Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:00):
It's time to do this.
Let's go.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to another edition ofSkip Happens.
Be careful how you say that.
But uh, we're talking with oneof country's brightest new stars
tonight.
His name's Kelsey Hart.
He's got a viral hit uh Lifewith You, inspired by his wife,
and uh debuted in the top 10 onBillboard's country digital
(00:21):
songs chart.
Hit the top 25 at CountryRadio.
I know that for a fact.
And Ray racked up more than 200million global global.
That's such a big number Ican't even say the whole thing.
Uh 200 million global streamsearned him a debut at the Grand
Ole Opry, and not bad for a songthat started as his first dance
at his wedding.
(00:42):
We're gonna talk about thattoo.
Now Kelsey's stepping into anexciting new chapter.
That's the way I look at it.
You got songs like Gonna UhGone with the Wind, I Went to
the Bar, of course, the newsong, which you didn't hear it,
uh, but I was playing it beforewe went live here, uh Fireworks.
And we'll talk about all thatplus life, love, and what fans
can expect when he hits thestage here locally.
(01:03):
We're in upstate New York, andhe's gonna be playing in my
neighborhood at a place calledKeg's Canal Side.
That's gonna be on November22nd.
All right, everybody, there heis.
Yeah, let's welcome Kelsey Hartto Skip Happens, Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How are you doing, buddy?
It's been been a little bit,huh?
Speaker (01:20):
Yeah, it's been a little bit.
Remember, you we had you at theradio station.
We had you come in and do uhwhat we call a what's next
private listener showcase.
You had come out with uh LifeWith You, and it was just on
fire, and your label brought youto town, and you performed for
a room of wolf listeners, atleast 150 listeners in this
room.
Uh, dude, you kicked ass.
(01:41):
That that was phenomenal.
Phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you, buddy.
Well, I had a good time, man.
Speaker (01:46):
Yeah, how's life treating you right now?
Pretty good?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's been great.
We've uh yeah, things are kindof starting to slow down just a
little bit.
We've uh we've got a littlegirl coming in December, so
we're we've been uh getting anursery together and all that
good stuff.
Speaker (02:01):
I you know, obviously, you know, they talk about you a
lot in the show prep we get inradio, but uh I wasn't sure if
you already had the baby thereor if it was like right around
the corner.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, just right around the corner.
So we've been uh we've beenprepping.
Speaker (02:14):
Yeah.
So you already know it's a boyor girl?
Did you little girl?
Little girl.
Do you have a name picked out?
Uh coast.
Coast.
Yeah.
How did you come up with that'skind of cool?
Like, how would you spell it?
Like coast?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Like, C O A S T.
Yeah.
Speaker (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So um that's cool.
Yeah, my wife's uh my wife'smom.
Uh we were trying to figure outyou know, names and going going
over different things, and uhshe just said that randomly one
day, and we we both kind of weboth thought it was cool.
Speaker (02:44):
So yeah, and you know, and I do too.
And then and the couple ofreasons, the big reason is you
don't hear that that often.
Yeah.
So I that's all the more reasonI love that because you know
you hear so many of this and somany of that, and you know, I
never realized I have a sonZach, but I didn't realize how
many kids were called Zach ornamed Zach until we had Zach.
Next thing you know, it's like,okay, he's got four Zach's in
(03:05):
his class.
It's like, wow, where did theyall come from?
I thought this was gonna bepretty good, but no, I get it.
I don't know how many coatsyou're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
My wife's got a pretty uniqueunique name too.
So it's like I think her mom'sjust probably got that the name
and thing down pretty good.
Speaker (03:21):
Say her name because I do have it here.
I just want to make sure it'sOmini.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Omini, yep.
Speaker (03:25):
Omini.
Okay, okay, that is cool.
That's a name, of course.
I haven't until I was reading.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
That was a that was a first for me, too.
Yeah, when I when we first met.
I and almost everybody, youknow, that we uh come across or
whatever, when she's saying hername almost every time somebody
will be like, What?
Speaker (03:43):
You could you could slur that and it would still
sound right.
Yeah, after a few cocktails, afew jacks.
Yes, yeah, yeah, you could slurthat and it'd still sound
right.
That's pretty awesome.
You know, um, Kelsey, you'vehad an incredible year.
You really have.
And uh when you stop and lookat everything that's happened,
the songs, look at the numberson the streams, uh, your Opry
debut.
(04:04):
What's going through your mind?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Man, it's it's honestly been, you know, I've
been in town uh for since 2017,18.
You know, I've started goingback and forth uh from Kentucky
then.
Um, and you know, I've justbeen writing, you know, and kind
of had my head down for what,you know, I planned on when I
first got here.
I was like, you know, I'll youknow, write a few songs, record
(04:28):
them, and start being an artist.
You know, that was, you know, Ithink, of course, you're
delusional, you don't realize,you know, what it takes and
everything.
And I got here and just, youknow, every, you know, every
time I would, you know, thinkI'm getting to the point where
I'm ready to put music out, youknow, I'd set the bar a little
bit higher and be like, no, I'mit's not ready yet.
(04:48):
Like I I want to keep writing,keep writing.
Um, and so that, you know, thatturned into to getting a
publishing deal and being intown even longer before my like
artist stuff started taking off.
So it's like it's been all thispreparation uh for these la
this last like year to actuallyI I've enjoyed the whole
process, but this last year, youknow, has been the first year
(05:11):
that I've actually been able tobe out on the road and be like
playing shows, which is is whatI came here to do.
You know, is what I've whatI've always really wanted to do.
So it it's just really cool toto finally be at a place to
where you know I'm I'm outactually playing the songs for
(05:31):
you know for people that I'vethat I've been working on for so
long, you know.
So cool.
Speaker (05:34):
So cool.
I don't know how you guys doit.
I I really don't.
I mean, you you know, you'reyoung and you made the move to
Nashville in hopes of doing whatyou're doing, and it's
happening.
You have a passion, you have adedication, but you were writing
and you got that publishingdeal, which I'm sure helped
things out a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
A lot, yeah.
Speaker (05:51):
You know, and then you know, putting that to, of
course, the words to music andnow putting out your own songs.
Yeah.
So who did you were any of yourearlier songs, not you as an
artist, but as a writer, did anyof those songs um make it?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Um yeah, well, as far as uh, you know, they never had
any like big radio singles umthat you know, but I had uh Jake
Owen cut cut one.
Uh one of my one of the firstsongs I was a part of when I got
to town.
Speaker (06:21):
Loved you.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Um he put on um one of his it was a uh greatest hits
record.
Um and then uh had a song uhcut by uh Trace Atkins.
Um and then uh Dylan Scott wasanother one that we had a an
outside song with or song cutby.
(06:42):
Um so you know, it was reallycool before, and a lot of those
were even before I even had apublishing deal.
Uh so it was it was really coolto start to get some you know
some songs that were you know,you know, get at least getting
cut.
Speaker (06:59):
How cool is that that you can get that even before
your deal?
I mean, that's gotta tell yousomething.
You have a talent for this.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I mean, well, it it was, you know, a lot of it was,
you know, I was fortunate enoughto get in the room with other
writers that did have deals andand that had like, you know,
relationships with with some ofthese guys.
So, you know, I was fortunateto get in the get in those rooms
and be a part of those thoserights, but yeah, very cool.
unknown (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker (07:28):
Were you, I mean, how did you get into those rooms?
Did it it was it all like whoyou know and who you talk to?
And they said come on.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it early on for me, uh, there
was a girl, her name's LaurelKittleson that worked at uh Big
Machine Records at the time.
And she was uh running mycalendar, like I wasn't
affiliated with the label atall, but she just believed in me
and and said, Hey, I'll uh helprun your calendar, I'll get you
(07:56):
uh rights, I'll help you dothis because I think you know
you got what it takes.
And um, she actually ended upgoing to Curb Records three or
four years later after she'dbeen helping me helping like
facilitate my calendar for awhile.
And when she uh when she wentto Curb, they started hearing
like some of the demos that Ihad been doing, and um she got
(08:20):
me my publishing deal at Curb.
So that's kind of what startedthe whole whole thing, you know.
Speaker (08:25):
Wow, that's cool.
I um not to get off subjecthere, but uh, you know, I'm
looking at the chat, themessages that are coming in.
Uh I don't know if you can seeit or not, but it says uh it's
from Chrissy and says, Kelsey,can I just have a moment to
thank you again as a mom for thekind words of guy-to-guy
encouragement you gave my sonTyler at the Wildcat.
(08:47):
Now, the Wildcat is where wedid that show.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Oh, okay.
Speaker (08:51):
There are words he hasn't forgotten, and I can't
wait to see you next month.
Well, soon to be this month,uh, to thank you again in
person.
That's cool.
That's you know, that's what itmeans for you as an artist to
take the time, even in you know,what we do is a small show, but
still it's that one-on-oneconnection.
Absolutely for you as anartist, and you know what you
(09:14):
what did you say her name was?
Chris Christie?
Chrissy, yes.
Oh, Chrissy.
Chrissy, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh, well, well, that's that's sweet of her to
say.
Speaker (09:21):
Yeah, I'm sure she'll come up and introduce herself.
So yeah.
Well, that's cool, you know,and that ever since that show,
we have heard nothing but greatthings.
Man, our listeners love you,they absolutely love you, you
know.
And then, if I'm not mistaken,I know I'm getting off the
beaten path here.
We'll go there in a minute.
But at that show, there was acouple there that was using Life
(09:41):
With You as their wedding song,and I had them come up and
dance while you sang that song.
I don't know if you rememberthat because you do so many
shows, but yeah, that uh, youknow, right there it shows.
Look what you did.
That's pretty, pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, man, one of my favorite things, man, I you
know, after the shows is gettingto uh getting to talk to people
and hear the stories like that,you know, people that have used
the song for their their firstdance and and what it what it
means to them and stuff.
That's as a songwriter, that'syou know, that's that's what
you're hoping to to do, youknow.
Yeah, those kind of things.
Speaker (10:15):
Was it your decision to go with that as the very first
single to hit radio?
Was that you, or did the labelsay, you know what, I really
think we should do this?
But but whatever, regardlesswhether it was you or whether it
was the label, it was a goodchoice because you knew that
song was going to get played atweddings.
You knew that brides and groomswere gonna go, you know what, I
want that song.
Yeah, that's nothing but a plusfor you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, man, it was uh it was one of those songs that
really just kind of raised itshand on its own.
Like after as soon as you know,I'd put the song um online and
stuff, it just I I had neverseen like a or I had never had
like a viral, like a big viralmoment like that.
(10:56):
And um it, you know, it wasjust one of those it that's the
best, like when the songs pickthemselves, you know, when you
when you kind of take theguesswork out of it and and you
just know that like you know,there's a lot of people out
there that that are wanting tohear this.
Uh so that that song certainlycertainly picked itself and and
it was just cool that that thatit happened to uh to be my wife
(11:20):
and I's first dance song.
And uh, you know, it you know,couldn't have been a couldn't
have been a better one to pickitself, you know.
Speaker (11:27):
Yeah, so and who sang that at the wedding for you?
Did you just what's that?
So life with you, it was yourfirst dance song.
Yep.
Did somebody else sing yoursong?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No, so yeah, we actually we actually had just
like the rough recording uh fromour the day that we wrote it.
Awesome.
Uh and it was uh my buddyplaying keys in a in a writing
room and me singing it, and wejust played that version at at
the wedding.
Speaker (11:56):
God, that's so awesome, dude.
That is so awesome.
Have you um I know here I amoff the beaten path.
What did I tell you?
Skip half this happens, dude.
So have you ever like surprisedsomebody at their wedding?
Like, I'm here, I'm gonna singyour song I'm gonna sing this
song for you.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, yeah.
We actually uh we did uh it waslike right before, maybe like
let's see, Suburnover.
It was like a couple monthsbefore uh the song came out.
Uh so we had put the song onTikTok and it went off on
TikTok, and we did this thing towhere people could like submit
(12:35):
to like have we was gonna sendpeople the song early uh to use
and we we sent it to like threeor four hundred people for them
to use at their wedding beforethe song came out.
And we picked uh we picked oneof them uh instead of sending
the song to them, we contactedthem and I flew out and went and
sang it at their actualwedding, just showed up.
Speaker (12:56):
They didn't know you just showed up, they had no clue
that Kelsey was going to bewalking into the reception with
his guitar to sing the song.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yep, and it was the first sign.
I was a nervous wreck because Ididn't think at that at that
point I haven't even the songwas new, I hadn't played it out
with the band at all, and likehere I was kind of like debuting
it at uh somebody's wedding,you know.
