dressed it up and made it into a thing.
And so that's where I am all the time. I'm
currently looking for another spot. I have too many kids.
They're beating on the door all the time. So are
you when you are riding in the shore? I assume

(25:18):
you do a lot of writing. Yeah, yeah, and you're producing.
Are you doing more than just demos? Like, will you
do any like anything for a record in your spot? Yeah? Um,
I I'm working on the next Miranda Laveryt record right now.
We're almost done. And um, a lot of this stuff
were was Um. When I do demos, I don't think

(25:42):
of them as demos. I just I'm trying to make
something that I love, and so I put more time
and effort into it. And so maybe some of that
stuff makes it onto the record. It may be the
pre production, um that we just drummed to. Um. There
was a single for Kip More called the Bowl a
few years ago that was just straight up out of
my studio. So I'll do whatever. How did there? I

(26:03):
was doing a little more research on because my my
vision and version of you has been the last ten
years or so. Um. But it seemed like for a
while you weren't writing country music for a while. Now
you're back, Like, why why why did you quit? I
wouldn't say quit. Why did you take a break? And
what brought you back? Yeah? Um? And um, I'm I

(26:28):
came to Nashville for a minute and I just didn't
have any luck. You know, I was trying, I was
made a record, I was trying to get a deal.
There are things stacked against me, just logistically in terms
of being a single dad and stuff like this, and
so I didn't And also people weren't responding in a way.
There were outliers you know that had some clouds or

(26:52):
something that I really love what you do blah blah
blah blah. But I was like, this never amounted to anything,
and it wasn't like people were picking up my songs.
And I'm like, I clear either don't know how to
do this, I'm not savvy enough or or it's just
not good enough or something like that. Did you never
think you're ahead of your time? Uh? That's um, I

(27:13):
think that like looking back and listening to the record
that I made, that's what it sounds like to me.
But I also don't want to be um, um have
delusions of grandeur or something like that. It's just like
music is important to me. But it's also just a
snippet of life and reality, and it's a big part,
you know, it's a big part. It gives me a

(27:33):
lot of joy. Um, But I also don't want to
think in terms like I have a hard time think
thinking in terms of that that you're ahead of your
time and that's why it didn't work or whatever. And
but then whatever whatever is and it didn't work, and
so I left. And then my current publisher called me
when I was in New York and um, he said, hey,

(27:55):
do you have any songs for Dirk Spentley And I'm
and I just said no, Um. I I mean literally
everything that I've written has been in falsetto and also
about the afterlife for some sort of afterlife adventure. I
mean it's too fantastical and whimsical for Derek's I just

(28:16):
don't thank you for calling me. Um, but he will
just look me up if you've ever in town. And
then one thing led to another in a few years
went by and we met and um for coffee and
he's like, you need to come right with me and
at this company, and um, you need to be writing
with Eric and you don't need to be doing what
you think you should be doing. You should be doing

(28:38):
what you want to do, and hits will fall out
of that, I promise you, And and he was he
was right. Um. And so between him and getting in
the right rooms and having just the opportunity to show
somebody like Eric Church song or an idea for a song, um,

(29:01):
that led to a lot of things. And Kip was
a big proponent early on too. It was like I
didn't have any hits and he was coming over because
he liked the sounds coming out of my studio and
I would we would work on stuff, and I think
it was the Wild Ones record. I got a couple
of songs on there, and we just worked. Um. But
then Eric and then Natalie him Be and I started
riding together and it was like almost like we fed

(29:22):
off of each other's creativity, and so we were like
trying to not one up each other. It was like
us like pushing each other, like trying to make each
other like smile or get excited about a song. And
so we'd bring in an idea or a sound or
something like that, and that was a real joy. And
then she would also sing my praises. It was like
I probably owere a hundred grand and pr fees you

(29:45):
know around town. Brought Miranda into the room, and that
became a relationship, UM and it's meant a lot of
joy and a lot of songs with her, But it
was that was kind of the beginning of it. It
was running into a publisher, UM who believed in what
I did naturally, instead of trying to curb it um
to meet a market demand or something like that. And

(30:07):
that's not really where I shine anyway. And I find
that if I feel like my cat in a corner
when I'm writing a song, then it's usually not gonna
be awesome. It's going to be an average kind of
thing day or whatever. I've talked to Miranda and Cassie Ashton,
Natalie him Be, those that you mentioned there, and they
all say the same thing about you is that you know,

(30:28):
you're very out of the box and with ideas. I mean,
that's that's the easy way to describe you to people
who don't have to write songs. When you started writing
with Eric, was he already having success or was it
early on m It was the Mr MS Mr Misunderstood record,
so he'd had a serious amount of success by the
time I was writing with him. So you you start

(30:49):
writing with him, I mean to you as a creative,
is that intimidating to write with him or is it
kind of refreshing because he also you know, win a
different angle at his success. Yeah. I was in New
York and when I was living there, they somebody showed me,
UM smoke a little smoke and they said, have you

(31:10):
heard this? And I listened to him like like, is
this what they're doing in Nashville now? And UM, it
gave me how you know that that there could be, um,
something creatively interesting, sonically interesting. Um, And I feel like people,
I feel like Jay Joey's kind of paved the way
sonically for somebody like me to be here. UM. I really,

(31:34):
UM have a lot of gratitude for what they with
those two have done together. Um it's no small feat
to break in with a different sound. And but but
more point at your question a little bit better. UM,
there's always a bit of intimidation. It doesn't matter how

(31:54):
how successful or not commercially successful the artist is coming in.
So but that was you know, the first chance at
and at an a list situation, UM, for me to
prove myself for whatever. Um, But I had sent him
this idea through my publisher that he loved, and you know,

(32:16):
there was it was already it was killed a word,
and there was already an idea happening there. And the
in the first stands and refrained, and he's like, I
love this, Let's finish it. And so he came in
and we finished that, and then it was like it
took us like an hour to finish the song. And
then he it was me and him and Jeff Hyde
who plays in his band too, who's a great writer.
And then he had the idea for a round here

(32:38):
buzz and so he kind of had all around here
buz buzz and so then we just sort of took
off on that and it just felt natural. Once you
get into everybody's a human, you know, it's like, there's
no I don't know, there's no there's different kinds of magic,
two different human beings, you know, um and different and

(33:01):
and Eric is definitely somebody with um a special kind
of charisma and a special kind of UM creative UM
capacity and and uh intellect to me UM. But as
a human being or trying to impress another human or
something like that, it's like, look, you know, we all
woke up today, we all needed breakfast and all that stuff.

(33:24):
So let's just you try to put stardom or something
like that out of your head. UM. I tried to
um and not be UM. I guess motivated or or
dissuaded or felt feel insecure around UM that kind of
a status. I'm trying to think if there's somebody that

(33:45):
would be so star struck that it would be difficult
to write with. UM. Uh, you know Tom Waits. I
don't know. UM kind of sound like Tom Waits right
now when you're talking. I'm Bob Dylan. I guess you know,
if you had to go write a song with Bob Dylan,
that would probably be one of the most intimidating things situation. UM.

