Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This week on Country on Deck, like right after this had
happened, I was like, did you excuse me, Sir?
And they're like, hunting. Excuse me, Sir.
Yeah. Did you see the.
Did you see the biggest grizzly of your entire life right behind
over there? They're like, wait, what?
I was like, yeah, They just ran straight to where you guys were
(00:20):
going. Discover the stories of rising
country stars. Country on Deck with Josh
Maddie. Kick off your boots and settle
in country on this. About to begin.
(00:46):
Josh Maddie's here. Stars on the rise.
Voices of hope, Dreams in their eyes.
Singer songwriters, stories on phone.
Heart to wander. Hearts out of bone from Dusty
(01:06):
Rhodes, she writes. Angelines captures their
journey, shares their fights. Country on deck.
We're tuning in. Well, the new star stories are
coming in from a small town. Dreams they're gonna take you
(01:29):
away. Country on deck with just that
day. Hello and welcome to another
episode of Country on Deck, where we sit down with today's
rising country stars and help you discover the stories behind
(01:50):
their music. I'm your host, Josh Maddie, and
I'm back at my desk in Connecticut with another rising
country star on the show this week.
But first, if you missed our conversation from last week, we
sat down to talk to Jesse Desourcy and we talked to Jesse
(02:10):
about trying out for The Voice on NBC and the advice given to
him by Blake Shelton. You know, he had mentioned about
my pitch and everything. It's funny too, because he
haunts me now in my head becauseI'll be tuning my guitar.
You know, sometimes you got to tune by ear quick, especially
with a visual impairment. I'll think I got it perfectly in
tune, and then I'll go check it on the real tuner and I'll be
(02:32):
just everything's a little sharpand I'm like, dude, he's right.
You hear Blake Shelton in your ear, Like, yeah, Jesse, you're a
little sharp. Yeah, yeah, I think I'll be
stuck with that one for a while.You can listen to our entire
conversation with Jesse Desourcy.
That episode is streaming below this episode on the platform
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that you're listening on. And don't forget to hit that
follow button on the platform that you're listening on.
We release new conversations with new rising country stars
every single Friday and we don'twant you to miss one.
And if you're already subscribedto the show, first, thank you so
much for doing that. I really appreciate it.
And 2nd, consider sharing the show with a friend so that they
(03:17):
can listen every single Friday just like you do.
In addition to having him on thepodcast last week, Jesse, the
source, he was one of the artists that played our recent
Nashville Style writers round atthe Barn in Groton, CT.
And we're going to be back at the Barn on October 8th.
Can't believe we'll be back there for another show.
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These shows just keep racking upand I'm just humbled every
single time we get to walk in the door and and be there and
listen to the music and and the stories.
Bring a little bit of Nashville to New England each month at The
Barn in in Groton, CT Thanks to The Barn for being a great
partner and and allowing us to use their facility and and their
(04:03):
stage. You're invited.
We would love to see you on October 8th.
For the next one, you can find the entire lineup of artists
that are going to be performing on our Instagram account at
Country on Deck. In addition to all the original
music and the storytelling and bringing a little bit of
Nashville to New England on October 8th, we also have your
(04:27):
chance thanks to the Palace Theatre in Stanford,
Connecticut. Thanks to the Palace Theatre, we
have your chance to win a pair of tickets.
November 14th, It's a Friday, a pair of tickets to see Tyler
Rich. He puts on an amazing concert.
We had the opportunity to see him in 2023.
(04:50):
We even had him on the podcast in 2023 where we chatted with
him and he told us all about howhe got his career started.
That first single, I used to print out little cards, almost
like little business cards, but little promo cards and had my
picture on the front and on the back it said follow me on
Instagram and shoot me a direct message and I'll send you a link
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to a free song. And so I would walk around
festivals, Stagecoach in California and literally with
like 5000 cards and I would walkaround and I would just tell
people that I was playing the festival next year and that the
festival was letting me in a year early to promote ahead of
time. And I was always lying.
(05:34):
You know the. Truest form of actual like
guerrilla marketing. Now there's bots and stuff that
do it and it, it ruined everything.
But man, I would, I would sit onlike Stairmaster like steps at
the gym like for about 30 minutes before doing weights and
I would sit there for 30 minutesjust walking uphill going on
people's posts. You know, if I was going to play
a show at some honky tonk somewhere in California that I
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knew that Chase Rise or Sam Huntor like Dan and Shay or somebody
was Dustin Lynch, somebody was playing the weekend before I was
playing or something, or they had just played and I was going
to be there. And I would go to all those
hashtags and all those posts of people in that city and I would
like the pictures and I would comment, you know, I hope I see
you next week. DM me for a free song kind of
thing, you know. And so I would do that.
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And that led to me getting to play bigger shows because then I
started to grow a bit of a fan base in California.
And once it was my own shows opening for people, I would go
out to the line ahead of time and walk up and down the line
and just hand out those cards tothe first few 100 people, create
a relationship, you know, as genuine as I could in the short
amount of time you're given. And then knowing that when they
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got inside that those are for sure going to be the first
couple 100 people I see in frontof the stage because they're the
first people in line. And so those are also usually
the most passionate fans. And so my goal was just make
sure I could at least grasp evenjust 10 to 15 of them a shown
like truly connect and that hopes that the rest would just
work itself out. And then that turned into I'd
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come out on stage, just an acoustic guitar and, you know,
all the people in the front, I already kind of knew who I was
just from saying hi to him. And then they'd get to go home
that night and get their free song, which I know is so normal
now because we have Apple Music and Amazon Music and Spotify and
all that stuff. But a free song back then meant
not having to go and pirate something, you know?
And so I would send them free downloads.
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It just snowballed and snowballed until, you know, I
had like 100,000 followers on Instagram just from doing that.
For a couple years. And then that led to Nashville
attention and some meetings and then moved out to Nashville and
then released my first EP that way as well.
At that point I was touring. I was out with Dustin Lynch had
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taken me out actually on a on a four or five month full U.S.
tour. And I still did it acoustic by
myself and I didn't walk out handing cards, but I definitely
worked the line. And I hung out at merch every
night, you know, after the show for about an hour and just ended
I could to connect as much physically possible.
And it is cool how much the Internet has exploded even since
then. And you can connect any way you
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want. I mean, this is a perfect
example. You sent me Adm and said you
want to do this. I was like, sure, sounds fun.
And now we're chatting, right? And so like, back in the day,
you couldn't do that. And so I just took advantage of
every chance I got to talk to a person face to face and.
Gorilla marketed the shit out ofit.
Tyler Rich coming to the Palace Theater on November 14th.
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Stamford, CT If you want to go see Tyler, all you got to do is
come hang out with us at our next free Nashville style
writers round Groton Connecticutstarting at 7:00 at the Barn, of
course. Get more information on our
Instagram account at Country on Deck.
We'd love to see you. We would love to see you on
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October 8th. And Speaking of Tyler Rich, we
are so excited for this week's episode, the new album leaving
California, the busy Rd. schedule.
We're excited to have him back on the podcast.
Another opportunity to chat withhim this week on the show.
Tyler, Rich, Tyler, thanks so much for coming on man and and
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talking to us for a second time.I'm excited to help more people
find out about you and and this new music.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me back.
I I can't believe the last time that we had you on the show.
It was February 9th, 2023. Can you believe how time is
flying by? Dude, it's just scary, right?
(09:32):
It's like absolutely wild. It already feels like it's about
to be Christmas of 25 and it's just blowing my mind.
After you came on the show, I enjoyed seeing you play live in
Mohegan Sun and getting the picture with you and being able
to chat in person. That was a ton of fun, man.
Dude, that was a fun show. That was a what a cool venue.
I love just like that layout andhow it's open to the like that
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whole casino floor, but it's still a separate show.
It was. It was really cool.
Had you been to Mohegan prior tothat?
No, that was my first time. Oh really?
Wow, that's cool. Yeah, so it was.
It's really cool. And that's like really close to,
you know, where my wife grew up.And so a lot of friends and
family and stuff are at that show, too.
(10:15):
And yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, I saw you guys.
You had like some booths close to the stage and it looked like
it was a a big, big cruise there.
Everybody was rocking out to your.
All your songs looked like a lotof fun.
Yeah, a little a big old Polish party, basically a polka in the
booths. Her family is, they're all from
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Poland, and so they they get rowdy.
They're a lot of fun. You guys just celebrated a big
anniversary, right? Yeah, we just, I just actually
got home from Montana. We went out to Big Sky, Montana,
out in Yellowstone country and celebrated our 6th anniversary
and it was just beautiful up there.
It was like the perfect four days.
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We needed to kind of just decompress and spend a lot of
time in nature and everything. Oh wow, congratulations, that's
big. I appreciate it.
Yeah. And that's another thing.
Time flies. Like I just.
I can't believe it's already been six years.
It's just mind blowing. Yeah, a ton has changed here at
the show that we went from Connecticut's country podcast to
New England's country podcast and now we're country on deck
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and I, I feel like artists like you are taking a chance on us.
When we first were getting goingit it really kind of lit the
fire and shaped where we're at now.
It was kind of like my version of going and giving CDs at the
the music festival like you did,hoping that you'd respond and
get back to me. Absolutely.
No. I love that.
That's awesome. I wrote that first message to
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you and I was like, no way is this guy going to get back to me
and and you did and it was greatthat we were able to connect.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you did.
Stamford, CT. Is that close to.
You that's about maybe like an hour away, 45 minutes.
OK, cool, not so bad. I think that's like the closest.
This next tour is coming. Yeah, I saw that.
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You're going to be at at the Palace Theater.
That looks like I've never been to that venue before, but it
looks like a really great venue.Yeah, I've never been.
I've never been either. So that's actually quite a few
stops on this tour, places that we're going for the first time
and which is always exciting andscary at the same time.
Oh, I'm sure, yeah. Some things have changed for us.
And then you also had a a big change as well.
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Your you left your label and youhave like a whole new team
around you. Yeah.
So at the end of 23 was leaving Big Machine and decided I wanted
to, I wanted just something different.
I wanted to feel just, I don't know, creatively in control
again and so many different things.
