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May 25, 2021 • 14 mins

Country music's top stars recall paying their dues in the craziest places. Keith Urban, Ashley McBryde, Lanco, Parmalee and more lived to tell, and laugh about, their early career stories!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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here Crook and Jay's Nashville Chats, and we are so
happy to say that the concerts are ramping back up.
The dates are being announced, there being set, and you know,

(02:11):
in light of that, many of the stars Charlie have
told us that being stuck at home like the rest
of us for over a year has given them even
more appreciation for the job that they do. You know,
traveling the country, traveling around the world, it can get grueling.
But they're telling us that they will never take it
for granted. A well, that's true. And you know, whenever

(02:32):
we get a chance to visit with the stars, we
talk about a lot of things. When we get there,
they're sum available, so we talk about a lot of topics.
One thing we always have fun with about the early days,
you know, when you start out as a garage band
or something like that, before you were playing the arenas
and all that. You gotta start somewhere. So usually they
come up with some of the most interesting, far fetched,

(02:54):
almost unbelievable, but astoundingly true stories of some crappy places
they play, some events they've played that they would soon forget.
And we always come up with some of the most
interesting and bizarre stories. And we've got a collection on
for you today that we think you're really going to enjoy. Okay, okay,
so let me just say the lineup is Ashley McBride, Keith, Urban,

(03:14):
Lanco Midland and Parmly. These are some of those hilarious,
weird and interesting stories about early career days and I
think will become with actually with Bride, who does a
pretty good job of painting the picture of what was
going on in one of her early gigs. Check this.
I think more than anybody we have met recently, you

(03:35):
have worked so hard and paid some crazy dues. I
know it has all been worth it, but how much
of this journey for you has just been hell? And
how much of it has really been fun? A lot
of it. A lot of it's been a lot of fun.
And I find humor and joy and really odd things sometimes.

(03:55):
You know, when you're playing in front of a projector
screen in a sports bar and they've got the game
on and they don't turn the sound off, and then
you know, but you're playing from six to eight and
hey it pays half off wings and you're like, oh, seriously,
I can't believe I'm doing this. You know, why would
why am I to do this to myself. And then
I would think, you know, you can always go get
a retail job again. You can always go do anything

(04:17):
else for a day job again. And then I thought,
you know what, I'm just gonna shut up and sing
these covers because I enjoy it, whether anyone's listening or not. Well. See,
that's how you turn a bad situation into something good,
just realizing, hey, I'm loving what I'm doing. But now
the good thing is Ashley actually had a crowd there.
Now they may have been watching, you know, the screens

(04:39):
for all the games on, but at least she had
like warm bodies there. Keith Urban had a situation relation
that we thought it was a joke, but way to
you hear his worst gig. I have played on a
baggage carousel. This is so and somebody arranged for you,

(05:01):
wasn't it. Yeah? Yeah, this is uh, I'm sorry, this
is this is this is This is called bad management
back in the day. Not not the manager I have now,
this is way back in the day. Apparently a deal
was struck where we would get some airfares for a
gig at the airport. That sounds pretty harmless until you
realize that you get to the airport and the guys like, well,

(05:22):
you guys set up on the baggage carousel. You know,
the little carpeted area on where the carousel is, like
you know where they have signed, you know, like that
little strip of carpet on the baggage carousel. That's where
we had to set up. So we set up there
at this little regional airport and I'm like, this is humiliating.
And there's nobody around, and so the airport manager goes, well,

(05:44):
you want to start playing. I'm like, there's nobody here,
and he's like, oh, you start playing, they'll they'll they'll
come around. I'm like, okay, So we start playing. Sure enough,
guy comes over, another couple of people, and another couple
of people. I'm like, man, it's not bad. We've got
a crowd. The flight arrived. Yeah, right, as we've got
this biggest crowd at his and all the bagstock come out,

(06:06):
I'm like, oh, that's what they're here for. Well he
got some free tickets out of it, didn't he? Yes.
It just it just makes me hysterical. I can picture
the whole thing in my mind and him trying to
look cool and groovy, which he probably did. Yeah, playing
but standing in Washington, I wouldn't. I don't want to hurt.