(34:07):
I remember this is not an intimidating person. But this
guy came over and he was an Englishman and he
had these hits in the eightieses pop rockets, and they
were really good, good ones. And I kept playing like
guitar stuff and he's like, uh, he'd look at me
and go and that's not very inspiring, is it. What

(34:30):
do you do to that? You know? I'm just like,
what do you got? And he's like here's a list
of I'm more of a lyrics guy. Here's a here's
a list of titles. And the titles were like all
night long, all night, all of everything, And I'm just
like kidding me, what is this? Are you? Are you

(34:51):
a lyric or melody guy at heart? When you start
to write, I can't separate them really, you know. Um,
when Natalie, it's different for different rooms. When I get
around Natalie and I have a medal melody already with
something and with the phrasing, and she wants to change
the melody, I usually defer to her because I really

(35:12):
believe in her abilities to make a melody. Um. There
are a few other people like that that I When
they say, man, I think this melody could be better,
I'm like, all right, let's check it, let's scrap it,
let's see what's up. Um. But it all, I really
want to marry it all because you can't just send
somebody the lyrics to a song and expect it to
speak to them off of a page. I mean, there's

(35:33):
a whole thing happening there. It's like, that's the beauty
of um music or songs in general, is that there's
a sound, there's a you know, there's a chord progression,
there's a lyric, and there's a melody on top of it.
So it's hard for me to say that I'd be
one thing. Um, when you write, are you writing based

(35:55):
on will you just chase lyrics or will you sometimes
just create a melody and then certain lyrics into it later?
Both um? Both um. Laura Els does this to me.
I hope she's listening right now, because when we write,
I'll be I'll turn around and I'll start try to
get the track going. You know, it's like, okay, we
got the first first, let me just put a little
bass part in here. I'll turn around. The Laura is

(36:17):
such a prolific lyricist that she'll be done with the
second first. I'm like, wait a minute, I like this song.
Can I participate please? He was hold on to you know,
have a have a story, eat some chips or something,
and let me do this bass part and contribute. Um.
But there have been times, um that the melody has

(36:39):
come first. You know it's like you know, you start
playing um and something will just spill out of you
and then you just work around the vowels. The vowels
might lead you to a phrase or something like that.
You know. Um, I read the Keith Richard's book and
he talked about the way that they did that, and
it's I don't think it's uncommon to do that, um life.

(37:00):
That's the book from Keith Richards, And he said, I
think I can't He had a name for it, you know,
the way that they do it. But it's you know,
you're just playing a chord and you're owow had and
so then whatever value sing that feels the most natural,
you might lean toward a word with that vowel sound
um and then it and then you have to work

(37:22):
the concept around the vowel sound or something like that.
You know. It's a really songwriting is really weird. But um,
I do find that when I listened to songs and
I feel like that's a good melody, those are the
wrong vowel sounds or something. You know, I'm like, I
can't understand the lyric. It's not the lyrics not sticking
out to me because the it's all mushed in there
in a way, and the vowels aren't popping in the

(37:45):
there's too many words or too many, too not enough words,
so there's like an economy, and that's all subjective to right.
It's just like, does that sounds too many? Like too
many words to me? Um? It doesn't sound like too
many words to that artist or that person singing it.
I'm gonna compare you as a lyrictist and a songwriter

(38:05):
to Eminem, which you may have never been compared to.
But WHOA. When I listened to Eminem, he bends rhymes.
Sometimes he doesn't rhyme, but still rhymes. And a lot
of or at least some of your writing. You don't
even chase a rhyme. There just aren't rhymes where there
should be where traditionally rhymes are. I shouldn't say should
be right, Yeah, there aren't rhymes were traditionally rhymes are.

(38:29):
Yeah yeah. Is that purposeful on your part to not
put rhymes there? Or is it just purposeful to put
those words there and they just don't happen to rhyme?
I feel like, Um, when you get down to it,
it's like, especially if you're chasing a lyric, and it's
like is this lyric working? Is this idea working? You
just run with it? Um, And then I don't want

(38:52):
to say it's not intentional. Um, Like the way to say.
It's not it's not my intention to say every song
needs to rhyme like this, or let's try some rhymes
in the middle of this of this phrase is rather
than at the end of the phrases, which is typical. UM.
I feel like you just all you're left with in

(39:12):
any creative endeavor is your own esthetic intuition, and you
have to go with what moves you. And when any time,
I mean, there's been a countless artist that come in
and we end up with a song that I don't
care about. Um, and that's okay because they were saying, no,
I don't want to do this because I want to
do that, and I'm like, well, that does nothing in

(39:32):
my head, you know, or heart or whatever. I'm like,
that doesn't do anything for me. But it's your career,
you know, it's your artistic impulse that you're chasing, So
chase it then, UM, and I hope that. I hope
it works if I like you and the demo to
kill a word yeah, which is you singing, which we

(39:53):
have it right here, well, like play a little bit
out of here, I sit down in its place as
we used to laugh out of disgrace, lay over under
six cold dirt. Yeah yeah, yeah killer, So that you

(40:17):
steal that we were at your house last night, so
much about your studio broken last night? So change the code?
Is it a How prevalent is it that if you're
writing with or for, like an Eric, that that person
doesn't sing the demo? And is that purposeful? So the

(40:38):
demo doesn't get out with his voice on it. It
wasn't purposeful. He just said, put your put your vocal on.
I like what you're doing. I'm out, um, do do
your thing. I want to hear what you do. Um.
And then there's sometimes where, especially if it's a female artist,
where where I'm less inclined to go do a vocal

(40:59):
on it. Um. And for a couple of reasons. One
is is shrewd. You know. It's like if they just
hear a dude on there, then it sounds like a
dude song, you know. But if you write it with
the artist whose female, and then another female artist the
other the other excuse me, the other female writer. If
the other female writer sings it, it makes more sense

(41:21):
to me. But I don't like, really if I feel
like it shoots you in the foot a little bit,
unless it's somebody like Miranda that we know each other
well enough to where it's like not like she's like, oh,
this sounds like she can hear through that stuff. I
trust her to hear through that stuff. But generally, if
an artist is there, um and especially if it's an
artist that I don't work with that often I'm gonna

(41:42):
try to get them to sing it because I want
to hear what they sound like on it too. If
I and also see if you face if you did
okay or you didn't. What I mean by that is
sometimes you write all these melodies, You write the song
and somebody sings on it just doesn't sound good, you know.
And so if you're off the mark in terms of
a lot of structure or something like that, you'll be
able to hear it. When they get on the microphone

(42:03):
it's like they're not really capable of singing that, or
they were really great at it, or it's kind of
in the middle. Maybe we shouldn't have gone that high
and you change the key, those kind of technical decisions
like that. So it's if it's a if there, if
we're the only writers in the room, often times I
get tasked with singing the singing the demo on it,
and I'm generally I'm happy to do that. It's fun

(42:25):
to me. It's a creative endeavor, especially if I love
the song. When Bluebird comes out and it's a massive
radio success, and I think it was the first massive
radio song from Randon a long time. I remember saying that, like,
you know, she'd just had a record, that that double
album I had done so wonderful, but it didn't translate
into singles. But Bluebird comes and just crushes. It's the

(42:47):
number one and was one two Grammys. Um no, we
nominated for two Grammys? Did you go? That was when
the COVID was happening. So I bought a suit and
in my closet it sits so you didn't even put
it on for the night of it on the internet
on no. So is that cool to you to be

(43:10):
nominated for a Grammy? Or is it to you? Is
that just a piece of metal that represents and what
does representation? Even me? I would I would really be
lying if I didn't say that I would not want
to win a Grammy. I mean I would love to
say that I want a Grammy. Um. Sometimes I catch myself,
you know, when you win something and it's like, I'm
always thankful to win something. Um, there is a truth

(43:34):
for me to the the fact that when you write
a song like that that was really meaningful to you,
that nothing compares to the day that you wrote it
with your friends and then you heard the and then
you played it back and you heard and you sang
on it, you listen to demo and you get excited
about it. Nothing compares to that joy. Winning awards is um,
it's another like just kind of hurrah at the end.