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And so I decided to not shop to different labels, not do
anything like that and just do this whole thing independently
and at least for this whole album and get kind of, I don't
know, a stamp on who I am and who I want to be again under my
rules. Yeah.
It took about like a year, nine months of working on this double
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album and leaving other, you know, different parts of my team
and, and getting new team members and different offices
for like management and agenciesand all that stuff.
And so it's been cool. It's AI love and appreciate
everybody. I, I did get to work with that,
my old label and my old managersand everything, of course, But
it's always nice to get a, a breath of fresh air and, you
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know, fresh eyes on a, a career that's, you know, had already
been going for a while and different ideas and it's just
been cool. Are you currently independent
now or did you sign somewhere else?
Yeah, I am independent. I signed a distribution deal
which, you know, technically if you've, if there's an
independent artist that you've heard of or that, you know, ends
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up on playlist and that kind of stuff, there's not really truly
independent artists unless, you know, they're probably like
brand new. A distribution company is,
layman's terms, a record label that, you know, isn't taking 88%
of your money. They, you know, it's, it's much
smaller, but they're also not out there spending millions of
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dollars doing record promo and stuff on you.
And with a distro deal, you get to be in control of, you know,
your music and what it sounds like and what you're recording
and all that stuff as well. So it's more just a, yeah.
Distribution deal is just a, a partner that helps you get your
music. Yeah, on playlists and just out
there more. When you first made these these
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changes, it had to been kind of scary and exciting all at the
same time. Did you feel kind of overwhelmed
by these these adjustments? Yeah, I still do.
It's yeah, it's, I mean, I I literally, you know, yesterday I
was just telling text to the buddy.
It was just like, go independent.
They said it'll be fun. They said, you know, it's like,
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it's definitely stressful. It's you know, it's 100 times
the work, but you know, if it ifit works out for an invent
artist, you know, it's you, you reap 100X the benefits.
And so and then the one benefit for me from the top was just the
getting the creative freedom back again.
Getting to go in the studio and finally tell a lot of the
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stories I've been wanting to tell and just getting super
creative with the way the album sounds like sonically and
different band parts. And I really, really wanted it
to feel like a band and not justfeel like studio musicians that
are in there playing their parts.
I wanted it to feel like there'scamaraderie in the room when you
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listen to the record. And, and so we spent a really
long time doing it and it was, it was just so much fun.
So creative control would probably be the best perk of the
change. Yeah, 100%, yeah.
Like, no question. Yeah.
Maybe fall in love with music again.
You know, I was, I was feeling like pretty burnout when I was
on my label. It was, we had only released, it
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came out to 2 1/2 songs a year. And so that is, you know,
crippling. And to get to go in there and
just know that I was recording abunch of music that was all
going to be coming out and that I wasn't going to be, you know,
boring the fans anymore with that, with never really
releasing new songs. That kind of just burnt me out
over the course of a few years. And then so going in there and
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just fall in love with music again and just feeling the way I
used to feel when I would be recording and writing.
That must have been a really great feeling for you to kind of
rejuvenate things. Yeah, no, absolutely.
And we were going to because when I was at the label, we had
only done 18 songs over 7 years.Oh, wow.
And so my thing was thank you tothe fans for being patient that
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I was going to give them 18 songs in one year.
And then, you know, we were justhaving too much fun in the
studio. And then that turned into 20.
And then now it's a double albumand it just, it all kind of just
naturally progress the way that I felt like it should.
And doing the double album made more sense for me because I
could release the 1st 10 which came out in March.
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And then now tomorrow night whenthis back half comes out of the
other 10 songs, they just spacedthe year out better.
And you know, give fans stuff tolook forward to all year.
Give me stuff to look forward toall year.
But it's definitely a lot of work.
That's a pretty awesome way to thank the fans. 2020 songs.
So you kind of overshot your goal.
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Yeah, oh, yeah, 'cause when I was leaving the label, I went
through like a few years of songs and emails of demos I had
turned in and stuff. And if there was a song that the
that the label loved, but I justnever ended up getting to
record. Like I pulled those songs and I
put them in, you know, a big file and ended up being about
2530 songs. And then I sent that link with
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like a Google form to, you know,tons of friends and family to
even some like Facebook music groups and that kind of stuff.
And it's like, you know, if you have 30 minutes of time to
listen to one minute of each oneof these songs and just check
your favorite 12 first instinct.And that'd be huge for me and
end up getting tons and tons andtons of submissions.
And that's how I helped with my brain.
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Like look at it statistically and see what people were really
gravitating to from that huge chunk of everybody's favorite
songs already. And that's what made Help Me
Pick the 1st 12 I was going to record.
And then the back 6 I ended up, you know, just ones that might
have been like middle of the grade voted on, but ones that,
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you know, my band maybe really wanted me to record because they
loved it. Or maybe my wife or even myself
loved it. And we threw them in there and
then end up writing a couple more songs, obviously over this
year, and everything kind of just found its place.
So it was albums for the fans, picked by the fans.
It was like a whole group project.
(18:48):
Yeah, basically back in college.Hello, California.
And then leaving California, it's kind of like an A and AB,
like a Part 1 and Part 2. Yeah, so originally, Hello
California was going to be the first song and Leaving
California was going to be the last, and I was going to book in
them and just call the whole project Leaving California.
Yeah, once the number was 18 andwe decided to to split it up, I
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was like, all right, cool, we'regoing to add two more songs,
let's make it 20 and then let's just do 10 and 10.
And so I ended up calling it Hello California, cuz it opens
with that song. And then, yeah, side B is called
Leaving California. It closes with that song, but it
actually closes with an outro, which originally was a 2 minute
instrumental outro to Leaving California.
But we ended up making it its own track and I did some vocals
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over it. But if you do listen to those
two last songs in a row, it is technically one song.
Oh. OK and you released a couple
songs early as well. You had When and Summer of Us
Lost time. Yeah, I made-up my mind.
Yeah, we did it a lot like we did with the last release in the
spring was we had dropped 5 songs, which was one song a
(19:57):
month pretty much, and then the rest of them came out all
together. And then this one we released 4
songs one month at a time and the other six are going to come
out tomorrow night. Sounds like it's the most amount
of songs you've ever put out. And.
One year, obviously. What?
What were some of the challengeswith that many songs?
You know, the social, social media calendar and content and
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making sure people are even being exposed to the songs as
they're coming out because of algorithms and all that stuff.
But then also trying to make sure I my social media doesn't
feel super spammy, that's for sure.
Like, the hardest thing is, yeah, just trying to make
content that makes people feel something or want to listen to
(20:40):
your song. Naturally.
Also releasing a bunch of songs are set for a live show.
We've been playing because of how slow I was releasing music
for years. We've been playing, you know, a
fairly similar set to about 65%,I would say, over the years.
And then all of a sudden having all this new music and having to
(21:01):
trim down the set to being songsthat we know everybody loves,
but then also playing a bunch ofthe new stuff.
So like the Hello California tour, when Side A came out, we
played almost the entire new record and you know, eight other
songs that were, you know, bigger of mine over the years.
And then now that we have Leaving California coming out,
(21:22):
we are, you know, mixing the most popular ones from Hello
California, popular ones from the past and then most of this
whole new album again. And then so that's definitely
tricky a lot. To choose from.
Yeah. And you don't want to play shows
where you don't play shows whereyou're just playing all new
music. But at the same time, you know,
(21:43):
for us as artists all like that,a lot of that music's been out
forever. And I've finally been able to
put out all this new music. And so there's a, there's a very
gentle balance of being able, like the way we have to
orchestrate our sets to be playing new music.
And then also like the ratio of new musics, new music to old
(22:05):
songs and where they are in the set.
There's almost like a science toit, to keep people interested
and really engaged in the new music in between all the ones
they're already singing along too.
Lot to figure out. Yeah, absolutely.
It's fun, though. It's cool.
Yeah. We like, we just built the whole
set for the leading California tour and we have rehearsals
(22:26):
tomorrow night, you know, run it100 times.
But yeah, building the the new show is always a lot of fun and
rearranging stuff and keeping itinteresting for us at the same
time. Your Your wife is a huge
inspiration behind both albums. Like Leaving California is about
the long long distance relationship that you guys have.
Yeah, she's, she's always been an amazing muse, Very easy to
(22:50):
write songs about leaving California.
Yeah. The title track is about the
fact that, you know, we met 9 1/2 years ago.
And because of her work, we havealways had this apartment in LA,
but our home is in Nashville. And we still to this day have
just been doing back and forth, almost decade long, long
(23:10):
distance relationship. We see each other, you know,
mostly about half of the month. But yeah, leaving California
because I had, you know, born and raised in Northern
California and then living off and on in LA for, you know,
about 8 years of my 20s before moving to Nashville for 10
years. And when I moved here about a
year later, is when I met Sabina, and she was in LA, And I
(23:32):
was like, yeah, of course you were in LA, where I just was for
most of my 20s. And I wrote this song about the
idea of just wishing I could, you know, sneak up one night and
steal the Hollywood sign and stick it in my front yard and
all these things because she's an actress and all these things
that she has to be in LA for andmetaphorically move them here to
Nashville so that I wouldn't have to still constantly be
(23:55):
leaving California. Yeah, that's an interesting take
on on a song. If it was only that easy to move
the sign. I know, right?
It would not fit in my front yard by any means.
The I saw the teaser video for damn, what a woman that that's
one sounds like a head bopper. That that sounds like a good
song. Yeah, it's.
(24:17):
Sweet. It's because so much of my music
when I was with my label is geared towards the love songs
for this whole project, for bothsides of the album.
There really isn't any traditional love songs.
It, it hits so many different walks of life.
And I didn't really have an older song that I hadn't
recorded yet that would fit thatperfect spot of a needed love
(24:39):
song. And so damn it, A Woman is one
that I've I've written since being a free agent.
And so it's that it's one of thenew ones.
But it's, yeah, it's, it's just sweet.
It's classic. It just feels like, it just
feels like love. And it's we took the whole idea
of like, you see it like a beautiful woman and you look at
your friends and you're like, damn, you know, like, damn, what
(25:01):
a woman. But the whole idea is what damn
what a woman can do and just about the control she can have
over you. Once, once you're hooked, and
especially once she knows that she has you hooked, that the
control skyrockets and you're just a puppet in her little game
as you're falling in love like apuppy.
