Chris Stapleton grapples with the "F" word; plus Ashley McBryde; Gabby Barrett; Parker McCollum

Right now in country music: Crook & Chase have the latest from Nashville's top stars. Chris Stapleton grapples with the "F" word, Ashley McBryde tackles a tough rhyme, and hot new stars Gabby Barrett and Parker McCollum share the secrets to their success.

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Episode Transcript

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an Apple Fitness Plus subscription, Apple Watch Series three or
later and iPhone success or later. Well, Hi, everybody, welcome
once again into a Crook and Chase Nashville Chats. This
is our podcast where we bring you the top stars
and country music and uh, this time around, we're doing
something just a little bit different. We are bringing you
some highlights of one of our recent Crook and Chase
Countdown shows. That's where we have a chance to not

(02:02):
only play the hits, but bring all these stars in
and get them to cut up and carry on. Like
they shouldn't be going. Well, let's just say this is
what's happening right now in country music. Mr Chris Stapleton,
what an album he has starting over. I just called
it a masterpiece. The single is as well. Interesting conversation

(02:23):
with Mr Stapleton because a couple of years ago he
was known mostly as a background singer, a songwriter, behind
the scenes and uh bam. One performance put him in
the spotlight, and he says ever since he's been having
to deal with what he is calling the F word. Yeah,

(02:45):
we're going to get his take on that. You probably wonder. Okay,
everybody in their career says, Okay, there was a one
point I knew things were starting to happen for me. Well, Chris,
it was at one night. You and I were both there.
We witnessed this. It was just sending credible moment. There
was a lot of electricity boiling down from one performance
with Justin Timberlake. So many of you saw it, probably

(03:09):
who are listening to us. It was back in and
overnight his world changed. Something like this, You've really settled
into who you are as an artist. Seems like you
have really learned to handle the spotlight and your superstardom.
Are you comfortable in your own skin and with the
way things are with you and your music right now?

(03:31):
Oh yeah, well all those things I'm comfortable with, and um,
I don't know as much as I have ever had been,
I guess. So yeah, that's not to say I'm always
comfortable with everything, because I'm not. I'm not. I'm not
particularly uh you know, I'm still not great at um.
I love the music part, but sometimes the as my
daughter would call it, the F word famous is a

(03:54):
is a tough thing. Yeah, for me to navigate a
little bit. You know, when we had our moment on
the Cmas justin Number Lake in two fifteen, almost overnight, ye,
well not almost overnight. Our lives were very different, and um,
you know I had to you know, the tour bus
coming by the house was full of people with cameras,

(04:14):
so we you know, we runted a house down the
street just to and you know, I had people showing
up from three stays away blowing up to the house
because they looked up your address. Those are things when
you don't you know, I spent thirty eight years of
my life not living in that space, and it didn't
really know how to. I didn't probably handle it as
good as some people. We'll tell you that that's it's
almost scary when you think about it. Well, I think

(04:35):
it's important to mention here that I mean, you know
Chris very well, known him since the days that he
was in the background doing you know, wonderful things in
country music. And he is not ungrateful. He is very grateful.
It's just that fame can be such an overbearing experience
and he's learned to handle He and his wife and

(04:56):
his entire family have learned to handle it, and they're
happy with someone like be careful what you wish for,
because when you come to Nashville, or you're in Nashville
and you've got a music career, you know on your
radar that's gonna happen. You know, hopefully it's gonna happen
for you. You gotta be ready for you. So here
we go. Here's a girl who could not wait to
get famous because there are a couple of people that

(05:18):
she just wanted to look into the camera on national
television and then into the microphone on national radio and
say look at me. Now we're talking about Ashley McBride.
She is a real singer songwriter, as is Chris Stapleton. So, Charlie,
I thought you had a very good question for her

(05:40):
when it comes to writing songs. You know, when you
writing a song in the state, you think, okay, you
can sit down and write a poem. The poem is
one thing, not necessarily a song. To tell a story
in three minutes is magic. And to be able to
do that, I really admire these people. I don't know
how they do it. Do they have a crutch? Do
they have do they account of somebody else to help

(06:01):
them come up with something? This, that and the other?
So yeah, I have a curiosity. Yeah. Well here's here's
what Ashley McBride said as she took us inside her
writing sessions. I'm just curious, from a songwriter's standpoint, how
often during a writing session do you fire up Google
and Wikipedia? Oh? Um, I mean if I have to

(06:22):
look at how to spell something. But we micro writers
and I we try to leave our phones, um face
down and not pick them up. Um, we don't. If
I have to look for a rhyme, I really don't
want to do that. I would rather just write that
the words down at rhyme until I absolutely run out
and if we can't find something then maybe we can
google it then. Um, but you know we had to
google how to spell delonaga back in the day. It

(06:47):
absolutely did. And the word is not Delanega, it is Delaga.
You know you mentioned she wanted to be able to
look some people in the face and go, well, wasn't
it a t teacher? I think she was in school.
It was a teacher who told her that you are
a girl doing nowhere. She said yeah, and she wrote
a song about that. She said that that was her motivation.