(43:57):
You know that you're the hard work in the view
to the beautiful work is already done. And Amy Taylor
calls it the pudding. You know, you've already eaten the
meat and all that stuff, and pudding is nice, you know,
but you don't need it. You're already full. Kind of
um of everything that said. If the Grammy, any Grammy
voters are out there, if I have for anything next year,

(44:19):
please vote for me. At Luke Dick Luke, thanks man,
Thank you. At number six is Parker McCullum, who is
one of Bobby's favorite new artists, and we recorded this
episode earlier in the year when he was really starting
to blow up, had just moved to Nashville. He's such
a nice guy. He pulled up in his really big truck,

(44:41):
and the thing I found interesting is that he called
Bobby sir. It seemed like one of the most genuine
dudes and country music and really cool to see him
blow up this year even after we did this episode.
So at number six, here is Parker McCullum. Here with
Parker McCallum. Talk to me about the beginning of music
for you. When did you aren't playing I won't say bars,

(45:02):
but maybe that's where he started. How old were you
a teenager trying to play places? And what were those places? Yeah?
And I grew up in a town just north the
Houston called Conrow. I went to high school in a
town called the Woodlands, which is like five miles from it.
I made a bunch of shows at the Yeah, we
were headlined for I graduate high school on the stage
and we're headlined in October. I'm like, that's pretty cool, um,

(45:23):
But there wasn't much of a music scene down there,
especially for there wasn't any countrym Every kid in my
high school wanted to be a rapper, like I was
listening to Old Crow and Robert O'Keene and Randy Rogers
Band and nobody at my nobody. I grew up with
listening that stuff my older brother and stuff. But so
that's what kind of made me go to Austin. I
wanted to go find a bunch of people who are
kind of like minded, into the same stuff. But I

(45:43):
think I had my first paying gig played on a
flatbed trailer in Gettings, Texas the hay Seed Festival. Maybe,
um how old I was? Sixteen? My mom let me
drive myself and then she showed up to make sure
I got there safely. That's pretty cool. I mean, I
guess now school, But at the time, I was like,
what are you doing? That's it's cool that she Here's
what was cool. She'd let you drive by yourself and

(46:06):
then trailed you. She didn't go, I'll drive you. Yeah,
I mean, she's it was. Looking back, it's super cool
that she was there. Because that guy ended up paying
me like nine months later, I think like seventy bucks.
He waited that he probably trying to get away with
not pacing me a check. So you you play this
at sixteen? Where you going? This would be fun because

(46:26):
I like to play a little guitar or were you going, heck,
I'm sixteen. I think I'm gonna do this for my career.
I knew when I was like a junior in high
school is when I really started. My brother and say
she were older. They were both in college at the time,
so I was like the baby. I was last one.
Kind of the reins were kind of looser on me.
My mom was not near at strict on me my
last years of high school. She was my siblings. So
I was sneaking out on my bedroom window on the roof,

(46:48):
you know, every night, coming back in and waging out,
trying to write songs. And that's really when and I
was like, all right, I know, like I don't stand
out at sports. That was okay, wasn't anything special, But
I could play guitar and write songs and sing lay
better than any of my friends. And that's when I
was kind of like, alright, this is it for me.
Were you the music kid? Maybe not the band kid,

(47:09):
but were you the kid who played music and they
know you as that? If there was a party, would
you have you ever have your guitar to play every
now and then they'd get me to do it. But
I mean again I was playing like, you know, Randy
Rogers songs and Pat Green songs and stuff like they
weren't Those kids were like who so? And did you
decide were gonna wait till you guys got a high
school to move off? Um? Well I had to. You know.

(47:32):
It's not that I didn't get the into college. I
didn't exactly apply. Um. I felt up my name for
a couple of schools on the forum, and then once
they sent back insufficient application letters, UM, I was like, Mom,
I'm just gonna go to Oscar Community College. And just
like I moved to Austin and really I knew I
wasn't going there to go to school, so I enrolled.
I was enrolled for a year. Did you go to

(47:54):
class at all? A couple of times I actually ended
up not going to class. But my business professor I
had met on like the first day ended up becoming
good buddies and we would hang out outside of class
all the time. But I never went to his class. Um,
he's super cool guy, and uh, but I was just
it was really just a means to get to Austin.
And man, I'm at Corby Shaw at the Saxon Pub
on South Lamar who had just quit Ryan being him

(48:15):
and the Dead Horses, who are my favorite band in
the world at the time, I thought they walked on water.
When you say met him though, were you both hanging out?
Were you trying to play? Were you asking if you
could play? I was not playing there yet. Um. In fact,
it might have been the exact next day that David Cotton,
who used to book those clubs down there, called me
and was like, can you play tomorrow night at the
Saccent And I was like, dude, I only got like
five songs and he's like, we'll play them all three times?

(48:36):
And um, how did he know you played? Um? A
girl named Ashley Monicle was there that night, who had
I had kind of she was she thought I was
good and was trying to get me to meet some
people and she was like, you need to hear this kid.
And he didn't even listen. He was just like, all right, cool,
you can play here tomorrow night. So you met the
guy before you even played there, and what did that
relationship turn into? He ended up producing The Limestone Kid,

(48:57):
my first record, because he had he was an original
Day Horses. Ryan Bingham like through mess leader on Roadhouse
son to my favorite records of all time. Um. And
so when I was in the bar that night, and
I was only twenty at the time, I was in
there with a fake idea. They ended up finding out
I'd played there a couple of times, and then they
made me stop playing there until I was twenty one
and I was allowed to come back. Um. But I

(49:17):
met him, and I just remember that night. I was like, dude,
you do you play guitar for Ryan Bingham? And he
was like no, I did play guys like I just
quit the band like the week before, and I was
just crushed. And then, uh, like two weeks later, that
same girl was like, Hey, come over to my house.
Corby's over here doing some demos for me. And I
had just written two of those songs on that first
record like the day before and played him for him

(49:38):
and he was like, man, let me produce your record.
So I don't think he had ever produced a record before.
So what does that mean? Do you let me produce
your record? How many songs did you have or did
you go out? I'm not there yet. Let me write
some more of what was that? I actually the songs
I had there was the money problem that and I
had my and my dad's very successful guy. He had
offered to pay for all of that, and I just
respectfully declined because I wanted to do it on my own.

