#453 - Ben Rector On Why He Thinks He Can’t Win a Grammy

Ben Rector (@ben_rector) sat down with Bobby Bones to discuss his personal life and career! Ben reveals what he wants his life to look like and how he defines success. He also shares why he doesn't think he'll ever win a Grammy and how he feels confident with his work. Ben also talks about getting to golf with his hero, Huey Lewis, why Bobby and Ben's wife secretly talk about them and more! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I have such a complicated relationship with things like a
goal and like my job. Since as much as I
want to be like I'm gonna win a Grammy four
Album of the Year, my real take is like, I
don't know if that's really a possibility for me.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
My friend Ben Rector, it's the second time on the show.
I's got some big songs here, brand new whoa hoo,
whoa ho hoo hoo hoo.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Whoa, whoa whoa.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
He has a new song called Color Up My World
that we play a bunch with Hailey Witters. Wait it
Ben Ben wrote Color Up My World? Yeah, okay, it
may be a typo, but has written by Ben Folds,
who's also one of my favorite artists. Different Ben, Okay,
that'd be cool.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Have Ben Folds wrote it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Are you the typeo ver there?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
No, huh, that'd be cool. Ben Rector and Ben Folds
and you know other wasn't the Ben's at one time,
but it wasn't been. It's Ben Lee, Ben Folds and Ben.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Queller Kweller. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I love the Bens. I loved all the Bens individually too,
and I love this Ben. So a couple of things here,
Ben Rector. He I basically started playing music at the
University of Arkansas and touring and won like a competition
and just kept going. You know, one of my friends
I think I mentioned this, went to one of his
shows once without knowing who he was. A friend of
his was like, hey, should come to the show Ben
Rector And it was an amphitheater and ampeater was sold

(01:28):
out like eight thousand people. And he's like, wait a minute,
what he sells eight thousand tickets? Like Ben has these massive,
massive shows, huge following. Made his opry debut in twenty
twenty two. His songs appeared on every single commercial America's
Got Talent, American Idol, Ellen, World of Dance, Hartlan, Hawaii
Fi vo I could keep going. Really smart guy, great golfer,
good pickleball player. And my friend here he is Ben Rector.

(01:52):
How you been.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm good. I feel like it's nice to be done
with the tour. But I'm also going through a little
bit of the The first three days you're like this
is incredible, and then you're like, oh my gosh, what
am I doing?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Do you have other I mean, you're you're not retired
from music all the way right, like this is You're done?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
No, I'm not. But I honestly I feel like I,
I mean, this is probably a conversation for real life.
I feel like I'm always trying to figure out what
I wanted to look like, and this is I have
the symphony shows after this, but not you know, it's
not like in my next huge tour.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
What do you mean look like like the perception of
the artist Ben Rector.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm sorry, I'm fixing this, Mike stan pushould be doing that. No,
what I how I define success? What I want my
life to look like? Which is too big of a question.
Hillary at this point is so patient but always like
rolls ride, She's just like, you do whatever you want
to do.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did you know? I didn't know this? You may have
known this. Did you know sometimes our wives escape to
talk about us.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's exactly right. Did you know that? I mean a
little bit. I don't know the extent you know, I
don't know. I only heard about it, like the other day.
Hillary's probably just like been so great, That's what she says. Right.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I think when they compare us, they compare how great
we are?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Who's better?

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Who could say I didn't I I literally didn't know that.
I know that my wife adores your wife way more
than I adore you, so that their friendship isn't natural, But.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's really pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
They had been, and my wife doesn't tell me anything
because I'm sure whatever they say they say for each other.
But I think there's probably some neuro tendencies that we
both have that they can talk about and the other
person at least somewhat relates.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah. No, I think that's right. I mean, Hillary tells
me everything, but I don't know what good she doesn't good.
She's mentioned, she's mentioned that they've connected on that and
it's been good. I think it is good. You know,
we're I feel like we're both a little bit odd.
You know people.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, by a odd, you mean extremely good looking.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
It's hot. Yeah, people are always telling me that. Man.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I would say it's a mixture. I'm gonna speak for
me and possibly you. I would say it's a mixture
of for me not understanding really where balance ever is,
and then the line of extremely secure and wildly insecure
and not knowing where that ever is.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Definitely, I think that's exactly right. I think also the
spice of like it being a public job is sometimes
lonely and probably maybe I don't mean to be like
it's unique, like special, but maybe more unique than a
guy who's like, I'm a lawyer and I work too much.
Like there's other stuff kind of like tangled up in it.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Sometimes maybe that like a solo identity, meaning you're the
only ben rector.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I don't I don't know what I meant by that.
I think there's weird stuff that comes along with it.
There's like weird side dishes that maybe don't happen with
other meals.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I would agree, Yeah, I would say in the same
way that my friends that are professional athletes that play
solo sports are way nuttier th my friends who play
on tea.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yes, yeah, very fair.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
My one of my dearest friends, Andy Rotick, is a
tennis player, one of the greatest guys, but out of
a skull, right, like because everything's on him.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, And the kind of person that self selects into
that and then continues to self select into that is
pretty specific.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, he chose and continue to choose to grind away
sold everything's good and bad. It's all on him, right.
It's different than a buddy that plays in the NFL.
And has it one of eleven? Yeah, you know that's
back there.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
When you say you're coming off tour and you're figuring
it out, so what is it? I still don't know
what you meant, like how it's presented.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I'd say to use a workout analogy. It feels like
when you're doing a tour or making a record or whatever,
you have like a trainer that's like, this is exactly
what you do. You don't have to think about it,
and it's challenging, but there's not a lot of brain
power expended on like what am I doing actually or
like creatively, what am I doing? And then when you're

(06:00):
done with that, because when I'm on tour, I'm always like, man,
I'm ready to take a break because it is it
is a grueling thing, but there's a part of you,
you know that when you're done with that, it's sort
of like, Okay, now what do you want to do?
And you have to make it all up. And I think,
as you were saying a little earlier, like I'm I
feel like I'm always like trying to find balance and
my brain doesn't help me do that very well, because

(06:22):
like anytime I'm like I'm going to find balance in
this way. It's like you're being lazy, you're being whatever.
And I think at this point, I'm like, oh, I'm not,
you know, twenty one anymore, and I want to see
my kids and having some semblance of a normal life,
So like, what do I want to look what I
want that to look like? But that's a big it's
like a big math problem. I don't know how to like
really try to solve it.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
You felt yourself modifying goals because you're not twenty one anymore.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yes, And I'm a bad person to ask about this
because I feel like I have such a complicated relationship
with things like like a goal in like my job
since because I don't know really what's possible as far
as like, as much as I want to be like
I'm gonna win a Grammy for Album of the Year,

(07:13):
my real take is like, I don't know if that's
really a possibility for me. I don't think that that's
like a thing that is going to happen. And I
can feel the Instagram like hustle people be like not
with an attitude like that, it's not So there's that,
And then there's also the part of it. That's like,
as things have gone better and better, I haven't necessarily

(07:34):
become happier and happier. And so I'm like, oh, I
want to like round this out with some more balance,
but I don't know how to like actually approach that.
It's very difficult, and I think other I envy people
who don't have a complicated relationship with it, the people
that are just like I want to drive the sickest
car in the world. So people look at me and
they're like, what a sick car that guy drives, And
I'm like, well, I wouldn't want to drive that car

(07:55):
because I wouldn't want people to think, well, you know,
it's just a complex. I don't know and probably think
about everything a little too much. But that's that is
a challenge for me. I don't know what is reasonable
to aim for goal wise, and uh, I don't actually
know what I want goal wise, as clear as I
can say it, I want to do really good work
and be proud of it. That's like the central theme