But yeah, it's, I had never eventeased that one at all until a
(25:24):
couple days ago. And I tried to.
There's another, you know, thin line of balances trying to You
want to tease stuff 'cause you want to build up hype, but at
the same time you want stuff to be brand new when an album
comes. Out you don't want to give them
too much. Yeah.
And so and especially since we had already released a few songs
leading up to it. So I just see, I started posting
(25:45):
about that a couple days ago or whatnot and just tease another
one today now that we're like super close.
With with all the success that you've had, you have gold
records and you've played the Opry.
Do you ever think back to your days at Red Robin, like if you
had never gone after this dream,Like you might be still at Red
Robin or another job, or you ever like kind of reflect on
(26:06):
that, especially around the timethat an album is coming out?
Oh man, I think about it all thetime.
There's something my my one of my best friends.
His name is Hunter Hill. He's a stand up comic and he was
my roommate when I was, I guess like 23 living in LA area for
the first time. And we met because we worked at
Red Robin together. And I had been talking about
(26:27):
wanting to do music and he was considering getting into comedy.
And now he's a professional comic and tours all over the
world. And, you know, I do what I do
with music. And when we are, you know,
talking and catching up, there'ssomething we always say about,
you know, the chaos and the stress that comes from these
type of careers that they are 24/7.
(26:48):
Your, your brain is never not onand thinking about what you
could and should be doing. And you're not clocking in and
out of a regular job. And we always joke of, you know,
sometimes I wish I could just wish we could just go back, you
know, just for like a few days to a red to a, to Red Robin,
where when you clocked out and you put your apron down, you
(27:09):
didn't think about Red Robin again until you had to put it
back on. You know, that kind of just
simplicity of life. But thank God I don't work at
Red Robin still. They were a great company, but I
worked there forever. They were great.
I mean, they let me tour and come back and always have my
job. And they were, they were a super
supportive restaurant to say theleast.
But very very glad that they arenot still supporting me in my
(27:33):
dream. You went on to bigger and better
things. Bottomless fries are pretty
good. I can't remember the last time I
went to Red Robin, to be honest,but they had their food was
always really good. Yeah, yeah.
It's I'd say I'd probably go like once a year.
It's more nostalgic for me than anything.
Just a reminder of the the good old days.
(27:56):
And I came from such a small town where I grew up that our
Red Robin there, it's it's wild.Like when I go back there and
visit sometimes and I go to my hometown, if I go in that Red
Robin where I worked for a few years, there are still people
that that work there from when Iworked there.
Like that's the small town community.
And there's still people that work there from when I was like
(28:19):
getting out of high school like that 22 years ago.
That adds to like a crazy nostalgia, them still being
there and stuff. I love.
It you walk in, they're like, hey Tyler, is that you?
Yeah, I know. And honestly, yeah, still.
I mean, it's, yeah, it's wild. Do you wear the gold 49ers mask
for every 49ers game? Dude, we got that.
(28:44):
We did in 2019. We did the Brantley Gilbert kick
it in the ship cruise and we haddocked in Mexico for, you know,
half a day before getting back on the water.
All of us went and bought those luchador masks of our favorite
teams. And I've had that ever since.
And what's funny is I don't think I've ever actually put it
on other than those first coupledays.
And when I was going to do that social media thing, I was like,
(29:06):
I need to look 49ers up to the TAnd I was looking through like,
I have so much 49ers stuff. And so I'm in my closet and I'm
like looking at my drawer that'sliterally just 49ers and all
that stuff. And I found that mask and I was
like, and those gloves also, I was like, yeah, let's go.
This is perfect. That was a pretty hyped video.
(29:26):
Pretty badass video. Yeah, everybody who, you know,
that whole trend of throwing a fit, everybody, you know, slow
motion and and they're dressed to the nines, you know, and they
look great and they're like beautiful people.
And, and I was like, let's let'smake this a little more me.
And I just come around the corner just head to toe for you.
Are you talking about like that trend?
(29:46):
I got this watch from TJ Maxx and I got this pants from
Target? You know that trend?
No. No, no, no, no, no.
So if you go back to that 49er video where it says, sorry, we
were late to stage. Tyler was throwing a fit.
That is that trend. So it'll say someone will be
like, sorry, we were late to dinner.
Jessica was throwing a fit, which means it sounds like she's
(30:09):
like, you know, having a bad night and yelling at people and
stuff. But then it flips to a slow MO
of her coming out like beautifulin a dress kind of thing.
And so like Jordan Davis did oneand his brother at at the front
of the video, Yo, sorry, we werelate to the game.
They were going to an LSU Tigersgame.
So I related to the game. Jordan was sort of fit.
And then he turns the corner andhe's got like huge Tigers jacket
(30:30):
on the cowboy hat. I think like a cigar in his
mouth walking slow MO. And yeah, it's just a trend.
And so I was like, how can I make this as me as possible,
49ers? Sounds like I'm late to this
trend. I haven't heard of that yet.
I've probably never would have heard of it but luckily people
on my my team will send me linksto things.
But like hey maybe you should doone for this.
(30:51):
Maybe you should do some for this and it helps my chaotic
brain for sure. Since some of them I'm sure
you're like this sounds great and then others you like kind of
roll your eyes like. Oh yeah, we I don't do half of
them like they'll send me like the cringe of stuff, knowing
that that I likely will not do it, but but it's still good to
at least see it. Let's.
(31:11):
See what he'll do if we said it to him.
Yeah, exactly. This week's episode is powered
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(31:32):
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Colchester, Connecticut. Old school, not old fashioned.
The ultimate experience I I got to hear about this recent bear.
Encounter that you were talking about, I got to hear this story.
How did you already hear this? I I caught your taste of
country. Oh my God.
(32:34):
OK. I was like, yeah, because I was
thinking today's the first time I've talked about it because I
was like 3 days ago. Yeah.
So we are, you know, my wife andI for our anniversary, we're up
in Montana and we go to Yellowstone.
And I've been to Yellowstone before she had not.
And you know, you'll see a ton of bison, Buffalo everywhere,
you'll see a bunch of elk. There's, you know, high chance
(32:56):
you could see wolves, tons of bears, all sorts of stuff.
And as we are leaving Yellowstone, I was like, it
sucks 2 Times Now. And I didn't get to see a wolf
or, or grizzly. That's two things that have been
on my bucket list of life forever.
And I don't necessarily want to see them, but I would like to
be, you know, in a car or something and just see them in
(33:18):
the wild. I think that would be just super
special. And I was like, man, that sucks.
All right, I guess we'll just have to come back.
And then. So the next day we are doing an
ATV excursion in Big Sky, Mt where we're staying like 20
minutes from our hotel. And Sabina and I, we've done a
lot of ATV excursions. I've done a lot with my friends
over the years and usually you go, you sign up, you know,
(33:41):
there's about 10 ATVs, bunch of different people and guests have
all, you know, paid for the sametime slot.
And then there's a couple guidesand you just go on a hour to
hour kind of, you know, ride. And so that's what we think
we're doing. And we get there and we're going
to be in a side by side and theyshow us a tutorial video and the
(34:02):
guy on the video is like, so as soon as you get in your ATV,
your GPSRDB programmed based offhow long you've booked your time
for, you're going to follow thisred line when you get here, make
sure you go left, blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, Oh my God, we'redoing this alone.
That's cool. We're not anybody else's, you
know, schedule time clock for stopping pictures.
(34:22):
We can just her and I hang and just go to the mountains And
about a mile, 2 miles into it, it hits me that we're alone and
I don't have bear spray. I don't have a gun, I don't have
AI, don't have anything, which is something we didn't even
think about because we were going to be in like a gang of
ATVs, like the scariest thing ever for a predator.
(34:43):
And it hits me, I don't really bring it up to Sabina because I
don't want her to like get nervous.
But I know there's like, I thinkit's 1200 Grizzlies in the the
Yellowstone total area. So that instantly hits me
because I was Googling these random facts a couple days
before and I'm like, OK, OK, so based off square footage, where
(35:04):
at where would a grizzly be? And we're driving about a mile
later and she hits me and she's like, stop, stop.
What is that? What is that?
I keep going, but I'm like looking ahead because we're
about to turn left on this trail, but there's just woods in
front of us and I don't see anything.
She hits me and she was no, no, seriously, stop.
And I like slam on the brakes and try to turn on the music and
(35:24):
it's frozen and it's just playing really loud.
And we get that stopped and she's like, look, look.
And I see this, this little whatlooks like a black cub, super
cute, hopping around about 25 yards in front of us.
I was like, oh, it's a black bear.
I was like, where's Mama? And I'm like kind of looking
around. Oh, jeez.
(35:45):
Then yeah, she's like. And she says, OK, OK, what do we
do? I was like, no, it's fine.
It's black. We're good, we're OK.
And then another little cub popsout and they're like hopping
around and they're. But now they're both in the sun
and they are very brown. And I was like, OK, now those
are brown. I was like, where's mom?
(36:05):
We got to get the fuck out of here.
We what are we, what are we, what are we doing?
And we're both just frozen sitting there.
And then I just saw like dude, like a, a Volkswagen bus sized
grizzly, like the biggest thing I've ever seen.
And she just is taking off running directly 25 yards in
front of us, but running like away kind of diagonal.
(36:27):
And the Cubs are following her and not.
And they're just instantly gone around this little corner.
And yeah, we're just like, I mean, 25 yards might even be
farther than they were for they were right there.
And I'm like, had we left or hadwe, had I gone a little faster
around a couple other turns, we would have already turned left
(36:48):
on that trail and they would have been face to face with us.
Oh my gosh. I mean, they literally were
right in front of us, but we butnot coming at us, you know, had
I had we been 20 seconds earlier?
So we're now we're contemplating, do we turn
around? Do we go back?
Because they're running towards where we're going like our trail
goes left and then it does an immediate U-turn and goes the
(37:10):
trail that way. And that's exactly the area they
had sprinted off to and. So I'd be sprinting.
Yeah, these these ATVs, you know, they get up to like 70
miles an hour and you can't go that fast in the mountains
because you're like going up anddown trails and it's rocky.