(50:01):
So I actually went and took out a loan and uh,
that took. That was quite a process to not I
had no credit or anything, had my granddad co sign
on it. Once I got the money, it was like okay.
And then I didn't take out enough. He was like, right, well,
we have enough for four songs. So we did a
four song EP, which was called a Redtown View. Um,
and he's like, when you get some more money, we're
going to do the full album. And so I went

(50:21):
and took out another loan and those four songs kind
of compiled with the other six to make or seven
to make an eleven song album. Were you playing a
bunch as you're making this record, because it sounds like
when you met him you weren't playing. You were not
playing it often a little bit, but that was Um.
I was living my brother, my older cousin, in his
house in South Austin, man check and Slaughter. If you
know I live right there, I still live Brodian Slaughter. Yeah,

(50:43):
so you're talking about one road difference. Yes, and I was.
I was living there, I was enrolled in school, and man,
I just I was unmotivated. I didn't know what I
was doing. I had no idea how to go get
a gig um that someone hadn't just handed me. And
so my brother actually one day was like I think
he was. He's six years older than I am, so
I think he kind of saw me just sort of

(51:04):
not doing anything. But if I think he thought I
was talented, and he's my brother's a phenomenal songwriter, so
he's he's a very good judge of that and UM,
and he remember him saying to me one night, He's like, dude,
just go book thirty shows and thirty days and see
if you can ever quit. He's like, play those and
see if you ever stop. I didn't get thirty and
thirty days, but I ended up playing like twelve shows
that month, and I've been playing every since. So, as

(51:27):
you're performing and you have this record, are you selling
it at the table? How are you? How are you?
What are you doing with that record? I had? UM,
I had paid a guy to print I want to
say like two and fifty copies, maybe three copies and
I just always kept with me and I would just
hand him out every where I went, Like, do you
know Steamboat Music Festival. I used to go up there

(51:48):
and and as a fan, and my buddy's parents would
actually take him and eye. They're big music fans, and
they paid for me to go when year and I
walked around the lobby handing out that even so you're
just handing them out, you're selling them. You were like,
anybody listening to this, just take a listen and uh.
And then right before COVID we headlined the whole festival
closed it out. So it's kind of a cool little story,
but it was very I was I'm the luckiest human

(52:10):
in my mind to ever live. Like I mean, it's
exactly how I thought and dreamed about it happening when
I was seventeen. Is besides COVID clearly, which is probably
for everybody. Exactly how I dreamed about it and thought
it and hoped it would happened and wanted it to
happen when I was seventeen is exactly how it's gone.
So who I saw you and said, dang, I would

(52:33):
like to invest my brain power, where my money, my
time into making this person a better artist like it
was the first person to take a chance on you.
Corby Shaw was really the first person to take a
chance saw me. But I mean I went and took
out the money. He just thought I was good, want
to produce my record, thought it was worth his time.
The first person to really go you got it, I
can help you was Randy Rogers from the Randy Rogers

(52:55):
Man And where did you meet Randy? I was first
of four open in for him and two other bands.
Uh in Corpus Christie. One day. We had a van.
We didna have a trailer. Then we took out the
backseat and all the gear was in the back of
the van. Um and I listened. I had been obsessed
with them a whole life, you know. He was like
royalty down there to me, and uh, we're opening for him.

(53:16):
We just pulled up. I really we pulled up in
the van and look at my tour manager at the time,
Jake Murphy, and I was like, all right, let's getut
and go talk. We've been playing quite a few shows
at that point, just nothing, I mean nothing, no GHO shows,
terrible stuff and um. But we were touring a lot.
I remember looking at him, and I was like, let's
go talk to a bunch of people who don't want
to talk to us. We opened the van, Randy Rogers
comes walking up. He's got on Gucci shades hat um,

(53:41):
you know, van shoes, Jeorge's gold chain rolling on his wrist.
Like not what you think Randy Rogers is gonna walk
up and he looks so g um. I remember he
walked up and he was like, do you guys have anything?
Let me know. I was like, that's cool. He's a
headliner to come in, you know, at least holler at us,
and then he said I So we went and played
our show like three thirty in the afternoon. I looked

(54:03):
over on the side of the stage and he was
he watched our whole set. Um. And then five hours
later he plays his show at ten o'clock at night,
and I was staying inside stage for his show and
he walked off and I've never been on the tour bus,
and he's like, let's go to bus. But as he
walked off stage, um, and we went to the bus
and went to the back lound and he just lounge
and he sat down and he was like, look, I've

(54:24):
been doing some research on you. I'd only had that
one record, the Limestone Kid out and he's like, this
record is phenomenal. Um, He's like, you can be a star.
That night he was like you could you have star power,
you could be a star. I just want to help
you avoid some of the mistakes I made. I would
love to help you get there. I don't want anything
from you. I just want to help. Um, So I'll
go home and think about it. That's something you want
to do. And uh, I actually ended up. I was

(54:47):
trying to call my mom, trying to call my dad,
trying to call my brother. Everybody was asleep, and I
was freaking out, and I was like ready Rogers once
he had just started management company and um, he didn't
really have any but I think he had. He was
running doing some stuff with Bruce Robinson at the time,
and maybe someone else. UM what they needed like a
kind of a main focus and right place, right time
kind of thing. I guess what he uh man, he

(55:10):
took time out of his life to come to Nashville
and go into Universal Records and Big Machine and so
he came and did with you, and he had a
condo up here still and he let me come up
here and stay in his condo for free and write
and got me a publishing deal, walked into every major
label in town and said, if you pass on this kid,
you're passing on the next George Strait, which over hyping it,

(55:31):
I would say, quite quite a bit. He's setting me
up to fail. But um, just for he's a family man.
He has a wife and kids, and he's got a
whole life outside of touring, and he plays a hundred
fifty shows a year and he would take time to
fly up here on a weekly basis with me and
write and get me in rooms and go in there
and say crazy outlandish things like that to major labels,

(55:51):
and um, got me a record deal, publishing deal. Um,
and they just I call him Dad for a reason.
People always ask why I call him Dad. So when
you started to do the tour of Aam Parker and
then you have a record, you're a big fancy record label,
how did that go for you? Was the first one
easy or was it weird? How many did you go

(56:11):
through until you settled on where you are now? Um,
we met with all the majors and then I think
we met with Big Big Loud as well. UM and
kind of Before that, a lot of smaller labels had
been kind of coming to Austin wine and dine and
doing that kind of thing where they take you out
and they do the whole thing, which was really cool,
and it's on I read. I had never had any
record label, you know, kind of holler at at any capacity. Um.