(08:17):
after I.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Thrown goalposts, how do you know where to kick it? Though?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
That's the deal, and that's I mean, that's this is hilarious.
We're talking about this right now, because I feel like
I'm literally trying to figure that out. And on every project,
were watching the Last Dance finally.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
The basketball documentary from from COVID. Yes, oh well there's
a there's something.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Called Love is Blind.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
You should.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, we finished the Soprano King. Yeah, we've finished the
Sopranos like two weeks ago. We went right into the
Last Dance. Anyways, a lot of it, you know, is
I'm sure you've watched it is him like coming up
with a game within a game for himself. And I
feel like on every project I kind of do that.
I'm like, oh, on this project, I want to do
this thing. The hard part now is I'm like, what

(09:00):
do I want to aim at? I've done it enough
times that I have I feel like a relatively good
idea of what it's going to feel like or be
like at the end of it. And it's a very
expensive thing internally, like it's like, oh man, I'm kind
of a wreck for a long time, you know, building
this thing. And so now it's like, okay, like what
do you want to aim at? And I don't really know,

(09:20):
And I think those goals would be different if I
thought if I you know, if I was like, I
have a legitimate shot to achieve X y Z goal,
I just don't know the ven diagram of what I
actually want and what is possible for me. And it's
hard because if you were like, how good do you
think your work is? Like, I think it's very good.
I feel totally confident in it. But I also think

(09:42):
that the way that some typical goalposts look now, I'm
just like, I just don't know if that's like a
fit for me. I don't know if it's an option
for me, and so I think it's like I don't
I don't know if I want to go through the
Rocky training montage being like I'm going to win a Grammy.
I'm going to win a Grammy. It's just like I don't.
I don't think I'm going to I don't think to
make the right genre of music for that. And that's
okay with me, Like that is all right, And I

(10:05):
don't just want it bad enough that i'd like try
to not that I could make this happen, but like
be like, I'm gonna make the best I don't know
what classical whatever record to try because there's not a
bunch of competition and I gonna do that. I don't know.
There's a lot of words.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
When I mentioned modifying, because you said twenty one. I
feel like the space that I'm in now is where
I would just go and do everything if I felt
like it was getting me closer to a goal. But
I did everything, and most things did not get me
closer to a goal. Sure, and I in the same way,
don't like I'm not twenty eight even thirty one anymore.

(10:47):
And I've also realized that just doing everything to achieve
something really most of the time doesn't end up in
the way that you'd like it. So why am I
wasting so much time and energy? So I've started saying
no to a lot more things, and it's kind of cool,
But now I feel like I'm saying no to too much.
It's like no, no, no, no. But I'm only doing
it because I've done it, not wrong, because I've learned.

(11:13):
But there are a lot of things. I'll give you
an example, and I can talk about this. I've not
talked about it, but I had mentioned on this podcast
probably a few months ago that the ccma's which is
the Canadian Country Musicors that asked me to host the
show and I was like, that's cool. I'll go up
get a jacket, you know, it's Canada, you know, and

(11:33):
do some comedy and host their award show and that'd
be pretty cool. And we were kind of talking with
them and they were super nice, super cool, and I
have nothing bad to say about it at all.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
But they was like, oh yeah, Also, you're.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Gonna have a co host and it's Thomas Rhett and
I'm like, cool, I love tr like all good.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Didn't know I had to co host.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
But as long as like TR is gonna do this
tr thing and I'll do my thing, that's fine. It's
all good. And then they're like, well, we don't have it.
We need to add a Canadian and I'm like, well,
now it's three people and I'm being though right, and
I'm like, I don't have anything against any of them,
but for me to want to do this and to
really do the job that I want to do, I

(12:12):
don't feel like I'm going to have enough room for
me to not somewhat resent the energy I'm putting into
it totally. And so I was just like, hey, I'm out.
And it wasn't any shot anything negative. It was old
me five years ago you know what, I'm still going
to do it. Yeah, but today I'm just like, you know,
I don't think that's really good.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
That's what I'm want to do.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, And I'm making more of those decisions now because
I'm not twenty one anymore. Same goals, but I don't
feel like I have to run every rat will now.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Oh, and I think like part of me the miniature
game that I'm playing now is like, so to use
a golf analogy, you know, like I usually if I'm putting,
I've missed on the high side of the hole. I've
like done too much, and I always been like, oh,
I need to like change that a little bit. And
for the first time, I'm like, you know what, if

(13:05):
I missed this putt, I'm gonna miss on the low
side of the whole.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Email someone to email. Oh it's God, he says, good job, Ben.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Dear Ben, I'm really proud of you. Got it. God
dot com, God, God dot com. No, wait, he got
God dot com And that's yeah, he was early on that.
Uh yeah, I want to I want to start to
miss a little bit, like I've never I have done
that sum but not really. I usually am like doing
too much there was a I was asked to do

(13:33):
some shows for the Navy in Japan. Like it would
have been in a couple days, maybe a couple weeks,
I don't know, and I was like, I don't know,
it's pretty sick. It was like good money. I've always
wanted to go to Japan. Hillary is great. She was like,
I mean, I feel like maybe you should do it,
but it's two weeks and I was like, I don't.
I just don't think I should do it. Had this tour,
have the symphony shows this summer, and I've it's just

(13:54):
been a minute since I've been like I'm just like
a normal guy hanging out. This is great. So I
said no to it, and I I really didn't know
if that was the right decision, but I remember talking
to her was like, I want to miss on the
low side of the hole for the first time in
a while. I want to feel what it's like to
be like, oh, I should have done that, because I
feel like I've almost never done that. I've always been
like ooh, this was too much, And to me, I'm like, well,
the small game that I'm playing now is like miss

(14:16):
a little bit on the low side to see what
that feels like.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Why do you think you can't win a Grammy?

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I think the style of music that is popular, so like,
I feel like the music that I make now sounds
like or is most like what pop music was maybe
like I don't know, fifteen or twenty years ago, and
I think that with the music that I see that's

(14:44):
like pop music now, I'm just like, I just don't
it's not really it's almost like, uh, the genre like
scootered over and now I don't totally have like a
home I don't know I had. I don't see any
like people doing stuff like I do winning awards really
and I'm not I hope that doesn't sound like aw shucks,

(15:07):
like that's so sad. It's totally fine. It is just
like it's not really what I feel like is celebrated
in a critical sense. And I think, I mean, like
the music I make is not like gonna be like
I'm not gonna be a critical darling. That was that
the word critical darling.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Critics all love you, that would be a critical darling.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, no, I'm not. That's it's that that's not really
like the zone that I've been in. Yeah, I mean
I think it's just like I just don't see a
realistic path for that. And I mean, honestly, yeah, it's
like it's not it is not it is not not
pop music. But I think if we looked at like

(15:46):
the Grammy nominees, it would just be like, oh, yeah,
that's it's not really like it's not really the thing
you're doing.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
What kind of music do you do?

Speaker 2 (15:54):
I thought about this. I think probably as I would
just call it like American music. It's like, I feel like,
how about.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
This not American? No, no, no way at the end.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
No, just like because think about like James Taylor, if
he was twenty two right now, it wouldn't really be pop.
It's not totally folk, it's not country. It's like kind
of just like a mashup of those things. But I
feel like, and I'm not saying I make music exactly
like that, but I think I don't know exactly what

(16:30):
you'd call. It wouldn't really be alternative. I don't know
exactly what it would be. So I think, like I'm
not trying to make a new genre here. When I
like talk to him in an airplane, I'll just be like, yeah,
it's like kind of like singer songwriter, it's like kind
of pop. That's a good point.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
What do you say when someone randomly comes up and goes,
what kind of music do you do? My friend loves you?

