3 & Out - Bobby Bones joins the podcast - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (02:13):
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff Bad be Me
three and out podcast And we have a very very
special guest today. Hopefully everyone had a good vacation. Good
fourth of July. I had some hot dogs and burgers,
the lake, the pool, some beers, and enjoyed yourself a

(02:33):
little inside baseball. I'm actually we recorded this before fourth
of July, so I probably had a blast. Hopefully you
did too. And Bobby Bones one of the biggest voices
in all of music radio country radio.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
He's been on Dancing with the Stars, he won it.
He's part of American Idol. He's everywhere, but we become buddies.
As you'll find out on the podcast. He just randomly
DM me and and I've gone on his He has
sports podcasts as well. He's based in Nashville, Tennessee. That's
why if you type in on YouTube. He interviews all
the superstars of country music and just music stars in general.

(03:13):
But he's the man, and he's been good to me
in several ways. So I love the guy and special
talent in the business. So very very excited that he
hopped on for a while. I mean we talked to him,
I think for almost an hour or so. We'll dive
into just you know, what it's like working in the business,

(03:35):
kind of his story. Nashville in general, which is, you know,
one of the last places for forever, Hollywood was like this,
you had to go there to become an actor, and
now Nashville if you want to be in country music,
you kind of just have to go there. And I
love Nashville. Hell Maria's kind of loosely planning a wedding
and wants to get married in Nashville. So I've only

(03:56):
been there a couple of times and it was a
special place. So Bobby Bones, we'll be talking with us
for a while, a little non football show, even though
he loves football, and we'll talk a little SEC football
as well. But you guys know the drill at John Middlecoff.
We'll get the mail bag back going probably next week
and firing those dms. Subscribe to the podcast three and

(04:18):
Out if you listen to Collins show, and yeah, everything
is up on YouTube. This interview is up on YouTube
as well, so you guys know the drill speaking to Nashville.
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minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Okay, very very excited. A
friend of mine live from Nashville, Tennessee. You know, many
would say he's synonymous with country music, one of the
biggest radio stars the last twenty years. But I was

(05:46):
watching my guy Bobby Bone's interview I think Chris Stapleton,
and you mentioned that you were once in Otown. Is
that a joke or is that is that actually true?

Speaker 3 (05:58):
That's so funny that where that has gone. So yeah,
I was not in Otown. It was a prank that
I pulled off a long time ago and it still
lives on Wikipedia.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Otown was the boy band that was like.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Oh I remember, oh nothing at all.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I loved Otown and that, but you never knew what
the people in Otown looked like. So I started like
this bit where I was the long lost disgrace member
of Otown and I was just dying to get back in,
trying to get the band to acknowledge me. And that
thing has lived and people of prominence yourself included up.
But then on the list of people of prominence who said, hey,
were you in Otown? Like that makes my heart feel warm.
It makes my heart feel warm, almost as warm as

(06:35):
when I saw your engagement picture those two together. That
was that you on a knee and you saying are
you in Otown?

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah? We got we gotta stay hot right now. You know.
She she's happy, I'm happy. We're all happy. Uh, get
a big day in the big day in the middle
cough life.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Actually, how long how long was that planned as to where?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Uh, well, that was a fluid situation. Uh, you know
that was tough. We're going back. We're recording this a
little before the fourth of July. But we were going
back home and going to Tahoe, and I didn't want
to lug it around, you know, and have risk, you know,
go through Southwest or just whatever. And so I had
to get it done. And then probably a couple of
weeks ago, I got sick. I was going to try

(07:16):
to pull it off then, and then it was kind
of you know, we're leaving here in a couple of days.
I'm like, uh, my brother was in town, flying back
from a bachelor party from Cabo and he stayed with us.
We were going to go play golf and I was like, well,
I got a camera guy right here. So the Princess Hotel,
which is behind where they have the waste management golf tournament,
really nice, cool little hotel, and I was like, we're

(07:37):
going to a restaurant there. I told Jeff, you just
got to make this. Just have the camera. I kind
of was like, hey, let's take a picture. It's kind
of awkward. I mean, she kind of knew it was
coming again, she picked the ring, so it's she didn't
know when, but it worked out pretty well. Then the
monsoon was coming in right so about you know, the
hockey game had tipped off, and I look in the

(07:58):
backyard and I'm like, oh my god, is in the monsoon.
Actually didn't happen, but it kind of got nervous for
a while. It all worked out. The lighting was perfect.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well, I love that for you. I just got married
about to do three years, so you know, I didn't
get married till later in life. And you know, it's
weird because we're both people who talk for a living performers.
I don't really get nervous so much anymore, even if
it's like live television. But I got nervous even though
I knew what the answer was going to be. It
was a bizarre feeling where it really was. I guess
I just didn't want to screw up her moment more

(08:27):
than anything. More than any sort of okay, don't screw
up on live anything, I just didn't want to screw
up her moment.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
And so I was nervous, like I was like talking
in an accent or something.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
I don't talk, like in a like an English accent
out of nowhere because I don't know, I don't know
do with my hands. Like the whole thing was weird.
So congratulations, man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I'm with you, you know, I'm thirty nine, so
I'm of all the people I know, well, I got
to get Yeah, I'm the last. And she's like, did
you even say will you marry me? She blacked out.
I was like, I think I did. I don't know.
It's a I've done a lot of things in my life.
It's a it's a unique experience. I can't quite compare
anything to that. You know, whatever long it is, thirty seconds,

(09:05):
twenty seconds where it all kind of goes down, but
it's it's cool.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
It feels momentary, like I think, I kind of blacked
out I was doing.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
I compared it to I was doing Dancing with.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
The Stars and I've never danced before, and they were like, hey,
come do Dancing on the Stars and the first, you know,
four episodes, you'll get kicked off because nobody that's never
danced wins the show. And so I was going to
do promo for American Idol because I was on Idol
at the time. And so I go to the Stars
and they go and there's a click click track.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
It clowns to four and the song starts.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
If you're watching on television, which I'd never watched the show,
but you're watching on television. You don't hear the click track.
The first dance I did, I don't remember. It felt
like I was proposing because I freaked out, blacked out,
finished the dance, completed it, then fell down on stage.
All I remember is that click track. All I remember
my wife now walking in to the barn that I

(09:56):
was proposing to her in, and then it being over
for both of those very siml smilar feelings, you.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Know, subtle drop of Dancing with the Stars. But you
won the thing, correct.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Yeah, I'm a wildly good athlete. Actually I did win.
It's not because of my athletic ability.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
It was just because, you know, if you have a
strong podcast or big radio show or like, we depend
on our people, and hopefully our people depend on us
to be honest, authentic as truthful, not always right, but
truthful as possible, and there's a bond that's formed, Like really,
it's not passive listening.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
And so yeah, my listeners.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
At the end of that show, and this wasn't about that,
but the end of that show, the vice president of
Like non Scripted called me in at ABC because I
was still working on a different show there, so I
still had a relationship and I was going back up
to Disney ABC a lot, and he was like, hey man,
you could have taken a dump on the floor. You
won that final episode. Your fan vote, your vote was
so big, So that's all it was. I worked really
hard on this show. Is the hardest thing I've ever done.