(56:34):
And so once the majors really came out and we're
like and once one of them does, it's kind of
like they all come calling. It's kind of like a
bidding war. Even if they like you or not. I
think they just don't want to miss out more and
they don't want to be told no, which I completely
understand that. UM. But I remember sitting there in Zo
members of it too. I mean, I just, you know,
you have every major label and country music sitting there

(56:54):
going you know what. And we already had a huge
touring base and and generated quite a bit of a
new touring so I kind of had all the leverage
was on our side. We kind of had were in
the driver's seat. Um. And they offered a bunch of
money up front and all this stuff, and I said, look,
I don't want your money. I said, I want creative
control and I was like, I just want to be able.
My whole dream was to be on a major label

(57:16):
with creative control and be able to do what I
want to do. If it doesn't work, cool, that's it.
You know. I don't think you'll ever lose money. We
already make you enough money as we tour. Um. But
I mean I bet on me because I'll bet on
myself for sure, and you know it probably I don't
know how it came off at the time, but I
guess it worked because they all made great offers and

(57:36):
and I was able to counter and get the deal
that I wanted. So you get to the side. So
at what point do you start preparing your major we'll
call it major label debut? Like do you start immediately?
Did you already have that the song that you led with?
Like I did not? I had, Um, Well, I guess
Randy Randy Montana was like my first co write in town,

(57:58):
first real co righte and um, and I wanted to
go in. I'd never really co written before besides with
my older brother, and so I wanted to come in
and have like a good idea. So I had found
this video of me like singing this song. It is
what does that say about me? I could love somebody
like you was the original line, and it was the
melody that pretty Hard is. And I was like, man,

(58:19):
I don't forget about that. I'm gonna take that in tomorrow.
And so we ended up wrighting that song and I
think I signed my deal not just a few months
after that. Um, I think that's the right timeline and um,
and so I signed a deal and I was like,
these are the songs I have and they were like,
that's the one. So it was immediate they knew you
knew all good, but it didn't. We were cut it

(58:41):
and then it didn't. I don't know if it can
probably didn't come out for close to a year. Yeah,
we were just kind of sitting. Did that process feel
like I was taking forever? Yeah? I was really um,
which I mean I told myself from the beginning. I
was like, don't go in here, and and it's really
easy to Yeah, you know, anything that's worth working really
hard for, I mean, you know it probably just as

(59:02):
well as anybody, like as soon as it's it starts,
something's gonna go wrong, something aren't gonna be what someone promised. Whatever.
So I just kind of kept that in mind, and
I was like, man, just you signed a deal. I
was like, just trust the process. It was like, these
people have done it. You know, you're the one millionth
artists that they've promoted him put on the big stage.
And I was like, and he was. He talked me
through a lot of that. You know, he's done. He's

(59:23):
been through it a hundred times. What you do during
the whole time that we're waiting, we're just writing, writing,
And I was coming up here and writing. I'd have
my publishing deal for a year at that point, so
I was writing a lot um. But I was torn.
We're still playing a hundred fifty shows a year, um.
So I was as busy as I could be. I
mean when I say I wasn't home more than two
days at a time for four years, that's has no exaggeration.

(59:46):
I would literally would get off the bus and Austin
on Sunday, take the last Southwest flight out on Sunday
evening to Austin. I mean to Nashville right and go
to meetings Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and fly right back Wednesday
night for like years. Any of your music friends in
Texas for moving to Nashville everybody loves it. Is that
because I feel like that stage is kind of over

(01:00:08):
as well. I mean, Dodd I said, I made it
very clear from the start, and I was like, I
grew up idolizing George straight. You know, he has sixteen
number one, probably I think two or three more than that,
maybe six two, six three something like that. Now he's
the epitome of of what I think anybody should aspire
to be in country music. Um. And he sold out

(01:00:30):
a T and T Stadium back to back nights residency
in Vegas, Madison Square, Go, you name it, you're not.
He's just there's nothing he hasn't done in the business. Um,
he's a king. And so that was always I was like, man,
just you're never gonna get I'll never get to that level,
but try to, you know, and maybe you get halfway there.
That's pretty damn good. Um. And so I always made

(01:00:51):
it really clear that was my goal. Um, But it
was always my goal to do it on really I
was raised on songwriters, um, really really talented, you know,
honest songwriting, and so the goal was always to go
to that level and beyond country radio without sounding like

(01:01:12):
you know, everything else that is coming out on country radio,
and there's a dude. I say that all the time,
people are like, WHOA, we'll be careful. Majority of that
stuff I really enjoy. I really like it do no
matter what genre is their songs. I don't like um,
but I like the majority of stuff on country radio.
I just think that there's like a there's a there's
a gap in a space for someone that's younger, like

(01:01:33):
Chris Stapleton's phenomenal. He's an anomaly, right, like as talented
as a human being could be, but he's a little older.
There's no like young kids younger generation that are super
like hung up on songwriting that are on commercial radio
country radio. And I just was like, maybe I could
do that. I want to play a little bit of
to Be Loved by You? Is that the current single?

(01:02:00):
It's quiet, What Sleep Long? When you maybe you're mad
at me? The kid tell me the truth? What there's
a man? So he wrote that with Red red Akins.

(01:02:30):
That's pretty cool. Thank you, man. I mean, I love Ratt.
Oh dude, he's a g just as a kid. You're
you know, obviously younger than I am. But as a kid,
WT was on the radio all the time when I
was a kid, like I was a fan of him
as an artist, and now you know, getting to know
him personally, and I just htt I think he was playing.
We're playing the operat together and I was doing comedy
after he was playing. But right before he went out there,

(01:02:50):
he pulled the biggest dip out of his mouth, through
it in the cup and walked right on stage. I
was like, that's disgusting. It awesome, and that's the most
red Akins thing I've ever seen in my life. Red
Man Silver Label. Yeah, every time we write together, we
didn't mind me saying this. Sorry, if you do, he
will choot and entire I've seen him go through more
than one an entire bag of red Man Silver Label

(01:03:12):
and we're there for three hours. You seem how big
a bat it's. It's disgusting And I was like, that's disgusting,
but I'm glad I got to see it. Like I
would expect nothing less from rhet when you write this
song with him, who, by the way, as an artist, fantastic,
but as a songwriter even better, like throughout his career,
who he gets both sides of it whenever you write

(01:03:34):
this song. Was this one of those who you're like, yeah,
this is special, or what did it become special after
you know you cut it? Or like what process was
this song special? Man? None of them are really special
to me when I write them. And I think it's
because I get so like when I come up with
this melody that I'm obsessed with or this idea or whatever. Um,
I get so excited then and then I write it
and I'm like, oh, it's super cool, and then I

(01:03:55):
just forget about it, like I don't even think twice
about it. Um. But this I retually written the first
verse in a chorus on the back of the bus. Um,
at like eleven o'clock in the morning. We were going
on the road. We've just gotten on the bus, excuse me,
and that we just got on the bus and I
was in the back lounge and and uh, I wrote
it down. I had actually sat out loud. Me and

(01:04:15):
Hallie Ray were arguing at the time, having a little
whatever and um, and I set out loud. I was like, man,
what does it mean have to do to be loved
by that girl? And he kind of perked up. He's like, hey,
you might want to write that down, And so I
just I mean in fifteen minutes. I went back and
I wrote the first first in the chorus, and then
the same thing. I just forgot about it. I didn't
even think about it. And then I had to write