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, I'd be like, I make uh. I'd be like,
it's like singer songwriter stuff, kind of like pop, but
not like that's way too many words, bro, I know,
I'm sorry, that's the issue. So I'm trying to American music.
I don't know, you know.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
I feel though the genres are becoming way, way, way
much less of a thing except for financial classification. Yeah,
meaning okay, country, what does that even mean? Who cares?
Except for there are stations that are going to make money.
There are platforms are going to make money by going country,

(17:35):
and anything they put into it, regardless of what it
sounds like, is going to be that genre finger quotes
to make revenue until they decide to change it.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, I think there's like it. I feel like there
are certain genres that there's like a lot of infrastructure.
I think countries like that, Christians like that, like festivally
music and now I don't. I don't know exactly like
kind of Americana stuf. There's like some infrastructure there. I
think what's really happened is like pop is and I'm

(18:07):
so this is just I'm I'm not in authority on this,
but I think like it's become a lot of things,
and so it used to be a little more identifiable,
and now it's like several genres of music together and
so it's like hard to be like, what is that? Like,
I think it used to be like it's just popular music,
and then it kind of had a sound, and I
feel like now it's kind of back to like widely

(18:29):
popular music, but it's hard to wrap your arms around
what makes it that or not. Whereas other genres have
very specific boundaries, like the country has like some like instrumental, lyrical,
sonic themes, Christian music has the exact same thing, American
the same thing. And I feel like pop is now
it's it's really hard if you ask me outside of

(18:52):
like artists, how to define pop music now, I'd be like,
I don't really know how to do that. It's I
couldn't name instruments, I couldn't name so types, I couldn't
it'd be like whatever. I don't know, you know, I.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Think I would say pop now is the top seventeen
percent of every specific genre totally. Yeah, you know, whether
the basis of what Top forty was back in like
the sixties when they started Top forty, which was literally
the top forty songs, it didn't matter what genre it
was if it was the biggest song rock alternative. I'm

(19:24):
just trying to think what I would classify your music
as if I was to create a new genre.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think singer song is probably not gonna go with
that one.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
I'm gonna go with warm alternative.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh honestly, it's pretty good, but it's really good.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
It is definitely not the same as anything else. But
you can't go just straight alternative. No, it's not because
your your tones, but a warm alternative that I like,
What do you do? I do warm alternative?

Speaker 2 (19:52):
I mean that's tweeter bio. Yeah I don't have Twitter,
but what does that mean? Look it up?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Check it out by they look it up, You're gone
one artist.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
It doesn't even matter. Warm alternative dot com. It's just
my picture.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
It's interesting when you talk about not having a home.
You know, when I moved here. I moved here from
because when I was doing pop, this has been ten
years ago. So but when I was doing pop, I
was doing pop ten years ago eleven wow hoop and
hip hop? Yeah, oh wow, I was doing I was
too country to do pop and hip hop. We'd play

(20:22):
but it's like now, we don't play a lot of music,
but the stations that we were on would be pop
and hip hop and so but I would do and
we'd have whatever. But i'd have some country artists to
because I liked country music. But people were like, you're
too country to be pop or hip hop, even though
I did sign a one song record deal as a

(20:44):
hip hop artist. True story.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Is it out there on the net?

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Probably somewhere. It's on the internet. Yeah, it's not on Spotify,
thank god. However, when I got country, it was a
year two pop to be country. So I never really
had a home, yeah, meaning a place that I just
felt welcomed. It almost is where I fall when it
comes to politics, because I don't say I'm down the middle,

(21:11):
but I think if you averaged me out, I'm probably
pretty close on average because I definitely have you know,
big capitalists, but I'm like a progressive, capitalist, and there
are sensibilities I have from going up and growing up
in the South with guns and then but also it's
like gay people, let them have kids, that's awesome, let
them get married, rock and roll. So when you like

(21:34):
equal these things out, it's kind of ish And I'm
not in the middle. Yeah, but I don't have a home.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah totally.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
But what I've found is most people don't have a home.
But there's not like a central I don't have a
home horn to blow.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
One hundred percent. I think I agree that most people
are there. And I think too a lot of like
what the genres that have infrastructure do well is they
kind of like have an offering for people, where like
if you can be I think country does this incredibly well.
People are like I'm a country music fan, and it's like, great,
we got a bunch of stuff in the country music store,

(22:11):
and I think like same for Christian Americana, et cetera.
Wrap whatever. But I think what's interesting right now is
pop is I feel like it's it's it's it's a
little bit more random store wise. In fact, there's not
a lot of.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Like uh now, Sean it goes viral totally I mean,
that's that's what pop is now, viral and and.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
I think realistically that's that is a part of that
is a part of it. When you're like, oh, why
don't you think you could Winnegramy, It's just like I think,
like the things that I do well don't necessarily line
up with virality, because I feel like if you were
if you were like, describe your music's your music thematically,
like lyrically, I'd be like, oh, it's not like sexy

(22:53):
exciting themes. It's like find peace in your life. Good
things are like hard, they take a long time, celebrate
the nuances of life, like you know. That's I feel
like I'm not saying it couldn't go viral, but I
just feel like that's not necessarily it's not like a
not a dessert, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
I have two points I want to make. I don't
want to forget the second one, so make a note.
But the first one would be you have a lot
of stuff go at least semi viral. That's not even
songs that you record for someone listening to your music.
Meaning when you do American airlines, we might crash and
you might die because the door just blew off whatever

(23:31):
that's that's that's not the lyrics. Sure, but that stuff
hits hard.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Sure. Sure, So to say that.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Your stuff doesn't go viral maybe specific songs, but I
think you're a smart enough guy. If you were just
gonna produce a freaking crazy viral record, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
You could do that. Maybe.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
I mean, how when you put out Color My World
the video, Yeah, I have not, I haven't tracked your
data on that. How has that done? Because esthetically, like
I have, like it's it's like dopamine hit after dopamine hit.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
It's really interesting. I think that that. I think the
video's really good. I think even that it did like okay,
it wasn't like WHOA like blew the doors off. But
I think that's what I'm saying. I think the kind
of thing, the kind of thing that is going viral
right now for real, if it's a song, it feels
a lot more unpredictable to me. I'm like, I don't know,

(24:24):
I don't know anybody who's been able to game that system.
It's usually like retroction, like whoa, this thing worked. So yeah,
I and I think the real point to your point
about like, oh, you've had stuff co kind of viral. Yeah,
but the hard part is like it's not really songs
or music. It's like it's like an entertainment product. And
if you told me right now the whole game was

(24:44):
gained as many followers as you could. I know what
I would do, but that doesn't flip over into changing
my music or like my art really, and I don't
know if I want to be an influencer professional, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Man, I got like two points to bounce off that,
but I want to fig up my freaking out.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Sorry, I now forgot my other one, and I even
made a mental note not to forget it.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
With that point, I feel like you're saying you don't
want to create your art, and you're separating the two
a bit. I got my point before I get to
this one. Okay, I got four points. I'm lost, but
I got this one. And you and I have talked
about this away from a microphone where and I brought
up a Grammy and again I'll just compare it to me.