Speaker (13:18):
God you know, I look at I'm getting the goosebumps just
hearing what you're you know,the way you're talking about
that.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Now, uh take us back to whereall this started for you from uh
for you.
You growing up, um who weresome of the outer moments that
made you fall in love withcountry music?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
So it it's kind of funny, like,you know, a lot of my buddies
and and people in town, youknow, they'll tell stories about
how they, you know, theirparent, they grew up, you know,
their parents had them listeningto, you know, George Jones and
Merle Haggard and all that, youknow, and it was like it wasn't
like that for me.
Like my parents, neither one ofmy parents were big country
(13:57):
music fans.
And uh, but my dad, he was abig uh he loved gospel music.
And um so I just remember likemy first like really like
musical memory was uh I raceddirt bikes when I was a kid, and
me and my dad would always thetrack that I raced at was like
an hour uh from our house.
(14:18):
So and he had the same gospelCD in his truck.
And it's like he never reallylistened to the radio, but he
always had that that gospel CDplanned.
And so from as a little kid,that was like my like only
knowledge of music, like wasgospel and just about that CD.
You know, that's pretty coolthough that he had in his truck,
(14:40):
you know, and so we listened tothat a ton, and then um that's
what really got me excited orreally got me interested in
wanting to sing.
And so, you know, I then Istarted doing you know, talent
shows and uh, you know,different things that that my my
mom and dad would set me up forand singing at church and
(15:01):
stuff, and it then it you knowit wasn't until I was probably
in like middle school or so thatI like started you know digging
into country music and likefiguring it figuring that out,
you know.
Speaker (15:15):
Can I ask um when you moved to Nashville, how old were
you?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I was so I started I started coming when I was 24.
Speaker (15:24):
Okay, okay, yeah.
It's but it was a whole newworld for you at that point.
You made a move.
You you you packed up theU-Haul, so to speak, and moved
to Nashville and got your ownplace.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, it was so when I first got out of uh high
school, um, I went to barberschool.
Speaker (15:42):
I was gonna ask you about that, but yes.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, so with no like when I was 18, 19 years old,
there was no plan of being acountry singer.
I mean, I it wasn't even in myI didn't think about it.
Like I I liked to sing.
At that point, I hadn't pickedup a guitar, it wasn't even in
in the works at all.
And um we uh so I went tobarber school, I got a job uh in
(16:09):
my hometown, loved it, like wasjust having a good, you know,
loved cutting hair, love youknow, I was all about it.
I thought that's what I'd bedoing.
Speaker (16:17):
You know, there's great conversations in a barber shop.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker (16:20):
I mean, I was just at one yesterday, and it, you know,
I love these guys, been goingto them for 30 years, so it's
just it's all got it, man.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Oh, I thought, you know, I I would have been there
for 50 years, where you know, Idid I was good with it, and um I
wasn't, you know, early on as abarber, you're you know, it
takes you a little while tobuild up you know your business
and stuff.
Speaker (16:41):
And yep.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I was, you know, I'd be sitting around and my
buddies would be in there thatwould drop by to say hi or
whatever.
And one of them, he alwaysbrought his guitar in.
And if we wasn't busy, him andI would sit there and play and
sing.
He he would play and I wouldsing, and um when you know, when
there wasn't anybody else inthe shop.
And we finally we we were bestbuddies growing up, and we
(17:04):
finally said, you know, we weought to we ought to start a uh
we ought to start a band.
And so we we did the we did thehometown band thing for a
little while and um did that fortwo or three years, and then
you know, so I've been barberingthree or four years at that
time, and then we I startedgoing back and forth to to
Nashville too and and splittingthe time.
(17:25):
I was cutting hair half theweek and writing songs half the
week and staying still living,still living with my parents
too.
Speaker (17:32):
Very cool, very cool.
Where about um, you know, youyou're in Nashville now, you're
in your own place, but uh yeah,I mean obviously I don't know
it's nobody's business whereexactly, but what part of town
are you in?
Are you in Franklin?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So we we are uh outside of Nashville, about 25
minutes in uh Hendersonvillearea.
Speaker (17:51):
Oh yeah, okay.
Yeah, there's a lot of artiststhat live in Hendersonville
area.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Oh yeah.
I know yeah, I see I seeseveral out here running around.
Speaker (18:01):
Like who are your neighbors?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Oh yeah.
Speaker (18:03):
Who's your neighbor?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Anyone uh now our our neighbors are are just uh just
normal.
We got some, yep, we got somegood, we got some good
neighbors, but they're uh no uhno singers or songwriters or
anything.
Speaker (18:17):
What do you got for trick-or-treaters tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know, we actually so we're gonna go, we're
driving to Kentucky to myparents.
We're gonna go uh spendHalloween.
My mom is she loves Halloween,and um every year she does uh
like a chili cookout thing andjust invites all kinds of
people.
And so we're gonna go to herhouse and and do that tomorrow.
(18:40):
Are you we're gonna leave somecandy on the porch?
Speaker (18:43):
Oh that's oh yeah, good luck for that.
Yeah, no, I I don't know.
I you know, hopefully they'rehonest and they don't take the
whole bowl.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah.
Speaker (18:51):
What kind of candy are you leaving?
So I know where to go.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, dude.
I always do the uh we alwaysget the that like variety pack
with the like the Skittles andthe Hershey Ball, like it's
yeah, yeah, yeah.
You get all the yeah, all thedifferent stuff, you know.
Speaker (19:04):
Exactly.
I think my wife has thatupstairs, to be honest with you.
I think that's a popular thing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So y'all have a bunch of trick-or-trigers at your
house?
Speaker (19:10):
Yeah, you know, it's it's kind of not like it used to
be.
We live in a neighborhoodthat's very um just a couple of
streets, which is nice.
You don't have to throwtraffic.
So we do get a lot of the youknow, the little kids, but the
forecast for tomorrow here inupstate New York is uh high
winds, hard rain, and about 40degrees.
So it's not gonna be a goodnight.
(19:31):
I'm gonna be eating a lot ofcandy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, y'all probably ain't gonna sell out.
Speaker (19:35):
No, no, absolutely not.
But there's been other yearswhere it's been in the 60s and a
beautiful night, and everybodygoes out and walks the
neighborhood, you know, which isnice.
So I love it too.
I love it too.
Um, my wife is into it bigtime.
My son Zach, who's downsyndrome, is um he's just by the
way, he loves country music, heloves music in general.
Uh he'll listen, get this,he'll listen uh to K-pop, crank
(19:59):
it.
He loves the group Black Pink.
Okay.
Uh he's in, I don't know if youknow them or not, but he's in
love with uh the lead singerJenny Kim.
They're from South Korea.
Um, but then he'll turn aroundand listen to country.
Or, you know, he listens to mein the afternoon and he'll text
me and go, Time for shout-out,Dad.
So I said, wait a minute, Igotta play this Kelsey Hart
(20:22):
fireworks before we do that.
So that's right.
That's cool.
That's cool.
That's cool.
Tell us about that.
Let's talk about fireworks.
Now that's the latest, uhlatest song you've dropped to
Country Radio.
Tell us about that a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, man.
So Fireworks, um, it it's anoutside song.
It it's not one that I was uh apart of writing.
Uh, but there's uh it was kindof a unique situation how the
song came about.
Um I'll I say it's kind of likethe old school uh version of
finding a song, you know, backwhen uh AR people, you know,
(20:53):
that worked at these labelswould would go out to to
writers' rounds or whatever toto listen to songs.
And that's what happened withfireworks.
The the song had been writtenlike I think a couple days
before, and there was a uh theywere having a writer's round
downtown, and um Rebecca Lyles,that's uh AR at Curb Records, um
(21:14):
she was there uh listening to afriend play the round, and uh
Jordan James, a writer on thesong, was was playing that round
and he he played fireworks, andshe said she had, you know, uh
she was just mingling out therewith a friend and heard the the
hook land on the song and shejust she said she turned and
(21:35):
she's like, man, she's like thatyou know that's really good.
And then she filmed like thesecond part of the song and got
the chorus and um sent it to me,just the video of her in there,
and she's like, Hey, I I thinkthere, you know, this is
something special.
You know, if you know these anyof these guys, she's like,
maybe see if you can get thiswork tape or this demo if
they've got it.
And um so her and I kind ofkind of went on the hunt and got
(21:57):
got the work tape, and bothwere just thought that the song
was was really strong.
I you know, lyrically, Ithought you know it was great,
the melodies were great.
Um, and I knew the uh I knewone of the writers well and and
called him and was just like,man, I was like, you gotta send
me this song.
Speaker (22:18):
So I oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, no, I mean that that's kind of the the story of
where it it how it got to me.
Speaker (22:25):
I had no idea.
I thought, yeah, I guess Ishould have read a little bit
better, but um I had no idea youdid not write that because you
are such a good songwriter, andthat song is so strong.
You're such a strongsongwriter, and that's such a
strong song, and uh whatever itwas, it definitely stood out,
and they knew that Kelsey neededto cut this.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That's right, man.
I yeah, I was fortunate thatthey let me cut it.
I was excited about that.
Speaker (22:52):
How does uh for somebody that might be watching
this, Kelsey, how does that workfor you as an artist and and a
songwriter?
I mean, uh it's what you youget songs pitched to you.
This is what I don't thinkpeople understand a lot of that.
I think you know, you go to thewhat they call write-arounds, I
know what they are, but maybesomebody watching or somebody
listening to this does not.
(23:13):
Yeah, but there's writerrounds, and for example, you
just talked about fireworks, howpeople are just there playing
like songs or writing a song,and they're trying everybody's
throwing their ideas into themix, is right?
That's how it works.
So there, I mean that this ishuge, this is big time stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So so a writer's round, justyeah, just to kind of because I
I get used to you know, justpeople knowing knowing what that
is, but but here in Nashville,yeah, they'll they'll have those
to where writers, you know,throughout the week, they'll
have, you know, all over town.
They they do different uhevents to where writers can can
show up and play the songs thatthey had written that week or
(23:55):
whenever they had written them.
Uh they you know will generallyplay their their best three or
four songs.
And it's just kind of astorytelling round where you go
back and forth and you you playand um you know tell about your
song.
And and you know, there'speople out you never know who's
gonna be out in the crowd that'sgonna hear that song.
And exactly just like whathappened with with fireworks,
you know.
(24:15):
It's you you never know.
unknown (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker (24:18):
See, I just don't think a lot of people realize that I
do, and you do, of course, twodifferent sides, but we we're
all got the same goal.
Um, you know what goes intothat, and that it's it's
actually big business.
And you guys get together, thisis your livelihood, and
something's gonna come out ofthese rounds.
And I anybody that's watchingthis or listening to this, if
you ever get the opportunityjust to sit in and listen, you
(24:41):
need to do it.
It's amazing.
And you never know who's gonnashow up at these rounds, you
don't, man.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh you know, those nights, like I'm sure you've
probably been to the listeningroom cafe and absolutely, um,
you know, it's such a uniqueexperience.
I I think we get used to youknow doing them so much that it
kind of becomes you know justsomething that that we do
playing these rounds.
But I think for a lot ofpeople, if you think about their
(25:06):
musical experience or whatever,it's going to see a full band
or you know, rarely do you getto to sit and listen to you know
people tell stories and singthe songs that they've written.
And so I think you know, forpeople that are listening that
maybe haven't been to like thelistening room or the bluebird
cafe or some of these places, itand and if especially if you're
(25:28):
into the lyric and songwriting,it it is uh a really unique
experience for sure.
Speaker (25:34):
Yeah, that's cool.
And how does it when you sit inone of those like a songwriting
session, and you you sit thereand you you play off of each
other's body language, or howdoes all that work?
You somebody throws a word outthere and then you're gonna add
to it, or hey, you know, thishappened to me today, and you
throw that out there, and yeah,it dude, it's honestly it's it's
(25:56):
different every time.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I mean, I I do I do like to go in uh to a write at
least with a few good ideas, um,you know, just titles that um
that we can work off of.
Uh, but you know, that's thebiggest thing.
If you can come in with a titleI and you have a good idea to
write towards, like, you know,that that's a big deal.
(26:17):
And then then, you know, youcan always try to find a cool
melody, but the the idea is isis kind of where I like to
start.
And and you usually where itstarts, and we'll each go around
the room, and you know, if Ihave two or three ideas, I'll
tell them and kind of explainlike this is my idea, and this
(26:37):
is kind of how I envision itbeing, you know, the song being
wrote, and you know, we'll goaround the room and and what
whatever we think is the bestone is the one we'll write, you
know.