But I was like, look, if we see her again, I'm just going to gun
(37:31):
it. I don't, I don't she's not going
to. She can go 35 miles an hour, but
she's not going to chase us forever and leave her Cubs as
she's trying to protect behind her.
If we were on foot. I mean, we've been done for,
right? And it's so.
Yeah, we saw some locals that were on AT VS coming from the
opposite direction. And like, right after this had
happened, I was like, did you excuse me, Sir?
And they're like hunting. Excuse me, Sir.
(37:53):
Did you see the did you see the biggest grizzly of your entire
life right behind over there? And they're like, wait, what?
I was like, yeah, they just ran straight to where you guys were
going. They just, they said no, but
they're like, you know, just stay in your vehicle, don't mess
with her. And I was like, yeah, I wasn't
planning on messing with her. Yeah, I'm good.
(38:13):
And but, you know, once we were,you know, safe and and driving
like what it like an incredible thing to get to see in the wild,
but absolutely humbling, absolutely terrifying in that
moment. Well, I'm glad you survived to
see all this music come out. Dude, I know, my God, could you
imagine this out? The album would finally, you
know, really blow up and do whatit was supposed to if I got
(38:34):
killed by a grizzly 3 days ago. Oh jeez, it turned more into a
tribute album than anything else.
Oh my God, I know. Seriously.
But you know, Sabina would be taken care of and it'd be great
because she would get away, because I would charge the
grizzly and she would, she'd have a hit record on her hands.
The love is real. Yep, Amen.
(38:58):
So when this episode drops, it'll be the same day as as the
album release. How do you feel to to kind of
hear that that the music's goingto be out for everybody to
listen to? Is it kind of an overwhelming
feeling of accomplishment and like all this hard work coming
to fruition? Like, how do you feel to hear
that the music's out? Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
(39:19):
And we're talking almost two years of working on this and it
just, there's important stories on there that I I can't wait to
share with people and connect on.
And it's just, yeah, it's an incredible feeling.
We're actually going to the release party tonight.
And so a bunch of the songwriters and, you know, my 2
producers and the mixing engineers and my band and
(39:40):
friends, we're all, we're all getting together to celebrate
tonight and it's going to be awesome.
I'm just, you know, the, the artist curse.
I'm already thinking of like, what's next?
But it what? Is next.
What is? Yeah.
What is next? Yeah.
You know, I've already started writing new music that I'm super
excited about. But this was, and I said it from
(40:03):
day one, this was this whole thing was a passion project for
me. I wanted to get music out again
for the fans and for myself and what I wanted to do and then go
from there. And so.
I felt like I just written so many songs over the year that
nobody got years that nobody gotto hear.
That meant a lot to me. And it's, yeah, it's a, it's an
(40:25):
overwhelming sense of just prideand gratitude and excitement.
And then taking all these songs out on the road, that's got to
be even more exciting, like stopping in Stanford,
Connecticut, right down the the road from me at the Palace
Theater. They're they're in for a treat.
Yeah, they are in for a treat. We all are.
I'm in for a treat. I can't wait.
(40:46):
Yeah, this, this side of the album has a little a little bit
of everything. I mean, it's got the.
Heaviest song on the whole thing.
It's got this probably the one of the softest, either the
softest or within two softest song on the whole thing.
That one's like mostly just piano and vocal.
And you know, we're going to incorporate a lot of that into
this live show. It's got a cover on it.
(41:07):
You know, my first album I did the cover of Billie Jean.
And so for this one, I wanted to, I wanted to do a cover also
keep that tradition going. And Bush 16 Stone was my first
CDI ever bought. And so as a nod to that, we did
a cover of Bush come down, kind of like when I did the Michael
Jackson one where I felt Billie Jean was, you know, a bluesy,
(41:29):
sultry lyric and melody that wastrapped in a big pop song's
body. Come down.
You know, they're they're an oldBush was a 90s alternative rock
band and they're production on that is, you know, it's big and
it's rock and the lyric is so great and the melody's so great
on that that I wanted to really,you know, highlight that.
(41:50):
And so it's it's a very chill vibe of a cover, but it's it's
special. It's super cool.
How do you top all this? Like 20 songs, Like years of
hard work? Like how do you top what you've
done since leaving the label? Oh, just keep going.
I mean, keep going. Try to sell more tickets, try to
(42:12):
pack out rooms, make the, you know, make the headline tours
bigger than they were the year before.
It's just all about growth. You know, like being in the same
place is one thing. You don't ever want to digress.
You always want to progress, even if that's a little bit.
And as long as I get to, you know, keep playing music for a
living, that that is success to me.
And I'm going to just keep red music and trying to spread my
(42:37):
message of living in the moment through songs and connecting
with fans and making friendshipsand keeping that alive.
And still playing like you're playing for 80,000, even if it's
five. Always, man.
You know it. Always, Always.
Still do it. I'm excited for the Palace
Theatres show. And then my producer, his name
(42:59):
is Dan, he lives out in Portland, OR.
He was pointing out that you have a show out in Portland as
well. Yeah, November.
Yeah, Ponderosa Lounge. That's a, that's a fun one.
It's cool room. We've done that one actually a
couple times over the years. Yeah, it looks like we pulled up
some pictures and stuff. Looks like a cool spot.
Yeah, it's a. It's literally a truck stop,
(43:19):
little mall kind of thing. Oh really?
And there's a venue, bar, restaurant in that.
But it's yeah, it's all connected to a a truck stop.
And I think there's like a hotelalso.
I don't really. We don't really explore much.
We by the time we usually get tovenues, we sound check and then
have like an hour to eat and then then it's meet and greet
and then the show starts. And so I haven't like fully
(43:41):
explored the truck stop, but it's like a really big thing.
Do you still play tons of PlayStation out on the road?
Yeah, all the time. It's the only thing that keeps
the same. Yeah, yeah.
If we're not screaming at each other with controllers in our
hand just doesn't feel right. Yeah, it's got to be tough, but
all being crammed in the the rider together, so something to
(44:02):
bond you is probably good. 100% or make us hate each other more
because you know we're all better at certain games than
each other. I I saw that back in 2023,
shortly after we last spoke, I saw that you played the
Washington County Fair. My father-in-law and my uncle in
law, they actually both came up and join me on stage and we, we
(44:25):
did a cause. My uncle, he plays the accordion
and my father-in-law plays the harmonica.
And so I brought them both up onstage and we did a wagon wheel,
I think, or just a very like normal country cover song that
everybody knows. Oh, we did.
We did country roads. That was a moment.
It was fun. Yeah, that sounds really cool.
(44:45):
Like I said, from Poland, they are a party.
They're up there just kicking their heels and playing their
stuff and just really great memory.
Yeah, it's probably like a rare opportunity to get some people
up there with you that are meaningful parts of the family.
And that sounds really nice. That sounds awesome.
Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think we were like
drinking at a family function ofsome sort and everybody's
(45:08):
talking about going to that showand anytime there's family
function, the harmonica and the accordion come out.
And so it probably just, I don'tremember, but I would guess it
was a buzz conversation of you should both bring these to the
show. Let's do this.
Unique way to plan a show. Just kind of hanging out with
family. Yeah, exactly.
You know what? Let's just go.
Let's go right now. Well, Tyler, it was a lot of fun
(45:33):
being able to chat with you. I feel like this was perfect
timing because you have the album and you have the, the
tour, the Leaving California tour.
And we're also, we have our, since we last talked, we have a
writer's round once a month in Groton and we're giving away a
pair of tickets for the Palace Theater theater show as well.
So it's this perfect timing to connect and have you back on.
(45:54):
Oh, I love that. That's awesome.
You're. Going to be coming to the show.
Yeah, I'd love to see the show. Connects with me on on Instagram
or whatever and if you're going to be able to make it.
And we'll hang. Awesome, that, that'd be a
blast. Cool.
Well, thanks for having me back on, Josh.
I appreciate you man. Absolutely.
Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
Cool, We'll hopefully see you very soon.
(46:16):
Sounds good. Awesome.
Take care, brother. Wow, what a blast.
What a blast that's going to do it for this week's episode.
Thank you so much to Tyler Rich for coming back on for a for a
second time, making some time for us and and chatting with us
again. Our our good buddy Tyler Rich.
Thanks. Thank you so much man.
(46:37):
And we can't wait for for you tohear all of this music.
You can listen to that on all listening platforms.
His brand new now double album Hello California back in in
March and then leaving California. 20 songs, 20 Tyler
Rich songs. Go check it out wherever you
(46:59):
listen to musictylerrich.com, his website.
Such a blast. Really really enjoy talking to
Tyler and and having him on again.
Just a good friend. Can't wait for his show at the
Palace Theater in Stanford. You can win those tickets at our
next writers round event, October 8th, our free event at
(47:20):
the Barn in Groton, CT. We hope to see you there.
Your chance to win thanks to thePalace Theatre and find out all
the other places he's going to be on this tour at tylerrich.com
of course, or or head to Instagram at Country on Deck.
You can find all this information right on social
media, Tyler's social media, oursocial media.
(47:44):
We'll be back next Friday. We're going to do it all again.
Another star, rising star on theshow, another country star.
It's so much fun each and every week having these conversations.
So make sure you hit that followbutton so you don't miss it.
I'm Josh Maddie and this is Country on deck kick.
(48:11):
Off your boots and settle in country on this.
About to bring him. Josh Maddie's here.
Stars on the rise. Voices of hope, Dreams in their
eyes. Singer songwriters stories on
(48:34):
phone. Hearts that wander Hearts out of
bone does he rode to rise. Angelines capture their journey
shares their fights. Country on day.
We're tuning in well the new star stories are coming in from
(49:00):
a small town. Dreams they're gonna take you
away. Country on day with drunk man
day. Thank you so much for listening
to the Country on Deck with JoshMaddie.
Josh is back at his desk every Thursday talking with a new
country artist, so make sure youhit that follow button whenever
(49:21):
you're listening so you don't miss an interview.
Follow Country on Deck on socialmedia.
All social media links can be found by going to LINKTR period.
EE slash Country on deck.
This week on Country on Deck, like right after this had
happened, I was like, did you excuse me, Sir?
And they're like, hunting. Excuse me, Sir.
Yeah. Did you see the.