(07:10):
I think she has eternal internal motivation. I love well
in this town. But she's doing quite well actually, mc bright.
She's a sweetheart. And uh, next, of course we have
somebody who you were talking about fame and everything. I
think she was working hard to uh enjoy a good career.
If fame came with it, that's fine, but she was

(07:31):
really motivated to get out and perform. She's a hard worker.
Talking about Gaby Barrett, Gabby Barrett, boy, she has the
momentum going right now. And you know what I really
respect about Gabby Barrett is that she didn't just wait
to be famous, like suddenly famous on American Idol She's
spent years before and leading up to the competition just

(07:56):
playing all over the East Coast. I realized before American
I little, you did a lot of shows, You did
a lot of performing. You started at a very early age.
Did you try to break into the Nashville scene before Idol? Um?
Not so much, not really. I mean six years before
I was performing for IDOL. I just I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

(08:17):
So I really just was focused on performing anywhere that
I could and just starting to get my name out
there and get people to know me. UM. So it
was really anywhere on the East Coast that I could
possibly get to, That's where I was. And then it
was around the time of IDOL and a little before
when I started dipping into um the Nashville scene, So
about probably like two thousand seventeen too now, so probably

(08:37):
like three years. But boy, when you hit IDOL, you
came of a lot of experience. I read somewhere you
did like hundreds something shows before American Idol in the
in the year prior to it. Is that right? Yeah,
I did a hundred and thirty seven shows in two
thousand seventeen. Yes, so I was grinding shows, but who's county.
You know that is not at cliche. You do have

(09:02):
to work hard and pay your dues. Parker McCollum has
done just that. He is our newest number one hit
maker with a song pretty hard. Uh. He has done
the same as Gabby, playing clubs and bars anywhere he can.
But now Charles, he's ready to graduate. Things are happening.
You know. I admire these guys who have the tenacity
to stay at it. Parker. You remember Jennifer is in

(09:25):
the room with us. Here our producer. You said, here's
this guy with this wonderful force coming out of Texas. Right, Okay,
Jennifer through her mask, we are social distancing. So that's
how we picked up on Parker McCollum, and I visit
with him. The music business is a wild ride, gosh,
just like this wide open highway where anything can happen.

(09:47):
What sorts of things and experiences are you looking forward to?
You know, I think the biggest thing that I'm looking
forward to is just playing getting out of the bars.
I think we still work. We're pretty much out of him,
I would say, for the most part, and and I'll
always there will always be a few honky talks in
a few bars that that I just missing and holding

(10:08):
near and dear to my heart. But you know, really
just seeing that growth and and getting to the point
where you're playing amphitheaters and arenas every night of the
tour is really, I think, something I look forward to,
and just being playing those big stages that you've been
thinking about playing since you're twelve years old. You know,
I really look forward to that. It sounds like you
feel like you're ready for it. I should think so. Yeah, Well,

(10:30):
you know that when you have a hit song, it
takes you out from behind the chicken wire and puts
you on stage in the spotlight. Is that correct? Yes, sir,
that's a good way to put it. No more chicken
wire listen. I admire singers and songwriters who don't give
up they face adversity. Remember Chris Young one time told
us um about being uh featured entertainment at a bookstore

(10:53):
that I think it was Nobody came well as Barnes
and Noble. I think it was up in Murphy's m Frisborough,
just out of Nashville, and he showed up to you know,
pick it sing a little bit and there were three
guys there and two of them were playing chess or something,
and another guy was reading the book well, and it
didn't make sense because in a bookstore it's like a library,

(11:15):
we're supposed to be quiet. Here he is trying to
perform and people are shishing it well. And then Keith Urban.
You know, we've had this on our podcast before. Keith Urban,
his first gig was playing at a baggage claim in
the airport, some small airport, you know, the little carpeted
area up above the circling thing with your luggage. That's
where he and the band were set up doing doing

(11:38):
a show. God bless him, I don't know. Thank God
through that things you have to do. I love doing this.
I love just recapping some of the stories because see,
we can add so much more because we we hear
these people tell us stories when the MIC's off that
you won't believe. Well, and we probably tell things we
shouldn't every now and then that happens. But anyway, that

(12:00):
is what's happening right now in country music. A little
taste of our show area on radio stations all across America,
also streaming on my Heart. We have your country covered.
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