Speaker (26:48):
So in the life of Kelsey Hart right now with a
little one coming up, are youhaving like thoughts of
different songs you could writeabout your your little girl?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Oh man.
Speaker (26:56):
I mean, you know, you don't want to go like a my
little girl thing like McGrawdid, but still you uh I I could
see you doing something likethat.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah.
Well, it's funny you said that,man.
We just uh we actually just uhI just wrote one the other
night.
I knew it.
Um and we uh and we got itrecorded.
Yeah, we went in the studio uha couple days ago and and and
got it recorded.
So we're we're real excitedabout it.
Speaker (27:20):
I kind of figured, you know, being a songwriter, being
creative and all that, that andyou know, your situation right
now, soon to be a a dad.
Um that's pretty cool.
And a daughter, no less.
I mean, all kids are wonderful,and you know, daughters, uh
nothing like it, man.
I I've got three besides mylittle boy.
Well, he's not little, he's 24now, but still he um, you know,
(27:42):
girls are always daddy's girls.
Yeah, I'm just telling you,you're gonna have it's a whole
new life, dude.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I can't even I can't even imagine.
Everybody, you know, keepstalking to me about, you know,
man, it's just you know, it'syour cat just don't even know
until it's here.
Speaker (27:58):
And even you know, even for you know, your family, your
parents, and all that, and tobe grandparents.
Now, I don't know if they'regrandparents yet at all.
With that, I don't know, Idon't know if you have siblings
or anything like that, but um,you know, that it's still it's a
special moment.
My three daughters have givenme eight grandkids, and uh it
just I love it.
Love it, absolutely beautiful,dude.
(28:20):
It's beautiful all the wayaround.
Let's talk about um the grandold opera debut when you did
that.
I know I hear you know, Ialways ask artists, and I pretty
much get the same answer whereholy crap, I was scared to
death.
I stood in that circle and itwas a feeling like none other.
But you tell me in your words,how was that for you?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Man, it was as it was as cool as I could have
imagined it to be, honestly.
Like, I mean it everything Ihad it built up in my head, it
was even it was honestly evencooler than that.
Like I we um just the wholeexperience, my living as close
as you know, we're only myparents only live an hour and a
half from here.
So my nice my whole town prettymuch came.
(29:01):
And and we uh yeah, man, it itwas just as much as you know,
you know, we all know that howspecial the opera is and how uh
you know what what it means toplay there.
But it's also it's like you putall that together with like
everybody that you really loveand care about uh that's there
(29:24):
to witness it.
Um and and then they um likeafterwards we you know we all
went um across the road to thisuh uh big you know restaurant
bar and got to hang out for afew hours and stuff and really
just soak it all in.
And you know, it's it's just uhit was just a great great
(29:46):
night.
And it's a first moment like towhere because people I think
doing this like people know likethat you're like do you know
doing music or like in town likein Nashville trying to To be a
singer, you know, people knowthat, but it's like it's one of
(30:06):
those big moments that you knowI feel like a lot of people
actually get to see and put avisual with like, oh, like this,
you know, this thing that thathe's been messing around doing
or whatever, like maybesomething's working.
Speaker (30:24):
I mean, maybe something's working.
Obviously, it is.
You're standing there on thestage of the Grand O'Lopy.
And uh, it's such a place.
I mean, I I get the goosebumpswhen I go into that building.
And and then, of course, thatdowntown when I walk into that
mother church right there, it'slike, oh my lord.
It's just, I just love that.
And uh there's a it's a feelinglike no no other.
(30:45):
As a matter of fact, uh, it'stheir 100th um anniversary for
the Grand Old Opera, and they'vebeen taking radio people, and
uh, I've had a lot of my friendsand get that invite to go and
you know introduce somebody.
I applied, I haven't heardanything, so I guess I'm out of
the game, but uh still it's kindof cool though.
And it's like, yeah, what wouldI do if if they did write back
(31:06):
and say, yeah, you can uh, youknow, because they asked me who
my favorite artist was.
Uh they go through a lot ofstuff.
Of course, it put Kelsey Hart.
Um, no, there you go.
I tell you, I'll be honest withyou, I don't remember what I
wrote down, but uh it was cool.
It was cool.
I should have if I had known.
Uh yeah, exactly.
So that whole Opry thing, Imean, and then that's one thing.
(31:28):
And then as you watched yourstreams and all those numbers on
social media go through theroof, I mean, what were you
thinking?
Were you doing that yourself?
Number one, were you doing allthe social media?
Now of course we know you havea team, but still in the
beginning, how did all did youdo that?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Uh well, you know, it's I think even like when life
with you was happening, uh, I'dalready I already had some
people helping.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Um, but um, yeah, I mean I I have access to all my
my pages.
You know, I get to look look atthem all.
I don't I don't do everythingon them, but I I do get to, you
know.
Speaker (32:05):
How do you um as Kelsey Hart, how do you handle uh
criticism?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Man, I you know, I I think I I try to it it's a it's
a funny thing to try to like tonavigate.
And we're my wife and I wastalking about this with like you
know, I I feel like even withcomments and different things on
on social media, it's like youknow, you can you can have a
hundred great comments, peoplejust loving you, loving you,
(32:35):
loving you.
Speaker (32:36):
And then there's that one.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
It then one bad one that you know tell you know it's
talking about how bad you suckor whatever, and it's like you
know, it's almost something youhave to at first, you know, it
it does like I think get underyour skin and really bother you,
and you fo you hyper focus onthat one, you know, and it's
like I don't know if that's justlike just human nature or what,
(32:59):
but it's you know, I I thinkafter a while you do learn to
just feel like, man, you youain't never gonna make everybody
happy.
Speaker (33:06):
You know, it's the same way in radio.
Of course, people, you know,some people love you, some
people hate you, but uh, youknow, with the naysayers, I just
say thanks for listeningbecause they're listening.
They're listening, and believeme, if somebody gave you a
negative comment for whateverreason, I cannot see that
happening, but the way the worldis, yeah, it does happen.
You know, I just say thanks forlistening.
Thanks for listening.
(33:27):
Thanks for yeah, thanks forbeing there, dude.
That's a good that's a goodthat's I'm standing on that
grand old opery stage.
You are not.
So if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
So well, you know, and and the reality of it is,
you know, when you're in aposition to where, you know,
you're you're putting out, youknow, as a singer, artist, um,
and even like with you at radioand podcasts and stuff, like
we're you know, you're you'rewe're putting out something for
people to judge and to to listento and give their opinion on.
And you know, it's like that'sit is what it is.
Speaker (34:00):
No, and and the reason I ask that, Kelsey, because a
lot of people don't know how tohandle it.
And I think it's good to hearfrom somebody of your stature
that you know, this is how Ihandle it.
Because it, like you said aminute ago, um, it doesn't
matter who you are, you're gonnahave people out here that you
know you're gonna have yourhaters.
I don't know, haters are gonnahate.
What's that saying?
I don't know, sound like that,but uh, you know, yeah.
(34:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I was just gonna say, I thought, you know, I think at
the end of the day, as long asyou're, you know, with with in
in my lane of what I do, youknow, I'm putting out what I
feel like and you know, to bethe my best foot forward.
Yeah, you know.
So I, you know, that's that'sall I can do, and I think that's
all anybody can do withwhatever they're yeah.
Speaker (34:42):
Did you just you just wrapped up Rustless Road, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How was how was all that?
It was a little crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
It was great, man.
We we played, I think like 16or so shows with them guys.
unknown (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Um, and that was actually more like it was at the
top of the year.
Um, but it was uh it was great,man.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
We got to see a lot of coolplaces, and and those uh those
guys were were really cool tohang with and uh got to play a
lot of cool venues.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker (35:15):
Are we um gonna see a full album?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So we're honestly like we're so we just cut three
songs, we're going back to thetop of January, cutting a few
more.
unknown (35:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Um the word, like we haven't like said album yet,
okay, but we're I mean, we'rewe're gonna have the the
material to to do an album if wewant, but also it's kind of um
I feel like we're kind of livingin a time too to where like you
know, I don't know if if wewant to do a full length or if
we want to kind of just umstagger singles, you know,
(35:51):
throughout the year and justkind of and kind of see.
I I don't know.
We're we don't really have arelease plan for the music yet,
but we have gotcha.
Speaker (35:58):
Yeah, I I hear from other artists that uh they're
kind of going with uh notnecessarily the full album, but
they're just drop singles alongthe way.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah.
Speaker (36:07):
Just here it is, here's another new one.
Even though radio's still onthis one, we're putting this one
out.
And they just keep it goingthat way.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, and you know, it's not even like a it's to me,
it's a uh I I think the wordlike single, like kind of
especially like with you know,when you have like a radio
single, it's like that's that'syour radio single, but like as
far as like DSPs and and andeverything go, it's like that
that whole thing, it's like youalmost kind have to keep pumping
(36:36):
music you know into into thatsystem, you know, and it's like
absolutely what we've what we'velearned is like that that every
like six to eight weeks, youknow, releasing a new track that
uh you know can that can go tothe DSPs that are giving people
new material to listen to, youknow, and that you can market uh
(36:57):
each one of those every six toeight weeks pretty hard versus
you know putting out a full bodyof work and then you know uh
yeah.
Speaker (37:07):
What is um your hometown, your actual hometown?
What is the name of that?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Um Muhlenberg County, it's where I grew up, Kentucky.
Speaker (37:15):
What was it again?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Muhlenberg County.
Speaker (37:18):
Muhlenberg?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Muhlenberg County.
Have you ever heard John PrimeParadise?
Speaker (37:23):
Yes, yes, all right.
So if I was to uh drive on themain drag heading into that
town, this is a fun question Iask everybody.
Yeah if you talk to somebodyabout the podcast, he's gonna go
to jail.
Did he ask you this?
Uh yes.
So what is the um the firstthing you see when you drive
into your little town?
What if I'm coming in the maindrag?
(37:43):
Yeah, so if you're coming intobecause it's a small little
town, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah.
So if you're coming intocentral city where my where my
parents live, you're gonna getoff of you're gonna get off the
interstate.
Speaker (37:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And um you're gonna see a sign that says, you know,
welcome, welcome to CentralCity, where uh uh what's it say?
Like where music lives, uhhome, you know, home of you
know, home of John Prime, allthis stuff right there.
Speaker (38:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it, you know, I'veactually I actually think I've
seen that picture.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, and you'll see a bigwater tower that says Central
City.
Speaker (38:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And um, then you know, you'll you'll go on into
town and and the first thingyou're gonna see is is my
favorite Mexican restaurant onyour way in.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And uh, and then you'll uh once you you head
downtown there, you'll you'llpass McDonald's.
Speaker (38:34):
Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
No Chick-fil-A.
Speaker (38:37):
No, no Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Chick-fil-A ain't made it there yet.
Speaker (38:40):
Oh man, I'm I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
No, it dude, it's we have uh Imean it we got the the the main
one, like we got the McDonald'suh subway, El Paceros, yeah,
yeah, okay.
That which is our Mexicanrestaurant.
But we I mean it's pretty uhyeah, there ain't a whole lot.
Speaker (39:01):
Let me ask you, Kelsey, you get one free day.
Yeah, I get some of my funquestions here.
You get one free day, no calls,no shows, no work.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Oh man.
Anymore, man.
I just it's if I don't haveanything going on, it is as
rare, as little as I'm at home.
Um, my wife and I just lovejust kicking back on the couch
and watching a movie and youknow, reeling out.
Speaker (39:31):
Binge watch anything on those days?
Do you get together and justuh, you know what?
Let's watch, you know, allthese series of whatever on
Netflix or whatever.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Man, well, like during October, we watch, I
mean, we'll watch a and we'llwatch one a night, probably.
Just uh uh, you know, we watcha Halloween or scary movie just
about every night in October.
Speaker (39:52):
Oh well, my son loves to do that.
Then he can't sleep.
It's like then why do you dothat?
You know, yeah, or you'llsleep, he'll make sure the
shades up, the lights are on,you know.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh yeah.
Speaker (40:02):
So so why do you do that?
You know, but uh yeah.
Um if you could live anywherein the world, where would it be?
I know you're in Nashville now,and I think you know, this is
where you wanted to be, but ifyou had a choice to live
anywhere, would it be Nashvilleor where where would it be?
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Man, yeah, I think it would be, you know, just
because I'm I'm I'm right whereI want to be because I'm yeah,
I'm right where you know I'm I'mdoing exactly what I want to be
doing.
And Nashville is I loveNashville, and I'm still fairly
close to my family.