(10:53):
But for me to say that it was my dancing,
I would be lying.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
You know, one thing's crazy, and you've been in this
business a lot longer than me. Is the power you
have in the audio medium. You know, I get people
that you know, if I see them at a golf
course or whatever, and they come up to me and
they're a listener, and their reaction and the way they
interact with me is like I've known them for a
long time. And at first it's a little jarring and
you kind of get used to it and then you
realize how cool it is. But you the relationship you

(11:20):
have of talking with people that you don't see i'mlike
TV or whatever with or see you. And now with
these earphones and really the last twenty years of pluging earphones,
you're right in their ears. It's a very very special,
like I'm gonna use the word again, unique relationship you
have with people that you just don't get in any
other medium of quote unquote entertainment. Is that fair to say?

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah? And I think again it's if someone's searching out
your show, like when I listened to A three and
Our or Go Loo or whatever it is, if I'm
going to go search for it, I'm not passively listening,
meaning I have chosen you. I am putting air pods
in to listen to you. And unless I'm just not
entertained or you pissed me off, I'm here.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
I've chosen you.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
So you're my friend, and we're gonna roll together and
we're gonna I'm gonna know stuff about you. And I
think for me, it took me being super fans of
other shows podcasts to actually revalue how important and how
intimate that is, because again, like before it went on,
we had just a couple of minutes to talk and
you were talking about you were sick, and I wanted
to be like, alreadyknew that I heard you talk about that,

(12:26):
how you wanted to do a show but you were sick.
So you get like, I know all these things that
you probably aren't spraying out to individuals. You're spraying out
to like a mass group. So it's weird when one
person reflects back on something you said that they remember.
But it's an extremely powerful medium. Podcasting is.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
And you know, I'm wrong a lot.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
I say a lot of stuff that pisses people off,
but I always and I stopped lying on the air,
even for embellishment of bits, probably like seven or eight
years ago, because I can't remember lies. That's really what
it is, because I think I was still be going
hard at like just trying to entertain. But I think
because I always try to be honest, even if it's,
you know, not the best look to me. People like

(13:08):
that I wrote when I wrote my you know, my
first book, I was really nervous about sharing some of
the details of my life that I thought people would
judge me for, and it ended up being the things
that they actually valued the most and respected. But this
is the number one place man, I have Again, you,
I could say you are like Big cat on PTI
or Colin or like people that if I walked up

(13:30):
to them in the airport, for the most part, they
wouldn't know who I was. But I feel like I
know them really well, and I think it's the beauty
of this.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
I'm fascinated by people who at a very young age
know what they want to do. Like I love sports,
but at ten years old, fifteen years old, I didn't
know i'd be sitting here doing this. And you know,
I've never talked to you about this, but a little
bit about you, is it fair to say like you
knew and the radio business has changed a lot, but
you're a little older than me. The power of radio

(14:07):
when I was a kid, whether it was K and
B R the sports station in northern California, I'm sure
you've done stuff over the years with K and C
I and Sacramento, it was just all It's all you had, right,
I mean, every single car you listened to the radio?
How did that happen? And you know, I believe and
I truly believe this to my core. Regardless of talent,

(14:27):
everyone has more talent than others depending on the industry,
it's borderline impossible to fail when at a super young
age you're like, this is what I'm gonna do, and
in some form or fashion you're gonna end up around that.
I think it's inevitable.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yeah, I think if And I was very lucky.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
I was five years old and I knew exactly what
I wanted to do it there were three things I
wanted to do. I wanted to be on the radio,
I wanted to be a stand up comedian, and I
wanted to be on television. And so I remember thinking
it was weird people didn't know what they wanted to do. Now,
also from rural Arkansas, seven hundred people in my hometown
less than that now, but at the time, seven hundred
people nobody did those jobs. You graduated high school and

(15:06):
you went to work at the mill. That's it.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
You went to warehouse when you worked at the mill.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
And people really didn't even leave Hot Springs much less
Mountain Pine where I'm from. So town was Hot Springs.
That's where the walmart was, and so if you were
going to the Hot Springs, you told.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Your neighbors, Hey, I'm going to town, do you need anything.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
So it wasn't like there were a lot of creative
or arts jobs around. So I just remember thinking, like kindergarten,
first grade, I remember thinking, how do people not know
what they want to do? Because I knew immediately.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Now, I think.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Part of it was like the therapy part of things
was like like I grew up without a dad, and
my mom was a drug addict and she died a
little later on. But I remember thinking, man, if I'm funny,
like people will like.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Me slash love me.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
And it was probably a little bit from that, like
me just trying to find love in a place. But
I think that you're exactly right, Like I knew what
I wanted.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
To do, and it used to be to me.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
I used to be resentful of how I grew up
and you know, woe is me, food stamp kid whatever.
I'm so grateful for that now as I'm older, it
can look back. I had nothing to lose, and the
power of having nothing to lose is awesome because what's
the worst it's gonna happen. It's the same Like that
to me is really one of the greatest things to
ever happened to me was that I didn't come from

(16:21):
much and that allowed me to actually try because.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
I wasn't worried about being comfortable.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
And I'm pretty grateful for that now as I've become older, you.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Know, I get a lot of people asking like, how
do I get involved in the NFL? How do I
get involved in football? And people are torn and it's
hard to get break in and they go, well, I
have this offer from a bank, right, And I said, listen,
I'll never tell you what to do. I'm not in
your shoes, but I know this. Once you go a
different route, yep, life changes, you get married, you might
start making more money. Because most of these type jobs,

(16:52):
I would say, radio back in the day, starting in football, whatever,
you're not gonna make.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Much, especially arts jobs. You're exactly right, I mean.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, so what once you do a real job starts
telling you might be making six figures by your mid
twenties and then meet a girl and it's hard to pivot.
You just almost got to put all your chips in
the middle of the table and if it doesn't work out,
it doesn't work out. But not having a second option,
and that was for me cause I was like, I
don't really like anything else and I don't trust like

(17:20):
my attention span slash just I'm not the smartest guy.
I have to do this and then it just kind
of plays out. You like you said, the way you
grew up getting in radio, even by the time like
when do you how do you even start? Because not
like you got a cousin that owns the station or no,
this guy, where the hell do you even go? Like,

(17:41):
what's gonna be my first step?

Speaker 4 (17:43):
I was a teenager.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
I was seventeen, and I went and begged at the
local radio station to do anything, any side job, and
so they hired me to clean the radio station. That
was literally the job. I was a kid that was
making minimum wage. They hired me to clean the like
the lobby and then to switch out the Rick D's
Weekly top forty and it was a pop station. And
so I was like, cool, this is the greatest thing ever.
I get to work in the radio station. And I

(18:05):
think the key to success in general is just being available, right.
I think I can learn anything, but I'm going to
be available and if you ask, I'm gonna say yes.
And so I was just available. They fired a guy
for stealing some stuff and they threw me on in
the overnights on the weekend, and of course it was awful,
but the best abilities availability, and I did it. And

(18:28):
I just showed up over and over again. I do
not have a good voice. There's nothing really about me.
I speak with a terrible speech pattern. As a broadcaster,
I'm pretty bad. But I've been able to make a
pretty good career, whether it's on whatever medium it is,
on understanding where I'm not the strongest, but also knowing
where i am strong and like focusing on the main thing.

(18:49):
And I think that's been, you know, the kind of
the secret to whatever success this is. And also I
wasn't good looking either, so I didn't have any girls
to had some success, So it wasn't like I was
trying to get a job and you know, make money
and have girls. I didn't even to worry about geting pregnant.
I'd have sex on my twenties, so it was like
that kind of life. I'm very grateful for that now,
but at the time, you know, not my favorite.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
So did you, like I equate you with country music?
Was that not something like? Did you get involved with
country music early on in your career with country music radio.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
I grew up in Arkansas, so country music was a
part of my life. But no, I mean I started
at a pop station. I did that and moved up.
I was only in Arkansas for you know, all through college.
Nobody in my family graduated high school of college, so
it was important for me to do that. So I
worked in Hot Springs, Arkansas for four years and went
to Little Rock, Arkansas, and I was doing pop, and

(19:40):
then I moved to Austin, Texas, and I was doing
pop and hip hop. I was doing a national sports
show on Fox Sports Radio on the weekends and I
would fill in for like gym Rome and stuff, and
that was fun for me because I've always been a
sports nerd, and so I felt like, Okay, I've kind
of got it. But I started investing what little money
I had, and I was making like fifty grand a year.