(01:04:36):
with Rhet and when me and when when Rehet and
I write, it's not like any other code, right, Like
we'll go sit for the first hour. You know, he's
having a chew. I'll probably bump some off him a
lot of the time, and we just talked about like
turkey hunting or deer hunting for an hour, or like
he's so many pictures all the deery shot or out
is one of his farms here in Nashville. And then
he'll be like, hey, so do you have anything. And

(01:04:59):
that day I had it was like a few days
after I had written that, and uh, or maybe a
couple of weeks and and I was like, dude, I
have this. And he was just like all right, we'll
finish it. And I was like, okay, whatever. And he
was on his phone and I could be like what
do you think about this? And he was like, yeah,
that's how about this? All right? What about this? How
about this? For the second verse? And uh? And it
was really slow. It was not like this big rock

(01:05:21):
and roll kind of rolling Stones feel thing that it
is now um, and we did a little work tape
and I left and then we went going to the
studio like three months later, and I was like, man,
I remember talking to my producer John Randall. I was like,
this song could be this and most of the time
I'm wrong in the studio, I've learned that. I learned
that very early on. Most of the time I'm wrong,

(01:05:44):
and but every now and then I'm like, dude, just
give this a shot. And uh. We recorded it and
then Rhet called me like probably two months after that.
Someone had sent him a rough mix and he was like,
did we write that together? And I was like, yeah,
even we finished it that day at your management or
his thing is his publishing office that he has, and
he was like, dude, that's insane. And I was like, dude,
the songs, I was like, and I'm never hyped on

(01:06:06):
my own stuff. I never think very much of it.
I get over it very quickly. I'm onto the next
thing very quickly. And that was like probably one of
two ever that I've been like, Yeah, this is dope
for sure, and probably more so because he thought so.
Your EP six songs. It's out now, six songs, right,
Hollywood Gold, and five of them you wrote. One of

(01:06:26):
them is a Stapleton cut. Um, how did you get
that song? Man? I that was my first outside cut
on Universal. Um, that's the only song I've ever cut
that I didn't write on Universal. And Uh. I was
driving to the ranch one day. I was in my truck, UM,
and I got a text message from Brian Wright at
the label and it was just a UM, you know,
like an audio clip on a text and uh, they

(01:06:50):
just said Stapleton slash Anderson. And I'm like, he's on
He's on Universal as well, Stapleton. So I was like, oh,
maybe this is one of the perks of like being
on the same label. You get to listen to his
record before it comes out. Well, listen to the song.
And I called Brian. I'm like, Yo, that's insane, Like
what an incredible song. And he's like, yeah, it's able
to never cut it. I was like, what do he means? Like, hey,

(01:07:11):
he wrote it was like two thousand six or something
or whenever he wrote a long time ago, and and
I was like, he's like, do you think you would
want to cut it? And I was like, dude, I
sent it to my dad and he was like, that's
the best song you've ever written. And I was like,
I didn't write that. I was like, I was like,
but I am going to sing it, and uh, I
just I was like instantly, I just connected. They sent
me out. They send me outside songs all the time,

(01:07:32):
and that's the only one I've ever been like, I'm
cutting that song all right. There is Parker McCallum at
number five. We're going with Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion
and I really love the episodes when we just get
a member of a group because I think that's when
you get the best stories. And Old Dominion is always

(01:07:54):
one of the hardest interviews we have to prepare for
when they come on the Bobby Bones Show because there
is so many members of the group, it's hard to
focus your time on every single member. So I love
it when we're able to do these Bobby casts and
get just one of the members of the group to
talk about their path, get their side of how the
group started. And when it comes to Matthew Ramsey's case,
all the number one songs he's written outside of Old

(01:08:16):
Dominion and we had had Trevor rosen On from the
group before, so I always wanted to get Matthew Ramsey
into do an episode and it happened this year. We
learned so much about him that we didn't know. So
at number five, here's Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion. Alright
with with Matthew Ramsey from Old Dominion in your band
because everybody kind of has roles in Old Dominion, Like,

(01:08:36):
what is your role creatively in that group? Creatively, I
mean it's tough because we are That's what makes it
really hard to be in this band sometimes, is is
everyone is extremely creative. So um, you know anymore, I
would say that it's kind of evolved. And I've I've
recently learned, especially in this last album in the process

(01:08:59):
of making it, that my role is not necessarily in
the tracking room while we're recording. It's it's in the
control room with our producer Shane. And I'm I'm a
better guide in that way. And uh and and I'm
I'm a strong writer, I think too. So I think
I have a strong voice in the writing of our songs,

(01:09:20):
but everyone does. Everyone is so talented. Do you have
to submit it? Isn't you use or frustrating. You have
to submit yourself a bit when you go to record
an album, because when you write it and you make
you know your work tape or your demo and you
have you can get demo itis and wanted to sound
like there. But then Shane comes in, Um, Shane mcinally,
who obviously is is the best at what he does.

(01:09:43):
I mean, I don't I don't think you would have
a problem with saying he's better at being a producer
than you are. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. It's gonna
make sure we're cool there. And if he's like, hey,
this is how I see it, Like I really am
passionate about this. Do you ever have to submit and
go like you know what you know what you're doing
and I only kind of know what I do much
I'm gonna do that. Yeah, definitely. But we have a
close enough of relationship that, um, if if we still

(01:10:07):
will go down that road, if we if we're not
fully believing in it, and I'm not fully believing in it,
but he strongly is, we'll go down that road for
however long it takes until it until we see it
or we go you're wrong. And and he's great at
going Okay, thanks for trying, and we do the same thing.
He'll he'll listen to us and our ideas, and you know,
if we are feeling it one way, he'll say, I

(01:10:29):
trust you guys, let's let's go down that road. Until
he either sees it or doesn't. It seems this is
just my memory years later that he was involved really
early with you guys. Yeah he was. You know, we
were writing music with him, songs um before he had
any success. So I think when I met him he

(01:10:49):
had one he had just gotten um Leanne Walmack song
recorded this first one, and you know we were all
just broke, you know. He I think he had just
like moved out of his car into a house, you know. So, yeah,
he's been around for us for since the beginning. I
want to go back to in Virginia. The first instrument

(01:11:11):
you pick up, is it the drums? It was the drums?
Why the drums? Uh? You know when I was I
had an older brother and um, he's he's four years
older than me, and he had a friend who was
a drummer, and it just enamored me just to that
he would come over to our house and set his
drum kid up and I would sneak down there and
look at it. And then he played like a drum

(01:11:31):
solo at the middle school talent show or whatever, blew
the whole place is mind. And I just saw how
that affected everyone, and um so I just was drawn
to banging on stuff for their bands that you listen
to and drummed along with, and you liked the most
as a fourteen fifteen year old kid, where you thought,
all right, if I'm gonna do this, yeah, I mean

(01:11:53):
at that point it was starting to get into um
is starting to get into a lot of grunge. I mean,
for me, when I learned to play guitar with Chili Peppers,
it was metallic because it's some really easy intros. Totally. Yeah. Yeah,
So I had at that point, once I started really
digging in and playing along to music, UM I had.