Did you see the biggest grizzly of your entire life right behind
over there? They're like, wait, what?
I was like, yeah, They just ran straight to where you guys were
(00:20):
going. Discover the stories of rising
country stars. Country on Deck with Josh
Maddie. Kick off your boots and settle
in country on this. About to begin.
(00:46):
Josh Maddie's here. Stars on the rise.
Voices of hope, Dreams in their eyes.
Singer songwriters, stories on phone.
Heart to wander. Hearts out of bone from Dusty
(01:06):
Rhodes, she writes. Angelines captures their
journey, shares their fights. Country on deck.
We're tuning in. Well, the new star stories are
coming in from a small town. Dreams they're gonna take you
(01:29):
away. Country on deck with just that
day. Hello and welcome to another
episode of Country on Deck, where we sit down with today's
rising country stars and help you discover the stories behind
(01:50):
their music. I'm your host, Josh Maddie, and
I'm back at my desk in Connecticut with another rising
country star on the show this week.
But first, if you missed our conversation from last week, we
sat down to talk to Jesse Desourcy and we talked to Jesse
(02:10):
about trying out for The Voice on NBC and the advice given to
him by Blake Shelton. You know, he had mentioned about
my pitch and everything. It's funny too, because he
haunts me now in my head becauseI'll be tuning my guitar.
You know, sometimes you got to tune by ear quick, especially
with a visual impairment. I'll think I got it perfectly in
tune, and then I'll go check it on the real tuner and I'll be
(02:32):
just everything's a little sharpand I'm like, dude, he's right.
You hear Blake Shelton in your ear, Like, yeah, Jesse, you're a
little sharp. Yeah, yeah, I think I'll be
stuck with that one for a while.You can listen to our entire
conversation with Jesse Desourcy.
That episode is streaming below this episode on the platform
(02:53):
that you're listening on. And don't forget to hit that
follow button on the platform that you're listening on.
We release new conversations with new rising country stars
every single Friday and we don'twant you to miss one.
And if you're already subscribedto the show, first, thank you so
much for doing that. I really appreciate it.
And 2nd, consider sharing the show with a friend so that they
(03:17):
can listen every single Friday just like you do.
In addition to having him on thepodcast last week, Jesse, the
source, he was one of the artists that played our recent
Nashville Style writers round atthe Barn in Groton, CT.
And we're going to be back at the Barn on October 8th.
Can't believe we'll be back there for another show.
(03:40):
These shows just keep racking upand I'm just humbled every
single time we get to walk in the door and and be there and
listen to the music and and the stories.
Bring a little bit of Nashville to New England each month at The
Barn in in Groton, CT Thanks to The Barn for being a great
partner and and allowing us to use their facility and and their
(04:03):
stage. You're invited.
We would love to see you on October 8th.
For the next one, you can find the entire lineup of artists
that are going to be performing on our Instagram account at
Country on Deck. In addition to all the original
music and the storytelling and bringing a little bit of
Nashville to New England on October 8th, we also have your
(04:27):
chance thanks to the Palace Theatre in Stanford,
Connecticut. Thanks to the Palace Theatre, we
have your chance to win a pair of tickets.
November 14th, It's a Friday, a pair of tickets to see Tyler
Rich. He puts on an amazing concert.
We had the opportunity to see him in 2023.
(04:50):
We even had him on the podcast in 2023 where we chatted with
him and he told us all about howhe got his career started.
That first single, I used to print out little cards, almost
like little business cards, but little promo cards and had my
picture on the front and on the back it said follow me on
Instagram and shoot me a direct message and I'll send you a link
(05:13):
to a free song. And so I would walk around
festivals, Stagecoach in California and literally with
like 5000 cards and I would walkaround and I would just tell
people that I was playing the festival next year and that the
festival was letting me in a year early to promote ahead of
time. And I was always lying.
(05:34):
You know the. Truest form of actual like
guerrilla marketing. Now there's bots and stuff that
do it and it, it ruined everything.
But man, I would, I would sit onlike Stairmaster like steps at
the gym like for about 30 minutes before doing weights and
I would sit there for 30 minutesjust walking uphill going on
people's posts. You know, if I was going to play
a show at some honky tonk somewhere in California that I
(05:55):
knew that Chase Rise or Sam Huntor like Dan and Shay or somebody
was Dustin Lynch, somebody was playing the weekend before I was
playing or something, or they had just played and I was going
to be there. And I would go to all those
hashtags and all those posts of people in that city and I would
like the pictures and I would comment, you know, I hope I see
you next week. DM me for a free song kind of
thing, you know. And so I would do that.
(06:16):
And that led to me getting to play bigger shows because then I
started to grow a bit of a fan base in California.
And once it was my own shows opening for people, I would go
out to the line ahead of time and walk up and down the line
and just hand out those cards tothe first few 100 people, create
a relationship, you know, as genuine as I could in the short
amount of time you're given. And then knowing that when they
(06:38):
got inside that those are for sure going to be the first
couple 100 people I see in frontof the stage because they're the
first people in line. And so those are also usually
the most passionate fans. And so my goal was just make
sure I could at least grasp evenjust 10 to 15 of them a shown
like truly connect and that hopes that the rest would just
work itself out. And then that turned into I'd
(06:58):
come out on stage, just an acoustic guitar and, you know,
all the people in the front, I already kind of knew who I was
just from saying hi to him. And then they'd get to go home
that night and get their free song, which I know is so normal
now because we have Apple Music and Amazon Music and Spotify and
all that stuff. But a free song back then meant
not having to go and pirate something, you know?
And so I would send them free downloads.
(07:18):
It just snowballed and snowballed until, you know, I
had like 100,000 followers on Instagram just from doing that.
For a couple years. And then that led to Nashville
attention and some meetings and then moved out to Nashville and
then released my first EP that way as well.
At that point I was touring. I was out with Dustin Lynch had
(07:39):
taken me out actually on a on a four or five month full U.S.
tour. And I still did it acoustic by
myself and I didn't walk out handing cards, but I definitely
worked the line. And I hung out at merch every
night, you know, after the show for about an hour and just ended
I could to connect as much physically possible.
And it is cool how much the Internet has exploded even since
then. And you can connect any way you
(08:00):
want. I mean, this is a perfect
example. You sent me Adm and said you
want to do this. I was like, sure, sounds fun.
And now we're chatting, right? And so like, back in the day,
you couldn't do that. And so I just took advantage of
every chance I got to talk to a person face to face and.
Gorilla marketed the shit out ofit.
Tyler Rich coming to the Palace Theater on November 14th.
(08:24):
Stamford, CT If you want to go see Tyler, all you got to do is
come hang out with us at our next free Nashville style
writers round Groton Connecticutstarting at 7:00 at the Barn, of
course. Get more information on our
Instagram account at Country on Deck.
We'd love to see you. We would love to see you on
(08:47):
October 8th. And Speaking of Tyler Rich, we
are so excited for this week's episode, the new album leaving
California, the busy Rd. schedule.
We're excited to have him back on the podcast.
Another opportunity to chat withhim this week on the show.
Tyler, Rich, Tyler, thanks so much for coming on man and and
(09:11):
talking to us for a second time.I'm excited to help more people
find out about you and and this new music.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me back.
I I can't believe the last time that we had you on the show.
It was February 9th, 2023. Can you believe how time is
flying by? Dude, it's just scary, right?
(09:32):
It's like absolutely wild. It already feels like it's about
to be Christmas of 25 and it's just blowing my mind.
After you came on the show, I enjoyed seeing you play live in
Mohegan Sun and getting the picture with you and being able
to chat in person. That was a ton of fun, man.
Dude, that was a fun show. That was a what a cool venue.
I love just like that layout andhow it's open to the like that
(09:55):
whole casino floor, but it's still a separate show.
It was. It was really cool.
Had you been to Mohegan prior tothat?
No, that was my first time. Oh really?
Wow, that's cool. Yeah, so it was.
It's really cool. And that's like really close to,
you know, where my wife grew up.And so a lot of friends and
family and stuff are at that show, too.
(10:15):
And yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, I saw you guys.
You had like some booths close to the stage and it looked like
it was a a big, big cruise there.
Everybody was rocking out to your.
All your songs looked like a lotof fun.
Yeah, a little a big old Polish party, basically a polka in the
booths. Her family is, they're all from
(10:35):
Poland, and so they they get rowdy.
They're a lot of fun. You guys just celebrated a big
anniversary, right? Yeah, we just, I just actually
got home from Montana. We went out to Big Sky, Montana,
out in Yellowstone country and celebrated our 6th anniversary
and it was just beautiful up there.
It was like the perfect four days.
(10:57):
We needed to kind of just decompress and spend a lot of
time in nature and everything. Oh wow, congratulations, that's
big. I appreciate it.
Yeah. And that's another thing.
Time flies. Like I just.
I can't believe it's already been six years.
It's just mind blowing. Yeah, a ton has changed here at
the show that we went from Connecticut's country podcast to
New England's country podcast and now we're country on deck
(11:19):
and I, I feel like artists like you are taking a chance on us.
When we first were getting goingit it really kind of lit the
fire and shaped where we're at now.
It was kind of like my version of going and giving CDs at the
the music festival like you did,hoping that you'd respond and
get back to me. Absolutely.
No. I love that.
That's awesome. I wrote that first message to
(11:41):
you and I was like, no way is this guy going to get back to me
and and you did and it was greatthat we were able to connect.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you did.
Stamford, CT. Is that close to.
You that's about maybe like an hour away, 45 minutes.
OK, cool, not so bad. I think that's like the closest.
This next tour is coming. Yeah, I saw that.
(12:01):
You're going to be at at the Palace Theater.
That looks like I've never been to that venue before, but it
looks like a really great venue.Yeah, I've never been.
I've never been either. So that's actually quite a few
stops on this tour, places that we're going for the first time
and which is always exciting andscary at the same time.
Oh, I'm sure, yeah. Some things have changed for us.
And then you also had a a big change as well.
(12:23):
Your you left your label and youhave like a whole new team
around you. Yeah.
So at the end of 23 was leaving Big Machine and decided I wanted
to, I wanted just something different.
I wanted to feel just, I don't know, creatively in control
again and so many different things.