(20:00):
This is probably like two thousand and five, which to me,
I was rich. But I was like, I found a
technology that now it is used and it's kind of
old now, but it's called Comrex and we were using
it for remotes for like stations to do hey come
out twenty dollars off of free spray tan type stuff.
And I was like, man, why can't I use this
and extend it to another station? So I bought two

(20:22):
of them and convince the station to put me on
in the morning. I would do it for free, all
for free phone lines.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
Producer.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
I paid for everything, and it took us like nine
months and we won there. And as you know, this
is universal. If you have a w under your belt,
and you can make sure that the people that hire
you aren't at fault if you lose, because all they're
doing is looking at the data and hiring you. If
you can have them cover their butts, they will hire you.

(20:51):
And I got a chance to succeed, and I did,
and then I you know, I used my own money
and had like thirty thirty stations, started to make some
good money then and then sold part of my syndication
company to iHeart was doing pop and hip hop and
some rock stuff, but I just wanted it to be
back in like normal America, and we don't play a
lot of music. I'm massively in the country fabric now

(21:12):
and I love it, but we don't play a lot
of music on like the broadcast show. But we have
a lot of country artists that stop in. But we
also have you know, John Mayer, Pharrell, if they're in town,
they'll come by too. Post Malone, yeah, post Alone played
with me at Rhyman, which was super cool.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
So yes, I'm just generally a.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Music nerd, a sports nerd, and a music nerd, so
I think that's why this fits. And I'm also kind
of a hillbilly still, as you can hear by how
I talk, so it just makes sense.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I saw you on Instagram. Someone asked you because you
had the event within the last couple of months and
Postal was there and you hung out with them and
he played. I got two questions. One you were just asked,
like can'ny sing? And two I have a theory, But
why do you think he's kind of making this transition.
What feels like he's just gonna go all country at
least for the time being.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
I think it is only for the time being.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
I think he says that pretty openly too, Like he's
not Nashville doesn't like if people are unsuccessful at their
current home and think they can come over to country
and have that as a safety net or have that
as a last resort. This format doesn't like that. What
this format does like is for someone who was successful
another part to go. I love and respect country music,

(22:19):
and I'm gonna do a country project, but I'm also
not saying that I'm a full time country artist. And
he also moved to Nashville, made himself available for the community,
the songwriters. This town has embraced him like crazy. So
I do a show where I play at the Rhyman
every year we've been able to raise a bunch of
money for Saint Jude. And I just reached out to him,
didn't know him, and said, Hey, is there any chance

(22:41):
that you'll come and play at the Rhyman and you
could play with me at the end of the show.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
And he was like, yeah, sure. But even that day
I was cause you know.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
He's big Hollywood, big superstar. I was like, man, what
if he doesn't show. He showed up half an hour early.
He got in was nervous not to just perform, but
he was doing a couple like old school country songs
and also doing one of his songs, like the but
he was so nervous to not mess it up. And
I walked back during a break and was just introducing
myself and he was singing. He was sitting on the toilet,

(23:09):
lid down, pants on, but he was sitting on the
toilet because the acoustics, just practicing. And that's when I
heard him singing. I was like, oh, post one can
really sing. And on top of that, I knew he
was serious about this. But he also grew up in
Texas and he's been doing stuff in country, like dabbling
for the past seven eight years playing with Brad Paisley,
putting country covers up, but also at the same time
not saying I'm now a country artist.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
And I think in general Nashville respects that.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I think we're kind of in an age of authenticity,
you know, in the sense of music in what we do,
and I think it's kind of shown with Posts. It
just feels like he really wants to do it, and
it feels like he likes it, and it just kind
of resonates. And I was watching an interview you had
with Chris Stapleton. It's safe to say he doesn't really

(23:56):
look like most country stars in my life.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Pretty safe.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I saw Luke Combs came to Arizona a couple of
weeks ago. He definitely does not. Zach Brian. I don't
even know what umbrella you'd put him under. I saw
him in Vegas during the Super Bowl. He is a
remarkable performer. And there's just a realness to all these
guys that don't look the part, you know. I saw
Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson, all these guys when

(24:20):
I was a kid in Northern California, and they were
country stars and they looked the part. Right, and these
guys just resonate. And I also think that, you know,
when I was, when we were growing up, he listened
to certain genres like I like rap, I like country.
Now it's it's so much carryover. It's like, yeah, just
like this Zach Brian guy. You won't meet many people

(24:41):
that are like, yeah, Chris Sapleton sucks. Like who says
that no matter what you listened to? Did you feel
that when you you know, you had on jelly roll
recently and I saw you asking me, like, you don't
really look like most people in this town, right, But
he just he just resonates for whatever reason. I think
it's pretty obvious he's talented, but it's just something about it,
you know. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
I think if somebody now is super polished and even
naturally good looking, we look at that twice and goes
this even real, like almost unfair to the pretty people
now because it is shifted and life now as an
artist is like a twenty four hour reality show where
you're exposed in every way, and a lot of people

(25:22):
keep some stuff private. But in the nineties, early two thousands,
I mean you go even back further than that. You
only expose what you wanted because there was no other
way to see it. Now, if you aren't showing parts
of your personality, you're not if you're not recording pre
concert footage, then people are like, what's going on? Why
are you not doing this? Like it's expected of you
to do it now. There are very few that can

(25:44):
get away with not doing it. But I think because
of that, authenticity has just become the dominator so much
so that even if you're authentic but you're super pretty,
we don't believe it for a while. So yeah, I
think that's it. You still got to be good. You
have to be better now than you had to be
ten years ago. And now everybody knows that the tricks
of the studio, and sure, you can auto tune anybody,

(26:04):
you can put effects on anyone, but eventually, if you
can't sing, you're gonna get caught not singing or not
singing well.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Because everybody records every concert.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
You have to play live, either for like executives or
at a private event because that's where people make a
lot of money concert and you're gonna get caught not
being good. So to be good, you really have to
be great, and you just have to put a presentation
of your being real and sometimes maybe not as real
as others, but it just has to be that presentation.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
You don't believe it's possible to fake it in this
moment because sometimes I'll hear a guy that like, I
really like that song. Well, the first thing I do
is go to YouTube, I type in the song and
I type an acoustic. I'm like, oh, it doesn't quite
sound the same.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
I think that's him.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
You can happen in the short term, but can it
happen over the long term.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
Probably yeah, And it's hard for a megastar to happen.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
That isn't really great, especially in the format that I'm
in now, because I don't know anybody that hasn't come
to my studio played for me, and not because they're like, oh,
we want to go play for Bobby.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
But you know, my radio show is big and.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Our podcast is by far the largest in this format,
so people want to come by and play just for
the exposure.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
And you can't be bad.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
I mean, if there are people that come into perform
and they suck, you usually know by my response. And
I'm not mean in any way because sometimes it's just
the morning, but I'll say something like, wow, I must
have been pretty tough to wake up early this mom
or like it's I know it's hard to sing in
the morning, but this format especially, everybody performs because you
have to be good to make it and all those
people you mentioned are perfect examples of that.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Has there been someone recently obviously not Ald throw any
one uno the bus, but on a positive note that
came in that you're like, damn, this guy might be better.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I thought, And it's a land of giants here. I'm
telling you, I'm and this is I'll give you a
really it's the answer is it's true. But like Luke Combs,
I don't expect Luke Combs because he's such a great
songwriter and his songs are good. I don't expect him
to be a great vocalist because you know, it's Luke Combs.