Speaker (40:38):
That's I know you were talking about it the hour and a
half time to get from point A topoint B.
I think that's pretty good.
And especially now you got thelittle one coming.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
So I I think I'm right where I want to be.
Speaker (40:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right.
Um, you know, what's somethingpeople would never guess about
you?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Oh man, well, probably if we hadn't already
told them uh that I was abarber.
Speaker (41:03):
I know.
So do you cut your own hair?
Oh, I have before.
Um isn't that kind of hardthough, getting to the back and
doing all that?
You gotta look in the mirrorand do everything backwards.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Yeah, it's kind of annoying.
I I don't really do it much,but uh man, I actually I enjoy
going.
I found a barber shop hereclose to where I live, and I
enjoy going to the barber shopbecause it kind of takes me back
to you know those days and andalso just you know, everybody
likes getting a good haircut.
Speaker (41:31):
You still have the tools?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Oh yeah, I still cut the band's hair and oh really,
oh yeah, I've still I still cuthair.
Speaker (41:38):
So the band, you talk about the band.
Is this the band that you'regonna be bringing to town?
These guys the same band.
All right, okay.
And do you know if you'rebussing it in or are you flying
in and meeting the bus here, ormaybe you're flying in and
somebody's picking up the a lotof times it depends on like
where I'm at before.
And how many shows?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, like so.
If uh if I'm like uh if if it'slike a if I'm out doing like
acoustic stuff, a lot of timesI'll just be out solo or with my
guitar player.
Speaker (42:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And then if we have a full band situation, the the
bus and the band will come comeand meet me.
So I just it'll depend onwhat's going on uh before.
Speaker (42:17):
That's cool.
Now I have to ask you, do youplay cornhole?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker (42:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I haven't played, uh we actually, my wife and I, we
have boards here at the house,uh, but we haven't we haven't
played in a while.
I'm probably a little bit rest.
Speaker (42:30):
The reason I'm asking is, and I touched on it a little
bit ago before we went on theair with the lights and the
cameras and all that, is the daythat you're at Keg's Canal side
here in upstate New York, um,there's what we call Howler's
Cornhole Tournament.
Uh, and it benefits anorganization that uh it's called
22 till there's none.
And um I'm just reading some ofthe comments here already.
(42:55):
Uh, will he be my partner forthe cornhole tournament?
Uh well, I guess it's kind ofwhere I'm going here.
So, anyways, it benefits 22till there's none, which uh it's
about veterans and uh veteransuicide, PTSD, um, for first
responders as well.
Uh, and that's what itbenefits.
It's a great cause.
And Howler is our mascot at thewolf, the radio station.
(43:18):
And by the way, I will I'd liketo brag about this.
You hear, you know, there's alot of wolves.
There's a wolf here, wolfthere, but we are the wolf.
We are W O L F F M.
So just saying.
So nobody, you know, we got thecall letters, we're the real
deal.
So that's cool.
I think it's cool.
But we're having thistournament that day, and that's
(43:39):
why I was kind of wondering whattime you were coming in, and uh
if you want to throw some bagswith us, maybe.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, well, we need to we need to get with Sam and
see what time we're getting intotown because I would be down.
Speaker (43:49):
Okay, yeah, exactly.
You could play in the wolfteam.
Or wait a minute, so Chrissy'ssaying, Will he be my partner
for the cornhole tournament?
I don't know if you can seethis here.
Let me bring it up.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, I don't know.
I can't see comments, but Iyeah, I don't know how I don't
know.
Speaker (44:01):
Hang on, there you go.
Can you see that now?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I can see it now.
Speaker (44:06):
It was her son that you helped out.
He had just broken up with agirlfriend, you gave him some
advice, you know, one of thosethings.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Oh, yeah.
Well, I hope I hope it was goodadvice.
Speaker (44:15):
Yeah, oh I'm she's very I imagine she sounds very
sincere.
It'll be so much fun.
Let's do it.
So, anyways, no, but uh that'swhy I was asking.
It's a great event.
Um that night is when you'replaying there, and it started
out as a Kelsey Hart show, andit still is.
So they're selling tickets forthe Kelsey Hart show, but
(44:37):
starting at one o'clock thatafternoon, we're doing the
cornhole tournament, and um,it's $40 per team.
The bet it all benefits 22 tillthere's none.
Um, and then afterwards,everybody that participated will
be staying for your show aswell on us.
So that's cool.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
That is cool, man.
I hope I can uh I hope I canplay that day.
That'd be fun.
Speaker (44:59):
Oh, all right.
I was talking about 22 tillthere's none.
Uh, this gentleman, just so youknow, I don't uh the gentleman
that you're gonna see there,Scott Cox, he's the guy, he's a
veteran, put it put in a lot oftime.
He's had a lot of I've talkedto him.
It's very heartwarming whathe's done and what he's going
through, what he's been through.
Um, we're doing the best, he'sthe president of that
(45:20):
organization.
Oh man, that's cool.
That's cool.
Thanks, Scott, for uh checkingin too.
So that's cool.
So we'd love to see you.
We'd love to have you come out.
What can we expect that nightfor the show though?
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Man, so we're actually, I mean, um by then
we'll we should have some ofthese new songs worked up, man.
I'm excited to I'm excited tostart getting some of these new
songs that we recorded in the inthe set.
Speaker (45:45):
Is it rocking?
You're gonna be like turning itup a little bit?
Do you do any covers?
What can we expect out ofthere?
Speaker 2 (45:51):
We'll we're gonna throw some we'll throw some
covers in there.
Um yeah, we'll we'll throw somecovers in there, we'll play,
play some, uh, play some newones.
Of course, we'll uh we'llprobably have we'll probably
have play life with you.
Speaker (46:05):
Let me guess.
That'll be the last one afterthe outcome.
You know, no, I don't know.
It's it's cool.
I think, you know, here inupstate New York, you're loved,
Kelsey.
I mean, you you are doing theright thing, you're making it
happen.
Um, appreciate all that you do.
Uh, you know, from a radiostandpoint, and I say this to a
lot of artists as well, I don'tknow how often you hear this,
(46:27):
but um, if it wasn't for theartist putting out great music,
we wouldn't be where we are.
It works both ways.
You need radio, we need you.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Well, I'm super thankful for for you guys, man,
and appreciate all the support.
Speaker (46:40):
What um what was it like when you first heard um
your song on the radio?
When you f when you firstrealized, like, holy crap.
Yeah, number the numbers, andthen hearing life with you on
the radio and all that, you itmust have been crazy.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah, man, what probably what was because for
me, I didn't like I didn't hearit like because it wasn't
playing a lot in in Nashville,um, like early on.
Like I we were getting some, wewere getting radio play, but a
lot of it wasn't here, so Iwasn't like I wasn't really
hearing it on the radio much.
But um, what was really cool tome is getting out on the road
(47:19):
and playing some of these radioshows and doing these things
where they where they hadalready been playing it in their
area and hearing people inthose crowds just sing it back.
That was those first momentswhere I was like, whoa.
Okay.
Speaker (47:36):
I love that.
I just love hearing that.
Um, any big tours?
And do you know anything aboutnext season yet?
Next season.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Uh we don't we don't have a lot um like lined up just
yet.
I mean it's all in the in theworks.
We're yeah, we're we're gonnawe're gonna be hitting it pretty
hard next year.
Um and there's a few thingsthat started started to to show
up on our calendar, but um bythe by the end of the these next
few months, we'll be we'llwe'll know what we're doing.
Speaker (48:03):
The reason I asked was you know, today, of course,
Morgan comes out and uh or histeam just released like you know
all these tour dates andeverything.
So he they got it on it early.
So I didn't know, but uh I knowI know there's probably a lot
you can't say either.
I I totally get that because Ihear all the time too.
So yeah, very, very cool.
Kelsey Hart, cool dude.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Well, thank you, man.
Speaker (48:24):
And we look so forward to seeing you on November 22nd.
And by the way, um MichaelJames says, what's the date of
the tournament?
November 22nd.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
November 22nd.
Speaker (48:35):
40 bucks per team.
That's all, that's cheap.
Uh, it doesn't matter how goodyou are or how bad you are.
Uh, I might want to add there'scash prizes, Kelsey.
So if you can throw a good bag,you could go home with some
cash.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Go home with some cash, money.
Speaker (48:48):
Yeah, you can go home with some cash.
Maybe a bottle of jack.
I don't know.
Do you drink?
What do you drink?
Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yeah, but I I'll drink a I drink a little bit.
I I do like bourbon and andtequila.
Those are those are my two uhif I am drinking, that's what I
usually have.
Speaker (49:02):
Have you um heard about Winter Jack?
Speaker 2 (49:06):
I have not.
Speaker (49:08):
It's got the white label, Jack Dick.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Winter Jack.
And you can get so is it just awinter thing?
Speaker (49:13):
Uh yes, it's only out this time of the year.
You'll have to look into it.
And you know what?
I'll bring you a bottle of itwhen you're here.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Winter Jack.
Do you like it?
Speaker (49:22):
Uh it's very good.
It's like apple, it's got anapple taste.
And I was told that if you takeapple cider, mix it with the uh
winter jack, which is an appletaste to that, you warm it up in
a crock pot, and it's so good.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Dang, that does.
Speaker (49:40):
And it probably knocked the you know what out of you.
Yeah, all right, yeah.
Winter Jack is awesome.
That's what she's saying rightnow.
Yeah, Chris.
I'm gonna have to try.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
I've never heard of the winter jack.
That sounds like somebody Igotta try it.
Speaker (49:51):
Yeah, and my buddy Don Gosselin, do you know Don?
Uh uh, he's with Victory, um,but uh soon to retire.
He goes, I bet Kelsey can tellwhen he is performing if he is
in a market that has beensupporting his music compared to
another market, not supportingyet.
Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yep, yep.
No, absolutely.
That that makes uh makes a bigdifference for sure.
Speaker (50:13):
So it says, I introduced him to it, meaning
me.
I got a bottle for you withcaramel cider.
Caramel cider.
Wow, good stuff, anyways.
Kelsey, I don't want to keep,I'm like rambling here now, but
I just want to say thank you,thank you for coming on.
Skip happens, and uh being apart of what we do.
I share all this with theradio, and uh, you got the song
(50:35):
Fireworks, which is being playedon The Wolf.
Um, and it's kicking ass.
I mean, I'll come right out andsay it's doing really well.
Let's just keep it up.
I know you got other othermusic in the works as well.
Yep.
And uh we look forward toseeing you on November 22nd.
I'm gonna be um, not only willwe bring you a bottle of that
winter jack, uh, I got SkipHappens mugs for you.
(50:56):
I'll bring them to the show soyou can just take them with you,
pack them away, whatever youwant to do.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Well, dude, thank you.
Thank you so much, man.
I appreciate you.
Speaker (51:03):
Yeah, if somebody wanted to, for whatever reason,
they don't know who the hellKelsey Kelsey Hart is.
I don't know why they would notknow who you are, but where can
they go to check out your musicand all that, right?
Yeah, so uh DSPs.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, Kelsey Hart Music.
Um, yeah, mute music's uh it'sanywhere you get music.
So yeah, Kelsey Hart music ismy all my social media handles,
though.
Speaker (51:27):
All right, Kelsey, again, thank you for being here
tonight.
I know we've been on a longtime, but I I appreciate you
taking the time.
Best to you, the wife, and thenewborn.
Oh, yeah.
So that's you said December,right?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Yep, December 9th.
Speaker (51:40):
Yep.
That's the date.
You already know the date.
Is it already planned, orthat's the date?
Speaker 2 (51:45):
That's that's the the due date.
Speaker (51:46):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
God bless you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, well, thank you, buddy.
I appreciate it, man.
Speaker (51:51):
Coast.
I love that.
I love that, absolutely lovethat.
Uh, everybody, it's KelseyHart.
Uh uh, what a great chat.
Uh, from his breakout hit LifeWith You to new songs like
Fireworks and others, uh,proving he's got the saying
power and heart.
Don't miss him on Saturday,November 22nd.
He'll be at Keg's Canal side inJordan.
Uh, it's going to be anincredible night of country
(52:13):
music.
I already know that.
And a big thanks for uh toKelsey for joining us.
And uh thank you all forlistening.
Be sure to subscribe, follow,and catch more artists
conversations.
YouTube.com forward slash atSkip Happens Podcast.
As always, thanks for hangingwith Skip Happens.
Kelsey, I love you.
Stay right there.
We're gonna say goodbye toeverybody.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yes, sir.
Speaker (52:32):
Good night, y'all.
Thanks for watching.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
See y'all.