(25:25):
Then you can jump in and say I'm stupid or
not stupid. But I always thought I'm going to be
a big pop culture expert on mainstream radio whatever that meant.
And I'm going to be so cool being mainstream and
know everything that everybody's going to have me, which was

(25:46):
an any TV show would want me. I'd be an expert.
What I found was that the more I tried to
be everything to every one and not saying you're doing this,
and I'll get to my point, that nobody cared totally.
So here I am. I'd built my own show with
my own money. I got thirty markets tech. Nobody cared
because there were just people that were doing specifically what

(26:08):
I was doing, way better than what I was doing.
But when I was like, hey, let's go to Nashville,
there's never been a national show. My contract was up,
they had bought my syndication company from me. When I
move here, and all of a sudden, I had propelled
to the top of this area. All those people that

(26:29):
I wanted to talk to me when I was like,
I'm mainstream, all the people in the mainstream were like, oh,
we want to talk to the guy that's the expert.
But then so I met them, and then that allowed
me to like expand to where I would compare this
to I think this is how your grammy happens, if
you'd like to know.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Of them all yours.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
I thought about this, okay, and I was saving it
for on Mike in case it was just sick, in
case it was so stupid. I think your grammy happens
not through here's a record and here's a great song.
I think your grammy happens through I made a great
song ento the a movie commercial, uh chair, whomever uses

(27:09):
it from that. Charlie Pooth, for example, when he did
No Mike was a song, furious song.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, well, how's it start? It's piano.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
It's been a lot less see you again. Yeah, that
was a good song, great song. We wouldn't have known
it for what it was it not took a ride
with the movie.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Pun intended absolutely.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I think that is where your art meets that reward.
Because warm alternative only cages so far.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Oh warm alternative fans love it. Yeah, But in the
in the in the big bad world, people are like, well.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
And it doesn't mean your music isn't amazing, But like
you said, there's only nothing like it, but there's everything
kind of like it. Yeah, but when it attaches to
something that people freaking love, that personal connection happens to
which song of the year.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
I think that if I were like.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Our gun to head house been gonna get some stupid
acolade that doesn't matter, although it does. But really the
grand scheme, that would be how it happens if they
were to go college commercial where they're flying over campus
and playing a song that would be your song. But
I think that's how it happens for you in the
same way that it got to happen for me in

(28:33):
a different scale. It's like I found a new walking
partner I felt comfortable with, but didn't change anything that
I did.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, totally, And I think I think that that is true.
I don't think I would ever. I think everyone right
now it feels like they're kind of like chasing stuff.
And I don't know that I've ever made a great
thing from chasing something else.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
I don't think you have to chase.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think I would. I
think it would. I would want to make something that
is uniquely continue it makes stuff that's like unique to
me and see kind of what can happen out in
the world. And I think that I do agree. I
think that's probably the best scenario for something like.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
That, But that's what happens. That's what happens. Something sees
and feels what you're doing. Oh god, it is awesome. Boom,
next thing, you know, you're the sweetheart of the Grammies
for a year, then they're ready forgets again, and then
you're like, dang, why did I put so much emphasis
on a Grammy Because I'm the same freaking person.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right now and I think that. But honestly, that's that
is part of it for me at this point. So
many things have happened that I was like, oh, this
is never going to happen. That it happens. That the
real thing, more than any specific goal, is being like,
oh wait, I see how this is always going to
be because if you've showed me my life to me,
you know whatever, many years ago, fifteen years ago, be

(29:46):
like this is unbelievable. Just like you kind of get
numb to that stuff. And so that's part of me
is just like yeah, I don't I don't want to.
I don't. I don't want to. I know I wouldn't
chase it, but I don't want to like actually try
to be like, well, I know, then this will feel
different it's like, no, it's just always gonna feel like this,
that's what it's gonna feel like.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
And that's okay, Yeah, I feel that too, But then
I get a little excited sometimes.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
And I don't. I don't. I think that the proper
like heart posture for me and maybe for everybody is
like it's like, enjoy the fun stuff like it's and
when I get to do a fun, cool thing, and
I don't want to be like, well, this doesn't matter,
It's like, no, it's awesome, But I don't think that
it's necessarily gonna be like ideal going forward to be
to use as fuel. I'm not gonna be happy until

(30:30):
I get over this next mountain, because it's like, well, dude,
we're like fifteen mountains deep here and I'm feeling like
pretty much the same Hank Tight The Bobby Cast will
be right back.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Wow, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
These shows that you're doing with the orchestra, how many.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
People between twenty five and thirty five hundred.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
No, in the band. That's a big band, the orchestra.
If you get twenty hundred people in.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Orchestra, it's twenty five on first orchestra Colley, I don't
actually know. It's a little mister Beast type stuff. I bet,
I bet, I mean, honestly, I bet everybody on stage
it might be like seventy people.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Can you hear if somebody's I don't know how many
horns you have? Okay, if there's you say you have
three horns and one of them is a goblet horn,
big horn.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Guy hereail nail, and both of it.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
If one of the horns a little off, can hear it?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
It's Cody can hear that a little better than I can.
It's easier for me to hear it when I'm listening
I'm not playing. So the way they work because you
fly in and then you the day of the first show,
you do rehearsal with the orchestra and so there's a
lot of moving parts there. You're like, I need to
remember my stuff and do this correctly, and so on
the first run through. If something is bad wrong, if

(31:52):
someone hits a like wrong note, I can.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Hear that tempo though somebody a little tempo off or
is that never the case? No?

Speaker 2 (31:58):
So that's the deal. It's it's that's part of what's
fun about it is most people, myself included for full
band shows are playing to a click, so everyone is
like supposed to be dialed in. This is we don't
have any your monitors at all. We have wedges on
the floor and we can hear the orchestra just it's
in the room. Develops you, which is cool, but it's
also like the difference in like running a jet ski

(32:19):
around and driving like a huge boat. It's like steering.
I don't know seventy or eighty people. I think it's
that many people, maybe more. It's it's not like you're
not like totally dial it's kind of like inferred. We're like,
we're kind of about right here. So tempo is actually
a huge challenge because we don't we don't bring a
drummer with us. It's just me and Cody in the orchestra.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Do you have to kind of let go of any
sort of critique of current while you're doing it?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's you. It is fun because you're kind of reacting.
It's like a real time like, oh, like we're going
this direction. It's a little slower than I thought. We
need to try to speed it up. Whereas a normal
full band show everyone's aiming for like perfection it's like
you're a part of a living organism and you can't
just be like we're going here. It's like, oh, you
can like shift a little bit, but it's not gonna

(33:06):
You're not going to like change it totally.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
If you were going to do a podcast, what would
you do it on?

Speaker 2 (33:10):
I already know the answer to this, and I actually
want to do it with the problem is it's too short.
I want to do a podcast called what What do
You Eat for Breakfast? And the pitch is I did
this maybe three years ago, maybe four. I had a
birthday dinner and we went in on the table everyone's
breakfast routines, and I know all the people, they're well,

(33:31):
and what was really interesting was you Actually it's like
you don't doctor that up for anybody. Like the clothes
you wear are all for public consumption kind of it's like, well,
this is what I want you to see my whatever
the boots are called, and be like, oh those boots.
Whatever you do breakfast when no one's watching, And so
all of your idiosyncrasies come out and it's like really

(33:52):
quirky and funny. It says a lot about the person.
And so if you really dive deep and like if
right now is like, what are you eat for breakfast?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Do it with me?

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Ok great? Uh, welcome to What do you Eat for Breakfast?
Thanks for the first episode.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
I'm a big fan.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Oh big fan of you too. So we're gonna go
through your morning routine. What do you eat for breakfast?
Step by step?

Speaker 1 (34:13):
So I wake up very early?

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Okay? What time?

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Three thirty?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Alarm? I have one? I never get to it. Do
you have one set? Or two? Set?

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Two? And then a third like an hour later? In
case I don't know, I die?

Speaker 2 (34:29):
What's the last time you slept until you're alarm?

Speaker 1 (34:37):
I don't know the answer.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Okay, the interesting data so far, alarm doesn't hit you
wake up at three thirty, it's correct.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Probably like three twenty seven, three twenty six alarm never hits.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Okay, great, and you you get out of bed fast
forward me to where you're gonna eat something or drink something?

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Almost immediately I walk out the dogs. But then while
I'm doing that, I'm planning my meal. There's always a
couple options. And what I had some overnight oats. I'm
trying to lose like twenty pounds in three weeks.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
What kind of overnight oats? Oats overnight.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Over the night they oded? Oh yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
There's just in a jar.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
My wife made them, okay, Yeah, so she'll make like
four or five things of overnight oats and she'll put
like some little berries in it. So but for me,
it's about efficiency. Yeah, And if they're not there, I
will just grab what I can eat quickly so I
can get started. But I had overnight oats this morning
with a little bit of berry on it, and then
I can I have two beef sticks just for protein.
They'd always match to take the palette. But I'll protein

(35:37):
before I leave the house too.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
How many how many work days are you eating overnight oats?
Is it every day?