(28:05):
You know, he just he is.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
He's a common man.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
That dude could freaking sing like he's in a choir,
like he is hitting notes that I think people don't
give him credit for because of what he sings about,
which is very common man type things. And he has
a very powerful voice. But at the same time I'm
listening to him sing three feet from me, and he

(28:27):
could sing any format. He once the same thing with
Garth Brooks, like there's a reason they're stars, but we
don't think of him as like these elite, elite singers
mostly because of what they're singing or performing about. But
they could sing anywhere they wanted to be, in any
format and sing any kind of song, and they would
have been massive stars. We just don't think of them
as pure vocalists because of kind of the content of

(28:47):
their music.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
You bring up Garth, you know, I'll never forget when
he played Central Park. You know, I think it was
a like ABC or an NBC or whatever in the
late nineties. Is it safe to say that he changed
country music forever in terms of all the money these
guys made, and then Tim and Kenny and Jason Eldan
everyone else comes after him, and just they get NBA
money now because of the popularity of the music, where

(29:10):
probably before I was born, I would say, is it
fair to say in the seventies and even through the
mid eighties, country music was nowhere nearly as popular on
the national level as the way that he took it, like,
I mean, an all time rocket ship. He's the highest
selling artist of the nineties, right.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
He is the highest selling American artist of all time,
like not even country.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
You know, he's the guy.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
He's got like ten diamonds, which is except for the Beatles,
and maybe he tied the Beatles. He's by far the
biggest American artists, which is crazy to think whenever you
think of Madonna, Michael Jackson, like all of the legends,
Garth statistically is the number one American artist, Yeah, for sure.
And what Garth did that was different and had a
lot of pushback on is Garth did basically with all

(29:53):
of his country songs a I guess what you call
like a pop style concert. I mean he was flying across,
he had explosions, he was changing clothes, and at the
time he was getting a lot of crap for that.
And I've been lucky enough to I mean, i would
call Garth a buddy at this point. And I've had
talks with Garth where people told Garth he wasn't country

(30:15):
because of his presentation, not his music, but how he
presented everything else, like his stage shows. He would you know,
he did SNL, he did the Chris Gaines thing. The
thing about Garth was he tried new things he was
one of the few that was like, you know, if
this doesn't work, that's okay, but I'm gonna go and
just continue to push and like challenge myself very much

(30:36):
like an athlete will do sometimes. But Garth was an athlete,
and there's this thing in country music as well where
there are a lot of country stars that are athletes,
and that's kind of where this comes together. But like
Sam Hunt played Division one quarterback. There's like eight or
nine guys that played Division one sports, a lot of
Division two guys. But their work ethic through sports is

(30:58):
actually what makes them so such a great country star
because they put the same effort into the training, into
the you know, watching tape, listening back to concerts that
they did when they were in athletics. And a lot
of people ask like, how are there so many guys
that were so good at sports doing country music. It's
just because that translates, It translates from being an athlete

(31:20):
to being in music. And Garth had that. He ran
track at Oklahoma State. And Garth is a guy, and
I get a lot of people that are just like, Hey,
what's Garth like? And I'm not kidding he I thought
the first couple of times I met him, he was
just really good at being nice. I thought he was
just like, okay, this is but there's something it doesn't
matter if he wanted to be president. He has that

(31:41):
ability to eliminate everybody else in the room when just
talking to you, he knows everybody's name, and people will say, well,
he has somebody tell him that before he goes into
a room, to which I say, yes, but you're the
person in charge of hiring good people as well, right, Like,
he shouldn't be penalized because he hired somebody, if so,
to tell him everybody's name in the room, and then

(32:01):
for him to remember everybody's name. But when Garth comes
to you, you leave going I think they got like me.
Everybody does that. Everybody thinks Garth loves them, and it's
it's really cool to look and see how historically dominant
he's been in all American music. And then see that
guy and like he just drives a truck down the road.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
My cousin he was playing in Fresno years ago and
is in the beer business. That was dropping off some
cakes at the at the arena and it must have been,
you know, early in the morning, and maybe he was
doing sound and they just ran into each other. Obviously,
my cousin stops sees him and they just talked for
like probably ten minutes. He said he couldn't have been
any more normal. They start bsing about like Fresno State football,

(32:44):
and yeah, I mean, I think that's something that it
does feel that country music has a lot of their guys,
especially this crew of more recent guys, pretty down to earth.
I have my brother's college roommate is the right hand
man for the super rich farmer in the Central Valley
in California. And he had like a twenty fifth anniversary party.
And he knows party because Party married a girl from

(33:07):
Fresno and he paid party and Joan Jett was the
headliner to play his own party. You know, there's a
couple thousand people there. Then there was an after party
and John Party played that. But for like an hour,
they were just beers in his office and then it
just ends with me, my brother and Party bs and
for like fifteen minutes. And he gave this story about
this businessman in Dixon or Winters, where he's from, the

(33:30):
small town in northern California. Basically told him, if you
ever want to make it in music, you have to
go to Nashville. And John's like, I don't have any
money to go, and He's like, I'll take care of
you to get going. And I didn't quite realize it
until I went a couple of years ago with Maria
to Broadway and it's a very very unique place.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Is this?

Speaker 1 (33:47):
You know? Nashville's like if you want to play in
the NFL, you got to play college football, right, certain
industry is like if you want to work in venture
capitalist you probably need an MBA from a big time school,
Like there are certain requirements. It's pretty hard to make
it country music without going to Nashville. Like Hollywood's not
even really like that anyway. You don't need to move
to La to become a movie star. But it feels
like country music like you got to be in Nashville

(34:10):
or it probably ain't happening because they all live there,
right is that first?

Speaker 3 (34:13):
I mean it's ninety nine point nine percent there. Occasionally
there's a person who comes and makes it and moves
back out, like Darius did for a while, went back
to South Carolina. Justin Moore moved back to Arkansas. Zach
Brown went back to Atlanta. But now back, I mean,
Zach is probably one of the guys who never came
to Nashville. Like, that's the one that I can think of,
Zach Bryant who but he wasn't trying to make it
as a country star. We he just makes music that's

(34:33):
country ish, American ish, rock ish, you know.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
But yes, the answer is absolutely yes.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
When I was on idol and I would mentor these
kids even on the live shows, they'd be like, I
want to be a country star. You got you have
to move to Nashville because the decision makers are there.
And it's funny you mentioned John Party. John's one of
my best friends and all that checks like I've talked
to John about that many times, where he was like,
I don't know how I'm gonna get there, and thankfully
somebody stepped forwards. I'll help you get there.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
And that's what John did.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
And John was grinding it out for ten years, seven eight, nine,
ten years before he was able to even.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Hit He's my age, it's not like he's twenty eight.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Even when you get here, it's hard.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
You know, you have to get here, and then when
you get here, it's just surviving until you get your opportunity,
and a lot of people get better when they get here.
You're around better talent, you tend to get better as well.
But yeah, John's a good example of somebody who was
grinding along for a long time and then had a
little hit and it exposed him to a lot of