It's time to do this.
Let's go.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to another edition ofSkip Happens.
Be careful how you say that.
But uh, we're talking with oneof country's brightest new stars
tonight.
His name's Kelsey Hart.
He's got a viral hit uh Lifewith You, inspired by his wife,
and uh debuted in the top 10 onBillboard's country digital
(00:21):
songs chart.
Hit the top 25 at CountryRadio.
I know that for a fact.
And Ray racked up more than 200million global global.
That's such a big number Ican't even say the whole thing.
Uh 200 million global streamsearned him a debut at the Grand
Ole Opry, and not bad for a songthat started as his first dance
at his wedding.
(00:42):
We're gonna talk about thattoo.
Now Kelsey's stepping into anexciting new chapter.
That's the way I look at it.
You got songs like Gonna UhGone with the Wind, I Went to
the Bar, of course, the newsong, which you didn't hear it,
uh, but I was playing it beforewe went live here, uh Fireworks.
And we'll talk about all thatplus life, love, and what fans
can expect when he hits thestage here locally.
(01:03):
We're in upstate New York, andhe's gonna be playing in my
neighborhood at a place calledKeg's Canal Side.
That's gonna be on November22nd.
All right, everybody, there heis.
Yeah, let's welcome Kelsey Hartto Skip Happens, Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How are you doing, buddy?
It's been been a little bit,huh?
Speaker (01:20):
Yeah, it's been a little bit.
Remember, you we had you at theradio station.
We had you come in and do uhwhat we call a what's next
private listener showcase.
You had come out with uh LifeWith You, and it was just on
fire, and your label brought youto town, and you performed for
a room of wolf listeners, atleast 150 listeners in this
room.
Uh, dude, you kicked ass.
(01:41):
That that was phenomenal.
Phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you, buddy.
Well, I had a good time, man.
Speaker (01:46):
Yeah, how's life treating you right now?
Pretty good?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's been great.
We've uh yeah, things are kindof starting to slow down just a
little bit.
We've uh we've got a littlegirl coming in December, so
we're we've been uh getting anursery together and all that
good stuff.
Speaker (02:01):
I you know, obviously, you know, they talk about you a
lot in the show prep we get inradio, but uh I wasn't sure if
you already had the baby thereor if it was like right around
the corner.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, just right around the corner.
So we've been uh we've beenprepping.
Speaker (02:14):
Yeah.
So you already know it's a boyor girl?
Did you little girl?
Little girl.
Do you have a name picked out?
Uh coast.
Coast.
Yeah.
How did you come up with that'skind of cool?
Like, how would you spell it?
Like coast?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Like, C O A S T.
Yeah.
Speaker (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So um that's cool.
Yeah, my wife's uh my wife'smom.
Uh we were trying to figure outyou know, names and going going
over different things, and uhshe just said that randomly one
day, and we we both kind of weboth thought it was cool.
Speaker (02:44):
So yeah, and you know, and I do too.
And then and the couple ofreasons, the big reason is you
don't hear that that often.
Yeah.
So I that's all the more reasonI love that because you know
you hear so many of this and somany of that, and you know, I
never realized I have a sonZach, but I didn't realize how
many kids were called Zach ornamed Zach until we had Zach.
Next thing you know, it's like,okay, he's got four Zach's in
(03:05):
his class.
It's like, wow, where did theyall come from?
I thought this was gonna bepretty good, but no, I get it.
I don't know how many coatsyou're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
My wife's got a pretty uniqueunique name too.
So it's like I think her mom'sjust probably got that the name
and thing down pretty good.
Speaker (03:21):
Say her name because I do have it here.
I just want to make sure it'sOmini.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Omini, yep.
Speaker (03:25):
Omini.
Okay, okay, that is cool.
That's a name, of course.
I haven't until I was reading.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
That was a that was a first for me, too.
Yeah, when I when we first met.
I and almost everybody, youknow, that we uh come across or
whatever, when she's saying hername almost every time somebody
will be like, What?
Speaker (03:43):
You could you could slur that and it would still
sound right.
Yeah, after a few cocktails, afew jacks.
Yes, yeah, yeah, you could slurthat and it'd still sound
right.
That's pretty awesome.
You know, um, Kelsey, you'vehad an incredible year.
You really have.
And uh when you stop and lookat everything that's happened,
the songs, look at the numberson the streams, uh, your Opry
debut.
(04:04):
What's going through your mind?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Man, it's it's honestly been, you know, I've
been in town uh for since 2017,18.
You know, I've started goingback and forth uh from Kentucky
then.
Um, and you know, I've justbeen writing, you know, and kind
of had my head down for what,you know, I planned on when I
first got here.
I was like, you know, I'll youknow, write a few songs, record
(04:28):
them, and start being an artist.
You know, that was, you know, Ithink, of course, you're
delusional, you don't realize,you know, what it takes and
everything.
And I got here and just, youknow, every, you know, every
time I would, you know, thinkI'm getting to the point where
I'm ready to put music out, youknow, I'd set the bar a little
bit higher and be like, no, I'mit's not ready yet.
(04:48):
Like I I want to keep writing,keep writing.
Um, and so that, you know, thatturned into to getting a
publishing deal and being intown even longer before my like
artist stuff started taking off.
So it's like it's been all thispreparation uh for these la
this last like year to actuallyI I've enjoyed the whole
process, but this last year, youknow, has been the first year
(05:11):
that I've actually been able tobe out on the road and be like
playing shows, which is is whatI came here to do.
You know, is what I've whatI've always really wanted to do.
So it it's just really cool toto finally be at a place to
where you know I'm I'm outactually playing the songs for
(05:31):
you know for people that I'vethat I've been working on for so
long, you know.
So cool.
Speaker (05:34):
So cool.
I don't know how you guys doit.
I I really don't.
I mean, you you know, you'reyoung and you made the move to
Nashville in hopes of doing whatyou're doing, and it's
happening.
You have a passion, you have adedication, but you were writing
and you got that publishingdeal, which I'm sure helped
things out a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
A lot, yeah.
Speaker (05:51):
You know, and then you know, putting that to, of
course, the words to music andnow putting out your own songs.
Yeah.
So who did you were any of yourearlier songs, not you as an
artist, but as a writer, did anyof those songs um make it?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Um yeah, well, as far as uh, you know, they never had
any like big radio singles umthat you know, but I had uh Jake
Owen cut cut one.
Uh one of my one of the firstsongs I was a part of when I got
to town.
Speaker (06:21):
Loved you.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Um he put on um one of his it was a uh greatest hits
record.
Um and then uh had a song uhcut by uh Trace Atkins.
Um and then uh Dylan Scott wasanother one that we had a an
outside song with or song cutby.
(06:42):
Um so you know, it was reallycool before, and a lot of those
were even before I even had apublishing deal.
Uh so it was it was really coolto start to get some you know
some songs that were you know,you know, get at least getting
cut.
Speaker (06:59):
How cool is that that you can get that even before
your deal?
I mean, that's gotta tell yousomething.
You have a talent for this.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I mean, well, it it was, you know, a lot of it was,
you know, I was fortunate enoughto get in the room with other
writers that did have deals andand that had like, you know,
relationships with with some ofthese guys.
So, you know, I was fortunateto get in the get in those rooms
and be a part of those thoserights, but yeah, very cool.
unknown (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker (07:28):
Were you, I mean, how did you get into those rooms?
Did it it was it all like whoyou know and who you talk to?
And they said come on.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it early on for me, uh, there
was a girl, her name's LaurelKittleson that worked at uh Big
Machine Records at the time.
And she was uh running mycalendar, like I wasn't
affiliated with the label atall, but she just believed in me
and and said, Hey, I'll uh helprun your calendar, I'll get you
(07:56):
uh rights, I'll help you dothis because I think you know
you got what it takes.
And um, she actually ended upgoing to Curb Records three or
four years later after she'dbeen helping me helping like
facilitate my calendar for awhile.
And when she uh when she wentto Curb, they started hearing
like some of the demos that Ihad been doing, and um she got
(08:20):
me my publishing deal at Curb.
So that's kind of what startedthe whole whole thing, you know.
Speaker (08:25):
Wow, that's cool.
I um not to get off subjecthere, but uh, you know, I'm
looking at the chat, themessages that are coming in.
Uh I don't know if you can seeit or not, but it says uh it's
from Chrissy and says, Kelsey,can I just have a moment to
thank you again as a mom for thekind words of guy-to-guy
encouragement you gave my sonTyler at the Wildcat.
(08:47):
Now, the Wildcat is where wedid that show.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Oh, okay.
Speaker (08:51):
There are words he hasn't forgotten, and I can't
wait to see you next month.
Well, soon to be this month,uh, to thank you again in
person.
That's cool.
That's you know, that's what itmeans for you as an artist to
take the time, even in you know,what we do is a small show, but
still it's that one-on-oneconnection.
Absolutely for you as anartist, and you know what you
(09:14):
what did you say her name was?
Chris Christie?
Chrissy, yes.
Oh, Chrissy.
Chrissy, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh, well, well, that's that's sweet of her to
say.
Speaker (09:21):
Yeah, I'm sure she'll come up and introduce herself.
So yeah.
Well, that's cool, you know,and that ever since that show,
we have heard nothing but greatthings.
Man, our listeners love you,they absolutely love you, you
know.
And then, if I'm not mistaken,I know I'm getting off the
beaten path here.
We'll go there in a minute.
But at that show, there was acouple there that was using Life
(09:41):
With You as their wedding song,and I had them come up and
dance while you sang that song.
I don't know if you rememberthat because you do so many
shows, but yeah, that uh, youknow, right there it shows.
Look what you did.
That's pretty, pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, man, one of my favorite things, man, I you
know, after the shows is gettingto uh getting to talk to people
and hear the stories like that,you know, people that have used
the song for their their firstdance and and what it what it
means to them and stuff.
That's as a songwriter, that'syou know, that's that's what
you're hoping to to do, youknow.
Yeah, those kind of things.
Speaker (10:15):
Was it your decision to go with that as the very first
single to hit radio?
Was that you, or did the labelsay, you know what, I really
think we should do this?
But but whatever, regardlesswhether it was you or whether it
was the label, it was a goodchoice because you knew that
song was going to get played atweddings.
You knew that brides and groomswere gonna go, you know what, I
want that song.
Yeah, that's nothing but a plusfor you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, man, it was uh it was one of those songs that
really just kind of raised itshand on its own.
Like after as soon as you know,I'd put the song um online and
stuff, it just I I had neverseen like a or I had never had
like a viral, like a big viralmoment like that.
(10:56):
And um it, you know, it wasjust one of those it that's the
best, like when the songs pickthemselves, you know, when you
when you kind of take theguesswork out of it and and you
just know that like you know,there's a lot of people out
there that that are wanting tohear this.
Uh so that that song certainlycertainly picked itself and and
it was just cool that that thatit happened to uh to be my wife
(11:20):
and I's first dance song.
And uh, you know, it you know,couldn't have been a couldn't
have been a better one to pickitself, you know.
Speaker (11:27):
Yeah, so and who sang that at the wedding for you?
Did you just what's that?
So life with you, it was yourfirst dance song.
Yep.
Did somebody else sing yoursong?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No, so yeah, we actually we actually had just
like the rough recording uh fromour the day that we wrote it.
Awesome.
Uh and it was uh my buddyplaying keys in a in a writing
room and me singing it, and wejust played that version at at
the wedding.
Speaker (11:56):
God, that's so awesome, dude.
That is so awesome.
Have you um I know here I amoff the beaten path.
What did I tell you?
Skip half this happens, dude.
So have you ever like surprisedsomebody at their wedding?
Like, I'm here, I'm gonna singyour song I'm gonna sing this
song for you.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, yeah.
We actually uh we did uh it waslike right before, maybe like
let's see, Suburnover.
It was like a couple monthsbefore uh the song came out.
Uh so we had put the song onTikTok and it went off on
TikTok, and we did this thing towhere people could like submit
(12:35):
to like have we was gonna sendpeople the song early uh to use
and we we sent it to like threeor four hundred people for them
to use at their wedding beforethe song came out.
And we picked uh we picked oneof them uh instead of sending
the song to them, we contactedthem and I flew out and went and
sang it at their actualwedding, just showed up.
Speaker (12:56):
They didn't know you just showed up, they had no clue
that Kelsey was going to bewalking into the reception with
his guitar to sing the song.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yep, and it was the first sign.
I was a nervous wreck because Ididn't think at that at that
point I haven't even the songwas new, I hadn't played it out
with the band at all, and likehere I was kind of like debuting
it at uh somebody's wedding,you know.