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah? Five?

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Okay? And a beef stick every day also or just
any protein option.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Beef sticks are the easiest way for me to remember
to do it, Okay, So yes, I will say beef
sticks because more times than not, unless i'm out, if
I'm out of everything, I'll eat cereal like three wishes
cereal with low sugar. But mostly it's over and I oh,
it's some beef sticks.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
High efficiency. And so how long you said it's your
feeding the dogs. Do you drink anything with this? I
make a.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Juice kind of thing with coconut water and then a
little bit of pineapple juice and a little bit of lime,
and then I put in my ag because I feel
like I don't get enough greens.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
I want to try those actually.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
So they don't taste good. But if you cover them
up with what I'm doing and putting in multi juices
like a twelve year old.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Is it in a blender? No?

Speaker 1 (36:29):
I put it in a jar and shake it.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
What kind of jar?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
It's a mason jar. We have like fifteen of them
that rotate.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
And is it the two piece top three piece? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Top top, top is two pieces, but yeah, three pieces
of total that little flat things out of it. Yeah,
so so you you put that in then you shake
it up ice, no ice. That stuff's in the fridge.
Coconut water, probably three quarters. I don't know whatever's in there.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
You really don't know. Do you not pick it out? No?

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Sometimes just order it like on Uber Eats if I'm out,
otherwise my wife will grab it.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
No preference if you if you no pulp, but yeah,
no preference. You wouldn't notice. What if I if I
switched it out. No, okay, coconut water, pineapple? What else?

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Uh? Lime?

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Lime?

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yes, that fills up?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Are you do you have a lime juice or juice? Yeah,
not lime.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
They make lime juice, but lime juice.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Like the one that looks like a lime you unscrew
the top.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
No, that's old cool grandma stuff.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, I know that's what I thought. This it's in it.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
This isn't a big jar as well?

Speaker 2 (37:31):
A big jar? Like, have you purchased it? I don't
go to the store, so I'm just saying, has some
has someone made the juice?

Speaker 1 (37:37):
No, no, no, it's but it's bought lime juice in
a jar? Like yeah, I like, I don't know what's this?
Eight inches?

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Sure, sure, that's fine. Not that's a hopefully as morning
you know what I'm saying, hopefully it's like ten.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
But yeah I was.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
I would say, yeah, that's that's it, okay, And then
I had that for breakfast, and again I ate one
beef stick before I one beef stick in the car,
and that's breakfast.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Total total amount of time from you grabbing the overnight
oats to being done consuming food.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
It doesn't time doesn't factor in because it's easy to do.
If you need a guess, seven minutes while I'm working.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Seven minutes while you're working, what time is that? Four am?

Speaker 1 (38:17):
For four four fifteen?

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah? What do you eat on the weekend?

Speaker 1 (38:23):
My wife and I will go I have like you
nice breakfasts. Yeah, and we'll go and have like a
brunch type thing where I think my typical now is
potatoes and one scrambled egg and two pieces of beef
down at this place called Urban Market.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
So per you just told me about Urban Market.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, literally, that's that's Caitlin's favorite place to go. So
that clean. Otherwise, if I don't keep it so regimented,
I will eat all sugar. Ill eat cookies for breakfast.
So I can't because I will eat all cookies. I
will eat ten bowls. I was telling Kevin Kluge, our trainer,
even if I'm eating low sugar, I'll eat twenty bowls
of cereal a week if I if I just start
having cereal.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
If you don't like pre make those decisions. If so,
so a day that you go, there's no overnight otes,
there's no anything, I.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Go a hand, then then what it is it? It's
whatever I get my hands on. And if it's really good.
I'm not gonna stop eating it really because I have
no self I have control on what I expose myself to,
but once I'm exposed to have a lot of I
have a very much lack of self control.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I'm similar. I feel like I can be pretty disciplined
and then if it's like oops, then it's.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Like and keeps sugar out of the house. But if
it comes for a visit, it just gets eaten.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Okay, there's no overnight notes. How many bowls of cereal
do you think you.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Would eat in the morning?

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah? Four? Wow, real milk.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
I would eat the whole box. No, I aw milk,
no two percent milk. I eat the whole box in
one sitting. Every time new box gum, I eat the
whole pack. Really, yeah, I eat the whole box.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
So it's like, you got to get those systems in
place and then you're good that if they're not in place, tough.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
To absolutely And that's but that's breakfast to me. Is
like life too, m M. I got to have those
systems and if I'm doing it, I can rocket. But
if I'm not and I'm just kind of floating around,
I float hard. The current gets you, Yeah, so what's
my breakfast?

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Say?

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Uh, I'm gonna get my fortune ready, but with my break.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Well the first episode, so I don't, I'm not. I
don't have it. I don't have a dialt yet. I
think what's interesting though, I think it's I feel like
every time I've talked to somebody about this, it is
like an interesting window into them in some way because
you're not you haven't since there's not an audience for that.
You're just like I'm doing my thing with no regard

(40:39):
for like what anyone would think about this, And I
think it's really interesting. I have a lot of similarities
to that. But as far as being like because from
what I know of you, I'm like, oh, dude, you're
like so with it, so like you're like dialed and
it is funny to be like, oh, the systems help you.
But as soon as like there's not systems and you're
just like free, it's like, ooh, this is this is

(41:00):
like maybe not going to go great. Also fascinating about
the alarms, man, I mean that you haven't needed an
alarm in a long time for that early is really something.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
I hate it because I wake up six times a
night and I got a SEPAP because I do have
sleep apnea a bit, and that was part of it.
But now I'm sleeping with a machine, I still wake up,
so like, oh god, am I. It's just it's anxiety, right,
I don't have general life anxiety. I don't feel like
I have it in the daytime. Mmm. I think I
know people that do have it and they live with
it physically. Yeah, I don't, and partially probably because I

(41:32):
keep it going, keep everything going, so I don't have
time to sit with it. Yeah, And so when I
do sit with it is maybe when I go to sleep.
That's kind of when it manifests itself. And also I
can't be late to work. Yeah, I'm like to work things.
Ratings go down, revenue goes down. Then I get fired.
Then I'm back to where I started, back at home.
Like that's where my mind goes. And that is not rational,

(41:53):
It's really not. But you're not a rational person either. No,
in some way, in certain areas, I very much am so,
but not when it comes to that.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
It's really also seven minutes pretty quick.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
But what am I gonna do?

Speaker 2 (42:06):
I don't know other other people. Some people are like
a saver of the morning.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
I don't know, there's no saving.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
If there's time in the day, that's time for me
to get something done.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
That's why I feel so lazy when it's like relax. Oh,
it's the worst.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
I just think, how much have we learned about you
just in this little in this little routine A lot.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
I really appreciate going on the first episode. Man, this
has been great.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
It's a big honor to be here. So that's a
good podcast though, because that's really not about breakfast.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
And the thing is I think I think you could
the episodes would be pretty short, but I feel like
everything that every time someone does like a podcast tour,
you get some little pieces of the real them, but
on some level, like they're always and the questions they're
getting are mostly about things they've put out there about
themselves and how much would you love to know, Like