(06:28):
I'd leave. I don't want you, don't want I don't
want to see you. Okay, moving on, we have next
to a group that well, sometimes when you don't have
much and then suddenly you have a lot to at
a little spoiled right. Blanco has been blessed too. In
their early career, play a lot of the great clubs
in downtown Nashville. Uh, sometimes the backstage amenities can be

(06:51):
rather sparse. So we found it hilarious their story of
the first time they actually got perks. So what about
favorite club memories back there? And you go, I can't
believe that happened. I do remember the first time we
ever played wild Horse was also the first time we
ever had our own green room. Oh, you were so

(07:12):
excited and then we got hammered the first time. The
first time we had like a free bottle of alcohol
in the green room too. So was this before the
show or after? Unfortunately before, No, it was it was
before for some people, because I remember that was the
night that we talked about like, maybe don't drink before

(07:35):
shows because we've never had free alcohol like we'd get
free beers after we play, because I was like a
lot of those clubs that was like the payment pretty
much was free beer and appetizers and so like you
that was your reward after the show. But wild Horse
is the first place. Yeah, we had a green room
with like alcohol there and everyone got a little every
one got a little buzzy. Really nice. But how was
the show with all of you hammered? Well, we weren't

(07:56):
were not hammered. I was sober enough on AIGs to
be looking around and I'm really going at Jared and
be like, dude, like he was having an awesome time,
but I know what he was hearing in his head
was not what I was hearing on stage. Okay, except
for the airport, I think there's liquor involved and everything
we've been talking about here right, Well there's liquor involved

(08:17):
in this next one. Well that's true. You take these
Midland boys and you put them on stage and well
check this out in the burnout video. You can dance
like nobody ever thought you could. Are you looking at me? Smooth?
It's amazing. What three or four tequila's and ten of

(08:38):
twelve takes the alcohol? You know, it's it's Billy Bobs.
But to be honest with you, that really is not
far from the time that we've spent playing in the
honky tonks out in Texas and on the West. Well,
what are the hidden talents of these dudes here? Jess
and Jesse and Cameron are both great dancers. I mean
cut of rug um. They can both dance, man, and

(08:59):
they Jess Jess takes has taken tons of of two
step in um and dancing lessons. He can move, man,
He's very proficient. Everybody can dance in this band that
was honky tonk band. You can't. If you can't too
step and dance you know music, then that's a little
bit shameful. And we were in Texas. We would play
and then we would come off the band stand and
we would too step with the gals that were in

(09:21):
the audience. That's my question. How often did you get
to jump down and every every night? Those were the
Those are the good old days now, you know. I
mean we look back and we're just playing to go
home after If you paying, we're gonna have to put
up chicken wire to keep your guys out of the audience.
Oh man, it would be cool. We still jump into
the crowd quite a bit. Chicken wire club like, no,

(09:42):
that would be really cool. You know, we joke about
chicken wire clubs, but those do exist, you know where
they put chicken wire up. So if people wouldn't throw
beer bottles at the band, I know it happens, it happens.
But well, as you suggested that we have to keep
Midland from jumping off the steps, but have to be contained. Well,
and then I think we've said the but I started

(10:04):
saying the best, maybe the worst, I don't know. Overlast,
this is a combination of places that harmly paid their dues.
And well it went something like this. We played at
that Chinese buffet that time when we've done that radio
show somewhere. You remember that when we were in the
corner of that that restaurant buffet. Yeah, it's like a

(10:26):
radio remote, and thinking that is one of the weird ones. Yeah,
that was that one. That one to come to mind
was we pulled the bus up to the old broken
down gas station, played in the back like they had
turned it into a bar, and it was about thirteen
people and the ceilings were about six ft. Oh yeah,
that one. Now we have played at the Strip Club

(10:47):
at three in the morning. On the three in the morning.
There's a good one. Yeah, that was an annual thing
birthday party that would start at three after all the
clubs closed and we would start to show. It played
four and more. Mom was proud. Hey, that was a
good paying gig. I'll tell you, that's about the best

(11:09):
money we ever made money. The sad thing is that
Strip club was just down the street from my mom
and dad's house, and the r the RV that my
dad loaned us money to buy, got stuck in your
at that strip club, and I'm sure he saw it
sitting there when he went to work in that morning.
I forgot about that I was talking about. He's never

(11:31):
actually had a stage in it. Just the other one
didn't really have a stage. It wasn't. Actually, this is
fascinating knowing that you guys did all this and you
have a hit song. You know, you know, you can't
make this stuff up, You really can't. And you know,
I feel like in this particular podcast, I feel like
a hen because I have been cackling. Were two you
heard the rest of the band going. I forgot about

(11:53):
that one, you know, Oh my gosh, the things that happened. Seriously,
you have to truly love country music and have no
plan B to get through all of this these types
of experience is paying your due? Well, exactly paying your
dues is what this this episode has been all about.
And to think that all these people, in several instances

(12:15):
you probably on a serious note like why don't I
continue to do this? Won't I just give up? This
is not worth it? But it is worth it in
the long run. Ask any of those people we just
have some fun with Okay, yeah, it gives them a
much stronger character. I suppose we have your country covered.
Listen to the Crook and Chase Countdown every weekend on

(12:36):
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