Speaker (13:18):
God you know, I look at I'm getting the goosebumps just
hearing what you're you know,the way you're talking about
that.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Now, uh take us back to whereall this started for you from uh
for you.
You growing up, um who weresome of the outer moments that
made you fall in love withcountry music?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
So it it's kind of funny, like,you know, a lot of my buddies
and and people in town, youknow, they'll tell stories about
how they, you know, theirparent, they grew up, you know,
their parents had them listeningto, you know, George Jones and
Merle Haggard and all that, youknow, and it was like it wasn't
like that for me.
Like my parents, neither one ofmy parents were big country
(13:57):
music fans.
And uh, but my dad, he was abig uh he loved gospel music.
And um so I just remember likemy first like really like
musical memory was uh I raceddirt bikes when I was a kid, and
me and my dad would always thetrack that I raced at was like
an hour uh from our house.
(14:18):
So and he had the same gospelCD in his truck.
And it's like he never reallylistened to the radio, but he
always had that that gospel CDplanned.
And so from as a little kid,that was like my like only
knowledge of music, like wasgospel and just about that CD.
You know, that's pretty coolthough that he had in his truck,
(14:40):
you know, and so we listened tothat a ton, and then um that's
what really got me excited orreally got me interested in
wanting to sing.
And so, you know, I then Istarted doing you know, talent
shows and uh, you know,different things that that my my
mom and dad would set me up forand singing at church and
(15:01):
stuff, and it then it you knowit wasn't until I was probably
in like middle school or so thatI like started you know digging
into country music and likefiguring it figuring that out,
you know.
Speaker (15:15):
Can I ask um when you moved to Nashville, how old were
you?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I was so I started I started coming when I was 24.
Speaker (15:24):
Okay, okay, yeah.
It's but it was a whole newworld for you at that point.
You made a move.
You you you packed up theU-Haul, so to speak, and moved
to Nashville and got your ownplace.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, it was so when I first got out of uh high
school, um, I went to barberschool.
Speaker (15:42):
I was gonna ask you about that, but yes.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, so with no like when I was 18, 19 years old,
there was no plan of being acountry singer.
I mean, I it wasn't even in myI didn't think about it.
Like I I liked to sing.
At that point, I hadn't pickedup a guitar, it wasn't even in
in the works at all.
And um we uh so I went tobarber school, I got a job uh in
(16:09):
my hometown, loved it, like wasjust having a good, you know,
loved cutting hair, love youknow, I was all about it.
I thought that's what I'd bedoing.
Speaker (16:17):
You know, there's great conversations in a barber shop.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker (16:20):
I mean, I was just at one yesterday, and it, you know,
I love these guys, been goingto them for 30 years, so it's
just it's all got it, man.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Oh, I thought, you know, I I would have been there
for 50 years, where you know, Idid I was good with it, and um I
wasn't, you know, early on as abarber, you're you know, it
takes you a little while tobuild up you know your business
and stuff.
Speaker (16:41):
And yep.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I was, you know, I'd be sitting around and my
buddies would be in there thatwould drop by to say hi or
whatever.
And one of them, he alwaysbrought his guitar in.
And if we wasn't busy, him andI would sit there and play and
sing.
He he would play and I wouldsing, and um when you know, when
there wasn't anybody else inthe shop.
And we finally we we were bestbuddies growing up, and we
(17:04):
finally said, you know, we weought to we ought to start a uh
we ought to start a band.
And so we we did the we did thehometown band thing for a
little while and um did that fortwo or three years, and then
you know, so I've been barberingthree or four years at that
time, and then we I startedgoing back and forth to to
Nashville too and and splittingthe time.
(17:25):
I was cutting hair half theweek and writing songs half the
week and staying still living,still living with my parents
too.
Speaker (17:32):
Very cool, very cool.
Where about um, you know, youyou're in Nashville now, you're
in your own place, but uh yeah,I mean obviously I don't know
it's nobody's business whereexactly, but what part of town
are you in?
Are you in Franklin?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So we we are uh outside of Nashville, about 25
minutes in uh Hendersonvillearea.
Speaker (17:51):
Oh yeah, okay.
Yeah, there's a lot of artiststhat live in Hendersonville
area.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Oh yeah.
I know yeah, I see I seeseveral out here running around.
Speaker (18:01):
Like who are your neighbors?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Oh yeah.
Speaker (18:03):
Who's your neighbor?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Anyone uh now our our neighbors are are just uh just
normal.
We got some, yep, we got somegood, we got some good
neighbors, but they're uh no uhno singers or songwriters or
anything.
Speaker (18:17):
What do you got for trick-or-treaters tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know, we actually so we're gonna go, we're
driving to Kentucky to myparents.
We're gonna go uh spendHalloween.
My mom is she loves Halloween,and um every year she does uh
like a chili cookout thing andjust invites all kinds of
people.
And so we're gonna go to herhouse and and do that tomorrow.
(18:40):
Are you we're gonna leave somecandy on the porch?
Speaker (18:43):
Oh that's oh yeah, good luck for that.
Yeah, no, I I don't know.
I you know, hopefully they'rehonest and they don't take the
whole bowl.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah.
Speaker (18:51):
What kind of candy are you leaving?
So I know where to go.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, dude.
I always do the uh we alwaysget the that like variety pack
with the like the Skittles andthe Hershey Ball, like it's
yeah, yeah, yeah.
You get all the yeah, all thedifferent stuff, you know.
Speaker (19:04):
Exactly.
I think my wife has thatupstairs, to be honest with you.
I think that's a popular thing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So y'all have a bunch of trick-or-trigers at your
house?
Speaker (19:10):
Yeah, you know, it's it's kind of not like it used to
be.
We live in a neighborhoodthat's very um just a couple of
streets, which is nice.
You don't have to throwtraffic.
So we do get a lot of the youknow, the little kids, but the
forecast for tomorrow here inupstate New York is uh high
winds, hard rain, and about 40degrees.
So it's not gonna be a goodnight.
(19:31):
I'm gonna be eating a lot ofcandy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, y'all probably ain't gonna sell out.
Speaker (19:35):
No, no, absolutely not.
But there's been other yearswhere it's been in the 60s and a
beautiful night, and everybodygoes out and walks the
neighborhood, you know, which isnice.
So I love it too.
I love it too.
Um, my wife is into it bigtime.
My son Zach, who's downsyndrome, is um he's just by the
way, he loves country music, heloves music in general.
Uh he'll listen, get this,he'll listen uh to K-pop, crank
(19:59):
it.
He loves the group Black Pink.
Okay.
Uh he's in, I don't know if youknow them or not, but he's in
love with uh the lead singerJenny Kim.
They're from South Korea.
Um, but then he'll turn aroundand listen to country.
Or, you know, he listens to mein the afternoon and he'll text
me and go, Time for shout-out,Dad.
So I said, wait a minute, Igotta play this Kelsey Hart
(20:22):
fireworks before we do that.
So that's right.
That's cool.
That's cool.
That's cool.
Tell us about that.
Let's talk about fireworks.
Now that's the latest, uhlatest song you've dropped to
Country Radio.
Tell us about that a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, man.
So Fireworks, um, it it's anoutside song.
It it's not one that I was uh apart of writing.
Uh, but there's uh it was kindof a unique situation how the
song came about.
Um I'll I say it's kind of likethe old school uh version of
finding a song, you know, backwhen uh AR people, you know,
(20:53):
that worked at these labelswould would go out to to
writers' rounds or whatever toto listen to songs.
And that's what happened withfireworks.
The the song had been writtenlike I think a couple days
before, and there was a uh theywere having a writer's round
downtown, and um Rebecca Lyles,that's uh AR at Curb Records, um
(21:14):
she was there uh listening to afriend play the round, and uh
Jordan James, a writer on thesong, was was playing that round
and he he played fireworks, andshe said she had, you know, uh
she was just mingling out therewith a friend and heard the the
hook land on the song and shejust she said she turned and
(21:35):
she's like, man, she's like thatyou know that's really good.
And then she filmed like thesecond part of the song and got
the chorus and um sent it to me,just the video of her in there,
and she's like, Hey, I I thinkthere, you know, this is
something special.
You know, if you know these anyof these guys, she's like,
maybe see if you can get thiswork tape or this demo if
they've got it.
And um so her and I kind ofkind of went on the hunt and got
(21:57):
got the work tape, and bothwere just thought that the song
was was really strong.
I you know, lyrically, Ithought you know it was great,
the melodies were great.
Um, and I knew the uh I knewone of the writers well and and
called him and was just like,man, I was like, you gotta send
me this song.
Speaker (22:18):
So I oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, no, I mean that that's kind of the the story of
where it it how it got to me.
Speaker (22:25):
I had no idea.
I thought, yeah, I guess Ishould have read a little bit
better, but um I had no idea youdid not write that because you
are such a good songwriter, andthat song is so strong.
You're such a strongsongwriter, and that's such a
strong song, and uh whatever itwas, it definitely stood out,
and they knew that Kelsey neededto cut this.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That's right, man.
I yeah, I was fortunate thatthey let me cut it.
I was excited about that.
Speaker (22:52):
How does uh for somebody that might be watching
this, Kelsey, how does that workfor you as an artist and and a
songwriter?
I mean, uh it's what you youget songs pitched to you.
This is what I don't thinkpeople understand a lot of that.
I think you know, you go to thewhat they call write-arounds, I
know what they are, but maybesomebody watching or somebody
listening to this does not.
(23:13):
Yeah, but there's writerrounds, and for example, you
just talked about fireworks, howpeople are just there playing
like songs or writing a song,and they're trying everybody's
throwing their ideas into themix, is right?
That's how it works.
So there, I mean that this ishuge, this is big time stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So so a writer's round, justyeah, just to kind of because I
I get used to you know, justpeople knowing knowing what that
is, but but here in Nashville,yeah, they'll they'll have those
to where writers, you know,throughout the week, they'll
have, you know, all over town.
They they do different uhevents to where writers can can
show up and play the songs thatthey had written that week or
(23:55):
whenever they had written them.
Uh they you know will generallyplay their their best three or
four songs.
And it's just kind of astorytelling round where you go
back and forth and you you playand um you know tell about your
song.
And and you know, there'speople out you never know who's
gonna be out in the crowd that'sgonna hear that song.
And exactly just like whathappened with with fireworks,
you know.
(24:15):
It's you you never know.
unknown (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker (24:18):
See, I just don't think a lot of people realize that I
do, and you do, of course, twodifferent sides, but we we're
all got the same goal.
Um, you know what goes intothat, and that it's it's
actually big business.
And you guys get together, thisis your livelihood, and
something's gonna come out ofthese rounds.
And I anybody that's watchingthis or listening to this, if
you ever get the opportunityjust to sit in and listen, you
(24:41):
need to do it.
It's amazing.
And you never know who's gonnashow up at these rounds, you
don't, man.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh you know, those nights, like I'm sure you've
probably been to the listeningroom cafe and absolutely, um,
you know, it's such a uniqueexperience.
I I think we get used to youknow doing them so much that it
kind of becomes you know justsomething that that we do
playing these rounds.
But I think for a lot ofpeople, if you think about their
(25:06):
musical experience or whatever,it's going to see a full band
or you know, rarely do you getto to sit and listen to you know
people tell stories and singthe songs that they've written.
And so I think you know, forpeople that are listening that
maybe haven't been to like thelistening room or the bluebird
cafe or some of these places, itand and if especially if you're
(25:28):
into the lyric and songwriting,it it is uh a really unique
experience for sure.
Speaker (25:34):
Yeah, that's cool.
And how does it when you sit inone of those like a songwriting
session, and you you sit thereand you you play off of each
other's body language, or howdoes all that work?
You somebody throws a word outthere and then you're gonna add
to it, or hey, you know, thishappened to me today, and you
throw that out there, and yeah,it dude, it's honestly it's it's
(25:56):
different every time.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I mean, I I do I do like to go in uh to a write at
least with a few good ideas, um,you know, just titles that um
that we can work off of.
Uh, but you know, that's thebiggest thing.
If you can come in with a titleI and you have a good idea to
write towards, like, you know,that that's a big deal.
(26:17):
And then then, you know, youcan always try to find a cool
melody, but the the idea is isis kind of where I like to
start.
And and you usually where itstarts, and we'll each go around
the room, and you know, if Ihave two or three ideas, I'll
tell them and kind of explainlike this is my idea, and this
(26:37):
is kind of how I envision itbeing, you know, the song being
wrote, and you know, we'll goaround the room and and what
whatever we think is the bestone is the one we'll write, you
know.