(42:57):
like Michael Jordan, like, let me just ask you every
you eat for breakfast, because you know he's gonna people
are so funny in particular'd when you're like two beef
sticks and I feel like it's I also want to
know what the like no brands thing is because I
feel like I would be like, oh dude, I got
it's got to be whatever, because I get shirts total.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
I mean perc Yeah, where it's like this one doesn't
feel so good on my skin hundred percent. Mine's not
about brands as long as it does the job.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
It's I think honestly that that is a that is
interesting to me because you are so specific, but also
it's almost like in service of a greater utilitarian goal
because you're like, yeah, I don't know, like coconut water,
where I'd be like, oh dude, I tried like six
of them. I really like that one. That's it. I
feel like you're like, it's coconut waterman, whatever.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
As long as I get from it what I'm looking for.
I guess if it's bad and I get sick on
it or I don't like I really hate the taste,
but really it's there to do a job.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah. But but I feel like you are you are.
It's interesting. I think that says a lot to me
about like how you operate, because I feel like you're
not a guy who's super like I don't know, man,
what have like you like? I feel like you are
specific and you are driven in certain ways. And it's
it's cool and interesting to me that you're like but
that I don't care. It's whatever.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
But I would say it has to be coconut water.
It has to be lying, but it has.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
To be dude, some people, some people are getting so
so in the weeds on on random stuff that's just
interesting me.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Well, this was, this has been Thanks for having me
on a show. Can you come back on my show
for a minute. Well, I guess like, okay, cool, cool, cool.
How many of these theaters are they all in theaters that.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
It's usually there's usually like a sometimes it's just a theater,
but a lot of times it's like a place that's
been built for the orchestra or symphony. I don't really
know those terms interchangeably.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
With Cody in your band at one point.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, we played together for a long time and he
he'd always like done artists stuff, And as happens with
anyone who's like truly uniquely gifted, I feel like after
a while it's like, oh, dude, you got to go
do your own thing, because like you're too good to
be doing this. But yeah, he started doing more artist

(45:16):
stuff and then had great success with one of his
songs on TikTok that he had released. It was like
a song that had been out for I don't know
how long, and it kind of like went crazy on
Anime TikTok and then.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
It blew up and so Anime TikTok I think so.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
I think it was maybe maybe a specific version of
Anime TikTok. I don't know remember which one, but like
that was the sort of like silo that it bounced
around a bunch. But he's also lean more into doing
specifically orchestral stuff, which I think was a great call
for him because he's uniquely gifted at that.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
I had a song with Haley Whitters come Together.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Basically Dan, and she asked me to go on tour.
I said yes because I was so stoked to get
to do support. I haven't gotten to do support in
like ten years because of the genre lists we talked
about earlier, so I was stoked. I was just like
pumped to get to be in front of new people
and get to do something interesting without a lot of pressure.
And they told me that Haley was gonna be first

(46:11):
of three, and I was legitimately stoked. Hillary and I
both really love her music, and I feel like everybody
does that. They're like, I was such a fan, it's
like really where I know her? One of her managers, Well,
I've like followed her career. I really like it. And
so I was in kind of a season where my
game within a game was like I want to do
stuff that sounds fun to me, that's like engaging, and
what sounds fun to me. What sounded fun to me

(46:31):
was to write a song, try to write a song
that she would want to sing with me on the tour,
just because I was like, it'd be fun to get
to do that. I think she's talented and fun and
that would be just like a fun memory for me.
So I wrote it was one of those weird songs
that came out like so fast. It was just like
lo and then so I wrote it with the guy

(46:53):
in my band, Austin, and we finished it with a
guy named Brett who had written for her before, and
we're all freaking out about it. We're like, this is
so good. And she weirdly came into Austin's publisher the
next day and they played her the song and didn't
tell me they're going to Austin was like, I hope
that's okay. I was like, what did she like it?
I hope. I was like, I don't know, I don't,

(47:14):
but she really liked it and everyone was stoked. But
that was it.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
You play a banjo in it, a ganjo, whatever you
want to call that. For the sake of anybody else,
that's a banjo unless you're.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
In the weeds. Yes, it's it's like you're playing you don't. Don't.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
It'saut yourself.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Don't.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
I'm not gonna let you do the thing.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
I think.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Don't do that. Okay, great, So you're playing this band,
it sounds like a banjo. You're playing a banjo. Did
any part of you go I don't think I should
play a banjo because people will think that I'm pandering.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Actually, I never I was more worried when the song
started to get like stuff was happening and people were like,
are you doing this? I was like, I mean, I'm
not like gonna say no to this, but I I
wanted to express where the song came from. Mostly, so
the banjo part, to me, I feel like, I'm totally

(48:08):
for like being in service of the song totally and
that's what it needed, like it wouldn't have been as
good with a guitar, And in a weird way, I
feel like banjo on that song feels more like something
that I would do, where it's almost feels more like
to me. When I wrote it, it was felt like a
Muppets bluegrass song. It's like Sesame Street. And that is
where I was like, Oh, this is something that even

(48:30):
if Hailey had been like I don't like the song
at all, I would have done the song as it
was just without her, because that part of it, that's
the kind of like, yeah, it feels like classic American music,
and it definitely I get that it feels like country also,
but I feel like if I turned on Sesame Street
and I saw that song, I would be like yes,
and I think it would be worse it was an

(48:51):
acoustic guitar. I'd be like, oh, is this like hither Delilah.
It's like, no, this is like an interesting kind of
like folky. It's just like a feels like a Hailey's husbands,
like feels like it's like a standard, like you're covering
a song. I was like, yeah, that's what it feels
like to me.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
It didn't feel like pandering at all, but just knowing
how your mind works. I didn't know if you had
been like, this is perfect and then you record like,
oh god, it feels.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Like it could be. I think because I have like
a streak of like wanting to do things for the
right reason. Because I knew where I was coming from
with it, I didn't feel weird about that at all.
I wouldn't have been like because I it was natural,
and if someone would be like, doesn't seem naturally, be like, well,
it was. I don't have to tell you.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
You know, how has it been going with that song?
And it's life in country? I just know from my side,
I've been playing its much. I liked the song, and
then I saw Anya post that she was playing it.
Who's a good friend of Mine's here, so I has
it organically just kind of started to get legs.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I think what's been interesting to me is it was
received a lot better than I thought it would be
as far as like either industry or on DSPs or whatever.
And I think some of that really is what we
were talking about earlier with like Grammy or whatever stuff.
I think that there ended up being a bunch of
people at Spotify or at Amazon or YouTube or whatever

(50:16):
you I don't know, Anya, but people like that. I
feel like there was some general goodwill where it was like, oh, dude,
like this is actually really good and it was met
with more like open arms than I thought it would be.
And I wasn't like, this has got to like crush
and do incredible, but I was surprised at how well

(50:39):
it was received. I think there was just a number
of people that were like, at like DSPs specifically because
I'm not like going to be on like a pop
pop playlist. I feel like a lot of people are like, oh,
like I can help you with this, this is good
and I like your music. So there's more of that
than I thought there would be. I don't in twenty
twenty four, I don't honestly have a great metric for like,

(51:00):
is it crushing. It seems like it's doing pretty good,
better than I thought it would do, for sure. I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Part of that too, is that you weren't going I'm
a country artist now it's a second right, and I'll
include myself in this mix of when people come out
and they got I'm now a country You're like, ah,
prove it. But if they don't and they're like, I
made this song and it is what you think it is,
We're like, that's.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Pretty freaking country.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
That's cool because you're not like imposing it right.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Well, honestly what you said. With the banjo thing, I
felt more like that there were weirdly a bunch of
things that came together at the same time. I felt
more like Terry Clark is doing like a I forget
what it's called. It's like a record of her hits
that are all like done with other people. I did
that with her at this point. It may may have

(51:47):
been like eighteen months ago, and then before the Hailey
thing was like for sure, for sure, like this is
gonna happen. I wanted to release a song before the
Dan and Shade tour, and the only song we had
that was like done and good from the acoustic tour
was the cover of Great Day to Be Live. And
it felt like several things came together, like really tight.