(35:32):
people who then saw how good he was a song
after song after song. So it's just about getting that
first look somehow.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Well, it's like if you go to Alabama or Georgia,
you know, even if you don't play there, now you're
transfer you you're going to get an opportunity. If you
make it to the NFL preseason game, you're gonna get
a chance to show. I remember being in nashal on
Broadway for a couple of days, just drinking all the
time in my life, and me and Maria would go, God,
that person's incredible, Like how many people just never make

(36:04):
it in that town.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Incredible singers are everywhere. It's intimidating for people to move
to town, even the great ones, because they come from
I would compare it to being like a really good
ball player in your high school team. All of a sudden, Okay,
you're going to the miners and it's like, holy crap,
I'm not I'm not king Dingling anymore of my high
school or my hometown. I had to move up. And

(36:26):
that's what this is here, except it's not the miners.
It's a freaking major leagues. So even the best will
admit they move here and get intimidated quickly because there's
greatness everywhere you look. But it's not just about singing,
and it's not just about songwriting. It's about whatever that
thing is. It is undefinable that a great artist has
that makes you want to pay a little more attention
to them, and sometimes it takes, you know, years to develop,

(36:49):
and sometimes people just don't see it, like the right
person hasn't seen it yet. So there is no formula obviously.
But the one thing that most people I know that
have made it in this town, the one thing they
have at com and is they just didn't quit.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
You think a lot of people in the town don't
make it.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh yeah, definitely, Yeah, it's ninety five percent don't make it.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
I mean I would think I would think even.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
The best that is that unlucky or like you said,
maybe they don't try as hard, or maybe they just
don't get seen, or it's just all different variables.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
You know, work is interesting, it's just in general because
people can work hard. Like my stepdad worked already worked
at a mill his whole life, and he would come
home he was like dead tired. He worked really hard.
But there's also a lot of strategy involved to this.
So you can work really hard, but if you're not
putting a lot of your effort into strategy, that's work

(37:39):
that you probably need to be doing instead of some
of that just straight grinding. So it's a bit of
the stars need to be aligned. It's a bit of
can you just survive? Can you make relationships? You know,
it's still a relationship business. All businesses, all businesses relationship based.
Even if you know nobody, you can move to town,
get with the crew like your class. Everybody can around

(38:00):
the same time they're considered like a class, Like my
class is like Dan and Shay, we came to town
around the same time. I know those guys before they
even were together as a duo. But you start to
make friends who come up together. One of them makes
it all of a sudden. They want to pull the
people in that they love, and it's just how do
you get that opportunity and once you get it, you

(38:21):
really have to make the most of it.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Can you spot? Obviously now you just mainly interviewed the
main stars, but over your career you got a lot
of people, and you probably meet people at events that
are not household names or have not made it big
and probably have no money. I mean, are holding on
for dear life? Do you think that's an easy thing
to spot or is it? Is it not?

Speaker 3 (38:43):
The great thing about social media now is a lot
of artists already know who they are, have already put
it out there, so a label or management company aren't
going to try to change it. I think that before
social media, that was the thing that labels would go
look for people that were good and then try to
shift them into what they felt the void was in
the market. Now that doesn't happen. So there are a

(39:05):
lot of people who naturally are themselves already, so you
can tell maybe who's not going to be commercially the
biggest And I think in an art just to be
able to have a living and do what you love,
that's success. Like to me, if you're in an art
and you can pay your bills and you can eat
and your kids can go to school and feel safe.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
That's success.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
And I think the people that are really good and
know who they are, you can tell when people are
going to last. I won't say thrive, but you can
tell when people are gonna last, and I think that
to me is success. So yes, I think now you
can see who's going to be around in five seven
years and not who's not. But you know who probably
is really good but needs to somewhat own who they are.

(39:48):
I think that's still part of the problem as well.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
You know, it's safe to say the old adage like
in the business, was like we need a couple songs
to put on the radio, which you'd argue, I know
a lot of people, you know, the grunge scene always
pushed back against that. But in the nineties or even
the two thousands, how am I ever going to hear you? Right?
There's not YouTube, not internet. To be on the radio
is a powerful the most powerful medium? Is that kind
of a thing of the past. Now, with the way

(40:12):
that the consumer listens to stuff.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
I think it's one of the main avenues now instead
of the absolute main avenue. There's still billions of dollars
that goes into trying to get artists on the radio,
because I think it's like seventy five percent of people
at some point.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Listen to some sort.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Of live radio during a week, and that's and it's
not And I don't listen to a lot of live radio.
I like things on demand, you know, to me, radios
workers on your phone. If it's on the phone and
you can download it, stream it to me, that's what
it is. But still I'm surprised at times at how
many people listen to live radio. And again, we don't

(40:49):
even play a lot of music on our show. However,
I see the money that goes from record label suit
of two things. Want to get on streaming playlist and
to be on the radio, because if you have a
top ten song, it there's an absolute relationship with a
song that's top ten and a song that is massively streaming,
like it's not a coincidence.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
Over and over again.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Will that still continue to change? And I don't even
think we're gonna have streaming music in three to five
years like we saw downloads, we saw streams.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
You know music.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
The one thing about it is it's never just been
one thing and it's never stayed the same.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
So the answer right now.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yes, radio is still a major part of it, but
I don't know what the answer is going to be
in three to five years.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Well, that's a crazy thing. This business has changed so
much dramatically. How's a guy who's got his cut his
teeth in radio? I would say, you've pivoted as good
as anybody. You know. How do you constantly is it?
You're you just an open minded guy because some of
these radio guys, I'm sure you've been around him, like,
did not handle this? Well? You're like, oh, I'll move.

(41:50):
I work with Colin. Colin's an old school radio guy.
He holds a podcast company now, like He'll just transition,
no fear, And I would say that's pretty rare for
people who have been in a business for multiple decades.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
I got lucky that I got started really young, and
I was always the youngest to do it, meaning most
of my career I was like the young guy. I'm
forty four now, so I'm just like the normal dude
at this point. But I think growing up the youngest
in the industry, I was very digital from the very start.
I got fortunate that my timing like outliers. Gladwell writes,

(42:24):
about like what Bill Gates who lived near a computer,
and he was fortunate he lived near a computer. Therefore
he was able to be interested in the computer because
there were only like a few of these computers all
over the country. I got lucky that I was born
when I was born and that I was in my
real development all years when Napster existed. So we were
podcasting the show before podcasting was really a thing, like

(42:46):
I was making a big point about it. So I
don't know if any if it was like a transition
for me as much as it was. I've kind of
been doing it and waiting on that to be a
big part of my my you know, my revenue, the
money that I make. But I just like to make content,
you know, if it's you know, we travel around the
country doing sports shows. I've got a sports podcast. We've
got uh you know obviously the radio show. The more

(43:07):
people listen to the podcast of the radio show than
ever before. I just want to create stuff that exists
and when people want to grab it, if it's live
or if it's three pm, that they can go get it.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
How do you have so much energy? You have an
early morning you're up at the crack of Dawn and
you're doing sports podcast, you're doing sports memorabilia stuff, the
dancing with the stars to the is it just you've
been pretty lucky from where you started, and it's just
like you gotta strike while the iron totters. Yeah, I mean,
you love what you do, so it's it's much easier

(43:49):
to do this stuff.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
It's both like you have to you know, make while
the sun's up. This is our job is who.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Knows it ain't digging ditches either, so.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
And also yeah, and also it's like we're doing an art.
You may I think it's an art, but we may
not be doing this in two years. This what we
do may not be in demand.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
By the people that want to demand it. And so
I also know that. So I love doing it. And
I think if you do what you love, you work
harder at it.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
If you work harder at it, you're rewarded for it,
just generally, And so that's part of it. But also
it's like, hey man, I'm saving up, I'm saving up
the nutscause people ain't gonna always like me. And until
like the last few years, I was paying like double
on my bills just in case I lost my job.
My business manager was like, you got to stop doing that.
So I kind of live in that mindset anyway. But no,
I'm happy. You know, if things are growing, they won't

(44:38):
always be that way. But until they kind of shut
me down, I'm just gonna keep pushing forward and just
grateful that people care.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
You mentioned him a couple of minutes ago. Zach Bryan,
do you think he exists fifteen twenty years ago because
he would never be as big as he was, as
quick as he was in just the way that the
world used to operate in the music industry. Is that
fair to say?