Speaker (26:48):
So in the life of Kelsey Hart right now with a
little one coming up, are youhaving like thoughts of
different songs you could writeabout your your little girl?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Oh man.
Speaker (26:56):
I mean, you know, you don't want to go like a my
little girl thing like McGrawdid, but still you uh I I could
see you doing something likethat.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah.
Well, it's funny you said that,man.
We just uh we actually just uhI just wrote one the other
night.
I knew it.
Um and we uh and we got itrecorded.
Yeah, we went in the studio uha couple days ago and and and
got it recorded.
So we're we're real excitedabout it.
Speaker (27:20):
I kind of figured, you know, being a songwriter, being
creative and all that, that andyou know, your situation right
now, soon to be a a dad.
Um that's pretty cool.
And a daughter, no less.
I mean, all kids are wonderful,and you know, daughters, uh
nothing like it, man.
I I've got three besides mylittle boy.
Well, he's not little, he's 24now, but still he um, you know,
(27:42):
girls are always daddy's girls.
Yeah, I'm just telling you,you're gonna have it's a whole
new life, dude.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I can't even I can't even imagine.
Everybody, you know, keepstalking to me about, you know,
man, it's just you know, it'syour cat just don't even know
until it's here.
Speaker (27:58):
And even you know, even for you know, your family, your
parents, and all that, and tobe grandparents.
Now, I don't know if they'regrandparents yet at all.
With that, I don't know, Idon't know if you have siblings
or anything like that, but um,you know, that it's still it's a
special moment.
My three daughters have givenme eight grandkids, and uh it
just I love it.
Love it, absolutely beautiful,dude.
(28:20):
It's beautiful all the wayaround.
Let's talk about um the grandold opera debut when you did
that.
I know I hear you know, Ialways ask artists, and I pretty
much get the same answer whereholy crap, I was scared to
death.
I stood in that circle and itwas a feeling like none other.
But you tell me in your words,how was that for you?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Man, it was as it was as cool as I could have
imagined it to be, honestly.
Like, I mean it everything Ihad it built up in my head, it
was even it was honestly evencooler than that.
Like I we um just the wholeexperience, my living as close
as you know, we're only myparents only live an hour and a
half from here.
So my nice my whole town prettymuch came.
(29:01):
And and we uh yeah, man, it itwas just as much as you know,
you know, we all know that howspecial the opera is and how uh
you know what what it means toplay there.
But it's also it's like you putall that together with like
everybody that you really loveand care about uh that's there
(29:24):
to witness it.
Um and and then they um likeafterwards we you know we all
went um across the road to thisuh uh big you know restaurant
bar and got to hang out for afew hours and stuff and really
just soak it all in.
And you know, it's it's just uhit was just a great great
(29:46):
night.
And it's a first moment like towhere because people I think
doing this like people know likethat you're like do you know
doing music or like in town likein Nashville trying to To be a
singer, you know, people knowthat, but it's like it's one of
(30:06):
those big moments that you knowI feel like a lot of people
actually get to see and put avisual with like, oh, like this,
you know, this thing that thathe's been messing around doing
or whatever, like maybesomething's working.
Speaker (30:24):
I mean, maybe something's working.
Obviously, it is.
You're standing there on thestage of the Grand O'Lopy.
And uh, it's such a place.
I mean, I I get the goosebumpswhen I go into that building.
And and then, of course, thatdowntown when I walk into that
mother church right there, it'slike, oh my lord.
It's just, I just love that.
And uh there's a it's a feelinglike no no other.
(30:45):
As a matter of fact, uh, it'stheir 100th um anniversary for
the Grand Old Opera, and they'vebeen taking radio people, and
uh, I've had a lot of my friendsand get that invite to go and
you know introduce somebody.
I applied, I haven't heardanything, so I guess I'm out of
the game, but uh still it's kindof cool though.
And it's like, yeah, what wouldI do if if they did write back
(31:06):
and say, yeah, you can uh, youknow, because they asked me who
my favorite artist was.
Uh they go through a lot ofstuff.
Of course, it put Kelsey Hart.
Um, no, there you go.
I tell you, I'll be honest withyou, I don't remember what I
wrote down, but uh it was cool.
It was cool.
I should have if I had known.
Uh yeah, exactly.
So that whole Opry thing, Imean, and then that's one thing.
(31:28):
And then as you watched yourstreams and all those numbers on
social media go through theroof, I mean, what were you
thinking?
Were you doing that yourself?
Number one, were you doing allthe social media?
Now of course we know you havea team, but still in the
beginning, how did all did youdo that?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Uh well, you know, it's I think even like when life
with you was happening, uh, I'dalready I already had some
people helping.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Um, but um, yeah, I mean I I have access to all my
my pages.
You know, I get to look look atthem all.
I don't I don't do everythingon them, but I I do get to, you
know.
Speaker (32:05):
How do you um as Kelsey Hart, how do you handle uh
criticism?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Man, I you know, I I think I I try to it it's a it's
a funny thing to try to like tonavigate.
And we're my wife and I wastalking about this with like you
know, I I feel like even withcomments and different things on
on social media, it's like youknow, you can you can have a
hundred great comments, peoplejust loving you, loving you,
(32:35):
loving you.
Speaker (32:36):
And then there's that one.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
It then one bad one that you know tell you know it's
talking about how bad you suckor whatever, and it's like you
know, it's almost something youhave to at first, you know, it
it does like I think get underyour skin and really bother you,
and you fo you hyper focus onthat one, you know, and it's
like I don't know if that's justlike just human nature or what,
(32:59):
but it's you know, I I thinkafter a while you do learn to
just feel like, man, you youain't never gonna make everybody
happy.
Speaker (33:06):
You know, it's the same way in radio.
Of course, people, you know,some people love you, some
people hate you, but uh, youknow, with the naysayers, I just
say thanks for listeningbecause they're listening.
They're listening, and believeme, if somebody gave you a
negative comment for whateverreason, I cannot see that
happening, but the way the worldis, yeah, it does happen.
You know, I just say thanks forlistening.
Thanks for listening.
(33:27):
Thanks for yeah, thanks forbeing there, dude.
That's a good that's a goodthat's I'm standing on that
grand old opery stage.
You are not.
So if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
So well, you know, and and the reality of it is,
you know, when you're in aposition to where, you know,
you're you're putting out, youknow, as a singer, artist, um,
and even like with you at radioand podcasts and stuff, like
we're you know, you're you'rewe're putting out something for
people to judge and to to listento and give their opinion on.
And you know, it's like that'sit is what it is.
Speaker (34:00):
No, and and the reason I ask that, Kelsey, because a
lot of people don't know how tohandle it.
And I think it's good to hearfrom somebody of your stature
that you know, this is how Ihandle it.
Because it, like you said aminute ago, um, it doesn't
matter who you are, you're gonnahave people out here that you
know you're gonna have yourhaters.
I don't know, haters are gonnahate.
What's that saying?
I don't know, sound like that,but uh, you know, yeah.
(34:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I was just gonna say, I thought, you know, I think at
the end of the day, as long asyou're, you know, with with in
in my lane of what I do, youknow, I'm putting out what I
feel like and you know, to bethe my best foot forward.
Yeah, you know.
So I, you know, that's that'sall I can do, and I think that's
all anybody can do withwhatever they're yeah.
Speaker (34:42):
Did you just you just wrapped up Rustless Road, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How was how was all that?
It was a little crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
It was great, man.
We we played, I think like 16or so shows with them guys.
unknown (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Um, and that was actually more like it was at the
top of the year.
Um, but it was uh it was great,man.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
We got to see a lot of coolplaces, and and those uh those
guys were were really cool tohang with and uh got to play a
lot of cool venues.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker (35:15):
Are we um gonna see a full album?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So we're honestly like we're so we just cut three
songs, we're going back to thetop of January, cutting a few
more.
unknown (35:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Um the word, like we haven't like said album yet,
okay, but we're I mean, we'rewe're gonna have the the
material to to do an album if wewant, but also it's kind of um
I feel like we're kind of livingin a time too to where like you
know, I don't know if if wewant to do a full length or if
we want to kind of just umstagger singles, you know,
(35:51):
throughout the year and justkind of and kind of see.
I I don't know.
We're we don't really have arelease plan for the music yet,
but we have gotcha.
Speaker (35:58):
Yeah, I I hear from other artists that uh they're
kind of going with uh notnecessarily the full album, but
they're just drop singles alongthe way.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah.
Speaker (36:07):
Just here it is, here's another new one.
Even though radio's still onthis one, we're putting this one
out.
And they just keep it goingthat way.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, and you know, it's not even like a it's to me,
it's a uh I I think the wordlike single, like kind of
especially like with you know,when you have like a radio
single, it's like that's that'syour radio single, but like as
far as like DSPs and and andeverything go, it's like that
that whole thing, it's like youalmost kind have to keep pumping
(36:36):
music you know into into thatsystem, you know, and it's like
absolutely what we've what we'velearned is like that that every
like six to eight weeks, youknow, releasing a new track that
uh you know can that can go tothe DSPs that are giving people
new material to listen to, youknow, and that you can market uh
(36:57):
each one of those every six toeight weeks pretty hard versus
you know putting out a full bodyof work and then you know uh
yeah.
Speaker (37:07):
What is um your hometown, your actual hometown?
What is the name of that?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Um Muhlenberg County, it's where I grew up, Kentucky.
Speaker (37:15):
What was it again?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Muhlenberg County.
Speaker (37:18):
Muhlenberg?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Muhlenberg County.
Have you ever heard John PrimeParadise?
Speaker (37:23):
Yes, yes, all right.
So if I was to uh drive on themain drag heading into that
town, this is a fun question Iask everybody.
Yeah if you talk to somebodyabout the podcast, he's gonna go
to jail.
Did he ask you this?
Uh yes.
So what is the um the firstthing you see when you drive
into your little town?
What if I'm coming in the maindrag?
(37:43):
Yeah, so if you're coming intobecause it's a small little
town, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah.
So if you're coming intocentral city where my where my
parents live, you're gonna getoff of you're gonna get off the
interstate.
Speaker (37:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And um you're gonna see a sign that says, you know,
welcome, welcome to CentralCity, where uh uh what's it say?
Like where music lives, uhhome, you know, home of you
know, home of John Prime, allthis stuff right there.
Speaker (38:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it, you know, I'veactually I actually think I've
seen that picture.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, and you'll see a bigwater tower that says Central
City.
Speaker (38:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And um, then you know, you'll you'll go on into
town and and the first thingyou're gonna see is is my
favorite Mexican restaurant onyour way in.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And uh, and then you'll uh once you you head
downtown there, you'll you'llpass McDonald's.
Speaker (38:34):
Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
No Chick-fil-A.
Speaker (38:37):
No, no Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Chick-fil-A ain't made it there yet.
Speaker (38:40):
Oh man, I'm I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
No, it dude, it's we have uh Imean it we got the the the main
one, like we got the McDonald'suh subway, El Paceros, yeah,
yeah, okay.
That which is our Mexicanrestaurant.
But we I mean it's pretty uhyeah, there ain't a whole lot.
Speaker (39:01):
Let me ask you, Kelsey, you get one free day.
Yeah, I get some of my funquestions here.
You get one free day, no calls,no shows, no work.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Oh man.
Anymore, man.
I just it's if I don't haveanything going on, it is as
rare, as little as I'm at home.
Um, my wife and I just lovejust kicking back on the couch
and watching a movie and youknow, reeling out.
Speaker (39:31):
Binge watch anything on those days?
Do you get together and justuh, you know what?
Let's watch, you know, allthese series of whatever on
Netflix or whatever.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Man, well, like during October, we watch, I
mean, we'll watch a and we'llwatch one a night, probably.
Just uh uh, you know, we watcha Halloween or scary movie just
about every night in October.
Speaker (39:52):
Oh well, my son loves to do that.
Then he can't sleep.
It's like then why do you dothat?
You know, yeah, or you'llsleep, he'll make sure the
shades up, the lights are on,you know.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh yeah.
Speaker (40:02):
So so why do you do that?
You know, but uh yeah.
Um if you could live anywherein the world, where would it be?
I know you're in Nashville now,and I think you know, this is
where you wanted to be, but ifyou had a choice to live
anywhere, would it be Nashvilleor where where would it be?
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Man, yeah, I think it would be, you know, just
because I'm I'm I'm right whereI want to be because I'm yeah,
I'm right where you know I'm I'mdoing exactly what I want to be
doing.
And Nashville is I loveNashville, and I'm still fairly
close to my family.