(12:44):
And so I decided to not shop to different labels, not do
anything like that and just do this whole thing independently
and at least for this whole album and get kind of, I don't
know, a stamp on who I am and who I want to be again under my
rules. Yeah.
It took about like a year, nine months of working on this double
(13:05):
album and leaving other, you know, different parts of my team
and, and getting new team members and different offices
for like management and agenciesand all that stuff.
And so it's been cool. It's AI love and appreciate
everybody. I, I did get to work with that,
my old label and my old managersand everything, of course, But
it's always nice to get a, a breath of fresh air and, you
(13:25):
know, fresh eyes on a, a career that's, you know, had already
been going for a while and different ideas and it's just
been cool. Are you currently independent
now or did you sign somewhere else?
Yeah, I am independent. I signed a distribution deal
which, you know, technically if you've, if there's an
independent artist that you've heard of or that, you know, ends
(13:48):
up on playlist and that kind of stuff, there's not really truly
independent artists unless, you know, they're probably like
brand new. A distribution company is,
layman's terms, a record label that, you know, isn't taking 88%
of your money. They, you know, it's, it's much
smaller, but they're also not out there spending millions of
(14:10):
dollars doing record promo and stuff on you.
And with a distro deal, you get to be in control of, you know,
your music and what it sounds like and what you're recording
and all that stuff as well. So it's more just a, yeah.
Distribution deal is just a, a partner that helps you get your
music. Yeah, on playlists and just out
there more. When you first made these these
(14:31):
changes, it had to been kind of scary and exciting all at the
same time. Did you feel kind of overwhelmed
by these these adjustments? Yeah, I still do.
It's yeah, it's, I mean, I I literally, you know, yesterday I
was just telling text to the buddy.
It was just like, go independent.
They said it'll be fun. They said, you know, it's like,
(14:52):
it's definitely stressful. It's you know, it's 100 times
the work, but you know, if it ifit works out for an invent
artist, you know, it's you, you reap 100X the benefits.
And so and then the one benefit for me from the top was just the
getting the creative freedom back again.
Getting to go in the studio and finally tell a lot of the
(15:12):
stories I've been wanting to tell and just getting super
creative with the way the album sounds like sonically and
different band parts. And I really, really wanted it
to feel like a band and not justfeel like studio musicians that
are in there playing their parts.
I wanted it to feel like there'scamaraderie in the room when you
(15:33):
listen to the record. And, and so we spent a really
long time doing it and it was, it was just so much fun.
So creative control would probably be the best perk of the
change. Yeah, 100%, yeah.
Like, no question. Yeah.
Maybe fall in love with music again.
You know, I was, I was feeling like pretty burnout when I was
on my label. It was, we had only released, it
(15:54):
came out to 2 1/2 songs a year. And so that is, you know,
crippling. And to get to go in there and
just know that I was recording abunch of music that was all
going to be coming out and that I wasn't going to be, you know,
boring the fans anymore with that, with never really
releasing new songs. That kind of just burnt me out
over the course of a few years. And then so going in there and
(16:18):
just fall in love with music again and just feeling the way I
used to feel when I would be recording and writing.
That must have been a really great feeling for you to kind of
rejuvenate things. Yeah, no, absolutely.
And we were going to because when I was at the label, we had
only done 18 songs over 7 years.Oh, wow.
And so my thing was thank you tothe fans for being patient that
(16:41):
I was going to give them 18 songs in one year.
And then, you know, we were justhaving too much fun in the
studio. And then that turned into 20.
And then now it's a double albumand it just, it all kind of just
naturally progress the way that I felt like it should.
And doing the double album made more sense for me because I
could release the 1st 10 which came out in March.
(17:02):
And then now tomorrow night whenthis back half comes out of the
other 10 songs, they just spacedthe year out better.
And you know, give fans stuff tolook forward to all year.
Give me stuff to look forward toall year.
But it's definitely a lot of work.
That's a pretty awesome way to thank the fans. 2020 songs.
So you kind of overshot your goal.
(17:24):
Yeah, oh, yeah, 'cause when I was leaving the label, I went
through like a few years of songs and emails of demos I had
turned in and stuff. And if there was a song that the
that the label loved, but I justnever ended up getting to
record. Like I pulled those songs and I
put them in, you know, a big file and ended up being about
2530 songs. And then I sent that link with
(17:45):
like a Google form to, you know,tons of friends and family to
even some like Facebook music groups and that kind of stuff.
And it's like, you know, if you have 30 minutes of time to
listen to one minute of each oneof these songs and just check
your favorite 12 first instinct.And that'd be huge for me and
end up getting tons and tons andtons of submissions.
And that's how I helped with my brain.
(18:07):
Like look at it statistically and see what people were really
gravitating to from that huge chunk of everybody's favorite
songs already. And that's what made Help Me
Pick the 1st 12 I was going to record.
And then the back 6 I ended up, you know, just ones that might
have been like middle of the grade voted on, but ones that,
(18:28):
you know, my band maybe really wanted me to record because they
loved it. Or maybe my wife or even myself
loved it. And we threw them in there and
then end up writing a couple more songs, obviously over this
year, and everything kind of just found its place.
So it was albums for the fans, picked by the fans.
It was like a whole group project.
(18:48):
Yeah, basically back in college.Hello, California.
And then leaving California, it's kind of like an A and AB,
like a Part 1 and Part 2. Yeah, so originally, Hello
California was going to be the first song and Leaving
California was going to be the last, and I was going to book in
them and just call the whole project Leaving California.
Yeah, once the number was 18 andwe decided to to split it up, I
(19:12):
was like, all right, cool, we'regoing to add two more songs,
let's make it 20 and then let's just do 10 and 10.
And so I ended up calling it Hello California, cuz it opens
with that song. And then, yeah, side B is called
Leaving California. It closes with that song, but it
actually closes with an outro, which originally was a 2 minute
instrumental outro to Leaving California.
But we ended up making it its own track and I did some vocals
(19:36):
over it. But if you do listen to those
two last songs in a row, it is technically one song.
Oh. OK and you released a couple
songs early as well. You had When and Summer of Us
Lost time. Yeah, I made-up my mind.
Yeah, we did it a lot like we did with the last release in the
spring was we had dropped 5 songs, which was one song a
(19:57):
month pretty much, and then the rest of them came out all
together. And then this one we released 4
songs one month at a time and the other six are going to come
out tomorrow night. Sounds like it's the most amount
of songs you've ever put out. And.
One year, obviously. What?
What were some of the challengeswith that many songs?
You know, the social, social media calendar and content and
(20:19):
making sure people are even being exposed to the songs as
they're coming out because of algorithms and all that stuff.
But then also trying to make sure I my social media doesn't
feel super spammy, that's for sure.
Like, the hardest thing is, yeah, just trying to make
content that makes people feel something or want to listen to
(20:40):
your song. Naturally.
Also releasing a bunch of songs are set for a live show.
We've been playing because of how slow I was releasing music
for years. We've been playing, you know, a
fairly similar set to about 65%,I would say, over the years.
And then all of a sudden having all this new music and having to
(21:01):
trim down the set to being songsthat we know everybody loves,
but then also playing a bunch ofthe new stuff.
So like the Hello California tour, when Side A came out, we
played almost the entire new record and you know, eight other
songs that were, you know, bigger of mine over the years.
And then now that we have Leaving California coming out,
(21:22):
we are, you know, mixing the most popular ones from Hello
California, popular ones from the past and then most of this
whole new album again. And then so that's definitely
tricky a lot. To choose from.
Yeah. And you don't want to play shows
where you don't play shows whereyou're just playing all new
music. But at the same time, you know,
(21:43):
for us as artists all like that,a lot of that music's been out
forever. And I've finally been able to
put out all this new music. And so there's a, there's a very
gentle balance of being able, like the way we have to
orchestrate our sets to be playing new music.
And then also like the ratio of new musics, new music to old
(22:05):
songs and where they are in the set.
There's almost like a science toit, to keep people interested
and really engaged in the new music in between all the ones
they're already singing along too.
Lot to figure out. Yeah, absolutely.
It's fun, though. It's cool.
Yeah. We like, we just built the whole
set for the leading California tour and we have rehearsals
(22:26):
tomorrow night, you know, run it100 times.
But yeah, building the the new show is always a lot of fun and
rearranging stuff and keeping itinteresting for us at the same
time. Your Your wife is a huge
inspiration behind both albums. Like Leaving California is about
the long long distance relationship that you guys have.
Yeah, she's, she's always been an amazing muse, Very easy to
(22:50):
write songs about leaving California.
Yeah. The title track is about the
fact that, you know, we met 9 1/2 years ago.
And because of her work, we havealways had this apartment in LA,
but our home is in Nashville. And we still to this day have
just been doing back and forth, almost decade long, long
(23:10):
distance relationship. We see each other, you know,
mostly about half of the month. But yeah, leaving California
because I had, you know, born and raised in Northern
California and then living off and on in LA for, you know,
about 8 years of my 20s before moving to Nashville for 10
years. And when I moved here about a
year later, is when I met Sabina, and she was in LA, And I
(23:32):
was like, yeah, of course you were in LA, where I just was for
most of my 20s. And I wrote this song about the
idea of just wishing I could, you know, sneak up one night and
steal the Hollywood sign and stick it in my front yard and
all these things because she's an actress and all these things
that she has to be in LA for andmetaphorically move them here to
Nashville so that I wouldn't have to still constantly be
(23:55):
leaving California. Yeah, that's an interesting take
on on a song. If it was only that easy to move
the sign. I know, right?
It would not fit in my front yard by any means.
The I saw the teaser video for damn, what a woman that that's
one sounds like a head bopper. That that sounds like a good
song. Yeah, it's.
(24:17):
Sweet. It's because so much of my music
when I was with my label is geared towards the love songs
for this whole project, for bothsides of the album.
There really isn't any traditional love songs.
It, it hits so many different walks of life.
And I didn't really have an older song that I hadn't
recorded yet that would fit thatperfect spot of a needed love
(24:39):
song. And so damn it, A Woman is one
that I've I've written since being a free agent.
And so it's that it's one of thenew ones.
But it's, yeah, it's, it's just sweet.