(01:12:13):
I was my parents had a basement and I had
a drum kit down there, and I had guitar amps
and guitars, and I just and it was kind of
like split even then. I had half of the basement
was art supplies and canvases and things, and half of
it was musical instruments. So I would just kind of
live down in the basement and play along too, mostly
things like Pearl Jam and Nirvana and smashing pumpkins and

(01:12:35):
stuff like that. And I asked this question, and I'm
being as respectful and I possibly can with this question
because what happened to me may have happened to you.
But being an art kid and a music kid, did
you get beat up a lot? I never got beat up,
but I definitely, um, I mean I got tugged on
a little bit, you know, um actually ended up. I've
never really talked about this ever, but uh, I actually

(01:12:56):
ended up getting plastic surgery on my ears because is
uh they were yanked on quite a bit, and they
kind of they were like, you know, I always think
about this. It must have been really bad because I
kind of don't think about it that much, but it
must have been really bad for me to beg my
parents to fix this problem and for them to go

(01:13:17):
through with it, because you know, I have kids, and
I know if if they if a kid and my
kid in the sixth grade was begging, you know, me
to physically change them because of what people were doing,
it must have been heartbreaking for my parents, and I
know what stuff for me. So they did so for
a while there, Yes, I went through some you know,
some harder you know punishments there. I suffered similar you know,

(01:13:44):
consequences for not being a you know, finger quotes normal kid.
But you're a like cooler than I am. That's why
I asked. I mean, you're like cooler and talented, something
like did you like break the mold or you're They're like,
he's so dowented, let's just celebrate him. I mean I
did wind up once I got into high school. I
was kind of friends with everybody, you know, I was

(01:14:05):
friends with the athletes, and I was also in the
marching band, so you know, I kind of made peace
with with everyone. So when did you transition from being
the percussion guy to kind of go on, all I
don't even really want to do that much anymore, Like
I want to play guitar. I want to what My
first band was born out of the marching band because

(01:14:26):
the whole drum line we were such good friends, uh,
and we all wanted to be in a band, but
we were all drummers, and so it was, you know,
one guy going, well I have I have a guitar,
and another guy saying, well, i'll have the drum kit,
and I was like, well, I can find a basse.
I'll borrow a base. I borrowed a basse from somebody.
So it was just we wanted to play music, but

(01:14:47):
we only thing we knew how to play with drums,
So we just kind of learned together and you know,
just my ear figuring out that. So then once I
started figuring out things on the base, and I had
a piano that I would, you know, kind of mess
around with, and and and a guitar that my uncle
had given me. My dad was like, you're really good
at figuring things out. You should pick up the guitar

(01:15:08):
and try that. So so then once I picked that up,
I didn't know how to play it. So that's when
I immediately started writing stuff so that I could play
what I was writing that it was music natural to you,
even though it was hard. It was, yes, it was
natural to me. It was wild for you to be
able to play a E. G C. E minor, you know,

(01:15:29):
all the ones that you can let me be, all
the ones I play for you to play, Like, how
quickly were we able to adapt and actually play you
know those main chords with your guys? I mean, pretty
pretty quickly. You know, it didn't take very long before
we were all writing songs together as a band. You know,

(01:15:49):
they all sounded like Pearl Jam ripoffs, but you know,
but didn't everyone. But yeah, it wasn't at that point. Yeah, okay,
so you you you go to school, You're gonna do
graphic art illustration. I'm messing that episode. You're also playing music.
I again, I would understand that nine, nine people out
of a hundred are going to make more money doing

(01:16:10):
that graphic art job because they could probably get work. Maybe,
I think it depends on not not necessarily in the
in the field that I was headed towards. It was
kind of equal to music, I think, because I wasn't
interested in sitting at a computer and coming up with
like graphic design. I wasn't. I was more tactile and

(01:16:32):
would rather get my hands in paint or sculpt or,
you know. So, and at that point, I have a
couple of friends that are classmates that are successful artists
now and it's been the same road. You know, it's
just been grinding it out and keeping you know, keeping
their head down and painting and painting and painting and
painting until they finally we all at the same age.

(01:16:53):
They're they're having success as artists and I'm having success
in music. What was the first writer I won't even
we'll say break that you earned. What what was your
first break there? Where you go, Okay, I'm not just
now treading water like I might be able to have
some real success at this Yeah. Um, the first sign
of hope was a guy named Steve Holly recorded a

(01:17:17):
song that Trevor and I wrote with our friend Matt Jenkins,
and then, um, really was watching my friends have some
success was really what gave you the real hope was
is that because you knew that you could do what
they do well, I was doing what they were doing.
I mean we were doing it all together. So it

(01:17:38):
was like it's like Shane, for instance, he came in
and played um I remember he played us the demo
for Somewhere with You and U NYA, and we were
just like, damn, like that's different, that whatever that is

(01:17:58):
is the next step. And we even though we weren't
writers on it, we knew that that was going to
change the game for all for all of us. And
even now when we watched Kenny play it, like we
sit there and go we none of us would be
here without that song because he wrote that, Kenny cut it.
It changed Kenny's career and because of that, me and

(01:18:21):
Josh Osborne and Trevor Rosen, Matt Jenkins, Brandy Clark and
you know, we're all in that rider circle and we
get we get to reap the benefits really of of
that exposure. So watching our our each other succeed was
really what kept us going. We were like, it's not
like I'm doing it, but it's weird doing it. You

(01:18:42):
know what about first success for you were a song
actually good, a single like a real life it's got
a chance single. That was wake Up Loving You by
Craig Morgan. So that was the first one. I can't remember.
I can't remember hot went on the chart if it
was top ten or not, but um, but it was close,
which was you know that's back then that's all you want,

(01:19:06):
is like you want top twenty and then you get
that and you're like, can you watch that? It was
your first you are you watching the charts everything back then?
For sure? Watching it all the time. I don't watch anymore.
But when you hear that at the beginning, the first
time you hear it actually cut. Are you like I
like what they did with that production? Or that was
my alarm clock? Actually it really was, Yeah, yeah I did.

(01:19:28):
I did that on the demo. I made a little
home demo of it with that alarm clock, and and
they Meredith and then everyone who cut it after that,
A couple of artists cut it. Everyone used that alarm oclock.
Then it's just my alarm o'clock. A couple cut it,
but they didn't put on a record. Um, I think
Keith Keith Anderson cut it, and I think it made

(01:19:53):
a record for him, but it wasn't a single, So
then what's the rule there? Because Eric passed who embuddies with?
He wrote Friday Night? I think Friday Nights sung. I'm
thinking of lady A cut it but on record. He
then said, well he didn't use this single. I want
to use this single one number one for him. I
want to be Oh friend, is there a rule that

(01:20:15):
if it doesn't go as a single, you can still
probably cut it somewhere else? Sure? I mean it, you know,
once it is out, once somebody cuts it, anybody can
cut it. So so you can put it out as
a single anytime? Do you have to ask for single
rites though, no, only one. I don't think so. No.
I mean you do that one time, you give you

(01:20:37):
give the license out one time, and once you approve it,
it's it's a fair game. So you're telling me I
could cut I was on a boat, Yeah, put it
out as a single, and then once it beat you guys,
is the best streaming song. That's just life. Yeah, but
we reaped the benefits of that. So why good? Good

(01:20:58):
for us? All? Like we all one? Okay? Nice first
number one song he wrote, say You Do for Dirk Spanley,
And was that a rocket ship number one or was
that a we don't know if he's gonna cut it.
He did cut it, We don't know if it's gonna
be on the record. We don't know it. All of
them are like that. I feel like, um, that one

(01:21:19):
was you know, talking about breakthroughs and stuff that as
far as writing that song, that was one that I
was sure it was something special. Really you knew when
you wrote it. Yeah, So was there any chance you
were keeping these songs? Because old dominion was maybe if
we were a band at that point he signed no.