Speaker 3 (44:58):
It's hard because he's really good, right, and usually he's incredible.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
I mean, he's one of the most I don't know
if you saw the clip of John Mayer talking about
the show, he's like I thought he described it as
well because I saw Listen, I liked his music. You
see him live, I've seen Garth, I've seen basically every
big country music artists of the last twenty five years.
It was just a powerful experience.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I would say that if he wanted to be successful
and exist according to the rules twenty years ago, absolutely,
But Zach kind of seems like the guy that just
does not he's gonna do his own thing and not
move to Nashville. And I think again there's been a
benefit to him to be able to make music on
Twitter and YouTube and people to find it then because

(45:42):
he never moved to Nashville.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
And I think he could have.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Absolutely, he's so good he could have moved to Nashville
been a huge star. I just don't know that he
would have moved to Nashville. But then, how does his
music get spread? Because in the old days, unless you
lived in La New York and Nashville, your music really
didn't get made and it really didn't spread. So cream
always rises, so I'll say I think it still finds
a way, but it had definitely been more difficult because

(46:05):
his success is based on how good he is consistently
and that people can mass consume him in a bunch
of places.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
You talk about these stories, I'm sure a lot, but
like the pushback against Morgan Wallin to Poppy, he's just
you know, he's just doing it for the money or whatever.
He's just a fabricated star. So Jason Kelsey, I don't think,
took a specific shot, but said basically, I wish country
music was the Johnny cashes and the Willie Nelson's Like
those days are kind of over. You know. I saw

(46:32):
Morgan live, Like he's good, he's not. Like he's very
talented and his music is his music. You either like
it or you don't. That's to me. Like in football,
you win or you lose. Arkansas basketball with cal Perry,
they're gonna make it to the Sweet sixteen or the
elite or they're not. Right. In music, it's pretty subjective,
like I understand, like he doesn't. He's not Alan Jackson here,
Like this isn't Hank Williams junior. But if you see him,

(46:55):
it's a pretty fun experience. And like, like I don't know,
I just think music so many people, like you see
on YouTube you post something like I wish music didn't
sound like this, right, I missed the old days. It's like, yeah,
this twenty twenty four. I enjoy them. But you live
in that world. It does feel like there's just a

(47:15):
lot of hate. Is just because of the popularity. Is
the money he's making? What do you think it is?

Speaker 3 (47:19):
I think it's the popularity for sure. The higher you
go on a pedestal, the more people see it numbers
game more people complain about it. But this is what
I would say, because you can always tell somebody who
doesn't know about country music by the comparisons they make,
by the way Morgan is so well respected by the
songwriters and artists in this town. Like there's nobody here
in this town that knows Morgan, that goes ah that

(47:40):
ain't real, right, and this town is tough. But in
the history of country music, like what country music is,
it's the slave ships of Africa and European music. So
they brought fiddles from Europe and banjos on the slave
ships of Africa. That's country music. So you want to
go all the way in rute back, that's what real

(48:03):
country music is.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
So talking to Garth, when Garth was like, I was
told I wasn't country. Johnny Cash my.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Grandma and he's from Markansas.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
My grandma would tell me about people protesting Johnny Cash
because he was not country. He was rock and roll
and people wanted old school country. And they would say
the same thing they're saying to Morgan Wallen that they
said to Garth Brooks, that they said to Johnny Cash,
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. They were absolutely destroyed
because they amped up a steal guitar. They put an
electric amp on a steal guitar, and that was considered

(48:33):
so not country that people freaked out. The one thing
in common is there are always goobers who go, that's
not country. No, that's not true, because every single country
artist that has changed country music all that we've listed,
we're told.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
That's not country.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
But what happens is what you mean is that's not
the country that you grew up listening to, because if
it stayed the same let's just say it stayed the
same from the nineties, it wouldn't exist anymore. So anyone
that ever says to me, well that that's not country,
I understand they actually have no knowledge on the situation
and they're just talking to hear themselves talk, or they're
just so in love with the music they grew up

(49:08):
with and they have no knowledge of music other than that.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
One thing that feels like it's become a lot more
mainstream is talking about songwriters. Now. Maybe it's because some
of these songwriters now sing also and become big stars.
Like your sec football. If Alabama wins a big game,
Nick Saban gets a lot of credit and so do
the players right, Like we kind of see the whole
thing where it's like, oh, this guy just has a
hit song. You know, most of my life is like

(49:31):
this hit song. Well turned out he didn't write it.
And when I went saw Morgan Wall and his boy Hardy,
who I'd listened to him a little bit, and when
I saw him, I'm like, this is like Chris Cornell
or Kirk Covid Redneck. It was like, whether you like
country music or not, you couldn't go see him live
and not be like, that guy is a fucking rock star. Yeah,
but he's a writer, you know, So like that guy

(49:55):
does not exist fifteen years ago, at least playing his
writing for sure. But but he's got to be the
most unique guy in the town right now when you say.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Yeah, super unique, and not only that it's in this town, just.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
A trailblazer with the way he's doing stuff.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Well, they get a publish it. You know, a lot
of artists coming and they're not signed as artists initially,
they're signed as writers. So you try to come and
get a publishing deal. That's how you make your first checks.
So you're like, Okay, I just need to prove that
I can write just good enough to get a publishing deal.
So a lot of times, most times artists come to
town and they write first for a long time, so
they become a really good writer because they're around other
really good writers. And most rights in this town are

(50:31):
multi people, like two three person rights.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
So how's that possible? How do I write a song
with another guy?

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Well, you come to town, you go to like the
little songwriter arounds, you know, where you go play for
free and help you wait in line. You make a
couple of friends and then you're like, well, we should
write together. Then you write a couple of songs and
you go out and you just pitch them to these
publishing companies, a small one, a big one, a medium one,
and sometimes they'll give you like an eighteen thousand dollars
year draw to just write songs. And what they'll do

(50:58):
is the'll also set you up with other rights. So
initially it's you find your friends and you write with them,
and then it becomes once you start to get paid,
it's the company that pays you sets you up on
other rights with other writers from your company, other companies,
and then once you have success, everybody wants to write
with you.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Yeah, So once I write, if I'm paying that eighteen
thousand dollars thing, if I write a song, if I'm hardy,
now's he knew Morgan. But let's just use that example.
He writes a song for Morgan, it explodes, I don't
make any more money than just the baseline money. How
do I make money as a songwriter in that scenario?
Am I not making much? Even if I get a hit?
It just explodes me to more people, you are no.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Both happen, so you know, you get your draw Let's
say it's I use the number eighteen thousand. So let's
say you get your eighteen thousand bucks and they're paying
it like a regular paycheck, like every two weeks, because
you got to pay the bills and so then you
got to pay that back. So if you don't pay
it back, they'll just end up cutting you. You don't
owe them, but you have to pay it back. It's
like an advance, and so first you pay it back