It's classic. It just feels like, it just
feels like love. And it's we took the whole idea
of like, you see it like a beautiful woman and you look at
your friends and you're like, damn, you know, like, damn, what
(25:01):
a woman. But the whole idea is what damn
what a woman can do and just about the control she can have
over you. Once, once you're hooked, and
especially once she knows that she has you hooked, that the
control skyrockets and you're just a puppet in her little game
as you're falling in love like apuppy.
But yeah, it's, I had never eventeased that one at all until a
(25:24):
couple days ago. And I tried to.
There's another, you know, thin line of balances trying to You
want to tease stuff 'cause you want to build up hype, but at
the same time you want stuff to be brand new when an album
comes. Out you don't want to give them
too much. Yeah.
And so and especially since we had already released a few songs
leading up to it. So I just see, I started posting
(25:45):
about that a couple days ago or whatnot and just tease another
one today now that we're like super close.
With with all the success that you've had, you have gold
records and you've played the Opry.
Do you ever think back to your days at Red Robin, like if you
had never gone after this dream,Like you might be still at Red
Robin or another job, or you ever like kind of reflect on
(26:06):
that, especially around the timethat an album is coming out?
Oh man, I think about it all thetime.
There's something my my one of my best friends.
His name is Hunter Hill. He's a stand up comic and he was
my roommate when I was, I guess like 23 living in LA area for
the first time. And we met because we worked at
Red Robin together. And I had been talking about
(26:27):
wanting to do music and he was considering getting into comedy.
And now he's a professional comic and tours all over the
world. And, you know, I do what I do
with music. And when we are, you know,
talking and catching up, there'ssomething we always say about,
you know, the chaos and the stress that comes from these
type of careers that they are 24/7.
(26:48):
Your, your brain is never not onand thinking about what you
could and should be doing. And you're not clocking in and
out of a regular job. And we always joke of, you know,
sometimes I wish I could just wish we could just go back, you
know, just for like a few days to a red to a, to Red Robin,
where when you clocked out and you put your apron down, you
(27:09):
didn't think about Red Robin again until you had to put it
back on. You know, that kind of just
simplicity of life. But thank God I don't work at
Red Robin still. They were a great company, but I
worked there forever. They were great.
I mean, they let me tour and come back and always have my
job. And they were, they were a super
supportive restaurant to say theleast.
But very very glad that they arenot still supporting me in my
(27:33):
dream. You went on to bigger and better
things. Bottomless fries are pretty
good. I can't remember the last time I
went to Red Robin, to be honest,but they had their food was
always really good. Yeah, yeah.
It's I'd say I'd probably go like once a year.
It's more nostalgic for me than anything.
Just a reminder of the the good old days.
(27:56):
And I came from such a small town where I grew up that our
Red Robin there, it's it's wild.Like when I go back there and
visit sometimes and I go to my hometown, if I go in that Red
Robin where I worked for a few years, there are still people
that that work there from when Iworked there.
Like that's the small town community.
And there's still people that work there from when I was like
(28:19):
getting out of high school like that 22 years ago.
That adds to like a crazy nostalgia, them still being
there and stuff. I love.
It you walk in, they're like, hey Tyler, is that you?
Yeah, I know. And honestly, yeah, still.
I mean, it's, yeah, it's wild. Do you wear the gold 49ers mask
for every 49ers game? Dude, we got that.
(28:44):
We did in 2019. We did the Brantley Gilbert kick
it in the ship cruise and we haddocked in Mexico for, you know,
half a day before getting back on the water.
All of us went and bought those luchador masks of our favorite
teams. And I've had that ever since.
And what's funny is I don't think I've ever actually put it
on other than those first coupledays.
And when I was going to do that social media thing, I was like,
(29:06):
I need to look 49ers up to the TAnd I was looking through like,
I have so much 49ers stuff. And so I'm in my closet and I'm
like looking at my drawer that'sliterally just 49ers and all
that stuff. And I found that mask and I was
like, and those gloves also, I was like, yeah, let's go.
This is perfect. That was a pretty hyped video.
(29:26):
Pretty badass video. Yeah, everybody who, you know,
that whole trend of throwing a fit, everybody, you know, slow
motion and and they're dressed to the nines, you know, and they
look great and they're like beautiful people.
And, and I was like, let's let'smake this a little more me.
And I just come around the corner just head to toe for you.
Are you talking about like that trend?
(29:46):
I got this watch from TJ Maxx and I got this pants from
Target? You know that trend?
No. No, no, no, no, no.
So if you go back to that 49er video where it says, sorry, we
were late to stage. Tyler was throwing a fit.
That is that trend. So it'll say someone will be
like, sorry, we were late to dinner.
Jessica was throwing a fit, which means it sounds like she's
(30:09):
like, you know, having a bad night and yelling at people and
stuff. But then it flips to a slow MO
of her coming out like beautifulin a dress kind of thing.
And so like Jordan Davis did oneand his brother at at the front
of the video, Yo, sorry, we werelate to the game.
They were going to an LSU Tigersgame.
So I related to the game. Jordan was sort of fit.
And then he turns the corner andhe's got like huge Tigers jacket
(30:30):
on the cowboy hat. I think like a cigar in his
mouth walking slow MO. And yeah, it's just a trend.
And so I was like, how can I make this as me as possible,
49ers? Sounds like I'm late to this
trend. I haven't heard of that yet.
I've probably never would have heard of it but luckily people
on my my team will send me linksto things.
But like hey maybe you should doone for this.
(30:51):
Maybe you should do some for this and it helps my chaotic
brain for sure. Since some of them I'm sure
you're like this sounds great and then others you like kind of
roll your eyes like. Oh yeah, we I don't do half of
them like they'll send me like the cringe of stuff, knowing
that that I likely will not do it, but but it's still good to
at least see it. Let's.
(31:11):
See what he'll do if we said it to him.
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The ultimate experience I I got to hear about this recent bear.
Encounter that you were talking about, I got to hear this story.
How did you already hear this? I I caught your taste of
country. Oh my God.
(32:34):
OK. I was like, yeah, because I was
thinking today's the first time I've talked about it because I
was like 3 days ago. Yeah.
So we are, you know, my wife andI for our anniversary, we're up
in Montana and we go to Yellowstone.
And I've been to Yellowstone before she had not.
And you know, you'll see a ton of bison, Buffalo everywhere,
you'll see a bunch of elk. There's, you know, high chance
(32:56):
you could see wolves, tons of bears, all sorts of stuff.
And as we are leaving Yellowstone, I was like, it
sucks 2 Times Now. And I didn't get to see a wolf
or, or grizzly. That's two things that have been
on my bucket list of life forever.
And I don't necessarily want to see them, but I would like to
be, you know, in a car or something and just see them in
(33:18):
the wild. I think that would be just super
special. And I was like, man, that sucks.
All right, I guess we'll just have to come back.
And then. So the next day we are doing an
ATV excursion in Big Sky, Mt where we're staying like 20
minutes from our hotel. And Sabina and I, we've done a
lot of ATV excursions. I've done a lot with my friends
over the years and usually you go, you sign up, you know,
(33:41):
there's about 10 ATVs, bunch of different people and guests have
all, you know, paid for the sametime slot.
And then there's a couple guidesand you just go on a hour to
hour kind of, you know, ride. And so that's what we think
we're doing. And we get there and we're going
to be in a side by side and theyshow us a tutorial video and the
(34:02):
guy on the video is like, so as soon as you get in your ATV,
your GPSRDB programmed based offhow long you've booked your time
for, you're going to follow thisred line when you get here, make
sure you go left, blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, Oh my God, we'redoing this alone.
That's cool. We're not anybody else's, you
know, schedule time clock for stopping pictures.
(34:22):
We can just her and I hang and just go to the mountains And
about a mile, 2 miles into it, it hits me that we're alone and
I don't have bear spray. I don't have a gun, I don't have
AI, don't have anything, which is something we didn't even
think about because we were going to be in like a gang of
ATVs, like the scariest thing ever for a predator.
(34:43):
And it hits me, I don't really bring it up to Sabina because I
don't want her to like get nervous.
But I know there's like, I thinkit's 1200 Grizzlies in the the
Yellowstone total area. So that instantly hits me
because I was Googling these random facts a couple days
before and I'm like, OK, OK, so based off square footage, where
(35:04):
at where would a grizzly be? And we're driving about a mile
later and she hits me and she's like, stop, stop.
What is that? What is that?
I keep going, but I'm like looking ahead because we're
about to turn left on this trail, but there's just woods in
front of us and I don't see anything.
She hits me and she was no, no, seriously, stop.
And I like slam on the brakes and try to turn on the music and
(35:24):
it's frozen and it's just playing really loud.
And we get that stopped and she's like, look, look.
And I see this, this little whatlooks like a black cub, super
cute, hopping around about 25 yards in front of us.
I was like, oh, it's a black bear.
I was like, where's Mama? And I'm like kind of looking
around. Oh, jeez.
(35:45):
Then yeah, she's like. And she says, OK, OK, what do we
do? I was like, no, it's fine.
It's black. We're good, we're OK.
And then another little cub popsout and they're like hopping
around and they're. But now they're both in the sun
and they are very brown. And I was like, OK, now those
are brown. I was like, where's mom?
(36:05):
We got to get the fuck out of here.
We what are we, what are we, what are we doing?
And we're both just frozen sitting there.
And then I just saw like dude, like a, a Volkswagen bus sized
grizzly, like the biggest thing I've ever seen.
And she just is taking off running directly 25 yards in
front of us, but running like away kind of diagonal.
(36:27):
And the Cubs are following her and not.
And they're just instantly gone around this little corner.
And yeah, we're just like, I mean, 25 yards might even be
farther than they were for they were right there.
And I'm like, had we left or hadwe, had I gone a little faster
around a couple other turns, we would have already turned left
(36:48):
on that trail and they would have been face to face with us.
Oh my gosh. I mean, they literally were
right in front of us, but we butnot coming at us, you know, had
I had we been 20 seconds earlier?
So we're now we're contemplating, do we turn
around? Do we go back?
Because they're running towards where we're going like our trail
goes left and then it does an immediate U-turn and goes the
(37:10):
trail that way. And that's exactly the area they
had sprinted off to and. So I'd be sprinting.