(52:08):
And I felt a little bit like that, even just
to my fans, where people are like are you and
I wanted to be like I'm not. This stuff just
kind of like came together. I felt more like that
about that because I didn't think it would all come
at the same time like that.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
I mean, that's how you accidentally want a Grammy too, honestly,
I mean it is. It's not even about the Grammy.
The Grammy can mean anything, sure, But we'll have a
few minutes left. But I got a couple other things.
Would you mind sharing your I don't even want to
spoil who it's about, but I'm gonna let you tell
the story about how you went to a certain thing

(52:42):
and your hero was there and you end up hanging
out with a hero all day? Is he like chased
your a followity?

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Oh can you just.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Tell that story just from the beginning, But yes, yes,
go ahead.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Uh, this was this is maybe like the coolest thing
ever for me personally. I got to go play at
the AT and T pro am, which is like the
holy Grail of all golf things if you're not a
professional golfer.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
At Pebble Beach.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
At Pebble Beach, yes, it's like on television all that stuff,
And so I initially was going out there. They were like, hey,
could you come do some music because they have like
parties every night, and they were like, we'd love to
have you be in the celebrity hole in one, which
is like all the celebrities in the tournament. Jim Nantz
announces it and you all hit like one shot closest

(53:28):
to pin. It's like a miniature tournament. You knew that
you can play in all the practice rounds, you know.
It felt like that was like a good way for
me to like sort of get to know the people
that run the tournament. And I was like, well, yeah,
I'll go out and play pebble and NPCC which is minor,
and Peninsula Country Club it's awesoin course, and I'll do
the celebrity hole in one and maybe they'll think I'm

(53:50):
a good guy and decent golfer and we'll have you back.
They were like, if anyone drops out of the tournament,
you can be the tournament. And I was like totally.
And I'm not great at like not great at networking
or any that kind of stuff, but I was like,
I really like this stuff and if nothing ever happened,
that just be cool and fun. So I get out there.
I play the concert. It was for the tournament committee,

(54:12):
I guess I don't really remember, and they were like, hey,
we think he have a spot in the tournament, of course,
I'm over the moon. And one of my very favorite artists,
Hugh Lewis. My dad listened to him a lot growing up,
and I thought it was like dorky dad music, and
then I realized after I grew up, I was like,
this is actually like some of the sickest music ever.

(54:34):
And so Hugh Lewis was going to come back and
do one last at and T and he hurt his
shoulder and they were like, you're going to replace Hugh Lewis,
and I was like, oh, that's incredible. That's wild to
feel bad that he's hurt. He's like, but he was
going to walk with your group? Is that cool? And
I was like, I was like time out. What? So basically,

(54:55):
I'm playing in the coolest golf thing in the world.
It really is. There's not a cooler amateur golf event.
And it's basically me and Huey Lewis. Steve Young was
the other celebrity. I'm not putting myself in the same
category as Hugh Listen Steve Young, but you know you
I do, I now do. I didn't. Then he's honestly

(55:15):
the nicest person. Okay, yeah, Huey Lewis is walking around
and he's him and Peter Jacobson, who is his pro partner,
who's a golf announcer now, was like a dominant golfer
in his day. They came back to do the tournament
one last time together. Peter Jacob's caddy was fluff legendary caddy.

(55:36):
It was unbelievable and so basically my week was I
would hit a shot and then walk down the fairway
with Hughey and just kick it. I mean we hung
out all day. He came to every round and I
tried so not to geek out. Some of his band came,
I got to meet them. I did a project. Yes,
some of the news several anchors, but it did. It

(55:57):
was incredible, and he was a gentleman and he was
like he was like my older brother. He was like, oh,
let me let me help you out with this at
this tournament, or like here's the deal. It was the best, man.
It was, honestly, I was like on cloud nine. It
was the best.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
One year later, smash Cut, I was presented with the
same situation that you were presented. Come out, come on.
We can't promise you spot, but come play the practice rounds,
come do the deal, And so I go out and
somebody does get hurt and I'm invited to play, but
I got a call from the Grammy's going, hey, can

(56:34):
you cover the grand? So I'm like, oh, what do
I do in the weather was really bad that year. Yeah,
and I was like, I'm gonna I played the practice rounds.
It was awesome. Everybody's super cool. And I really only
did it mostly because of your advice. You were like,
even if you don't get to play, it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I didn't fully understand, but I understood that you wouldn't
put me in a place where mine roses get the
best of me, thinking I'm not good enough because you
don't feel And I got out there and I definitely
didn't feel that. And so well, I remember standing on
a practice screen and my eyes are just wide open
because there's a lot of really like cool to me celebrities.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
It's a great collection of those people where it's like, wow,
can't believe that.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Yeah, I played a part three, whole round of a
part three with Ray Romano. Thought he was hilarious, totally
Josh du Mal super nice guy. But I remember, yeah,
and like, great but still got it.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, he got it.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
And I remember seeing Steve Young on the practice screen
and he was standing with like four other people and
he kind of was holding court because everybody's like, that's
breaking Steve Young, and so I'm like, I just want
to get over and say hi, that's all. So I
just kind of waddled over and got in the group,
and you know, I don't even know what they're saying,
but they're like, oh, Steve, that's a good So they broke.

(57:48):
They broke the group, and I say, hey. I was like,
mister Young, but I didn't know what to what are
you called Steve Young?

Speaker 2 (57:56):
I think it's fair. I think it's incorrect.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Super Bowl MVP, super Bowl Court Champion.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I said, hey, I'm Bobby, really nice to meet you,
and he said, oh you're Bobby Bones. He said listen
to your show all the time. And now I'm like,
oh my.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
God, wow.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
But then I'm like, does he just has he heard
the name?

Speaker 2 (58:16):
And that's all I.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Well, I'm foed to follow up with this story. Okay,
so there's a funny, funny ending, but he's so nice
to me that I think, who cares? I had a
really great one time experience with Steve Young that I'll
never get to have again. I'll never see him again,
but that's awesome because I'll hold on to how cool
that experience was.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
And he is actually the nice.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
My one of one. He was super nice and you
say it too, I believe it. So this morning on
my show was talking about top five people that I've
ever met and been star struck by. But I also
admit that comes with the caveatum. I'm jaded. Sure, I
get to meet a lot of quote unquote cool people,
some of them Mate's so cool. And also you start
to see once you're around a lot of famous people

(59:03):
that they're just people. Yeah, it's and it's hard to
ever get but I go five to one, Mike. I
know number one was Adam Dirret's Count of Crows because
my favorite band as a kid. Do you know who
else was on by Steve Young is one of them
I put on the list.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Yeah, and so.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Move on with my day. This is this morning. I
get a text like, I don't know, nine thirty this
morning from Steve Young. I never gave him my number,
by the way, he says, Bob, just like you know,
I'm I'm not lying nine fifty two am this morning.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
That's that's his picture. Where did he come on the list?
Number four? Okay? So who was five? He? He was like,
what's the deal with one? Derek Jeter?

