Let's catch up with Joe Nichols

I've always wanted to ask Joe Nichols about the song "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off"......is it a true story? Here's the answer and you are not going to believe which hit song was turned down by George Strait. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I want to ask you. I'vealways wanted to ask you this question.
Somebody told me that you were adisc jockey at one time. Were you
really in radio? Yeah? Nota very good one. Yeah, yeah,
that's not true. I think aboutmaybe a year when I was in
high school. A little after highschool, a friend of mine's not real

(00:23):
job and at the station in Springdale, Arkansas called Beaver one oh five Today's
out New Country. I still cansay that the branding. But now,
it was a cool job. Youknow, I wanted to be closer to
music. I wanted to learn asmuch as I could about you know,
the records I love and kind ofwhat makes the world go around, which
is which is what you do?And so you know, it was it

(00:44):
was a neat job. And Iran the countdowns on the weekends, and
I did overnights throughout the week sometimes, and they gave me as little airtime
as possible. But I did havea really interested in you know, the
Oja Simpson ordeal happened on a daythat I happened to be running the countdowns,

(01:06):
and so my boss called me andhe said, hey, man,
I want you to go live andtalk about what's happening on TV, the
White Bronco and all that kind ofstuff, and I was like, it's
my first time, man, andyou were in nice school. Yeah,
I was. I was maybe aroundseventeen, eighteen years old, and it
was spectacularly bad. I'm sure ithad to be so awkward for people that
they probably like, this must bereal because this guy cannot can't. So

(01:30):
that what you were doing is youwere giving kind of like a play by
play of the OJ Bronco instead goingdown the road is what you were doing
on the radio, right right,that's exactly right. And my boss he
called me and said, man,I want you to go live and start
talking about this, and I'll bethere as soon as I can get there,
and he would take over and starttalking about the thing. But for
about forty five minutes, I wasI was giving everybody a play by play,

(01:53):
and I'm like, I said,that must have been sheer agony for
people. Well, how about you? Well, I think for me it
was a little bit like Chris Farleyinterviewing Paul McCartney, started out lives it's
just a little sweaty and awkward,you know, awkward pauses. Yeah,

(02:13):
well obviously, uh we meant foryou to be on the other side of
the radio instead of by them giveplay. Did you ever sneak on any
any records that you really wanted toplay and should do? The boss wasn't
listening if you were working overnights.Yeah, man, I got fired for
that reason right there. It wasn'tbecause yeah, well my boss he was

(02:35):
the he was the morning show guytoo. So he come in around five
and start doing the morning show,and I did the overnights, like midnight
to six. And so I gota few phone calls at like three o'clock
in the morning, and I wasplaying like the old laggard and Jones stuff,
and I remember he called me andsaid, I haven't programmed a George
Jones song in twenty years. Hesaid, please stop playing word s Jones

(03:00):
on B one oh five Today's topNew Country. Please stop doing that,
stick to the program log. Andso after several times of doing that and
getting caught doing that because I've preferredthose records, he finally came in one
morning and said, you know,I've had enough and you gotta go now.
Ironically, here's the pot twist.Right after that, the station got

(03:23):
bought and it switched from Today's hotnew country to classic country. Oh boy,
and the new station owner rehired meto go work at the new uh
real classic country station. So itwas a weird plot twist. And now
they're playing Joe Nichols records, whichis probably great, right they's even bittersweet
man, Oh yeah, You've hadsuch such powerful songs in your career.

(03:49):
And what is the real story behindTequila Maker makes her Clothes fall off?
Here's got to be is that firstof all? Is it true? And
gid you kind of tell us whatthe story is. I think the American
public and possibly even the world wouldwould let us know that that is absolutely
true, that's a true story.Well, you know when I first heard

(04:13):
that song, I mean I wishI'd written it, but I didn't.
Were you there when it happened?Obviously not? But okay, I think
the story that I heard was thatthese two gentlemen were John Wiggins and Gary
Hannon wrote that and they were ina bar after a long writing day where
they couldn't bang out an idea atall, and they decided to go to
the bar in the afternoon instead andkind of got a little tipsy and one

(04:35):
offered the other Tequila and he goes, nah, man, it makes my
past fall off. Oh so theboy got wrote it down and the next
day they had another write and theysaid, yeah, I like that,
ask himing off idea, and theykind of cleaned up a little bit and
went towards you know, tequila,make her clothes all off. And so,
uh, that's that's kind of thestory that I heard. And I'll

(04:57):
tell you what, boy talk abouta a really a demo that did not
match the energy of that song.When I heard the demo, it's like
a ballad almost. It was soslow and kind of a little lifeless.
But it was a really cool idea, really kind of you know, out
there ideas. So we got inthe studio shined it up a little bit,
and uh, that's a big hit. Like I said, because of

(05:17):
I think everybody would agree that itdoes that big. It's timeless. And
of course, I think you kindof missed out on an endorsement opportunity with
that song Tuesday. You know thathad probably been a terrible idea. It
was a great it's a great soundidea because you know, me and Tequila,
we don't we don't mix and uh, but you're right, man,
it's sure, says Branding all over. Broken Heartsville. What a what a

(05:42):
classic too? M thank you.I get the question a lot that you
know, people ask you know,what's your favorite song to play? And
you know, what's your favorite songto cover and what's the favorite of your
mind. One of my personal favoritesthat I have always played, always had
fun played is Broken Heartsville. It'sjust it's because I think that was the

(06:04):
first song that kind of stamped mea little bit. You know, it
was kind of my introduction in abig way. Impossible it was our first,
you know hit, but Broken Hartsvillewas really kind of the big cellar
and a big kind of this iswho I Am song. And I really
truly believe that anybody could have sungImpossible and Broken Hartsville and Tequila and anybody

(06:26):
could have had big hits with those. And so I was very lucky that
a guy like George Strait, whoI believe, turned down Broken Hartsville.
I was very lucky that a guylike that didn't cut that before I could.
And so you know, that's that'sone of those songs I'm thankful to
still hear it every now. Andthen driving around East Texas with end my
truck. I still hear it onthe radio and it still sounds good to

(06:46):
me anyway. So I'm thankful forthat song. Well, we're thankful that
you cut it out. You mentionedanother song of the Impossible. We've heard
stories how that song really makes everythingpossible. We've heard stories about being played
in people who are in coma andthat awake and stuff. But what a
song. Yeah, I appreciate it. There was a guy, his name
kid named Trey and uh Trey Hawillbelieve his name is, and he was

(07:13):
in Midland or Odessa or around thatarea and had a situation where it was
just like a song. He kindof had a car accident singing year in
high school, didn't have a gooduh prognosis uh, and they of course
just i mean almost identical to thesong. They had a situation where it
didn't look good and he kind ofgot motivated from that song and a couple

(07:36):
of other songs and worked his tailoff and eventually come up across that stage
and got his high school diploma andkind of showed everybody I'm still here,
and uh, Good Morning America dida big story on that and put a
lot of time into that that story. It was such a a really cool
It was a first time I tao. It was the first time that I

(07:58):
remember having a really super like ohmy god, there's there's this impacts people.
You know this, this music sometimescan really affect people in a more
in a deeper way. And whatsometimes your ego just doesn't let you see
that far that deep, you knowyou kind of as my wife would say,
you know, I make it aboutme a lot of times and don't

(08:20):
really see the bigger meaning and songsand how it impacts people. And that
was the first time I remember beinglike shook that, Wow, this this
can really impact people. What Iwhat I sing about, uh, can
sometimes affect people in a bigger way. Well, my friend, you've come
a long way since given play byplay of OJ speeding down the way. Sometimes