Yeah, these these ATVs, you know, they get up to like 70
miles an hour and you can't go that fast in the mountains
because you're like going up anddown trails and it's rocky.
But I was like, look, if we see her again, I'm just going to gun
(37:31):
it. I don't, I don't she's not going
to. She can go 35 miles an hour, but
she's not going to chase us forever and leave her Cubs as
she's trying to protect behind her.
If we were on foot. I mean, we've been done for,
right? And it's so.
Yeah, we saw some locals that were on AT VS coming from the
opposite direction. And like, right after this had
happened, I was like, did you excuse me, Sir?
And they're like hunting. Excuse me, Sir.
(37:53):
Did you see the did you see the biggest grizzly of your entire
life right behind over there? And they're like, wait, what?
I was like, yeah, they just ran straight to where you guys were
going. They just, they said no, but
they're like, you know, just stay in your vehicle, don't mess
with her. And I was like, yeah, I wasn't
planning on messing with her. Yeah, I'm good.
(38:13):
And but, you know, once we were,you know, safe and and driving
like what it like an incredible thing to get to see in the wild,
but absolutely humbling, absolutely terrifying in that
moment. Well, I'm glad you survived to
see all this music come out. Dude, I know, my God, could you
imagine this out? The album would finally, you
know, really blow up and do whatit was supposed to if I got
(38:34):
killed by a grizzly 3 days ago. Oh jeez, it turned more into a
tribute album than anything else.
Oh my God, I know. Seriously.
But you know, Sabina would be taken care of and it'd be great
because she would get away, because I would charge the
grizzly and she would, she'd have a hit record on her hands.
The love is real. Yep, Amen.
(38:58):
So when this episode drops, it'll be the same day as as the
album release. How do you feel to to kind of
hear that that the music's goingto be out for everybody to
listen to? Is it kind of an overwhelming
feeling of accomplishment and like all this hard work coming
to fruition? Like, how do you feel to hear
that the music's out? Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
(39:19):
And we're talking almost two years of working on this and it
just, there's important stories on there that I I can't wait to
share with people and connect on.
And it's just, yeah, it's an incredible feeling.
We're actually going to the release party tonight.
And so a bunch of the songwriters and, you know, my 2
producers and the mixing engineers and my band and
(39:40):
friends, we're all, we're all getting together to celebrate
tonight and it's going to be awesome.
I'm just, you know, the, the artist curse.
I'm already thinking of like, what's next?
But it what? Is next.
What is? Yeah.
What is next? Yeah.
You know, I've already started writing new music that I'm super
excited about. But this was, and I said it from
(40:03):
day one, this was this whole thing was a passion project for
me. I wanted to get music out again
for the fans and for myself and what I wanted to do and then go
from there. And so.
I felt like I just written so many songs over the year that
nobody got years that nobody gotto hear.
That meant a lot to me. And it's, yeah, it's a, it's an
(40:25):
overwhelming sense of just prideand gratitude and excitement.
And then taking all these songs out on the road, that's got to
be even more exciting, like stopping in Stanford,
Connecticut, right down the the road from me at the Palace
Theater. They're they're in for a treat.
Yeah, they are in for a treat. We all are.
I'm in for a treat. I can't wait.
(40:46):
Yeah, this, this side of the album has a little a little bit
of everything. I mean, it's got the.
Heaviest song on the whole thing.
It's got this probably the one of the softest, either the
softest or within two softest song on the whole thing.
That one's like mostly just piano and vocal.
And you know, we're going to incorporate a lot of that into
this live show. It's got a cover on it.
(41:07):
You know, my first album I did the cover of Billie Jean.
And so for this one, I wanted to, I wanted to do a cover also
keep that tradition going. And Bush 16 Stone was my first
CDI ever bought. And so as a nod to that, we did
a cover of Bush come down, kind of like when I did the Michael
Jackson one where I felt Billie Jean was, you know, a bluesy,
(41:29):
sultry lyric and melody that wastrapped in a big pop song's
body. Come down.
You know, they're they're an oldBush was a 90s alternative rock
band and they're production on that is, you know, it's big and
it's rock and the lyric is so great and the melody's so great
on that that I wanted to really,you know, highlight that.
(41:50):
And so it's it's a very chill vibe of a cover, but it's it's
special. It's super cool.
How do you top all this? Like 20 songs, Like years of
hard work? Like how do you top what you've
done since leaving the label? Oh, just keep going.
I mean, keep going. Try to sell more tickets, try to
(42:12):
pack out rooms, make the, you know, make the headline tours
bigger than they were the year before.
It's just all about growth. You know, like being in the same
place is one thing. You don't ever want to digress.
You always want to progress, even if that's a little bit.
And as long as I get to, you know, keep playing music for a
living, that that is success to me.
And I'm going to just keep red music and trying to spread my
(42:37):
message of living in the moment through songs and connecting
with fans and making friendshipsand keeping that alive.
And still playing like you're playing for 80,000, even if it's
five. Always, man.
You know it. Always, Always.
Still do it. I'm excited for the Palace
Theatres show. And then my producer, his name
(42:59):
is Dan, he lives out in Portland, OR.
He was pointing out that you have a show out in Portland as
well. Yeah, November.
Yeah, Ponderosa Lounge. That's a, that's a fun one.
It's cool room. We've done that one actually a
couple times over the years. Yeah, it looks like we pulled up
some pictures and stuff. Looks like a cool spot.
Yeah, it's a. It's literally a truck stop,
(43:19):
little mall kind of thing. Oh really?
And there's a venue, bar, restaurant in that.
But it's yeah, it's all connected to a a truck stop.
And I think there's like a hotelalso.
I don't really. We don't really explore much.
We by the time we usually get tovenues, we sound check and then
have like an hour to eat and then then it's meet and greet
and then the show starts. And so I haven't like fully
(43:41):
explored the truck stop, but it's like a really big thing.
Do you still play tons of PlayStation out on the road?
Yeah, all the time. It's the only thing that keeps
the same. Yeah, yeah.
If we're not screaming at each other with controllers in our
hand just doesn't feel right. Yeah, it's got to be tough, but
all being crammed in the the rider together, so something to
(44:02):
bond you is probably good. 100% or make us hate each other more
because you know we're all better at certain games than
each other. I I saw that back in 2023,
shortly after we last spoke, I saw that you played the
Washington County Fair. My father-in-law and my uncle in
law, they actually both came up and join me on stage and we, we
(44:25):
did a cause. My uncle, he plays the accordion
and my father-in-law plays the harmonica.
And so I brought them both up onstage and we did a wagon wheel,
I think, or just a very like normal country cover song that
everybody knows. Oh, we did.
We did country roads. That was a moment.
It was fun. Yeah, that sounds really cool.
(44:45):
Like I said, from Poland, they are a party.
They're up there just kicking their heels and playing their
stuff and just really great memory.
Yeah, it's probably like a rare opportunity to get some people
up there with you that are meaningful parts of the family.
And that sounds really nice. That sounds awesome.
Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think we were like
drinking at a family function ofsome sort and everybody's
(45:08):
talking about going to that showand anytime there's family
function, the harmonica and the accordion come out.
And so it probably just, I don'tremember, but I would guess it
was a buzz conversation of you should both bring these to the
show. Let's do this.
Unique way to plan a show. Just kind of hanging out with
family. Yeah, exactly.
You know what? Let's just go.
Let's go right now. Well, Tyler, it was a lot of fun
(45:33):
being able to chat with you. I feel like this was perfect
timing because you have the album and you have the, the
tour, the Leaving California tour.
And we're also, we have our, since we last talked, we have a
writer's round once a month in Groton and we're giving away a
pair of tickets for the Palace Theater theater show as well.
So it's this perfect timing to connect and have you back on.
(45:54):
Oh, I love that. That's awesome.
You're. Going to be coming to the show.
Yeah, I'd love to see the show. Connects with me on on Instagram
or whatever and if you're going to be able to make it.
And we'll hang. Awesome, that, that'd be a
blast. Cool.
Well, thanks for having me back on, Josh.
I appreciate you man. Absolutely.
Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
Cool, We'll hopefully see you very soon.
(46:16):
Sounds good. Awesome.
Take care, brother. Wow, what a blast.
What a blast that's going to do it for this week's episode.
Thank you so much to Tyler Rich for coming back on for a for a
second time, making some time for us and and chatting with us
again. Our our good buddy Tyler Rich.
Thanks. Thank you so much man.
(46:37):
And we can't wait for for you tohear all of this music.
You can listen to that on all listening platforms.
His brand new now double album Hello California back in in
March and then leaving California. 20 songs, 20 Tyler
Rich songs. Go check it out wherever you
(46:59):
listen to musictylerrich.com, his website.
Such a blast. Really really enjoy talking to
Tyler and and having him on again.
Just a good friend. Can't wait for his show at the
Palace Theater in Stanford. You can win those tickets at our
next writers round event, October 8th, our free event at
(47:20):
the Barn in Groton, CT. We hope to see you there.
Your chance to win thanks to thePalace Theatre and find out all
the other places he's going to be on this tour at tylerrich.com
of course, or or head to Instagram at Country on Deck.
You can find all this information right on social
media, Tyler's social media, oursocial media.
(47:44):
We'll be back next Friday. We're going to do it all again.
Another star, rising star on theshow, another country star.
It's so much fun each and every week having these conversations.
So make sure you hit that followbutton so you don't miss it.
I'm Josh Maddie and this is Country on deck kick.
(48:11):
Off your boots and settle in country on this.
About to bring him. Josh Maddie's here.
Stars on the rise. Voices of hope, Dreams in their
eyes. Singer songwriters stories on
(48:34):
phone. Hearts that wander Hearts out of
bone does he rode to rise. Angelines capture their journey
shares their fights. Country on day.
We're tuning in well the new star stories are coming in from
(49:00):
a small town. Dreams they're gonna take you
away. Country on day with drunk man
day. Thank you so much for listening
to the Country on Deck with JoshMaddie.
Josh is back at his desk every Thursday talking with a new
country artist, so make sure youhit that follow button whenever
(49:21):
you're listening so you don't miss an interview.
Follow Country on Deck on socialmedia.
All social media links can be found by going to LINKTR period.
EE slash Country on deck.
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