(01:21:41):
So even like wake Up Loving You was our like
show closer man like to let Craig Morgan have that
song was a really tough decision because at that point
it started to feel like maybe we were gonna We
were so far away from getting signed, but it felt
like maybe we were going to. Um So it was
tough to kind of let that one go. Say you
do wasn't tough for for us, because we we did

(01:22:01):
play that song and every show and um but at
that point, man, you know, we're just trying to pay
the bills and and we moved here to be songwriters anyway,
that's what we wanted, so um So it was awesome
and and he did an incredible job. There was a
moment where I was going to sing background vocals on it,
but it didn't pan out. Um Man, it was just
an exhilarating feeling to hear that song and watch that

(01:22:25):
song climb to get your first number one. Amazing. This
chainsaw from the Bam Perry wrote this one. Here's the
was it written as aggressive. It's way more aggressive. Our
version is way more aggressive. This one is the light
version of it. So my dad, actually, my dad actually

(01:22:47):
made a comment one time about he was like, man,
your version is like, you know, I can kind of
picture you out in the woods like with like frozen
snot in your beard, cutting Downvagory. It's definitely a lot
more aggressive our version before we get over to the
old dominion stuff. Ecstasy from Sam Hunt is probably, in
my opinion, his biggest non single song. It wasn't a single,

(01:23:08):
but everybody knows it. Um, I wish that was a single.
To me, I kind of had to be reminded it
wasn't a single. I'm a big Sam guy. I like
Sam away from work, you know, yeah, I love Sam
at work, you know so, But I love this song.
When he cuts it again, he kind of sol if

(01:23:28):
I'm not mistaken this was on the pre Yeah I
think so. Yeah. Um, and Sam wasn't Sam Hunt. But
did you when you guys wrote it wasn't written like Wow,
this is different, Like this is something like New Territory
type stuff. I mean, we knew before everyone knew that
it was you know, Sam Hunt. Like writing with that guy,

(01:23:48):
you're like, damn, this guy is something entirely different, friend.
And what means like just his creative mind is he
attacks things that different angles. So the things that come
out of his mouth, You're like, I don't know how
you thought of that. But you know, even like with

(01:24:08):
make You Missed Me, he throws out a line like
to keep a slip knot and the strings you attached
like something some obscure thought like that. He can make
seem very palatable. So just writing with him, that was
a moment where you knew something was big was gonna happen.
So that song, it's funny like he he overthinks a
lot of things and to you know, to his credit,

(01:24:32):
it works, you know, but he, like most people, you
sit in the room and you write, and at the
end of the day you got the song. You can
write for weeks and weeks and weeks on the same
song with Sam. So that's what happened. I never really
knew the final version of Ecstasy until it came out,
Like I knew what I thought it was gonna the
other little changes that you heard in it that you're like, well,
I don't remember that at all. Oh yeah, that all

(01:24:53):
like talking part at the end that there's like a
whole like kind of down bridge where he's kind of
talking and you look kind of cute and all this stuff.
I didn't remember any of that stuff, But I mean,
it's amazing were you surprised to see the explosion of him. Yeah, No,
I mean I'm excited. I mean I I'm supposed to
be an explosion of anybody, right because it's always so

(01:25:14):
unpredictable of who it's gonna be, when it's gonna be, on,
why it's gonna be yea, And with Sam, it hits
so hard, so fast, and I feel like Sam is
the most reluctant superstar that I know, And when people
are kind of bagging on him, I'm like, well, first
of all, he's way smarter, way more talented than you,
and he doesn't because he loves to be an artist,
but he didn't want to be the guy out and

(01:25:36):
people forget because everything now sounds like Sam Hunt, so
it didn't. Then he changed it and everything on country
radio half of it is just watered down Sam Hunts
Kenny save it for Rainy Day. I have this hook
up here. When you write a song like this, how
quickly do you send it to Kenney? This one you never, like,

(01:25:58):
I didn't know Kenny at that point point, and you
never ever right aiming at a certain artist. But this
song has the like quickest journey ever but a huge journey.
But we used to write. Brad and I and our
late friend Andrew Dorff used to write every morning at

(01:26:19):
nine in the not every morning every week at nine
in the morning, so we would have double booked ourselves.
We would write from nine to eleven and then we
would go to our normal right, So that morning I
didn't have any ideas, but in the shower on the
way or getting ready to go there, that kind of
course popped into my head. So I showed up and

(01:26:40):
I was like, Hey, what about this? And they were
like yeah, And we wrote that song in forty five minutes.
And at that time, Brad was making little home demos
and I kept kind of egging him on, like dude,
you gotta make a demo, and I was joking. I
was like, man, you want to Kenny Tesney Cutter, not
like make the demo. So he's like, okay, okay, and
he made the demo and um, sure enough, like we

(01:27:03):
got it right to him and he picked it up
like it was it never happens like that, but that's
the only time that's ever happened is And then he
went and recorded it and the studio musicians told us
they only did one take of it. They played it
and they were moved on. So they thought, no way
that's ever making it. So we wrote it in forty
five minutes. They did one take of the recording session

(01:27:26):
and then it becomes a three week number one songs.
Pretty crazy. Thank you very much. I appreciated coming vibe.
I know, Um you're doing a lot so to spend
a little time here, We appreciate it. You guys can
follow Old Dominion Music on Instagram or empt Ramsey. Um.
That's that's that's Matt's private account, all right, I guess
not private public but solo. Yeah yeah, which every one?

(01:27:46):
Yeah yeah, the private private account the only I have.
That's the other matter, all right, Thanks Matt. So that
was part one of the Top eight Bobby Cast interviews
of back next week to find out who makes the
top four. And you can go back and check out
those full episodes on the same feed. Just scroll back
through there and you'll see all the episodes from this year.

(01:28:08):
And if you're looking for something else to listen to
this holiday break, you can check out my podcast, Movie
Mix Movie Podcast. If you love movies, just need some recommendations,
or you want to hear some interviews with actors and directors.
I also do spoiler free movie reviews, so you don't
have to worry about anything getting ruined. Just search movie Mix,
movie podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and my name
is Mike d. You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter,

(01:28:30):
TikTok at Mike de Stro That's Mike D. E E
S t r oh and I'll talk to you next
week on Part two.

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