(51:59):
and then after that you get a percentage for every
dollar that's negotiated. So let's say a huge song blows up.
I'm just gonna give some fake numbers because it doesn't matter.
But Let's say you get paid eighteen thousand bucks a year,
you have number one song, Boom, the song does a
billion strings, number one on radio. You're gonna get a
percentage of that money based on like streaming, you know, mechanical.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
There's a lot of the deal.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
But you can make easily a million bucks depending on
your deal.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
So it could changes your life once you say, if
you have.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
A hit, it changes your life absolutely, and but you
have to pay back your advance first.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
Some big writers get a massive draw, like you know.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
They'll go sign with the company and make a million
bucks a year and they know that money is guaranteed.
Now they're gonna write songs and probably they're gonna make
more than that and get some of that percentage. But
first that million bucks is gonna be paid back.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
You know. I was talking about with Coward the other day,
how fast word spreads in the NFL about a guy's personality,
a coach or a player. It's safe to say it's
like that in Nashville, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
If there's somebody good, if there's somebody unique, everybody knows
about it quick because this is a town of greats.
But every once in a while there's somebody who I
won't say transcendent because that's a word like Morgan wall
And is transcendent for the industry. Luke Combs transcendent. Right now,
we have two at the same time, which is pretty bizarre,
Like al Dean, Luke, Bryan Garth, Toby. There are these

(53:18):
people that come along and.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
They just Kenny and Tim. I remember when I was
in high school.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
They just can't Yeah, they just kind of kick you
a little different. It's not like they're reinventing the will.
But there's something about it that's the same, which is
comfortable and amazing, but also different, which is awesome. And again,
you can't really write exactly what that is, but when
it's put in front of you, you know it.

Speaker 4 (53:39):
So yeah, it's a It's.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
A pretty amazing place, pretty weird place. Sometimes Nashville sucks.
Sometimes Nashville is the greatest. I like it and I'm
happy to be here. So I think this has been
a really great place for me and my wife, and
I don't know, we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Okay, I get you out here on a couple of
sports questions. Saban retires. I think obviously Nick's success speaks
for itself. But I think what he did is he
made the SEC cool all over America. People in California
watch the SEC. People in the Northeast watched the SEC
when I was a kid, Like you just kind of
watched your region the PAC twelve, maybe like a rivalry game,

(54:17):
but like you couldn't miss big SEC games over the
last ten years. Is there going to be a void
in that conference whereas now it's so strong you're at
in Texas, Oklahoma, he won't be missed, or you lose
a figure like John Wooden or Bear Bryan, Like I'm sorry.
There just is kind of a hole into the ethos
of I just think it's safe to say the biggest
conference in America when it comes to football.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
I would say the SEC is too big to fail.
It's like one of these corporations that's the government wouldn't
let fail during whatever recession that we had. You can't
let the SEC fail. It makes too much money for everybody,
all the schools, and we got lucky to Kirby Smart
came along. Now not near as dynamic as Saban was,
but Kirby Smart has kind of taken that, Hey I'm
now the head guy role, but no it's too big

(55:00):
to fail.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
They're not gonna let it fail.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Yes, and Nick Saban, I remember when he went six
and six this first year and lost to like Louisiana
Monroe at home.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Yeah, I was like, this is not gonna be good.
Nick Saban's awesome.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
And if you go to Tuscaloosa and you look at
the statues, they have a statue for every time the
coach won a national championship in front of the stadium,
and it's like every third step there's another Nick Saban statue.
It's really remarkable. I hate going to Tuscalosa because we always lose.
It's a terrible experience for me as a razorback fan,
but it is really one of the more remarkable places
to go and see, you know, the Sabans, obviously, the

(55:32):
Bear Bryants, the Gene Stalling statue. It's a really cool place.
But you see all the Sabans and it reminds you
all together at how fricking great he was. But he
also wonted lsu right, yeah, you know, and set it
up for the next guy too. So yeah, Saban is
a boss. Will always be the boss, just like Bear
Bryant was always the boss. But now the SEC it's
because it's such a corporation. It's too big to fail.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Have you been to everge stadium for a game in
your life?

Speaker 3 (55:56):
I have not been to South Carolina SEC wise. I've
not been to every stadium, but I've not been to
South Carolina because they were you know, SEC East, and
we didn't for a while. When I was younger, we
played them every year. They were our and then once
I could actually afford to go to games, we didn't
as much anymore. So I haven't been to South Carolina.
But I think other than that, I would say Vandy.

(56:18):
But I've like worked out in Vandy and there's nobody
in the stands when I work out. There's nobody in
the stands whenever they play, So I feel like that counts.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
What's the best environment that you've been to.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
I'm gonna have removed my own.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
I'm gonna remove our Arkansas doesn't count.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
There are two two environments. One pre game Ole miss
because the groves freaking cool. It's just it's a sea
of tents and people acting richer than they really are
and it's really like cool, safe, easy to find parking,

(56:50):
SEC party vibe and the old miss people all though
a little snoody, are pretty nice game wise, like LSU
God dang dude, like the swamp or not swamp swamp second,
but Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge at night.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
It's it's hard to it's hard to like your ears hurt.
It gets so loud.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
The worst because I just leave with a song on
my head and I can't shake it for days and
days is Kneeland, Tennessee, because they don't stop playing Rocky
Tout from the freaking minute you walk into the minute
you walk out.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
So those are probably the more remarkable ones.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
I think one of the cooler moments in the SEC
in probably the last five years is when they beat
Alabama on that night game and they carried the uh
the you know, the goalpost to the wa wherever is
there a river or something in there? And they that
that was That's what you don't get. I mean, you
just don't get that out where I'm from in California.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
College football, and again I'm biased. I am from the Southeast.
I am a Southeast Conference guy, so I would just
say college football in general there and again I I'm
lucky enough. I'm going in the next couple of weeks
to work out with the Jets and the Buccaneers and
the Panthers. NFL teams like say, come in, do your show,
work out with it.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
It's awesome.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
I love the NFL. There's nothing like college football when
it comes to the passion that these places have, because honestly,
a lot of places, this is all we have.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
In Arkansas, it's all we have.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
No pro teams. Think about South Carolina game Cocks, no
pro teams there. Look at Louisiana, it's not like there's
a lot going on. In New Orleans is cool, but
that's the biggest market in the in the state. It's like,
we're so passionate because it's really one of the only
things that we have. And it's my favorite part of
the year.

Speaker 4 (58:25):
I love it. I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
I can't wait for it to start. But I know
we're gonna go like three and it's gonna be terrible.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Yeah, you guys are gonna suck, but you'll have a
new coach next year. Maybe give a bunch of money
to Lane or something. Get you out of here. On
a razorback basketball question. I play golf out here in
Arizona with a guy Jeff Fong and he went to Arkansas.
He's from he grew up in Arkansas too, and he
went there in the mid nineties. And we just played
last weekend. He was telling me all about he's told
me before about those Nolan richardson days and Corless wimbs.