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (59:47):
He was at four, Lenny Kravitz at three, Jim Nancit two,
and Derret's at one.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
So I said, he said, hey's Steve Young. I'm listening
to the show this morning, and bam, I hear my
name and he says, I got your number from Steve John.
I called him, who's the head of that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
And he's and he look look at this. He says,
that's so. And so I replied back.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
And I'm like, I don't even know what to say back,
because I'm like, I wanted to make sure he knew
he was Steve Young, Like you're Steve Young. And so
we have our little text thing and he says, you know,
I love the show whatever, there's a certain bet he
wanted to remind me of. And then he goes because
I was making fun of myself when I went to
meet and I was like him, mister Young. He said, uh,

(01:00:28):
I first met Carlton Heston way back and I was starstruck,
and then sped out, Oh I loved you and big
her so whatever whatever, and that happens, and I'm not
gonna I'll never text him again.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
I'm like, that's real.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
It's like Jim nance he's invited me to invite him
to come and do stuff or be on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
I never do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Yeah, I'll never call him, be like, hey Jim, what's up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
You know the time he told me to say Hugh
Lowis is like, here's my number, A zero percent. The
fact that you gave it, that's a gifted.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
He just texted me six minutes ago again again, let
me know if I can help in any way.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Love what you do. Will you please tell him? I said, Hi,
we can both.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
I don't know well enough, but if you hear it
gives me this real strength.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Hondo Pece.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
I send a video. Hey Steve, it's Ben Recked.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Well, I'm Bobby. This is Steve. I was trying to
tell Bobby what a nice guy you were, and he
was like, is he really that nice? And I was
like one hundred percent? And they showed me the text.
I was like, that's him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Yeah, so Ben and I are He was telling a
story about Huey Lewis and I said you're my Huey
Lewis whole understanding what that means later. But anyway, Ben
and I were just talking about you random. You randomly
came out truly randomly, truly random, and then you just
text me. So I was like, I'm I will hit
him back anyway. I hope you're good bye.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
He he is the nicest guy we've like, you know me,
hue Lewis gives me his number. I'm not texting. We've
like kept up. Actually he we left the tournament and
he was like, we're brothers now and I was like, wow,
I don't know if you mean that. I didn't say that,
and then he totally did. He's a really nice guy,
legitimately nice.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
And boom sent it. Okay, I have one final question,
and we've done. We've done. We've been here a long time.
But when you and I were not first met. We
met on an airplane. Myself was flight very briefly sitting
in line for the bathroom. Yep, you remember that, right,
I do. I can't stop thinking about it. But I
was in such a bad place.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
Man. You did you did this show.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
We kind of became friendly, then we became friends.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Then we got there we got ripped together.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Yes, then we're just we're jacked. But I don't know
the version of you. I've never been a friend with you,
and you've put out new music. Like I kind of
knew you, knew you enough to text you and go like, hey,
like this record. This is why I feel like some
of this stuff is special. But I didn't know you. Like now,
if you put out new music, it'd be a whole
different experience for me. Yeah, so what where are you

(01:02:48):
in that? Because I don't know I don't know you
in that way. Yep, where are you making anything new?

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
Yeah? So basically right now, I feel like I'm at
the edge of the diving board. I have a collection
of songs, I'm excited, and I'm trying to figure out
how I want to approach it total honesty, a little
daunted by the current landscape because I feel like I'm
watching everyone just be like throw their dart at the
board and there's like a billion other darts and everyone's

(01:03:13):
just like eh, not that that would discourage me from
doing it, but just like mechanically how i'd want to
do it. I think probably in my head I was like,
I'll get past the dan and shade tour and get
home and figure out how to record it. But I
think I think it's really I think they're very good songs,
and I don't always feel like that, and I think
I'm just trying to figure out how I want to

(01:03:34):
like capture them because I feel like more and more
your like, hate to say this out loud, but I'm
going to like your content kind of is your song.
It's like the days of like, do you like this,
We'll head over to Spotify swipe. You're just like, so
I'm kind of figuring out, like what do I want
to do? What angle do I want to take there? Yeah,
that's that's where I am. I'm trying to figure out

(01:03:55):
how to navigate this current landscape.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
So I don't I don't know that there's a lot
of words and you have a bunch of songs.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Do they all?

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Are they a collection of like minded songs? Are they
just a bunch of songs that you like?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
No, there's there's several Like, there's several like groups, and
I'm kind of like, whish of these groups feels like
it would be fun and life giving to do and
what would I get excited to like for the next
however long be like this is what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Bonus final question. Do you feel at times you're ever
too precious about putt stuff out and that could that
could keep your I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I don't know, because I feel like the whole like
put stuff out all the time thing is so new
and I think that everyone is like, that's what you
gotta do to like increase your stats. But I also
feel like what's happening now is like so many people
are putting so much music out all the time that
nobody cares anymore. So I'm like, I don't I don't know,

(01:04:54):
and I will put out probably one song at a time,
but I feel like even the internal pressure of like
I released Color my World like two months ago, like
prob probably gotta get something else out. I'm just like,
I don't know if because for me, the bands that
I like that do that, I just start tuning it out.
I'm just like, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
What about a concept EP? Total concept EP that's right
up your freaking out, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
One hundred percent. Yes, there's there's one one thing I
want to do.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Don't spoil it because I don't want to text everyone.
We pull that down so if you say something that
you don't think you want to be up, don't don't
even say it because I don't want to text later
and then I'm gonna worry about he probably wants to
taken down. So don't say it. Just be very vague,
and I want to keep us both out of this
spinning that we do.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Okay, there's several things that I'd like to do. One
of them is very specific concept that I don't know
if it's a good idea, but I think would be.
I've never seen anyone do it, and I kind of
want to do it, but the world might not need it,
you know, they might be like I don't want to
hear a song about.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Blank Oklahoma Mandarin. That's what I would think. It is
that that Oklahoma Mandarin the first Oklahoma to do a
full Manderin album.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
No, that would You're you're kind of close.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
I I think as an artist, you're awesome. Thank you.
I I as a friend, I think you're really good.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
You know it could be better, and sorry, couldn't we
all be? But no, I'm really looking forward to whatever
it is that you're going to do. I don't even
ask you about that stuff. Who has time when you're
breathing as hard as we have to with freaking Kevin Kluge.
But I'm putting a pick a ball court back here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Oh is clue coming today? Is going to get hard today? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Yeah, for sure, because you worry. That's why I'm going
to clear you to go before he even gets here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Oh wait, He'll be like, Ben, what's the deal? What
is the deal? Uh? The deal is I hurt my
back a little bit the one time that Eddie and
I worked out and you weren't there. Basically I hadn't
been for a couple of weeks and we did too hard.
I was sore for seven calendar days. We did a

(01:06:54):
million deadlifts and Bulgarians. Uh. And then yesterday I had
a charity golf tournament and then I'm going to do
a member guest. I leave Thursday at like five in
the morning. Where's the member guest in San Francisco? Got it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Well? Are you playing golf again? Because for a while
I was like, I don't play golf anymore. I just
played pickleball.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
No, I'm I'm honestly, I'm like full on into golf.
I'm back, so so played golf yesterday can't go into
uh not an important tournament, but just like a real tournament,
being like, sorry, guys, I can't walk. I just million.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
But I mean, are you really in a golf now?
Are you just waiting until pickleball? Because we've been through
this and I was like.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Golf pickle I mean I'm in I'm in a golf zone.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Right. You're a deceivingly good athlete, which is annoying.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
It's really nice you to say.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
And you are taller than people expect. I thought you
get that all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Most common thing people say to me.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
You're yeah, I mean six nine six nine, yeah at
least Okay, Look, we're gonna end this. When you hear
Bobby Bones' new podcast would you have for breakfast? I
think nothing of it. I think nothing of it? Uh yeah,
followed bit. Now I'm just gonna straight rip. It's not
even gonna be something I could like using court. There's
gonna be I stole at Ben underscore rector on Instagram?

(01:08:11):
What is it on TikTok though?

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
I don't know the answer to that. I don't know,
have to taketalk on my phone. Maybe been in a
corrector who loads it? Uh my Social Team, got it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
Fancy Ben underscore director. I mean I have one too,
but I just I just don't.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
Ben, underscore director.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Check out Color My World and the tour dates because
you're done with Dan and Shay. But now it's a
symphony show starting May tenth, eleventh, fifteen, sixteenth, all the
way through September seventh. I'm just gonna read the cities
down Coast of Mason, California, Coast of Mason, California, Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Atlanta, Nashville, Nashville, Detroit, Dallas, Dallas,

(01:08:50):
and from now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
That's it, Okay. I'm excited to hear about your concept record.
I hope it's like cowboys, These cowboys, that's it. That.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Yeah, there's no nothing else not country music. It's cowboys.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Yes, all right, there he has been record.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
H