Speaker (40:38):
That's I know you were talking about it the hour and a
half time to get from point A topoint B.
I think that's pretty good.
And especially now you got thelittle one coming.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
So I I think I'm right where I want to be.
Speaker (40:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right.
Um, you know, what's somethingpeople would never guess about
you?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Oh man, well, probably if we hadn't already
told them uh that I was abarber.
Speaker (41:03):
I know.
So do you cut your own hair?
Oh, I have before.
Um isn't that kind of hardthough, getting to the back and
doing all that?
You gotta look in the mirrorand do everything backwards.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Yeah, it's kind of annoying.
I I don't really do it much,but uh man, I actually I enjoy
going.
I found a barber shop hereclose to where I live, and I
enjoy going to the barber shopbecause it kind of takes me back
to you know those days and andalso just you know, everybody
likes getting a good haircut.
Speaker (41:31):
You still have the tools?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Oh yeah, I still cut the band's hair and oh really,
oh yeah, I've still I still cuthair.
Speaker (41:38):
So the band, you talk about the band.
Is this the band that you'regonna be bringing to town?
These guys the same band.
All right, okay.
And do you know if you'rebussing it in or are you flying
in and meeting the bus here, ormaybe you're flying in and
somebody's picking up the a lotof times it depends on like
where I'm at before.
And how many shows?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, like so.
If uh if I'm like uh if if it'slike a if I'm out doing like
acoustic stuff, a lot of timesI'll just be out solo or with my
guitar player.
Speaker (42:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And then if we have a full band situation, the the
bus and the band will come comeand meet me.
So I just it'll depend onwhat's going on uh before.
Speaker (42:17):
That's cool.
Now I have to ask you, do youplay cornhole?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker (42:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I haven't played, uh we actually, my wife and I, we
have boards here at the house,uh, but we haven't we haven't
played in a while.
I'm probably a little bit rest.
Speaker (42:30):
The reason I'm asking is, and I touched on it a little
bit ago before we went on theair with the lights and the
cameras and all that, is the daythat you're at Keg's Canal side
here in upstate New York, um,there's what we call Howler's
Cornhole Tournament.
Uh, and it benefits anorganization that uh it's called
22 till there's none.
And um I'm just reading some ofthe comments here already.
(42:55):
Uh, will he be my partner forthe cornhole tournament?
Uh well, I guess it's kind ofwhere I'm going here.
So, anyways, it benefits 22till there's none, which uh it's
about veterans and uh veteransuicide, PTSD, um, for first
responders as well.
Uh, and that's what itbenefits.
It's a great cause.
And Howler is our mascot at thewolf, the radio station.
(43:18):
And by the way, I will I'd liketo brag about this.
You hear, you know, there's alot of wolves.
There's a wolf here, wolfthere, but we are the wolf.
We are W O L F F M.
So just saying.
So nobody, you know, we got thecall letters, we're the real
deal.
So that's cool.
I think it's cool.
But we're having thistournament that day, and that's
(43:39):
why I was kind of wondering whattime you were coming in, and uh
if you want to throw some bagswith us, maybe.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, well, we need to we need to get with Sam and
see what time we're getting intotown because I would be down.
Speaker (43:49):
Okay, yeah, exactly.
You could play in the wolfteam.
Or wait a minute, so Chrissy'ssaying, Will he be my partner
for the cornhole tournament?
I don't know if you can seethis here.
Let me bring it up.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, I don't know.
I can't see comments, but Iyeah, I don't know how I don't
know.
Speaker (44:01):
Hang on, there you go.
Can you see that now?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I can see it now.
Speaker (44:06):
It was her son that you helped out.
He had just broken up with agirlfriend, you gave him some
advice, you know, one of thosethings.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Oh, yeah.
Well, I hope I hope it was goodadvice.
Speaker (44:15):
Yeah, oh I'm she's very I imagine she sounds very
sincere.
It'll be so much fun.
Let's do it.
So, anyways, no, but uh that'swhy I was asking.
It's a great event.
Um that night is when you'replaying there, and it started
out as a Kelsey Hart show, andit still is.
So they're selling tickets forthe Kelsey Hart show, but
(44:37):
starting at one o'clock thatafternoon, we're doing the
cornhole tournament, and um,it's $40 per team.
The bet it all benefits 22 tillthere's none.
Um, and then afterwards,everybody that participated will
be staying for your show aswell on us.
So that's cool.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
That is cool, man.
I hope I can uh I hope I canplay that day.
That'd be fun.
Speaker (44:59):
Oh, all right.
I was talking about 22 tillthere's none.
Uh, this gentleman, just so youknow, I don't uh the gentleman
that you're gonna see there,Scott Cox, he's the guy, he's a
veteran, put it put in a lot oftime.
He's had a lot of I've talkedto him.
It's very heartwarming whathe's done and what he's going
through, what he's been through.
Um, we're doing the best, he'sthe president of that
(45:20):
organization.
Oh man, that's cool.
That's cool.
Thanks, Scott, for uh checkingin too.
So that's cool.
So we'd love to see you.
We'd love to have you come out.
What can we expect that nightfor the show though?
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Man, so we're actually, I mean, um by then
we'll we should have some ofthese new songs worked up, man.
I'm excited to I'm excited tostart getting some of these new
songs that we recorded in the inthe set.
Speaker (45:45):
Is it rocking?
You're gonna be like turning itup a little bit?
Do you do any covers?
What can we expect out ofthere?
Speaker 2 (45:51):
We'll we're gonna throw some we'll throw some
covers in there.
Um yeah, we'll we'll throw somecovers in there, we'll play,
play some, uh, play some newones.
Of course, we'll uh we'llprobably have we'll probably
have play life with you.
Speaker (46:05):
Let me guess.
That'll be the last one afterthe outcome.
You know, no, I don't know.
It's it's cool.
I think, you know, here inupstate New York, you're loved,
Kelsey.
I mean, you you are doing theright thing, you're making it
happen.
Um, appreciate all that you do.
Uh, you know, from a radiostandpoint, and I say this to a
lot of artists as well, I don'tknow how often you hear this,
(46:27):
but um, if it wasn't for theartist putting out great music,
we wouldn't be where we are.
It works both ways.
You need radio, we need you.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Well, I'm super thankful for for you guys, man,
and appreciate all the support.
Speaker (46:40):
What um what was it like when you first heard um
your song on the radio?
When you f when you firstrealized, like, holy crap.
Yeah, number the numbers, andthen hearing life with you on
the radio and all that, you itmust have been crazy.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah, man, what probably what was because for
me, I didn't like I didn't hearit like because it wasn't
playing a lot in in Nashville,um, like early on.
Like I we were getting some, wewere getting radio play, but a
lot of it wasn't here, so Iwasn't like I wasn't really
hearing it on the radio much.
But um, what was really cool tome is getting out on the road
(47:19):
and playing some of these radioshows and doing these things
where they where they hadalready been playing it in their
area and hearing people inthose crowds just sing it back.
That was those first momentswhere I was like, whoa.
Okay.
Speaker (47:36):
I love that.
I just love hearing that.
Um, any big tours?
And do you know anything aboutnext season yet?
Next season.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Uh we don't we don't have a lot um like lined up just
yet.
I mean it's all in the in theworks.
We're yeah, we're we're gonnawe're gonna be hitting it pretty
hard next year.
Um and there's a few thingsthat started started to to show
up on our calendar, but um bythe by the end of the these next
few months, we'll be we'llwe'll know what we're doing.
Speaker (48:03):
The reason I asked was you know, today, of course,
Morgan comes out and uh or histeam just released like you know
all these tour dates andeverything.
So he they got it on it early.
So I didn't know, but uh I knowI know there's probably a lot
you can't say either.
I I totally get that because Ihear all the time too.
So yeah, very, very cool.
Kelsey Hart, cool dude.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Well, thank you, man.
Speaker (48:24):
And we look so forward to seeing you on November 22nd.
And by the way, um MichaelJames says, what's the date of
the tournament?
November 22nd.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
November 22nd.
Speaker (48:35):
40 bucks per team.
That's all, that's cheap.
Uh, it doesn't matter how goodyou are or how bad you are.
Uh, I might want to add there'scash prizes, Kelsey.
So if you can throw a good bag,you could go home with some
cash.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Go home with some cash, money.
Speaker (48:48):
Yeah, you can go home with some cash.
Maybe a bottle of jack.
I don't know.
Do you drink?
What do you drink?
Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yeah, but I I'll drink a I drink a little bit.
I I do like bourbon and andtequila.
Those are those are my two uhif I am drinking, that's what I
usually have.
Speaker (49:02):
Have you um heard about Winter Jack?
Speaker 2 (49:06):
I have not.
Speaker (49:08):
It's got the white label, Jack Dick.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Winter Jack.
And you can get so is it just awinter thing?
Speaker (49:13):
Uh yes, it's only out this time of the year.
You'll have to look into it.
And you know what?
I'll bring you a bottle of itwhen you're here.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Winter Jack.
Do you like it?
Speaker (49:22):
Uh it's very good.
It's like apple, it's got anapple taste.
And I was told that if you takeapple cider, mix it with the uh
winter jack, which is an appletaste to that, you warm it up in
a crock pot, and it's so good.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Dang, that does.
Speaker (49:40):
And it probably knocked the you know what out of you.
Yeah, all right, yeah.
Winter Jack is awesome.
That's what she's saying rightnow.
Yeah, Chris.
I'm gonna have to try.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
I've never heard of the winter jack.
That sounds like somebody Igotta try it.
Speaker (49:51):
Yeah, and my buddy Don Gosselin, do you know Don?
Uh uh, he's with Victory, um,but uh soon to retire.
He goes, I bet Kelsey can tellwhen he is performing if he is
in a market that has beensupporting his music compared to
another market, not supportingyet.
Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yep, yep.
No, absolutely.
That that makes uh makes a bigdifference for sure.
Speaker (50:13):
So it says, I introduced him to it, meaning
me.
I got a bottle for you withcaramel cider.
Caramel cider.
Wow, good stuff, anyways.
Kelsey, I don't want to keep,I'm like rambling here now, but
I just want to say thank you,thank you for coming on.
Skip happens, and uh being apart of what we do.
I share all this with theradio, and uh, you got the song
(50:35):
Fireworks, which is being playedon The Wolf.
Um, and it's kicking ass.
I mean, I'll come right out andsay it's doing really well.
Let's just keep it up.
I know you got other othermusic in the works as well.
Yep.
And uh we look forward toseeing you on November 22nd.
I'm gonna be um, not only willwe bring you a bottle of that
winter jack, uh, I got SkipHappens mugs for you.
(50:56):
I'll bring them to the show soyou can just take them with you,
pack them away, whatever youwant to do.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Well, dude, thank you.
Thank you so much, man.
I appreciate you.
Speaker (51:03):
Yeah, if somebody wanted to, for whatever reason,
they don't know who the hellKelsey Kelsey Hart is.
I don't know why they would notknow who you are, but where can
they go to check out your musicand all that, right?
Yeah, so uh DSPs.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, Kelsey Hart Music.
Um, yeah, mute music's uh it'sanywhere you get music.
So yeah, Kelsey Hart music ismy all my social media handles,
though.
Speaker (51:27):
All right, Kelsey, again, thank you for being here
tonight.
I know we've been on a longtime, but I I appreciate you
taking the time.
Best to you, the wife, and thenewborn.
Oh, yeah.
So that's you said December,right?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Yep, December 9th.
Speaker (51:40):
Yep.
That's the date.
You already know the date.
Is it already planned, orthat's the date?
Speaker 2 (51:45):
That's that's the the due date.
Speaker (51:46):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
God bless you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, well, thank you, buddy.
I appreciate it, man.
Speaker (51:51):
Coast.
I love that.
I love that, absolutely lovethat.
Uh, everybody, it's KelseyHart.
Uh uh, what a great chat.
Uh, from his breakout hit LifeWith You to new songs like
Fireworks and others, uh,proving he's got the saying
power and heart.
Don't miss him on Saturday,November 22nd.
He'll be at Keg's Canal side inJordan.
Uh, it's going to be anincredible night of country
(52:13):
music.
I already know that.
And a big thanks for uh toKelsey for joining us.
And uh thank you all forlistening.
Be sure to subscribe, follow,and catch more artists
conversations.
YouTube.com forward slash atSkip Happens Podcast.
As always, thanks for hangingwith Skip Happens.
Kelsey, I love you.
Stay right there.
We're gonna say goodbye toeverybody.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yes, sir.
Speaker (52:32):
Good night, y'all.
Thanks for watching.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
See y'all.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.