(58:51):
He said, it was you can't even It was so
awesome to be a part of that. And you guys
have been good recently and I know your buddies with
Must and Must be an excellent coach, right, I mean
wanted to it was winning with you guys who win
at USC But Calipari, we can debate, you know, the
winning in the tournament, but he is I would say,
just one of those old schools Saban not not doesn't

(59:11):
have the success, but in terms of just his fame
and moving the needle, that's a big moment for you guys,
you buddies with him already and how you're feeling because
that was that was a woe. Obviously things got a
little weird at the end of Kentucky, but that has
to be a positive moment for you guys landing John Calipari, Right.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
It was a woe for sure, even for someone who's
pretty connected to the program is a big WOA. I
love Muss, like Muss was awesome and passionate and like
that was my dude.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
I guys were winning.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yes, I hated, as he must go and so, but
you know, I didn't hate to see him go home.
So that's what's cool, right, And that's the only place
that I think I wouldn't get irritated that someone goes
is home.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
And he wanted to go back to California. I get it.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
So, you know, we're trying to figure out who we're
gonna get.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
They're like, I think Calipari.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
But I only knew like hours before everybody did, and
usually I know days or week, but it was held
so secret. There's like and I didn't believe it. I
was like, there is no chance we're getting calif party.
I'm not buddies with Calipari. I'm afraid to fly too
close to the sun. I'm gonna be honest with you.
I've been invited, like the athletic director. Hunter has been like, hey,
do you I don't. I don't want to not like him.

(01:00:21):
I'll just be honest with you. I don't want to
meet him and not like him because my favorite thing
in the world is Arkansas football and basketball and Arkansas athletics.
It's my number one, and I don't know that I
wouldn't like him, but I don't want to go meet
him and he'd be big time and be like too
cool for school, and I'd be like, well, I hate
that guy because I can't. My heart won't allow it,
so I have not unless it organically happens, it won't happen.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
I'm not gonna fly too close to the sun.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
I'm not gonna icarus this thing and melt and hate
Arkansas because that will never happen. I don't know John Calipari.
I'm okay never knowing John Calipari. But what I do
like about it is I think he had enough of
these one and done's without success. You even see that
with this transfer a class like he went after some
mid and upper classmen, which he really didn't do in Kentucky.

(01:01:06):
It was all, let's get all the five star freshmen,
and that resulted in not so great tournament runs in
the last few years, which I love to see. Can't
stand freaking Kentucky basketball, but can't stand up because I
respect him, So I think we're gonna be really good
We're gonna be really good and it's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
I don't think most people realize outside of the SEC
football foothold Arkansas Athletics. I mean, you guys got some
big money boosters, did you. I'll end on this. Do
you like my future of you know, link Ole Miss
goes ten and two, eleven and one. Sam Pittman probably
a rough year. They're gonna be looking for a new
football coach. Give me who you'd like to see get

(01:01:44):
saving out of retirement.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
I would like to see Sam Pitman succeed because I
can't if it doesn't go well. You know, I guess
if Pittman was going to retire next year after winning
eleven games, like what would I like to happen? I
don't know. I kind of like like htt Lashley down
at SMU, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
I like those guys that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
It's to Bobby Petrino's offensive coordinator. Dude, it never got
better than Boby Petrino at Arkansas. It never got that
was That's the best of the program has ever been.
That was a really amazing time for me as a
fan having Bobby Petrino be the head coach at Arkansas.
I hope Sam does great, and then when he retires,
I hope we go and get a young guy. We

(01:02:27):
have a lot of money in northwest Arkansas. If it's Tyson,
if it's Walmart, dude, if it's Jerry friggin Jones. Jerry
Jones is a WHO football complex named after him. That's
only Jerry Jones invited me. So I went to with Cowboys,
flew with Jerry in this helicopter only because I'm from Arkansas,
no reason, no media thing. I emailed the website and said, hey,

(01:02:47):
any chance I could talk to Jerry and they're like,
he doesn't do any I said, well when it's Bobby
Da Da da da, And they're like, oh okay, Jerry's
like come on down. So I show up. Think there's
gonna be a hundred people there. It was just me
and my boys and Jerry Jones and his son and
Jerry's chopper with the pilot.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Flew to the game, sad in this suite.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
But that's what we do at Arkansas because we don't
We only have each other because we have nothing else.
So you know, we rock hard together. I hope to
see success. If not, I hope we go after a
young guy next where'd you?

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Did you go to Jerry's house? Still, get on his helicopter?
You meet him at the facility?

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
No, he had his own.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Uh hey, we went to Jerry's helicopter. It was it
a When we got on Jerry's helicopter. That was it
like a hangar? Was it a private hangar?

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Is what it was?

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
It was awesome, Eddie, that's a pretty incredible story. How
do you ever top that?

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
It's the greatest. My friend Eddie, who's here with me
now because we're about to record our sports show called
twenty five Whistles. And Eddie's a massive Cowboys fan and
I'm not.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
I'm okay whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
I go up in Arkansas being told I'd have to
love the Cowboys, so I didn't because I was told
I had to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
But Eddie's a massive fan.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
And we got on the helicopter and he put on
headphones and Jerry just was just talking to us, and
it was us with the little headphones like magnum p
I flying over Hawaii and that little helicopter. It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Okay, Bobby, where's everyone you? What do you got going on?
This summer? TV? Obviously the radio show every morning all
over America. You find him on YouTube. He's interviewing I
watched Kenny Chessney this morning. Let everyone know what's going on.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
You know, I just want people not to look for me.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
I need a break.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
I'll be honest.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
I just need a break.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
So don't go anywhere this summer for vacation, right, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Mean, I don't know when this airs, but we're going
to Switzerland. I never traveled until the last few years,
and my wife and I've never been, so we're like,
let's go do something cool. So we're going to Switzerland.
I'm gonna go to Italy. I'm looking to may go
buy like an Italian basketball team, which so I own
a professional football team. That was my entry into sports ownership.
And so we're gonna go look at an Italian basketball

(01:04:40):
team and see if we want to get into that business.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Well, Bobby, I can't thank you enough. And you know,
and I told you a while back when Maria really
wanted to see Toby Keith in his last show, and
you obviously knew Toby well, and you took care of us.
And that's I don't know if I've told you this,
but in the in the bathroom, probably in the middle
of the show. I've probably had a few too many.
And to take a leak, they were grown men. You
were like almost in tears because you knew anyone that's

(01:05:06):
been around cancer. I mean, he was he had to
weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. You knew you were
watching a dying man who didn't have much left giving
at all. And that's all the things I've ever done
in my life, concerts, sports, whatever. That's one of the
more powerful things I've just ever seen. And I can't
tell you how much I appreciate you taking care of
Mainly Maria loved him, and I just I've never seen

(01:05:27):
anything like that. And then obviously he passed away a
little bit later. But that was man. That was that
was It's hard to even put into words because you
knew when you were witnessing a guy that just loved
to sing and love to perform, but he was he
didn't have much and he gave it all he had.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
The coolest thing was that, like you guys were fans
and wanted to go. And what's cool is I can
have access to that, just like you had access to
foot You know, if it's something that I'm in and
there's somebody that I like. I think we both there's
somebody who liked to bring our people with us, and
I'm a big fan. I'm just a big fan. You
and I didn't know each other. I would just messaged
you on Instagram and I was like, hey, dude, I
listen to you all the time. That's literally how I

(01:06:06):
slid into your DMS and we became friends. So, yeah,
the Toby thing was unexpected when it happened, but I
don't think it was unexpected to happen. Most of us
thought he was beating it, but he was struggling physically,
so it was kind of a shock. But yeah, I'm
glad you guys got to go ad some other friends
and went to that show and said they could kind
of tell too that it probably it probably wasn't long.

(01:06:29):
No one knew it would be that quick. But I
really appreciate you having me on again. I listened to
if your voice is on it, I'm listening to it,
So I appreciate.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
You having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Thanks, Bobby. I have enjoyed Switzerland, and keep rocking and rolling, baby.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
All right, John Cea buddy the volume

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 & Out - Bobby Bones joins the podcast